Christina Riggs has brought an incisive take on ancient Egypt to the reading and museum-going public for nearly twenty years. Backed by award-winning research, her most recent work has focused on the history of the excavation of Tutankhamun’s tomb in 1920s Egypt and its impact ever since – the subject of her new book Treasured: How Tutankhamun Shaped a Century (Atlantic Books, 2021), described as ‘utterly original’, a ‘searching, masterful, and eloquent’ account of the tomb’s discovery and its many legacies.
Riggs is the author of several other books, most recently Ancient Egyptian Magic: A Hands-on Guide (Thames and Hudson, 2020). She has appeared on a number of TV and radio programmes, including the BBC’s In Our Time episode on Tutankhamun. She has also written for the Times Literary Supplement, the London Review of Books, and Italia magazine, the last reflecting her love of all things Italian.
Riggs is Professor of the History of Visual Culture at Durham University. She lives between the north of England and Turin.
Agent: Patrick Walsh