T.E. W. (terez93) reviewed The Pharaohs of Ancient Egypt (Landmark Books) on + 323 more book reviews
First published in 1964, this overview of Egyptian history is one in the International Landmark book series, which is one of the first I've read. One of my favorite courses as a history graduate student was a year-long series in ancient Egyptian and Near Eastern history, offered by an Ancient Near East specialist. It was comprised of three courses: the Ancient Near East, Egypt and ancient Israel and the Levant.
I think the Egyptian course was my favorite of the three, because it's just a fascinating subject, and there are so many museums across the country and the world which display artifacts from that time and region. Haven't actually made it to Egypt yet, but that's pretty high up on my bucket list. Not sure if I will ever get there, as travel is much more difficult than when I was younger, but never say never.
This is a fairly short but comprehensive overview of the several thousand years of Egyptian history. Most people just know about the pyramids, but what they often don't realize is that there was a civilization even older than they are, and certainly one which came after. All told, the ancient Egyptian civilization and even its language spanned a history of about 3,000 years. That is to say: the pyramids were older to the ancient Romans than the Colosseum is to us. That's a LOT of time.
Considering that Egyptian history spans three millennia, this book just hits the very renowned highlights, but that's a good place to start. I would have liked for the author to include the standard periodization which is used when addressing ancient Egyptian history (i.e., Early/Neolithic, Old Kingdom; First Intermediate Period; Middle Kingdom; Second Intermediate Period; New Kingdom; Third Intermediate Period; Late Period; Hellenistic, and Roman Egypt), because it helps to organize events into a manageable paradigm. The book does include photos, maps and other images which also help to make the material more accessible, especially for young readers.
Some of the drawbacks: it still has some bothersome, dated language (still irks me when authors, although products of their time, use the word "savage" to refer to non-urbanized ancient nomadic or tribal peoples), but the books are a product of their time, too. I get that we get the term from the French "sauvage," meaning wild or untamed, itself borrowed from the Late Latin "salvaticus," an alteration or vowel assimilation of the Latin "silvaticus" (meaning "woodland," lit. "of the woods," from silva "forest, grove"), but that's not typically what is meant in English. The latter, "of the woods" or "of the forest" or wilderness may work, actually, so maybe that term is preferable!
It also tends to take information translated from ancient texts at face value, but at the end, does discuss the overt bragging of Tuthmose III as propaganda rather than fact, but I think I would have made this a more prominent feature of the book, as it provides a good opportunity for even young readers to engage in some textual criticism.
There's also some factual errors and omissions, which are generally forgivable considering the book's age, and that have a half-century's worth of research and additional archaeological evidence to draw from (i.e., with regard to Tutankhamen, DNA testing has identified "mummy within tomb KV55," thought to be the pharaoh Akhenaten, as his father. His mother has been identified as a mummy from tomb KV35 (also his aunt), called "The Younger Lady" (some sources think that Tiy was his mother) although the genealogy is still somewhat debated. It's a good example of how the discipline of archaeology has changed over the past half-century!
Hopefully this short but packed-with-information introduction to Egyptian and ancient history (it does reference later figures which may need some explaining to young readers, such as the Greek... "historian"/storyteller Herodotus) will inspire additional reading and research projects for students of all ages. I'm glad that these are making it into the series, as an ancient historian: can never start too young in terms of introducing new generations to our ancient past.
I think the Egyptian course was my favorite of the three, because it's just a fascinating subject, and there are so many museums across the country and the world which display artifacts from that time and region. Haven't actually made it to Egypt yet, but that's pretty high up on my bucket list. Not sure if I will ever get there, as travel is much more difficult than when I was younger, but never say never.
This is a fairly short but comprehensive overview of the several thousand years of Egyptian history. Most people just know about the pyramids, but what they often don't realize is that there was a civilization even older than they are, and certainly one which came after. All told, the ancient Egyptian civilization and even its language spanned a history of about 3,000 years. That is to say: the pyramids were older to the ancient Romans than the Colosseum is to us. That's a LOT of time.
Considering that Egyptian history spans three millennia, this book just hits the very renowned highlights, but that's a good place to start. I would have liked for the author to include the standard periodization which is used when addressing ancient Egyptian history (i.e., Early/Neolithic, Old Kingdom; First Intermediate Period; Middle Kingdom; Second Intermediate Period; New Kingdom; Third Intermediate Period; Late Period; Hellenistic, and Roman Egypt), because it helps to organize events into a manageable paradigm. The book does include photos, maps and other images which also help to make the material more accessible, especially for young readers.
Some of the drawbacks: it still has some bothersome, dated language (still irks me when authors, although products of their time, use the word "savage" to refer to non-urbanized ancient nomadic or tribal peoples), but the books are a product of their time, too. I get that we get the term from the French "sauvage," meaning wild or untamed, itself borrowed from the Late Latin "salvaticus," an alteration or vowel assimilation of the Latin "silvaticus" (meaning "woodland," lit. "of the woods," from silva "forest, grove"), but that's not typically what is meant in English. The latter, "of the woods" or "of the forest" or wilderness may work, actually, so maybe that term is preferable!
It also tends to take information translated from ancient texts at face value, but at the end, does discuss the overt bragging of Tuthmose III as propaganda rather than fact, but I think I would have made this a more prominent feature of the book, as it provides a good opportunity for even young readers to engage in some textual criticism.
There's also some factual errors and omissions, which are generally forgivable considering the book's age, and that have a half-century's worth of research and additional archaeological evidence to draw from (i.e., with regard to Tutankhamen, DNA testing has identified "mummy within tomb KV55," thought to be the pharaoh Akhenaten, as his father. His mother has been identified as a mummy from tomb KV35 (also his aunt), called "The Younger Lady" (some sources think that Tiy was his mother) although the genealogy is still somewhat debated. It's a good example of how the discipline of archaeology has changed over the past half-century!
Hopefully this short but packed-with-information introduction to Egyptian and ancient history (it does reference later figures which may need some explaining to young readers, such as the Greek... "historian"/storyteller Herodotus) will inspire additional reading and research projects for students of all ages. I'm glad that these are making it into the series, as an ancient historian: can never start too young in terms of introducing new generations to our ancient past.
Very readable. My son enjoyed it very much.
