Egyptian Egyptian ArtisanryArtisanry

• Artisans only produced work for higher class people.

• The same basic materials were used throughout the Egyptian period.

• Woodwork:– Cabinet makers for the rich;– Lower classes made their own basic

furniture– Shipwrights also for the rich

• Metalwork:–Gold, silver, electrum, iron, copper,

bronze;–Smelting of copper and tin for bronze,

and later of iron;–Used for funerary items and jewellery

for the rich.

• Stone Masons

– Worked on temples, houses and tombs for the higher classes,

– Sculpture for Royalty (‘advertising’),

– Draftsmen and masons separate jobs,

– Stone was polished and painted,

– Bronze saws 3metres long, set with jewels, and jewelled drills used.

Weights and Measures• Standardisation very important for trade

• The DEBEN was a standard of weight/worth

• It was used as a ‘proto-currency’ (“almost-money”)

• Sets of bronze rings were kept as a ‘base’ for exchange (they weren’t exchanged)

• Most Egyptians lived at subsistence level, so could not ‘afford’ luxuries

• (the basically grew enough to feed themselves, with a bit extra for tax),

• 60kg of wheat = Two Deben of Copper

Conversion rates:• 1/12 deben = one Seniu

• 1 seniu of silver = 8 deben of copper

• 1 loaf of bread = 1 deben of copper

• 1 litre of beer = ½ deben of copper

• Foreman earned 15 sacks of corn (4 ½ deben)

• Worker earned 11 sacks

Taxes

• Temples owned 1/3 of all land and were exempt from tax

• Grain was heavily taxed (and the redistributed by government)

• Peasants were taxed the most heavily

Imports

Product FromOrnaments, oils, wine AfghanistanCedar LebanonOlive oil, pottery MediterraneanGold, ivory, ebony NubiaSilver PalestineIncense, resin PuntCopper, turquoise, malachite Sinai