EMILY TEETER (ed.), Before the Pyramids. The Origins of Egyptian Civilization. Oriental Institute Museum Publications 33. Chicago, Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, 2011. 288 pp. ISBN 978–1–885923– 82–0. U$D 39,95

Abstract

Edited by Emily Teeter, Research Associate and Coordinator of Special Exhibit at the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, Before the Pyramids follows an exhibition of 120 Predynastic and Early Dynastic objects belonging to the Oriental Institute Museum. The book is organised in two sections. The first part comprises a collection of sixteen articles compiled by the world’s most prominent researchers investigating the Predynastic period, and discusses the phase preceding the formation of the state in Egypt; the second part of the book is dedicated to a catalogue of selected items from the exhibition. Other than the will to display a part of the very large collection of Predynastic objects hosted in the Oriental Institute of Chicago, the aim of the exhibition and the book was to divulge information about the Predynastic period to a wider audience as, it is claimed in the introduction of the volume, knowledge on this phase of Egyptian history is almost exclusively the domain of specialists. In the endeavour to achieve this objective, the editor has collected a remarkably rich variety of articles able to provide quite an exhaustive picture of the elements which brought to the emergence of the Egyptian state. The papers address themes such as the invention of writing, the development of art, the rise of social stratification and so on. Despite the diversity of the articles presented in Before the Pyramids there is one theme which returns in several papers: Sir Flinders Petrie and his discoveries and research on the Predynastic period.