Ancient Egypt

All That Matters

by Barry J. Kemp

All That Matters about Ancient Egypt. All That Matters books are a fast way to get right to the heart of key issues.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Egypt, Ancient History

160 pages, Paperback

First published November 14, 2014

About the author

Professor Barry Kemp is Emeritus Professor of Egyptology at the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, University of Cambridge. He has been Field Director at Tell el-Amarna since 1977, pioneering excavations formerly for the Egypt Exploration Society, and now as The Amarna Project supported by the Amarna Trust. His important publications include Amarna Reports, I-VI (EES, 1984-95) and Ancient Egypt: Anatomy of a Civilisation (Routledge, 2nd ed., 2006).

Reviews

[Marc Lamot · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rating 2.5 stars. A very concise introduction, which could just as well have belonged to the series 'A Very Short Introduction'. Barry Kemp, emeritus professor at the University of Cambridge (UK), has opted for a thematic approach, which is certainly meritorious, because the chronological approach is well known in all its simplicity (Old Kingdom-1st Intermediate Period-Middle Kingdom-2nd Intermediate Period-New Kingdom).
This book contains both valuable and surprising propositions. For instance, according to Kemp the success of a state can generally be judged by the preservation of traditional forms through centuries of change. That may be true of Egyptian civilization, but much less so of other, also successful states.
In line with this, Kemp posits: “History and current experience show that successful societies of significant size tend towards a single natural form. That form is hierarchical, with dominant leadership, which acts in large part through institutions and enforced rules, is glorified through conspicuous buildings, engineering projects and art, and competes with other societies through economic exchange and often through warfare or threat of warfare.” I find that 'single natural form' slightly disturbing.
Other statements are less controversial and even enlightening, I list them in my review in my historical account on Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Sense of History]

Meritorious booklet, with both controversial and provocative propositions. Kemp emphasizes in particular how strange Egyptian civilization still appears to Western modern man. This is partly due to a staggering shortage of sources: despite the abundance of monuments, sculptures and murals, there are far fewer textual sources compared to the Mesopotamian civilisation(s), which means that many questions remain unanswered. The whole domain of the religious, for example, is very difficult to grasp. Kemp rightly argues that we should not approach that domain with our standards and conceptual concepts at all. “Thoughtful Egyptians observed the visible world around them, though with a seemingly passive interest which did not seek patterns that invoked impersonal, ‘natural’ forces that were open to rational explanation. At the same time, however, they perceived that there was more to existence than what the eye saw. Their answer was colourful, invented knowledge, a world of ‘gods’. They seem to have approached it in a relatively neutral spirit of enquiry. The gods existed as self-evident units of knowledge; they were natural phenomena, but were not part of a broader picture to be argued over.” Even then, it remains very difficult to 'grasp' this whole domain.
Also interesting is Kemp's thesis that it is not the pyramids or the mask of Tutankhamen that are the ultimate symbol of Egyptian civilization (although they indicate more than ever how central the institute of the pharaoh was), but the balance, which not only represent the weighing of the soul (also a difficult concept) after death, but especially the cosmic order inspired by the ma'at, which stands for both justice and harmony.
In short, this booklet certainly contains stimulating incentives to further explore Egyptian civilization. But at the same time it also frustrates, because Kemp does not develop those suggestions further. I guess I just have to read on. :) Rating 2.5 stars

[Iset · Rating 3 out of 5]

Does what the title claims it does – provides a very simple, quick and easy-to-read run down of the key facts and concepts of ancient Egyptian history. The audience is definitely for complete beginners to the subject. I was surprised however that the author, Barry Kemp, well-known as an Egyptologist, expressed some controversial interpretations that I just can’t credit – including the notion that Akhenaten was a closet atheist who simply tried to express his revolutionary ideas in ways his people could understand.

6 out of 10