- Hardcover: 208 pages
- Publisher: Thames & Hudson Ltd (7 April 2003)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0500051224
- ISBN-13: 978-0500051221
- Product Dimensions: 24.7 x 17.6 x 2.9 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
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501,834 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #43 in Books > Science & Nature > Biological Sciences > Animal Sciences > Habitats > Desert
- #94 in Books > History > Countries & Regions > Africa > Before 500
- #99 in Books > History > Archaeology > By Region > African
- See Complete Table of Contents
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More About the Author
Product Description
Product Description
Generations of scholars, tourists and armchair travellers have been intrigued by the puzzle of ancient Egypt's origins. Now, in the light of Toby Wilkinson's dramatic new discoveries, the genesis of the pharaohs is at last coming into focus. But the picture that emerges is not what we imagined. The ancestors of the pyramid-builders were not village-dwelling farmers, but wandering cattle-herders, and pharaonic civilization was forged in one of the most forbidding places on Earth: the Eastern Desert, between the Nile Valley and the Red Sea. Here, the pharaohs' distant ancestors left a stunning legacy that has remained hidden for 6,000 years: hundreds of intricate rock carvings in which the origins of later pharaonic imagery is clearly discernible. Toby Wilkinson traces the discovery of these ancient records, dates them, and identifies the artists who made them, basing his own discoveries in the heart of the Eastern Desert.
About the Author
Toby Wilkinson took a First Class degree in Egyptology from Cambridge University and is now a Fellow of Christ's College, Cambridge. He lectures widely on ancient Egypt and led the expedition to Egypt's Eastern Desert that gave rise to the discoveries in this book. His other publications include Early Dynastic Egypt.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Origins of Egyptian Civilisation.......in Egypt!,
By
This review is from: Genesis of the Pharaohs: Dramatic New Discoveries That Rewrite the Origins of Ancient Egypt (Hardcover)
The title "Genesis of the Pharaohs" may suggest we are in for yet another esoteric theory on how Egyptian civilisation was introduced by a master race of Atlantean Freemasons. In fact believers in that sort of thing are likely to be a tad disapponted because what we get is very elegantly written and convincing theory that, in extreme synthesis, the origins of Ancient Egyptian Civilisation were more or less, in Egypt.Toby Wilkinson, an Egyptologist who has explored the rock art of Egypt's Eastern Desert constructs an authoritative argument that the origins of Egyptian Civilisation lie in the Eastern desert at a time ( six thousand years ago) when increased rainfall had given rise to savannah conditions. Such conditions allowed nomadic cattle herders to range from the banks of the Nile to their pasture lands, depending on the season and to become familiar with two very different environments. As climatic conditions worsened and the savannah became desertified, these cattle herders increasingly adopted a settled lifestyle in the upper Nile Valley. Wilkinson bases his arguments on the extraordinary rock art of the Eastern Desert, which juxtapose scenes of savannah dwelling animals( giraffes, elephants and hyenas) and hunting with scenes which clearly depict cattle husbandry. Through such scenes we can see the start of the Egyptians representations of the natural world. Wilkinson devotes a further chapter to examining the recurring images of boats in rock art and in considering their influence on later Egyptian depictions of boats and journeys to the afterlife. The book is very well illustrated with photographs and line drawings of the rock art. All in all, a convincingly argued book which combines elements of archeology, art history and Egyptology, together with the history of the discovery of the rock art images. Likely to give comfort to all those believing in the gradual development of civilisation and providing a welcome relief from some of the zanier theories of cultural origins.
4.0 out of 5 stars
The origins of the Ancient Egyptians,
By
This review is from: Genesis of the Pharaohs: Dramatic New Discoveries That Rewrite the Origins of Ancient Egypt (Hardcover)
In the desert regions bordering modern day Egypt there exist thousands of prehistoric images (Petroglyph's) incised on stone. Through analysis of the images and following evidence at sites in parts of Egypt, Dr Wilkinson, shows that these Petroglyph's were the work of the pre-dynastic progenitors of the ancient Egyptians.
A well presented book showing that dynastic Egyptian civilization did not just spring out of thin air and neither was it established by a 'master race' of invaders from the east. Instead we see that the genesis came from semi-nomadic and pastoral communities originating in the savannah regions bordering the Nile valley in prehistoric times.
4.0 out of 5 stars
Egypt out of Africa,
By Ashtar Command "Seeker" (Stockholm, Sweden) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Genesis of the Pharaohs: Dramatic New Discoveries That Rewrite the Origins of Ancient Egypt (Hardcover)
When I first saw this book, I thought it was a pseudo-scientific, sensationalist book written by some Velikovskian. Its title and cover certainly conveys that impression. Indeed, it might be quite deliberate. Toby Wilkinson presumably wants to reach out to those who mostly read "alternative" books about ancient Egypt. In reality, the book is solid science.
What makes the book interesting is that it refutes the idea that Egyptian civilization came from the outside, from the Middle East, read: not from Africans. This is known as the "Dynastic Race" theory. Recently, this theory has been popularized by pop musician-cume-maverick Egyptologist David Rohl. Wilkinson belongs to another faction within Egyptology, the one that has began to take the African roots of Egypt seriously. According to Wilkinson, many aspects of Pharaonic civilization existed, at least in embryo, already during the pre-Dynastic period in Upper(southern) Egypt. Tribal rulers were burried in small, pyramid-shaped mounds. The boat and the cow were important religious symbols. We know from other studies that the Afro-asiatic ("Semito-Hamitic") languages originated in Ethiopia. This all points to an essentially African origin of Egyptian civilization. There is a continuity between the pastoralists roaming the Sahara, pre-Dynastic culture proper, and Dynastic culture. Mesopotamia had nothing to do with it. Will Wilkinson's ideas stand further scientific scrutiny? True, archeology is by its very nature an inexact science. But personally, I believe he and others like him are on the right track. Ancient Egypt might indeed have been "a Black thing".
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