Lecture on Slavery in Ancient Egypt

Traditional View of Pyramid Building

• Initially believed Great Pyramids built by thousands of foreign slaves.
• Modern scholars refute this; think Egyptians themselves, including artisans and conscripts, built the pyramids.

Control and Definition of Slavery

• Doubts on how Egyptians could control many slaves with limited weaponry.
• Slave: a person bound in servitude to another person or household.
• Egyptian texts do not clearly distinguish between slaves and servants; context is crucial.

Servitude and Social Status

• Various degrees of unfree status, not just slaves but also encumbered liberty.
• Difficulty in identifying slaves from texts and depictions.
• Most Egyptians tied to hereditary professions; akin to serfs.
• Slavery in Egypt was not as prevalent before the Greek period.

Population and Slavery during Expansion

• Slavery numbers in ancient Egypt speculative.
• New Kingdom expansion led to enslavement of whole populations.
• Example: Thutmose III brought back 90,000 captives from Canaan.

Captives and Slavery

• Captives were a royal resource; distributed among temples, individuals, and soldiers.
• Some captives resettled for labor or granted as booty.
• Temples could receive unlimited captives as slaves.

Trade and Acquisition of Slaves

• Trade involved possibly captured people from foreign countries.
• Example: Amenhotep III's acquisition of 40 girls from a Canaanite prince.

Social Strata and Status of Slaves

• Foreign slaves often had higher status than Egyptian servants.
• Egyptian slaves could be free people who committed crimes.
• Children of slave mothers inherited slave status.

Foundlings and Ownership

• Abandonment of unwanted children could lead to their enslavement.
• Foundlings considered ownerless property, potential slaves.