A History of Ancient Egypt

In this engaging and ambitious work, John Romer aims to refocus the gaze of the non-specialist away from the Pharaonic period (about which there are any number of popular histories) onto the Neolithic, and the growth of a centralised Egyptian state. He traces fifteen hundred years of development, from the emergence of farming communities along the route of the Nile to the creation of the sophisticated administrative, transport and supply systems which allowed the construction of the Great Pyramid. His approach is avowedly archaeological, aiming to get away from the priviledging of textual court-focused history, and stressing the role and lives of the ordinary peoples of Egypt.