Egyptians/History

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Egypt is among one of the oldest civilization in the world beginning as nomads in the Nile river valley around 6000 BCR Egyptian civilisation has its roots in cultures that flourished in the Nile Valley from the late 4th millennium BCE. Eventually forming the Kingdoms of Upper and Lower Egypt, which finally unified in 3400BCE. The Nile River was the wellspring of the Egyptian civilization and their Pharaoh was their god king on earth charged with the responsibility and had the divine power to ensure this life-giving river provided for its people. When this failed, it usually also signaled a change in the rulers for this ancient land. Indeed throughout its history, Egypt was ruled by thirty-two different dynasties, and sometimes by foreign rule. In fact, from 342BCE the Egyptian were not to rule their own lands, until modern times, the story of who ran Egypt is the history of the greatest world powers ever.

So profoundly influential was it that Ancient Egyptian culture and religion continued to flourish in Egypt even under the rule of the Assyrians, Persians, Greeks and Romans, ending only with the Christianisation of Egypt itself in the 6th century CE, when a decree by the Byzantine emperor Justinian in the 6th century CE forced the closure of the pagan Egyptian temple on Philae. The ancient Egyptians were best known for their awe-inspiring architecture and monuments: among their rulers, Ramses II (r 1279–1213BCE) or Ramses the Great as he was known, was their most prodigious builder, who built the awe-inspiring Abu Simbel complex near what is today Abu Simbel in southern Egypt near the border with Sudan. Architecture aside, ancient Egyptian civilization was also very advanced in art, science and literature, and so left an indelible mark on the development of culture, statecraft, literature, law, religious beliefs, science and technology, particularly in Greece, which first absorbed much Egyptian learning through Late Period contacts, then developed its own contributions to the sum of human art and science by building upon it all — as exemplified by the Ptolemaic era Library of Alexandria. Still, the most visible symbols of ancient Egyptian culture today remain the (prospective) treasure hoards buried in tribute to the dead, and none represented this more than that buried with the so-called Boy King, Tutankhamun, whose gold-laden tomb when Howard Carter found it in 1922CE has enthralled the world with its mystery and splendour ever since. Nevertheless, pharaonic culture, statecraft, literature, law, religious belief, scientific and technological advantages left a profound legacy upon the world, moulding Western civilisation to this very day.

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(shit from C'pedia on Egypt)[edit | edit source]

The Three Kingdoms[edit | edit source]

Ancient Egypt was always ruled by a "pharaoh" or king, who was considered to be a god and absolute owner and dictator of the country. He was worshiped by the people. Ancient Egypt is divided into three periods: the Old Kingdom (3100-2200 B.C.), the Middle Kingdom (2100-1650 B.C.) and the New Kingdom (1550-700 B.C.). The peak in power of ancient Egypt was 1567-1085 B.C.

The Old Kingdom is known for its security and prosperity, free from foreign invaders. A unique Egyptian kingship developed during this period, and they built the great pyramids, including the Great Pyramid of Giza (one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World) under the reign of Pharaoh Khufu or Cheops (pronounced KEE-aps). The pyramids protected and preserved pharaohs for what they expected in the after-life, and were tremendous engineering feats that cannot be duplicated even today.

The Middle Kingdom was a period during which Egyptian religion extended beyond the kings to the nobles and ordinary citizens. Pharaohs began to share power with local distinguished persons. The pharaohs were strong during this period and promoted trade by digging the Great Canal, which connected the Nile River to the Red Sea. The Middle Kingdom is best known for its cultural achievements, such as literature and artwork. During this period the Egyptians were also successful in draining parts of the Nile delta in Lower (northern) Egypt. Trade expanded, but civil war plagued the Middle Kingdom just as it was a problem in the Old Kingdom.

The New Kingdom followed a period of foreign rule for a century by the Hyksos (HIK-sohs) (from 1650 to 1580 B.C.), who were Semitic peoples invading Egypt from across the Sinai Peninsula. The Hyksos adopted much of Egyptian culture, including calling themselves pharaohs. The Hyksos introduced the horse and chariot into Egypt. Afterward, the Egyptians extended their empire along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean into Mesopotamia, primarily under the rule of the great warrior Thutmose III. A dynasty from Upper Egypt began this period of the New Kingdom, and it extended throughout Syria, Palestine and, to the south, Nubia. Also, the pharaohs constructed large buildings and massive cities.

After the New Kingdom ended in 700 B.C., Egypt went into a decline and was subsequently conquered by the Persians in 525 B.C.


Egyptian Achievements

Egyptians invented mummification, which began in the 4th Dynasty. It took the Egyptians a long time to develop this art, but they ultimately succeeded to perfection. Without going into all the gory details, it consists of removing the internal organs from a body after death, treating the body with resin, and then wrapping it tightly in linen bandages. You should consider becoming a doctor if you have an interest in this!

Religion: The ancient Egyptians worshiped many gods, often inspired by animals or aspects of nature such as the sun. Only nobles could aspire to an afterlife, and only the king himself could become unified with Osiris, a legendary king who represented the forces of agriculture. A pharaoh was considered to be a sun god, and eventually monotheism (one all-powerful god) became popular in Egypt, with the sun god Aton commanding all Egyptians' attention. That religious view subsequently lost out to the more powerful religions of Christianity and Islam. Today Egypt is 90% Sunnite Muslim, and the remainder mostly Christian (Copts).

The Christian Copts trace their ancestors directly to the ancient Egyptians. Unlike the Muslims in Egypt, who consider themselves Arabs, the Christian Copts do not consider themselves to be Arabs and the Christian Copts still use ancient Egyptian surnames. They cite the sojourn by Jesus' family in Egypt to escape Herod, and the proselytizing in Egypt by Saint Mark the Evangelist, who wrote the Gospel and was martyred at Alexandria, Egypt. He is considered the first leader of the Coptic Orthodox Church, followed by an unbroken line of 117 successors to the present Pope Shenouda III.

Language: The Egyptians developed a written language consisting of hieroglyphics, which are pictographs. It originated around 3100 B.C. It was written on papyrus as a kind of paper; papyrus is a thin parchment constructed from reeds near the Nile river. No one could fully understand hieroglyphics until the discovery of the "Rosetta Stone" by Napoleon's troops in 1799 near the seaside town of Rosetta, located in northern Egypt. It sits in the British Museum today, and consists of a slab of black basalt inscribing a royal decree to the king Ptolemy V, dating from 196 B.C. The Stone contains the inscription of the same message in three different ancient languages: once in Greek, once in Demotic (a simple form of hieroglyphics used from 700 B.C. to A.D. 400), and once in hieroglyphic. This enabled the Frenchman Jean Francois Champollion to determine what the hieroglyphic characters mean, and build a dictionary that could be used to translate other works written in hieroglyphics.

Egypt's complex, picture-based language probably hindered its growth. The picture-based language was not as easy to use as the alphabet-based Phoenician language later adopted by the Greeks and Romans. How would one express Christian concepts like salvation, faith, hope and redemption in hieroglyphics? That would be very difficult to do.

Science: A magnificent city named "Alexandria" was created by Alexander the Great in Egypt in 334 B.C., and it became a cultural center for many centuries. Eventually it grew to be second only to Rome in size and wealth, but declined over a thousand years later after Islamic conquerors established Cairo as the capital of Egypt. Alexandria was best known for the Lighthouse of Alexandria, which was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Alexandria is also known for the Library of Alexandria, then the largest in the world.

In A.D. 100, while Alexandria was still a great city, Ptolemy (pronounced "tah-luh-mee") was born there and was named after the long line of Egyptian kings. He wrote magnificent works on astronomy, optics, geography, mechanics and geometry. He is best known for his complex theory that placed planet Earth at the center of universe, since all things appeared to fall towards Earth as the apparent center. The Ptolemaic system was the prevailing view until Copernicus proposed the sun as the center of the solar system over 1000 years later.

Culture: Egypt used slaves as most ancient cultures did. Women in Egypt were powerful, holding the right to own property, divorce their husbands, manage businesses and even become priestesses. It was possible for poor people to rise to the upper class through talent and hard work. Taxes were a burden. The government claimed ownership of one-fifth of all produce (Genesis 47:24). The society had some moral values, such as the royal advice that "more acceptable is the character of one upright of heart than the ox of the evildoer." Feeding the poor, taking care of the disadvantaged, and avoid bribes in administering justice were respected. For travel, Egyptians cruised the Nile River by using the currents downstream and the Etesian winds to propel sailboats upstream. For architecture, Egyptians used the pyramid and colonnaded temples like the one Karnak, preferring this style as later copied by the Greeks.

Trade and Inventions: Egypt was not as advanced as Mesopotamia in trade and inventions. Egypt's trade did improve during the New Kingdom and established some commerce with Sumer then. Egyptians invented our 365-day solar calendar, based on 12 months of about 30 days each. But we owe our "base 60" system for our clock (60 seconds in a minute and 60 minutes in an hour) to Mesopotamia. Egyptians lacked money, and relied on primitive barter (selling a good in exchange for a different good in return). The Egyptian Old Kingdom lacked the wheel; the pyramids were built without use of the wheel!

The Gift of the Gods: The Geography of the Nile and Egypt in Antiquity[edit | edit source]

Ancient Egypt was a culture focused around the Nile, the longest river in the world — and it was here the Predynastic confederacies and petty chieftains were finally united to begin the Dynastic period at the end of the 4th millennium BC. While in the distant past the lands of North Africa were mostly savannah east and west, by the earliest days of Egypt's historical existence, it was now predominantly a desert climate (especially during the First Intermediate Period and thereafter) with long, hot summers and short, relatively mild winters, insignificant rainfall, and a Mediterranean climate prevailing in the Delta and far north.

The Nile valley was an almost perfect environment for agriculture to thrive, with abundant water and fertile top soil, and its inundations defined the seasons. Flooding almost every year, the river would deposit extremely rich and continually refreshed soil, and the floods made Egypt one of the only places where soil salination did not occur. Swollen by rains in Ethiopia, the Nile never failed to rise each summer, though the level of rise varied greatly. As it rose, the water spread over the flood plain, depositing large amounts of mud, silt and organic matter, laying down a nutrient rich layer, replenishing the soil and soaking it. For three months the water remained before retreating, leaving enough moisture in the ground that no further irrigation would be necessary on the first harvest. It was this inundation that would be the foundation for Egypt's great wealth, built not on gold, but on grain.The principal crops were emmer wheat, barely and flax, backed up by market gardening (onions, garlic, lettuce, cabbages etc). However, a variety of luxury goods were also grown, and it is known that flax for texture, and grapes for wine were cultivated, alongside orchards, almonds and olives, dates, and apiculture for honey. Animal rearing, particularly cattle ranching, was also important.

Thus, unsurprisingly, the Nile Valley had a profound impact upon Egyptian culture and thinking. surrounded by natural boundaries of almost empty deserts to east and west, with the near-unnavigable First Cataract in the south and the Mediterranean Sea (called Watwr or Wadj-wer; "Great Green" in ancient Egyptian) in the north forming barriers to invaders, Egypt's geographic isolation fostered the early adoption of a nation-state identity. Despite this, Egypt was not an island, and traded with neighbours in Nubia, Libya and the Levant, as well as further afield. Even to this day, Egypt is self-sufficient with natural resources such as plentiful clay and stone and the ability to trade for timber with nearby Lebanon and copper from the Sinai peninsula.

Rise of Horus: The Old Kingdom and the First Intermediate Period[edit | edit source]

Egyptian history is split up into distinct periods, with the Old, Middle and New Kingdoms separated from each other and the Late Period by so-called “Intermediate Periods”, times of disunity and apparent unrest, or of foreign occupation. All dates before the Late Period are circa, and when dealing with purely Egyptian issues, it is common to work only within a framework of reigns and dynasties, rather than absolute dates.

The Old Kingdom covers Dynasties 3 to 6 (circa 2800 – 2186 BC). Although it has been argued by some that it should include Dynasties 1 – 3, and by others that it should only cover Dynasties 4 – 6, though 3 to 6 is the most widely accepted, beginning as it does with the revolutionary architecture of Djoser.

The Old Kingdom is in many ways the zenith of the Divine Kingship, and sees Pharaonic culture at its most confident and powerful, expressed in this periods most famous monuments, the Giza Pyramids.

During this period the Egyptian state developed an all encompassing and highly organised bureaucracy, organised into a strictly hierarchical and highly centralised structure dominated by the Pharaoh, who exercised an extremely high degree of control over resources.

The first was Menes (or Mena). In 3100 B.C. he was already king of southern Upper Egypt, and he united it with northern Lower Egypt (note that lower Egypt is closer to the sea-level of the Mediterranean, north of Upper Egypt, as shown on the map). We know his name because Egyptian men, not women, wore make-up and his name was found on palettes used to apply make-up.

Though Menes is called the first "pharaoh" (Egyptian ruler), actually that term was not used until the 18th Dynasty, 1539-1292 B.C. (Egypt was organized by "dynasties", where one family, including descendants, controlled the country.) The term "pharaoh" signifies the Egyptian custom claiming that its ruler was a god, similar to the sky god Horus and the sun gods Re, Amon and Aton. The pharaoh was considered to be the preserver of a god-given order, called ma'at. Even after death the pharaoh supposedly retained divine status and magical powers. This was a theocracy (rule by a god).

The Egyptian people were divided into separate levels or classes. The highest level consisted of the priests and nobles, below them were the peasants, and below the peasants were the slaves (which included the Hebrews until Moses led them out in the Exodus). Women were respected in their role of child-rearing and managing household finances, and there were two Egyptian queens: Queen Ahhotep and Queen Hatshepsut. Queen Ahhotep ruled in the Middle Kingdom and helped liberate Egypt from the Hyksos. Her mummy was discovered in A.D. 1859, and her tomb contained many military artifacts honoring her. Queen Hatshepsut served in the place of her young son who was heir to the throne, and she ruled for 15 years until her death in 1458 B.C. She is known for expanding trade. Women were also included in the gods (goddesses) that Egyptians worshiped. More generally, rights of dynasty were inherited through the mother's side, making Egypt a "matriarchal" society.


The Old Kingdom came to an end in circumstances that are far from clear, but seem to be linked to the extremely long rule of Pepi II, at 96 years, the longest reigning monarch in history.

Following this, Egypt lapsed into a period of national fragmentation, called the First Intermediate Period, lasting approximately 105 years.

Middle Kingdom[edit | edit source]

File:Edwin Smith Papyrus.jpg
The Edwin Smith papyrus, the world's oldest surviving surgical document.

The Middle Kingdom saw Egypt re-unified under the 11th Dynasty, a royal line from Thebes, following by the northern 12th Dynasty who maintained a royal capital at Lisht.

The Middle Kingdom sees the Egyptian nation engage for the first time in serious warfare. Under the great military Pharaohs Sensuret I and Senusret III, Egypt annexed Lower Nubia, fixing a realm of Egyptian domination that extended south of the Second Cataract for the first time in history, reinforced by a series of fortresses with an unprecedented degree of sophistication.

A similar chain of fortresses secured the Sinai peninsula and Eastern delta, known as the Horus Road and Walls of the Ruler. These secured the overland route to Asia, and defended the boarder. Despite this military strength, only a single expedition into Asia itself was carried out,

The grim work of re-unification and securing the borders left an indelible mark of the ideology of the period. Literature of the time often harks back to the chaos of the 1st Intermediate Period, and the ideal of importance of loyalty to, and adoration of, the ruler is also a strong theme.

Statuary of the time shows the great Pharaohs of the period with serious, stern expressions, showing a human side that planned and fought long and hard to reunify a fractured nation and to push on to new boundaries deep into hostile territory. This signaled a break with the past, and the future, for both the Old Kingdom and all successive periods (with the exception of Amarna) showing the Pharaoh in the traditional manner, in a state of divine serenity.

The Middle Kingdom met it’s end in the mid-13th Dynasty, as foreign influence permeated the heavily defended Sinai, eventually providing the momentum for an Asiatic dynasty to seize the Delta and Middle Egypt, and hold it for approximately 100 years.

New Kingdom[edit | edit source]

File:Abusimbel.jpg
Tempel of Abu Simbel

The New Kingdom is often called Egypt’s “Age of Empire”. Following the war of Reunification led by the 17th Dynasty, Ahmose I finally managed to liberate and reunify Egypt, founding the 18th Dynasty and the New Kingdom in approximately 1500BC.

The Pharaohs of the 18th Dynasty re-invented the Egyptian military forces, adopting the most advanced weapons of the day. Egyptian tactics were also revolutionized, becoming highly innovative. Many Egyptian campaigns of this period are regarded as military genius, with Thutmose III being regarded by most as the “Napoleon of Egypt”. These campaigns ultimately created a sprawling and varied Egyptian empire, stretching from Gebel Barkal to the Euphrates, and a zone of influence far beyond.

It was at the height of this time of greatness that Egypt was plunged into turmoil. The heretical ruler, Amunhotep IV, changed his name to Akhenaten and embraced a corrupted form of the Solar Cult as an absolutist monotheistic belief. Traditional temples were closed, and the capital city moved to a desert plain in Middle Egypt, where a new capital was established, named Akhetaten. Akhenaten died after 17 years on the throne, and both his cult and capital both died with him.

The Egyptian empire proved resilient to such trauma, and the traditional New Kingdom capital and cults were immediately restored, and the empire remained essentially unchallenged in Asia until the time of Ramesses III in the 20th Dynasty, and maintained it’s grip on Nubia until the fall of the New Kingdom at the close of the 20th Dynasty.

Late Period[edit | edit source]

It was with a sense of irony, that the impetus for re-unifying Egypt and rebuilding her former power would come from Nubia. The 25th Dynasty advanced out of their base at Napata, and secured all of Upper Egypt by a process of gradual conquest, winning recognition from local nonarchs and forming a confederacy. The Assyrians, with their vassals in the Delta, were alarmed, advanced south and sacked Thebes. However, the example had been made, and with the help of Greek mercenaries, Psamtik I of Sais freed himself from his Assyrian overlord, and reunified Egypt.

The 26th Dynasty harked back to the Old Kingdom for it’s inspiration, in art religion and ideals of Kingship, and the period is often referred to as the “Saite Renaissance” or “Archaic Renaissance”.

The Late Period saw increased contact with the Hellenic world, with many Greek mercenaries serving in the Egyptian military, and a Greek merchants settling in the purpose built trading center of Naukratis. This ultimately proved fatal, and in 525 BC, Persian forces, with a large number of Greek mercenaries conquered Egypt following the defection of a key Egyptian mercenary commander, Phanes of Hallicarnassus.

Egypt liberated herself from Perisan rule in 404BC, bringing to power the 29th and 30th Dynasties, the last sustained period of Egyptian native rule. The second Persian occupation was much more brief, lasting just over a decade from 343BC until the invasion of Alexander in 332BC.

Government[edit | edit source]

Throughout the Dynastic Period, Egypt was an absolute monarchy, ruled by a monarch regarded as divine. Egypt was a centralized state, with the monarch having the positions of head of state, head of government, head of the judiciary, commander in chief of the armed forces, and high priest of every temple. The monarch had several titles, the most well known being from the Greek derived “Pharaoh” (Egyptian: pr-aA, reconstructed as Per-‘a), though the more common Egyptian title was nsw-bity (Nesu-Bity), possibly translated as “King of Upper and Lower Egypt"). Day-to-day administration was overseen by a vizier (Egyptian: TAty, reconstructed as Tjaty), and in some periods of Egyptian history two viziers were appointed, one for Upper and one for Lower Egypt, reflecting a duality present in much of the administration.

The treasury, likewise, reflected the natural separation of the country, though a single treasurer oversaw both “The Overseer of the Double Granaries” being a common title for this role.

From at least the New Kingdom, Egypt maintained a full-time professional military force consisting of an army and naval fleet, as well as a separate police and patrol force, the mDAw (reconstructed as Medjay).

Labour for large-scale state works was provided by the public under a corvee requirement. See: Labour in Ancient Egypt.

Economy[edit | edit source]

The economy of Ancient Egypt has sometimes been described as a command economy. There is insufficient information available to determine to exactly what degree the state directed economic activity, but that it played a very large role in the economy is clear, and in keeping with the Egyptian doctrine that the land and its resources belonged to the Pharaoh. The view of many scholars is that this position was more literally true in the Old Kingdom, and over time, as the population expanded and economy became more complex, more delegation and autonomy became necessary, and towards the end of Late Period, land could be brought and sold by private individuals.

Mining[edit | edit source]

Mining and quarrying were important state industries, supplying the raw materials for tools and luxury goods. Egypt had abundant limestone, sandstone, granite, gold and copper reserves, along with precious and semi-precious gemstones. Quarrying was almost entirely a royal monopoly, but small-scale private extraction by monarchs occurred in sites nearest to the river. (see: Ancient Egyptian Mining).

Trade[edit | edit source]

For most of Egyptian history, the international trade was a royal monopoly, and was enforced through a system of border checkpoints. Merchants mostly operated by acting as agents for the state and essentially trading on their behalf, and goods in international trade were taxed. Major transactions and contracts were put in writing, and records survive. In the Ptolemaic period, a sales tax was also levied.

From the time of unification onwards Egypt traded with her immediate neighbors in Nubia and southern Palestine, and by the 2nd Dynasty royal trading expeditions traded regularly with Bybos, a key Egyptian partner in foreign affairs throughout much of the Pharaonic period. Trade with Punt, a land generally regarded as lying in the region of Eritrea was established by the 5th Dynasty, if not earlier.

Society[edit | edit source]

Egyptian society was bureaucratic, deeply conservative and hierarchical. The pyramid analogy is perhaps over used to describe Egyptian society, but nonetheless remains accurate, with the Pharaoh at the apex, above the vizier and other prominent courtiers, some with seemingly trivial titles but great influence, such as Fan Bearers, Sandal Bearers, Seal Bearers etc.

Beneath these were the Great Nobles, followed by Egypt’s large bureaucracy and officialdom. Beneath them stood the artisans and craftsmen. At the bottom of society proper, and accounting for circa. 80% of the population, the farmers. In addition to this, as in all societies, there also existed the “classless” people. Convicts, captives and the unfree, as well as the desert nomads and oasis dwellers who lives within Egypt’s area of influence, but never entirely integrated into Egyptian society.

The place of the military fluctuated, from a minor an important role in the Old Kingdom, which fielded no standing army, to a prominent role in the New Kingdom, where the 19th Dynasty bloodline is descended from military routes.

Legacy[edit | edit source]

It is generally held that Pharaonic civilization left behind no direct cultural decedents. The Egyptian language survived into Coptic, and much Egyptian iconographic conventions were adopted into the Christian religion, particularly the Coptic church. Some Egyptian loan words survive today in Egyptian Arabic, which is distinctly different to other dialects, and, particularly in Upper Egypt, a few folk customs also survived at least until the early 20th century. Besides this however, there is little continuity in traditions.

Indirectly, Pharaonic culture left huge contributions to the world. Egypt was the first true nation-state, laying the foundations upon which the modern world is built. The development of bureaucratic administration based on writing, education, merit based selection, are all found in Egyptian culture. Technologically, the use of finished stone for construction, the use of paper, the art of architectural design, site surveying etc. are first noted in Egypt, and possibly the disposable drill bit marks the first use of multi part disposable tools.

Academically, the science of medicine in Egypt was well understood, and the Greeks, often considered the fathers of western medicine, acknowledged the Egyptians as the finest physicians in the known world.

References[edit | edit source]

Further reading[edit | edit source]

  • David, R. Handbook to Life in Ancient Egypt (1998)
  • Dodson, A. & Hilton, D. Complete Royal Families of Ancient Egypt (2004)
  • Gardiner, A. Egyptian Grammar (3rd edition 1957)
  • Montet, P. Eternal Egypt (1964)
  • Mysliwiec, K. The First Millennium BCE: The Twilight of Ancient Egypt (2000)
  • Newby, P. H. Warrior Pharaohs : The Rise and Fall of the Egyptian Empire (1980)
  • Shaw, I et al. (2000), Oxford History of Ancient Egypt,
  • Thompson, Jason. A History of Egypt: From Earliest Times to the Present (2009) 432 pages
  • online books and articles