Archeological Mysteries

This past Tuesday my husband and I went on a King Tut extravaganza: one afternoon at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archeology and Anthropology to see the Amarna exhibit and then the next day to the Franklin Institute to see the traveling King Tut exhibit. Both were glorious and well done. The Penn museum in particular had a timeline that was extremely well done--it listed all of the dates of major Egyptian activities as well as a footer that showed what was going on elsewhere in the world. For example, it placed the building of the Mayan pyramids in a similar timeframe to King Tut and one tends to thing of the Mayans as being active in a much later timeframe.

All of this made me think about international archeological mysteries. Elizabeth Peters has done an extraordinary job with her mysteries featuring the Victorian archeologists Amelia Peabody and her husband Radcliffe Emerson. Peters herself is a trained Egyptologist so one gets adverture as well as excellent information about archeology and Egyptian history.

Lyn Hamilton has an archeological mystery series featuring Lara McClintock, an antiques dealer. Rather than focusing on one area, Hamilton sends her character around the world which allows Hamilton to discuss the archeology of different places and peoples. Her books so far include such far flung sites and peoples as the Mayans, the Etruscans and the Moche.

Simon Levack writes mysteries set among the Aztec people. Unlike the other books discussed above, these are actually set during the Aztec era of Montezuma featuring a slave named Yaotl. Archeological mysteries are an excellent way to communicate history as well as tell a great story.