Traces the development of Ancient Egyptian forms of writing. Provides a selection of ancient Egyptian myth and folklore as well as inscriptions on tombs, songs and hymns.

The coffin published in this book represents a type that had some popularity in southern Upper Egypt in the early Middle Kingdom, but which, despite its extraordinary decoration had not attracted attention so far. The most striking feature of the decoration is that the object friezes - the pictorial rendering of ritual implements usually found on coffin interiors of the period - also include complete ritual scenes, some of which are attested only here. Apart from this, the decoration includes an extensive selection of the religious texts know as the Coffin Texts. The author first studies the archaeological context and dating of the coffin and attempts a reconstruction of the construction procedures from his technical description of the monument. The detailed account of the decoration in the rest of the book interprets the ritual iconography and offers fresh translations and interpretations of the Coffin Texts. A methodological innovation is that he regards the scenes and texts not as individual decoration elements, but as components of an integral composition. The background of this composition is argued to be a view of life in the hereafter in which the deceased is involved in an unending cycle of ritual action which reflects the funerary rituals that were actually performed on earth. On the one hand, these netherworldly rituals aim at bringing the deceased to new life by mummification, on the other the newly regenerated deceased partakes in embalming rituals for gods representing his dead father (Osiris or Atum). These gods, in their turn, effectuate the deceased's regeneration. The entire process results in a cycle of resuscitation in which the afterlife of the deceased and of the 'father gods' are interdependent. The sociological bias of this interpretation, with its emphasis on kinship relations, differs significantly from earlier attempts to explain Egyptian funerary religion.

Tomb Painting and Identity in Ancient Thebes, 1419-1372 BCE examines the style, iconography, and symbolism of painting in all extant private Theban tomb chapels decorated during the reigns of Thutmose IV and Amenhotep III. The book studies the ways in which pictorial imagery functioned on behalf of the dead in the afterlife, presented their identity to the living, and revealed underlying religious developments with important societal implications. Various aspects of the pre-Amarna Theban tomb are explored, from the tomb's purpose as a creative and commemorative vehicle for the deceased to the placement and functional properties of its imagery. The book also discusses the different styles of painting in the chapels of state and religious officials and how these styles reveal workshop organization and "patronage" practices in Thebes. The majority of the book is dedicated to the iconography of the functioning image in the tomb chapel, its reception, and its purpose as a bridge between what was represented and what was signified, between the mundane and the sacred, and between the living and the dead. Particular attention is paid to the iconography on the "western" back walls of the transverse hall in T-shaped tomb chapels, walls that held aesthetic, cultic, and symbolic significance to the ancient Egyptians. On these walls as well as the northern or southern long wall in rectangular tomb chapels, iconography and text commemorated the deceased's personal and professional identity, projected this identity into the hereafter, and contained key components for the tomb owner's rebirth. The eternal well-being of the deceased was secured through the iconography of gift giving that also mirrored religious trends that permeated society. Tomb Painting and Identity in Ancient Thebes, 1419-1372 BCE addresses Theban tomb painting and its underlying creative and commemorative properties as a medium of regeneration, preservation, and display on behalf of the tomb owner and the world of which he was a part.

This fresh and engaging volume examines the evidence for masonry in ancient Egypt. Through a series of experiments with over two hundred replica tools, Denys A. Stocks brings alive the methods and practices of ancient Egyptian craftworking.