The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Egypt.

• Author: Der Manuelian, Peter
• Position: Book Review

Edited by DONALD B. REDFORD. 3 VOLS. New York: OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS, 2001. Pp. xv + 586, 624, illus. $450.

The highly specialized nature of Egyptological research has traditionally posed almost insurmountable barriers to the interested lay public. But the current era is witnessing a new trend toward providing unprecedented access to the material, and never before has the gap been narrowed so successfully. The information explosion over the Internet has, of course, helped open the doors to Egyptological scholarship, but a number of recent, well-conceived, encyclopedic publications also provide handy reference works on a wide range of subjects critical to serious study of ancient life in the Nile Valley. For English readers, the three-volume Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Egypt now takes its place beside J. M. Sasson, ed., Civilizations of the Ancient Near East (New York: Scribners, 1995); K. A. Bard, ed., Encyclopedia of the Archaeology of Ancient Egypt (London: Routledge, 1999), and a host of more narrowly focused monographs. (1)

While the two works named above cover the ancient Near East in general (Sasson) and Egyptian archaeological sites, terms, and excavators in particular (Bard), the encyclopedia under review aims at a broader cross-section of items pertinent to an interdisciplinary approach to Egyptology in its broadest definition. Entries are included on the expected items, such as "Akhenaten," "Giza" or "Cult" but also on the perhaps less common "Coptic literature," "Disease," "Epigraphy," "Grammar" (all phases of Egyptian), "Hygiene" "Land and Soil," "Mesopotamia," "Pigs," "Taxation," "Time," and "Zoological gardens," to name just an arbitrary few. Editor-in-chief D. B. Redford has gathered a first-rate list of experts, many of whom are the leading authorities on the subjects for which they have contributed entries. The editing by D. B. Spanel has lent the publication a consistency that similar large-scale projects involving numerous scholars often lack. His compilation of "'Reference Works" (vol. 3, pp. 126-31) is particularly welcome. Each of the three volumes contains a map of Egypt on its front endpapers, and an adapted high chronology kinglist on its back endpapers. A synoptic outline of contents and an index for all three volumes are included at the back of volume 3.

The essays are informative without leaning too heavily on obscure or overly specialized vocabulary (although they do use standard Gardiner-era...