Daily life in Ancient Egypt

Life of the commonors

Life in Ancient Egypt revolved around the towns and villages of Egypt which nestled alongside the River Nile. On either side of the river the lands were green and fertile but beyond these narrow strips of land the hot dry desert stretched as far as the horizon. Once the harvest had been collected even the fertile land became hard and dry under the hot desert sun.

When the waters began to recede, leaving behind a thick black layer of silt, villagers and workmen took up their tools and set to work on the land, clearing, digging, surveying, ploughing and planting.

The pharaoh, the priests and the people sang, danced and performed plays in his honor, praying for a rich and fruitful harvest.Osiris would give new life to the land, he would also give new life to those who had died.

Jewelry was worn by both men and women, particularly on festive occasions but the Egyptians wore very little jewelry and clothing for everyday work in the fields.

Most peasants would have worn a small cloth girdle and frequently worked naked.

Farming was an important source of labor in Egypt particularly for the people in small villages dotted along the Nile.

There was also a demand for craftsmen in the villages or in government workshops. Precious stones were cut and carved to make jewelry for the nobles and the royal family, stonemasons were busy fashioning stones into statues, vases and bowls, carpenters carved fine furniture and statues for houses, temples and tombs.

Everybody worked to provide goods for this life as well as the next.

The Ancient Egyptians could not imagine the afterlife to be any different from this life. They thought they would still need food, furniture and clothing and to have someone else to plow their lands and prepare their food. So those who could afford it put servant statuettes in their tombs to carry out these tasks. Even the owner of the tomb was usually buried with a statue of himself in case anything should happen to his body. At the burial the officiating priest brought everything to life with sacred words and gestures, this ceremony was known as "the opening of the mouth."

The life of the rich

Beyond the market or bazaar, in a separate part of town, rose the high walls that screened the houses of the rich.

These homes, with mud-brick walls, wooden pillars, and palm-trunk rafters, were usually built around a courtyard. The windows were high, the doors small, to keep out sun and let in air. Mats that could be rolled up like shades covered the windows.

There were rugs on the floor and bright carpets on the walls. Pillars were built in the shape of trees, with the column painted reddish brown and the leafy top or capitol, bright green. Like the sky, the ceiling was blue. Included were workrooms and servants' quarters and the homes sometimes had as many as seventy rooms.

The rich man in his house slept on a wood-frame bed made of interlaced cords. with folded sheets fir a mattress and with a wooden headrest. Under his bed was a chamberpot.

The wealthy Egyptian loved to give a good "beer house", as he called a dinner party. In early times, men squatted at mealtime on rugs and cushions. Servants placed a small stand before every two persons and served the food in bowls and the beer in jugs.

In later times, there were tables and chairs, even chairs that could be folded up and put away in the chests and baskets that served as cupboards. A good host decorated everything with flowers - the table, the beer jugs, and the guests. Servants placed cones of perfumed ointment on the heads of the guests. They dripped over wigs and clothes, staining everything yellow, but they added a delightful scent to the air.

They ate beef, veal, antelope and gazelle meat, fruits, honeyed sweetmeats, and several kinds of bread and cakes. In the tomb painting seen to the left, workers tread grapes for a noble's estate.

Egyptian wines were labeled with date, vineyard and variety to benefit the tax assessors, not connoisseurs.Persons who could afford them wore wide, round collars of jewels or beads,

They decorated their wrists and upper arms with beautiful rings and gay bracelets.

Both for beauty and protection from the heat, wealthy Egyptians wore long. heavy black wigs of sheep's wool or human hair.

Sometimes they wore striped or embroidered headdresses to signify the wearer's social standing.

Ancient Eygpt history in brief

The civilization of Ancient Egypt flourished for more than 3,000 years.

In the pre-dynastic period Egypt was divided into the kingdoms of Upper and Lower Egypt, the King of Upper Egypt wore the white crown and the King of Lower Egypt wore the red crown. After years of bitter struggle between the kings of the north and the south, the north was finally defeated,

Egypt was united under the Southerner, Menes, and the first dynasty was founded around 3100 BCE. The memory of a pre-dynastic Egypt lived on in the pharaohs' title King of Upper and Lower Egypt.

The most important periods of Egyptian history are divided into thirty two dynasties which extend from the beginning of the literate period, under the rule of Menes, until Egypt became a Roman province around 30 BCE.

The successive pharaohs of Egypt were divided into these dynasties. Throughout her history Egypt passed through periods of turbulent political upheaval and times of peace, power and prosperity.

The most stable and productive periods of Egyptian history are marked by the Old, Middle and New Kingdoms.

At the end of the New Kingdom Egypt suffered a series of foreign invasions and rulers and the great periods of Egyptian civilization went into decline.

Party Time in Ancient Egypt

There have been many and amateurs alike who have said the ancient Egyptians were preoccupied with preparing for death. These were not ancient Egyptians who said this. If you asked them,they would have probably said they spent more time preparing for festivities and a good timewhile they were living.
Just a quick glance at tomb paintings which depicted the best part of an individuals life often show the ancient Egyptians fully enjoying themselves in the company of other sat banquets, being beguiled by exotic dancers and acrobats. The ancient Egyptians loved a good time and entertainment, music food and drink were a major part of their lives.

Welcome!

Its not hard to imagine most of ancient Egyptian society celebrating throughout various parts of the year, for harvesting, marriages, childbirth and even funerals in which they sent off the deceased to the next world. But, of course, the more wealthy Egyptians were able to hold lavish banquets and parties purely for enjoyment. The drawings of these events are where we get our information about what it was like to be a participant in one of these banquets.

From what we can tell, each guest was warmly welcomed by both the male and female hosts of the household, and upon entering the party, the guests were draped in blossoms and fragrant wreaths of flowers. This scent of these mingled with those very intriguing perfumed wax cones the party goers wore on their heads. The heat of their bodies slowly melted the scented wax through the evening until the perfumed wax filtered through the hair or, more likely, the fancy wig of the guest.

The food and drink

Scantily clad servant girls carried trays laden with delicacies, as we see in a banquet scene from the tomb of Nebamun. Imagine the food: rich dishes of butter and cheese, fattened fowl and beef, flavored with rosemary, cumin, garlic, parsley, cinnamon and mustard, and sweetened with honey, figs and other fruits. Meat was a luxury in ancient Egypt, but at a feast , no expenses were spared.

In addition to beef, there were duck, geese, goats, fish and pigs. Plates filled with chickpeas and lentils, lettuce, cucumbers and onions were passed around. In the Old Kingdom, about 15 varieties of bread could have been served; by the New Kingdom, there were 40 names for breads, cakes and biscuits. Guests had an amazing number of specialties to select from.

Usually guests dined from their own little tables while sitting on benches, and ate off of attractive implements such as bowls, plates and cups made from blue faience with lotus designs.

There was also wine and beerand plenty of it. Archaeologists have found jugs with the date and type of wine, the estate where it was stored, the vineyard and the vintner.

Let the music begin

Without music and dance, no banquet was possible. From what we see on tomb paintings, music and dance played a big part in the lives of the ancient Egyptiansboth in secular and religious activities. Male and female dancers and musicians would excite the festivities with harps, lyres and lutes (all string instruments) and the oboe (most often played by women) and drums to keep up beat of the music and the hearts of the guests. At the banquet, guests would be treated to dancing girls wearing jewels and lithe acrobats who twisted, jumped and turned. The musicians encouraged the guests to join in by chanting, clapping or playing tambourines or cymbals.

The Egyptians did prepare for the afterlife, but thats because they hoped for nothing less than the joy they experienced in their lives on earth. And parties were a big part of that joy of life. A very poignant statement on an unknown Egyptian tomb advises the living, "With a beaming face, celebrate the joyful day and rest not therein. For no one can take away his goods with him. Yea, no one returns again, who has gone hence." Who could say it better than an ancient Egyptian?