Daily Life in Ancient Egypt

Focusing on the experience of a young girl and her family, this book recreates the daily life of middle-class residents of the ancient town of Lahun during Egypt’s Middle Kingdom, or Classical Age. After placing the town in its accurate historical and geographical context, the author chronicles the everyday life of its inhabitants – from their education, occupations, and food preparation to their religious rituals, healing techniques, marriages, births, and deaths. Throughout the book, authenticity takes center stage. This perfect snapshot in time has been painstakingly recreated using recently published textual data and archaeological findings directly from the settlement of Lahun as well as from other contemporary settlement and mortuary sites. Wherever possible, actual physical artifacts are illustrated with line-drawings or photographs (some published here for the first time), accompanied by descriptions of their production and use. Daily Life in Ancient Egypt is a scholarly portrayal of Egypt’s Classical Age and a timeless microcosm of daily life in an ancient Egyptian town.