Interview! Dr. Chris Naunton (Part 2)

Dr. Chris Naunton

Interview conducted via email between Sept. 5-7, 2020.

Chris’ first book, Searching for the Lost Tombs of Egypt, came about because he had been aware, for some time, that there intriguing stories to be told about the tombs of all these individuals which, in all cases, are yet to be located. In the case if the story of Imhotep, and EES project led by Bryan Emery in the 1960s had attempted to locate the tomb and he had thought for a long time that this was a great story we could tell to help get people excited in the EES and its work. Chris knew also that although almost all the kings of the 18th , 19th and 20th Dynasties were buried in the Valley of the Kings, the tomb of the second king of the period, Amenhotep I, had never been found, despite several archaeologists proposing that it might be found in various places. He had always thought these stories were fascinating and, in fact, Chris had just pitched the idea to a television company as a possible series when Thames and Hudson got in touch asking if he’d like to write something for them. I mentioned the idea and fortunately for me they agreed to it!

Cover of Chris Naunton's
Searching for the Lost Tombs of Egypt

Chris’ new book, Egyptologists’ Notebooks, includes unpublished documents relating to Egyptologists – sketches, notes, letters, and so on. He had been aware for a long time, initially thanks to the EES archives, that such records were a rich resource for the study of ancient Egypt and the history of Egyptology. The documents themselves are also often beautiful artefacts – especially paintings, sketches, notes written, and diagrams drawn, by hand – and very evocative of the time in which they were made. In many cases these notes and sketches were simply the preparatory stage for a more final, published work, and in any case were only intended to convey information. But the originals have been forgotten and deserve to be seen. Thames and Hudson often publishes very beautiful art books and so to publish a book about the history of Egyptology as told through these beautiful archival documents with them seemed the perfect opportunity. Chris hope readers will find the book gives them a sense of how the history of the subject unfolded, a sense of what it was like to be among the first westerners to encounter the remains of this incredible ancient civilization and just to enjoy the images as beautiful artworks in their own right. Chris only wishes more could have been included, but perhaps that’ll be the excuse for a follow-up.

Cover of Chris Naunton's
Egyptologists' Notebooks

Little Fun Facts

Chris’ favorite historian is Manetho, an Egyptian who wrote a ‘history of Egypt’ in the early Ptolemaic Period and the man from whom we get the notion of our ‘dynasties’ of ancient Egypt.

One of his favorite books is Marjorie Venit’s Monumental Tombs of Ancient Alexandria, but otherwise, he has no idea where to start.

His favorite podcast is The Missing Cryptoqueen.

His favorite pastime is cycle touring. In his own words: “A day on the bike, 60 or 70 mile through beautiful countryside on empty roads (Ireland is wonderful for it), ending with a little B&B, a hot shower and dinner and a beer in a pub, then off again the next day. Heaven…”