Women in Ancient EgyptIn ancient Egyptian society women were treated with equality and respect, and had more privileges than in any other ancient civilization except for the ancient Celts. One of the major problems reconstructing this ancient history is that we have hardly any records for the majority of women except for the upper classes. Scholars are using the wisdom texts, medical papyri, some literary sources, and inscriptions in the tombs and mortuary temples to find out about the life of ancient Egyptian women. Egyptian women were relatively short in stature with dark hair, eyes, and light brown skin,although in the paintings of ancient Egyptians, women were portrayed with white skin and men with dark skin because women worked indoors and men outdoors. While we have no formal ancient Egyptian law codes like Hammurabi’s in ancient Mesopotamia, we know that the vizier, second in command to the Pharaoh, was head of the Egyptian judiciary. Each case was considered on its own merits by a local magistrate with the vizier judging the most grave and complex issues. Legally, women could make contracts, borrow or lend goods, and initiate court cases, although women were more likely to be defendants than plaintiffs. Whether a woman was single or married, she had the right to inherit, purchase, and sell property, including slaves. This right to own property was an important legal concession providinga degree of security for women of every status from single, married, and widowed to abandoned women and their dependent children. Women also could make a will, and apparently leave their property to whoever they wished, even bypassing their children. The Lady Naunakhte remarked, “I am a free woman of Egypt. I have raised eight children, and have provided them with everything suitable to their station in life. But now I have grown old and behold, my children don’t look after me any more. I will therefore give my goods to the ones who have taken care of me. I will not give anything to the ones who have neglected me.” Some other startling allowances for women in ancient Egypt were: women could livealone without the protection of a male guardian as in the ancient civilizations of Mesopotamia, Greece and Rome. Once the Ptolemic period (fourth century b.c.e.) occurred in ancient Egypt (successors to Alexander the Great’s conquest) and then the Roman period, women lost their equal legal rights. Women then even applied to have a legal guardian so they would not appear as a provincial Egyptian, but in keeping with Greek and Roman practices. Throughout the ancient Egyptian centuries, women were not secluded when dining either as they were in ancient Greek society. Drinking beer and wine were favorite pastimes of the Egyptians, and in deference to most all other ancient cultures, Egyptian women could drink and even get drunk. Marriage customs in ancient Egypt were another interesting aspect of this culture. The powerful goddess Isis was given credit for instituting marriage to help men settle down. Apparently there were two kinds of marriage, one formalized by a marriage contract, and the other common life with no marriage contract. A girl in ancient Egypt was usually married shortly after the beginning of her menarche or “time of purification.” Both a dowry and a bridal gift were conveyed, again showing the esteem of women in ancient Egypt. While most marriages appear to have been arranged by parents, there is evidence of young people orchestrating their own marriage. Love poems and letters survive giving us a rare vision of pre-nuptial courting. “He is a neighbor who lives near my mother’s house, but I cannot go to him....It pains my heart to think ofhim, and I am obsessed by my love of him. Truly, he is foolish, but I am just the same. He does not know how much I long to embrace him, or he would send word to my mother.” This passage makes no sense unless there was some element of romance within marriage. So far a specific wordmeaning wedding has not been found in the hieroglyphics, or any words conveying the attendant festivities, but we do have some admonishments to prospective husbands. “Take to yourself a wifewhen you are twenty years old that you may have a son while you are still young... and love your wife at home as is fitting. Fill her stomach with food and provide clothes for her back... and make her heart glad, as long as you live.” Indeed, there are even some modern examples of didactic directions to husbands: “Don’t boss your wife in her own house when you know she is efficient. 2Don’t keep saying to her “where is it? Bring it to me” Especially when it is in the place where it ought to be.” In artistic depictions of a man and his wife, equality of size is paramount, again pointing out the difference in Egypt compared with other cultures. Officials generally had their formal sculpture or painting of themselves and their wife, not alone as in modern America. Most marriages were monogamous, although some husbands did have several wives or concubines, but there was always one official wife. Punishment for adultery, though, appears to have been meted out to only the wife. Death or her nose cut off was the result. Divorce was permissible for a variety of reasons, and these seem to be quite modern in comparison to other ancient cultures: mutual incompatibility, workaholic husband, or an adulterous affair for either spouse. Although society did not approve of it, rejection of a barren wife appears common. “Do not divorce a woman of your household if she does not conceive and does not give birth.”The birth of a child was a joyous event. Each newborn received an individual horoscope that was cast just for the baby. If the couple decided they wanted to limit the number of children, the ancient Egyptians seemed to have perfected the art of contraception. Honey and sodium carbonate (natron) were sprinkled into the vulva or crocodile dung was cut up into sour milk and inserted as a pessary. Crocodile dung is like a sponge soaked in vinegar, a common western spermicide up to recent times. Another long-term birth control method, which apparently could prevent pregnancies from one to three years, was a mixture of acacia tips, bitter apple and dates bound with honey, and again used as a pessary. Pregnant women had several goddesses to pray to for a safe delivery: Hathor, Taweret (the pregnant hippopotamus), and Bes, the ugly dwarf god used also in protection of