Old and busted: History of christianity
New Shiny: history of Egypt!
I will no longer laugh at people who got their degrees in Egyptology. So. FREAKING. COOL!
@jasod I may not have a fancy degree, or you know... any qualifications whatsoever... but, I have done some light reading on the subject:
(To save people the trouble of squinting, it's DeBuck, Faulker, Allen, Gardiner, Faulker (again), Shaw, Fischer, and then books of lesser importance.)
@dmself WOW! I wish you lived closer because I would totally borrow those and not return them! Steal. I would steal them.
@jasod Yeah, I don't loan these, not even to family. There's not a lot of demand for these titles, so they do print runs only very rarely, and they stay out of print for years and years.
That thin paperback on top, "Egyptian Readingbook", I got a new copy around 2005 for $12, right after the last print run. Today, on Amazon, a new copy costs $50, and before 2005, I couldn't even find it used for less than $120.
@jasod I would recommend "Oxford History of Ancient Egypt". It covers a variety of topics, and can be had in paperback for cheap.
Incidentally, that eye of Horus on the cover, I've actually seen that object in real life, at the Kimbell Art Museum in 2003. I show it here in the exhibition catalog.
@dmself Do you have an opinion on book of the dead translations?
@jasod Raymond Faulkner (1994) Giant sized photographs of the Papyrus of Ani with modern translations underneath each page. I have the 2nd revised edition (1998). It's a bit difficult to find, but I see it on Amazon for around $30 new.
Do NOT, get the translation by E.A. Wallis Budge. It's very easy to find, because it's out of copyright, but it is outdated,. (Unless you're studying the history of English Egyptology, or 19th c. occultism, as this book was very influential in both.)
@jasod Even though it is so big, some pages of the original text are so wide that the book requires fold-outs.
This portion is the Negative Confessions, where the soul has to declare his innocence of 42 different sins before 42 different gods. This includes the sins of "making someone cry", and "filing frivolous lawsuits". (I am not making that up. It's #18 "O Strayer who came forth from Bubastis, I have brought no lawsuits.")
@jasod I forgot to say, if you order this book online, make sure you're getting the big one. It is big. If it's any smaller than this, you won't be able to read the hieroglyphs.