Egyptology Reference Books

by Caroline Seawright
July 23, 2002

Egyptology Reference Books

A number of people have requested a list of reference books that I use to create these articles. I have quite a number of Egyptology and ancient Egyptian related books at home, a number of which I go through to get information for the articles. The list of books gets bigger each time I go into a book shop!!

Here are the books that I regularly use for reference material for my articles:

Atlas of Ancient Egypt, John Baines and Jaromír Málek
British Museum Dictionary of Ancient Egypt, Ian Shaw and Paul Nicholson
A Dictionary of Egyptian Gods and Goddesses, George Hart
Egypt, Myths and Legends, Lewis Spence
Egyptian Grammar, A.H. Gardiner
Egyptian Mythology, Veronica Ions
The Gods of the Egyptians, E. A. Wallis Budge
Myth and Symbol in Ancient Egypt, R. T. Rundle Clark

Other books that I use, but haven't quoted from will be added when I get the chance to compile that list.

I also use the internet to gather information. Google is a great search engine for finding a wealth of knowledge on ancient Egypt. Unfortunately this information needs to be sifted through and taken with a grain of salt - often there are results on new age religions that have little to do with Egyptology, or results on modern things named after ancient Egyptian gods! When using the internet, it's best to try to get a basic knowledge first, with good Egyptology books. You do, occasionally, find a gem here and there.

The other great use for the internet is finding online newspapers with articles about ancient Egypt, and finding online groups who talk about Egyptology.

The main problem with all of this information is that Egyptology is an ever changing field. New finds can throw old beliefs about the ancient Egyptians out the window! So what Budge might have considered 'right' may be different to what it says in the British Museum Dictionary, and Egyptologists tomorrow might find out something that turns the whole view upside down!

All of these articles come from many and varying sources, and are hopefully in line with what Egyptologists generally believe find from their conclusions coming from their own research. The information is from both old and new sources, and hopefully presents this in a manner that is easily read by everyone... for free!

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