November 12, 2020 – The book “A History of World Egyptology” published by the renowned Cambridge University Press features the work of a Croatian Egyptologist Daniel Rafaelic.
As Hina reports, the editors of the book are renowned scientists Andrew Bednarski, Aidan Dodson, and Salima Ikram, and Rafaelić is the author of a 60-page chapter.
“I met Rafaelic in Cairo and realized that he would be an excellent author who could give us an overview of Egyptomania and films about ancient Egypt from all over the world. His knowledge of the popular reception of ancient Egypt is astonishing,” said Ikram, who invited Rafaelic to be one of the authors of the book.
It is the first book to provide an analysis of the history of Egyptology by country with a special emphasis on popular culture. Ikram hopes that this book will set new academic standards and become the basis of any future work on this topic.
Daniel Rafaelic’s chapter, in addition to the expected films such as “The Ten Commandments” with Yule Brynner, “Cleopatra” with Elizabeth Taylor or “The Mummies” with Rachel Weisz, deals in detail with lesser-known German and Austrian silent films, which are then regularly shown in domestic cinemas. A particularly important part of his chapter is the screening of the almost forgotten film “Son of Samson/Maciste in the Valley of the Kings”, which was shot in Zagreb in 1960, which is the only time that a film about ancient Egypt has been shot in Croatia.
“I feel extremely privileged to be in the company of the greatest contemporary Egyptologists, people whose top scientific work has been my basic literature for the last thirty years, especially during my study of Egyptology at the University of Manchester,” Rafaelic said on the occasion of the book’s publication.
“The opportunity to bring our Croatian scents and colors into such a club fills me with indescribable happiness. The opportunity to reveal to the world a part of their, but also our film history, is unique in life,” he added.
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