Egyptian civilization, preserved for two thousand years, left a mysterious legacy in the form of human remains, monumental buildings, inscrutable writings, and elaborate tombs. But until recently, Egyptian mummies were considered to be little more than curiousities. Much of our understanding of Egyptian civilization has been gleaned from nineteenth century tomb robbers and twentieth century filmmakers. 'Private Lives of the Pharaohs' highlights the exciting new developments in medical science that are allowing Egyptologists to extract information from mummified Egyptians. Recent scientific advances, including DNA analysis, endoscopy, and CAT scans, are allowing Egyptologists to bring Egypt's dead 'back to life.' The once-hidden evidence extraced from their bones, hair, and rehydrated skin is unlocking the mysteries of the pyramids, showingus the secrets of Tutankahamen's court, and revealing the use of recreational drugs in the royal household. The result is a breathtaking new look at the Pharoahs and their monumental civilization. Renowned Egyptologist Joyce Tyldesley describes the major secrets that forensic scientists have been able to retrieve from Egypt's famed mummies ...

Much of the literature on ancient Egypt centers on pharaohs or on elite conceptions of the afterlife. This scintillating book examines how ordinary ancient Egyptians lived their lives. Drawing on the remarkably rich and detailed archaeological, iconographic, and textual evidence from some 450 years of the New Kingdom, as well as recent theoretical innovations from several fields, it reconstructs private and social life from birth to death. The result is a meaningful portrait composed of individual biographies, communities, and landscapes. Structured according to the cycles of life, the book relies on categories that the ancient Egyptians themselves used to make sense of their lives. Lynn Meskell gracefully sifts the evidence to reveal Egyptian domestic arrangements, social and family dynamics, sexuality, emotional experience, and attitudes toward the cadences of human life. She discusses how the Egyptians of the New Kingdom constituted and experienced self, kinship, life stages, reproduction, and social organization. And she examines their creation of communities and the material conditions in which they lived. Also included is neglected information on the formation of locality and the construction of gender and sexual identity and new evidence from the mortuary record, including important new data on the burial of children. Throughout, Meskell is careful to highlight differences among ancient Egyptians--the ways, for instance, that ethnicity, marital status, age, gender, and occupation patterned their experiences. Readers will come away from this book with new insights on how life may have been experienced and conceived of by ancient Egyptians in all their variety. This makes Private Life in New Kingdom Egypt unique in Egyptology and fascinating to read.

The names of ancient Egyptian kings such as Cheops, Akhenaten, and Ramesses II have become part of popular culture. Yet, for all the tombs and statuary that have survived over the millennia, surprisingly little remains that speaks to the workings of government, cabals in the palace, political factions, and the private lives of the royal families. In The Book of the Pharaohs, Pascal Vernus and Jean Yoyotte offer an indispensable, basic reference to the full human reality of royal Egypt. The Book of the Pharaohs is an encyclopedia made up of short essays on the pharaohs themselves, as well as on places, dynasties, personages, subjects, and themes relating to the kings and their rule. Entries range from "Adoratrices" (priestesses of Hathor, the Egyptian Aphrodite, whose role was to arouse the erotic impulse in the creator gods) and "Amarna" (the capital created by the heretic pharaoh Akhenaten) to "Scorpion" (who ruled before the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt) and "Zero Dynasty" (the designation for pre-pharaonic Egypt). In addition, Vernus and Yoyotte include a substantial essay on the sources for Egyptian history, a bibliography of books for general readers, and a chronological table that organizes the major periods of Egyptian history and notes the most illustrious royal names from each.

This is a story studded with extraordinary achievements and historic moments, from the building of the pyramids and the conquest of Nubia, through Akhenaten's religious revolution, the power and beauty of Nefertiti, the glory of Tutankhamun's burial chamber, and the ruthlessness of Ramesses, to Alexander the Great's invasion, and Cleopatra's fatal entanglement with Rome. As the world's first nation-state, the history of Ancient Egypt is above all the story of the attempt to unite a disparate realm and defend it against hostile forces from within and without. Combining grand narrative sweep with detailed knowledge of hieroglyphs and the iconography of power, Toby Wilkinson reveals Ancient Egypt in all its complexity.

Taking an eye-opening new approach to Egyptian history, Chronicle of a Pharaoh presents a unique and intimate portrait of Amenhotep III, the man and self-proclaimed god who presided over the zenith of Egypt's greatness. Through an unprecedented wealth of details--from the day-to-day running of a huge empire to his clothes, cats, and bedroom habits--the private and public faces of a pharaoh are vividly brought to life as never before. Joann Fletcher explores Amenhotep's private and public life in a compelling year-by-year account, drawing on firsthand and previously unpublished material. Among the many subjects covered are his daily schedule, such as bedchamber ceremonies and meetings with ministers; his relations with rulers of other ancient superpowers, recorded in a lively correspondence covering topics from new wives to the price of silver; his family life, including the remarkable role of his wife, Queen Tiy; the superlative art of the reign; and his monumental construction projects--among them the great temple of Luxor. Amenhotep III also established the cult of Aten, the sun disk, and after Amenhotep's death his son, the rebel pharaoh Akhenaten, became fanatically obsessed with the god. Illustrated with spectacular full-color photographs, maps, and artifacts, many of which are published here for the first time, Chronicle of a Pharaoh provides the full context for understanding the monarch who presided over the magnificent flowering of Egyptian civilization.