What We Know About Slavery in Egypt

These terms include: mry.t (“dependents”), D.t (“personnel”), Hsb.w (“forced laborers, workmen”), bAk.w (“workers”), Hm.w (“servants, slaves”), Hm.w-nzw (“royal servants”), aAmw.w (“Asiatics”), and even sqr.w-anx.w (“prisoners of war”). For a useful discussion on the difficulty of terminology, see Lynn Meskell, Private Life in New Kingdom Egypt (Princeton University Press, 2002), 105.

See Raymond O. Faulkner, Concise Dictionary of Middle Egyptian (Oxford: Griffith Institute, 1962, reprint 2002), 169 (Hm) and 79 (bAk).

Loprieno, “Slaves,” 209.

For full translations see William Kelly Simpson, “The Satire on the Trades: The Instruction of Dua-Khety,” in The Literature of Ancient Egypt (3rd Edition. William Kelly Simpson, ed. New Haven & London: Yale University Press, 2003), 431-437; W. Helck, Die Lehre des DwA-$tjj (2 parts. Wiesbaden, 1970); James E. Hoch, “The Teaching of Dua-Kheti: A New Look at the Satire of the Trades,” JSSEA 21-22 (1991-1992): 88-100; John L. Foster, “Some Comments on ‘Satire of the Trades,’” in Gold of Praise: Studies Presented in Honor of Edward F. Wente (Emily Teeter and John A. Larson, eds. SAOC 20. Chicago, 2000), 121-129.

Lopreino, “Slaves ” in The Egyptians (University of Chicago Press, 1997),” 188-189.

Ibid., 189; William Kelly Simpson, “King Cheops and the Magicians,” in The Literature of Ancient Egypt, 19.

One text mentions the purchase of three male workers and seven female ones to add to those inherited by his father. Another individual added twenty “heads,” namely slaves or servants to his estate. See Antonio Lopreino, “Slaves,” 196-197.

Brooklyn Papyrus, table 14.26-31; El-Lahun Papyri, table 12.6-11. Presumably this could happen of other foreigners as well, but the texts cited above mention Asiatics specifically. In the Lahun Papyri they are referred to simply as “four Canaanites.”

Ibid., 200. Loprieno used the word “servants” here but due to the mention of ownership, it is clear that slavery is intended.

For more see the following: El-Lahun Papyri, tables 6.57, 15.14, and 31.25. Cf. Brooklyn Papyrus; see William C. Hayes, A Papyrus of the Late Middle Kingdom in the Brooklyn Museum (The Brooklyn Museum, 1955), 39-40, 76-77.

Ibid., table 34.17ff; Lopreino, “Slaves,” 200.

El-Lahun Papyri, table 35.10-13.

Berlin Papyrus 10470, 1.5-2.9.

Loprieno, “Slaves,” 203. Foreigners here include Asiatics, Nubians, Libyans, etc.

For more see Susanna Thomas, Akhenaten and Tutankhamen: The Religious Revolution (Rosen Publishing, 2003), 15. See also “Slavery” accessed April 14, 2016, http://www.reshafim.org.il/ad/egypt/timelines/topics/slavery.htm#rem30.

A. Bakir, Slavery in Pharaonic Egypt (l'institut français d'archéologie orientale, 1952), 26, 114-115. Presumably, many of these roles, especially agricultural ones, were in place already during the Middle Kingdom. I have included them in this section because New Kingdom texts make it abundantly clear regarding these various jobs.

Kitchen, RITA III: 65. This text comes from Stela VII, Cairo J.E. 41395, 41397 (lintel) and 41398 (jamb).

For Rekmire, see: N. de G. Davies, The Tomb of Rekhmire at Thebes I, II (New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1943; reprint, Arno Press, 1972), 54-60, pls. 58-60. For the leather scroll in the Louvre, see: RITA II, 520-5022, cols. II-IV

J. Cerny, A Community of Workmen at Thebes in the Ramesside Period (Cairo: BdE 50, Institut Francais d’Archéologie Orientale, 1992), 180; Meskell, Private Life, 106.

See Hoffmeier, Ahmose,” 5-7 for examples. The Amenemheb texts are from TT 85; For more, see B. Bryan, “The Egyptian Perspective on Mittani,” in Amarna Diplomacy (R. Cohen and R. Westbrook, eds. Baltimore and London: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2000), 74. For Maia, see Loprieno, “Slaves,” 205.

Ibid, 206.

Adoption Papyrus, 16r-1v; cf. C.J. Eyre, “The Adoption Papyrus in Social Context,” Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 78 (1992): 207-221.

For more, see Bernadette Menu, “Captives de guerre et dépendance rurale dans l’Égypte du Nouvel Empire,” in La dépendance rurale dans l’Antiquité égyptienne et proche-orientale (B. Menu, ed. IFAO, 2005), 187-204.

Menu, “Captifs du guerre,” 187.