Geography:
Ancient Egypt was a civilisation of ancient North-East Africa, mainly concentrated along the Nile river, in the place that is now present-day Egypt. Ancient Egypt was bordered by Libya, Sudan, Israel, and the Gaza Strip, and it still is bordered by these countries today.
The Greek historian Herodotus called Egypt the ‘gift of the Nile’, because the civilisation owed its survival to the annual flooding of the Nile, that resulted in fertile soil.
The ancient categorised Egypt into two types of land. The ‘black land’ was the fertile land on the banks of the Nile, used to grow crops. They called it the black land because the floods left a layer of black silt every year.
The ‘red land’ was the arid desert that shielded Egypt on two sides. These deserts provided protection to Egypt against neighbouring countries and invading armies. The red land also gave the Egyptians a source of precious metals and stones.
Egypt is one of six historic civilisations to rise independently. The Egyptian civilisation followed prehistoric Egypt and formed circa 3150BC. Egypt’s history is divided into a series of kingdoms, separated from periods of instability, known as Intermediate Periods.
As many know, Egypt is famous for the river that runs through the centre of their nation, called the Nile River. As mentioned before, it floods annually. The floods were caused by the rains in Central Africa, and Melting snow and rains in the Ethiopian highlands. The high amounts of water overfilled the river, causing it to flood. The bright side of this flood was that it made their soil very fertile.
The climate in Egypt during ancient times was hot and humid, due to the fact that Egypt was mostly filled with sandy deserts. Attempts to prevent the heat were not carried out, as the Egyptians gradually accustomed themselves with the climate.
Egypt only had two seasons; a mild winter from November to April, and a hot summer from May to October.
Technology:
The Egyptians did not build roads to travel around their empire, since nature already provided them with one, that goes right through the centre of their civilisation; the Nile river.
Majority of the people in ancient Egypt lived in cities and villages that were located along the banks of the Nile. Therefore, the Egyptians used the river as a method of transportation and shipment, thus they built boats to navigate it. Early Egyptians made boats out of the papyrus reed, which were easy to build and were effective for fishing and short trips. Many of the papyrus reed boats were small and were controlled with oars. Typically, the boat would be long and thin and the ends came to a point that protruded from the water, sort of like a canoe.
Eventually, the ancient Egyptians started to construct their boats from acacia wood from Egypt, and cedar wood which they imported from Lebanon. They also developed a giant sail in the middle of the boat, so they it could catch the wind when they were heading upstream. The Egyptians built their wooden boats with no nails, because nails did not exist at the time, so boats were frequently made from several short planks that were hooked together, and tied with ropes. Steering was achieved by using big rubber oars at the back of the boats.
Large cargo ships were soon built. They sailed these ships along the Nile river, into the Mediterranean Sea, in order to trade with other countries. These ships could actually carry a lot of cargo, some ships were capable of carrying huge stones weighing up to 500 tonnes. The stones were transported from the rock quarry to where they pyramid were being built.
Of course, the Egyptians did build buildings such as houses, but they were renowned for their pyramids. The pyramids were built as tombs for the pharaohs and their queens. The most famous pyramids would have to be the three pyramids that are a part of the ‘Giza pyramid complex’, or the ‘Giza Necropolis’, and as the name suggests, the pyramid of Giza is the most famous pyramid of the three, as it is the oldest and largest. These pyramids are bordering what is now known as Cairo, Egypt. Out all the 7 wonders of the ancient world, the Giza pyramid complex was the only one that remained largely intact. The Great Pyramid is constructed using around a stunning 2.3 million blocks, which are believed to have been bought to the pyramid sight from nearby quarries, using cargo ships.
Due to Egypt’s dry climate, there were no forests, so wood is scarce and hard to come across. This means that wood could not be used for construction like it is today. The earliest inhabitants of Egypt made huts out of papyrus reeds to live in. However, they soon found out that the mud left behind from the annual flooding of the Nile river, could be incorporated into their buildings. Thus, the creation of bricks using this mud was discovered. The bricks they made were formed by mixing the mud with straw and leaving them in the sun to dry.
The Egyptians invented many great things that have influence the inventions that we have today. Firstly, drawings and cave paintings found in France and Spain date back to 30000BC, but it wasn’t until thousands of years later that the first written language systems arose from Egypt and Mesopotamia. The Egyptian writing system began with pictograms, which date back to 6000BC. Pictograms were simple drawings of the words they represented, but that system has limitations. Over time, other elements were added to Egypt’s writing system, including alphabet-like characters that depicted certain sounds and characters. This enabled them to write out names and abstract ideas.
The Egyptians were also responsible for the invention of breath mints. Just like today, bad breath in ancient Egypt was an indication of poor dental health. Unlike us, the Egyptians did not get tooth decay from binging on sugary foods, but the stones they used to grind flour for bread added a lot of sand a grit into their diet. The consequence of that was it wore down their tooth enamel, exposing the pulp of the tooth, making it vulnerable to infection.
The ancient Egyptians did not have access to dentists or oral surgeons who were capable of fixing their decaying teeth and gums, so they had no choice but to simply suffer. To control the horrible odours from their rotting mouths, Egyptians invented breath mints. The mints were made from a combination of frankincense, myrrh, and cinnamon, boiled with honey, and shaped into small pellets.
The people of ancient Egyptian used a variety of tools to hunt and gather their food, but one that we still use to this day is the plough. The plough is one of the most important agricultural tools since the dawn of time. It’s used to turn and break up soil, to burry crops residues, and to help control weeds. Even though historians aren’t completely sure of the plough’s origination, evidence suggest that the Egyptians and Sumerians were the first societies to engage in the use of this tool. Those ploughs weren’t very good at all, and definitely had space for improvement. The ploughs were extremely light an ineffective that they are now known as ‘scratch ploughs’, due to their incapability of digging deep into the ground. Wall paintings illustrate four men pulling a plough through the field together, meaning the plough ran on nothing besides human strength.
The plough’s incapability vanished in 2000BC, when the Egyptians began to hook their ploughs to oxen. The Egyptians tried to hook the plough to the horns of cattle, but it interfered with the animal’s ability to breath, and therefore, did not work. A system of straps was eventually added to the equation, which was much more effective. The plough revolutionized farming in ancient Egypt, and possibly around the world, even to this day. In conjunction with the resources the Nile river provided, it made farming easier for the Egyptians than perhaps any other civilisation at the time.
Social institutions:
Ancient Egypt’s legal system was based on common sense. The Egyptian goddess Ma’at was the goddess of justice, and primarily, the law followed the teachings of Ma’at. No remains of written laws from ancient Egypt have ever been found.
Despite not having any written laws, the ancient Egyptians did have court system. There was a lower court, which was made up of a group of elderly people from each town in Egypt. The supreme high court judge was the pharaoh, who assigned his vizier to hear the case, and act as a judge.
Basically, the ruler of Egypt at the time was a pharaoh, they were considered to be gods, and ruled over the land, and were responsible for everyone in their city.
One of the 170 pharaohs were Pharaoh Khufu. Also known as Cheops, he ruled during the fourth dynasty in the first half of the Old Kingdom period (26th century BC). He is most known for his contraction of the Pyramid of Giza.
The ancient Egyptians had lots of beliefs. They had hundreds of gods and goddesses who they worshipped, we know this because the god’s and goddesses’ names, personalities, and appearances have been found in the artwork the ancient Egyptian civilisation left behind.
They also believed in the afterlife, therefore when someone dies, they’re buried with their prized possessions, which are thought to be needed in the afterlife. Throughout the underworld journey, the dead person’s spirit would have to please the gods, strange creatures, and gatekeepers to reach Osiris and the Hall of Final Judgement, this is where they would plead for entry to the afterlife.
So, who was Osiris? Osiris was the chief god of the dead and afterlife, and is usually illustrated as a mummy-shaped human wearing a white crown with ostrich feathers, and holding a crook and flail, which are signs of kingship and justice. Sometimes, Osiris’ skin is green or black; a representation to his regard to vegetation and fertile Earth.
Since Egypt is surrounded by deserts, it’s not very easy to invade. Therefore, most of the time, Egypt was at peace, but not all the time. The Egyptians sometimes fought amongst themselves over power of their country. The people in ancient Egypt occasionally fought off invasions from the Libyans to their West, Nubians to their South, and circa 1700BC, there was a huge invasion from Hyksos from their North.
Ancient Egyptians did not have money, but they did have a barter system. People would gather in the agora to exchange their goods with one another. They mostly traded grain, linens, papyrus sheets, gold, and other minerals. They traded their goods for copper, animal skins, ivory, silver, iron, spices, rare stones and wild animals.
Creativity:
Close to nothing is known of ancient Egyptian philosophy. The ancient Greeks believed that their philosophy originated in Egypt, but a small number of professors think that it’s plausible. A common perspective is that Egypt influenced some of the philosophies of Europe and Asia.
One of the ancient Egyptian philosophers was Ptahhotep. Ptahhotep served as a vizier to the pharaoh in the late 25th and early 24th century BC.
He is known for his wide range of work on ethical behaviour and moral philosophy, called ‘The Maxims of Ptahhotep’.
His philosophy is a series of 37 letters addressed to his son, Akhethotep. It spoke on topics such as daily behaviour and ethical practices.
One of the ways the Egyptians entertained themselves by playing board games. The most popular ancient Egyptian board game was a game called senet which is similar to today’s snakes and ladders. Mehen, is also really popular, and is thought to be over 5000 years old. These board games were extremely popular, many pharaohs were buried with a senet boards, so they would have something to keep them occupied in the afterlife. They also entertained themselves by playing sports and physical games, just like we do.
Little children of Egypt owned toys like balls, dolls, and spinning tops, that were made out of wood and fabric.
During the Neolithic Period of Egypt, music and chanting were frequently used in magic and rituals. The music served to create rhythm and timing. Small shells were used as whistles.
In the predynastic period of Egypt, chants continued to play a role in Egyptian music, and were accompanied by clappers or a flute.
The ‘Old Kingdom’ was the time that Egyptian music was most prominent. Harps, flutes and double clarinets were played during this time, cymbals often accompanied music and dance. Percussion instruments and lutes were added to orchestras by the Middle Kingdom.
Egyptian is one of the oldest known languages, along with Sumerian, and was a branch of the Afro-Asiatic languages. In addition, it was also the language spoken in ancient Egypt. Written forms of the ancient Egyptian language have dated back to 3200BC, the earliest known complete written sentence was written circa 2690BCE. The ancient Egyptians believed that writing was invented by their god, Thoth, thus they called their hieroglyph script ‘mdju netjer’, meaning ‘words of the gods’. The word hieroglyph comes from the Greek word ‘heiros’ meaning sacred, and ‘glypho’ meaning inscriptions, and was first used by Clemet of Alexandria.
As mentioned before, the first written language of ancient Egypt was in the form of pictograms, which were simple illustrations of the words they represented. The ancient Egyptian language was spoken until the late 17th century, in the form of Coptic, until Arabic slowly replaced it.
Customs:
Peasant farmers often ate bread, beer, vegetables and dried fish. Bread was an extremely common part of the ancient Egyptian’s diet, no matter their social status. The Egyptians has very fertile farmland, which used to grow crops. One of the most important crops that they grew was wheat, which is used to make bread. Barely was also an important crop that they grew. The barely was used to make beer, which was drunken because fresh water wasn’t easy to find as it is currently. The ancient Egyptians also grew pomegranates, grapes, and plums, which were used for both eating and producing wine.
The Egyptians had extremely fertile soil, thanks to the annual flooding of the Nile, which made Egyptian agriculture so successful.
The land surrounding the Nile river was abundant in wildlife. The Egyptians who were wealthier and had a higher social status, hunted and ate beef, mutton, goat and a variety of seafood from the Nile. They also hunted and consumed poultry, such as duck, crane, pigeon, goose and heron. The peasants, farmers, and anyone of a low social status in ancient Egypt didn’t consume meat often, and if they did, it would’ve been the same kind of meat that were fed to animals. Despite the lack of meat from their diet, they did eat seafood and poultry. The meat, seafood and poultry, were either boiled or roasted. If they didn’t plan on eating the food immediately, they would preserve it by drying and salting it.
The ancient Egyptian civilisation was one of the first to interpret hunting and fishing as both, a sport and a source of food.
Although many hunters and fishermen survived by doing this, and do it for a source of food, sportsmen and other men would enjoy leaving their town behind to measure their hunting skill against those of a professional’s.
The first hunts in ancient Egypt were completed on foot, and close to home.
The citizens of Egypt at that time also played many of the sports we play today, they were the ones who set the rules and regulations for the sport. Inscriptions on monuments show that they played wrestling, weightlifting, long jump, swimming, rowing, shooting, fishing, athletics, and a variety of ball games. All of these sports are still played and enjoyed by the people today.
The ancient Egyptians performed an elaborate practice that they believed were necessary to ensure immortality after death. These rituals include mummifying the body, casting spells, and burial with materialistic items that were thought to be needed in the afterlife.
During the earliest times, the Egyptians buried dead bodies directly in the ground. Sometimes, the body could be very well preserved, due to the dry and rainless environment. The bodies would often have been buried curled up in a foetus position and with a few goods that they thought may come in handy in the afterlife.
Soon, kings or rich individuals wanted something better. For those who were wealthy, the Egyptians built simple tombs called mastabas, made of simple mud bricks. These tombs were used to house the dead bodies, which caused a huge problem. Since the body wasn’t buried in the ground anymore, there was nothing to naturally preserve it, and when family members visited the tomb to honour their ancestors and dead relatives, they would discover that the corpse had rot inside the interior of the mud brick tombs.
This is when the process of ‘mummification’ was introduced. Mummification was basically the practice of drying out the body, and preparing the body to ensure preservation. The practice that was popularly carried out in ancient Egypt was not developed overnight however. Early mummification produced mummies that were simply a dead body, dried in the sun or using natron salt, and wrapped in linen. These linen wrappings were often covered in plaster, so that the lining would mould around the body, causing the mummy to take on some of the person’s physical attributes. Circa the 4th dynasty, or around the time of the construction of the pyramids, people began to remove the internal organs. The people that performed this practice of mummification were called embalmers. It took lots and lots of years of trial and error, before the mummification process reached its most successful peak in the New Kingdom.
Mummification was extremely expensive; therefore, it was a luxury that could only be afforded by the pharaoh, royal family, and rich individuals. Throughout the history of ancient Egypt, peasants and middle-class people would likely have been buried in the sand of regular cemeteries, in hope that the corpse would be naturally preserved by the dry and rainless climate of Egypt.
Marriages in Egypt were arranged for communal stability and personal benefits, there is plenty of evidence to suggest that romantic love was as important to the ancient Egyptians as it is to people today. Romantic love was a popular genre for poetry, especially in the time of the New Kingdom (1570-1069BCE), a number of poetry appear to emphasize the virtue of one’s significant other. Ancient Egyptians married within their social class, except during the Ptolemaic period, where they married someone unrelated, or no more closely related than a cousin.
Religion played a big role in an ancient Egyptian’s life, but marriage was an exception. When two people got married, a civil ceremony was not held. Rather, marriage in ancient Egypt simply happened when two young people decided to move in together. Usually, the bride would move in with her husband. Despite religion not playing a role in Egyptian marriage, that did not mean that marriage was not taken seriously. Paintings, letters from grieving widows and widowers, and statues from all periods of ancient Egypt history, suggests that marriage and a close family played an integral part in ancient Egypt.
A girl would become a bride at around 14 or 15 years old. Her husband could be about 17 to 20 years or older, if he was divorced or a widower. The ancient Egyptians were encouraged to marry at a young age, considering that the life span at time was short.
“Marry a woman when you are young, and let her have children while you are young.”
– Instructions from Any, or Ani.
Many marriages required parental consent, as it would be required in all societies, especially among higher social statuses. But the abundance of love poetry amongst young people suggests that many couples did fall in love and choose to marry each other.
Archaeologists and scholars wrongly assumed that most people in Egypt at this time married their siblings, because one of the most affectionate titles lovers would call each other were ‘brother’ or ‘sister’ in ancient Egypt. This actually had nothing to do with sibling relations. Sibling marriage usually only occurred among royalty, and was not at all a common occurrence otherwise.
The day of the marriage was really simple. The bride merely moved her belongings into her husband’s home. He could be living alone, or with his parents. On this day, the bride most likely wore a long dress or tunic made of linen, which was covered from head to toe with bead-net. She would have worn jewellery, if she owned any.
Despite there not being an official ceremony known to us, knowing the Egyptian’s love for music, dance and food, there would probably have been a family celebration in honour of the new couple.
Famous persons:
Cleopatra VII Thea Philopator, or ‘Cleopatara’ as she’s known to history, was the last active ruler of Ptolemaic Egypt. She was born in 69BC in Alexandria, Egypt, and died on the 12th of August, 30BC, in the same place she was born. That makes her 39 at the time of her death.
Her father, king Ptolemy XII Auletes, was the person who ruled before her. As she was the daughter of the king, Cleopatra was bound to become queen.
Cleopatra ruled Egypt as a co-regent, first with her two younger brothers, and then with her son. Her reign lasted 21 years, from 51BC to the time of her death, which makes it 21 years. She’s notorious for her love affairs with the Roman politicians Julius Caesar and Mark Antony, and her beauty.
When Cleopatra’s father, Ptolemy XII died in 51BC, Cleopatra became a co-regent with her 10-year-old brother, Ptolemy XIII. They got married to continue the Egyptian tradition. Despite being beautiful, she was also a very intelligent woman and an astute politician. She brought her nation peace and prosperity, as it was once bankrupt and split due to civil war.
In 48BC, Egypt got involved in the conflict in Rome between Julius Caesar and Pompey. Pompey escaped to Alexandria, Egypt, where he was murdered under the orders of Ptolemy. Julius Caesar followed, and that’s when Cleopatra and him became lovers, which consolidated her grip on the throne. Cleopatra was exiled by her brother, and then served as a queen with Roman military support. Ptolemy was killed in the fighting, so another brother, Ptolemy XIV served as the new co-regent, alongside Cleopatra.
In 47BC, Cleopatra gave birth to a son named Caesarion, though Caesar never publicly acknowledge himself as the dad of Caesarion.
Cleopatra went with Caesar back to his home country Rome, but following his assassination in 44BC, she returned to Egypt. Ptolemy XIV died of unknown reason at that time, and that lead to Cleopatra making her son, Caesarion, the co-regent.
In 41BC, Mark Antony started both a political and romantic alliance with Cleopatra, because he was in dispute with Caesar’s son, Octavian, over the succession to the Roman leadership. Afterwards, Cleopatra and Antony had three children together – two sons and one daughter.
In 31BC, Mark Antony and Cleopatra combined forces to take on Octavian’s army, in a battle at Actium, on the west coast of Greece. Antony and Cleopatra were defeated, and therefore fled back to Egypt. Octavian followed and captured them in Alexandria in 30BC. Because Octavian’s army abandoned him, he chose to committed suicide, and Cleopatra chose to go down the same route, so she took her own life on the 12th of August, 30BC.
Modern Influences:
In today’s society, eye makeup, especially eyeliner, is very commonly worn by not only women, but also men. Eyeliner is not a recent invention, as it was created by the ancient Egyptians over 12,000 years ago. Today’s eyeliner is a mixture of three main components: film former’s, pigments, and thickeners. Film former is a substance that deposits a thin layer to the skin, which helps the makeup stick.
The Egyptians created ‘kohl’ (eyeliner) by combining a variety of ingredients, including lead, galena and burnt almonds.
They lined their eyes with kohl in order to mimic the appearance of Ra, the sun god. Not only did they use kohl for cosmetic purposes, but it was also useful for keeping bacteria out of their eyes, and preventing nasty infections. It also aided in stopping glare from the sun from affecting their eyesight. This small creation set a huge trend, and influenced beauty as we see it today.
Even though we don’t use hieroglyph today, the general idea of an alphabet originated from Egypt. In Australia, we use English, but without the Egyptian creation of hieroglyphs, there’s a doubt that the invention of English would even have occurred.
The Egyptians revolutionised the way we hunt and gather food, by introducing agriculture. Agriculture is the practice of farming and growing crops. There is evidence that agriculture began in an area called the fertile crescent, which Egypt is a part of.
Other countries that are in the fertile crescent are Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Cyprus, Jordan, Israel, Palestine, the south-eastern territory of Turkey, and the western territory of Iran. So, without the introduction of agriculture, we definitely would not have the lifestyle we have now.