Status Updates From Women in Ancient Egypt

The chapters on dress, adornments and domestic affairs were a little dull to read from beginning to end but still retained what made the previous chapters such a great source of knowledge. This is a treasure for anyone who'd like to write period fiction and need details of day to day life!

Health & Childbirth: I'm fuzzy about how hazardous childbirth was for young girls (& the average life expectancy being as low as 20, is that lowered by infant mortality?), but the chapter was pretty illuminating about how ancient medicinal lore travelled the world. Also, I appreciated how she included parallel practices in Western history to show AE medicine/practices weren't ~omg so weird and some backed w/ science!

I wish I could ask Watterson about how it's possible to reconcile a husband and wife's many responsibilities to each other in their own household and the age of marriage being between 13-15. I would have liked more sources/discussion of that question but at the same time I know sources for this sort of thing in Ancient Egypt is both indirect and fragmented so *shrug emoji*?

We stan Tay-hetem who loaned silver to her husband at 30% interest and Naunakhte who conditionally disinherited the children who didn't adequately take care of her.

Kidding aside, this chapter was great because legal history (or, like, just law in perpetuity) bores me but with specific examples and life stories extrapolated from court documents like this? Incredible. More please.

Introduction + Chapter 1: Watterson has done an incredibly good job communicating how archeological findings and historical writings are interpreted to give us insights on Ancient Egyptian culture as well as navigating around both modern and ancient misogyny for the reader's sake. It's very plain writing without ever being dull. A great start for any interested reader, no prior knowledge required.

Unexpectedly interesting asides about slavery, including the instance of a woman who sold herself to a temple on the proviso that the god protected her from every sort of demon...