Trivia

Family and home

The nuclear family was the fundamental social unit of ancient Egypt. The father was responsible for the economic well being of the family, and the mother supervised the household and cared for the upbringing of the children. Although Egyptian children had toys and are occasionally depicted at play, much of their time was spent preparing for adulthood. For example, peasant children accompanied their parents into the fields; the male offspring of craftsmen often served as apprentices to their fathers. Privileged children sometimes received formal education to become scribes or army officers.

The few furnishings in the ancient Egyptian home were simple in design. The most common piece of furniture was a low stool, used by all Egyptians including the pharaoh. These stools were made from wood, had leather or woven rush seats, and had three or four legs. Most kitchens were equipped with a cylindrical, baked clay stove for cooking. Food was stored in wheel-made pottery. The basic cooking equipment was a two-handled pottery saucepan.

Ancient Egyptian jewelry craftsman mastered the techniques of working in hard stone. They incorporated into their jewelry many minerals including amethyst, garnet, jasper, onyx, turquoise, and lapis lazuli, as well as copper, gold, and shells. Both men and women embellished their usually plain clothing with elaborate costume jewelry. They wore jewelry such as earrings, bracelets, anklets, rings, and beaded necklaces. Single-strand necklaces made specifically to protect its owner in the hereafter were always popular in ancient Egypt and are often recovered among grave goods. Because the Egyptians were very superstitious, frequently their jewelry contained good luck charms called amulets. The most common amulets are lotus flowers, symbols of rebirth.

Cosmetics were not only an important part of Egyptian dress but also a matter of personal hygiene and health. Many items related to cosmetics have been found in tombs and are illustrated in tomb paintings. Oils and creams were of vital importance against the hot Egyptian sun and dry winds. Eye paint, both green and black, is probably the most characteristic of the Egyptian cosmetics. The green pigment, malachite, was made from copper. The black paint, called kohl, was made from lead or soot. Kohl was usually kept in a small pot that had a flat bottom, wide rim, tiny mouth, and a flat, disk-shaped lid.

In ancient Egypt, the widespread use of “kohl,” or eye makeup, was reflected in the production of great numbers of small kohl pots. These jars had a multitude of shapes. Cosmetic containers, either modeled in the form of monkeys or using monkeys as decorative elements, were present among funerary equipment from the late Old Kingdom through the end of the New Kingdom (from ca. 2345 to 1070 B.C.). Since small monkeys imported from central Africa, were common pets, their frequent appearance on objects used in daily life is hardly surprising. Tomb paintings show pet monkeys entertaining their owners with their antics and occasionally harvesting ripe fruit for their masters. The status of monkey pets is easily indicated by the many images of decorated collars encircling the animal’s neck and lower body.

Many kohl jars (jars used to store eye makeup) are modeled in the form of monkeys, a popular household pet, standing on its hind legs holding a small cylinder between its hands. Small marks filled with paint on its chest and back indicated areas of thicker fur. On the cylinder’s front, Taweret, a well-known goddess, was often schematically rendered. She is a deity depicting a pregnant hippopotamus with additional body parts from a woman, a lion, and a crocodile. Taweret’s presence on a kohl jar follows her role as a popular household deity whose powers included guarding family members, particularly pregnant women or women undergoing childbirth.

Scribes and writing

Even though much ancient Egyptian written material is still in existence, it surely represents only a fraction of what originally existed. To produce such a mass, there must have been an impressive arsenal of scribes. In fact the word sesh, “scribe,” was among the most frequently used titles in ancient Egypt. It is also one of the earliest recorded, and there are representations of scribes carrying the tools of their craft (pigments, water pot, and pen) over their shoulders from various periods beginning with the Old Kingdom. The training of the scribes is well documented and the harsh treatment of apprentices is recorded both in texts and representations. It is perhaps no accident that the ancient Egyptian word for “teach,” seba, also means “beat.” Today, there are preserved copies of the efforts of some scribal apprentices whose works have been corrected in red by their masters.

Egyptian writers, or “Scribes,” made up an entire level of the bureaucracy. They were the only profession in the country whose members were aware of almost all that was going on in the empire. Personal letters, diplomatic communications, wills and other legal documents, official proclamations, tax records, administrative, economic, and religious documents, and so forth, all went through their hands. Indeed, even the closing phrase of ancient letters, “May you be well when you hear this,” implies that it was in actuality the scribes who not only wrote but also read communications between two people.

The profession of writing was known among the deities. Thoth, the scribe of the gods, was the patron deity of those in the profession. He is depicted as a baboon, an ibis, or an ibis- headed human. It was he who recorded the verdict at the last judgment of the deceased. His female counterpart was Seshat, and these deities were often shown in their roles as recorders at the coronation of a new pharaoh. The Pharaoh Tutankhamen (Dynasty XVIII, ca. 1336-1327 B.C.) even included writing equipment among the necessities he had with him for the afterlife.

Food and drink

The Egyptians’ staple food was bread. It was made from barley and emmer wheat, their most common crops. Bread was usually baked in a conical mold that was placed over an open fire. There were also dome-shaped ovens where net loaves of bread were baked by placing them against either the hot interior or exterior of the dome.

Numerous varieties of fruits and vegetables were grown in irrigated gardens. Fruits included figs, grapes, plums, dates, and watermelon. Vegetables included beets, sweet onions, radishes, turnips, garlic, lettuce, chick peas, beans, and lentils. The Egyptians also ate a variety of meat, fish, and fowl. Beef, mutton, pork, and wild game such as hyenas were part of their diet. Fowl included domestic geese and pigeons and a wide variety of wild birds–herons, pelicans, cranes, wild ducks, and wild geese. The Nile supplied many kinds of fish, including catfish, mullet, bolti, and perch.

The main beverage of ancient Egypt was beer, but the frequent depictions of grape arbors on tomb walls and the numerous wine vessels found throughout Egypt indicate that wine was also popular. However, only the nobility could afford to drink wine on a regular basis.

The ancient Egyptians used clay to form many items, but none were more common or necessary than the vessels for storing or serving food. Beginning in the early Predynastic Period (ca. 4500 B.C.) and continuing throughout Egyptian history, ceramic jars, often filled with food offerings, were regularly left in tombs. In addition, thousands of shards, the remains of everyday vessels, have been recovered from settlement sites such as el-Amarna, Kahun, and Deir el-Medina. Illustrations from tomb and temple walls also supply information on the variety and quantity of pottery containers used by the Egyptians.

In the New Kingdom, typical food containers included large vessels, small jars, wide shallow bowls, small bowls, jugs, and cylindrical mugs; the shapes of each were somewhat variable. Large jars held grain, oil, beer, or perhaps wine, and immense storage jars have been found as well. Most of the large jars had pointed bases so that they could not stand on their own. Therefore, these vessels were placed either in holes in the mud floor of a house or in pot stands of clay or wood. Wide shallow bowls bore food either in the kitchen or on a banquet table. Eggs, bread, fruits (including grapes, pomegranates, dates, and figs), vegetables (such as lettuce, onions, garlic, turnips, and beans), or butchered beef, fish, or fowl were often placed in these large bowls. Small jugs probably held beer, wine, or water at a table, whereas mugs and small bowls were employed as drinking glasses. Small jars are very common although what they contained is uncertain; most likely they functioned as a jug without a handle.