Ancient Egyptian
Culture
Coach Parrish
OMS
Chapter 3, Section 4
Social Classes
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Most of what is known about social classes, and other
Egyptian history is from their artwork.
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Egyptian society resembled a pyramid.
At the top was the pharaoh. Beneath him was a small
upper class including priests, pharaoh’s court, and
landholding nobles.
Below the upper class was the middle class of
merchants and skilled workers.
At the bottom of the social pyramid was the lower
class called peasants.
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Social Class Pyramid
Slavery
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Prisoners captured in wars were made into
slaves. Slaves formed a separate social class that
was never very large in number.
Slaves in Egypt could own personal items and
inherit land from their masters. Occasionally
they were also made free.
Lives of the Peasants
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Most peasants worked the land of wealthy
Egyptians. During the flood season, they
worked on roads, temples, and buildings.
Once the flood season was over, they quickly
worked the soil to prepare crops for planting.
The busiest season for the peasants was harvest
season when men, women, and children went
into the fields to pick the crops.
Women in Egypt
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Women were viewed as living models of Isis, the
goddess of motherhood.
Egyptian women had the same rights as men
and held various jobs throughout the empire.
A New System of Writing
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In ancient Egypt, they wrote using a system of
pictures to stand for words called hieroglyphs.
Some symbols stood for words and other
symbols stood for sounds. They began using
hieroglyphs because of the empire’s growing
wealth.
Writing Materials
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At first, the Egyptians wrote on clay and stone
like the Sumerians. Over time, they wanted to
write on something more stable, so they chose
papyrus.
Papyrus – early form of paper made from a reed
found in the marshy areas of the Nile delta.
Papyrus was made by cutting the inner stalks
into narrow strips, laying them side by side,
wetting them and then letting them dry outside.
Papyrus Artwork
Unlocking a Mystery
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Historians could not read ancient Egyptian
hieroglyphics until 1799 AD. A soldier found a
large stone later called the Rosetta Stone while
digging a fort in the Nile delta.
The Rosetta Stone contained 3 languages on it,
hieroglyphics, demotic (later Egyptian writing),
and Greek letters. In 1820, a French scholar
named Jean Francois Champollion cracked the
code.
Jean-Francois Champollion
Egyptian Legacy
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Astronomers – scientists who study the stars
and other objects. Egyptians were astronomers
in that they knew when the Nile would flood
based on Sirius (dog star).
Because of mummification, ancient Egyptians
knew a great deal about the body. They learned
how to perform surgery on broken bones. They
also used plants to create medicines.