What was life like for the ancient Egyptians?

There was a large variety of jobs in Ancient Egypt. There were:

• Bakers
• Scribes
• Priests
• Doctors
• Craftspeople
• Merchants

Jobs were usually inherited from your parents – if your father was a farmer, it would be very likely that you would become a farmer too.

Women had special rights, able to own property, work in trade and run farms alongside their husbands. Marriage was important and women were respected as mothers and wives. People divorced and remarried.

There weren’t schools like the ones we have today, but ancient Egyptians did have apprenticeships. This meant that many children had jobs or were learning a trade.

Enslaved people worked as forced labour but also in trades. Some were able to own property and were paid in food not wages.

After Tutankhamen’s tomb was discovered in 1922, work began excavating (digging up) an entire village at Deir-el Medina, near the Valley of the Kings. This gave us the most detailed information we have of life in an Ancient Egypt from 1500 BC.

There were around 68 houses, made of mud-brick built on stone foundations. Letters, legal documents, statues and tombs tell us about family and working life. Many of the men and women could read. Women baked bread and brewed beer.

The village had a court of law and everyone had a right to a trial. There was a local police, the Medjay, to keep order. The people of Deir-el Medina also had medical treatment. They could get prescriptions of ingredients, prayers and spells from the physicians (doctors).

Not many examples of ancient Egyptian houses have survived because they were built a very long time ago.

Houses would have been built of mud-bricks with floors made from earth. They had living rooms, kitchens and bedrooms.

Many of the large objects that we can move around (like seats and ovens) were built into the house. There was no gas or electricity, meaning that food was cooked in stone ovens, using a fire for heat. To keep food and drinks cool, pits were dug and food was stored below ground level.

The area around the river Nile was very fertile, thanks to the annual flood. This meant lots of different foods could be grown and harvested.

Common foods we eat today, like tomatoes, bananas, and potatoes were not eaten in Ancient Egypt as they had not yet been discovered.

The food you ate depended on your class. Richer people (like priests and pharaohs) ate meat, eggs, figs and grapes. Poorer people, like farmers, ate bread and onions. Everyone loved garlic.

Click the labels below to find out about life in Ancient Egypt.

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