Product Description

Joyce Tyldesley's original book carefully unmasks for the first time Ancient Egyptian crimes and criminals. She meticulously recreates a series of crimes, from grave robbing, false embalming, necrophilia and bestiality to a superb recreation of the murder of Tutankhamun (which reassesses the evidence for his murder and rejects it). She also introduces us to some of the inhabitants of the town of Dair et Medine, the dwelling place of fifty craftsmen and their families who worked exclusively in the nearby Valley of the Kings. Their crimes and misdemeanours were carefully recorded and give a vivid insight into Ancient Egyptian attitudes towards sex and death, property and punishment.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #678699 in Books
• Published on: 2001-10-04
• Format: Illustrated
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 208 pages

About the Author
Joyce Tyldesley earned a doctorate in archaeology from Oxford University. She is Honorary Research Fellow at the School of Archaeology, Classics and Oriental Studies at Liverpool University and the author of many books on Ancient Egypt.

Customer Reviews

Fascinating and inspiring book
Unlike other historical/study books, this was gripping, fascinating and brilliantly written. Covering all aspects of crime and punishment, it opens your eyes to a world so many believe to be a almost peaceful perfect society. There are not many historical/study books I would read cover to cover, but I would read this again and again. I wish she had written a larger book on the subject as it seems to be the only valuable book covering this subject area.

Well written, approachable and interesting.
This book could easily have been very tough going, legal systems rarely being inherently something the commoner can understand or find enthralling. Tyldesley, however, turns this upside down. By keeping her work to a fairly concise length, and with a somewhat tongue in cheek style at times when recanting Egyptian attitudes towards some criminals, foreigners and other assorted, in their eyes, scum of society.

I think anyone would find this both interesting and highly readable, even for those with only a passing interest in the subject, whilst those with a passion for all things Ancient Egypt will no doubt find much of interest in taking a new look at society, about as far away from the palace and temple as one can get (or maybe not!)

My only grip is that brining the old Tutankhamen murder theory up is a bit dull. I feel there are other more interesting matters of crime in royal circles that one could look into. Studies into the circumstances of Tutankhamens death are many, we don't need another. Especially when there are feasible, and indeed all but admitted, cases of royal assassinations in Dynastic Egypt that deserve historical research and Tyldesley's talents could be well employed in that field in bringing an approachable yet reasonably academic look at events which at the time would have been the big unthinkable.

Other than that, it's a good work and is a small but readable and engrossing favourite in my library.