War & Trade With the Pharaohs: An Archaeological Study of Ancient Egypt's Foreign Relations

by Garry J. Shaw

The ancient Egyptians presented themselves as superior to all other people in the world; on temple walls, the pharaoh is shown smiting foreign enemies – people from Nubia, Libya and the Levant – or crushing them beneath his chariot. Officially, foreigners represented disorder and chaos – the opposite of Egypt’s perfect land of justice and order. But despite such imagery, from the beginning of their history, the Egyptians also enjoyed friendly relations with neighboring cultures; both Egyptians and foreigners crossed the deserts and seas exchanging goods gathered from across the known world. They shared knowledge and technology, and sometimes settled abroad, marrying and acculturating. Through such interactions, the Egyptians influenced other cultures, and at the same time were themselves shaped by foreign contacts and external events.

War & Trade with the Pharaohs explores Egypt’s connections with the wider world over the course of 3,000 years, introducing readers to ancient diplomacy, travel, trade, warfare, domination, and immigration – both Egyptians living abroad and foreigners living in Egypt. It covers military campaigns and trade in periods of strength – including such important events as the Battle of Qadesh under Ramesses II and Hatshepsut’s trading mission to the mysterious land of Punt – and Egypt’s foreign relations during times of political weakness, when foreign dynasties ruled parts of the country. From early interactions with traders on desolate desert tracks, to sunken Mediterranean trading vessels, the Nubian Kingdom of Kerma, Nile fortresses, the Sea Peoples, and Persian satraps, there is always a rich story to tell behind Egypt’s foreign relations.

Genres: Ancient History, History, Egyptian Literature

213 pages, Hardcover

Published October 30, 2017

About the author

Garry J Shaw is an author and journalist, writing about archaeology, history, and travel. He studied archaeology and Egyptology at the University of Liverpool, and afterwards moved to Egypt to teach for the American University in Cairo. He has lectured in the UK, Egypt, and Canada, appeared in documentaries, and taught an online introduction to ancient Egypt for Oxford University's Department for Continuing Education.

Reviews

[Marc Lamot · Rating 3 out of 5]

British Egyptologist Garry J. Shaw provides a commendable overview of ancient Egyptian history, with an emphasis on relations with the surrounding regions. As an introduction, this is really okay, maybe even a little too detailed. But this has not become a truly global history, in the sense that has been popular since the 1990s. Shaw mainly focuses on the relations of Ancient Egypt with Nubia in the south, and with the Levant in the northwest. That’s quite a limitation. And his story gets bogged down in a long list of archaeological finds, expeditions and campaigns. All fascinating, certainly, but I still look forward to find a synthetic study that exposes the connections, interactions and intertwinings for the entire Ancient Near East. More about that in my History account on goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show....

[Sense of History]

Classical Egyptology suffers from myopia: most Egyptologists hardly see beyond the Nile Valley. This is evident from numerous handbooks and synthesis works that have appeared over the past decades, and which I have devoured in recent months. Mind you, this is of course not a specific problem of Egyptology but of academic studies in general: only seldom does anyone venture outside the field of their own specialization, looking over the wall and recognizing how evolutions in a limited geographic area are related to, influenced by, or contrasted with neighboring regions or civilizations.

Initially, I was excited to see that someone finally dared to highlight the interconnections between ancient Egypt and the wider Near East. Indeed, Shaw does so systematically, following the classical chronological line of prehistory, successive kingdoms and intermediate periods. And, as the subtitle promises, he has an eye for the archaeological material in particular. His premise is that we should see Egypt as a gateway: “A hub, connected to the Mediterranean Sea and the world beyond, to Asia via the Sinai, and south – along the Nile, the Red Sea, and desert routes – further into Africa.” Noble words, indeed, and his effort is certainly meritorious even if he doesn't quite live up to his promise. This book remains too much of a classic overview of the foreign relations of Ancient Egypt, not a global history. There's also just one very intriguing omission: unless I have not been paying enough attention, there's no mention of a Hebrew people residing in Egypt or not; given the fact that this is such a delicate topic, it's strange Shaw bypasses this completely.

[Iset · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not only does this book examine the aspect of warfare in ancient Egypt, but all foreign interaction, be it hostile or peaceful. It provides a much more complete picture than other works focusing on just one or the other, placing things in context. The information is provided chronologically, but is written in such a clear and lucid way that it does not become a confused mess. The book is perfectly intelligible by a general audience, the writing style is very accessible. I didn’t spot any errors here, aside from a single typo – although admittedly that isn’t to say there aren’t any – and I personally had only one complaint: the book barely skims over the Ptolemies at all, but in most examinations of pharaonic history include the Ptolemies as the last dynasty of pharaohs.