Temples, Tombs & Hieroglyphs_ A Popular History of Ancient Egypt - Barbara Mertz [0]
A Popular History of Ancient Egypt
Second Edition
Barbara Mertz
To John A. Wilson
1899–1976
Scholar, teacher, humanist
Contents
Foreword to the First Edition
Foreword to the Second Edition
A Note on Names
Ancient Egyptian Chronology
List of Black-and-White Illustrations
List of Color Illustrations in Photograph Insert
List of Maps
One: The Two Lands
Geb the Hunter
The Wagon or the Mountain
Troubles with Time
Wearers of the Double Crown
Wars of Religion?
Two: Houses of Eternity
King Djoser’s Magician
Good King Snefru
The Missing Queen
Children of Re
Three: The Good Shepherd
Despair and Deliverance
Binder of the Two Lands
Four: The Fight for Freedom
Invasion
Liberation
Five: The Woman Who Was King
Hatshepsut the Queen
The King of Upper and Lower Egypt
The Hatshepsut Problem
The Other Hatshepsut Problem
Photographic Insert
Six: The Conqueror
Seven: The Power and the Glory
Amenhotep II
Amenhotep the Magnificent 198
Eight: The Great Heresy
Nine: The Broken Reed
Look on My Works!
Ramses II
Peoples of the Sea
Ten: The Long Dying
Adventures of a Man of No Consequence
The Quick and the Dead
Tomb Robbers and Royal Mummies
Mummy Musical Chairs
The Third Intermediate Period
Horsemen from the Holy Mountain
Back to the Drawing Board
The Final Humiliation
Additional Reading
Sources of Quotes
Searchable Terms
About the Author
Other Books by Barbara Mertz
Credits
Copyright
About the Publisher
Foreword to the First Edition
My affaire de coeur with ancient Egypt began in remote childhood, when I first encountered James Henry Breasted’s History of Egypt at the local library; it is still flourishing, although many years and many distractions have intervened. It is necessary to make this highly subjective statement, I think, both to explain the reason for this book and to justify some of the statements which appear herein. There are occasions in the following pages when serious Egyptologists may be offended by what strikes them as a frivolous or fantastical tone. Frivolity there may be; but it should not be taken for disparagement of the field of Egyptology in general or of particular scholars and their pet theories. Few academic subjects are improved by being approached in a spirit of deadly seriousness. I suspect, in fact, that most of them can profit by a bit of kindly mockery, particularly if it is self-administered. That I venture to smile at a field to which I personally adhere above all others should be proof that I act from a general principle, and not from particular malice. “They do but jest, poison in jest; no offence i’ the world.”
It is only fair to warn the reader that this is not a history book. It is, rather, an informal study of Egyptology—a study of all things Egyptian. My criterion for selection of material has been very simple: I have included anything I found interesting. Hence you will encounter straight archaeological reporting, gossip, and historical theorizing in uneven quantities. You will also encounter—I hope—people. The individual has been rather out of fashion in serious history, although the trend is swinging back in his favor of late. I follow the fairly conventional viewpoint, which holds that events are the product both of The Man and The Background, but I do believe that the shape of events is fashioned by the particular man or woman who holds the reins of destiny at a particular moment in time. Therefore I have frankly and unashamedly talked about people when I was able to do so: about kings and queens for the most part, but also about artists, magicians, and even civil servants.
Any attempt to evaluate, or even describe, the character of a historical personage is difficult and highly subjective; often the biographer inadvertently tells more about himself than about the subject of his biography. In the case of ancient Egyptian individuals it is virtually impossible—in fact, you can leave out “virtually”—to do more than speculate. Our knowledge even of events is scanty and incomplete; insight