Table of Contents

Preface
Acknowledgements
List of illustrations
Chronology
Introduction: towards an explicitly anthropological analysis of technological change and innovation in ancient Egypt
Analysing Egyptian Technological Dynamics - was Egyptian technology underpinned and framed by 'science'?
Writing: human communication as social technology
Medicine, Magic and Pharmacy: the fusion of science and religion
Stone-working: the synthesis of traditional chaînes opératoires and ideological innovations
Mummification and Glass-working: issues of definition and process
Chariot Production: technical choice and socio-political change
Military Hardware: the east Mediterranean knowledge economy and the emergence of the Iron Age in Egypt
Technology Embedded in Urban Society: finding the individual in the general
Conclusion
Appendix 1: Measuring space
Appendix 2: Measuring time
Appendix 3: Astronomy and astrology
Abbreviations
Bibliography
Index

Promotional Information

This study brings together the basic evidence for different aspects of change and evolution in Egyptian technology, alongside wider cognitive and social contexts.

About the Author

Ian Shaw is Professor of Archaeology, University of Chester, UK. His books include Egyptology: A Very Short Introduction (2004) and Hatnub: Quarrying Travertine in Ancient Egypt (2008).

Reviews

This is a readable and thought-provoking volume from which students and professional Egyptologists will benefit. The use of theory is welcome, but the main impact of the book is its continuation of the theme of establishing an "Egyptological" theory of materials and technology.
*The Historian*