24 Hours in Ancient Egypt

'Lively and amusing [...] an engaging read. Ryan successfully makes this ancient civilisation more immediate and accessible.' - Current World Archaeology '[Donald] Ryan - who has worked in and on Egypt for decades, as an archaeologist, historian and popular writer - has succeeded in bringing all of his characters to life. This is a great little volume.' - KMT Magazine'Very readable [...] its originality lies in the clever construction of the content. The variety of characters covered allows for a considerable breadth of information on life for the rich and poor.' - Ancient Egypt MagazineSpend 24 hours with the inhabitants of the most powerful kingdom in the ancient world.Ancient Egypt wasn’t all pyramids, sphinxes and gold sarcophagi. For your average Egyptian, life was tough, and work was hard, conducted under the burning gaze of the sun god Ra.During the course of a day in the ancient city of Thebes (modern-day Luxor), Egypt’s religious capital, we meet 24 Egyptians from all strata of society – from the king to the bread-maker, the priestess to the fisherman, the soldier to the midwife – and get to know what the real Egypt was like by spending an hour in their company. We encounter a different one of these characters every hour and in every chapter, and through their eyes see what an average day in ancient Egypt was really like.

Donald P. Ryan, Ph.D. is an archaeologist and Faculty Fellow in the Division of Humanities at Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, Washington. His work focuses on Egyptian archaeology, Polynesian archaeology, and ancient languages and scripts. His research in Egypt includes excavations in the Valley of the Kings, where he has discovered lost tombs and controversial mummies – Ryan excavated a tomb of one of the individuals to be featured in 24 Hours in Ancient Egypt, Amenemope the vizier of the ruler Amenhotep II. In 2017, he rediscovered three lost tombs in the Valley of the Kings also associated with that same ruler. Ryan is the author of several books and numerous scientific and popular articles on archaeological subjects, including Ancient Egypt on Five Deben a Day, Beneath the Sands of Egypt and Ancient Egypt: The Basics.

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