Ancient Lives

This program is much better than just walking through the monuments. We get to see how ordinary Egyptians lived at the time of the pharaohs. At times, it can even get down to being a sort of soap Opera.

How could we get to such details and know so much about individuals? Well John Romer (one of my favorite authors), actually reads the details and lets us see for ourselves how it is done.

Although focusing on the ancient lives and how people lived, we do get a generous overview of Egypt by looking at tombs and items that were tombs.

There is a disclaimer at the front of the film letting you know that the program was transferred from earlier recordings without any cleanup or enhancements. The original date is 1984.

I found that this presentation has a fairly good subtitle display with black around the white letters so the mostly white scenes in the background do not washout the actual words in the subtitle. The subtitles are great for when you want to look up subjects by names that are almost impossible to spell.

I have searched the internet for a copy of this excellent and informative series on DVD, but to no avail.

It was originally a book, written by John Romer, and was made into a mini-series, which was shown on ABC television here in Australia, back in 1984(?), and I had the fortunate good sense to record it at the time. Unfortunately though, my Beta tapes of this vintage are getting more and more difficult to replay.

I did however, convert "Ancient Lives" from Beta to VHS some years back, but even so, the VHS version is now also showing its age, from too many replays....

It's one of those wonderfully addictive series that you can watch again and again, and even after a couple of hundred viewings, you can still enjoy it, and occasionally, you can still glean something new, that you had previously missed.

John Romer is a hands-on Egyptologist with a cheeky smile and a quick wit, and he discusses in minute detail, his discoveries while unearthing the buried city of Deir-el-Medina.

No-one could accuse Romer of being dull in his chosen profession, as he really brings the past to life (no pun intended) with his enthusiasm and knowledge.

Each episode deals with a separate subject and insight into the daily lives of the "ordinary" men and women that worked, lived and died in the often cruel environments of Ancient Egypt.

The eight 30 minute episodes are as follows:

An Artist's Life / Dreams and Rituals / Temple Priests and Civil Servants / The Deserted Village / The Valley of the Kings / The Village of the Craftsmen / The Year of the Hyena / Woman's Place

There are many movies and TV series that I would love to see come out again on DVD, but this would be one of the first on my particular list...

C'mon you DVD researchers and producers.....make this absolute GEM of a series available again, just so the world can review and re-review the past

The Opener of the Way is awaiting.