LIFE UNDER THE PHARAOHS

by Leonard Cottrell ‧ RELEASE DATE: N/A

While this is written as a companion volume to The Lost Pharaohs, it can be read independently for the light it throws on the particulars of the daily life as conceived for the family of the Vizier Rekhmire, who served Tuthmosis III and whose tomb survives in Thebes today, to bear witness to its builder back in 1500 BC. Careful sifting of vast studies by archaeologists, interpretation of the wall paintings tracing the details of life there recorded, talking with Egyptologists, visiting museums where the relics of the period are shown, and using his own keen sense of human values, Cottrell has produced a convincing portrait of the times. Against a succinct survey, setting the Vizier in his period, with its heritage of the past, he has deduced the activities, the responsibilities of office, the houses and furnishings, the kinds of entertainment, the role of the women of his family, the training of his sons, something of the social and economic background of labor and the crafts, magic and medicine, buying and selling, religion and politics. It is an original way to marshal his facts and to make life under the Pharaohs of immediate and lively interest. Just as The Bull of Minos recreated the civilization of Minoan and Mycenaean days, so this recreates a period in ancient Egypt. Cottrell is a gifted reporter with a unique ability to translate his gift into interpreting the distant past.

Pub Date: N/A

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Holt, Rinehart & Winston

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1960

Categories: NONFICTION