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| Red Land, Black Land: Daily Life in Ancient Egypt |
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List Price: $26.95
Our Price: $19.14
You Save: $ 7.81 (29%)
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: William Morrow
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 932
EAN: 9780061252747
ISBN: 0061252743
Label: William Morrow
Manufacturer: William Morrow
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 432
Publication Date: 2008-03-01
Publisher: William Morrow
Release Date: 2008-03-18
Studio: William Morrow
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Editorial Reviews:
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A fascinating, erudite, and witty glimpse of the human side of ancient Egypt—this acclaimed classic work is now revised and updated for a new generation Displaying the unparalleled descriptive power, unerring eye for fascinating detail, keen insight, and trenchant wit that have made the novels she writes (as Elizabeth Peters and Barbara Michaels) perennial New York Times bestsellers, internationally renowned Egyptologist Barbara Mertz brings a long-buried civilization to vivid life. In Red Land, Black Land, she transports us back thousands of years and immerses us in the sights, aromas, and sounds of day-to-day living in the legendary desert realm that was ancient Egypt. Who were these people whose civilization has inspired myriad films, books, artwork, myths, and dreams, and who built astonishing monuments that still stagger the imagination five thousand years later? What did average Egyptians eat, drink, wear, gossip about, and aspire to? What were their amusements, their beliefs, their attitudes concerning religion, childrearing, nudity, premarital sex? Mertz ushers us into their homes, workplaces, temples, and palaces to give us an intimate view of the everyday worlds of the royal and commoner alike. We observe priests and painters, scribes and pyramid builders, slaves, housewives, and queens—and receive fascinating tips on how to perform tasks essential to ancient Egyptian living, from mummification to making papyrus. An eye-opening and endlessly entertaining companion volume to Temples, Tombs, and Hieroglyphs, Mertz's extraordinary history of ancient Egypt, Red Land, Black Land offers readers a brilliant display of rich description and fascinating edification. It brings us closer than ever before to the people of a great lost culture that was so different from—yet so surprisingly similar to—our own.
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Customer Rating:
Summary: Red Land, Black Land: Daily Life In Ancient Egypt
Comment: This book was purchased for my daughter, who teaches at the elementary level. She has always been fascinated by history and she and her sons have been studying Egyptian history. She read the book and thought it was wonderfully informative. If you have an interest in ancient history, Barbara Mertz is a well educated and very informed source of information about ancient Egypt.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Fun and Informative
Comment: Ms. Mertz (aka. Elizabeth Peters and Barbara Michaels) has one of the most delightful writing styles I have ever encountered--especially on her beloved Egypt. This interesting work is divided topically into chapters on clothing, housing, food, art, war, mummification, etc. Though relatively few, the pictures are helpful, and the selection of color plates is well reproduced. Occasionally the points of revision are visible, but this is still a wonderfully delightful introduction on "how to be an Ancient Egyptian."
Customer Rating:
Summary: A book to love on many levels of interest
Comment: Barbara Mertz is also the real name of writers Elizabeth Peters and Barbara Michaels. She has written 37 books in the popular Amelia Peabody series (Amelia is a Victorian Egyptologist and archaeologist) and 29 suspense books as Michaels. Mertz received her doctorate in Egyptology in 1952, and her first book published was Temples, Tombs, and Hieroglyphs: a Popular History of Egyptology. Her first novel was published in 1966. This is the second edition of Black Land, Red Land, originally published in 1978.
This well-written and readable book is an excellent source of information on life in ancient Egypt. Mertz covers everything, including childhood, pets, women and queens, clothing, jewelry and cosmetics, towns and houses, education, magic, religion, science, medicine, mathematics, pyramid building, boats, mummification and tombs. All are fascinating, though my personal favorite is the chapter on painting and sculpture, and the Amarna period. The XVIII Dynasty has always fascinated me: the time of Queen Hatshepsut, Akhenaton, and Tutankhamon. It is difficult to imagine a kingdom and society that lasted for nearly 4,000 years; the U.S. is an infant in comparison. There is a chronology, map, notes, and a list of books for further reading. The line drawings and photographs enhance the text perfectly.
Readers of the Amelia Peabody and Vicky Bliss mysteries, anyone longing to travel to see the ancient wonders of Egypt, or anyone with an interest in archaeology, will love this book.
Armchair Interviews agrees.
Customer Rating: 
Summary: RedLand,Black Land
Comment: Funny and informative - adds a lot to the Amelia Peabody novels that she wrote which were placed in the Egypt of the 19th-early 20th century, also to the various TV presentations of 20/21 century archeologic discoveries. Helps a lot that she revised the book, which one can see fairly easily.
Linda Sheean
Customer Rating:
Summary: History of everyday life in ancient Egypt by Eliz. Peters (pseud.)
Comment: This is a basic history of Egypt, of the life of the average people, written by B. Mertz PH.D, otherwise known as Elizabeth Peters, author of the Amelia Peabody series. It is referenced in many of the non-fiction books I have read or skimmed. Unfortunately, not too many photographs and they are black and white. The writing is clear, not dry and boring or text-bookish although it was originally a textbook I believe. It is readable, and fun to "dip into" for selections on various aspects of life, such as clothes over time, army life, etc.
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