When it was found in 1922, the 3,300-year-old tomb of Tutankhamun sent shockwaves around the world, turning the boy-king into a household name overnight and kickstarting an international media obsession that endures to this day. From pop culture and politics to tourism and heritage, and from the Jazz Age to the climate crisis, it's impossible to imagine the twentieth century without the discovery of Tutankhamun-yet so much of the story remains untold. Here, for the first time, Christina Riggs weaves compelling historical analysis with tales of lives touched by an encounter with Tutankhamun, including her own. Treasured offers a bold new history of the young pharaoh who has as much to tell us about our world as his own.
"This utterly original work by Christina Riggs tells the remarkable story of how the discovery of Tutankhamun changed not only her own life, but that of the century following its discovery. This is no dry tome, but a tale of personal obsessions -- her own, and that of many others, who were affected by this most sensational discovery."
Paul Strathern
"Searching, masterful and eloquent, Treasured plunges the reader into the mesmerizing story of Tutankhamun and the unending struggle for meaning, identity and money his rediscovery ignited a century ago. A deeply personal account that reveals how the scientific claims of Egyptology remain unable to match the mythological power of Tutmania, and how gazing on the boy king's golden face has shaped ou
James Delbourgo, author of Collecting the World
"At last, a serious treatment of one of the twentieth century's most important cultural icons. Through the lens of its most famous discovery, Tutankhamun's tomb, Christina Riggs demolishes the "great man" view of archaeology to reveal a true social history of our modern engagement with ancient Egypt - filled with messy, tragic, politicised, and often haunting encounters that span the globe. Impecc
David Wengrow, co-author of The Dawn of Everything
