Barry J. Kemp

The Egyptians created a world of supernatural forces so vivid, powerful and inescapable that controlling one's destiny within it was a constant preoccupation. In life, supernatural forces manifested themselves through misfortune and illness,and after death were faced for eternity in the Otherworld, along with the divine gods who controlled the universe. The Book of the Dead empowered the reader to overcome the dangers lurking in the Otherworld and to become one with the gods who governed. Barry Kemp selects a number of spells to explore who and what the Egyptians feared and the kind of assistance that the Book offered them, revealing a relationship between the human individual and the divine quite unlike that found in the major faiths of the modern world.

How to Read the Egyptian Book of the Dead

From an archaeological perspective, and drawing on new excavations, Kemp (Egyptology, Cambridge) explores ways in which Egypt of about 3000-1000 BC prefigures our own culture. He discusses what he sees as major shaping forces of the civilization, such as political myth and ideology, bureaucracy, the quest for food and work, charismatic rule, the political and economic constraints on daily life, and the interplay between change and stability through the centuries. Contains many plans of buildings and towns, and redrawings of carvings. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR.

Anatomy of a Civilization

Ancient Egypt

Elmar Edel

R. S. Merrillees

Minoan Pottery in Second Millennium Egypt

Completely revised and updated to reflect the latest developments in the field, this second edition of Barry J. Kemp's popular text presents a compelling reassessment of what gave ancient Egypt its distinctive and enduring characteristics. Ranging across Ancient Egyptian material culture, social and economic experiences, and the mindset of its people, the book also includes two new chapters exploring the last ten centuries of Ancient Egyptian civilization and who, in ethnic terms, the ancients were. Fully illustrated, the book draws on both ancient written materials and decades of excavation evidence, transforming our understanding of this remarkable civilization. Broad ranging yet impressively detailed, Kemp’s work is an indispensable text for all students of Ancient Egypt.

Anatomy of a Civilisation

Frances J. Weatherhead

In the 1980s the Egypt Exploration Society's expedition to Amarna discovered a well-preserved private chapel at the Workmen's Village and the largest that had been built there. Amidst the rubble were many hundreds of fragments of painted plaster fallen from the walls. Over many subsequent years they were recorded, fitted, together and, in the case of some key groups, restored into panels. Here the results are finally presented, as a detailed catalogue that illustrates all fragments of any likely significance, set within descriptions of the chapel building and its archaeological fill. They form a valuable point of reference for the beliefs of people during the Amarna Period. The remarkable lack of attention to Akhenaten's ideas helps to define the limits of penetration of the Aten cult and its imagery into the lives of people who lived separate from the royal court.

The Main Chapel at the Amarna Workmen's Village and Its Wall Paintings

Gillian Vogelsang-Eastwood

(Egypt Exploration Society, Excavation Memoirs 68, 2001)

The Ancient Textile Industry at Amarna

Imperialism and Empire in New Kingdom Egypt (c. 1575-1087 B.C.)

“In the process of reconstituting a long-vanished city, the meticulously assembled book also brings to life the exotic, almost alien society once housed there.” —Publishers Weekly

Barry J. Kemp

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