"This catalogue is published in conjunction with the exhibition 'The Dawn of Egyptian Art' on view at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York from April 10 to August 5, 2012"--Title page verso.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 263-268) and index.

The cultural icons of Pharaonic Egypt, from the Great Sphinx at Giza to the famous burial of Tutankhamun, are among the world's most renowned works of art. Less well known, but equally impressive, are the rare and ancient images of people, animals, and landscapes made by the Egyptians who lived prior to the age of the pharaohs, when the formal conventions of Egyptian art had not yet fully evolved. With illustrations of more than 180 objects created from about 4000 to 2650 BC, Dawn of Egyptian Art presents the art forms and iconography in which the early Egyptians recorded their beliefs about the land where they lived, the yearly events that took place there, and what they thought was important to the eternal survival of their world. Comprehensive texts explore the origins and early development of the culture of ancient Egypt while discussing the relationship between image and writing as well as the representation of the self and the universe.