Mirage : Napoleon's scientists and the unveiling of Egypt /
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Two centuries ago, only the most reckless Europeans dared traverse the Middle East. Its history and peoples were the subject of myth and speculation--and no region aroused greater interest than Egypt. It was not until 1798, when an unlikely band of scientific explorers traveled from Paris to the Nile Valley, that Westerners received their first real glimpse of what lay beyond the Mediterranean. Under the command of Napoleon Bonaparte, a small corps of Paris's brightest left the safety of their laboratories, studios, and classrooms to embark into the unknown--some never to see French shores again. Over 150 astronomers, mathematicians, naturalists, physicists, doctors, chemists, engineers, botanists, artists--even a poet and a musicologist--accompanied Napoleon's troops into Egypt. They approached the land not as colonizers, but as experts in their fields of scholarship, meticulously categorizing and collecting their finds, and secured their place in history as the world's earliest-known archaeologists.--From publisher description.
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xv, 286 pages, [16] pages of plates : illustrations ; 24 cm. :
Includes bibliographical references (pages 261-269) and index. :
9780060597689
The archaeology of ancient Egypt : beyond pharaohs /
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"Egyptologists, art historians, philologists and anthropological archaeologists have long worked side by side in Egypt, but they often fail to understand one another's approaches. This book aims to introduce students to the archaeological side of the study of ancient Egypt and to bridge the gap between disciplines by explaining how archaeologists tackle a variety of problems. Douglas J. Brewer introduces the theoretical reasoning for each approach, as well as the methods and techniques applied to support it. This book is an essential read for any student considering further study of ancient Egypt" --
"Archaeology: History and Development Archaeology and Egyptology Archaeology, as defined by the Oxford English Dictionary, is the "study of human history and prehistory through the excavation of sites and analysis of physical remains." These physical remains include not only every item ever made by humans - - from a piece of burnt charcoal to awe-inspiring stone monuments -- but also the remains of humans themselves. As such, archaeology is one of the widest-ranging scientific disciplines and incorporates method and theory from art, history, linguistics, geology, biology, chemistry, mathematics and the social sciences. What is Egyptology and how does it differ from archaeology? Egyptology is a historical discipline devoted to the study of ancient Egypt. It is modeled after classical studies of Greece and Rome, which rely on written records to supply chronology, historical data, and information about beliefs of the past. Egyptologists work with specific texts to understand nuances of the ancient culture, often within a well-defined time period. Like all historical disciplines, Egyptology is a particularizing discipline. That is, it is primarily interested in defining what happened at a specific place and time"--
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xvii, 200 pages : illustrations, maps ; 23 cm. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9780521707343