The Life of Ancient Egyptians

The author: Professor Yasser Metwally

http://yassermetwally.com

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INTRODUCTION

May 16, 2008 — In modern Egypt, a cruise on the Nile or a bus ride through the countryside along this great river of live can be very enlightening. One will see urban sprawl, some modern factories, lots of traffic, but in the countryside, one will also see people living much as they did many thousands of years ago. There will be small mudbick buildings, Oxen pulling archaic plows, donkeys and donkey carts laden with all manner of produce and other agricultural products and various other trappings of a bygone era removed from most of he modern world by millenniums. Visually, the countryside often leaves one with an impression of antiquity, but socially and culturally, much of Egypt’s rural population are also remains steeped in ancient tradition, and in fact this attribute carries over into a considerable part of the country’s urban population. Many of their traditions look back to ancient times, though warped by a series of cultural intrusions and the influences of our modern era. To some extent, particularly in rural areas, modern Egyptians represent a laboratory from which we can pick out many ancient Egyptian customs and observing them, even from the comfort of a cruise ship swimming pool, gives one some idea of ancient Egyptian life.

Figure 1. The Life of Ancient Egyptians (Click to magnify figure)

Egyptology has to be considered the oldest discipline to study ancient man. We find references to several people who are sometimes considered to be founders of this science, such as W. F. Petrie and Champollion, but in reality, the study of ancient Egyptians is much, much older. It can, in some respects be said that Herodotus and Strabo were Egyptologists, if not actually archaeologists, as was Manetho before them, but even many of the ancient Egyptians themselves studied, and were proud of their own history. Prince Khaemwese, a son of Ramesses II (Ramesses the Great) was interested in Egyptian history, and during many periods, particularly when times were troubling, the ancient Egyptians looked back upon their predecessors and took up at least some of their more ancient traditions. Perhaps unfortunately, from ancient times into our present day, this science has mostly focused on the grander side of life, exploring great kings and their fabulous temples and tombs. The life of common Egyptians has often been ignored, and even when it was investigated, the evidence is frequently skewed in a funerary context.

Of course, there are several reasons why the life of the common Egyptians, and even the everyday life of the nobles has not received the attention we might like to see. Grand temples and tombs have offered up spectacular finds and treasures, and indeed it is the great pyramids, temples and tombs that most visitors to Egypt find alluring. However, evidence of day to day life is also more obscure, as their houses and other objects of used in daily life were not built to withstand the ages, or for that matter the inundations of the Nile River. Communities were built close to the river for access to the water, and often of mudbrick and both of these factors contributed to their early demise.

Nevertheless, there have always been a few scholars that have focused on the life of ancient Egyptians and over the years we have come to learn a great deal about their customs and culture, even outside of the funerary context. Ancient workers villages on the West Bank at Thebes (Deir el-Medina), at Giza, Kahun, and and even cities such as Akhetaten, if only their foundations, have risen to see the light of day once more, and from these and other sources, such as the wealth of private tomb paintings, we find a rich source of knowledge.

What immerges from this evidence is a people who, fundamentally, are not unlike people today. Men and women fell in love, united, created families that became the center of their lives, worried about their children, worked, struggled, sought security and had moral concerns from which some deviated to became criminals. It is true that they sometimes fought savage wars, but our modern society seems not yet to have outgrown that very ancient tradition. The young played with toys, while older children and adults played games and competed in sports, partied, danced, sang, rejoiced on special occasions and were sad when death took a loved one. They sued each other, divorced, paid taxes, fought with their neighbors and their wives, but also believed in the concept of our modern Bible’s golden rule, to love thy neighbor. Some common Egyptians excelled in life, rising to become great officials, while others failed miserably, but in general they survived and lead ordinary lives for their time. They adapted to their landscape, and appear to have been patriots of their country.

Figure 2. The Life of Ancient Egyptians (Click to magnify figure)

The ancient Egyptians showed most of the traits of modern man, though in an ancient context and with ancient pressures. Rather than putting locks on their doors, they built walls and surrounded themselves with fellow countryman for security. Rather than central refrigerated air conditioning, they built fountains and naturally cooled houses for their comfort. Though lacking huge motorized cranes and heavy trucks, they nevertheless managed to build monuments that even today are very impressive to us, using ancient technology that has sometimes become lost in the tracks of time. And like today, many of these large, public programs such as the building of the great pyramids spawned technology that was useful in everyday life, such as geometry, which was used both to plot the foundation of Khufu’s monument, but also to lay out and mark small tracks of farm land. Yet, while it would be fun to report that they held ancient and almost supernaturally mysterious knowledge, a belief often held by our more recent ancestors, they functioned much as we do today and most of our investigations center around small details of their lives which, in the end, have little bearing on their overall humanity.

In fact, if one could walk into a typical ancient Egyptian home, he or she would find many of the trappings of modern life, recognizable yet ancient. There would be mirrors and makeup, pots and pans, ovens and shelves for storage, beds and comfortable sitting areas, lighting to ward of the darkness of night and heat to chase away the cold of winter. It is easy to forget how recent our modern world is, with our computers, televisions, stereo systems, refrigerators and cars, but one need only look back a hundred years are so to find a similar way of life to the ancient Egyptians, when people had to contend themselves with social activities and live performances for entertainment and animals for transportation. While the ancient Egyptians may seem far removed from our modern world, in reality, we are fooled by our own recent and rapid technical advances. Actually, the early Egyptologists such as Champollion who sailed to Egypt, rode donkeys to visit the ruins, recorded their investigations using pen and paper rather than a laptop computer and cooked their food while there on an open fire rather than a butane burner lived in a society closer to that of the ancient Egyptians than to our modern world today.

With technology, our modern era has indeed ushered in cultural changes. It would seem that our elders are no longer as respected as they were a hundred years ago, or four thousand years ago in ancient Egypt. Marriages fall apart, children move to far corners of the world, alienating family units, we communicate at lightning speeds and with people throughout the world while national and international news arrives at our doorsteps with ease. But all of these changes have occurred very, very recently relative to the history of mankind.

Figure 3. The Life of Ancient Egyptians (Click to magnify figure)

So finally, when we study the ancient Egyptians’ way of life, we examine their clothing, which differs from our own, but was nevertheless clothing, we investigate how they worshipped their gods, which are different than our god, but they were nevertheless worshipped, we want to see how they married and raised their kids, though we know they did unite in love, have sex and struggled with the resulting children. We want to know about their health care, their education and what they considered humorous, but we know that they had doctors, educators and a since of humor. Only the details vary from our modern way of life, and sometimes even the details are the same. Women wore perfume which is still used today, wore makeup not so very different than makeup of today, and had their hair done in fashions that sometimes look completely modern.

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The author: Professor Yasser Metwally 

Women in Ancient Egypt

The author: Professor Yasser Metwally

http://yassermetwally.com

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INTRODUCTION

May 16, 2008 —In Egypt, women were much more free than their counterparts in other lands. Though they were not equal with men, both men and women in Egypt accepted that everyone had their roles in ma’at (the natural order of the universe), and that the roles of men and women were different.

• Women in Egyptian Art

From the formal paintings on tombs, the Egyptian stereotype of a woman was that of wife and mother, the husband being the head of the household. She worked indoors (mostly), out of the Egyptian sun, so her skin was lighter than that of her male counterparts. (When she died, she was painted green, as were the men, as this was the color of rebirth.) Women were seen to be slim and beautiful, even though a fat stomach in men equated with wealth and power (the rich could afford to eat more than the poor!) Noble women did not work in these paintings, but women are seen to be dancers, musicians, acrobats, prostitutes, maids, kitchen staff, field workers and much, much more.

Sculpture, unlike painting, usually only showed noble or influential people. When women were in a sculpture, she was usually part of a husband-and-wife or family group, with the wife physically supporting her husband with an arm around his shoulder. In the sculptures of a pharaoh and his wife, she was normally on a smaller scale, indicating the pharaoh’s godly aspect, while the wife was only human. (Normal sculptures had the husband and wife in proportion to each other.) Women only sculptures are very rare.

• Women in Writing

Ancient Egyptian letters, though, show the more human side of Egypt. There were love letters, poetry, private law cases and personal letters between friends and family members. Ostraca (pottery chips, and stone chips) were used as note pads by the Egyptians, showing their thoughts and messages to themselves. Not surprisingly, ancient Egyptian relationships were about the same as today. They loved and hated, they held hands to show affection and love, they had romantic moments and bitter fights, they gossiped and chatted, just as we do today. (Note, though, that the Egyptians were big on double entendres and were not prudish, as we westerners tend to be today. ‘Unseemly’ things have been left out or ignored, at times, in translation. For example, the sun god Ra masturbated, and his semen turned into his children, Shu and Tefnut!) But one must remember that the writings were written by men, as women were, on the whole, illiterate, so many topics that would have only been of interest to women are absent from Egyptian writings.

As an interesting side note, one ancient poem showed that, just as today, women had to put up with men harassing them:

She makes all men turn their necks

to look at her.

One looks at her passing by,

this one, the unique one.

Medical writings, though, show us what sort of problems the Egyptian woman faced. Ailments, symptoms and suggestions for cures for women were all recorded by the ancient Egyptian doctors. The modern study of the mummies also show these problems, and more general things about her. She was relatively short with dark hair and eyes, and light brown skin. She lived to approximately forty years, if she survived past childhood and pregnancy. Life was hard to both women and men, even with the Egyptian doctors. Most advice, though, was a mixture of ancient medicine and magic spells, scientific knowledge combined with superstition! They believed that every medical problem (not caused by an accident) was the result of demons or parasitic worms. The way they dealt with that was to alleviate the symptoms, and use spells to get rid of the cause. It’s not surprising that the life expectancy of the ancient Egyptian was pretty low!

Prescription for safeguarding a woman whose vagina is sore during movement: You shall ask her “What do you smell?” If she tells you “I smell roasting,” then you shall know that it is nemsu symptoms from her vagina. You should act for her by fumigating her with whatever she smells as roasting.

• Kahun Medical Papyrus

Women suffered from deadly diseases such as smallpox, leprosy, spina bifida, polio and many, many more. Even smaller problems, such as diarrhea and cuts, could still prove fatal! Almost everyone suffered from rheumatism and abscessed teeth (the desert sands got into most Egyptian foods.) Doctors or scribes, other than giving advice for such conditions, occasionally even got into giving advice for such things as ‘female troubles’ and tips for the complexion!

In ancient fiction, women tended to be secondary figures to the plot. She was the wife, daughter or mother, left behind while the man went off on his adventure. This points towards the fact that written tales were written by men, for men. It is not until the end of the Dynastic period that women started actually having characters in stories. Mostly they were the bad women of the plot. For example, in the Tale of the Two Brothers, as in the story of Joseph in Egypt, the woman was married (in this case, to one of the brothers), yet she made advances to the hero of the story. He rejected her, then in revenge, the told her husband that the hero had raped her. In this story, even the hero (who avoids this trap) married, and was betrayed by an unfaithful wife!

Love songs and romantic poems had a much more favorable image of women. Semi-erotic, they showed women who expressed their own sexuality, showing that women desired men just as much as men desired women. References to sexual intercourse were freely written, showing Egypt’s relaxed attitude towards sexual relationships.

• Women, Food and Drink

When it comes to food and drink, women could eat and drink as much as their male counterparts. Although Egyptians tend not to be depicted actually eating food, they were shown drinking. (The Egyptian for ‘to pour’ sti also meant ‘to impregnate’ (depending on the added determinative hieroglyph), so these scenes could well be visual puns!) Women were even depicted as getting drunk and throwing up, which was seen as a good Egyptian joke!

• Women’s Education and Career

Other than scribe god Thoth’s wife Seshat, the goddess of writing, very few women were seen with a scribe’s writing kit, let alone actually seen writing! These high ranking or royal women were often given a private tutor, who taught them reading and writing. The female pharaoh Hatshepsut’s daughter, Neferura, had a private tutor, Senmut (one of Hatshepsut’s favorite courtiers). Surprisingly, some ostraca suggest that some ordinary housewives were able to read and write. There were laundry lists, female fashion advice and other female concerns found! These women, though, would be the wives of educated men, so this was not common through the land of Egypt.

Despite this, due to the fundamental biology of a women, she only had a certain range of jobs available to her (though this can be disputed). She was married at the age when the males were starting their job training, and naturally became mother and housewife. Though a wife could become her husband’s official representative from time to time. For example, if a husband was absent, she could take charge of his business for him. When a high-class woman found little to occupy her time, a religious position such as a priestess for a certain god or goddess, was encouraged. She was expected to make contributions to the temple – she was not just a “pretty face” for the particular temple she worked for.

Women with talent could enter jobs in the music (which has links to sexuality), weaving or mourning (the women hired to grieve at funerals) industries, while those well connected women could get professional positions such as domestic supervisors or domestic administrators. Women who took people into their service took women, the men took men into their service. Maids were for the mistress, man servants for the master of the house. (Sexual segregation seems to be wide spread, even in the temples – it was mostly women who served goddesses, and men who served gods.) Some of the job titles women could hold were “Supervisor of the Cloth”, “Supervisor of the Wig Workshop”, “Supervisor to the Dancers of the Pharaoh” and “Supervisor of the Harem of the Pharaoh”. From this, it is known that these were female-linked occupations, because females were in the managerial-type role. One woman, Lady Nebet, even managed to get to the powerful position as Vizier, the right hand ‘man’ of the pharaoh, but it is known that her husband performed the duties of this role. Other women managed to become ’stewards’ and ‘treasurers’.

• Women’s Beauty, Hygiene and Fashion

In Egypt, cosmetics was not a luxury, it was a way of life! Men and women followed the latest fashions in both hairstyles and make-up. Cosmetics, more so, was life or death in Egypt – kohl to rim the eyes was (almost) equal to sunglasses today! Everyone, from the poor to the pharaohs, had make-up… the difference being the range and quality of the products used. As for hair, rich Egyptians shaved their heads and used wigs to keep up with the latest styles – these wigs were even made of human hair! Perfumed oils were used to rub into the scalp after shampooing (if they had their own hair), and perfumed fat was placed on top of the head (seen in many party scenes), to melt into the hair and give off a pleasing scent. Due to the climate, Egyptians were fixated on cleanliness – so much so that foreigners (thought to be dirty) and those who didn’t have access to much personal hygiene were despised. Men and woman shaved and plucked off all of their body hair using tweezers, knives and razors, be them of flint or metal (they used oil as shaving lotion – moisturizing oils were also rubbed into the skin as protection against the harsh, hot climate). Not only was this for beauty, but it also rid the Egyptians of body lice. To clean themselves while bathing, the Egyptians used natron (which was also used when mummifying the dead, followed by linen towels for drying. The rich had facilities in their places of residence while the majority of Egyptians bathed in the Nile (which was also used for drinking, cooking water, laundry and sewerage – water-bourn diseases were common). The Egyptians even had deodorants! As for menstruation, there is very little written (men did not find this important enough to write about), but there is evidence that the Egyptian women used folded pieces of linen as sanitary towels that were laundered and reused. The term ‘purification’ and ‘cleansing’ were used to describe menstruation, and men tried to avoid contact with women at this time – it was seen as ritually unclean.

Figure 1. Women’s Beauty, Hygiene and Fashion (Click to magnify figure)

Nudity in ancient Egypt, when in its correct place, was not offensive or uncomfortable. Various jobs required that people went nude, such as fishermen and other manual laborers for instance, as did ones social status. The very poor tended to go nude. Female servant girls, dancers, acrobats and prostitutes went around totally or semi-nude for their jobs. The high class, though, seemed to love showing off their clothing and the latest fashions which changed much over time. However, there was always jewelry, including necklaces, rings, anklets, bracelets. Even the poor wore jewelry (though not of gold or precious gems), but this was not only decorative, but usually a good-luck symbol or protective amulet.

• Women and Law

When it comes to law, legal correspondences show that (in theory) women stood as equals to the men of the same class. Egyptian women could inherit, she could purchase and own property and slaves, and she could sell her property and slaves as she wished. She could make legal contracts, start law proceedings (and hence, be tried for crimes) and borrow and lend goods. She was allowed to live life as a single woman, without male guardians. (In the rest of the ancient world, men dominated women, so this is very, very different from the norms of the rest of the world!) One of the reasons that this freedom might have occurred, is because decent could be passed through either the male or female lines, a pharaoh could only become pharaoh if he married a woman of royal blood, as women carried the royal line! (Editor’s note: This view is now widely disputed among Egyptologists).

In marriage, assets acquired together by the couple were shared – a wife was entitled to a share of these communal assets. She could pass on her own assets, and her share of the marital assets, to her children as she saw fit.

I am a free woman of Egypt. I have raised eight children and have provided them with everything suitable to their station in life. But now I have grown old and behold, my children don’t look after me any more. I will therefore give my goods to the ones who have taken care of me. I will not give anything to the ones who have neglected me.

• Lady Naunakhte’s Last Will and Testament

A husband could even pass the full amount of his assets on to his wife (rather than his siblings or children) in his will. He could even adopt his wife to make sure that his siblings could not inherit his assets – she was then entitled to both the wifely portion of his goods, as well as the potion given to his children!

My husband made a writing for me and made me his child, having no son or daughter apart from myself. said Nenufer, Wife of Nebnufer

• Ancient Egyptian Women

Egyptian women had a free life, compared to her contemporaries in other lands. She wasn’t a feminist, but she could have power and position if she was in the right class. She could hold down a job, or be a mother if she chose. She could live by herself or with her family. She could buy and sell to her hearts content. She could follow the latest fashions or learn to write if she had the chance. She loved and laughed and ate and drank. She partied and got sick. She helped her husband, she ran her household. She lived a similar life to that of her mother and grandmother in accordance with ma’at. She was an ancient Egyptian woman with hopes and dreams of her owe, which is not too much different from today’s woman.

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The author: Professor Yasser Metwally 

Education in Ancient Egypt

The author: Professor Yasser Metwally

http://yassermetwally.com

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INTRODUCTION

May 16, 2008 —Just as in modern times, children in ancient Egypt imitated adult behavior. The vast difference lies in the fact that in Egypt, more often than not, the children were learning their eventual trade or occupation by that very imitation. As they grew older, children took on more of the tasks on the farms, the workshops, the vineyards, and acquired practical skills and knowledge from their elders.

Along with the skills also came moral attitudes and views of life. Parents instilled their ideas about the world, about folk rituals, their religious outlook, their viewpoints on correct behavior toward others, and toward the deities.

Some of these ethical principles can be found in the so-called Books of Instruction, or Wisdom Literature. The advice given in these texts may have been addressed by elders of the royal, noble and scribal classes to younger men of those same classes, but surely their concepts were familiar to all levels of Egyptian society. Truth-telling and fair-dealing were offered as social desirable and more advantageous than lying and injustice. Justice, wisdom, obedience, humanity and restraint were offered as components of the well-ordered life.

These texts also served as teaching texts for the schools of scribes.

Formal vocational training also existed along with scribal and at-home teaching. An official took on his son as an assistant, so that the son would have “on the job” training and the succession become almost automatic.

Figure 1. Education in Ancient Egypt (Click to magnify figure)

Young men did not usually choose their own careers, instead, they very often followed in the family trade or profession, even up to the highest offices in the land, with the blessing of the king, of course. Towards the end of the Middle Kingdom, for example, there was a virtually dynastic line of viziers, and in the Ramesside period of the 20th Dynasty, the offices of the high priests of Amun were passed on from father to son. By the end of the New Kingdom, officials began openly claiming their right to take over their fathers’ jobs, and this led to the sale of offices.

There were exceptions to the profession by heredity, as for example when a man had no son to follow after him. But adoption was often used to ensure property inheritance and funerary provisioning, as well as succession in the profession.

The king was the only one who did not personally tutor his children. Senenmut, the vizier and royal architect for Hatshepsut, and a man named Idu at Abusir, were such royal tutors. The princes and princesses learned literature, mathematics, writing, and grammar.

Girls from less lofty families learned how to manage a household, and how to sing, dance and play musical instruments. These last would be important if the girl took on temple service as a singer or musician.

The children of farmers and fishermen had even less formal education. They learned how to sow, glean, and harvest, tending poultry and cattle, make nets and catch and prepare fish. Children were often included in scenes of harvesting, fishing, or caring for cattle.

Craftsmen must have taken on children to learn the skills needed for ceramic, faience, and metalworking, or of sculpture and painting, but of all the paintings that depict the craftsmen in their workshops, it is rare that children are shown. There is documentary evidence, however, about the schooling of sculptors and painters. The inscription of Irtisen initiated his eldest son into his art. An artist had to be familiar with the conventions of representation, proportion, posture, and symbolism. Sherds from Deir el-Medina and other places back to the 3rd Dynasty have survived which show evidence of a learning artist attempting to carve a human face and features, and the deities.

Artists, draftsmen, sculptors, all had to be literate. They had to convert texts written on papyri and ostraca into hieroglyphs on temple and tomb walls, and inscribe them on statues, requiring knowledge of both scripts. So craftsmen and scribes had to master reading and writing, in hieratic and in hieroglyphic. A 19th Dynasty textbook, now called Papyrus Anastasi I, was used for teaching the geography of Asia and arithmetic sums in a military context. Foreign languages were not taught as a rule, nor were religious texts and rituals. Physical education may only have been taught to princes, since references are made to the physically weaker scribe. Yet in the story of Truth and Falsehood, the boy was “sent to school and learnt to write well, He practiced all the arts of war and surpassed his older companions who were at school with him.” These arts of war might include riding a horse, guiding a chariot, the use of weapons

Figure 2. Education in Ancient Egypt (Click to magnify figure)

Students did their arithmetic silently, but they recited their texts aloud until they knew the texts by heart. Then they attempted to write it down, either from a teacher’s model or from memory. Students most often used pottery sherds or limestone fragments called ostraca to practice their writing skills, though they did on occasion use and re-use papyrus sheets that had already been used before them.

There is evidence that at least on one occasion, a girl had been taught reading and writing. A 20th Dynasty letter from a man to his son says, “You shall see that daughter of Khonsumose and let her make a letter and send it to me.” More evidence from Deir el-Medina indicates female literacy. Several letters on ostraca were addressed to, or sent by, women. Since the content of some of these letters regarded feminine matters, it is unlikely the sender or recipient sought out a scribe to read or write the letter. Tomb paintings of women occasionally show scribal artifacts under their chairs: the palette, the scribal kit and a papyrus roll.

There was no set length for schooling One high priest named Bekehnkhonsu recalls that he started school at age five and attended for 11 years, the last few of which he was in charge of the King’s breeding stable. At age 16 he was then appointed a wab priest. Four years later he began to progress up the temple hierarchy until after 39 years he was appointed High Priest, retaining that office for another 27 years.

Another high official named Ikhernofret states that he became a courtier when he was twenty-six, after being educated as a foster-child of the king.

During the Old Kingdom, there is no evidence that any formal schools existed, except perhaps at court. Princes taught younger princes, and favored youths were tutored with the king’s own children.

Figure 3. Education in Ancient Egypt (Click to view figure)

In the Middle Kingdom the first indication of a house of instruction appears, on the tomb of Kheti, a nomarch at Asyut. He urges every scribe and every scholar who has been to school to behave properly when passing his monument ad to speak an offering formula for the deceased. The writer of the so-called Satire of the Trades in the 12th Dynasty brought his son to the school for scribes at “the Residence” of the King near el-Lisht. The author, named Khety, gives himself no rank. Perhaps he was a common man who found a place for his son at this elite school.

During the New Kingdom there were at least two schools in Thebes, one in the Mut Temple, the other at the back of the Ramesseum. There may have been a third near the Valley of Deir el-Medina, where the children of workmen were taught.

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References

1. Life of the Ancient Egyptians by Eugen Strouhal

2. Growing up in Ancinet Egypt by Rosaline M. and Jac. J. Janssen

Dancng in ancient Egypt

The author: Professor Yasser Metwally

http://yassermetwally.com

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INTRODUCTION

Party boats are small craft that cruise out on the Nile, usually for thirty minutes or as long as an hour, carrying typical Egyptians for a bit of cheap entertainment. Music blares loudly, and part of the fun is the spontaneous dancing. Women in modern Egypt seem to love to dance and it is said that every Egyptian woman knows how to belly dance. Moments of joy and leisure are evoked by dancing today, as they were in ancient Egypt. Dancing is perhaps the most straightforward expression of joy.

That dancing has a very long history in Egypt is clear from predynastic clay figures with hands raised above their heads and in some scenes with women in this posture accompanied by others shaking rattles on predynastic vessels.

Some of the most beautiful tomb scenes are of banquets with young dancing girls, particularly dating to the New Kingdom tombs at Thebes. Other scenes depicted throughout Egyptian history of dancing are all fascinating, particularly given the ancient Egyptian artist’s structured approach to depicting their actions. We find countless depictions, within these tombs, of dancing that accompanied celebrations, feasts, religious services and funeral rites. Beyond these, there were also specialized dances of a military, dramatic, lyrical or grotesque character.

For the most part, dance groups consisted of either male or female, but not both. There is actually no known depictions of pair-dancing between a male and female. Within the performance, dancers could execute particular movements solo or in unison with one or more other dancers. However, all dancers were part of the same choreography even though they might execute different movements at the same time, just as in modern dance. There appears to have been no clear borderline between dancing and acrobatics or gymnastic performances.

Figure 1. Dancing girls (Click to magnify figure)

Unfortunately, body gestures of the ancient Egyptians are not well understood. Undoubtedly, many of the dance movements had specific meaning, but alas, this aspect of Egyptian dance is difficult to ascertain. One must remember that the depictions are but a snapshot of a dance movement.

Surviving scenes of female dancers usually wore brief, open-fronted, or fringed, skirts or at other times, loose tunics (diaphanous in the New Kingdom) with shoulder straps. They were also sometimes simply draped in long shawls, or wore nothing at all except a narrow ribbon across the belly. From the muscular thighs of some dancers it has been inferred that they were professionals and indeed, they are mentioned under the name of khebeyet, particularly in the royal harems.

The etymology of dance in ancient Egypt is rather confusing, and frequently of little assistance to us in understanding dancing during pharaonic times. Actually, the ancient Egyptian language contains no generic word, that we know of, meaning dance, just as there was no single word that exactly corresponds with the overall concept of art. From the very beginning, there were several words for dance, of which the most common was ib3 which might me properly translated as “caper”. In writing the word, a game piece was frequently included in its hieroglyphics, suggesting that there might be some resemblance between the movement of the game piece and the dancer. Another common word usually considered to describe an acrobatic dance was hbi. The rwi, which may mean “run away”, dance involved performers who frequently bear clappers ending with animal heads. Another dance, the ksks, perhaps meaning “twist”, was practiced mostly by non-Egyptians or even animals. During the Old Kingdom, the trf dance was usually only performed by a pair of men. After the New Kingdom, a proliferation of new words appear, which only confuse matters. Though it might seem that each term would apply to a different dance, graphic evidence fails to confirm this view.

Interestingly, tombs scenes bring into question the relationship between instrumental music and dance. In most cases, dancers and musicians, other than percussion musicians, are shown in different registers, indicating that their activities may not have been as related as we might think. Even when musicians and dancers are depicted in the same register, there is usually some element that separates the two groups. The only musicians directly associated with the dancers are those clapping their hands, using clappers or playing tambourines, drums, sistrums or other percussion instruments to beat out tempo and rhythm. Only very rarely are wind or stringed instrument players closely associated with dancers in the same scene. However, it must also be noted that typically, whenever musicians are found depicted, dancers are not generally far away.

Figure 2. Dancing girls and men (Click to magnify figure)

It is not surprising that the oldest records of dances in ancient Egypt are related to funerary practices. There could have certainly been many types of dances in the earliest times not related to funerals, but our best source of information from these most ancient of times are tombs. During the Old Kingdom, just after the mummification process was completed, dances were performed by a specialized group of ladies known as “the acacia house”. Their function seems to have been the appeasement of the dangerous lion goddess Sekhmet and the rejuvenation of the dead. They were responsible for mourning the dead, but also celebrating the regeneration of the body. The dancers performed what is termed the “offering table” dance, which lured the dead, born to a new life, to his first meal. However, there were variations of this dance that did not always include the ladies of “the acacia house”. There are scenes depicting other groups of women and even men, and a range of dances, particularly during the Old Kingdom, that are loosely associated with the dead sitting at an offering table. A group of dance performers known as the hnrt are known to be associated with childbirth ceremonies, but might have also been associated with funerals in helping the deceased enter a new life.

There were also dancers associated with the funerary procession. On the way to the tomb, those carrying funeral equipment and the statues of the dead were followed by dancers. At Beni Hasan, Middle Kingdom tomb scenes depict groups of dancers performing acrobats, looking more like circus performers than dancers. The images at Beni Hasan are particularly striking, though less vivid scenes also occur during the New Kingdom.

Also, a special kind or variant of the funeral dance dating to the Middle and New Kingdom was performed in honor of Hathor. It was characterized by leaping or skipping and was meant to celebrate the coming of that goddess. Hathor could represent the comely aspect of the dangerous Sekhmet, but she was also the goddess who met the dead at the entrance of the underworld. She was responsible for helping the deceased enter the underworld and was the main agent of their rebirth, so an appeal to her was recited or sung, accompanied by the clapping of hands and sticks and the use of other percussion instruments.

Another group of funerary dancers were the mww (muu)-dancers, known from the Old Kingdom through the New Kingdom. In the less detailed tomb scenes, they danced once the funeral procession reached the tomb. They are distinguished by their special headdress, consisting of woven papyrus stalks. These identified them as marsh dwellers and, more precisely, as ferrymen. Their role was to symbolically ferry the dead across the waters leading to the netherworld, a route that lead from Memphis to Sais, then to Buto and back. In more sophisticated scenes, the dancers are depicted in a more complex setting that includes lightly built chapels, pools surrounded by trees and religious symbols. Such scenes appear to recreate on a small scale and near the tomb, the sacred precincts of this journey.

These dancers should not be confused with the dwarfs who danced “at the entrance of the shaft”. Dancing dwarfs were known from the Old Kingdom and were prized for their rarity. The pharaoh, Pepi II, commended his official Horkhuf for bringing back a dwarf for “god’s dances” from an one southern expedition. The dances performed by the dwarfs were only mentioned in text from the Middle Kingdom onward. The dances they performed were clearly farewell performances associated with the departure of the sun for its nightly journey into the underworld. Dwarfs were considered a representation of the sun, never growing old, because their size never hardly ever exceeded that of children. Dwarfs also danced at the funerals of the sacred bulls, Apis and Mnevis, who were closely related, respectively, to the rebirth of Osiris and the sun god.

Though most of our representations of dances come from tombs, and there is thus less documentation on non-funerary dances, this does not mean that they did not exist. Even in the tombs, we find depictions dating to the Old and Middle Kingdoms that appear to be set in the context of daily life. Nevertheless, these dances also undoubtedly had some religious significance. Banquet scenes represented in New Kingdom tombs brought together both the ritual and domestic sides of a family feast, where musicians and dancers performed. In these, food was much less important than wine. During these banquets, musicians sang happy songs while guest made toasts to one another for “long life”. They drank until drunk, a condition that allowed them to communicate with Hathor, “the lady of drunkenness”. These events offerings were frequently made to the gods of the necropolis or to Sekhmet, to satisfy them and keep them at a distance. Such banquets celebrated the present and allowed one to forget how short their lives were. Wise men such as Anii taught that one should celebrate in due time the feast of one’s own god by a banquet to which family and other relatives are invited. He went on to say that during the feast, offerings should be made, music and dance should be performed, and one should drink until drunk.

After the New Kingdom, dance scenes in tombs virtually disappeared. This does probably not mean that funerary dances ceased to exist, but rather that the manner of tomb decorations had changed. In fact, mortuary texts of the Late Period confirms that dances continued to be an important aspect of these ceremonies. Interestingly, dancing scenes in temples were only depicted from the New Kingdom onward. Of course, temples prior to the New Kingdom are very rare so there may very well have been older dancing scenes in some. The dancing in temples appears to concern both royal and divine ceremonies.

We know, for example, that there were dancing activities during the jubilee ceremony, known as the sed-festival, for the king. This was a renewal event for the king, and we also know that dances were performed during religious ceremonies related to various turning points in the year which may also be related to renewal. The variations of dances performed on these occasions can mostly be explained by their religious context and by the way they had to conform to or reflect the local mythology of the god to whom they were directed. The common factor in most of the scenes depicting such dancers is the solemn procession of the sacred barks carrying a god.

As an example, during the Valley festival at Thebes, the god Amun left his temple at Karnak to visit the tombs on the West Bank, after crossing the Nile on his bark. Accompanying the priests who carried the bark over land were musicians and dancers. This festival took place on the occurrence of the new moon of the tenth month of the year. It is likely that families were probably awaiting the procession in the courtyards of the tombs, preparing the banquet, and rejoicing when the procession passed by. The procession proceeded to the sanctuary of Hathor, situated at Deir el-Bahri, where the deity was honored as a child-giving goddess and protectress of the dead. A vigil, where dancing almost surely took place, known as “the inebriation feast” was important on this occasion.

Another event was the Opet festival, when the bark of Amun was accompanied by much the same retinue on its way from the Karnak temple to the Luxor temple to meet his wife, the goddess Mut. One of the most characteristic features of these processions were groups of women executing acrobatic dances. In addition, dark and exotic dancers, perhaps Nubians, jumped and weaved to the beat of drums.

During the feast of Min, the god of fertility and regeneration, dancers specifically attached to his cult took part in ceremonies and processions. There were also dancing monkeys pictured, at least during the Late Period, although some scholars believe this imagery was symbolic. Monkeys are depicted executing farewell and greeting dances to the setting and rising sun, and priests of Min are sometimes shown dancing with monkeys. However, it is very likely that much of this activity did not actually take place as represented.

In all of these ceremonies, as in the funeral rites, dances announced or celebrated rebirth in all its possible aspects. This was particularly true of the important new year’s feasts. Throughout the land, in most temples during the last five days of the year, music was played and dances performed to appease Sekhmet in order to protect the ancient land from her diseased and deadly demons. The new year was marked by the coming of the Nile flood. At the southern border of Egypt, joyful and noisy feasts were organized to greet the first manifestations of “the new water”, as it was called. The coming of the flood brought with it the dangerous Sekhmet, who through music and dancing was transformed into the mild Hathor. All manner of performers were involved in these feasts, including acrobats and foreigners with their exotic dances.

Hence, in ancient Egypt, dance marked time. It evidenced the moment of radical change, when something ends and something else begins. It protected the ancient Egyptians from various dangers as well as celebrated what was to be born anew. However, our understanding of these Egyptians is perhaps biased by the lack of secular documentation.