Figure 1.--Here we see peasants harvesting grain. The two men work with only brief kilts. The lboy gleaning is naked. It is difficult estimating his age. We are not sure who the person is at the right, perhaps a daughter carrying water to the men. While it was particularly common for peasant children to go naked, available art work shows that it was also common among the privlidged classes. We are not sure at this time as to the source and date of this image.

Clothes were expensive in relative terms in ancient civilizations like Egypt. A family would soend afar greater portion of its disposable income for clothing than is the case in the modern world. Thus clothing was a major issue for a peasant family which would have existed on a narrow subsistence level. The clothes were woven by the women in the family. But this was only one of their many chores. Thus it is understandable that many hard-pressed peasant mothers in rge warm weather just let the children run around naked. The older children may have had garments for specual occassions, but for the most part went naked in the warm weather. As their fathers often worked naked, it is obvious that many boys commonly went naked. At what age peasant boys began to commonly wear clothing we are not yet sure. And it was not just peasant children that went naked. Even the children of the affluent class are commonly depicted naked in Egyptian art. It is of course more likely for children to be dressed, the richer and more important the family was. But it is clear from the many availavle depictions that even among hogh-status families, it was not unusual for the children to go naked.