Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)This title is now available from Amazon.co.uk for less than $20.00
Oxbow books have reviewed as follows:
"This thesis, sure to prove controversial, examines the geometry of Old Kingdom Royal tomb architecture, arguing for far greater levels of mathematical sophistication than hitherto admitted. Adding his own contribution to the Black Athena debate, Lightbody also claims that the debts in measurement, geometry and mathematics which the Greeks owe to the Egyptians has also not been fully recognised, not least due to an overfocusing on philological evidence."
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Egyptian Tomb Architecture:
The Archaeological Facts of Pharaonic Circular Symbolism
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Announcement:
On Saturday 11th October, I launched the new publication shown above at the Burrell Collection Museum in Glasgow,
with a lecture on the same subject matter given to Egyptology Scotland.
Thank you to everyone for your help with this in the form of discussions and/or constructive feedback,
and in many other ways. I hope my efforts are a worthwhile contribution to this subject matter.
The publication is available through Hadrian Books and through Amazon.co.uk.
Best Regards to all,
Dave Lightbody
Egyptian Tomb Architecture:
The Archaeological Facts of Pharaonic Circular Symbolism
By David I Lightbody
British Archaeological Reports
International Series S1852
ISBN 978 1 4073 0339 0
Xiii+88 pages; 77 figures, maps, plans, drawings and photographs; 4 data appendices
The objective of this monograph is to describe and explain the meanings underlying some otherwise anomalous
archaeological data drawn from the study of Ancient Egypt. An explanation for the phenomena observed has
hitherto remained elusive.
The data is principally concerned with royal funerary architecture from the Old Kingdom, and the underlying
systems of measurement and geometry that were employed therein. As well as providing a description and
explanation for the data, this work also has the objective of providing the first synthesis of related
cultural information drawn from several different textual and archaeological resources. The general subject
matter is the pharaonic funerary architecture from Old Kingdom Egypt, and the work focuses specifically on
the circular proportions deliberately incorporated into the tomb designs by the architects.
In 1940, the famous Egyptologist Professor Sir William Matthew Flinders Petrie wrote, regarding these proportions
that: 'but these relations of area and of circular ratios are so systematic that we should grant they were
in the builder's design' (Petrie: Wisdom of the Egyptians 1940: 30).
So Petrie concluded that the circular proportions in the funerary monuments were deliberate, yet he never ventured
an explanation for the phenomenon.
Now that the publication is in print, I can finally reveal that the underlying symbolism expressed in these proportions,
and deliberately included in the primary dimensions of the monuments by the architects, was that of the 'shen ring' symbol.
The shen ring represented 'eternal protection', and by including this symbolism into the architecture, at the sarcophagus,
tomb and overall structure levels, the Egyptians were incorporating a protective perimeter around the pharaonic burial
place in a symbolic form.
The more familiar 'cartouche', that is a rounded oval shape always shown protecting the pharaoh's name, is in fact a modified
shen ring, and so we can see that the related ideas of pharaonic protection extended from the hieroglyphs naming the living king,
to his funerary architecture, and yet represented the same ideas of eternal protection for the ruler.
The book details all of the supporting facts and evidence for the first time, and critiques all existing publications that
have not reached this conclusion previously.
Due to the interdisciplinary nature of the subject matter, additional effort has been made to ensure that
the data and discussion is accessible to scholars and keen amateurs from all related disciplines.
Contents:
1) Fundamentals of Ancient Egyptian mathematics and architecture
2) The evidence and facts of Egyptian circular symbolism
3) The symbolism
4) Methodology, analysis and discussion of mathematics
5) Arguments from authorities
6) Archaeology and philology; fieldwork and deskwork
7) Conclusion
8) Appendix 1: Secondary issues
9) Appendix 2: Social context of early Egyptology
10 Appendix 3: Egyptian and Greek mathematics
11) Appendix 4 Quotes from the Greeks
12) Reference
The publication is currently available only from Archaeopress through Hadrian Books at a price of £25.00.,
but will be made available through Amazon in due course.
This should help demystify some of the issues and debunk some of the speculation. More to follow.
Enjoy!
Dave Lightbody.
[...]
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The objective of this monograph is to describe and explain the meanings underlying some otherwise anomalous archaeological data drawn from the study of Ancient Egypt. An explanation for the phenomena observed has hitherto proved elusive. The data is principally concerned with royal funerary architecture from the Old Kingdom, and the underlying systems of measurement and geometry that were employed therein. As well as providing a description and explanation for the data, this work also has the objective of providing the first synthesis of related cultural information drawn from several different textual and archaeological resources. The general subject matter is pharaonic funerary architecture from Old Kingdom Egypt, and the work focuses specifically on the circular proportions deliberately incorporated into the tomb designs by the architects. Contents: Introduction; 1) Fundamentals of Ancient Egyptian mathematics and architecture; 2) The Evidence and facts of Egyptian circular proportions; 3) The symbolism; 4) Methodology, analysis and discussion of mathematics; 5) Arguments from authorities; 6) Archaeology and philology; fieldwork and deskwork; 7) Conclusions; Appendix 1: Secondary Issues; Appendix 2: Social Context of early Egyptology; Appendix 3: Egyptian and Greek Mathematics; Appendix 4: Quotes from the Greeks.
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