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00:00Beyond the pyramids, beyond all you think you know, lies an undiscovered Egypt.
00:09There's quite an explicit portrayal of sexual love before marriage.
00:14How did ancient Egyptians live and die?
00:18Why should they have all been herded here?
00:20This almost is sinister.
00:22The classic clues of war, famine, and disease.
00:27Now, Peter Woodward reveals startling new discoveries about an ancient land,
00:33Egypt Beyond the Pyramids.
00:49Mention Cairo, and most people think of a place like this.
00:53A timeless world where quiet lives are led behind walls and shutters,
00:57narrow streets filled with the smell of incense,
01:00and the faint clack of dominoes echoing from a drowsy cafe.
01:04Well, all that's still here.
01:06But there's another side to Cairo which perhaps better typifies this old town
01:10at the start of a new millennium.
01:19We're at the entrance to Ramsey's train station in Cairo.
01:22Each day, two million Egyptians arrive to work in this busy city,
01:26increasing the population to over 16 million.
01:30It's a place of contrasts.
01:31Camels move along the streets beside flashy imported cars.
01:36The old mixes with the new.
01:38You can hear the Islamic call to prayer alongside Egyptian pop.
01:43As you watch these people rush to their jobs,
01:46it seems very difficult to imagine ancient Egypt.
01:49Just the other day, I saw the face of the pharaoh Akhenaten walk by.
01:54And over there sits an old man whose features are the same as Seti I.
01:59The ghosts of pharaonic Egypt are still here.
02:02It's just harder to see them.
02:04If you want to connect these people with their ancestors,
02:07then you have to get out of Cairo.
02:19MUSIC SWELLS
02:32Here in the country, it's still possible to glimpse the barest traces
02:36of the everyday life of ancient Egypt.
02:39A shadduf, similar to this one,
02:42has been bringing water to these fields since the age of Ramsey's.
02:47But the truth is, we know very little about the life
02:50of most of the people who once lived here.
02:53I don't mean the kings and the priests and the scribes,
02:56but the peasants who raised the food, the workers who built the temples,
03:00spun the cloth, moulded the pots, crafted the boats and manned the armies.
03:06The common people of Egypt were mostly illiterate,
03:09and so their voices from the past are harder to hear.
03:13But at least today...
03:15..we are trying to listen to those voices.
03:18For the story of ancient Egypt is their story too.
03:32The source of Egypt's great success as a civilisation
03:35was not the authority of her kings nor the might of her armies.
03:39It was this.
03:42The rich, black soil of the Nile Valley.
03:46Each year, like clockwork, the great river rose to cover this land
03:50and renew its vitality with rich nutrients.
03:53It was only this event that kept Egypt alive and kept the deserts away.
03:58As the life-giving waters receded,
04:01the farmers stepped back onto their lands
04:04and Egypt prospered for another year.
04:08At the height of its glory,
04:10ancient Egypt had a population of approximately 7 million,
04:14about that of present-day London.
04:16The vast majority lived on farms.
04:19The crops they planted and harvested not only fed their countrymen,
04:23they formed the basis of the nation's financial system.
04:27There was no currency.
04:29Debts, salaries, purchases in the marketplace
04:32were all paid with commodities.
04:35Most often grain from fields.
04:38Herodotus was very impressed when he went to Egypt and said,
04:41Oh, Egypt is the gift of the Nile.
04:43Egypt is the gift of the Egyptian farmers.
04:45Without those farmers, it would just be a big, annually inundated floodplain.
04:52Then, as now, there was only one river in all of Egypt,
04:56and it was the Nile on which every growing thing depended.
05:00All agricultural life functioned according to a well-defined cycle.
05:07The annual cycle began when summer rains
05:10in the highlands of what is today Ethiopia and Sudan,
05:13swelled the river.
05:15As it entered Egypt, the Nile surged over its banks
05:19and deposited its load of fertile topsoil
05:22onto the farmland which kept Egypt alive.
05:25Generally, the river could be counted on
05:27to return the life-giving flood each year.
05:30But there were periods when the flood was too low or too high
05:34and crops suffered or failed.
05:38Every Egyptian understood this peril.
05:41Their myths and stories,
05:43the very essence of their religious practices,
05:45all had to do with the river
05:47and its critical importance in their lives.
05:50As soon as the inundation started to drop,
05:52you might say that all hell broke loose
05:54because it became very crucial to start preparing the fields.
05:59After the flood, the ground was lightly turned,
06:02then the seeds scattered and worked in
06:04by the feet of men and animals.
06:06Egyptian farmers planted vegetables and legumes
06:09like beans and lentils,
06:11but by far the most important crops
06:13were wheat, barley and wheatgrass.
06:16Bread is something that everyone ate,
06:19regardless of what class you're from,
06:21and even now in Egypt, the word for bread
06:23is the same word as for life, eish.
06:26So to live is to have bread, basically.
06:30While wheat was ground for bread,
06:32barley was raised for the other staple of the Egyptian diet,
06:35beer.
06:37It was also the basis of the two mainstays of the Egyptian diet,
06:41wheat and barley.
06:43While wheat was ground for bread,
06:45barley was raised for the other staple of the Egyptian diet, beer.
06:49Beer was consumed by everyone,
06:51but it was largely the daily drink of the common people.
06:54Royalty, or the wealthy, favoured wine.
06:57Grapes were extensively grown
06:59and Egyptian wine was sought after
07:01by the connoisseurs of the ancient world.
07:06Papyrus texts reveal that although bread and beer
07:09were at all daily meals,
07:11they varied and nutritious.
07:14Leeks, onions, garlic, lettuce and cucumbers were common.
07:18Fruits included dates, melons, figs and pomegranates.
07:22Although Egyptians didn't know of citrus or sugar,
07:25they indulged their sweet tooth with abundant amounts of honey.
07:30Farmers also raised cattle, pigs, sheep, goats and donkeys.
07:36Although pork was common in the diet of peasants,
07:39beef was generally too expensive.
07:42Work that has been done on Zoroarchaeological remains
07:46shows that obviously wealthier people,
07:48such as the pharaoh and his court,
07:50would consume far more beef
07:52than would people who were much poorer or workmen.
07:58With the river being rarely more than a few miles
08:01from any Egyptian's home,
08:03fish was an extremely important food item.
08:06The river also created thick marshes,
08:09which were home to great flocks of migrating ducks and geese.
08:14Men, both rich and poor, hunted waterfowl
08:17with carved throwing sticks for sport and food.
08:22These wildfowl supplemented the domestically raised ducks and geese,
08:26which provided eggs, flesh and fat.
08:29Chickens did not arrive on Egyptian farms
08:32until more than 2,500 years after the pyramids were built.
08:37When at last the crops were ripe,
08:39farm life entered the next critical phase in the rural cycle,
08:43the harvest.
08:45Wheat and barley were cut with sharp stone or copper sickles,
08:49then threshed by pounding the heads of the grain
08:51against a slotted piece of wood.
08:54The grain was separated from the chaff by throwing it in the air.
08:58Although women were not expected to work in the fields,
09:01harvest was the exception,
09:03and everyone, including children, pitched in.
09:09Most land in Egypt was owned by the pharaoh or the great temples.
09:15This meant that the joy of the harvest was tempered
09:18when representatives of the owner arrived to collect their tax.
09:25We know that the ordinary Egyptians
09:27probably always resented the taxes levied on them by the state.
09:31We do find amongst the written records of the elite
09:34references to the fact that the tax collectors can expect trouble
09:39when they go to collect the sacks of grain from the farmers,
09:43and in fact the tax collectors go with escorts, men carrying big sticks.
09:49Then, as now, there were penalties for cheating on your taxes,
09:53although the punishment was far more dramatic.
09:57But not even taxes could take away from the satisfaction
10:00farmers felt from the bounty which rewarded their labour.
10:04Harvest meant that the cycle of life in the Nile Valley
10:07had wound through its season.
10:10Life in Egypt would be free from want for another year.
10:23We've looked at what life was like for farmers in rural Egypt.
10:26But the ancient Egyptians had great cities too, like Memphis and Thebes.
10:31We're on our way to the site of what was once a thriving city
10:34here in the Nile Delta, about 100 miles north of Cairo.
10:38This place was renowned throughout the ancient world
10:41for its wine and its perfumes.
10:44But it has more questions than answers.
10:47It's a place of great mystery.
10:50We are heading towards the site of the ancient city of Mendes.
10:57The city of Mendes was located on one of the many branches of the Nile
11:01as it fanned out into the rich delta.
11:07Today, farm workers plant rice on land that was once part of the great city.
11:13Mendes had its beginnings in the earliest days of the Old Kingdom
11:17and evolved into a busy trading port and important religious centre.
11:21But it appears that at one point in Mendes' long history,
11:25the life of this city was interrupted by a mysterious tragedy.
11:31Over 4,000 years ago, after 500 years of astonishing prosperity,
11:37the Old Kingdom dissolved into chaos.
11:42We do not know why.
11:45There is evidence here of people who lived here
11:49There is evidence here of people suddenly packing into the city,
11:53of burning and destruction, hurried burials,
11:56of whole families dying together.
11:59The classic clues of war, famine and disease.
12:08There are no written records here at Mendes or elsewhere
12:11to explain the decline of the Old Kingdom.
12:14But Dr Donald Redford of Penn State University
12:17heads a team that is searching for answers.
12:21They are excavating an Old Kingdom temple built here in Mendes
12:24over 4,000 years ago.
12:28As they have uncovered more of this place of worship,
12:30they have also come upon a place of death.
12:36So we're on top of the temple now, and what was it you found in this area?
12:39Well, we first got into a massive destruction layer.
12:43Someone had lit a fire at some time and fired the bricks
12:46and they had tumbled down in a great conflagration.
12:49And then under that we found a surface associated with the structure,
12:53whatever it was, and on that surface we found a big surprise.
12:57And one of the great surprises of my archaeological career,
13:01and a very dramatic one in fact.
13:08Donald leads me down into the deepest part of his work in the temple.
13:13It was here that workers uncovered startling evidence
13:16of more than just a fire.
13:19At this point, well, right where I'm standing in fact,
13:22we first discovered three skeletons,
13:26an old man on top of an old woman on top of a child
13:29in this spot right here.
13:31Then over here we found two more skeletons.
13:35Side by side they had not been buried,
13:39this is not a burial,
13:40because they lay in contorted attitudes,
13:43suggesting they had died traumatically and on the spot.
13:47So the people who died in this place, men, women, children,
13:51were they trapped here, were they prisoners?
13:54It's hard to say.
13:56Actually the walls confining the court are not that high
13:59and they slope out in fact.
14:02It would seem as though if they wanted to escape
14:05and nothing was preventing them, they could have.
14:07But why should they have all been herded here?
14:09This almost is sinister.
14:11You think there may be more bodies here?
14:13Oh, undoubtedly there are.
14:14I would dearly love to know whether we can say anything
14:17about the relationships of these groups,
14:19father or male, female, child,
14:22whether they're indigenous to the area perhaps
14:24or whether they're foreign to the area.
14:26All of this, I think, could be answered,
14:29but it will take a long time and considerably more excavation.
14:35Even with excavation,
14:37what happened here may never be understood.
14:39Was there a revolt or civil war in Mendez
14:42and these people were executed?
14:44Was there some unknown invasion
14:46and these were local citizens killed by the conquerors?
14:49Like so many questions in Egyptology,
14:52there may never be a definitive answer.
14:54We do know that after these deaths, life went on.
15:00So after this disaster, the city and the temple
15:03seem to have been abandoned in some way,
15:05but then later on there was more building here?
15:07Oh, yes.
15:08It was sacred space for an extended period of time
15:10and the temple was rebuilt in the New Kingdom,
15:13refurbished in the centuries after that,
15:15and in fact did not reach its full extent until about 550 BC.
15:20And I'd like to show you that later stage.
15:23In fact, it's the largest and most dramatic.
15:25Right.
15:28So this is another part of this huge temple, Don?
15:31Yes. This, in fact, is the Holy of Holies.
15:33That's really dramatic, isn't it?
15:35Oh, it is. It's fantastic.
15:36It was the latest item to be added to the temple
15:40and it is a great enclosed court with an indirect access
15:44so that you can't see directly into it.
15:46So they wanted to keep it secret.
15:48That's right, yes.
15:49In which there were four of these gigantic shrines.
15:53Three of them were destroyed and have collapsed.
15:56The fragments still remain.
15:58Only one survives.
15:59Even that, an attempt was made to destroy it,
16:02but they were not successful, so it still stands.
16:04And it's the largest monument north of the pyramids in Egypt.
16:08It's really dramatic, especially from down here.
16:10And there were four of those.
16:12There were four, yes.
16:13Each with a god inside.
16:14That's right. Each a form of the Ram God.
16:19The Ram God was held in great esteem by the citizens of Mendes.
16:24It was a symbol of potency and strength
16:26which would ensure a robust prosperity for the city's inhabitants.
16:32So this would have been the centre of life for the whole town.
16:36Yes, it was in a sense the focal point of the entire community.
16:40Everyone would have considered himself a devotee,
16:43at various levels, of the Ram God.
16:46That was his god, his town god.
16:48So this temple was at the centre of a great city.
16:51How long did all this last?
16:53Well, over, what, 5,000 years, I suppose.
16:57But we could have still seen this temple
17:00standing in the Middle Ages.
17:02It was only after that that it was demolished for the stone,
17:05for the limestone in particular.
17:07And through the depredations of early archaeologists
17:10who were treasure hunters, the whole thing collapsed.
17:15Birds nest in this place now.
17:18But 2,500 years ago, a god lived here.
17:22And after the dark night of Mendes' unexplained tragedy in the Old Kingdom,
17:27he again smiled on this ancient town.
17:32Mendes' greatest years were from 600 to 330 BC.
17:38The remains of the city's great walls
17:41overlook what was an active port on the river.
17:44Merchant ships from as far away as Greece
17:47brought their cargos here to Mendes' busy harbour.
17:50Timber and precious oils were traded for Egyptian grain, gold and wine.
17:58Today, the route of the Nile has shifted far away from this place.
18:02The once-bustling harbour is now little more than scrub brush and sand.
18:09Donald Redford and I walked atop the ancient city walls,
18:12and he gave me a sense of the great port that once thrived on this spot.
18:19In the middle background, where the line of trees is,
18:22you would have seen the river, the Mendesian branch of the Nile.
18:25But in the foreground here, you would have had the harbour coming in,
18:29a great triangular-shaped harbour.
18:31So this was a real centre of trade.
18:33Oh, very much so, yes. There is no docks as far as we can say.
18:36We found one anchor, by the way, in the excavations,
18:39which virtually proves that it is a harbour.
18:42And the ships would have been beached,
18:44a mooring stake would have been driven in,
18:46and then a gangplank laid down,
18:48and the porters would have come with their bales and whatnot.
18:53Egypt had so much to offer.
18:55It was filthy rich with resources
18:58that it acted like a great magnet on the peoples of the world.
19:02Everybody wanted to come here. Everybody wanted to trade.
19:05It was worth your while to even build a ship
19:08and go into partnership with a neighbouring big man, if you were a Phoenician,
19:12and send it down here to Egypt. You would make a fortune.
19:16In addition to the ancient harbour,
19:18Donald is also trying to learn more about where people lived here at Mendez.
19:22Over here on this side, that is the remains of the town itself.
19:26That's the town. In fact, at this point, you see, you have prime land
19:30because it collects the north wind.
19:32It has a marvellous location.
19:34And so it was occupied by major public buildings,
19:38maybe the house of the governor or whoever was in charge.
19:42If one were to excavate, and we have partly excavated over there,
19:46you would find great enclosures with rather well-built buildings
19:50housing the scribes and the elite of the community.
19:53In fact, you can see, as we look, that there are eroded walls still in place.
19:59These could be plotted, and then we'd have a much better idea
20:02of these great public buildings.
20:04I would love to get out there, and that is on the agenda,
20:07if I last that long.
20:09What strikes me, standing here, is, first of all,
20:12that you have an entire city that you're digging.
20:15It's huge. You have temples, you have not one but two harbours.
20:19You have an entire town there that's been virtually unexcavated.
20:23And it is also quite the most beautiful place, isn't it?
20:27Oh, it is. It's very striking.
20:33Life in Mendes was uniquely cosmopolitan.
20:37But in other ways, life here would have been very similar
20:41to that in most cities of ancient Egypt.
20:44We do have an idea of what it was like to live in an Egyptian city.
20:48And they were quite congested.
20:50They didn't have broad avenues, generally.
20:52They had networks of rather narrow streets, rather irregularly laid out.
20:56And the houses were nested together
20:59so that you had the large houses of elite individuals
21:03surrounded by the houses of people of much lower status.
21:09About the only important resource that Egypt lacked was good timber.
21:14The wealthy could purchase lumber from faraway Phoenicia,
21:17which is today Lebanon.
21:19The poor made do with the trunks of palm trees.
21:25Just as in the Egypt of today,
21:27shortage of lumber in ancient times
21:29was solved by building most houses from mud bricks.
21:33The thick bricks made houses which were cool and quite comfortable.
21:38I think from what we see in the arrangement of the houses
21:41and the layout and the scenes that they show, generally depict,
21:45that they were very clean and that they were maintained very well
21:49and also decorated nicely and often painted.
21:53But Egyptian tidiness and pride in their homes
21:56did not seem to extend to the streets outside their front doors.
22:01Sanitation was virtually nonexistent, even in the houses of the elite.
22:05There's no such thing as running water or drainage or anything like that.
22:09And we know that the rubbish dumps that built up over time
22:14from the continual cleaning of the house
22:17and the discarding of waste and so forth,
22:19they were quite careful about keeping their houses clean,
22:22but the rubbish dump was right around the corner.
22:24You dumped around the back of your house.
22:27Like the rest of their countrymen,
22:29citizens of Mendez were probably quite gregarious,
22:32congregating near the temples and marketplaces
22:34to visit their neighbours and hear the news of the day.
22:37It was in these social settings that we would have been able to see
22:41how much Egyptians cared about their personal appearance.
22:46The Egyptians, like people today, were also very keen on how they looked.
22:50And, I mean, image, I won't say, was everything,
22:52but it certainly played a large part.
22:54So the Egyptians spent quite a lot of time, it appears,
22:58on adorning themselves.
23:01The fabric of choice for virtually all Egyptian clothing was linen,
23:05made from the fibre of flax plants.
23:09Although Egypt is today famous for cotton,
23:12it wasn't grown in ancient times.
23:14It was linen that filled Egypt's looms
23:17and was spun into a variety of clothing for the king and his subjects.
23:24For the peasant, dress was little more than a loincloth.
23:27But for wealthy Egyptians, linen was amazingly versatile
23:31and could be fashioned into everything
23:33from beautifully pleated skirts to delicately thin shawls.
23:39If we look at the art of the ancient Egyptians,
23:41we would think that the Egyptians usually walked around
23:44in rather skimpy clothing, enjoying a very balmy climate.
23:48And I'm sure in the summer and the spring in Egypt,
23:51they did dress very lightly.
23:53But in Egypt, the windows are actually very cold.
23:56And we can be sure, and there are actually textual references to this,
24:00that Egyptians would wear quite heavy clothing,
24:03you know, robes and long garments
24:06to protect themselves from the cold.
24:10Records found in the ruins of one village
24:12also show that long before the first boutique,
24:15Egyptian women had a sense of fashion and vanity.
24:20I do think that the ancient Egyptian women
24:23were conscious of their dress.
24:25And one of the quotes we have coming up several times
24:29is that they don't have a thing to wear.
24:31And they obviously had something to wear, but it wasn't good enough.
24:36Although many working-class Egyptians spent their days barefoot,
24:40getting around Egypt involves walking over a lot of sharp rocks and hot sand.
24:45Sandals were popular.
24:47The wealthy could afford to have theirs made of leather.
24:50The poor accepted straw footwear.
24:54Jewelry, even for the poor,
24:56was an important part of the image Egyptians wished to present.
24:59But no part of grooming and personal style
25:02had greater importance than make-up.
25:05As an actor, I couldn't resist seeing how I would look as an Egyptian.
25:11Make-up itself probably started as a sort of protection against the sun.
25:17Both sexes used it.
25:19And most classes of people, from the peasant to the king,
25:23wouldn't be caught without it.
25:26Even during the work day.
25:29Eye make-up had several purposes.
25:31It kept infection and flies away.
25:34And it was believed to have magical properties.
25:37It also reduced the glare of the sun,
25:40rather like ball players who wear black streaks under their eyes.
25:46Red ochre was ground up
25:49to create a sort of rouge for the cheeks.
25:54And it was also mixed with oil and fat
25:58to create what we would call lipstick.
26:04The Egyptian medicine chest had various deodorants,
26:09depilatories, even anti-wrinkle cream.
26:15Oh, yes, most Egyptians shaved their heads.
26:18And quite right, too. Bald is beautiful.
26:21It also keeps the lice away.
26:24But you wouldn't want the sun beating down on your head all day,
26:27so all classes of Egyptians wore wigs.
26:32The poor made theirs out of vegetable fibre.
26:35The rich could afford real hair.
26:41Which means they probably had real bad hair days.
26:46Right, that's it. How do I look?
26:49Ready for a day of work or a night out in Memphis or Thebes?
26:53No, perhaps not quite ready.
27:02In ancient Egypt, how people lived
27:05was often influenced by where they lived.
27:10Some settlements began near harbours,
27:13others at the intersection of trade routes,
27:17still others at strategically important spots along the Nile.
27:23But much of what we know about urban life in Egypt
27:26comes from the remains of a unique town
27:29which existed wholly to support cemeteries.
27:37Those cemeteries were the land of the ancient Egyptians.
27:41Those cemeteries were the legendary tombs
27:44in the Valley of the Kings and the Valley of the Queens.
27:48They were located on the west bank of the Nile,
27:51across from the great religious centre of Thebes.
27:55We're in the entrance corridor
27:57of one of the many tombs in the Valley of the Kings.
28:00Each one of these great spaces had to be carved out of solid rock,
28:03and it required the labour of hundreds of men.
28:06Some dug and carried the rock,
28:08some drew and carved the reliefs into the limestone,
28:11still others painted the amazing scenes we see around us.
28:14To provide housing for this valuable and skilled workforce,
28:18a special village was created.
28:25This workman's village is today called Deir el-Medina,
28:28Arabic for Monastery of the Town.
28:33Beginning in 1500 BC,
28:35this desolate spot was home to the artisans
28:38who created the grand tombs for Egypt's nobility.
28:43The spot selected for the settlement was anything but ideal.
28:48The relentless Egyptian sun scorches the site,
28:51and there are no trees or water.
28:56There isn't even a view of the Nile, flowing less than two miles away.
29:01But the location of Deir el-Medina had one thing going for it.
29:05It was only a short walk to the work going on in the valley tombs.
29:12The people who worked on temples would have moved from one site to another,
29:17right after that temple was constructed.
29:20But the Valley of the Kings was maintained for a long time,
29:24so the people who were working there
29:27maintained these jobs and their families,
29:30and maintained the relationships,
29:32and we have such a full record of what went on there.
29:36Archaeologists who found Deir el-Medina
29:39were fortunate to also discover an ancient rubbish dump
29:42filled with priceless information.
29:46We're very lucky that they left behind their scratch paper,
29:49and that is basically this.
29:51This is what we call in the Egyptology trade an ostracon.
29:55It could be either a shard of limestone, like you see here,
29:58or it could be a potsherd, broken pottery,
30:01and this was basically just a medium on which you wrote in ink,
30:05which is made out of lamp black and water.
30:07Fortunately, we found quite a cache of these things.
30:13These small chips of stone are the remnants of records, diaries,
30:17and informal notes which give us a priceless glimpse
30:20into the lives of the Egyptians who lived in this place.
30:23No other city in ancient Egypt is so well documented.
30:28The workers of Deir el-Medina were highly valued and well paid.
30:32There is even record of workers going on strike to protest grievances.
30:38The people who lived here were not slaves.
30:41There's this Cecil B. DeMille image
30:44of the royal tombs being built by captives
30:48who were then slaughtered to keep the location of the tomb secret,
30:52and that simply wasn't so.
30:55Several hundred people at a time would have lived here.
31:00Workers were given houses which had been constructed by the state.
31:04The houses were organized along passageways
31:07which more resembled alleys than streets.
31:10There was very little open space outside,
31:13but the interiors were comfortable and even contained some furniture.
31:18Furniture was sparse, and yet we have at least two tombs from,
31:22three tombs, I guess, from Deir el-Medina's cemetery
31:26that had about 25 to 30 pieces of furniture,
31:30mostly small wooden chairs and stools.
31:36They clearly worked very hard,
31:38but working hard does not mean life was grim.
31:43The houses they lived in,
31:45although perhaps they were small,
31:48actually would have been quite pleasant places to be.
31:54These low walls are all that are left to us of the houses of Deir el-Medina.
31:59Today they appear crude and inhospitable.
32:02But for almost four centuries,
32:04these structures were home to generations of workers and their families.
32:09Their home life might have seemed familiar
32:12to those of us living 3,500 years later.
32:18It's the start of a new work week
32:20for the stonecutter who lives in this house in Deir el-Medina.
32:23In the summer, even the nights can be really hot,
32:26so the family probably slept up here on the roof.
32:29He'd come down in the morning and find his kids' toys on the stairs again,
32:34walk into this room, the kitchen,
32:36where his wife was probably already preparing his breakfast on the hearth here.
32:40She'd have got the ingredients from this cool cellar down the steps in the corner,
32:44and from the grinding stone over here.
32:47What's for breakfast? Well, bread, certainly,
32:50and probably cheese, onions and beer.
32:53No, seriously, beer was a very important staple food for the ancient Egyptian.
32:58It was low in alcohol content and probably had the consistency of a soup,
33:03but you can't have everything.
33:05So he'd come here to this small bedroom used in the winter and get dressed.
33:09This was not a major problem,
33:11as all he had to put on was a loincloth and possibly some straw sandals,
33:15although most men seemed to have worked barefoot.
33:18Then into the all-purpose living room.
33:21Now, here would be a niche with the household gods,
33:25who would themselves be family ancestors.
33:27And over here, the seat for the master of the house.
33:31Now, these were skilled workmen,
33:34so their homes were probably quite pleasant places.
33:37Plastered walls, nicely whitewashed, matting on the floor,
33:41baskets, wooden furniture.
33:44Through here is the front reception room,
33:47with this daybed in the corner.
33:50Mother-in-law's asleep.
33:52Now, there'd be no windows in these houses.
33:55That's to keep out the heat,
33:57but there would be ventilation slots in the ceiling.
34:00That would mean that the whole place would be rather dark,
34:03but quite cool, considering the intense heat of summer.
34:06All in all, it's not such a bad place
34:09for a workman and his family in around 1200 BC.
34:13So it's off to work we go.
34:20As the men went off to their jobs,
34:23they left behind a fully functioning village.
34:27Boys and younger men were organised into crews
34:31who replenished food and water supplies from the valley below.
34:35Women stayed busy with household chores.
34:39They also frequently pursued projects to earn extra money.
34:43One of these was selling lamp wicks
34:46they wove for the lamps their husbands used
34:49as they worked in the dark recesses of the tombs.
34:53This is the path that leads to the Valley of the Kings,
34:56just over the top of that mountain.
34:58That's Deir el-Medina down there.
35:00Our stonecutter probably wouldn't see it for another nine days.
35:03That's the length of the work week.
35:05During the week, most workers prefer to stay in small huts
35:08closer to the tombs in the valley.
35:10So perhaps here he would turn to wave goodbye
35:13to his wife and children in the village below
35:16and then continue his half-hour hike.
35:20Around 1100 BC, Egypt experienced a period of instability.
35:25Outsiders invaded her borders
35:28and civil strife was rampant within the country.
35:34It's possible that the residents of the village felt exposed
35:37and defenceless to the dangers which surrounded them.
35:40They were afraid of the danger that was lurking within them.
35:43It's possible that the residents of the village felt exposed
35:46and defenceless to the dangers which surrounded them.
35:50After 400 years, the workers finally abandoned Deir el-Medina.
36:02This place, which had been home to ordinary Egyptians for so long,
36:06was soon forgotten.
36:10Roofs collapsed.
36:12Walls turned to rubble.
36:15And the village was at last overtaken by the desert sands.
36:22More than 30 centuries later, Deir el-Medina lives again.
36:28Thankfully, its citizens left many records of their presence.
36:34They've given us a wonderful picture of the everyday life
36:37which flourished in this barren place so very long ago.
36:43The History of Ancient Societies
36:46The history of ancient societies is revealed in events
36:49most often dominated by men.
36:54So it is with Egypt.
36:56The records left to us detailing Egyptian civilisation
36:59are filled with the accounts of male kings,
37:02priests, warriors and scribes.
37:06But of course, the true history of ancient Egypt
37:09is every bit as much the history of her women.
37:16The role of women in Egyptian society
37:18was quite distinct from other early civilisations.
37:22Babylonian, Assyrian and Israelite societies
37:25were dominated by extreme forms of paternal control.
37:32Even Greece, the cradle of democracy,
37:34treated women as little better than household servants.
37:40But in Egypt, it is possible to trace legal equality of women
37:44as far back as 2700 BC.
37:50Women in Egypt could go to court,
37:53they could own property,
37:55they could be a witness,
37:57they could sign documents,
38:00they could leave their property to whomever they wanted.
38:04I often have pointed out, especially to younger women,
38:07that the Egyptian woman,
38:09who was regarded by her state
38:11as a fully legal, independent legal personality,
38:14had more legal rights than some women in the United States
38:18up until the 1950s.
38:22As a sign of legal equality,
38:24women, just like men, were expected to perform annual services.
38:29Women ground paint for tomb decoration,
38:32wove sandals and baskets for labourers.
38:36There is evidence that women even piloted boats on the Nile.
38:42Women did not, as a rule, have important positions
38:45in Egyptian public and political life.
38:49They were not allowed to have children,
38:52they were not allowed to have children.
38:56For the average Egyptian woman,
38:58the bulk of her responsibilities remained in the home.
39:03The woman's work was in the house,
39:05and of course you have to remember that work in the house
39:08was not just the chores of taking out the garbage,
39:11it was almost a production industry.
39:14Bread had to be made every day,
39:17and the women were the ones who were on the millstone,
39:21and then the women were the weavers.
39:24In the house, a woman would have to learn how to spin the thread
39:28to create enough to put on the loom
39:31and weave cloth for the family's clothing.
39:35And the process of creating even linen thread
39:40involves about 24 steps, so it's amazingly complicated.
39:44A young woman would have had to master this
39:47and then learn to weave,
39:49and some of it is the finest,
39:51and learn to weave,
39:53and some of it is the finest quality
39:55that's ever been produced in the world.
39:57It's lightweight and like silk, almost transparent.
40:03In farm families,
40:05women would be in charge of tending ducks and geese,
40:08but also helped in the field when needed.
40:11Women were also responsible for trading farm produce
40:14and manufactured items like baskets or pots in the marketplace.
40:19A woman's productive life began at 12 or 13.
40:23First and foremost, she was expected to find a husband
40:26and begin a family.
40:29Great emphasis was placed on having children early in life.
40:35One has to start here saying that the Egyptian women
40:38were among the most beautiful women you have ever had.
40:42Long legs, small breasts, very upright stance,
40:46and you have these beautiful hips, long arms,
40:50almost dance as bodies.
40:55Courtship seems to have been very informal
40:58and surprisingly without much ritual or restriction.
41:01Relations between young men and women
41:04were also anything but prudish.
41:08The love poetry seems to suggest
41:11that there was a sexual relationship
41:14before marriage in many cases,
41:16at least in the cases of the love poems,
41:19that a young man, a suitor,
41:22would be visiting the young lady in her house
41:25or a young woman would run out of her house
41:28to find her lover in his bed.
41:31So there's quite an explicit portrayal
41:34of sexual love before marriage.
41:38Even in ancient times, romance was often expressed with music.
41:43Egyptians loved their music
41:45and it was part of all aspects of their lives.
41:54Sadly, we have no clear idea
41:56what Egyptian music sounded like,
41:58but we do have the words to some of their songs.
42:01This is part of a love song, sung by a young man
42:04to her lover, whom she calls her brother.
42:10My brother, it is pleasant to go to the pond
42:13in order to bathe in thy presence,
42:16that I may let thee see my beauty
42:19in my tunic of finest royal linen
42:22when it is wet.
42:24Fairest one, my desire shall be
42:27that if my brother cannot be with me tonight,
42:32then am I like him who is in the grave,
42:36for art thou not health and life?
42:41You know, they don't write them like that any more.
42:51Girls were eligible for marriage as soon as they reached puberty.
42:55Boys were slightly older, between 16 and 20.
42:58Although the courtship of a young couple
43:00might have been thoroughly romantic,
43:02the actual event of their marriage certainly was not.
43:07Marriage in ancient Egypt was an institution,
43:10but not a sacrament.
43:12So far as we can tell, for example,
43:14there really was no marriage ceremony.
43:17A couple of families would agree that a couple should be married
43:20or a couple might agree to marry with their family's support,
43:24but there was no real marriage ceremony.
43:27Virginity was not a requirement of a bride or groom,
43:31but after marriage, fidelity was taken very seriously.
43:36Once people were married,
43:38it was assumed that they would be faithful to each other,
43:41and actually, from what we know
43:44from the writings of the sages of the time,
43:48this applied to both the husband and wife.
43:51Fidelity in marriage was regarded as the proper way of life.
43:55Divorce was not uncommon among Egyptians,
43:58and either partner could initiate the process.
44:01There was no social stigma.
44:03Divorced men and women frequently remarried.
44:07In spite of their attitude about divorce,
44:10the institution of marriage
44:12was at the very centre of Egyptian society.
44:17The ancient Egyptians often are shown
44:19with arms around one another, husbands and wives,
44:22and it's very sweet,
44:24because it's not a huge demonstration of affection,
44:27but it's very discreet, and they both look very happy.
44:30The idea of family and a sense of affection and love for one another
44:34was very strong in ancient Egypt, just as it is today.
44:40It's tempting for modern society to assume that technology
44:43has given us some unique perspective on life,
44:46which the average person in ancient Egypt could not have known.
44:49But this sort of cultural bias
44:51denies the facts of the history of this place.
44:54It's very clear that the ancient Egyptians loved their country,
44:58treasured their families,
45:00and sought the same peace and contentment as we do,
45:03thousands of years later.
45:05The basic elements which make life worth living
45:08were as treasured by these ancient peoples
45:11as they are by those of us who occupy our own place in time.
45:15¶¶
45:45¶¶