To secure a comfortable afterlife, ancient Egyptians built fortress-like tombs and filled them with precious goods, a practice that generated staggering quantities of artefacts over the course of many millennia, but one which has also drawn thieves and tomb-raiders to Egypt since antiquity.

Drawing on modern scholarship, reportage and period sources, this book tracks the history of treasure-seekers in Egypt and the social contexts in which they operated, revealing striking continuities throughout time. Readers will recognize the foibles of today's politicians and con artists, the perils of materialism, and the cycles of public compliance and dissent in the face of injustice.

In describing an age-old pursuit and its timeless motivations, A Short History of Tomb-Raiding shows how much we have in common with our Bronze Age ancestors.

'Golia skillfully combines secret passages, blind alleys, priest, plunderers, magicians, and mummies to explore the venerable tradition of tomb raiding in Egypt. Vividly written and filled with unusual illustrations, this book is a must for anyone interested in Egypt, the secret books of treasure hunters, and the antiquities trade.' - Salima Ikram, Distinguished University Professor of Egyptology, American University in Cairo, author of Ancient Egypt: An Introduction

'In a wide-ranging and eloquent account of tomb robbery in Egypt across the millennia we are presented with a parade of pharaohs, priests, embalmers, builders of pyramids, death-dealing robots, tomb robbers, sorcerers, jinn, geomancers, confidence tricksters, rubes, and archaeologists. Golia has written an exhilarating masterpiece of social and intellectual history.' - Robert Irwin, author and Arabist

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