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Abstract

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book looks not only at the effect of European colonialist mentalities on the way that pharaonic society was explored, portrayed, purveyed and exploited, but also at the adoption of Egypt as a resonant image and a paradigm for more far-flung empires, notably in the New World. Egyptian prehistory is often not considered a proper concern of Egyptology; Islamic archaeology in Egypt is similarly treated as the territory of Arabists, and its administration is the responsibility of an entirely different department of government. It comes almost as a surprise today that Egyptian archaeology has at any time given any kind of lead in archaeological thought and method. The early years of the 20th century also saw one of the rare periods in which archaeologists in Egypt paid any attention to settlement archaeology as opposed to funerary and religious sites.