- Agriculture
- Egypt was an agricultural country in which the bulk of the population were peasant farmers involved in work on the land. The fertility of the land caused by the Nile floods ensured that crops were generally abundant and famines, while they did occur, were rare. The main crops were wheat and barley used to make bread and beer, the staple diet of the people. Vegetables were also produced, and vineyards are attested. Flax was planted to produce linen for clothing, and fodder was grown for livestock. The life of the countryside was dominated by the agricultural schedule. Planting followed the Nile flood in the early summer, and the peasantry was available for government-forced labor toward the end of the growing season. Government inspectors determined the amount of tax due from the individual plots, and the collected grain was stored and used to feed government employees, as at Deir elMedina. In Egypt’s barter economy, a measure of wheat was used to value less expensive goods.Most of the land was owned by the royal court, the temples, and the bureaucracy, but along with the large estates, small private plots are also attested. Most of the people were presumably landless peasants who worked on the large estates as sharecroppers or laborers, but some peasants owned their own land by inheritance or gift of the crown. Enterprising farmers owned some land, rented out more from the estates, and hired laborers, so the status of the agricultural population may be varied.Historical Dictionary Of Ancient Egypt by Morris L. Bierbrier
Ancient Egypt. A Reference Guide. EdwART. 2011.
