![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png)
the-ascended.livejournal.comDaniel is still sneezing, and continues to blow his nose.
"Sorry, guys... allergies are playing up I'm afraid. Thanks for the homework from last week... I'm glad to know that you've learnt something at least.
We're going right back into society and family life with Entertainment.
There is much evidence for the leisure activities of the ancient Egyptians. Men engaged in physical sports, such as hunting, fishing, archery, wrestling, boxing, and stick fencing. Long-distance races were organized to demonstrate physical prowess, and both men and women enjoyed swimming. Board games were popular, and games boards were constructed of a number of materials: wood, stone, clay, or simple drawings scratched on the ground. Moves on board games were determined by throw sticks, astragali (animal anklebones), or after the late New Kingdom, cubic dice that were usually marked in the same pattern used today. One of the most common games was senet, which was played on a board of thirty squares divided into three rows of ten squares. Like so many other aspects of Egyptian culture, senet had a religious significance, and the game was likened to passing through the underworld.
The "twenty square game," which originated in Sumer and was known through the entire ancient Near East and Cyprus, was played on a rectangular board divided into three rows of four, twelve, and four squares, respectively. Both senet and twenty squares were played by two opponents. Another ancient game was mehen, played by several players on a round board that looked like a coiled snake. The playing pieces, tiny lions and small balls, were moved from the tail of the snake to the goal on its head. Although this game was played in Egypt only during the Old Kingdom, it continued to be played in Cyprus for another 1,000 years.
Tomb paintings indicate that banquets were a popular form of relaxation, at least for the upper class. At such events food, alcoholic beverages, music, and dancing were common forms of entertainment. The organization of the tomb scenes may be misleading, it seems that proprieties of the times kept male and female guests seated in separate areas although men and women performed together.
Dancing seems to have been a spectator sport in which professionals performed for the guests. As a rule, men danced with men and women with women. Singers, whether soloists or entire choruses accompanied by musical instruments, entertained guests in private homes and in the palace.
Ancient Egyptians played a variety of musical instruments. Of the wind instruments, one of the oldest was a flute made of reed or wood, and illustrated on Predynastic pieces of broken pottery (i.e., sherds) as well as on a slate palette from Hierakonpolis. By the Old Kingdom, single and double flutes were played. They could be side-blown (much like a modern flute), or end-blown (like a recorder). The flute always remained popular among Egyptians and it has survived to this day as the Arabic nay and uffafa. Also popular during the Old Kingdom were large floor harps and various percussion instruments ranging from bone or ivory clappers to hand-rattles (sistra) and rectangular or round frame drums. Drums of all sizes were played using fingers and hands; sticks or batons were apparently not used.
During the New Kingdom, many new instruments were added to the instrumental ensemble, including small shoulder-held harps, trumpets, lutes, oboes, and seven-stringed lyres. Trumpets were generally restricted to the military. Egyptian lutes had a long slender neck and an elongated oval resonating chamber made of wood or tortoise shell (the sound emitted from these instruments would have been something approximating a cross between a mandolin and the American banjo). The cylindrical drum, about 1 meter high with a leather skin laced on at each end, was also popular during the New Kingdom; it was used both by the military and civilian population. The long oboe, played with a double reed, was introduced to Egypt from Asia Minor, and during the Graeco-Roman period, a number of instruments of Greek origin were adopted by the Egyptians, including pan-pipes and a water organ with a keyboard.
Although the sound quality of the ancient instruments can in some cases be recreated, no evidence exists that the Egyptians ever developed a system of musical notation; thus the ancient melodies, rhythms, and keys remain unknown. Some scholars believe, however, that vestiges of the ancient music may be found in the music of the peoples now living in Western Desert oases, and these songs are being scrutinized for their possible origins.
In contrast to the banquets of the rich and the organized meetings of the lower classes, a different type of entertainment was provided by inns and beer houses where drinking often led to singing, dancing, and gaming, and men and women were free to interact with each other. Taverns stayed open late into the night, and patrons drank beer in such quantities that intoxication was not uncommon. In one ancient text a teacher at a school of scribes chastens a student for his night activities: "I have heard that you abandoned writing and that you whirl around in pleasures, that you go from street to street and it reeks of beer. Beer makes him cease being a man. It causes your soul to wander . . . Now you stumble and fall upon your belly, being anointed with dirt" (Caminos 1954: 182).
The streets of larger towns no doubt had a number of "beer halls," and the same text as just quoted refers to the "harlots" who could be found there. Proverbs warning young men to avoid fraternization with "a woman who has no house" indicate that some form of prostitution existed in ancient Egyptian society. For instance, the "Instructions of Ankhsheshenqy" admonish, "He who makes love to a woman of the street will have his purse cut open on its side" (Lichtheim 1980: 176). During the Graeco-Roman period, brothels were known to exist near town harbors and could be identified by an erect phallus over the door, and tax records refer to houses that were leased for the purpose of prostitution. Prostitution was not, however, associated with temples or religious cults in Egypt.
Okay, for homework, I want you to do some work ready for next lesson, where we'll be looking at food and drink of the Ancient Egyptians." He sneezes again, and waves them away.
![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif){kind=small}
