Ancient Egyptian Agriculture

The Flooding of the Nile

The flooding of the Nile occurs in the season ahket. After the harvest when the Egyptians have just earned their money. They start to pray to their gods as worship to make the gods happy. That is because they think if the gods are happy then they will make the Nile flood. Now you may think to yourself? How does the flooding make any difference? Well, that’s because when the Nile floods its riverbanks, it leaves behind fine fertile soil perfect for growing crops.  The Nile is also the main water source for the Egyptians because it is very hard to find water in the mild temperatures. The farmers need the water to water their plant, bathe, and drink. It even supplies them with animals that live near the water. That is why the Nile is one of the most essential aspects of not only agriculture but the entire Egypt!

Seasons in Egypt

In ancient Egypt there are 3 seasons that are important aspects of agriculture. They are Ahket, Proyet, and Shomu. In Ahket, that is the time that the farmers barely do anything except watching over their fields and try as many ways as they can to worship the gods. In provet, the Nile have already flooded the shores and created the fine fertile soil. The farmers start to plant the crops. It takes weeks to plant all those crops depending on the size of your farm. After you finish the planting and think that you can relax now, you’re wrong! You have to take care of all those crops every single day until harvest time.  At the last season, Shomu is when the farmers then begin to harvest. They harvest will take longer than the planting since you have to thresh and winnow the wheat and make the other crops into different materials. After a successful harvest, scribes would then come to count the wheat and see the quality; they would then pay the farmers. After Shomu they simply wait for the flooding again.

Farmers Tools

 In Egypt, the farmers are usually poor and can’t afford very much, but how come they were still very successful? That’s because they farmers actually created a bunch of useful tools themselves. For example, a great essential creation was the shadoof. Why? That’s because the shadoof has the ability to scoop up water from the Nile, and use it to water the crops. They also created ploughs, sickles, winnow forks and grain scoops. Of course, that’s just some of the items that they had created. But the question is, how could they get those materials if most were poor? That is because they grow a whole bunch of crops that can be turned into a whole bunch of other materials