Life in New Kingdom Egypt, ca. 1500–1300 B.C.E. In this wall painting from the tomb of an official, a man guides a wooden ox-drawn plow through the soil, while the woman walking behind throws seed in the furrow. The painting was designed not to show real peasants working but to depict the servants who would spring to life to serve the deceased in the afterlife. Nevertheless, the gender division of labor and the plow itself are probably accurate.

(Deir el-Medina, Thebes, Egypt/Bridgeman Images)