history

Question:

Please submit a summary of Discussion I and the topics of the Ancient World unit that is 4 pages, double-spaced, and which addresses the following points: 

(1) provides your analysis and evaluation of the topics regarding the Ancient World

(2) summarizes the discussion itself, noting your fellow students' opinions of the topics discussed and what positions they took

(3) summarizes whether the discussion changed and/or reinforced your initial opinions about the topics and why.

(4) evaluates how the topics we discussed in these discussions and regarding the Ancient World relates to our modern, contemporary society and culture.

My discussion:

 The Egyptian Society rests on the premise of one of the most interesting and fascinating historical narratives in the world.The society existed about 3100 BC years ago with a political system of power based on the anarchy lower and upper caste based systems.The historical political segmentation of Egypt can be divided into a range of periods; Old Kingdom, Early Bronze Age, the Middle Kingdom, the Middle Bronze Age, New Kingdom and lastly, the Late Bronze Age.The peak of political autonomy can be traced back to the New Kingdom period, after which the decline of society can be noticed.In the late Bronze Age, the invasion began to be formalized as different territories began to be attacked by external forces.

    In my opinion, the greatest success of Egyptian society can be devoted to its adaptability to the establishment of basic agricultural practices. Since the Egyptians formally relied on agriculture and irrigation practices, the biggest attribution is given to their asset, the Nile River. They built the most modern methods of controlling floods, saving flood water and conserve other sources of energy. Except growing a range of crops, it also includes irrigation operations, crop storage and balanced soil fertility. In addition to the informal sector, the Egyptians were fairly organized in determining the levels of hierarchies.These included the administrative routines, the control of population, and man-made social cultures. The entire political and executive branch has its own army, their own rules governing the empire, and their own writing system.On the other hand, the most surprising quality of the Egyptian culture was their religious system with an elaborate system and belief in ancient myths and Gods.

    In our modern 21st Century society, We deeply received the influence of the Egyptian society.We still rely on agriculture and irrigation practices. On this basis, rainwater irrigation has been developed. We still use the methods they control to control floods. To my surprise, the calendar of ancient Egypt is strikingly similar to China's "fourty-four solar terms". They are all solar calendars. Like the "Twenty-Four Seasons", the 12-month name in the ancient Egyptian calendar mostly reflects changes in natural phenomena such as seasons, climate, and phenology. According to different solar terms, certain dietary habits are formed, and certain foods are eaten in the corresponding solar terms. This reflects the fact that ancient Egyptian culture still exists deeply in the 21st century.

respond

I agree that the Egyptians utilized the Nile River very well, which I felt was a big part in why their society developed so well. I also agree with you that much of todays society is influence from the Egyptians, along with others as well. I feel that if the people in these older centuries didn't discover new developments, it would be more difficult for us today. 

respond

Yes, I agree with you that the greatest success of Egyptian society can be devoted to its adaptability to the establishment of basic agricultural practices. Since the Egyptians formally relied on agriculture and irrigation practices, the biggest attribution is given to their asset, the Nile River. 

This unchanging climate and regular flood supply kept peasants generally happy and well-fed. The first is that surplus food leads away from simple subsistence, and the second thing that surplus food allows is for social differentiation.

fellow student 1 discussion

Discussion 1- The Ancient World.

In short, they contribute to our modern 21st Century society “cultural memory”. the Nile floods on a regular and predictable pattern, nature for the Egyptian was a benevolent force, a partner in man's endeavors, this unchanging climate and regular flood supply kept peasants generally happy and well-fed. The distinct aspects of Egyptian society in the Old, Middle, and New Kingdoms: There were only 6 dynasties in the Old Kingdom, an era that spans just under 1000 years! The ancient kingdom perished in the severe drought. Middle Kingdoms– an approximately 400-year period, in 1650 B.C. the first foreign invasion in Egypt– that of the “Sea People”. New Kingdoms–An approximately 500-year period, an Egyptian rebellion starting in ca. 1580 B.C., defeating the Hyksos at Hermopolis.

There were no slaves in Old or Middle Kingdom Egypt; Women enjoy some freedom of marriage; the Egyptians developed a solar calendar that could be used to accurately predict the flood patterns of the Nile; They also had apartial interest in medicine, Egyptian doctors would specialize in the care of a single organ with very few acting as general practitioners; According to (Steve Wardinski, lecture 2, Ancient Egypt,) stated, “Egypt’s natural environment was regular and benevolent, so Egyptian Gods were considered kind and providing, almost father-like”; In Egypt, Pharaoh was considered to be the living Horus; So, I think that the Ancient Egypt was a civilized society. they contribute to our modern 21st Century society “cultural memory”.

fellow student 2 discussion

A distinct aspect of the Old Kingdom was that very little changed over the course of 1000 years. The social organization, farming, and government basically stayed the same the whole time. A distinct aspect of the Middle Kingdom was the introduction of Egyptian gods such as Osiris, Isis, and Set(h).  The Egyptians started to believe in these gods and in the afterlife from the Book of the Dead. A distinct aspect of the New Kingdom was that Egypt has become imperialistic after liberating itself from the Hyksos. The Egyptians started their conquest of conquering neighboring areas.

            I believe that the Egyptian society evolved the way it did because of progress. Looking back at the Old Kingdom, everything stayed the way it was for a very long time and nothing really came of it except the creation of the Pyramids. Eventually tragedy came in a form of a drought that caused the Egyptians to start believing in Gods with then started the Middle Kingdom. From there the Egyptians were conquered by the Hyksos, and when the Egyptians liberated itself it then started the New Kingdom where the Egyptians were out to conquer other lands. The Egyptians had to adapt to the changes in order to survive, if they did not, perhaps the Ancient Egyptians era wouldn’t have lasted as long as they did.

            A parallel that could be drawn between the Ancient Egyptian society and the modern 21st Century society is that they both have the same societal organization if the pyramids.  Both societies has one person on top in charge, directly below that are the wealthy, directly below follows members of the government,  and are the very bottom are the tax payers/peasants. You cannot have the pointed top without the vast base in which pretty much pays for everything on up.

Lecture 1: Introduction: What are “Western” and “Civilization”?

Welcome to the course! This is the study of Western Civilization from ca. 3500 B.C.E. to 1660 C.E. It covers about two dozen separate societies and somewhere around 5000 years of history and, not only does the course do all that, it also argues for the significance and relevance of this information to our contemporary, modern 21st Century American society. But before we can do all that – ambitious as those goals are – it is important first to contemplate and try to define exactly what we are studying. The title of this course is “Western Civilization I” – but how do we define what is “Western”? And what does “Civilization” actually mean? (I’m hoping the “I” part is fairly clear! ) It is important that we define these terms for the purposes of this class so we all have a clear idea what we are going to study about before we start trying to understand it, analyze various aspects of it, and evaluate its various significances both to those who lived the history and to us today who are influenced by it. For purposes of defining these terms, I am going to discuss them in “opposite” order from the title of the class – first “Civilization”, then “Western”.

 

A. Civilization

Most of you likely already have some concept of “civilization” and, for most of you, it’s probably fairly positive. After all, being considered “civilized” is generally considered to be positive and the opposites of being “civilized” – “uncivilized”, “uncultured”, “barbarian”, “a Raider Fan” – are all considered to be negatives, right? In terms of history and the studies of different societies, cultures, and peoples, a group that is classified as a “civilization” meets certain criteria which may or may not be considered automatically “positive” – and, not meeting those criteria may or may not be considered automatically “negative” either, though certain cultures – the Ancient Greeks and Romans to cite the two most prominent examples – certainly did, which has had a great influence on our culture’s concepts of “civilization” and being “uncivilized”. Basically, a group of people can be said to be classified as a “civilization” when they meet five criteria, all of which are interrelated and many of which follow from each other, though the final one listed is almost always the final step of development.

The first is a fixed location or pattern of migration. For a group of people to be classified as a “civilization” they need to have established a place or sequence of places as belonging to “them”, as “theirs”. Though some would disagree – chiefly the Romans as well as some Greeks, who came to believe only those who lived in cities were actually “civilized” as we will see later in class – a civilization can certainly be migratory, either over seasons or over a longer period of time, as long as those migrations fit some sort of pattern. Whether it is a case of “we are in these mountains in the Fall and Winter and the river valley below it in the Spring and Summer,” or “we will occupy this land by the lake until we can grow no more in it and then we will move to the boundary of the forest in the days of my grandsons,” or “this land is ours now and for all times,” the idea that a certain physical space is occupied by and somehow accessible and usable by the members of the group and those they allow occupation, access, and/or use to is a necessary component of being classified as a “civilization”. It is helpful, though not necessary that this physical space be near some sort of source of water – certainly civilizations developed outside river valleys and lake valleys, but such geographic disadvantage does tend to make development both more challenging and limited.

The second is a contemplation of the divine and the natural world. Please note it does not matter what the specific results of this contemplation are, only that such contemplations exist. A society can determine that the sun is a fiery wheel on a chariot which a God drives across the sky every morning, that it is a life-giving God who communicates with a singular individual here on Earth in some special way, that it is disgorged by a wolf each morning as it awakens from a deep sleep, or that it is a collection of gasses and sub-atomic reactions which generates both heat and light while exerting a gravitational pull on the Earth that keeps it at a somewhat set distance from it – the important thing is that the group of people contemplates it, not that they determine the “right” answer. The same is true of the natural world – why do rivers flow and trees grow? – as well as the divine – again, results don’t matter – thousands of gods, families of gods, gods that are directly responsible for certain phenomena like rain or control certain elements like fire, dueling equal gods of good and of evil, or a singular omnipotent and omniscient deity; all are legitimate conclusions for a group to arrive at to be classified as a “civilization”, again, whether they are “right” or not. The important thing is that they contemplate something beyond themselves – which usually has the ancillary effect of giving birth to some sort of philosophy or philosophies associated with that particular civilization.

The third is a sense of cultural memory. This is defined as the sense that someone from a generation prior to your immediate father and mother spoke, believed, ate, acted, worshiped, etc the same way as you do and that someone from a generation after your immediate sons and daughters will speak, believe, eat, act, worship, etc, the way that you do as well. All of you in this class have at least some sense of cultural memory – and I would be willing to bet that most of you have a sense of belonging with multiple cultural memories – whether its living in the US but rooting for El Tri when the two nations play soccer, or having different members of your family from very distinct parts of the country, or immigrating to somewhere other than where you grew up but staying connected to your neighborhood, even just choosing to go to a particular restaurant or festival because it connects to your heritage – all of these are expressions of cultural memory. By the way, the previous two criteria often feed/support this concept – our people live “here” and have for generations, our people worship in “this” way, our people believe “this” about the world – and often form the basis for the beliefs and traditions that form the cultural memory. By the way as well, this is often the first thing that a conqueror attacks when trying to subdue a conquered people – whether the Spanish with the Nahuatl, White Americans with Native Americans, or even, in extreme cases, Nazi Germans with Jews or Assyrians with the rest of the Levant (don’t worry, that last one will make sense in a few lectures!) when not only is the cultural memory attacked to destroy the culture, but an attempt is made to destroy the entire race as well. Without a sense of cultural memory – the “group” we are talking about is not a “group” but a random collection of individuals and thus, not classified as a “civilization”.

Finally, the fourth and most vital is surplus food. This seems obvious, but it leads to two separate but equally important distinctions needed for the classification of “civilization”. The first is that surplus food leads away from simple subsistence – growing just enough to stay personally alive, or keep only ones immediate family alive – and also allows a group to survive weather-related (frost, flood, drought, etc), natural (pestilence, disease), and/or man-created (invasion) disasters and survive. But the second thing that surplus food allows is for social differentiation – only when a group of people move away from subsistence can some individuals stop being farmers and start doing things like organizing society, refining contemplation into belief systems or philosophies, adjudicating disputes, communicating with the divine(s), creating needed artisanal goods, and protecting and defending the occupied physical space and the surplus food and/or artisanal goods developed and produced by the group from other groups that would otherwise take them on a consistent/more than ad hoc basis. Surplus food needs to be produced by some segment of the group so that others can have an occupation other than farmer.

So, when a group of people have developed a fixed location or pattern of migration, have contemplated the divine and the natural world, developed a sense of cultural memory, and can produce surplus food leading to social differentiation, they can be said to have become a “civilization”. Again, usually this occurs somewhere near a readily available source of water – it is not a coincidence that most large civilizations developed near some sort of major river, like the Nile, Congo, and Niger in Africa, the Tigris and Euphrates in the Levant, the Rhine and Danube in Europe, the Indus and Ganges in India, the Yellow and Yangtze in China, the Mississippi and Ohio in North America, and the Amazon and Plate in South America; or near some large lake, like the North American “Great Lakes”, Lake Texcoco in Mexico, Lake Titicaca in South America, Lake Urmia in Central Asia, Lakes Victoria and Tanganyika in Africa, and Lake Baikal in Eastern Europe, among others; or along a coastal area that can be used as a seaport for explorers to journey to obtain needed materials and resources.

Not having developed these things is not necessarily a “negative” – it just means that that group is not considered a “civilization”. Of course, with civilization seems to come some “positives” – like innovations, advancements, structure and organization – as well as some “negatives” – like jealousy/rivalry/hatred of the “other” (those not part of the civilization) and the resulting conflicts that seem to inevitably arise from it. Hmm… we get iPads… but we also get World Wars… tough call!

So, for purposes of this class, we will be studying “civilizations” – those groups that have met the five criteria described above – and will be examining, analyzing, and evaluating the significances of their cultures, philosophies, societies, beliefs, governmental organizations, and actions, both in their own time as well as in the times that followed them and in our contemporary society – or, to put it another way – how, why, and how effectively they contemplated the divine and natural world, developed a cultural memory and societal organization through social differentiation and philosophies and the effects of those developments on their actions and the actions of those they interact and influence. But, the second part of our question is – which civilizations will we be studying?

 

B. Western

There are a variety of ancient civilizations that developed all at about the same time across the globe. Many of them have similarities even if they absolutely had neither contact with nor influence on each other. For example, nearly every human civilization has some sort of “flood story/epic” as part of its cultural heritage and contemplation of the divine and natural world – while the Hebrew Torah has the story of Noah (righteous human instructed by God to construct boat to survive flood with family and 2 of every animal) and Mesopotamians have the story of Utnapishtim in the Epic of Gilgamesh (random human ordered by one of the gods to construct boat to survive flood with family, workers, and 2 of every animal), the Chinese have the story of the Sage Water Minister (and future founder of the 23rd Century B.C.E. Xia Dynasty) Yu the Great (government official organizes workers to create river channels and personally creates river gorges through mountains with a divine axe to divert flood waters and save civilization over the course of 13 years of labor) – and, for that matter, societies as diverse as Ancient Greece and the Classical Nahuatl both defined the “other” or the “uncivilized” in the same way – the Greek word barbaroi, from which we get the word “barbarian”, means “babbler”, i.e. non-Greek-speaker; the word root Nahuatl means “audible, clear” in Náhuatl, i.e. those who can speak audibly and clearly are part of the civilization, while those who cannot, are not – but, this class is concerned with “Western” Civilization, not World History (that’s a different class!) and while we will point out moments of connection or coincidence between “the West” and the rest of the World, this class is specifically concerned with Western Civilization. So, who are we dealing with, exactly?

In history, “Western” is defined roughly as those civilizations which have some connection to the greater Mediterranean region. This includes the borders of the Mediterranean itself – Southern Europe to its North, the Maghreb to its South, and Anatolia, Egypt, and the Levant to its East – as well as the immediate lands which border and directly interact with them – Western, Northern, and Central Europe, Arabia, and the Persian plateau. Thus, a partial list of civilizations included in the designation “Western” would include, but is not necessarily limited to: Athenian, Spartan, Roman, Spanish, Portuguese, Greek, Italian (Southern Europe); Carthaginian, Moorish (Maghreb); Egyptian, Sumerian, Babylonian, Hittite, Phoenician, Hebrew, Assyrian, Byzantine, Ottoman (Anatolia, Egypt, and the Levant); as well as English, French, Germanic, Slavic (Western and Central European); Islamic (Arabian); and Persian (Persian Plateau) – and one could also include various “Ancient Polytheist”, Hebrew, Catholic, various “Protestant”, Eastern Orthodox, Sunni, Shi’ite, and Zoroastrian as “civilizations” of the “West” as well (some more so than others, given our definition above). In addition, the lands that these civilizations contact and influence greatly – the Americas – will be examined near the end of the class.

All of these societies and cultures – civilizations in their own right – interact, interrelate, and influence each other over the course of these ca. 5000 years to create what is known as “Western Civilization” and, in doing so, provide a major part of the heritage for our contemporary society, culture, beliefs, philosophies, and methods of organization. In short, they contribute to our American “cultural memory”. 

Lecture 2: Ancient Egypt

A. Geography, Society, and Religion

One of the two great early river valley civilizations of the ancient Western world was that of Egypt, which was centered along the Nile River from what is modern-day Sudan to the point where the Nile flows into the Mediterranean Sea at the delta, so named because the marshy area created by the various arms of the river that flow to the sea resemble a triangle shape, which the Greeks knew as “delta”. Whereas Mesopotamia, the other great early river valley civilization of the ancient Western world, was a land that was frequently invaded and suffered through multiple wars as we will see in the next lecture, Egypt was an isolated land - surrounded by the Arabian peninsula to the Northeast, the Mediterranean to the North and the Nubian and Sahara Deserts to the West and South, Egyptian civilization was not invaded by foreign armies for nearly 1400 years after it was established - there is a permanence to Egyptian culture and outlook on life that is largely absent from other cultures and civilizations. Unlike the Tigris and Euphrates rivers of Mesopotamia which flooded irregularly and often with tragic consequences, the Nile floods on a regular and predictable pattern, allowing for Man to feel as though he can tame nature, that, rather than being a dangerous, capricious and inscrutable fact of life - nature for the Egyptian was a benevolent force, a partner in man's endeavors. Indeed, the Greek historian Herodotus described Egypt as being "the gift of the Nile". Thus, where Sumerian Gods were angry, violent and petty, Egyptian Gods were benevolent beings, smiling down on their subjects and providing for them a veritable paradise in the fertile and safe Nile valley. Not only did the Nile flood on a regular and predictable pattern, it's receding waters also left behind soil so fertile that crops could be grown on it twice a year - unprecedented in the ancient world - and also hard to imagine given the reality of modern-day Egypt's need to import food. While some of that fact can be attributed to massive population – while Ancient Egypt’s population rarely exceeded 7 million, Egypt currently is a nation of some 88 million, almost 90% of who live within 50 miles of the Nile River - it is also testament to how badly Man can mess things up when we try to change nature. The notion that Egypt, which was seen as the richest and most prolific food producer on Earth for nearly 4500 years, really until the last two centuries, now has to import food would be one of the most shocking and unbelievable things to any ancient person who happened to time travel to our World – OK, maybe not on the level of airplanes and the internet, but still.... It seems that the first cultivation of the soil took place in about 5500 BC in the Nile Valley, which is about when the first farming villages seemed to have formed. Animals were domesticated and crops were grown all throughout northern Africa. However, apparently between approx. 5000 B.C. and 3500 B.C., the climate of the region changed and the formerly grassy plains that stretched far from the Nile began to be claimed by the ever-growing Sahara Desert so, gradually over this time, more and more peoples migrated closer and closer to the Nile until, by about the same time as Sumerians were forming the first cities, Egyptians established themselves in the valley of the Nile, both tied to it and prospering from it. The only other peoples that seemed to be anywhere near the area were the Nubians, a people who lived to the south, in what is modern-day Sudan, and who would ultimately be driven even further South by the first military leaders of the Egyptian civilization, retreating across the Nubian desert and pretty much out of our story, though you can find out more about them if you take an African history course. In any case, this unchanging climate and regular flood supply kept peasants generally happy and well-fed and led to unimaginable wealth for the upper classes of Egyptian society. Since the Gods were seen to be the providers of this largess, it follows that Egyptians would build vast, rich temples to honor these Gods and try to insure that they continued to provide this bounty.

The societal organization of Egypt mirrors that of the pyramids we always think of when someone mentions Egypt.  At the top was the King, called Pharaoh, along with the members of the royal family.  Directly below him and his family were the nobles and priests.  Nobility was not inherited, though priesthood could be.  The priests not only served a religious function, but also administered the lands owned by the temples – which accounted for approx. 33% of all Egyptian land.  The next classes were the wealthy farmers and merchants as well as the scribes and administrative bureaucrats that kept this highly centralized governmental structure running.  Scribes kept records and administered taxation as well as building projects – tombs of these bureaucrats show that most were fabulously wealthy and enjoyed a high standard of living, as did the very successful farmers and merchants.  Skilled artisans, which include scribes, were afforded special privileges from the government, including tax exemptions, which added to their status and standard of living. At the end of this lecture, there's a link to a primary source document from ca. 2200 B.C. known as The Instructions of Ptah-hotep - advice given by a member of this bureaucratic class to his son about how to advance in Egyptian society - depressingly, it will probably sound really familiar to many of you! Below them were the peasant farmers, herdsmen and workers that made up the vast majority of Egyptian society.  There were no slaves in Old or Middle Kingdom Egypt, though the lowest peasants lived lives that were very much like that of a slave – slavery was not a formal institution in Egypt until after Egypt liberated itself from the first people to conquer it in ca. 1560 B.C.  Even still, slaves could own property while in bondage to another, a far better condition than would be found anywhere else.  We are, of course, most familiar with slavery in Egypt from the story of Exodus in the Bible.  The Caananites who were recorded as being slaves following the liberation of Egypt and establishment of the New Kingdom likely included the Hebrews who would later follow Moses back to the Levant.  There were apparently no debt slaves in Egypt.

The Egyptian economy was rich in food stuffs such as barley and wheat, as well as dates, figs and grapes, as well as olives.  Thus Egyptians were probably the first culture to use oil as a fuel, as well as using it for cosmetics, lighting and in mummification.  Cattle, sheep, goats were common sources of meat as well as skins and use as beasts of burden, fishing was plentiful and there are even records of hippopotamus hunts – though this was more likely for sport for Kings and elites rather than as a massive food source.

You can usually tell if a piece of Egyptian art is depicting and man or a woman by the color of the skin – women, especially those of the upper classes, were depicted with yellow colors while men were shown with skin of a red hue – the darker the depiction, the lower the class.  Art scholars speculate that this suggests that women spent more time indoors than men and that the poor were more likely to labor in the sun, but one should not infer than women had no public role. Far from it, there are numerous accounts of women participating in business meetings with their husbands and women had the same property rights as men of the same class.  She could even enter into contract in her own name and set her own will.  While either party could initiate a divorce without fear of being thrown into the water and drowned, most reasons for divorce seem to be male-centered (failure to provide a son, desire for another).  Archaeologists have even found evidence of primitive ointments which share chemicals in common with modern spermicides, suggesting that Egyptian women may have had some measure of control over reproduction. 

While Egyptians were exceptional engineers, as evidenced by the pyramids, they did not rival the Sumerians in mathematics.  Apparently, Egyptian mathematics did not advance farther than simple geometry, though they did approximate the value of pi.  The calendar they developed was not based on the waxing and waning of the moon as in Sumeria, but on the movements of the star Sirius, the “dog star”, which rises on the same day each year.  From this, the Egyptians developed a solar calendar that could be used to accurately predict the flood patterns of the Nile.  It also allows us to trace Egyptian dates more accurately than in other ancient civilizations.  Using the rising of Sirius as the start of the year, Egyptians developed a calendar of 365 days, or sunrises, between appearances of the star. 

Another arena in which Egyptians could not match the Sumerians was in science, with the exception of medicine.  While the earliest Egyptian doctors relied on magic to affect their cures, careful observation and record-keeping eventually led to the development of the first medical handbooks by the time of the Old Kingdom in ca. 2700 B.C.  Apparently Egyptian doctors would specialize in the care of a single organ with very few acting as general practitioners.  It is clear that women could be doctors and often were and that surgery was known and practiced by Egyptian physicians.  Surviving medical texts describe various symptoms for doctors to observe and mandate the process of examination, diagnosis, treatment and recording the process.  One text describes methods of suturing and setting of broken bones, another even notes that persons with neck injuries should not be moved as doing so could create paralysis.  Remember – these texts are at least 4700 years old!  Few advancements were made beyond these as Egyptian society endured, however – many things in Egyptian society tend to follow the notion of “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”.

The major Gods in the Egyptian pantheon were Ra (or sometimes Re – remember, there are no vowels in hieroglyphics), the God of the Sun and, in the beginning the leader of the Gods, Osiris, a God of harvest who was associated with both the Nile and the star Sirius upon which the Egyptians measured time, Isis, the Goddess of love and Osiris’ wife, Horus, the Falcon God who was Osiris’s son and the avenging God, and Set(h),Osiris’ brother, the God of the dead and a malevolent force, a God of Evil, if you will.  Set(h) is considered the first God devoted to evil developed by humans – in the next lecture, you will discover that Sumerian Gods had evil characteristics, which mirrored the unpredictability of the natural environment of Mesopotamia.  In contrast, Egypt’s natural environment was regular and benevolent, so Egyptian Gods were considered kind and providing, almost father-like.  But, since bad things do happen on occasion, Egyptians apparently developed a belief in a malevolent spirit that caused such things, rather than ascribing malevolent traits to the Gods they had.  Set(h) was that malevolent force and a number of myths discuss the battles between Set(h) and the other Gods.  After a number of centuries, belief in another God, Amon, originally a deity native to the peoples of either the Arab peninsula or the Levant, scholars are not sure which, arose as well.  Amon was culturally assimilated into the Egyptian belief system and came to be paired with Ra as Amon-Ra, with Amon the manifestation of the hidden sun and Ra as the visible sun.  This God came to be regarded as the leading God as time passed.  The creation myths of the Egyptians center on the life-providing sun, which brings fertility to men, animals and plants alike. .  In Egypt, Pharaoh was considered to be the living Horus – a living God present on Earth.  Since Horus was represented by the falcon, most hieroglyphs that depict the name of a pharaoh will contain a falcon as well.  Upon his death, he would become one with Horus’ father, Osiris in eternal life. This is also why you can always tell whether a depiction of a pharaoh is one conceived while he was alive or after death: Osiris was always depicted with a long rectangular beard and so coffins like King Tut’s that have a picture of the pharaoh within always show his face with a beard – even depictions of the female pharaoh Hatshepsut add a beard to her chin after death, as you can see from the entrance to her Temple/Burial Chamber in the Valley of the Kings below.

As a living god on Earth, it was pharaoh’s responsibility to maintain what the Egyptians called ma’at, translated as good order or justice.  Ma’at insured that humans lived in the most ideal state possible, free of human discord or natural disaster.  While local governors, know as Viziers, ran the areas for which they were responsible, the population ultimately looked to the pharaoh as keeper of ma’at for justice.  This precluded the need for a written code of laws: why would one need to write down laws when pharaoh, as the living Horus, simply made law by divine decree?  Thus, Egyptian law tends to be absolute law – the pharaoh stating “thou shalt not” as a decree from the living God.  Obviously, these decrees were administered by Viziers, Priests, and other bureaucrats at local levels.

Egyptian history is divided into three periods, named the Old Kingdom (ca. 3100-2150 B.C.), the Middle Kingdom (ca. 2050-1650 B.C.), and the New Kingdom (ca. 1570-1069 B.C.), which are divided by two periods known as the 1st and 2ndIntermediate Periods – the first caused by massive droughts that caused instability in a society that had known nothing but safety and prosperity for the previous 1000 years, the second caused by an invasion of “Asiatic” peoples known to us as the “Hyksos” (they had no written language and the term “Hyksos” is an Egyptian term meaning “foreign rulers”) – as you might expect, in a society where things rarely change or where there is rarely any real crisis, when there is one, it tends to fundamentally change the way Egyptians look at their world. You may also recognize this concept if you think about our society which also rarely faces threats to its existence but, when it does, tends to fundamentally change the way it looks at the world – for those of you old enough to remember “life before 9/11”, you have some idea what I’m referring to here! Each of these eras is covered in your textbook, but here is a brief overview of each.

 

B. Old Kingdom and First Intermediate Period

The Old Kingdom is considered to have begun when a military leader named Narmer unified “Upper” and “Lower” Egypt in ca. 3100 B.C. “Upper” Egypt is the area in the southern part of the Nile River valley, while “Lower” Egypt is the area in the northern valley, including the delta – the names refer to the elevation of each area as the Nile flows from its mountainous lake source in the south, north to the Mediterranean Sea. Narmer accomplished this unification through warfare as you can see from the Palette of Narmer created to celebrate his achievement:

 

Soon after using that "smiting club" to bash in the head of his defeated foe, Narmer was considered as the first Pharaoh and the originator of the 1st Dynasty – a “dynasty” is the rule of a single family or kinship group – there were only 6 dynasties in the Old Kingdom, an era that spans just under 1000 years! Obviously then, this is a very stable society. In fact, other than some very large architectural exceptions – the pyramids – someone in Egypt near the end of the Old Kingdom would easily recognize life in the beginnings of the Old Kingdom if they traveled back 900-odd years in time – very little about social organization, farming, or government would change during Old Kingdom Egypt. It was in the middle of this era that the Pharaohs of the IIIrdand IVth Dynasty had the pyramids constructed – starting with Djoser ca. 2610 B.C. and continuing with the other structures at Giza, including the largest of the pyramids, The Great Pyramid of Khufu (aka. Cheops) which is 481’ high and 755’ on each side – a massive limestone structure with over 2 million blocks each weighing around 2½ tons! The Old Kingdom fell when terrible droughts began to strike the Egyptians (and all East Africa, apparently) soon after 2150 B.C., ushering in the 1stIntermediate Period – an approximately 100-year period that saw 5 more dynasties rise and fall until a warrior named Amenenhet rose to not only found the XIIth Dynasty but also stabilize Egypt and to spread the belief that the afterlife was not only for Pharaohs and his servants but possible for all Egyptians through a story called the Myth of Osiris.

 

C. The Middle Kingdom and the Democratization of the Afterlife

Amenenhet’s priests emphasized a story found in the Book of the Dead, a book which contained instructions to be followed in the afterlife, which told of the story of a banquet of the gods in honor of Osiris, the god of the harvest, during which Set(h), the evil spirit, tricked Osiris, killed him, and chopped his body into 6 pieces, throwing them in the Nile River – this is said to have been what caused the drought that caused the downfall of the dynasties of the Old Kingdom and let to the chaos of the 1stintermediate period – all to try to hook up with Osiris’ sister and wife, Isis, the goddess of love. And you thought The Bachelor and Bachelorette were wild! Anyway, as the story goes, Isis and her son/nephew Horus re-gathered the parts of Osiris’ body and re-assembled them, after which Isis started crying and her tears knit the body back together again – I told you it was a myth, work with me! Horus then returned to punish and then banish Set(h). According to Amenenhet’s priests, this story explained not only why the harvest “died” and then was “resurrected” every year (the typical cycle of farming) and why living Pharaohs were Horus the Avenger and, after death, were “one with Osiris” but also the idea that, just as Osiris was reborn, so too could all Egyptians who followed certain rules and were judged worthy by Anubis, the judge of the dead.  Thus, belief in the afterlife became generally widespread in Egyptian society after the spreading of this story and the reestablishment of order that came with the establishment of the Middle Kingdom.  Each person had a soul, called a “ka” or vital spirit.  It is this ka that is said to live after death, indeed, Egyptians were likely the first people to conceive of an afterlife and a soul.  This notion of the soul parallels that of the Bible, while the notion of the god-king was adopted by later conquerors, including Alexander the Great and various Roman emperors, from there it passed down, influenced by Christianity, into the European notion of the divine right of kings – that Kings ruled by divine right and choice – but that’s a topic for History 2. When being judged, Anubis placed the ka into a scale and weighed it against a feather while asking one for their “negative affirmations” – all the things they didn’t do wrong (“I never killed anyone…”) – then for their “positive affirmations” – all the things they did right (“I worshiped the gods and honored my family…”). Noticed what was not included here – confession of sins and forgiveness, foreign concepts to Egyptians. Indeed, it was those unconfessed sins that would cause the ka to weigh more than the feather and lead Anubis to judge one unworthy of entry into the afterlife – the fewer the sins “weighing down” the ka, the better chance one had of being judged worthy and living in paradise – which, to Egyptians, was being in Egypt with its “gifts of the Nile”! While the Dynasties of the Middle Kingdom did expand somewhat south against the Nubians, they rarely did so as a pattern of conquest. That would change after the disaster of the first foreign invasion in Egypt’s long history – that of the “Sea People” – the Hyksos, in 1650 B.C.

 

D. The Hyksos and The XVIIIth Dynasty & New Kingdom

The Hyksos left us no records in their own words or language – all we know of them is from Egyptian sources – in fact, we still have no idea who they were, the Egyptians call them “Asiatics” – meaning people from East of Egypt – a big area, “Sea People” – meaning they came on boats, and “people of Set(h) – meaning “evil ones” – not exactly clear clues! What we do know is that they had vastly superior bronze weapons – Egyptians were still using copper weapons as they had since the time of Narmer ca. 1500 years before – and they controlled Egypt from the city of Tanis at the delta – in fact, the further south one went, the less the Hyksos had power, relying on “puppet Viziers” to rule in their name. Eventually, it would be one of these “puppet Viziers”, named Kamose, who would lead an Egyptian rebellion starting in ca. 1580 B.C., defeating the Hyksos at Hermopolis. Over the next decade, the Egyptians slowly liberated themselves until, in 1570 B.C., the final Hyksos king was driven from the Nile delta and sailed off into the “mists of history”, never to be heard from again.

The New Kingdom, established by Ahmose I, the first Pharaoh of the XVIIIth Dynasty, did not stop there, but continued his conquests into the Levant, the area along the East coast of the Mediterranean Sea. The change then that was inspired by the Hyksos conquest was that Egypt stopped being isolationist and satisfied with living in “paradise” and, instead, became imperialistic, deciding that the best way to make certain they would never again be conquered by foreign neighbors was to, themselves, become the conquerors – sound familiar to anyone?! The Pharaoh Thutmose I extended conquests to the neighborhood of the Euphrates River and to the middle of Nubia to the south. His successor, Thutmose II, held on to most of these conquests but, when he died, his heir was a small child so his widow, Hatshepsut, was named “regent” to rule in his name until he got old enough. Before that happened, however, Hatshepsut had the boy thrown in jail and ruled as Pharaoh in her own right from 1489-1468 B.C. – the first known female ruler of an Ancient society. Hatshepsut went against the imperial ideal of conquest – instead focusing on trade, commerce, and public building under the direction of her Grand Vizier (as possibly her lover, though evidence is conflicting on this point!) Sen-Mut; while this would have made her a very effective Old or Middle Kingdom Pharaoh, in the imperialistic New Kingdom, many lands were lost as her army was made to focus on public building as opposed to conquest. When she died, the boy, now a man called Thutmose III, set out to, first, erase all records of Hatshepsut’s existence, and, second, to reconquer the lost lands and add more while consolidating the kingdom. Thutmose III was among the more successful conquerors of the Ancient world and the first to win a battle for the highest site in the Levant, a hill overlooking and commanding the Jordan River valley, known as Har Meggido, defeating a coalition of Palestinian, Canaanite, and Assyrian forces – it is believed that Har Meggido became known as Ar Mageddon – the site of the “ultimate battle” for all peoples who lived in the Jordan River valley – perhaps this term is familiar to some of you? Thutmose III reigned for 29 years and established both military and economic superiority over the lands that he conquered.

The next noteworthy figure of the XVIIIth Dynasty was the Pharaoh Akhenaton (meaning “He who serves the Aton/life force of Aton”) who announced that all the traditional Gods of the Egyptian religion were false and that one God alone was deserving of devotion: the sun disc Aton, the life-giving sun-disc, after becoming Pharaoh in 1369 B.C. The picture below is a stone carving representing Akhenaton receiving life from the Aton to distribute, as Pharaoh, to his family and the people of Egypt - probably the first known depiction of monotheism or at least henotheism (one God above all others) in human history. Another thing about this picture should be immediately noticeable: Akhenaton is not depicted in the traditional stylized portrait of a Pharaoh – instead he is shown as he really looked: a long jaw line, a bit of a pot belly being the most distinctive features, though you’ll also notice that the long crown he wears on his head is the same as the one depicted on Narmer’s head – not all traditions were discarded. 

 

Part of his campaign to replace the traditional gods of Egypt with worship of the Aton centered on the idea that Aton-worship was the truth while the other gods were false, in fact he reinterpreted the meaning of ma’at as being “truth” rather than “justice”.  As a powerful symbol of this argument, Akhenaton demanded that he pictured in a truthful way, rather than in a false, stylized way as his predecessors who had worshiped the false Gods had been – remember, image is a powerful tool, even 3500 years ago! Akhenaton and his famous wife Nefertiti built a great temple at the rural site of Amarna and built a city at its base as the center of both political and religious life, which was completed six years into his reign.

There is some debate as to whether Akhenaton “invented” monotheism or not – certainly it is the first recorded time in human history where one God was thought to be and worshiped as the sole God.  However, the fact that the people were to worship Akhenaton as a God, who would then worship the Aton on their behalf has led some religious scholars to argue that this is not monotheism but henotheism: the focus of devotion to one God with the exclusion of others, rather than strict monotheism. There's a link to his Hymn to the Aton at the end of this lecture. In any case, the worship of the Aton did not spread far beyond Amarna, with the vast majority of common Egyptians continuing to believe in the traditional gods, and Akhenaton reigned only 13 years, so his reforms did not have enough time to take hold against thousands of years of traditions. After his death, eldest became Pharaoh when under 14 years old.  He carried on the worship of the Aton, but an examination of his mummy reveals that he died of wounds consistent with battle injuries after 3 years of rule.  His younger brother Tutankhaton, who was between 7 & 9 years old when he became Pharaoh in 1352 B.C., succeeded him.  After his ascension, the young Pharaoh changed his name to Tutankhamen and restored the traditional religion, reopening the temples and moving the seat of government back to Thebes.  At this point, the Priests set out to erase Akhenaton’s name from all record to deny his eternal life, though he himself seemed to believe that his eternity was with the Aton.  Given his youth and the presence of so many powerful nobles and priests who had been displaced by Akhenaton’s revolution, it is likely that “Tut” was rather under the control of these powerful forces within society – indeed, some scholars have argued convincingly that no Egyptian Pharaoh ever held such complete control after the restoration, that power was far more shared with the leading members of society even though the Pharaoh’s status as the living Horus was unchanged.  In any case, it used to be argued that the incredible opulence of “King Tut’s” tomb meant that the tombs of such great Pharaohs as Thutmose III or the like must have been even more spectacular – after all, “King Tut” was seemingly a nondescript and sickly leader who reigned for only 8 years, died between the ages of 15 and 17 and undertook no great conquests or campaigns – how would they have honored a truly great Pharaoh?!  However, this question ignores Tutankhamen’s true significance – whether under pressure or not, he is the Pharaoh who restored the 1750-year old religious traditions of Egypt – it is not surprising that when he died, the Priests made certain that his eternal house was incredible! 

 

E. After the XVIIIth Dynasty

Tutankhamen’s death marked the end of the XVIIIth Dynasty; the last ruler of note in Ancient Egypt was Ramses II (aka Ramses the Great), who reigned from 1289-1224 B.C. He seized the throne from his elder brother and moved to seize Nubian gold mines to the south to replenish the Egyptian treasury. He then set out to reconquer lands in the Levant that had been lost and was generally successful – after a three-year campaign, he and the Hittite King signed what seems to be the first recorded peace treaty that allowed Egyptian control of the Levant up to the city of Byblos and provided for mutual defense, protection and use of Mediterranean trade routes between the two kingdoms. It is during his campaigns that Egypt seized a number of Jewish slaves; it is argued that Ramses II is the Pharaoh described in the Biblical account of Moses in the Book of Exodus, though there is no independent source which describes Ramses, or any other Egyptian Pharaoh having a brother named Moses, let alone a brother who was a Hebrew. He also dug the first great Egyptian canal to send the waters of the Red Sea farther inland and try to provide for development of the region between the Red Sea and the Nile. He also used copper pipes to set up a sewer system as well. Ramses II also lived well.  He had several hundred wives and 150-recorded children. There is a reason that condoms are named after this man! He also married many of his daughters so that they could have “children as great as him”. This massive number of royal children produced a whole new social class in Egypt, which would increase tensions in powerful society after Ramses II’s death. After reigning for 62 years, Ramses II died and social turmoil began, exacerbated by an invasion by Libyans from the West and conflicts between the Priestly class and the descendants of Ramses II.

Most of the remainder of the history of the New Kingdom is a story of warfare and conflict, both internal and external, with the Egyptian empire gradually losing power and Pharaohs becoming servants’ dependent on the Priestly class for power, rather than the other way around.  Finally, by 1069 B.C., Egypt had lost all its possessions outside the Nile valley. Eventually, various peoples: Assyrians, Neo-Babylonians, Persians, Macedonians, and Romans, all conquered Egypt and assimilated its culture to their own. We’ll discuss these peoples as the class goes on, but note that it is through these conquests that Egyptian culture spread throughout the East and the West, especially through Alexander the Great. After his conquest of Persia, Alexander placed one of his generals, Ptolemy, in charge of Egypt in 332 B.C. and built a city to be the new capital at the delta called Alexandria. Ptolemy allowed himself to be named Pharaoh and established the final Egyptian dynasty, the Ptolemaic dynasty. All but one ruler in this dynasty is named Ptolemy, but thankfully, the one exception is the most noteworthy one: Cleopatra.  She took the throne in 51 B.C. with ambitions of making Egypt a great power once again, using the weapon of food – remember, Egypt is a supplier of food to almost everyone.  She is almost certainly the only Ptolemaic Pharaoh who actually spoke Egyptian and this, along with her ambition and charisma, made her a very popular leader.  By this time, the leading power in the World was Rome, not yet an Empire, so she set about seducing its leader, Julius Cæsar, and was successful, signing a treaty with Rome quite favorable to Egypt. After Cæsar was assassinated, the most powerful of the three men who took his place, Mark Anthony, sailed to Egypt to discuss this alliance. She seduced him too and pledged to back him in the coming Roman civil war with his rival.  Unfortunately, the forces of Anthony and Cleopatra were defeated in 31 B.C. and Cleopatra committed suicide, ending the final Egyptian dynasty. Egypt came under the control of a Roman governor and would not be wholly independent again until after WWII in the 1940’s C.E.