Ancient Egypt’s Daily Life

Egyptian Social Hierarchy

Some Famous Egyptian Pharaohs

Thutmose III1504-1450 B. C.

E. Ramses II1279-1212 B. C.

E.

Tutankhamon1336-1327 B. C. E.

Pharaoh means “Great House”

Egyptian Nobility & Officials

● They inherited their position from family members.

● The vizier had more power than anyone except the pharaoh.

Egyptian Priestly ClassPriests were

powerful and highly respected in

Egyptian society. They all served

under the pharaoh who was considered the highest ranking priest of them all.

Priests had different jobs.

Egyptian ScribeScribes were Egypt’s

official writers and record keepers.

Only men were allowed to be scribes and they

attended scribe school.

Schooling started around age five. Students

typically spent 12 or more years learning hieroglyphs.

What were the legal traditions?

• Law was governed by religious principle of Ma’at

• GODDESS MA’AT represented truth, righteousness and justice= balance and order

• Laws were applied equally to all classes specifically protected the family (children and wives)

• Punishments could be quite severe- act as a deterrent or disgrace the guilty (Examples: minor crimes had 100 lashed; corrupt officials had their hands amputated; crimes that resulted in a death sentence could have choice= devoured by a crocodile, suicide, burning alive)

Artisans●Egypt's artisans were some of the most skilled

laborers who created some of the most magnificent statues, art carvings, furniture, and jewelry.

●Those jobs included metalworkers, painters, potters, sculptors, and stone carvers.

●Stone carvers played an important role because in tomb building wealthy Egyptians believed to honor the dead.

Peasants●Peasants made up the lowest and

largest class in Egypt’s social pyramid.

●Peasants grew the crops that supplied the everyone with food.

●They also supplied the labor to build monuments like the pyramids.

●Peasant life revolved around the Nile River.

● Its three seasons were the flooding season, the planting season, and the harvest season.

Social Roles

Role of Women• Well treated and had

considerable legal rightscompared to other civilizations

• Same legal rights as men (land, property, divorce)

• Left women to be economically independent

• Primary role was in domestic life• Common title for a married

women in ancient Egypt was “nebet per” meaning “the lady of the house”

• Bear and raise children

Role of Men• Head of the family• Men could have numerous wives

but economically men had only 1 wife

• Labourers, craftsmen• Jobs were hereditary

Jobs• Labour required for construction

projects and was mostly filled by poor, serfs

• Stability of Egypt thrived as skilled trades were passed from father to son

• Children always learned the trade from parents; seldom could choose occupation

Education

Education

• Contributed to stability and continuity of Egypt• All children, regardless of social class, received some

education• Followed a moral and ethical guide “Instructions in

Wisdom”• Goal for education was to ensure youth exhibited self

control and good manners• At 14, young boys followed fathers in jobs, and girls

learned from mothers in the household• Children of priests were schooled more formally• Literacy was stressed for government jobs• Education respected for creating a well rounded

individual

Papyrus → Paper

Papyrus Plant

Hieratic Scroll Piece

Egyptian Math & Draftsmenship

1 10 100 1000 10,000 100,000 1,000,000

What number is this?

Hieroglyphics

• History of Writing: 1) pictograms (sun= sun) 2) ideograms (sun = sun, daylight, warmth, light)3) phonograms: symbols that suggest a particular sound; related ideas and also sound (Sun = sun, son, Sunday)

• Each hieroglyph found in pyramids and tombs often symbolized more than one consonant. Not only that, but actual Egyptian hieroglyphs were a combination of sound-signs, pictograms, and ideograms. No wonder it was so hard to decode them!

• New Kingdom= 700 hieroglyphs in common usage, while rest were phonograms

• 100 were strictly visual, while rest were phonograms

• Eventually scribes adapted hieroglyphic symbols

• By 700 BCE, script was refined to the demotic (or popular script) was used for secular matters such as letters, accounts and record keeping

Rosetta StoneWhat is the Rosetta Stone? • The Rosetta Stone is a stone with writing on it

in two languages (Egyptian and Greek), using three scripts (hieroglyphic, demotic and Greek). It was carved in 196 BCE.

Why is it in three different scripts? • The Rosetta Stone is written in three scripts

(hieroglyphs for religious documents; demotic- common script of Egypt; Greek- language of the rulers of Egypt at that time)

• The Rosetta Stone was written in all three scripts so that the priests, government officials and rulers of Egypt could read what it said.

When was the Rosetta Stone found? • The Rosetta Stone was found in 1799 by

French soldiers who were rebuilding a fort in Egypt (in a small village in Delta called Rosetta (Rashid)

What does the Rosetta Stone say? • The Rosetta Stone is a text written by a group

of priests in Egypt to honour the Egyptian pharaoh. It lists all of the things that the pharaoh had done that were good for the priests and the people of Egypt.

Champollion & the Rosetta Stone

Hieroglyphic “Cartouche”

Hieroglyphics “Alphabet” 24 “letters” + 700 phonetic symbols

Religion: How did it contribute to stability?

• The Egyptians were deeply religious people• religious roots were in the worship of nature

deities – their first gods were in animal forms

• Those responsible for creation were the most important gods (Atum is the creator God)

• They later developed national gods around the Middle Kingdom (Amon- local god of Thebes; gods of Dead: Osiris, Anubis, Horus and Thoth)

• Religion was instrumental to stability of Egypt (life, social structure, education, laws, rule of Pharaoh, economy, death, afterlife)

Atum

Creation Story

ATUM NUT

GEB

SHU

TEFNUT

Gods and Goddesses

NUT

ATUM

ANUBIS

MA’AT HORUS

ISISWebsite: Gods and Goddesses

Egyptian Creation Myth

The Goddess Nut

Life and Death • Life and death was measured in accordance to Ma’at: the goddess

and symbol of equilibrium of the universe and the king had to rule according to her principles

Death viewed as a new beginning• Afterlife common to all, regardless of social status

(preparation varied as well as goods stored in tombs)• 2 Common Principles:

1) body preservation in a lifelike form2) the deceased must have items necessary for life in the afterworld

• Personal belongings were usually placed in the tomb to make the Ka more at home and to assist the dead in their journey into the afterlife.

• Text was read from the 'Book of the Dead' which was a collection of spells, charms, passwords, numbers and magical formulas for the use of the deceased in the afterlife.

MA’AT-symbol of the equilibrium

of the universe

This scene depicts what occurs after a person has died, according to the ancient Egyptians.

• panel of 14 judges• Ka (soul /spiritual duplicate), ba (personality) ankh (form mummy took

in afterlife / the key of life)• Weighing of the heart vs Ma’at• Judgment of scale• record of the outcome

Mummification • Mummification focused on Egyptian belief of the importance of preserving the body

• Afterlife would be spent enjoying best of life experiences

• Body covered with natron and dried for up to 70 days

• Body wrapped in linen coated with resins and oils

• Middle Kingdom became customary to place a mask over the face

• Removal of organs (lungs, stomach, intestines, liver) in Canopic Jars were closed with stoppers fashioned in the shape of four heads -- human, baboon, falcon, and jackal - representing the four protective spirits called the Four Sons of Horus.

• brain was sucked out of the cranial cavity and thrown away because the Egyptian's thought it was useless.

Journey to the Underworld

A boat for the journey is

provided for a dead pharaoh in

his tomb.

The dead travel on the “Solar Bark.”

Egyptian Book of the Dead

The Final Judgement

Anubis Horus Osiris

Shabtis: The Pharaoh’s Servants in the Afterlife

Preparations for the Underworld

Priests protected your KA, or soul-spirit

ANUBIS weighs the dead person’s heart against a feather.

Materials Used in Mummification

1. Linen 6. Natron2. Sawdust 7. Onion3. Lichen 8. Nile Mud4. Beeswax 9. Linen Pads5. Resin 10. Frankinsense

Preparation for the Afterlife

Egyptian Mummies

Seti I1291-1278 B. C. E.

Queen Tiye, wife of

Amenhotep II1210-1200 B. C. E.

Ramses II1279-1212 B. C.

E.