Ancient EgyptThe ancient Egyptians created some of the world's most beautiful art and architecture. To this day, this ancient civilization--which produced the great pyramids, the riddle of the Sphinx, and the riches of Tutankhamun--exerts a strong hold on our imaginations. Now, in Ancient Egypt, eminent Egyptologist David P. Silverman and a team of leading scholars explore the cultural wealth of this civilization in a series of intriguing and authoritative essays based on the latest theories and discoveries. Illustrated with more than 200 superb color photographs, maps, and charts, this book illuminates the vivid and powerful symbolic images of this fascinating culture--from pyramids and temples to priests and rituals; from hieroglyphic writing to daily life by the Nile; and from temple carvings to the cult of the dead. Correcting the popular misconception of the Egyptians as a death-obsessed people, the book uses the most recent historical research and archaeological finds to illuminate the routines of daily life in royal, elite, priestly circles, as well as at lower levels of society. We learn, for example, that despite the monochromatic appearance of most temple ruins today, in ancient times they would have been colorful, even gleaming structures; that the title "Pharaoh" derives from the Egyptian phrase per aa, which means "great house" and was originally a reference to the royal palace; that temples employed all manner of part-time and full-time personnel, from farmers and carpenters to scribes, jewelers, and keepers of livestock; and that Egyptian law viewed women as equal to men, and they could, in some cases, wield considerable influence. |
Contents
Oxford University Press CONTENTS | 6 |
Oxford University Press | 12 |
Oxford is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press A Landscape of the Mind | 18 |
Conceived created and designed by The Zenith of the Unitary State | 24 |
019521952X A Second Unravelling | 30 |
Peter Bently Disunity and Foreign Rule | 36 |
Neil Packer | 44 |
NOTE The Grip of Empire | 50 |
Mummification | 138 |
Ghosts and Exorcism | 144 |
The Daily Offering | 150 |
Ritual Gestures | 156 |
Piety and Priesthood | 162 |
THE PYRAMIDS | 168 |
Building the Pyramids | 174 |
the Great Pyramid | 180 |
AA | 52 |
THE WEALTH | 58 |
Egypts Mineral Wealth | 64 |
Towns and Houses | 70 |
Royal Palaces | 76 |
Roles and Images | 82 |
Royal Women | 88 |
Mathematics | 94 |
Magic | 100 |
TWO LANDS | 106 |
Human or Divine? | 112 |
THE CULT | 132 |
TOMBS | 192 |
Cities of the Dead | 200 |
Houses of the Gods | 206 |
EGYPTIAN ART | 212 |
Regional Styles and Art of | 218 |
Art of the Ptolemaic and Roman | 224 |
SIGNS SYMBOLS | 230 |
The Evolution of the Language | 236 |
GLOSSARY | 242 |
PICTURE CREDITS | 256 |
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Common terms and phrases
Abydos afterlife Akhenaten Amenemhet Amenhotep Amenhotep III Amun ancient Egypt ancient Egyptian boat built burial chamber century BCE Coffin cult Dahshur dead death deceased decoration Deir el-Medina deity Delta depicted divine early Egyptian élite example figurines floodplain Fourth Dynasty funerary Giza goddess gods Greek Hathor Hatshepsut Hierakonpolis hieroglyphs Horus illustration inscriptions Intermediate Period Isis Karnak Khafre Khufu king king's Kushite land Late Period later limestone Lower Egypt ma'at mastaba Memphis Middle Kingdom monuments mortuary temple mudbrick mummy Naqada nomes Nubia offerings Old Kingdom Osiris painted palace papyrus pharaoh Predynastic priests probably Ptolemy Pylon pyramid complex Pyramid Texts Queen Ramesses Ramesses II ramp reign reliefs ritual royal tombs rulers Saqqara scenes scribe sculpture Senwosret Sety Sixth Dynasty Sphinx statue stelae Step Pyramid stone symbolic Theban Thebes Thutmose Thutmose III Tutankhamun Upper Egypt valley temple Wadi wall Western Thebes wife women