The Archaeology of Early Egypt: Social Transformations in North-East Africa, 10,000 to 2,650 BC: Social Transformations in North-East Africa, c.10,000 to 2,650 BC (Cambridge World Archaeology)

firstly, it has got to be said... this book is marvellous. Its scope is huge, but well researched and very well written.Wengrow combines archaeology and anthrapology to study egypt and her cultural influences in her earliest days, prior to the unification of Egypt. With an absolute lack of historical (literary) evidence for the period, Wengrow focusses on the archaeological evidence from Egypt and uses it to link her rise into a powerful state, and how interaction with such contemporary powers (Mesopotamia, Nubia, sub-Saharan Africa etc) influenced egypt economically, politically and in terms of trade.The book is separated into two parts; transformation in prehistory, which looks at earliest egypt, within an archaeological context. The second part, "the making of kingshp" explores the cultural changes that led to the unification of the egyptian state.the layout is accessible, and an appendix which details the different contemporary time period is very useful. Furthermore, there is a sufficient number of illustrations throughout the book, although none in colour.In terms of language, the book is designed for all. It does not scare off the amateur egyptologist, yet it is sufficient for the masters in the field.I cannot recommend this book highly enough. David Wengrow, you should be proud.

David Wengrow gives us a fresh, scholarly work that is both informative and provocative. It provides an excellent companion to The Prehistory of Egypt by Beatrix Midant-Reynes. The writing is accessible and I enjoyed the first reading and even more the second. It is super how he brings in early Egyptian ties to Palestine, the Levant and Mesopotamia. I wish he would have tackled the significance of the fascinating rock art of the Eastern Desert, as well as the huge buried piece of shaped sandstone and cattle tumuli at Nabta Playa. This is a wonderful book and I recommend it.Physics Prof and Egypt Fan

great

This book collects a good deal of intelligible and interesting descriptive information on the archaeology of "pre-dynastic" Egypt. However, the discursive interpretive parts of the writing are "accessible" only in the sense that most of the words (not to include the surfeit of French words and phrases, which apparently represent concepts so exaltedly esoteric as to be untranslatable) can be found in a dictionary of the English language. Interesting book, but with some calculated abstruseness, at times verging on opacity suggestive of smugness. [Postscript: In later reading David O'Connor's "Abydos", I find my criticism of Wengrow's book vindicated by O'Connor's own comments (p. 137) on "The Archaeology of Early Egypt" (and other books of similar vintage, with similarly premature theorizing): "Grand theories...are proposed about early culture and kingship in Egypt, but are based on heterogeneous and random archaeological data.... So far, these data are an inadequate foundation for the complex speculations built upon them, for the evidence still has substantial ambiguities and gaps." Where O'Connor politely says "grand", I will say "grandiose".]