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= Ancient Egypt =
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Introduction
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Ancient Egypt was a civilization of ancient Northeast Africa. It was
concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River, situated
within the contemporary territory of modern-day Egypt. Ancient
Egyptian civilization followed prehistoric Egypt and coalesced around
3100BC (according to conventional Egyptian chronology) with the
political unification of Upper and Lower Egypt under pharaoh or king
Menes (often identified with Narmer). The history of ancient Egypt
unfolded as a series of stable kingdoms interspersed by periods of
relative instability known as "Intermediate Periods". The various
kingdoms fall into one of three categories: the Old Kingdom of the
Early Bronze Age, the Middle Kingdom of the Middle Bronze Age, or the
New Kingdom of the Late Bronze Age.
Ancient Egypt reached the pinnacle of its power during the New
Kingdom, ruling much of Nubia and a sizable portion of the Levant.
After this period, it entered an era of slow decline. During the
course of its history, ancient Egypt was invaded or conquered by a
number of foreign powers, including the Hyksos, the Nubians, the
Assyrians, the Achaemenid Persians, and the Macedonians under
Alexander the Great. The Greek Ptolemaic Kingdom, formed in the
aftermath of Alexander's death, ruled until 30BC, when, under
Cleopatra, it fell to the Roman Empire and became a Roman province.
Egypt remained under Roman control until 642 AD, when it was conquered
by the Rashidun Caliphate.
The success of ancient Egyptian civilization came partly from its
ability to adapt to the conditions of the Nile River valley for
agriculture. The predictable flooding and controlled irrigation of the
fertile valley produced surplus crops, which supported a more dense
population, and social development and culture. With resources to
spare, the administration sponsored mineral exploitation of the valley
and surrounding desert regions, the early development of an
independent writing system, the organization of collective
construction and agricultural projects, trade with surrounding
regions, and a military intended to assert Egyptian dominance.
Motivating and organizing these activities was a bureaucracy of elite
scribes, religious leaders, and administrators under the control of a
pharaoh, who ensured the cooperation and unity of the Egyptian people
in the context of an elaborate system of religious beliefs.
The many achievements of the ancient Egyptians include the quarrying,
surveying, and construction techniques that supported the building of
monumental pyramids, temples, and obelisks; a system of mathematics, a
practical and effective system of medicine, irrigation systems, and
agricultural production techniques, the first known planked boats,
Egyptian faience and glass technology, new forms of literature, and
the earliest known peace treaty, made with the Hittites. Ancient Egypt
has left a lasting legacy. Its art and architecture were widely
copied, and its antiquities were carried off to be studied, admired or
coveted in the far corners of the world. Its monumental ruins have
inspired the imaginations of travelers and writers for millennia. A
newfound respect for antiquities and excavations in the early modern
period by Europeans and Egyptians has led to the scientific
investigation of Egyptian civilization and a greater appreciation of
its cultural legacy.
History
======================================================================
The Nile has been the lifeline of its region for much of human
history. The fertile floodplain of the Nile gave humans the
opportunity to develop a settled agricultural economy and a more
sophisticated, centralized society that became a cornerstone in the
history of human civilization. Nomadic modern human hunter-gatherers
began living in the Nile valley through the end of the Middle
Pleistocene some 120,000 years ago. By the late Paleolithic period,
the arid climate of Northern Africa had become increasingly hot and
dry, forcing the populations of the area to concentrate along the
river region.
Predynastic period
====================
In Predynastic and Early Dynastic times, the Egyptian climate was much
less arid than it is today. Large regions of Egypt were covered in
treed savanna and traversed by herds of grazing ungulates. Foliage and
fauna were far more prolific in all environs, and the Nile region
supported large populations of waterfowl. Hunting would have been
common for Egyptians, and this is also the period when many animals
were first domesticated.
By about 5500 BC, small tribes living in the Nile valley had developed
into a series of cultures demonstrating firm control of agriculture
and animal husbandry, and identifiable by their pottery and personal
items, such as combs, bracelets, and beads. The largest of these early
cultures in upper (Southern) Egypt was the Badarian culture, which
probably originated in the Western Desert; it was known for its
high-quality ceramics, stone tools, and its use of copper.
The Badari was followed by the Naqada culture: the Naqada I
(Amratian), the Naqada II (Gerzeh), and Naqada III (Semainean). These
brought a number of technological improvements. As early as the Naqada
I Period, predynastic Egyptians imported obsidian from Ethiopia, used
to shape blades and other objects from flakes. Mutual trade with the
Levant was established during Naqada II (); this period was also the
beginning of trade with Mesopotamia, which continued into the early
dynastic period and beyond. Over a period of about 1,000 years, the
Naqada culture developed from a few small farming communities into a
powerful civilization whose leaders were in complete control of the
people and resources of the Nile valley. Establishing a power center
at Nekhen (in Greek, Hierakonpolis), and later at Abydos, Naqada III
leaders expanded their control of Egypt northwards along the Nile.
They also traded with Nubia to the south, the oases of the western
desert to the west, and the cultures of the eastern Mediterranean and
Near East to the east.
The Naqada culture manufactured a diverse selection of material goods,
reflective of the increasing power and wealth of the elite, as well as
societal personal-use items, which included combs, small statuary,
painted pottery, high quality decorative stone vases, cosmetic
palettes, and jewelry made of gold, lapis, and ivory. They also
developed a ceramic glaze known as faience, which was used well into
the Roman Period to decorate cups, amulets, and figurines. During the
last predynastic phase, the Naqada culture began using written symbols
that eventually were developed into a full system of hieroglyphs for
writing the ancient Egyptian language.
Early Dynastic Period ({{circa|3150–2686}} BC)
================================================
The Early Dynastic Period was approximately contemporary to the early
Sumerian-Akkadian civilization of Mesopotamia and of ancient Elam. The
third-centuryBC Egyptian priest Manetho grouped the long line of kings
from Menes to his own time into 30 dynasties, a system still used
today. He began his official history with the king named "Meni" (or
Menes in Greek), who was believed to have united the two kingdoms of
Upper and Lower Egypt.
The transition to a unified state happened more gradually than ancient
Egyptian writers represented, and there is no contemporary record of
Menes. Some scholars now believe, however, that the mythical Menes may
have been the king Narmer, who is depicted wearing royal regalia on
the ceremonial 'Narmer Palette,' in a symbolic act of unification. In
the Early Dynastic Period, which began about 3000BC, the first of the
Dynastic kings solidified control over lower Egypt by establishing a
capital at Memphis, from which he could control the labor force and
agriculture of the fertile delta region, as well as the lucrative and
critical trade routes to the Levant. The increasing power and wealth
of the kings during the early dynastic period was reflected in their
elaborate mastaba tombs and mortuary cult structures at Abydos, which
were used to celebrate the deified king after his death. The strong
institution of kingship developed by the kings served to legitimize
state control over the land, labor, and resources that were essential
to the survival and growth of ancient Egyptian civilization.
Old Kingdom (2686–2181 BC)
============================
Major advances in architecture, art, and technology were made during
the Old Kingdom, fueled by the increased agricultural productivity and
resulting population growth, made possible by a well-developed central
administration. Some of ancient Egypt's crowning achievements, the
Giza pyramids and Great Sphinx, were constructed during the Old
Kingdom. Under the direction of the vizier, state officials collected
taxes, coordinated irrigation projects to improve crop yield, drafted
peasants to work on construction projects, and established a justice
system to maintain peace and order.
With the rising importance of central administration in Egypt, a new
class of educated scribes and officials arose who were granted estates
by the king in payment for their services. Kings also made land grants
to their mortuary cults and local temples, to ensure that these
institutions had the resources to worship the king after his death.
Scholars believe that five centuries of these practices slowly eroded
the economic vitality of Egypt, and that the economy could no longer
afford to support a large centralized administration. As the power of
the kings diminished, regional governors called nomarchs began to
challenge the supremacy of the office of king. This, coupled with
severe droughts between 2200 and 2150BC, is believed to have caused
the country to enter the 140-year period of famine and strife known as
the First Intermediate Period.
First Intermediate Period (2181–2055 BC)
==========================================
After Egypt's central government collapsed at the end of the Old
Kingdom, the administration could no longer support or stabilize the
country's economy. Regional governors could not rely on the king for
help in times of crisis, and the ensuing food shortages and political
disputes escalated into famines and small-scale civil wars. Yet
despite difficult problems, local leaders, owing no tribute to the
king, used their new-found independence to establish a thriving
culture in the provinces. Once in control of their own resources, the
provinces became economically richer—which was demonstrated by larger
and better burials among all social classes. In bursts of creativity,
provincial artisans adopted and adapted cultural motifs formerly
restricted to the royalty of the Old Kingdom, and scribes developed
literary styles that expressed the optimism and originality of the
period.
Free from their loyalties to the king, local rulers began competing
with each other for territorial control and political power. By
2160BC, rulers in Herakleopolis controlled Lower Egypt in the north,
while a rival clan based in Thebes, the Intef family, took control of
Upper Egypt in the south. As the Intefs grew in power and expanded
their control northward, a clash between the two rival dynasties
became inevitable. Around 2055BC the northern Theban forces under
Nebhepetre Mentuhotep II finally defeated the Herakleopolitan rulers,
reuniting the Two Lands. They inaugurated a period of economic and
cultural renaissance known as the Middle Kingdom.
Middle Kingdom (2134–1690 BC)
===============================
The kings of the Middle Kingdom restored the country's stability and
prosperity, thereby stimulating a resurgence of art, literature, and
monumental building projects. Mentuhotep II and his Eleventh Dynasty
successors ruled from Thebes, but the vizier Amenemhat I, upon
assuming the kingship at the beginning of the Twelfth Dynasty around
1985BC, shifted the kingdom's capital to the city of Itjtawy, located
in Faiyum. From Itjtawy, the kings of the Twelfth Dynasty undertook a
far-sighted land reclamation and irrigation scheme to increase
agricultural output in the region. Moreover, the military reconquered
territory in Nubia that was rich in quarries and gold mines, while
laborers built a defensive structure in the Eastern Delta, called the
"Walls of the Ruler", to defend against foreign attack.
With the kings having secured the country militarily and politically
and with vast agricultural and mineral wealth at their disposal, the
nation's population, arts, and religion flourished. In contrast to
elitist Old Kingdom attitudes towards the gods, the Middle Kingdom
displayed an increase in expressions of personal piety. Middle Kingdom
literature featured sophisticated themes and characters written in a
confident, eloquent style. The relief and portrait sculpture of the
period captured subtle, individual details that reached new heights of
technical sophistication.
The last great ruler of the Middle Kingdom, Amenemhat III, allowed
Semitic-speaking Canaanite settlers from the Near East into the Delta
region to provide a sufficient labor force for his especially active
mining and building campaigns. These ambitious building and mining
activities, however, combined with severe Nile floods later in his
reign, strained the economy and precipitated the slow decline into the
Second Intermediate Period during the later Thirteenth and Fourteenth
dynasties. During this decline, the Canaanite settlers began to assume
greater control of the Delta region, eventually coming to power in
Egypt as the Hyksos.
Second Intermediate Period (1674–1549 BC) and the Hyksos
==========================================================
Around 1785BC, as the power of the Middle Kingdom kings weakened, a
Western Asian people called the Hyksos, who had already settled in the
Delta, seized control of Egypt and established their capital at
Avaris, forcing the former central government to retreat to Thebes.
The king was treated as a vassal and expected to pay tribute. The
Hyksos ('foreign rulers') retained Egyptian models of government and
identified as kings, thereby integrating Egyptian elements into their
culture. They and other invaders introduced new tools of warfare into
Egypt, most notably the composite bow and the horse-drawn chariot.
After retreating south, the native Theban kings found themselves
trapped between the Canaanite Hyksos ruling the north and the Hyksos'
Nubian allies, the Kushites, to the south. After years of vassalage,
Thebes gathered enough strength to challenge the Hyksos in a conflict
that lasted more than 30 years, until 1555BC. The kings Seqenenre Tao
II and Kamose were ultimately able to defeat the Nubians to the south
of Egypt, but failed to defeat the Hyksos. That task fell to Kamose's
successor, Ahmose I, who successfully waged a series of campaigns that
permanently eradicated the Hyksos' presence in Egypt. He established a
new dynasty and, in the New Kingdom that followed, the military became
a central priority for the kings, who sought to expand Egypt's borders
and attempted to gain mastery of the Near East.
New Kingdom (1549–1069 BC)
============================
The New Kingdom pharaohs established a period of unprecedented
prosperity by securing their borders and strengthening diplomatic ties
with their neighbours, including the Mitanni Empire, Assyria, and
Canaan. Military campaigns waged under Tuthmosis I and his grandson
Tuthmosis III extended the influence of the pharaohs to the largest
empire Egypt had ever seen.
Between their reigns, Hatshepsut, a queen who established herself as
pharaoh, launched many building projects, including the restoration of
temples damaged by the Hyksos, and sent trading expeditions to Punt
and the Sinai. When Tuthmosis III died in 1425BC, Egypt had an empire
extending from Niya in north west Syria to the Fourth Cataract of the
Nile in Nubia, cementing loyalties and opening access to critical
imports such as bronze and wood.
The New Kingdom pharaohs began a large-scale building campaign to
promote the god Amun, whose growing cult was based in Karnak. They
also constructed monuments to glorify their own achievements, both
real and imagined. The Karnak temple is the largest Egyptian temple
ever built.
Around 1350BC, the stability of the New Kingdom was threatened when
Amenhotep IV ascended the throne and instituted a series of radical
and chaotic reforms. Changing his name to Akhenaten, he touted the
previously obscure sun deity Aten as the supreme deity, suppressed the
worship of most other deities, and moved the capital to the new city
of Akhetaten (modern-day Amarna). He was devoted to his new religion
and artistic style. After his death, the cult of the Aten was quickly
abandoned and the traditional religious order restored. The subsequent
pharaohs, Tutankhamun, Ay, and Horemheb, worked to erase all mention
of Akhenaten's heresy, now known as the Amarna Period.
Around 1279BC, Ramesses II, also known as Ramesses the Great, ascended
the throne, and went on to build more temples, erect more statues and
obelisks, and sire more children than any other pharaoh in history. A
bold military leader, Ramesses II led his army against the Hittites in
the Battle of Kadesh (in modern Syria) and, after fighting to a
stalemate, finally agreed to the first recorded peace treaty, around
1258BC.
Egypt's wealth, however, made it a tempting target for invasion,
particularly by the Libyan Berbers to the west, and the Sea Peoples, a
conjectured confederation of seafarers from the Aegean Sea. Initially,
the military was able to repel these invasions, but Egypt eventually
lost control of its remaining territories in southern Canaan, much of
it falling to the Assyrians. The effects of external threats were
exacerbated by internal problems such as corruption, tomb robbery, and
civil unrest. After regaining their power, the high priests at the
temple of Amun in Thebes accumulated vast tracts of land and wealth,
and their expanded power splintered the country during the Third
Intermediate Period.
Third Intermediate Period (1069–653 BC)
=========================================
Following the death of Ramesses XI in 1078BC, Smendes assumed
authority over the northern part of Egypt, ruling from the city of
Tanis. The south was effectively controlled by the High Priests of
Amun at Thebes, who recognized Smendes in name only. During this time,
Libyans had been settling in the western delta, and chieftains of
these settlers began increasing their autonomy. Libyan princes took
control of the delta under Shoshenq I in 945BC, founding the so-called
Libyan or Bubastite dynasty that would rule for some 200 years.
Shoshenq also gained control of southern Egypt by placing his family
members in important priestly positions. Libyan control began to erode
as a rival dynasty in the delta arose in Leontopolis, and Kushites
threatened from the south.
Around 727BC the Kushite king Piye invaded northward, seizing control
of Thebes and eventually the Delta, which established the 25th
Dynasty. During the 25th Dynasty, Pharaoh Taharqa created an empire
nearly as large as the New Kingdom's. Twenty-fifth Dynasty pharaohs
built, or restored, temples and monuments throughout the Nile valley,
including at Memphis, Karnak, Kawa, and Jebel Barkal. During this
period, the Nile valley saw the first widespread construction of
pyramids (many in modern Sudan) since the Middle Kingdom.
Egypt's far-reaching prestige declined considerably toward the end of
the Third Intermediate Period. Its foreign allies had fallen under the
Assyrian sphere of influence, and by 700BC war between the two states
became inevitable. Between 671 and 667BC the Assyrians began the
Assyrian conquest of Egypt. The reigns of both Taharqa and his
successor, Tanutamun, were filled with constant conflict with the
Assyrians, against whom Egypt enjoyed several victories. Ultimately,
the Assyrians pushed the Kushites back into Nubia, occupied Memphis,
and sacked the temples of Thebes.
Late Period (653–332 BC)
==========================
The Assyrians left control of Egypt to a series of vassals who became
known as the Saite kings of the Twenty-Sixth Dynasty. By 653BC, the
Saite king Psamtik I was able to oust the Assyrians with the help of
Greek mercenaries, who were recruited to form Egypt's first navy.
Greek influence expanded greatly as the city-state of Naucratis became
the home of Greeks in the Nile Delta. The Saite kings based in the new
capital of Sais witnessed a brief but spirited resurgence in the
economy and culture, but in 525BC, the Persian Empire, led by Cambyses
II, began its conquest of Egypt, eventually defeating the pharaoh
Psamtik III at the Battle of Pelusium. Cambyses II then assumed the
formal title of pharaoh, but ruled Egypt from Iran, leaving Egypt
under the control of a satrap. A few revolts against the Persians
marked the 5th centuryBC, but Egypt was never able to overthrow the
Persians until the end of the century.
Following its annexation by Persia, Egypt was joined with Cyprus and
Phoenicia in the sixth satrapy of the Achaemenid Persian Empire. This
first period of Persian rule over Egypt, also known as the
Twenty-Seventh Dynasty, ended in 402BC, when Egypt regained
independence under a series of native dynasties. The last of these
dynasties, the Thirtieth, proved to be the last native royal house of
ancient Egypt, ending with the kingship of Nectanebo II. A brief
restoration of Persian rule, sometimes known as the Thirty-First
Dynasty, began in 343BC, but shortly after, in 332BC, the Persian
ruler Mazaces handed Egypt over to Alexander the Great without a
fight.
Ptolemaic period (332–30 BC)
==============================
In 332BC, Alexander the Great conquered Egypt with little resistance
from the Persians and was welcomed by the Egyptians as a deliverer.
The administration established by Alexander's successors, the
Macedonian Ptolemaic Kingdom, was based on an Egyptian model and based
in the new capital city of Alexandria. The city showcased the power
and prestige of Hellenistic rule, and became a centre of learning and
culture, that included the famous Library of Alexandria as part of the
Mouseion. The Lighthouse of Alexandria lit the way for the many ships
that kept trade flowing through the city—as the Ptolemies made
commerce and revenue-generating enterprises, such as papyrus
manufacturing, their top priority.
Hellenistic culture did not supplant native Egyptian culture, as the
Ptolemies supported time-honored traditions in an effort to secure the
loyalty of the populace. They built new temples in Egyptian style,
supported traditional cults, and portrayed themselves as pharaohs.
Some traditions merged, as Greek and Egyptian gods were syncretized
into composite deities, such as Serapis, and classical Greek forms of
sculpture influenced traditional Egyptian motifs. Despite their
efforts to appease the Egyptians, the Ptolemies were challenged by
native rebellion, bitter family rivalries, and the powerful mob of
Alexandria that formed after the death of Ptolemy IV. In addition, as
Rome relied more heavily on imports of grain from Egypt, the Romans
took great interest in the political situation in the country.
Continued Egyptian revolts, ambitious politicians, and powerful
opponents from the Near East made this situation unstable, leading
Rome to send forces to secure the country as a province of its empire.
Roman period (30 BC – AD 641)
===============================
Egypt became a province of the Roman Empire in 30BC, following the
defeat of Mark Antony and Ptolemaic Queen Cleopatra VII by Octavian
(later Emperor Augustus) in the Battle of Actium. The Romans relied
heavily on grain shipments from Egypt, and the Roman army, under the
control of a prefect appointed by the emperor, quelled rebellions,
strictly enforced the collection of heavy taxes, and prevented attacks
by bandits, which had become a notorious problem during the period.
Alexandria became an increasingly important center on the trade route
with the orient, as exotic luxuries were in high demand in Rome.
Although the Romans had a more hostile attitude than the Greeks
towards the Egyptians, some traditions such as mummification and
worship of the traditional gods continued. The art of mummy
portraiture flourished, and some Roman emperors had themselves
depicted as pharaohs, though not to the extent that the Ptolemies had.
The former lived outside Egypt and did not perform the ceremonial
functions of Egyptian kingship. Local administration became Roman in
style and closed to native Egyptians.
From the mid-first century AD, Christianity took root in Egypt and it
was originally seen as another cult that could be accepted. However,
it was an uncompromising religion that sought to win converts from the
pagan Egyptian and Greco-Roman religions and threatened popular
religious traditions. This led to the persecution of converts to
Christianity, culminating in the great purges of Diocletian starting
in 303, but eventually Christianity won out. In 391, the Christian
emperor Theodosius introduced legislation that banned pagan rites and
closed temples. Alexandria became the scene of great anti-pagan riots
with public and private religious imagery destroyed. As a consequence,
Egypt's native religious culture was continually in decline. While the
native population continued to speak their language, the ability to
read hieroglyphic writing slowly disappeared as the role of the
Egyptian temple priests and priestesses diminished. The temples
themselves were sometimes converted to churches or abandoned to the
desert.
In the fourth century, as the Roman Empire divided, Egypt found itself
in the Eastern Empire with its capital at Constantinople. In the
waning years of the Empire, Egypt fell to the Sasanian Persian army in
the Sasanian conquest of Egypt (618-628). It was then recaptured by
the Byzantine emperor Heraclius (629-639), and was finally captured by
Muslim Rashidun army in 639-641, marking the end of both Byzantine
rule and of the period typically considered Ancient Egypt.
Administration and commerce
=============================
The pharaoh was the absolute monarch of the country and, at least in
theory, wielded complete control of the land and its resources. The
king was the supreme military commander and head of the government,
who relied on a bureaucracy of officials to manage his affairs. In
charge of the administration was his second in command, the vizier,
who acted as the king's representative and coordinated land surveys,
the treasury, building projects, the legal system, and the archives.
At a regional level, the country was divided into as many as 42
administrative regions called nomes each governed by a nomarch, who
was accountable to the vizier for his jurisdiction. The temples formed
the backbone of the economy. Not only were they places of worship, but
were also responsible for collecting and storing the kingdom's wealth
in a system of granaries and treasuries administered by overseers, who
redistributed grain and goods.
Much of the economy was centrally organized and strictly controlled.
Although the ancient Egyptians did not use coinage until the Late
period, they did use a type of money-barter system, with standard
sacks of grain and the 'deben', a weight of roughly 91 g of copper or
silver, forming a common denominator. Workers were paid in grain; a
simple laborer might earn sacks (200 kg or 400 lb) of grain per
month, while a foreman might earn sacks (250 kg or 550 lb). Prices
were fixed across the country and recorded in lists to facilitate
trading; for example a shirt cost five copper deben, while a cow cost
140deben. Grain could be traded for other goods, according to the
fixed price list. During the fifth centuryBC coined money was
introduced into Egypt from abroad. At first the coins were used as
standardized pieces of precious metal rather than true money, but in
the following centuries international traders came to rely on coinage.
Social status
===============
Egyptian society was highly stratified, and social status was
expressly displayed. Farmers made up the bulk of the population, but
agricultural produce was owned directly by the state, temple, or noble
family that owned the land. Farmers were also subject to a labor tax
and were required to work on irrigation or construction projects in a
corvée system. Artists and craftsmen were of higher status than
farmers, but they were also under state control, working in the shops
attached to the temples and paid directly from the state treasury.
Scribes and officials formed the upper class in ancient Egypt, known
as the "white kilt class" in reference to the bleached linen garments
that served as a mark of their rank. The upper class prominently
displayed their social status in art and literature. Below the
nobility were the priests, physicians, and engineers with specialized
training in their field. It is unclear whether slavery as understood
today existed in ancient Egypt; there is difference of opinions among
authors.
The ancient Egyptians viewed men and women, including people from all
social classes, as essentially equal under the law, and even the
lowliest peasant was entitled to petition the vizier and his court for
redress. Although slaves were mostly used as indentured servants, they
were able to buy and sell their servitude, work their way to freedom
or nobility, and were usually treated by doctors in the workplace.
Both men and women had the right to own and sell property, make
contracts, marry and divorce, receive inheritance, and pursue legal
disputes in court. Married couples could own property jointly and
protect themselves from divorce by agreeing to marriage contracts,
which stipulated the financial obligations of the husband to his wife
and children should the marriage end. Compared with their counterparts
in ancient Greece, Rome, and even more modern places around the world,
ancient Egyptian women had a greater range of personal choices, legal
rights, and opportunities for achievement. Women such as Hatshepsut
and Cleopatra VII even became pharaohs, while others wielded power as
Divine Wives of Amun. Despite these freedoms, ancient Egyptian women
did not often take part in official roles in the administration, aside
from the royal high priestesses, apparently served only secondary
roles in the temples (not much data for many dynasties), and were not
so probably to be as educated as men.
Legal system
==============
The head of the legal system was officially the pharaoh, who was
responsible for enacting laws, delivering justice, and maintaining law
and order, a concept the ancient Egyptians referred to as Ma'at.
Although no legal codes from ancient Egypt survive, court documents
show that Egyptian law was based on a common-sense view of right and
wrong that emphasized reaching agreements and resolving conflicts
rather than strictly adhering to a complicated set of statutes. Local
councils of elders, known as 'Kenbet' in the New Kingdom, were
responsible for ruling in court cases involving small claims and minor
disputes. More serious cases involving murder, major land
transactions, and tomb robbery were referred to the 'Great Kenbet',
over which the vizier or pharaoh presided. Plaintiffs and defendants
were expected to represent themselves and were required to swear an
oath that they had told the truth. In some cases, the state took on
both the role of prosecutor and judge, and it could torture the
accused with beatings to obtain a confession and the names of any
co-conspirators. Whether the charges were trivial or serious, court
scribes documented the complaint, testimony, and verdict of the case
for future reference.
Punishment for minor crimes involved either imposition of fines,
beatings, facial mutilation, or exile, depending on the severity of
the offense. Serious crimes such as murder and tomb robbery were
punished by execution, carried out by decapitation, drowning, or
impaling the criminal on a stake. Punishment could also be extended to
the criminal's family. Beginning in the New Kingdom, oracles played a
major role in the legal system, dispensing justice in both civil and
criminal cases. The procedure was to ask the god a "yes" or "no"
question concerning the right or wrong of an issue. The god, carried
by a number of priests, rendered judgement by choosing one or the
other, moving forward or backward, or pointing to one of the answers
written on a piece of papyrus or an ostracon.
Agriculture
=============
A combination of favorable geographical features contributed to the
success of ancient Egyptian culture, the most important of which was
the rich fertile soil resulting from annual inundations of the Nile
River. The ancient Egyptians were thus able to produce an abundance of
food, allowing the population to devote more time and resources to
cultural, technological, and artistic pursuits. Land management was
crucial in ancient Egypt because taxes were assessed based on the
amount of land a person owned.
Farming in Egypt was dependent on the cycle of the Nile River. The
Egyptians recognized three seasons: 'Akhet' (flooding), 'Peret'
(planting), and 'Shemu' (harvesting). The flooding season lasted from
June to September, depositing on the river's banks a layer of
mineral-rich silt ideal for growing crops. After the floodwaters had
receded, the growing season lasted from October to February. Farmers
plowed and planted seeds in the fields, which were irrigated with
ditches and canals. Egypt received little rainfall, so farmers relied
on the Nile to water their crops. From March to May, farmers used
sickles to harvest their crops, which were then threshed with a flail
to separate the straw from the grain. Winnowing removed the chaff from
the grain, and the grain was then ground into flour, brewed to make
beer, or stored for later use.
The ancient Egyptians cultivated emmer and barley, and several other
cereal grains, all of which were used to make the two main food
staples of bread and beer. Flax plants, uprooted before they started
flowering, were grown for the fibers of their stems. These fibers were
split along their length and spun into thread, which was used to weave
sheets of linen and to make clothing. Papyrus growing on the banks of
the Nile River was used to make paper. Vegetables and fruits were
grown in garden plots, close to habitations and on higher ground, and
had to be watered by hand. Vegetables included leeks, garlic, melons,
squashes, pulses, lettuce, and other crops, in addition to grapes that
were made into wine.
Animals
=========
The Egyptians believed that a balanced relationship between people and
animals was an essential element of the cosmic order; thus humans,
animals and plants were believed to be members of a single whole.
Animals, both domesticated and wild, were therefore a critical source
of spirituality, companionship, and sustenance to the ancient
Egyptians. Cattle were the most important livestock; the
administration collected taxes on livestock in regular censuses, and
the size of a herd reflected the prestige and importance of the estate
or temple that owned them. In addition to cattle, the ancient
Egyptians kept sheep, goats, and pigs. Poultry, such as ducks, geese,
and pigeons, were captured in nets and bred on farms, where they were
force-fed with dough to fatten them. The Nile provided a plentiful
source of fish. Bees were also domesticated from at least the Old
Kingdom, and provided both honey and wax.
The ancient Egyptians used donkeys and oxen as beasts of burden, and
they were responsible for plowing the fields and trampling seed into
the soil. The slaughter of a fattened ox was also a central part of an
offering ritual. Horses were introduced by the Hyksos in the Second
Intermediate Period. Camels, although known from the New Kingdom, were
not used as beasts of burden until the Late Period. There is also
evidence to suggest that elephants were briefly used in the Late
Period but largely abandoned due to lack of grazing land. Cats, dogs,
and monkeys were common family pets, while more exotic pets imported
from the heart of Africa, such as Sub-Saharan African lions, were
reserved for royalty. Herodotus observed that the Egyptians were the
only people to keep their animals with them in their houses. During
the Late Period, the worship of the gods in their animal form was
extremely popular, such as the cat goddess Bastet and the ibis god
Thoth, and these animals were kept in large numbers for the purpose of
ritual sacrifice.
Natural resources
===================
Egypt is rich in building and decorative stone, copper and lead ores,
gold, and semiprecious stones. These natural resources allowed the
ancient Egyptians to build monuments, sculpt statues, make tools, and
fashion jewelry. Embalmers used salts from the Wadi Natrun for
mummification, which also provided the gypsum needed to make plaster.
Ore-bearing rock formations were found in distant, inhospitable wadis
in the Eastern Desert and the Sinai, requiring large, state-controlled
expeditions to obtain natural resources found there. There were
extensive gold mines in Nubia, and one of the first maps known is of a
gold mine in this region. The Wadi Hammamat was a notable source of
granite, greywacke, and gold. Flint was the first mineral collected
and used to make tools, and flint handaxes are the earliest pieces of
evidence of habitation in the Nile valley. Nodules of the mineral were
carefully flaked to make blades and arrowheads of moderate hardness
and durability even after copper was adopted for this purpose. Ancient
Egyptians were among the first to use minerals such as sulfur as
cosmetic substances.
The Egyptians worked deposits of the lead ore galena at Gebel Rosas to
make net sinkers, plumb bobs, and small figurines. Copper was the most
important metal for toolmaking in ancient Egypt and was smelted in
furnaces from malachite ore mined in the Sinai. Workers collected gold
by washing the nuggets out of sediment in alluvial deposits, or by the
more labor-intensive process of grinding and washing gold-bearing
quartzite. Iron deposits found in upper Egypt were used in the Late
Period. High-quality building stones were abundant in Egypt; the
ancient Egyptians quarried limestone all along the Nile valley,
granite from Aswan, and basalt and sandstone from the wadis of the
Eastern Desert. Deposits of decorative stones such as porphyry,
greywacke, alabaster, and carnelian dotted the Eastern Desert and were
collected even before the First Dynasty. In the Ptolemaic and Roman
Periods, miners worked deposits of emeralds in Wadi Sikait and
amethyst in Wadi el-Hudi.
Trade
=======
The ancient Egyptians engaged in trade with their foreign neighbors to
obtain rare, exotic goods not found in Egypt. In the Predynastic
Period, they established trade with Nubia to obtain gold and incense.
They also established trade with Palestine, as evidenced by
Palestinian-style oil jugs found in the burials of the First Dynasty
pharaohs. An Egyptian colony stationed in southern Canaan dates to
slightly before the First Dynasty. Tell es-Sakan in present-day Gaza
was established as an Egyptian settlement in the late 4th millennium
BC, and is theorised to have been the main Egyptian colonial site in
the region. Narmer had Egyptian pottery produced in Canaan and
exported back to Egypt.
By the Second Dynasty at latest, ancient Egyptian trade with Byblos
yielded a critical source of quality timber not found in Egypt. By the
Fifth Dynasty, trade with Punt provided gold, aromatic resins, ebony,
ivory, and wild animals such as monkeys and baboons. Egypt relied on
trade with Anatolia for essential quantities of tin as well as
supplementary supplies of copper, both metals being necessary for the
manufacture of bronze. The ancient Egyptians prized the blue stone
lapis lazuli, which had to be imported from far-away Afghanistan.
Egypt's Mediterranean trade partners also included Greece and Crete,
which provided, among other goods, supplies of olive oil.
Historical development
========================
The Egyptian language is a northern Afro-Asiatic language closely
related to the Berber and Semitic languages. It has the longest known
history of any language having been written from BC to the Middle Ages
and remaining as a spoken language for longer. The phases of ancient
Egyptian are Old Egyptian, Middle Egyptian (Classical Egyptian), Late
Egyptian, Demotic and Coptic. Egyptian writings do not show dialect
differences before Coptic, but it was probably spoken in regional
dialects around Memphis and later Thebes.
Ancient Egyptian was a synthetic language, but it became more analytic
later on. Late Egyptian developed prefixal definite and indefinite
articles, which replaced the older inflectional suffixes. There was a
change from the older verb-subject-object word order to
subject-verb-object. The Egyptian hieroglyphic, hieratic, and demotic
scripts were eventually replaced by the more phonetic Coptic alphabet.
Coptic is still used in the liturgy of the Egyptian Orthodox Church,
and traces of it are found in modern Egyptian Arabic.
Sounds and grammar
====================
Ancient Egyptian has 25 consonants similar to those of other
Afro-Asiatic languages. These include pharyngeal and emphatic
consonants, voiced and voiceless stops, voiceless fricatives and
voiced and voiceless affricates. It has three long and three short
vowels, which expanded in Late Egyptian to about nine. The basic word
in Egyptian, similar to Semitic and Berber, is a triliteral or
biliteral root of consonants and semiconsonants. Suffixes are added to
form words. The verb conjugation corresponds to the person. For
example, the triconsonantal skeleton is the semantic core of the word
'hear'; its basic conjugation is ', 'he hears'. If the subject is a
noun, suffixes are not added to the verb: ', 'the woman hears'.
Adjectives are derived from nouns through a process that Egyptologists
call 'nisbation' because of its similarity with Arabic. The word order
is in verbal and adjectival sentences, and in nominal and adverbial
sentences. The subject can be moved to the beginning of sentences if
it is long and is followed by a resumptive pronoun. Verbs and nouns
are negated by the particle 'n', but 'nn' is used for adverbial and
adjectival sentences. Stress falls on the ultimate or penultimate
syllable, which can be open (CV) or closed (CVC).
Writing
=========
Hieroglyphic writing dates from BC, and is composed of hundreds of
symbols. A hieroglyph can represent a word, a sound, or a silent
determinative; and the same symbol can serve different purposes in
different contexts. Hieroglyphs were a formal script, used on stone
monuments and in tombs, that could be as detailed as individual works
of art. In day-to-day writing, scribes used a cursive form of writing,
called hieratic, which was quicker and easier. While formal
hieroglyphs may be read in rows or columns in either direction (though
typically written from right to left), hieratic was always written
from right to left, usually in horizontal rows. A new form of writing,
Demotic, became the prevalent writing style, and it is this form of
writing—along with formal hieroglyphs—that accompany the Greek text on
the Rosetta Stone.
Around the first century AD, the Coptic alphabet started to be used
alongside the Demotic script. Coptic is a modified Greek alphabet with
the addition of some Demotic signs. Although formal hieroglyphs were
used in a ceremonial role until the fourth century, towards the end
only a small handful of priests could still read them. As the
traditional religious establishments were disbanded, knowledge of
hieroglyphic writing was mostly lost. Attempts to decipher them date
to the Byzantine and Islamic periods in Egypt, but only in the 1820s,
after the discovery of the Rosetta Stone and years of research by
Thomas Young and Jean-François Champollion, were hieroglyphs
substantially deciphered.
Literature
============
Writing first appeared in association with kingship on labels and tags
for items found in royal tombs. It was primarily an occupation of the
scribes, who worked out of the 'Per Ankh' institution or the House of
Life. The latter comprised offices, libraries (called House of Books),
laboratories and observatories. Some of the best-known pieces of
ancient Egyptian literature, such as the Pyramid and Coffin Texts,
were written in Classical Egyptian, which continued to be the language
of writing until about 1300BC. Late Egyptian was spoken from the New
Kingdom onward and is represented in Ramesside administrative
documents, love poetry and tales, as well as in Demotic and Coptic
texts. During this period, the tradition of writing had evolved into
the tomb autobiography, such as those of Harkhuf and Weni. The genre
known as 'Sebayt' ('instructions') was developed to communicate
teachings and guidance from famous nobles; the Ipuwer papyrus, a poem
of lamentations describing natural disasters and social upheaval, is a
famous example.
The 'Story of Sinuhe', written in Middle Egyptian, might be the
classic of Egyptian literature. Also written at this time was the
Westcar Papyrus, a set of stories told to Khufu by his sons relating
the marvels performed by priests. The Instruction of Amenemope is
considered a masterpiece of Near Eastern literature. Towards the end
of the New Kingdom, the vernacular language was more often employed to
write popular pieces such as the Story of Wenamun and the Instruction
of Any. The former tells the story of a noble who is robbed on his way
to buy cedar from Lebanon and of his struggle to return to Egypt. From
about 700BC, narrative stories and instructions, such as the popular
Instructions of Onchsheshonqy, as well as personal and business
documents were written in the demotic script and phase of Egyptian.
Many stories written in demotic during the Greco-Roman period were set
in previous historical eras, when Egypt was an independent nation
ruled by great pharaohs such as Ramesses II.
Daily life
============
Most ancient Egyptians were farmers tied to the land. Their dwellings
were restricted to immediate family members, and were constructed of
mudbrick designed to remain cool in the heat of the day. Each home had
a kitchen with an open roof, which contained a grindstone for milling
grain and a small oven for baking the bread. Ceramics served as
household wares for the storage, preparation, transport, and
consumption of food, drink, and raw materials. Walls were painted
white and could be covered with dyed linen wall hangings. Floors were
covered with reed mats, while wooden stools, beds raised from the
floor and individual tables comprised the furniture.
The ancient Egyptians placed a great value on hygiene and appearance.
Most bathed in the Nile and used a pasty soap made from animal fat and
chalk. Men shaved their entire bodies for cleanliness; perfumes and
aromatic ointments covered bad odors and soothed skin. Clothing was
made from simple linen sheets that were bleached white, and both men
and women of the upper classes wore wigs, jewelry, and cosmetics.
Children went without clothing until maturity, at about age 12, and at
this age males were circumcised and had their heads shaved. Mothers
were responsible for taking care of the children, while the father
provided the family's income.
Music and dance were popular entertainments for those who could afford
them. Early instruments included flutes and harps, while instruments
similar to trumpets, oboes, and pipes developed later and became
popular. In the New Kingdom, the Egyptians played on bells, cymbals,
tambourines, drums, and imported lutes and lyres from Asia. The
sistrum was a rattle-like musical instrument that was especially
important in religious ceremonies.
The ancient Egyptians enjoyed a variety of leisure activities,
including games and music. Senet, a board game where pieces moved
according to random chance, was particularly popular from the earliest
times; another similar game was mehen, which had a circular gaming
board. "Hounds and Jackals" also known as 58 holes is another example
of board games played in ancient Egypt. The first complete set of this
game was discovered from a Theban tomb of the Egyptian pharaoh
Amenemhat IV that dates to the 13th Dynasty. Juggling and ball games
were popular with children, and wrestling is also documented in a tomb
at Beni Hasan. The wealthy members of ancient Egyptian society enjoyed
hunting, fishing, and boating as well.
The excavation of the workers' village of Deir el-Medina has resulted
in one of the most thoroughly documented accounts of community life in
the ancient world, which spans almost four hundred years. There is no
comparable site in which the organization, social interactions, and
working and living conditions of a community have been studied in such
detail.
Cuisine
=========
Egyptian cuisine remained remarkably stable over time; indeed, the
cuisine of modern Egypt retains some striking similarities to the
cuisine of the ancients. The staple diet consisted of bread and beer,
supplemented with vegetables such as onions and garlic, and fruit such
as dates and figs. Wine and meat were enjoyed by all on feast days
while the upper classes indulged on a more regular basis. Fish, meat,
and fowl could be salted or dried, and could be cooked in stews or
roasted on a grill.
Architecture
==============
The architecture of ancient Egypt includes some of the most famous
structures in the world: the Great Pyramids of Giza and the temples at
Thebes. Building projects were organized and funded by the state for
religious and commemorative purposes, but also to reinforce the
wide-ranging power of the pharaoh. The ancient Egyptians were skilled
builders; using only simple but effective tools and sighting
instruments, architects could build large stone structures with great
accuracy and precision that is still envied today.
The domestic dwellings of elite and ordinary Egyptians alike were
constructed from perishable materials such as mudbricks and wood, and
have not survived. Peasants lived in simple homes, while the palaces
of the elite and the pharaoh were more elaborate structures. A few
surviving New Kingdom palaces, such as those in Malkata and Amarna,
show richly decorated walls and floors with scenes of people, birds,
water pools, deities and geometric designs. Important structures such
as temples and tombs that were intended to last forever were
constructed of stone instead of mudbricks. The architectural elements
used in the world's first large-scale stone building, Djoser's
mortuary complex, include post and lintel supports in the papyrus and
lotus motif.
The earliest preserved ancient Egyptian temples, such as those at
Giza, consist of single, enclosed halls with roof slabs supported by
columns. In the New Kingdom, architects added the pylon, the open
courtyard, and the enclosed hypostyle hall to the front of the
temple's sanctuary, a style that was standard until the Greco-Roman
period. The earliest and most popular tomb architecture in the Old
Kingdom was the mastaba, a flat-roofed rectangular structure of
mudbrick or stone built over an underground burial chamber. The step
pyramid of Djoser is a series of stone mastabas stacked on top of each
other. Pyramids were built during the Old and Middle Kingdoms, but
most later rulers abandoned them in favor of less conspicuous rock-cut
tombs. The use of the pyramid form continued in private tomb chapels
of the New Kingdom and in the royal pyramids of Nubia.
File:Model of a Porch and Garden MET DP350593.jpg|Model of a household
porch and garden,
File:The Temple of Dendur MET DT563.jpg|The Temple of Dendur,
completed by 10 BC, Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York City)
File:Philae temple at night.jpg|The well preserved Temple of Isis from
Philae is an example of Egyptian architecture and architectural
sculpture.
File:Lepsius-Projekt tw 1-2-108.jpg|Illustration of various types of
capitals, by Karl Richard Lepsius
Art
=====
The ancient Egyptians produced art to serve functional purposes. For
over 3500 years, artists adhered to artistic forms and iconography
that were developed during the Old Kingdom, following a strict set of
principles that resisted foreign influence and internal change. These
artistic standards—simple lines, shapes, and flat areas of color
combined with the characteristic flat projection of figures with no
indication of spatial depth—created a sense of order and balance
within a composition. Images and text were intimately interwoven on
tomb and temple walls, coffins, stelae, and even statues. The Narmer
Palette, for example, displays figures that can also be read as
hieroglyphs. Because of the rigid rules that governed its highly
stylized and symbolic appearance, ancient Egyptian art served its
political and religious purposes with precision and clarity.
Ancient Egyptian artisans used stone as a medium for carving statues
and fine reliefs, but used wood as a cheap and easily carved
substitute. Paints were obtained from minerals such as iron ores (red
and yellow ochres), copper ores (blue and green), soot or charcoal
(black), and limestone (white). Paints could be mixed with gum arabic
as a binder and pressed into cakes, which could be moistened with
water when needed.
Pharaohs used reliefs to record victories in battle, royal decrees,
and religious scenes. Common citizens had access to pieces of funerary
art, such as shabti statues and books of the dead, which they believed
would protect them in the afterlife. During the Middle Kingdom, wooden
or clay models depicting scenes from everyday life became popular
additions to the tomb. In an attempt to duplicate the activities of
the living in the afterlife, these models show laborers, houses,
boats, and even military formations that are scale representations of
the ideal ancient Egyptian afterlife.
Despite the homogeneity of ancient Egyptian art, the styles of
particular times and places sometimes reflected changing cultural or
political attitudes. After the invasion of the Hyksos in the Second
Intermediate Period, Minoan-style frescoes were found in Avaris. The
most striking example of a politically driven change in artistic forms
comes from the Amarna Period, where figures were radically altered to
conform to Akhenaten's revolutionary religious ideas. This style,
known as Amarna art, was quickly abandoned after Akhenaten's death and
replaced by the traditional forms.
File:Kneeling portrait statue of Amenemhat holding a stele with an
inscription 01.jpg|Stelophorous statue of Amenemhat;
File:Tomb of Nebamun.jpg|Fresco which depicts Nebamun hunting birds;
1350 BC
File:Portrait head of pharaoh Hatshepsut or Thutmose III
01.jpg|Portrait head of pharaoh Hatshepsut or Thutmose III; 1480-1425
BC
File:Falcon Box with Wrapped Contents MET 12.182.5a b
EGDP023129.jpg|Falcon box with wrapped contents; 332-30 BC
Religious beliefs
===================
Beliefs in the divine and in the afterlife were ingrained in ancient
Egyptian civilization from its inception; pharaonic rule was based on
the divine right of kings. The Egyptian pantheon was populated by gods
who had supernatural powers and were called on for help or protection.
However, the gods were not always viewed as benevolent, and Egyptians
believed they had to be appeased with offerings and prayers. The
structure of this pantheon changed continually as new deities were
promoted in the hierarchy, but priests made no effort to organize the
diverse and sometimes conflicting myths and stories into a coherent
system. These various conceptions of divinity were not considered
contradictory but rather layers in the multiple facets of reality.
Gods were worshiped in cult temples administered by priests acting on
the king's behalf. At the center of the temple was the cult statue in
a shrine. Temples were not places of public worship or congregation,
and only on select feast days and celebrations was a shrine carrying
the statue of the god brought out for public worship. Normally, the
god's domain was sealed off from the outside world and was only
accessible to temple officials. Common citizens could worship private
statues in their homes, and amulets offered protection against the
forces of chaos. After the New Kingdom, the pharaoh's role as a
spiritual intermediary was de-emphasized as religious customs shifted
to direct worship of the gods. As a result, priests developed a system
of oracles to communicate the will of the gods directly to the people.
The Egyptians believed that every human being was composed of physical
and spiritual parts or 'aspects'. In addition to the body, each person
had a 'šwt' (shadow), a 'ba' (personality or soul), a 'ka'
(life-force), and a 'name'. The heart, rather than the brain, was
considered the seat of thoughts and emotions. After death, the
spiritual aspects were released from the body and could move at will,
but they required the physical remains (or a substitute, such as a
statue) as a permanent home. The ultimate goal of the deceased was to
rejoin his 'ka' and 'ba' and become one of the "blessed dead", living
on as an 'akh', or "effective one". For this to happen, the deceased
had to be judged worthy in a trial, in which the heart was weighed
against a "feather of truth". If deemed worthy, the deceased could
continue their existence on earth in spiritual form. If they were not
deemed worthy, their heart was eaten by Ammit the Devourer and they
were erased from the Universe.
Burial customs
================
The ancient Egyptians maintained an elaborate set of burial customs
that they believed were necessary to ensure immortality after death.
These customs involved preserving the body by mummification,
performing burial ceremonies, and interring with the body goods the
deceased would use in the afterlife. Before the Old Kingdom, bodies
buried in desert pits were naturally preserved by desiccation. The
arid, desert conditions were a boon throughout the history of ancient
Egypt for burials of the poor, who could not afford the elaborate
burial preparations available to the elite. Wealthier Egyptians began
to bury their dead in stone tombs and use artificial mummification,
which involved removing the internal organs, wrapping the body in
linen, and burying it in a rectangular stone sarcophagus or wooden
coffin. Beginning in the Fourth Dynasty, some parts were preserved
separately in canopic jars.
By the New Kingdom, the ancient Egyptians had perfected the art of
mummification; the best technique took 70 days and involved removing
the internal organs, removing the brain through the nose, and
desiccating the body in a mixture of salts called natron. The body was
then wrapped in linen with protective amulets inserted between layers
and placed in a decorated anthropoid coffin. Mummies of the Late
Period were also placed in painted cartonnage mummy cases. Actual
preservation practices declined during the Ptolemaic and Roman eras,
while greater emphasis was placed on the outer appearance of the
mummy, which was decorated.
Wealthy Egyptians were buried with larger quantities of luxury items,
but all burials, regardless of social status, included goods for the
deceased. Funerary texts were often included in the grave, and,
beginning in the New Kingdom, so were shabti statues that were
believed to perform manual labor for them in the afterlife. Rituals in
which the deceased was magically re-animated accompanied burials.
After burial, living relatives were expected to occasionally bring
food to the tomb and recite prayers on behalf of the deceased.
Military
======================================================================
The ancient Egyptian military was responsible for defending Egypt
against foreign invasion, and for maintaining Egypt's domination in
the ancient Near East. The military protected mining expeditions to
the Sinai during the Old Kingdom and fought civil wars during the
First and Second Intermediate Periods. The military was responsible
for maintaining fortifications along important trade routes, such as
those found at the city of Buhen on the way to Nubia. Forts also were
constructed to serve as military bases, such as the fortress at Sile,
which was a base of operations for expeditions to the Levant. In the
New Kingdom, a series of pharaohs used the standing Egyptian army to
attack and conquer Kush and parts of the Levant.
Typical military equipment included bows and arrows, spears, and
round-topped shields made by stretching animal skin over a wooden
frame. In the New Kingdom, the military began using chariots that had
earlier been introduced by the Hyksos invaders. Weapons and armor
continued to improve after the adoption of bronze: shields were now
made from solid wood with a bronze buckle, spears were tipped with a
bronze point, and the khopesh was adopted from Asiatic soldiers. The
pharaoh was usually depicted in art and literature riding at the head
of the army; it has been suggested that at least a few pharaohs, such
as Seqenenre Tao II and his sons, did do so. However, it has also been
argued that "kings of this period did not personally act as frontline
war leaders, fighting alongside their troops". Soldiers were recruited
from the general population, but during, and especially after, the New
Kingdom, mercenaries from Nubia, Kush, and Libya were hired to fight
for Egypt.
Technology
============
In technology, medicine, and mathematics, ancient Egypt achieved a
relatively high standard of productivity and sophistication.
Traditional empiricism, as evidenced by the Edwin Smith and Ebers
papyri (), is first credited to Egypt. The Egyptians created their own
alphabet and decimal system.
Faience and glass
===================
Even before the Old Kingdom, the ancient Egyptians had developed a
glassy material known as faience, which they treated as a type of
artificial semi-precious stone. Faience is a non-clay ceramic made of
silica, small amounts of lime and soda, and a colorant, typically
copper. The material was used to make beads, tiles, figurines, and
small wares. Several methods can be used to create faience, but
typically production involved application of the powdered materials in
the form of a paste over a clay core, which was then fired. By a
related technique, the ancient Egyptians produced a pigment known as
Egyptian blue, also called blue frit, which is produced by fusing (or
sintering) silica, copper, lime, and an alkali such as natron. The
product can be ground up and used as a pigment.
The ancient Egyptians could fabricate a wide variety of objects from
glass with great skill, but it is not clear whether they developed the
process independently. It is also unclear whether they made their own
raw glass or merely imported pre-made ingots, which they melted and
finished. However, they did have technical expertise in making
objects, as well as adding trace elements to control the color of the
finished glass. A range of colors could be produced, including yellow,
red, green, blue, purple, and white, and the glass could be made
either transparent or opaque.
Medicine
==========
The medical problems of the ancient Egyptians stemmed directly from
their environment. Living and working close to the Nile brought
hazards from malaria and debilitating schistosomiasis parasites, which
caused liver and intestinal damage. Dangerous wildlife such as
crocodiles and hippos were also a common threat. The lifelong labors
of farming and building put stress on the spine and joints, and
traumatic injuries from construction and warfare all took a
significant toll on the body. The grit and sand from stone-ground
flour abraded teeth, leaving them susceptible to abscesses (though
caries were rare).
The diets of the wealthy were rich in sugars, which promoted
periodontal disease. Despite the flattering physiques portrayed on
tomb walls, the overweight mummies of many of the upper class show the
effects of a life of overindulgence. Adult life expectancy was about
35 for men and 30 for women, but reaching adulthood was difficult as
about one-third of the population died in infancy.
Ancient Egyptian physicians were renowned in the ancient Near East for
their healing skills, and some, such as Imhotep, remained famous long
after their deaths. Herodotus remarked that there was a high degree of
specialization among Egyptian physicians, with some treating only the
head or the stomach, while others were eye-doctors and dentists.
Training of physicians took place at the 'Per Ankh' or "House of Life"
institution, most notably those headquartered in Per-Bastet during the
New Kingdom and at Abydos and Saïs in the Late period. Medical papyri
show empirical knowledge of anatomy, injuries, and practical
treatments.
Wounds were treated by bandaging with raw meat, white linen, sutures,
nets, pads, and swabs soaked with honey to prevent infection, while
opium, thyme, and belladona were used to relieve pain. The earliest
records of burn treatment describe burn dressings that use the milk
from mothers of male babies. Prayers were made to the goddess Isis.
Moldy bread, honey, and copper salts were also used to prevent
infection from dirt in burns. Garlic and onions were used regularly to
promote good health and were thought to relieve asthma symptoms.
Ancient Egyptian surgeons stitched wounds, set broken bones, and
amputated diseased limbs, but they recognized that some injuries were
so serious that they could only make the patient comfortable until
death occurred.
Maritime technology
=====================
Early Egyptians knew how to assemble planks of wood into a ship hull
and had mastered advanced forms of shipbuilding as early as 3000BC.
The Archaeological Institute of America reports that the oldest
planked ships known are the Abydos boats. A group of 14 discovered
ships in Abydos were constructed of wooden planks "sewn" together.
Discovered by Egyptologist David O'Connor of New York University,
woven straps were found to have been used to lash the planks together,
and reeds or grass stuffed between the planks helped to seal the
seams. Because the ships are all buried together and near a mortuary
belonging to Pharaoh Khasekhemwy, originally they were all thought to
have belonged to him, but one of the 14 ships dates to 3000BC, and the
associated pottery jars buried with the vessels also suggest earlier
dating. The ship dating to 3000BC was 75 ft long and is now thought to
perhaps have belonged to an earlier pharaoh, perhaps one as early as
Hor-Aha.
Early Egyptians also knew how to assemble planks of wood with
treenails to fasten them together, using pitch for caulking the seams.
The "Khufu ship", a 43.6 m vessel sealed into a pit in the Giza
pyramid complex at the foot of the Great Pyramid of Giza in the Fourth
Dynasty around 2500BC, is a full-size surviving example that may have
filled the symbolic function of a solar barque. Early Egyptians also
knew how to fasten the planks of this ship together with mortise and
tenon joints.
In 1977, an ancient north-south canal was discovered extending from
Lake Timsah to the Ballah Lakes. It was dated to the Middle Kingdom of
Egypt by extrapolating dates of ancient sites constructed along its
course.
In 2011, archaeologists from Italy, the United States, and Egypt,
excavating a dried-up lagoon known as Mersa Gawasis, unearthed traces
of an ancient harbor that once launched early voyages, such as
Hatshepsut's Punt, expedition onto the open ocean. Some of the site's
most evocative evidence for the ancient Egyptians' seafaring prowess
include large ship timbers and hundreds of feet of ropes, made from
papyrus, coiled in huge bundles. In 2013, a team of Franco-Egyptian
archaeologists discovered what is believed to be the world's oldest
port, dating back about 4500 years, from the time of King Khufu, on
the Red Sea coast, near Wadi el-Jarf (about 110 miles south of Suez).
Mathematics
=============
The earliest attested examples of mathematical calculations date to
the predynastic Naqada period, and show a fully developed numeral
system. The importance of mathematics to an educated Egyptian is
suggested by a New Kingdom fictional letter in which the writer
proposes a scholarly competition between himself and another scribe
regarding everyday calculation tasks such as accounting of land,
labor, and grain. Texts such as the Rhind Mathematical Papyrus and the
Moscow Mathematical Papyrus show that the ancient Egyptians could
perform the four basic mathematical operations—addition, subtraction,
multiplication, and division—use fractions, calculate the areas of
rectangles, triangles, and circles and compute the volumes of boxes,
columns and pyramids. They understood basic concepts of algebra and
geometry, and could solve systems of equations.
Mathematical notation was decimal, and based on hieroglyphic signs for
each power of ten up to one million. Each of these could be written as
many times as necessary to add up to the desired number; so to write
the number eighty or eight hundred, the symbol for ten or one hundred
was written eight times respectively. Because their methods of
calculation could not handle most fractions with a numerator greater
than one, they had to write fractions as the sum of several fractions.
For example, they resolved the fraction 'two-fifths' into the sum of
'one-third' + 'one-fifteenth'. Standard tables of values facilitated
this. Some common fractions, however, were written with a special
glyph—the equivalent of the modern two-thirds is shown on the right.
Ancient Egyptian mathematicians knew the Pythagorean theorem as an
empirical formula. They were aware, for example, that a triangle had a
right angle opposite the hypotenuse when its sides were in a 3-4-5
ratio. They were able to estimate the area of a circle by subtracting
one-ninth from its diameter and squaring the result:
:Area ≈ [()'D']2 = ()'r'2 ≈ 3.16'r'2,
a reasonable approximation of the formula .
Population
======================================================================
Estimates of the size of the population range from 1-1.5 million in
the 3rd millennium BC to possibly 2-3 million by the 1st millennium
BC, before growing significantly towards the end of that millennium.
Archaeogenetics
=================
According to historian William Stiebling and archaeologist Susan N.
Helft, conflicting DNA analysis on recent genetic samples such as the
Amarna royal mummies has led to a lack of consensus on the genetic
makeup of the ancient Egyptians and their geographic origins.
The genetic history of Ancient Egypt remains a developing field, and
is relevant for the understanding of population demographic events
connecting Africa and Eurasia. To date, the amount of genome-wide aDNA
analyses on ancient specimens from Egypt and Sudan remain scarce,
although studies on uniparental haplogroups in ancient individuals
have been carried out several times, pointing broadly to affinities
with other African and Eurasian groups.
The currently most advanced full genome analyses was made on three
ancient specimens recovered from the Nile River Valley, Abusir
el-Meleq, Egypt. Two of the individuals were dated to the
Pre-Ptolemaic Period (New Kingdom to Late Period), and one individual
to the Ptolemaic Period, spanning around 1300 years of Egyptian
history. These results point to a genetic continuity of Ancient
Egyptians with modern Egyptians. The results further point to a close
genetic affinity between ancient Egyptians and Middle Eastern
populations, especially ancient groups from the Levant.
Ancient Egyptians also displayed affinities to Nubians to the south of
Egypt, in modern-day Sudan. Archaeological and historical evidence
support interactions between Egyptian and Nubian populations more than
5000 years ago, with socio-political dynamics between Egyptians and
Nubians ranging from peaceful coexistence to variably successful
attempts of conquest. A study on sixty-six ancient Nubian individuals
revealed significant contact with ancient Egyptians, characterized by
the presence of % Neolithic/Bronze Age Levantine ancestry in these
individuals. Such geneflow of Levantine-like ancestry corresponds with
archaeological and botanic evidence, pointing to a Neolithic movement
around 7,000 years ago.
Modern Egyptians, like modern Nubians, also underwent subsequent
admixture events, contributing both "Sub-Saharan" African-like and
West Asian-like ancestries, since the Roman period, with significance
on the African Slave Trade and the Spread of Islam.
Some scholars, such as Christopher Ehret, caution that a wider
sampling area is needed and argue that the current data is
inconclusive on the origin of ancient Egyptians. They also point out
issues with the previously used methodology such as the sampling size,
comparative approach and a "biased interpretation" of the genetic
data. They argue in favor for a link between Ancient Egypt and the
northern Horn of Africa. This latter view has been attributed to the
corresponding archaeological, genetic, linguistic and biological
anthropological sources of evidence which broadly indicate that the
earliest Egyptians and Nubians were the descendants of populations in
northeast Africa.
Legacy
======================================================================
The culture and monuments of ancient Egypt have left a lasting legacy
on the world. Egyptian civilization significantly influenced the
Kingdom of Kush and Meroë with both adopting Egyptian religious and
architectural norms (hundreds of pyramids (6-30 meters high) were
built in Egypt/Sudan), as well as using Egyptian writing as the basis
of the Meroitic script. Meroitic is the oldest written language in
Africa, other than Egyptian, and was used from the 2nd century BC
until the early 5th century AD. The cult of the goddess Isis, for
example, became popular in the Roman Empire, as obelisks and other
relics were transported back to Rome. The Romans also imported
building materials from Egypt to erect Egyptian-style structures.
Early historians such as Herodotus, Strabo, and Diodorus Siculus
studied and wrote about the land, which Romans came to view as a place
of mystery.
During the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, Egyptian pagan culture was
in decline after the rise of Christianity and later Islam, but
interest in Egyptian antiquity continued in the writings of medieval
scholars such as Dhul-Nun al-Misri and al-Maqrizi. In the seventeenth
and eighteenth centuries, European travelers and tourists brought back
antiquities and wrote stories of their journeys, leading to a wave of
Egyptomania across Europe, as evident in symbolism such as the Eye of
Providence and the Great Seal of the United States. This renewed
interest sent collectors to Egypt, who took, purchased, or were given
many important antiquities. Napoleon arranged the first studies in
Egyptology when he brought some 150 scientists and artists to study
and document Egypt's natural history, which was published in the
'Description de l'Égypte'.
In the 20th century, the Egyptian Government and archaeologists alike
recognized the importance of cultural respect and integrity in
excavations. Since the 2010s, the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities
has overseen excavations and the recovery of artifacts.
File:LuxorAbuHaggagNorthSide.jpg|The Abu Haggag Mosque is integrated
into the Luxor temple from the 14th century BC, which has made it the
oldest continuously used temple.
File:Alexandre_Cabanel_-_Cléopatre_essayant_des_poisons_sur_des_condamnés_à_mort.jpg|'Cleopatra
Testing Poisons on Condemned Prisoners' (1887), by Alexandre Cabanel
File:The Sphinx and Pyramid of Khafre (8838365561).jpg|Tourists at the
pyramid complex of Khafre near the Great Sphinx of Giza
See also
======================================================================
* Egyptology
* Glossary of ancient Egypt artifacts
* Index of ancient Egypt-related articles
* Outline of ancient Egypt
* List of ancient Egyptians
* List of Ancient Egyptian inventions and discoveries
* Archaeology of Ancient Egypt
* Archeological Map of Egypt
* British school of diffusionism
External links
======================================================================
*
* [https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/egyptians/ BBC History:
Egyptians]provides a reliable general overview and further links
* [https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_8c10QYoGa4UC Ancient Egyptian
Science: A Source Book Door Marshall Clagett, 1989]
* 'Napoleon on the Nile: Soldiers, Artists, and the Rediscovery of
Egypt',
[https://web.archive.org/web/20080602082144/https://arthistory.about.com/od/from_exhibitions/ig/Napoleon-on-the-Nile/Joseph--1874.htm
Art History].
* [https://www.digitalegypt.ucl.ac.uk/ Digital Egypt for
Universities.] Scholarly treatment with broad coverage and cross
references (internal and external). Artifacts used extensively to
illustrate topics.
* [https://www.ancient-egypt-priests.com/ Priests of Ancient Egypt]
In-depth-information about Ancient Egypt's priests, religious services
and temples. Much picture material and bibliography. In English and
German.
* [https://www.uee.ucla.edu/ UCLA Encyclopedia of Egyptology]
* [https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/egyptians/women_01.shtml
Ancient Egypt and the Role of Women] by Dr Joann Fletcher
*
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=========
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Original Article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient Egypt