The Twilight of Ancient Egypt: 1st Millennium B.C.

by Karol Mysliwiec, David Lorton (Translator)

Karol Mysliwiec surveys a turbulent time in Ancient Egyptian culture and history -- the eight hundred years between the eleventh century B.C.E. and the conquest of Egypt by Alexander the Great in 332 B.C.E., after which Egypt became part of the Hellenistic world. It was a time when Libyans, Kushites, Persians, and Greeks ascended to the throne more frequently than did indigenous kings. The history of this phase of pharaonic Egypt, marked by rapid changes in rule, has been relatively neglected until now.Egypt had become increasingly involved in the affairs of its Near Eastern neighbors (Assyria, Babylon, and Persia) and of the Mediterranean world. These many cultures greatly enriched and influenced pharaonic traditions. At the same time, Egyptian civilization extended far beyond the borders of Egypt itself. One of the most important cultural products of this period is the Old Testament, called here "an inestimable source of information on daily life in pharaonic Egypt". Mysliwiec perceives in recent archaeological discoveries clear evidence that the First Millennium B.C.E. was witness to more than a slow, progressive dying out of the pharaonic past; new and creative elements profoundly altered the culture of Ancient Egypt.

Originally published in Polish, The Twilight of Ancient Egypt appeared in 1998 in a German edition. The Cornell edition has been updated by the author and also contains previously unpublished photographs of recently discovered treasures.

Genres: History, Egypt, Nonfiction, Egyptology

232 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1993

Reviews

[Raymonds009]

This was the book I was waiting to read. A clear and concise look into this fascinating period of Egypt. There was a lot happening. The waning empire had interactions with the rest of the world that left both of them mightily changed. I am sure further investigations have led to more insights which I will be warching for. An excellent experience.

[DAJ]

Myśliwiec's book fills a need. Few books focus on this part of Egyptian history, for two reasons. One is that the evidence for the Third Intermediate and Late Periods is less abundant and more confused than that for the New Kingdom that preceded them and the Ptolemaic Period that followed. The other is that, for a long time, Egyptologists viewed those periods as depressing ages of decay in Egypt's culture as well as its political power.

The first problem is inescapable, and some of the assumptions about political events that held sway when this book was written have been challenged in recent years. So some of the details in Myśliwiec's narrative are outdated, and it would be worthwhile to to check them against a more recent source, Aidan Dodson's Afterglow of Empire. But that book is heavily focused on politics and chronology, so it doesn't counteract the second problem. Myśliwiec does, by including digressions about developments in Egyptian religion and art. It also helps that he includes some long quotations from primary sources, especially the Report of Wenamun and Piye's account of his campaigns in Egypt, that illustrate their times better than a dry recitations of events would do. It's not a full description of how Egyptian culture evolved through these centuries—no one yet seems to have attempted such a thing—but it does show that despite all the turmoil of civil wars and foreign conquests, the culture was still vibrant and, to some extent, innovative.

A drawback is that, despite the title, the book treats the last 300 years of the first millennium BC—the Ptolemaic Period—very cursorily. But there are many other books that describe it, of which Egypt After the Pharaohs is probably the most accessible starting point.

[Jim Bogue]

Prof. Mysliwiec is a Polish archaeologist who has been working in Egypt for many years. He has excavated in some of the areas covered in detail in this study. This gives the book added authenticity.
It also means that on occasion he will leave the main theme (the gradual decline and eventual foreign conquest of Pharaonic Egypt) to focus on a related excavation. Often this is fascinating, but it does make the whole sometimes a bit hard to follow.
This is compounded by the vagaries of this millennium, in Egypt and in the Mediterranean world. Violence and mayhem abound. Egypt is conquered by Libyans, who are largely assimilated. Then Kush, already Egyptian in many aspects, comes to the rescue. There is a native comeback. There are Assyrians, Persians, and Alexander the Great.
Through all this the author stays in control, continually pointing out out how each new ruler tried to maintain continuity, and sometimes even revived old styles. The reader is left exhausted but enlightened.

[AskHistorians]

It covers the cultural melting pot in the Nile valley quite nicely and is very accessible in terms of style. Not quite as general a history as Toby Wilkinson though.