Daily Life in Ancient Egypt

Focusing on the experience of a young girl and her family, this book recreates the daily life of middle–class residents of the ancient town of Lahun during Egypt’s Middle Kingdom, or Classical Age. After placing the town in its accurate historical and geographical context, the author chronicles the everyday life of its inhabitants – from their education, occupations, and food preparation to their religious rituals, healing techniques, marriages, births, and deaths. Throughout the book, authenticity takes center stage. This perfect snapshot in time has been painstakingly recreated using recently published textual data and archaeological findings directly from the settlement of Lahun as well as from other contemporary settlement and mortuary sites. Wherever possible, actual physical artifacts are illustrated with line–drawings or photographs (some published here for the first time), accompanied by descriptions of their production and use. Daily Life in Ancient Egypt is a scholarly portrayal of Egypt’s Classical Age and a timeless microcosm of daily life in an ancient Egyptian town.

List of Illustrations. Preface. Acknowledgements. 1 The Setting. 2 Birth. 3 Close to Home. 4 The Stuff of Life. 5 Crafts and Trades. 6 Learning Earning and Leisure. 7 Religion. 8 Sickness. 9 Death. 10 Love. Bibliography

Kasia Szpakowska is an Egyptologist in the Department of Classics, Ancient History and Egyptology, and a member of the Centre for Egyptology and Mediterranean Archaeology (CEMA) at the University of Wales, Swansea. She is the author of Behind Closed Eyes: Dreams and Nightmares in Ancient Egypt , and editor of Through a Glass Darkly: Magic, Dreams , and Prophecy in Ancient Egypt . Her current research focuses on gender and daily life in the Late Middle Kingdom as well as private religious practice in Egypt through the New Kingdom.

"This volume breaks new ground in how we need to examine Egyptian culture." ( Journal of World History , March 2010) "The author brings a contemporary academic understanding of ancient Egyptian society and culture to a general audience, successfully overturning widely–held preconceptions and offering new research and methodologies in an accessible and lucid manner. As such, it will serve both general interest readers and students of the subject." ( Egyptian Archaeology , Spring 2009) "The book will be attractive to anyone who wishes to read an appealing and original introduction to the Egyptian mind." ( Scholia Reviews , 2009) "Books dealing with the daily lives of the ancient Egyptians abound ... .I′d not gotten far into Szpakowska′s contribution when I realized that hers was something special, and needful. Each chapter begins with a brief introduction ... which the author fleshes out with a highly detailed and readable survey. This approach brings the mundane world ... to life in a way real and vital, and is sure to appeal to Szpakowska′s intended audience: university students, the general public, and scholars. Daily Life is at once a good read and an excellent reference book." ( KMT: A Modern Journal of Ancient Egypt , December 2008) "In this interesting addition to the growing body of scholarship on the social and cultural history of ancient Egypt, Szapkowska treats in succession birth, home life, personal possessions, crafts and trades, learning and related topics, religion, sickness, death, and love. What sets her book apart from other similar works is its restriction to the Middle Kingdom town of Lahun and the author′s reliance primarily on material from that site. The focus on Middle Kingdom Lahun ... does allow readers to get a clearer sense of life in a particular place than other similarly titled works provide. Recommended." ( CHOICE , December 2008) "Szpakowska′s book is well–written, and a valuable addition to books on the topic of daily life in ancient Egypt. It tells a wonderful story of life in an ancient Egyptian town." ( Bryn Mawr Classical Review , September 2008)  "A magnificent undergraduate textbook, because of the focus on the actual record." ( Times Higher Education Supplement )