The Oxford Handbook of Egyptology

The Oxford Handbook of Egyptology offers a comprehensive survey of the entire study of ancient Egypt from prehistory through to the end of the Roman period. It seeks to place Egyptology within its theoretical, methodological, and historical contexts, indicating how the subject has evolved and discussing its distinctive contemporary problems, issues, and potential. Transcending conventional boundaries between archaeological and ancient textual analysis, the volume brings together 63 chapters that range widely across archaeological, philological, and cultural sub-disciplines, highlighting the extent to which Egyptology as a subject has diversified and stressing the need for it to seek multidisciplinary methods and broader collaborations if it is to remain contemporary and relevant. Organized into ten parts, it offers a comprehensive synthesis of the various sub-topics and specializations that make up the field as a whole, from the historical and geographical perspectives that have influenced its development and current characteristics, to aspects of museology and conservation, and from materials and technology - as evidenced in domestic architecture and religious and funerary items - to textual and iconographic approaches to Egyptian culture. Authoritative yet accessible, it serves not only as an invaluable reference work for scholars and students working within the discipline, but also as a gateway into Egyptology for classicists, archaeologists, anthropologists, sociologists, and linguists.

About the Author

Ian Shaw is Reader in Egyptian Archaeology at the University of Liverpool, as well as Visiting Professor in Egyptology at the Northeast Normal University in Changchun, China. He has excavated and surveyed at the cities of Amarna, Gurob and Memphis, the Valley of the Kings, and the ancient quarrying and mining sites of Hatnub, Wadi el-Hudi, Gebel el-Asr, and Wadi Hammamat. His publications include the edited volumes The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt (OUP, 2000) and Ancient Egyptian Materials and Technology (with Paul T. Nicholson; CUP, 2000), as well as The British Museum Dictionary of Ancient Egypt (with Paul T. Nicholson; British Museum Press, 1995) and Ancient Egyptian Technology and Innovation: Transformations in Pharaonic Material Culture (Bloomsbury, 2012). Elizabeth Bloxam is currently Visiting Professor in Egyptology at the Northeast Normal University in Changchun, China and has held an Honorary Research Associate post at University College London for the last ten years. Her research interests centre on ancient Egyptian society and technology with a particular focus on the social relationships and organization surrounding resource procurement in Egypt and the Eastern Mediterranean. She has directed multidisciplinary surveys and excavations in several ancient quarrying and mining sites in Egypt, including a current project in the Wadi Hammamat, and has published widely in international journals including World Archaeology , Journal of Social Archaeology , Cambridge Archaeological Journal , Journal of Egyptian Archaeology , and Archéo-Nil .