Daily Life in Ancient Egyptian Personal Correspondence

Susan Thorpe graduated from the University of Auckland in 2008, majoring in Ancient History. Specialising in Egyptology, she achieved BA Honours (First Class) in 2009 and Masters (First class) in 2010. She successfully defended her PhD in 2016. Since then, she has held the position of Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Auckland. She has attended and presented at conferences in Europe, the UK, Australia and New Zealand and had her work accepted for publication in conference proceedings and journals.

Introduction ;



Problems and issues ;


Letter 1 ;


Letter 2 ;


Letter 3 ;


Letter 4 ;



Domestic issues and responsibility ;


Letter 5 ;


Letter 6 ;


Provisioning ;


Letter 7 ;


Letter 8 ;



Personal and familial issues ;


Letter 9 ;


Letter 10 ;


Letter 11 ;


Letter 12 ;



Summary ;



Daily Life ;


Building work and labour ;


Letter 1 ;


Letter 2 ;



Husbandry ;


Letter 3 ;


Letter 4 ;


Letter 5 ;



Provisions ;


Letter 6 ;


Letter 7 ;



Personal topics ;


Letter 8 ;


Letter 9 ;


Letter 10 ;



Raw materials ;


Letter 11 ;


Letters 12 and 13 ;



Summary ;



Religious matters ;


Religious duties, festivals, and a divine offering problem ;


Letter 1 ;


Letter 2 ;


Letter 3 ;


Letter 4 ;


Letter 5 ;



The ‘God’s Father Priests of “He of the Camp”’ ;


Letter 6 ;


Letter 7 ;


Letter 8 ;


Letter 9 ;


Letter 10 ;


Letter 11 ;


Letter 12 ;


Letter 13 ;



Summary ;



Military and police matters ;


Military duties and responsibility ;


Letters 1, 2 and 3 ;


Letter 4 ;


Letter 5 ;


Letter 6 ;



An assassination plot ;


Letter 7 ;


Letter 8 ;


Letter 9 ;



Summary ;



Further analysis ;


Aspects of agricultural organisation and natural resources ;


Religious aspects ;


Aspects of feelings and emotion ;


The role of women ;


Delivery ;


Writers and recipients ;


Aspects regarding distinctiveness of data ;



Conclusion ;



Appendix ;


Letters within collections ;


Letters from a specific period ;


Letters grouped by topic ;


Letters grouped by same sender and/or recipient ;


Letters studied with respect to specific aspects of structure and focus ;


In conclusion: other categories of correspondence ;



References