Check the Magazine Rack

     There is something new going on in publishing. "Magazines" are being published at very high prices. These journals tend to be full of color photos and short, but sometimes interesting articles that give a layman just enough information. Some of these magazines cover science, others cover military topics. Increasingly, they cover history, including ancient history.

     I just got back from a trip to Barnes and Noble's bookseller with a large stack of these magazines. There were some usual suspects like KMT , Biblical Archaeology Review, and Minerva which routinely include coverage of the ancient Near East. There were also some of these "special issue" magazines. This month's issue of History Revealed has an articles about "Cleopatra" and "The Pharaohs of Egypt" (there is also an article on how medieval knights went to the bathroom while wearing armor, but that's another story.....). All About History this month is fully devoted to Ancient Egypt with articles on the Pyramids, Nefertiti, Cleopatra, Alexander the Great, Amenhotep III and (of course) an article on Tutankhamen (among several other articles).

     National Geographic History has an article on Akhenaten, while the BBC has published a special "Collectors Edition" entitled The Story of the Ancient World. This magazine has two articles on Tutankhamen, the female Queens of Egypt, the Book of the Dead, Alexander the Great and Persia (among articles on Greece, Rome and the Mayans).

     Even at very high prices these magazines must be selling as I am seeing more and more of them each month.