Red Land, Black Land: Daily Life in Ancient Egypt - Barbara Mertz

Written by Barbara Mertz
Read by Lorna Raver
Format: MP3
Bitrate: 64 Kbps
Unabridged

Publisher: Tantor Media, Inc.
Release date: August 19, 2008
Duration: 14:56:52

Esteemed Egyptologist Barbara Mertz updates her widely praised social history of the people of ancient Egypt, which was originally published in 1968. Combining impeccable scholarship with a delightfully personal style, the author reconstructs the life of the Egyptians from birth to death, and beyond death, too. She also presents much fascinating detail on the building of the pyramids and the intricate art of mummification. Students and laymen alike will enjoy the wealth of authentic material on every aspect of Egyptian life that Mertz provides.

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.

Narrator Lorna Raver immerses herself in renowned Egyptologist Barbara Mertz’s fascinating and exquisitely detailed account of daily life in ancient Egypt. In a pleasantly modulated voice, with plenty of high drama and frequent witticisms, and no hints of pedantry, Raver takes us back thousands of years and introduces us to Egyptians of many strata–pharaohs, queens, painters, slaves, scribes, temple builders–showing us their everyday ways of life with respect to marriage, birth, food, beer, wine, orgies, rituals, clothing, sexual practices, religion, the construction of magnificent temples and tombs, and beliefs regarding the afterlife. Be forewarned, this is a long production, but it’s never boring. In fact, the time seems to fly by…. Winner of AudioFile Earphones

I have included a pdf file. Egypt needs pictures to accompany text.