Daughters of Isis - Joyce Tyldesley Read online

  After the hustle and bustle of the day, most married couples derived a great deal of quiet pleasure from simply sitting peacefully together; this evident enjoyment of each other’s company is one of the most touching aspects of Egyptian married life. Wealthy families particularly enjoyed relaxing in the luxurious gardens of their villas, and this enjoyment was enhanced by watching the labour of others less fortunate. Home entertainments have left little trace in the archaeological record, and although we can guess that music and story-telling were important social events, we have no idea how often they occurred. In contrast, we do know that board games were hugely popular with all adults, and many tomb scenes show husbands and wives gently competing over the gaming board. It is perhaps surprising, given this evident enjoyment, that more such games did not develop. Indeed, during the entire Dynastic period there were only two universally popular games: ‘senet’, a board game for two players which was enjoyed from Predynastic times until the Roman Period, and its rival ‘twenty squares’, a game imported from the East, again for two players. Wooden boards for these two games are often found on either side of reversible gaming boxes designed to hold the necessary pieces, and these elaborate boxes were often included in the funerary equipment of the wealthy so that they could be used to while away dull moments in the Afterlife.

  5

  Good Grooming

  Do not pamper your body: this will make you weak. And do not pamper yourself in your youth, or you will become weak in old age.

  Late Period scribal advice

  The importance attached to good grooming throughout Egyptian society should never be underestimated. Both sexes paid great attention to outward display and wealthy men as well as women delighted in sporting the latest in fashions, hairstyles and makeup. Cosmetics quickly became not a luxury but a necessity for daily life and death so that, from Predynastic times onwards, ordinary men and women chose to be buried with the carved palettes and blocks of pigment used for adorning the eyes. At the opposite end of the social scale, the elaborate fitted toilette sets placed in royal tombs give us a clear indication of the value which their owners attached to their cosmetics. As might be expected, there was a corresponding well-developed commercial interest in beauty treatments, while businesses dealing in cloth, false hair and cosmetics thrived. Cleanliness was of equal, if not even greater, importance. Herodotus, himself a Greek, clearly felt that the Egyptians had become somewhat obsessive about their bodily hygiene, in his view ‘setting cleanliness above seemliness’. To the Egyptians, living in the heat and ever-present dust of an arid climate, personal cleanliness was essential both as a means of promoting good health and, almost more importantly, as a sure indication of breeding and rank. The poor, who lacked even the most basic of sanitary facilities, and foreigners, who were believed to be dirty, were despised.

  As a preliminary step towards personal hygiene fastidious men and women scrupulously removed all body hair by a constant and ruthless shaving and plucking. Hairy legs and chests were not greatly admired in either sex, and a quick review of the depilatory equipment recovered from women’s tombs, including metal tweezers, knives and razors with tiny whetstones, indicates the extent to which some women were prepared to suffer to be beautiful. Less affluent members of the community had easy access to flint razors which could be flaked to form a very sharp cutting edge and, in the absence of soap, oil was cheaply available for use as a shaving lotion. The removal of body lice and other itchy nasties together with the hair was a welcome side-effect of body baldness.

  … I was put in the house of a prince. In this house were luxuries including a bathroom and mirrors. In it were riches from the treasury; garments made of royal linen… The choice perfume of the king and of his favourite courtiers was in every room… Years were removed from my body. I was shaved and my hair was combed. In this way was my squalor returned to the foreign land, my dress to the Sandfarers. I was dressed in the finest of linen, I was anointed with perfumed oil and I slept on a real bed. I had returned the sand to those who dwell in it, and the tree oil to those who grease their bodies with it.

  Middle Kingdom Story of Sinuhe

  Frequent bathing of the hair-free body was considered essential. Soap was unknown but natron, ashes and soda made efficient if rather harsh non-lathering detergents, while linen towels were available for drying. A few privileged members of society were able to take full advantage of en-suite limestone bathrooms equipped with servant-powered showers; an attendant poured water over the head of the bather who stood in a special stone trough with a waterproof outlet. To preserve modesty the shower-servant stood behind a screen intended to obscure his or her view of the proceedings and this screen, like the bathroom itself, was stone-lined to prevent the inadvertent dissolution of the mud-brick house structure. For the vast majority of the population, however, bathrooms were unknown, and washing took place on the banks of the Nile or in the irrigation canals. Unfortunately the River Nile, which provided almost all the villages and towns with their daily drinking, cooking and washing water, also functioned as the main sewerage and waste disposal system of Egypt. The purity of the stagnant pools along the banks of the river must have been highly questionable, and evidence from mummies indicates that water-borne diseases such as bilharzia were rife.

  If washing failed, and those embarrassing personal problems persisted, the Ebers Medical Papyrus could suggest various deodorants designed to restore self-confidence and facilitate a successful social life:

  To expel stinking of the body of a man or woman: ostrich-egg, shell of tortoise and gallnut from tamarisk are roasted and the body is rubbed with the mixture.

  Surviving lavatories are few and far between. The most universal model, modestly housed in a small cupboard-like room next to the bathroom, was a modern-looking carved wooden seat carefully balanced on two brick pillars and set over a deep bowl of sand which could be replaced as necessary. Extra sand was stored in a box beside the toilet and it was considered polite to cover the bowl after making use of the facilities. Presumably one of the more junior members of the household was given the unsavoury task of emptying the bowl whenever necessary. Stools with a wide hole cut into the seat have been recovered from several tombs and tentatively identified as ancient Portaloos, presumably again intended for use over a bowl of sand, and we may presume that chamber pots were frequently used. Universal access to an indoor toilet is, however, a relatively modern luxury, and one which has only become regarded as necessity in the west in the past fifty years. Most Dynastic Egyptians had no access to sanitary facilities of any description and would have regarded it as no hardship to make full use of the nearby fields and desert. Curiously, one of the strange and unprovable Egyptian ‘facts’ which fascinated Herodotus was the rumour that the women urinated standing up, while the men apparently sat or squatted for this purpose.

  Menstruation was a subject of little interest to the men who wrote our surviving Egyptian texts. We therefore have no understanding of how women perceived this important aspect of their femininity and very little idea of how they approached the practical aspects of sanitary protection. However, laundry lists recovered from Deir el-Medina include ‘bands of the behind’: sanitary towels made from a folded piece of linen fabric which were used, sent to the laundry and then re-used. We do have certain indications that either menstruating women or the menstrual blood itself were regarded as ritually unclean; similar taboos are found in many primitive societies where the mechanics and function of menstruation are not fully understood. Blood is often perceived as both frightening and dangerous, and the fact that women regularly bled for days on end must have appeared unnatural and somewhat disturbing to the male members of society who could not bleed without an obvious wound. The term ‘purification’ or ‘cleansing’ was used to describe a menstrual period just as it was used to describe the lochia following childbirth, and the Middle Kingdom Satire of the Trades deplores the lot of the unfortunate washerman who has to handle women’s garments stained with mens
trual blood. Even coming into contact with a man whose female relations were bleeding could be considered undesirable, and at Deir el-Medina a labourer had a valid excuse to absent himself from work if either his wife or one of his daughters was having a period.

  *

  One of the customs most zealously observed by the Egyptians is this, that they rear every child that is born, and circumcise the males and excise the females as is also customary among the Jews, who are also Egyptians in origin.

  Strabo

  During the Old and Middle Kingdoms Egyptian boys were routinely circumcised at between six and twelve years of age. A male circumcision scene, shown in disconcertingly graphic detail in the tomb of the Royal Architect Ankhmahor at Sakkara, gives some indication of the importance attached to this ceremony.1 The young boy is held tightly from behind while a Ka priest stands in front of him wielding a knife and ordering his assistant to ‘restrain him firmly and prevent him from fainting’. Herodotus remarks, rather disapprovingly, that this operation was performed for reasons of hygiene although the fact that it was conducted by a priest rather than a doctor suggests that it may have had more ritual than practical significance. The Egyptians themselves looked down on uncircumcised, and therefore uncivilized, foreigners. There is no direct evidence that circumcision or clitoridectomy was ever inflicted on girls and, even though societies rarely make reference to this intimate female rite of passage, the fact that no circumcised female mummy has been recovered tends to confirm its absence. Contrary to popular belief there is absolutely no proof that the drastic pharaonic excision, or Sudanese circumcision as it is known in modern Egypt, actually originated in pharaonic Egypt.2 It should, however, be remembered that those mummified bodies which have been examined belonged to upper-class women; whether or not the lower classes ever circumcised their daughters is unclear. Strabo, quoted above, certainly believed that they did, although he does not elaborate on his statement so we do not know whether he is referring to the removal of part or all of the external genitalia or to a less damaging token cut made in the clitoris. Nor does he indicate whether he was reporting a rumour or known fact.

  Recipe for a tongue that is ill: bran, milk and goose grease are used to rinse the mouth.

  Ebers Medical Papyrus

  Oral hygiene did not play an obvious part in the daily toilette, although the Roman historian Pliny informs us that the Egyptians cleaned their teeth with a special toothpaste made from plant roots. In the absence of specific tooth brushes this dentifrice was applied by means of a chewed twig or stiff reed. For that extra feeling of confidence, women were specifically recommended to sweeten their breath by chewing little balls of myrrh, frankincense, rush-nut and cinnamon; advice presumably prompted by the high level of garlic, onion and radish consumption.

  The unfortunate Egyptians were prone to a great deal of tooth disease as the fine desert sand which still seems to find its way into every corner of the Egyptian home became inadvertently included in their daily food and had a harsh abrasive effect on the teeth. Large and painful abscesses were very common and most Egyptians suffered from toothache at some time in their lives. The long-lived King Ramesses II, for example, died with a mouthful of badly worn teeth with exposed pulp chambers; these had clearly caused him a great deal of discomfort during his final years. In contrast, dental caries was far less of a problem than it is in modern Egypt as there was a shortage of sugary products; both refined sugar and sugar cane were unknown. It was the upper classes, the consumers of large amounts of date- and honey-sweetened cake, who were most likely to suffer from tooth decay. Loose teeth, however, seem to have been common throughout the entire population, and indeed almost half the dental references included in the medical papyri attempt to remedy the problem of missing teeth. Although there is some evidence for the construction of ingenious dental bridges using thin gold or silver wire and spare human teeth – presumably collected from the embalming house – the Egyptian dentists did not attempt to make a full set of false teeth.

  *

  Both men and women routinely completed their ablutions by massaging moisturizing oils into their skin. These reduced the ageing effect of the hot and dusty climate and the drying ‘soap’ whose main ingredient, natron, was the principal dehydrating agent used to desiccate dead bodies during mummification. The use of oils was believed to enhance skin condition and prevent wrinkles while partially concealing the after-effects of disfiguring diseases such as smallpox and leprosy; the Ebers Medical Papyrus certainly promoted their use with all the enthusiasm of a modern advertising campaign:

  To remove facial wrinkles: frankincense gum, wax, fresh balanites oil and rush-nut should be finely ground and applied to the face every day. Make it and you will see!

  While the lower classes had to be content with using simple castor or linseed oil, the upper echelons of society imported luxuriously scented unguents from the east; these had the added benefit of leaving the smooth body sensuously and expensively perfumed. As with many modern moisturizing creams, however, it would appear that the difference in actual effect would have been minimal, the difference in price and perceived value extreme, and it seems highly likely that the scent was added as much to mask potentially rancid smells as to delight the purchaser. No fashionable Egyptian man or woman would be caught dead without his or her preferred skin lotion, and Tutankhamen’s funerary equipment included a large jar of his favourite brand. Similar oil-based unguents were used by pregnant women wishing to prevent the formation of disfiguring stretch-marks across the stomach, and these oils were often stored in special jars shaped like a naked pregnant woman holding her swollen stomach. That these luxury cosmetics could be very costly indulgences is beyond doubt. Indeed, Diodorus Siculus believed that the taxes paid by the fishermen licensed to fish in Lake Moeris, a huge annual income, was allotted to the queens of Egypt to enable them to purchase their cosmetics, perfumes and other toiletry items.

  Place myrrh upon your head, dress yourself in the finest of linens.

  New Kingdom poem

  A wide variety of perfumed conditioning oils was also available for rubbing into the scalp after shampooing, again with the aim of protecting the hair from the harsh climate. During the New Kingdom this practice was extended to include the fashion, rather bizarre to modern eyes, of wearing perfumed lumps or cosmetic cones of fat balanced precariously on the head during social occasions. These unusual party hats were made from tallow impregnated with myrrh, and were designed to melt slowly as the festivities progressed, releasing their perfume and allowing a thin and presumably refreshing trickle of wax to run down the hair and face. As the heat of the party made the fat melt away it was topped up by a servant. The cones appear to have been provided by the host for both his guests and the attendant servants, and tomb scenes indicate that no dinner party would have been complete without them. They are generally illustrated as white lumps with brown streaks running down the sides, while brown stains shown on the shoulders of white clothing may well represent the greasy drips. No actual examples of perfume cones have survived, and it is now difficult to determine how literally these party scenes should be interpreted.

  My heart thought of my love of you when only half my hair was dressed. I came running to find you and neglected my appearance. Now, if you will wait while I plait my hair, I shall be ready for you in a moment.

  New Kingdom love song

  Many societies exert moral pressure to control the way in which both men and women are allowed to display their hair. Without any clear legal obligation both sexes are expected to observe the conventions of their time, which may for example decree that women must have long hair, that men must not have long hair, or that hair should not be revealed at all by either sex. Deviation from this norm may be seen as in some way threatening to society as a whole. If this view seems extreme it should be remembered that less than a hundred years ago in Europe ‘bobbed’ hair was regarded by many as a sign of extreme female depravity, while long hair in men is still regarded by
some as a sinister modern development indicating that the wearer has chosen to opt out of conventional society. Within the conventions imposed by the community a woman’s chosen hairstyle indicates to others the group to which that woman either belongs or aspires to belong. The punk and the hippy provide extreme modern examples: a tightly permed blue rinse or cascade of artificially golden curls send out equally clear social signals. It is unfortunate that, as with so many aspects of Egyptian life, our knowledge of female coiffure is confined to the more wealthy members of society and their servants, portrayed under idealized conditions. The effect of changing fashions on the village woman is simply not known.

  We do, however, have some clear examples of rank or occupation influencing female hairstyles. Even when short hair was in vogue the most attractive dancers and acrobats wore their hair long, occasionally plaiting weights into the ends so that it gave a good swing when dancing. Pre-pubescent upper-class boys and girls are frequently represented sporting the ‘sidelock of youth’: an almost entirely bald pate with a single long thick curl worn on the side of the head. Hair charms were suspended from the base of the sidelock and brought good luck and protection to their wearer. Unkempt long hair was generally restricted to men and women in mourning, while women in labour are occasionally portrayed with a dishevelled-looking archaic hairstyle intended to ward off evil spirits by sympathetic magic; as the woman loosens her normally neat hair she also symbolically loosens the baby ready for birth.