Description
Book SynopsisA groundbreaking account of how the ancient Egyptians perceived children and childhood, from the Predynastic period to the end of the New Kingdom
There could be no society, no family, and no social recognition without children. The way in which children were perceived, integrated, and raised within the family and the community established the very foundations of Egyptian society. Childhood in Ancient Egypt is the most comprehensive attempt yet published to reconstruct the everyday life of children from the Predynastic period to the end of the New Kingdom. Drawing on a vast wealth of textual, iconographic, and archaeological sources stretching over a period of 3,500 years, Amandine Marshall pieces together the portrait of a society in which children were ever-present in a multiplicity of situations.
The ancient sources are primarily the expressions of male adults, who were little inclined to take an interest in the condition of the child, and the feelings of young Egyptians and all that touches on their emotional state can never be deduced from the sources. Nevertheless, by cross-referencing and comparing thousands of documents, Marshall has been able to explore how ancient Egyptians perceived children and childhood, and whether children had a particular status in the eyes of the law, society, and the Egyptian state. She examines the maintenance of the child and the care expended on its being, and discusses the kinds of clothing, jewelry, and hairstyles children wore, the activities that punctuated their daily lives, the kinds of games and toys they enjoyed, and what means were employed to protect them from illness, evil spirits, or ghosts.
Illustrated with 160 drawings and photographs, this book sheds unprecedented light upon the experience of childhood in ancient Egypt and represents a major contribution to the growing field of ancient-world childhood studies.
Trade Review"This book fills a significant gap in our knowledge about children and childhood in ancient Egypt, subjects that have not received the attention that they deserve. Using texts, images, and artefacts, Amandine Marshall provides a holistic view of what it was to grow up in ancient Egypt."—Salima Ikram, author of Death and Burial in Ancient Egypt
"In the same way we have to parse the stories of women because they are told by men, Marshall unravels the stories of children as communicated by adults. She has rescued childhood from its unwritten and forgotten state, using a variety of evidence to tell us about that most vulnerable time before social identity was formed in ancient Egypt. She wields the sources ably, using what we know, what we don’t, and prying into what we could still determine. She doesn’t treat childhood as a monolith, instead investigating various categories of child, as male or female, rich or poor, urban or rural."—Kara Cooney, UCLA
“The child in ancient Egypt, as today, was at the center of the daily life of the Egyptians. Amandine Marshall’s book is a unique example of its kind: her insights, meticulous research, and at the same time highly readable text represent a milestone in ancient world childhood studies. Thanks to her excellent study we have a much better understanding of this world, which vanished almost two millennia ago.”—Miroslav Bárta, Charles University, Prague
"Research into childhood in Egypt is experiencing a renewal to which the patient work of Amandine Marshall comes as a major contribution. Her multidisciplinary approach, cross-referencing text, image, and archaeology, has allowed her to draft the portrait of a society in which children were ever-present in a multiplicity of situations."—Veronique Dasen, University of Fribourg, from the foreword
"A masterpiece of archaeological scholarship"—Midwest Book Review
