because seals were often cut out of semi-precious stones 

 and were inscribed. Behind the fish vendor stands a 

 balding man called a "copper craftsman"; he holds 

 three fishing hooks and what may be a stamp seal. Per- 

 haps he too meant to make an offer for the fish; his 

 fishing hooks would certainly be useful for the fish- 

 erman. Beside both the seal cutter and the copper 

 craftsman two bags stand upright on the ground. These 

 may belong to each of the craftsmen respectively, 

 although both also carry shopping sacks slung over 

 their shoulders. 



The rightmost scene shows a man seated before a 

 female tavern keeper who dispenses a drink (below). 

 She pours it through a strainer into a bowl; Egyptian 

 barley beer was heavy in sediment and lees, and so re- 

 quired straining, so no doubt that is the drink being 

 served. The customer says: "Fill it up; though I'm filled, 

 the barley beer is of excellent quality." The customer 

 also has a shopping sack slung over his shoulder, so the 

 tavern is part of the marketplace, much as snackbars 



are found in modern shopping malls. 



In the fourth register, at the left, a woman selling 

 pottery cups says: "See, something you can drink 

 from,"asshehandsoverapottery cup (p. 19, left). The 

 customer offers her in return a fan, perhaps woven from 

 reeds. This exchange could be a simpler sort of barter, 

 where the goods are inexpensive and their relative val- 

 ues are well known. The woman might be a potter's 

 wife. This calls to mind Herodotus's remark in describ- 

 ing 5th century B.C. Egypt, that the women ran the 

 markets while the men stayed at home. In this market- 

 place, however, we see a mix of men and women as 

 both merchants and customers. Still, this all reflects 

 another aspect of ancient Egyptian society: women 

 were equal legally and economically with men. They 

 could run businesses, manage farms or estates, engage 

 in commerce, and argue their own cases in law courts. 

 Moreover, by force of pharaoh's law, they kept title to 

 their property, even after marriage, and they were 

 guaranteed a 'A share of all jointly acquired property in 

 a marriage situation. The equality is attested in Old, 

 Middle, and New Kingdom Period Egypt, and onward 

 into the Late Period when the Greek authors com- 

 mented upon it as a social policy that differed from 

 most other cultures. Even in the Ptolemaic Period, 

 Egyptian women argued their own cases in court, while 

 the Greek settler women had to be represented by a 

 kurios, a legal representative. Little wonder that some 

 Greek women preferred to have their cases heard in 

 Egyptian courts! 



In the next scene, a heavily laden customer deals 

 with a merchant selling bunches of grapes (p. 19, top). 

 The merchant says: "Hand over this haU-hekat con- 

 tainer, (and) I will fill these into it." The customer 

 remarks: "Stranger, should 1 give the half hekat con- 



