One of the world's great collections of ancient Egyptian art has been used as the basis of this introduction to the civilization of Egypt from the pre-dynastic period through to the Coptic era. During this period - a span of more than 4000 years - Egyptian craftsmen developed and used a wide range of sophisticated techniques to produce artworks of quality. Although operating within a series of rigid conventions, their work displays a level of creativity - and even audacity - that remains unmatched. The authors, all of whom are Egyptologists and curators of museums, have selected 130 of the most significant pieces from within the Louvre's collection to illustrate and accompany this survey of the development of art in ancient Egypt. These pieces, all of which are fully illustrated in colour photographs, range from familiar masterpieces to little-known artefacts. Together they present a chronological survey of Egyptian art and the civilization that created it, from the supremely elegant stone and ivory work of the Naqada I period (about 3900 BC) through the golden age of dynastic Egypt's statuary and painting to the flowering of Coptic art (2nd to 7th centuries AD).