The pyramids at Gizeh and the tomb of Tutankhamun are two examples of the legendary energy that the Ancient Egyptians devoted to their tombs. Contrary to popular belief, this energy was not confined to the highest classes of society. This work uses tens of thousands of tombs excavated across Egypt to build up a broad picture of burial as practised througout society over the millennia, from 5000 BC to AD 200. In the course of his investigation, Wolfram Grajetski removes some popular misconceptions. Many imagine that there are few undisturbed tombs but this is not the case. In addition to the richest finds, there are numerous other tombs which, lacking gold, never caught the attention of ancient robbers or, till now, that of modern readers. Many also argue that we can only know the richer classes in ancient society because the burials of ordinary farmers or poor people do not survive. As this book shows, this is not true of Ancient Egypt, where such graves are key sources for reconstructing burial customs and Egyptian culture as a whole.

Author Biography

Wolfram Grajetzki is a researcher at the Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis, University College London, working on the project 'Digital Egypt for Universities'. He is the author of 'Two Treasurers of the Middle Kingdom' (British Archaeological Report S1007) Oxford 2001.