Daily life in ancient Egypt

The of people made up the population of ancient Egypt.

Hieroglyphics

• 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• 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.