Hi Rick,

Well, I for one must say, that it was not Budge who opened my eyes to Egyptology. Nor can I say that I have been in "his shadow" in any way, if not by being attacked by endless budgeries on the numerous boards I have visited during the years! My first book was Aldred's "Akhenaten, King of Egypt", after which I immediately purchased (actually, I ordered it before finishing Aldred's book) Redford's "Akhenaten, The Heretic King". Oh man! Did those two books clearly show me what Egyptology was all about: forming an opinion based on evidence at hand. Little did I know then, that Amarna was Amarna! And in all honesty, some of the Amarna spins make my face twitch as much as Budge does! So there.

But yes, Budge certainly was the eye-opener for the greater public as fas as Egyptology goes. And seen the enormous number (I think it is somewhere near 100, with his ANE books included) of books he wrote, one can only imagine the true impact he made that time (and still does, with his books free to read in the net we are not finished with his absurd misconceptions any time soon!). And this is what infuriates me the most. He must have known, that with the staggering amount of books that he spat out, he'd be "the name" in Egyptology for the greater public. And yet, never did he make an effort to put his work up to date and make a serious effort in writing a book expected from a true scholar, did he? Yes, he did translate "Ani", and yes, I have it on my bookshelf (for the same reasons as you do). But honestly, how can you defend a man, who after having translated "Ani" writes a book where he seriosuly suggests, that Den is "in his drawers treading measure to music played by simple instruments and dancing to please and pacify Osiris"??? Isn't that taking the "good story" a bit too far? To me that indicates him either not caring about the information he was publishing as long as the books sold or not having a clue about what he was doing. Or both.

Yes, he refused Petrie's collection. Well, s*** happens. Think about all the labels that refused The Beatles, eh? Yet, as Katherine writes, it is thanks to this refusal that we have Petrie's today. And, with Greg diasgreeing with me, I still claim that he was the only one in BM who realised what the Amarna Tablets were, since they had been disgarded by Prof. Sayce, for example. Without Budge in the BM at that time, who knows what had happened with the tablets (the German lot being in the bad condition they were). Museums can be dangerous places, remember the statue of Taharka ending up as a bicycle rack!!

But my intention with my original posting here was not to laugh at Budge. It was to share a smile, even a laughter. Not at Budge as a person, but the funny things he wrote in this book, that so obviosuly go against everything we know about AE.



Ritva