Ancient Egyptian VII: Position of Woman
Women’s Role in the Home Throughout time, women have been known for their kindness, strength, intelligence and love. Ancient Egyptians respected the role of women in the home, how they raised children and created stable and safe homes, according to scholar Joshua J. Mark, author of “Women in Ancient Egypt” published on Ancient History Encyclopedia […]
Women’s Rights in Ancient Egypt
When it comes to legal rights, Herodotus wasn’t completely off the mark in his assessment of Egypt as the polar opposite of Greece. In ancient Greece, women possessed no legal standing and had to appoint a male to represent them in legal affairs. Upper-class Egyptian women enjoyed far more rights. One book of instruction for […]
What Is the Only Excavated Egyptian Royalty Tomb Discovered Intact?
The ruins of the ancient Egyptian kingdoms provide an endless source of speculation for historians and Egyptologists. Understanding more aspects of the region’s culture depends on excavating remains, but many archaeological finds are often damaged over time or ruined by grave robbers. There is one royal tomb found completely intact, at the site of the […]
This is Why Women Were the Real Leaders in Ancient Egypt
One of the reasons Ancient Egyptian civilization is a great one is that it was built by both men and women alike. Women weren’t only responsible for housework and child-rearing, but had other great roles, such as being great warriors, rulers, and diplomats. Contrary to modern times, ancient Egyptians appreciated women’s role and dealt with them equally. […]
What Pharaohs Put in Their Tombs
The pharaohs, or kings, of ancient Egypt were buried in accordance with lavish and complex funeral rites. Priests and mourners placed a wide variety of objects in pharaohs’ tombs, including offerings the deceased was supposed to use in the afterlife. The types of objects placed within the grave varied over time, reflecting changing social customs […]
Women in Ancient Egyptian Literature
The literature of Ancient Egypt did not hesitate to present women as frivolous, capricious, and rarely trustworthy. But despite this, women benefitted from a status that was rare in the civilizations of the time. While the painters and sculptors gave to women a serene image as part of a happy family, the writers were not […]
Women playing an official role at the highest levels
Few ancient civilizations enabled women to achieve important social positions. In Ancient Egypt, there are not only examples indicating women high officials were not so rare, but more surprising (for its time), there are women in the highest office, that of Pharaoh. More than a kind of feminism, this is a sign of the importance […]
Pregnancy and Childbirth
There is much evidence of complex beliefs and practices in Ancient Egypt related to the important role fertility played in society. Religious beliefs included rules concerning purification, similar to other religions in the region. Women in Egypt were believed to be eliminating impure elements during menstruation, and were excused from work and could not enter […]
Women’s Legal Equality with Men
Current knowledge of Ancient Egypt indicates that Egyptian women were the equal of men under the law (unlike Greco-Roman or Mesopotamian women during the same period). Thus, they could own land, manage their own property and represent themselves in court cases. They could sit on juries and testify in trials. At the same time, they […]
Mythological Beliefs & Scientific Reasons for the Mummification of the Royals in Ancient Egypt
Mummies, elaborate tombs, and gold funerary coffins are synonymous with ancient Egypt. The most famous ancient Egyptian royal mummies, including Tutankhamun and Ramesses II, are on display in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, Egypt. If not for mummification, the bodies of these kings would have never been preserved thousands of years after death. Mummification began […]
