A history of ancient Egypt

A history of ancient Egypt

John Romer

Book - 2013

Volume 1: The story of the ancient world is told in this first volume in a two-book series on the history of Egypt, spanning the first farmers to the construction of the pyramids. Famed archaeologist John Romer draws on a lifetime of research to tell one history's greatest stories; how, over more than a thousand years, a society of farmers created a rich, vivid world where one of the most astounding of all human-made landmarks, the Great Pyramid, was built. Immersing the reader in the Egypt of the past, Romer examines and challenges the long-held theories about what archaeological finds mean and what stories they tell about how the Egyptians lived. More than just an account of one of the most fascinating periods of history, this engros...sing book asks readers to take a step back and question what they've learned about Egypt in the past--Publisher's website.

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Subjects
To 332 B.C.
Egypt > History > Eighteenth dynasty, ca. 1570-1320 B.C.
Egypt > History > New Kingdom, ca. 1550-ca. 1070 B.C.
Egypt > History > To 332 B.C.
Egypt.
History.
Genres
History
Published
New York : Thomas Dunne Books 2013-2023.
Language
English
Main Author
John Romer (author)
Edition
First U.S. edition
Item Description
"First published in Great Britain by Allen Lane, an imprint of Penguin Books"--Title page verso.
Volume 3. Archaeologist John Romer has spent a lifetime chronicling the history of Ancient Egypt, and here he tells the epic story of an era dominated by titans of the popular imagination: the radical iconoclast Akhenaten, the boy-king Tutankhamun and the all-conquering Ramesses II. But 'heroes' do not forge history by themselves. This was also a time of international trade, cultural exchange and sophisticated art, even in the face of violent change.0Alongside his visionary new history of this, the most famous period in the long history of Ancient Egypt, Romer turns a critical eye on Egyptology itself. Paying close attention to the evidence, he corrects prevailing narratives which cast the New Kingdom as an imperial state power in the European mould. Instead, he reveals - through broken artefacts in ruined workshops, or preserved letters between a tomb-builder and his son - a culture more beautiful and beguiling than we could have imagined.0Romer carefully reconstructs the real story of the New Kingdom as evidenced in the archaeological record, and the result - the final volume of a lifelong project - secures his status as Ancient Egypt's finest chronicler"--Publisher's description."
Physical Description
3 volumes : illustrations (some color), maps ; 24 cm
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN
9781250030115
9781250030139
9780241454992
  • v. 1 From the First Farmers to the Great Pyramid. Making Culture (5000-3000 BC). Beside the Pale Lake : living in the Faiyum, c. 5000-4000 BC
  • Sickle sheen : most ancient Egypt and the Neolithic
  • Merimda and el-Omari : Lower Egypt, 4800-4300 BC
  • The Badarians : Middle Egypt, 4400-4000 BC
  • Black-topped, white-lined : life in Upper Egypt, 4000-3500 BC
  • A cloud across the moon : death in Upper Egypt, 4000-3200 BC
  • Boats and donkeys : copper, trade, and influence within the Lower Nile Valley, 3500-3000 BC
  • Rolling along : of men and monsters, 3500-3000 BC
  • Making Pharaoh (3200-3000 BC). Scorpion and hawk, 3200-3000 BC
  • The coming of the king : the origins of hieroglyphs, c. 3000 BC
  • Narmer's palette : the qualities of kings, c. 3000 BC
  • The hawk upon the wall : history, land and Naqadan resettlement, 3500-3000 BC
  • Taking wing : Naqadan emigration, 3500-3000 BC
  • Taking stock : ordering and accounting within the early state
  • The shadows of birds : rite and sacrifice within the early
  • Making a Kingdom (3000-2650 BC). The Serekh tomb : the story of the Naqada Mastaba, c. 3000 BC
  • A line of kings : the first dynasty royal tombs, 3000-2825 BC
  • The lost dynasty : fake histories, real lives : dynasty two, 2825-2675 BC
  • The wheeling hawk : refining Egypt : dynasties one, two and three
  • The realms of pharaoh : dynasties one and three
  • Two gentlemen of Saqqara : Merka and Hesi-re : dynasties one and three
  • Step Pyramid (2675-2650 BC). Djoser's
  • Heb Sediana : visions of the pyramid
  • Deus absconditus : the hidden god
  • In consequence : the pyramid's effect
  • Building Ancient Egypt (2650-2550 BC). A diadem of pyramids, 2650-2625 BC
  • Court and country : Metjen and the early reign of Sneferu, 2625-2600 BC
  • High society : Sneferu at Maidum, 2625-2600 BC
  • A building passion : Sneferu at Dahshur, 2600-2575 BC
  • Making the gods : deity at Dahshur, 2600-2575 BC
  • The perfect pyramid : Khufu and Giza, 2575-2550 BC.
  • v. 2 From the Great Pyramid to the Fall of the Middle Kingdom. After the great pyramids : history and hieroglyphs. The story up to now : a history in pyramids
  • Writing changes everything
  • Reviving Hardjedef?
  • Making "Ancient Egypt" : Champollion and His Successors. In the beginning
  • The road to Memphis
  • Aftermath
  • Old Kingdom: the Giza Kings, 2625-2500 BC. The eloquence of statues
  • Finding Menkaure
  • Royal households
  • After Giza
  • Old Kingdom : Abusir and After, 2500-2200 BC. Abusir and Saqqara
  • Meat, bread and stone : an economy of offering
  • The living court
  • The living kingdom
  • Cult and kingdom
  • Old Kingdom : Ancient Records, Ancient Lives. Papyrus to stone
  • Writing in the pyramids
  • The dead and the quick : processing the past
  • Interpreting the pyramids
  • Look at us! : Meet the courtiers
  • Interregnum, 2200-2140 BC. Suddenly it stops
  • Middle Kingdom : Remaking the State, 2140-1780 BC. Sema Towy : binding the kingdom
  • The court of Thebes
  • The materials of state : the court at work
  • The Levant and Nubia
  • Middle Kingdom : the Re-Made State, 2000-1660 BC. The court at home
  • Living in the state
  • Epilogue: Reflections on a golden age.
  • v. 3. Part One. Facts and fictions
  • part Two. Finding Avaris
  • Part Three. A dream of Avaris
  • Part Four. Back on the ground : Avaris and Thebes, 1750-1530 BC
  • Part Five. The Avaris effect
  • Part Six. After Avaris : 1530-1425 BC
  • Part Seven. Kings and Queens : 1480-1425 BC
  • Part Eight. Jour and Contre-jour : 1425-1300 BC
  • Part Nine. The State reprised : 1300-1185 BC
  • Part Ten. The State dissolved : 1185-650 BC
  • Epilogue. History in a village : 1550-950 BC.
Review by Choice Review

This first of a projected two-volume series on the history of ancient Egypt covers the period from 5000 to 2550 BCE; i.e., from the Neolithic period through the Pyramid Age. Much of the material will probably be unfamiliar to general readers, but Romer's writing allows for an easy introduction to the numerous topics presented, from the origins of agriculture, writing, and the pyramids themselves to everyday life in Egypt up through the mid-third millennium BCE. Alongside descriptions of the sites and material culture are details of the modern Egyptologists who discovered and sometimes destroyed the ruins. Undoubtedly, the chapters on the pyramids will be the ones that most readers turn to first, but the volume deserves to be read properly from beginning to end in order to get the full flavor of the monumental transition involved during the procession from the first farmers to the first pyramids in Egypt. Scholarly yet accessible, eminently readable with numerous small illustrations throughout, this volume will be of interest and use to students and the public alike. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All levels/libraries. E. H. Cline George Washington University

Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

In this thoughtful and meticulous reconsideration of Egyptian ancient- and pre-history, Egyptologist Romer draws directly from archaeological and hieroglyphic evidence in an effort to cast aside Western preconceptions. This, the first of two volumes, begins with a focus on the farmers of Faiyum Lake in 5000 BCE and ends with the building of the Great Pyramid of Giza, tomb of the pharaoh Khufu, in around 2500 BCE. Romer comments on the logical fallacies of other historians, citing physical evidence. He remarks, for instance, that previous interpretations of the Second Dynasty are "[h]uge histories built upon the thinnest evidence." He also cautions that it is "important to recognize the traps that lurk within the very words we use," suggesting that to even name the inhabited region along the Nile "Egypt" is to make an unwarranted assumption. Though careful in building towards his conclusions, the author waxes lyrical in his descriptions of some of the exquisite works of art which form the basis of our understanding of these dwellers by the Nile. An essential read for anyone interested in Egyptian history. Maps and photos. (Sept.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Review by Library Journal Review

During his long career in Egyptology, archaeologist Romer (The Great Pyramid) has excavated in the Valley of the Kings and Karnak, written a dozen books on the subject, and presented critically acclaimed TV documentaries. He is now in the process of reassessing the history of ancient Egypt. In this first of what will be two volumes, he covers from 5000 to 2550 BCE, from Egypt's "beginnings to the establishment of the full panoply of the pharaonic state." This formative period was an afterthought in Alan Gardiner's classic Egypt of the Pharaohs, literally placed at the end of the book. W.B. Emery's Archaic Egypt and Michael A. Hoffman's Egypt Before the Pharaohs offered popularly oriented overviews. Romer challenges the reader to reconsider the development of civilization in the Lower Nile Valley with unbiased eyes and to keep in mind the paucity of archaeological evidence from which the traditional narrative has been derived. He is a proponent of a dynamic evolution of the indigenous culture rather than of change coming to Egypt from external forces. VERDICT Scholarly yet accessible to the nonspecialist, this iconoclastic study will thoroughly engage all Egyptophiles, who will eagerly await the second volume.-Edward K. Werner, St. Lucie Cty. Lib. Syst., Ft. Pierce, FL (c) Copyright 2013. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review

The first volume of a necessarily lengthy history of ancient Egypt from a well-known archaeologist. Romer's (The Great Pyramid: Ancient Egypt Revisited, 2007) explanation of the earliest years of Egyptian civilization is impressive in the amount of information gleaned from a minimum of evidence. He begins 2,500 years before the pyramids as we know them appeared. The first recognizable community of the Neolithic Revolution gathered in Lake Faiyum in 5000 B.C. Though agriculture was in its beginning stages, the people used grain storage bins and moved the herds seasonally for grazing. The author debunks thousands of years of miscategorization of the Egyptian culture based on information reliant on ancient biblical and Pharaonic writings. Many writers only got one view of affairs, ignoring the advancement of the populace, and tended to see development in terms of their own civilization rather than that of the geographic, religious terms of the Nilotic environment. Romer points out that the best indicators of the changing civilization turn out to be its pottery. From the very earliest times, inhabitants made containers for cooking and eating. The changes in the shapes and, especially, in the decoration and glazes of their pots indicate the broadening of their development. Every discovery near the Nile contains some pottery that is accurately dated according to William Petrie's Sequence Dating Chart, a simple classification system developed in the 1890s and corroborated by carbon dating. The Nile River was the driving factor in all aspects of life, from channeling the annual inundation to the riverization that fostered the beginnings of commerce. Fascinating reading with abundant illustrations. Romer's long experience and practical, fresh outlook bring this civilization to life.]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

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