What do we really know about our ancestors? Not about the rulers and generals, but about laborers, farmers, soldiers and families. Egypt is a perfect case in point, almost a blank slate for most of us as it regards details of their everyday life. This useful and informative book attempts to set the record straight by offering a distinctive take on that most mythologized of epochs. Who would have guessed, for example, that the first strike in recorded history took place in 1152 BC during work on the necropolis in the Valley of the Kings, a protest by construction workers against delayed deliveries of oil and flour? Two fairly banal commodities maybe, but essential: oil protected the skin against the savage desert climate, whilst flour was the base ingredient for thirty different kinds of nutritional cake.

Foreword

A Gift of the Nile

The Pyramids - Wonders of the World

The Pharaoh Unites the Land

Servants of the State

The Art of Writing

The Tomb Workers' Strike

Egyptian Art

Free Women in Pharaoh's Land?

The Pleasures of the Heart

Survival Techniques - Mummies

A Guide through the Underworld

Gods, Goddesses and Magic

Temples- Where Heaven and Earth Meet

Tomb Robbers and Curses

Egypt and the Western World

Overview of Egyptian History

Index

Bibliography

Collections and Museums

Photographic Credits