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CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS The Early History Of Egypt : From The Old Testament Herodotus Manetho And The Hieroglyphical Inscriptions by Samuel Sharpe
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 Youngs and Champollions 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.show more