References for issue 4

Issue 4: Egypt before the pyramids

Sidney Dean, “The Emergence of Egypt”

For a well written, approachable comprehensive survey of Egypt from pre-history to the Roman era, try M. van de Mierop, A History of Ancient Egypt (2010) or Ian Shaw (ed.), The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt (2004). For a more specialized and scholarly focus, consider D. Wengrow, The Archaeology of Early Egypt (2006) and T. Wilkinson, Early Dynastic Egypt (2001). A highly accessible introduction to Egyptian religion is B. Watterson, Gods of Ancient Egypt (1999).

Marc DeSantis, “Naqada - A Pan-Egyptian Culture”

The best starting point for an examination of the prehistoric origins of ancient Egyptian civilization is Michael A. Hoffman’s Egypt Before the Pharaohs, (Knopf 1979) a magisterial look at the multitude of cultures and peoples who flourished in the lands prior to the rise of the unified kingdom. The recovery of much of ancient Egyptian civilization was the work of many interesting modern ‘characters,’ and Hoffman does not stint on describing their activities.  John Romer’s A History of Egypt (Thomas Dunne Books 2012) provides much additional relevant material, and being a broader history of Egypt, is useful for any wishing to continue the story of the Egyptian people into the age of the pharaohs.  Further, since so much of what we know of the pre-literate cultures of the Predynastic Period derive from their material remains, the art objects of the era are especially worthy of study, and the initial chapters of Jaromir Malek’s Egyptian Art (Phaidon 1999) are very helpful in providing full colour visual images of the statuettes, pottery, and tomb paintings of the Predynastic Period.

Martin Uildriks, Early navigation

The problems presented in this article are not always recognized in Egyptology and its literature. For a quick and basic overview of the Naqada period, its chronology, and current Egyptological theory on boats in Predynastic Egypt, I recommend Midant-Reynes (2000). For a more complete review of Predynastic Egypt people may be interested in Bard’s (2008) fifth chapter on Predynastic Egypt. For those interested in an in-depth overview and further discussion of the evidence that founded Petrie’s and following interpretations on the D-Ware boat motif, I can only refer to my MA thesis work (Uildriks 2011a; 2011b; 2011c) at Leiden University (NL), though I admit that my own views on the matter constantly evolve. For discussion of T100, I refer the reader to the original excavation report (Quibell and Green 1902) and three articles by Kemp (1973), Payne (1973) and Case & Payne (1962).

• Bard, K.A. 2008. An introduction to the archaeology of ancient Egypt. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing.
• De Morgan, J.J.M. 1897. Recherches sur les origines de l’Égypte. Ethnographie préhistorique et tombeau royal de Négadah. Paris: Ernest Leroux.
• Kemp, B.J. 1973. “Photographs of the Decorated Tomb at Hierakonpolis.” The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 59: 36-43.
• Midant-Reynes, B. 2000. The Naqada Period. In The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt, edited by I. Shaw, 53. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Payne, J.C. 1973. “Tomb 100: The Decorated Tomb at Hierakonpolis Confirmed.” The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 59: 31-5.
• Payne, J.C., and H. Case. 1962. “Tomb 100: The Decorated Tomb at Hierakonpolis.” The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 48: 5-18.
• Petrie, W.M.F., and J.E. Quibell. 1896. Naqada and Ballas 1895. London: Bernard Quaritch.
• Quibell, J.E. 1898. “Slate palette from Hieraconpolis.” Zeitschrift für Ägyptische Sprache und Altertumskunde 86: 81-4.
• Quibell, J.E., and F.W. Green. 1902. Hierakonpolis. Volume 2, Egyptian Research Account 5. London: Histories & Mysteries of Man Ltd.
• Uildriks, M. 2011a. Boats, Tombs and Ideology. Middle fourth millennium B.C. (Predynastic) northeast African decorated ceramics (D-Ware). A review and evaluation of earlier interpretations of elaborate D-Ware ceramics’ iconography and an archaeological and semasiographic re-appraisal. Master diss., Leiden University.
• Uildriks, M.. 2011b. Corpus of selected Decorated Ware. Middle fourth millenium B.C. (Predynastic) northeast African decorated ceramics (D-Ware). A concordance of elaborate D-Ware ceramics with bibliographic references and published images. Unpublished.
• Uildriks, M. 2011c. Ships, Change and Chronology. Middle fourth millennium B.C. (Predynastic) northeast African red-on-buff decorated ceramics (D-Ware). An investigation into iconography constancy and stylistic development as a relative dating-tool. Master diss., Leiden University.

Sigrid van Roode, “The birth of the hieroglyphs”

• Hendrickx, S. & Friedman, R.F. 2003. Gebel Tjauti rock inscription 1 and the relationship between Abydos and Hierakonpolis during the early Naqada III period. Göttinger Miszellen, 196 (2003): 95-109
• Jimenez-Serrano, A. 2007. Principles of the Oldest Egyptian Writing. Lingua Aegyptia 15 (2007): 47-66
• Piquette, K. E. 2013. “It Is Written”?: Making, remaking and unmaking early ‘writing’ in the lower Nile Valley. In: Piquette, K. E. and Whitehouse, R. D. (eds.) Writing as Material Practice: Substance, surface and medium. Pp. 213-238. London: Ubiquity Press.
• Wengrow, D. 2006. The Archaeology of Early Egypt. Social Transformations in North-East Africa, 10,000 to 2650 B.C. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Rebecca Batley, “Khasekhemwy, Egypt’s unifier?”

• Kemp, B., Ancient Egypt: The Anatomy of a civilisation, 2005.
• Rice, M., Egypt’s Making: The origins of Ancient Egypt 5000-2000BCE, 2004.
• Wilkinson, T., Royal Annals of Ancient Egypt, 2000.
• Wilkinson,T., Early Dynastic Egypt, 2002.

Jetty Boots, “From pits to pyramids”

• K. A. Bard, From Farmers to Pharaohs, Sheffield 1994
• K. A. Bard, The Egyptian Predynastic: a review of the evidence, in: Journal of Field Archaeology (JFA), Vol. 21 1994, p. 265-288
• G. Dreyer, Zur Rekonstruktion der Oberbauten der Königsgräber der 1. Dynastie in Abydos, in: Mitteilungen des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts. Abteilung Kairo (MDAIK) 47, p. 93-104
• W. B. Emery, Archaic Egypt, London 1961
• M. A. Hoffman, Egypt before the Pharaohs, New York 1979
• W. Kaiser, Zu den Königsgräbern der 1. Dynastie in Umm el-Qaab, in: Mitteilungen des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts. Abteilung Kairo (MDAIK) 37, p. 247-254
• W. Kaiser, Zur Entstehung des gesamtägyptischen Staates, in: Mitteilungen des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts. Abteilung Kairo (MDAIK) 46, p. 287-299
• W. Kaiser, Zur unterirdischen Anlage der Djoserpyramide und ihrer entwicklungsgeschichtlichen Einordnung, in: Gegengabe. Festschrift für Emma Brunner-Traut, Tübingen 1992, p. 167-190
• W. Kaiser und G. Dreyer, Umm el-Qaab, in: Mitteilungen des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts. Abteilung Kairo (MDAIK) 38, p. 211-269
• B. J. Kemp, Ancient Egypt. Anatomy of a Civilisation, London 1991
• S. Mark, From Egypt to Mesopotamia. A study of predynastic trade routes, London 1998
• H. W. Müller, Gedanken zur Entstehung, Interpretation und Rekonstruktion ältester ägyptischer Monumentalarchitektur, in: Ägypten, Dauer und Wandel, Mainz 1985, p. 7-33
• A. J. Spencer, Early Egypt. The Rise of Civilisation in the Nile Valley, London 1993
• R. Stadelmann, Die ägyptischen Pyramiden. Vom Ziegelbau zum Weltwunder, Mainz 1991

Maura Andreoni, “Lights on the sea”

• Al-Bīrūnī (2002), In den Gärten der Wissenschaft, edited by Strohmaier, 115 Reclam Ed.
• Galli Daniela (2007), Valerii Flacci Argonautica I: Commento, Walter de Gruyter Inc. Ed.
• Galmés Lorenzo (1991), San Telmo, Editorial San Esteban.
• Hartwig, G. (1875), The aerial world: a popular account of the phenomena and life of the atmosphere. New ed. London: Longmans, Green.
• Lamboglia Nino (1952), La nave romana di Albenga, in “Rivista di Studi Liguri”, XVIII, 3-4, July/December, pp. 131-203.
• Pasquali Giorgio (1964), Orazio lirico, xerographic reprint edited by A. La Penna, Firenze.
• Perilli Lorenzo (2004), Revision of Galenus, De propriis placitis, ed. V. Nutton (CMG), Berlin 1999.
• Scaglia Franco (2013), Il giardino di Dio. Mediterraneo, storie di uomini e pesci, Piemme Ed. Milano.
• Skutch Otto (1987), Helen: Her Name and Nature, JHS 102.
• West Martin L. (2007), Indo-European Poetry and Myth, Oxford University Press.

A list of ancient authors mentioning St. Elmo’s fires

Rob van Gent, The eclipse of 585 BC

• Friedrich K. Ginzel, Spezieller Kanon der Sonnen- und Mondfinsternisse für das Ländergebiet der klassischen Altertumswissenschaften und den Zeitraum von 900 vor Chr. bis 600 nach Chr. (Berlin, Mayer & Müller, 1899) – still of value for its comprehensive discussion of all known classical reports of ancient solar and lunar eclipses.
• Elias J. Bickerman, Chronology of the Ancient World (London, Thames and Hudson, 1968).
• F. Richard Stephenson, Historical Eclipses and Earth’s Rotation (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1997).
• Fred Espenak, NASA Eclipse Web Site (http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/eclipse.html).

Michael Taylor, Druids

• Norman DeWitt. 1938. “The Druids and Romanization.” Transactions of the American Philological Association, 319-332.
• John Creighton. 1995. “Visions of Power: Imagery and Symbols in Late Iron Age Britain.” Britannia 26, 285-301.
• T.D. Kendrick. 1927. The Druids: A Study in Keltic Prehistory. London.
• Hugh Last. 1949. “Rome and the Druids: A Note.” Journal of Roman Studies 39, 1-5.
• J.J. Tierney. 1959. “The Celtic Ethnography of Posidonius.” Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy 60, 189-275.