A generously illustrated selection of John Baines's influential writings on two core areas of ancient Egyptian civilization: the role of writing, which was very different in antiquity from what is familiar in the modern world, and the importance of visual culture. These questions are explored through a number of case studies. The volume assembles articles that were scattered in publications in a variety of disciplines, making available key contributions on core problems of theory, comparison, and analysis in the study of many civilizations and offering important points of departure for further research. Three wholly new essays are included, and the overall approach is an interdisciplinary one, synthesizing insights from archaeology, anthropology, and art history as well as Egyptology.

Here is a rarity: a collection of essays selected annotated and updated not by an editor, but by their writer, with all the resultant advantages... John Baines does more than compile a series of related papers into a convenient single book. * Jasmine Day, Journal of Archaeology Science *
This well illustrated volume brings together some of John Baines's valuable studies...making better available key contributions on core problems of written and visual culture in ancient Egypt. The book is organized as a synthesis of excellent treated individual topics that offers numerous points of departure for further research. * Ilona Regulski, Bibliotheca Orientalis *
a work that deserves to be seriously read and re-viewed. * Robyn A. Gillam, Chronique d'Égypte *

John Baines is Professor of Egyptology at the University of Oxford.