Ancient Egypt

Outline

Ancient Egypt: A Very Short Introduction (2004, updated 2021) looks at three thousand years of pharaonic civilisation through the questions scholars argue about today. Ian Shaw opens with the Narmer Palette and goes on to the Nile, the decipherment of hieroglyphs, the meaning of kingship, Egyptian identity, mummification and the cult of Osiris, the hidden rituals of the temples, and the fantasies that still surround the pyramids. It is a short, clear guide to how we know what we know about Egypt.

• Ian Shaw covers three thousand years of pharaonic civilisation, framed around the questions scholars still argue about today.
• The book opens with the Narmer Palette and then turns to the Nile, which shaped Egyptian life.
• It explains how hieroglyphs were deciphered and why that breakthrough matters for what we know about Egypt.
• Later chapters take up kingship, Egyptian identity, mummification and the cult of Osiris, plus the hidden rituals of the temples.
• Shaw also examines the fantasies that still surround the pyramids, separating the real civilisation from the myths.

Ian Shaw is a British Egyptologist and Professor of Egyptian Archaeology at the University of Liverpool. He edited The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt and co-wrote The British Museum Dictionary of Ancient Egypt, and has directed excavations in Egypt, including at the mining and quarrying sites of the Eastern Desert and Sinai. His work focuses on technology, settlement and daily life in the pharaonic period.