Daily life in ancient Egypt
The of people made up the
population of ancient Egypt.
Hieroglyphics
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The Egyptians began to form a pictographic written language about 5000 years ago,
which they continued to use for more than 3500 years, until about 400 AD.
Eventually, the pictures they used to represent words came to represent sounds.
These symbols, hieroglyphs, or "sacred inscriptions" were adapted for use in
everyday life, in addition to their important religious/mystical identity.
After 400 AD, the Egyptian language was written in the Greek alphabet, with the
addition of several extra letters to represent Egyptian sounds that didn't exist in
Greek. This form of Egyptian is called Coptic, and was in turn eventually replaced by
Arabic, the language spoken in Egypt today. The ancient Egyptian tongue died out -only the hieroglyphics remain to remind us that it ever existed.
For more than 1000 years, the hieroglyphics were little more than mysterious
symbols carved on ancient monuments. All kinds of theories abounded: some
thought that they recorded magic spells, others secret religious ceremonies. Then, in
1799, Napolean's army uncovered the key. The Rosetta Stone was discovered when
Lieutenant Bouchard's men were remodeling the Fortress at Rosetta. The slab of
basalt is inscribed with three texts, each in a different script: one in Demotic, one in
hieroglyphics, and one in Coptic. Scholars hoped to use the Greek text to translate
the others. Twenty-three years later, the young Frenchman Jean-Francois
Champollion became the first person in thousands of years to read hieroglyphics.
Family
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The nuclear family was the core of Egyptian society and many of the gods
were even arranged into such groupings. There was tremendous pride in
one's family, and lineage was traced through both the mother's and father's
lines. Respect for one's parents was a cornerstone of morality, and the most
fundamental duty of the eldest son (or occasionally daughter) was to care
for his parents in their last days and to ensure that they received a proper
burial.
Countless genealogical lists indicate how important family ties were, yet
Egyptian kinship terms lacked specific words to identify blood relatives
beyond the nuclear family. For example, the word used to designate
"mother" was also used for "grandmother," and the word for "father" was the
same as "grandfather"; likewise, the terms for "son," "grandson," and
"nephew" (or "daughter," "granddaughter," and "niece") were identical.
"Uncle" and "brother" (or "sister" and "aunt") were also designated by the
same word. To make matters even more confusing for modern scholars, the
term "sister" was often used for "wife," perhaps an indication of the strength
of the bond between spouses.
Marriage
• Once a young man was well into
adolescence, it was appropriate for him to
seek a partner and begin his own family.
Females were probably thought to be
ready for marriage after their first menses.
The marrying age of males was probably a
little older, perhaps 16 to 20 years of age,
because they had to become established
and be able to support a family.
Marriage
• Marriage was purely a social arrangement that regulated
property. Neither religious nor state doctrines entered
into the marriage and, unlike other documents that
related to economic matters (such as the so-called
"marriage contracts"), marriages themselves were not
registered. Apparently once a couple started living
together, they were acknowledged to be married. The
ancient Egyptian terms for marriage (meni, "to moor [a
boat]," and grg pr, "to found a house") convey the sense
that the arrangement was about property. Texts indicate
that the groom often gave the bride's family a gift, and he
also gave his wife presents.
The Status of Women in
Egyptian Society
• An exception to most other ancient societies,
Egyptian women achieved parity with Egyptian
men. They enjoyed the same legal and
economic rights, at least in theory, and this
concept can be found in Egyptian art and
contemporary manuscripts. The disparities
between people's legal rights were based on
differences in social class and not on gender.
Legal and economic rights were afforded to both
men and women.
Status of women
• An Egyptian woman could acquire possessions in many
ways. She could receive it as gifts or as an inheritance
from her parents or husband. Or she could receive it
from purchases with goods which she earned either
through employment, or which she borrowed. A woman
had claims to up to one-third of all the community
property in her marriage. For example, the property
which accrued to her husband and her only after they
were married. When a woman brought her own private
property to a marriage, ( dowry), it remained hers, even
though the husband often had the free use of it.
Peasants and Slaves in Ancient
Egypt
• Peasants comprised as much as eighty
percent of the Egyptian population (David
1998, pg 91). The majority of peasants
worked in the fields producing crops, while
some worked as servants in the homes of
wealthy nobles. During the flooding
season, which lasted up to three months,
peasants often worked on large building
projects for the government.
Peasants and Slaves in Ancient
Egypt
• Slaves were most commonly prisoners of war.
Although the pyramids are often depicted as
being built by slaves, there is little historical
evidences of this. The historical evidence
suggests that farmers and other workers were
employed during the flood season to erect the
pyramids and other large building projects. It
was not until the Middle Kingdom that large
groups of slaves were present in Egypt. During
the Old Kingdom, when the pyramids were built,
there is no evidence that Egypt maintained a
large population of slaves.
Peasants and Slaves in Ancient
Egypt
• Slaves did not hold the same status in
Ancient Egypt as slaves did during the
time of the European expansion. For
example, slaves could own land, marry
freeborn people, and even employ
servants. Slavery in Egypt did not mean
total ownership, which is associated with
the later concept of slavery.
Middle class
• Middle class - that's more an invention of
democracy. In all those ancient
civilizations there were rich and poor - and
a very tiny priest/scribe class which might
have amounted to a sort of middle class.
Slaves were obviously at the bottom of the
heap. All poor folks were used to being
beaten up by the tax collector - but slaves
were really treated pretty badly.
Education
• Children in Ancient Egypt stayed with their mothers until
the age of four. During these years, a strong respect for
their mothers was instilled in the children. At the age of
four, education of the boys was taken over by their
fathers. The trades in Ancient Egypt had levels of
earnings and power associated with them. Sons typically
followed in the same trade that their father practiced.
Some children at this time attended a general village
school while others attended a school designed for a
specific career such as a priest or a scribe. Schools
taught writing, reading, math, and sports as well as
morals and manors. At the age of fourteen, sons of
farmers or craftsmen joined their dads in their
professions.
Education
• This higher level of education included
learning what was called “Instruction of
Wisdom.” The “Instruction of Wisdom”
included lessons on ethics and morality.
This higher level of education also focused
on skills needed for higher status positions
such as doctor or scribe.
Scientific accomplishments
• In the religion of Egypt astronomy played an important
part : the dates and hours of ritual observances were
determined by systematical noting of the movements of
heavenly bodies. Several temple books recorded the
phases of the sun, moon and stars. Thus ancient Egypt
had some advanced scientific technologies, with special
emphasis in the fields of irrigation and medicine. The
Egyptian concern for body preservation, mummification
and anatomy, allowed this culture to develop highly
advanced medical practices, and achievement of great
contributions in this field
• These important advances included knowledge about a
large variety of Herbal remedies, medicinal drugs
Technology
• The ability to organize intense labor, and
access to huge resources controlled by
Pharaohs and Nobles, allowed
construction of the great pyramids and
other tombs. These monuments were
achievements of human subordination, for
the Egyptians were not particularly
advanced technologically. They lacked
pulleys or other devices to hoist the huge
slabs of stone that formed the pyramids.