Beer in the morning, beer in the afternoon, beer at night. A little wine thrown in for good measure. And after a hard day of cutting stones for the pharaoh, time and energy left for a bit of hanky-panky.
Life wasn't all work and no play for the workers who built the pyramids, tombs and temples of Giza Plateau."History is life," said Egyptologist Zahi Hawass, in charge of an ancient cemetery yielding volumes of information about the life and times of the pyramid workforce.
Archaeologists poking through garbage dumps, examining skeletons, probing texts and studying remains of beer jars, wine vats and bakeries have discovered all kinds of information about the pyramid builders:
-Beer was dished out three times daily. There were five kinds of beer and four kinds of wine available.
-They could build strong bodies in 12 ways - with 12 varieties of bread.
-Neatly trimmed pencil moustaches were in vogue, and workers had nicknames still popular today, like Didi and Mimi.
-Their lives averaged 36 to 38 years, and industrial accidents took a toll. Six skeletons revealed deaths from injuries. Many others had bent spines from the weight of stone blocks they carried.
-Ordinary Egyptians were monogamous, but some played around. And they kept up with the Joneses.
Much of the new information comes from excavations over the past nine months in cemeteries found near the pyramids about three years ago.
Recently found texts show that the pyramid builders were not slaves, as was long believed, but were free Egyptians working for the gods. The pharaoh provided them with food, clothing and shelter.
"Everything about this cemetery disputes the idea that these people were slaves," Hawass said last week.It is not clear how many workers were involved in building them, but the three major pyramids at Giza and the queen's pyramids nearby were built over a 70-year period beginning about 2,551 B.C., when Cheops ascended to the throne.
Skilled workers, probably sought-after artisans, were buried in 43 tombs lined up at the top of the cliffside cemetery. They were the prime burial sites, affording views of the pyramids a few miles across the dunes.
Foremen were buried in smaller tombs just down the slope. At the bottom were workers, often buried only in deep shafts.
Archaeologists have found 600 tombs of foremen and workers. Job descriptions include "decorator of tombs," "the official in charge of one side of the pyramid," or "overseer of the stone movers."
The most important tomb found so far belonged to She-dou, a blue-collar worker identified as a servant of the goddess of war and hunting, Neith.
In a secret compartment to the rear archaeologists found four painted statues of She-dou. The largest, measuring 29 inches, represents She-dou in a short white kilt, his neck ringed by a wide collar adorned with blue, white and yellow stones.
A neighboring tomb gave excavators another surprise. It was already known that, unlike the pharaohs, ordinary Egyptians were monogamous. But the man buried in this tomb lay between his wife and another woman.
"Texts show she had to be a girlfriend," said Hawass. "It's surprising the wife put up with it."
The upper classes avoided such scandal because they were in the public eye.
"They surely had girlfriends, too, but they couldn't admit it," he said. "Even then, it would have ruined careers."