Judgement of the Pharaoh: Crime and Punishment in Ancient Egypt Book

In the popular imagination Ancient Egypt is seen as an idyllic place where, for three thousand years, wise Pharaohs governed a peaceful and plentiful kingdom. Historians, although sceptical of the truth of this image, have always struggled to penetrate it to discover the realities of life for ordinary Egyptians. That is until now. Joyce Tyldesley?s original book carefully unmasks for the first time Ancient Egyptian crimes and criminals. She meticulously recreates a series of crimes, from grave robbing, false embalming, necrophilia and bestiality to a superb recreation of the murder of Tutankhamun (which reassesses the evidence for his murder and rejects it). She also introduces us to some of the inhabitants of the town of Dair et Medine, the dwelling place of fifty craftsmen and their families who worked exclusively in the nearby Valley of the Kings. Their crimes and misdemeanours were carefully recorded and give a vivid insight into Ancient Egyptian attitudes towards sex and death, property and punishment. This inventive, elegantly written book is a brilliant evocation of Ancient Egypt.Read More