Pictures in tombs depict many scenes connected with grain production—from the plowing of the soil to the storing of the grain into granaries. From these pictures we are able to outline the daily life of the peasant.
Their plows were crude, wooden implements, which at best did little more than scratch over the soil. Coarse clods of earth had to be broken with a sort of wooden hoe. Then the farmer scattered seed over the mellow ground, driving flocks of sheep across the fields to tread it in. Aside from the matter of irrigation, the crops needed little attention until the time for harvest. Then the grain was cut by a sickle, loaded on to donkeys and taken to the threshing-floor, located near the village. Here in early times it was trodden out by donkeys, driven back and forth over it. Later oxen were in greater favor for threshing. The grain was freed from chaff by throwing it up into the air rapidly. The grain fell straight down, while the chaff was blown forward. Now it was ready for the "scribes of the granary," who measured it and supervised it while being stored safely away. Sometimes the boats of a nobleman would ply back and forth for weeks together, bringing his heavy yield of millet and barley to his granaries.
One word about the "corn" of Egypt. The Indian corn which we call corn today is a native American product, and was unknown to antiquity. Corn has been used as a common name for all grain. Wheat, barley and millet were the leading grains of Egypt.
Taxes were paid in kind—in produce; so naturally, large quantities of grain were poured yearly into the coffers of the government. This was stored against times of need which occasionally fell upon Egypt. It was in one of these years when a famine swept over the east that Joseph's brothers came down into the valley to buy grain from government granaries.
Little is known of the vegetables grown in antiquity. Probably many of those common today were raised. Melons were extensively grown; onions and cucumbers were probably known and the grape vine was extensively cultivated.
Cattle raising was carried to some perfection. The Egyptians understood well the secrets of high breeding and produced especially fine specimens of cows and oxen. Being fond of all animals, they were partial to the ox, symbolic of great strength, and to the cow, sacred to Isis. As the lion, with its strength, has appealed to many people, so the ox was a favorite with the dwellers on the Nile.
The herders made up a class by themselves. In the summer they drove the cattle up north, into the marshes, where pasture was good. The average Egyptian looked upon these men with deepest disgust, for they let their hair grow, and wore beards. They lived in portable reed huts. Their lives were quite primitive and they had a general unkempt appearance. They dressed very little, and their efforts to copy the Egyptian skirt in their stiff matting, afforded the townsman much amusement. They spent their idle time weaving papyrus reeds into mats, and wove boats from the same useful plant.
When the fall came, they returned with their herds from the northern marshes. When they reached home, officials came to inspect the flocks. They noted the increase of the stock, all losses and other matters of interest to the owners. Records show that single proprietors sometimes owned as many as 1,300 cows, in addition to other cattle.
Large flocks of sheep were kept, and goats were plentiful. Few pictures of pigs are to be seen, and those only in the New Empire period. The pig was objected to on religious grounds, as unclean.
Their fondness for animals led the Egyptians to receive as many wild animals as possible into their flocks. These were fattened with the cattle. Mention is made of the ibex and antelope being especially valued when they had been fed for awhile with the herds.