A History of Ancient Egypt, Volume 2
From the Great Pyramid to the Fall of the Middle Kingdom
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3.5 • 2 Ratings
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- £9.99
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- £9.99
Publisher Description
This definitive, multi-volume history of the world's first known state reveals that much of what we have been taught about Ancient Egypt is the product of narrow-minded visions of the past
Drawing on a lifetime of research, John Romer chronicles the history of Ancient Egypt from the building of the Great Pyramid through the rise and fall of the Middle Kingdom: a peak of Pharaonic culture and the period when writing first flourished. He reveals how the grand narratives of nineteenth and twentieth-century Egyptologists have misled us by portraying a culture of cruel monarchs and chronic war. Instead, based in part on discoveries of the past two decades, this extraordinary account shows what we can really learn from the remaining architecture, objects and writing: a history based on physical reality.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Romer (A History of Ancient Egypt, Vol. 1) continues his magisterial re-examination of ancient Egypt, here covering approximately 2550 B.C.E. until 1770 B.C.E. As in the first volume, Romer cautions against viewing the physical evidence and preserved writings through modern understandings of statecraft and their mechanisms. "Egyptology is not a science," he writes, advising against using "such common Western terms as king' and nation,' soldier,' courtier,' and priest' " to translate ancient texts. Pointing out where such errors in thinking have previously occurred, Romer describes both the current factual understanding of ancient Egypt and the version created by such scholars as Jean Fran ois Champollion and Gaston Maspero. This faux Egypt has too often been cast in a European mold, with autocratic rulers in great cities, heavy taxation, and devastating wars. Romer finds that the evidence does not support these images. Instead, he traces a culture whose efforts were bent toward monument building, systematic ritual sacrifice, and redistribution of foodstuffs in a way that defies modern economic concepts. Romer also rhapsodizes about Egypt's assorted cultural creations, which fulfilled a different role than modern ideas of art. This is an essential re-envisioning of ancient Egypt. Maps & illus.
