Farmers and Peasants
Farmers and Peasants
Hard Life. Peasants and farmers were illiterate. They left no records of their own. Thus, all that scholars know of them depends on descriptions written by professional scribes and paintings and sculpture created by professional craftsmen. Archaeologists have discovered baskets, plows, sickles, and sieves used by farmers and peasants. All the sources agree that the farmer’s life was extremely hard. He suffered from a high rate of disease and probably was not the recipient of the best medical care available.
The Masses. Most people in ancient Egypt were farmers and peasants. In all periods these individuals were tied to the
land. It did not matter if the land was owned by the king, the temple, or entrusted to a nobleman. The farmer’s life varied little.
Constant Labor. Papyrus Anastasi II provides a description of the farmer’s life from a scribe’s point of view. This text emphasizes the unending activity in a farmer’s life. If he was not checking and repairing the irrigation canals, he was making tools for his own use. Even while eating, the farmer was forced to work. There were also potential problems with the farm animals. Teams of oxen could escape, forcing the farmer to spend valuable time searching for them.
Paying the Landowner. When all the backbreaking work of farming was completed, a scribe arrived to claim the landowner’s share. Bodyguards and policemen accompanied the scribe. If the farmer could not produce the required amount of grain, he was subject to beatings. The papyrus also describes the farmer’s family being taken away in chains when taxes were not paid promptly.
Supervision. Another papyrus, Saltier I, suggests that the overseers took pride in pushing the farmers to their limit. In a letter to the landowner, one overseer claimed to be treating the farmers “with the hardness of copper.” Yet, he also claimed to be fair in that the farmers received their daily rations fully and promptly.
Sources
Barry J. Kemp, Ancient Egypt: Anatomy of a Civilization (London & New York: Routledge, 1991).
Alfred Lucas, Ancient Egyptian Materials and Industries, fourth revised edition (London: E. Arnold, 1962).
William J. Murnane, The Penguin Guide to Ancient Egypt (Harmondsworth, U.K.: Penguin, 1983).