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Toby A. H. Wilkinson

The Rise and Fall of Ancient Egypt Hardcover – March 15, 2011

by Toby Wilkinson (Author)

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NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

In this landmark work, one of the world’s most renowned Egyptologists tells the epic story of this great civilization, from its birth as the first nation-state to its final absorption into the Roman Empire—three thousand years of wild drama, bold spectacle, and unforgettable characters.

Award-winning scholar Toby Wilkinson captures not only the lavish pomp and artistic grandeur of this land of pyramids and pharaohs but for the first time reveals the constant propaganda and repression that were its foundations. Drawing upon forty years of archaeological research, Wilkinson takes us inside an exotic tribal society with a pre-monetary economy and decadent, divine kings who ruled with all-too-recognizable human emotions.

Here are the years of the Old Kingdom, where Pepi II, made king as an infant, was later undermined by rumors of his affair with an army general, and the Middle Kingdom, a golden age of literature and jewelry in which the benefits of the afterlife became available for all, not just royalty—a concept later underlying Christianity. Wilkinson then explores the legendary era of the New Kingdom, a lost world of breathtaking opulence founded by Ahmose, whose parents were siblings, and who married his sister and transformed worship of his family into a national cult. Other leaders include Akhenaten, the “heretic king,” who with his wife Nefertiti brought about a revolution with a bold new religion; his son Tutankhamun, whose dazzling tomb would remain hidden for three millennia; and eleven pharaohs called Ramesses, the last of whom presided over the militarism, lawlessness, and corruption that caused a crucial political and societal decline.

Riveting and revelatory, filled with new information and unique interpretations, The Rise and Fall of Ancient Egypt will become the standard source about this great civilization, one that lasted—so far—longer than any other.

Print length

656 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Random House
Publication date

March 15, 2011
Dimensions

6.42 x 1.67 x 9.5 inches
ISBN-10

0553805533
ISBN-13

978-0553805536
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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. Cambridge University Egyptologist Wilkinson (Lives of the Ancient Egyptians) offers a revisionist view of the ugly life hidden by the splendors and dazzling treasures of pharaonic Egypt. He shows in rich detail that it was a brutal society where life was cheap, royal power absolute and established through fear and coercion. Wilkinson finds unequivocal evidence in royal tombs like that of First Dynasty king Djer (c. 2900 B.C.E.), surrounded by 318 buried retainers, probably victims of human sacrifice. Even if construction workers for Khufu's Great Pyramid at Giza ("the ultimate projection of absolute power") were reasonably fed and housed, they were virtual, if not literal, slaves, drafted to perform the perilous work. Later the fanatical, heretic king Akhenaten built a new model city with grand temples where mountains of food were offered to a sun god while his people were starving and severely overworked. The Ptolemies' punitive economic policies unleashed a peasants' revolt that fatally weakened their empire. This is a penetrating and authoritative overview of a violent ancient civilization often revered by contemporary scholars and enthusiasts. 24 pages of color photos; 44 b&w photos; 12 maps. (Mar.)
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Egyptologists constitute a relatively small subspecialty among professional historians. Perhaps that is why many express an almost fanatical devotion to and admiration for the culture of ancient Egypt. Wilkinson, an award-winning Egyptologist who teaches at Oxford, provides a fine single-volume history of ancient Egypt that covers more than 3,000 years, from prehistory to the Roman conquest. He uses a conventional chronological approach that inevitably uses archaeological sources to provide examples. Like his colleagues, Wilkinson expresses admiration for the continuity, stability, and relative harmony of pharaonic Egypt. Yet he is strikingly at odds with other Egyptologists in his efforts to present the darker side of Egyptian life. Egyptian rulers created and maintained the first true nation-state. As Wilkinson shows, however, the price of this stability was regimes based on fear, coercion, and, when deemed necessary, violent military suppression. This superbly written survey is ideal for general readers and likely to engender controversy among specialists. --Jay Freeman

Review

Praise from the United Kingdom for The Rise and Fall of Ancient Egypt

“Absolutely divine . . . a thorough, erudite and enthusiastic gallop through an astonishing three thousand years.”—The Sunday Times

“I had always presumed, before I read Wilkinson’s book, that it was impossible to write a history of Egypt which combined scholarship, accessibility, and a genuine sense of revelation. I was wrong.”—Tom Holland, The Observer

“Not just the pyramids but the politics; not just war and religion but livestock and labour relations: the whole astonishing story meticulously researched and enthrallingly told.”—The Scotsman

“Egypt has for the past four thousand years been much vaunted, much debated . . . Toby Wilkinson’s The Rise and Fall of Ancient Egypt [adds] impressively to this tradition.”—Bettany Hughes, The Times

“No detail is spared on this literary journey. . . . [The Rise and Fall of Ancient Egypt] will appeal to anyone . . . who wishes to learn more about this incredible civilization.”—Press Association

“Take this great book with you on your next boat to Egypt.”—Oxford Times

About the Author

Toby Wilkinson graduated with a first class honors degree in Egyptology from Downing College, University of Cambridge, winning the university’s Thomas Mulvey prize. He is the recipient of the Lady Wallis Budge Junior Research Fellowship in Egyptology, a Leverhulme Trust Special Research Fellowship, and an Honorary Research Fellowship in the Department of Archaeology at the University of Durham. He is currently at Clare College in the University of Cambridge. Wilkinson has published seven books and numerous articles, and has appeared on radio and television as an expert on ancient Egyptian civilization (especially the early periods). He is the recipient of the Antiquity Prize for the best journal article and is a member of the international editorial board of the Journal of Egyptian History.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

CHAPTER 1

IN THE BEGINNING

The first king of Egypt

In a tall glass case in the entrance hall of the Egyptian Museum in Cairo stands an ancient slab of fine-grained greenish-black stone, about two feet high and no more than an inch thick. Shaped like a shield, it is carved on both sides in low relief. The scenes, though still crisp, are difficult to make out in the diffuse, hazy light that filters down through the dusty glazed dome in the museum ceiling. Most visitors barely give this strange object a second glance as they head straight for the golden riches of Tutankhamun on the floor above. Yet this modest piece of stone is one of the most important documents to survive from ancient Egypt. Its place of honor at the entrance to the Egyptian Museum, the world's greatest treasure- house of pharaonic culture, underlines its significance. This stone is the object that marks the very beginning of ancient Egyptian history.

The Narmer Palette, as it is known to Egyptologists, has become an icon of early Egypt, but the circumstances of its discovery are clouded with uncertainty. In the winter of a.d. 1897-1898, the British archaeologists James Quibell and Frederick Green were in the far south of Egypt, excavating at the ancient site of Nekhen (modern Kom el-Ahmar), the "city of the falcon" (classical Hierakonpolis). The nineteenth century was still the era of treasure seeking, and Quibell and Green, though more scientific in their approach than many of their contemporaries, were not immune from the pressure to discover fine objects to satisfy their sponsors back home. So, having chosen to excavate at Nekhen, a site eroded by countless centuries and largely devoid of major standing monuments, they decided to focus their attentions on the ruins of the local temple. Though small and unimpressive by comparison with the great sanctuaries of Thebes, this was no ordinary provincial shrine. Since the dawn of history, it had been dedicated to the celebration of Egyptian kingship. The local falcon god of Nekhen, Horus, was the patron deity of the Egyptian monarchy. Might the temple, therefore, yield a royal treasure?

The two men worked away, and their initial results were disappointing: stretches of mud brick wall; the remains of a mound, faced in stone; a few worn and broken statues. Nothing spectacular. The next area to be investigated lay in front of the mound, but here the archaeologists encountered only a thick layer of clay that resisted systematic excavation. The city of the falcon seemed determined to keep its secrets. But then, as Quibell and Green struggled their way through the clay layer, they came upon a scatter of discarded ritual objects, a motley collection of sacred paraphernalia that had been gathered up and buried by the temple priests some time in the remote past. There was no gold, but the "Main Deposit"-as the archaeologists optimistically called it-did contain some interesting and unusual finds. Chief among them was a carved slab of stone.

There was no doubt about what sort of object they had found. A shallow, circular well in the middle of one side showed it to be a palette, a grindstone for mixing pigments. But this was no workaday tool for preparing cosmetics. The elaborate and detailed scenes decorating both sides showed that it had been commissioned for a much loftier purpose, to celebrate the achievements of a glorious king. Beneath the benign gaze of two cow goddesses, a representation of the monarch himself-shown in the age-old pose of an Egyptian ruler, smiting his enemy with a mace-dominated one side of the palette. The archaeologists wondered who he was and when he had reigned. Two hieroglyphs, contained within a small rectangular panel at the very top of the palette, seemed to provide the answer, spelling out the monarch's name: a catfish ("nar" in the Egyptian language) and a chisel ("mer"): Narmer. Here was a king previously unknown to history. Moreover, the style of the carvings on the Narmer Palette pointed to a very early date. Subsequent research showed that Narmer was not just an early king; he was the very first ruler of a united Egypt. He came to the throne around 2950, the first king of the First Dynasty. In the mud of Nekhen, Quibell and Green had stumbled upon ancient Egypt's founding monument.

While Narmer may be the first historical king, he is not the beginning of Egypt's story. The decoration of his famous palette shows the art of the Egyptian royal court and the iconography of kingship already in their classical forms. However, some of the palette's stranger motifs, such as the intertwined beasts with long serpentine necks and the bull trampling the walls of an enemy fortress, hark back to a remote prehistoric past. On his great commemorative palette, Narmer was explicitly acknowledging that the cornerstones of Egyptian civilization had been laid long before his own time.

The desert blooms

As the Narmer Palette demonstrates on a small scale and for an early date, the Egyptians achieved a mastery of stone carving unsurpassed in the ancient, or modern, world. Diverse and abundant raw materials within Egypt's borders combined with great technical accomplishment to give the Egyptians a highly distinctive medium for asserting their cultural identity. Stone also had the advantage of permanence, and Egyptian monuments were consciously designed to last for eternity. The origin of this obsession with monumentality was in the Western Desert, near the modern border between Egypt and Sudan. The remote spot is known to archaeologists as Nabta Playa. Today, a paved main road carves through the desert only a mile or two away, bringing construction traffic to Egypt's New Valley project. But until very recently, Nabta Playa was as far away from civilization as it was possible to get. Its main distinction was as a pit stop on the cross- country route between the desert springs of Bir Kiseiba and the shores of Lake Nasser. The flat bed of an ancient, dried-up lake-or playa-together with a nearby sandy ridge, certainly make Nabta an ideal spot for an overnight camp. There is, however, much more to the site than a casual first glance would suggest. Scattered throughout the landscape are large stones-not naturally occurring boulders but megaliths that had been hauled from some distance away and set up at key points around the edge of the playa. Some stand in splendid isolation, as sentinels on the horizon; others form a linear alignment. Most remarkable of all, on a slight elevation a series of stones has been set out in a circle, with pairs of uprights facing each other. Two pairs are aligned north to south, while two more point toward the midsummer sunrise.

Previously unknown and entirely unexpected, Nabta Playa has emerged from obscurity as the ancient Egyptian Stonehenge, a sacred landscape dotted with carefully placed stone structures. Scientific dating of the associated sediments has revealed a startlingly early date for these extraordinary monuments, the early fifth millennium b.c. At that time, as in even earlier periods, the Sahara would have been very different from its current arid state. On an annual basis, summer rains would have greened the desert-filling the seasonal lake, and turning its shores into lush pasture and arable land. The people who migrated to Nabta Playa to take advantage of this temporary abundance were seminomadic cattle herders who roamed with their livestock across a wide area of the eastern Sahara. Large quantities of cattle bones have been excavated at the site, and traces of human activity can be found scattered over the ground: fragments of ostrich eggshells (used as water carriers and, when broken, for making jewelry), flint arrowheads, stone axes, and grindstones for processing the cereals that were cultivated along the lakeshore. With its seasonal fertility, Nabta offered semi-nomadic people a fixed point of great symbolic significance, and over generations they set about transforming it into a ritual center. Laying out the stone alignments must have required a large degree of communal involvement. Like their counterparts at Stonehenge, the monuments of Nabta show that the local prehistoric people had developed a highly organized society. A pastoral way of life certainly needed wise decision-makers with a detailed knowledge of the environment, close familiarity with the seasons, and an acute sense of timing. Cattle are thirsty animals, requiring a fresh supply of water at the end of each day's wandering, so judging when to arrive at a site such as Nabta and when to leave again could have been a matter of life and death for the whole community.

The purpose of the standing stones and the "calendar circle" seems to have been to predict the arrival of the all-important rains that fell shortly after the summer solstice. When the rains arrived, the community celebrated by slaughtering some of their precious cattle as a sacrifice of thanks, and burying the animals in graves marked on the ground with large, flat stones. Under one such mound, archaeologists found not a cattle burial but a huge sandstone monolith that had been carefully shaped and dressed to resemble a cow. Dated, like the calendar circle, to the early fifth millennium b.c., it is the earliest known monumental sculpture from Egypt. Here are to be found the origins of pharaonic stone carving-in the prehistoric Western Desert, among wandering cattle herders, a millennium and more before the beginning of the First Dynasty. Archaeologists have been forced to rethink their theories of Egypt's origins.

On the other side of Egypt, in the Eastern Desert, equally remarkable discoveries have been made, confirming the impression that the arid lands bordering the Nile Valley were the crucible of ancient Egyptian civilization. Thousands of rock pictures pecked into the sandstone cliffs dot the dry valleys (known as wadis) that crisscross the hilly terrain between the Nile and the Red Sea hills. At some locations, usually associated with natural shelters, overhangs, or caves, there are great concentrations of pictures. One such tableau, by a dried-up plunge pool in the Wadi Umm Salam, has been likened to the Sistine Chapel. Its images constitute some of the earliest sacred art from Egypt, prefiguring the classic imagery of pharaonic religion by as much as a thousand years. Like their sculpture-loving counterparts at Nabta Playa, the prehistoric artists of the Eastern Desert seem also to have been cattle herders, and pictures of their livestock-and the wild animals they hunted out on the savanna-feature heavily in their compositions. But instead of using megaliths to signify their deepest beliefs, they exploited the smooth cliff faces offered by their own environment, turning them into canvases for religious expression. Gods traveling in sacred boats, and ritual hunts of wild animals, are key themes in the pharaonic iconography first attested in the Eastern Desert rock art. The inaccessible and inhospitable character of the region today belies its pivotal role in the rise of ancient Egypt.

Gathering speed

Ongoing survey and excavation at sites across the Western and Eastern deserts is revealing a pattern of close interaction between desert and valley peoples in prehistory. Rather unexpectedly, the semi- nomadic cattle herders who roamed across the prehistoric savanna seem to have been more advanced than their valley-dwelling contemporaries. But in a lesson for our own times, the cattle herders' vibrant way of life was made extinct by environmental change. Beginning in about 5000, the climate of northeast Africa began to undergo a marked shift. The once predictable summer rains that for millennia had provided cattle herders with seasonal pasture away from the Nile became steadily less reliable. Over a period of a few centuries, the rain belt moved progressively southward. (Today the rains, when they fall at all, fall over the highlands of Ethiopia.) The savannas to the east and west of the Nile began to dry out and turn to desert. After little more than a few generations, the desiccated land was no longer able to support thirsty herds of cattle. For the herders, the alternative to starvation was migration-to the only permanent water source in the region, the Nile Valley.

Here, the earliest settled communities, along the edge of the floodplain, had been established in the early fifth millennium b.c., broadly contemporary with the megalith builders of Nabta Playa. Like the cattle herders, the valley dwellers had also been practicing agriculture, but in contrast to the seasonality of rainfall in the arid regions, the regime of the Nile had made it possible to grow crops year-round. This would have given the valley dwellers the incentive and the wherewithal to occupy their villages on a permanent basis. The way of life the valley dwellers developed is known to Egyptologists as the Badarian culture, after the site of el-Badari, where this lifestyle was first recorded. The local vicinity was ideally suited to early habitation, with the juxtaposition of different ecosystems-floodplain and savanna-and excellent links to a wider hinterland. Desert routes led westward to the oases, while a major wadi ran eastward to the Red Sea coast. It was through these avenues that the Badarian way of life was strongly influenced by the early desert cultures.

One such influence, an interest in personal adornment, stayed with the ancient Egyptians throughout their history. Another development with long-term ramifications was the gradual stratification of society into leaders and followers, a small ruling class and a larger group of subjects. This was a system that owed much to the challenging lifestyle faced by pastoral seminomads. These external stimuli and internal dynamics began to transform Badarian society. Over many centuries, gradual changes took root and began to accelerate. The rich grew richer and began to act as patrons to a new class of specialist craftsmen. They, in turn, developed new technologies and new products to satisfy their patrons' ever more sophisticated tastes. The introduction of restricted access to prestige goods and materials further reinforced the power and status of the wealthiest in society.

The process of social transformation, once started, could not be stopped. Culturally, economically, and politically, prehistoric society became increasingly complex. Egypt was set on a course toward statehood. The final drying-out of the deserts around 3600 must have injected further momentum into this process. A sudden increase in population-when those living in the deserts migrated to the valley- may have led to greater competition for scarce resources, encouraging the development of walled towns. More mouths to feed would also have stimulated more productive agriculture. Urbanization and the intensification of farming were responses to social change but were also a stimulus to further change.

Under such conditions, communities in Upper Egypt began to coalesce into three regional groupings, each probably ruled by a hereditary monarch. Strategic factors help to explain the early dominance of these three prehistoric kingdoms. One kingdom was centered on the town of Tjeni (near modern Girga), a site where the floodplain narrowed and allowed the town's inhabitants to control river traffic. This area was also where trade routes from Nubia and the Saharan oases met the Nile Valley. A second territory had its capital at Nubt ("the golden," modern Nagada), which controlled access to gold mines in the Eastern Desert via the Wadi Hammamats on the opposite bank of the river. A third kingdom had grown up around the settlement of Nekhen, which, like Tjeni, was the starting point for a desert route to the oases (and thence to Sudan) and, like Nubt, controlled access to important Eastern Desert gold reserves, in this case the more southerly deposits reached via a wadi directly opposite the town.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Random House; Third Impression edition (March 15, 2011)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 656 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0553805533
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0553805536
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.5 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.42 x 1.67 x 9.5 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #576,714 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #429 in Ancient Egyptians History
- #891 in Archaeology (Books)
- #902 in History of Civilization & Culture

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Robert J. Crawford

An absolutely first-rate longitudinal history of a unique civilization

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on February 2, 2012

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It took me 3 tries to find a book that would offer a fun, comprehensive tour of Egyptian civilization, from its origins in prehistory to its end with Cleopatra 3000 years later. The two previous books I read were deadly dull, one the driest of academic treatments (The Oxford History), the other a scholastic mess, ANcient Egypt; the former got mired in esoteric academic controversies while the latter was so flavorless and elementary as to bore completely. In contrast, this book offers snapshots of the dynasties and how they evolved, gives an interpretation of the religion and what drove the civilization, and makes hard judgments as to the type of society it was. All in wonderfully vivid, crisp prose. While written by a scholar for accuracy, it appeals immediately and effortlessly to laymen. The result is a genuine masterpiece that I was beginning to fear was impossible to achieve.

The root of the civilization began in the south along the Nile during the 4th millenium BCE, from cow herders who discovered how to apply farming techniques in the valley that flooded with fertile silt at the beginning of every growing season. This origin explains one of its oldest symbols associated with Pharaohs: the herding staff in one hand, the lash in the other. Though it began with a number of kingdoms, they were slowly consolidated under military leadership, extending north to the Mediterranean Sea. As it expanded, the empire incorporated local deities into their polytheistic pantheon as a way of co-opting the loyalty of conquered locals, resulting in a huge collection of gods, sacred animals, and stories, many of them resembling Greek and even Christian traditions later. Not only was Egypt protected by natural barriers, but it was organized into one of the most effective early autocracies, mobilizing vast wealth and manpower over a coherent and safe region.

Wilkinson explains the ideology of the state with wonderful succinctness. The pharaoh was variously the embodiment, reflection, and instrument of the Gods on Earth, a keeper of the balance of nature whose power came at the price of showing the proper deference to the Gods in ritual, the erection of massive architectural tributes, and the maintenance of the economy. A large part of this was their work and life after death, when they exercised their right to join the Gods as immortals. It was an extremely hierarchical theocracy, with everyone serving their parts, at least at first in sincere belief. It was a complete system that supported autocracy, was supposed to guarantee food and the weather, and that protected Egypt's security. Of course, if nature or events didn't cooperate, the Pharaohs found themselves in danger rather quickly.

Their works were unique in world history, massive undertakings on a scale never before seen or some would argue since. The largest 2 pyramids in Giza (after a notable debacle in the desert because too much weight was amassed on softer ground) took the work of 10,000 men over 20 years of labor! While the Giza pyramids were never surpassed, the Egyptians built almost constantly for 3000 years. They also developed jewelry, mummification techniques, and a complex writing system that conferred power of the rare literate scribes who kept the most meticulous records of early antiquity.

The contours of the state wavered between centralization and delegation that led to 2 breakdowns of authority over intervals of over 1000 years, with dark ages that could last centuries as central power re-consolidated itself. The Pharaohs were hereditary autocrats, constantly expanding outwards, and later they came from the military, as restorers of order. It was only after 2100 years that the ideology itself began to break down, beginning first with the military Pharaohs who emerged after the collapse of the Rameside dynasty, accelerating as Egypt fell to a succession of foreign invaders, ending finally with its incorporation into Rome. In the last 900 years, the erosion of ideological beliefs led to a series bizarre cults that lacked spirit and became industries, in which cats, baboons, and ibexes were worshipped and mummified. This kind of cycle should give anyone pause when thinking that our way is the right way and will endure in the vastly diverse panorama of human possibility. Yes, it is Ozymandias.

To cover interesting or consequential monarchs, Wilkinson focuses on a number of them in greater detail, such as Akhenaten, the monotheist heretic and father of Tutankhamen, or Cleopatra as the last one of all. He never gets mired in academic proofs, yet provides an accurate and balanced picture that is beautifully written.

Many reviewers appear put off by the author's criticisms of the society, i.e. that it was a brutal autocracy, even a proto-totalitarian state. I would defend his right to make such judgments because they come from a lifetime of study and teaching. Besides, they stimulate further inquiry rather than glibly cut off avenues, the mark of a great educator. Recommended with the greatest enthusiasm.

26 people found this helpful

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Travis Bughi

I realized Egypt could actually be quite boring if not for Wilkinson's deft hand at explaining what ...

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on November 23, 2016

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Finally finished this one. It took me until November 7th to reach 50% and then I killed the last 50% over the next 2 weeks. Once again, I blame the election cycle. I have troubles unplugging, which is something I intend to correct in the future.

But anyways, on to the book! The Rise and Fall of Ancient Egypt tracks the first 3000 years of ancient Egypt's existence, basically from their conception to their time of being acquired by the Roman Empire. The author, Toby Wilkinson, makes clear that he knows this subject well, and he does a remarkable job of covering such a huge swath of time, switching up the pace to keep things moving forward. As a history book, it followed the normal timeline of the rise and fall of royalty, jumping from war to peace and back again. On the whole, I realized Egypt could actually be quite boring if not for Wilkinson's deft hand at explaining what makes this ancient world so unique.

As Wilkinson explains, Ancient Egypt essentially founded the concept of royalty as we know it today. They were the first "bully on the playground," rising to power while most of humanity was still trying to figure out how to survive the winter. The first royalty were in uncharted waters, and as such, they experimented and laid the groundwork for other empires to follow. They were the first demonstrate the need for evil to create an empire (subjecting the people with religion, placating the bureaucrats, dominating and exploiting foreign land), and then also demonstrating the great wonders the could be done with it (pyramids at Giza, Suez Canal), and yet also the great tragedies that could be done as well. Wilkinson shies from none of it.

It also showed me something about our world today. More than once, as Egypt rose and fell in power, Wilkinson would track and show the difference in mentality between those working the fields and never left their home town versus those who lived in the multi-cultural city centers. The difference between those with a local view of the world, and those with a global view. It showed me, quite starkly, that not much has changed from humanity in 5,000 years. Actually, this has been nothing more than a blink of eye, and we're every bit as noble or barbaric, knowledgeable or ignorant and those people were back then.

It would seem history truly does repeat itself, and knowing this, I've come to realize that America as I know it will perish, possibly in my own lifetime. There is no saving it, none, and any attempts to do so will only bring this country's doom closer at hand. Also, I've come to realize that we as a species are not yet beyond are archaic roots. 5,000 years ago, Ancient Egypt made light of slaying thousands just because they could. 70 years ago, Nazi Germany made light of slaying 6 million people who worshiped a different god. Mark my words, we are still capable of such atrocities, and somewhere, sometime, they will be done again.

But beyond that note, about the book. Let it be known that the middle of this book ran a tad dry, hence only 4 stars. However, it was still a great read and I'd recommend it to any fellow history buff looking for an introduction into Ancient Egypt.

13 people found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

Disappointed reader

Flawed history written by someone who seems to dislikes everything about ancient Egypt

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on August 2, 2020

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A flawed book written by an author who seems to have nothing good to say about ancient Egypt. The author repeats on almost every page various subjective value judgments that the pharaonic monarchy was exploitative, inhumane , self serving etc. No objective comparison to contemporary civilisations is attempted. In addition, the book presents no analysis or insights of how ordinary Egyptians thought or behaved. Nor improves our understanding of the technological, economic, social forces shaping Ancient Egypt. But the main issue with this book is the author’s remarkable dislike of all aspects of ancient Egypt which relentlessly and boringly permeates the whole long book from start to finish. Hard to understand what has made an Egyptologist have such negativity for his subject matter.

33 people found this helpful

Ronnie

Excellent

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on July 4, 2019

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I have retained an interest in ancient Egypt since my teens ; visited in 1982 and thoroughly enjoyed my trip, cruising down the Nile, & seeing the temples & tombs. I only wish I had had such a tome to hand before my visit as it would have made it all even more worthwhile. This book goes into great depth and remains throughout a fascinating read, without ever becoming too heavy or dull. Can easily recommend, especially to amateur historians such as myself.

16 people found this helpful

Paul Gallimore

Extremely Well Researched and Written

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on May 11, 2020

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This was a much fatter book than I thought when I bought it, and as such it represents a properly researched history written by an academic. It covers a period of around 3000 years and 31 pharaonic dynasties. So, unless you plan to really study what is laid out here you are not going to be able to remember every date and Egyptian king under discussion.

What you will take away, though, is the motivations and imperatives of these ancient rulers: why they built pyramids, temples and other monuments to themselves, their relationships with their gods, and what stakes they were playing for. You will learn that from the dawn of civilisation men have always been at war, and that if you (your country) cannot stand up and fight for its existence, then sooner or later it will cease to exist - as was the case for each and every one of these dynasties.

On the topic of existence, I would have liked to have learned more about the living conditions of ordinary people over the millennia. This does gets covered, but principally this is a book about the pharaohs, and not their subjects. It's probably fair to guess that aside from administrative records relating to payments and work ordered by the various kings, there is far less information available about the general population, anyway.

This is a very good book which the author must have toiled over for years. Highly recommended.

8 people found this helpful

Vervactor

A flawed history of ancient Egypt

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on March 3, 2021

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This book has very much left me with mixed feelings. It is clearly meant for general readers and not for an academic audience, and it seems important to bear this in mind in juding the text. Even so, the book seems far too descriptive to me. It is a one-volume account of major events and some of the major historical figures involved in these events. It describes what happened, but it has very little to say about the social, political, cultural, religious, and technological changes that transformed Egyptian society in the span of three millennia. In other words, it is far too heavy on description and far too light on analytical abstraction. This ultimately makes for a tedious read.

Another concern is that Toby Wilkinson skirts around some of the more difficult questions his book ought to address. The Late Bronze Age collapse and the Sea Peoples are a case in point. Wilkinson addresses a serious of complex and opaque events in this period by way of a simplistic story of military invasion and destruction. He has very little to say about the difficulties in assessing the origins and nature of the Sea Peoples, and he has next to nothing to say about the complex forces, from climate change to societal dissolution, that may have led to social, economic, and political collapse in the Eastern Mediterranean in this period. A book seeking to engage with the whole of ancient Egyptian history does not offer enough space to engage with the Late Bronze Age collapse in much depth. At least, though, Wilkinson ought to acknowledge the difficulties in understanding this period. This is just one example of many instances in which this book lacks analytical depth, and in which its author takes the easy way out in building his narrative.

If you are looking for an accessible one-volume history of ancient Egypt, this book makes for an interesting and accessible read. If you are hoping for something more, it seems best to look elsewhere.

7 people found this helpful

FrankT

Scholar's book for the general reader

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on November 20, 2022

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Three thousand years compressed into just over 500 pages, yet the book never feels hurried or superficial. This is a tour de force by Toby Wilkinson, who handles his material with enormous skill. He manages to bring the complicated and ambivalent story of ancient Egypt alive along with many of its most celebrated, and notorious, kings. He does so with an ear to the general reader's need to avoid too formal or technical a use of language but without descending into slang or cliche.
He points out the ugly underbelly of pharaonic rule: the cruelty, exploitation and often contempt with which the ruling class treated ordinary Egyptians as well as their subjugated neighbours. Without ever concealing his admiration for the wonders of ancient Egypt, Wilkinson is clear-sighted about the human costs involved in the warfare, political tyranny and gargantuan building works that were imposed on the country by the pharaohs.
The book is lavishly provided with colour plates, monochrome images, and maps, and there are copious endnotes and further comments to satisfy the most exacting reader. This is a scholar's book for the uninitiated, and I can't imagine how it could be bettered as an introduction to ancient Egypt.

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The Rise and Fall of Ancient Egypt Hardcover – March 15, 2011

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