The Oxford Handbook of Egyptology

The Oxford Handbook of Egyptology offers a comprehensive survey of the entire study of ancient Egypt from prehistory through to the end of the Roman period. It seeks to place Egyptology within its theoretical, methodological, and historical contexts, indicating how the subject has evolved and discussing its distinctive contemporary problems, issues, and potential.

Transcending conventional boundaries between archaeological and ancient textual analysis, the volume brings together 63 chapters that range widely across archaeological, philological, and cultural sub-disciplines, highlighting the extent to which Egyptology as a subject has diversified and stressing the need for it to seek multidisciplinary methods and broader collaborations if it is to remain contemporary and relevant. Organized into ten parts, it offers a comprehensive synthesis of the various sub-topics and specializations that make up the field as a whole, from the historical and geographical perspectives that have influenced its development and current characteristics, to aspects of museology and conservation, and from materials and technology - as evidenced in domestic architecture and religious and funerary items - to textual and iconographic approaches to Egyptian culture. Authoritative yet accessible, it serves not only as an invaluable reference work for scholars and students working within the discipline, but also as a gateway into Egyptology for classicists, archaeologists, anthropologists, sociologists, and linguists.

Ian Shaw, Reader in Egyptian Archaeology, University of Liverpool; Visiting Professor in Egyptology, Northeast Normal University, Changchun, China,Elizabeth Bloxam, Visiting Professor in Egyptology, Northeast Normal University, Changchun, China; Honorary Research Associate, University College London

Ian Shaw is Reader in Egyptian Archaeology at the University of Liverpool, as well as Visiting Professor in Egyptology at the Northeast Normal University in Changchun, China. He has excavated and surveyed at the cities of Amarna, Gurob and Memphis, the Valley of the Kings, and the ancient quarrying and mining sites of Hatnub, Wadi el-Hudi, Gebel el-Asr, and Wadi Hammamat. His publications include the edited volumes The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt (OUP, 2000) and Ancient Egyptian Materials and Technology (with Paul T. Nicholson; CUP, 2000), as well as The British Museum Dictionary of Ancient Egypt (with Paul T. Nicholson; British Museum Press, 1995) and Ancient Egyptian Technology and Innovation: Transformations in Pharaonic Material Culture (Bloomsbury, 2012).

Elizabeth Bloxam is currently Visiting Professor in Egyptology at the Northeast Normal University in Changchun, China and has held an Honorary Research Associate post at University College London for the last ten years. Her research interests centre on ancient Egyptian society and technology with a particular focus on the social relationships and organization surrounding resource procurement in Egypt and the Eastern Mediterranean. She has directed multidisciplinary surveys and excavations in several ancient quarrying and mining sites in Egypt, including a current project in the Wadi Hammamat, and has published widely in international journals including World Archaeology, Journal of Social Archaeology, Cambridge Archaeological Journal, Journal of Egyptian Archaeology, and Arch?o-Nil.

Frontmatter
List of Figures
List of Tables
List of Contributors
0. Introduction: Egyptology in the twenty-first century: an historical curiosity or setting new agendas in multidisciplinary research?, Elizabeth Bloxam and Ian Shaw
I. Egyptology: perspectives on a discipline
1. The nature and history of Egyptology, Andrew Bednarski
2. Egyptology and cognate disciplines, David Wengrow
3. Egyptology in China, Li Xiaodong
4. Reception of ancient Egypt, Florian Ebeling
II. The natural environment: studying the macro and micro-level
5. Landscapes and environmental history of the Nile valley: a critical review and prospectus, Karl W. Butzer
6. Flora of ancient Egypt, Claire Malleson
7. Ancient Egyptian fauna, Salima Ikram
8. The mineral world: studying landscapes of procurement, Elizabeth Bloxam
III. Archaeological landscapes: surveying, characterizing, and managing
9. Mapping and topography, David Jeffreys
10. Recording rock inscriptions: methods and challenges from an Egyptian perspective, Adel Kelany
11. Cultural Heritage Management in Egypt: community-based strategies, problems, and possibilities, Elizabeth Bloxam and Adel Kelany
12. Methods of site survey and excavation in Egypt, Ana Tavares
IV. Material culture
13. Introduction: studying materials and technology, Paul T. Nicholson
14. Settlement archaeology and the contextualization of domestic artefacts, Ian Shaw
15. Ancient Egyptian pottery, Bettina Bader
16. Textiles, Jan Picton, Janet Johnstone, and Ivor Pridden
17. Funerary equipment, Aidan Dodson
18. Seals and scarabs, Regine Schulz
19. Mummies and physical anthropology, Salima Ikram
20. Ancient Egyptian architecture, Corinna Rossi
21. Statuary, Campbell Price
22. Relief sculpture, J. Brett McClain
V. Egypt and its neighbours: revisiting cross-border relationships
23. Africa south of Egypt, Robert Morkot
24. The Libyans, Linda Hulin
25. Western Asia, Carolyn Routledge
26. The Aegean, Jacke Phillips
VI. Egyptian history: exploring sources and interpretative frameworks
27. The Predynastic period, Stan Hendrickx
28. The Early Dynastic Period, Ludwig D. Morenz
29. The Old Kingdom and First Intermediate Period, Nigel Strudwick
30. The Middle Kingdom and Second Intermediate Period, Wolfram Grajetzki
31. The New Kingdom, Colleen Manassa Darnell
32. The Third Intermediate Period, David A. Aston
33. Egypt in the Late Period, Tony Leahy
34. The Ptolemaic and Roman periods, Khaled Essam Ismail
VII. Society and culture: textual and iconographic approaches
35. National administration, Wolfram Grajetzki
36. Local administration, Christopher J. Eyre
37. Law, Sandra Lippert
38. Genealogies, Morris L. Bierbrier
39. Gods, mythology, and cosmology, Susanne Bickel
40. Symbolism and religious iconography, Richard Wilkinson
41. Theology, Alexandra von Lieven
42. Funerary beliefs and practices, Eltayeb Abbas
VIII. Scripts and philology
43. Scripts, Andr?as Stauder
44. Lexicography, Julie Stauder-Porchet
45. Grammar, Sami Uljas
46. History of the Egyptian language, Andr?as Stauder
IX. Textual genres: current positions and future directions
47. Orality and literacy in ancient Egypt, Jacqueline E. Jay
48. Historical texts, Ronald J. Leprohon
49. Autobiographical' texts, Denise Doxey
50. Literary texts, Bill Manley
51. Socio-economic texts, John Gee
52. Mathematical texts, Annette Imhausen
53. Texts for healing and protection, Rune Nyord
54. Letters, Deborah Sweeney
55. Demotic texts, Richard Jasnow
56. Coptic texts, Terry Wilfong
57. Rock art, rock inscriptions, and graffiti, John Coleman Darnell
58. Ptolemaic and Roman temple texts, Olaf E. Kaper
59. Greek and Latin sources, Ian S. Moyer
X. Museology and conservation
60. Museum collections, Campbell Price
61. Egyptian museums and storehouses, Maher A. Eissa and Ashraf el-Senussi
62. Conservation in Egyptological museum collections, Deborah Schorsch
Endmatter
Index