This essay is about female inheritance in ancient Egypt. Death had a very important part in the Egyptian culture. The goal in this essay is to put focus on an everyday aspect of death, which is often left out. That is, how the living was affected by the death of a close relative. Since women had a weaker economic position than men, they are likely to have been more affected. Hence, the essay will focus on women. Most of the existing research is based on primary sources from the Late and Ptolemaic Period. But since that is relatively late in the Egyptian history, it is important to see what female inheritance looked like earlier in history. It is also important to compare different periods in order to see if inheritance developed during time or stayed unchanged. The issues will be how the death of the husband and a family member affected the woman, and how her death affected other persons close to her. In order to answer this, primary sources consisting of texts from Lahun (the Middle Kingdom) and Deir el-Medina (the New Kingdom) will be analyzed in a comparative study. The most important results are that inheritance was based on the relationship between the individual rather than on gender and the death of the husband had the biggest influence on the woman’s life. How big the influence was depended on whether or not she inherited as a widow.

The concept of slavery in ancient Egypt is a debated issue, that has mostly focused upon the different uses of the phrasing and terminology of the different words for servitude. Without giving too much emphasis upon the different terminologies, this essay presents a summary of the state of slavery within the borders of Egypt during the New Kingdom. As different kinds of servitude existed in the country, the focus is upon the types of slaves who were the property of their master and could be bought and sold. The essay presents who the slave was and where he came from, as well as what kinds of duties the slave was used for. The process of acquisition is also covered, before finally discussing the rights of the slave as well as the means to become free of your bonds.

This paper deals with the embalming process in ancient Egypt. Samples were collected from six objects from Medelhavsmuseet in Stockholm. The objects were one supposed ladle and five different contents from pottery. Fourier transform infrared spectrometry (FTIR) and gas- chromatography/mass spectrometry was used to characterize the components of the materials. The result was then correlated with previously made analysis of embalming materials to discover similarities. The results show complex mixtures mainly consisting of resin from Pinaceae origin, also beeswax, vegetable oil and Castor oil. Some samples show differences in the mixture, one dominated by cholesterylacetat. The results of the ladle samples is comparable to previous samples from other analysis and can therefore be confirmed as an embalming ladle.