Two paperbacks. Blue cover with white title and Egyptian figures. Dimensions are for one volume.

We provide an in-depth photographic presentation of this item to stimulate your feeling and touch. More traditional book descriptions are immediately available

• Note: This book carries a £5.00 discount to those that subscribe to the F.B.A. mailing list  

For the books’ conditions, please view our photographs. Why did the Egyptians try to preserve their dead for eternity? How did they succeed? Carol Andrews answers these questions in a fully illustrated survey of the techniques of mummification, the religious beliefs that lay behind the practice, the ornate coffins and elaborate tombs that housed the bodies, and the grave goods that accompanied them. She explains how animals also came to be embalmed and relates the curious role assumed by Egyptian mummies in European culture and mythology. This book has long proved fascinating reading; it is now available in an updated format.

Ancient Egyptian art refers to art produced in ancient Egypt between the 6th millennium BC and the 4th century AD, spanning from Prehistoric Egypt until the Christianization of Roman Egypt. It includes paintings, sculptures, drawings on papyrus, faience, jewelry, ivories, architecture, and other art media. It was a conservative tradition whose style changed very little over time. Much of the surviving examples comes from tombs and monuments, giving insight into the ancient Egyptian afterlife beliefs.

The ancient Egyptian language had no word for “art”. Artworks served an essentially functional purpose that was bound with religion and ideology. To render a subject in art was to grant it permanence; thus, ancient Egyptian art portrayed an idealized and unrealistic version of the world. There was no significant tradition of individual artistic expression since art served a wider and cosmic purpose of maintaining order.