Friday 1 July 2011

Family Life in Ancient Egypt

Toys and Games
Egyptian children had toys made from wood or clay to play with. These included dolls, toy animals and toy soldiers. Balls were made from strips of leather or linen wrapped tightly together.

Noble Pastimes
Richer families could afford more elaborate toys for the children and games for the adults. One of the most popular games was senet. This was played by moving pieces around an oblong board marked with squares. Nobody knows exactly how senet was played because nobody wrote the rules down.

Looking Beautiful
Rich Egyptian women used different sorts of make up to make themselves look as beautiful as possible. Colours were ground up in pots and mixed with oil before being applied8  with a small brush. Some women shaved their heads so that they could wear elaborate wigs.

Wigs
Egyptian wigs were made from real human hair that was grown long, then cut off and shaped into complex designs. The wigs were cared for using combs, pins and hooks. Most clothes were made from white or cream linen. Shoes made of leather or woven reeds were usually in the eh form of open-toed sandals.

Scribe School
Only boys were sent to school to learn how to read and write. They began attending at the age of nine and stayed to the age of 16. There were more than 700 symbols in the Hieroglyph method of writing and a boy had to learn them all before he could become a scribe.

Jewellery for all Tastes
Egyptians wore much jewellery. Poor people wore pieces made from coloured shells or painted wood. Richer people could afford gold, silver and precious stones. Jewellery was often made in the shape of animals, especially those sacred to a god.

That’s Amazing
Most houses had a small figure of Bes, the god of marriage. He was shown as a short, ugly dwarf with a long beard.

        

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