There are actually many strange things to talk about about ancient Egypt, such as the pharaoh Ramses II who had a passport before.
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Three thousand years after the death of the Egyptian pharaoh, he applied for a passport, flew a plane, and went abroad to see a doctor? Yes, it's true!
Today, we will not talk about a specific pharaoh, but only about the strange facts of all aspects of the working life of the ancient Egyptians. Of course, what I tell you is definitely something that the average person absolutely does not know!
Pharaoh's fly-killing tricks
The ancient Egyptian people had a very serious problem in their daily lives - fly plague.
At that time, it was believed that flies were the mark of the sun god, although they were plagued everywhere, but they could not be forcibly killed, and there was no particularly effective way to repel flies. Until a pharaoh appeared who specially attracted flies.
According to legend, Pharaoh Pepi II always liked to smear his face and especially attract flies. To solve this problem, Pepi II organized a large procession of fly exorcisms, appointing a slave to stand by his side every day, covered in honey.
Sure enough, the flies were attracted to the honey, and even many of them stuck directly to the slaves, and the effect was outnumbered. Eventually, Pepi II arranged for a naked slave to be smeared with honey in every room of his palace, never to be harassed by flies again.
Sure enough, there is no trouble that money and power can't solve...
Both men and women wear makeup
In ancient Egypt, both men and women had to wear makeup, especially eye shadow and eyeliner.
At first, makeup was mainly for sun protection, but it could also cure eye diseases. The main component of green eyeshadow is copper, and the main component of black eyeshadow is graphite, which is indeed able to treat conjunctivitis to a certain extent.
In addition to eyeshadow, people will also paint their faces red or brown to protect themselves from the sun, apply animal oil on the body to prevent moisture loss, and use dyes to apply lipstick, hand and nails, and so on. A whole set of skincare processes, everyone is a delicate girl.
Later, makeup gradually evolved into aristocratic privileges and became part of social etiquette, and the nobles believed that the sun god and the eagle god would take care of the people who made up, turning simple makeup into complex rituals, so today we can see a lot of enchanting pharaohs...
Lipstick is made by insects
Cleopatra, the first "beauty artist" in ancient Egyptian history, had extremely harsh requirements for lipstick, and her favorite was the red color extracted from the fat and eggs of female cochineals, which to this day is still a classic color number, and there is also an exclusive name - Cleopatra red.
In modern times, in fact, some lipsticks still use insects as raw materials, but most of them are particularly expensive big-name lipsticks, and ordinary lipsticks are made of artificial pigments. Bugs are not what you want to eat, you can eat if you want to...
Cleopatra is not Egyptian
In the eyes of everyone, Cleopatra was born in Alexandria, Egypt, but in fact she is a descendant of greek Macedonians.
In that year, Alexander the Great established an empire with unprecedented territorial splendor, and gave Egypt to the general Ptolemy Sottel, who then established the Ptolemy Sottel dynasty in Egyptian history, and most of the monarchs continued the Greek tradition culturally and emotionally.
Cleopatra was the second daughter of King Claudius Ptolemy Orret and was one of the first members of the Ptolemaic dynasty to speak Egyptian.
Pharaohs were big fat men
The pharaohs and sculptures that we can see now give the impression that the supreme rulers of ancient Egypt were all in good shape, but in fact these are all artistic processes.
Through the test of mummies, it was found that the ancient Egyptian nobles, especially the pharaohs, were not in optimistic physical health, and the royal family members were all fat people with diabetes.
This is because wine, beer, bread, honey, etc. were the main foods of the ancient Egyptian nobility, almost all of which were high in sugar and had no limits on eating, so they were all overweight.
The most famous is the female pharaoh Hatshepsut, whose sarcophagus is slender and in good health, but historians have deduced that she is actually fat, fat and bald (like the vast number of netizens who howl at hair loss every day).
Wigs and fake beards are a necessity
The female pharaoh Hatshepsut had a magical invention, the false beard. Because in the ancient Egyptian conception, the beard was a symbol of the power of the pharaohs, Hatshepsut not only wore a false beard himself, but also required all his portraits to have a beard, and because of this, her statue was very recognizable, with female facial features, and a male beard and body.
In addition to false beards, Egyptians also wear wigs. Just as today people show off luxury goods such as clothes, watches, shoes, bags, jewelry, etc., in ancient Egypt, wigs were a kind of luxury that needed to be shown.
The most extravagant wigs were made with real hair, which the nobility could afford; the lowest grades were made of a mixture of wool and plants, which could be used by the middle class. Either way, wigs are not so easy to make, they need to be pasted to the mold, which is particularly time-consuming, and the heavier it is, the more precious it is.
Raising babies is very casual
Raising children in Egypt is not expensive, mainly because they don't wear clothes at all until they are teenagers. To ensure your child's health and prevent lice bites, you will also shave your child's hair and leave only a small side-lock on the left side.
Girls around the age of 12 remove their small braids and grow long hair into a simple ponytail; boys maintain a small braided hairstyle.
The Egyptian pyramids were not built by slaves
The pyramids are a miracle of human civilization, and it is very remarkable to be able to build such a great building at that level of technology. We usually think of it as the work of enslaved slaves, but this is not the case.
From the analysis of the bones of the workers unearthed, they were all Egyptians, not like slaves, more like the long-term employment of the pharaohs, these people included craftsmen who ate by craft, but also some temporary workers who did manual work. Near the monument are graffiti left by workers of that time, calling themselves "drunks in Moncal" or "friends of Khufs", who are clearly proud of their work.
So what did the slaves of ancient Egypt do? According to the data, slaves would mainly go out hunting with their masters, or do housework as domestic servants, and would not go out to work.
Strikes for welfare
In ancient Egypt, although Pharaoh's status in people's hearts was equivalent to that of a god, the workers were also very rigid and did not hesitate to protest to Pharaoh for personal welfare.
I want the horses to run, and I want the horses not to eat grass, there is no such reason!
During the reign of Ramses III in the 12th century BC, a general strike broke out in ancient Egypt. Workers were building royal tombs and were not paid for the food they deserved, so workers stopped working and went into a nearby temple to sit in protest. In the end, the strike movement gained the attention of the managers, and the workers received their due food before returning to work.
Advanced "trial marriage" system
To get married in ancient Egypt, of course, there is no need to go to the Civil Affairs Bureau to get a certificate, but it is still very formal. Some couples often write "contracts", memorize the dowry carried by women before marriage, stipulate financial compensation after divorce, and even have "trial marriage" clauses. For example, couples can first live together at the beginning, and if someone cannot get pregnant, or the two do not get along well, they can break up peacefully.
This also reflects that although the social status of women in ancient Egypt is not as good as that of men, they enjoy many rights to a certain extent. In addition, women are relatively independent of the economy, free to dispose of property, participate in juries, make wills, etc., and if women go out to work, they can get the same remuneration as men.
Men also come to "big aunt"
Ancient Egypt was so advanced in the concept of equal rights for men and women, I think there is an important reason, that is, Egyptians think that men also have menstruation, and when they spend a few days every month, they also delay work.
In the Egyptian conception, if a man has no blood in his urine, he is sick and abnormal.
Anyone who has taken a health class knows that men have "menstruation"? It's because most Egyptians suffer from schistosomiasis.
Egyptian schistosomiasis is a parasitic disease transmitted through contact with infected water, and like most urinary tract diseases, there are symptoms of hematuria, urinary frequency, urgency, pain in urination, etc., which in their eyes are "great aunts".
Contraceptives are "alternative"
Ancient Egypt was the first society in history to have the idea of contraception and birth control.
Some friends may know that in ancient times, we used animal intestines, pig bladders as condoms, or took various types of Chinese herbal medicines; ancient Rome was to eat a certain plant contraception, resulting in the extinction of the plant...
These contraceptive methods are quite strange, but they are not as "hardcore" as ancient Egypt.
In ancient Egypt, people did not take medicine or knives, but used pure natural materials - mud, honey and crocodile feces mixed together, and inserted the mixture into the female body before they could start doing the right thing.
Of course, there is some truth to the fact that this method can be applied for so long: crocodile feces have a certain acidity and can kill sperm. Whether it was useful or not, with the level of medical knowledge at that time, it was already a miracle to be able to come up with such a formula...
Cats rule the world
The ancient Egyptians were the first to keep pets, including eagles, ibises, dogs, lions, and baboons, especially cats. Cats symbolize the savior in their civilization and are of a higher status than people.
During the war between Pharaoh Psamtik III and the Persians, the Persians knew the Egyptians' love of cats and collected them as much as possible and threw them into the battlefield. Afraid of hurting the cat, the pharaoh forbade his army to fight back, and the Persian army won the war directly by throwing cats.
In folklore, when a cat dies, family members will sadly shave their eyebrows in honor of it. If anyone dares to kill a cat, they are thrown into a pit of poisonous snakes as punishment.
Legend has it that Egyptian cats were mummified after death and buried in a cat cemetery with a bowl of milk next to them in case they were thirsty when they were resurrected. In 1888, 80,000 cat mummies were found in a large tomb.
There is a presumption of guilt in court
The ancient Egyptian legal system was well established, but there was a rule that contradicted the "presumption of innocence" of modern law, namely that the defendant's crime was assumed from the outset.
In this system of presumption of guilt, where both the accused and the witnesses are tortured, it is the judge's job to be as impartial as possible. Of course, there is no defence lawyer helping the accused, so it is difficult to say how many unjust, false and wrongly decided cases this system has caused.
The shorter the better
If you suffer from dwarfism in ancient Egypt, you don't have to worry about not finding a job. Contrary to modern times, the dwarfs of ancient Egypt enjoyed a high social status, and short people were regarded as a special gift from God to mankind, and it was not too easy to find a job
Dwarves could rely on their "height advantage" to avoid participating in the selection of the royal palace and work directly for the pharaoh. If you don't want to serve the royal family, you can also work as a jeweler, tailor or animal steward. Especially animal stewards, the ancient Egyptians believed that short people had a talent for communicating with animals.
How about this wave of cold knowledge in ancient Egypt that you enjoy?
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