ABSTRACT
The answer is that this book does not attempt to cover the whole of Egyptian history or to describe every important discovery. To do so would take several books of this size, and we have already reached the limit of space allowed us by our publishers. Perhaps in a subsequent volume we may be able to cover some of the ground which, unfortunately, we have had to by-pass. Our object has been simply to describe some of the great discoveries which have interested us, to explain their significance and encourage readers to explore for themselves this fascinating world which the Egyptologists have opened up. For, make no mistake, without the labour and devotion of these men and women there would be very little to tell. Read the memoirs of the eighteenth and early nineteenth century explorers and you will find little but expressions of wonder and long-winded, unscientific speculation. But the past hundred years have seen an amazing advance in our knowledge of Ancient Egypt and in the technique of excavation. So great has the improvement been that the modern excavator shudders when he reads the accounts of some of his predecessors' work and realises how much information was lost through unscientific methods.
