From Nile Harvests to Tomb Builders

Use a timeline, a passage and an Egyptian source to trace how extra grain led to new jobs, classes and trade.

Answer Key

Read the timeline

Read the timeline of ancient Egypt. Then answer the questions.

Timeline: Grain and Work in Ancient Egypt

By about 5000 BCE: Farming villages spread along the Nile. Farmers plant wheat and barley in the wet mud left behind when the yearly flood goes down.

About 3200 BCE: The earliest Egyptian hieroglyphs appear, on labels and records found in royal tombs.

About 3100 BCE: Upper and Lower Egypt are united under one king.

About 2580–2560 BCE: The Great Pyramid is built at Giza for the pharaoh Khufu. Nearby, archaeologists have found a workers' town with large bakeries and breweries that fed thousands of laborers.

About 2000 BCE: A scribe writes the text now called the Satire of the Trades (see the source below).

About 1500–1070 BCE: Craft workers living in the village of Deir el-Medina cut and paint royal tombs in the Valley of the Kings. They are paid in grain from royal storehouses.

About 1470 BCE: Hatshepsut, a woman who ruled as pharaoh, sends a trading expedition by ship to the land of Punt. It returns with incense, ebony and gold.

About 1157 BCE: When their grain payments are weeks late, the Deir el-Medina workers stop work and protest, one of the earliest recorded strikes. A scribe records it on papyrus.

Using the timeline, about 1900 years passed between the spread of farming villages along the Nile and the uniting of Egypt under one king.

Which timeline entry gives the best evidence that Egypt could feed a large number of people who were not farming?

A. About 3200 BCE, the earliest hieroglyphs appear in royal tombs.
B. About 2580–2560 BCE, bakeries fed thousands of pyramid laborers.
C. About 1470 BCE, an expedition returns from Punt with incense.
D. By about 5000 BCE, farming villages spread along the Nile.

What does the strike of about 1157 BCE suggest about the workers of Deir el-Medina?

A. They depended on stored royal grain instead of growing their own food.
B. They owned large farms and sold their extra grain to the pharaoh.
C. They wanted to be paid in silver coins instead of bread and grain.
D. They lived after Egypt had stopped growing much grain.

Read about Egypt's surplus

Read the passage. Then answer the questions.

The Gift of the Flood

1Almost no rain falls on most of Egypt. Yet for thousands of years, Egypt was one of the richest farming lands in the ancient world. Each summer, heavy rains far to the south made the Nile rise and spread over its banks. When the water went down, it left a layer of dark, rich mud. Egyptians called their land Kemet, "the black land," after this soil.

2In good years, farm families harvested more wheat and barley than they could eat. The government collected part of every harvest as a tax. Scribes measured each field and recorded how much grain each farmer owed. The grain was stored in large royal granaries and handed out as payment to people who worked for the pharaoh.

3Thousands of Egyptians did not farm at all. Bakers, brewers, stonecutters, potters, metalworkers, weavers of linen and painters worked for the pharaoh, the temples or nobles, and many were paid in bread, beer and grain. Few Egyptians could read or write. Scribes trained for years at special schools, and officials relied on them to keep records of harvests, taxes and workers.

4Historians often picture Egyptian society as a pyramid. At the top was the pharaoh. Below were nobles, priests and high officials, who controlled much of the land and the temples. Next came scribes, then skilled craft workers and merchants. Farmers, the largest group, were near the bottom, and enslaved people, often prisoners of war, were at the bottom. Most people stayed in the class they were born into, though a few rose by becoming scribes.

5Extra grain, linen and papyrus also gave Egypt goods to trade. Egypt had few tall trees, so traders sailed to the port of Byblos, on the coast of present-day Lebanon, to get cedar wood for ships and buildings. Gold came from Nubia, to the south.

Circle the sentence from paragraph 2 that shows how the government got the grain it later used to pay workers.

In good years, farm families harvested more wheat and barley than they could eat.The government collected part of every harvest as a tax.Scribes measured each field and recorded how much grain each farmer owed.The grain was stored in large royal granaries and handed out as payment to people who worked for the pharaoh.

Sort each worker: did this person produce food, or do specialized work that was supported by the food surplus?

A wheat farmer along the NileA scribe counting taxesA stonecutter at GizaA cattle herderA weaver of linen clothA painter of royal tombsA fisher netting fish in the NileA priest serving at a temple

Produced food	Specialized work
A wheat farmer along the Nile A cattle herder A fisher netting fish in the Nile	A scribe counting taxes A stonecutter at Giza A weaver of linen cloth A painter of royal tombs A priest serving at a temple

Farmers grew the food that fed Egypt, yet scribes ranked above them. Based on paragraphs 3 and 4, what is the most likely reason?

A. Scribes did the hardest physical work in Egypt.
B. Scribes owned most of the farmland along the Nile.
C. Farmers were too small a group to matter to officials.
D. Reading and writing were rare skills that officials needed.

Draw a line from each person to the way the grain surplus shaped that person's work.

A farmer near the NileB
A scribe in a royal officeC
A tomb builder at Deir el-MedinaA
A trader sailing to ByblosD

A. Was paid in grain from royal storehouses
B. Gave part of the harvest to the government as a tax
C. Recorded how much grain each farmer owed
D. Exchanged Egyptian goods for cedar wood

Read a source

Read the note and the excerpt. Then answer the questions.

About the source: This text, often called the Satire of the Trades, was written in Egypt about 2000 BCE. In it, a father named Khety gives advice to his son Pepi as he takes him to a school for scribes. Egyptian students copied the text many times as writing practice, which is one reason several copies survive.

Adapted from a translation of the Satire of the Trades

I have seen the metalworker at work at the mouth of his furnace. His fingers are like the skin of a crocodile, and he smells worse than fish eggs.

The potter is covered with clay. He digs in the mud more than a pig does, to bake his pots.

The field worker's labor never ends. He is worn out, and his clothes are always dirty.

Put writing in your heart, so that you may protect yourself from hard labor of every kind. Look, there is no job without a boss except the scribe's: he is the boss.

Khety was a scribe who wanted his son to become a scribe too. How does this most likely affect what he says about other jobs?

A. He describes the other jobs fairly, since he had worked in them.
B. He praises metalworkers and potters because they earned the most.
C. He makes other jobs sound as hard as possible to persuade his son.
D. He leaves out the scribe's job, because scribes kept no records.

Khety says that the scribe is "the boss." Which detail from the timeline or the passage best supports the idea that scribes oversaw other people's work?

A. Scribes measured each field and recorded how much grain each farmer owed.
B. Hatshepsut's ships returned from Punt with incense, ebony and gold.
C. Farmers planted wheat and barley in the mud after the flood went down.
D. Craft workers at Deir el-Medina cut and painted royal tombs.

10.

Claim: Egypt's food surplus was the main reason Egypt developed specialized jobs and social classes. Do you agree? Use at least two pieces of evidence from the timeline, the passage or the source, and explain your reasoning.

I agree. Paragraph 2 says farm families grew more grain than they could eat, and the government collected part of it as a tax and stored it in granaries. That stored grain paid people who did not farm, like the pyramid laborers fed by bakeries at Giza and the tomb builders at Deir el-Medina, who went on strike when their grain was late. Because the surplus fed them, people could become stonecutters, painters, priests and scribes. Scribes who counted the grain gained power over farmers, and Khety even calls the scribe "the boss," which helps explain why scribes ranked above farmers in the social pyramid. Without extra grain, almost everyone would have had to farm, so there would be fewer jobs and fewer classes.