Unit 9: Egypt
Man fears time, but time fears the pyramids.
Arab proverb
1. The Gift of the Nile
1.1 How the Egyptian civilization was born
The Greek historian Herodotus considered that Egypt was a "gift of the Nile", because without this river, the Egyptian civilization would not have existed.
The Nile River runs through the Sahara desert, and every summer it experienced strong floods that flooded the valley. When the waters receded in late summer, the land had been covered with an earthy mineral called silt, which is very fertile.
Thanks to this phenomenon, the Egyptian civilization was able to develop along the Nile.
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1.2 The beginning of its political evolution
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In the delta area the kingdom of Lower Egypt was created, whose king wore a round red crown, while in the south the kingdom of Upper Egypt was created, whose king wore an elongated white crown.
Around the year 3100 before the common era, King Menes united the two kingdoms. His crown was a mixture of the previous two.
Next, we see in the time line the periods that we are going to study.
Egypt Timeline
Late Period
Ptolemaic Kingdom
1.3 Political evolution.
In the history of Egypt there were four great kingdoms, and among them the so-called 'intermediate periods' which were times of decline or foreign rule.
1. The Old Kingdom (3100-2181 BC). The capital was established at Memphis. It is the time of the great pyramids of Giza: Cheops, Khafre and Menkaure.
2. The Middle Kingdom (2055-1795 BC). The capital was moved to Thebes for political reasons. The Empire spread south with the conquest of Nubia.
3. New Kingdom (1550-1069 BC). Syria and Palestine are conquered. It is the time of pharaohs of great impact, such as Akhenaten, Tutankhamun or Ramses II. Later, during the Third Intermediate Period and the Late Period, the great decline of Egypt takes place, being invaded by many foreign peoples.
4. Ptolemaic Period (323-30 BC). Macedonian King Alexander the Great conquered Egypt, had himself crowned pharaoh, and founded the city of Alexandria. After his death, one of his generals, Ptolemy, stayed with Egypt and founded the last dynasty of pharaohs. The last pharaoh was the famous Cleopatra VII, who was defeated by the Romans and Egypt became part of the Roman Empire.
2. Political and social organization
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The pharaoh: The king of Egypt received the name of pharaoh. Those who had a lot of power were considered gods. Specifically, they were considered the incarnation of Horus, the god of the sky.
The Egyptians asked their pharaoh that the floods of the Nile would be conducive to agriculture, since they depended on them to live.
The pharaohs were political, military and religious leaders, although in times of crisis they had conflicts with the clergy, who accumulated a lot of power.
The pharaohs dressed with a series of accessories to highlight their power.
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The nobles: Just like in many other societies, there was a group of rich and powerful people that was in charge of the state administration. Egypt was divided in provinces, and the governor of each one of these was called nomarch, so many nobles were nomarchs.
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The priests: They were in charge of the religious rituals and the maintenance of the temples. Over time they acquired so much power that they rivaled the pharaoh, as in the case of Akhenaten, who wanted to impose monotheistic worship on the Aten, since the priests of Ra were too powerful. This led to a strong confrontation between the pharaoh's supporters and those of the priests.
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The Army: Although Egypt was a peaceful society, there were turbulent times when the army was an important institution, such as in the time of Ramses II or when the Assyrians invaded Egypt.
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The scribes: they were very important people because they were one of the few who knew how to perfectly interpret hieroglyphics and mathematics. They transcribed the orders of the pharaohs and the collection of taxes, which is why they were essential in society.
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In the lower strata of society, were the merchants, artisans, peasants, and, finally, the slaves.
3. Economy
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The economy was based on agriculture. The Egyptians took advantage of the floods of the Nile, since when the water withdrew, a type of land called silt remained, which is very fertile.
They used constructions called nilometers to measure the flow of the river. If the level was low, the harvest was not going to be very good and knowing this in advance allowed them to prepare.
The most common crops were wheat (Egypt was called the 'granary of Rome' in Roman times due to the amount of wheat it exported to Rome), barley, vineyards, flax, papyrus (which was used to write ) or legumes.
The tools they used are like those of the Neolithic, but perfected: the plow, the hoe, the sickle or the shaduf.
On the other hand, they raised cattle.
4. Egyptian Religion
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4.1)Egyptian polytheism.
The ancient Egyptians were polytheistic and had a very complex religion. The most important gods were Amun-Ra, Horus, Anubis, Hathor, Isis and Osiris.
Each god had a temple, where he received offerings and rituals were held in his honor. The priests had a lot of power, because they supposedly talked to the gods and interpreted their messages.
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4.2) The judgment of Osiris.
The Egyptians believed in life after death. When someone died, they appeared before the gods. Then, Anubis placed the heart of the deceased in the plant of a scale, and in the other plate he placed a feather. If the person had been fair, his heart would weigh less than the feather.
While the heart was weighed, the deceased had to deny having committed 42 sins before 42 gods. If the deceased lied in this confession, the heart increased in weight. If, in the end, it outweighed the feather, Ammit, a goddess with a body half hippopotamus, half lion, half crocodile, devoured the heart and died forever.
All these funeral rituals and many more were collected in the Book of the Dead.
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5. Cultural and artistic legacy
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5.1 Hieroglyphic writing.
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Hieroglyphic writing appeared around 3250 BC. It was used on temple and tomb walls and on papyrus paper. It was deciphered in 1822, thanks to the discovery of the Rosetta Stone, which contains the same text in Greek, hieroglyphic and demotic writing. Since these other two languages ​​were already known, this ancient Egyptian script could finally be deciphered. The Rosetta Stone belongs to the Ptolemaic Period (196 BC).
With the conquest of Egypt by Alexander the Great in the 4th century BC, the Greek language finally prevailed.
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5.2 Architecture:
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Ancient Egyptians wanted their art to be preserved for all eternity.
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Tombs: they evolved according to the historical period.
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Old Kingdom: Large mastabas and pyramids were built, filled with chambers and galleries, including the burial chamber. The most famous pyramids are those of Giza, near Cairo, and correspond to the pharaohs Cheops, Khafre and Menkaure.
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During the New Kingdom, the pharaohs preferred to bury themselves in hypogea, places excavated in the rock, like those present in the Valley of the Kings and the Valley of the Queens.
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Temples: they were dedicated to the gods and some of them were preceded by an avenue of sphinxes. They had a monumental entrance, a large courtyard and, finally, a hypostyle room (full of columns) where rituals were held. The most important temples are those of Karnak, Luxor and Abu Simbel.
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5.3) Sculpture:
Egyptian sculpture can be divided into reliefs and statues. Their main characteristics are the frontalism and the hieratic attitude.
Relief: is a sculptural method in which the sculpted pieces are bonded to a solid background of the same material. They occur on interior walls of temples and pyramids.
Statues: they could be colossal, portraying gods or pharaohs, or smaller, representing nobles or scribes. Many of these sculptures were polychromed.
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5.4) Painting:
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Egyptian painting was located inside temples or pyramids. They had no perspective and, in general, although not always, the figures were represented in profile.
In addition, they used the hierarchical perspective: the most important characters were represented in a larger size.
Hieroglypic writings in the tomb of Pharaoh Seti I, 2nd millennium BC
The Rosetta Stone at the British Museum
TEST
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