JOBS
http://www.experience-ancient-egypt.com/ancient-egyptian-children.html
GIRLS
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Girls were not usually given any education since they were usually not allowed to
work most jobs.
The lives of ancient Egyptian women were full of hard-work and very few opportunities
to work outside the home. But if they did get the chance to do so, it was either helping
their husbands with farming or a real career that a woman was allowed to have.
The Mistress
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An ancient Egyptian household could have over 15 people in it, and so house work was
quite the task. And if it was a farming family, the women usually had to help out during
the harvest too!
 Even though the man of the house reigned supreme, his wife usually was the main
household administrator.
 She was given the title of "Mistress of the House."
She either had to carry out most of the household chores herself, or had to supervise the servants
who did. These chores included:
 Making sure everyone had clothes to wear.
 Preparing meals from scratch, including grinding the grains to make bread.
 Insuring the house was clean and in order.
 Making sure the laundry was sent out.
 Stocking the underground cellars.
The Working Girl
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If she chose (and had enough time after all the above), an Egyptian woman could work in
order to earn some income. Some women produced goods at home and then sold them in
the market.
However, there wasn't an actual market place or monetary system.
If you wanted to sell your goods in ancient Egypt you had to barter for the things you
need from door to door. What a daunting task if you wanted to exchange large items and
had to carry them around all day looking for a buyer!
There were other options available to the ancient Egyptian women as careers:
o Singing, dancing and playing music in social gatherings.
o Some forms of political administration.
o Becoming a priestess.
o Midwifery.
o Wet nursing others' children.
SONS
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Usually the oldest followed his father's career path and started training with him from a
very young age (sometimes 5).
Other sons had to choose a career path also by a very young age – around 9 years old.
Boys could choose to be soldiers, scribes, doctors, priests, farmers, among many others.
Depending on the choice, and being accepted, a child then started training as an
apprentice until he is ready to be on his own (usually at age 19 or 20).
A military career was quite popular during the New Kingdom as it promised glory and
respect. The physically fit were encouraged to apply and endured a harsh induction as
well as life-long intense training.
Another coveted career was that of a scribe. Wealth, knowledge and respect were given
to scribes and their training was less demanding. They were also the few literate people in
ancient Egypt.
Most scribes were sons of scribes trained by their fathers, but other children were given
this chance to learn from a village scribe. A village scribe sometimes gave group lessons
to the local kids for an extra charge.
Ancient Egyptian children of the elite had a special advantage over the others - they were
given the opportunity for a formal education, in the closest thing to a real school in
ancient Egypt. They were considered for admission into The House of Life.
SOLDIERS
The Life of Ancient Egyptian Soldiers
 Ancient Egyptian soldiers were the main ingredient of what made ancient Egypt a great
civilization. The military might of ancient Egypt was what translated the Pharaoh's ideas
and tactics into a reality. It is also what kept ancient Egypt continuous for over 3,000
years.
 It's strange then to know that ancient Egypt did not have a standing army, ready for
battle, before the New Kingdom! In fact, whenever soldiers were needed, the Pharaoh
had to call on the many governors to conscript able young men from each of their
provinces.
 This temporary army only lasted for as long as the campaign was alive, and then
dispersed once it was done. The young men would go back to their old jobs and villages.
Once it was seen how much of an advantage having a permanent army would be, it was set
up in the New Kingdom and the career of a soldier was created.
So there were now 2 ways to be part of the army:
 National Service - You could just join as an adult recruit to train/serve for a year or two,
with the possibility of being called back to serve any time after that.
 Military Career - You were signed up as a child to serve in the army your whole life.
o Some military men rose to such great power as to become kings themselves.the
pride and glory of a military life then became a most-coveted aspect of such a
career choice.
o So once this career was chosen, the child was signed up and began training. Some
children signed up as young as 5 years of age!
The actual service however didn't start until the age of 20 - older than some armies today.
Ancient Egyptian Military Training
After becoming a new recruit, the ancient Egyptian soldier got a haircut and an induction... the
inductions included beatings to show who's boss. Soldiers needed to learn the important lesson of
obeying orders before they were given any.
Now that the soldier is ready, the training began.
Training for strength, fighting skills and stamina were the main tasks of the day. They included:
 Wrestling
 Sand-bag lifting
 Archery
 Spearing
 Free fighting
 Knife throwing
 Charioteering
 Target practice
 Stick fighting
And according to the soldier's superior skills, he was then assigned to the corresponding
regiment.
Ready For Battle!
Now that a soldier has had a hard induction and even harder training, he is now almost ready for
his first campaign!
But of course, he needs to be armed... Some of the more popular weapons of choice in ancient
Egypt include:
 Bow and Arrow
 Knives and Swords
 Axes
 Spears
 Maces
 Sticks
Other than weapons soldiers had to wear helmets, scales, gloves, and shields for protection...
...they also had another form of protection - magical and religious icons on jewelry for example
were popular too.
 And on top of all that, they had to carry food and water. They would sometimes hunt or
fish.
 The men were divided into infantry divisions that grouped similarly skilled soldiers
together. Charioteers, spearmen, archers, foot soldiers, etc..
 Now the army is ready to march! And along with them followers followed: musicians,
scribes to record the events, military standard carriers, etc...
But what if there was no campaign? Other than the usual training, ancient Egyptian soldiers were
called on to help out with non-military tasks.
Helping with the harvest was one of the most important tasks, as this was what fed the entire
country.
Guard duty such as making sure the trade routes were secure.
And also - hard manual labor such as construction.
The Hard-Earned Rewards
Ancient Egyptian soldiers sought the prestige that comes with being a national warrior and hero.
They were more widely respected than others of the working class, and they gained recognition
from the elite and even the royal family.
There were also formal awards for heroism and duty.
Soldiers were also paid wages, which in ancient Egypt was not monetary. They were given in
rations of food which could be bartered for other items. However, they were also given the
opportunity to plunder - a plus that comes with war.
And finally, ancient Egyptian soldiers were those of the lucky few that got state pensions.
Jobs
WEBSITE: http://egyptquest.wordpress.com/jobs/
In Ancient Egypt, there were many jobs for the people to do. There were bakers, scribes,
priests, noblemen, soldiers, farmers, and many others. I am going to tell you about three
different types of jobs in Ancient Egypt.
Scribes
o Scribes were very important in Egypt. They were very important because the
government in Ancient Egypt recorded a lot of legal and business documents.
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One of the reasons they had a written language was because they wanted to start
recording information.
o A lot of parents wanted to send their kids to scribal school where they could learn
to read and write. This would allow them to enter the government of royal
services and become rich and powerful.
Farmers
o The pharaoh got the rich peasants to do the farm work on the rich lands. The
peasants worked as either reapers or gleaners.
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The reapers went through the fields first and they did work such as
plowing the field to loosen the dirt for the seeds to go in or they would
winnow.Winnowing means to get the debris off of grain.
 Egyptian farmers grew some foods such as fig trees and wheat and barley.
There were two seasons that affected farming: growing season and harvest
season.
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In the harvest season you may not have been able to harvest the wheat
you wanted because your landlord may have made you cut his first.
 The soil in Egypt was very fertile and easy to dig with your tools.
 Every year when the flood came the water went over the fields and it
saturated the soil. When the floods went down there would be a fresh
bunch of mud which was excellent soil to plant seeds in after it had been
plowed
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Ancient Egyptians had simple farming tools such as winnowing scoops,
mattocks, flint-bladed sickles and plows.
The Egyptian plow had a small blade on it that didn’t cut very deep which
was fine because the soil was fertile.
To water your crops you would need to have a canal connected to a river.
To lift the water from the canal you would have a shaduf. A shaduf is a
large pole balanced on a crossbeam, a rope and bucket on one end and a
heavy counter weight at the other. By pulling the rope it lowered the
bucket into the Nile. The counterweight would raise the bucket. The
farmer would then carry the bucket to the field and water it.
Merchants
o Egypt was one of the wealthiest countries in the ancient world.
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Egyptian merchants – who were more like traders – carried products such as
gold, papyrus made into writing paper or twisted into rope, linen cloth, and
jewelry to other countries.
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In exchange, they brought back cedar and ebony wood, elephant tusks, panther
skins, giraffe tails for fly whisks, and animals such as baboons and lions for the
temples or palaces.
Ancient Egyptian Economy
http://www.riverschool.org/students/work/culture.e.econ.htm
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Trade started to happen in the fourth century B.C. The Egyptians traded
with countries around the Mediterranean Sea, Aegean Sea, and the Red Sea.
Items brought from other countries were goods like silver, iron, cedar logs,
horses, ivory, copper, cattle, leopard skins, and spices.
The main products brought from Egypt were gold and other minerals,
wheat, barley, and papyrus sheets.
One of the more famous trade expeditions in Ancient Egypt was when
Queen Hatshepsut sent an expedition down the Red Sea where they got
frankincense, trees, elephants’ tusks, ebony, gold, spices, and foreign
animals like panthers.
o Sailors on the trading ships were paid in grain. When their ships
stopped to unload, they were able to visit dockside shops to exchange
their grain for clothes, fresh fruit, and vegetables.
Egyptians did not have coin money like we do today. When shopping in
Ancient Egypt you would have to bargain on a price. Although there were
no fixed prices, Egyptians were good at figuring out how much an item
would cost.
o Cost was measured in a deben (a copper weight of .5 ounces).
o For goods like razors or shoes the cost would be one or two deben, but
for four pigs it would cost more like twenty deben which they would
trade for something that was worth the same amount.
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Jobs in Ancient Egypt included government officials, soldiers, scribes,
doctors, merchants, dancers, fishermen, hunters, bakers, carpenters, coffinmakers, spinners, weavers, jewelers, pyramid builders, Egyptian artists, and
farmers. Most Egyptians were farmers. The main crops grown in Egypt
were wheat, barley, lettuce, beans, onions, figs, dates, grapes, melons, and
cucumbers.
The pharaoh was the controller of the jobs .
Between the ages of four and fourteen children attended school.
o Little boys started learning their father’s job when they were four.
o When they were older they were expected to do the same occupation
as their father.
o Girls and boys both attended school together. They studied reading,
writing, and math.
o Children who were going to be lawyers, scribes, or doctors went to a
special school were they studied hieroglyphics.
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When girls grew up they took to tending the home.