Genesis of the Pharaohs: Dramatic New Discoveries Rewrite the Origins of Ancient Egypt.

TOBY WILKINSON

For decades, Egyptologists have puzzled over the origins of the ancient people who populated the Nile Valley nearly 4,500 years ago. Because the archaeological record shows so many changes happening so quickly in these peoples' lives, some moderns speculate that aliens settled the region. Scholars, on the other hand, wrangle between the theory that earthlings from elsewhere in the world brought civilization into the valley or that it emerged within the region itself. Wilkinson believes he's found the answer to all such speculation in petroglyphs he discovered in the desert between the Nile Valley and the Red Sea. He believes that the pharaohs' distant ancestors made the rock carvings there that depict afterlife journeys, royal hunting, and the iconography of gods and kings. Many of these images foreshadow classic Egyptian art, yet they were carved 3,500 years before the pharaohs built tombs in the Valley of the Kings. Wilkinson's findings made headlines about 3 years ago. Here he describes his research in the desert and details of his theories. Thames Hudson, 2003, 208 p., color plates/b&w photos/illus., hardcover, $29.95.