ABSTRACT

The discipline we call Egyptology, the study of Egyptian archaeology, is held to be a product of modern Western scholarship. It is also claimed that it was only when Jean-François Champollion and his European successors succeeded in deciphering Egyptian hieroglyphs and reading texts that Egyptology was born. Those concerned with the sources for the study of Ancient Egypt usually list them in this order:

1 ancient Egyptian sources, basically the remains of the material culture;

2 contemporary Near Eastern sources and later classical sources;

3 Renaissance sources from the 15th century onwards;

4 modern Egyptology, excavation and studies.