Ancient Egyptian Technology and Innovation
Subtitle: Transformations in Pharaonic Material Culture
By: Ian Shaw
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Published: 2012
Language: eng
Format: Paperback
Number of pages: 216
ISBN-13: 9780715631188
Copyright date: 2012
Description: The study of ancient Egyptian materials and technology is a vibrant one, with research being conducted by many scholars throughout the world. This book draws not only on traditional archaeological and textual sources but also on the results of scientific analyses of ancient materials and on experimental and ethno-archaeological information. Although the principal aim is to bring together the basic evidence for different aspects of change and evolution in Egyptian technology, it also examines wider cognitive and social contexts, such as the ancient Egyptian propensity for mental creativity and innovation. How rapidly did Egyptian technology change in comparison with other African, Mediterranean or Near Eastern states? The text includes consideration of those aspects of Egyptian society that made it predisposed (or not) to certain types of innovation, e.g. techniques of metalworking, transportation and construction.
Table of contents: label: Preface
pagenum: vii; label: Acknowledgements
pagenum: viii; label: List of illustrations
pagenum: ix; label: Chronology
pagenum: xiii; label: Chapter 1
title: Introduction: towards an explicitly anthropological analysis of technological change and innovation in ancient Egypt
pagenum: 1; label: Chapter 2
title: Analysing Egyptian technological dynamics: was Egyptian technology underpinned and framed by 'science'?
pagenum: 11; label: Chapter 3
title: Writing: human communication as social technology
pagenum: 24; label: Chapter 4
title: Medicine, magic and pharmacy: the fusion of science and art
pagenum: 39; label: Chapter 5
title: Stone-working: the synthesis of traditional chaines operatorires and ideological innovations
pagenum: 55; label: Chapter 6
title: Mummification and glass-working: issues of definition and process
pagenum: 77; label: Chapter 7
title: Chariot production: technical choice and socio-political change
pagenum: 92; label: Chapter 8
title: Military hardware: the east Mediterranean knowledge economy and the emergence of the Iron Age in Egypt
pagenum: 110; label: Chapter 9
title: Technology embedded in urban society: finding the individual in the general
pagenum: 127; label: Chapter 10
title: Conclusions
pagenum: 151; label: Appendix 1
title: Measuring space
pagenum: 157; label: Appendix 2
title: Measuring time
pagenum: 160; label: Appendix 3
title: Astronomy and astrology
pagenum: 163; label: Abbreviations
pagenum: 167; label: Bibliography
pagenum: 169; label: Index
pagenum: 191; title: Ancient Egyptian terms
pagenum: 199; title: Assyrian terms
pagenum: 200