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26 Jan, 13 tweets, 5 min read
In ancient Egypt marriage was considered to be for a lifetime, however, divorces were fairly common. With an average lifespan of about 30 years, boys were usually married by the ages of 15-20 y/o and girls around 12 y/o. Incest and polygamy were disapproved, except for royalty.
While the primary considerations for partners were quality of lineage, integrity, and personal habits, many couples also looked for romantic love. Many ancient Egyptian tomb drawings depict affectionate gestures between man and wife, indicating the a value of romantic love.
Men and women set out to make their spouses happy because for them marriage would go beyond the grave. More emphasis was placed on the woman's happiness, a man was expected to provide for his wife in a manner that would please her and ensure her happiness.
A wife was expected to happily provide a neat and clean house, keep herself well groomed and have well mannered children. Wives and husbands were equal, although men were the masters of their homes and the wife and children were to obey him, the wives weren’t subordinate to them.
There were no requirements for a legal ceremony for a marriage. When a couple decided to marry, or their parents arranged the marriage for them, the bride gathered her belongings and moved them into the groom's house, whereupon they were considered to be married.
When a man took a wife, it was understood that he had his own household; men didn't marry until they could afford to live on their own. They didn't marry and then continue to live with his or his wife's parents. He had to be responsible to provide for his wife and children.
Except for the very poor, a marriage in ancient Egypt usually had a contract similar to a prenuptial agreement. This document specified the bride’s price, in essence a reverse dowry; the amount the groom's family paid to the bride's family for the privilege of marrying her.
The contract specified what would be paid to the wife if the husband divorced her, the items that the bride brought into the marriage and what she would take with her in the event of a divorce. Children would go and stay with the mother, regardless of who terminated the marriage.
The marriage contracts ensured that the ex-wife was not left destitute.The agreement was compiled by the bride's father and signed in the presence of witnesses; this was usually the only documentary evidence of a legal marriage. G.Fischer, T. Allen, H.Bancroft, R. Baber, R.David.
Ancient Egyptians had no issues showing affection and car for each other, as was depicted in wall paintings, stelae, and statues like the one below, a couple from the New Kingdom.
Akhenaten and Nerfertiti at the Louvre.
We couldn’t left out to Ramesses and his queen Nefertari, for whom he built a temple in Abu Simbel
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More from @surimana16

12 Jan
Appearance was very important for ancient Egyptians, and they are known as a symbol of ancient beauty, vanity, and hygiene. The way they looked and their hair style represented their wealth, status, role in society, gender and age. ImageImage
Slaves and lower class couldn’t have the same hairstyle as a free person or the upper class. Men usually wore their hair short, women wore their hair long or short and boys and girls had their hair shaved off with only a long lock of hair left on the side of the head. ImageImage
Wigs were used for the daily life of the royals, but also at major festivals and events. Egyptian wigs usually were made in a structure similar to the helmet, like the Nubian style. Some of them were brightened blue, red or green, and decorated with precious stones and jewelry. ImageImageImage
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8 Nov 20
Compared with other ancient civilizations, Egyptian law, has left little evidence of its institutions. Law was believed to have been given to mankind by the gods on the First Occasion (moment of creation), and the gods were responsible for establishing and perpetuating the law.
For the ancient Egyptians, law was personified in the goddess Ma’at. She represented truth, righteousness, justice and maintained the correct balance and order of the universe. The king or pharaoh, as chief official of the judiciary, was a priest of Ma'at.
Since there was no formal law code, cases were decided on precedent. The laws were generally humane, more than those of other societies. Men and women of all classes were treated equally, and there was great emphasis on protection of the family within the society.
Read 11 tweets
28 Oct 20
Ancient Egyptian’s two most common pigments seen on papyri are black and red. The black ink was mostly used for writing hieroglyphs or hieratic text, this ink was made by burning wood or oil, and then pulverizing the material before mixing it with water.
To avoid the particles from clumping together, the powder was mixed with a binder, probably a plant gum from the Acacia tree family. Besides keeping the carbon particles suspended in the water solution, the gum binder helped to keep the ink adhered to the papyrus surface.
This ink was stable, didn’t fade or deteriorate the papyrus. The red color on the papyrus, derived from the earth pigment iron oxide. Like most pigments used in ancient Egypt it was made from minerals, rather than from organic or living materials.
Read 7 tweets
26 Oct 20
Ma’at was the goddes of truth, balance, cosmic order, justice and harmony. She was depicted with vulture wings, the ostrich feather of truth in her headdress and carrying the Ankh, the key of life. Ma’at’s worship can be traced to the Old Kingdom ca. 3200 BCE.
According to the Papyrus of Ani (The Book of Coming Forth or Book of the Dead) everyone would be judged before Ma’at to determine whether they were good and able to move on to the afterlife. The feather was weighed against the heart while they stated the 42 Negative Confessions.
Ma’at 42 Negative Confessions translated by E. A. Wallis Budge: 1 I have not committed sin. 2 I have not committed robbery with violence. 3 I have not stolen. 4 I have not slain men or women. 5 I have not stolen food. 6 I have not swindled offerings. 7 I have not stolen from God.
Read 9 tweets
14 Oct 20
For the Ancient Egyptians, color was an important part of their life, it symbolized the nature of the beings they depicted. The Egyptian word for color, IWN (iwen) also translates as character, disposition and nature. Thus, color was intimately linked to the essence of being.
The Egyptian artist had 6 main colors in the palette: green, red, blue, yellow, white and black. They were usually obtained from mineral compounds, and prepared with a mixture of pigments acquired by grinding colored earth with the addition of water, rubber latex and egg’s white.
The mineral compounds used have allowed some of the colors to remain vibrant and beautiful for thousands of years. Colors weren’t used randomly, they conveyed meaning. Truly, wasn’t just the value or scarcity of the materials that mattered, but their symbolic meaning.
Read 10 tweets
12 Sep 20
There isn’t enough information about human sacrifice in ancient Egypt, though there is some evidence that it could have been practiced in the Nile Valley during the 1st Dynasty and possibly the Predynastic period.
J. Kinnaer posits there were two types of human sacrifice possibly practiced in early ancient Egypt: the killing of human beings as offerings to the gods regularly, or on special occasions and the retainer sacrifice, the killing of servants who were buried with their master.
One form of human sacrifices to the gods may have been the slaying of criminals and prisoners of war. It was a custom, in Predynastic times, to slay slaves at the graves of kings and nobles in order that the souls of the slaughtered might protect them and keep away evil spirits.
Read 7 tweets

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