A Global History of the Reception of Ancient Egypt

Bringing together 100 chapters by an international collection of scholars, this volume explores how ancient Egypt has been imagined, adapted and reinvented across cultures and centuries, spanning art, architecture, museums, literature, performance and popular culture, and the diverse contexts that have shaped Egyptomania.

A Global History of the Reception of Ancient Egypt brings together 100 chapters by 56 scholars from more than 40 institutions worldwide, tracing how ancient Egypt has been imagined, borrowed, and reinvented across cultures and centuries.

Organized into ten thematic sections – from theoretical and terminological foundations to performing arts, the reception of Ancient Egypt throughout history, architecture and decorative arts, museums and collecting, literature and comics, entertainment, icons and geographies – the book maps the astonishing reach of Egyptomania. It explores how pharaonic Egypt has shaped opera and theatre, inspired monuments and fashion, filled museum halls, haunted literature through the enduring figure of the mummy, dominated cinema and popular media, and turned rulers like Tutankhamun, Nefertiti, and Cleopatra into global icons.

Rather than offering a single unified narrative, the volume embraces a ‘glocal’ perspective, showing how each region and era engages with ancient Egypt on its own terms, shaped by distinct histories, motivations, and cultural traditions. At the same time, it acknowledges the weight of Western and colonial frameworks that have long dominated the field, while pointing toward more inclusive, decentred approaches for the future.

Comprehensive yet deliberately open-ended, this volume is both a synthesis of decades of scholarship and an invitation to further exploration – a testimony to how one ancient civilization continues to captivate and be reshaped by the modern world.

Contributors

Presentation: Project and collection of global histories: Multipolarisation and the construction of knowledge from a global perspective – José Eduardo Franco

General introduction – José das Candeias Sales, Susana Mota

Section I: Theoretical and Terminological Frameworks

Introduction: Setting the stage, framing concepts, defining the field – José das Candeias Sales, Susana Mota

Egyptology: A Form of Reception of Ancient Egypt – José das Candeias Sales

Reception of Ancient Egypt – Susana Mota

Egyptian Revival: An Anglo-Saxon Expression that has not Found International Usage – Jean-Marcel Humbert

Egyptomania: A Concept with Worldwide Appeal – Jean-Marcel Humbert

Egyptophilia – Arnaud Quertinmont

Unveiling Egypt An Introductory Exploration on the Roots of Orientalism in Egyptology – Catarina Apolinário de Almeida

Mnemohistory and Cultural Memory – José das Candeias Sales

Mummymania and the Legend of the Mummy’s Curse – Jasmine Day

‘There is Only One Topic of Conversation’: the Concept of Tutmania – Valentina Santini

Section II: Reception of Ancient Egypt Throughout History

Introduction – Andrew Bednarski

Egyptian Culture in the Achaemenid Empire: Reception through Art and Artefacts – Chana Algarvio

Ancient Egyptian Religious Revival in Graeco-Roman Times: the Paradigmatic Example of Isis – José das Candeias Sales

Peering through the Veil: the First Attempts at Reconstructing Ancient Egyptian History – Aidan Dodson

Signs without Sounds: the Neo-Hieroglyphs of the Renaissance – Jean Winand

Athanasius Kircher and the Fascination of Hieroglyphs – Jean Winand

The Victorian Era – Eleanor Dobson, Ross Conway

The Reception of Ancient Egypt in the 19th Century – Andrew Bednarski

Section III: Performing Arts

Introduction: Egypt on Stage, between Archaeology and Dreams – Jean-Marcel Humbert

Aida, an ‘Egyptian’ Opera that has Freed Itself from Its Roots – Jean-Marcel Humbert

Ancient Egypt on Stage: Aida in Portugal – Ana Cristina Martins

‘I, Myself, Am the Ideal!’: the Imagery of Ancient Egypt in a Portuguese Production: the Opera-Theatre Nefertiti – Susana Mota

Ancient Egypt in Spanish Theatre – Beatriz Jiménez Meroño

The Biblical Operetta La Corte de Faraón, Pharaoh’s Court: Exoticism, Sensuality, and Social Criticism – Miguel Ángel Molinero Polo

Section IV: Architecture and Decorative Arts

Introduction: Egyptomania in architecture and the decorative arts: ‘a Recurring Theme in the History of Taste’ – Eugène Warmenbol

The ‘Death of Cleopatra’ in Italian Art from the 16th and 17th Centuries: Inspiration, Reception, and Development – Nicky Nielsen

Collecting and Studying Ancient Egyptian Artefacts in Spain, 17th and 18th Centuries – Miguel Á. Molinero Polo

The Egyptian Fireplaces of Piranesi: Egyptian Decoration in the 18th Century – Antonio Pérez Largacha

An Egyptian temple in the Antwerp Zoo (1856-1861): How to House an Elephant – Eugène Warmenbol

‘Retour d’Égypte’, from Abukir to Waterloo:Egyptomania and Napoléon Bonaparte – Author

The Egyptian Passion of the Architect Isidro Velázquez (1765-1840) – Carlos Saguar Quer

A Bernini Bronze Model Obelisk in Madrid – Miguel Jaramago

The Reception of Ancient Egypt in Croatia: 19th- and 20th-Century Sphinxes – Tomislav Kiš

‘Halfway up the Mountain, the Pantheon’: Egyptian Motifs on Monuments Dedicated to the Victors of the Spanish Civil War – Miguel Ángel Molinero Polo, Candelaria Martín del Río

Obelisks in East and South Asia – Christian Langer

Egyptian Aesthetics in Modern Chinese Architecture – Christian Langer

Egyptian Revival Architecture in English Victorian Cemeteries – Michelle Keeley-Adamson

The Reception of Ancient Egyptian Cemetery Architecture – Tamara Berger

Section V: Museums and Collecting

Introduction: The Influence of Museums in Popularising Egyptomania – Arnaud Quertinmont

Ancient Egypt in Collections and Museums in Portugal (an Overview) – Ana Cristina Martins

The Reception of Ancient Egypt in the Territory of Romania, from Ancient Times to the 20th Century, and the Establishment of the Collections of Ancient Egyptian Artefacts in the National Museum of Antiquities – Renata G. Tatomir

Museum Presentations of Egyptian Collections: A Window on Ancient Egypt and a Mirror to Egyptological science – Valentin Boyer

Forgeries of Ancient Egyptian Art in the Context of Collecting – Inmaculada Vivas Sainz

The First Mummies in America – S.J. Wolfe

The Lost Pharaoh: Sir John Soane’s Empty Sarcophagus – Lauren Bruce

Pharaonic Egypt and the Universal Exhibitions in London (1851) and Paris (1867) – Antonio Pérez Largacha

The Ethics of Exhibiting Egyptian Mummies – Jasmine Day

Section VI: Literature and Comics

Introduction: Reception of Ancient Egypt in Literature and Comics – Mladen Tomorad

Mummies in 19th-Century Literature – Ross Conway, Eleanor Dobson

British Mummy Fiction at the Turn of the 20th Century: the Birth of a Monster – Nolwenn Corriou

Mummy Poetry – Jasmine Day

Face-to-Face with Death: Travel, Exploration, and Mummified Remains in the 19th Century – Lauren Bruce

The Portuguese writer Eça de Queirós in Egypt: from Romanticism to Literary Realism – Luís Manuel de Araújo

The ‘literary’ Tutankhamun: How the Young Pharaoh was Portrayed in Four Novels Published in 1923 and 1924 – Susana Mota

Les Cigars du Pharaon: The Reporter-Hero Tintin in Egypt, or Ancient Egypt in the Adventures of Tintin – José das Candeias Sales

‘Another shirt ruined’: the Amelia Peabody Mystery Series, by Elizabeth Peters – Claire Isabella Gilmour

Rummaging through Royal Tombs: Egyptomania and the Literary Reception of Ancient Egypt in Children’s Historical Fiction – Marisa da Silva Martins

Section VII: Entertainment

Introduction: Mass Entertainment and Ancient Egypt – Brief Theoretical Approaches to Academic Research – Abraham I. Fernández Pichel

The Egyptian Vampire in Contemporary Popular Culture – Abraham I. Fernández Pichel

Mummy Movies – Jasmine Day

Tutmania in 1920s-Revival Films and Television of the 21st Century: Three Case Studies – Sherine ElSebaie

The Reception of Ancient Egypt in Star Trek – Christian Langer

Fantasies of Ancient Egypt and Its Discovery in British Narrative Television 1963-2023 – John J. Johnston

The Hieroglyph: the Television Epic that Never Was – Daniel Rafaelić

Reception of Ancient Egypt in Computer and Video Games – Mladen Tomorad

‘Death is only the beginning’: the Second Life of Mummies in Video Games – Kate Minniti

Reception of Ancient Egypt in Modern Music – Mladen Tomorad

‘Old King Tut was a Wise Old Nut’: 100 years of Music Inspired by Tutankhamun – Susana Mota

When Pharaoh went to Moscow and Conquered Telegram: Responses to Ancient Egypt in Contemporary Russian social media (Telegram) – Alexandre Loktionov

Section VIII: Icons

Introduction: Glorified Icons and Transposed Icons: Universal, Polysemic, Multicultural Referents – Valentin Boyer

When Tutankhamun ruled the world: a century of Tutmania – John J. Johnston

Did Pharaohs Smoke Cigarettes? Tutankhamun and His Role as a Poster Boy in Contemporary Western Society – Valentina Santini

Behold the new queen of pop, Nefertiti – Fabien Bièvre-Perrin

Nefertari, ‘the Most Beautiful of All’: From Egyptian Queen to Modern Icon? 120 Years Since the Discovery of Her Tomb – Valentin Boyer

From Agatha Christie to Rap Music: the Fortunes of Akhenaten in Popular Culture – Valentina Santini

Between Myth and Reality: The Role of the Cinema in Making Cleopatra a Global Icon – José das Candeias Sales

Section IX: Others

Introduction: Other topics – Jasmine Day

Visual and Intellectual Encounters: Aesthetics and Ancient Egyptian Art at the Beginning of the 19th Century – Gabrielle Charrak

Egypt through the Eyes of 19th-Century Women Travellers – Gema Menéndez Gómez

Photography as the Cradle of Pharaonic Egypt in the 19th century – António Pérez Largacha

Making Paper from Mummy Wrappings – S.J. Wolfe

Egyptian Mummies and the Church of Latter Day Saints – S.J. Wolfe

Egyptian Revival Jewellery – Jasmine Day

George Gliddon and the Panorama of the Nile – S.J. Wolfe

Samuel George Morton and ‘The Crania Ægyptiaca’ – S.J. Wolfe

Bibliophilia, Freemasonry and Egyptomania: the Case of ex-libris as ‘Blasons de l’esprit’ – Valentin Boyer

Masonic Temples: the Añaza Lodge of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Canary Islands – Miguel Ángel Molinero Polo

Ancient Egypt in Contemporary Everyday Language – Francisco L. Borrego Gallardo

Reception and Revivals of Ancient Egyptian Religion – Francisco L. Borrego Gallardo

From Ancient Egypt to the Catwalks: Fashion as an Expression of Egyptomania (from the Early 19th Century to 1922) – Susana Mota

Hues of Discovery: Exploring the Polychromy of Ancient Egypt – Léa Legouix

Ancient Egypt and Advertising: from Humour to Ruins, How Brands Play with History – Claire Mercier

Tourism, Reception, and the Perception of Ancient Egypt – José das Candeias Sales, Susana Mota

Section X: Geographies

Introduction: Geography and the Reception of Ancient Egypt – Christian Langer

Literati and Urbanites: Chinese Perceptions of Ancient Egypt from the Late Imperial to Republican Period – Tian Tian

Ancient Egypt and the Public in 19th-Century Aotearoa New Zealand – Reuben G. Hutchinson-Wong

Ancient Egyptian Influences across Toronto’s Architectural and Cultural Landscapes – Thomas H. Greiner, Stephen Ficalora

Reception of Ancient Egypt in the United States of America – Mladen Tomorad

Reception of Ancient Egyptian in Black America: from Afrocentrism to Afrofuturism – Rita Lucarelli

‘Everyday Egyptomania’ in Buenos Aires (1880-1930): Print Culture and Public Space – Matías Alderete

Ancient Egypt in Uruguay in the 19th to 21st Centuries – Juan José Castillos

Beyond the Nile: Ancient Egypt’s Reception in Hesse in the 18th and 19th Centuries – Judit Garzón Rodríguez

The Lotus and the Thistle: Egypt in Scotland – Claire Isabella Gilmour

An Overview of Egyptomania in Spain – Carlos Saguar Quer

Egyptomania in Portugal: Examples of Exterior and Funerary Architecture in Lisbon – José das Candeias Sales, Susana Mota

The A B C of Egyptomania in Belgium: From “Amis Philanthropes” to “Zoological Garden” – Eugène Warmenbol

Reception of Ancient Egypt in Croatia – Mladen Tomorad

The Reception of Ancient Egypt in Serbia – Tamara Berger

Echoes of Eternity: the Reception of Ancient Egyptian Architecture on the Fringes of Europe – Anastasija Golijewskaja

List of Figures and Tables

• Edited by José das Candeias Sales
• Edited by Susana Mota