KS2 History: Ancient Egypt - Society and culture

This is a five deben weight. It's an artefact from Ancient Egypt.

An artefact is an item from a particular time or place that tells us something about life in that time.

Deben weights like this one tell us about the achievements of Ancient Egyptian society.

The first deben weight that we know about dates all the way back to eighteen hundred BC.

Back in Ancient Egypt there was no such thing as money. If Ancient Egyptians wanted something they didn't have they had to tradesomething they did have to get it.

Debens were used to measure out produce in the same way that we use grams or kilograms today.

Each deben weighed exactly the same so that meant it could be used to set a price and ensure a fair exchange.

The fact that Ancient Egyptians could exchange their produce or their skills in this way, meant that they were able to specialise in aparticular job or craft.

It also meant the average diet was really quite varied and nutritious. Ancient Egyptian society started because groups ofpeople were attracted to the River Nile as a source of food and water.

These people built villages along the river and learnt how to farm and use boats to travel.

Eventually the northern areas where most people lived were united under one pharaoh who was called Narmer.

This was the start of a state that lasted for almost three thousand years.

By the time the final pharaoh, Cleopatra VII, was in charge the building of the pyramids was already ancient history.

Over the years there were many wars and revolutions, the shape of society changed quite a lot.

Well, three thousand years is a long time.

But, one thing stayed the same: the pharaoh was always the most powerful and important person in Egyptian society.

In fact, pharaohs were considered so important that it was believed that they could turn into gods after death.

When one Pharaoh died it would usually be his son who became the next pharaoh.

If the pharaoh had no son a daughter might be chosen.

If there was no daughter then it was another member of the Royal Family.

After the pharaoh the next most important people in society were government officials, nobles and high priests.

But most Ancient Egyptians were just ordinary people who did all sorts of different jobs.

A very important job to hold was that of a scribe. These were people, usually men, who could read and write the Ancient

Egyptian style of writing called hieroglyphics.

Back then not everyone got the chance to go to school to learn to read and write.

So you were pretty lucky if you did. It was mostly the children of the rich who got to go to school - usually boys - butsome girls also learnt to read and write at home.

Poorer children were generally taught how to do their parents' jobs and most didn't get the chance to learn reading and writing.

Some Egyptian pharaohs were women - in fact, Ancient Egypt wasn't a bad place to be a woman at all, in nearly every way they were treated as equal to men.

But even so there were still some senior jobs that were reserved for men.

Actually Ancient Egypt wasn't a bad place to live for most people.

When times were good ordinary, average folk, even had time for hobbies and sports.

For less sporty types, there were board games.

Some of the pharaohs loved their board games, so much, they even had them placed in their tombs so that they could play them in the afterlife.

Ghost Pharaoh: Does anyone want to play with me?