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Lives of the Ancient Egyptians
One hundred biographies of ancient Egyptians, both rulers and everyday citizens, reveal the true character and diversity of the ancient world’s greatest civilization. Spanning thousands of years of ancient Egyptian history, this volume offers a fresh perspective on an always fascinating civilization through the lives of the people who ruled, built the great monuments, staffed government offices, farmed, served in the temples, and fought to defend the country’s borders. This book includes stories of god-kings, from great rulers such as Khufu and Ramesses II to less famous monarchs such as Amenemhat I and Osorkon; powerful queens such as Tiye, the beautiful Nefertiti, Tutankhamun’s tragic child- bride Ankhesenamun, and the infamous Cleopatra; as well as ordinary women who are often overlooked in official Hemira, a humble priestess from a provincial Delta town, and Naunakht, whose will reveals the trials and tribulations of family life. Illustrated with works of art and scenes of daily life, Lives of the Ancient Egyptians offers remarkable insights into the history and culture of the Nile Valley and very personal glimpses of a vanished world. 25 illustrations
288 pages, Paperback
First published November 17, 2007
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598 people want to read
About the author
Toby Wilkinson
17 books273 followersDr Toby Wilkinson joined the International Strategy Office in July 2011, working with the Pro Vice Chancellor (Jennifer Barnes) to support the schools, faculties and departments in their international engagements, and to develop the University's international strategy, particularly with regard to research collaborations and relationships with the EU, US, India and China. Prior to this, Dr Wilkinson was the Development Director at Clare College as well as Chairman of Cambridge Colleges Development Group.
As an acknowledged expert on ancient Egyptian civilisation and one of the leading Egyptologists of his generation, Toby Wilkinson has lectured around the world. He has excavated at the Egyptian sites of Buto and Memphis. He is a member of the editorial board of the Journal of Egyptian History and has broadcast on radio and television in the UK and abroad, including BBC’s Horizon and Channel 4’s Private Lives of the Pharaohs, and was the consultant for the BBC’s award-winning documentary on the building of the Great Pyramid.
Upon graduating from the University of Cambridge he received the University’s Thomas Mulvey Prize and was elected to the prestigious Lady Wallis Budge Junior Research Fellowship in Egyptology. He is a Fellow of Clare College, University of Cambridge and an Honorary Research Fellow in the Department of Archaeology at the University of Durham.
As an acknowledged expert on ancient Egyptian civilisation and one of the leading Egyptologists of his generation, Toby Wilkinson has lectured around the world. He has excavated at the Egyptian sites of Buto and Memphis. He is a member of the editorial board of the Journal of Egyptian History and has broadcast on radio and television in the UK and abroad, including BBC’s Horizon and Channel 4’s Private Lives of the Pharaohs, and was the consultant for the BBC’s award-winning documentary on the building of the Great Pyramid.
Upon graduating from the University of Cambridge he received the University’s Thomas Mulvey Prize and was elected to the prestigious Lady Wallis Budge Junior Research Fellowship in Egyptology. He is a Fellow of Clare College, University of Cambridge and an Honorary Research Fellow in the Department of Archaeology at the University of Durham.
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
October 12, 2024
100 Ancient Egyptian Lives, from the (probably) first pharaoh, Narmer, to the last, Cleopatra. Toby Wilkinson spends an average of three pages on each figure. Not only kings, of course, but also court officials and gradually also a bit more 'ordinary' figures. Positive is the special attention given to women, although they remain scarce. Each period is introduced appropriately. But all in all this remains a rather stereotypical and superficial introduction to Ancient Egyptian history. More in my History account on Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show.... Rating 2.5 stars.
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October 21, 2024Rating 2.5 stars. My experiences with the publications of Egyptologist Toby Wilkinson are mixed. I quite enjoyed his anthology of Ancient Egyptian literature (Writings from Ancient Egypt), but his concise introduction to the history of Ancient Egyptian civilization (The Rise and Fall of Ancient Egypt) was a nightmare. This is another case of doubt. The introductions that Wilkinson offers to each period are solid (with the exception of a few slip-ups such as the Hyksos “invasion”), and the 100 persons that he presents are well-spread chronologically. However, the proportion of political leaders, i.e. pharaohs, and court officials is excessively large, so that the other population categories mostly are neglected. Of course, this has to do with the sources, which – for the civilization of the Nile Valley - focus extremely on the kings and the court. However, there is still sufficient material in the very long and rich history of Ancient Egypt to also include the lesser gods and the common man. Compare this with what Amanda Podany did in Weavers, Scribes, and Kings: A New History of the Ancient Near East: there, the other categories are given much more say. And this can be taken literally: Podany extensively used texts from the people involved, while Wilkinson usually sticks to impersonal, encyclopedia-like presentations. A missed opportunity, it seems to me, to really bring the people of Ancient Egypt to life. And another deficiency, typical for Wilkinson: especially in the early period the author presents mythical aspects of known persons as reality, whilst a lot of it just is speculative and extremely uncertain. Clearly, Wilkinson could not resist the temptation to tell a good story. Nevertheless, as an introduction to Ancient Egypt this has some merit.
June 19, 2013
Don't come to this book expecting to understand how ancient Egyptians actually lived. You won't find that here.
It's a collection of very, very short biographies of real Egyptians navigating the world thousands of years ago. That makes it interesting, but also difficult at the same time. It's hard to get much of a sense of the time, the place, and the person after only reading a few paragraphs.
It's a collection of very, very short biographies of real Egyptians navigating the world thousands of years ago. That makes it interesting, but also difficult at the same time. It's hard to get much of a sense of the time, the place, and the person after only reading a few paragraphs.
July 2, 2015
Egypt fascinates me, especially ancient Egypt, really ancient Egypt – the Old and Middle Kingdoms. And Egypt is old. The so-called New Kingdom period ended c. 1069 BC. Several decades before David created Israel and three centuries before Romulus and Remus founded Rome. The time span from Khufu to Cleopatra is greater than that from Cleopatra to us.
Lives of the Ancient Egyptians is a collection of 100 two-to-three-page essays about the men and women of ancient Egypt from those murky beginnings c. 3100 BC to its conquest by Augustus in 31 BC. There are entries for the usual suspects: Khufu, Hatshepsut, Akhenaten, Ptolemy. But the relatively more interesting essays are the ones about the more obscure pharaohs and the less-exalted members of Egyptian society.
The following aren’t the “top 10” but they are a sampling of ones I found of particular interest:
Merneith: Before there was Hatshepsut, there was Merneith, the mother of Egypt’s fifth pharaoh, Den. She ruled as regent while her son was a child and was rewarded by him with a full mortuary complex.
Imhotep: The real Imhotep is a far more fascinating character than the villain of The Mummy movies. There are only two contemporary references to his existence that have survived. The first is an inscription on the base of a statue of Pharaoh Djoser located at the entrance to that ruler’s tomb complex, the Step Pyramid, the one that inspired all the succeeding pyramids. The inscription’s prominence and the fact that it honored someone other than the pharaoh indicate how important Imhotep was at the royal court. The second reference is a graffito on a monument from Djoser’s successor’s tomb complex. Later generations would embellish Imhotep’s life until he became a god of writing, architecture, wisdom and medicine.
Hemira: Hemira was a priestess of Hathor who lived in the Delta (Lower Egypt) during the First Intermediate Period. She staffed a minor temple in a provincial town but I liked the inscription on her tomb. People would come to these tombs and offer sacrifices and such for good fortune, etc., similar to Catholic saint cults. Hemira advertised: “As for all people who will say ‘bread for Hemi in this her tomb,’ I am an effective spirit and will not allow it to go ill with them.”
Intef II: Intef was ruler of the 11th Dynasty who loved his dogs. One of the stelae he erected shows him playing with his dogs Behkai (Gazelle), Abaqer (Hound), Pehtes (Blackie) and Teqru (Kettle).
Hekanakht: Hekanakht was a farmer whose letters to his sons and other family members reveal an anxiety over the proper management of his properties (“Take great care! Watch over my seed corn! Look after all my property! Look, I count you responsible for it. Take great care with all my property!”) and a tangled family life. His first wife died and the relationships between the children of that first marriage and the wife – Iutenhab – and children of the second were tense (“Shall you not respect my new wife?!”).
Twenty-five hundred years or so later, Agatha Christie would use Hekanakht’s troubled domesticity as the basis for her mystery Death Comes As The End.
Merenptah: Merenptah’s reign is noteworthy in some circles because it’s the only time in hieroglyphic texts that Israel is ever mentioned – as one of several cities and tribes defeated by Merenptah.
Paneb: Paneb was no court official or military officer. He was a crook and serial adulterer. A corrupt workman who stole, bribed and blasphemed and, perhaps, committed murder. Unfortunately, though we have a record of the trial where his enemies brought him up on the most serious charges, we have no idea how it turned out. Did he escape justice? Or was maat preserved and he got what he deserved?
Naunakht: Naunakht is another Egyptian woman. Women in Egypt enjoyed a relatively high status in society. They could own property in their own right and controlled their dowries. Naunakht’s children were not suitably grateful for her care and protection when they were young. When she had grown old and needed support, several of them were less than generous: “I brought up these eight servants of yours…But see, I am grown old, and see, they are not looking after me in my turn. Whoever of them has aided me, to him I will give of my property; he who has not given to me, to him I will not give of my property. They shall not participate in the division of my one-third.”
Piye: Most of the time, it was Egypt who sent the troops to chastise, sometimes conquer, Nubia but in the 8th century BC it was the other way around. Piye, the ruler of Kush, took his legions and conquered Thebes, going on to conquer Lower Egypt as well and restoring unity to the country. Far from being a foreign conqueror, however, it seems Piye was “more Egyptian than the Egyptians.” He restored the Amun cult and temples and consciously modeled the regime’s art and propaganda from models of the best remembered and most prestigious former dynasties.
Manetho: Manetho flourished under the first two Ptolemies (late 4th – early 3rd century BC). It is to him that all modern Egyptologists owe the scheme of 31 dynasties and a great deal of knowledge about that ancient land’s history (though all of his works survived second hand, being quoted in other author’s histories).
Wilkinson assumes a general knowledge of ancient Egypt on the reader’s part. If you didn’t recognize any of the “usual suspects” I mentioned above, this is probably not a book that will interest you. However, if you’re like me and do have an interest in the period, then I would recommend this book. I’d also recommend Wilkinson’s The Rise and Fall of Ancient Egypt, which is also geared toward the lay reader and offers a well-written account of the Nile valley’s history over the same period as this book covers.
Lives of the Ancient Egyptians is a collection of 100 two-to-three-page essays about the men and women of ancient Egypt from those murky beginnings c. 3100 BC to its conquest by Augustus in 31 BC. There are entries for the usual suspects: Khufu, Hatshepsut, Akhenaten, Ptolemy. But the relatively more interesting essays are the ones about the more obscure pharaohs and the less-exalted members of Egyptian society.
The following aren’t the “top 10” but they are a sampling of ones I found of particular interest:
Merneith: Before there was Hatshepsut, there was Merneith, the mother of Egypt’s fifth pharaoh, Den. She ruled as regent while her son was a child and was rewarded by him with a full mortuary complex.
Imhotep: The real Imhotep is a far more fascinating character than the villain of The Mummy movies. There are only two contemporary references to his existence that have survived. The first is an inscription on the base of a statue of Pharaoh Djoser located at the entrance to that ruler’s tomb complex, the Step Pyramid, the one that inspired all the succeeding pyramids. The inscription’s prominence and the fact that it honored someone other than the pharaoh indicate how important Imhotep was at the royal court. The second reference is a graffito on a monument from Djoser’s successor’s tomb complex. Later generations would embellish Imhotep’s life until he became a god of writing, architecture, wisdom and medicine.
Hemira: Hemira was a priestess of Hathor who lived in the Delta (Lower Egypt) during the First Intermediate Period. She staffed a minor temple in a provincial town but I liked the inscription on her tomb. People would come to these tombs and offer sacrifices and such for good fortune, etc., similar to Catholic saint cults. Hemira advertised: “As for all people who will say ‘bread for Hemi in this her tomb,’ I am an effective spirit and will not allow it to go ill with them.”
Intef II: Intef was ruler of the 11th Dynasty who loved his dogs. One of the stelae he erected shows him playing with his dogs Behkai (Gazelle), Abaqer (Hound), Pehtes (Blackie) and Teqru (Kettle).
Hekanakht: Hekanakht was a farmer whose letters to his sons and other family members reveal an anxiety over the proper management of his properties (“Take great care! Watch over my seed corn! Look after all my property! Look, I count you responsible for it. Take great care with all my property!”) and a tangled family life. His first wife died and the relationships between the children of that first marriage and the wife – Iutenhab – and children of the second were tense (“Shall you not respect my new wife?!”).
Twenty-five hundred years or so later, Agatha Christie would use Hekanakht’s troubled domesticity as the basis for her mystery Death Comes As The End.
Merenptah: Merenptah’s reign is noteworthy in some circles because it’s the only time in hieroglyphic texts that Israel is ever mentioned – as one of several cities and tribes defeated by Merenptah.
Paneb: Paneb was no court official or military officer. He was a crook and serial adulterer. A corrupt workman who stole, bribed and blasphemed and, perhaps, committed murder. Unfortunately, though we have a record of the trial where his enemies brought him up on the most serious charges, we have no idea how it turned out. Did he escape justice? Or was maat preserved and he got what he deserved?
Naunakht: Naunakht is another Egyptian woman. Women in Egypt enjoyed a relatively high status in society. They could own property in their own right and controlled their dowries. Naunakht’s children were not suitably grateful for her care and protection when they were young. When she had grown old and needed support, several of them were less than generous: “I brought up these eight servants of yours…But see, I am grown old, and see, they are not looking after me in my turn. Whoever of them has aided me, to him I will give of my property; he who has not given to me, to him I will not give of my property. They shall not participate in the division of my one-third.”
Piye: Most of the time, it was Egypt who sent the troops to chastise, sometimes conquer, Nubia but in the 8th century BC it was the other way around. Piye, the ruler of Kush, took his legions and conquered Thebes, going on to conquer Lower Egypt as well and restoring unity to the country. Far from being a foreign conqueror, however, it seems Piye was “more Egyptian than the Egyptians.” He restored the Amun cult and temples and consciously modeled the regime’s art and propaganda from models of the best remembered and most prestigious former dynasties.
Manetho: Manetho flourished under the first two Ptolemies (late 4th – early 3rd century BC). It is to him that all modern Egyptologists owe the scheme of 31 dynasties and a great deal of knowledge about that ancient land’s history (though all of his works survived second hand, being quoted in other author’s histories).
Wilkinson assumes a general knowledge of ancient Egypt on the reader’s part. If you didn’t recognize any of the “usual suspects” I mentioned above, this is probably not a book that will interest you. However, if you’re like me and do have an interest in the period, then I would recommend this book. I’d also recommend Wilkinson’s The Rise and Fall of Ancient Egypt, which is also geared toward the lay reader and offers a well-written account of the Nile valley’s history over the same period as this book covers.
July 1, 2018
Very much a coffee table book, Wilkinson presents brief five-page-or-less biographies of 100 notable individuals from across three thousand years of ancient Egyptian history. As you might expect from such truncated explorations, each portrait is only thinly sketched, and nowhere near the kind of detail you could expect from an academic work – but that is the point. This is not a book for academics, or even serious hobbyists; its ideal audience is someone with no prior knowledge or a passing interest in the subject, and it’s written with that audience in mind, explaining from the basics up in a simple and lucid manner and very easy to dip in and out of. The book is slightly out of date by this point; for example, the entries on Tutankhamun and his family does not take into account the recent genetic testing – but on the plus side this is one of the few books to get right that Nefertiti’s sister was Mutbenret and not the same person as Horemheb’s queen Mutnodjmet.
6 out of 10
September 2, 2023
In Lives of the Ancient Egyptians, we get 100 short biographies about people who lived in Ancient Egypt, starting with Narmer, supposedly Egypt’s first king, and ending with Cleopatra VII, arguably the most famous of them all.
The first half of this book I have to admit was a struggle to read. Looking back, I think that’s just a symptom of those people living SO long ago that we really barely know anything about them. Maybe we know their position on society, their many many titles, the name of their family and where they’re buried. And when that makes up all we know, then a lot of the biographies started to feel very alike, it was just the same kind of information over and over again.
The second half felt much stronger, with more detailed biographies and more interesting information. I mostly preferred the biographies about women (and that was only 10 out of the 100 biographies), probably because of women were interesting enough to be written about it means they did something exceptional and unexpected, meanwhile men could kind of just show up, fight in the army, proclaim themselves king, and have their families rule for a couple of generations until someone repeated the cycle.
I’m trying to decide if this will be better for people with background knowledge om Ancient Egypts or for people without more information than the basics (like me). On one hand, it’s a lot of superficial information with no further context which may be uninteresting to people with the knowledge, but on the other hand it covers like 3000 years and was at times hard to follow for me. Maybe the best audience for this book is simply people who are looking for fun sized information. You can read this quickly and maybe not actually learn a lot, but still feel like you covered a lot of Egyptian history in one go.
The first half of this book I have to admit was a struggle to read. Looking back, I think that’s just a symptom of those people living SO long ago that we really barely know anything about them. Maybe we know their position on society, their many many titles, the name of their family and where they’re buried. And when that makes up all we know, then a lot of the biographies started to feel very alike, it was just the same kind of information over and over again.
The second half felt much stronger, with more detailed biographies and more interesting information. I mostly preferred the biographies about women (and that was only 10 out of the 100 biographies), probably because of women were interesting enough to be written about it means they did something exceptional and unexpected, meanwhile men could kind of just show up, fight in the army, proclaim themselves king, and have their families rule for a couple of generations until someone repeated the cycle.
I’m trying to decide if this will be better for people with background knowledge om Ancient Egypts or for people without more information than the basics (like me). On one hand, it’s a lot of superficial information with no further context which may be uninteresting to people with the knowledge, but on the other hand it covers like 3000 years and was at times hard to follow for me. Maybe the best audience for this book is simply people who are looking for fun sized information. You can read this quickly and maybe not actually learn a lot, but still feel like you covered a lot of Egyptian history in one go.
September 1, 2021
Definitely not what I was expecting. Very disappointing, actually. However, I did find a few of the people who were mentioned in this book to be fascinating. The pharaoh, Den, was one of them. I wanted to write more about my opinion on this book or rather the author. When I read this book, I would've never thought in a million years that this book was written by an Egyptologist. I really thought it was written by an amateur that did some research. I have another book by the same author that I decided to give a chance and read. I was reading the description on the back of the book and I saw that the author is actually an Egyptologist. This other book I have "The Rise and Fall of Ancient Egypt", seems more like it would be my type of book based off what I've briefly read in it. However, back to this book. I did read more from it. I was able to find two more people who I found really interesting. They're Hekanakht, a farmer and letter writer, and Sennediem, a workman in The Valley of the Kings. Of those three people I found, I would love to be able to find more works mentioning them. Den, I've been reading up on on Wikipedia.
February 12, 2023
As others have mentioned, the title of this book is a little misleading. I thought I'd be learning about the average life of an ancient Egyptian, whereas what I actually got was a hundred short biographies of ancient Egyptian individuals. It's not very deep and I didn't find it particularly engaging, but it did serve as a decent re-cap to reinforce my more in-depth learnings about ancient Egypt.
What I most appreciated was the inclusion of names of the subjects' family members and sometimes even pets. I feel like these are too often forgotten.
What I most appreciated was the inclusion of names of the subjects' family members and sometimes even pets. I feel like these are too often forgotten.
January 20, 2024
Fascinating and enjoyable little snippets of 100 lives from Ancient Egyptians. Not just the pharaohs and high officials; there are also lives of scribes, farmers, workmen and others, covering 3000 years of the Ancient Egyptian culture. I appreciated the author's slightly tongue in cheek outlook on some of the events in these lives.
July 12, 2022
The blurb on the back dust cover of this book promises that these 100 biographies will reveal the true character and diversity of ancient Egypt. It’s a bold claim, one that Wilkinson does to some extent manage to deliver. Wilkinson uses many of these very short biographies to deliver insights into the world and society of the ancient Egyptians. However many more don’t manage much more than to convey the content of tomb and temple wall texts.
When writing about ancient Egyptians we are forced to use tomb and temple texts because they are often the only remaining sources. Straight away this limits the writer to only writing about royalty and the elite and in the words they themselves wanted as both a presentation to the gods of their worthiness for a good afterlife and to convey their hopes for that afterlife. Very little of the real person is revealed here. Also because tombs and temples were only erected by royalty and the very rich, the common folk who were the bulk of the population, remain unknown and unknowable.
That said my main gripes with this book and why I only gave it three stars instead of four are the errors in it that I found. On page 170 the caption accompanying the illustration states that it is a painted relief from the tomb of Nakht at Thebes early 18th dynasty. This is wrong. This illustration is clearly from the famous series of tomb reliefs of Nebamun, later usurped by an official named Imiseba and which are on public display in the British museum.
The second error concerns Seqenenre Tao II. Wilkinson claims Tao was killed in battle. There has never been enough evidence to state with any certainty how Tao was killed. There were three theories as to how this king was killed none that could be proved. Now evidence suggests that he was probably executed after being captured in battle.
If I found two errors in this book there are likely more. Nevertheless overall this book is a good reference and has much valuable information in the 100 biographies on offer.
When writing about ancient Egyptians we are forced to use tomb and temple texts because they are often the only remaining sources. Straight away this limits the writer to only writing about royalty and the elite and in the words they themselves wanted as both a presentation to the gods of their worthiness for a good afterlife and to convey their hopes for that afterlife. Very little of the real person is revealed here. Also because tombs and temples were only erected by royalty and the very rich, the common folk who were the bulk of the population, remain unknown and unknowable.
That said my main gripes with this book and why I only gave it three stars instead of four are the errors in it that I found. On page 170 the caption accompanying the illustration states that it is a painted relief from the tomb of Nakht at Thebes early 18th dynasty. This is wrong. This illustration is clearly from the famous series of tomb reliefs of Nebamun, later usurped by an official named Imiseba and which are on public display in the British museum.
The second error concerns Seqenenre Tao II. Wilkinson claims Tao was killed in battle. There has never been enough evidence to state with any certainty how Tao was killed. There were three theories as to how this king was killed none that could be proved. Now evidence suggests that he was probably executed after being captured in battle.
If I found two errors in this book there are likely more. Nevertheless overall this book is a good reference and has much valuable information in the 100 biographies on offer.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 14, 2016
By telling about the lives of one hundred individuals, be they commoner, noble or royal, Toby Wilkinson tells the story of Ancient Egypt, from the early dynastic beginnings to Egypt's absorption into the Roman Empire. The biographies themselves may only last for a few pages, but they are concise and insightful, sometimes providing just one angle or detail that feels fresh even to a well-read Egypt nerd like myself. However, Wilkinson does show a tendency to simplify complex issues and verges into a bombastic style at times.
October 30, 2023
It was genuinely interesting reading about the lesser known members of royalty as it shines a light on the long, long history that this period in Egypt outside of the New Kingdom period or the Pyramid stage in their history that are more commonly cited than others.
It was also just as fascinating to learn of those outside of royal households but it is to be expected that these members of society are less well known due to mostly obvious circumstance and a generous bucket of good luck (i.e. their name or tombs surviving mostly intact at all) ensures their names were remembered and preserved at all.
On a final (perhaps strange) note, my only complaint is that an entry for Tutankhamun was included. I am not saying people do not know about him because there will be people who won’t have a clue who he was. It is easy to assume everyone knows about him based around the idea that his name is super famous (that is like me being expected to know about celebrity gossip when, in reality, I couldn’t give two hoots). Equally, I am not saying I don’t understand the necessity for him being present to explain the succession issues that followed his death or that he isn’t interesting because I do and he is, especially considering he inherited the throne during a unique point in Egyptian history. I only say this because all the people included in the book are interesting, regardless of their social stamding and it is advertised in its blurb that those who were less well known would be the preferred stories while both his name and death mask are some of the most famous representations of Ancient Egypt.
That is just me nitpicking though and the whole book is interesting as it is attempting to create a broader picture of Egypt using language the amateur historian will understand and does shine a light on an otherwise overshadowed part of the Egyptian society that shouldn’t be overlooked: the people themselves.
It was also just as fascinating to learn of those outside of royal households but it is to be expected that these members of society are less well known due to mostly obvious circumstance and a generous bucket of good luck (i.e. their name or tombs surviving mostly intact at all) ensures their names were remembered and preserved at all.
On a final (perhaps strange) note, my only complaint is that an entry for Tutankhamun was included. I am not saying people do not know about him because there will be people who won’t have a clue who he was. It is easy to assume everyone knows about him based around the idea that his name is super famous (that is like me being expected to know about celebrity gossip when, in reality, I couldn’t give two hoots). Equally, I am not saying I don’t understand the necessity for him being present to explain the succession issues that followed his death or that he isn’t interesting because I do and he is, especially considering he inherited the throne during a unique point in Egyptian history. I only say this because all the people included in the book are interesting, regardless of their social stamding and it is advertised in its blurb that those who were less well known would be the preferred stories while both his name and death mask are some of the most famous representations of Ancient Egypt.
That is just me nitpicking though and the whole book is interesting as it is attempting to create a broader picture of Egypt using language the amateur historian will understand and does shine a light on an otherwise overshadowed part of the Egyptian society that shouldn’t be overlooked: the people themselves.
August 9, 2023
Lives of the Ancient Egyptians traces the lives of individuals who shaped this groundbreaking civilization using archeological evidence and texts.
For starters the title of this book is somewhat misleading I assumed they would be discussing the lives of ordinary Egyptians and what their daily routines and work consisted of, instead, it focused solely on the Pharaohs and their close relatives or courtiers.
In addition, each chapter discussing a figure from Ancient Egypt is very brief, usually only consisting of a page or two meaning with most of its content is about their tomb or tiny pieces of information that have been preserved. This makes it hard to really grasp who they were as people and what their lives would have been like on a day-to-day basis. I understand this isn't his fault as being three/four thousand years ago the amount of information that survives was always going to be sparse I think the main issue is the way Wilkinson promoted this book which is quite different from its actual content.
I didn't find this book very engaging despite being about such an interesting period, the wonder of the Egyptian world with its pharaohs and pyramids and other architectural and scientific marvelous seems stripped away and reduced to the most basic form.
This book is quite informative at times and could be quite useful if you are studying Ancient Egypt at school or university but in terms of pure enjoyment, I wouldn't recommend it.
For starters the title of this book is somewhat misleading I assumed they would be discussing the lives of ordinary Egyptians and what their daily routines and work consisted of, instead, it focused solely on the Pharaohs and their close relatives or courtiers.
In addition, each chapter discussing a figure from Ancient Egypt is very brief, usually only consisting of a page or two meaning with most of its content is about their tomb or tiny pieces of information that have been preserved. This makes it hard to really grasp who they were as people and what their lives would have been like on a day-to-day basis. I understand this isn't his fault as being three/four thousand years ago the amount of information that survives was always going to be sparse I think the main issue is the way Wilkinson promoted this book which is quite different from its actual content.
I didn't find this book very engaging despite being about such an interesting period, the wonder of the Egyptian world with its pharaohs and pyramids and other architectural and scientific marvelous seems stripped away and reduced to the most basic form.
This book is quite informative at times and could be quite useful if you are studying Ancient Egypt at school or university but in terms of pure enjoyment, I wouldn't recommend it.
June 16, 2023
The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt this is not. But it doesn't have to be. The Oxford goes on forever and one gets lost amid all the kings. It's very hard for a modern person to wrap their heads around these immense spans of time and how the pyramids were older to Cleopatra VII, the one played by Elizabeth Taylor, than she is to us. This is an approachable book about 100 Egyptians. Brief vignettes, usually played up for comic effect, about lives both great and small.
No, it does not inform about what life in Ancient Egypt was actually like. Something as basic as the inundation of the Nile is not discussed. It is not anything like a comprehensive history and entire periods are skipped. It is not a good basic introduction to this history as the more the reader knows already about Egyptian history and culture, the more impactful the stories will be.
But I still enjoyed it and it was worth picking up in the de Young Museum store. Just read the Oxford first.
No, it does not inform about what life in Ancient Egypt was actually like. Something as basic as the inundation of the Nile is not discussed. It is not anything like a comprehensive history and entire periods are skipped. It is not a good basic introduction to this history as the more the reader knows already about Egyptian history and culture, the more impactful the stories will be.
But I still enjoyed it and it was worth picking up in the de Young Museum store. Just read the Oxford first.
December 23, 2019
Meh. Not that long ago, Wilkinson wrote "The Rise and Fall of Ancient Egypt" which was a very readable and engaging work of pop history on Egypt. Based on the very good reputation that book left with me, I gave this one a chance.
Should've given it a pass.
This reads like a tepid rehash. It's a barely warmed over B-material. He's retelling the history of ancient Egypt, but instead of a standard narrative, he focuses on 100 people from ancient Egypt's history. The result is less than the sum of its parts. His accounts of 100 people take place in barely 250 pages. So you don't get much on an individual (four pages is as long as any entry gets). Also, because the focus is on the people, you get (at best) a very choppy narrative. So it doesn't work as mini-biographies or as a larger narrative.
Two stars -- and frankly it's closer to one star than to two stars.
Should've given it a pass.
This reads like a tepid rehash. It's a barely warmed over B-material. He's retelling the history of ancient Egypt, but instead of a standard narrative, he focuses on 100 people from ancient Egypt's history. The result is less than the sum of its parts. His accounts of 100 people take place in barely 250 pages. So you don't get much on an individual (four pages is as long as any entry gets). Also, because the focus is on the people, you get (at best) a very choppy narrative. So it doesn't work as mini-biographies or as a larger narrative.
Two stars -- and frankly it's closer to one star than to two stars.
June 14, 2023
Recently I've become interested in ancient egypt. Got this book from the library I found it a really interesting and engaging read and have made notes for figures and works of literature that I want to look into further. I'd recommend it as a good introduction into ancient Egypt. Illustrations were good but would have preferred a few more. I was more interested in the Egyptian part before Alexander the Great (but that's my own preference because I haven't really studied ancient Egypt as much as the history of Greece and Rome).
July 19, 2023
Fascinating history, writing was somewhat confusing
January 30, 2024
3.5 stars
April 3, 2024
Wiki-level information. No interesting stories. Repetitive pictures. Waste of time.
April 27, 2017
This is a very enjoyable summary of many ancient Egyptian VIPs ranging from prehistory to the Roman conquest. There's not a ton of detail, but this is great for introducing you to times and people that you may want to research more carefully.
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