The Ancient Egyptian World (The AWorld in Ancient Times)

About this book

Taking readers back 4 000 years to the fertile land around the Nile River The Ancient Egyptian World tells the stories of the kings queens pharaohs gods tomb builders and ordinary citizens who lived there. Using papyri scarabs tomb inscriptions mummies and a rich variety of other primary sources Eric H. Cline and Jill Rubalcaba uncover the fascinating history of ancient Egypt. Scarabs which scholars call "imperial news bulletins " record important moments in a pharaohs reign. The Edwin Smith Papyrus details the injuries sustained by the builders of the great pyramids and the remedies used to treat them. For a worker who has had a stone fall on his head it suggests: "bind it with fresh meat . . . and treat afterward with grease honey and lint." A complex recipe for a top-of-the-line mummy describes a process that could take 70 days and involved drawing the brain out through the nose with a crooked piece of iron. These primary sources also tell the stories of the people of ancient Egypt: Pepi II the six-year-old boy king who commanded armies; Ramesses II whose mortuary temple boasts of his expertise in battle against the Hittites; Queen Hatshepsut the only woman to rule Egypt as pharaoh; and Cleopatra who courted Roman statesman Mark Antony as part of her quest to extend the Egyptian empire. The Ancient Egyptian World honors the history of a civilization whose monuments and tombs still capture the imagination of the world thousands of years later.