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Sure thing! Well, two books about my favorite pharaoh Ramses II (who ruled in the 1200s ish) are Ramses II by Christiane Desroches Noblecourt (if you can read French, I'd recommend reading it in that but there's an abridged version in English by the same author if you can't) and Ramses II: Egypt's Greatest Pharaoh by Joyce Tyldesley. My favorite book that covers general ancient Egyptian history is also by her called The Pharaohs. I don't have a specific book about the 1300s (which was the time of Akhenaten if I'm not mistaken) but this general book covers it wonderully. If you want more about king Tutankamen (who ruled after Akhenaten) I recommend just reading Howard Carter's book. Dry, but really the best source for what it really was like when he was discovering the tomb.

Hope that helps, I literally have an entire bookshelf with nothing but books on Ancient Egypt and am always happy to recommend them! Feel free to ask about anything else too, I love talking about this stuff!

Literally, yes (as close to literally as you can while switching languages without direct analogues).

Heart and soul are complex topics in Middle Egyptian (ḥ3ty vs jb are both terms for heart, stomach, mind, etc, but are also different). Then you introduce other parts (rn, bꜣ, kꜣ, etc) and it gets crazy. Most translations (especially early ones like Budge, etc) gloss over those nuances for several reasons and use terms like 'heart' There is a strong argument in past decades (like Louis Žabkar in the 60s) that those terms should not be translated and remain as 'ren', 'ba', and 'ka', since there is no word in English that captures the meaning of those terms. If you are interested in the nuances of heart (ḥ3ty) vs heart (jb) try Breathing Flesh: Conceptions of the Body in the Ancient Egyptian Coffin Texts by Rune Nyord.

But with regard to that scene in the Papyrus, even concepts like "truth" or "Ma'at" (mꜣꜥ) are probably best left untranslated, as referring to it as truth is an oversimplification at best, if not just misleading. If Ani is not mꜣꜥ ḫrw (usually 'justified' or 'correct or right in speaking') - then the heart is swallowed. Is there an analogue between that act and the verb you had listed? That's difficult to say and I don't know for one. I will say that the verb in your original question ('m jb) is used in non-religious context, and doesn't appear to carry the moral or religious judgement associated with mꜣꜥ etc. So my complete guess is that there is no connection.

Most people start learning Middle Egyptian, and Allen is pretty much the standard English grammar book that most universities use these days. My only problem is that Allen is, in my opinion, not very well suited to learning on your own. It's a great reference book, but the way the lessons are presented is a bit obtuse, and the self-guided exercises are kinda awful. Granted, I used the second edition, and it's now in third, so some of the issues I had may have been corrected. Jim Allen has also released a companion volume of a sort of "greatest hits" of Middle Egyptian texts, and being able to learn and practice by diving right in to actual stories is helpful, I think.

If you want to start with Late Egyptian, I recommend "The Language of Ramesses" by Neveu which is a new-ish (2015) grammar, and it's pretty fantastic, and easy at least compared to the older Late Egyptian grammars that were available (like Junge). I find Late Egyptian easier, and more rewarding, to read, personally. The grammar rules are easier and better defined (from a modern perspective, at least), and there's a TON of literature in all genres in Late Egyptian.

No, the first is based on a book by Jacques Grimault but I have only been able to find it in French.
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"La Révélation Des Pyramides pour les jeunes" (French Edition) https://www.amazon.com/dp/1726105520/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_zfxBCb8N7NF9J .

Here's a link to the youtube video, "The Revelation of the Pyramids" https://youtu.be/2fS9ixfQ_no . It's well thought out, contains a ton of facts, and I thoroughly enjoy it even if it leans towards earth cataclysm at the end, I personally would rather know than not know, and you never know ;)
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TL:DW: The Giza complex is a clock, that's why it's built so precisely, able to measure not only seasons and years, but also great years (1gy=25,920 years). Assumes the Giza complex were second hand monuments built by an earlier, now forgotten civilization.

The second is an indie documentary by the 3 archeologists that discovered the cave entrance in The Tomb of the Birds, a tomb dedicated to Thoth, the Ibis headed scribe of the gods and the keeper of records. The same Thoth that was alleged to have survived the collapse of the prior civilization and fled with the survivors to Egypt. This one has a beautiful depiction of the connection between the pyramids of Giza and the constellation of Cygnus, I suggest at least clicking and jumping to ~17 minutes and watching until at least 19:54 just to see the 3 wing stars set behind the pyramids, AT THE SAME TIME, completely by accident of course, lolololololol. https://youtu.be/LTEVvkL-l3Q

I haven't seen any records of Al-Mamun finding any remains when he sacked the great pyramid in ~800 AD when he bored around the granite stone blocking the entrance to the grand gallery. Any source on that?

Ah, finally I meet someone (albeit on Reddit) who's followed Bob Brier on the incredible journey he takes the listener through, in his course. It is hard to believe that it has been nearly 17 years since the course first came out. I have followed Prof. Brier's course religiously over the last 16 years, and through his evocative, imaginative and illustrative language, rediscovered Ancient Egypt over and over again. In fact I find myself consulting my notes on his lectures from time to time. Needless to say, I am a huge fan of Prof. Brier, and visiting Egypt with him (on one of his tours) is on my bucket list.

That said, I too was in the same boat after having finished his course. What next? He did give some pointers in his last lesson on what to follow and where to go to get more information. Nowadays with the advent of Facebook, one can follow these channels their official Facebook pages. But that wasn't your question.

Personally, I found this book to be quite informative, and I would recommend it highly. Toby Wilkinson - Rise and Fall of Ancient Egypt. It is written in an easy to read format and I found that it filled in many gaps in Prof. Brier's telling of the story of Egypt, especially during the first and second intermediate periods. Coming from Prof. Brier's course, it really felt like the next logical step.

From there, it gets a little more difficult. Recent developments have been slow - owing to the unrest in Egypt. Off-hand, I am not aware of any significant compendium of recent knowledge that has emerged in our field of interest. There are bits and pieces to be found, and I find that the Subreddits do a good job of compiling the same.

That said, if someone does know of more recent books, please do enlighten me. Hope that helps!

Maybe Erik Hornung's "The Ancient Egyptian Books of the Afterlife" could help?

http://www.amazon.com/The-Ancient-Egyptian-Books-Afterlife/dp/0801485150

It's got a chapter on the Amduat (Eg. Imy Duat, I think? lit, "The Things of the Underworld"), and a chapter on the Book of Gates. From what I understand, they're kind of similar, in that the Book of Gates follows the progress of a soul through the underworld after death, where the Amduat follows the journey of Ra through the underworld each night, dividing the journey into twelve hours, each hour being a different district of the underworld. It actually looks like a pretty comprehensive overview from the ToC shown on Amazon.

Plus, as a special bonus, you get the Litany of Re, the Book of the Heavenly Cow, and the Book of Traversing Eternity. Fun reading!

Michael Atherton (not to be confused with the English sports figure of the same name) is a musician/scholar who did this fantastic album of Ancient Egyptian music that you might be interested in. Some of it is his own settings of real Ancient Egyptian music and some is just Egypt-inspired, but it all uses ancient instrumentation and even Ancient Egyptian lyrics. Here's my favorite track. To be honest I wish it sounded a little bit less Western or "New Age-y" (there's more influence in there from European musical traditions than Middle Eastern or African ones, particularly in the vocals) but it's still really great and atmospheric.

This was a pretty good book.

also look into coral castle (ed leedskanin) for a modern attempt at their type of tech, although its still a mystery how he did it to us, but he has left numerous clues.

also something I came across from tibetian sources here which fits well with Bruce Cathie's energy grid explanation of antigravity effects.

many rabbit holes, enjoy :)

Edit: almost forgot this gem from recent science, which sounds like a very simple setup of what was going on in the pyramids (i.e blasting water flow near crystal)

Most of the magical spells are contained in the normal hieroglyphic writing or on the walls of the temples. And most of the books on spell-work are either completely in English not including the original hieroglyphs or transliterations (which really upsets me) or the information is subjective/hypotheticals. Though through my own studies I have found a few helpful books/articles to dissect from:

• Here's an article on "Isis Love Magic" taken from a Coptic Spell book
  
  
• "Egyptian Magic" by Joseph Toledano is a semi-good book on the subject, though he only summerizes Egyptian magic and gives some spellwork only in English without the hieroglyphs/transliterations
  
  
• "Sacred Magic of Ancient Egypt" by Rosemary Clark is similar to Joseph Toledano's book, but she goes into more detail with festivities, holidays, ect.. and also with the pantheons....The spells, hymns and prayers are only in English but she adds in an end-quote of what manuscript they come from.
  
  
• "The Circle of Isis", a PDF version of an ebook that you can find anywhere online is full of information though it reminds me of Joseph Toledano's book in a sense where everything is in English and is full with a lot of underlying Wiccan beliefs intermingled with hypotheticals.
  
  I am also still on the look out for better material, hopefully with the hymns/prayers and spells both in English and Ancient Egyptian. I probably have some more information on my flash drive on the topic and may edit in some more links if I find any more for you.
  
  P.S.
  
  "The Book of the Dead" contains a great many spells, by the way. Some of the contents were used by the Egyptian priests, for example "The 42 Negative Confessions", in fact the Kemetic religion uses the negative confessions in their own rituals which is very similar to the 10 Commandments or the 7 Deadly sins of Christian belief. There is also the "The 10 Virtues of Maat".
  
  "The Opening of the Mouth" is another popular ritual, though I don't believe I have specifically looked up any articles on the original manuscript where it is detailed, so I'm limited on this one.
  
  Hymns to Osiris, Aten, and Ra are very popular in ritual practice too. You can find these hymns all over the internet.
  
  EDIT
  
  Here's a "Coptic Spell Book" which I've been dying to buy for a while. It may have some newer information found in Egyptology.

Silverman's Coffee table monster Ancient Egypt is a great resource and may be what you are searching for...it's insanely cheap used on Amazon!

I know this is not what you are after, but Mcdowell's "Village Life in Ancient Egypt: Laundry Lists and Love Songs is a wonderful resource for learning about the daily life of some of the Egyptian builders and workers (it's about the village of Deir el-Medina, which housed the builders of the tombs of the kings and queens during the "New Kingdom" era.). This book helped me envision (along with "Red Land, Black Land") Egypt in ways that I had not before and provided me with a more human connection to the region than I had previously.

I just pre-ordered a new book;

http://www.amazon.com/Egyptian-Book-Dead-Integrated-Full-Color/dp/1452144389/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1421361562&sr=1-2&keywords=book+of+going+forth+by+day

It is a new version of the same book, which you could likely get at less cost. Has the whole papyrus published above the English. Pretty good. Fun to read, and fun to use if you are also learning M. E. grammar.

Edit: Searching for information on the "Book of Going/Coming Forth by Day" will get you better results.

You're probably seeing clips from his courses from The Teaching Company, the people that put together The Great Courses. See an example course.

The material is not free, but it's popular and IMO good quality. I have the linked course and another about Pharaohs that he did, both of which I really enjoy.

edit: fixed link

The best art I recommend is the art Napoleon Bonaparte's team did in the 1800's of the sites right as they were starting to be refound/excavated. The art is really stunning.


I have this book: The Monuments of Ancient Egypt: As Commissioned by Napoleon Bonaparte

Hey there!

Well, I own a copy of the earlier edition of this book. You're in luck, this new edition is very recent. It's paperback, however, and I'm not entirely sure if there's a hardcover version. It's the Faulkner translation. I'm sure there are more recent translations, but Faulkner's, as you probably know since you named him in your title, is very respected. The plates are stunning, and for that alone it's worth it. Some pages are even fold-in in order to not compromise the scenes. The book is rather tall, so you can see detail, and the translations are under the pertinent plates.

I did set the bar quite high when looking for a Book of Coming Forth by Day and this version is one I quite like. I'm yet to hear negative feedback about it, although I'd appreciate it. The only downside for me so far is that it's paperback.

As someone who routinely uses both Egyptian and Java, I can say categorically -- I like Egyptian a lot better. :)

If you're just writing games, you don't necessarily need the most current research -- anything in the last few decades is fine for your purposes. Unfortunately, there's a tremendous amount of material being printed still that goes back to the 19th century in Dover reprints that needs to be avoided at all costs. Also, remember that you're talking about almost three millennia of religious belief -- the differences between Old Kingdom and Roman period are far far greater than the differences between Upper and Lower Egypt.

In any event, here's a modern translation of the Book of the Dead (not Budge!):

http://www.amazon.com/Ancient-Egyptian-Book-Raymond-Faulkner/dp/0760773092/

The BotD isn't the greatest intro to the theogeny you may be looking for, but it's well known.

These are both current, but I don't know them:

http://www.amazon.com/Egyptian-Mythology-Goddesses-Traditions-Ancient/dp/0195170245

http://www.amazon.com/Complete-Gods-Goddesses-Ancient-Egypt/dp/0500051208

Avoid anything not written by an actual academic in the field -- there's way too much 'Egyptology' that's actually modern spirituality misusing ancient texts, and as noted, lots of reprints of Budge and Petrie that are now way out of date.

Last thoughts: If you're looking for thematic ideas for a game, there may be some good mythology childrens books that will hit the points and iconography you want (but will lack some of the more anatomically correct aspects of Egyptian divinity), and if you can, go through a real book store rather than Amazon :) If you're near Boston, Schoenhof's may have some of these.

The most recent translations aren't going to be free and available online. I'd suggest going to your library or ordering a copy via Amazon. This is an excellent version, but there are less expensive, earlier editions available as well.

That course is really good.

This link worked better for me.

https://www.amazon.com/The-History-of-Ancient-Egypt/dp/B00DTO53ME/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1520209094&sr=8-1&keywords=history+of+ancient+egypt+bob+brier

Though awesome, the Book of the Dead is focused more on ritual spells associated with preparation for the afterlife. There's also a number of different versions, none "canonical." This book, Egyptian Mythology by G. Harris, seems to cover the basics of Egyptian myth, and includes more "Gods and Godesses" type stories:

http://www.amazon.com/Egyptian-Mythology-Goddesses-Traditions-Ancient/dp/0195170245/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpt_1