Overview

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.

Full Product Details

Author:   John Baines (Professor of Egyptology, University of Oxford)
Publisher:   Oxford University Press
Imprint:   Oxford University Press
Dimensions:   Width: 15.70cm , Height: 2.60cm , Length: 23.30cm
Weight:   0.645kg
ISBN:  

9780199577996

ISBN 10:   0199577994
Pages:   440
Publication Date:   29 October 2009
Audience:   General/trade ,  College/higher education ,  Professional and scholarly ,  General ,  Tertiary & Higher Education
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   To order  
Stock availability from the supplier is unknown. We will order it for you and ship this item to you once it is received by us.

Table of Contents

I. Prologue 1: Visual, written, decorum II. Written culture 2: Literacy and ancient Egyptian society 3: Four notes on literacy 4: Literacy, social organization and the archaeological record: the case of early Egypt 5: Writing and society in early Egypt 6: Orality and literacy 7: Ancient Egyptian concepts and uses of the past: third to second millennium evidence III. Visual culture 8: Theories and universals of representation: Heinrich Schafer and Egyptian art 9: Schafer's mottoes and the understanding of representation 10: Colour terminology and colour classification: ancient Egyptian colour terminology and polychromy 11: Stone and other materials: usages and values 12: Communication and display: the integration of early Egyptian art and writing 13: On the status and purposes of ancient Egyptian art

Reviews

Here is a rarity: a collection of essays selected annotated and updated not by an editor, but by their writer, with all the resultant advantages... John Baines does more than compile a series of related papers into a convenient single book. Jasmine Day, Journal of Archaeology Science This well illustrated volume brings together some of John Baines's valuable studies...making better available key contributions on core problems of written and visual culture in ancient Egypt. The book is organized as a synthesis of excellent treated individual topics that offers numerous points of departure for further research. Ilona Regulski, Bibliotheca Orientalis a handsome and well-balanced assessment of the nature and contexts of writing in, and the impact of writing on, Egyptian society and culture... the essays provide valuable glimpses into virtually all major aspects of writing in Egyptian culture down into the Graeco-Roman period... The volume as a whole, complemented by Baines incisive articles in the first two works, is compelling reading for all those interested in the transformations in the phenomenon of writing over a span of three millennia within a single culture. Gordon Whittaker, Antiquity

Author Information

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

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