Ancient Egyptian Jobs

Did you know that the Egyptians inherited their jobs? Your job often depended on your social class. Your social class was your rank in society. There were three classes; upper class, middle class, and lower class. Now let's explore the social scale and the jobs in each rank.

The upper class had the most important jobs. One example of these was scribes. Scribes wrote down trial data and trade deals. It took years of training to become a scribe. Scribes wrote on statues, coffins, and pyramids in their form of writing called Hieroglyphics. Another important job was being a priest. Priests had families, but they spent much of their time at the temple, where they lead ceremonies and the Daily Rite, a daily prayer. The most important job however, was the pharaoh. It was his/her job to make decisions. He/she was also the high priest.

The middle class was made up of people who performed some kind of task that involved an object. The majority of this population were craftspeople. Craftspeople included carpenters, jewelers, weavers, leather workers, and potters. People in the middle class were also doctors. Egyptian doctors set broken bones, gave medicine, and treated wounds. The medicine they used was made up of waste, blood, and urine. There were also merchants, who sold anything they could get their hands on.

The lower class made up somewhere between 80and90%of the population. One very important job was farming. Farmers grew foods such as barley, which they used to make beer wheat, which was used to bake bread vegetables such as onions and cucumbers and flax;which was used to make linen. They also grew figs, melons, pomegranates, and corn. Soldiers were also a very important job. When soldiers were not fighting foreign countries, they were helping with government projects. Some people had a job as a trader. Traders traded objects such as gold, papyrus, linen, ebony, copper, iron, ivory, lapis lazuli, and grain. They traded grain for seder wood.

Luckily, in America we can be anything we want as long as we work hard. As mentioned before, you inherited your job in ancient Egypt. In conclusion, the jobs in ancient Egypt were mostly designated by social class.

Cite this page