I have always had Ancient Egypt in the back of my mind. In 1998 I began to study the subject in earnest on my own. I soon found the exclusive focus of my interest was the development of religious ideology from the predynastic through the Old Kingdom.

A year later the opportunity came to study the ancient language of Middle Egyptian at UCLA. This summer class turned into three years of classroom study. Our textbook was the brand new grammar by Allen which I have now read twice in its entirety. My ultimate purpose was to read the Pyramid Texts in their original format. I have accomplished this thanks to Sethe's transcriptions.

Intensive study of books and publications by leading Egyptologists including Wilkinson, Friedman, Adams, Verner, Assman, Midant-Reynes, Hoffman, Lehner, Dreyer, Kaplony, Reisner, Faulkner, Gardiner, Lauer et al over the next several years led to an understanding of this ancient civilization I had never thought I would be able to attain.

have presented a few of my discoveries to ARCE attendees and now publish them here for everyone. I hope to someday be able to publish a somewhat complete account of my viewpoint on ancient Egyptian religion, from the hoary double falcon serekhs of Dynasty 0 through the arcane west gable of the Pyramid of Unas.

Dave Cintron, 2006