Library of Congress Cataloging‐in‐Publication Data
Names: Van de Mieroop, Marc, author.
Title: A history of ancient Egypt / Marc Van De Mieroop.
Description: Second edition. | Hoboken, NJ : Wiley‐Blackwell, 2021. | Series: Blackwell history of the ancient world | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2020029673 (print) | LCCN 2020029674 (ebook) | ISBN 9781119620877 (paperback) | ISBN 9781119620884 (adobe pdf) | ISBN 9781119620891 (epub)
Subjects: LCSH: Egypt–History–To 640 A.D. | Egypt–Civilization–To 332 B.C. | Egypt–Civilization–332 B.C.‐638 A.D.
Classification: LCC DT83 .V36 2021 (print) | LCC DT83 (ebook) | DDC 932–dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020029673 LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020029674
Cover Design: Wiley
Cover Image: © Radiokafka/Shutterstock
List of Illustrations
Figure 1.1 Egyptian archetypes. This pair of painted limestone statues, 120 cm high, shows a husband and wife in typical Egyptian fashion. His skin is darker than hers because he works outside, while she, as an upper‐class lady, can stay indoors. She wears a tight‐fitting long dress, while he has only a short skirt. Both of them are represented without wrinkles or other signs of aging and hold their hands in traditional postures. While they are clearly identified by name in the hieroglyphic inscriptions, the images are not to be understood as naturalistic portraits. Source: Scala/Art Resource
Figure 1.2 Nubian archetype. On this 10‐cm‐high limestone trial piece for a relief sculpture the 14th‐century artist represented a Nubian with the characteristics that were always used for a man from that region. He has specific physical features, braided hair, and an earring. Such images were produced throughout the ancient history of Egypt, although they started to show a greater variety of types when Egypt became an empire in the mid‐2nd millennium. Metropolitan Museum of Art 22.2.10. Source: Rogers Fund, 1922
Figure 1.3 Syrian archetype. This 13‐cm‐high glazed tile, originally used as wall decoration for the palace of Rameses III at Tell el‐Yahudiyya, shows a captive from Syria with the typical characteristics always used for the representation of such a foreigner. His facial features, beard, and headdress make him immediately recognizable as someone from that area to an Egyptian viewer. The detail of his clothing shows two gazelles facing a tree, a common Near Eastern artistic motif. Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien, Ägyptisch‐Orientalische Sammlung. Source: Art Resource
Figure 1.4 A matter of presentation. In the 14th century, images of the Nubian prince Hekanefer appear in two tombs depicting him very differently. In his own tomb in Lower Nubia at Toshka he is represented fully as an Egyptian and the hieroglyphic text states that he gives praise to the god Osiris. In contrast, in the Theban tomb of an official of Tutankhamun he is depicted as an archetypal Nubian in a prostrate posture of submission and identified as “Hekanefer, the Prince of Miam” in the accompanying text. Source: Marc Van De Mieroop
Figure 1.5 Before the building of the Aswan dams the height of the Nile River’s flooding was of great importance as it determined how much agricultural land received water. At times the flood was so high, however, that its inundation caused destruction. The photograph here shows the Nile in flood near the Giza pyramids on October 31, 1927. Photograph by Mohammedani Ibrahim, Harvard University – Boston Museum of Fine Arts Expedition. Photograph © 2010 Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Source: Giza Archives
Figure 1.6 As papyrus was expensive, potshards and flakes of limestone provided a cheap alternative for writing down texts, mostly for everyday concerns, or making sketches. An innumerable amount of such objects, called ostraca after the Greek word for potshards, have survived. This example, dated December 6, 127 BC and written in Demotic script, records an oath sworn by a man named Patasetat that he did not steal a piece of cloth. It measures 17 by 19 cm and the scribe used a piece of broken pottery to write on. Metropolitan Museum of Art 21.2.122. Source: Rogers Fund, 1921
Figure 1.7 This image shows a detail of a fragmentary king list carved on a slab of limestone that was found in the temple of Rameses II at Abydos. The preserved part of the list, 135 cm high and 370 cm long, contains 34 royal names in cartouches. The upper row lists rulers of the First Intermediate Period; the lower row kings of the 18th and early 19th dynasties, omitting Queen Hatshepsut and the Amarna kings. British Museum, London EA 117. Source: Werner Forman / Art Resource, NY
Figure 1.8 A 25‐cm‐high ceremonial mace head carved in limestone depicts a king, identified as Scorpion by the sign in front of his face, apparently digging an irrigation canal with a hoe, surrounded by attendants. On top of the image are standards that symbolize various regions of Egypt, with its inhabitants symbolized by birds dangling from a noose as a sign of subjection. The object dates to ca. 3000 BC and was excavated in Hierakonpolis. Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. Drawing by Richard Parkinson. Source: Almendron
Figure 2.1 One of the most widespread emblems of kingship in ancient Egypt represents the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt, symbolized by two plants, the sedge and the papyrus, tied around the image of a windpipe and lung (the Egyptian word for the organ sounds like that for “to unite”). A cartouche containing the king’s name stands on top of the symbol, and indicates that he maintains the union. The example here appears on the side of Rameses II’s throne on the façade of Abu Simbel. Photo: Marc Van De Mieroop
Figure 2.2 In a tomb of the Late Naqada period at Abydos, called U‐j by its excavators, were discovered some 160 bone and ivory tags bearing images perhaps precursors to those of the later hieroglyphic script. These most likely indicate the regions from which goods donated to the tomb owner derived. The sides of the tags measure between 1 and 2 cm, and they have a hole with which to tie them to a container. Source: German Archaeological Institute, Cairo Department
Figure 2.3 The monumental Palette of King Narmer (front and back shown here), measuring 64 by 42 cm and carved from black schist stone, depicts the king with the crown of Upper Egypt subduing a man who represents the Nile Delta. On the reverse the same Narmer, wearing the crown of Lower Egypt and accompanied by men carrying standards, reviews the bodies of decapitated enemies. Both sides show the royal name in a serekh. Egyptian Museum, Cairo JE 32169. Source: Erich Lessing / Art Resource
Figure 2.4 One of the earliest statues in the round of a king of Egypt is this small ivory one, 8.8 cm high. It shows an unidentified ruler, probably of the 1st dynasty, wearing the white crown of Upper Egypt and wrapped in a cloak that kings wore during the sed‐festival. The stoop of his shoulders suggests that he was old when the image was carved. British Museum, London EA37996. Source: Werner Forman / Art Resource
Figure 2.5 Excavations at Coptos revealed three statues dated around 3300 of the god of fertility Min, about 4 meters high and carved in limestone. They represent the god in an entirely different way from what would become the norm after Egyptian art forms became standardized with the creation of the unified state. The symbols on the statue’s legs are also unlike those used later on. Oxford, AM 1894.105e. From Barry Kemp, “The Colossi