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    Red Land, Black Land: Daily Life in Ancient Egypt
    Unavailable
    Red Land, Black Land: Daily Life in Ancient Egypt
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    Red Land, Black Land: Daily Life in Ancient Egypt
    Ebook610 pages10 hours

    Red Land, Black Land: Daily Life in Ancient Egypt

    By Barbara Mertz

    4/5

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    About this ebook

    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.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateJan 25, 2011
    ISBN9780062087164
    Author

    Barbara Mertz

    Barbara Mertz is a New York Times bestselling author who writes the popular Amelia Peabody mystery series under the pen name Elizabeth Peters and romantic suspense novels as Barbara Michaels. She was born and brought up in Illinois and earned her Ph.D. in Egyptology from the University of Chicago's famed Oriental Institute. Named Grand Master at the inaugural Anthony Awards in 1986 and Grand Master by the Mystery Writers of America at the Edgar Awards in 1998, she lives in a historic farmhouse in western Maryland.

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    Reviews for Red Land, Black Land

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    • 5/5
      I loved this in large part because I was already a fan of Barbara Mertz's Egyptian mystery series, written under her pen name as Elizabeth Peters. Listening to this audiobook, it was very much as if Amelia Peabody herself was giving me a series of lectures on ancient Egyptian life, with a great deal of love for the topic and the ancient Egyptians themselves. I appreciated that Mertz continually reminded the reader that these were real, living people, not so different from us. And I loved her dryly sarcastic commentary on academia, the various follies of modern humanity. As in her novels, there is a pervasive sense that humanity is deeply fallible, but also worthy of being loved and respected, even as we laugh at ourselves.

      Some sections were a little dry, but I loved her voice so much that I didn't really mind!
    • 5/5
      Must. Own. [ETA: Oh, yeah, I bought it. Books before groceries!][Full disclosure: I am a total geek for ancient Egypt, and I absolutely love the Amelia Peabody adventures, penned by Ms. Mertz as Elizabeth Peters.]In her original forward, the author's thesis statement is “This is not a book about ancient Egyptian culture; it is a book about ancient Egyptians.” Ms. Mertz doesn't quite keep her promise (the behavior of people is their culture, is it not?), but deftly avoids the patronizing, know-it-all tone of most Egyptologists in this comprehensive, dryly witty overview of life in ancient Egypt, with a marked anthropological bent.In fact, her long career as an archaeologist and Egyptologist give Ms. Mertz a long view not only of the ancient people she studies, but the people who study the ancient people as well. While never dismissive of either group, she doesn’t hesitate to point out the gaps and inconsistencies in the modern study of ancient Egypt. In one candid and very funny acknowledgement of how much of what is handed down as writ is actually guesswork, informed by the conventions of its time, she says:“Those who are interested in Egyptology engage in this kind of guesswork all the time; it is going to be a blow to us if Akhenaton’s mummy ever does turn up, because we enjoy our fantasies immensely, particularly when we label them ‘theories’ and get into exciting arguments with other archaeologists.” (p. 342)An equally incisive discussion of ancient Egyptian belief in magic rigorously compares religion (ancient and modern) with “magic” and “science”, concluding that an ancient Egyptian wouldn’t see these as separate categories.Ms. Mertz’s answer to the basic dilemma of any historian - linear timeline or subject organization – is to give us glimpses into the various aspects of the daily lives of the people (including women, who were not of interest to archaeology until the 70’s or so). While reminding us firmly that most of the available information is from the ruling or bureaucratic/priesthood classes, Red Land, Black Land is juicy with the odd little facts that personalize the day to day lives, loves, celebrations and griefs of those who composed the nation of Kemet for nearly four thousand years.
    • 1/5
      She shows a lot of hostility towards archaeologists of the past. She takes a lot of personal shots at people who are incapable of Defending themselves because they are dead. What a disgusting author. The book was boring as well.
    • 5/5
      I read the original, unrevised version, copyright 1966. Lively account of the customs and beliefs of the ancient Egyptians, with a humorous take on the convictions of archaeologists, often supported by no evidence. Just the sort of thing you would hope for from the author of the Amelia Peabody series.
    • 3/5
      Mrs. Mertz's book is a good way to gather basic general knowledge of pharaonic Egypt. It has a nice little reading list by subject; yet she needs to add Aidan Dodson's "Monarchs of the Nile," to it. The book has some nice pictures too. Now, it is certainly difficult to write a book without bias--and here I am, giving my biased opinion!--but not impossible, and it should be of utmost importance to an Egyptologist conveying the little that survived about that civilization.

      Her "feminist inclinations" (as she puts it) are a constant presence in the book. I believe the small amount of documents that survive would be better comprehended if readers were allowed their own conclusions. She harshly--and too frequently--criticizes Victorian scholars for judging Egyptians based upon their values, yet, she can hardly claim no prejudice. Adultery, for example, she concludes was not a big deal for Egyptians--yet historical documents record adulterous women being burned alive, or killed and thrown to dogs! Then there is one V Dynasty tomb at Sakkara that belonged to 2 court officials; both had wives and children, but are "shown in their joint tomb in attitudes more commonly found between husband and wife." So, she concludes that was "Strong indication that [homosexual] relationships were accepted"! Silly me, I thought Egyptologists expected to find much more evidence in order to believe something common in a civilization--and we are talking about one that lasted thousands of years.

      Then, she describes a mummy of a "middle-aged woman found at Deir-el-Bahri [that] has the most extraordinary hairdo for an Egyptian woman." She says that the mummy's hairdo "is very `un-Egyptian' and I know of nothing like it in the pictorial representations." So, she believed one example of (alleged) homosexuality proves it was widely accepted among Egyptians, yet one hairdo example does not make it a rule for Egyptian women. Mmmm...

      Does Mrs. Mertz believe readers are ignorant and cannot make up their own minds if given only facts? (Consider this: not even "experts" agree and many explanations/views exist to each surviving piece of evidence.)

      Her book is lavishly punctuated with silly remarks, such as "don't ask me, because I don't know!" At one point she wonders if Nefertiti ever had a bad hair day... She informs us that: "Some loaves [of bread] have survived to the present day; they are like rock, the stalest bread you can imagine." Who would have expected hundreds-of-years-old bread to be stale or hard, right? Oh, and there is the case of the many centuries old rosebud found by an Egyptologist, who put it in water and it... opened--I kid you not!

      Later on she mocks Mika Waltari for using a name--Nefer-Nefer-Nefer--in his famous novel "The Egyptian." Gosh, could she have forgotten Ka-Nefer-Nefer (the Twice Beautiful Ka) whose name has been given by an Egyptologist (Goneim)? Paraphrasing Mrs. Mertz, don't ask me, because I don't know! (Is that annoying or what?)

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