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The Will The Will of Wah is an ancient Egyptian piece of text that takes place in Lahun, a town in Egypt. During this time, Amenemhat III was ruling in the Middle Kingdom. Lahun is located in Upper Egypt, near Herakleopolis. To get an overall glimpse of time, the Middle Kingdom is between the eleventh through the fourteenth dynasties, 2050 BC and 1650 BC. The excavations were done by Mr. Petrie at Lahun. The coding information about the papyri is UC 32058 Lot 1.1. Lot 1.1 means that it was the first pile that was found in the West part of Lahun. The discovery of the first publication was during 1889-1998. The restorations of the papyri were completed by 1890 found by a nearby valley temple. “The description is h. 56.S cm; w. 32.0 cm.”1 “The will is currently in the Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology.” 2 Wah was a married priest that wrote the Will. When the will was found it was still folded and sealed. According to Parkinson there was an extra line was added that meant the birth of his son. “This line can also mean the date for a guardian to come in and take Wah’s place. Wah probably didn’t expect to live long enough to be able to raise his son himself.”3 “The first part of the will Wah was a summary of his brother’s part, to clarify what was at stake and to legitimize this right to further transfer all the property as he chose.”4 This part of the will is where the younger brother, Wah, got his inheritance from his older brother.

1 Collier and Quirke, Parkinson, Voices in Ancient Egypt, the UCL Lahun Papyri: Religious, Literacy, Legal, Mathematical, and Medical, 2004.

2 Collier and Quirke, Parkinson, Voices in Ancient Egypt, Preface, 2002.

3 Szpakowska, Kasia Maria. Daily life in ancient Egypt: recreating Lahun. Malden, MA: Blackwell Pub., 2008.

4 Richard B. Parkinson, Voices from ancient Egypt: an anthology of Middle Kingdom writing, 108-109 (British Museum PR, UK, 2008). This will is important because it gives significant amount of power to his wife. Today this might now sound so extraordinary but during the Middle Kingdom the wills weren’t passed to the wife’s. It brings up how women were treated overall in the Middle Kingdom in Lahun. Women in Daily Life The book Daily Life in Ancient Egypt describes more in details about the daily life for a women. The author does states that the women did have titles jobs such as a hairdresser, mourners, cosmetician but these jobs did not require literacy. It states, “Women had specialized skills, such as those of hairdresser, cosmetician”4 The woman did have rights to a certain extent. The respect for mothers are also apparent in many documents. In some documents a mother is often emphasized. Women were involved in heavy weights, such as carrying children, pounding grain for bread or beer, and also weaving. The book also mentioned that schooling didn’t seem available for non-royal women. However titles were attested that women could still have administrative roles, but they were uncommon. Robinson Gay, author of Women in Ancient Egypt stated “in an upper class household there is women living there, traditionally the mothers, sister, aunt, and grandmothers.” 5 Women were usually the ones that did the baking and the smaller households the mistress of the house was responsible for producing food.

5 Szpakowska, Kasia Maria. Daily life in ancient Egypt: recreating Lahun. Malden, MA: Blackwell Pub., 2008. 6 Robins, Gay. Women in ancient Egypt. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1993. 7 Robins, Gay. Women in ancient Egypt. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1993.

They were also spinning and weaving in the middle kingdom. Business transactions were open to women in which they sold their produce or things that they made. Women can also be land owners, rent the land but still considering that the Egyptian concept of this unit consisted of a male head. “As far as literacy, a lot of high class women did have duties on the temples and could also play a part in the funerary cults of family members.”6 Szpakowska also wrote, “How women attained reading and writing skills is unknown.”7 She does make a suggestion were the sisters or siblings can watch their older brother and learn from that as well but it is not a fact. All this information is helpful to the will of Wah because it explains the role of women in society. All these pieces of information show how women were important, could work, and have power but always considering that there were gendered jobs. Woman in Power In the book Daily Life In Egypt, by Kasia Szpakowska it mentioned inheritance and Property Transfer. The male and female children would inherit equally and automatically two-thirds of the property of their deceased parent. “On the other hand, the wife will only receive one-third.”8 Clearly the women or wife was not a huge contributor to the will traditionally.” The Will of Wah was a document that contradicts the benefits of the average women in Egypt. Like stated previously woman did have the right to own property, land and have control over their own profits. On other hand, there wasn’t text where it states that women were given the whole will to them. The Will of Wah would be the exception in the statement. The will showed how her husband was able to give her all his will and made this a unique situation.

8 Szpakowska, Kasia Maria. Daily life in ancient Egypt: recreating Lahun. Malden, MA: Blackwell Pub., 2008.

Bibliography Cape, Anne., and Glenn Markoe. Mistress of the House, Mistress of Heaven: women in ancient Egypt. New York: Hudson Hill Press in association with Cincinnati Art Museum, 1996. Collier and Quirke,Parkinson, Voices in Ancient Egypt, The UCL Lahun Papyri: Religious, Literacy, Legal, Mathematical, and Medical, 2004. Collier and Quirke, Parkinson, Voices in Ancient Egypt, Preface iii, 2002. Robins, Gay. Women in ancient Egypt. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1993 Szpakowska, Kasia Maria. Daily life in ancient Egypt: recreating Lahun. Malden, MA: Blackwell Pub., 2008. Ward, William. "Diotima Materials For The Study of Women ." Diotima.