Why my suitcase weighed 36 kilos…

With the US dollar being so incredibly low, this is a great time to shop pretty much anything in America. So, the following is what I brought home with me from the AIA book fair as well as a number of book shops (the Oriental Institute Suq, a Chicago Borders, the Met Bookstore and the Brooklyn Museum store). The books are here divided into three categories in a list that may be of little (if any) interest to anyone besides myself…Perhaps I’ll get a more interesting post on AIA up in a couple of days or so.

Egypt
I tried to focus the majority of my purchases on books on Egypt. So at the AIA book fair, I got “Sacred Space and Sacred Function in Ancient Thebes” edited by Peter Dorman & Besty Bryan (2007), and “Life in Egypt under Roman Rule” by Naphtali Lewis (1986, 1999 reprint). One new and one classic – a good start.

Also in Chicago, but at the Oriental Institute Museum, I bought these: “Egypt after the Pharaohs” by Alan Bowman (rev. 1996, orig. 1986), “Women of Jeme. Lives in a Coptic Town in Late Antique Egypt” by Terry Wilfong (2002), and “The Tomb-Builders of the Pharaohs” by Morris Bierbrier (1982, 1997 reprint), a little classic on Deir el-Medina.

At the Brooklyn Museum, I bought a catalogue of their Egyptian collection that features several interesting works: “Art for Eternity. Masterworks from Ancient Egypt” (1999). In the Metropolitan Museum Bookstore, I got “The Art of Death in Graeco-Roman Egypt” by Judith Corbelli (2006), and “Gifts for the Gods. Images from Egyptian Temples” edited by Marsha Hill (2007).

Late Antiquity
Of course, I also bought a couple of books on late antiquity: “A Greek Roman Empire. Power and Belief under Theodosius II” by Fergus Millar (2006, pb 2007), “Early Christianity” by Mark Humphries (2006), “Encountering the Sacred. The Debate on Christian Pilgrimage in Late Antiquity” by Brouria Bitton-Ashkelony (2005), and “Qusayr ‘Amra. Art and the Umayyad Elite in Late Antique Syria” by Garth Fowden (2005).

Theory and General Archaeology & Art
On Sunday, Duckworth were doing half price on their titles at the AIA book fair, so I had to buy a couple of those still available: “Social Evolution” by Mark Pluciennik (2005), and “The Roman Countryside” by Stephen Dyson (2006).

I also got “The Sacred Gaze. Religious Visual Culture in Theory and Practice” by David Morgan (2005), “Monuments and Memory, Made and Unmade” edited by Robert S. Nelson & Margaret Olin (2003), “Rome and Jerusalem. The Clash of Ancient Civilizations” by Martin Goodman (2007), “Ancient Rome on Five Denarii a Day” by Philip Matyszak (2007), a fun little Lonely Planet-style guide to the city of Rome, as well as “Contemporary Art. A Very Short Introduction” by Julian Stallabrass (2006).

A grand total of 20 books. Which goes some way in explaining why my suitcase weighed 36 kilos on the flight back to Europe!

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