Egyptian Culture or Ancient Egypt

The Egyptian culture or culture of Ancient Egypt , developed in the valley formed by the Nile River, located in the northeast corner of Africa. The Nile River runs through the territory from south to north, making agriculture, livestock and navigation prosper.

Geographic environment of Ancient Egypt

Egypt is located in the northeast of the African continent. It bordered in ancient times, to the north with the Mediterranean Sea; to the south with the region of Nubia; to the east with the Red Sea and the Isthmus of Suez and to the west with the Libyan desert.
The habitable territory of Egypt is in the form of a narrow strip crossed from south to north by the Nile River . Geographically it has two regions:Upper and Lower Egypt . The first region is to the south. It covers from Aswan to Cairo. This area is mountainous where the Nile River exhibits six waterfalls. The second region is located in the north and extends from Cairo to the Mediterranean Sea. It forms a very fertile valley, watered by the Nile that flows into the Mediterranean Sea.

Historical evolution:periods of the history of Egypt

The Ancient Egyptian Periods can be divided in two ways:

Periods by Location of Egyptian Culture

Legendary Period

In this first period of Egyptian culture, the kings, servants of Horus ruled. . The men lived grouped in clans, then in larger groups called nomes . Some notable events were the establishment of the calendar, the appearance of hieroglyphic writing and the division of the territory into two well-defined regions:Upper and Lower Egypt .

Tinite Period

Named for the great prosperity that the city of Tinis reached. in Egyptian culture. At this time the first pharaoh called:Menes , who unites the kingdoms of Upper and Lower Egypt. The first irrigation canals were built and it was established that women could ascend to the royal throne.

Memphithic Period

Its name is due to the brightness that reached the city of Memphis in the Egyptian Culture, founded by Menes, where 10 dynasties reigned. In this period the pyramids of Cheops, Khafre and Micerino were built.; Culture was promoted through the establishment of libraries in different parts of the country.

Theban Period

Its capital was the city of Thebes . The great Labyrinth Building was built here , which had 12 patios, 1,500 rooms and the artificial lake of Meris for irrigation.
In this period the civil wars that favored the Hyksos took place. , shepherd peoples of the east.

Apogee period of Egyptian culture

During this period Egypt reached its maximum expansion, thanks to the great conquests undertaken by the pharaohs Tuthmosis, the Great and Ramses II . In the time of Amenophis IV, monotheism was established. around the god Aton .

Egyptian culture decline period

The dynastic struggles between Upper and Lower Egypt politically weakened the Egyptian Culture and favored the successive conquests of the Persians, commanded by Cambises , from the Greeks, with Alexander the Great at the head and the Romans who led by Octavio , they defeated queen Cleopatra in the Battle of Actium .

Periods for the New Chronology

Protodynastic Period or Pretinite

This period began with the 0 or Nagada Dynasty. Egypt was unified with a single king named Narmer or Menes. The remains found are the Palettes and Mace Heads. For more information go to the full article:Protodynastic or Pretinite Period.

Archaic or Tinite Period

It ranged from Dynasties I to Dynasty II. The I Dynasty developed from the years 3050 B.C. until 2860 BC being the most important character Narmer. For more information go to the full article:Archaic Period or Tinita.

Old Empire or Memphite

The Old Kingdom spanned the Third Dynasty to the Sixth Dynasty. In this stage the most representative buildings of the Egyptian culture were built, which were the pyramids and the sphinx. For more information go to the full article:Ancient Kingdom or Memphite.

First Intermediate Period

It developed between the end of the VI Dynasty until the reunification of Egypt by Mentuhotep II. In this period, feudalism or independence from the nomes developed, the nomarchs gathered local troops and there were High Priests of the gods who also administered their assets. For more information go to the full article:First Intermediate Period.

Middle Kingdom

Includes the 11th and 12th dynasties. During this period, Egypt was reunited. The capital moved to Thebes. For more information go to the full article:Middle Kingdom.

Second Intermediate Period

This period is the darkest time, the most characteristic of this period was the appearance of the Hyksos and the appearance of multiple kingdoms in various places in Egypt. For more information go to the full article:Second Intermediate Period.

New Empire

For more information go to the full article:New Empire.

Third Intermediate Period

For more information go to the full article:Third Intermediate Period.

Low Period

For more information go to the full article:Low Season.

Political organization of Egyptian culture

The Egyptian government was characterized by being monarchical, absolutist and theocratic .

The Pharaoh

The government was in the hands of a person called pharaoh , who lived surrounded by a great court of privileged nobles, officials, priests and warriors .
The pharaoh was the master of all men , owner of all the lands and all the waters of the Nile. His will was law.
The pharaoh he was considered the son of the god Ra (Sun), who had given him power to govern men. Therefore the mortals owed him the utmost reverence and none of them could pronounce his name without adding the following expression:> may life and health flourish in him.

Assistant Government Officials

Many government functions were delegated to people he trusted, who provided effective collaboration. Among the main officials:
The Royal Scribe , which was in charge of carrying out the calculation of agricultural income and inspecting industries and commerce . For this they had to be experts in handling numbers and writing.
The Grand Vizier , in charge of controlling the nomos (provinces), was the intermediary between the authorities and the pharaoh.
The Chief of the State Seal , currently compared to the Ministry of Economy, whose function was to monitor tax revenues and State spending
The High Priest , who was in charge of religious worship and was concerned with presenting the pharaohs as descendants of the gods.

The social organization of Egyptian culture

Society in Egyptian culture was divided into various social classes, among which there was great inequality. You can find a more extensive article in «political and social organization of Ancient Egypt«. These social classes were the following:

The priests

They belonged to a privileged class, in charge of religious worship. They took care of the temples and the sacred animals. They acted as intermediaries between gods and men.

The scribes

They were men of vast culture, they served as ministers of state, administering the country, supervising constructions, receiving agricultural products, recruiting soldiers for the army, keeping accounting books and collecting taxes.

The Warriors

They were the defenders of the country and the conquerors of new territories in the Egyptian culture. For their exploits they received land and slaves as prizes and in some circumstances, they could have the privilege of having a stone sarcophagus.

The town

It constituted the largest class in Egyptian culture, made up of farmers, artisans, and merchants. Its members were obliged to pay taxes, to serve as conscripts in wartime, to perform forced labor. Even in periods of bad harvest, they had to comply with the delivery of the tithe.

The slaves

They were made up of prisoners of war or men bought in foreign markets. They generally served the privileged classes, in hard jobs, poorly fed and poorly dressed.

Economic organization of Egyptian culture

Agriculture

This activity consisted of working the land. It was plowed with hoes and plows pulled by oxen. They cultivated wheat, barley, flax, grapes, vegetables and various legumes.

Livestock

It was developed on large tracts of land belonging to the temples. Numerous herds of cattle, sheep and mules grazed on them.

The industry

It had great importance at the time of the pharaohs. Linen fabric industries stood out, comparable to silk; the elaboration of metals, with which they made utensils, weapons, jewelry, mirrors and combs; tanning, pottery, furniture, bodywork and the preparation of a kind of paper, based on papyrus.

Trade

This activity was developed both by land and by sea in the Egyptian culture. By land, their caravans reached Syria, Palestine and Mesopotamia. By sea, his ships sailed along the coasts of Syria and the islands of the Aegean Sea. The trade was carried out through barter, for which they exchanged fabrics and objects of art and luxury for cattle, wood and metals.

Cultural manifestations of Egyptian culture

The ancient Egyptians came to develop an outstanding culture, whose maximum expression can be found in the sciences, the arts, religion and writing. You can find a longer article for each stage:

• Cultural Manifestations in the Ancient Kingdom of Egypt
• Cultural Manifestations in the Middle Kingdom of Egypt
• Cultural Manifestations in the New Kingdom of Egypt

Science in Egyptian culture

Among the main sciences in which the culture of the ancient Egyptians excelled, are the following:

Mathematics

In this field they laid the foundations of arithmetic and geometry . They knew decimal numbering. Taking into account the proportions of the body; they invented the foot, the ulna and the span as measures; determined the triangles and rectangles to form squares. These events served them to measure their lands, trace their irrigation canals and works of monumental architecture. They also used jars, scales and weights to measure agricultural products.

Astronomy

They invented the calendar, with 365 days, divided into 12 months of 30 days each, to which they added a period of 5 holidays. This calendar we know until now from the Romans.
The Egyptians knew three seasons:flood, sowing and harvest; discovered several planets:Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn; they invented the sun and shadow clock and the water clock; They drew celestial maps and determined the four cardinal points.

The medicine

It arose due to the need to attend to the injuries received by the soldiers in the battlefields and the accidents of the workers, produced in the great constructions. They knew how to treat fractures, wounds, dislocations, under the influence of superstitions and the power of amulets. For example, when taking some medicine, they had to pronounce certain words. They treated the diseases of the time and excelled in the techniques of embalming and mummifying corpses.

The art of Egyptian culture

The architecture

The architecture for the Egyptian culture had a religious character. The architectural monuments were inspired by the existence of the beyond . They built true monuments, such as pyramids, mastabas, hypogea and temples .
The Pyramids
They are huge monuments built of granite, pyramidal in shape and with a square base. With rooms and internal corridors. They were built near the city of Memphis , in the Gizeh valley to serve as a tomb for the pharaohs and their relatives. Of the 40 pyramids, which arouse the admiration of observers, three are the best known and most important:
The Pyramid of Cheops , 146 meters high.
The pyramid of Khafre , 136 meters high.
The pyramid of Menkaure , 62 meters high.
The great pyramid of Cheops was originally 146 meters high; today, due to the ravages of time, it only has 137 meters. Two million three hundred thousand stone blocks were used for its construction, whose average weight per unit is two and a half tons. One hundred thousand men must have worked on it for more than twenty years.
The Mastabas
They were also tombs, which have the shape of a truncated pyramid, with a small underground chamber, where the mummified corpses of the nobles were buried.
The Hypogea
They are underground tombs excavated in the foothills of the mountains. Inside there was a chapel and a deep well, on one of whose sides was the room of the mummy who had been a rich and privileged person in life.
The Temples
These architectural monuments, which have been characterized by their majestic appearance, were built for the cult of the gods . They were reached by avenues, adorned on both sides with small sphinxes. On the façade there were two truncated pyramids, an entrance with two obelisks and two statues of the venerated god. It consisted of the following divisions:
The Hypostyle Room for the gathering of believers.
The Apparition Room where the priests came out on the side of the ship.
An interior lobby intended for prayers.
The most famous temples were those of Karnak and Luxor, in the city of Thebes.

The sculpture

The sculpture of the Egyptian culture was characterized by its rigidity and the absence of psychological features. Among the best-known sculptures we have the colossi and the sphinxes .
The colossi They are gigantic statues that measure up to 80 meters in height. They represent seated pharaohs, placed at the entrances of large cities such as the colossi of Mnemón, near Thebes.
The Sphinx it measures 20 meters wide by 19 high and 73.5 long. It is the symbol of the rising sun, with the body of a lion. It is located near the pyramids of Gizeh. The rock in which the sphinx has been sculpted produces special noises, because the porosity of the material houses atmospheric humidity that, when the sun appears, escapes in the form of vapour.

The writing

The Egyptians wrote with small pointed reeds, dipped in a kind of ink, prepared from water, rubber and vegetable substances.
They used as paper the stems of papyrus, which grew on the banks of the Nile River.
The Egyptian script was deciphered by the Frenchman Jean-François Champollion in 1822. The key was provided by the discovery of the Rosetta Stone in 1799, by the soldier Pierre-François Bouchard , when Napoleon Bonaparte carried out the expedition to the country of the Nile.
Hieroglyphic writing It was a writing that was difficult to interpret, since it was made up of signs and images of animals and objects. It was generally used in tombs and temples.
Hieratic Script it is the same hieroglyphic writing but in abbreviated form. Its use was limited to priests and people of great culture.
Demotic Script it is the simplified hieratic script. It was used by the townspeople.

Egyptian religion

The Egyptian religion had the following characteristics:
He was polytheistic They had many gods. They believed that all heavenly bodies, natural elements, some animals and some plants, were sacred. Thus many mysteries of nature were explained.
Anthropomorphic era , the gods were usually represented in human form and sometimes with animal heads.
Cult Classes
Religious worship consisted of magical ceremonies, dedicated to local and national gods.
Initially before the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt, each nome or community worshiped their local gods. Later during the Empire, many of these gods became national gods.
The Main Divinities
Among the main divinities of Ancient Egypt we have:
Horus , the rising Sun, son of Osiris and Isis.
Ra the Sun at the zenith or noon, main divinity of Egypt.
Osiris , the setting sun represented fertility.
Isis the Moon, queen of the night.
Seth the night, symbolized evil.
Anubis judge of the dead
Thoth protector of wisdom
The myth of Osiris
The Egyptians believed that Osiris had taught the people the cultivation of the land and the arts of peace. His brother Seth, god of night and evil, out of jealousy, killed him and dismembered him, throwing his remains into space. Horus son of Osiris comes out of the east and after the fierce combat he manages to defeat Seth and avenge his father Isis and his son, after gathering the scattered remains, they managed to bring him back to life. But Osiris did not return to inhabit this world, but went to the abode of the gods. There he judged the souls choosing the virtuous ones to enjoy heavenly happiness.
Worship of animals
The ox Apis black with a white forehead, the figure of an eagle on the back and a beetle under the tongue. at his death he was mummified and buried in a cemetery called Serapeum .
The crocodiles who lived in the great temples attended by the priests.
Other animals worshiped were the Ibis , bird with which the future was predicted; the phoenix that rose from its ashes; the falcon, the jackal , etc.
Cult of the dead
The Egyptian culture revered the ancestors because they wanted to preserve the moral teachings and remember the benefits they had received. In addition, they thought that the human being did not die completely, because his soul or ka , remained alive, as long as the corpse was not destroyed. To this end they practiced mummification .
They deposited offerings in the tombs and placed the Book of the Dead next to the dead. , which contained the formula with which the soul should defend itself before the Tribunal of Osiris . After a year, the mummy was placed in a boat, to be dragged through the waters of the Nile, heading for eternity.
Trial to the dead
According to Egyptian mythology, the soul appeared before the Court of Osiris . He was led there by the god Anubis , where 42 judges examined his eternal conduct. The god Thoth weighed sins on the scales of justice. If the saucer tilted to the side of guilt, the soul was torn apart by a dog; otherwise he could enjoy the happiness of the gods.

Cultural contribution of Egyptian culture

The cultural contribution to Western culture is manifested through three fundamental ideas; the idea of ​​the soul, the judgment of the dead and the calendar.
They considered that every person had two parts; the body and the soul; the latter continued to exist at death.
Likewise, they believed that the soul was judged by a tribunal of the gods. If it was found that he had led a fair and pure life, he would enjoy eternal happiness.
Finally, the ancient Egyptians owe him the preparation of a 365-day calendar that survives until now, only modified twice; in the 1st century BC when the Julian Calendar was developed and in 1582 when the Gregorian Calendar (Gregory XIII) was established.