Book Review: Artifacts from Ancient Egypt

Abstract

Artifacts from Ancient Egypt, a new title in the Greenwood Daily Life through Artifacts series, utilizes objects of daily life from ancient Egypt to illuminate the ways in which material culture reflects the lifeways of the people who produce it. In keeping with the general outline of the series, author Barbara Mendoza, a Berkeley-trained specialist in ancient Egyptian and eastern Mediterranean art and archaeology, has selected 45 pieces that reflect the customs, beliefs, and practices of ancient Egyptians from the earliest Predynastic era (ca. 5000 BCE) through the late Graeco-Roman period (ca. 300 CE). The material culture of ancient Egypt is particularly adapted to this kind of treatment, given its deeply ornamented and symbolic nature, and is an excellent beginner’s guide to understanding and interpreting how material culture reflects the society that created it.