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Daily Life in Ancient Egypt
The New Kingdom
• Powerful & Stable
• Ma’at- combination of ideas: harmony with
the universe, justice, order, & peace
• Must maintain ma’at for the world to
remain safe & stable
• To maintain ma’at: work hard, be a good
person, live in harmony with one another
• Pharaoh: rule wisely & well so order was
maintained
The Hittite Empire
• Lived in Anatolia (present-day Turkey)
• Well-fortified capital
• Expanded empire to West & South
The Hittites
• Expansion was aided by their
development of smelting iron
– Swords & other weapons
– Chariots
Your assignment
Adorning the Body
• Light & simple clothing
• Rich & poor, men & women work jewelry,
dyed hair, wore wigs & make-up
Burial Practices
• Believed in the afterlife, preserved the body
• Wealthy Egyptians were mummified.- removed all organs but the heart,
covered it in salt, 40 days later washed, oiled & wrapped body in fabric.
Spread black gooey momia over the body
• Poor Egyptians were wrapped in old clothing & buried in the ground
Crafts & Trade
• Highly skilled- created furniture, jewelry, pottery
• Taught their craft at a young age, went to school at the
pharaoh’s palace
• Traded grain, gold, copper, linen, gemstones, and
minerals for timber, iron, silver, tin, and lead
Domestic Life
• Married within social class. Girls- 12, Boys-14
• Upper class women oversaw the household, lower class women also cooked,
cleaned, and helped in the field
• Women had rights and were seen as equal to men in the eyes of the law
• Children were allowed to play and be kids
•
Food
&
Drink
Most Egyptians spent a lot of time farming to grown vegetables, wheat, and barley,
which they made into bread & beer. (Drank water & wine, too)
• Very different based on class.
• Upper class: Wide selection- meat and fowl (beef, pork, geese, ducks),
vegetables (peas, beans, cucumbers, lettuce), cheese, cakes, fruit.
• Lower class: simple meals-bread, vegetables, fish
Housing
• Houses made of mud brick
• Upper class- large homes, 2 stories tall, many rooms including
bathrooms
• Lower class- simple houses, few small rooms, narrow high windows &
little furniture
Medicine
• Doctors used parts of
plants and herbs, such
as garlic, in their
treatments
• Doctors treated
injuries & wounds with
bandages and
stitches, but did not
perform surgery
• Relied on magicians to
treat illness & to help
women during
pregnancy & child birth
Music & Dance
• Performed at public & religious festivals, holidays, and feasts
• Usually women, many were supported by the royal court and
nobles
• Variety of instruments- harp, lyre, flute, oboe, tambourine,
drums
Religious Beliefs
• Osiris- passed judgment on the souls of the dead
• Anubis- helped prepare bodies of dead for afterlife
• Priests and priestesses carried out rituals in temples to honor gods &
goddesses
• Commoners made offerings to gods and goddesses in their homes
Social Classes
Pharaoh
---Royal Family, Nobles, Gov.
Officials
----Priests
----Scribes
---Artists/Skilled Workers
---------Laborers, Farmers
During flood season, famers
would work on the pharaoh’s
building projects
Warfare
• Army of full-time soldiers stationed throughout the empire to protect
Egypt
• In peacetime, soldiers dug canals or built pharaoh’s tombs
• Mercenaries (soldiers from other lands who were paid to fight for
Egypt) were sometimes part of the army
• Variety of weapons : javelins, swords, shields, padded caps,
chariots
Writing & Education
• Scribes administered laws, collected taxes, recorded the grain & food
supply, kept the census, measured the rise of the Nile & kept military records
• Boys attended school for 12 years, often sunrise to sunset with strict
teachers
• Learned hieroglyphics and hieratic writing