Ancient Lives: Daily Life in Egypt of the Pharaohs

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Summary: Travel 3,000 years in the past for the price of lunch...
Review: Hi Keith,

If your still reading Romer's books and STILL would like to get a copy of "Ancient Lives" on VHS, try your local library. That's how I got mine.

The book is fantastic! No one can weave Egyptian antiquity the way Romer does. I am sorry that so few of his documentaries are seen here in the States.

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Summary: I can't believe I'm the first to review this excellent book
Review: This book stands on its own merits as an engaging, easy-to-read yet informative work of history, the proof of which is that it sold out its first printing. Althoug it doesn't need the likes of me to praise it, I can say that I have read and re-read this book and still draw great enjoyment from it. Actually, I only discovered that this excellent book has been languishing without a review because I was trying to track down its video companion, which aired on PBS during the 1980s and which was my original introduction to John Romer. I am captivated Romer's ability to weave together the bits and pieces (often, quite literally, "bits and pieces") of the everyday lives of a special group of ancient Egyptians, the excavators and artists of the Great Place, the famous Valley of the Kings. Ancient Lives is the story of the villagers who lived in semi-isolation on the west bank of the Nile, whose profession it was to build and decorate the Royal tombs of the Pharaohs. Romer is an everyman's Egyptologist, full of wonder, energy, solid knowledge of his subject, and an I-wonder-what's-over-that-next-ridge kind of infectious curiosity, combined with a natural story teller's sense of drama and language. The villagers' story, as it turns out, has survived them due to the dilligence of the Royal Scribes assigned to the village. Romer knits together the information left by them on papyrus, limestone ostracons, and the occaisional carved graffiti, into a kind of family history, where individuals' personalities and passions, even their peccadillos, bring them and their village vividly back to life. It's a book worth looking for.