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 A History of
Ancient Egypt
 A History of
Ancient Egypt
NICOLAS GRIMAL
Translated by Ian Shaw

4Jk Blackwell
?£/ Publishing
 © 1998 by Librairie Artheme Fayard
English translation © 1992, 1994 by Blackwell Publishing Ltd

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English edition first published 1992

Reprinted 1993, 1994
First published in paperback 1994

18 2008

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Grimal, Nicolas-Christophe
[Histoire de TEgypte ancienne. English]
A history of ancient Egypt/Nicolas Grimal; translated by Ian Shaw.
p. cm.
Translation of: Histoire de TEgypte ancienne.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-6311-7472-9 (hbk. : alk. paper)-ISBN 978-0-6311-9396-8 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Egypt - History - To 332 B.C. I. Title.
DT83.G7513 1993
932\01-dc20 92-9580
CIP

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 Contents

List of Illustrations vii

Translator's Note and Acknowledgements x
Introduction 1

PA RT I THE F O R M AT I V E PERIOD 15

1 From Prehistory to History 17

2 Religion and History 40
3 The Thinite Period 49

PA RT II THE CLASSICAL AGE 61

4 The Old Kingdom 63

5 Funerary Ideas 102
6 The Struggle for Power 137
7 The Middle Kingdom 155
8 The Invasion 182

PA RT III THE EMPIRE 197

9 The Tuthmosids 199

10 Akhenaten 226
11 The Ramessid Period 245
12 The Domain of Amun 293

PA RT IV THE FINAL PHASE 309

13 The Third Intermediate Period 3 11

14 Nubians and Saites 334
15 Persians and Greeks 367
vi Contents
Conclusion 383
Appendix: Chronology of Dynasties 389
Glossary 396
Bibliography 404
Guide to Further Reading by Kent R. Weeks 484
Index 490
 List of Illustrations

PLATES

plate 1 The 'Dancer'. Painted terracotta statuette from

Ma'amariya (excavations of H. de Morgan, 1907).
Naqada II period, c.3650-3300 BC, h. 0.29 m. 26
plate 2 Copy of paintings in the predynastic 'painted tomb'
at Hierakonpolis. 32
plate 3 The Narmer palette from Hierakonpolis. Schist,
h. 0.64 m, recto and verso. 38
plate 4 Chephren protected by Horus. Seated statue from the
valley temple of Chephren's funerary complex at
G i z a . F o u r t h D y n a s t y, d i o r i t e , h . 1 . 6 8 m . 9 6
plate 5 Djoser. Painted statue from the serdab of his
mortuary temple at Saqqara. Third Dynasty,
limestone, h. 1.35 m. 97
plate 6 Rahotep and Nofret. Painted, seated statues from
their tomb at Maidum. Fourth Dynasty, limestone,
h. 1.2 m. 99
plate 7 The dwarf Seneb, with this wife and children. Painted
group statue from Giza. Sixth Dynasty, limestone,
h. 0.33 m. 100
plate 8 Stele of Nefertiabet. Fourth Dynasty, limestone,
h. 0.36 m. 104
plate 9 View of the Saqqara Step Pyramid. 108
plate 10 Model of a group of archers from the tomb of
Mesehti at Asyut. Tenth Dynasty, wood, h. 1.93 m. 152
plate 11 Head of Mentuhotpe II. Eleventh Dynasty,
sandstone, h. 0.38 m. 156
plate 12 Head from a statuette of Ammenemes III. Twelfth
D y n a s t y, l i m e s t o n e , h . 0 . 1 2 m . 1 6 9
viii List of Illustrations
plate 13 Sphinx of Hatshepsut. Eighteenth Dynasty,
red granite, h. 1.64 m. 208
plate 14 Statue of Senenmut nursing Neferure. Eighteenth
D y n a s t y, b l a c k g r a n i t e , h . 0 . 7 6 m . 210
plate 15 Akhenaten. Osirid colossal statue from Karnak East.
Eighteenth Dynasty, sandstone, h. 3.10 m. 231
plate 16 Head of Queen Nefertiti. Eighteenth Dynasty,
painted limestone, h. 0.50 m. 235
plate 17 Ramesses II holding the heka sceptre, with his wife
and Prince Amonhirkhepeshef at his feet. Granite
statue from Karnak, h. 1.90 m. 251
plate 18 Scenes from the battle of Qadesh, temple of Ramesses
II at Abu Simbel. 252
plate 19 Nineteenth Dynasty ostracon showing a female
acrobat. 282
plate 20 The Sacred Lake and the Temple of Amon-Re at
Karnak. 294
plate 21 Detail of the Hypostyle Hall at the Temple of Amun,
Karnak. 305
plate 22 Sphinx of Taharqa. Twenty-fifth Dynasty, granite,
h. 0.42 m. 348
plate 23 Mentuemhet, Prince of the City. End of the Twenty-
fi f t h D y n a s t y, g r e y g r a n i t e , h . 1 . 3 5 m . 349
plate 24 Relief of Nectanebo I. Thirtieth Dynasty, basalt,
h. 1.22 m. 378
FIGURES

figure 1 Chronological table of the end of the Late

Palaeolithic period. 20
fi g u r e 2 P r i n c i p a l N e o l i t h i c s i t e s i n E g y p t . 2 5
figure 3 Egyptian routes of southward expansion. 86
figure 4 North-south and east-west cross-sections of Snofru's
' r h o m b o i d a l p y r a m i d ' a t D a h s h u r. 1 0 9
figure 5 Map of Egypt, showing locations of pyramid towns
(numbers refer to table 2). Ill
fi g u r e 6 P l a n o f t h e G i z a p l a t e a u . 1 2 0
figure 7 Plan of Djoser's Step Pyramid complex at Saqqara. 121
figure 8 Comparison between plans of (a) the tomb
chambers of a pyramid and (b) the pyramid
complex as a whole. 125
fi g u r e 9 C r o s s - s e c t i o n o f a t y p i c a l m a s t a b a . 1 2 9
figure 10 Deir el-Bahri: funerary complexes of Mentuhotpe II
and Hatshepsut. 174
 List of Illustrations ix
figure 11 Reconstruction drawing of the mortuary temple of
Mentuhotpe II at Deir el-Bahri. 175
figure 12 Map of Egypt and the Near East at the beginning of
the New Kingdom. 203
figure 13 Site of el-Amarna, east bank of the Nile. 236
fi g u r e 14 General plan of Abydos. 249
figure 15 Troop movements in the battle of Qadesh. 254
fi g u r e 16 General plan of Thebes. 262
fi g u r e 17 Plan of Luxor Te m p l e . 266
fi g u r e 1 8 T h e t e m p l e s o f M e d i n e t H a b u . 273
figure 19 Schematic plan of the village at Deir el-Medina and
several houses. 281
fi g u r e 2 0 G e n e r a l p l a n o f t h e K a r n a k t e m p l e s . 296
figure 21 The constructions of Hatshepsut and Tuthmosis III
at Karnak. 301
fi g u r e 22 General plan of Ta n i s . 316
fi g u r e 2 3 P o l i t i c a l m a p o f t h e D e l t a c . 8 0 0 B C . 329

TABLES

table 1 Chronological table of the end of the Neolithic period. 30

table 2 Family tree of the Fourth and Fifth Dynasty
(generations 1-6). 68
table 3 Table of major pyramids of the Old and Middle
Kingdoms. 11 6
table 4 Family tree of the early Eighteenth Dynasty
(generations 1-4). 191
table 5 Simplified chronological table for Egypt and the
ancient world in the Middle and Late Bronze Ages. 204
table 6 Family tree of the late Eighteenth Dynasty
(generations 9 - 11 ) . 214
table 7 The royal family tree of the Twenty-first Dynasty. 312
table 8 Chronological table of major powers in the Near East
until the Kushite conquest. 320
table 9 Table of Near Eastern powers from the Kushite
conquest to the end of the Saite period. 344
 Translator's Note
and Acknowledgements

This translation of Nicolas Grimal's Histoire de VEgypte ancienne differs

from the French edition in a number of ways. The text is illustrated by a
different selection of plates, line drawings and tables, and the best avail
able English-language translations have been used in place of French
translations of extracts from ancient Egyptian texts. The glossary and
chronological appendix were compiled by the translator.
The translator and publishers would like to acknowledge the fol
lowing for permission to reproduce extracts:
Aris & Phillips Ltd, for lines from Faulkner 1973—7; The British
Museum Press, for lines from Faulkner 1985; Oxford University Press,
for lines from Gardiner 1961 and 1964; University of California Press,
for lines from Lichtheim 1975, 1976, 1980; University of Chicago
Press, for lines from Grene 1987.
 A History of Ancient Egypt
Nicolas Grimal
translated by Ian Shaw

<overing the first human settlement (c. 120,000 BC) to its conquest by
Alexander the Great in 333 BC. It is the first reign-by-reign history of ancient
I gypt to be published since Sir Alan Gardiner's Egypt of the Pharaohs
(1961) and takes full account of the many archaeological, scientific and
linguistic discoveries of the last three decades. The author blends
archaeological and textual evidence into a lucid and vivid narrative and, by
quoting extensively from contemporary sources, such as the funerary auto
biographies of individuals and the official accounts of military campaigns, adds
a strong sense of atmosphere to the unfolding events.

Nicolas Grimal recounts the political, cultural and economic history of the
Egyptians within the framework of an intricate and well-argued chronology.
At a time when the vast accumulation of information from ancient Egypt is
becoming almost too diverse for a single mind to encompass, he has managed
to transform - without disguising current gaps in knowledge — disparate
sources of evidence and the results of many different disciplines into a coherent
historical sequence. This is in itself a considerable achievement: it has also
provided the means of presenting what is one of the most scholarly and at the
same time most readable histories ever written of a civilization whose mysteries
and achievements have fascinated the world for well over two millennia.

For the paperback edition a section of further reading in English has been
prepared by Kent R. Weeks, Professor of Egyptology at the American
University in Cairo.

Nicolas Grimal is Professor of Egyptology at the University of Paris,

Sorbonne.
Ian Shaw is Lecturer in Egyptian Archaeology at the University of
Liverpool.
Cover illustration: Hunting of Fowl in the Marshes, Tomb of Nebamun, Thebes. By
permission of Ancient Art and Architecture Collection (Ronald Sheridan).

Design: Miller, Craig and Cocking Design Partnership.

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Publishing