Think Like an Egyptian (40 page)

The sign developed an unexpected and playful mathematical usage. The separate pieces of the eye when fitted together represented totality: eyebrow, pupil, left and right whites, and the two markings beneath. They became a special set of fractions to measure the standard Egyptian unit of capacity for grain, the hekat (of 4.54 liters). The left side of the white of the eye stood for ½ Each subsequent fraction was a halving of the previous one (the pupil was ¼ the brow ⅛, the right side of the white
, the spiral design
, and the bar underneath the pupil
. We might imagine that, viewed in this way the idea of wholeness would be best served if all of the fractions when added together came to 1. But their total is actually
. Egyptian thinking, which now seems so innocent to us, celebrated the world in all its incompleteness and inexplicable variety.

The modern literature on ancient Egypt is extensive, and—unlike the case with the sciences—books and specialist periodicals published a century ago remain valuable, often containing the only detailed record of a place or a particular source. Most of the literature is written in English, French, or German, and little of it is translated from one language to another. Even less is yet available online; Web sites still have a peripheral place in Egyptology. The most useful Web site to what is available online is
wwwnewton.cam.ac.uk/Egypt
, a site maintained by the University of Cambridge.

There is no comprehensive study of Egyptian hieroglyphs, sign by sign, detailing all the minor variations and analyzing their meanings and individual histories. The best summary treatment, which contains a numbered catalog of signs, is Sir Alan Gardiner’s
Egyptian Grammar,
third revised edition (Oxford and London, 1957). There are several simpler introductions to ancient Egyptian language and hieroglyphs, including Mark Collier and Bill Manley’s
How to Read Egyptian Hieroglyphs: A Step-by-Step Guide to Teach Yourself
(London, 1998), and Lesley and Roy Adkins’s The
Little Book of Egyptian Hieroglyphs
(London, 2001). Penelope Wilson,
Sacred Signs: Hieroglyphs in Ancient Egypt
(Oxford, 2003), puts hieroglyphic writing into a historical perspective.

A sound history of ancient Egypt is
The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt,
edited by Ian Shaw (Oxford, 2000). John Baines and Jaromir Malek’s Atlas
of Ancient Egypt
(Oxford, 1980) provides detailed maps and a wealth of information on the ancient sites. An excellent and well-illustrated introduction to the remarkable Amarna Period is the exhibition catalog edited by R. E. Freed, Y. J. Markowitz, and S. H. D’Auria,
Pharaohs of the Sun: Akhenaten, Nefertiti, Tutankhamen
(Boston, 1999).

Reading translations of Egyptian texts is an unbeatable way of getting to know the ancient Egyptians. Miriam Lichtheim’s
Ancient Egyptian Literature: A Book of Readings,
in three volumes (I. The Old and Middle Kingdoms, II. The New Kingdom, III. The Late Period) (Berkeley Los Angeles, and London, 1973, 1976, 1980), offers a wide selection, supplemented for the Middle Kingdom by Richard Parkinson,
Voices from Ancient Egypt:
An
Anthology of Middle Kingdom Writings
(London, 1991). A. G. McDowell’s
Village Life in Ancient Egypt: Laundry Lists and Love
Songs (Oxford, 1999) is an indispensable selection of texts that illustrate the lives of the villagers of Deir el-Medina. Pascal Vernus’s
Affairs and Scandals in Ancient Egypt
(Ithaca and London, 2003) draws upon papyrus records of trials and accusations dating to the New Kingdom; in John Ray’s
Reflections of Osiris: Lives from Ancient Egypt
(London, 2001), each chapter is based upon a particular text drawn from a different period of ancient Egyptian history.

Of the many books about ancient Egyptian religion, the following cover a diversity of modern approaches: Stephen Quirke,
Ancient Egyptian Religion
(London, 1992); Jan Assmann,
The Search for God in Ancient Egypt
(Ithaca and London, 2001); Tom Hare,
ReMembering Osiris: Number, Gender and the Word in Ancient Egyptian Representational Systems
(Stanford, 1999); R. T Rundle Clark, Myth
and Symbol in Ancient Egypt
(London and New York, 1959, reprinted 1995); and Geraldine Pinch,
Magic in Ancient Egypt
(London, 1994). Mark Lehner,
The Complete Pyramids
(London, 1997), R. H. Wilkinson,
The Complete Temples of Ancient Egypt
(London, 2000), and Salima Ikram and Aidan Dodson,
The Mummy in Ancient Egypt: Equipping the Dead for Eternity
(London, 1998) cover those aspects of Egyptian religion where buildings and archaeology make extensive contributions. Again, however, there is no substitute for approaching the texts themselves. Erik Hornung,
Ancient Egyptian Books of the Afterlife
(Ithaca and London, 1999) guides the reader through the main ancient compositions. R. O. Faulkner,
The Ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead
(New York, 1972, revised edition, London, 1985) combines a full translation of the most popular ancient text with fine colored photographs of one particular example.

Our knowledge of the more pragmatic aspects of ancient Egyptian life and knowledge comes from combining sources of all kinds, including scenes drawn from life that were carved and painted on the walls of Egyptian tombs. Syntheses that have this as their aim are T. G. H.James,
Pharaoh’s People: Scenes from Life in Imperial Egypt
(London, 1984), and B. J. Kemp,
Ancient Egypt: Anatomy of a Civilization
(London and New York, 1989). Studies more closely focused on museum objects are E. Brovarski, S. K. Doll, and R. E. Freed (editors),
Egypt’s Golden Age: The Art of Living in the New Kingdom (1558-1085
BC) (Boston, Mass., 1982) and W C. Hayes,
The Scepter of Egypt,
in two volumes (New York, 1953, 1959).

The extent and nature of the Egyptians’ technical and “scientific” knowledge can be assessed through John F. Nunn,
Ancient Egyptian Medicine
(London, 1996); Otto Neugebauer,
The Exact Sciences in Antiquity
(Princeton, 1952) (in which Chapter 4 deals with Egyptian mathematics and astronomy); R. A. Parker,
The Calendars of Ancient Egypt
(Chicago, 1950); and Corinna Rossi,
Architecture and Mathematics in Ancient Egypt
(Cambridge, 2004).

For those wishing to keep up-to-date with the progress of Egyptology,
Egyptian Archaeology
(the Bulletin of the Egypt Exploration Society, based in London) provides an invaluable service, as does (in a more popular style) the journal KMT (San Francisco).

Names of hieroglyphs are in
bold
type

Abu Ghurab

Abydos

afterlife

see also
rebirth; resurrection

agriculture

Ahmes, King

Ahmose

Akh-menu, Karnak

Akhenaten, King

Akhetaten (Tell el-Amarna)

Alexander the Great

Amarna Letters

Amenemhat (governor of province)

Amenemhat (scribe)

Amenemhat I, King

Amenemhat II, King

Amenemhat III, King

Amenemope

Amenhetep I, King

Amenhetep II, King

Amenhetep III, King

temple of (Luxor)

temple of (Soleb)

Ameni

Amenysenb

amethyst

amulets

Amun-Ra (supreme god)

anatomy

animal cults

Ankhsenpaaten

Ankhsheshonk

Ankhtyfy

Anoksunedjem

Anubis (god)

Any

Apep (Apophis)

Aphrodite

Apis bull

Arabic

Aramaic

architecture

armies

art

ash

Assurbanipal (Assyrian king)

astrology

astronomy

Aswan dam

Asyut

Aten (sun-god)

Atum (creator-god)

Babylonia

Bak

Bakenkhensu

barley 7

barques, see sacred barque

Baset

beards

Beautiful Festival of the Valley

benben
(standing stone)

Beni Hasan

Bes (god)

Birket Habu

birth, see to be born

blue lotus
(Nymphaea cerulea)

Blue Nile

boats

see also
sacred barque

body organs, removal of

bolts (doors)

“Bookof Breathings,”

“Bookof Caverns,”

“Bookof Gates,”

“Book of Knowing How Ra Came into Being and of Overthrowing Apophis,”

“Book of the Dead,” xiii

“Book of What Is in the Duat,”

boundary markers

boys

branding

burials

Buto

Byblos

calendars

Cambyses (Persian king)

camels

canines

“canopic”jars

cattle

cedar
(Cedrus libani)

cereal grain

Chemnis (mythical haven)

childbirth, see to be born

childhood

child-rearing

circumcision

Cleopatra VII, Queen

clepsydra (water clocks)

cobras

Colossi of Memnon

color terms

compass points

contraceptives