A Year in the Life of Ancient Egypt

Spend a year in the company of the ancient Egyptians, during the twenty-sixth and final year of the reign of Amenhotep II ( c. 1400 BC), which saw a royal transition bringing Thutmose IV to the throne of Upper and Lower Egypt. While builders from the secluded village of royal tomb workers rush to complete Amenhotep’s tomb , and craftsmen labour to finish the numerous extravagant objects to accompany the god-king in his burial, most Egyptians go about their daily lives in ways unchanged for eons. Following the Egyptian calendar year , which was divided into three seasons (flooding, sowing and harvest), we will meet a farmer and his family, an embalmer , an artisan , a royal physician , a priest and even a royal wife as they live their lives in Thebes and Memphis during the eighteenth dynasty of the New Kingdom in this remarkable year in ancient Egyptian history.