The peace, power, and prosperity of ancient Egypt depended primarily on two things – the annual flooding of the Nile and a well-ordered centralised government under the absolute authority of the pharaoh. The first of these recurrently replenished the Nile’s fertile river banks and yielded an abundance of food. The second maintained the unity of the country under a system of labour and land management that maximised both human and natural resources. And these two were interlinked. When drought diminished the flooding of the Nile, as it did periodically, famine quickly followed, leading to civil unrest, a weakening of the pharaoh’s control, a splintering of the country’s unity, and a heightened exposure to foreign attack.
The Egyptians recognised three seasons that also depended on the Nile. During the flooding season (June – September), the river deposited on its banks a layer of mineral-rich silt ideal for growing crops. When the floodwaters receded, farmers ploughed, planted, and irrigated the land during the growing season (October – February). Finally, the harvest season (March – May) was the time to gather, winnow, grind into flour, and store the abundance that the river had yielded.
The agricultural produce belonged not to the farmers but to the state, temple, or noble family that owned the land. The farmers, who made up most of the population, were at the bottom of the social hierarchy and expected not only to work the land but to work on the massive state-run irrigation and construction projects as well. Of slightly higher status were the artists and craftsmen. But they too were under state control, worked in shops attached to the temples, and were paid directly from the state treasury. Then came the priests, physicians, and engineers with specialised training in their fields. And at the top of the heap were the scribes and officials. They comprised the nobility who wore bleached white linen garments as a mark of their status. Scribes were those who had learned to read and write hieroglyphs – the system of some 500 symbols that had been invented c. 3200 BCE at the dawn of Egyptian civilization. They inscribed the temples and tombs, kept government records, and wrote letters for the pharaoh. Other nobles included members of the pharaoh’s court, the Grand Vizier (the pharaoh’s second-in-command), and the governors of the 42 regional nomes who were accountable to him.
As Egypt grew into a more expansive empire, the role of the military became correspondingly more important. In earlier centuries, soldiers were recruited from the general population on an as-needed basis. When the campaign ended, the army would disperse and the men return to their previous jobs. By the time of the New Kingdom, however, the advantages of maintaining a standing army were apparent. There were more battles to be fought, more trade routes to be protected, and always some massive construction project to be staffed. So the career of the professional soldier was created. By the time of Rameses II (1279-1213 BCE), the standing army numbered 20,000 men. While some were still conscripted, most joined voluntarily – some signing up as young as 5 years of age to serve in the army for their entire life. The attraction lay in the prestige and benefits attached to being a soldier. Except for the priests, they were the only Egyptians to have special privileges. They were widely respected. They enjoyed formal awards for heroism as well as opportunities to plunder. And they were among the lucky few to receive a state pension. Some even gained sufficient power to become pharaohs.
Money in the form of coinage was not introduced until the 5th century BCE. Until then, workers were paid either with the standard sack (about 35 kgs) of grain or with the deben (about 3 ounces) of copper or silver. Like everything else, the economy was centrally controlled. A simple labourer might earn 5 sacks of grain per month, a foreman 7 sacks. Sacks of grain could be traded for other goods according to a list of state-decreed prices that were fixed throughout the country. The price of a shirt was set at 5 deben, a cow at 140 deben.
Whatever their social status, all Egyptians except slaves were equal under the law. Even the lowliest peasant was entitled to petition the vizier and his court for redress. Women too had a greater range of opportunity than exists in many countries even today. While they rarely held significant positions in the administration or temples and usually occupied child-care rather than income-generating roles, they had the right to own and sell property and were financially protected under the law in the event of divorce. Some (Hatshepsut and Cleopatra) even became pharaohs, and others were honoured as Divine Wives of the supreme deity Amun.
Ancient Egyptians lived with members of their immediate family in mud-brick homes furnished with wooden stools, tables, and beds. The floors were covered with reed mats and the white walls with dyed linen wall hangings. The two food staples, bread and beer, were made from cereal grains that were milled and baked in the open-roof kitchen. Fruits and vegetables were grown in nearby garden plots.
The Egyptians may have been the only people of that time to keep pets in their homes – usually dogs, cats, or monkeys. Lions and other more exotic animals were reserved for royalty. Animals were such an important part of Egyptian life that they were often identified with specific gods and goddesses. Cattle were the most important. The size of the herd reflected the prestige of the temple or estate that owned it, and they were taxed accordingly. Sheep, goats, pigs, and poultry were also raised. Oxen and donkeys were used for ploughing and as beasts of burden. Horses, introduced by the Hyksos c. 1700 BCE, were retained almost exclusively by the military to draw their chariots.
Hygiene and apparel were important. Most Egyptians bathed in the Nile, using soap made from animal fat. Men shaved their entire bodies, and boys, at age 12, were circumcised and similarly shaved. Boys and girls alike went without clothing until puberty. Clothing was cut from linen sheets woven of thread made from flax fibres. Both men and women in the upper classes wore wigs, jewellery, cosmetics, and perfumes.
Regarding leisure, some things never change. Girls played with home-made dolls, and boys with miniature toy weapons. Adults played board games – especially senet (the forerunner of backgammon) and mehen (similar to Snakes and Ladders) – which were sometimes buried with them for their amusement in the afterlife. The nobility enjoyed sports – especially boxing, wrestling, and javelin throwing, as well as hunting and boating. Accompanied by their families, they would cruise the Nile in flat-bottomed papyrus boats, hunt ducks and geese in the marshes, or go farther afield to hunt foxes, hare, and antelope. And, as always, the rich enjoyed lavish banquets, accompanied by dancers and musicians who entertained them with songs of love.
Overseeing all of this was a bureaucracy of scribes, religious leaders, and administrators under the control of a pharaoh whose authority was embedded in an elaborate system of religious beliefs. He was the political and religious leader of the nation. As “Lord of the Two Lands”, he made the laws, collected taxes, dispensed justice, acted as supreme military commander, and ensured Egypt’s dominance throughout the Near East. As “High Priest of Every Temple”, he performed rituals, represented the gods on Earth, and built temples to honour them. So interlinked were governance and religion that the temples were not only places of worship but granaries and treasuries where the nation’s wealth was stored and then redistributed. Coordinating this was the vizier who reported directly to the pharaoh and held to account the 42 governors or nomarchs who were responsible for their regional jurisdictions.
The remarkable success of Ancient Egypt is recorded in its lasting legacy – its invention of writing, its art, its mathematics, its practical system of medicine, its legal system, its introduction of monotheism, the first known ships, the earliest known peace treaty, and of course the quest for immortality expressed in its monumental architecture. There are some 80 pyramids known today from ancient Egypt. The earliest were simple mud-brick structures built over the burial pits of nobles to protect the bodies from exposure and provide a secure place for the deceased’s personal belongings. Then came the massive stone pyramids to house the mummies of the pharaohs and their queens. Of these, none can compare with those in the Valley of Giza. And there amongst them, on the west bank of the Nile, the largest monolith statue and oldest known monumental sculpture in the world – the Great Sphinx of Giza – stands as homage to the beauty and strength of this great civilization and her pharaohs.
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