Affairs and Scandals in Ancient Egypt

""No civilization has imitated the superhuman better than that of pharaonic Egypt,"" writes Vernus, director of studies at France's prestigious Ecole Pratique des Hautes etudes. His study presents half a dozen events displaying the human side of that time, which culminated in""the crisis of values that eroded the New Kingdom"" at its very height. Acknowledging the folly of his subjects, Vernus is not rigidly respectful of the ancient Egyptians (he writes, for example, of""riches stored away in tombs for the self-serving and uncertain satisfaction of a dead person""), but he writes with a deep familiarity with their culture. From ancient tomb robbers to a labor strike by pharaonic workmen in Thebes to a""harem conspiracy"" regarding royal succession under Rameses III. For the Egyptophile, this is an engaging and unusual look at ancient civilization.