Ancient Egypt

by Silverman, David P.

• ISBN13: 9780195219524
• ISBN10: 019521952X
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2003-06-05
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

Ancient Egypt is an authoritative and vividly written guide to the main themes of the ancient Egyptian world, from the lives of the pharaohs and the building of the pyramids to the fascinating language of hieroglyphs. It covers all the major aspects of this powerful civilization - historical, religious, artistic, scientific and mythological. Superbly illustrated, Ancient Egypt brings the world of the pharaohs to life as never before. Book jacket.

Author Biography

David P. Silverman is currently Curator-in-Charge of the Egyptian Section of the University of Pennsylvania Museum and Chairman of the university's Department of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies. His many previous books include Language and Writing in Ancient Egypt, Religion in Ancient Egypt, Ancient Egyptian Kingship, and Masterpieces of Tutankhamun. His fieldwork includes the co-directorship of the University of Pennsylvania/Boston Museum of Fine Arts expedition to record the tombs of the Old and Middle Kingdoms (ca. 2625-1530 BCE).

Table of Contents

Introduction	p. 6
The Egyptian World	p. 8
The Gift of the Nile	p. 10
The River in the Sand	p. 10
Map: The Nile Delta in ancient times	p. 11
The Nurturing Waters	p. 12
Map: The Nile flood	p. 13
The Great Highway	p. 16
Map: Egypt and the Nile	p. 17
A Landscape of the Mind	p. 18
Three Kingdoms and Thirty-Four Dynasties	p. 20
"Most Ancient Egypt"	p. 20
The First Nation-State	p. 22
The Zenith of the Unitary State	p. 24
The First Challenge to Unity	p. 26
Map: The 42 provinces of ancient Egypt	p. 27
The Glorious Twelfth Dynasty	p. 28
A Second Unravelling	p. 30
From Recovery to Empire	p. 32
Disunity and Foreign Rule	p. 36
A Conquered Kingdom	p. 38
Egypt and the World Beyond	p. 40
The Fear of Horus in the South	p. 40
Egypt and Asia	p. 42
Egypt and the Mediterranean	p. 44
Map: Invasions of the "Peoples of the Sea" and "Labu"	p. 45
Map: The Ptolemaic empire	p. 46
International Trade and Travel	p. 48
Map: Egypt and its trade network	p. 49
The Grip of Empire	p. 50
Map: The Egyptian empire in the New Kingdom	p. 50
The Cosmopolitan Realm	p. 52
The Minelands of the Sovereign	p. 54
Egypt's Legacy	p. 55
The Wealth of the Land	p. 58
The First Farmers	p. 58
Living off the Land	p. 60
Hunting, Fishing, Fowling and Foraging	p. 62
Egypt's Mineral Wealth	p. 64
Map: Egypt's mineral resources	p. 65
Managing the Economy	p. 66
The Settled World	p. 68
The Rise of Urban Life	p. 68
Map: Hierakonpolis ca. 4000 3100BCE	p. 69
Towns and Houses	p. 70
Capital Cities	p. 74
Map: Capital cities of ancient Egypt	p. 74
Royal Palaces	p. 76
Fortresses	p. 78
Women in Egypt	p. 80
Gender and Society	p. 80
Roles and Images	p. 82
The Family	p. 84
Women and Religion	p. 86
Royal Women	p. 88
The Boundaries of Knowledge	p. 90
The Teaching of Knowledge	p. 90
The Natural World	p. 92
Mathematics	p. 94
Medicine	p. 96
Technology	p. 98
Magic	p. 100
The Arts	p. 102
Belief and Ritual	p. 104
The Lord of the Two Lands	p. 106
The Origins of Kingship	p. 106
The God-King on Earth	p. 108
The Pharaoh after Death	p. 110
Human or Divine?	p. 112
The Celestial Realm	p. 114
The Egyptian Cosmos	p. 114
The Heavenly Domain	p. 116
The Solar Cycle	p. 118
"Before Two Things"	p. 120
The One and the Many	p. 122
The Word of God	p. 124
Amun the Unknowable	p. 126
The Heresy of Akhenaten	p. 128
The Human Sphere	p. 130
The Cult of the Dead	p. 132
Attitudes to Death	p. 132
The Theology of Death: Isis and Osiris	p. 134
Funerary Literature	p. 136
Mummification	p. 138
The Funerary Cult	p. 140
Communication with the Dead	p. 142
Ghosts and Exorcism	p. 144
The Mummy's Curse	p. 146
The Life of Ritual	p. 148
Securing the Cosmic Order	p. 148
The Daily Offering	p. 150
Ancestor Worship	p. 152
Ritual and History	p. 154
Ritual Gestures	p. 156
Sacred Boats	p. 158
Divine Births and Marriages	p. 160
Piety and Priesthood	p. 162
Ritual Games	p. 164
Art, Architecture and Language	p. 166
The Pyramids	p. 168
Monuments to an Age	p. 168
Map: Main pyramid sites of Egypt	p. 169
Ramps to the Sky: the Pyramid and its Complex	p. 170
Building the Pyramids	p. 174
The Earliest Pyramids	p. 178
Giza: the Great Pyramid	p. 180
Artist's impression: Inside the Great Pyramid	p. 182
Giza: the Pyramids of Khafre and Menkaure	p. 184
The Great Sphinx	p. 186
Pyramids of the "Forgotten Pharaohs"	p. 188
Middle Kingdom Pyramids	p. 190
Tombs and Temples	p. 192
The Dwelling Places of the Dead	p. 192
Royal Tombs	p. 194
Map: Royal burial sites of Western Thebes	p. 195
Private Tombs	p. 197
Cities of the Dead	p. 200
The Temple	p. 202
Houses of the Gods	p. 206
Artist's impression: The temple of Karnak	p. 208
Royal Mortuary Temples	p. 210
Egyptian Art	p. 212
The Potent Image	p. 212
Predynastic and Early Dynastic Art	p. 214
Classical Egypt: the Old Kingdom	p. 216
Regional Styles and Art of the Imperial Age	p. 218
Art of the Late Period	p. 222
Art of the Ptolemaic and Roman Periods	p. 224
The Art of Adornment	p. 226
Signs, Symbols and Language	p. 230
Discovering the Key	p. 230
Scripts and Scribes	p. 232
Words and Hieroglyphs	p. 234
The Evolution of the Language	p. 236
The Signs Speak	p. 238
Symbol and Image	p. 240
Glossary	p. 242
Bibliography	p. 243
Index	p. 246
Picture Credits	p. 256
Table of Contents provided by Rittenhouse. All Rights Reserved.