In the Shadow of the Pyramids: Egypt during the Old Kingdom (Echoes of the Ancient World) - Softcover

Forman, Werner; Malek, Jaromir

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0806120274 ISBN 13: 9780806120270

Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press, 1992

Synopsis

During the five centuries of Egyptian history known as Old Kingdom, the ancient Egyptians first realized their aspirations and developed the most advanced civilization of their time. The Old Kingdom was an era of prosperity, stability, and confidence.

For many people, the pyramids and tombs, stelae and statues of the Old Kingdom epitomize Egyptian civilization, and most books on Egypt are based on description of these monuments. Jaromir Malek and Werner Forman’s approach is fundamentally different, however. In this book they present a complete picture of ancient Egyptian society, placing the Egyptians of the Old Kingdom in the context of climate and geography, art and industry, politics and economy ―examining all the factors that shaped daily life. Malek shows, in fascinating detail, that every aspect of Egyptian life was bound up with religion and that the Egyptians lived, both literally and metaphorically, “in the shadow of the pyramids.”

Werner Forman’s 120 stunning color photographs of the monuments, works of art, and landscapes of the Old Kingdom bring to life the world of ancient Egypt. Incorporating the latest scholarship, an original approach to the subject, and Forman’s exceptional illustrations, In the Shadow of the Pyramids is a major addition to the literature on ancient Egypt.

About this title

About the Author:

Werner Forman has an international reputation as an expert photographer of the artifacts of great civilizations of the past.ÿ

Jaromir Malek is in the Griffith Institute of the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, England. He is the editor of a seventeen-volume topographical catalog of all known Egyptian inscriptions and paintings and co-author of The Atlas of Ancient Egypt.

From Library Journal:

This slim volume contains 120 color plates by photographer Forman and many special insights into the daily lives of Old Kingdom Egyptians by Malek of the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford. We move from the unification under Narmer through the politics, economics, social structure, and religion of the Old Kingdom, witnessing the development of manufacturing and agriculture, the rise of the necropolis and the royal cult establishments, to an awareness of the interrelationship of these factors as a cause of the Old Kingdom's decline. This was a societysurprisingly democratic and creativewhich was undone by the flaws inherent in the very system which made it great. The plates in this large-format book are excellent, but of no new subjects; the text presents no new facts, but gives a good summation. Fine for general collections. Jo-Ann D. Suleiman, NASA/Goddard Space Flight Ctr. Lib., Greenbelt, Md.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press
• Publication date: 1992
• ISBN 10: 0806120274
• ISBN 13: 9780806120270
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 130