(I pride myself on being less gullible than the average Truther/Birther/Flat-earther/Illuminati-nut, but I often find myself drawn to "alternate" theories by well-written books. In this post I'll start with an interesting "conspiracy theory" in which I have no "investment." I picked up a book by chance several years ago, and have just started to reread it.)
Tutankhamun: The Exodus Conspiracy: The truth behind archaeology's greatest mystery by Andrew Collins and Chris Ogilvie-Herald is an interesting and well-documented work. I was surprised when Search found no mention of it on this forum. I'll offer a very very brief outline; if there's interest I'll flesh out some of the details on request.
One famous question is: When did Moses live? Who were the three Pharaohs who (1) welcomed Joseph and Jacob, (2) oppressed the Hebrews, (3) suffered the plagues, let Moses' people go but changed his mind? One can find many theories about these dates and Kings, the conventional wisdom being that all these stories are just fiction! One theory, which seems to have a lot of evidence, is that Moses lived about the time of Amenhotep and that these two famous monotheists were somehow linked (i.e. Moses and his followers were expelled when Amenhotep's religion was rejected). Amenhotep was the father of King Tutankhamun.
Anyway, the book under review starts by discussing Howard Carter and his famous discovery. Two other key players were Carter's patron, George Herbert, 5th Earl of Carnarvon, and Carnarvon's daughter, Lady Evelyn. Lady Evelyn merits special mention for two reasons: She was one of the party of four that did the initial explorations of King Tut's tomb (in fact, due to her small size, she was actually the very first person to enter King Tut's Antechamber in many centuries), and ... (hold the snickers, please) ... she was the grand-daughter of Alfred de Rothschild, a rich and influential banker (he was Director of the Bank of England) whose family was associated with Zionism and the Balfour Declaration.
The book goes on to demonstrate that Carter and company made illicit first visits to both King Tut's Antechamber and his Inner Sanctum, and that they absconded with some souvenirs. The book is thoroughly footnoted and the evidence for these accusations seems very strong. Special attention is focused on papyrus documents. Carter and Carnarvon's earliest reports mention these scrolls very clearly, but none were ever presented. Carter issued a retraction, blaming poor lighting for the early misidentification (although electrical lighting had been rigged from the beginning). Scholars were surprised and disappointed that no written documents turned up in King Tut's tomb.
The mystery of these missing scrolls has, I guess, puzzled many scholars though I've only read this one book. Brackman's book speculates that only a document shedding light on Exodus could be important enough to conceal. It was only after Brackman's book was published that a letter surfaced showing that Carter had once, allegedly, made a similar claim about the contents of the papyrus.
The book goes on and on, and might be an interesting read even for those who won't "fall for" the conspiracy theory! ;) I may post a follow-up: questions will motivate my re-read. In this post I focused especially on the missing papyrus which seems pivotal to the bizarre conspiracy theory.
Comments? Be gentle, please! I'm smarter than I seem, but also very delicate. :eye-poppi
Tutankhamun: The Exodus Conspiracy: The truth behind archaeology's greatest mystery by Andrew Collins and Chris Ogilvie-Herald is an interesting and well-documented work. I was surprised when Search found no mention of it on this forum. I'll offer a very very brief outline; if there's interest I'll flesh out some of the details on request.
One famous question is: When did Moses live? Who were the three Pharaohs who (1) welcomed Joseph and Jacob, (2) oppressed the Hebrews, (3) suffered the plagues, let Moses' people go but changed his mind? One can find many theories about these dates and Kings, the conventional wisdom being that all these stories are just fiction! One theory, which seems to have a lot of evidence, is that Moses lived about the time of Amenhotep and that these two famous monotheists were somehow linked (i.e. Moses and his followers were expelled when Amenhotep's religion was rejected). Amenhotep was the father of King Tutankhamun.
Anyway, the book under review starts by discussing Howard Carter and his famous discovery. Two other key players were Carter's patron, George Herbert, 5th Earl of Carnarvon, and Carnarvon's daughter, Lady Evelyn. Lady Evelyn merits special mention for two reasons: She was one of the party of four that did the initial explorations of King Tut's tomb (in fact, due to her small size, she was actually the very first person to enter King Tut's Antechamber in many centuries), and ... (hold the snickers, please) ... she was the grand-daughter of Alfred de Rothschild, a rich and influential banker (he was Director of the Bank of England) whose family was associated with Zionism and the Balfour Declaration.
The book goes on to demonstrate that Carter and company made illicit first visits to both King Tut's Antechamber and his Inner Sanctum, and that they absconded with some souvenirs. The book is thoroughly footnoted and the evidence for these accusations seems very strong. Special attention is focused on papyrus documents. Carter and Carnarvon's earliest reports mention these scrolls very clearly, but none were ever presented. Carter issued a retraction, blaming poor lighting for the early misidentification (although electrical lighting had been rigged from the beginning). Scholars were surprised and disappointed that no written documents turned up in King Tut's tomb.
The mystery of these missing scrolls has, I guess, puzzled many scholars though I've only read this one book. Brackman's book speculates that only a document shedding light on Exodus could be important enough to conceal. It was only after Brackman's book was published that a letter surfaced showing that Carter had once, allegedly, made a similar claim about the contents of the papyrus.
The book goes on and on, and might be an interesting read even for those who won't "fall for" the conspiracy theory! ;) I may post a follow-up: questions will motivate my re-read. In this post I focused especially on the missing papyrus which seems pivotal to the bizarre conspiracy theory.
Comments? Be gentle, please! I'm smarter than I seem, but also very delicate. :eye-poppi
via International Skeptics Forum http://ift.tt/1J6lSgW
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