Chapter 2
Examining the Lives of the Everyday Egyptians
In This Chapter
Visiting the villages
Choosing careers
Forming families
Marrying, divorcing, and growing old
The tombs provide a wealth of information about the upper classes and the elite, but they also paint a remarkably detailed portrait of the day-to-day lives of the Egyptian masses. For instance, tomb records provide names and job titles, while mummies detail diseases and general health. Additional artefacts and remains from ancient villages give an insight into family life, religion, childhood, and old age. Given all this information, we can truly trace the lives of the Egyptians from the cradle to the grave.
One of the most important features of everyday Egyptian life is that these ancient people had the same motivations, interests, and problems as people today. From establishing homes to choosing careers, from getting married to growing old, this chapter covers the ins and outs of living as an Egyptian.
Appreciating Village Life
Most information about ancient Egypt comes from research and exploration of tombs and temples. Although these structures and the treasures they hold are truly fascinating, examining only tombs, mummies, and treasures gives a biased view of the Egyptians as a morbid nation that was obsessed with death.
Although dying was immensely important to the Egyptians, so was living! To fully understand these people, you need to look at their villages – the centres of their regular, everyday life.
Although the tombs were built of stone and meant to last forever, the villages were made of mud-brick and were not intended to last. Fortunately, researchers have identified several villages that somehow endured, providing valuable information about the Egyptian lifestyle. Unfortunately, these villages are mainly special settlements inhabited by the elite; as such they don’t necessarily give an accurate overview of the life of all Egyptians, rich and poor.
The most important villages are:
Deir el Medina on the west bank of the Nile at Thebes in the south of Egypt. Amenhotep I of the 18th dynasty built Deir el Medina to house the workmen who constructed the royal tombs in the Valley of the Kings. The village was occupied until the late 20th dynasty. Today the foundations of the village are still visible, including staircases, cellars, ovens, and elaborately decorated tombs, some virtually complete with mummies and treasures.
Kahun in the Faiyum region dates to the Middle Kingdom and was built to accommodate the workmen who built the pyramid of Senwosret III, although it was inhabited for a number of years after the death of the king. The remains at the site are quite substantial, with three-quarters of the settlement foundations surviving, showing three styles of houses: mansions, large houses, and the equivalent of small terraces.
Pi-Rameses is situated in the eastern Delta region and was the capital city of Ramses II of the 19th dynasty. The village covered an area of approximately 5 kilometres, and excavations at the site have uncovered a number of temples, palaces, and houses for the elite and their servants. The remains are very fragmentary because many building blocks were reused in later periods.
Avaris, located very close to Pi-Rameses in the Delta, was the capital of the Hyksos kings from the second intermediate period (see Chapter 3). Many Asiatics (primarily from the Palestine, Syria, and Canaan region) lived at this site, which the village’s style of temples and houses reflected.
Amarna, about halfway between Cairo and Luxor, was the home of Akhenaten from the 18th dynasty. The village stretches for a distance of approximately 7 kilometres and included a number of palaces and temples as well as army barracks, two settlement districts, and a workmen’s village similar to Deir el Medina. So many archaeological remains have been found at this site that it is often used as a blueprint for all Egyptian settlements.
You can visit Deir el Medina on the west bank at Luxor and see the layout of the whole settlement. The more adventurous tourist can visit Amarna in Middle Egypt. The archaeologists have reconstructed some sample buildings to give the gist of what it may have looked like.
Planning a village
The layout of each surviving village differs depending on whether it was built as a single project (for example, to house tomb builders) or whether it was allowed to develop naturally. Most villages needed to be near the Nile or a canal to provide a water source, and have agricultural land for food, although in the case of Deir el Medina, the state brought in water and food basics for the villagers.
Planners for single-project sites (like Deir el Medina and Amarna) built the most important building, either the temple or the palace, first, and then the elite houses were constructed around this structure. In the pre-planned villages, the streets are evenly laid out and houses arranged in neat rows. But as these towns expanded and developed, houses were extended, and new smaller houses were built among the larger mansions, destroying the grid layout.
Naturally developing settlements aren’t half as tidy as planned villages. No grids divide the settlement, and the general appearance is more haphazard. Planned villages have a uniformity of house style and size, whereas in naturally developing villages the house styles are irregular because people built according to taste and need.
Housing
Houses in Egyptian villages were generally very basic. Although some were larger than others (depending on the wealth and status of the owner), the average house at Deir el Medina, Gurob, and Amarna consisted of four rooms (see Figure 2-1):
A front room leading from the street, which may have been used as a meeting place for guests.
A living room where the household shrine was situated. (See Chapter 9 for more on household religious practices.) The family would worship their personal gods or ancestors here.
A living space, probably used as a sleeping area, with a staircase to a flat roof or upper floor.
A kitchen at the rear of the house, which was open to the sky to prevent the room from filling with smoke.
Cellars underneath the rear rooms were used as storage for foodstuffs. Houses were small so each room was multi-purpose.
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Figure 2-1: Layout of an average Egyptian house. |
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The houses of the elite, more appropriately described as mansions, followed a similar layout to the small houses, although they consisted of a number of small suites of rooms joined by interlinking corridors, as shown in Figure 2-2. These gave the elite owners the privilege of separating the public from the private family quarters. Many mansions also contained
An audience chamber in which to greet visitors.
An office in which to conduct business.
A bathroom with built-in shower area (essentially a stone slab and a servant with a jug of water) and toilet (a horseshoe-shaped wooden seat over a bowl of sand). Some homes at Pi-Rameses also had sunken baths open to the sky – to catch some rays while bathing.
Women’s quarters, for privacy rather than confinement. These quarters provided living, dressing, and sleeping areas from the rest of the household.
Small homes were even more crowded. An Egyptian couple may have had up to 15 children, all living in a single four-roomed house. When men married, their wives moved into the home as well; and when the wives had children, the children potentially also lived in the house. It was not unusual for three or four generations – as many as 20 people, mostly children – to be living in these small houses. The Egyptians truly knew the meaning of no privacy and no space.
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Figure 2-2: Elite house at Amarna. |
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Growing Up Egyptian
Preparing for – and sometimes choosing – a career was a major part of the early lives of most Egyptians, particularly boys. The following sections consider the schooling, careers, and working conditions of the vast majority of ancient Egyptians.
Educating the young
Today, most people’s earliest memories are from school, and in ancient Egypt it was probably no different.
Although not every child was lucky enough to have a formal education, the oldest son in most families followed in his father’s footsteps in his career choice, so he began learning his father’s trade from as young as 5 years old (whether farming, sculpting, or administration). Other sons needed to be trained in a career; this inspired some elite families to educate their children.
School’s out
School as you know it didn’t exist in ancient Egypt, but for want of a better word I have to use the term. Egyptian schools didn’t include large buildings, complete with classrooms and playing fields. There was no smell of chalk and there were definitely no uniforms.
Royalty and the upper elite were taught in temple or palace schools, which were run by the state and consisted of a tutor and a small group of hand-chosen boys. Records indicate that particularly gifted boys were accepted into the schools, even if they were from non-elite families – so the lower classes had at least some hope.
Some of these formal temple and palace schools taught specific trades and only accepted boys from families of certain occupations, such as scribes or magistrates. Children leaving these schools were then employed in the central government.
For boys not accepted into the elite educational institutions, local alternatives existed. Boys in most villages learned only basic literacy skills if their father was a scribe – normally in preparation for taking his place as a scribe. Village scribes also occasionally decided to teach groups of village children reading and writing as a means of boosting income.
House of Life
Although schools as you know them today did not exist, the House of Life was an institution that provided some education and training for a select few. A House of Life was attached to most temples. Each stored a number of texts relevant to that particular temple. The term is often mistranslated as a school, university, library, or archive. However, it was a strange institution that was all of these things and yet did not fit any of the descriptions particularly well.
Although shrouded (intentionally) in mystery, the following is known about this institution:
The House of Life stored a number of religious texts, which were used for training priests and medical professionals (see Chapter 8 for more on the role of doctors). Being educated here was a great privilege, available to only a chosen few. However, how students were chosen remains unknown.
The priests in charge of the House of Life were responsible for conserving, copying, and storing religious texts. The texts stored here were world famous. Later, Greek and Roman authors praised the wisdom recorded in these texts. The texts are said to include information about medicine, medical herbs, geography, geometry, astronomy, and the history of kings.
The institution was not open to the public. The extremely restricted access only enhanced its aura of mystery. Many literary tales refer to texts stored in the House of Life that have information on how to speak the language of all animals, birds, and fish in the world, as well as a text that enables the reader to see the sun god. Powerful stuff, indeed!
School days
A number of teaching materials have survived and tell a great deal about the day-to-day education that children received. An Egyptian child typically entered school at about 5 years old and started with the three Rs: reading, writing, and arithmetic.
A tutor dictated hieratic phrases and sentences.
A student learned these phrases by heart.
The student then wrote these phrases onto a wipe-clean wooden board through dictation and later from memory.
The tutor made corrections.
The board was wiped clean, and the process began again.
This intensive curriculum lasted until children were 9 years old, when they made a decision about their careers. Whatever career they chose then resulted in apprenticeships, which lasted for about ten years. Apprentices worked alongside professionals and learned the trade on the job, earning a wage (see the following section ‘Checking the Balance: Wages and Values in Ancient Egypt’, later in this chapter).
The ancient Egyptian proverb ‘A boy’s ear is on his back; he hears when he is beaten’ gives an indication of how education was administered in ancient Egypt. It certainly puts my school days into a much better light!
Choosing a career
Trying to choose a career as a modern adult is difficult enough, but having to do it at 9 years old seems unreal. (At 9, I wanted to be a princess – and no amount of education can help there!) However, Egyptian 9-year-olds made this monumental decision.
In the New Kingdom, the military and the scribal profession were intense rivals for Egypt’s best and brightest. For many boys, the life of a soldier seemed more glamorous than any other lifestyle. Soldiers were promised glory, foreign trips, and acknowledgement by the king, whereas the scribal profession offered knowledge, wealth, and a peaceful life with no physical strain.
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Be a scribe! Your body will be sleek, your hand will be soft. You will not flicker like a flame, like those whose body is feeble. For there is no bone of a man in you. You are tall and thin. If you lifted a load to carry it, you would stagger. Your feet would drag terribly, you are lacking in strength. You are weak in all of your limbs, poor in body. Set your sights on being a scribe, a fine profession that suits you.
Many careers were open to Egyptian children. A great text called Satire of the Trades lists the many occupations – and the downsides to each. As this text outlined, careers fell into four main categories: manual, administration, priesthood, and military.
Obviously some people were limited by status and wealth in what career they pursued. But on the plus side, no unemployment existed as farming and building work always needed doing.
Scribes: Leading the administration
Being a scribe was the most lucrative occupation. Scribes had many opportunities for promotion, and scribes who showed particular talent and skill could even rise to the position of vizier, which was second only to that of the king. If the king was weak, the vizierate could be a stepping stone to the throne.
The vizier’s role was powerful and diverse; the entire palace and its internal operations was under the vizier’s control. The vizier was also responsible for the safety of the king and the security of Egypt, which meant the police force was also under the vizier’s control. In addition, the vizier presided over the legal court (kenbet) and dealt with the daily petitions of the people, normally concerning petty crimes or offences. In legal matters, the vizier acted as judge, sentencing and administering punishments on behalf of the king.
Scribes with less ambition or power were still busy because only 1–5 per cent of the ancient Egyptian population was literate. At some point, most people needed the service of a scribe for personal or legal letters, accounts, or legal petitions. Scribes were essentially civil servants and were well paid for their work.
Most scribes were established in the village where they lived and gave their services to anyone who asked. They charged a set rate for services or a waived rate depending on the wealth of his client. Agreements were oral, so historians don’t know what the fees and charges were. There could have been one scribe per village or a few scribes undercutting each other with their service charges.
Satire of the Trades
The Satire of the Trades was written by a man called Duaf for his son Khety. He is trying to encourage his son to work hard at his studies to become a good scribe. As an incentive, he describes the pitfalls of all other professions in graphic detail:
I will make you love scribedom more than your mother, I’ll make its beauties stand before you; It is the greatest of all callings. There is none like it in the land.
I have never saw a sculptor as envoy, not is a goldsmith ever sent; but I have seen the smith at work at the opening of his furnace; with fingers like claws of a crocodile he stinks more than fish roe.
The jewel-maker bores with his chisel in hard stone of all kinds; when he has finished the inlay of the eye, his arms are spent, he’s weary; sitting down when the sun goes down, his knees and back are cramped.
The barber barbers until nightfall, he takes himself to town, he sets himself up in his corner, he moves from street to street, looking for someone to barber. He strains his arms to fill his belly like the bee that eats as it works.
I’ll describe to you also the mason: his loins give him pain; though he is out in the wind, he works without a cloak; his loincloth is a twisted rope and a string in the rear. His arms are spent from exertion, having mixed all kinds of dirt; when he eats bread with his fingers, he has washed at the same time.
The bird-catcher suffers much, as he watches out for birds; when the swarms pass over him, he keeps saying ‘Had I a net!’ But the god grants it not, and he is angry with his lot. I’ll speak of the fisherman also, his is the worst of all the hobs. He labours on the river, mingling with the crocodiles. When the time of reckoning comes, he is full of lamentations; He does not say ‘there’s a crocodile’: Fear has made him blind. Coming from the flowing water he says ‘Mighty God.’
Look, there is no profession without a boss, except for the scribe – he is the boss.
The priesthood: Servants of the god
The priesthood was open to all – literate or not – although the positions given reflected the skills held. Obviously, temple scribes were literate and many worked in the House of Life, archiving, copying, and reading the numerous texts stored there.
Many priests worked on a part-time basis, only working one month in three in the temple and then returning to their villages. This arrangement was like National Service when people were called on to work for a short period.
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The nature of the Egyptian priesthood was very different from, say, the Christian or Hindu priesthood. Egyptian priests had virtually no contact with the population in their role as priest. They did not preach, offer advice, or try to convert people to their particular cult. The Egyptian title Hem-Netjer means ‘servant of the god’, and that is what they were. They served the god, ensuring the prayers, offerings, and incantations were carried out correctly.
A distinct hierarchy existed within the priesthood with the first prophet being the top dog or high priest, followed by the second, third, fourth, and fifth prophets, who all hoped at some point to have the first prophet’s job. Ideally, the king was responsible for hiring the first prophet, although more often than not the king allowed the priest to name his own heir.
The lowest-ranking priests were the wab priests or ‘purification priests’, who were responsible for many of the purification rituals in the temple, carrying the sacred barks (small sacred boats that were used to parade statues of the gods on festival days), supervising the painters and draftsmen, and looking after other general tasks around the temple.
Military men: Dreaming of victory
Prior to the New Kingdom, no army existed, so every little boy’s dream of being a soldier had to remain unfulfilled. In the earlier periods, if an army was needed, local mayors gathered likely lads from their regions and conscripted them for the duration of the expedition or campaign.
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Purifying the priests
A number of purification rituals had to be performed before a priest could enter a temple. A priest anointed his hands and feet in water and then plunged into the sacred lake, which was present at every temple and represented the pure waters of the time before creation. This ritual ensured the priest was clean before entering into the presence of the god.
The Greek historian Herodotus records that Egyptian priests shaved off all (and yes, I mean all) their body hair to prevent lice. Some priests may even have gone so far as to pluck out their eyebrows and eyelashes just to make sure they were 100 per cent clean. They carried out this hair removal every other day. In the Ptolemaic period, any priest who forgot to shave was fined 1,000 drachmas.
Sexual intercourse was banned in the temple (quite right, too!), and priests carried out specific cleansing rituals before entering the temple after sex. In fact, it was expected that a priest about to start his working month in the temple should abstain from any contact with women for several days before entering temple service, just in case he was contaminated with menstrual blood or bodily fluids.
In the New Kingdom (go to Chapter 3 for more details), a permanent army was set up, enabling career soldiers to exist. Many autobiographies found in tombs chronicle long military careers. In fact, some soldiers rose to positions of great power; the generals Horemheb and Ramses I both became king, proving that the vizierate was not the only path to the throne.
As with all careers in ancient Egypt, soldiers started their training in basic skills, stamina, and strength young – even as young as 5 or 6.
Tomb images at Beni Hasan from the Middle Kingdom show how temporary soldiers were trained, and no doubt the training was similar for the permanent army. Training included
Stick fighting
Wrestling
Weightlifting with bags of sand
Chariot riding (although not until the New Kingdom)
Archery
Use of spears
A soldier’s skills dictated which regiment he entered – charioteers, spearmen, or infantry.
Scribes were also an essential part of the army entourage (they get everywhere!). Scribes recorded campaign events and are often depicted in battle scenes calmly standing at the rear, recording the action. They also listed the booty gathered by the soldiers.
One particularly gruesome task of the military scribe was counting the enemy dead, which were identified by amputated right hands or penises (if they were uncircumcised). Soldiers left piles of these body parts on the battle field for the scribes to count serenely.
Manual labour
Working conditions were relatively good for the craftsmen of Deir el Medina, who were at the top of their careers and built the tombs in the Valley of the Kings, but maybe less good for the not-so-privileged members of society. These craftsmen worked long weeks with eight-hour days and only officially received one in every ten days off. Farmers and other lower class people had no days off.
However, in addition to their weekend, workers at Deir el Medina were able to take as many days off (within reason) as they needed. Surviving records from the site, known as the ‘Absentee records’, list an incredible range of excuses for skiving off work. Things haven’t changed much in 3,500 years, as one of the most common excuses is a hangover.
Other excuses included
Wrapping a deceased family member
Burying a deceased family member
Making libations for the deceased
Being ill (they didn’t always elaborate on this)
Being bitten by a scorpion
Having an argument with the wife (this one intrigues me)
Female family members menstruating
The villagers of Deir el Medina had a resident doctor, paid by the state, which ensured that not too many days were taken off with illness or injuries. For a description of the types of medical treatments that these unfortunate villagers endured, skip to Chapter 8.
Although the ancient Egyptians have a reputation for slave labour, promoted by the Bible and Hollywood movies, the evidence shows a very positive employment programme with health care, a bonus scheme, and opportunities to earn extra income after working hours, ensuring the workmen were well fed and able to accumulate wealth.
The first industrial action in history?
The workmen of Deir el Medina were supposed to get paid on the 28th day of each month, and most of the time this worked fine. But on some occasions, payments were late or even non-existent.
During the reign of Ramses III, the villagers did not get paid for six months, which resulted in the workmen going on strike. Workers protested at the funerary temples of Thutmosis III, Ramses II, and Sety I, where the grain stores providing their rations were situated. Whether they had placards and chanted ‘What do we want? When do we want it?’ is unknown, but records describe the event as follows:
It is because of hunger and because of thirst that we come here. There is no clothing, no ointment, no fish, no vegetables. Send to Pharaoh our good Lord about it and send to the vizier, our superior so that sustenance may be made for us.
I think this message – as a slogan on a placard – is a tad long, but it does get the point across. On this particular occasion, the workers received their rations.
However, later the same year, pay was again delayed. A village scribe named Djhutymose left out the middle man (the temple) and went with two bailiffs, no doubt with large sticks, to collect the grain rations directly from the local farmers. Luckily, Djhutymose was successful, and the villagers were able to eat again.
Artists: Creating beauty
Men with artistic talent could become artists, carpenters, or sculptors and were well paid whether they had a formal education or not. Unlike artists in the modern world, ancient Egyptians did not sign their work, so identifying the work of a particular painter or sculptor is very difficult. (For more information on art, see Chapter 11.)
Most artists worked as part of a team and were responsible for one aspect of the production of a tomb or temple scene – even if they were proficient in all aspects – and would work on this skill, making it their speciality. For example:
Plasterers prepared walls for painting.
Stone masons prepared walls for carving.
Outline scribes drew the outlines on the walls.
Sculptors carved the outlines.
Artists painted the images.
Overseers double-checked all work and made corrections throughout the process.
The village of Deir el Medina consisted almost exclusively of artists. Although their daily jobs were to provide a tomb and goods for the king, they also used their talents to earn income outside their regular jobs. A number of working contracts survive, showing prices and services including:
The scribe Harshire inscribed three coffins for a songstress of Amun and was paid 329 deben (30 kilos) of copper.
The workman Bekenwernero made some coffins, beds, chairs, boxes, and tables and received 91 deben (more than 8 kilos) of copper.
Farmers: Working the land
With less than 1 per cent of the Egyptian population literate, many uneducated people worked at jobs that didn’t require formal education. The most important of these was farming.
A large proportion of the population of Egypt worked on the land, producing food. This was hard work and essentially one of the most important jobs, because if the farmer didn’t work hard, the rest of Egypt didn’t eat. The state – either the temple or the king – owned the majority of agricultural land and rented it to the farmers. If farmers didn’t produce the specified grain quotas, they were beaten.
The ancient Egyptians grew various crops and typically rotated their plantings each year. The following grains formed the staple of the Egyptian diet:
Barley
Emmer wheat (a low-yielding wheat, first domesticated in the Near East)
Einkorn wheat (a hulled wheat with a tough husk)
Spelt (similar to common wheat)
Many families also kept vegetable plots, and no doubt farmers grew vegetables on a large scale. Vegetables formed a large proportion of the Egyptian diet, and included the following:
Onions
Garlic
Peas
Lentils
Beans
Radishes
Cabbage
Cucumbers
Lettuces
Many farmers also grew sesame and castor (used for oil), flax (used for the production of linen), dates (for beer flavouring and to be eaten as a fruit), and trees (fibres used in basket and rope production).
Despite the importance of the farmers’ job, they were the poorest paid workers in ancient Egyptian society. Technically they didn’t get paid at all! Farmers gave a grain quota to the land owner, with the addition of rent and tax (also paid in grain). Whatever they produced in excess of this they kept or sold. This arrangement worked sufficiently well for the head of a family or head farmer, but field hands were paid a pittance and no doubt couldn’t feed their families well or have any excess for purchasing other goods.
Laundrymen: Airing dirty linen
One of the worst careers described in the Satire of the Trades is that of laundryman.
In ancient Egypt, men were always the professional launderers. They traipsed from village to village collecting the washing, which they took to the Nile. Records from Deir el Medina show that the laundrymen were allocated certain houses to collect laundry from and they were constantly moaning about the workload. Nothing’s new.
After collecting the laundry, the laundryman left a ‘receipt’ in the form of an ostracon (stone flake used as note paper) with images of the clothes that he had taken. This note ensured that the household got the right stuff back – nothing’s worse than someone else’s loincloth being delivered among your own laundry.
The washing was done in the Nile using natron (hydrous sodium carbonate) and lime as soap. The clothes were crushed against stones to get the stains off, and then left in the sun to bleach and to dry.
Considering the Lives of Women
Although the experience of Egyptian women was not equal to that of their male counterparts, female Egyptians enjoyed a surprisingly high level of opportunity, responsibility, and empowerment.
Appreciating women’s rights
Royal women had very little freedom, were used as political pawns, and were locked away from the world in the harem (see Chapter 5 for more details).
Ordinary women were much luckier. They had more freedom than most women in other contemporary societies. For example:
Women were able to walk around unchaperoned. Although this is something most women today take for granted, such freedom was unusual in ancient times.
Although many of the larger houses included women’s quarters, women were not confined to these areas. Instead, these rooms offered privacy during childbirth, child weaning, and menstruation.
Women held the same legal rights as men from the same class. Specifically, a woman could
• Own property; she could also manage her land in any way she wanted without assistance from a man
• Inherit property
• Bequeath property; in fact, landed property was passed down from mother to daughter
• Loan property and earn interest
• Bring an action of law against another person, including a man
• Bear witness to a legal document
• Be an equal partner in legal contracts; for example, in the Ptolemaic period, she could sign her own marriage contract
Furthermore, a woman did not lose her legal rights after she married and she retained her property during the marriage. While married, she could own, inherit, and sell any of her property with the same freedom as if she were single. When drawing up her will, a woman could distribute her property any way she wanted and had no legal obligation to leave anything to her children.
An Egyptian widow was automatically entitled to a third of her husband’s property as well as keeping all she entered the marriage with, in addition to all she accumulated throughout the marriage. (The remaining two-thirds of her husband’s property was divided between his children and his siblings.) By making gifts to his wife during his life, a husband could prevent distribution of his property after death, because his wife already owned everything. Now that is my kind of arrangement!
Taming of the shrewd
From the numerous surviving records, many clever Egyptian women are known today. One such woman was Tay-Hetem from 249 BC, who decided to help her hubbie out when he had a few financial problems. From a contract she drew up herself (all very official!), scholars know that Tay-Hetem loaned her husband 3 deben of silver (273 grams) from her personal store and charged him a rate of interest of 30 per cent, which was the standard interest rate of the time. She specified that the loan was to be paid back within three years.
Although it is unknown whether her husband made the payments, it would be interesting to know how far Tay-Hetem went to get her repayments. Beat him with a rolling pin? Send the boys round? Take him to court? Hopefully, he paid in time, so he never found out how far she would go.
Working women
Sure, men in ancient Egyptian society had varied opportunities and a chance of a lucrative career. But what of the women? Most women, whether married or single, spent a lot of time in the home – raising children, helping to produce family meals, or working.
Women within farming communities were also expected to help in the field during harvest time. Women are often depicted in tomb scenes helping with the winnowing of crops, grinding grain into flour, and making beer (see Chapter 7 for how).
In their spare time – although it doesn’t sound like they had much! – women were able to earn money by selling the fruits of various home-making skills. Goods produced in the home, such as beer, bread, vegetables, linen, baskets, and clay vessels, were all sold at market.
Stitch in time
The linen trade was one that started in the home, but expanded to large workshops attached to the temples and even the royal harem. Flax processing and linen production was important as a cottage industry. These workshops were dominated by female workers and supervisors and produced linen for royalty and the religious cults, as well as to trade.
Royal women in the harem workshops were responsible for training and supervising the textile workers. Royal women probably carried out the delicate embroidery work themselves to pass the time.
Management positions: Ruling the roost
Although married and unmarried woman could work without social stigma, tight restrictions applied to the occupations they could actually hold.
The tightest restrictions were on bureaucratic or administrative positions, especially working for the state, although in private households women were permitted to hold positions such as:
Treasurer
Major doma (a female ‘butler’)
Superintendent of the dining room
Steward of the storehouse
Steward of the food supply
Sealbearer (a very important role, responsible for the sealing of boxes, letters and rooms)
All these positions fall under the modern title of housekeeper – ensuring the cupboards are full, meals are prepared on time, and the family’s wealth remains intact.
In royal households, the bureaucratic positions held by women were all in connection with the female-oriented aspects of the royal household. These positions included:
Overseer of the singers
Overseer of amusements
Mistress of the royal harem
Overseer of the house of weavers
Overseer of the wig shop
Whatever the administrative position, women were never in charge of the work of men, although some women held quite important positions. Indeed, the sixth dynasty included a female vizier. The Suffragette movement would have been proud.
Midwifery and wet nursing
Most girls were taught skills related to children and childbirth, and some women chose to make these skills into lucrative careers as midwives.
Most women in ancient Egypt gave birth to at least five children, so midwifery skills were often learned by helping the village women through their pregnancy and deliveries. Although the vast majority of midwives simply learned by assisting, some chose to have formal training. For example, records show that a school of midwifery existed at the Temple of Neith in Sais. Formal training enabled midwives to work for the palace or the elite members of society, thus increasing their potential incomes.
After midwives safely delivered babies, the elite and the royal family commonly employed wet nurses to help care for children. A wet nurse was viewed as a status symbol; no family worth its salt was without such a woman. Wet nurses were normally women who had just given birth to their own child and were able to feed their employers’ baby alongside their own.
Infants were normally nursed for three years. Breastfeeding acted as a safeguard against pregnancy (because it is a natural – if unreliable! – contraceptive) and was a way of ensuring uncontaminated food during the most vulnerable years of the child’s life.
Market day
Ancient Egyptian market day was certainly different from a weekly trip to Tesco.
A physical market place as such did not exist, although merchants at various Egyptian port sites set up stalls to sell their goods to sailors and foreign merchants. The rest of the population had some means of selling and buying goods, possibly meeting in public squares or on the river bank, or visiting houses of people in the village and offering a service or product.
Negotiating over price is where things get complicated. Coins were not used in Egypt until Alexander came in 332 BC, so prior to this people swapped goods for goods. Relative prices in weights of copper or silver existed, and people would have been aware of these. But objects are only valuable if someone wants to buy them, and the value depends on how much someone wants them.
Imagine the uproar of bartering: Perhaps an Egyptian woman wants to buy some clothes for her family, but only has four unruly goats and a bad-tempered donkey to exchange! She has to traipse around until she locates a dressmaker, only to discover that the seamstress has no interest in goats or donkeys and will only exchange for a necklace. Now the poor home-maker has to look for someone with a necklace who wants one of her unruly goats and then return to the dressmaker, only to find she has already sold that must-have loincloth and kilt ensemble with the matching sandals. Blimey! Shopping would take all day – and you may have to return home with unruly goats and a bad-tempered donkey.
Entertaining the masses
Some women, who were probably unmarried, chose to go into the entertainment business. The general belief is that it was unbecoming for an elite woman to perform in public. Although women sang, danced, or played instruments in private, engaging in any of these activities in public was taboo. In fact, the only time an elite woman was permitted to perform in public was if she was in the priesthood, participating in religious ceremonies and processions.
For the lower classes, however, being a performer was a respectable, lucrative career. Troupes of women and sometimes men were hired to entertain at banquets, performing with groups of same-sex dancers, singers, or musicians (see Chapter 7 for more details).
Turning tricks
Very little evidence of prostitution in ancient Egypt exists, but as ‘the oldest profession in the world’, prostitution was no doubt common.
Scholars have suggested that some banquet entertainers may have made a little extra income at gatherings. Records show that a particular group of dancers known as Hn-mwt did offer sexual favours for financial reimbursement. However, most of the evidence of prostitutes comes from the Graeco-Roman period, when prostitution was taxed and records were kept.
Some small details are also recorded about prostitutes’ practices. For example, many prostitutes had alluring messages, such as ‘follow me’, incised into the soles of their sandals so that they left an imprint in the mud with every step. Think of it as the ancient equivalent of cards in phone boxes.
Serving the goddesses
Many middle-class, upper-class, and royal women chose to join the priesthood, the most prestigious profession for women.
For the upper classes, the priesthood was a convenient way of occupying unmarried women – although, like their male counterparts, woman who wanted to serve the gods did not have to be celibate, and many were in fact married.
Additionally, as with the male priesthood, the role of priestess was often passed from mother to daughter, and it may have been served on a part-time basis, one month in three.
Women were mostly employed in the priesthood of the cults of a goddess such as Isis, Neith, or Hathor – although they could hold roles in most cults of both gods and goddesses. Priestesses were primarily musicians, singers, or dancers for temple rituals and processions.
Mourning the dead
Women were regularly involved in the funerals of the elite – although not often as priestesses. Professional mourners were hired to wail, throw dust over their heads, rend their clothes, and scratch their cheeks. Such behaviour would have been unseemly for the women of the deceased’s family to display.
Many non-royal tombs depict these professional mourners. Among the women are often small girls emulating their moves, which indicates that mourners were trained on the job. This profession, like many others, was probably passed down from mother to daughter.
Checking the Balance: Wages and Payment in Ancient Egypt
As today, everyone in ancient Egypt worked to sustain their family and to increase personal wealth – so all looked forward to pay day. Records from Deir el Medina show that the workers were paid on the 28th day of every month, although unlike modern payday it was not in cash.
Because a monetary system was not introduced until Alexander the Great in 332 BC, wages were paid in produce or services. Quantities of grain were specified for various levels of workers. Wages depended on the position, and those in positions of responsibility were paid more than lower positions. A higher salary was approximately 422.5 litres of grain per month, which was enough to feed a family of 10–15. If an employee had a smaller family, he would have grain left over for shopping.
In addition to wages, the state gave workmen working for the king all the essentials of daily life, such as housing, firewood, fish, vegetables, water, and oil. At Deir el Medina, the workmen were often given extra rations by the state during religious festivals, or as an incentive if the king was pleased with progress on the royal tomb.
Khar: Used to measure grain; 1 khar was equivalent to 76.8 litres.
Deben: Used as a general value for many items; 1 deben was equivalent to 91 grams of copper.
Kite: A weight of silver; 1 kite was equivalent to 0.6 deben of copper.
Hin: Used to measure liquids; 1 hin was equivalent to 0.48 litres and worth 1 deben.
Medket: Used for larger quantities of liquids; 1 medket was worth 50 hin.
A number of transaction records survive from Deir el Medina, offering a good snapshot of the relative values of various goods:
A simple wooden chair: 11 deben
A bed: 25 deben
A table: 15 deben
A bull: 95–120 deben (depending on size and condition)
A cow: 4–50 deben (depending on size and condition)
A young servant girl: 410 deben
Christmas comes early
During the reign of Merenptah (1212–1202 BC) in the New Kingdom, the king provided a large amount of extra rations for the Deir el Medina workmen. Think of this gift as the equivalent of a nice Christmas bonus in your pay packet.
One of the village scribes, Anupenheb, recorded an inventory of the gifts: In addition to their ordinary wages, workers received extra rations consisting of 150 donkey loads of provisions, including 9,000 fish, salt for drying, ten oxen ready for slaughter, four donkey loads of beans and sweet oils, eight donkey loads of barley malt (enough for four pints of beer per person), 9,000 loaves of bread (enough for 150 per household), and eight donkey loads of natron used for soap.
The ensuing village feast no doubt produced an interesting array of aromas as the ox were slaughtered and roasted and the 9,000 fish were simultaneously gutted and dried in salt on the roofs. If the villagers did not consume all that the king provided on this occasion, they could sell any excess at market.
Tying the Knot: Marriage
A particularly important aspect of Egyptian life was marriage. Remaining unmarried was considered unusual because everyone was expected to have children.
Ancient Egyptians married young – girls sometimes as young as 10. As soon as a girl started her menstruation cycle, she was a woman and of marriageable age. Boys also married as young as 10, although a man could remain unmarried until later life (30–40 years old), especially if he had been working his way through a career.
Most people probably chose their spouses, but arranged marriages weren’t unheard of, especially if the families were wealthy or important.
Exposing the truth of incestuous relationships
Unmarried princesses were dangerous because ambitious men could corrupt them. However, princesses were unable to marry outside the royal family without express permission from the king, which was rarely given. These restrictions meant that more often than not, princesses married their brothers, fathers, and even grandfathers. Sometimes these arrangements were marriages in the true sense of the word and produced children.
Evidence shows that full brother-sister marriages took place in Roman Egypt so that the marriage could take place earlier than normal and a dowry was not required, keeping family property intact.
Skipping formality
Although the Egyptians placed much importance on marriage, no legal ceremonies were performed, nor were any records of marriages kept. As marriage was a social event organised by the families, the ancient Egyptians had no need to formalise things.
After a couple decided to get married, the most important part was to move in together. The transport of the new wife to her husband’s house may have been ceremonial, accompanied by a procession and a party, but no records of this exist.
The only records that survive involve dowries and property and what should happen in the event of a divorce. These records, however, were unusual and should not be viewed as the norm. Most marriages were between people of similar wealth and rank, with no need for pre-nuptial agreements.
Divorcing
Divorce was generally as informal as the wedding, with no formal written documentation unless financial considerations existed, such as a dowry to return or property to deal with. A man or a woman could divorce a spouse by simply stating ‘I divorce you’. The woman typically then moved back to her family home.
Divorcees, both male and female, were allowed to remarry, although women over 30 did not often remarry. This was either because the women were financially self-sufficient or past their child-bearing years and thus not considered good marriage material.
Much information is missing regarding what happened to children in cases of divorce. Children may have stayed with the father or left the home with the mother. The records have not been found, but may emerge in the future.
Considering adultery
One common ground for divorce was adultery.
The penalties for adultery were harsher for women than men. For example, during the pharaonic period, divorce was the normal punishment for adultery, but some literary tales suggest that a woman could lose her life for committing adultery. Later, in Roman Egypt, a man having an affair with a married woman would be condemned to have 1,000 lashes, while the woman was mutilated by nose amputation.
Contractual arrangements
Many marriage contracts have survived, although they’re from later periods when there may have been less distinction between the classes. The marriage contract of a couple called Heraclides and Demetria, from 311 BC, states:
In the seventh year of the reign of Alexander son of Alexander . . . Marriage contract of Heraclides and Demetria. Heraclides takes as his lawful wife Demetria . . . both being freeborn, from her father Leptines, . . . and her mother Philotis, bringing clothing and ornaments to the value of 1,000 drachmae, and Heraclides shall supply to Demetria all that is proper for a freeborn wife, and we shall live together wherever it seems best to Leptines and Heraclides consulting in common. If Demetria is discovered doing any evil to the shame of her husband Heraclides, she shall be deprived of all that she brought, but Heraclides shall prove whatever he alleges against Demetria before three men whom they both accept.
It shall not be lawful for Heraclides to bring home another wife in insult of Demetria nor to have children by another woman nor to do any evil against Demetria on any pretext. If Heraclides is discovered doing any of these things and Demetria proves it before three men whom they both accept, Heraclides shall give back to Demetria the dowry of 1,000 drachmae which she brought and shall moreover forfeit 1,000 drachmae of the silver coinage of Alexander. Demetria and those aiding Demetria to exact payment shall have the right of execution, as if derived from a legally decided action, upon the person of Heraclides and upon all the property of Heraclides both on land and on water.
This contract shall be valid in every respect, wherever Heraclides may produce it against Demetria, or Demetria and those aiding Demetria to exact payment may produce it against Heraclides, as if the agreement had been made in that place. Heraclides and Demetria shall have the right to keep the contracts severally in their own custody and to produce them against each other.
Witnesses Cleon, Gelan; Anticrates, Temnian; Lysis, Temnian; Dionysius, Temnian; Aristomachus, Cyrenaean; Aristodicus, Coan.
This contract shows that even in the time of Alexander the Great, the women of Egypt were legally active and able to divorce their husbands as long as they could produce the same evidence and proof as they would have to in a similar situation today.
Although adultery was not approved of, it was acceptable for a man to have a concubine, a woman brought into the house to live alongside his wife and children. Having a concubine was considered a status symbol, as it reflected the man’s wealth. Whether the concubine’s role was purely sexual is unknown, and the difference between a wife and a concubine are not clearly defined from the ancient texts, apart from the difference in their status.
Monogamy or monotony?
Records show that a young man from Deir el Medina called Nesamenemope had been having a long-term affair with a woman in the village. Nesamenemope was married and the young woman was not. One evening an angry mob arrived at the woman’s home to beat up her and her family. Luckily officials calmed the angry mob and Nesamenemope was instructed to divorce his wife and provide for his mistress before continuing with the affair.
If he didn’t get divorced and still continued with the affair, the officials stated that they wouldn’t prevent the crowd from beating the woman up next time, and Nesamenemope would have his nose and ears amputated before being sent to Nubia for hard labour.
Nesamenemope couldn’t live without his mistress and continued the affair; although whether the threat to send him to Nubian quarries or mines was ever carried out is unknown.
Caring for the Elderly
The average age of death in Egypt was 30–35, but many people lived much longer. In surviving texts, the ideal old age is recorded as 110, although it is unlikely that many people reached this ripe old age.
Children were expected to care for their parents in old age. Girls in particular were obliged to care for their parents, whereas boys were not, presumably because a man had to care for his wife and her parents.
If a couple were childless, they quite often adopted children for the sole purpose of providing care later in life. Little is known about the adoption process, but it was normally an informal affair. However, if the adopting couple were wealthy, they sometimes signed a document before witnesses.
From Deir el Medina, limited evidence suggests that the state provided a sort of pension for the widows of the workmen still residing at the village. The records are rare and indicate that the rations distributed to widows were not enough to live on – but these did supplement the care their children provided.
Military records show that the state provided a better pension for soldiers in the form of land and gold of honour – jewellery and honorary priestly titles, which included a further pension.
Other than the Deir el Medina workmen and the military, no one else received a state pension. Elderly and widowed Egyptians relied solely on the kindness of friends and family.