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Red Land, Black Land: Daily Life in Ancient Egypt
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| List Price: | $26.95 |
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Product Description
A fascinating, erudite, and witty glimpse of the human side of ancient Egypt—this acclaimed classic work is now revised and updated for a new generation
Displaying the unparalleled descriptive power, unerring eye for fascinating detail, keen insight, and trenchant wit that have made the novels she writes (as Elizabeth Peters and Barbara Michaels) perennial New York Times bestsellers, internationally renowned Egyptologist Barbara Mertz brings a long-buried civilization to vivid life. In Red Land, Black Land, she transports us back thousands of years and immerses us in the sights, aromas, and sounds of day-to-day living in the legendary desert realm that was ancient Egypt.
Who were these people whose civilization has inspired myriad films, books, artwork, myths, and dreams, and who built astonishing monuments that still stagger the imagination five thousand years later? What did average Egyptians eat, drink, wear, gossip about, and aspire to? What were their amusements, their beliefs, their attitudes concerning religion, childrearing, nudity, premarital sex? Mertz ushers us into their homes, workplaces, temples, and palaces to give us an intimate view of the everyday worlds of the royal and commoner alike. We observe priests and painters, scribes and pyramid builders, slaves, housewives, and queens—and receive fascinating tips on how to perform tasks essential to ancient Egyptian living, from mummification to making papyrus.
An eye-opening and endlessly entertaining companion volume to Temples, Tombs, and Hieroglyphs, Mertz's extraordinary history of ancient Egypt, Red Land, Black Land offers readers a brilliant display of rich description and fascinating edification. It brings us closer than ever before to the people of a great lost culture that was so different from—yet so surprisingly similar to—our own.
Product Details
- Amazon Sales Rank: #459084 in Books
- Published on: 2008-03-01
- Released on: 2008-03-18
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Binding: Hardcover
- 432 pages
Features
- ISBN13: 9780061252747
- Condition: USED - LIKE NEW
- Notes:
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Editorial Reviews
About the Author
Barbara Mertz is a New York Times bestselling author who writes the popular Amelia Peabody mystery series under the pen name Elizabeth Peters and romantic suspense novels as Barbara Michaels. She was born and brought up in Illinois and earned her Ph.D. in Egyptology from the University of Chicago's famed Oriental Institute. Named Grand Master at the inaugural Anthony Awards in 1986 and Grand Master by the Mystery Writers of America at the Edgar Awards in 1998, she lives in a historic farmhouse in western Maryland.
From AudioFile
Lorna Raver immerses herself in renowned Egyptologist Barbara Mertz's fascinating and exquisitely detailed account of daily life in ancient Egypt. In a pleasantly modulated voice, with plenty of high drama and frequent witticisms, and no hints of pedantry, Raver takes us back thousands of years and introduces us to Egyptians of many strata--pharaohs, queens, painters, slaves, scribes, temple builders--showing us their everyday ways of life with respect to marriage, birth, food, beer, wine, orgies, rituals, clothing, sexual practices, religion, the construction of magnificent temples and tombs, and beliefs regarding the afterlife. Be forewarned, this is a long production, but it's never boring. In fact, the time seems to fly by. M.T.B. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine
Customer Reviews
Egypt Lives!
A wonderful sequel to 'Temples, Tombs and Hieroglyphs', this book sets aside the well-scrutinized lives of famous pharoahs, and turns instead to the day-to-day life of the rest of Ancient Egypt. Much of the material is new to me, and I found it fascinating reading. Of course, Ms. Mertz could probably make the Boston Phonebook palatable; I would certainly read anything she chose to write. (I firmly believe she hangs out with Elizabeth Peters; Joan Hess occasionally dropping in to make a threesome..)
Enough fawning! Read this book! It's interesting! You can tell them I said so...
Wonderful Book
I read this a while back and I must say, "jolly good writing," which of course is now my only expectation from Ms. Mertz/Peters/Michaels & any other pseudonyms she has chosen to go by.
As an aside, I was watching tv the other day and saw Ms. Mertz on an A&E Ancient Mysteries Special on Queen Maatkare Hatshepsut. That was Jolly Good too!
Red Land, Black Land: Daily Life in Ancient Egypt
Loved it. This book is actually a textbook, but it's the most interesting textbook I've ever read. It really gives you a "feel" for daily life in ancient Egypt.
