-24% $35.78$35.78
FREE delivery May 20 - 21
Ships from: textbooks_source Sold by: textbooks_source
$24.61$24.61
FREE delivery May 15 - 17
Ships from: Vintage Book Shoppe, Ltd. Sold by: Vintage Book Shoppe, Ltd.
Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.
Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.
Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.
OK
Exploring Religion in Ancient Egypt (Blackwell Ancient Religions) 1st Edition
Purchase options and add-ons
Exploring Religion in Ancient Egypt offers a stimulating overview of the study of ancient Egyptian religion by examining research drawn from beyond the customary boundaries of Egyptology and shedding new light on entrenched assumptions.
- Discusses the evolution of religion in ancient Egypt – a belief system that endured for 3,000 years
- Dispels several modern preconceptions about ancient Egyptian religious practices
- Reveals how people in ancient Egypt struggled to secure well-being in the present life and the afterlife
- ISBN-109781444332001
- ISBN-13978-1444332001
- Edition1st
- PublisherBlackwell Pub
- Publication dateDecember 3, 2014
- LanguageEnglish
- Dimensions5 x 0.5 x 8 inches
- Print length288 pages
Books with Buzz
Discover the latest buzz-worthy books, from mysteries and romance to humor and nonfiction. Explore more
Editorial Reviews
Review
"This book provides a new and rather different view of religious practice amongst the ancient Egyptians, drawing on an extensive range of texts, artefacts, contextual information, and anthropological approaches from outside Egypt." (Ancient Egypt, 1 April 2015)
Review
"Quirke tells the story of Ancient Egyptian Religion as a mode of life and a reflective philosophy. A book rich in evidence, thoughtful and fresh in interpretation, courageous enough to give up the claim of answering every question―but eager to pose it.” –Martin Fitzenreiter, Bonn University
".....a uniquely comprehensive integration of archaeological and written evidence about Egyptian beliefs and practices; energized by ethnographic and anthropological perspectives, Quirke's book clarifies, yet queries key debates about Egyptian religion." –David O'Connor, New York University
“Quirke’s unique approach to Egyptian beliefs about creation, life, death, etc., uses the written and archaeological evidence to reveal the logic of ancient thought as it acquaints us with its ‘nuts and bolts.’” –Betsy Bryan, Johns Hopkins University
From the Inside Flap
Exploring Religion in Ancient Egypt presents an overview of the beliefs, sacred rituals, and religious practices of the people of Kemet – literally, “the Black Land” – whose Nile Valley population stretched from Aswan to the Mediterranean coast beginning from circa 3100 B.C.
Dispelling some of the dominant modern preconceptions about ancient Egyptian religion, author Stephen Quirke considers the evidence for ancient patterns of marking sacred space and time, and the verbal and visual imagery on creation and Ma`at – the expression of truth and balance, or “what is good,” in the language of Kemet. Within these frameworks, Quirke reveals how people in ancient Egypt struggled to secure well-being in the present life as they prepared for the afterlife. Exploring Religion in Ancient Egypt offers illuminating insights into an ancient civilization whose complex series of religious beliefs and practices remain unique in the history of human religion.
From the Back Cover
Exploring Religion in Ancient Egypt presents an overview of the beliefs, sacred rituals, and religious practices of the people of Kemet – literally, “the Black Land” – whose Nile Valley population stretched from Aswan to the Mediterranean coast beginning from circa 3100 B.C.
Dispelling some of the dominant modern preconceptions about ancient Egyptian religion, author Stephen Quirke considers the evidence for ancient patterns of marking sacred space and time, and the verbal and visual imagery on creation and Ma`at – the expression of truth and balance, or “what is good,” in the language of Kemet. Within these frameworks, Quirke reveals how people in ancient Egypt struggled to secure well-being in the present life as they prepared for the afterlife. Exploring Religion in Ancient Egypt offers illuminating insights into an ancient civilization whose complex series of religious beliefs and practices remain unique in the history of human religion.
About the Author
Stephen Quirke is Professor of Egyptology in the Institute for Archaeology at University College London, and Curator at the Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology. His books include The Cult of Ra: Sun-Worship in Ancient Egypt (2001), Egyptian Literature 1800 BC: Questions and Readings (2004), and Lahun: A Town in Egypt 1800 BC, and the History of its Landscape (2005).
Stephen Quirke is Professor of Egyptology in the Institute for Archaeology at University College London, UK, and Curator at the Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology, UK. His books include Lahun: A Town in Egypt 1800 BC, and the History of its Landscape (2005), Egyptian Literature 1800 BC: Questions and Readings (2004), and The Cult of Ra: Sun-Worship in Ancient Egypt (2001)
Product details
- ASIN : 1444332007
- Publisher : Blackwell Pub; 1st edition (December 3, 2014)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 288 pages
- ISBN-10 : 9781444332001
- ISBN-13 : 978-1444332001
- Item Weight : 14.6 ounces
- Dimensions : 5 x 0.5 x 8 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #2,992,903 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #1,498 in Ancient History (Books)
- #2,838 in Ancient & Classical Literary Criticism (Books)
- #4,681 in Religious Studies (Books)
- Customer Reviews:
About the author
Discover more of the author’s books, see similar authors, read author blogs and more
Customer reviews
Customer Reviews, including Product Star Ratings help customers to learn more about the product and decide whether it is the right product for them.
To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon. It also analyzed reviews to verify trustworthiness.
Learn more how customers reviews work on Amazon-
Top reviews
Top reviews from the United States
There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.
As an example, no texts from before the middle of the New Kingdom tell myths as cohesive stories, and even after that point such stories are rare. Thus, for about half of the history of ancient Egyptian religion we have only brief references to the same mythic events that later show up in cohesive narratives. Egyptologists often assume that coherent myths were passed down orally even if they weren't written down, but Quirke points to anthropological research that has shown how much of the human learning process depends on non-verbal instruction, and he suggests that the brief bits of myth that we find in sources like funerary texts may have been passed down by some process like this. How? Quirke doesn't say; he just says Egyptologists should study the possibility.
This is my biggest frustration with the book. There are very few conclusions, only problems and possible avenues for future study. Quirke does make some valuable points. For instance, he emphasizes Egyptian burials that don't fit the standard Egyptological description of Egyptian funerary customs, and he points out that Egyptologists' reluctance to translate the word maat (which he renders as "what is right") makes ancient Egypt seem somehow apart from every other human culture, all of which have concepts of right and wrong. But, overall, this book feels very unsatisfying. People seriously studying ancient Egyptian religion should probably have it on hand, as a constant reminder of how our preconceptions get in the way of understanding a strange society, but it works better in giving future Egyptologists a jumping-off point than in informing people about ancient Egyptian religion.
“Seth removes the eyes of Horus, which grow into lotus buds, and he pretends not to have found him, but Hathor finds him and restores his sight with gazelle milk, telling Ra what happened.
The gods tell Horus and Seth to stop fighting; Seth seduces Horus who catches the semen of Seth and tells Isis; Isis cuts off the hand of Horus, throws it into the marshes, and replaces it, then puts the semen of Horus on a lettuce in the garden of Seth; when Seth tells the gods he has done the ‘work of male’ against Horus, the semen of Seth comes out of the marsh, and the semen of Horus comes out of the head of Seth as a disk, taken by Thoth as a crown; the gods acclaim Horus”
— Exploring Religion in Ancient Egypt, by Stephen Quirke
Top reviews from other countries
The current book has much to interest the general reader as well as students of Egyptology. There are some fascinating case studies and many helpful illustrations. What I have found far more challenging is the occasionally rather obscure style. It is probably unfair to quote a single sentence out of context but this is a sample: "Throughout the questions of gendered life difference, in the bodily distinction of times, the written and visual record may give more clues than answers" (page 61). Elsewhere, the flow of argument/information comes to something of a halt, for example in the description of different types of architectural "engagements with ground" in Chapter 3.
In the end, I read just parts of the book. I suspect I need to take it on again and not be put off by the author's style. which may possibly be explained by determination to render strange that which could otherwise be too readily assimilated.