Everyday Life

When people talk about ancient Egypt, they often only talk about the pharaohs and nobles whose mummified bodies and tombs have been discovered. These are the Egyptians that were mostly written about and who left the incredible artefacts and buildings we see today. But what about the ordinary Egyptians? These are the men, women and children who built the great monuments, grew and harvested food and lived out their own remarkable lives along the great river Nile in the dry heat of ancient Egypt.

Very few towns or cities have survived from Ancient Egypt because most these were built of mud bricks close to the river. Therefore we know much less about everyday life than we do about tombs and the afterlife. Life for most people was difficult and short, with an average life expectancy of less than 40. We get some idea of daily activities from occasional glimpses of ordinary people shown in the scenes which decorate the tombs of the wealthy, the only ones able to read and write.