Page 29 - SYTYGIB: Ancient Egypt

At harvest time, men cut the crops with a sickle while women and children bound the stalks into sheaves. So stop moaning about taking the bins out.
Both boys and girls are depicted doing simple farm work in ancient drawings. A picture in the tomb of Djeserkareseneb (try saying that with a mouth full of custard!) shows a boy and girl beside each other picking up ears of corn, which they then put in a basket to carry.
It wasn’t a great job, but at least you could freak people out by telling them that you were carrying a basket full of ears, which is pretty cool.
Why? Because it´s all ears?!
This basket is a great listener.
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Doyoueverwish . . .
you didn’t have to tidy your room to earn pocket money?
Well, at least you get SOMETHING! In ancient Egypt, slaves were used to carry out work, serve households and build things.
Although slavery is shocking to
us now, it was common back then. Many of the slaves were soldiers from other countries who had lost in battle to the Egyptians, and had been taken prisoner. Others
had been sold into slavery.
Slaves even worked as musicians, dancers and accountants. Although
it was once said that many thousands of slaves were used to build the pyramids, it is now thought that they weren’t built by slaves at all, but by free men.
The people who owned slaves, called masters, could make an enslaved person learn a trade or craft. That wasn’t to help them, though, it was to make the slave more valuable. One (very) small relief was that masters were not allowed to force child slaves to perform harsh physical jobs. But still, life wasn’t exactly a hoot for slave kids . . .
Chores and jobs