Ancient Egypt: A Very Short Introduction Very Short Introductions are for anyone wanting a stimulating and accessible way in to a new subject. They are written by experts, and have been published in more than 25 languages worldwide. The series began in 1995, and now represents a wide variety of topics in history, philosophy, religion, science, and the humanities. Over the next few years it will grow to a library of around 200 volumes – a Very Short Introduction to everything from ancient Egypt and Indian philosophy to conceptual art and cosmology. Very Short Introductions available now: ANCIENT EGYPT Ian Shaw Continental Philosophy ANCIENT PHILOSOPHY Simon Critchley Julia Annas COSMOLOGY Peter Coles THE ANGLO-SAXON AGE CRYPTOGRAPHY John Blair Fred Piper and Sean Murphy ANIMAL RIGHTS David DeGrazia DADA AND SURREALISM ARCHAEOLOGY Paul Bahn David Hopkins ARCHITECTURE Darwin Jonathan Howard Andrew Ballantyne Democracy Bernard Crick ARISTOTLE Jonathan Barnes DESCARTES Tom Sorell ART HISTORY Dana Arnold DRUGS Leslie Iversen ART THEORY Cynthia Freeland THE EARTH Martin Redfern THE HISTORY OF EGYPTIAN MYTH Geraldine Pinch ASTRONOMY Michael Hoskin EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY Atheism Julian Baggini BRITAIN Paul Langford Augustine Henry Chadwick THE ELEMENTS Philip Ball BARTHES Jonathan Culler EMOTION Dylan Evans THE BIBLE John Riches EMPIRE Stephen Howe BRITISH POLITICS ENGELS Terrell Carver Anthony Wright Ethics Simon Blackburn Buddha Michael Carrithers The European Union BUDDHISM Damien Keown John Pinder CAPITALISM James Fulcher EVOLUTION THE CELTS Barry Cunliffe Brian and Deborah Charlesworth CHOICE THEORY FASCISM Kevin Passmore Michael Allingham THE FRENCH REVOLUTION CHRISTIAN ART Beth Williamson William Doyle CLASSICS Mary Beard and FREE WILL Thomas Pink John Henderson Freud Anthony Storr CLAUSEWITZ Michael Howard Galileo Stillman Drake THE COLD WAR Robert McMahon Gandhi Bhikhu Parekh GLOBALIZATION Manfred Steger PLATO Julia Annas HEGEL Peter Singer POLITICS Kenneth Minogue HEIDEGGER Michael Inwood POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY HIEROGLYPHS Penelope Wilson David Miller HINDUISM Kim Knott POSTCOLONIALISM HISTORY John H. Arnold Robert Young HOBBES Richard Tuck POSTMODERNISM HUME A. J. Ayer Christopher Butler IDEOLOGY Michael Freeden POSTSTRUCTURALISM Indian Philosophy Catherine Belsey Sue Hamilton PREHISTORY Chris Gosden Intelligence Ian J. Deary PRESOCRATIC PHILOSOPHY ISLAM Malise Ruthven Catherine Osborne JUDAISM Norman Solomon Psychology Gillian Butler and Jung Anthony Stevens Freda McManus KANT Roger Scruton QUANTUM THEORY KIERKEGAARD Patrick Gardiner John Polkinghorne THE KORAN Michael Cook ROMAN BRITAIN LINGUISTICS Peter Matthews Peter Salway LITERARY THEORY ROUSSEAU Robert Wokler Jonathan Culler RUSSELL A. C. Grayling LOCKE John Dunn RUSSIAN LITERATURE LOGIC Graham Priest Catriona Kelly MACHIAVELLI Quentin Skinner THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION MARX Peter Singer S. A. Smith MATHEMATICS Timothy Gowers SCHIZOPHRENIA MEDIEVAL BRITAIN Chris Frith and Eve Johnstone John Gillingham and SCHOPENHAUER Ralph A. Griffiths Christopher Janaway MODERN IRELAND Senia Pasˇeta SHAKESPEARE Germaine Greer MOLECULES Philip Ball SOCIAL AND CULTURAL MUSIC Nicholas Cook ANTHROPOLOGY Myth Robert A. Segal John Monaghan and Peter Just NIETZSCHE Michael Tanner SOCIOLOGY Steve Bruce NINETEENTH-CENTURY Socrates C. C. W. Taylor BRITAIN Christopher Harvie and SPINOZA Roger Scruton H. C. G. Matthew STUART BRITAIN John Morrill NORTHERN IRELAND TERRORISM Charles Townshend Marc Mulholland THEOLOGY David F. Ford PARTICLE PHYSICS Frank Close THE TUDORS John Guy paul E. P. Sanders TWENTIETH-CENTURY Philosophy Edward Craig BRITAIN Kenneth O. Morgan PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE Wittgenstein A. C. Grayling Samir Okasha WORLD MUSIC Philip Bohlman Available soon: AFRICAN HISTORY HIROSHIMA B. R. Tomlinson John Parker and Richard Rathbone HUMAN EVOLUTION THE BRAIN Michael O’Shea Bernard Wood BUDDHIST ETHICS INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS Damien Keown Paul Wilkinson CHAOS Leonard Smith JAZZ Brian Morton CHRISTIANITY Linda Woodhead MANDELA Tom Lodge CITIZENSHIP Richard Bellamy MEDICAL ETHICS CLASSICAL ARCHITECTURE Tony Hope Robert Tavernor THE MIND Martin Davies CLONING Arlene Judith Klotzko NATIONALISM CONTEMPORARY ART Steven Grosby Julian Stallabrass PERCEPTION Richard Gregory THE CRUSADES PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION Christopher Tyerman Jack Copeland and Diane Proudfoot Derrida Simon Glendinning PHOTOGRAPHY DESIGN John Heskett Steve Edwards Dinosaurs David Norman THE RAJ Denis Judd DREAMING J. Allan Hobson THE RENAISSANCE ECONOMICS Partha Dasgupta Jerry Brotton THE END OF THE WORLD RENAISSANCE ART Bill McGuire Geraldine Johnson EXISTENTIALISM Thomas Flynn SARTRE Christina Howells THE FIRST WORLD WAR THE SPANISH CIVIL WAR Michael Howard Helen Graham FUNDAMENTALISM TRAGEDY Adrian Poole Malise Ruthven THE TWENTIETH CENTURY Habermas Gordon Finlayson Martin Conway For more information visit our web site www.oup.co.uk/vsi Ian Shaw Ancient Egypt A Very Short Introduction 1 3 Great Clarendon Street, Oxfordox2 6dp Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide in Oxford New York Auckland Bangkok Buenos Aires Cape Town Chennai Dar es Salaam Delhi Hong Kong Istanbul Karachi Kolkata Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Mumbai Nairobi São Paulo Shanghai Taipei Tokyo Toronto Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford University Press in the UK and in certain other countries Published in the United States by Oxford University Press Inc., New York © Ian Shaw 2004 The moral rights of the author have been asserted Database right Oxford University Press (maker) First published as a very short Introduction 2004 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted by law, or under terms agreed with the appropriate reprographics rights organization. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the above should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the address above You must not circulate this book in any other binding or cover and you must impose this same condition on any acquirer British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Data available Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Shaw, Ian, 1961 Ancient Egypt : a very short introduction / Ian Shaw p.cm Includes bibliographical references and index 1. Egypt—Civilization—To 332 B.C. Egypt—antiquities. 3. Egyptology. I. Title. II. Series DT61.S57 2004 932—dc22—2004050066 ISBN 0–19–285419–4 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2 Typeset by RefineCatch Ltd, Bungay Suffolk Printed in Great Britain by TJ International Ltd., Padstow, Cornwall For my parents This page intentionally left blank Contents 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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