Top 10 Unusual Facts About Ancient Egypt
10.
Ancient Egyptians Kept Baboons And Other Monkeys As Pets And For Ritual Significance
Most people are well aware that Ancient Egyptians did put some historical significance in certain
animals -- namely cats.
Cats are known to be the number one go to pet for Egyptians, and some are said to have
been buried with their owners to accompany them in the afterlife.
And while cats were very valued and had a certain religious and ritual significance,
they were not the only animal in that category.
While it may not sound quite as dignified, monkeys, especially baboons, were kept around
for their ritual significance in magic and religion -- which were basically one and the
same -- and just to enjoy as fun pets.
They had to go to great trouble to get their hands on these baboons because they were not
native to the area.
9.
They Went To Great Lengths To Remove Body Hair And Both Genders Often Wore Wigs
In many depictions of Ancient Egyptians they are shown with very little hair on their heads,
but many people may not realize the full extent of the work they went to in removing body
hair.
Children of both genders would wear a small lock on the side of their head that would
be cut off when they reached adulthood.
Apart from this, both men and women were bald.
Not only that, but both men and women went to great trouble to remove all body hair constantly
from all parts of their body.
This was a normal part of hygiene in Ancient Egyptian society, but would have been quite
extreme to people today.
Of course for women and men fashion was still very important, so wigs were quite common,
especially among the upper class.
8.
The Book Of The Dead Was Not Originally A Unified Text
The Book of the Dead has been featured in countless movies, books and other media at
this point, which hasn’t really done much to help people understand what it actually
was.
Most people think of it as something like the Egyptian version of the Bible or the Koran,
but that isn’t really accurate -- at least not originally.
The Book of the Dead was in the beginning much more like the Wiccan idea of a “Book
of Shadows” -- a journal you filled with your combined knowledge of all spells you
had learned from others.
For a long time in Ancient Egypt, Books of the Dead were still very personal, they were
rarely organized in any particular order, and there was no unifying structure on what
should and shouldn’t be included.
It wasn’t until the 26th dynasty that any kind of real organization or order was put
in place, and even then historians have still not been able to make proper sense of it.
7.
The Racial Identity Of Ancient Egyptians Is Extremely Controversial
Everyone respects and admires the Ancient Egyptians, so it likely comes as no surprise
to many that groups with an agenda will go to great lengths to attempt to define Ancient
Egyptians as whatever race helps them make a convenient political point.
After a recent DNA test of King Tut’s mummy, some people claimed it was evidence that he
was of Western European origin.
In the past people have also claimed the Ancient Egyptians were of Nordic stock, and many have
speculated and tried to claim with great passion that they were black africans similar to many
today.
Historians, on the other hand, believe that they were a fairly racially diverse society
that looked similar to many artistic depictions of them.
6.
There Are Way More Pyramids Than Most People Know Of
Whenever we hear about the pyramids, we hear about the great Pyramids at Giza Egypt.
The pyramids were almost certainly burial chambers.
The Ancient Egyptians built, at least as far as Egyptologists are currently aware of, somewhere
getting close to the neighborhood of 100 pyramids, none of them as large as the ones at Giza
but they are all quite sizeable.
Huge pyramidal chambers could only be afforded by the richest Egyptian citizens in the ancient
days, but they were built for many Egyptians, and were hardly a strange occurrence at all.
5.
Some Of The Richer Citizens In Ancient Egypt Were Incredibly Fat
While most people would think that the Ancient Egyptians were quite thin and muscular, like
all societies, the way we look at what is preserved of history can skew our perceptions.
Most of what we knew was based on builders and a few rich pharaohs, so it was hard to
accurately gauge the true fitness of a person from an ancient society.
However, recently remains were found of the pharaoh Hatshepsut, showing that she had been
incredibly obese and likely also had diabetes due to her extreme overeating.
While it’s hard to say because surviving mummies are rare these days, if one rich citizen
such as a pharaoh could be fat both socially and in terms of resources, it is quite likely
that plenty of other richer, more privileged Ancient Egyptian citizens were also fat as
well.
4.
So Called “Mummy Parties” Have Caused Much Of History To Be Lost Forever
Many people have long been fascinated with Ancient Egypt, but this got really strange
in the early 1900’s when Egypt fever was at a pitch in Europe.
It started slowly, and like many fads quickly grew out of control.
People would bring back mummies as souvenirs from travels to Egypt, all to happy to take
advantage of the lax laws of the time, and then have parties where they unwrapped the
mummy in their home with all their friends around.
This obviously permanently damaged precious pieces of history that could have yielded
scientists with incredible information in the future with proper DNA analysis.
3.
Ancient Pharaohs Were Sometimes As Crazy As Roman Emperors
Whenever someone wants to think of an example of tyrants who ruled with a combination of
insanity and delusional grandiosity, they tend to immediately name someone like Emperor
Nero.
If they can’t think of a specific name, they just generically compare them to the
Roman Emperors.
However, while the Roman Emperors may have been crazy, the Pharaohs of Ancient Egypt
came before them, and they were often just as strange or even stranger.
For example, Pharaoh Pepi II became Pharaoh at a very young age, and as such it may not
be surprising that the power quickly went to his head, and he began abusing it greatly.
He personally hated flies, and so to ensure that they would never land on him, he came
up with an ingenious and cruel idea to keep them off his body.
He kept several slaves nearby at all times, covered in honey, so the flies would bother
them instead of him.
2.
Not Everyone In Ancient Egypt Was Elaborately Mummified
When many people think of Ancient Egypt they mostly just assume that the society mummified
everyone -- and that this was just their idea of a burial.
However, while the elite certainly wanted the most elaborate process available, with
the most pomp and circumstance, many people did not have the means for very much.
Many of the poorer or less well to do citizens would have to make do with less complete,
or more hasty forms of mummification that wouldn’t preserve the body as long or as
effectively.
These ceremonies would probably involve some prayers and other spells, and would sometimes
be a simple burial in the sand.
1.
Punishments For Breaking The Law Could Be Extremely Harsh
In the Ancient world, punishment could often be harsh, but in Ancient Egypt, it was probably
still far harsher in many cases than most people would imagine.
In the ancient world, labor was considered much more important and resources were very
valuable.
Those who needed to be punished were either killed outright or were given their due and
sent right back to work to continue producing for the collective.
In Ancient Egypt, the crime for stealing in one text is described as “100 blows and
five wounds” and some studies carried out on skeletons, have given researchers reason
to believe this may have been a real punishment.
They have found skeletons with gashes on the shoulder blade area, and believe the men were
not attacked, but were likely being punished and were then sent right back to work.
However, while punishments for stealing could be quite harsh, those for crimes of a sexual
nature could be much harsher.
Women were often treated more strictly, and if a woman was caught cheating she literally
had her nose cut off to spite her face, while a man simply had to take a severe beating
of 100 blows.