Women in the Valley of the Kings clarifies the influence, expertise, and curiosity of women in the world of Egyptology compared to the praise heaped on men whose success and recognition were often supported and led by said women. The commitment and excitement of discovery, the endless hours of excavation, their care on site, and the perfection that was so often part of recording their discoveries is painstakingly considered in this book.

Kathleen Sheppard carefully describes the biographies of and relationships these pioneer women exhibited. The women did often seem terribly patient and supportive of the men who used their skills to further their own careers. In the book, the women's intimate relationships to each other in a society where such a thing was not exactly fully embraced at the time are pointed out. And of course some of the women married and had children.

The details of the various excavations and hunts for temples, graves, and grave art are fascinating. The Temple of Mut was excavated by Maggie Benson and Nettie Gourlay, and Amice Calverley and Myrtle Broome worked on site at Abydos. The three women who first went to the Valley of the Kings in search of what ancient Egypt had to offer led the way: Amelia Edwards, Jenny Lane, and Marianne Brocklehurst. Kate Bradbury and Caroline Ransom took Egyptology into academia, and ensured that eventually, museums and universities incorporated what all of these women had studied and discovered. And, there are references to extremely wealthy men without whose financial help much of this discovery would not have been possible.

Perhaps the only aspect of these searches which might have been treated in some depth is the apparent ease with which artifacts were taken from their original sites to other countries and other exhibitions. However, Sheppard does refer to Egyptian officials and official guidelines that somewhat tempered what was extracted from the temples and grave sites.

Thanks to Net Galley and the publisher for the opportunity to read this wonderfully informative and well-written book.

I have read some of this book and found it really interesting, but the ebook format for the ARC is quite blocky and isn't working very well for me, so I will revisit this book once it comes out and I can either a physical copy or an audiobook. What I did read was a 5 stars though!

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the opportunity to read this ARC.

I love these women. They were amazing women.i had never heard of any of them but am fascinated by their work.

A wonderful, amazing story that will stay with me.

Thank you netgalley and publisher

All thoughts and opinions are my own and aren't influenced by anyone else

Synopsis (From Netgalley, the provider of the book to review)
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. The never-before-told story of the women Egyptologists who paved the way of exploration in Egypt and created the basis for Egyptology.

The history of Egyptology is often told as yet one more grand narrative of powerful men striving to seize the day and the precious artifacts for their competing homelands. But that is only half of the story. During the Golden Age of Exploration, there were women working and exploring before Howard Carter discovered the tomb of King Tut. Before men even conceived of claiming the story for themselves, women were working in Egypt to lay the groundwork for all future exploration.

In Women in the Valley of the Kings: The Untold Story of Women Egyptologists in the Gilded Age, Kathleen Sheppard brings the untold stories of these women back into this narrative. Sheppard begins with the earliest European women who ventured to Egypt as travellers: Amelia Edwards, Jenny Lane, and Marianne Brocklehurst. Their travelogues, diaries and maps chronicled a new world for the curious. In the vast desert, Maggie Benson, the first woman granted permission to excavate in Egypt, met Nettie Gourlay, the woman who became her lifelong companion. They battled issues of oppression and exclusion and, ultimately, are credited with excavating the Temple of Mut.

As each woman scored success in the desert, she set up the women who came later for their own struggles and successes. Emma Andrews’ success as a patron and archaeologist helped to pave the way for Margaret Murray to teach. Murray’s work in the university led to the artists Amice Calverley’s and Myrtle Broome’s ability to work on-site at Abydos, creating brilliant reproductions of tomb art, and to Kate Bradbury’s and Caroline Ransom’s leadership in critical Egyptological institutions. Women in the Valley of the Kings upends the grand male narrative of Egyptian exploration and shows how a group of courageous women charted unknown territory and changed the field of Egyptology forever.

I so wanted to be an Egyptologist when I was growing up but knew that the heat would kill me – a trip to Egypt confirmed this….bubble to those people who say BUT IT IS A DRY HEAT … it was unreal, In MARCH. These women were fascinating and wonderful to spend time with --- I had never heard of any of them but am now considering them rock stars especially as they are uncredited for their work

Perfect for book club and feminists … or ANTI-feminists like me! Highly recommended.

#shortbutsweetreviews

Egyptology and the infamous discoveries in the Valley of the Kings have always been attributed to a few wealthy and influential men. Sheppard’s book looks at the women who were every bit as instrumental in bringing the glories of the past to light. From Lucie Duff Gordon to Maggie Benson, readers are swept back into the golden age of archaeology and see how these women cleared the path for not only each other, but future generations of women who still follow in their footsteps. And absolute must read for history buffs and armchair, archaeologists.