ABSTRACT
When Steven Spielberg released his acclaimed movie Raiders of the Lost Ark in 1981, it was hardly a surprise that an archaeological adventure aiming to reach vast audiences was set in Egypt. Later on, in 1996, Anthony Minghella’s The English Patient again captured the imagination of a worldwide public with a romantic story where love, spying, archaeology, and adventure evolved together in the Egyptian deserts. All the necessary ingredients were thus ready to strike a chord once more in people’s love for exotica and romanticism. As an Egyptologist trained and working in France, I have had many occasions to meet colleagues from other disciplines amazed at the apparently inexhaustible appeal of ancient Egypt to contemporary audiences. Occasionally, ancient Rome or biblical stories gain a similar media presence. Yet, it is surprising to realize how ancient Mesopotamia, in contrast, has failed to become equally popular in spite of its immense archaeological wealth and similar environmental setting. Even in slightly more extravagant situations—like meeting people proclaiming themselves to be the reincarnation of some celebrity of the past—the supremacy of ancient Egypt is simply overwhelming; which Egyptologist has never met an enthusiast amateur claiming to be Nefertiti, Tutankhamun, or Cleopatra’s reincarnation? On the contrary, poor Assyriologist colleagues find it really hard to meet actual re-embodiments of, say, Marduk-nadin-ahhe or Nabu-apla-iddina. However, both Egypt and Mesopotamia had fascinated Western observers until the construction of Egyptology and Assyriology as modern scientific disciplines in the late nineteenth century. At that point, ancient Egypt continued to exert and to increase her powerful magnetism, while ancient Mesopotamia became more and more confined within the limits of scholarly culture. Even nowadays, as disciplines such as economics replace the humanities as central to the work of the university and society at large, ancient Egypt possesses a huge valency in both popular and elite culture; new exhibitions, another book on the pyramids, or fresh notices about King Tut are avidly consumed by the public.
