The Early History of Egypt
From the Old Testament, Herodotus, Manetho, and the Hieroglyphical Inscriptions

Sharpe's objective in this 1836 book is to collect the ancient literary sources, including hieroglyphic inscriptions, on early Egyptian history.

Samuel Sharpe (Author)

9781108083010, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 30 April 2015

192 pages, 3 b/w illus. 2 colour illus.
24.5 x 17 x 1 cm, 0.2 kg

This 1836 work by Samuel Sharpe (1799–1881) is the first of two volumes on the history of ancient Egypt; the second, dealing with the Ptolemaic period, is also reissued in this series. From a banking family, Sharpe was fascinated by Thomas Young's and Champollion's work in deciphering the hieroglyphs. He taught himself Coptic, and compiled his own hieroglyphic vocabulary lists. His facility for decipherment was assisted by a natural gift for solving cryptograms, but his inferences sometimes led him into error. His objective in this book is 'to collect out of the writings of the ancients every particular relating to the History of Egypt', marshalling ancient authorities including the Old Testament, Herodotus, Diodorus Siculus and the Ptolemaic priest Manetho, whose division of the rulers into dynasties is still relied on. The second part of the book uses this evidence to discuss Egyptian life, language, beliefs and customs.

Preface
Introduction
1. The Old Testament
2. Herodotus
3. Diodorus Siculus
4. Manetho
5. The tablet of kings at Abydus
6. The Egyptian buildings
7. Eratosthenes
8. Flavius Josephus
9. Aristotle
10. Dicaearchus
11. Strabo
12. Tacitus
13. Pausanias
14. Pliny
15. Valerius Flaccus
16. Homer
17. Hesiod
18. Plutarch
19. Ammianus Marcellinus
20. Xenophon
21. Quintus Curtius
22. Porphyry
23. On the Egyptian year
24. On the physical character of the Egyptians
25. On the mythology of the Egyptians
26. On the Coptic language
27. On the Ethiopic language
28. On the hieroglyphics and hieratic writing
29. On the enchorial language
30. On the date of the Trojan war
31. On the date of the Jewish exodus
Chronological table
Descriptions of the plates.

Subject Areas: Egyptian archaeology / Egyptology [HDDG]