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Ancient Egypt - A Very Short Introduction

Ancient Egypt - A Very Short Introduction
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امتیاز دهید
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با 6 رای
In the temple of the goddess Isis on the island of Philae, a few miles to
the south of the city of Aswan, one wall bears a brief hieroglyphic
inscription. Its significance is not in its content or meaning but purely
its date – it was written on 24 August ad 394, and as far as we know it
was the last time that the hieroglyphic script was used. The language of
ancient Egypt survived considerably longer (Philae temple also contains
the last graffiti in the more cursive ‘demotic’ script, dating to 2
December ad 452), and in a sense it still exists in fossilized form in the
liturgical texts of the modern Coptic church. Nevertheless, it was
around the end of the 4th century ad that the knowledge and use of
hieroglyphs effectively vanished, and until the decipherment of
hieroglyphs by Jean-François Champollion in 1822, the written world of
the Egyptians was unknown, and scholars were almost entirely reliant
on the accounts left by Greek and Roman authors, or the sections of the
Bible story in which Egypt features. Classical and biblical images of
Egypt therefore dominated the emerging subject of Egyptology until
almost the end of the 19th century.
More than 180 years after Champollion’s breakthrough, the study of
ancient Egypt has influenced and permeated a vast number of
contemporary issues, from linguistics and ‘Afrocentrism’, to religious
cults and bizarre theories involving extraterrestrials. This book
combines discussion of the archaeological and historical study of
ancient Egypt with appraisal of the impact of Egypt – and its many
icons – on past and present Western society and thought. It is intended
both to give the reader a sense of some of the crucial issues that
dominate the modern study of ancient Egypt, and also to attempt to
discuss some of the reasons why the culture of the Egyptians is still so
appealing and fascinating to us.
Much of the discussion in this Very Short Introduction focuses, initially
at least, on the ‘Narmer Palette’ (c.3100 bc), outlining its significance
with regard to our understanding of early Egyptian culture. Most of the
chapters take different aspects of the palette as starting points for
consideration of key factors in Egyptology, such as history, writing,
religion, and funerary beliefs. Within this structure, current academic
Egyptological ideas and discoveries are occasionally compared and
contrasted with more populist and commercial viewpoints, including
Egypt’s widespread exploitation by modern mass media.

Preface xi
Acknowledgements xiii
List of illustrations xiv
1 Introduction: the story so far 1
2 Discovering and inventing: constructing ancient Egypt 29
3 History: building chronologies and writing histories 48
4 Writing: the origins and implications of hieroglyphs 72
5 Kingship: stereotyping and the ‘oriental despot’ 82
6 Identity: issues of ethnicity, race, and gender 101
7 Death: mummification, dismemberment, and the cult of
Osiris 113
8 Religion: Egyptian gods and temples 126
9 Egyptomania: the recycling and reinventing of Egypt’s
icons and images 137
References 161
Further reading 166
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1394/06/03

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