Fashion and tools in Ancient Egypt

For my Survey one blog post I chose ancient Egypt as my time period. The two topics I chose to focus on are tools and sciences, as well as fashion. Ancient Egypt was a fascinating portion of history that we are lucky to have well-kept records of. Let’s get into it. 

I found it easier to find information on tools rather than sciences for this period as Egyptians were geniuses when it came to engineering. The Egyptians made incredible jumps in innovation and productivity with their inventions, many of which are still in use today to some extent.  

Let us begin with time. The sundial was one of the two main kinds of clocks used by the Egyptians. It was presumably invented in the 8th century BCE and was a device that used shadows cast by the sun to tell time. Time was crucial to ancient Egypt as they had advanced systems for farming and yearly flooding of the Nial River. They invented their own calendar to keep track of the years, and irrigation systems to redistribute floodwaters and allow for control over more land. 

Egypt also has some of the first evidence of door locks. Pin locks, much like the ones used today in our own homes, were found in buildings. They were much larger and presumably much easier to lockpick but nevertheless, it was a system of locking that has never gone out of style.  

Fashion was also important to the Egyptian people. Both men and women wore wigs and makeup. They wore kohl on their eyes and ochre on their cheeks. Many fashion items were worn to signify and display wealth and sexuality. 

Nudity was commonplace in Ancient Egypt and not taboo. Women would wear Kalas which were thin sheer dresses to protect their skin but also allow themselves to stay cool. Men were almost always seen wearing Shenti’s which were white skirts to protect their genitals from the work they were doing. People with money and importance would wear their shenti starched and stiff with lots of space in the front to represent their massive… amounts of fertility.  

We also can’t forget about the headdresses. The one we are all most familiar with is the Nemes, which was made of stripped starched linen and is commonly seen represented on the tombs and sarcophaguses of pharaohs.  

There is a lot we have taken and kept from Ancient Egypt, from their eyeliner to their irrigation systems and we would not be where we are today without the engineers of that time period. 

Sources

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1VY7C_Wa6DI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d9kvd5wgRYA

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Egyptian_inventions_and_discoveries

https://search-credoreference-com.ezproxy.capilanou.ca/content/entry/routafricanhistory/egypt_ancient_funeral_practices_and_mummification/0

Hi! As you can see, this is me. I chose the imagery in the spread because I practice witchcraft and elements like skulls and snakes are seen very regularly in witchcraft and the aesthetics that stem from it. I chose a font for my titles that resembles a Celtic stylization because of my Scottish Celtic heritage. The keywords that I chose for myself that can be seen surrounding the circle in the center of the spread are Compassionate, Ambitious, Creative, Intuitive, and Scatter-brained. Ambitious was one that was very important to me, I have always been told I am independent and when I set my mind to something I make it happen, in my teenage year’s people referred to that trait as selfish but now as an adult people tend to use ambitious instead, I prefer it. I went out and did a photoshoot to get the two portraits in the spread, but they printed very light, so I stylized them with pen to bring back some of the sharpness. I think I did very well on this project, my design is simple, but it is balanced and does a good job displaying my style. The image is cohesive, and I think I did a good job of following the brief. There are a few small mistakes with how I spaced the writing in one of the boxes and I messed up a word in the bio portion which left an out of place black box. 8/10.