Ie PRIMARY SOURCE:
The Hymn to the Nile
Discover the degree to which the Nile River is viewed as godlike, as well as the perceived power it has over the survival of the people of Egypt.
River and Desert
No place exhibits the impact of the natural environment on the history and culture of a society better than ancient Egypt. Located at the intersection of Asia and Africa, Egypt was protected by surrounding barriers of desert and a harborless, marshy seacoast. Whereas Mesopotamia was open to migration or invasion and was dependent on imported resources, Egypt's natural isolation and material self-sufficiency fostered a unique culture that for long periods had relatively little to do with other civilizations.
The Land of Egypt: “Gift of the Nile”
The fifth-century B. c.E. Greek traveler Herodotus (he-ROD-uh-tuhs) justifiably called Egypt the “gift of the Nile.” The world's longest river, the Nile flows northward from Lake Victoria and several large tributaries in the highlands of tropical Africa, carving a narrow valley between a chain of hills on either side, until it reaches the Mediterranean Sea (see Map 2.3). Though bordered mostly by desert, the banks of the river support lush vegetation. About 100 miles (160 kilometers) from the Mediterranean, the Nile divides into channels to form a triangular delta. Most of the population, then as now, lived on the twisting, green ribbon of land alongside the river or in the Nile Delta. The rest of the country, 90 percent or more, is a bleak and inhospitable desert
© Cengage Learning
Ancient Egypt The Nile River, flowing south to north, carved out of the surrounding desert a narrow green valley that became heavily settled in antiquity.
Of mountains, rocks, and dunes. The ancient Egyptians distinguished between the low-lying, life-sustaining dark soil of the “Black Land” along the river and the elevated, deadly “Red Land” of the desert.
The river was the main means of travel and communication, with the most important cities located upstream away from the Mediterranean. Because the river flows from south to north, the Egyptians called the southern part of the country “Upper Egypt” and the northern delta “Lower Egypt.” In most periods the southern boundary of Egypt was the First Cataract of the Nile, the northernmost of a series of impassable rocks and rapids below Aswan (AS-wahn) (about 500 miles [800 kilometers] south of the Mediterranean). At times Egyptian control extended farther south into what they called “Kush” (later Nubia, today part of southern Egypt and northern Sudan). The Egyptians also settled a chain of large oases west of the river, green and habitable “islands” in the midst of the desert.
While the hot, sunny climate favored agriculture, rain rarely falls south of the delta, and agriculture was entirely dependent on river water. Each September the river overflowed its banks, spreading water into the bordering basins, and irrigation channels carried water farther out into the valley to increase the area suitable for planting. Unlike the Tigris and Euphrates, the Nile flooded at exactly the right time for grain agriculture. When the waters receded, they left behind a moist, fertile layer of mineral-rich silt, where farmers could easily plant their crops. Egyptian creation myths commonly featured the emergence of a life-supporting mound of earth from a primeval swamp.
The level of the flood's crest determined the abundance of the next harvest. “Nilometers,” stone staircases with incised units of measure placed along the river's edge, gauged the flood surge. When the flood was too high, dikes protecting inhabited areas were washed out, and much damage resulted. When the floods were too low for several years, less land could be cultivated, and the country experienced famine and decline. The ebb and flow of successful and failed regimes seems to have been linked to the cycle of floods. Nevertheless, remarkable stability characterized most eras, and Egyptians viewed the universe as an orderly and beneficent place.
Egypt was well endowed with natural resources and far more self-sufficient than Mesopotamia. Egyptians used papyrus reeds growing in marshy areas to make sails, ropes, and a kind of paper. Hunters pursued the abundant wild animals and birds in the marshes and on the edge of the desert, and fishermen netted fish from the river. Building stone was quarried and floated downstream from southern Egypt. Clay for mud bricks and pottery could be found almost everywhere. The state organized armed expeditions and forced labor to exploit copper and turquoise deposits in the Sinai desert to the east and gold from Nubia to the south.
The farming villages that appeared in Egypt as early as 5500 B. c.E. relied on domesticated plant and animal species that had originated several millennia earlier in western Asia. Egypt's emergence as a focal point of civilization stemmed, at least in part, from a gradual change in climate from the fifth to the third millennium b. c.e. Until then, the Sahara, the vast region that is now the world's largest desert, had a relatively mild and wet climate, and its lakes and grasslands supported a variety of plant and animal species as well as populations of hunter-gatherers
(see Chapter 8). As the Sahara became a desert, displaced groups migrated into the Nile Valley, where they developed a sedentary way of life.
Divine Kingship
Unification
Pharaoh The central figure in the ancient Egyptian state. Believed to be an earthly manifestation of the gods, he used his absolute power to maintain the safety and prosperity of Egypt.
Ma'at Egyptian term for the concept of divinely created and maintained order in the universe. The divine ruler was the earthly guarantor of this order.
Royal Tombs
Pyramid A large, triangular stone monument, used in Egypt and Nubia as a burial place for the king. The largest pyramids, erected during the Old Kingdom near Memphis, reflect the Egyptian belief that the proper and spectacular burial of the divine ruler would guarantee the continued prosperity of the land.
The increase in population led to more complex political organization, including a form of local kingship. Later generations of Egyptians saw the conquest of smaller units and the unification of all Egypt by Menes (MEH - neez), a ruler from the south, as a pivotal event. Kings of Egypt bore the title “Ruler of the Two Lands”—Upper and Lower Egypt—and wore two crowns symbolizing the unification of the country. In contrast to Mesopotamia, Egypt was unified early in its history.
Historians organize Egyptian history using the system of thirty dynasties (sequences of kings from the same family) identified by Manetho, an Egyptian from the third century B. c.E. The rise and fall of dynasties often reflect the dominance of different parts of the country. More generally, scholars refer to the “Old,” “Middle,” and “New Kingdoms,” each a period of centralized political power and brilliant cultural achievement, punctuated by “Intermediate Periods” of political fragmentation and cultural decline. Although experts debate the specific dates for these periods, the chronology on page 29 reflects current opinion.
The Egyptian state centered on the king, often known by the New Kingdom term pharaoh, from an Egyptian phrase meaning “palace.” From the time of the Old Kingdom, if not earlier, Egyptians considered the king to be a god sent to earth to maintain ma’at (muh-AHT), the divinely authorized order of the universe. He was the indispensable link between his people and the gods, and his benevolent rule ensured the welfare and prosperity of the country.
So much depended on the kings that their deaths called forth elaborate efforts to ensure the well-being of their spirits on their perilous journey to rejoin the gods. Massive resources were poured into the construction of royal tombs, the celebration of elaborate funerary rites, and the sustenance of the kings' spirits in the afterlife by perpetual offerings in funerary chapels attached to the royal tombs. Early rulers were buried in flat-topped, rectangular tombs made of mud brick. Around 2630 b. c.e. Djoser (JO-sur), a Third Dynasty king, constructed a stepped pyramid consisting of a series of stone platforms laid one on top of the other at Saqqara (suh-KAHR-uh) , near Memphis. Rulers in the Fourth Dynasty filled in the steps to create the smoothsided, limestone pyramids that have become the most memorable symbol of ancient Egypt. Between 2550 and 2490 B. c.E. the pharaohs Khufu (KOO-foo) and Khafre (KAF-ray) erected huge pyramids at Giza, several miles north of Saqqara.
Egyptians accomplished this construction with stone tools (bronze was still expensive and rare) and no machinery other than simple levers, pulleys, and rollers. What made it possible was almost unlimited human muscle power. Calculations of the human resources needed to build a pyramid within the lifetime of the ruler suggest that large numbers of people must have been pressed into service for part of each year, probably during the flood season when no agricul-
Model of Egyptian Riverboat, ca. 1985 b. c.e. This model was buried in the tomb of a Middle Kingdom official, Meketre, who is shown in the cabin being entertained by musicians. The captain stands in front of the cabin, the helmsman on the left steers the boat with the rudder, while the lookout on the right lets out a weighted line to determine the river’s depth. Lightweight ships equipped with sails and oars were well suited for travel on the peaceful Nile and sometimes were used for voyages on the Mediterranean and Red Seas.
Pyramids of Menkaure, Khafre, and Khufu at Giza, ca. 2500 b. c.e. With a width of 755 feet (230 meters) and a height of 480 feet (146 meters), the Great Pyramid of Khufu is the largest stone structure ever built. The construction of these massive edifices depended on relatively simple techniques of stonecutting, transport (the stones were floated downriver on boats and rolled to the site on sledges), and lifting (the stones were dragged up the face of the pyramid on mud-brick ramps). However, the surveying and engineering skills required to level the platform, lay out the measurements, and securely position the blocks were very sophisticated and have withstood the test of time.
Memphis The capital of Old Kingdom Egypt, near the head of the Nile Delta. Early rulers were interred in the nearby pyramids.
Thebes Capital city of Egypt and home of the ruling dynasties during the Middle and New Kingdoms. Mon-archs were buried across the river in the Valley of the Kings.
Hieroglyphics A system of writing in which pictorial symbols represented sounds, syllables, or concepts. It was used for official and monumental inscriptions in ancient Egypt. Because of the long period of study required to master this system, literacy in hieroglyphics was confined to a relatively small group of scribes and administrators.
Writing
Tural work could be done. Although this labor was compulsory, the Egyptian masses probably regarded it as a kind of religious service that helped ensure prosperity. The age of the great pyramids lasted only about a century, although pyramids continued to be built on a smaller scale for two millennia.
Administration and Communication
Ruling dynasties usually placed their capitals in the area of their original power base. Memphis, near the apex of the delta (close to Cairo, the modern capital), held this central position during the Old Kingdom. Thebes, far to the south, supplanted it during the Middle and New Kingdom periods (see Map 2.3).
The extensive administrative system began at the village level and progressed to the districts into which the country was divided and, finally, to the central government in the capital city. Bureaucrats kept track of land, products, and people, extracting as taxes a substantial portion of the country's annual revenues—at times as much as 50 percent. This income supported the palace, bureaucracy, and army, as well as the construction and maintenance of temples and great monuments celebrating the ruler's reign. The government maintained a monopoly over key sectors of the economy and controlled long-distance trade. This was different from Mesopotamia, where commerce increasingly fell into the hands of an acquisitive urban middle class.
The hallmark of the administrative class was literacy. A writing system had been developed by the beginning of the Early Dynastic period. Hieroglyphics (high-ruh-GLIF-iks), the earliest form of this system, were picture symbols standing for words, syllables, or individual sounds. Hieroglyphic writing long continued to be used on monuments and ornamental inscriptions. By 2500 B. c.E., however, a cursive script, in which the original pictorial nature of the symbol was less apparent, had been developed for the everyday needs of administrators and copyists. The Egyptians used writing for many purposes other than administrative recordkeeping. Their written literature included tales of adventure and magic, love poetry, religious hymns, and instruction manuals on technical subjects. Scribes in workshops attached to the temples made copies
Papyrus A reed that grows along the banks of the Nile River in Egypt. From it was produced a coarse, paperlike writing medium used by the Egyptians and many other peoples in the ancient Mediterranean and Middle East.
Tensions Between Rulers and Officials
Cities
Foreign Relations and Trade
Peasant Life
Of traditional texts. They worked with ink on a writing material made from the papyrus (puh-PIE-ruhs) reed. The plant grew only in Egypt but was in demand throughout the ancient world and was exported in large quantities.
When the monarchy was strong, officials were appointed and promoted on the basis of ability and accomplishment. The king gave them grants of land cultivated by dependent peasants. Low-level officials were assigned to villages and district capitals; high-ranking officials served in the royal capital. When Old Kingdom officials died, they were buried in tombs around the monumental tomb of the king so that they could serve him in death as they had in life.
Throughout Egyptian history there was an underlying tension between the centralizing power of the monarchy and the decentralizing tendencies of the bureaucracy. One sign of the breakdown of royal power in the late Old Kingdom and First Intermediate Period was the placement of officials' tombs in their home districts, where they spent much of their time and exercised power more or less independently, rather than near the royal tomb. Another sign was the tendency of administrative posts to become hereditary. The early monarchs of the Middle Kingdom restored centralized control by reducing the power and prerogatives of the old elite and creating a new class of loyal administrators.
It has often been said that Egypt lacked real cities because the political capitals were primarily extensions of the palace and central administration. Compared to Mesopotamia, a far larger percentage of Egyptians lived in rural villages and engaged in agriculture, and Egypt's wealth derived to a higher degree from the land and its products. But there were towns and cities in ancient Egypt, although they were less crucial to the economic and cultural dynamism of the country than were Mesopotamian urban centers. Unfortunately, archaeologists have been unable to excavate many ancient urban sites in Egypt because they lie beneath modern communities.
During the Old and Middle Kingdoms, Egypt's foreign policy was essentially isolationist. Technically, all foreigners were considered enemies. When necessary, local militia units backed up a small standing army of professional soldiers. Nomadic groups in the eastern and western deserts and Libyans to the northwest were a nuisance rather than a real danger and were readily handled by the Egyptian military. Egypt's interests abroad focused on maintaining access to valuable resources rather than on acquiring territory. Trade with the coastal towns of the Levant (luh-VANT) (modern Israel, the Palestinian territories, Lebanon, and Syria) brought in cedar wood. In return, Egypt exported grain, papyrus, and gold.
In all periods the Egyptians had a particularly strong interest in goods from the south. Nubia had rich sources of gold (Chapter 3 examines the rise of a civilization in Nubia that, though considerably influenced by Egypt, created a vital and original culture that lasted for more than two thousand years), and the southern course of the Nile offered the easiest passage to sub-Saharan Africa. In the Old Kingdom, Egyptian noblemen led donkey caravans south to trade for gold, incense, and products of tropical Africa such as ivory, dark ebony wood, and exotic jungle animals. A line of forts along the southern border protected Egypt from attack. In the early second millennium B. c.E. Egyptian forces struck south into Nubia, extending the border to the Third Cataract of the Nile and taking possession of the gold fields. Still farther to the south, perhaps in the coastal region of present-day Sudan or Eritrea, lay the fabled land of Punt (poont), source of the fragrant myrrh resin burned on the altars of the Egyptian gods.
The People of Egypt
The million to million and a half inhabitants of Egypt included various physical types, ranging from dark-skinned people related to the populations of sub-Saharan Africa to lighter-skinned people akin to the populations of North Africa and western Asia. Although Egypt did not experience the large-scale migrations and invasions common in Mesopotamia, settlers periodically trickled into the Nile Valley and assimilated with the people already living there.
Although some Egyptians had higher status and more wealth and power than others, in contrast to Mesopotamia no formal class structure emerged. At the top of the social hierarchy were the king and high-ranking officials. In the middle were lower-level officials, local leaders, priests and other professionals, artisans, and well-to-do farmers. At the bottom were peasants, who made up the vast majority of the population.
Any account of the lives of ordinary Egyptians is largely conjectural; the villages of ancient Egypt, like those of Mesopotamia, left few traces in the archaeological or literary record. In tomb
Paintings of the elite, artists indicated status by pictorial conventions, such as obesity for their wealthy and comfortable patrons, baldness and deformity for the working classes. Egyptian poets frequently used metaphors of farming and hunting, and papyrus documents preserved in the hot, dry sands tell of property transactions and legal disputes among ordinary people.
Peasants living in rural villages engaged in the seasonally changing tasks of agriculture: plowing, sowing, tending emerging shoots, reaping, threshing, and storing grain or other products of the soil. They maintained and extended the irrigation network of channels, basins, and dikes. Meat from domesticated animals—cattle, sheep, goats, and poultry—and fish supplemented a diet based on wheat or barley, beer, and vegetables. Villagers shared implements, work animals, and storage facilities and helped one another at peak times in the agricultural cycle and in the construction of houses and other buildings. They prayed and feasted together at festivals to the local gods. Periodically they had to contribute labor to state projects. If taxation or compulsory service was too great a burden, flight into the desert was the only escape.
Women’s Lives Some information is available about the lives of women of the upper classes, but it is filtered
Through the brushes and pens of male artists and scribes. Tomb paintings show women of the royal family and elite classes accompanying their husbands and engaging in typical domestic activities. They are depicted with dignity and affection, though they are clearly subordinate to the men. The artistic convention of depicting men with a dark red and women with a yellow flesh tone implies that the elite woman's proper sphere was indoors, away from the searing sun. In the beautiful love poetry of the New Kingdom, lovers address each other in terms of apparent equality and express emotions of romantic love.
Legal documents show that Egyptian women could own property, inherit property from their parents, and will their property to whomever they wished. Marriage, usually monogamous, was not confirmed by any legal or religious ceremony and essentially constituted a decision by a man and woman to establish a household together. Either party could dissolve the relationship, and the divorced woman retained rights over her dowry. At certain times queens and queen-mothers played significant behind-the-scenes roles in the politics of the court, and priestesses sometimes supervised the cults of female deities. In general, the limited evidence suggests that women in ancient Egypt were treated more respectfully and had more legal rights and social freedom than women in Mesopotamia and other ancient societies.
Belief and Knowledge
Gods
Egyptian religion was rooted in the landscape of the Nile Valley and the vision of cosmic order that it evoked. The consistency of their environment—the sun rose every day in a clear and cloudless sky, and the river flooded on schedule every year, ensuring a bounteous harvest—persuaded the Egyptians that the natural world was a place of recurrent cycles and periodic renewal. The sky was imagined to be a great ocean surrounding the inhabited world. The sun-god Re (ray) traversed this blue waterway in a boat by day, then returned through the Underworld at night, fighting off the attacks of demonic serpents so that he could be born anew in the morning. In one especially popular story Osiris (oh-SIGH-ris), a god who once ruled Egypt, was slain by his jealous brother Seth, who then scattered the dismembered pieces. Isis, Osiris's devoted sister and wife, found and reconstructed the remnants, and Horus, his son, took revenge on Seth. Osiris was restored to life and installed as king of the Underworld, and his example gave people hope of a new life in a world beyond this one.
The king, who was seen as Horus and as the son of Re, was thus associated with both the return of the dead to life and the life-giving and self-renewing sun-god. He was the chief priest of Egypt, intervening with the gods on behalf of his land and people. Egyptian rulers zealously built new temples, refurbished old ones, and made lavish gifts to the gods. Much of the country's wealth was directed to religious activities in a ceaseless effort to win the gods' favor, maintain the continuity of divine kingship, and ensure the renewal of the life-giving forces that sustained the world.
The many gods of ancient Egypt were diverse in origin and nature. Some were normally depicted with animal heads; others were always given human form. Few myths about the origins and adventures of the gods have survived, but there must have been a rich oral tradition. Many towns had temples for locally prominent deities. When a town became the capital of a ruling dynasty, the chief god of that town became prominent across the land. Thus did Ptah (puh-TAH) of Memphis, Re of Heliopolis (he-lee-OP-uh-lis), and Amon (AH-muhn) of Thebes
Public and Private Cult
Burial and Afterlife
Ie PRIMARY SOURCE: The Egyptian Book of the Dead's Declaration of Innocence Read the number of potential sins that would likely tarnish a journeying spirit and prevent entrance into the realm of the blessed.
Scene from the Egyptian Book of the Dead, ca. 1300 b. c.e. The mummy of a royal scribe named Hunefar is approached by members of his household before being placed in the tomb. Behind Hunefar is jackal-headed Anubis, the god who will conduct the spirit of the deceased to the afterlife. The Book of the Dead provided Egyptians with the instructions they needed to complete this arduous journey and gain a blessed existence in the afterlife.
Become gods of all Egypt, serving to unify the country and strengthen the monarchy. As in Mesopotamia, some temples possessed extensive landholdings worked by dependent peasants, and the priests who administered the deity's wealth were influential locally and sometimes even throughout the land.
Cult activities were carried out in the inner reaches of the temples, off limits to all but the priests who served the needs of the deity by attending to his or her statue. During great festivals, the priests paraded a boat-shaped litter carrying the shrouded statue and cult items of the deity around the town. This brought large numbers of people into contact with the deity in an outpouring of devotion and celebration. Little is known about the day-to-day beliefs and practices of the common people. In the household family members made small offerings to Bes, the grotesque god of marriage and domestic happiness, to local deities, and to the family's ancestors. They relied on amulets and depictions of demonic figures to protect the bearer and ward off evil forces. In later times Greeks and Romans commented that the devotion to magic was especially strong in Egypt.
Egyptians believed in the afterlife and made extensive preparations for safe passage to the next world and a comfortable existence once they arrived there. A common belief was that death was a journey beset with hazards. The Egyptian Book of the Dead, present in many excavated tombs, contained rituals and spells to protect the journeying spirit. The final challenge was the weighing of the deceased's heart in the presence of the judges of the Underworld to determine whether the person had led a good life and deserved to reach the ultimate blessed destination.
Obsession with the afterlife led to great concern about the physical condition of the cadaver. Egyptians perfected techniques of mummification to preserve the dead body. The idea probably grew out of the early practice of burying the dead in the hot, dry sand on the edge of the desert, where bodies decomposed slowly. The elite classes utilized the most expensive kind of mummification. Vital organs were removed, preserved, and stored in stone jars laid out around the corpse. Body cavities were filled with various packing materials. The cadaver, immersed for long periods in dehydrating and preserving chemicals, eventually was wrapped in linen. The mummy was then placed in one or more decorated wooden caskets and deposited in a tomb.
Mummy A body preserved by chemical processes or special natural circumstances, often in the belief that the deceased will need it again in the afterlife.
The form of the tomb reflected the wealth and status of the deceased. Common people made do with simple pit graves or small mud-brick chambers. The privileged classes built larger tombs. Kings erected pyramids and other grand edifices, employing subterfuge to hide the sealed chamber containing the body and treasures, as well as curses and other magical precautions to foil tomb robbers. Rarely did they succeed, however, and archaeologists have seldom discovered an undisturbed royal tomb. The tombs, usually built at the edge of the desert so as not to tie up valuable farmland, were filled with pictures, food, and the objects of everyday life to provide whatever the deceased might need in the next life. Small figurines called shawabtis (shuh-WAB-tees) were included to play the part of servants and take the place of the deceased in case the afterlife required periodic compulsory labor. The elite classes attached chapels to their tombs and left endowments to subsidize the daily attendance of a priest and offerings of foodstuffs to sustain their spirits for all eternity.
Science and Technology
The ancient Egyptians made remarkable advances in many areas of knowledge. The process of mummification taught them about human anatomy, and Egyptian doctors were in demand in the courts of western Asia. They developed mathematics to measure the dimensions of fields and to calculate the quantity of agricultural produce owed to the state. Through careful observation of the stars they constructed the most accurate calendar in the world, and they knew that the appearance of the star Sirius on the horizon shortly before sunrise meant that the Nile flood surge was imminent. Pyramids, temple complexes, and other monumental building projects called for great skill in engineering. Long underground passageways were excavated to connect mortuary temples by the river with tombs near the desert's edge. On several occasions Egyptian kings dredged out a canal more than 50 miles (80 kilometers) long in order to join the Nile Valley to the Red Sea and expedite the transport of goods.
SECTION REVIEW
• Most of the population of ancient Egypt lived alongside the river or in the delta.
• Egypt was well endowed with natural resources and largely self-sufficient.
• Because the king was the essential link between the people of Egypt and their gods, lavish resources were poured into the construction of pyramids and other royal tombs.
• Hieroglyphic and other systems of writing were used by administrators, but also for many genres of literature.
• The population of Egypt was physically diverse, and there was no formal system of classes.
• The status and privileges of Egyptian women were superior to those of their Mesopotamian counterparts, and poetry reveals an ideal of romantic love.
• Obsessed with the afterlife, Egyptians used mummification to preserve dead bodies, constructed elaborate tombs, and employed the Book of the Dead to navigate the hazardous journey to a blessed final destination.
• Egyptians acquired substantial knowledge about medicine, mathematics, astronomy, and engineering.
World History
