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Once the floods receded and the fields dried, the plants would wither and die. The mud that the Nile left behind needed lots of watering in the hot sun. The ancient Egyptians tried to trap as much flood water as possible, so they did not have to constantly get water from the river.

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The ancient Egyptians made observations in the fields of astronomy and geography that helped them develop a calendar of 365 days a year. The calendar was based on the annual flooding of the Nile. The flooding began soon after the star Sirius reappeared on the eastern horizon after months of being hidden. This reappearance occurred about June 20 each year. The calendar enabled the Egyptians to date much of their history. Dated materials from ancient Egypt have helped scholars date events in other parts of the ancient world.

The ancient Egyptians could measure areas, volumes, distances, lengths, and weights. They used geometry to determine farm borders. Mathematics was based on a system of counting by tens, but the system had no zeros.

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The ancient Egyptians enjoyed music and singing. They used harps, lutes, and other string instruments to accompany their singing. Egyptian love songs were poetic and passionate.

Writers created many stories that featured imaginary characters, settings, or events and were clearly meant to entertain. Other writings included essays on good living called "Instructions."

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Archaeologist Christine Finn goes in search of sounds not heard for millennia.

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Bread was the chief food in the diet of most ancient Egyptians, and beer was the favorite beverage. The bread was made from wheat, and the beer from barley. Many Egyptians also enjoyed a variety of vegetables and fruits, fish, milk, cheese, butter, and meat from ducks and geese. Wealthy Egyptians regularly ate beef, antelope and gazelle meat, and fancy cakes and other baked goods. They drank grape, date, and palm wine. The people ate with their fingers.

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During the New Kingdom (about 1539-1075 B.C.), ancient Egypt had three main  social classes —upper, middle, and lower. The upper class consisted of the royal family, rich landowners, government officials, high-ranking priests and army officers, and doctors. The middle class was made up chiefly of merchants, manufacturers, and craftworkers. The lower class, the largest class by far, consisted of unskilled laborers. Most of them worked on farms. Prisoners captured in foreign wars became slaves and formed a separate class.

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The ancient Egyptians were wonderful traders. They traded gold, papyrus, linen, and grain for cedar wood, ebony, copper, iron, ivory, and lapis lazuli (a lovely blue gem stone.) Ships sailed up and down the Nile River, bringing goods to various ports. Once goods were unloaded, goods were hauled to various merchants by camel, cart, and on foot.

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table = 15 deben

shirt = 5 deben

bird = 1/4 deben

sandals = 2 deben

50 fish = 2 deben

coffin = 10-20 deben

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Chapter Four

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Many of ancient Egypt's finest paintings and other works of art were produced for tombs and temples. Artists covered the walls of tombs with bright, imaginative scenes of daily life and pictorial guides to the afterlife. The tomb paintings were not simply decorations. They reflected the Egyptians' belief that the scenes could come to life in the next world. The tomb owners therefore had themselves pictured not only as young and attractive but also in highly pleasant settings that they wished to enjoy in the afterlife.

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Hieroglyphics is a form of writing in which picture symbols represent ideas and sounds. The word hieroglyphics comes from two Greek words that mean sacred carving. The ancient Egyptians used hieroglyphic writing for more than 3,000 years. They used hieroglyphic writing primarily for religious inscriptions on temples and stone monuments and to record the words and deeds of royalty.

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The Rosetta Stone gave the world the key to the long-forgotten language of ancient Egypt. The first inscription is in ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics. The second is in demotic, the popular language of Egypt at that time. At the bottom of the stone the same message is written again in Greek.