Ancient Egypt

Society and Bureaucracy

Temple of Amun at Karnak

Measuring the harvest; Menna's tomb at Luxor (18th Dyn)

Plowing, harvesting, and threshing; painting from the tomb of Nakht, 18th Dyn

Plowing and sowing; painting from the burial chamber of Sennedjem, Deir al-Medina, 19th Dyn

Stereoscopic view of the Nile during inundation.

Aerial view of Deir el-Medina from the west, with the Nile Valley beyond

Detailed view of some of the houses

Section of a typical house

Model of a carpentry workshop in painted wood from a tomb at Deir El-Bhari (11th Dyn)

Carpenters and metalworkers in Rekhmire's tomb at Luxor (18th Dyn)

Hunting birds and fishing in a papyrus swamp; Menna's tomb at Luxor (18th Dyn)Making bread and beer, Royal Ontario Museum

Potters in Rekhmire’s tomb at Luxor (18th Dyn)

Barbers in Userhat’s tomb at Luxor (18th Dyn)

Scenes of viticulture from Priest Khaemwaset’s tomb at Luxor (20th Dyn)

Egyptian scribes at work, from the tomb of Mereruka, Saqqara, Egypt (6th Dyn)

Measurement of the grain from Menna's tomb at Luxor (18th Dyn)

Aerial view of Deir el-Medina from the west, with the Nile Valley beyond

Detailed view of some of the houses

Section of a typical house

Presentation of offerings; a farmer and his wife attend the measurement of their landFrom Menna's tomb at Luxor (18th Dyn)

Spinning and weaving in Khnumhotep’s tomb at Beni Hasan (12th Dyn), 19th-cent copy by Norman de Garis Davies, Metropolitan Museum

Musicians and dancers from Nebamun’s tomb in Luxor (18th Dyn), British Museum

God's Wife of Amun, Amenirdis I, from her tomb at Medinet Habu (25th Dyn)

Dwarf Seneb, his wife, son and daughter, from the Giza necropolis (4th Dyn), Egyptian Museum

Palaeolithic 700,000-7000 BCE

Saharan Neolithic 8800-4700Early 8800-6800Middle 6600-5100Late 5100-4700

Predynastic 5300-3000 Lower Egypt

Neolithic 5300-4000Maadi 4000-3200

Upper EgyptBadarian 4400-4000Naqada I 4000-3500 (Amratian)Naqada II 3500-3200 (Gerzean)Naqada III 3200-3000 (Dynasty 0)

1ST Persian Period (27th-30th) 525-4042d Persian Period 343-332Ptolemaic Period 332-30

Macedonian332-310Ptolemaic 305-30

Roman 30 BCE-642 CE