Daily Life and Customs in the Ancient World

Introduction

The daily lives of most ancient people were set to the rhythms of nature: day and night, the seasons, sowing and reaping, pregnancy, birth, sickness, and death. For the vast majority, their routines revolved around survival, and the tasks and customs that each culture required or evolved to ensure it for each member and for the society as a whole. Though people in many cultures no doubt struggled at achieving simple survival and safety, ancient civilizations in Africa, the Americas, and Eurasia provided the framework of social, material, and intellectual conditions and resources that allowed many in their populations to thrive well beyond basic needs.

Family life

Mesopotamia

In Mesopotamia, families tended to be nuclear, with older female or younger male relatives attached. Fathers ruled their wives and children with absolute authority, so much so that children could even be legally sold into slavery for debt. Sons were expected to support their aged parents, and the eldest inherited the social position and identity of the family. Children lived at home until able to form their own families or until they were called to military or civil service. Parenthood seems to have been revered by the society and children well cared for. The fact that adoption was common supports the idea that children and child rearing were important aspects of Mesopotamian culture. Legal documents, letters, and even myths shed light on familial relations, and the legal codes, like Hammurabi's Code, are often quite explicit about social expectations.

Greece

Ancient Greeks lacked a specific term for family but like the Mesopotamians used a term (oikos) that denoted a household arrangement. Older men tended to marry young women, and the norm was for monogamous marriages arranged through the family of the woman. Marriage was a means of uniting resources rather than hearts. Married women ruled domestic life as their husbands ruled the political life of the city-state. They emerged from the confines of their homes under strict circumstances, generally related to religious cults, and always in the company of servants, slaves, or other family members: The society’s fear of adultery was nearly obsessive. Although the society practiced abortion and left children (especially girls) to die by exposure, the Greeks valued their children, and the urban child, at least, went through a succession of ceremonies marking stages in its life. Children’s grave markers often express tender sentiments. Nonetheless, fathers tended to ignore their offspring until they reached a politically useful age, so that most were raised by their mothers, servants, and slaves. In Sparta, mothers served the fathers’ role, even in inculcating the sense of military duty and honor that marked their extreme machismo.

Egypt

Egyptian society emphasized the contractual nature of the marriage relationship, though the contract was between the man and the woman’s family. These contractual arrangements included the gifts exchanged at the time of coupling and even stipulations about property sharing in the (uncommon) event of divorce. Despite having an unusually high level of freedom for ancient women, those in Egypt generally fell into domestic work and life, with work of any status outside the home reserved to men. Children were raised in large part by the society’s women, though depictions of parents and children hunting or otherwise enjoying recreation together do exist in tombs.

India

In India, the family, or kula, was culturally constructed and controlled very carefully. It was recognized as the most important social unit and the means by which the ethical standards that held the society together were passed to each succeeding generation. The kula was generally an extended affair, with several generations and relations of varying degrees, along with servants and dependents living together under the authority of the father as household head. The family head, or grhastha, lived as a kind of king in his family: sternly rewarding and punishing, enforcing and living by the culture’s rules and ethics, and garnering the profound and obsequious respect of family members. Polygamy was openly practiced as a means of ensuring male heirs. The hearth was the center of the household, and the fire the symbol of its unity. Daily life was filled with rituals that bonded generation to generation and invested the children with the values that had formed the family’s adults. As among the Greeks, the mistress of the household avoided the public sphere and rarely left the family compound alone. She controlled the domestic sphere, challenged in authority only by a live-in mother-in-law.

China

The ethics of Confucianism ethic established a very firm basis of family life and structure in China. Homes were virtual temples, and fathers were revered ancestors in training, to be treated by their sons as honored elders and sources of wisdom. The fathers were expected, however, to act in ways to merit the reverence that stemmed from filial piety. Ancestral altars in the homes reminded all of the importance of these entities. Women and girls were subordinated to the males, and trays were used to serve the father, lest female hands inadvertently touch his. The father of the household had the power of life and death over his offspring, though this was constrained in practice. The mistress of the house was subject to both her husband and, more directly, her mother-in-law, especially when the husband was young. Concubinage further complicated life in the wealthy home, though the concubines were clearly subordinated to the principal wife.

Rome

Roman families echoed the Chinese in their insistence on nearly unfettered domination by the father (paterfamilias) and by worship of the male ancestors’ spirits (geniuses). Romans recognized a basic unit of a three-generation family. In its ideal form, all sons and grandsons of a common sire lived together until his death dissolved that unit, then each son would establish his own domicile. Household gods and the rituals attached to them anchored the members of the family to the domestic space. Women who married into such a situation did so under clearly articulated contracts that essentially provided her husband with the rights to her children by him. Her infertility was a matter of personal shame for her and gave her husband the right of repudiation, which sent her back to her father or other authoritative male relative with her dowry. However, marriages also created and represented other types of familial alliances, especially among the political class in Rome, and were thus often carefully crafted.

Dining and drinking

Before the agricultural revolution and domestication of animals, much of the human’s day was spent hunting or gathering, and living quarters had to be located near fresh water sources. As cultures developed through specialization, settlement, and trade, provision and preparation of food became more sophisticated and diets more varied. Food came to be seen by ancient societies as a determinant and symbol of status, often expressed by wealth and the prices of foods. The disparity between rich and poor was generally a matter of variety, quality, and caloric value. In most cultures, it seems that people feasted at special times in the collective calendar or for personal or familial reasons, and the provision of unusually large quantities, types, or varieties of food marked the occasion as special. For many ancient peoples, provision of one’s best comestibles was incumbent on the proper host, whether of friends or strangers. On the other hand, what one did not eat could also be socially important: The Indian caste of Brahmans avoided meats, Egyptian priests shunned pork, and Hebrews defined their very culture “in part” by the foods they refused to consume. For Romans, one was what one ate, and they would avoid uncooked foods or those that grew wild, lest they grow crude or savage in nature. Food and drink were no less important as symbolic social or economic elements than as biological nourishment.

Daily life for people was punctuated by two meals. The earliest might be a breakfast at dawn, as among the Inca, or a later lunch, as with the Greek ariston. Simple, nourishing foods that required little fuss characterized a family’s preparation for or pause in the working day in most cultures. More elaborate dining took place when the day was over.

Among Indians, the evening meal was highly ritualized, with washings preceding the meal, and a strict order kept among diners: the father and guests, then the mother, and lastly the children. Indian cooking was characterized by a heavy reliance on rice (as gruel, flour, or simply boiled), soups, beans, barley, and a wide variety of spices. Water, milk and whey were supplemented by various beers and fruit liquors or fermented sap of palmyra or coconut.

In Mesopotamia, barley and wheat were transformed into beer or breads, and cuneiform records tell us of a wide variety of both. In cities, specialty taverns served beer, but wines were rare for common people. Meat was expensive, but wealthier folk could dine on beef, mutton, goat, pork, fowl, horse, and fish, cooked in hot embers, pots, or ovens. The less well-off made do with starchy soups or stews, heavy on the vegetables and spices (thanks to trade). Many fruits and their juices and syrups provided for those possessed of a sweet tooth.

Among the Andean peoples, vegetable soups thickened with tuber starch and meal and spiced with hot peppers were common fare. They ate no dairy and no eggs and relied on limited fish and game, llama, dog, and guinea pig for animal proteins. These were cooked over fires or boiled, but they did not have a spit on which to hang the flesh. Juices of fruits such as passion fruit and pineapple and a lightly alcoholic beer made from chewed corn sufficed for beverages.

With its huge empire and extensive trade system beyond its boundaries, Rome provided its better-off citizens with a plethora of foodstuffs. Self-conscious culinary artistry was probably imported from Greece, but the huge range of foods available made for terrific rivalries among cooks and patrons alike. The only real meal for the Romans was the cena at the close of the day, which could range from bread, wine, and a few vegetables drizzled with olive oil, to hot dishes prepared in cook shops, to multicourse banquets with carefully calculated excess that ensured conspicuous waste. Romans claimed a hierarchy of foods, which ranged from the produce of the soil, which was most robust, to the quickly putrefying shellfish, whose quick spoilage was considered an aid to digestion. Putrefaction was in fact a characteristic of higher foods, and garum, a sauce made from rotting fish, was considered a delicacy. The Mediterranean world provided Romans with a variety of wines, which they often consumed to excess, not least in the upper classes’ convivium, in which alcohol, social conversation, music, and other entertainment—sometimes sexual—blended into an occasion somewhere between a mere meal and an orgy. The symposium (from “to drink together”) was a similar feature of Greek society, and it also served the political and social needs of the higher classes.

For the northern Chinese, millet was the staple grain, and rice was cultivated in the south. Grains were made into cakes, and a meal might be fleshed out with beans, root crops, fruits, and spices or garnishes such as ginger, basil, and onions. Southern agriculture expanded the offerings with citrus fruits, bananas, and coconuts. By the Han Dynasty (206 b.c.e.-220 c.e.), tastes had broadened to include a greater variety and use of spices, pickling, and sauces. Trade brought in new types of spicy fare from the Indian Ocean that appealed to the Chinese elite and replaced for them the simple, traditional peasant foods. Initially, tea drinking was for barbarians alone, but by the end of the ancient period, it became common, and even ceremonial, as among traditionally minded modern Japanese. Millet and rice provided the stuff for beers, which were consumed by all classes, while various wines, including grape, found favor regionally and among particular status groups.

Clothing

Across the ancient world, clothing provided protection from the elements, a degree of personal modesty and, in many societies, a ready indication of one’s social status or class. Earliest human clothing was most certainly animal skins, later supplemented and then replaced by woven fabrics of plant or animal fibers. In the Andes, men wore a simple loincloth of wool or cotton and a more formal long tunic, which was the common dress for women. Women also wore long skirts with short jackets, while both men and women donned woolen cloaks and caps in colder or rainy places and times. Simple rawhide sandals and a pouched belt for food, tools, and perhaps an amulet filled out a typical ensemble. Women wore their hair long, held in braids or by combs, while men might wear theirs long or cut with obsidian knives.

In Mesopotamia, textile manufacture was an industry, with wool cloth most common and flaxen linen reserved for finer garments and higher classes. About 700 b.c.e., cotton was introduced and silk somewhat later. The warm climate allowed men to go about bare chested with kilts or loincloths. Fringed tunics served both men and women of all classes, though cloaks signified higher status. Leather sandals served for workers, but the elite could afford felt sandals or shoes. In the Persian era, trousers became fashionable. Although men often shaved their heads, head coverings tended to be reserved for ceremonial use.

Similarly, Egyptians avoided hats but did use clearly artificial wigs and protected their feet with sandals of rushes or of leather. Men wore more or less simply folded short kilts of linen or wool (in winter), and cotton during the Roman period. These were accessorized with longer overskirts, stoles, or shirts for formal occasions. Egyptian women wore cloth sheaths with or without sleeves in a wide variety of drapery fold patterns or simply hung by straps from the shoulders.

Like the Egyptians, Greeks made their cloth at home and fit it to their bodies loosely and with little stitching. For women, both the early peplos and later chiton hung from the shoulders and were tacked with pins. The chiton hugged the female form more tightly, as depicted clearly in Greek art. Men donned the chiton as formal attire but generally wore short tunics held in place with brooches, pins, or knots at the shoulder. Undergarments consisted of a loincloth for the male and a strip of cloth to cover a woman’s breasts. Spartan simplicity in fashion seems to have dominated over time, at least during the classical period. Women might wear a veil over their heads in public, and men wore a broad, flat hat of felt or straw to protect them from the sun. Leather sandals were worn unless travel called for laced boots.

As Rome developed, it accepted many of the clothing types of the people with whom it had contact, from Egyptian kilts to Jewish robes and Germanic trousers. The single most characteristic piece of Roman clothing was the toga: the public garment of the Roman citizen. Made of a single piece of cloth up to nineteen feet (six meters) in diameter, it was draped loosely around the body and had to be held in place by the left hand, leaving only the right free (for handshaking, saluting, or oath taking). In its impracticality, it was the antithesis to the soldier’s or laborer’s closely fitted garb. Normally an earthy, unbleached tone, if pure white (candidus), it signified a candidate for office; if purple, one who was sacrosanct, and if edged in gold, one of the highest social rank.

Among the people of India and China, clothing also denoted class. The Indian peasant man wore simple loincloths and turbans and peasant women traditional saris, with their long hair twisted in a coil on their necks. Brahmans went about bare chested in characteristic sandals and with their hair top-knotted; while Buddhist monks wore distinctive robes of saffron or red when in public. In China, silk was reserved for the elite, and commoners wore fabrics woven of hemp, ramie, or even kudzu or banana. The classical Chinese outfit was of two pieces: a longer tunic topped by a jacket whose materials and ornamentation signaled the wearer’s status. To go barefoot was to act as a barbarian, so peasants wore straw sandals, and the upper classes wore slippers of damask or brocade. Foreign influences often affected Chinese fashion, such as the use of undergarments or leather trousers like the barbarians or hairstyles in the manner of the Persians or Turks. Commoners wore simple kerchiefs or hats of straw, and headgear for the more elite followed changing fashions.

Work and leisure

Even in the most advanced ancient civilization, the vast majority of people labored in the fields. In less-developed cultures, these people also took care of most of their other needs, perhaps exchanging surplus food or crafts for other needed or desired items. With settled agriculture and then cities, a small percent of the population could specialize in tasks other than farming or herding, and specialization of labor began to emerge. This is the hallmark of a civilization: The many in the fields support the few in the city who defend the society, placate the gods, rule and administer the state, craft the tools and baubles, travel for trade and diplomacy, build and record, and serve. Little clear evidence exists concerning the everyday life of the farmers and herders, but what exists suggests monotony and a low level of material culture. Tasks were dictated by season, and in some regions, the year passed marked by long bouts of tedium interspersed with frenetic activity.

In the more artificial atmosphere of cities, life’s rhythms moved rather differently. Craftspeople and local merchants probably experienced a relatively regular pattern of activity, working while the light allowed. In most societies, the priests and other servants of the divine cults determined the festal and sacrifice days on which workers were most active and on some of which the people were allowed to rest. For the Hebrews, this was the weekly Sabbath, as well as annual festivals such as Passover that memorialized important events in their ethnic history. The Indian year was punctuated with numerous rites and festivals that blended the agricultural and natural cycles with deeply significant religious elements and general carousal. In Egypt, government workers received a free day for every nine worked, and general religious festivals occurred when the Nile was in flood and agricultural work was impossible. Work in Mesopotamian cities was interrupted during temple festivals, when people could watch the cult idols wend their way through the streets, followed by the prayers of the needy.

In all civilized societies, class and occupation went hand in hand and dictated to a great extent one’s daily activities, material wealth, and potential for social mobility. In China, a clear distinction was made between the people: The peasantry, which made up the vast bulk of the Chinese population, supported the warrior elite by their labor. However, peasant work was not confined to agricultural toiling: For men, it could unexpectedly turn into military service, which was often a life sentence. The Han Dynasty’s great conquests and their defense were on the backs of countless conscripts ripped from the soil.

Defeat in battle led to slavery, an institution common to all ancient societies. The lives of slaves in the ancient world differed so widely—by circumstance of enslavement (for example, capture in battle or war, by piracy, for debt) and culture and needs of the society—that no generalities, beyond general lack of freedom, can be posited. Military prisoners were usually relegated to the worst situations: rowing in Roman galleys or working the lead mines in Greek Syracuse (Sicily). At the other end of the spectrum, many cultures, including the Romans and Greeks, recognized the value of well-educated servants. Women might serve as unfree courtesans and men as tutors, scribes, and even business agents. While captive, their lives could be nearly as gracious and materially rich as those of their owners; once emancipated (often upon death of the owner), they could take their place in free society.

Free persons of ordinary rank enjoyed the opportunity to fail as well as succeed. Little is known of the daily lives of these denizens of the countryside and cities, for they captured few writers’ interest and wrote virtually nothing themselves. Archaeology, however, has captured some aspects of their material culture. Markets and bazaars as well as individual shops served as outlets for crafts as well as foodstuffs and prepared foods. Where coinage existed, as in the eastern Mediterranean Basin after the sixth century b.c.e., for example, it is possible to envision the nature of the daily exchanges. However, in the absence of an abstract medium of exchange, purchases must have been subject to a far greater level of haggling. Success for seller and purchaser alike must have been a matter of great patience as well as pride, and specialization far less typical than in the modern world.

For aristocrats throughout the world, their class or status ensured them of the highest material life the culture could provide. Within the class, there certainly could be distinctions, especially where powerful rulers such as the Roman or Chinese emperors held sway and commanded large shares of the society’s economy, especially that of luxury goods. In the countryside or the provinces, life was also best among the owners or administrators of the land. High-quality food, shelter, clothing, and freedom from menial tasks all made life at the top far more bearable. The presence of servants and, where personal ownership was recognized, slaves, allowed a life of relative leisure that allowed the creation and support of all manner of creative expression that lower-class folks could hardly afford.

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