Download Daily Life in Ancient Egypt

Daily Life in Ancient Egypt
How did social class affect daily life in
ancient Egypt?
Opet Festival
• 27 day festival for all people
• Brought people from different social classes
together
• Honored the god Ra by adorning his statue
with jewelry and placing in a shrine on
ceremonial boat called a barque.
• These various social classes made up the
social pyramid of Egypt.
Social Pyramid Levels
1. Pharaoh- viewed as a “God, general, and king”
2. Government officials- mainly nobles who came from
wealthy families. Enjoyed high quality of life.
3.Priests- powerful, in charge of temples and rituals, also
ceremonies surrounding death and burials of the elite
4. Scribes- respected position, recorded information for
government and religious leaders, took many years of
education to become a scribe.
5. Artisans- people like carpenters, metalworkers,
painters, sculptors, and stone carvers. Highly skilled
6. Peasants- largest social classes, worked the land to
provide a food supply for Egypt. When not working
helped to build the massive building projects of the
Pharaoh
Life in Egypt’s Social Classes
• Social pyramid was fairly rigid
• Most people belonged to the social class their
parents did
• All classes cherished family life. Married
within own social class, children highly valued
• The higher the social class, the better quality
of life.
Women
• Women- managed the household and raised the
children
– Upper class women had slaves or servants to help
them with these roles
– Lower class women did all the work themselves
• Women enjoyed more freedom and rights than
most women in the ancient world
• They could own land and run businesses
• Ask for divorces and represent themselves in law
• Some middle and upper class women worked as
doctors, government officials, and priestesses
Men
• Men- head of household, brought home the
money
– Boys trained at a young age to take on their
father’s line of work
Government Officials
• Job was to assist the Pharaoh in his or her role
as supreme leader
• Came from the Pharaoh’s own family or other
noble families in Egypt
• Many inherited their position from family
members
• Sometimes trusted servants from the royal
court rose to power
Three Important Government Officials
• Vizier (vuh-ZEER)–
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advised the pharaoh and carried out his/her commands.
Most powerful official.
Appointed and supervised other officials
Served as chief judge
Often wore white to shown themselves as “neutral”
• The Chief Treasurer–
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oversaw the government’s wealth
Collected taxes
Economy was based in goods, not gold
Many paid in grain, cows, cloth, and silver
• The General of the Armies
– Advised the Pharaoh in matters of war and national security
– Helped make alliances with other kingdoms
Lives of Luxury
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Government officials led lives of luxury
Great wealth
Fine homes
Lots of social time
Lavish banquets/feasts- typically female servants
waited on guests, entertainment provided by
typically women musicians
• Dressed in fine linen clothing
• Women had fine jewelry, perfume & used
makeup- painted nails, eye shadow, and lipstick
Priests
• Powerful and respected
• Large network of priests served under the
pharaoh
• High Priest advised the pharaoh and oversaw
religious ceremonies
• Temple Priests were in charge of temples
throughout the kingdom
• Other priests handled more common concerns
and requests, gave advice, and performed
healings.
Priestesses
• Women were allowed to serve as Priestesses
• Regarded as equal to men
• Main duty was to oversee temples devoted to
music and dancing
Temple Priest
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Important Role
Every temple was home to one or more Egyptian Gods
Temple’s God was thought to live in a statue
It was housed in a holy room called a sanctuary
Only a priest who had cleansed/purified himself could
enter the room
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Avoid foods such as fish
Bath in holy pools 3-4 times daily
Linen clothes only
Shave off his body hair
Burial Practices
• One of the most important responsibilities of
a priest was their role in burial practices
• Egyptians believed in an afterlife
• Embalmed bodies to preserve them
Embalming Process
1. Removed body’s organs (brain, lungs, and liver)
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Used hooks to pull out the brain through the nostrils
Only the heart remained because they believed it was used by the
Gods to judge the person’s soul.
2. Packed the organs in jars to preserve them using a salt called
natron.
3. After around 70 days, the embalmers washed and oiled the body,
wrapping it in hundreds of yards of linen.
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Decorated the body with jewelry, charms, etc.
Placed a mask over the head.
Coated the body in a black gooey gum and wrapped it in linen once
again.
4. Placed the mummy in a large stone coffin called a sarcophagus.
5. Rich Egyptians buried the mummies with food & drink, jewelry,
gold, clothes, games, etc.
Poor Egyptians buried their mummies with loaves of bread and other
items they thought might be useful in the afterlife.
Scribes
• Highly respected and well paid
• Worked for the government, priests, or nobles
• Came from all classes of society- only men were
allowed to become scribes
• Attended scribe school to train
• Began at age of 5
• Typically spent 12 years learning hieroglyphs (symbols
used in Egyptian writing)
• Had to memorize over 700 hieroglyphs- took years of
practice
• Eventually allowed to write on paper called papyrus
• School was harsh, lasted from dawn to sunset, teachers
were strict, often gave beatings
What scribes did:
• Keep various types of records from census
data to taxes collected
• Used tools- pens made from sharpened reeds,
for paper a sheet of papyrus laid on a writing
tablet made of wood or stone
• Black or Red ink used
• Carried tools and rolls of papyrus with them
always
Papyrus
• Remarkable invention
• Made paper by cutting the inner part of the
papyrus plant into strips.
• Soaked strips in water for several days until
soft
• Laid out in crisscross pattern, pressed
between cloth until water was absorbed
• Pressed to form sheets of paper
Artisans
• Skilled laborers-carpenters, jewelers, leatherworkers,
metalworkers, painters, potters, sculptors, & weavers
• Most skilled were stone carvers (statues, engravings,
and reliefs found in tombs, temples, and monuments)
• Lived in modest homes
• Worked 10 days in a row before time off
• Often times went hungry when food was scarce
• Often times upper-class saw them as mere laborers
despite their artistic skills
Peasants
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Largest and lowest class of society
Unskilled laborers
Society depended upon their work
Grew crops and helped build projects like the pyramids
Life revolved around The Three Seasons of the Nile
Few comforts- simple diet (mostly bread or
vegetables), plain houses made of mud bricks, little
free time
• Were allowed to celebrate holidays and attend festivals
• Paid taxes through their harvest- if they had a bad
harvest could be brutally beaten
The Three Seasons of the Nile
• Flooding Season
– June-September
– Nile overran its banks and fertilized with silt deposits.
– Labored on Royal Projects at this time
• Planting Season
– In October sowed fields with seeds-wheat & barley
– Farmers and their wife did this together with the help of a plow pulled
by cattle
– Irrigated fields through season
• Harvest Season
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March begins this time.
Men cut down crops with sickles
Women & Children gather the crops
Dawn to dusk work days
Used music to pass the time- sang & played instruments in the fields