The rich and extensive floodplain of the River Nile can claim to be the cradle of one of the earliest and most spectacular civilizations of antiquity. Ancient Egypt: a social history presents a fresh and innovative perspective on the ancient societies which flourished in the Nile Valley from the Predynastic period to the conquest by Alexander the Great. From the introduction of a subsistence ...

Presents a reassessment of what gave Ancient Egypt its distinctive and enduring characteristics. Ranging across Ancient Egyptian material culture, social and economic experiences, and the mindset of its people, this book also includes chapters exploring Ancient Egyptian civilization and who, in ethnic terms, the ancients were.

The overwhelming importance of the Nile and the pharaoh provide the unifying thread running though this text. Completely revised, it includes investigations of many significant recent finds at: Abydos; the Delta; the Valley of the Kings; the pyramids of Abusir, Giza and Saqqara; and at Avaris.

Cats in Egypt were probably domesticated by around 4,000 BC, from wild ancestors. Over the following centuries, they became popular household pets; they are regularly shown in tomb paintings of family life. This title draws on a range of artistic and written sources to show how they became widely-esteemed and revered animals in Egypt.