Important critique by @photograph_tut of yet another in a long-line of admiring histories of Egyptology’s “golden age” (aka colonial era), improving on the book with a miniature history that masterfully exposes uncomfortable truths often left unsaid https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v42/n20/christina-riggs/we-know-it-intimately 1/4

In contrast, this @nytimes review not only delights in the book’s tales of dastardly Egyptological exploits, it actually promotes the offensive & inaccurate argument that Western Egyptology was the saviour of Egypt https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/22/books/review/a-world-beneath-the-sands-toby-wilkinson.html 2/4 https://twitter.com/nytimesbooks/status/1319311334438305792

Goodreads reviews show readers are satisfied by the briefest of nods to controversy, calling it “fairly balanced”, another admiring the “adventures and dramas” while claiming it “never shies away from the harsher results of Europe’s imperial approach” https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/50489379-a-world-beneath-the-sands 3/4

Another Goodreads review suggests the Indiana Jones soundtrack as accompaniment! Clearly more work needed to communicate the bias & damage from Egyptology’s involvement in colonialism, with so many people still under the Orientalist spell of Egypt’s “mysteries & treasures” 4/4