Y7 Key groups in Ancient Egypt

My husband is a noble. My main role is to help look after the temple goddess and to sing and play music if the pharaoh visits our temple.

• Scribe

• Priestess

• Priest

• Pharaoh

I’m the pharaoh’s second-in-command. I give him advice. This gives me considerable influence. I supervise the other officials and judge law-breakers. I also make sure people pay their taxes – in grain, goods or their labour.

• Pharaoh

• Merchant

• Noble

• Vizier

Except for the slaves I’m at the bottom of the heap. I grow wheat and barley and the flax used to make linen. I work very hard, digging canals for irrigation and preparing the soil. During the flood, I help out the pharaoh’s building work. I pay over half of the grain I produce as tax to the pharaoh.

• Farmer

• Craftsman

• Slave

• Merchant

I govern one of our country’s 42 nomes or provinces. I help the vizier by collecting tax. Like other important and wealthy people, I wear garments of the finest linen and lots of gold jewellery.

• Chief priest

• Priestess

• Noble

• Scribe

I am one of the very few who can read and write. I record the pharaoh’s orders and decisions, and help the vizier keep the tax records. I also keep accounts for the army, write letters for local people and prepare inscriptions for tomb walls and sculptures.

• Merchant

• Scribe

• Pharaoh

• Vizier

 I am a trader. I’m always sailing up and down the Nile, with goods from Egypt such as linen, papyrus and grain. Goods I bring back from other places include ebony wood, ivory, incense, copper and baboons.

• Craftsman

• Scribe

• Merchant

• Noble

I represented our country’s top priest the pharaoh, in looking after the gods. I am allowed to go into the inner part of the temple where the statue of the god is kept. Each day I wax it, wrap it in clean linen and bring it food. If I don’t do this, bad things would happen. On special days, I take it out to show the people.

• Pharaoh

• Chief Priest

• Goddess

• Priestess

 My main duty is to keep life in balance – on this earth and beyond. I am powerful because I am a god and have great wealth.

• Vizier

• Farmer

• Noble

• Pharaoh

I was born in Libya, but was captured as a prisoner of war. Others come from Syria and Nubia. My master uses me as a field hand. Some of the lucky ones in my class work in the palace of the pharaoh – much better than working in the quarries or the mines.

• Chief Priest

• Farmer

• Slave

• Merchant

Some of the pots I make I pay to the pharaoh as tax. Some are exported to other countries. Most of my mates are in the same business too. A few make jewellery, others make papyrus, boats or furniture. I wish I was smart enough to be a scribe.

• Merchant

• Farmer

• Craftsman

• Vizier