Most ordinary Egyptians worked on the land for at least some of the year as part of their duty to the state. The majority of the farmland belonged to wealthy individuals such as the king and his noblemen, or to institutions like temples. Landowners employed stewards to look after their farms and supervise the field workers. Every year officials measured the fields and checked the boundary stones to make sure they had not been moved. Then they calculated how much of the harvest the landowner would have to pay in tax. Grain paid in taxation was stored in state granaries and provided some insurance against famine in years when the harvest was poor.

Painting of an official surveying field boundaries

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Tomb model of ploughing

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Wooden ploughs

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A farmer

Tomb model of a farmer using a wooden hoe

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Scene from the Book of the Dead

Agricultural scene from the Book of the Dead, showing fields, irrigation channels and farming activities including ploughing and harvesting.

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Sickle and hoes

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Winnowing fan

A winnowing fan used for separating the grain from the chaff.

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A granary

Model of a granary with remnants of real grain.

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