Most of the incredible structures and facilities that were prominent in Ancient Egypt were built on the back of slavery. While slaves were a major part of the ancient Egypt labour force, they also served many other purposes.
There were three types of slavery in Ancient Egypt and they were: chattel slavery, bonded labour, and forced labour. The Egyptian labour force included people of different social classes.
Some Egyptian works refer to the words ‘bAk’ and ‘Hm’ to mean labourer or servant. The Egyptian language also refers to slave-like people as ‘sqrw-anx’, meaning “bound for life”.
Many of these slaves served as housekeepers, gardeners, farm labourers, musicians and dancers with exceptional talent, scribes (who kept written documents), and accountants.
According to history from records, early Egypt was impacted by different societies in the area. The most progressive society was Mesopotamia, and their culture involved the use of slavery in their daily lives.
It is estimated that about eighty percent of the Egyptian slaves were peasants. Egypt experiences a ‘rainy season’ yearly which leads to the Nile River flooding. The flooding brings rich soil from the Nile that helps fertilize the crops.
In the three-month period, the fields can’t be worked, so most of the slaves switched jobs and worked on construction sites.
Egyptologists (those who study Egypt) are yet to find evidence that slaves were used to building the pyramids. The information they have found also doesn’t show that there were large numbers of slaves during the ‘Old Kingdom’ when the pyramids were built. There isn’t a cartouche that represents slaves, so Egyptologists have to do a lot of guessing based on pictures of slaves.
Egyptian society was established by passing information from generation to generation. When slaves were added to the system, they took up the same culture. The data that has been deciphered shows the largest growth in slavery during the New Kingdom era.
It was not uncommon for the pharaohs to give slaves away to higher-ranking officials and royalty in Egypt as payment or a reward for excellence.
What Kinds Of Toys Did Roman Children Play With?
