Ancient Egypt: A Very Short Introduction

by Shaw, Ian

• ISBN13: 9780192854193
• ISBN10: 0192854194
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2004-10-21
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

The ancient Egyptians are an enduring source of fascination - mummies and pyramids, curses and rituals have captured the imagination of generations. We all have a mental picture of ancient Egypt, but is it the right one? How much do we really know about this great civilization?In this absorbing introduction, Ian Shaw describes how our current ideas about Egypt are based not only on the thrilling discoveries made by early Egyptologists but also on fascinating new kinds of evidence produced bymodern scientific and linguistic analyses. He also explores the changing influences on our responses to these finds, through such media as literature, cinema and contemporary art. Each chapter deals with a different aspect of ancient Egypt, from despotic pharaohs to dismembered bodies, and fromhieroglyphs to animal-headed gods. LL L L

Author Biography

Ian Shaw is Lecturer in Egyptian Archaeology at the University of Liverpool.

Table of Contents

Introduction : the story so far	p. 1
Discovering and inventing : constructing ancient Egypt	p. 29
History : building chronologies and writing histories	p. 48
Writing : the origins and implications of hieroglyphs	p. 72
Kingship : stereotyping and the 'oriental despot'	p. 82
Identity : issues of ethnicity, race, and gender	p. 101
Death : mummification, dismemberment, and the cult of Osiris	p. 113
Religion : Egyptian gods and temples	p. 126
Egyptomania : the recycling and reinventing of Egypt's icons and images	p. 137
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