Marriage in Ancient Egypt The ancient Egyptians held marriage as a sacred bond. Each person in a family played his or her own

Marriage in Ancient Egypt
    Good afternoon, everybody. In ancient times Egypt was a flourishing kingdom and one of the earliest known civilizations, producing magnificent structures and delicate works of art. Today we will discuss one aspect of its social life. That is the marriage in ancient Egypt.
   The ancient Egyptians held marriage as a sacred bond. The family was broken down into roles that each would play in order for things to run smoothly. The father was the one who would work all day. In smaller households the mother was in charge of all things pertaining to the house. Cooking, cleaning and watching the children were all her responsibilities. Egyptians seem to have taken mates in what most often appears to be lifelong monogamous relationships. Marriage and a close family played an integral role in ancient Egypt.
   A bride would be young, about 14 or 15 years old. Her husband could be anywhere from 17 to 20 -- or older if he was divorced or a widower. The ancient Egyptians were encouraged to marry young, considering that the life span at this time was relatively short.
   Interestingly, one of the most affectionate titles you could call your love was "brother" or "sister" in ancient Egypt. This had nothing to do with sibling relations, but led many archaeologists and scholars to wrongly assume that most ancient Egyptians married their siblings. Actually, this usually occurred only among royalty -- and was not a common occurrence.
   First let’s talk about the wedding day.
   The day of the marriage was really quite simple. The bride merely moved her belongings into the home of her husband. He might be living alone or with his parents.
   So what did the bride wear? She probably wore a long dress or tunic made of linen, which may have been covered from head to toe with bead-net. If she owned any gold, silver or lapis, she probably adorned herself with those, too.
   Even though there was no official ceremony, knowing how much the ancient Egyptians loved music, dance and food, there were hound to be family celebrations in honor of the uniting couple.
   Museums are filled with statues and paintings showing husbands and wives with their arms around each other’s waists, holding hands or offering each other flowers or food. Love and affection was indeed a part of the Egyptian marriage, and our Egyptian bride could expect to be loved and respected by her husband.
   Entering into a marriage was described as "making a wife" or "taking a wife", but it seems that the girl’s father had the main say. If the girl had no father, an uncle would step in. In the absence of any preexisting agreement it seems that the girl’s consent to a marriage was unimportant until the 26th dynasty, when brides also began to have a say.
    Then let’s talk about the marriage contract.
    Most marriages had a contract drawn up between the parties. The poorer classes probably did not do this because they probably had few possessions to consider and also the cost of a scribe would have been costly. Marriage settlements were drawn up between a woman’s father and her prospective husband, although many times the woman herself was part of the contract. The sole purpose of the contract was to establish the rights of both parties to maintenance and possessions during the marriage and after divorce if it should occur.
   A standard marriage contract that had been found among the numerous records left by the ancient Egyptians. It contained:
   The date ( the year of the reign of the ruling monarch)
   The contractors (future husband and wife)
   The names of both sets parents
   Husband’s profession (wife’s rarely mentioned)
   The scribe who drew up the contract
   The names of the witnesses
   The finished document was given to a third party for safekeeping or kept among the records of the local temple.
   A man could marry as soon as he was physically mature and had reached a point in his chosen career that ensured his ability to provide for his wife and for the children they could expect. Most Egyptians were content to have only one wife. Marriage was an expensive matter for the man, and the whole contract system provided such far-reaching safeguards for the material rights of wives and children that most men could only afford one wife at a time.
   Particularly during the early periods of ancient Egypt, the future husband made a payment to the bride’s father, usually amounting to about the cost of a slave. Later, this practice was abandoned and later the practice was reversed where often the father of the bride had to compensate the future husband for her upkeep. However, if divorce occurred, the husband was obligated to continue some support to his ex-wife, usually amounting to about one third of his earnings.
   Divorce was as easily initiated as marriage. Divorce could be brought about by either party; it was a private matter and the government took no interest in it.
   The most common reasons for a husband to divorce his wife included the inability to bear children, especially a son; the desire to marry someone else or that she simply stopped pleasing him. A woman could divorce her husband for mental or physical cruelty or adultery. In some cases, if the woman chose to divorce, she forfeited her right to communal property.
   Once divorced, both men and women could remarry as soon as they wished. And from the archives we have found, it seems that they readily did. It’s also apparent that our ancient bride, with the ease of marriage and divorce and the financial protection she generally received, had a better time of it than some brides in modern times. All of this said, there are many indications that husbands and wives in ancient Egypt were often happy and in love. Tomorrow we will talk about the Pyramid of ancient Egypt.