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Egypt: Pharaonic Period. By ALESSIA FASSONE and ENRICO FERRARIS. Translated by Jay Hyams. Dictionaries of Civilization. Berkeley and Los Angeles: UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS, 2008. Pp. 384, illus. $24.95 (paper).
Walk into any bookshop around the world and you will be sure to find an extensive Egyptology section, ranging from simple coffee-table books to serious academic expositions. It would be fair to say, however, that despite the variety of titles, many of those aimed at a general readership frequently repeat the same information. In short, if you've seen one, you've seen them all! Egypt: Pharaonic Period would not be out of place in such company, but purchasers of this volume will undoubtedly have in their possession a particularly comprehensive encyclopaedia that will be a handy reference for years to come.
Like other volumes from the Dictionaries of Civilization series, the book is quite small in format and hence can be easily accommodated, either on the Egyptophile's bookshelf or in a tourist's hand luggage. It is organized into seven major themes that together cover all of the major time periods and most of the pertinent features of Egyptian civilization, namely People, State and Society, Religion and Science, Daily Life, the World of the Dead, Sites and Monuments, and...