ANCIENT EGYPT

Ancient Egyptian society was built on a hierarchy system that was rooted in religion ensuring access to the afterlife. Everyone had a role they played that helped Ancient Egypt become wealthy. The Pharaoh was the leader of Ancient Egypt as well as the head of religion who was the divine representative of gods on earth. As the head of the region, the Pharaoh outlined all the rules and structures for Ancient Egypt to protect its borders, wealth, and peoples’ place in the afterlife. The Pharaoh ordered to have temples and tombs to be built, had the land farmed, and created a trading economy. All this was done to please the gods in the afterlife. The next few levels of society below the Pharaoh were important to the management of government and religion. The Visier was the Pharaoh’s righthand person who dealt with the day-to-day management of Ancient Egypt. Below the Visier were priests followed by scribes who documented laws and kept track of taxes. The Visier, priests, and scribes all came from aristocratic families with means, as did other nobles and top-ranking army officials. This level of society was able to learn how to read and write as they were considered upper class. 

 

The next two levels were the middle-class, followed by the lower-class. The middle-class society was mostly made up of craftsmen and artists. Craftsmen were innovative and included architects, builders, shipbuilders, and metalworkers. Many helped to make the plans to build the pyramids and canals. Artists included skilled painters, jewelry makers, basket weavers, sculptors, leather workers, and potters. These artists set up shops close to the Pharaoh’s palace which also supported the trading economy. The lower-class society people were made up of farmers and peasants. This group worked the land but didn’t own it, the Pharaoh actually owned the vast majority of land in Ancient Egypt. Even though the farmers and peasants didn’t have social status, they were very important to Ancient Egypt’s wealth as they planted and harvested the food that was used to feed the people and trade with other areas. Farmers and peasants were also known to help build temples and pyramids when the lands were not in their farming season. The absolute lowest level of society was that of slaves. Slaves were typically foreigners captured in war or traded to Ancient Egypt. They had no status or rights, they worked as labourers who did hard work on the farms and did manual labour to help build the temples. Some of the slaves worked for aristocratic families as servants in their households.

 

Since Ancient Egypt was built on a class or caste system, people were born into their careers and level in society. For example, if someone’s father was a priest then they to would become a priest when they were of age. Or if their father was a farmer, then they were destined to be a farmer. Women were also born into their level or class in society and were usually trained to be a housewife and manage the household. Women were usually married at an early age of 12 or 13 as the average life of an Ancient Egyptian was about 30 years of age. They wanted to make sure society continued to grow so that is why people were married early to have children. Women could also be priests or scribes but only if they were from an aristocrat family. Children overall were seen as gifts as many children died before they even reached age one due to health conditions. Families let children basically play and enjoy their life until they turned the age of five. That is when children would start to train for whatever career path they were destined for, but they would still have time to play as they grew up. It is amazing to see that Ancient Egyptian society existed for 3000 years and followed this hierarchy system for so long. Their belief in the gods and the afterlife guided them in everything they did.