I appreciate the publisher allowing me to read this book. I found the subject matter really interesting. The book was well written and easy to understand. I highly recommend this book.

Before the Heroes tells the story of Egypt before the great pharaohs. This novel is very comprehensive. However, it did not tell me any new information that I did already glean from the excellent audiobook called History of Ancient Egypt by Bob Brier. Still, this is an excellent book for those are new to Egyptian history.

I love anything Ancient Egypt - and enjoyed reading through the pre-pharaonic times in Egypt. This archaeological evidence is amazing, and the author did a fabulous job in researching and putting together this information. There are so many different peoples who have lived in Egypt over its varied history, and the author really highlights and discusses the important aspects of each.

Egypt has a rich history, and the information that was shared was super interesting. In my opinion, I think there is a little uplift that needs to be done - it got a little draggy, and for those that are not really "in-the-know" it can drag down and I think cause many to not want to finish reading through the material.

Overall, one of my favorites from the year so far! For history lovers, I highly recommend this book!

A wonderful and well researched book on Egyptian life before the pharaohs reigns.much detail covering early life amongst people of different tribes. A good read.

A bit dull? Couldn't finish it. The prose was not engaging or very accessible. A lot of information was being crammed in in a tiny space.

As a lot of other people fascinated by Ancient Egypt I nearly never read anything about pre-dinastic and prehistoric Egypt.
I remember a mummified corpse at the Egyptian Museum in Turin and something in a National Geographic documentary.
This is a well researched and nearly academic book about Egypt before the pharahos and I was fascinated by the explanations and the descriptions of the archaeological discoveries.
It's not an easy ready but it's surely a fascinating one.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

I received an advance reader copy of this book to read in exchange for an honest review via netgalley and the publishers.

Before the Pharaohs is a heavily researched book about what came before the Pharaohs in ancient Egypt. We are taken back to this time through the use of many different archaeological findings and sites through the course of this book. I for one found this utterly fascinating and I love seeing these artifacts.
The author starts the book with a historical overview from -10,000 BCE through to 3,000 BCE and works forward from this point. The sites and discoveries are amazing and I would love to go see these in person.
I highly recommend this book to anyone with a fascination of Egypt, ancient Egypt or history!

This book is all about the people of prehistoric Egypt, focusing on the Paleolithic and Neolithic time periods. The book has eight main chapters, and about 218 pages, not including the Notes section.

The Introduction is rather long, and describes some of the evidence of tools used by the various people that inhabited the region in the Paleolithic and Neolithic eras. The author goes into quite a bit of detail, with descriptions of tools and weapons, and even some pictures of tools used during that these times.

The first few chapters cover early hominids, Middle and Upper Paleolithic sites, some examples of prehistoric art, and early Neolithic settlements. I really enjoyed seeing some of the examples of the ancient artwork, including some painted-hand stencils on walls.

The later chapters describe megaliths and burial sites, early farming techniques, and the Naqada and Lower Egyptian culture. There is also discussion of the evidence of brutal warfare and violence that took place during these times.

Overall, this was a very informative book, and collects a wealth of information and pictures about a time period that there seems to be very little written about elsewhere. I was very impressed with all of the information, and although the pictures are black and white, there are many of them that show quite a bit of detail. It takes some time to get through this book, as there is no filler or casual conversation style of writing; just interesting information about these people that lived so long ago. I would highly recommended this book if you are interested in the subject.

When considering the history of Egypt, I've never thought (or read) further back than the age of Pharaohs. Obviously, there was something, but it's easy to get caught up in Pharaonic Egypt and ignore the rest. "Before the Pharaohs" takes us back, using various archaeological sites and findings, in a way that I found very engaging and it's actually changed my perception of Ancient Egypt. This is a wonderful book for anyone interested in Egypt, or history in general.

My thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley. This review was written voluntarily and is entirely my own, unbiased, opinion.

This is, of course, a very specialized subject: an overview of the archaeological finds in Egypt, covering the period from about 50,000 BCE to (approximately) 3,000 BCE. In other words, before classical Egyptian civilization started. Archaeologist Julian Maxwell Heath gives a very solid and detailed overview, with just enough illustration material. Perhaps to laymen his exhaustive enumeration of finds can look tedious, but I can guarantee you: it's fascinating! If you don't have patience, you can stick to the introduction, it summarizes everything perfectly. The only critique I have on this book is that it is only focussing on 'material' research, Heath doesn't include the fast growing knowledge gained through linguistic and paleo-genetic research.. (Thanks to Netgalley and Pen and Sword History for the ARC)

This book was very good! The subject matter was so interesting and unique, loved reading and couldn't put it down!

An overview of archaeological sites and findings related to Paleolithic, Neolithic, and Predynastic Egypt.

The author begins with a historical overview of what can be known of the times from ~10,000 BCE until 3000 BCE. He then goes into detail about Paleolithic sites and discoveries, then Neolithic, then Predynastic, with some asides about farming and art.

Much of the book is spent in the western and eastern deserts in environments which were more hospitable to human habitation during the Paleolithic and Neolithic but desertified by the time of the historical record. This is most likely due to the preponderance of where archaeological evidence is most easily accessible.

A good primer of what has been discovered about ancient life before the pharaonic period.

I've been intrigued with ancient Egypt for years, I was thinking about getting a education in archeology that never came to fruition.
When I saw the title and info on this book I knew I wanted to read it, Before the Pharaohs definitely didn't disappoint me, easy to understand and I'm learning a lot!

Thank you, I will be purchasing the physical book in the future.
I read this book in exchange for my honest review on Goodreads, Netgalley, Librarything, Barnes and Noble

As a child, I had a deep fascination with the remarkable culture of Ancient Egypt. I still enjoy reading about Kemetic deities, and spend countless hours watching documentaries about it. I’m no expert in any way, but I have a fair grasp about the pop-culture friendly version of everything, but have always wondered – who came before the Kemet people? Books occasionally show proto-hieroglyphics, or talk about how Gods like Nut being one of the oldest gods that the previous civilization possibly worshipped – but who? That’s what this book discusses in great detail.

“The remarkable archaeology of pharaonic Egypt continues to captivate countless people worldwide but evidence for Egypt’s prehistoric or Stone Age past has been relatively neglected. This is perhaps understandable, as the archaeology of Stone Age Egypt often seems crude in comparison, and the number of works published on the subject is diminutive compared to those dealing with the revered ancient civilization that emerged in the Nile Valley some five thousand years ago. However, although less spectacular, the numerous remnants of prehistoric life found throughout Egypt represent an important chapter in the story of humanity’s distant past. They also cast compelling light on the shadowy Stone Age peoples who lived in the Nile Valley and surrounding deserts, long before the mighty monuments of the pharaohs ever existed.

This book examines the fascinating archaeology of stone Age Egypt, from its very beginnings, when early members of the human species arrived in Egypt from sub-Saharan Africa, to its end, when the impressive Naqada Culture emerged, setting in motion the processes that led to the formation of one of the world’s greatest ancient civilizations.” -- Publisher’s description

Most of what we know about these people is conjecture, due to them being stone-age peoples with no written documents, no surviving language, and scant artifacts outside of tools in most cases, the author uses information that may be more filled-in from areas surrounding the Nile Valley that they do know more about to fill a handful of gaps in. That said, a full cultural analysis is literally impossible in terms of ritual or practice for the reasons cited above, but we do see things in how these people use tools, their evidence of agriculture, animal domestication, hunting trends, or even their use of cave art, that shed some light on them. I’m not sure I came out of this with a firm grasp of this culture due to the vaporous nature of the artifacts, but I can see it’s not so different than sites in places like Europe.

There isn’t really one big monolithic mega-culture during this time – Upper Egypt and Lower Egypt both had slightly different artifacts, and as we can surmise, entirely different civilizations. These two can even be split into other groupings depending on time frame and location. For example, groups like The Merimde culture lived in small huts and didn’t produce too many artifacts (the face on the cover is theirs), whereas the Naqada culture churned out all manner of artifact, some of which look shockingly similar to Mesopotamian artifacts. I personally liked looking at pictures of all the stuff from the latter.

I will say, this book is very dry – this isn’t a pop-archaeology book in any way, and is a scholarly monograph on the topic at hand. It's the sort of thing you would see in a Journal, but thankfully less verbose than those tend to be. To that notion, I will say that I cannot recommend this to everyone. For people like me, that have an interest in this, definitely check it out, but be prepared to lose track of thigs like dates and locations due to how dense the material is. Overall I liked this book, and am glad I read it.

This book was great, there was clearly a lot of research done while writing the book. It was a great read, the subject was very interesting. I recommend if you like Ancient History.


I read this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Very well written and researched heavily, you can tell a lot effort went into writing this and citing sources. It was fascinating with the subject matter but how the information was shared (IMO) was quite dull. A detailed account of Egypt's Stone Age and the important rulers during that time.

Recommended for those who enjoy Ancient Hostory.

Thanks to Netgalley, Julian Maxwell Heath and Pen & Sword History for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Available: 7/30/21

While I found this an interesting read, I think someone with little interest in this book would find it tedious and boring. Overall, quite interesting on a subject there isn't a lot of information on.