Walk Like an Egyptian
At the moment I am working like a crazy woman, researching my next project, and I am (literally!!) up to my ears in books about ancient Egypt. But am I ever learning a lot of interesting stuff! For instance, the ancient Egyptians didn't use money. They relied on a barter system where everything was worth a certain number of debens (a deben was a copper weight). So a noblewoman who had her eye on a snappy new party dress (valued at 5 debens) might have to pay for it with a goat from the garden (also worth 5 debens, but very hard to fit into her purse). Bread and beer were the staples of everyone's diet and since both were made from grain, that is what most workers were paid in. Can't you picture Hayam hurrying home from the rock quarry on pay day, all excited because he'd had his salary increased from 10 bags of grain to 11?!
Some things about ancient Egyptian civilization are a little puzzling though. Take the distribution of land. In ancient Egypt, a person's wealth was measured in great part by how much land he or she owned, BUT in actual fact, all of Egypt -- every grain of sand, every papyrus reed, every lump of dirt -- belonged to Pharaoh, and he could claim it whenever he pleased. Clearly it was wise to stay on Pharaoh's good side. If he told you to get off his property, you might find yourself in the Mediterranean Sea!
As you can probably tell, I'm having a lot of fun doing this book. Cross your fingers that the publisher shares that feeling when I submit the finished product.