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Redford, Donald B. City of the Ram-man: the story of ancient Mendes. Princeton; Oxford: Princeton UniversityPress, !"!. xxii, #! $. %&'.!!. ()B* +!+""#'

Revie/ed 0y Ro0ert 1o22oli, University of )iam, Ro0ert.1o23siam.ed4

56a0le of contents at end of the revie/7

6he 0oo8 0y Redford is a synthesis of the a4thor9s field/or8 at the site from "++!s on/ard, s4$$lemented /ith ahistory of the site itself. (n fact, the 0oo8 is a sort of introd4ction to the site, as in "& cha$ters, the a4thor deals /iththe history of Mendes, a city in the *ortheast *ile Delta. ach of those cha$ters have an initial historicalintrod4ction follo/ed 0y the archaeoloical discoveries of the $eriod. 6here are n4mero4s text4al 0oxes thro4ho4teach cha$ter, ivin a4to0iora$hies of ancient y$tian officials, royal texts or other material. hite Eort.

Cha$ter three is the first $art of the 0oo8 f4lly dealin /ith the history and archaeoloy of Mendes. 6he material ofthe Protodynastic Period is descri0ed in detail, and the earliest history of Mendes tem$le is ex$lained in 0ase of the

discoveries done there, s4ch as silos and 0read ovens, almost com$letely destroyed 0y the later 04ildins. 6hehistory of the city is lin8ed /ith the history of y$t itself. < defensive 0astion /as discovered at Mendes,chronoloically consistent /ith the end of the )ixth Dynasty. G4man and animal s8eletons fo4nd in excavationtrenches seems to confirm the existence of tro40les, as /ell as the smashin of f4nerary stelae and the re4se ofmasonry comin from $rivate tom0s $roves the activity of tom0 ro00ers. 6he tem$le /as destroyed and thes8eletons of the $eriod sho/ the existence of famine d4rin the $eriod.

6he 0oo8 contin4es in its chronoloical order.

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6he $redominance of history is also $art of cha$ter nine and ten. 6here are certainly interestin notes, s4ch as thatthe tem$le follo/ed the model of the Processional tem$le of 6he0an tradition, instead of 0ein similar to those at)ais and B4to. Iet, some $lans /o4ld 0e /elcome, =4st to ive an idea of those differences, as the tem$le of )ais iscom$letely destroyed and certainly in not the most famo4s tem$le that is 8no/n 0y any reader. Cha$ter ten isessentially a list of )aite officials lin8ed to Mendes, 04t there is no descri$tion of the city itself. 6his is 4ite strane,as some of the 04ildins disc4ssed in the s4ccessive cha$ter /ere started or 04ilt d4rin the )aite Period itself.

6he last three cha$ters are the history of the city from the Persian $eriod 4$ to the late hile /e can o over s4ch small details, of a 0ier concern is the style of the lan4ae 4sed. )ome modern

ex$ressions enter into the 0oo8: A6he manaerial 4alities of the head of state in

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55"77 )ee Redford, D.B., JiKxcavations at Mendes. ol4me ". 6he Royal *ecro$olisJiK, Feiden, Brill, !!#.

5577 Gol2, R. H., )/an Gall, . and Bothmer, B. , JiKMendes (JiK, Cairo,