Daily Life In Ancient Egypt
The ancient Egyptian civilization started around 3000 BC in northeast Africa along the Nile River. The Nile flooded, and the sun evaporated the land consistently each year. The society continued following the same lifestyle methods which were mixed with the Egyptian religious belief on the true meaning of life. As a teen mother and wife in everyday life in ancient Egypt, my family is my main priority. As a tomb painter, I'm able to maintain my home and produce crops. Ultimately, ensuring that I can look and dress more appealing to impress the gods. Most marriages have been arranged by families where girls marry at a young age.
As a teen mother, I've hired servants to help raise my children. Although I do serve for my husband, I have the same equal rights as him with the ability to own property. My home, built of stone, has five bedrooms with built-in bathrooms. The home consisted of my family and servants. My garden was built in my courtyard where I've planted crops such as herbs, fruits, and vegetables. The most important crop was wheat, for bread, and barley for beer as fresh water was difficult to find; if needed, fish were hunted from the Nile. There are methods of collecting the yearly floodwaters during the akhet for later use for shemu as plants grew during peret. We separated the year into three seasons on the cycles of the Nile River. The Akhet period was between June and October for the flooding season. Between October and February, the plants grew from the rich soil from the flooding. The harvesting season, known as the shemu, crops have fully grown between the months of March and May.
This routine was important as it is integrated with the true representation of our lives and to ensure that the afterlife is good for my family. In a workshop along with other craftsmen, tomb painting is highly important for the afterlife. I've created paintbrushes from palm leaves or knotted rope that was ripped off to form hard bristles. The paint was created from crushed minerals blended with vegetable gum or egg.
I’ve also created my Kalasiris, a long linen dress made from fine linen made from flax, and jewelry from colored pottery beads. My makeup routine included black kohl for eyeliner and used powdered minerals for eyeshadow. The entire look was to honor the gods and my amulet was used for protection and strength. Although Egypt is a dry land where the shortage of water makes it difficult to produce crops, the annual flooding of the Nile River every year made the Nile Valley a rich area. Everything in our lives that appears lost at death is returning to the afterlife and building a life worthy of immortality.
