Book Review: The Archaeotopography of Egypt

Abstract

THE ARCHAEOTOPOGRAPHY OF EGYPT Architecture, Astronomy and Sacred Landscape in Ancient Egypt. Giulio Magli (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2013). Pp. xii + 272. £60. ISBN 9781-10703-208-8.This is not another book on fantastic Egyptian archaeology and astronomy. The reader will not find the typical lunatic fringe theories claiming that monuments of ancient Egypt hold secrets of arcane long-forgotten civilizations. The title is explicit: this book deals with architecture, reflected in the impressive pyramids and the not less suggestive temples; astronomy, expressed in alignments to relevant celestial vault configurations; and sacred landscape, where different elements combine to create what, in the words of the author, would be a dynastic landscape. Here 'dynastic' must be read in the strict sense of the word: how familiar ties were reflected in the architecture and connected with local topography and the sky, creating a symbolic world that, in the mind of the author, must have been obvious to its constructors.The volume analyses the relationship between astronomy and dynastic power in the course of Egyptian history from the proto-dynastic to the New Kingdom. It focuses on the crucial role of astronomy in the creation of the monumental temple and burial complexes, including the pyramids. Magli, an astronomer himself but working in a Faculty of Architecture where he lectures on Egyptian heritage, interprets the term Archaeoastronomy in a very wide sense which might perhaps be more properly termed Archaeotopography, following Michael Hoskin's suggestion.In consecutive chapters, the author travels through the history of ancient Egypt and describes a long series of extremely suggestive interactions. This short review cannot easily go into the details. However several of Magli's key ideas should be stressed. He proposes Akhet Khufu, the burial complex of Cheops, as a single master project integrating most of the monuments of the Giza Plateau, including his and Khefren's pyramids. Cheops would have been following his father Snefru who, according to Magli's theory, also followed a master plan (nothing to do with a trial and error process) in the design and construction of the several pyramids he built. A third highlight of the volume is the idea of several elaborated dynastic landscapes, including the most suggestive topographic and astronomical alignments, and what he has termed 'symbolic invisibility'. One advantage of these hypotheses is that they include a prediction. The author forecasts where some 'lost' pyramids of the Old Kingdom, notably Userkare's, should be located. If he were right, such a find would be a tremendous confirmation of his ideas, which I have found well grounded, if hypothetical.On the other hand, I believe that Magli fails in his interpretation of inter-cardinal directions in Upper Egypt, notably in proto-Dynastic Abydos and New Kingdom Thebes. He claims that the idea that the Egyptian temples were mainly orientated towards the Nile tends to be overplayed in Egyptological literature, an hypothesis (as defended by our research group) which is a workaround to reconcile Nile orientation (notably inter-cardinal) with the astronomical one, an explanation which, according to Magli, would be too far from what we know about the Egyptian architect's way of thinking. …