A History of Ancient Egypt
  • Published: 2 July 2012
  • ISBN: 9781846143786
  • Imprint: Penguin eBooks
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 500
Categories:

A History of Ancient Egypt

From the First Farmers to the Great Pyramid

Formats & editions
Paperback
22 May 2013
EBook
2 Jul 2012
Buy from…
Amazon Apple Books Google Play Kobo Booktopia eBooks.com

The story of a civilization from its earliest origins to the creation of its greatest monument

This extraordinary book draws on a lifetime of research and thought to recreate the previously untold story of how a civilization which began with handfuls of semi-itinerant fishermen settled, spread and created a rich, vivid, strange civilization that had its first culmination in the pharaoh Khufu building the Great Pyramid, perhaps the most astounding of all human-made landmarks.

The book immerses the reader in the fascinating world of archaeological evidence, the process over the past two centuries by which this long vanished world has gradually re-emerged and the rapidly changing interpretations which these breathtaking but entirely enigmatic remains have been subjected to. Whether he is writing about the smallest necklace bead or the most elaborate royal tomb, John Romer conveys to the reader a remarkable sense of how to understand a people so like ourselves and yet in so many ways eerily different.
  • Published: 2 July 2012
  • ISBN: 9781846143786
  • Imprint: Penguin eBooks
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 500
Categories:

About the author

John Romer

John Romer graduated from the Royal College of Art in 1966 and began his work in Middle Eastern archaeology shortly thereafter, serving on American and German expeditions in Egyptian Thebes and acting as Field Director of the Brooklyn Museum Theban Expedition, conducting the first physical survey and conservation studies in the Valley of the Kings, and excavating the tomb of Ramesses XI. Romer has also dedicated a great part of his time to archaeological conservation and, as an aid to raising public awareness of the importance and fragility of the past, has made many TV and radio documentaries, to international critical acclaim. Besides numerous specialist articles and reports, his books have included Valley of the Kings; Ancient Lives; and The Seven Wonders of the World (with Elizabeth Romer). His latest book is The Great Pyramid; Ancient Egypt Revisited.

Also by John Romer

A History of Ancient Egypt, Volume 3
A History of Ancient Egypt, Volume 2
The Egyptian Book of the Dead
See all

Praise for A History of Ancient Egypt

Scholarly, passionate and exquisitely written ... it is remarkable how this book gives us almost nothing of the ancient Egypt we think we know ... [Romer writes] with all the care and exactitude of a pharanoic engineer with a plumb line ... a stunning, clear-sighted history of ancient Egypt

James McConnachie, Sunday Times

His physical descriptions are superb ... a book to be read and thought about

John Ray, Financial Times

It is not easy to enliven prehistory while simultaneously respecting limited archaeological evidence and avoiding novelistic pitfalls. But Romer manages it ... After a long wait, we have an up-to-date, stimulating account of the birth of what may turn out to be the world's oldest civilization

Andrew Robinson, Nature

Romer carries the reader along effortlessly on a lengthy, complex yet immensely satisfying journey

Joyce Tyldesley, BBC History

Intriguing, iconoclastic ... An artist's sensibility is evident ... memorable and original

Toby Wilkinson, Times Literary Supplement