Delayed since last autumn's announced date of publication, the long-awaited volume, 'Ancient Egyptian Materials and Technology', edited by Paul T. Nicholson and Ian Shaw was published on March 23, 2000. Professor Nicholson is senior lecturer in Archaeology at Cardiff University and Shaw is lecturer in the Institute of Archaeology, University College London. Both author-editors have numerous publications on Egyptian technology and culture, and are recognised experts on these topics. They have the appropriate credentials to undertake the organisation and editorship of this massive volume, which has 37 authors, experts in the fields about which they write state-of-the art syntheses on a variety of material culture and processing technologies. These leading Egyptologists and archaeological scientists are at the forefront of the analysis of ancient Egyptian material culture and processing and fabrication methods.

The book is divided into three parts ("Inorganic Materials," "Organic Materials," and "Food Technology") and contains 25 chapters, 326 black-and-white figures (images and line drawings), and 28 tables, as well as a very useful, exceedingly detailed 30-page triple-column index that combines proper noun and topical entries. Each chapter has its own set of references and the volume has more than 3,650 references -- an extremely valuable resource for scholars. The emphasis of this volume is the documentation of the acquisition and processing of raw materials into finished products, and food procurement and food technologies for the chronological period 5500-332 BCE. The geographical parameters include the Nile Valley and adjacent areas of Northeast Africa.

While informative and authoritative, the volume is neither a "coffee-table" book nor a scientific tome designed exclusively as a reference work or for the scholarly community. There is a great deal of information in this important compendium for inquisitive general readers, students at levels above the elementary grades, and researchers, any of whom may be interested in Egypt -- whether the construction of pyramids, the ornate trappings of monarchy, pottery making, paper and writing, the brewing of beer and production of wine, the raising of livestock, the treatment of the dead and mummification, or the use of condiments in food consumption.

Following the editorial introduction which provides an essential background and overview, the initial seven chapters are devoted to inorganic raw materials, processing, and technologies involving stone, soil (incorporating mud-brick architecture), and painting materials, and the fabrication of domestic and elite pottery, precious and common metals, Egyptian faience, and glass. For example we learn about the composition of Egyptian pottery, the relationship of pottery fabric to clay; the classification of fabrics; and microscopic, chemical, and mineralogical analysis. Social and economic factors about the pottery industry, artistic and textual evidence, archaeological data, vessel usage, and the future of pottery studies are also related.

The chapter on glass manufacture includes an historical summary and a clear and concise assessment of the production stages. A well-documented essay on metals considers the mining and fabrication of artefacts of copper and its alloys (arsenic, lead, tin, and zinc), gold and electrum, as well as the procurement and uses of iron, lead, mercury, and platinum.

The second part, relating organic materials, has a dozen chapters on topics such as papyrus; basketry; textiles; leatherwork and skin products; ivory and related materials; ostrich eggshell; wood; mummification; oil, fat, and wax; resins, amber, and bitumen; adhesives and binders; and hair. As an example, the chapter on papyrus informs the reader about species and distributions of papyrus plants, the manufacture of the plant fibre as a writing-ground, the fabrication of papyrus rolls, types of media used on papyrus, how papyrus deteriorates and is effected by microorganism and insects, and conservation procedures to save these significant documents. The essay on mummification includes explanations about the types of mummification (natural and cultural, for example), a detailed historical overview covering the periods 3000 BCE-CE 641, and the application of scientific techniques to the analysis of mummified remains (radiology, dental studies, palaeopathology, autopsy, histology, electron microscopy, and DNA analysis). The chapter also documents conservation procedures and considers human and non-human mummification. One of the features of the discussion of hair relates how the Egyptians made wigs.

The final section has five chapters dealing with food technologies, incorporating cereal production and processing; brewing and baking; viticulture and wine production; fruits, vegetables, pulses, and condiments; and meat processing. The chapter on cereal production has a very useful assessment of the types of evidence for ancient Egyptian cereal production and processing, such as artistic evidence, textual and lexicographic data, historical observations, archaeological and botanical evidence, cultural and ecological data, and experimental archaeology or replication studies. The discourse on emmer wheat and hulled barley; tilling, sowing, and irrigation practices; and harvesting (threshing, winnowing, and storage) are very informative. Many of these practices are still in use in the Middle East (Southwest Asia) today. The chapter on brewing and baking includes a lengthy discourse on the ingredients used in beer brewing, processing, ancient versus modern methods of malting, milling, mixing, the fermentation process, and a comparison with modern methods. In the chapter on grape growing, the harvesting treading, pressing, and fermentation processes are detailed. Wine colours and tastes, the production of sweet wines versus blended wines, "bottling," sealing, labelling, and storage are well documented, and an entire section is devoted to the chemical detection of ancient wine in archaeological contexts such as jars and pressing stones.

The Nicholson and Shaw volume may be compared to Alfred Lucas's 'Ancient Egyptian Materials and Industries' first published in 1926 (most recently revised by J. R. Harris, 4^th ed., London: Arnold, xiv + 523 pp., 1962), its illustrious predecessor. Lucas's book covers the period ca. 5000 BCE to CE 640, and is quite different than 'Ancient Egyptian Materials and Technology', which documents the period 5500-332 BCE. The Lucas volume contains 19 chapters, an appendix, addenda, and an index, but has no illustrations. Ancient Egyptian Materials and Technology edited by Nicholson and Shaw considers the procurement and processing of raw materials during five millennia and also documents the changes in technologies that includes innovation and culture borrowing. Each chapter in the latter is written by one or more specialists and is highly illustrated in direct to the sole authorship of the Lucas book.

Nicholson and Shaw's edited volume is destined to become a standard for the history of technology yet, for the study of pottery and other material culture, may be used with the Harris revision of Lucas's classic 'Ancient Egyptian Materials and Industries'. Recently reprinted is P.R.S. Moorey's 'Ancient Mesopotamian Materials and Industries: The Archaeological Evidence' (Winona Lake, Indiana, USA: Eisenbrauns), a reissue of the 1994 edition (Oxford: Clarendon Press, xxiii + 414 pp., 8 plates, 24 figures, 5 maps). This volume has six main chapters, 31 subdivisions, a bibliography, and index. Moorey, Keeper of Antiquities at the Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford (England), prepared a systematic and detailed survey of the archaeological evidence for crafts and craftsmanship of the Sumerians, Babylonians, and Assyrians of ancient Mesopotamia for the period 8000-300 BCE. The Moorey volume makes an excellent companion to the Nicholson and Shaw compendium.

As we enter the new millennium, 'Ancient Egyptian Materials and Technology' is very likely to be the standard reference tool on these subjects for the next several decades. It will be difficult to create a volume as comprehensive, clearly written, well documented and highly illustrated as Professors Nicholson and Shaw have prepared. The integration of scientific analyses, ethnoarchaeology, and experimental archaeology with traditional Egyptological data from archaeological and historic sources provide a more comprehensive assessment than any other volume currently available. Researchers will be grateful for this current assessment on a variety of topics, material culture, technologies, and incredible bibliography, but general readers will be delightfully surprised at readability of the informative introductions, historical overviews, and conclusions that are found in each essay.