Ancient Egyptian antiquities are dominated by art and artifacts depicting the Netherworld -- the alternate universe mummified bodies would enter at the end of their physical lives, where they would live on for eternity. In this dazzling book, photographs and exhaustive texts illustrate how the promise of a glorious rebirth pervaded the daily life of Egyptians, from commoners to the most powerful pharaohs.

The Quest for Immortality accompanies an exhibition of Egyptian funerary art by the same name, which dates from nearly two thousand years before the Christian era. Drawn from the collection of Cairo's Egyptian Museum, this major exhibition opens at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. in 2002 and travels throughout the United States over a five-year period before an extended tour in Europe. Objects such as coffins, tombs, masks, jewelry, papyri, sarcophagi, and monumental and small-scale sculpture reveal the reverence and awe with which this highly developed ancient culture considered the mystery of death. Fascinating essays explore Egyptian art history, customs, and worship, with specific focus on the Amduat, a book devoted to the pharaoh's twelve-hour journey to the afterlife. Additional writings detail the background of the collection and focus upon the role of art in ancient Egypt. Throughout, readers will experience the artistry of the ancient Egyptians as it comes to life in this magnificent book.

This lavishly illustrated book conveys the wonder of Ancient Egypt through the daily activities of its people - not the lives of Egypt's royalty or elite classes, but the typical men and women who composed this magnificent civilization. Exceptional for its range, the volume portrays Egyptian life from birth and childhood through education, love and marriage, occupations, war, and finally the soul's journey to the netherworld. A particular strength is the coverage of anatomical material and medical texts. Other topics include the role of women, fashion, dance and music, agriculture, crafts, and construction of the pyramids and tombs. This in-depth portrait draws on the complete spectrum of sources: artifacts from tombs and settlement sites; inscribed potsherds and ostraca as well as papyri; material from the excavation of homes, shrines, and tomb chapels; reliefs and wall-paintings. Accompanying the text, 289 superb illustrations - including 219 colour plates - vividly portray Egyptian civilization through its creations and treasures. The thematic structure of the book imparts a visual coherence rarely found in illustrated books on Ancient Egypt. Among the photographs are many rare images not previously available. The illustrations convey a picture of Ancient Egyptian society that is compelling and immediate, despite the millennia that separate us from that great culture. Notable for thoroughness, accuracy, and sheer beauty, this indispensable guide will appeal to the serious student or scholar, as well as anyone interested in ancient civilizations.

This publication looks at the mysterious events surrounding the death of Rameses III, something that has puzzled historians, archaeologists, and Egyptologists. Now archaeologist Susan Redford investigates the circumstances of the ancient pharoah's death - and discovers among the women of his harem the threads of a murder conspiracy. Evidence is accumulated from ancient papyri and careful readings of temple carvings and a theory involving divisions between clans and rival lineages culminating in a murder plot, is put forward. The work gives insights into ancient Egypt's highly refined legal and judicial systems, which merge abstract notions of equity with mutilation and death. This new eplanation of the harem conspiracy casts new light on crime, punishment, and the role of women in Egyptian society. It further interprets the legacy of the assassination as a contribution to the decline of Egyptian power. A text that aims to ignite interest in both students and the general public, as well as challenging specialists in this field.

A genuine renaissance is presently underway in the study of biblical interpretation and biblical culture in the early Christian age. The profundity and complexity of the early Christians engagement with Holy Scripture, in theology, in ecclesial and liturgical life, in ethics, and in ascetic and devotional life, are providing a rich resource for contemporary discussions of the Bible's ongoing "afterlife" within ecumenical Christian communities and contexts.

The Bible in Greek Christian Antiquity is a collection of wide-ranging essays on the influence of the Bible in numerous and varied aspects of the life of the Greek-speaking churches during the first four centuries. Essays appear under the general themes of (I) The Bible as a Foundation of Christianity; (II) The Bible in Use among the Greek Church Fathers; (III) The Bible in Early Christian Doctrinal Controversy; (IV) The Bible and Religious Devotion in the Early Greek Church. Individual essays probe topics as diverse as the use of the Bible in early Christian preaching and catechesis, appeals to Scripture in the conflicts between Jews and Christians, pagan use of Scripture against the Church, and the Bible's influence in early Christian art, martyrology, liturgical reading, pilgrimage to the Holy Land, and ascetical life.

Much of the volume constitutes a translation, revision, and adaptation of essays originally presented in the French volume Le monde grec ancien et la Bible (1984), Volume 1 of the series Bible de Tousles Temps. Four new studies appear, however, including an introductory essay on Origen of Alexandria as a guide to the biblical reader, and two essays on the biblical culture of early Eastern Christianmonasticism.

The Bible in Greek Christian Antiquity comes as an international project, the work of French, Swiss, Australian, and now Canadian and American scholars. It will be useful to students of early Christianity and the history of biblical interpretation, and will also serve as a useful introduction to the many dimensions of the reception of the Bible in the early Church.

A world-renowned criminal profiler takes a fascinating look at one of the most tragic mysteries in history.
For more than two thousand years, the great pharaoh Cleopatra VII has been portrayed as a failed monarch. Various ancient sources state that she desperately ended her life with the bite of an asp, as her nemesis - the Roman general Octavian, later known as Augustus, the first Roman emperor - stormed Alexandria. Now, a completely unique interpretation of history is brought to light by world-renowned criminal profiler Pat Brown in her new myth-busting book, "The Murder of Cleopatra."
As host and profiler of "The Mysterious Death of Cleopatra" (Discovery 2005), Brown challenged the long-enduring myth that Cleopatra died via snakebite and that she committed suicide to avoid further humiliation. Using the techniques and methodology of investigative criminal profiling and crime reconstruction, "The Murder of Cleopatra" takes up where the Discovery Channel documentary left off. Brown's findings, borne of scientific method, rigorous inquiry, and deductive reasoning, will be revealed against a historical backdrop of mystery, drama, politics, danger, and romantic intrigue.
The result: a thought-provoking analysis of the amazing woman Cleopatra truly was, a fascinating account of the queen's final desperate attempt to escape Egypt with her ships and treasure, and the brutal homicide that ended her life as the last Egyptian pharaoh.

"Cleopatra": kohl and vipers, barges and thrones, Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton. We have long been schooled in the myth of the Egyptian ruler. In his new book Michel Chauveau brings us a picture of her firmly based in reality.

Cleopatra VII reigned in Egypt between 51 and 30 B.C.E. Her primary goal as a ruler was to restore over the eastern Mediterranean the supremacy of the Lagides, the dynasty of Macedonian origin of which she herself was a descendant. We know the queen best from Greek and Latin sources, though these must be used with caution because of their bias. Understandably enough, they reflect not only matters of interest to Romans, but also the propaganda that Octavian used against the queen during his struggles with Mark Antony. Chauveau combines his knowledge of Egyptian sources with judicious use of Classical materials to produce an authoritative biography of Cleopatra, the woman and queen, seen in the light of the turbulent era in which she lived.

Few other civilizations rival Ancient Egypt in its power to capture the modern imagination, and Cleopatra VII, monarch at the end of the Ptolemaic period, has always been preeminent among its cast of characters. Coming to power just before the unstable state was about to be absorbed into an autocratic empire, Cleopatra oversaw not only Egypt's progress as an influential regional power but also the fragile peace of its ethnically mixed population.

Michel Chauveau looks at many facets of life under this queen and her dynasty, drawing on such sources as firsthand accounts, numismatics, and Greek, Demotic, and hieroglyphic inscriptions. His use of such sources helps to free the narrative of dependence on later (and usually hostile) Greek and Roman historians. By taking up such subjects as funeral customs, language and writing, social class structure, religion, and administration, he affords the reader an unprecedented and comprehensive picture of Greek and Egyptian life in both the cities and the countryside.

Originally published in French in 1997, Egypt in the Age of Cleopatra fulfills a longstanding need for an accessible introduction to the social, economic, religious, military, and cultural history of Ptolemaic Egypt.

Akhenaten, also known as Amenhotep IV, was king of Egypt during the Eighteenth Dynasty and reigned from 1375 to 1358 B.C. Called the "religious revolutionary, " he is the earliest known creator of a new religion. The cult he founded broke with Egypt's traditional polytheism and focused its worship on a single deity, the sun god Aten. Erik Hornung, one of the world's preeminent Egyptologists, here offers a concise and accessible account of Akhenaten and his religion of light.

Hornung begins with a discussion of the nineteenth-century scholars who laid the foundation for our knowledge of Akhenaten's period and extends to the most recent archaeological Finds. He emphasizes that Akhenaten's monotheistic theology represented the first attempt in history to explain the entire natural and human world on the basis of a single principle. "Akhenaten made light the absolute reference point, ' Hornung writes, "and it is astonishing how clearly and consistently he pursued this concept." Hornung also addresses such topics as the origins of the new religion; profound changes in beliefs regarding the afterlife; and the new Egyptian capital at Akhenaten which was devoted to the service of Aten, his prophet Akhenaten, and the latter's family.

"Africa and Africans in Antiquity" assesses recent historical research and archaeology under way in Egypt, North Africa, the Sudan, and the Horn of Africa. Whereas many European and American scholars of earlier generations believed that Egyptian contacts with Africa to the south were not culturally significant, research contained in this important collection rejects such notions. At the same time, the volume takes issue with Afrocentric scholars who argue that most Egyptians were 'black' and that blacks are the rightful heirs to Egypt's past grandeur. These ten thought-provoking essays demonstrate that this large region was an ethnic and cultural mosaic in antiquity, a place where Phoenicians, Berbers, Greeks, as well as Egyptians and Nubians interacted.

Ancient Egypt is well known for its towering monuments and magnificent statuary, but other aspects of its civilization are less well known, especially its written texts. Now "Texts from the Pyramid Age" provides ready access to new translations of a representative selection of texts ranging from the historically significant to the repetitive formulae of the tomb inscriptions from Old Kingdom Egypt (ca. 2700-2170 B.C.). These royal and private inscriptions, coming from both the secular and religious milieus and from all kinds of physical contexts, not only shed light on the administration, foreign expeditions, and funerary beliefs of the period but also bring to life the Egyptians themselves, revealing how they saw the world and how they wanted the world to see them. Strudwick's helpful introduction to the history and literature of this seminal period provides important background for reading and understanding these historical texts. Like other volumes in the "Writings from the Ancient World" series, this work will soon become a standard with students and scholars alike. Paperback edition is available from the Society of Biblical Literature (www.sbl-site.org)

This reference to Ancient Egypt is designed for both the specialist and the non-specialist. It presents the important people, places and events in ancient Egyptian history as well as those in the history of Egyptology. Coverage is given to ancient Egyptian rulers, bureaucrats and commoners whose records have survived, to ancient culture, religion and gods, and to the people, places and events significant to modern archaeological discoveries and scholarship. The work also features a detailed bibliography of the historic periods, archaeological sites, and other important aspects of ancient Egyptian studies. The bibliography presents monographs on these themes.

An introduction to this important First Intermediate Period, Middle and New Kingdom site. Discussion of First Intermediate Periodburial customs. Many pictures.