At Home Food and Drink Clothes and Appearance Toys and Games
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At Home |
Houses in Ancient Egypt were built from bricks made from the Nile mud. The mud was collected in leather buckets and taken to the building site. Here workers would add straw and pebbles to the mud to strengthen it and pour the mixture into wooden frames to make bricks. They would leave these out in the sun to dry. When a house was built, its wall would be covered with plaster, and the inside was often painted - either with patterns or scenes from nature. Inside, the houses were cool, as the small windows let in only a little light. Wealthy families had large houses. Beyond the hall would be bedrooms and private apartments, and stairs to the roof. The kitchen was some distance from the living rooms, to keep smells away. The Egyptians held parties in their homes, which the children enjoyed as much as their parents. Back to Top
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Food and Drink |
The fertile mud deposited by the annual Nile flood allowed farmers to grow barley and emmer wheat, the mainstay of the Egyptian diet. Stored in granaries, these crops were turned into bread or beer. The fllod plain also lent itself to the cultivation of vegetables such as onions, garlic, leeks, beans, lentils and lettuce. There were also gourds, dates and figs, cucumbers and melons, but no citrus fruits. Egyptian bakers made cakes of many shapes and sizes, sweetened by dates or by honey gathered from conical pottery beehives. Grapes grown in the Nile Delta or oases of the western desert were plucked for wine-making or drying into raisins. The less well-off people would have had less meat and poultry, and more fish. The spread at banquets was extremely varied - from ducks, geese, and oxen to oryx and gazelle. There were also pigs, sheep and goats, which could be boiled or roasted. Back to Top
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Clothes and Appearance |
The Egyptians wore very simple clothing made from linen. Linen is made from the fibres of the flax plant which the Egyptians grew. Men of the working classes wore a loincloth or short kilt and sometimes a type of shirt. Women wore straight dresses with one or two shoulder straps. In later periods, the wealthy wore rich, finely woven linen garments. Both men and women used perfumes and oils and wore cosmetics, such as green or black eye-paints. These made the eyes look larger, helped to ward-off eye infections, and also protected them from the glare of the bright sun. They also used ochre for lipstick and as a rouge to colour their cheeks and henna to colour their hair. The Egyptians were very concerned with maintaining their hair not only as part of their personal appearance, but also as a sign of their social status. They devised remedies for baldness and greying and washed and scented their hair. Children's hair was shaven except for one or two braids or "sidelocks" worn at the side of the head. Adults sometimes wore hairpieces or full wigs made of real human hair which were frequently elaborately styled. Back to Top
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Toys and Games |
Even as children, the ancient Egyptians loved life. Some of the games they loved are still played by children today, such as "khuzza lawizza", which we call leapfrog, and tug-of-war. There are also Egyptian paintings showing boys playing soldiers and girls holding hands in a sort of spinning dance. Then there were board games, like snake and the more complicated senet, and a number of toys from model animals and dolls to balls. The Egyptians were also great storytellers, and kept their children amused with popular tales of imagination and enchantment. In one example, a magical wax toy crocodile turns into a real one when thrown into the water - a relevant story for people who lived under the threat of being eaten by crocodiles everyday of their lives. Back to Top