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Jeff N
Like what people did what jobs, and the types of jobs.
Answer
Ancient Egypt was an interesting and vital place. Almost every job you can think of today existed then, with perhaps the specific exception of "rocket scientist." There really was NOT an analogue of that job I can think of. otherwise, name a job today, and there's something of a comparison for it then.
Most people would immediately answer by challenging - well, what about computer programmer? How about the cable man, or the cell phone tech?
There were analogs to those jobs. We might see the ancient scribes as the equal of computer programmers, for example. Both worked with arcane, specialized written langauges, their work made possible extensive and expanded communication, and while there are - or were - many of both, the jobs were still highly-specialized and not so common.
The cable guy - he's the one who goes around chiseling heiroglyphics into the walls. The cell phone techs in ancient Egypt would have been the riders - or runners - in the message service networks.
Virtually all of Egyptian society was organized on a somewhat rigid class system from top to bottom. Evidence shows it was possible to move from one class to another based on merit, luck or the whim of an important patron, but that largely there was little social mobility. What your father was, you were. It was also a society that was actually less restrictive on women than the more conservative cultures of today, one in which women worked and could be valued individually, but were largely held subservient.
Egyptian society was also paternalistic. Those at the top of the social structure owed a duty of care to those beneath them. The product of the Egyptian society and economy - and those were, for most of history, one and the same - was communal. While people had their own goods and possessions, and earned their livings, the fruits of agriculture and general production were the belongings of all in the community. since Egypt was an heirarchical society, the distribution was directed (and benefitted) from the top down, but a poor harvest might well mean the death of a Pharoah because he was blamed for the starvation of the people.
So, then, labor was also the property of the community. this was epxressed in groups of people who at different times went to contribute their sweat to the construction of the pyramids, the building of the temples and great cities, the paving of roads, the restoration of the banks of the Nile, and the hundreds of other public works that characterized ancient Egypt. Only certain people were exempt from this public service, and then because their gifts were reuired in other areas of support for social and state interests. It was not slaves, but willing members of the community, who crafted the surviving monuments of Egypts great past.
Egypt's foundation, of course, was the poorest class. Although slavery was common in Egypt, most people were NOT slaves. Slaves were the property of rich (or at least very comfortable) folk, and slavery as practiced in that time was entirely different from the sort of chattel servitude practiced in America and Europe in the 18th or 19th centuries. Evidence of recent years indicates strongly that the Israelis were not slaves per se when Moses led them out of Egypt.
The poor working man and woman were very common in Egypt. Most worked fields, made basic goods such as straw mats, woven cloth, or mud bricks, carried wood, hauled water, cleared dung from the streets, irrigated the fields, herded animals, pounded reeds to make papyrus, and hundreds of other important, fundamental tasks required of an organized society.
Above the most basic of the people was the artisan class. These were masons and stonecutters, jewelers, potters, painters, skille craftsmen in wood and clay and rock of every kind, tanners, expert weavers and decorative artists. Performers were of this class.
Sea captains were somewhere above this class, as were highly-capable hunters, trackers, explorers, and others. Sailors were in between the common class and that of the artisans.
"Merchants" were people skilled in making money from trading. This is a more complex layer of the society that ranged from well-to-do to nearly impoverished. Some were explorers and adventurers, some were sailors, some were just crafty homebodies who knew where to get what someone wanted and how to get a price for it.
The military was a separate heirarchy of itself. I am not as well-versed in ancient Egyptian military history as other parts, but believe it was a combination of "professional," or at least aristocratic and specially-prepared, soldiers and officers with levies from the other classes of society when they were needed. The very highest levels appeared to have been drawn from the nobtility or persons with military experience whose skill and capability had earned them advancement on merit (or patronage).
The priesthood was a distinct heirarchy, also. There were multiple temples and multiple preisthoods, some wealthy and influential, with many layers, and tohers of lesser significance. this varied over the dynasties. It became at times highly significant, as during the regin of the monotheist sun god worshipper Amunhotep.
Parallel with the priesthood stood the bureaucracy. Ancient Egypt had a vast vueaucracy, to keep count of the shaeves of wheat, measure the levels of the Nile, tally the herds and flocks, report on the labor of the communities given to the king's projects, report on births and deaths, and spy, spy, spy for an ever-suspicious national administration. At times the priesthood doubled as the bureaucratic service.
It is said that when Cleopatra revealed to Julius Caesar the secret treasure of the priesthood, she sealed Egypt's fate as a future Roman conquest.
On a social level with, or perhaps in many cases, above the ordinary, members of the priesthood were the educated specialists. These were the senior priests, scribes, the astrologers and astronomers, the geometricians, the advanced scholars and intellectuals, the engineers and the architects. This was a very significnat level in society, and one that was open to people of merit regardless of their status at birth. However, the education and patronage necessary to achieve this level in practical terms meant that usually people from more privileged classes populated these ranks.
Then there was the nobility. Diplomats, courtiers, senior government bureaucrats, generals, directos of public works or principal designers of the king's monuments, and all manner of useful and useless people of importance who were born to powerful families obviously filled these ranks. Some who rose by virtue of ability or patronage also stood in these elevated planes of society.
Chariot drivers equaled today's race drivers. Falconers equaled today's pilots. And Pharoahs equaled today's dictators. It was a lively place, that Ancient Egypt.
Ancient Egypt was an interesting and vital place. Almost every job you can think of today existed then, with perhaps the specific exception of "rocket scientist." There really was NOT an analogue of that job I can think of. otherwise, name a job today, and there's something of a comparison for it then.
Most people would immediately answer by challenging - well, what about computer programmer? How about the cable man, or the cell phone tech?
There were analogs to those jobs. We might see the ancient scribes as the equal of computer programmers, for example. Both worked with arcane, specialized written langauges, their work made possible extensive and expanded communication, and while there are - or were - many of both, the jobs were still highly-specialized and not so common.
The cable guy - he's the one who goes around chiseling heiroglyphics into the walls. The cell phone techs in ancient Egypt would have been the riders - or runners - in the message service networks.
Virtually all of Egyptian society was organized on a somewhat rigid class system from top to bottom. Evidence shows it was possible to move from one class to another based on merit, luck or the whim of an important patron, but that largely there was little social mobility. What your father was, you were. It was also a society that was actually less restrictive on women than the more conservative cultures of today, one in which women worked and could be valued individually, but were largely held subservient.
Egyptian society was also paternalistic. Those at the top of the social structure owed a duty of care to those beneath them. The product of the Egyptian society and economy - and those were, for most of history, one and the same - was communal. While people had their own goods and possessions, and earned their livings, the fruits of agriculture and general production were the belongings of all in the community. since Egypt was an heirarchical society, the distribution was directed (and benefitted) from the top down, but a poor harvest might well mean the death of a Pharoah because he was blamed for the starvation of the people.
So, then, labor was also the property of the community. this was epxressed in groups of people who at different times went to contribute their sweat to the construction of the pyramids, the building of the temples and great cities, the paving of roads, the restoration of the banks of the Nile, and the hundreds of other public works that characterized ancient Egypt. Only certain people were exempt from this public service, and then because their gifts were reuired in other areas of support for social and state interests. It was not slaves, but willing members of the community, who crafted the surviving monuments of Egypts great past.
Egypt's foundation, of course, was the poorest class. Although slavery was common in Egypt, most people were NOT slaves. Slaves were the property of rich (or at least very comfortable) folk, and slavery as practiced in that time was entirely different from the sort of chattel servitude practiced in America and Europe in the 18th or 19th centuries. Evidence of recent years indicates strongly that the Israelis were not slaves per se when Moses led them out of Egypt.
The poor working man and woman were very common in Egypt. Most worked fields, made basic goods such as straw mats, woven cloth, or mud bricks, carried wood, hauled water, cleared dung from the streets, irrigated the fields, herded animals, pounded reeds to make papyrus, and hundreds of other important, fundamental tasks required of an organized society.
Above the most basic of the people was the artisan class. These were masons and stonecutters, jewelers, potters, painters, skille craftsmen in wood and clay and rock of every kind, tanners, expert weavers and decorative artists. Performers were of this class.
Sea captains were somewhere above this class, as were highly-capable hunters, trackers, explorers, and others. Sailors were in between the common class and that of the artisans.
"Merchants" were people skilled in making money from trading. This is a more complex layer of the society that ranged from well-to-do to nearly impoverished. Some were explorers and adventurers, some were sailors, some were just crafty homebodies who knew where to get what someone wanted and how to get a price for it.
The military was a separate heirarchy of itself. I am not as well-versed in ancient Egyptian military history as other parts, but believe it was a combination of "professional," or at least aristocratic and specially-prepared, soldiers and officers with levies from the other classes of society when they were needed. The very highest levels appeared to have been drawn from the nobtility or persons with military experience whose skill and capability had earned them advancement on merit (or patronage).
The priesthood was a distinct heirarchy, also. There were multiple temples and multiple preisthoods, some wealthy and influential, with many layers, and tohers of lesser significance. this varied over the dynasties. It became at times highly significant, as during the regin of the monotheist sun god worshipper Amunhotep.
Parallel with the priesthood stood the bureaucracy. Ancient Egypt had a vast vueaucracy, to keep count of the shaeves of wheat, measure the levels of the Nile, tally the herds and flocks, report on the labor of the communities given to the king's projects, report on births and deaths, and spy, spy, spy for an ever-suspicious national administration. At times the priesthood doubled as the bureaucratic service.
It is said that when Cleopatra revealed to Julius Caesar the secret treasure of the priesthood, she sealed Egypt's fate as a future Roman conquest.
On a social level with, or perhaps in many cases, above the ordinary, members of the priesthood were the educated specialists. These were the senior priests, scribes, the astrologers and astronomers, the geometricians, the advanced scholars and intellectuals, the engineers and the architects. This was a very significnat level in society, and one that was open to people of merit regardless of their status at birth. However, the education and patronage necessary to achieve this level in practical terms meant that usually people from more privileged classes populated these ranks.
Then there was the nobility. Diplomats, courtiers, senior government bureaucrats, generals, directos of public works or principal designers of the king's monuments, and all manner of useful and useless people of importance who were born to powerful families obviously filled these ranks. Some who rose by virtue of ability or patronage also stood in these elevated planes of society.
Chariot drivers equaled today's race drivers. Falconers equaled today's pilots. And Pharoahs equaled today's dictators. It was a lively place, that Ancient Egypt.
What name of a Greek goddess would make a good name for my cat?
My 2�
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