Arts, Leisure, and Sport in Ancient Egypt

School Library Journal

Gr 6-10-Quoting extensively from 19th- and 20th-century Egyptologists, as well as from available ancient sources, Nardo presents a great deal of information in a smooth narrative, accompanied by archival photographs and reproductions of artifacts, illustrations from the past century or so, and even scenes taken from films and documentaries. Artistry looks at pyramids, colossal statues, tombs, and temples, as well as at the lives of the workers who built them. Arts covers music, dance, board games, and hunting and fishing, along with the wealth of artwork that survives. Nardo discusses the social status of the people who created these works and notes how different the Egyptian concept of art was from our own. Mummies looks at the rituals connected with the dead and the afterlife, as well as creation stories, beliefs about the major gods, and ritual practice. These three sociological titles will serve report writers well. Cleopatra also features quotations from ancient authors, along with Nardo's discussion of how many of these authors were biased, for or against one of the most powerful women in history. He includes her romantic liaisons with Julius Caesar and Marc Antony, which he does not see as mere political unions, and makes it clear that these were not the only reasons for her importance as leader of Egypt. A final chapter looks at how Cleopatra has been rendered in literature.-Coop Renner, Hillside Elementary, El Paso, TX Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.