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"This student-friendly introduction to the archaeology of ancient Egypt guides readers from the Paleolithic to the Greco-Roman periods, and has now been updated to include recent discoveries and new illustrations. Superbly illustrated with photographs, maps, and site plans, with additional illustrations in this new edition. Organized into 11 chapters, covering: the history of Egyptology and Egyptian archaeology; prehistoric and pharaonic chronology and the ancient Egyptian language; geography, resources, and environment; and seven chapters organized chronologically and devoted to specific archaeological sites and evidence. Includes sections on salient topics such as the constructing the Great Pyramid at Giza and the process of mummification"--
List of contents
List of Plates ix
List of Figures xi
List of Maps xv
Abbreviations xvii
Preface xix
Acknowledgments xxi
1 Egyptian Archaeology: Definitions and History 1
1.1 Introduction: Ancient Egyptian Civilization and Its Prehistoric Predecessors 3
1.2 Egyptian Archaeology 3
1.3 Egyptology 5
1.4 History of Egyptology and Egyptian Archaeology 5
1.5 Archaeological Methods 14
1.6 Archaeological Theory 21
1.7 Ancient Egypt and Egyptian Archaeologists in Fiction and Films 22
2 Hieroglyphs, Language, and Pharaonic Chronology 25
2.1 Language of the Ancient Egyptians 27
2.2 Origins and Development of Egyptian Writing 27
2.3 Scripts and Media of Writing 31
2.4 Signs, Structure, and Grammar 31
2.5 Literacy in Ancient Egypt 33
2.6 Textual Studies 34
2.7 Use of Texts in Egyptian Archaeology 36
2.8 Historical Outline of Pharaonic Egypt 38
2.9 The Egyptian Civil Calendar, King Lists, and Calculation of Pharaonic Chronology 39
3 The Environmental Background to Pharaonic Civilization: Geography, Environment, Agriculture, and Natural Resources 47
3.1 Geography: Terms and Place Names 49
3.2 Environmental Setting 53
3.3 Environmental and Other Problems for Archaeology in Egypt 56
3.4 The Seasons and the Agricultural System 58
3.5 The Ancient Egyptian Diet 60
3.6 Other Useful Animals and Plants 62
3.7 Building Materials 63
3.8 Other Resources: Clays, Stones, Minerals 64
3.9 Imported Materials 66
4 Egyptian Prehistory: The Paleolithic and Neolithic 69
Paleolithic 71
4.1 Paleolithic Cultures in Egypt 71
4.2 Lower Paleolithic 73
4.3 Middle Paleolithic 74
4.4 Upper Paleolithic 79
4.5 Late Paleolithic 80
4.6 Epipaleolithic (Final Paleolithic) 82
Neolithic 84
4.7 Saharan Neolithic 84
4.8 Neolithic in the Nile Valley: Faiyum A and Lower Egypt 87
4.9 Neolithic in the Nile Valley: Middle and Upper Egypt 90
5 The Rise of Complex Society and Early Civilization 93
Predynastic Egypt 95
5.1 The Predynastic Period: Egypt in the Fourth Millennium bc 95
5.2 Lower Egypt: Predynastic Culture 95
5.3 Upper Egypt: Naqada Culture 99
5.4 Lower Nubia: A-Group Culture 110
5.5 State Formation and Unification 112
The Early Dynastic State 117
5.6 Organization and Institutions of the Early Dynastic State 117
5.7 Early Writing and Formal Art 129
5.8 The Expanding State 130
5.9 Who Were the Ancient Egyptians? Physical Anthropology 131
6 The Old Kingdom and First Intermediate Period 133
6.1 The Old Kingdom: Overview 135
The Early Old Kingdom 140
6.2 The 3rd Dynasty: Djoser's Step Pyramid at Saqqara 140
6.3 The 4th Dynasty's First King, Sneferu, and His Three Pyramids 145
6.4 Khufu's Great Pyramid at Giza 147
6.5 The Great Sphinx and Khafra's Pyramid Complex 153
6.6 Menkaura's Giza Pyramid and Its Remarkable Valley Temple Finds 155
6.7 Giza Pyramid Towns 156
6.8 Giza Mastabas, Queen Hetepheres's Hidden "Tomb," and the Workmen's Cemetery 160
The Later Old Kingdom 166
6.9 Sun Temples of the 5th Dynasty 166
6.10 Later Old Kingdom Pyramids and the Pyramid Texts 168
6.11 An Expanding Bureaucracy: Private Tombs in the 5th and 6th Dynasties 170
6.12 Egypt Abroad 174
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About the author
Kathryn A. Bard is Professor of Archaeology at Boston University. A fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, she has directed excavations in Egypt and northern Ethiopia since 1989, and in 1998 was given the Chairman's Award of the National Geographic Society's Committee for Research and Exploration. She is the author of
From Farmers to Pharaohs: Mortuary Evidence for the Rise of Complex Society in Egypt (1994), the editor of
The Archaeology of Ancient Egypt: An Encyclopedia (1999), and is on the editorial board of
The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology published by the Egypt Exploration Society. Professor Bard is co-director of excavations at the pharaonic harbor at Mersa-Wadi Gawasis on the Red Sea, which has uncovered evidence of ancient Egyptian ships used in seafaring expeditions to the land of Punt, probably located in what is now eastern Sudan and Eritrea.
Summary
This student-friendly introduction to the archaeology of ancient Egypt guides readers from the Paleolithic to the Greco-Roman periods, and has now been updated to include recent discoveries and new illustrations.
