Market in Ancient Egypt presented by :Hanaa El-Behairy

under the supervision of: Prof.Maged Negm

Introduction• Market behavior is part of human nature, buying and selling to increase our own

welfare is what we naturally do. Market economies emerged spontaneously, but we can’t consider all market societies will be the same in its shape, as it depended on the intellectual and moral qualities of the individuals who comprised them.

• The existence of markets in Ancient Egypt is important because it indicates to some extent the development of exchanges in small scale. This kind of market –local market- implies the existence of physical space, generally in the open air, where relationships between buyers and vendors were established, following certain guidelines.

Definition of Market:

• Concerning the word ‘market-place’ lexica was debatable. There is the word hsb, which translated in Erman-Grapow dictionary as “market-place” while Alan Gardiner stated that the word hsb is a late writing of the word hsp which meant “garden”, denying the possibility that the word hsb may be connected with the market place.

• The term mryt ‘riverbank’ also refers to the market-place, because market places were usually situated at riverbanks.

• Despite that the market-place has not been noted down with the exact word in the Old Egyptian written sources, there is an example, dates back to the first intermediate period predicated the existence of the market-place. In the story of “The Eloquent Peasant” where the peasant Hnum-Anup tells how he went down to Egypt after loading his donkeys with grain and went down to Egypt, to bring food for his children. Thus, the text predicated the existence of a market-place where Hnum-Anup would be able to trade his products there.

Market-places• The relief scenes do not provide us with information concerning the locations

of markets, or how markets developed (there was no exact place for holding markets in the city planning of Ancient Egypt, in contrary to that city planning of Ancient Greece , as the Ἀγορά Agora {market} was a main part of it). .

• The depictions of markets on the walls of the tombs from the Old Kingdom to the New Kingdom prove that they did exist. They were usually close to riverbanks, the source of the idea that the quay was the market place (mryt) as the Nile was only practical means of communication and it was essential for the local movement of goods.

• It was also situated at the roads intersections where people of different social classes would come together and enter in to dialogue with one another as they bartered in the street.

• Scene from Ipuy tomb in Deir el-Medina (TT217)

• After: Davies, 1927, pl. 30.

Market merchandizes

• The goods which were usually exchanged at markets were basic staples, rarely luxury goods.

• Consumables:• Bread and beer were the most commonly traded items in at markets.

• Fish was also commonly traded at markets, caught in the Nile and canals. It had to be sold either fresh or dried, and it was common commodity in Old Kingdom market scenes, which also show pieces of meat.

• Vegetables like onions, leeks, lettuce, and melons were also commonly traded at markets.

• There were some orchard fruit being offered for exchange at markets, such as sycamore figs, and grapes.

• Detail of the market scene from Fetekty tomb

• After: M. Bartá, 2001, fig.3.17

• Detail of market Scene in the tomb of Niankhkhnum and Khnumhotep (Old Kingdom)

• After: Moussa and Altenmüller 1977, pl. 10.

Craft products

• It has been traded at markets such as leather or rush sandals, necklaces, large fans for fanning fires, walking sticks, pieces of furniture , and headrests. Small metal objects, notably fish-hooks, and cloth were to be sold as well in the

markets.• Jars, cups, and chisels were traded as well at markets.

Detail of exchanging merchandise from the tomb of Ti

• After: Wild, 1966, pl. clxxiv

•

Other services offered at Markets:

• seal makers and barbers offered their services in the market.

-Massaging, pedicure and manicure, treatment of legs &backs by massaging.

-surgical operation of circumcision.

• Some of these services are still available at local markets of the Egyptian villages until now.

• Detail of market Scene in the tomb of Niankhkhnum and Khnumhotep (Old Kingdom)

• After: Moussa and Altenmüller 1977, pl. 10.

What was used specifically as money??

• Monetary system without coinage- money barter system in other words- is the best description to the market in Pharaonic Egypt; it is a procession in which an object serves as unit of account.

• Barter was the method through which acquiring and disposing of goods were done.

• Everything had a value expressed in various units that coincided with quantities of certain commodities. Prices while formed by tradition or by demand and supply seem to have been more stable than those in modern markets. The price of any given object, animal and slave could be expressed in any commodity, or by units of grain, copper and silver.

The Legacy of the Ancient Egyptian Markets in the contemporary Egyptian daily life.

• There are many inherited aspects from the Ancient Egyptian market, which influenced the contemporary markets in Egypt and this reflects the continuity of the concept.

• 1- The sunshades:

• the sellers in the New Kingdom market scenes are represented sitting in small shelters or booths that look like canopies made of wooden beams or bamboo sticks.

• Nowadays, during summer and due to the hot weather, the traders erect rough booths looking like primitive umbrellas, under which they can take shelter from the heat. These umbrellas are identical to a type of sunshade that was represented in ancient Egyptian reliefs and paintings over a period of five centuries.

Market Women

• Among the features that defined for Herodotus, how Egyptians were different from the rest of the mankind was the representation of women at markets trading goods while men stayed at home to weave. This of course a crude implication is that the involvement of women in the market is a cultural anomaly: that the Egyptian women could go shopping and trading while Greek women could not.

• Women could engage in local trade, probably as sellers of surplus produce of household especially textiles, as it was a common means of payment like grain, copper , and silver.

• Women could be seen at contemporary local markets, selling household products such as bread, cheese, milk, birds , and eggs. They also trade other products at the markets such as fruits and vegetables.

Detail of market-scene from the tomb of Ipuy in Deir el-Medina (TT217)

After :Davies, 1927, pl.30)

Seller attitude

• The representation of sellers is one of the noticeable features of the market scenes.

• In Ancient Egypt :They were always represented either sitting of stool, or squatting on the ground before their goods that were placed sometimes on baskets.

• In Contemporary Egypt: It should be noticed that the contemporary sellers of the Egyptian market until this day have the same attitude, though sometimes they sit on chairs before their goods that is placed on metal containers, and sometimes standing before their goods ( vegetables, fruits, sandals, fishes , etc…) placed on cart.

• It can be noticed in the New Kingdom Market scenes that the sellers used to use horizontal sticks to hang the goods that include sandals & textiles, as it still in use until today at local markets.

• Detail of market-scene from the tomb of Kenamon in Dra Abu el-Naga(TT162)• After:Davies and Faulker 1947, pl.8

. Detail of Unas Causeway (Old Kingdom)After: S.Hassan 1938, pl.96

A contemporary fish seller (Personal cliché)

For further reading:

* Altenmüller (H.), ”Markt” , In Lexikon der Agyptoologie III, Cairo, 2001, col.1191,1192,1193,1194.

* , “Trade and Markets “, in D. B. Redford (ed.), The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Egypt III, Cairo, 2001, pp. 445-450.

* EYRE (CHR.), “The Market Women of Pharaonic Egypt”, In: Le Commerce en Egypte ancienne. BdE 121. Cairo:IFAO, 1998, pp.173-189.

* FISCHER (H.G.), “Sunshades of the Marketplace”, MMA, 6, 1975, pp. 151-156.