for many years it was presumed that in ancient Egypt the Great Pyramids of Giza were built by many thousands of foreign slaves toiling under very harsh conditions over a period of decades today many scholars refute this picture of ancient Egypt believing instead that they were built by the free Egyptians themselves some perhaps as seasonal conscripts with other artisans consigned permanently to the projects one must also consider just how the Egyptians would really control so many slaves in one location with rudimentary weapons of the Old Kingdom a slave is defined as one bound in servitude as the property of a person or household this is an interesting definition considering that it does not refer to entities other than persons or households such as the state the definition of slavery does provide that it is the state of one bound in servitude as the property of a slave holder or household which seems to have a broader scope certainly most of us would consider anyone bound in servitude regardless to whom a slave in ancient Egypt textual references to slaves are indistinct from word usage along it is difficult to ascertain whether one was a slave or a servant for example a priest could be read as a god slave but by our definition and understanding of slavery he was not in reading Egyptian texts therefore context is the only criteria for determining such a status and even then it can be difficult because there were different levels of servitude those who are not free might not only include slaves but also those with various degrees of encumbered liberty for example could an artisan who worked on tombs who lived in the Dro Medina workers village on the west bank at Thebes simply walk of his job in effect almost anyone under the authority of an absolute ruler such as a pharaoh might in some degree be considered a slave we should also note that if it is difficult to identify slaves from textual references it is even harder to do so with depictions in fact the term that conjures up anachronistic visions either of ancient Rome or of the 19th century plantation of the do little to help understand slavery in Egypt most of the population of pharaonic Egypt were tied to the line' or followed strictly hereditary professions these men or women were often included among the possessions of kings high-ranking officials or temple estates serfs might better describe these people though even that term is too closely connected with images of feudal society in medieval Europe especially in view of the fact that Egyptian farmers were tied to the land not so much legally but by tradition and economic circumstances for ancient Egypt a better or at least more precise definition of a slave might be a person owned by a master as was any other channel used as the master pleased to the extent of being disposed of by inheritance gift sale and so forth in reality such slavery seems to have been fairly rare in Egypt prior to the Greek period progressing over time like all ancient population statistics estimating the number of slaves in ancient Egypt is based more on guesswork than on knowledge in pharaonic times their part and the population may have been greatest during the expansionary stage of the new kingdom when whole populations were enslaved at times that most three for instance is reported to have returned from a campaign in Canaan with almost 90,000 prisoners given the small size of armies usually numbering in the thousands rather than tens of thousands of soldiers most of these prisoners must have been civilians there is one collective noun written with the ho sign hieroglyphic that refers to groups of people who belong to individuals and institutions such as temples as early as the old kingdom such groups were mentioned along with land and cattle during the Middle Kingdom we also know that they could be acquired by bequest or other arrangements during the New Kingdom they could be recruited from captives or given in an endowment considering their apparent permanent detachment to the land and their master they were almost certainly a form of slave another similar term written with a Canal sign appear to denote another group of people assigned to individuals and institutions but who are not directly connected with Land and Cattle though we know little about this group of people they may have been similar or the same as the Kings slaves who during the Middle Kingdom were often transferred to a state Cyprian officials the King's slaves were considered the property of their master but their occupations were not confined to grow culture as they were also employed in households we believe that their children in doubtedly inherited the status of their parents captives depicted at medina Hibou almost certainly being led into slavery in Egypt as well as elsewhere the principal and oldest cause of slavery was capture in war specifically in Egypt the general rule was that all captives including those outside of the military forces became a royal resource the King certainly did not keep all of these slaves though some were resettled in colonies for labour however he also granted some of them to temples to meritorious individuals and also as booty for his soldiers from ancient documents we know that as many as 19 captives could be assigned to an individual slaves including both male and female temples on the other hand could receive an unlimited numbers of captives as slaves and some references mentioned many thousands also a trade in possibly captured people from foreign countries was also possible for example Amenhotep 3 ordered 40 girls from milk Kalu a Canaanite prince paying 40 kit of silver for each behold I have sent you Hania the Commissioner of the archers with merchandise in order to have beautiful concubines that is we verse silver gold garments turquoises all sorts of precious stones chairs of ebony as well as all good things worth 160 double in total forty concubines the price of every concubine is forty of silver therefore send very beautiful concubines without blemish from the Brooklyn papyrus we learn that Near Eastern men and women were intermingled with Egyptian servants and outnumber them interestingly they seem to have been more highly regarded than there Gyptian counterparts this is probably due to the fact that as prisoners of war on their descendants they initially belong to a social stratum superior to that of the Egyptian servants in fact the Egyptians of similar status probably came to be slaves due to committing some sort of unlawful act hence some of the Egyptians who became slaves were originally free people who having committed some sort of illicit acts were forced to forfeit their Liberty perhaps including the liberty of their spouse and children it should also be noted that the birth of a child - a slave mother whether or not the father was free resulted in slavery for the child in fact abandonment of undesired newborn children was not infrequently practiced in Egypt and the Near East and has also been attested in greco-roman Egypt though there seems to be no extant documents of such a practice in Egypt elsewhere foundlings were considered ownerless property who might be picked up to become slaves you