Daily Life in Ancient

Egypt

By Chloe

• The ancient Egypt civilization lasted approximately 3000 years.

• There were nine distinct time periods in these 3000 years such as pre-dynastic and New Kingdom.

Map of

Civilization

Ancient Egypt Timeline

Background

• The ancient Egyptian civilization was a civilization that believed strongly in gods and they believed that their leaders were gods that were on the earth.

• This civilization was known for the pharaohs that ruled and for creating the pyramids and mummification.

Social Structure

• The pharaoh is at the top of the structure and is the leader of all the citizens. Everyone must obey the pharaohs orders, even the priests and nobles. After the nobles comes traders and shopkeepers, then farmers. The unskilled workers are on the bottom of the pyramid and obey orders from all the other people.

Housing• The houses that ancient

Egyptians lived in were made out of mud bricks that were put into moulds and left in the sun to harden. Then the bricks were stacked to build the walls. The wealthy and important people built their houses out of two brick layers. Each house usually had four rooms, one room was in the center and was called the central room. The kitchen, storage room, and bedroom came off the side of the central room.

•Ancient Egyptians usually

used their roofs as living

space because it was hard to

get good lighting inside.

Some wealthy people even

had ponds or small pools in

their yards.

Food

• Most of the ancient Egyptians’ diet was made up of bread because one of the few foods they could grow was wheat. They even added hops to the wheat to make beer and liquor. Also ancient Egyptians ate beef, mutton, duck and goose. They wouldn’t eat pigs because they believed that pigs carried leprosy. For fruits, they ate mostly melons and dates.

Family Life

• The man of the house would be the one who worked and brought in the money, but sometimes the mother would work too. Mostly, the women stayed home to care for the children and clean. For entertainment, people would usually play chess-like board games. Men would usually compete in things like archery and hunting to entertain themselves as well. If your family was poor, they didn't buy clothes for their young children.

Marriage

• When a young man was around 16-20 years old, he would look for a wife. Marriage is arranged by the parents and the bride and the groom don't choose who they marry. One a couple started living together, they were considered married. There was no such thing as marriage contracts in ancient Egypt. It was not uncommon for ancient Egyptians to get divorced, but it was considered a disgrace. A divorce was basically either the man or woman leaving the house and taking whatever they brought into their new family.

Childhood

• Not one gender was preferred in ancient Egypt, both boy and girl children were wanted, but the males were considered stronger, so they helped with physical work around the house at an early age. Most children didn’t make it past 4 years old because of the consumption of contaminated food. If a child lived over five, then they were probably strong enough to stay healthy. Around age 5 is when children start to help their parents with work around the house or farm.

Education

• Wealthy male children usually got to go to school and learn to read, write, and use mathematics. If someone knew how to read and write, they could be a scribe and earn a lot of money. Even though girls couldn’t go to school, they might be taught by their father or brother. School for children in ancient Egypt was basically copying and writing sentences and phrases until they had perfect spelling and grammar.

Religion

• For the ancient Egyptians, religion was the most important aspect of their life because it guided them through every problem. They were really religious and thought that their pharaohs were gods that lived on earth, so they respected and obeyed them very well. The Egyptians have many tales about how the gods created the world. There was more than one god in the Egyptian religion. There was a sun god, a sky god, a wisdom god, a creator god, a women goddess, a mummification god, a vegetation god and a ruler of the underworld.

Clothing

• Most of the clothes that ancient Egyptians wore were made of linen and weren’t dyed because linen is hard to dye. Most people wore beaded necklaces and bracelets for colour. Women wore dresses that were either strapless or had two shoulder straps. These dresses usually reached the floor. Men wore kilts that went down to just past the knees with one shoulder strap. In winter, people wore heavy cloaks that fell to just above the ankles.

Art and Music

• Ancient Egyptians played musical instruments such as flute-like wind instruments made of reeds or wood. Also they played simple kinds of harps and used wood and reeds to make shakers and other percussion instrument.

• Their arts were usually paintings and sculptures. The Egyptians also took pride in making their homes look attractive, so architecture was also a big art form. Making pots and urns, and decorating them was also an ancient Egyptian art.

Conclusion

• Overall, the ancient Egyptians were very intelligent and invented many things that we couldn’t live without today. Their daily life was simpler than our life, but was very advanced for their time period. Everything from the rules about marriage, to their art and musical instruments were very civilized for an ancient culture.

Picture bibliography

• Title picture (slide 1)

http://egypthistorytourism.blogspot.com/2010/10/ancient-egypt.html

• Map (slide 2)

http://www.jimloy.com/egypt/map.htm

• Timeline (slide 3)

• http://www.tigtail.org/TIG/L_View/TVM/E/Ancient/Egypt/egyptian.html

• Pharaoh (slide 4)

http://euler.slu.edu/~bart/egyptianhtml/kings%20and%20Queens/TUTANKHAMEN.htm

Picture Bibliography 2

• Social pyramid (slide 5)

• http://thecorefour.glogster.com/the-nile-civilization-of-egypt/

• Wheat plant (slide 7)

• http://www.ancient-egypt-online.com/ancient-egyptian-food.html

• Family life (slide 8)

• http://www.hartifacts.com/phoenix/festival/winetour/WT_resource.htm

• Marriage (slide 9)

• http://www.awakening-healing.com/Egyptian_Gods_&_Goddesses.htm

Picture Bibliography 3• Children (slide 10)• http://euro-med.dk/?s=blue+cards• Hieroglyphics (slide 11)• http://atschool.eduweb.co.uk/trinity/projects/egypt/alphabet.html• Egyptian god Horus (slide 12)• http://professortravel-egypt.com/ancientreligions.html• Egyptian clothing (slide 13)• http://www.islandnet.com/~kpotter/egypt/cloth.htm• Pots and urns (slide 14)• http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7f/Egyptian_Min

iature_Glasswares.jpg• Harp (slide 14)• http://www.zwoje-scrolls.com/zwoje39/text07p.htm• Ancient Egyptian people (slide 15)• http://www.one-ppm.com/Libya/LibyanPeople.htm

Information bibliography

• http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_long_did_the_civilization_of_ancient_Egypt_last

• http://historylink101.net/egypt_1/a-housing.htm• http://www.historyforkids.org/learn/egypt/food/egy

ptfood.htmSalariya, David. How Would you Survive as an Ancient Egyptian.Franklin Watts publishing, 1995

• http://fathom.lib.uchicago.edu/2/21701778/• http://www2.sptimes.com/Egypt/EgyptCredit.4.3.ht

ml

Information

Bibliography 2

Toutant, Arnold. Ancient Worlds

Oxford Press, 2000

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_Egypt

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Art_of_ancient_Egypt