Introduction to the Archaeology of Ancient Egypt

Kathryn A. Bard is Professor of Archaeology at Boston University. A fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, she has directed excavations in Egypt and northern Ethiopia since 1989, and in 1998 was given the Chairman’s Award of the National Geographic Society’s Committee for Research and Exploration. She is the author of From Farmers to Pharaohs: Mortuary Evidence for the Rise of Complex Society in Egypt (1994), the editor of The Archaeology of Ancient Egypt: An Encyclopedia (1999), and is on the editorial board of The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology published by the Egypt Exploration Society. Professor Bard is co-director of excavations at the pharaonic harbor at Mersa-Wadi Gawasis on the Red Sea, which has uncovered evidence of ancient Egyptian ships used in seafaring expeditions to the land of Punt, probably located in what is now eastern Sudan and Eritrea.

• List of Plates ixList of Figures xiList of Maps xvAbbreviations xviiPreface xixAcknowledgments xxi1 Egyptian Archaeology: Definitions and History 11.1 Introduction: Ancient Egyptian Civilization and Its Prehistoric Predecessors 31.2 Egyptian Archaeology 31.3 Egyptology 51.4 History of Egyptology and Egyptian Archaeology 51.5 Archaeological Methods 141.6 Archaeological Theory 211.7 Ancient Egypt and Egyptian Archaeologists in Fiction and Films 222 Hieroglyphs, Language, and Pharaonic Chronology 252.1 Language of the Ancient Egyptians 272.2 Origins and Development of Egyptian Writing 272.3 Scripts and Media of Writing 312.4 Signs, Structure, and Grammar 312.5 Literacy in Ancient Egypt 332.6 Textual Studies 342.7 Use of Texts in Egyptian Archaeology 362.8 Historical Outline of Pharaonic Egypt 382.9 The Egyptian Civil Calendar, King Lists, and Calculation of Pharaonic Chronology 393 The Environmental Background to Pharaonic Civilization: Geography, Environment, Agriculture, and Natural Resources 473.1 Geography: Terms and Place Names 493.2 Environmental Setting 533.3 Environmental and Other Problems for Archaeology in Egypt 563.4 The Seasons and the Agricultural System 583.5 The Ancient Egyptian Diet 603.6 Other Useful Animals and Plants 623.7 Building Materials 633.8 Other Resources: Clays, Stones, Minerals 643.9 Imported Materials 664 Egyptian Prehistory: The Paleolithic and Neolithic 69Paleolithic 714.1 Paleolithic Cultures in Egypt 714.2 Lower Paleolithic 734.3 Middle Paleolithic 744.4 Upper Paleolithic 794.5 Late Paleolithic 804.6 Epipaleolithic (Final Paleolithic) 82Neolithic 844.7 Saharan Neolithic 844.8 Neolithic in the Nile Valley: Faiyum A and Lower Egypt 874.9 Neolithic in the Nile Valley: Middle and Upper Egypt 905 The Rise of Complex Society and Early Civilization 93Predynastic Egypt 955.1 The Predynastic Period: Egypt in the Fourth Millennium BC 955.2 Lower Egypt: Predynastic Culture 955.3 Upper Egypt: Naqada Culture 995.4 Lower Nubia: A-Group Culture 1105.5 State Formation and Unification 112The Early Dynastic State 1175.6 Organization and Institutions of the Early Dynastic State 1175.7 Early Writing and Formal Art 1295.8 The Expanding State 1305.9 Who Were the Ancient Egyptians? Physical Anthropology 1316 The Old Kingdom and First Intermediate Period 1336.1 The Old Kingdom: Overview 135The Early Old Kingdom 1406.2 The 3rd Dynasty: Djoser’s Step Pyramid at Saqqara 1406.3 The 4th Dynasty’s First King, Sneferu, and His Three Pyramids 1456.4 Khufu’s Great Pyramid at Giza 1476.5 The Great Sphinx and Khafra’s Pyramid Complex 1536.6 Menkaura’s Giza Pyramid and Its Remarkable Valley Temple Finds 1556.7 Giza Pyramid Towns 1566.8 Giza Mastabas, Queen Hetepheres’s Hidden “Tomb,” and the Workmen’s Cemetery 160The Later Old Kingdom 1666.9 Sun Temples of the 5th Dynasty 1666.10 Later Old Kingdom Pyramids and the Pyramid Texts 1686.11 An Expanding Bureaucracy: Private Tombs in the 5th and 6th Dynasties 1706.12 Egypt Abroad 174The First Intermediate Period 1766.13 The End of the Old Kingdom and the First Intermediate Period: Causes of State Collapse 1767 The Middle Kingdom and Second Intermediate Period 181The Middle Kingdom 1837.1 The Middle Kingdom: Overview 1837.2 Pre-Unification 11th Dynasty: Saff Tombs at Thebes 1907.3 Mentuhotep II’s Complex at Deir el-Bahri 1907.4 Model Workers and the Deir el-Bahri Tomb of Meketra 1927.5 12th-Dynasty Temples 1947.6 12th- and 13th-Dynasty Pyramids 1987.7 Towns and Domestic Architecture: Kahun and South Abydos 2027.8 Nomarchs in Middle Egypt: The Beni Hasan Tombs 2067.9 Mining in the Sinai and a Galena Mine in the Eastern Desert 2077.10 Egyptian Forts in Nubia and Indigenous Peoples There 208The Second Intermediate Period 2117.11 The Second Intermediate Period: The Hyksos Kingdom in the North 2117.12 The Kerma Kingdom in Upper Nubia 2177.13 The Theban State during the Second Intermediate Period 2238 The New Kingdom 2258.1 The New Kingdom: Overview 227The Early New Kingdom 2348.2 Early New Kingdom Architecture: Ahmose’s Abydos Pyramid Complex, the Thutmosid Palace and Harbor at Tell el-Daba, and the Theban Mortuary Temples of Hatshepsut and Thutmose III 2348.3 Amenhotep III’s Malkata Palace 2388.4 Tell el-Amarna and the Amarna Period 2408.5 The Amarna Aftermath and Tutankhamen’s Tomb 247New Kingdom Temples 2548.6 Restoration of the Traditional Gods: Sety I’s Abydos Temple 2548.7 The Temples of Karnak and Luxor in the New Kingdom 2558.8 Ramessid Mortuary Temples 260Royal and Elite Tombs 2648.9 Royal Tombs in the Valley of the Kings and Valley of the Queens 2648.10 Elite Tombs at Thebes and Saqqara 270State Towns and Settlements 2758.11 The Workmen’s Village and Tombs at Deir el-Medina 2758.12 Nubian Temple Towns 2819 The Third Intermediate Period and Late Period 2859.1 The Third Intermediate Period: Overview 2879.2 The Late Period: Overview 2919.3 Tanis: A New City with Royal Tombs 2949.4 Napata/Gebel Barkal and Sanam 2969.5 el-Kurru and Nuri: The Kushite Royal Tombs 2999.6 Saqqara: The Serapeum and Animal Cults 3029.7 Some High-Status Tombs of the Third Intermediate Period and Late Period 3069.8 Tell el-Maskhuta and Tell el-Herr 30810 The Greco-Roman Period 311Greco-Roman Egypt 31310.1 The Ptolemaic Period: Overview 31310.2 The Roman Period: Overview 31710.3 Alexandria 32110.4 Greco-Roman Settlements in the Faiyum 32310.5 Two Greco-Roman Temple Complexes in Upper Egypt: Dendera and Philae 325Sites Outside the Nile Valley 32810.6 The Western Desert: Bahariya and Dakhla Oases 32810.7 The Eastern Desert: Roman Ports, Forts, Roads, and Quarrying Sites 332Nubia 33610.8 Qasr Ibrim 33610.9 Meroe: The Kushite Capital and Royal Cemeteries 33811 The Study of Ancient Egypt 345Glossary of Terms 351Suggested Readings 355Appendix 1: Additional Readings in French, German, and Italian 399Appendix 2: Websites 409Chapter Summaries and Discussion Questions 411Index 427