view the rest of the comments
History
Welcome to History!
This community is dedicated to sharing and discussing fascinating historical facts from all periods and regions.
Rules:
NOTE WELL: Personal attacks and insults will not be tolerated. Stick to talking about the historical topic at hand in your comments. Insults and personal attacks will get you an immediate ban for a period of time determined by the moderator who bans you.
-
Post about history. Ask a question about the past, share a link to an article about something historical, or talk about something related to history that interests you. Please encourage discussion whenever possible.
-
No memes. No ads. No promos. No spam.
-
No porn.
-
We like facts and reliable sources here. Don't spread misinformation or try to change the historical record.
Spoil alert: slavery. The river was the transport, but slaves did nearly everything else.
Nah seems to have been seasonal citizen workers. Ancient Egyptians didn’t have money, but they seem to have been ‘paid’ in food, grain, accommodation etc.
Yep, slaves has been debunked for years. Also they needed healthy well fed workers to make such a big construction. In the Fall of Civilizations podcast the host mentions graffiti that suggests healthy competition amongst employees.
Don’t forget beer. They were paid with lots of beer.
It is my understanding that beer was basically food in this time period
Born too early to explore the galaxy, born too late for beer to be my primary food source.
nope. everyone in the empire was required to spend some "civic duty" time in national service. It was mandatory. They've found the temp city that sprung up from the work camps.
Nope. At least not that way. Latest I've read is that the pharao taxed quite heavily, so people had to earn their own food back by working on public projects. Not really voluntary, but not slavery, either.
Today I learned.