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Egypt ANCIENT EGYPT
The Predynastic Period and the First and Second Dynasties, 6000-2686 B.C.
Unavailable
Figure 2. Ancient Egypt
During this period, when people first began to settle along
the banks of the Nile (Nahr an Nil) and to evolve from hunters
and gatherers to settled, subsistence agriculturalists, Egypt
developed the written language, religion, and institutions that
made it the world's first organized society. Through
pharaonic (see Glossary) Egypt,
Africa claims to be the cradle of one of
the earliest and most spectacular civilizations of antiquity
(see
fig. 2).
One of the unique features of ancient Egyptian civilization
was the bond between the Nile and the Egyptian people and their
institutions. The Nile caused the great productivity of the soil,
for it annually brought a copious deposit of rich silt from the
monsoon-swept tableland of Ethiopia. Each July, the level of the
Nile began to rise, and by the end of August, the flood reached
its full height. At the end of October, the flood began to
recede, leaving behind a fairly uniform deposit of silt as well
as lagoons and streams that became natural reservoirs for fish.
By April, the Nile was at its lowest level. Vegetation started to
diminish, seasonal pools dried out, and game began to move south.
Then in July, the Nile would rise again, and the cycle was
repeated.
Because of the fall and rise of the river, one can understand
why the Egyptians were the first people to believe in life after
death. The rise and fall of the flood waters meant that the
"death" of the land would be followed each year by the "rebirth"
of the crops. Thus, rebirth was seen as a natural sequence to
death. Like the sun, which "died" when it sank on the western
horizon and was "reborn" in the eastern sky on the following
morning, humans would also rise and live again.
Sometime during the final Paleolithic period and the
Neolithic era, a revolution occurred in food production. Meat
ceased to be the chief article of diet and was replaced by plants
such as wheat and barley grown extensively as crops and not
gathered at random in the wild. The relatively egalitarian tribal
structure of the Nile Valley broke down because of the need to
manage and control the new agricultural economy and the surplus
it generated. Long-distance trade within Egypt, a high degree of
craft specialization, and sustained contacts with southwest Asia
encouraged the development of towns and a hierarchical structure
with power residing in a headman who was believed to be able to
control the Nile flood. The headman's power rested on his
reputation as a "rainmaker king." The towns became trading
centers, political centers, and cult centers. Egyptologists
disagree as to when these small, autonomous communities were
unified into the separate kingdoms of Lower Egypt and Upper Egypt
and as to when the two kingdoms were united under one king.
Nevertheless, the most important political event in ancient
Egyptian history was the unification of the two lands: the Black
Land of the Delta, so-called because of the darkness of its rich
soil, and the Red Land of Upper Egypt, the sun-baked land of the
desert. The rulers of Lower Egypt wore the red crown and had the
bee as their symbol. The leaders of Upper Egypt wore the white
crown and took the sedge as their emblem. After the unification
of the two kingdoms, the pharaoh wore the double crown
symbolizing the unity of the two lands.
The chief god of the Delta was Horus, and that of Upper Egypt
was Seth. The unification of the two kingdoms resulted in
combining the two myths concerning the gods. Horus was the son of
Osiris and Isis and avenged the evil Seth's slaying of his father
by killing Seth, thus showing the triumph of good over evil.
Horus took over his father's throne and was regarded as the
ancestor of the pharaohs. After unification, each pharaoh took a
Horus name that indicated that he was the reincarnation of Horus.
According to tradition, King Menes of Upper Egypt united the two
kingdoms and established his capital at Memphis, then known as
the "White Walls." Some scholars believe Menes was the Horus King
Narmer, whereas others prefer to regard him as a purely legendary
figure.
With the emergence of a strong, centralized government under
a god-king, the country's nascent economic and political
institutions became subject to royal authority. The central
government, either directly or through major officials, became
the employer of soldiers, retainers, bureaucrats, and artisans
whose goods and services benefited the upper classes and the
state gods. In the course of the Early Dynastic Period, artisans
and civil servants working for the central government fashioned
the highly sophisticated traditions of art and learning that
thereafter constituted the basic pattern of pharaonic
civilization.
Data as of December 1990
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