Ancient Egypt: Anatomy of a Civilization

Cover......Page 1
Half Title......Page 2
Title Page......Page 4
Copyright Page......Page 5
Table of contents......Page 6
Acknowledgements......Page 8
Works abbreviated by title......Page 9
Works abbreviated by author and title......Page 10
Introduction......Page 18
Seen through the lens of culture......Page 19
Seen through the lens of knowledge: theories of everything......Page 21
Seen through the lens of human agency......Page 24
Perversity and disorder......Page 26
The Egyptian setting in space and time......Page 28
Notes......Page 35
Part I Establishing identity......Page 38
1 Who were the ancient Egyptians?......Page 40
The imagined community......Page 41
Building frontiers......Page 44
Opening the gates......Page 46
Becoming Egyptian......Page 51
The archaeology of immigration......Page 55
Land of promise......Page 59
The peopling of Egypt......Page 63
Three thousand years of pooling......Page 67
Imagining Egyptians......Page 69
Notes......Page 70
The inescapable state......Page 74
Ideology and legitimacy......Page 75
The Egyptians’ view of the past......Page 76
A capacity for realism......Page 80
Fear of political disorder......Page 81
The Egyptian myth of the state......Page 83
The formation of the state: a model for early Egypt......Page 87
Foundations of ideology (1): local tradition......Page 92
Foundations of ideology (2): the containment of unrule......Page 106
Foundations of ideology (3): architecture as political statement......Page 114
Notes......Page 124
3 The dynamics of culture......Page 127
Pinning down the gods......Page 128
Communicating via objects......Page 133
Elephantine......Page 135
Tell Ibrahim Awad......Page 140
Tell el-Farkha......Page 142
Abydos......Page 144
Hierakonpolis......Page 146
Coptos......Page 149
Medamud......Page 152
The roots of formal culture......Page 155
Folk culture?......Page 160
Ideal types in architecture......Page 162
The role of individual initiative......Page 175
Notes......Page 177
Part II The provider state......Page 180
4 The bureaucratic mind......Page 182
Entering the scribal mind......Page 183
Rations......Page 189
Management and labour (and did slaves build the pyramids?)......Page 197
Building the pyramids......Page 202
Notes......Page 209
5 Model communities......Page 211
Early town layouts and the ‘village horizon’......Page 213
Pyramid towns in the Old Kingdom......Page 221
Planning at its height: the Middle Kingdom town of Kahun......Page 228
Urban renewal and colonization......Page 238
The Nubian forts......Page 244
The Second Cataract forts......Page 249
The prescriptive society......Page 255
Notes......Page 259
Part III Intimations of our futures......Page 262
6 New Kingdom Egypt: the mature state......Page 264
Temples and their staffs......Page 265
Monarchy and the cult of Amun......Page 273
Thebes: the ceremonial city......Page 279
The Theban city of the dead......Page 286
Amenhetep III’s Sed-festivals......Page 287
Secular powers......Page 292
The multicultural court......Page 299
Army and temple......Page 303
The information society and the illusions of pageantry......Page 306
Notes......Page 307
7 The birth of economic man......Page 311
The state sector: its power and its failings......Page 313
The power of private demand......Page 317
Economics without money......Page 325
Notes......Page 334
The founder: Akhenaten, ‘the heretic king’......Page 337
The foundation: Akhetaten, ‘Horizon of the Aten’......Page 345
The arena of royal display......Page 353
Imagining the city at work......Page 361
Where the people lived......Page 366
Imagined worlds at Amarna......Page 384
The quality of life and where do we go from here?......Page 391
Notes......Page 393
Index......Page 398