Private Lives of the Pharaohs: Unlocking the Secrets of Egyptian Royalty

by Joyce A. Tyldesley

Egyptian civilization, preserved for two thousand years, left a mysterious legacy in the form of human remains, monumental buildings, inscrutable writings, and elaborate tombs. But until recently, Egyptian mummies were considered to be little more than curiosities. Much of our understanding of Egyptian civilization has been gleaned from nineteenth century tomb robbers and twentieth century filmmakers. "Private Lives of the Pharaohs" highlights the exciting new developments in medical science that are allowing Egyptologists to extract information from mummified Egyptians. Recent scientific advances, including DNA analysis, endoscopy, and CAT scans, are allowing Egyptologists to bring Egypt's dead "back to life." The once-hidden evidence extracted from their bones, hair, and rehydrated skin is unlocking the mysteries of the pyramids, showing us the secrets of Tutankahamen's court, and revealing the use of recreational drugs in the royal household. The result is a breathtaking new look at the Pharaohs and their monumental civilization. Renowned Egyptologist Joyce Tyldesley describes the major secrets that forensic scientists have been able to retrieve from Egypt's famed mummies.

In this fascinating work, Joyce Tydesley brings to life the myths and legends of Eygyptian civilization.

Genres: History, Egyptology, Nonfiction, Egypt, Archaeology, Ancient History

224 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2000

About the author

Joyce Tyldesley is a British archaeologist and Egyptologist, academic, writer and broadcaster.

Tyldesley was born in Bolton, Lancashire and attended Bolton School. In 1981, she earned a first-class honours degree in archaeology from Liverpool University, and a doctorate in Prehistoric Archaeology from Oxford in 1986. She is a Teaching Fellow at Manchester University where she is tutor and course organiser of the three-year distance learning (internet based) Certificate in Egyptology programme run from the KNH Centre for Biomedical Egyptology.

She is an Honorary Research Fellow at the School of Archaeology, Classics, and Egyptology at Liverpool University, an ex-trustee of the Egypt Exploration Society, Chairperson of Bolton Archaeology and Egyptology Society, and a trustee of Chowbent Chapel.

In 2004 she established, with Steven Snape of Rutherford Press Limited, a publishing firm dedicated to publishing serious but accessible books on ancient Egypt while raising money for Egyptology field work. Donations from RPL have been made to Manchester Museum and the Egypt Exploration Society: currently all profits are donated to the ongoing fieldwork at Zawiyet umm el-Rakham.

She is married with two children to Egyptologist Steven Snape and lives in Lancashire.

Reviews

[Marc · Rating 3 out of 5]

I expected the content to better match the title but maybe that’s what you get from a publishing outfit called “TV Books”

[V · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have read since finishing this book, that is was the companion to a TV series - it feels like it is.
This is really a 3 subject book with the overall subject being Ancient Egypt. The first part covers the pyramids and ideas of how they were built and how the people building them lived.
The second part is about the age of Amarna and Tutankhamen. The final section is about a mummy going through a modern (at the time of writing which was in 2000) medical examination to see how an upper class, long lived woman lived and died.
This is a great way to get started on Egyptian history, beyond lists of famous pharaohs and what they built. It is light reading, a bit of detail without getting bogged down in jargo, but still informative. I have to try and find the series now to see how it compares for detail.
I would recommend this book to anyone after a bit more depth in their Egyptian research, but without reading an archeological textbook.

[Jill · Rating 3 out of 5]

Solid. Nice pictures. Not watered down too much. Met expectations.

[Aniko · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very enjoyable, good introduction into some of Egypt's big topics about the pyramids, Tutankhamen and mumyfication

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Joyce Tyldesley's Private Lives of the Pharaohs contains three case studies on Ancient Egypt. These deal with the most popular topics within Ancient Egypt: the mystery of the pyramids, the boy-king Tutankhamun, and mummies.

The book was published as a companion to a documentary series. I don't recall watching it, so I can't say whether the book is anyway more or less informative for those who did see it. Still, the fact I haven't watched it should be a point in the book's favour, yes?

I found the section on Arsu, the mummy that is "unwrapped" and studied using a variety of new technologies including CT scans and facial reconstruction, the most interesting and new to me. It's not often that we get to see an ordinary individual "up close" in this way.

The other case studies are a little less interesting. It's not because Tyldesley does a poor job representing them, or that the subject is totally boring. I just feel that I'm too familiar with their topics and there's not enough space for Tyldesley to really explore them. Sometimes, I felt that parts were just a reiteration of something I had already seen in a documentary or read in a book. Other times, Tyldesley would mention something that I wanted more detail on (e.g. the DNA tests on Thutmose III and the early DNA testing on the foetuses found in Tutankhamun's tomb), but it wasn't provided.

Still, if you don't know a lot about Ancient Egypt, you probably won't be bothered by that.

Tyldesley has produced another fascinating read and excellent resource on Ancient Egypt, but more knowledgeable readers might not find this as fulfilling as her other books.

[Roxanne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Eh, this was just okay. I think my biggest problem was that when I bought this book, I didn't realize it was published in 2000. The book is based on a television series about the lives of the pharaohs, and either I saw parts of it, or else I've seen more recent shows on the same subjects. There's a lot of good research being done right now at the intersection of archaeology with science and technology, and this book is just out of date. It focused on three "case studies": Case One looks at how they built the pyramids, which I'm sure I saw a special on the History Channel about. Case Two looks at mummies, especially 18th dynasty guys like Tut and Ahkhenaten, using DNA and new technology to see if they had genetic diseases (ie, evidence of inbreeding) and just to see how Tut was related to the preceding kings. I feel like a lot of this information was covered in the really good Nefertiti documentary that was on a few years ago. Case Three (the most interesting one for me) examines the mummy of a female temple singer to see what her life was like. There's no evidence that she used any hallucinogenic drugs, but she had parasites and arthritis and abcesses in her teeth and all kinds of stuff, which shows that it was hard to be healthy even for the upper classes. Conclusion: interesting, but I could have just watched the Discovery channel for a while instead.