I said something about marriage contracts in an earlier post. When such things are on the agenda, there is usually also talk of a dowry. Well, did you know that apparently it was the other way around in Ancient Egypt. There was sometimes a gift to the bride mentioned in these mariage contracts, (in ancient Egyptian this was called a 'shep en sehemet'). It is suggested that this gift was originally a payment to the bride´s father, as a compensation for taking his daughter away. But they were often not drawn up after several years of 'marriage' and when there already existed several children...