A History of Ancient Egypt: From the First Farmers to the Great Pyramid by John Romer

[Zorro]

Just finished this book a couple of weeks back, and about half-way through the second volume of this two book series. John Romer is an accomplished and well-respected archeologist, and has written a number of books ("Testament" -- about the development of the Bible -- is another excellent read) and has several great television documentaries (available for free viewing on Youtube) that are both enlightening and entertaining.

In this first volume Romer covers the pre-history of Egypt, taking care to focus on what the archeology reveals without imposing Western cultural beliefs on social organization (there is no evidence there were "kings" in the Western sense during that era, for example). It is quite interesting to follow the development of symbols used as a bookkeeping method (so many cattle, sheep, etc.) and as makers' marks identifying the home source of clay pottery etc. to the more sophisticated use of hieroglyphics to convey an actual language of thoughts, emotions, and actions.

Romer is a very erudite and witty writer, and is a joy to read. Highly recommended.

[rampartc]

1. thanks, that sounds like a good one.

quality illustrations? egyptian stuff is fun to see.

[Zorro]

2. Unfortunately the illustrations leave something to be desired

There are mainly detailed drawings that accompany the text, not photos.

[Tetrachloride]

3. If our members have questions, I will ask my friends in Egypt

for more insight.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

4. Oh, dear lord.

This is why I'm so hesitant to visit this group or the fiction group. I constantly see books I want to read. My problem (and okay, it's personal) is that I am interested in almost everything. Every kind of fiction with literally two or so exceptions. I generally don't read westerns. Hard core romance, I'm likewise not likely to read. Full on fantasy is a big Meh for me. But almost everything else I'm game for.

It's even worse in the non fiction realm. EVERYTHING is interesting to me. Honest. Everything.

The essential reason I want to believe in an afterlife is that I want to be able to read everything there that I didn't have the time to read in this lifetime.