A Short History of New Kingdom Egypt

Expertly taking readers through one of the most transformative periods in Ancient Egypt, Robert Morkot demonstrates how, under the pharaohs of the New Kingdom (c. 1550-1070 BCE), Egypt rose to be the largest and most dominant state of the Late Bronze Age world of western Asia and the eastern Mediterranean.

Morkot deftly analyses key aspects of the New Kingdom Era - covering the production of some of Egypt’s most spectacular monuments, such as the Tombs in the Valley of the Kings - and analysing the political careers of some of its most renowned rules: the female pharaoh, Hatshepsut; the empire builder, Thutmose III; the still-controversial religious reformer, Akhenaten; Tutankhamun, and Ramesses II.

Morkot also offers readers a wider outlook, examining how the globalisation of the Late Bronze Age brought numerous changes in warfare, resulting in the creation of an empire and sphere of influence that spread up the Nile valley and into the Levant and Syria. The volume explores how Egypt maintained its position through the wealth of its Nilotic empire, with gold from the deserts of Egypt and Nubia, and incense, ivory and ebony from longer-distance trade with neighbouring kingdoms of north-east Africa. With Egypt’s wide-ranging networks stretching from the Aegean to Babylon, and from Anatolia to the Red Sea coast, Morkot highlights how these close contacts brought numerous influences in art and religion to Egypt, but how politically the interconnections ultimately brought the entire region to the point of collapse.

Robert Morkot is currently President of the Friends of the Petrie Museum. Previously, he was Chair of the Society for Libyan Studies and worked on the Eastern Marmarica Coastal Survey, and served for a long time on the Committee and Board of the Egypt Exploration Society. As an Ancient Historian, many of his interests are in interconnections in ancient societies. His best-known books are The Black Pharaohs, Egypt’s Nubian Rulers and (along with colleagues)Centuries of Darkness.