Lecture 2. Egyptians

 

Last week, I talked about the transition from Palaeolithic hunter-gatherers to the first literate civilization – the Sumerians

I ended with some of the legacies of Sumeria :

Sumerian mathematics - i.e. using the number 60 to divide time  (hours, minutes); 24 hours

 

The people of Mesopotamia were not, however, the only complex civilization in the 4th and 3rd millenia BC.

They had to share the Near East with a very different - but equally impressive - group - the Egyptians.

TODAY -  first I'm going to talk about the Egyptians

 

I. ANCIENT EGYPT  (3100 BC  - 525 BC)

When I say "ancient Egyptians" what do you think about?

(the pyramids, pharaoh - King Tut; mummies; Moses)

 

A. African origins of the Egyptians:

            same language group as much of northern half of Africa: http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Academy/8919/theory2.htm

            continual interchange with Nubia (Sudan; Ethiopia) - Nubians traded with, fought for Egyptians; Nubian pharoahs ruled Egypt in the 1st millenium BC)

 

Egypt (unlike rest of Africa) had blessing of the Nile River . MAP

Without the Nile, Egypt would be a desert, and indeed it is surrounded by deserts.

The Nile, which is watered by heavy rains in Ethiopia, floods its banks every year, depositing rich wet mud in the area around it, making the banks of the Nile the best farmland in the ancient world (and nothing to sneer at even today)

Egypt's peculiar geography affected its political development in two main ways:

1. Easy internal communications: easy for merchants and tax-collectors to sail up and down the Nile / political unification came early

2. Hard for foreigners to reach by Egypt by land: because it was surrounded by deserts, Egyptians were not as vulnerable to invaders as the Mesopotamians.

And these two factors - easy internal communications, and isolation from foreign invaders - made Egypt easy to rule.

 

Political unification and invention of writings: 3100 BCE

Union of Upper and Lower Egypt: Narmer, warrior from south, 3100-3000 BC

Because of its geography, Egypt was much more politically unified than Mesopotamia..

At a time when warlords in Sumeria ruled only a handful of cities at a time - an Egyptian king united all of Egypt.

This was king Narmer- a king of Upper (i.e. southern) Egypt, who conquered the north around 3100 BC.

He created a kingdom over 600 miles long.

His successors would eventually be called pharaohs - and hold both religious and political authority in their hands.

 

Invention of hieroglyphs

Ca. 3100 BC is also the time when the first hieroglyphic writing appears;

appears without the preliminary stages we see in Mesopotamia (seals), so idea of writing (though not the script) probably came from Mesopotamia.

Hieroglyphs - like cuneiform - usually  represented whole words or syllables,  only rarely individual sounds, and require specially trained scribes (so no general literacy in ancient Egypt)

The Egyptians wrote on papyrus - a reed which grows wild along the Nile, and can be pasted together in rolls of what looks a lot like paper (our own word "paper" comes from "papyrus").

Writing (as in Mesopotamia) aided the development of governmental authority.

 

Divine monarchy:  pharaohs with both religious and political authority

After the unification of Egypt and invention of hieroglyphs, Egypt was ruled by dynasties of pharaohs, who controlled both religious life and politics.

These pharaohs were worshipped as living representative of main gods (at first Re, son god) on earth

Not - at least for first 1500 years - interested in military conquest.

 

Pyramids

In the third millenium - under the Old Kingdom- these pharaohs began to build incredibly huge tombs for themselves - the pyramids.

First known pyramid: Pyramid of pharaoh Zoser (2770 BC)

It was built of local limestone and raised to a height of 60 meters (195 feet).

Built in several stages, it was begun as a mastaba tomb and was modified six times.

Pyramid itself intended for burial of pharaoh and associates

Outside pyramid itself are complexes for festivals; etc.

The Great Pyramid of Giza reportedly took 100,000 workmen to build, and 5-6 million tons of stone, brought from as far as 500 miles away; without use of wheel (not adopted until 1700 BC)

Most of these workmen were not foreign slaves - but ordinary free Egyptians - who owed manual labor to the pharaoh as part of their taxes.

 

Significance of pyramids:

- power of pharaoh

The pyramids show the power the pharaohs had to mobilize labor - both that of skilled engineers, and the men who had to transport millions of tons of stone.

- Egyptian focus on  the afterlife

The pyramids also show the Egyptian obsession with the afterlife.

Unlike the Mesopotamians, who were more interested in what the gods could do for them in this world, Egyptians were concerned with what would happen to them in the next world.

In 3rd millenium, way to achieve afterlife for ordinary Egyptians appears to have by serving pharaoh:

pharaohs viewed as gods

 

Later on, belief in personal afterlife / personal relationship with the gods appears

Most of the art, architecture, and even texts which survive from ancient Egypt relate to death - the pyramids, the mummies, the Egyptian Book of the Dead

Egyptians thought they would face a final judgment before their god Osiris - and so needed to behave justly in this life - not to oppress the poor, steal or murder, or offend the gods.

We see here a concern with sin - a religious morality which comes closer to Judaeo-Christian morality than Sumerian religion; belief in personal afterlife

 

Uniqueness of the Egyptians

The other peoples of the ancient world thought the Egyptians very odd - wonderful and rich - but still odd and not transplantable.

The pyramids were counted among the wonders of the ancient world - but no one except the Egyptians understood what they were for.

Egyptians had few cities - this was a civilization of villages; every other ancient civilization we will talk about was city-based

Egyptian family life was also peculiar

- brothers and sisters married - at first just the royal family, but eventually ordinary people as well. The Mesopotamians, Hebrews and eventually Greeks viewed this as incest.

- Egyptians practised female circumcision (some still do) - this removes the clitoris of girls, to control female sexuality. Other ancient peoples found other ways to keep their girls chaste.

- But in case you are thinking that the Egyptians must have been horrible to women - foreigners, esp. Greeks, thought that Egyptians treated women too well - the Egyptian men doing what was considered "woman's work" (child-care)

Some of these aspects of Egyptian civilization were particularly "African": will be shared esp. by peoples of Sudan (Kush) - female circumcision; divine monarchy; not so much perhaps that Egypt was unique, as that it is the only ancient African civilization we know much about

 

 

LEGACIES OF THE EGYPTIANS TO WESTERN CIVILIZATION

So why are the Egyptian important in the history of western civilization?

Some Egyptian ideas and practices did make their way out of Egypt.

Papyrus - The material on which Egyptians wrote - papyrus - became the dominant medium for the first books of the ancient world, not the clay tablets used by the Sumerians.

Egyptian medicine, quite advanced for its time in use of drugs and surgery, influenced the Greeks, and via them, European medicine.

 

Decimal system;

Solar year: solar year of 365 1/4 days; method of making months into 30 days, instead of following lunar calendar of the Sumerians (and Greeks); Romans would later adopt

Architecture

The Egyptians used columns with their temples - the Greeks will model their own temples on them.

These are aspects of Egyptian civilization which will influence the Greeks.

 

Religious ideas

Egyptian morality and gods will make their way into the Roman and Christian religions -'

- Belief in Final judgment after death, and hope of eternal life

- the icon of the Virgin Mary with baby Jesus owes much to the Egyptian goddess Isis with her baby son (Horus).

-Christian monasticism - with its denial of this world for the world to come - was invented in Egypt

So despite its uniqueness, this great African civilization is an important part of western civilization.