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Egypt: The Land of the Pharaohs 

by Regine Schultz and Matthias Seidel (eds.)

EGYPT: THE LAND OF THE PHARAOHS edited by Regine Schulz and Matthias Seidel is not just a coffee table book--it's the coffee table itself. The book is enormous: 538 over-sized pages, 40 chapters, and too many photos and illustrations to count (over 800).

The chapters are each written by individual experts with backgrounds in art, archaeology, architecture, and general Egyptology. They present the world of the Egyptians chronologically, discussing their state, society, and religion as well as their architectural, artistic, and technological advances. The writing style varies somewhat, but it is consistently readable in its academic style. The authors and editors have done an excellent job of locating appropriate (and often rare) photos to illustrate their text. Many of the photos are of objects in museum collections that most will never have the chance to visit.

The mummification chapter by Renate Germer is one of the best summaries of mummification currently published. It's clear and well-organized; Germer goes beyond the basics and explains the details which makes her account all he rarer. The burial chapter by Wafaa el-Saddick overlaps with Germer's chapter a bit  but offers a different focus. Ursula Verhoeven's chapter on the mortuary cult provides helpful information about the mortuary texts, the obligations of the living, the remarkable letters to the dead, and the ancestor cult.

I highly recommend the book, which would also be appropriate as a photo and fact resource for students in grades 5 and up.

 

Table of Contents

Introduction/Foreword

Prehistory

Egypt's path to advanced civilization

Early History

The rise of the state to the second dynasty

Old Kingdom

The political history of the third to eighth dynasties
Royal tombs from the age of the pyramids
Daily life in eternity--the mastabas and rock-cut tombs of officials
Living images--the private statues

Middle Kingdom

The political history from the ninth to the seventeenth dynasties
The tombs of the pharaohs--between tradition and innovation
A house for eternity--the tombs of governors and officials
Between heaven and earth--temples to the gods in the Middle Kingdom

New Kingdom

The political history of the eighteenth to twentieth dynasties
The temples--royal gods and divine kings
The valley of the kings
The valley of the queens
Overcoming death--the private tombs of Thebes
The hidden tombs of Memphis

Late Period 

Tanis and Thebes--the political history of the twenty-first to thirtieth dynasties
Assimilating the past--the art of the late period

Greco-Roman Period 

The political history of the Ptolemies and the imperial Roman period in Egypt
A world order in stone--the late temples
Tomb and burial customs after Alexander the Great

State and Society

Sacred kinship
Beauty and perfection--pharaonic art
The royal administration and its organization
The military
Economy and trade
Gifts of the Nile--the agriculture of a river oasis
Houses, cities, and palaces--ancient Egyptian lifestyles
Daily life in the home--the house as living area
Stones and quarries

Gods, Cults, and the Kingdom of the Dead

A different world--religious conceptions
Gods and deities
Conceptions of the cosmos--the universe
Royal and divine festivals
mummification
The burial
The mortuary cult

Investigations in the Nile Valley

Travelers, correspondents, and scholars--images of Egypt through the Millennia
The responsibilities of archaeology--recent excavations

Appendix

Glossary, gods of ancient Egypt, list of historic sites, Egyptian collections, rulers of Egypt, chronological synopsis, selected bibliography
 

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Latest Update: 21 June 2008

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