Talk:Slavery in ancient Egypt

This article was nominated for deletion on 9 April 2016. The result of the discussion was Snow Keep.

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Ancient Egypt

This article is within the scope of WikiProject Ancient Egypt, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of Egyptological subjects on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.Ancient EgyptWikipedia:WikiProject Ancient EgyptTemplate:WikiProject Ancient EgyptAncient Egypt articles

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WikiProject Ancient Egypt to-do list:

edit
history
watch
purge

Needed articles.

We should have an article on every pyramid and every nome in Ancient Egypt. I'm sure the rest of us can think of other articles we should have.

Cleanup.

To start with, most of the general history articles badly need attention. And I'm told that at least some of the dynasty articles need work. Any other candidates?

Standardize the Chronology.

A boring task, but the benefit of doing it is that you can set the dates !(e.g., why say Khufu lived 2589-2566? As long as you keep the length of his reign correct, or cite a respected source, you can date it 2590-2567 or 2585-2563)

Stub sorting

Anyone? I consider this probably the most unimportant of tasks on Wikipedia, but if you believe it needs to be done . . .

Data sorting.

This is a project I'd like to take on some day, & could be applied to more of Wikipedia than just Ancient Egypt. Take one of the standard authorities of history or culture -- Herotodus, the Elder Pliny, the writings of Breasted or Kenneth Kitchen, & see if you can't smoothly merge quotations or information into relevant articles. Probably a good exercise for someone who owns one of those impressive texts, yet can't get access to a research library.

Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment[edit]

This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 14 January 2019 and 8 May 2019. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): ClaireMarr.

Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT (talk) 03:36, 18 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Proposed merge with Ancient Egypt[edit]

Relates the Ancient Egypt, would do better there than here alone. --AM (Talk to me!) 01:59, 22 May 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Oppose The Egyptian slavery article needs improvement, but potentially it's a big topic which would inflate the target article. Better to keep separate per WP:SUBARTICLE. Brandmeister^talk 11:46, 31 May 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Oppose per Brandmeister. Fitzcarmalan (talk) 19:00, 3 June 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Oppose. Improve the slavery article, which reads like a personal essay rather than an encyclopedic piece. --Dmol (talk) 21:53, 6 June 2015 (UTC)[reply]

As there has been no support for a merger since May of last year, and the article is now at Afd -- and is being improved -- I'll remove the merge tag. Shawn in Montreal (talk) 17:02, 9 April 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Agreed. Unless we can beef up the article with more sources and info than it deserves to stay its own unique page.--EconomicHisorianinTraining (talk) 18:31, 4 March 2018 (UTC)[reply]

A word slipped in[edit]

Your tag at the top begins with This As the majority of ancient Egyptians were peasants...

The word 'This' is clearly out of place, but it doesn't show up in the 'Edit' page. Valetude (talk) 19:11, 20 January 2018 (UTC)[reply]

"Slavery" and usage of the word[edit]

One of the issues I have with this article is that, among other things it doesn't do enough to expound on the true nature of serfdom and slavery like workers in ancient egypt. While the usage of the word "slavery" may be accurate it needs to be said that the conditions that are USUALLY associated with that phrase in modern day english would have been very rare in ancient egypt. There are religious aspects to this as well, that need to be added to this article: Ma'at would have clearly disallowed proper slavery, i.e conditions usually associated with african slave trade etc. most were 'servants' and 'bonded labourers' who were not owned and were paid to some extent. The biggest difference ofc is that the possibility of freedom exists under most circumstances.

I'm also of the opinion that this could be merged into a larger article as, again, any discussion on this would bring in ideas of how ancient egyptian economy worked, the social heirarchy as well as political and religious aspects such as Ma'at, all of which would be very important to understand how the lower class were treated in ancient egypt. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2607:FEA8:6DF:FACA:70EE:ACEA:2B34:3C16 (talk) 18:23, 29 April 2018 (UTC)[reply]

I have exactly same concerns, this does not appear to be slavery in modern understanding of the term.Aocdnw (talk) 13:47, 1 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Slavery as understood as bound servitude by individuals either sold or taken captive is an entirely appropriate word. The usage of shackles, beatings and slave markets is well documented by the Ancient Egyptians themselves.

"Ma'at would have clearly disallowed proper slavery" - no it does not! You also assume Ma'at applied to non-Egyptians and have perhaps misunderstood that the purpose of the 42 confessions were to absolve the individual of the said 'sins' prior to judgment in the afterlife. 2001:8003:70F5:2400:CA4:C2D7:AA87:AA7D (talk) 22:55, 27 January 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Article needs major revisions in grammar and syntax[edit]

The author(s) violate basic rules of grammar in the very first sentence, writing "Slavery in ancient Egypt was in Egypt since the Old Kingdom" which includes a redundant reference to the past.

Other examples...

"The word "slave" or even the existence therefore,..." (improper punctuation and word use)

"Some Egyptian language refers..." (improper use of singular/plural word association)

"Forms of forced labor and servitude are seen throughout all of ancient Egypt..." (improper use of tense)— Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.93.150.172 (talk) 18:31, 30 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]

I have been trying to make some of these corrections, although some will need more substantive rewrites. Just want to say here that if anyone wants to undo or improve my wording, please have at it! Cheers. Dumuzid (talk) 14:25, 6 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]

In the intro section, what is the meaning of the second clause in the sentence "Egyptians wanted dominion over their kingdoms and would alter political and social ideas"? Maybe "alter political and social ideas" is an unusual way to say "change sociopolitical views"? I don't think any part of the sentence is adding anything relevant and I'm tempted to remove it but wanted to ask, in case someone thought it means something and that that thing is relevant.

Asiatic needs clarification[edit]

Who exactly are the asiatic slaves and who are the asiatic Bedouin who apparently controlled the Mediterranean Slave Markets [source]? 2001:8003:70F5:2400:CA4:C2D7:AA87:AA7D (talk) 21:54, 27 January 2023 (UTC)[reply]