Ancient Egyptian Technology and Innovation

This book examines the fundamental evidence for many different aspects of change and evolution in ancient Egyptian technology. It includes discussion of the wider cognitive and social contexts, such as the Egyptian propensity for mental creativity and innovation, and the pace of change in Egypt in comparison with other African, Mediterranean and Near Eastern states.
This book draws not only on traditional archaeological and textual sources but also on the results of scientific analyses of ancient materials and on experimental and ethno-archaeological information. Case-studies analyse those aspects of Egyptian society that made it either predisposed or actively opposed to certain types of conservatism or innovation in material culture, such as the techniques of stone-working, medicine, mummification and monumental construction. The book also includes detailed discussion of the ways in which the practice and development of Egyptian technology interrelated with Late Bronze Age urban society as a whole, using the city at Amarna as a case-study.

Ian Shaw is Professor of Archaeology, University of Chester, UK. His books include Egyptology: A Very Short Introduction (2004) and Hatnub: Quarrying Travertine in Ancient Egypt (2008).

Preface
Acknowledgements
List of illustrations
Chronology
Introduction: towards an explicitly anthropological analysis of technological change and innovation in ancient Egypt
Analysing Egyptian Technological Dynamics - was Egyptian technology underpinned and framed by 'science'?
Writing: human communication as social technology
Medicine, Magic and Pharmacy: the fusion of science and religion
Stone-working: the synthesis of traditional chaînes opératoires and ideological innovations
Mummification and Glass-working: issues of definition and process
Chariot Production: technical choice and socio-political change
Military Hardware: the east Mediterranean knowledge economy and the emergence of the Iron Age in Egypt
Technology Embedded in Urban Society: finding the individual in the general
Conclusion
Appendix 1: Measuring space
Appendix 2: Measuring time
Appendix 3: Astronomy and astrology
Abbreviations
Bibliography
Index