Abydos: Egypt's First Pharaohs and the cult of Osiris, David O'Connor (Thames and Hudson, 2011, first published 2009) 216pp., paperback, £18.99, ISBN 978 0 306 500 28900 6.

David O'Connor of New York University has been excavating in Nubia and Egypt for forty years but his interest now centres on Abydos, which was most famous in the heyday of Egyptian civilization in the Middle and New Kingdoms, for the temple of the god Osiris, brother of Isis and father of Horus.  O'Connor discusses his remarkable discovery of boat burials from 5000 BC.  The place of Abydos is highly significant in Egyptian history as the cemetery of the earliest historical kings.  Yet relatively little has been written about Abydos and this book fills a serious gap in the literature.

This account will fascinate the general reader as well as the scholar.  It is generously illustrated with some pictures in colour, notably a statue of Rameses II, and over one hundred items.  It is supplied with clear maps and plans.  The readable text is supplemented by end-notes, a list of sources of illustrations, a chronology, a select bibliography related to each of the twelve chapters, an index and even a note on visiting Abydos,

Despite his long experience, O'Connor allows for interpretations by younger scholars which differ from his own and acknowledges the ambiguity of the evidence.

It is an appealing detective story which is not finalised yet but his reference to Abydos as the Giza of the early dynastic period is apt and intriguing.