Visual and Written Culture in Ancient Egypt

A generously illustrated selection of John Baines's influential writings on two core areas of ancient Egyptian civilization: the role of writing, which was very different in antiquity from what is familiar in the modern world, and the importance of visual culture. These questions are explored through a number of case studies. The volume assembles articles that were scattered in publications in a variety of disciplines, making available key contributions on core problems of theory, comparison, and analysis in the study of many civilizations and offering important points of departure for further research. Three wholly new essays are included, and the overall approach is an interdisciplinary one, synthesizing insights from archaeology, anthropology, and art history as well as Egyptology.

John Baines is Professor of Egyptology at the University of Oxford.

I. Prologue1. Visual, written, decorumII. Written culture2. Literacy and ancient Egyptian society3. Four notes on literacy4. Literacy, social organization and the archaeological record: the case of early Egypt5. Writing and society in early Egypt6. Orality and literacy7. Ancient Egyptian concepts and uses of the past: third to second millennium evidenceIII. Visual culture8. Theories and universals of representation: Heinrich Schafer and Egyptian art9. Schafer's mottoes and the understanding of representation10. Colour terminology and colour classification: ancient Egyptian colour terminology and polychromy11. Stone and other materials: usages and values12. Communication and display: the integration of early Egyptian art and writing13. On the status and purposes of ancient Egyptian art