Wealth distribution in an ancient Egyptian society

TL;DR

This paper compares wealth distribution in ancient Egyptian society, using house sizes as a proxy, to modern wealth distributions, revealing insights into societal structure during the 14th century BC.

Contribution

It introduces a novel method of estimating ancient wealth distribution through house area measurements and compares it with modern data.

Findings

House area distribution reflects wealth inequality in ancient society

Ancient wealth distribution shows similarities to modern patterns

Provides a new perspective on societal structure in ancient Egypt

Abstract

Modern excavations yielded a distribution of the house areas in the ancient Egyptian city Akhetaten, which was populated for a short period during the 14th century BC. Assuming that the house area is a measure of the wealth of its inhabitants allows us to make a comparison of the wealth distributions in ancient and modern societies.