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Merchants

Merchants There are images in Old Kingdom tombs of people at markets, buying and selling. Commerce was carried on by barter: everything had to be traded for something of equal value. Weighing, measuring and counting were very important. Were there shopkeepers, people who make their living in trade?

Scribes and Bureaucrats

Scribes and Bureaucrats Few skills were more important in Egypt than the ability to read and write. No illiterate could hold high office. Knowledge of reading, writing and arithmetic made the scribe a person of importance, one who watched while others sweated in the sun. Scribes gave the orders

Servants

Servants Considerable numbers of people made their living as washermen and women, porters, maids, weavers and cooks. The tombs of the rich and famous are filled with images of servants, often named, who accompany their mistress or master into the next life.  Porters are often depicted very

Social Structure

Social Structure At first glance, ancient Egyptian society seems highly structured and rigidly stratified, particularly in the Old Kingdom. Ptahhotep, the wise Vizier who lived about 2414-2375 BCE, put it this way: If you are in the antechamber, Stand and sit as fits your rank, Which was assigned

Soldiers

Soldiers The military may have constituted a social class of their own, with sons often following their fathers into the army. Son often followed father into the army. Opportunity, good luck, and courage could help a soldier rise in wealth and prestige. Because Kings were also war-leaders, a good

Goddesses & Gods

Glossary of Goddesses and Gods Some images of ancient Egyptian gods and goddesses show them as if they were humans. Ptah of Memphis, for example, is usually shown as a man wrapped in mummy clothes, his hands outside the wrappings, grasping scepters. But other gods, such as Horus, Thoth and Sakhmet,

Egyptian Gods

Images of Gods Ancient Egyptian gods could manifest themselves in human form, like the god Ptah, or as animals, like the sacred bulls, or as a combination of human and animal, like the Hawk-headed Horus, or the Ibis-headed Thoth. Most of the sacred images from the Age of the Pyramids have not

Mortuary Chapels

Mortuary Chapels Mortuary Chapels were built for King's Wives, members of the royal family, and others who could afford them. Some of the craftsmen working on the Great Pyramids constructed their own chapels, imitating the buildings of the noble, working on a scale fit for dolls. Chapels were

Mounds of Creation

Mounds of Creation Mounds of Creation were one of were many kinds of temples in the Age of the Pyramids. Some, such as the sanctuary of Khnum at Elephantine, or the Sacred Precinct at Nekhen, were ancient places where rocks and stones marked out a sacred site. In several towns, a special Mound of

Priestly Titles

Priestly Titles Whatever we know about particular people in the Age of the Pyramids, we usually know from the inscriptions in their tombs. It was rare for a person to write something that we would recognized as a biography, with details of education and life events, but most tomb-owners would list