ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book focuses on the Bronze Age. Mysterious lands are not the same as those of the ancient Egypt. A self-critical historiography with archaeological method at its fore requires keen observation of the potential and the limitations of sources. In all human societies, landscapes involve acquired or cultural experience. A self-critical historiography with archaeological method at its fore requires keen observation of the potential and the limitations of sources. For Ancient Egypt, despite the survival of the monumental architecture that may be ranked its most overpowering achievement, paradoxically few direct explicit sources survive for the core of the civilization kingship. Egyptology tends to be lambasted among the social sciences for its over-dependency on writing and art, its isolation from neighbouring disciplines and its disengagement from theoretical archaeology.
