Prof. Toby Wilkinson
Years at Christ's
1990-93 (as Lady Wallis Budge Scholar)
1993-97 (as Lady Wallis Budge Junior Research Fellow)
1999-2003 (as Fellow and Development Director)
Biography
Toby Wilkinson first became interested in Egyptology at the age of five. He studied Egyptology at the University of Cambridge, graduating with a First Class Honours degree and winning the University’s Thomas Mulvey Prize. After completing his doctoral research at Christ’s College, Cambridge, he was elected to the college’s prestigious Lady Wallis Budge Junior Research Fellowship in Egyptology (previous holders of which include the eminent Egyptologists Harry Smith and Geoffrey Martin), which he held from 1993 to 1997.
Following two years as a Leverhulme Special Research Fellow at the University of Durham, Toby Wilkinson returned to Cambridge in 1999. He was a Fellow of Clare College, Cambridge from 2003 to 2017, and a Bye-Fellow from 2018 to 2022. From 2017 to 2020, Toby Wilkinson was Professor of Egyptology and Deputy Vice-Chancellor at the University of Lincoln, and from 2021 to 2022 Professor of History and Vice-Chancellor of the Fiji National University. Since May 2022 he is once again a Fellow of Clare College, Cambridge.
Described by the New York Times as ‘a consummate historian’ and lauded by the Telegraph as ‘the foremost Egyptologist of his time’, Toby Wilkinson has given lectures around the world and his international reputation has led to invitations to contribute to other major collaborative projects. He has excavated at the Egyptian sites of Buto and Memphis. He is a member of the editorial board of the Journal of Egyptian History and has broadcast on radio and television in the UK and abroad, including BBC’s Horizon and Channel 4’s Private Lives of the Pharaohs, and was the consultant for the BBC’s award-winning documentary on the building of the Great Pyramid. He is a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries and of the Royal Historical Society.
His books, which have been translated into twelve languages, include the critically acclaimed Early Dynastic Egypt (1999), Genesis of the Pharaohs (2003), The Thames & Hudson Dictionary of Ancient Egypt (2005), Lives of the Ancient Egyptians (2007), The Rise and Fall of Ancient Egypt (2010, winner of the Hessell-Tiltman Prize and New York Times bestseller), The Nile (2014), Writings from Ancient Egypt (2016), Aristocrats and Archaeologists (2017, with Julian Platt), A World Beneath the Sands (2020), and Tutankhamun’s Trumpet (2022), and he edited the encyclopedia The Egyptian World (2007).
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Books
- 2023 - Ramesses the Great. New Haven: Yale University Press. Ancient Lives
- 2022 - Tutankhamun’s Trumpet. London/New York: Picador/Norton
- 2020 - A World Beneath the Sands. London/New York: Picador/Norton
- 2017 - Aristocrats and Archaeologists (with J. Platt). Cairo/London: AUC Press/I B Tauris
- 2014 - The Nile. London/New York: Bloomsbury/Knopf
- 2010 - The Rise and Fall of Ancient Egypt. London/New York: Bloomsbury/Random House
- 2007a - The Egyptian World (editor). Abingdon and New York: Routledge
- 2007b - Lives of the Ancient Egyptians. London and New York: Thames & Hudson
- 2005 - The Thames and Hudson Dictionary of Ancient Egypt. London and New York: Thames & Hudson. Revised paperback edition (World of Art), 2008
- 2003 - Genesis of the Pharaohs. London and New York: Thames & Hudson.
- 2000 - Royal Annals of Ancient Egypt. The Palermo Stone and its Associated Fragments.
- 2000 - London: Kegan Paul International. Studies in Egyptology
- 1999 - Early Dynastic Egypt. London and New York: Routledge. Second edition 2001.
- 1996 - State Formation in Egypt: Chronology and Society. Oxford: Tempus Reparatum BAR International Series 651
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Contributions to Edited Volumes
- 2016a - ‘Ancient Egypt’, in T. Spear (ed.), Oxford Bibliographies in African Studies. New York: Oxford University Press.
- 2016b - ‘Power and authority in Early Dynastic Egypt’, in Jacobus van Dijk (ed.), Another Mouthful of Dust. Egyptological Studies in Honour of Geoffrey Thorndike Martin, 543–57. Leuven: Peeters. Orientalia Lovaniensia Analecta 246
- 2014 - ‘Dynasties 2–3’, in W. Wendrich (ed.), UCLA Encyclopedia of Egyptology.
- 2010a - ‘The Early Dynastic Period’, in A. Lloyd (ed.), A Companion to Ancient Egypt, 48–62. Oxford and New York: Blackwell
- 2010b - ‘Heb-sed vessel of Pepi II’ in Craig Barclay, Rachel Grocke and Helen Armstrong (eds), Treasures of the Oriental Museum, Durham University, 126–7. London: TMI
- 2009 - ‘Cones, nails and pegs: enigmatic clay objects from Buto and their implications for Contacts between Egypt and Western Asia in the fourth millennium BC’, in S. Ikram and A. Dodson (eds), Beyond the Horizon: Studies in Egyptian Art, Archaeology and History in Honour of Barry J. Kemp, 601–10. Cairo: Supreme Council of Antiquities
- 2007a - ‘Egypt and Mesopotamia’, in T. Wilkinson (ed.), The Egyptian World, 449–58. Abingdon and New York: Routledge
- 2007b - ‘Ancient writing: Early hieroglyphs from Abydos, Egypt’, in B. Fagan (ed.), Discovery! Unearthing the New Treasures of Archaeology, 238. and New York: Thames and Hudson.
- 2006 - ‘Egyptian explorers’, in R. Hanbury-Tenison (ed.), The Seventy Great Journeys in History, 2932. London and New York: Thames and Hudson
- 2004 - ‘Before the Pyramids: early developments in Egyptian royal funerary ideology’, in S. Hendrickx, R.F. Friedman, K.M. Ciałowicz & M. Chłodnicki (eds), Egypt at its Origins. Studies in Memory of Barbara Adams. Proceedings of the International Conference “Origin of the State. Predynastic and Early Dynastic Egypt”, Krakow, 28th August–1st September 2002, 1129–42. Leuven: Peeters. Orientalia Lovaniensia Analecta 138
- 2003a - ‘Where did the Egyptians come from?’, in B. Manley (ed.), The Seventy Mysteries of Ancient Egypt, 21–3. London and New York: Thames and Hudson
- 2003b - ‘Did the Egyptians invent writing?’, in B. Manley (ed.), The Seventy Mysteries of Ancient Egypt, 24–7. London and New York: Thames and Hudson
- 2003c - ‘Who were the first kings of Egypt?’, in B. Manley (ed.), The Seventy Mysteries of Ancient Egypt, 28–32. London and New York: Thames and Hudson
- 2003d - ‘King Menes: myth or reality?’, in B. Manley (ed.), The Seventy Mysteries of Ancient Egypt, 33–4. London and New York: Thames and Hudson
- 2003e - ‘Human sacrifice in the royal tombs’, in B. Manley (ed.), The Seventy Mysteries of Ancient Egypt, 35–7. London and New York: Thames and Hudson
- 2002a - ‘Reality versus ideology: the evidence for ‘Asiatics’ in Predynastic and Early Dynastic Egypt’, in E.C.M. van den Brink and T.E. Levy (eds), Egypt and the Levant, 514–20. London and New York: Continuum. New Approaches to Anthropological Archaeology
- 2002b - ‘Uruk into Egypt: imports and imitations’, in J.N. Postgate (ed.), Artefacts of Complexity: Tracking the Uruk in the Near East, 237–48. London: British School of Archaeology in Iraq. Iraq Archaeological Reports 5
- 2001a - ‘Social stratification’, in D.B. Redford (ed.), The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Egypt, 301–5. New York: Oxford University Press
- 2001b - ‘State’, in D.B. Redford (ed.), The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Egypt, 314–19. New York: Oxford University Press
- 1999 - ‘Early Dynastic private tombs’, in K.A. Bard (ed.), Encyclopedia of the Archaeology of Ancient Egypt, 267–9. London and New York: Routledge
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Articles
- 2021 - ‘The Middle Kingdom: An Age of Innovation’, Ancient History 36 (Nov/Dec 2021): 18–21
- 2020 - ‘The forgotten female pioneers of Egyptology’, PanMacmillan website, 13 October 2020.
- 2014 - ‘The river where time stands still’, The Telegraph, 15 February 2014, T8–T9
- 2013 - ‘What the Pharaohs Teach Us About Egypt’s Current Bloodbath’, Wall Street Journal, 22 August 2013
- 2012 - ‘Questions at the Frontiers of Egyptology’, Focus, September 2012: 32–33
- 2011a - ‘The Tradition of the Pharaohs Lives On: Lessons from Ozymandias, Horemheb and the untimely death of the boy-king’, Wall Street Journal, 5 February 2011
- 2011b - ‘How Elizabeth Taylor redefined Cleopatra’, Wall Street Journal, 24 March 2011
- 2011c - ‘The army and politics in ancient Egypt’, Historically Speaking. The Bulletin of the Historical Society vol. XII no. 3 (June 2011): 35–36
- 2000a - ‘Political unification: towards a reconstruction’, MDAIK 56: 377–95
- 2000b - ‘What a king is this: Narmer and the concept of the ruler’, JEA 86: 23–32
- 1999a - (with A.R. Millard) ‘Comment on “AMS radiocarbon dates from the Predynastic Egyptian Cemetery, N7000, at Naga-ed-Dêr” by S.H. Savage’, Journal of Archaeological Science 26.3: 339–41
- 1999b - ‘Ostriches, elephants and aardvarks’, Shemu 3.3: 3–5
- 1996 - ‘A re-examination of the Early Dynastic necropolis at Helwan’, MDAIK 52: 337–54
- 1995a - ‘A new king in the Western Desert’, JEA 81: 205–10
- 1995b - (with N. Postgate & T. Wang) ‘The evidence for early writing: utilitarian or ceremonial?’, Antiquity 69: 459–80. Awarded the Antiquity Prize 1995
- 1993 - ‘The identification of Tomb B1 at Abydos: refuting the existence of a king *Ro/*Iry-Hor’, JEA 79: 241–3
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Review Articles
- 2022 - ‘Pyramid scheme’, review of “The Red Sea Scrolls” (P. Tallet and M. Lehner), Times Literary Supplement (February 11, 2022): 22
- 2018 - ‘Riddle in the sands’, review of “Giza and the Pyramids” (M. Lehner and Z. Hawass), Times Literary Supplement (July 6, 2018): 33
- 2014 - ‘Touch screens and Tut-mania’, Times Literary Supplement No. 5816 (September 19, 2014): 17
- 2013 - ‘Through the cracks’, review of “The City of Akhenaten and Nefertiti” (B. Kemp), Times Literary Supplement No. 5736 (March 8, 2013): 32
- 2012a - ‘Tut-mania’, review of “Tutankhamen’s Curse: The Developing History of an Egyptian King” (J. Tyldesley), The Guardian, 25 February 2012: 7
- 2012b - ‘From pots to pyramids’, review of “A History of Ancient Egypt” (J. Romer), Times Literary Supplement No. 5703 (July 20, 2012): 10–11
- 2008a - Review of “Helwan I. Excavations in the Early Dynastic Cemetery. Season 1997–98” (E.C. Köhler et al.), Bibliotheca Orientalis 65: 123–5
- 2008b - Review of “Ra is My Lord. Searching for the Rise of the Sun God at the Dawn of Egyptian History” (J. Kahl), Bibliotheca Orientalis 65: 637–640
- 2003 - Review of “Tell el-Fara‛în. Buto III. Die Keramik von der spaten Naqada-Kultur bis zum frühen Alten Reich (Schichten III bis VI )” (E.C. Köhler), Chronique d’Égypte 77: 157–62
- 2002 - Review of “Umm el-Qaab II. Importkeramik aus dem Friedhof U in Abydos (Umm el-Qaab) und die Beziehungen Ägyptens zu Vorderasien im 4. Jahrtausend v. Chr.” (U. Hartung), Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 88: 256–9
- 2001a - Review of “Katalog der Felsbilder aus der tschechoslowakischen Konzession in Nubien” (F. Váhala & P. Červíček), Discussions in Egyptology 49: 127–30
- 2001b - Review of “Akhenaten. History, fantasy and ancient Egypt” (D. Montserrat), Discussions In Egyptology 50: 137–40
- 2001c - Review of “Minshat Abu Omar II. Ein vor- und frühgeschichtliche Friedhof im Nildelta. Gräber 115–204” (D. Wildung & K. Kroeper), Bibliotheca Orientalis 58: 604–6
- 1999 - Review of “Analytical bibliography of the prehistory and the Early Dynastic period of Egypt and northern Sudan” (S. Hendrickx), Chronique d’Égypte 74: 277–9
- 1998a - Review of “Untersuchungen zur Spätvor- und Frühgeschichte Unterägyptens” (T. von der Way), Bibliotheca Orientalis 55: 109–13
- 1998b - Review of “Tell el-Fara‛în. Buto I. Ergebnisse zum frühen Kontext. Kampagnen der Jahre 1983–1989” (T. von der Way), Bibliotheca Orientalis 55: 762–6
- 1997 - Review of “State and economy in ancient Egypt” (D. Warburton), Discussions in Egyptology 39: 149–51
- 1996 - Review of “Black Athena revisited” (M.R. Lefkowitz & G. McL. Rogers (eds)), Scholia: Natal Studies in Classical Antiquity. Reviews New Series 5: 112–16
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Websites