1. FARMERS & SERFS

2. FARMERS Backbone of Egyptian Society (Callender) Provided: Food, Wool & Flax 3 Seasons: Season of Innundation: p When land was flooded. No field work is possible. Time for organised labour. ‘Coming Forth Season: Planting is done and wheat grew Summer: Harvesting took place

3. Tools & Methods Simple Tools Sowing Scattering seeds from a basket Ploughed under (breaking up and turning soil) Plough: At least 2 nd Century Pulled by either animal or man Farmer held handles at other end Sometimes they used animals to do the job. Hoes, Rakes, pitchforks, sickles and dribbles used: Evidence - Depictions in tomb paintings and reliefs

4. Tools & Methods Harvesting Grain was cut with wooden sickles (had animal teeth or splinters of flint glued into cutting edge) Bundles of grain tied together and heaped onto haystacks Women sorted grain from chaff by threshing and winnowing crop Donkeys used for threshing

5. FARMERS Tomb owners display themselves as owners of large estates Work being done is shown to be by servants Farms divided into land units called aroura Farmers made up the bulk of the population Majority of them were conscripted labourers

6. Mastaba of Idut in Saqqarah: Bas-reliefs With Fishing and Farming Scenes 5 th or 6 th Dynasty

7. MERUT / MERWET SERFS

8. Non-landowning farmers Considered to be part of the land Transferred to new owners when the property was transferred Lowest in society: paid rent to landowner by produce & labour Beaten for non-payment Conscripted to work on state projects Lived in suburban sprawls along the banks of the Nile & in Village communities. Estates they lived on belonged to the nobles.