Introduction
- Main links are to WorldCat. You can find links to several popular online booksellers from each entry.
- Newer editions prevail, but printed is good. But archive.org, online libraries, etc. are helpful. Where a book is legitimately available online for free, I will also include a link to that edition.
- The labels “$$$” and “Vintage”. Books marked with these are likely to be very expensive, sometimes only available used, etc. (I paid over $250 for at least one such book on this list; the vintage ones can easily exceed $1000.) This tends to be true of many less “popular” works of a more scholarly nature. They are usually not for the Egyptological “beginner”, but if you’re getting pretty serious about the pursuit, they may be of interest. The distinction is, the ones marked “Vintage” are so old that they are generally no longer copyrighted, and thus easier to find legitimately online. The downside of course is that their scholarship is likely to be superseded in whole or part.
- The label “popular”. Sort of the opposite of the above; a book marked with this is likely to be more affordable, and is definitely a friendlier book for a “beginner”. That does not mean they aren’t often full of information and of good quality; indeed they are!
- Subtitles. I have reserved the right to abbreviate or eliminate subtitles where they are exceptionally long and are not generally needed for finding the book given the short title and author, or in the subsequent volumes of multiple volume sets.
- Works by Budge. Books by E. A. Wallis Budge are a bit of a problem. They’re widely available, often inexpensively or even for free, but as James P. Allen describes them, they “were not too reliable when they first appeared and are now woefully outdated”. More recent books on the topic would be preferable. Budge did a great deal to popularize ancient Egypt and (from my limited research) seems to have been a personally decent human being, kind to animals, and eager to share his love of Egypt with all who met him, but we need to be aware of the limitations of his work. (There is even a throwaway line in the movie Stargate which makes fun of Budge’s works.) As such, I have decided that none of his works can be recommended here. Some are better than others, certainly, but they are best avoided unless they are literally the only books on Egypt you can find or if you simply love collecting books.
Finally, this page is and always will be a work in progress. As I discover new books, re-evaluate old ones, and (hopefully) find more books legitimately available for free, I will update this document accordingly.
General
- Aldred, Cyril. The Egyptians. Edited by Aidan Dodson, Revised and updated ed., Reprinted, Thames and Hudson, 2002. Popular.
Art and Architecture
- Aldred, Cyril. Egyptian Art in the Days of the Pharaohs, 3100-320 BC. Thames and Hudson, 1980.
- Robins, Gay. Proportion and Style in Ancient Egyptian Art. 1. ed, Univ. of Texas Press, 1994.
- Wilkinson, Richard H. Reading Egyptian Art : A Hieroglyphic Guide to Ancient Egyptian Painting and Sculpture. Thames and Hudson, 1992.
Everyday Life
- Vogelsang-Eastwood, Gillian. Pharaonic Egyptian Clothing. E.J. Brill, 1993. $$$
Funerary Practices and Sites
See also Religion and Philosophy.
Coffins and Sarcophagi
- Daressy, Georges. Cercueils des cachettes royales. Impr. de l’Insitut français d’archéologie orientale, 1909. Free online at archive.org. Vintage.
- Gauthier, Henri. Cercueils anthropoïdes des Prêtres de Montou. Institut français d’archéologie orientale, 1913. Free online at archive.org (vol. 1, vol. 2). Vintage.
- Moret, Alexandre. Sarcophages de l’Époque Bubastite à l’Époque Saïte. Impr. de l’Institut français d’archéologie orientale, 1913. Free online at archive.org (vol. 1, vol. 2). Vintage.
- Niwinski, Andrzej. 21st Dynasty Coffins from Thebes : Chronological and Typological Studies. Verlag Philipp von Zabern, 1988. $$$
- Sousa, Rogério, editor. “Yellow” Coffins from Thebes : Recording and Decoding Complexity in Egyptian Funerary Arts (21st-22nd Dynasties). BAR Publishing, 2020. $$$
Mummies and Mummification
- Brier, Bob. Egyptian Mummies : Unraveling the Secrets of an Ancient Art. 1st Quill ed, Quill, 1994. Popular.
- Maspero, G., and Mission archéologique française au Caire. Les Momies Royales de Déir el-Baharî. Ernest Leroux, 1889. Free online at Gallica (Bibliothèque nationale de France). Vintage.
- Partridge, Robert B., and A. Rosalie David. Faces of Pharaohs : Royal Mummies and Coffins from Ancient Thebes. Rubicon Press, 1994.
- Smith, Grafton Elliot. The Royal Mummies. Duckworth, 1912. Free online at archive.org.
Pyramids
- Lehner, Mark. The Complete Pyramids. 1st pbk. ed, Thames & Hudson, 1997. Popular.
Tutankhamun’s Tomb (KV62)
- Carter and Mace. The Tomb of Tut-Ankh-Amen, in three volumes, orig. 1923.
- Carter, Howard, and Arthur Cruttenden Mace. The Tomb of Tut-Ankh-Amen : Discovered by the Late Earl of Carnarvon and Howard Carter. Vol. 1. Cambridge University Press, 2011.
- Carter, Howard. The Tomb of Tut-Ankh-Amen : Vol. 2. Cambridge University Press, 2010.
- Carter, Howard. The Tomb of Tut-Ankh-Amen : Vol. 3. Cambridge University Press, 2011.
- Reeves, Nicholas. The Complete Tutankhamun. Revised and expanded edition, Thames and Hudson, 2022. Popular.
Valley of the Kings
- Reeves, Nicholas, and Richard H. Wilkinson. The Complete Valley of the Kings : Tombs and Treasures of Egypt’s Greatest Pharaohs. Thames & Hudson, 1996. Popular.
- Reeves, Nicholas. Valley of the Kings : The Decline of a Royal Necropolis. K. Paul International ; Distributed by Routledge, Chapman & Hall, 1990. $$$
- Romer, John. Valley of the Kings : Exploring the Tombs of the Pharaohs. Castle Books, 2003. Popular.
- Weeks, Kent R. The Lost Tomb. 1st ed, William Morrow and Company, Inc., 1998. Popular.
Geography
- Baines, John, and Jaromír Málek. Atlas of Ancient Egypt. Facts on File Publications, 1980.
History and Biography
See also Women’s and Gender Studies.
General History and Biography
- Dodson, Aidan, and Dyan Hilton. The Complete Royal Families of Ancient Egypt. The American University of Cairo Press, 2004.
- Shaw, Ian. The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt. New ed, Oxford University Press, 2003.
Archaic
- Emery, Walter B. Archaic Egypt. Penguin, 1961.
Old Kingdom
- Bárta, Miroslav. Analyzing Collapse : The Rise and Fall of the Old Kingdom. The American University in Cairo Press, 2019.
Middle Kingdom
- Grajetzki, Wolfram. The Middle Kingdom of Ancient Egypt : History, Archaeology and Society. Duckworth, 2006.
New Kingdom
- Reeves, Nicholas. Akhenaten : Egypt’s False Prophet. Thames & Hudson, 2001.
- Romer, John. Ancient Lives : Daily Life in Egypt of the Pharaohs. Henry Holt and Co., 1984.
- Wente, Edward F. Late Ramesside Letters. University of Chicago Press, 1967. Free online for personal use at the Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures.
Third Intermediate Period
- Dodson, Aidan. Afterglow of Empire : Egypt from the Fall of the New Kingdom to the Saite Renaissance. American University in Cairo Press, 2012.
- Kitchen, Kenneth A. The Third Intermediate Period in Egypt (1100-650 B.C.). 2nd ed. with suppl., repr, Aris & Phillips, 2004. $$$
Language
- Allen, James P. Middle Egyptian : An Introduction to the Language and Culture of Hieroglyphs. Third edition, rev. and reorganized, with a new analysis of the verbal system, Cambridge University Press, 2014.
- Černý, Jaroslav. Coptic Etymological Dictionary. Digital reprint, Cambridge UP, 2010.
- Collier, Mark, and Bill Manley. How to Read Egyptian Hieroglyphs : A Step-by-Step Guide to Teach Yourself, Illustrated by R. B. Parkinson, Rev. ed, University of California Press, 2003. Popular.
- Faulkner, Raymond O. A Concise Dictionary of Middle Egyptian. Reprint edition, Griffith Institute, 2019. Orig. 1962.
- Fischer, Henry George. Ancient Egyptian Calligraphy : A Beginner’s Guide to Writing Hieroglyphs. 4th ed, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1999.
- Gardiner, Alan H. Egyptian Grammar : Being an Introduction to the Study of Hieroglyphs. Third edition, Griffith Institute, Ashmolean Museum, 2012. This ed. orig. 1957.
- Loprieno, Antonio. Ancient Egyptian : A Linguistic Introduction. Cambridge University Press, 1996.
Literature
- Allen, James Peter. Middle Egyptian Literature : Eight Literary Works of the Middle Kingdom. Cambridge University Press, 2015.
- Lichtheim, Miriam. Ancient Egyptian Literature, in three vols. Popular (somewhat; if you simply want to read the literature, it’s popular; the scholarly annotations are more challenging for a beginner).
- Lichtheim, Miriam. Ancient Egyptian Literature : A Book of Readings. Vol. 1, the Old and Middle Kingdoms. University of California Press, 2006.
- Lichtheim, Miriam, and Hans-Werner Fischer-Elfert. Ancient Egyptian Literature. Volume II, the New Kingdom. 2006 ed., Univ. of California Press, 2006.
- Lichtheim, Miriam, et al. Ancient Egyptian Literature. Volume III, the Late Period. [2006 ed.], University of California Press, 2006.
Magic
- Brier, Bob. Ancient Egyptian Magic. Perennial, 1980. Popular.
- Ritner, Robert Kriech. The Mechanics of Ancient Egyptian Magical Practice. 4th print., corr, Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, 1993. Free online for personal use at the Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures.
Popular Culture and Egyptology
- Brier, Bob. Tutankhamun and the Tomb That Changed the World. Oxford University Press, 2023. Popular.
Religion and Philosophy
See also Funerary Practices and Sites.
Essays
- Allen, James P. Genesis in Egypt : The Philosophy of Ancient Egyptian Creation Accounts. Yale Egyptological Seminar, Dept. of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, Graduate School, Yale University, 1988. $$$
- Assmann, Jan. Death and Salvation in Ancient Egypt. Cornell University Press, 2005.
- Assmann, Jan. The Mind of Egypt : History and Meaning in the Time of the Pharaohs. Harvard University Press, 2003.
- Assmann, Jan, et al. The Search for God in Ancient Egypt. Cornell University Press, 2001.
- Hornung, Erik, et al. Conceptions of God in Ancient Egypt : The One and the Many. Cornell University Press, 1996.
- Meeks, Dimitri, and Christine Favard-Meeks. Daily Life of the Egyptian Gods. Cornell University Press, 1996.
- Shafer, Byron E., et al. Religion in Ancient Egypt : Gods, Myths, and Personal Practice. Cornell University Press, 1991.
Gods
- Velde, Herman te. Seth, God of Confusion : A Study of His Role in Egyptian Mythology and Religion. [2d ed.], E.J. Brill, 1977. $$$
- Wilkinson, Richard H. The Complete Gods and Goddesses of Ancient Egypt. Thames & Hudson, 2021. Popular.
Temples
- Wilkinson, Richard H. The Complete Temples of Ancient Egypt. First paperback edition, Thames & Hudson Ltd, 2000. Popular.
Texts and Interpretations
- Allen, Thomas George. The Book of the Dead : Or, Going Forth by Day : Ideas of the Ancient Egyptians Concerning the Hereafter as Expressed in Their Own Terms. Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, 1974. Free online for personal use at the Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures.
- Faulkner, Raymond O., editor. The Ancient Egyptian Coffin Texts : Spells 1-1185 & Indexes. Aris & Phillips, 2015. Orig. 1973.
- Faulkner, Raymond O. The Ancient Egyptian Pyramid Texts. [Reprint], Clarendon Press, 2000. Orig. 1969.
- Faulkner, Raymond O., and Ogden Goelet. The Egyptian Book of the Dead. 20th Anniversary edition. Third revised and expanded edition, Chronicle Books, 2015.
- Hornung, Erik. The Ancient Egyptian Books of the Afterlife. Translated by David Lorton, Cornell University Press, 1999.
- Schweizer, Andreas, and David Lorton. The Sungod’s Journey through the Netherworld : Reading the Ancient Egyptian Amduat. Cornell University Press, 2010.
Women’s and Gender Studies
- Cooney, Kara. When Women Ruled the World : Six Queens of Egypt. National Geographic, 2020. Popular.
- Li, Jean. Women, Gender and Identity in Third Intermediate Period Egypt : The Theban Case Study. Routledge, 2017.