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daj89's review against another edition
4.0
Kemp analyzes aspects of ancient Egyptian society that general books about it tend to gloss over, such as its cityscapes, its economy, and its administration. He looks at these topics from a largely archaeological perspective and uses particular sites as examples of his themes, such as Hierakonpolis for the formation of the Early Dynastic state, Kahun for the state planning of the Middle Kingdom, and Theban evidence for the mature form of the Egyptian state in the New Kingdom.
The original, 1989 edition of the book ended with a chapter on Amarna. Thus, it fell into the all-too-common Egyptological habit of ignoring developments after 1000 BC. The second edition, from 2006, replaced the Amarna chapter with one that points out that deficiency in scholarship and discusses each of the intermediate periods, as well as the Late and Greco-Roman eras. The third edition in 2018, rather frustratingly, replaces that chapter in turn with a rewritten chapter about Amarna, so to get the full benefit of Kemp's work, you would have to read the second and third editions.
Kemp brings an unusual viewpoint to Egyptology. It's often very insightful. An early chapter discusses how the Egyptians invented a traditional set of architectural motifs early in their history, then constantly reworked and combined them in new ways—making it look like they were maintaining age-old traditions even when they were making dramatic innovations. Egyptologists, trying to reconstruct ancient Egyptian culture based on what would fit with known Egyptian tradition, can end up unwittingly recombining ideas in the same way.
My major complaint is that Kemp's treatment of religion seems rather superficial. He doesn't ignore it, by any means, but he downplays how much power it had to shape society and tends to see it in materialistic, even cynical terms. (He even wrote a journal article in 1995 that apparently downplayed personal religiosity to an outlandish degree; Robert Ritner tartly remarked [b:in 2008|3607396|Household and Family Religion in Antiquity|Saul M. Olyan|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1348405452l/3607396._SX50_.jpg|3650126] that "The idiosyncratic article has gained no following.") But Kemp's attitude does serve to balance out the tendency among other Egyptologists to exaggerate the influence of religious ideology over practical considerations.
Anyone wanting to understand the workings of ancient Egyptian society should read this book, but Kemp's perspective is a little too eccentric for it to stand on its own as your go-to source.
The original, 1989 edition of the book ended with a chapter on Amarna. Thus, it fell into the all-too-common Egyptological habit of ignoring developments after 1000 BC. The second edition, from 2006, replaced the Amarna chapter with one that points out that deficiency in scholarship and discusses each of the intermediate periods, as well as the Late and Greco-Roman eras. The third edition in 2018, rather frustratingly, replaces that chapter in turn with a rewritten chapter about Amarna, so to get the full benefit of Kemp's work, you would have to read the second and third editions.
Kemp brings an unusual viewpoint to Egyptology. It's often very insightful. An early chapter discusses how the Egyptians invented a traditional set of architectural motifs early in their history, then constantly reworked and combined them in new ways—making it look like they were maintaining age-old traditions even when they were making dramatic innovations. Egyptologists, trying to reconstruct ancient Egyptian culture based on what would fit with known Egyptian tradition, can end up unwittingly recombining ideas in the same way.
My major complaint is that Kemp's treatment of religion seems rather superficial. He doesn't ignore it, by any means, but he downplays how much power it had to shape society and tends to see it in materialistic, even cynical terms. (He even wrote a journal article in 1995 that apparently downplayed personal religiosity to an outlandish degree; Robert Ritner tartly remarked [b:in 2008|3607396|Household and Family Religion in Antiquity|Saul M. Olyan|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1348405452l/3607396._SX50_.jpg|3650126] that "The idiosyncratic article has gained no following.") But Kemp's attitude does serve to balance out the tendency among other Egyptologists to exaggerate the influence of religious ideology over practical considerations.
Anyone wanting to understand the workings of ancient Egyptian society should read this book, but Kemp's perspective is a little too eccentric for it to stand on its own as your go-to source.