Lost Voices of the Nile: Everyday Life in Ancient Egypt

by Charlotte Booth

  The most common temple roles for women were singers, dancers, chantresses or priestesses. The head of these groups taught novices the skills needed for the role.45 The relative importance of these positions depended on the size of the temple, so a chantress of Amun at Karnak was more important than a chantress of a small shrine in middle Egypt. Singers and musicians were particularly important in all temples as all prayers were sung or chanted. By the New Kingdom so many women held the generic title of priestess it lessened the importance of the position at a time when the male priesthood was a profession held in great esteem. In the same way as male priests, priestesses worked one in four months on the same rotation system. Both male and female priests were paid the same for their services to the temple and were entitled to some of the food offered to the gods, which was divided among the priesthood once the god had taken spiritual nourishment from it.

  Although female funerary priests had an important role in the funerary cult, the main role for women at a burial was that of professional mourner. They were hired for royal and noble funerals to throw dust over their heads, tear at their clothes, scratch their cheeks, wail and expose their breasts. It was considered unseemly for the women of the deceased’s family to be shown in such grief, so they hired women for the occasion. These mourning rituals were ancient in origin and reflected the mourning of Nephthys and Isis for Osiris. Pyramid Text utterance 535 states, ‘Nephthys has indeed seized the tip of (her) two breasts because of her brother ...’46

  In the groups of professional mourners there are often images of young children, indicating girls who would inherit the role from their mother learnt on the job. On one stela from Deir el-Medina a mother and daughter refer to themselves as ‘mourner’ as a title, indicating it was an occupation47 every bit as important as any other. Although the role of mourner was normally one carried out by women, in the tomb of Kenamun (TT162) there is a depiction of a male mourner.48

  As mentioned in the previous chapter, girls were not generally educated and were unable to work in central administration, but, as we have seen, that is not to say that women did not work. There were other jobs open to them outside the temple enabling them to be self-sufficient or to contribute to the household economy. As most women spent the majority of their time in the home, many of their jobs were centred around household industries. Tomb images show that winnowing was generally carried out by women, and they were also responsible for grinding the grain and making it into bread and beer. Women could also help out in the fields during the harvest, and girls were frequently sent to the fields to glean.

  Although women could not hold bureaucratic positions in the central government, in the Middle Kingdom they often held titles such as treasurer, major doma and superintendent of the dining room in private homes. In the central bureaucracy women held positions of authority in departments dominated by women, such as overseer of singers, overseer of amusements, mistress of the royal harem, overseer of the house of weavers or overseer of the wig shop. 49 Earlier in the Old Kingdom women held administrative titles like steward of storehouses, food supplies and cloth or the bearer of the seal, who held the authorised seal of the house50 and was therefore in a position of great responsibility and trust. There is only one example of a woman holding the title of vizier from the sixth dynasty, although it is suggested that the title was probably honorary. These positions of authority were generally in the service of other women, as women were not allowed to oversee the work of men.51

  Some industries were dominated by women, such as the linen trade, where both workers and supervisors were often female. Nephthys was the goddess of weaving and coupled with her funerary associations gave mummy bandages the name ‘Tresses of Nephthys’.52 The New Kingdom royal harem at Gurob was responsible for the production of a large amount of linen and the royal women trained and supervised the textile workers,53 who were mostly foreign women sent to Egypt to marry the king as part of the diplomatic parties. The chief of weavers at the site was a woman called Tiy.54

  A papyrus from El-Lahun suggests that several servant women were employed together in the same house as weavers, and another document records that twenty or twenty-nine servants in one household were also employed in weaving.55 In the ‘Tale of the Two Brothers’, Bata’s wife offers to make clothes for Anubis if he sleeps with her, indicating it was normal for women to produce cloth in their own home throughout the New Kingdom and beyond. Furthermore, such linens produced by women could be used as currency at this time.56

  From the Old Kingdom women were visible in all aspects of the linen trade, including harvesting flax and spinning it into linen. Spinning was also carried out by children, as it did not require the same skill levels as weaving. It took three spinners to provide enough thread to be worked by two loom weavers and was an activity that required very little space, meaning it could be carried out anywhere inside or outside the home.57

  Spinning and weaving were depicted in four Middle Kingdom tombs at Beni Hasan in addition to models demonstrating spinning. As home production of linen was an important part of ancient Egyptian life it was therefore a requirement in the afterlife.

  Spinning is attested by numerous spindles, made of wood, stone or pottery, dated from the Middle Kingdom onwards, and spindle whorls have been discovered in El-Lahun, Deir el-Medina and Tell el-Amarna, showing it was a widespread household activity.58 They used drop spindles with the whorl at the top. There were three methods of spinning using such drop spindles, all shown in the twelfth-dynasty tomb of Khety at Beni Hasan. These methods were used for spinning yarn from flax or sheep’s wool.

  Often the use of wool is dismissed in ancient Egypt due to Herodotus stating, ‘[It was] contrary to religious usage to be buried in a woollen garment, or to wear wool in a temple.’59 Archaeological evidence, however, belies this, indicating wool was definitely used in Egypt for clothes and Diodorus Siculus (1st century BCE) records that Egyptian sheep yielded ‘wool for clothing and ornament’.60 Even Herodotus mentions wearing Egyptian woollen mantles over his tunic, indicating his earlier reference was purely in relation to the priesthood. Wool has been discovered in both domestic and funerary contexts from as early as 2000 BCE. Evidence from El-Lahun and the workmen’s village of Tell el-Amarna show sheep’s wool was dyed and spun on site.

  The supported spindle technique of spinning necessitates rolling the spindle down the thigh to start it spinning in mid-air as the rove61 was drawn through the left hand. A model from the tomb of Meketre at Deir el Bahri depicts numerous women standing on one leg holding their spindles, perhaps for balance. The grasped spindle technique shows the rove pulled from a basket through a ring or a forked stick and spun onto the spindle, which is rolled between the hands. This method is depicted in the eighteenth-dynasty Theban townhouse of Djehutynefer.

  Everyone seemed to be involved in the production of linen, with women, men and children weaving and spinning. Men were generally responsible for beating flax stems and sometimes for twining the spun thread into two or three ply yarn, although in the tomb of Khnumhotep III (twelfth dynasty) a young girl is shown performing this task. The entire family could become involved with the industry of spinning yarn, both in the home or in professional workshops. However, the ‘Satire of the Trades’ describes the role in less than glowing terms: ‘The mat-weaver in the workshop, he is worse off than a woman [in childbirth] with knees against his belly he cannot breathe out. If he skips a day of weaving he is beaten with 50 strokes; he gives food to the doorkeeper, to let him see daylight’.62

  Different types of spun yarn were discovered at El-Lahun, from course wool to fine thread, and these were considered valuable enough to be used as bribes. In the nineteenth dynasty, during the reign of Merenptah, ‘the workman Rahotep [who] shaved the hair of the scribe Kenherkhopshef [...] he gave a loincloth of 15 cubits and he gave him 9 balls of yarn after his [Kenherkhopshef] concealment of his [Rahotep’s] misdeeds’.63 Although we do not know what these misdeeds were it is clear that yarn had a marke
t value high enough to constitute a bribe. Despite the value of the yarn the majority of woollen items date to the Late Period, although a woollen blanket was discovered at the workman village of Tell el-Amarna dated to the New Kingdom. This blanket comprised two-tone wool and another in the village had strings attached to the corners.64 It is possible these were horse blankets rather than covers for the home, although it is also quite possible that wealthy Egyptians wore woollen cloaks in the winter.65

  There are numerous socks from the Coptic Period (fourth century CE) in, among others, the Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto; the Louvre, Paris; the Victoria & Albert Museum, London; and the Petrie Museum, London. All of the socks are of the same design, with two separate toes – one for the big toe and one for the other toes – so they can be worn with sandals. In 2009/10 I led an experimental archaeological project called ‘Sock It!’ at the Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology, along with Dr Debbie Challis, with the aim of reproducing the socks from the Petrie Collection (UC16766) (c. 400–500 CE) using ancient techniques.66 Studying all of the socks indicated they were made using a method with a similar result to two-needle knitting, but each stitch had a twist. No artefacts have been found suitable to be used as knitting needles, although there are many copper, bronze and bone needles with a large eye at one end, dating from the Pre-Dynastic Period through to the Graeco-Roman period. With such large-eyed needles and a length of yarn it is possible to create these socks using an extension of basic basketry or netting technique, known by various terms including looped-needle knitting, knotless netting, needle coiling, cross-knit looping, naalebinding or single needle knitting. Using this method produced a hard-wearing material which was easier to mend than two-needle knitting.67

  Once yarn was spun, if it was not used to produce knitted items the majority was woven into cloth. Once the material was woven the men washed it and bleached it to a bright white before the cloth was polished with a tool made of leather. Most clothes were undecorated other than being pleated, and this was likely carried out when the cloth was wet, allowing the folds to remain in place once it had dried.

  Another village-based role for women was that of midwife. Although there was no word in Egyptian for midwife it was necessary for women to aid other women during childbirth, as this was the most dangerous time of their lives. It is thought there was a school of midwifery at the temple of Neith at Sais, where women were trained by temple staff. An inscription at Sais states, ‘I have come from the school of medicine at Heliopolis, and have studied at the women’s school at Sais where the divine mothers taught me how to cure diseases.’68 However, most midwives were trained through assisting the village women and therefore the vast majority received no formal training. Midwives were in great demand in any village, as most women had at least five children and many had more. Childbirth was discussed in greater length in chapter four.

  A new mother who survived childbirth and was in need of an income could hire out her services as a wet nurse. They were hired by the upper classes to nurse young children. A number of contracts between wet nurses and employers have survived, indicating how common they were. At Deir el-Medina a wet nurse was paid as much as a doctor and there were legal agreements between wet nurses and parents from the later periods of Egyptian history; she was required to work a trial period, provide good-quality milk, not to nurse other children and not to fall pregnant.69

  Royal wet nurses were held in particularly high esteem and in the New Kingdom high officials often married royal wet nurses to further themselves politically. In their tombs it is carefully recorded that their wives nursed princes. Children of royal wet nurses were considered ‘milk siblings’ to the king and it is likely that they grew up together with him and the royal circle.70 Hatshepsut’s nurse Sitre was buried near the queen, showing she remained part of her household long after her services were no longer needed. Non-royal nurses are also shown in tomb reliefs and stelae with the family they worked for. It was normal for children to be nursed for three years as a safeguard against pregnancy and a way of ensuring uncontaminated food.71

  In addition to midwives, at Deir el-Medina there was a woman called the ta-rekhet: knowing woman or wise woman. Personal names of these women were never given as they were referred to by their title only, indicating an other-worldly status. She gave advice on apparently impossible situations, and understood the complex realm of the dead and the gods, as well as predicting the future. She was approached by both men and women, although whether she worked from home or a chapel is not recorded. On an ostracon from Deir el-Medina, Kenherkhopshef rebukes a woman Inerwau for not visiting the ta-rekhet to discover why her two children died:72

  Why did you not go to the wise woman on account of the two boys who died in your charge? Ask the wise woman about the death the two boys have incurred. ‘Was it their fate? Was it their destiny? You shall question [her] for me about them. You shall [also] look after the life of mine and the life of their mother. As regards whatever god of which one will [speak] to you, you shall afterwards write me his name. [You shall fulfil] the task of one who knows her duty.73

  Kenherkhopshef was perhaps the father of these two boys, and Inerwau their nurse, and he was concerned about the health of the mother of the boys. It is clear that it was possible to address the wise woman in person or by letter, indicating that she was literate or at least had a scribe willing to read these letters on her behalf.

  As medicine or communing with the gods was not everyone’s forte, some women entered the entertainment industry: that of musicians and dancers. Unfortunately, like farmers and servants, musicians and dancers are often anonymous, although there are more artistic representations of them in addition to archaeological evidence of the instruments themselves.74 Dancers were hired to dance at banquets and religious festivals and many processions of Hathor involved elaborate dances. One dance is particularly intriguing, where the dancer holds a mirror in one hand and uses it to reflect her other hand. Mirrors were often used for scrying so this dance may have been related to seeing into the other world. Another dance depicted at Beni Hasan shows the dancers with plaited hair with balls attached to the end of each plait, which were used to weight their hair as they dragged it along the ground. Hair was often used for dancing by flicking it in an erotic manner.

  Dancers often appeared naked, wearing either a small loincloth or a beaded hip belt made of small golden cowrie shells, an example of which can be found in the Cairo Museum (JE 30858). Cowrie shells were an erotic image as the shape was considered to resemble a vagina and therefore was an image of fertility. Therefore the emphasis in Egyptian dancing was the hip area of the dancer, as is the case with modern belly dancing. To further emphasise their fertility, dancers often had tattoos of Bes on their thighs, keeping the attention on the lower region of the body. Dancing, however, was clearly segregated from the audience75 and there are no representations of the dancers dancing with anyone else.

  Dancers were closely connected with acrobats in regard to entertainment and there are numerous images of both men and women performing great feats of flexibility with forward and backward flips, crabs and group acrobatic tumbling where back flips result in landing on a fellow’s back. Some images show contortionists and in the tomb of Antefoqer (TT60) from the twelfth dynasty there is an image of a man and a women lying on the floor touching their feet to their heads from behind. Some of the tomb scenes are almost like comic strips, such as the tomb of Baqti III from Beni Hassan which has four images of a man in the process of performing a pirouette, with each image showing a different element of the turn. This comic-stip representation is also shown at the temple of Hatshepsut at Karnak, where three images of acrobats demonstrate all elements of a forward flip and a fourth image showing a movement to the side, almost a cartwheel. Some flips were carried out with a partner as depicted in the tomb of Khety at Beni Hasan, where two girls hold each other belly to belly, with one girl’s head near the other girl’s feet,76 and in this way they roll rather like a wheel
, which would no doubt have looked incredible at a lamp-lit banquet.

  C. Beni Hasan showing a partnered tumble, tomb of Khety. (Drawing after Decker, 1992, fig. 110).

  Often dancers and acrobats were accompanied by musicians and a singer. Instruments were played by both men and women although from the Middle Kingdom women tended to dominate this industry. The tambourine was the most popular instrument in street music and was always played by women. A tambourine ensemble was sometime accompanied by a young girl who waved a one-handed pair of clappers or held her hand to her breast concealing a small object in her palm, perhaps a jingle.77 At banquets and festivals women often played flutes, reed pipes, clappers, harps and tambourines and were sometimes accompanied by blind male harpists. Blind musicians often have heightened senses and some believe this enhances their musical ability. Interestingly, in twenty representations of male harpists where the eyes are visible only four or five are blind or visually impaired, indicating blind harpists were not as commonplace as is often stated.

  A rather bizarre twist on the idea of blind musicians can be seen in the Karnak reliefs from the Amarna period, which show a group of musicians wearing blindfolds over their eyes. They are providing musical accompaniment to the offering rituals for the god Aten. As they are in direct communication with the deity the blindfolds could prevent them from seeing the god directly, which some believed caused blindness. Some may have believed that as the blindfold prevented the musicians from being able to see in general, it also prevented them from being seen.78

  We do not know the name of many ancient Egyptian musicians, as they appear in tombs as an anonymous addition to the banquet scenes. However, in the Middle-Kingdom Theban tomb of the vizier Antefoker there are images of two harpists and a man and a woman who are identified by name; the singer was Didumin and the songstress was Khuwyt. They sang songs to the goddess Hathor and to the vizier himself.79 Another named musician was Mahu, who was a singer of the noble harp of Amun, from the eighteenth dynasty. Mahu explains how he ‘followed the kings’ footsteps in foreign lands’, indicating he was a royal travelling harpist 80 and followed the king, and perhaps sang and played the harp to entertain him.