Download Ancient Egypt*s Daily Life

Ancient Egypt’s Daily Life
Egyptian Social Hierarchy
Some Famous Egyptian
Pharaohs
Tutankhamon1
336-1327 B. C. E.
Thutmose
III1504-1450 B. C.
E.
Pharaoh means “Great House”
Ramses
II1279-1212 B. C.
E.
Egyptian Nobility & Officials
● They inherited their position
from family members.
● The vizier had more power than
anyone except the pharaoh.
Egyptian Priestly Class
Priests 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 Scribe
Scribes 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
Social Roles
Role of Women
• Well treated and had
considerable legal rights
compared 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
Hieratic Scroll
Piece
Papyrus Plant
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 Stone
What 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; Greeklanguage 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
Gods and Goddesses
Creation Story
GEB
NUT
TEFNUT
ATUM
NUT
MA’AT
SHU
HORUS
ANUBIS
Website: Gods and Goddesses
ATUM
ISIS
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
MA’AT
(preparation varied as well as goods stored in tombs)
-symbol of
• 2 Common Principles:
the equilibrium
1) body preservation in a lifelike form
2) the deceased must have items necessary for life in the afterworld of the universe
• 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.
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 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
Mummification
• 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
The dead travel
on the “Solar
Bark.”
A boat for the
journey is
provided for a
dead pharaoh in
his tomb.
Egyptian Book of the Dead
The Final Judgement
Anubis
Osiris
Horus
Shabtis: The Pharaoh’s
Servants
in the Afterlife
Preparations for the
Underworld
ANUBIS weighs the
dead person’s heart
against a feather.
Priests protected
your KA, or soulspirit
Materials Used in Mummification
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Linen
Sawdust
Lichen
Beeswax
Resin
6. Natron
7. Onion
8. Nile Mud
9. Linen Pads
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.