Book Review: A Companion to Ancient Egypt (2 vols.)

Bryn Mawr Classical Review (Reviewed by Peter C. Nadig)

Alan B. Lloyd (ed.), A Companion to Ancient Egypt (2 vols.). Blackwell Companions to the Ancient World. Chichester/Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell, 2010.

One of the recent additions to the Blackwell Companions to the Ancient World is the huge two-volume set, Companion to Ancient Egypt edited by Alan B. Lloyd. A previous companion to the Ancient Near East (edited by D.C. Snell in 2007) features a few chapters on Ancient Egypt. The current book contains 49 articles by nearly as many contributors who specialize in different areas of Egyptian studies from Prehistory to the early Byzantine period. It would exceed the volume of such a review to comment on every chapter herein. The extensive table of content listed below gives an impression of the sheer variety of themes in this publication. Alan B. Lloyd can be congratulated for his effort in bringing so many different experts together.

Many subject headings on governmental, social, and cultural aspects were treated twice with an essay each for the Pharaonic and Graeco-Roman periods. Among the exceptions is Robert B. Partridge’s interesting contribution on transport (chapter 20), which focuses solely on Pharaonic times. In accordance with the series, each chapter concludes with a summary and suggestions for further reading – usually highlighting the most recent or relevant publications.