Ancient Egypt: A Thinkquest

Egyptian Life

The Ancient Egyptians were a very advanced society for their time. They were tracked from all the way back to 5000 B.C. and are still being studied today. Their main form of communication and writing was through hieroglyphics. Hieroglyphics were a great source of much of the knowledge of the Ancient Egyptians we know. They even made a complete alphabet out of hieroglyphics. Stories of their important happenings and many more stories like religious beliefs were recorded with this writing system.

The Egyptians barely wore clothing, but the clothes they did wear were all different colors. They did this with many natural pigment dyes, such as berries and other crushed up staining materials.

Just like us, the Ancient Egyptians needed to eat and feed their families. To do this, they ran farms. For wheat and corn, they used a wooden sickle with flint teeth. As the person in front cut, the other tagging behind  would collect the food on the ground. This was told by an illustration of Sennedjem and his wife collecting corn. There was a yearly flood, which gave the Egyptians the farming land they need. The valleys would be flooded in the summer, where in October the ground had a thick layer of black silt. The farmers plowed this and planted important crops like flax, barley and wheat. Bread and beer were made from the barley, where flax could be woven into fine linen clothes. Small energized boys helped by keeping the birds from the young grain so it would not be ruined, like living scare-crows. At harvest-time everyone pitched in to help.

The Egyptians also had a very good diet. They consumed many sweet foods. Some of the foods they consumed at the time were lentils, honey, beans, pomegranates, cucumbers, grapes, dates, figs, melons, onions, lettuce, leeks, garlic, gooses, fish, and duck. Their national drink was beer, but the rich enjoyed wines stored in clay jars. The Egyptians also enjoyed milk.

A popular recipe was:

Mix 7 ounces of fresh dates with a small amount of water. Then add some cinnamon and cardamom to taste. Finally add coarsely chopped walnuts and roll it into a ball coated with honey and ground almonds.

The Ancient Egyptian men liked to engage in some physical sports. Some of these were hunting, fishing, wrestling, fencing, boxing, and stick archery. Long runs were organized for men, where both men and woman enjoyed swimming. The children and others also enjoyed board games made of clay, stone, and many other materials.

The Ancient Egyptian children had education, like we do today, except not the same way exactly. The mothers were responsible for the girls, while the fathers were mainly responsible for the boys. The girls' education was from the family, but the boy would get proper training in whatever he chose, or whatever was chosen for him. The family taught the kids mostly of what to see in the world, from how to treat others, to their religious beliefs. "Rules" to live by were written down in the Book of Instruction. The Book of Instruction was to tell things like obedience, to agree with the law, and things like to tell only the truth, for lying will have terrible consequences. 

The Ancient Egyptians also had homes as we do. The houses were made of mud bricks. The mud was added to stones and straw for strength. It was then dried out in the sun and covered with plaster, almost the same to the adobe method in the American southwest. These would break down over time, but new ones were built right on top. This made hills called tells. The inside of houses were painted with patterns or wild pictures. They had a small window letting only little light through. This made the houses cooler. Houses that were meant to be permanent were made of stone.

Last updated: February 23, 2008.