Egypt

The Amarna Period

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In his third year of rule, Amenhotep IV held aheb-sed, a traditional festival that re-affirmed his fitness to rule. Oddly, no gods except his favorite, the Aten, were included. The Aten, a winged sun disk, was an obscure god in whom Amenhotep’s parents had taken an interest, but only as one god among many. The heb-sed shrines featured only Amenhotep IV beneath the Aten disk. Even Amun-Re was excluded.

By his fifth year as ruler, Amenhotep had promoted the Aten to official state god. Support that used to flow to Amun-Re temples and priests went to the Aten cult, which quickly grew rich. Temples of Amun-Re closed for lack of funds. The king declared that the Aten was the one true god, and banned all others—a staggering change in a land where 2,000 gods were worshiped.

Amenhotep changed his name to Akhenaten (“Living Spirit of the Aten”) and moved his capital to a new city, Akhetaten (“Horizon of the Aten”) on the east bank of the Nile, halfway between Thebes and Memphis—modern Tell elAmarna. The brief era of Akhenaten’s radical religious upheaval is called the Amarna Period.

Within four years, Akhetaten, the city, was fully functional. It became both the religious and political capital of Egypt. Buildings were decorated with art in the new Amarna style, with charming scenes of Akhenaten, the king, his wife Nefertiti (which means “a beautiful woman has come”), and their six daughters.

The elite found it wise to swiftly convert. But almost everyone else continued to quietly wor- ship their traditional gods and goddesses. The Aten religion, actually a cult formed around the personality of the king, never caught on outside the king’s closed circle.

In the 12th year of Akhenaten’s reign, several members of his family died suddenly, possibly of plague. Nefertiti vanished. She may have died, or she may have been “retired” because she produced no sons. Akhenaten married at least one of his surviving daughters—but still got no sons. He became increasingly intolerant of the persistent interest in the old gods, traditional religion, and anybody who disagreed with his radical religious notions. After ruling for 17 years, he died.

Massive confusion followed. The identity of his immediate successor is a hot topic of scholarly controversy. Tutankhaten, the king who followed the mystery successor, changed his name to Tutankhamun and moved the capital back to Thebes. He demolished the Aten’s temples, and erased the names of Akhenaten and Nefertiti from monuments. Amun-Re ruled once more.

Akhetaten was abandoned. With its residents gone and valuables removed, it sank back into the desert sands, until it was rediscovered by archaeologists in the early 1800s.

The kings who followed Akhenaten tried to erase the heretic king, his wife, and the entire embarrassing episode from history. In spite of their efforts, Akhenaten and Nefertiti are among the best-known icons of ancient Egypt—and the Amarna Period is one of the most intensively studied and fascinating eras of Egyptian history.

Perfume and Cosmetics

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A wealthy woman during Egypt’s imperial age, dressed for a party or festival, might have stepped from the pages of a modern fashion magazine (except for that odd white cone atop her head). Her pleated, embroidered linen gown, fringed wool shawl, elaborate wig, and flashy jewelry would be the pride of
a Paris designer.

Modern beauties would recognize her routine. She took a leisurely bath, washing with a refreshing solution of natron (a drying mineral) and fragrant oil. A cleansing cream made of oil mixed with lime (a mineral power) toned and softened her skin. She applied a wrinkle-fighting potion, custom-made from a secret recipe from the king’s personal physician.

She rubbed a deodorant made of ground carob (crushed pods from the carob tree, with a chocolate fragrance) onto her body. An edible perfume of natron, cinnamon oils, and a “secret ingredient” from Punt sweetened her breath.

She opened her make-up kit, surveying tiny jars of gold, translucent stone, ivory, and glass in the shapes of animals and birds, filled with powders, oils, unguents, and perfumes. (Unlike modern alcohol-based perfumes, hers were oil-based, scented with exotic ingredients such as cinnamon, myrrh, frankincense, cardamom, wine, and honey.) She selected a miniature gold spoon for mixing oils, her carved black kohl stick, several make-up palettes, and a polished copper hand mirror carved in the form of Hathor, the goddess of beauty.

Using her kohl stick, she applied thick black lines around her eyes. A touch more defined and lengthened her brows. She patted her cheeks with a dusting of powdered red ochre, then mixed a bit of it with oil to make colored lip gloss. She applied henna (a reddish dye extracted from the rose-scented loosetrife plant) to parts of her wig, her feet, the palms of her hands, and her fingernails.

Her servants helped her wiggle into a tight-fitting, pleated linen sheath, topped
with an embroidered wool shawl. She donned her fashionably long, braided wig, adding a circlet (crown-shaped hair ornament) of gold with tiny gemstone flowers. From her over- flowing jewelry case, she selected heavy gold earrings with dangling beads, several rings (one shaped like the ankh, symbol for life),
and a three-row beaded collar of gold, turquoise, lapis lazuli, and amethyst. Finally, she donned five gold bracelets—one on each upper arm and three for her dainty wrists.

At the door, she slipped into delicate leather sandals decorated with fresh flowers. She added a few fresh flowers to her wig. Just before leaving, she placed a cone of scented fat atop her wig. Over the evening, the heat would gradually melt the fat, releasing its scent and running a cooling stream of perfume down her wig, face, and neck.

Building a Superpower

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The first king to use ships for major troop movements, Thutmose III launched campaigns against Syria each summer for 18 years. In his most brilliant victory, he marched to Gaza in 10 days and took the city. He proceeded to Meggido and drove off the enemy after a daringly clever surprise attack.

Unfortunately, his soldiers could not resist the temptation to do some looting. This gave the enemy time to build up their defenses in Meggido. (A seven-month siege finally dislodged them.) Thutmose III conquered more than 350 cities in the Near East, from the northeast border of Egypt to the Euphrates River. The temples of Amun-Re got most of the spoils, as well as large shares of the tributethat flowed in from conquered provinces.

Thutmose I had already pretty much conquered Nubia, enabling Thutmose III to concentrate on Asia. His primary opponent was the Mittani Empire in northern Syria, which eventually fell to Egypt. The court of Thutmose III was luxurious beyond anything we can imagine today. During his 54-year reign, nothing was too good for his hundreds of wives (including many foreign princesses) and military generals. Tombs and grave goods from his era are remarkable for their high quality and abundance.

Imperial Egypt

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THE 350 YEARS OF DYNASTIES 18 AND 19 WERE THE WORLD’S first great empire. A series of brilliant military pharaohs extended Egypt’s domain from the fourth cataract deep in Nubia in the south, to the Euphrates River in the Near East. Egypt’s empire was much smaller than the later Persian and Roman empires, was built up gradually, and took shape not entirely by design. Egypt’s greatest general-kings appeared when much of the rest of the Mediterranean world was unstable and weak. Still, Egypt was the world’s first superpower.

The imperial age brought vast wealth and a new, cosmopolitan outlook to Egypt. Previously isolated in their narrow valley, Egyptians now subdued a multitude of nations, adopted their gods and goddesses, and imported their fashions and technologies.

Sons of the leaders of conquered territories in Nubia and Asia were compelled to live in Egypt, study in temple schools, and learn Egyptian ways. Foreign princesses joined the royal harem—the king’s group of wives. Harems could be quite large, with hundreds of wives. Although these foreigners lived in luxury, their marriages were strictly diplomatic—their presence kept the tribute and gifts flowing, and discouraged revolt.

Trade, always important, became more varied and extensive. Finely made products—weapons, furniture, faience (glazed earthenware), linen, jewelry—from the workshops of Egypt’s skilled artisans were in demand everywhere. Goods and materials Egyptians had always craved poured in from abroad.

From Nubia and further south came gold, ebony, ivory, amethysts, carnelian, jasper, diorite (a hard, grayish-green stone used for statues), leopard skins and other exotic animal pelts, incense, oils, ostrich eggs and feathers, and monkeys. From the mountainous deserts to the east came carnelian, garnets, jasper, rock crystal, obsidian, green and multi-hued feldspar, alabaster, copper, and rare emeralds. The copper and turquoise mines of Sinai were in constant production. Silver and lapis lazuli came from the far reaches of the Near East.

With Ahmose’s triumph over the Hyksos, the The bans reigned supreme. In a series of military campaigns, Ahmose secured Egypt’s borders. To build support for his central government, he gave the nomarchs and provincial nobles a great deal of authority and responsibility—backed up with land grants and rich gifts. He also started major temple-building projects all over the country. His son, Amenhotep I, ruled for 21 years, continuing his father’s military campaigns in Nubia and Syria, and founding the great temple of Karnak, near Thebes.

The next king, Thutmose I, was a non-royal general who gained the throne by marrying a princess. During his 11-year reign, the priests of Amun-Re at Thebes became fabulously wealthy and powerful.

Thutmose II was the son of a royal harem woman. He found it prudent to strengthen his claim to the throne by marrying his half-sister. Like Thutmose I, he conducted successful military campaigns in Nubia and Syria.

Thutmose III was also the son of a minor harem wife. He became king as a small child. His aunt Hatshepsut, ruling as his regent, seized the throne within two years. A talented and ambitious woman, Hatshepsut became one of Egypt’s most powerful female pharaohs. She built and restored many temples, and built a splendid mortuary temple of unique design for herself at Deir el-Bahari near Thebes. With her lavish royal support, the Amun-Re priesthood became even richer.

Hatshepsut was not much concerned with military matters, but she was very interested in trade. She sent almost continuous expeditions to the turquoise mines of Sinai, and to Punt, down the African coast. Meanwhile, Thutmose III was in the army, studying military strategy and plan- ning his comeback.

There is much historical evidence that Thutmose III disliked his aunt Hatshepsut. As soon as she died (some scholars speculate that Thutmose actually had a hand in her death), he destroyed many of her monuments and those of her supporters. He scratched her name off inscriptions and made sure she was left off the official king lists. His revenge complete, he proceeded to earn his modern title, “The Napoleon of Egypt.”

Models and Magic

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The tomb of Meketre, chancellor to Eleventh Dynasty king Mentuhotep II, held a secret missed by the looters who otherwise stripped it. In a sealed chamber, Meketre had placed 25 exquisitely detailed models of daily life and activities that his spirit could magically activate to brew his afterlife beer, catch fish for him, clean his house, serve his meals, bake his bread, haul water, care for his animals, fight off invaders, weave linen, build him a Nile yacht—any task that would need doing in the afterlife.

A model of the cattle census is complete with animals, herdsmen, village officials, and royal tax collectors. There are models of granaries (buildings for storing grain), boats of different sizes, and Meketre’s house and garden.

There are miniature workshops for bakers, butchers, brewers, weavers, and woodworkers Meketre added model serving girls to carry water, and battalions of tiny archers and soldiers, ready to fight if the need arose. Some of the models from Meketre’s tomb can be seen at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City (the rest are in the Cairo Museum).

The tradition of placing such models, and other servant figures, such as ushabtis (“answerers”), in tombs was a typical Egyptian response to a practical problem. With fewer resources available to build and stock huge, lavish tombs, even the king relied on magical servant figures, and paintings, figurines, and menus that could be magically activated as needed.

The Second Intermediate Period

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The horror of having their throne seized by foreigners caused the Egyptians to see the Hyksos in the worst possible light. But in many ways, Hyksos rule was the best thing that could have happened to Egypt. It rescued Egypt from political turmoil and cultural decline. The Hyksos brought fresh ideas and new technologies to a land that had become fixed in its outlook.

They introduced Egypt to superior bronze-age technology, already in wide use elsewhere. They introduced new military strategies, tactics, and equipment: the chariot and horse, the composite bow, scale armor (armor with solid, overlapping tabs of metal, rather like metal fish scales), and im- proved daggers and swords. Without these innovations, it is doubtful Egypt could have become an imperial superpower.

The Hyksos also introduced fresh ideas to the arts and everyday life. The vertical weaving loom, stringed musical instruments (lute and lyre), the oboe, the tambourine, the olive and pomegranate trees—all came to Egypt with the Hyksos. This 107-year period (1630 to 1539 B.C.E.) spans Dynasties 15 to 17.

Egypt had always been strongly inward-looking. Egyptians had not seen the outside world as threatening, or even as very interesting or im- portant. It was a handy shopping mall where they could get things they wanted. Seeing their kingship seized by foreigners finally opened their eyes. The Hyksos takeover profoundly changed the Egyptians’ view of the world. They realized they needed to do more than just go shopping in the world’s mines and bazaars. They needed a strong, even aggressive, foreign policy to prevent the many up-and-coming nations around the Mediterranean from coming in and taking whatever they wanted-including the throne. For the first time, Egypt established a standing army and a professional military. Because of the Hyksos, Egypt was no longer isolated from the world.

As the Hyksos consolidated control over the Delta, a family of The-ban princes formed a ruling faction (the Seventeenth Dynasty) at Thebes. They preserved Middle Kingdom culture, and controlled Upper Egypt from Elephantine to Abydos, north of Thebes. The Hyksos and the Nu- bians, who had formed an alliance, hemmed in the Thebans for almost 100 years. Finally, simmering tensions exploded into open conflict.

The Thebans were determined to drive the hated foreigners off the throne and out of Egypt. King Seqenenre Tao and his son Kamose mount-ed fierce campaigns against the Hyksos. Seqenenre Tao was soon killed. His mummy shows terrible wounds, probably inflicted in battle. Kamose resumed the fight, retaking the Nubian border forts and leading a raid to the outskirts of Avaris. But he reigned only three years.

His son, Ahmose was also determined to drive the invaders out, but waited for the right moment. About halfway through his 26-year reign, he led attacks against the Hyksos at their strongholds in Avaris and Mem-phis. After a hard-fought campaign, Ahmose prevailed. Not content with driving the Hyksos out of Egypt, he chased them all the way back to Palestine and laid siege to their home city, which was in northern Pales- tine (what the Bible describes as Caanan).

The Theban ruling family became the Eighteenth Dynasty, and Ah- mose I the first king of the New Kingdom. Egypt’s glorious imperial age was about to begin.

The Middle Kingdom - Part 2

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When Senwosret I took the throne, he continued his military activities, securing Egypt’s southern border at the second cataract with 13 forts. He sent mining expeditions to Nubia, Syria, and the western oases. He built a magnificent solar temple at Heliopolis.

The 34-year reign of his son, Amenemhet II, saw great achievements. The king widened and deepened the canal that fed the Faiyum from the Nile, expanding hunting, fishing, and agriculture. He sent trade expeditions to Punt, the Red Sea, Lebanon, and the Levant. He carried on a thriving trade with the Mediterranean island of Crete.

Senwosret II, son of Amenemhet II, presided over a peaceful, prosperous Egypt. He expanded cultivation in the Faiyum and established friendly (perhaps too friendly) relations with the nomarchs. His habit of giving them tax-free land grants and other rich gifts was one that had caused trouble before. His son, Senwosret III, decided to nip that problem in the bud once and for all. He created a new government structure that greatly minimized the power of the nomarchs. He closed their courts and revoked their rights and privileges. The new government had three major departments: North, South, and Elephatine/Nubia. Each was overseen by a council of senior officials reporting to a department vizier, who reported directly to the king.

During his 18-year reign, Senwosret III showed remarkable skill in managing economic affairs and foreign policy. He led a series of military campaigns to secure Nubian trade routes, protect the southern borders, secure access to the gold mines, and suppress troublesome Nubians. He cut a bypass canal around the first cataract, improving on a primitive Old Kingdom canal. This allowed speedier, safer trade, and rapid movement of soldiers to trouble spots. Senwosret also built many forts along the southern frontier.

Senwosret’s relations with Asia were mostly peaceful trading partnerships, though he did do some plundering. Much of the plunder and trade wealth that flowed in went to support the temples of Amun-Re at Thebes.

The next king, Amenemhet III, enjoyed 46 years of peace, prosperity, economic growth, and high artistic achievement. He sent almost continual expeditions to the turquoise mines of the Sinai to satisfy Egypt’s endless desire for this prized gemstone.

Amenemhet III built two pyramids for himself. One he abandoned. The other, where he was buried, is famous for the large number of features designed to keep tomb robbers out. There were trap doors, false passages and dead ends. His sarcophagus was carved from a single, massive
block of quartzite. After his burial, it was topped with a 45-ton stone slab, and all passages and corridors were filled with rock and rubble. His tomb was looted anyway.

Little is known about the last two Middle Kingdom rulers who are named and known, Amenemhet IV and Queen Sobeknefru. Climate change was causing instability in the inundation—the river was always either too high or too low. The resulting disruption led to Egypt’s second extended period of disorder, the Second Intermediate Period. Egypt was about to experience her worst nightmare: rule by foreigners.

Egypt entered a period of internal instability, though not as long or severe as the First Intermediate Period. The Thirteenth Dynasty, ruling from Itj-tawy, included many kings with brief reigns. They maintained some control over both Upper and Lower Egypt, but left few monuments or records. A competing faction (the Fourteenth Dynasty) ruled from a power base in the western Delta. It included an unknown number of obscure kings who came and went quickly. Egyptian control of Nubia collapsed, but many Egyptians stayed to work for local Nubian rulers.

As the 13th and 14th dynasties struggled with one another, a group of foreigners of Semitic origin claimed dominion over Egypt from their eastern Delta power base, Avaris. The Hyksos soon controlled the eastern Delta and the eastern deserts.

The Hyksos had been clever. They did not invade with fanfare and drawn swords. Instead, they immigrated into the eastern Delta and settled in, waiting for the right moment to make their move. Their political influence was largely confined to the Delta. The five (or six) Hyksos kings adopted Egyptian titles, dress, and traditions. They worshiped traditional Egyptian gods and goddesses (they preferred Seth over Osiris), while introducing several of their own to the religious mix. They built many temples and sponsored developments in Egyptian arts, crafts, and literature. They sacked Memphis, but did not cause the widespread terror and destruction claimed by later writers.

The Middle Kingdom - Part 1

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After years of fighting, the family in Thebes prevailed. They reunited Egypt under Mentuhotep II, leader of the last phase of the struggle against the Herakleopolitans. On becoming king, Mentuhotep took the kingly title “He who gives heart to the two lands.” (This kingly title was called a Horusname, after Horus, the falcon-headed god who was the traditional protector of Egyptian kings. The king is the physical embodiment of Horus-on-earth. To the ancient Egyptians, he was Horus.) In his 14th year of rule, he crushed a major rebellion in Abydos, securing his control of Upper Egypt. He changed his Horus-name to “Lord of the white crown.”

It was not until his 39th year of rule that he reunited Upper and Lower Egypt. He changed his Horus-name to “Uniter of the two lands.” So began the Middle Kingdom, which lasted 350 years and encompassed Dynasties 11 (late) to 14 (1980 B.C.E. to 1630 B.C.E.).

With strong central control, peace and prosperity returned. Mentuhotep II, ruling from Thebes, built a temple-tomb for himself at Deir el-Bahari, west of the city. He handed on to his son, Mentuhotep III, a stable, united Egypt.

Mentuhotep II and the kings who followed faced a new Egypt—one that had experienced chaos and misery. For the rest of the dynastic era, the suffering of the First Intermediate Period was remembered as a warning about what happens when order breaks down.

Faced with a growing population (perhaps 1.5 million people by 2000 B.C.E.), Middle Kingdom kings concentrated on expanding trade and agriculture, promoting the welfare of the country and keeping the peace. Unlike the all-powerful god-kings of the Old Kingdom, Middle Kingdom rulers could not harness the entire wealth of the nation to build lavish tombs. Pyramid building was revived during the Middle Kingdom, but they were not as large as the ones of the Old Kingdom. Instead of building lavish tombs, they devoted their attention and resources to repairs, land reclamation, irrigation, and harbors. They strengthened border defenses, dealing quickly and firmly with incursions by Libyans and Bedouins.

They renewed long-neglected diplomatic and trading relationships. Ambassadors and trade expeditions traveled to the ancient Phoenician city of Byblos, and other cities in the Near East, as well as Nubia and Punt. A new middle class of independent professionals, artisans, and tradesmen arose. Many farmers owned their own land, weakening the old system of feudal estates.

Secular (non-religious) literature—stories, poetry, songs, satires, proverbs, and wisdom literature (proverbs, collections of wise sayings, morality tales, fables, and advice to the young from their elders)—became popular. Stories called pessimistic literature reminded Egyptians about the misery of civil war, lest they forget.

With Thebes now the capital, the traditional Theban god Amun became prominent. He merged with Heliopolis’s sun god Re, becoming Amun-Re. The Theban kings provided lavish support and rich gifts to Amun-Re’s priesthood and temples.

Unlike the all-powerful god-kings of the Old Kingdom, Middle Kingdom rulers could not harness the entire wealth of the nation to build lavish tombs. Pyramid building was revived during the Middle Kingdom, but they wree not as large as the ones of the Old Kingdom.

The rapidly-growing cult of Osiris promised even poor peasants a pleasant afterlife. The Pyramid Texts were updated to apply to the wider range of spirits now eligible for eternal life. The revised spells, called the Coffin Texts, were painted or carved on wooden coffins. The new middle class of artisans started mass-producing grave goods: pottery, ushabtis, serdab statues (small statues of a dead person, sealed into a niche or chamber in the tomb), furniture, models, and more.

The Governor of the South and vizier of Mentuhotep IV overthrew his king to become Amenemhet I, founder of the Twelfth Dynasty. His 29-year reign gave Egypt its first extended period of stability and security in more than 200 years. His first move was to build and furnish a boat to cruise the Nile, putting nomarchs in their place and crushing troublesome Asiatics and Nubians.

To consolidate his power over Upper and Lower Egypt at a more strategic location, Amenemhet I established a new capital at Itj-tawy, about 20 miles south of Memphis. He introduced “co-regency” (a king sharing power with his heir) to strengthen royal succession and eliminate
the instability that often followed a king’s death. Co-regency made royal transitions much smoother, and was adopted by several later kings.

Amenemhet shared the throne with his son, Senwosret, for 10 years. Senwosret handled the military and kept the frontiers secure. He established fortified towns and trading posts as far south as the third cataract.

The First Intermediate Period

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The god-king no longer enjoyed exalted status. Local rulers and nomarchs had grabbed much of his authority. When the collapse finally came, it was sudden and complete.

While general disorder and the independence of local rulers helped bring about the collapse of the Old Kingdom, many scholars believe that climate change in Africa and the Near East had at least as much to do with it. Changes in the patterns of monsoon rains over the Abyssinian highlands caused widespread drought and a series of low Niles. Food production abruptly declined. Hot winds blew from the south for weeks at a time, according to some ancient texts. Sandstorms and dust storms hid the sun for days. Already dry farms turned to dust. In some places, the Nile was so shallow that it could be crossed on foot. Drought and famine in the Near East drove bands of starving, desperate refugees to Egypt’s borders, putting additional pressure on food and water supplies.

These disastrous events called into serious question the god-king’s ability to control the river and to ensure agricultural success. The king quickly lost any reputation he still had for magical powers. Only local warlords had the power to repel invaders, control distribution of scarce food, and enforce water conservation. Egypt quickly splintered into numerous small feudal kingdoms ruled by powerful chieftains. Their only concerns were keeping their domains secure and keeping invaders out. Art, tomb building, and everything else had to wait.

This period spans from about 2130 B.C.E. to 1980 B.C.E., Dynasties 9 to 11 (early). But in fact, there is little information and much confusion about the length of this period (estimates range from 140 to 200 years) and the number of kings. A rapid succession of kings (sometimes more than one at a time) claimed the throne. None of these self-proclaimed rulers had much influence beyond Memphis. By 20 years after Pepy II’s death, the Delta had been invaded by “Asiatics —refugees and nomadic tribes from northeast of Egypt in the Near East, Palestine, and beyond, to the Tigris-Euphrates Valley. Egypt’s government, such as it was, fled south.

One powerful faction ruled the Delta during the ninth and tenth dynasties, and parts of Middle Egypt from Herakleopolis. They brought a temporary end to warfare, expelled Asiatic invaders from the Delta, fortified the eastern borders, improved irrigation systems, and reestablished
Memphis as a regional capital. Another powerful ruling family (the Eleventh Dynasty) ruled from Thebes. There were frequent border clashes between the Thebans and Herakleopolitans.

The Old KingDom - Part 3

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But there was rumbling on the borders. Soldiers often had to be sent to Nubia to protect trade routes and to recruit mercenaries (soldiers for hire) for the army and police forces. A major fort was established at Buhen, near the second cataract. Libyan raiders made repeated incursions from the western desert.

The Fifth Dynasty ended in confusion. The first king of the Sixth Dynasty, Teti, settled things down. But the power and influence of the king was severely declining. Local nobles no longer felt it necessary oreven desirable to be buried near the king. They built tombs for themselves and their families in their own districts.

The last known king of the Old Kingdom, Pepy II, took the throne when he was a child. (Pepy II was, in fact, a Sixth Dynasty king, and the Old Kingdom ended in the Eighth Dynasty. However, not much is known about the kings of Dynasties 7 and 8, and Pepy II is the last king from this period to have had much influence over the course of events in the Old Kingdom.) His 94-year reign appears to have been marked by a steady decline in royal power. As the power of central government decreased, the power of local rulers increased. Instability and civil disorder followed Pepy’s death.

A few hundred years of gloriously high culture had been followed by a severe backlash. Many scholars believe the artistic and architectural achievements of the Old Kingdom were never equaled. But the Great Pyramid and similar projects were enormous drains on Egypt’s resources. The royal pretensions that led to such projects got out of hand. When powerful and all-too-independent nobles rebelled against the king’s authority and a series of low Niles brought widespread crop failure and
famine, pyramid-building was the last thing on the king’s mind.

Connections - The Square Sail

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Travel south to north in Egypt was always easy because that is the direction in which the Nile River flows. But north to south travel was slow and cumbersome until a clever boatman had a brainstorm around 3350 B.C.E. He attached a large square of fabric (probably linen) to a yard (a horizontal pole) that was attached to a mast near the front of his Nile boat. This sail caught the prevailing north-to-south winds and propelled his boat upriver.

Square sails are very inefficient if conditions require much steering and tacking (sailing on a zigzag into the wind). But since the Nile is relatively straight, calm, and easy to navigate, Egyptian sailors saw no need to improve much upon this invention. The little steering that was required needed only a steering pole or the use of slender steering oars. The square sail served them well for thousands of years.

When Egyptian sailors ventured into the Mediterranean Sea, or into the Red Sea down the coast of Africa to Punt (on the eastern coast of Africa, in the area of modern Somalia) even their seagoing ships were still fitted with simple square sails.

Later sailors, such as the Greeks and Phoenicians, faced with the more complex demands of sailing across the Mediterranean Sea, made numerous improvements to the square sail. They also developed more efficient sails in a variety of designs to more effectively catch the winds and propel large, heavy ships through deep water. But the basic shape of all square sails originally came from those ancient Nile reed boats.

Today, sailboats are still commonly used to carry goods and passengers along the Nile.

The Old KingDom - Part 2

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The Pyramid’s interior is a complex maze of chambers, tunnels,shafts, and corridors. There is much controversy about the purpose and nature of some of these features, and whether there might be still-undiscovered features inside, or beneath, the Great Pyramid.

Khufu’s son, Khafre, built his slightly smaller pyramid complex near his father’s. He added a unique touch: the Great Sphinx. A reclining lion with a human head and Khafre’s face, this guardian of the necropolis, carved from a natural outcrop of limestone, is 60 feet tall and 240 feet long. King Menkaure’s pyramid, the third at Giza, is only half the height of the Great Pyramid. In fact, the huge pyramids of Sneferu, Khufu, and Khafre were a departure from the normal scale of the vast majority of pyramids. Many scholars think that after Khafre the emphasis turned to temples and their decoration.

As they observed the sun and the other objects in the sky, the astronomer-priests of the popular sun god Re at Heliopolis made many discoveries. They documented the movements of celestial bodies, and learned to calculate the passage of time based on the rising and setting of stars and constellations. They understood the geometry of angles and were skilled at surveying land. They guarded their scientific knowledge closely. Because its priests possessed so much useful knowledge, the solar cult became wealthy and powerful. The first kings of the Fifth Dynasty finally
realized that building lavish tombs for themselves while ignoring the rest of the country was not wise. They quickly saw the advantages of being associated with Re’s powerful cult. Fifth Dynasty king Userkaf built the first temple to the sun god. His successors built many more.

Fifth Dynasty pyramids were not as well built at their Fourth Dynasty predecessors: They were constructed with rubble or mud-brick cores covered with stone casings. When the outer stone was stolen for other buildings (as always happened, sooner or later), the pyramids crumbled. Since the pyramids could not be relied on to stand forever, kings started looking to magic to ensure a comfortable afterlife. The tomb of the last king of the Fifth Dynasty, Unas, contains the first known example of the Pyramid Texts, which are hundreds of magic spells to help the dead king navigate the dangers of the underworld on his way to paradise.

During the Fifth Dynasty, power was somewhat decentralized and nomarchs and provincial nobles became increasingly wealthy and powerful. Many local posts became hereditary, with fathers passing power and tax-free estates to their sons. A feudal system developed, especially in Upper Egypt. Local rulers controlled mini-kingdoms and paid little attention to dictates from Memphis. As long as Egypt remained peaceful and taxes rolled in to the royal treasuries, the kings went along with this arrangement.

To Be Continue : Part 3

The Old KingDom - Part 1

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The Old Kingdom spans Dynasties 4 through 8, a period of 495 years from 2625 B.C.E. to 2130 B.C.E. It was the age of the great pyramids. The rule of the god-king was absolute. He alone was privileged to enjoy eternal life. As chief priest, he controlled the Nile and the inundation, and made sure the sun rose every day. As leader of an increasingly prosperous country, he commanded enormous power and wealth. Old Kingdom kings poured all of Egypt’s resources into ensuring that their afterlives would be as luxurious and glorious as possible.

For a few hundred years at the height of the Old Kingdom, all Egypt’s wealth—stone, gold, and gems, every peasant’s labor, every artisan’s skill, the central government, and the entire religious establishment—were harnessed for a single goal: building royal tombs. Advances in architecture,
astronomy, surveying, construction, quarrying, stonework, sculpture, art, and hieroglyphic writing were focused on designing, building, decorating, and maintaining the king’s tomb and vast necropolis—a city of the dead, where tombs were laid out like a well-planned town.

Like Djoser, later kings also wanted pyramids. And now they had the wealth to build on a large scale. They tried several designs. Duringhis 40-year reign, Fourth Dynasty king Sneferu built at least two pyramids of different designs: his Bent pyramid, and the Red Pyramid, both at Dahshur. The Bent pyramid was an attempt to build a true, smooth-sided pyramid. But during construction, it almost collapsed. So the builders had to reduce its almost 54-degree angle of incline to 43 degrees halfway up, resulting in a curiously asymmetrical profile. The Red Pyramid is a smooth-sided (not stepped) structure, making it the first true pyramid. Unlike the Great Pyramid and others in the Giza Plateau, the Red Pyramid at Dahshur rises at a 43-degree angle of incline.

Sneferu’s son, Khufu, was the biggest builder of all. He spent his entire 25-year reign getting ready for his afterlife. It still holds many mysteries. The Great Pyramid of Khufu, second king of the Fourth Dynasty, is the only one of the seven wonders of the ancient world still standing. Khufu
took the art and science of pyramid building to heights it had never achieved before, and never would again.

Khufu built his pyramid and necropolis at the edge of the desert on the northwestern corner of the Giza Plateau, southwest of modern Cairo. No one had built there before. When fully developed, the complex stretched over four miles long. It included the Great Pyramid (surrounded by an eight-foot high wall) and a huge mortuary temple for the king’s funeral. A 2,700-foot-long paved causeway led to the Valley Temple by the Nile. At least five pits held boats in which Khufu’s spirit could sail the heavens.

The vast necropolis included hundreds of mastabas for royals, nobles, priests, and officials. Villages housed construction workers and priests to tend to the king’s cult after his death. There were three small pyramids for Khufu’s queens, and a small cult pyramid—a very small pyramid
used in religious/magical rituals and ceremonies during the king’s funeral, and afterward as a site of rituals for his mortuary cult. It may have been meant for the king to use in some (unknown) way during his afterlife. It was excavated only recently, and its precise meaning and use within the necropolis is still a hot topic of debate among Egyptologists.

Khuit Khufu—Khufu’s Horizon, as the Egyptians called the Great Pyramid—was the largest, most complex, and best built of all the pyramids. When first built, it rose 481 feet into the desert sky. (The top 31 feet, including the capstone, are long gone.) The pyramid’s base covers about 13 acres. Each of the four sides is 755 feet long at the base. Until 1889, when the 1,045-foot Eiffel Tower was built in Paris, it was the tallest artificial structure on earth. It held this record for more than 4,000 years.

More than 2 million limestone blocks, weighing an average of twoand- one-half tons each (some weigh up to 15 tons), were stacked, with amazing accuracy, in 210 ascending rows. The blocks in the lowest row are five feet tall; the blocks at the summit are 21 inches tall. The outer walls are
slightly concave (bowed inward) to increase stability. The Pyramid was topped with a gold-covered pyramidion (pyramid-shaped capstone).

No one is sure exactly how the Great Pyramid was built or how long it took. Egyptian priests told Herodotus it had taken 20 years. He calculated that the project would have required more than 100,000 workers. Modern Egyptologists believe it was more like 15,000. The pyramid builders had mostly stone-age tools. But they also had unlimited manpower, religious motivation, excellent organization, strong leadership, and plenty of time.

For measuring, the builders used ropes and sticks, a plumb bob (a weight at the end of a string), leveling staffs, and a set-square to mark angles. For cutting limestone, they used flint knives, copper chisels, long copper saws, and wooden wedges. A stonecutter, recognizing natural seams in the rock, pounded in wooden wedges, soaked the wedges, and waited for the heat of the sun to expand the wood. The wood split the rock at the seams. Harder stone was pounded free with diorite slabs, using pumice or quartz sand as an abrasive.

Most of the blocks were quarried from limestone outcrops near the site. The outer casing was fine white limestone from Tura, east of the Nile. (Most of the casing blocks are long gone, used to build medieval Cairo.) The pink granite for the burial chamber and sarcophagus (the outer stone coffin)
was floated on barges from quarries near Elephantine.

At the time the Great Pyramid was built, the Egyptians had donkeys and oxen, but no horses. They did not use pulleys or wheels. The massive blocks were probably raised using earth and mud-brick ramps. The design of the ramps is a subject of much controversy. On flat ground and slight inclines, the blocks were dragged with heavy flax ropes over oiled rollers made of wood or stone.

The Great Pyramid was not built by slaves. Manual laborers, drafted from all over Egypt, worked under a core of architects, engineers, master builders, stonemasons, artisans, and scribes. Draftees were mostly farmers who had nothing to do while their fields were underwater as a result
of the inundation. They worked for a season, then returned home.

To Be Continue : Part 2

The Early Dynastic Period

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king Narmer

Narmer’s triumph did not put an immediate end to conflict. There were many periods of localized warfare. Forces from the north and south clashed. For awhile, the two lands continued to think of themselves as separate kingdoms.

Narmer, who was from Ta-Shomu, may have married a Ta-Mehu princess to establish his right to rule the north. Throughout Egyptian history, many kings chose wives to strengthen their ties to the royal family or to cement a political or diplomatic relationship. Second Dynasty king Khasekhemwy also married a northern princess.

This period, known as the Early Dynastic Period, covers 375 years of what Egyptologists have named Dynasties 0 to 3 (3000 B.C.E.–2625 B.C.E.). Most information about the Early Dynastic Period comes from royal tombs at Abydos, and tombs of nobles at Saqqara. The few items missed by tomb robbers show that arts and crafts were already highly advanced.

Early kings wanted to be assured of plenty of help and companionship in the afterlife. When they died, servants and family members were killed and buried with them. First Dynasty king Djer was buried with more than 300 people. This cruel, wasteful practice was abandoned by the end of the First Dynasty.

The population was growing rapidly, reaching an estimated 1 million by the end of the Second Dynasty. One of the king’s most important roles was to increase food production by extending irrigation systems and reclaiming land for farming. Land was reclaimed for farms, towns, and cities using dams and drainage canals. First Dynasty king Hor-Aha founded the capital city of Memphis on land reclaimed from the Nile. Memphis (which means “white walls”), at the southern tip of the Nile Delta, became one of the ancient world’s greatest cities.

Artistic, cultural, religious, and political traditions were established during the Early Dynastic Period that persisted throughout Egypt’s history. At Memphis, a highly centralized, bureaucratic government was soon in place and growing fast. The government employed legions of scribes, tax collectors, accountants, engineers, and architects. Specialists oversaw trade, irrigation, and drainage, and the distribution and storage of food.

Scribes, whose job was to write down all important records, quickly converted from cumbersome hieroglyphics, based on pictures, to speedier hieratic script (a kind of hieroglyphic shorthand). They wrote on sheets or rolls of papyrus, made from the fiber of the papyrus plant, which
was already in wide use by Narmer’s time. Accountants and engineers had all the basic mathematical and surveying skills they needed to determine property boundaries and calculate crop yields. The 365-day calendar was in place. A system of weights and measures simplified trade and tax collection.

Artists and craftsmen started using standardized proportion grids for depicting objects and people. Before beginning to paint or carve, the artist drew a grid of horizontal and vertical lines of predetermined size and spacing on his work surface (a tomb wall, for example). Depending upon the rank and social position of the person being depicted, he or she was made a specific size in relation to the other figures in the composition. Also, each figure had to be structured in a specific way—a person was a certain number of “heads” tall, the legs were a certain length in relation to the torso, and so on. These very specific relationships were established early on and artisans seldom deviated from them. These conventions and proportions had deep religious, magical, cultural, and social significance. (There is more information about artistic conventions in chapter 6.)

The arts of pottery and stonework were highly advanced. There is evidence of roof beams, joists, and large doors made of cedar wood, indicating ongoing trade with Lebanon, which is on the Mediterranean coast more than 200 miles northeast of Egypt. Articles of ebony and ivory show that trade with Nubia, in north-central Africa south of Egypt, was well-established. Trade goods that came through the southerly routes from Nubia originated in Nubia itself, and from the peoples of the Sudan and of equatorial and sub-Saharan Africa. Lapis lazuli ornaments show that Egyptian traders were also benefitting from a long-distance trade network that brought in gemstones and other luxury goods from as far as central Asia. The stage was set for a spectacular flowering of culture.

Early Third Dynasty kings faced serious internal political problems and could not yet afford to concentrate on tomb-building. They granted large estates, herds, and rich gifts to trusted nobles who promised to keep the provinces quiet. These nobles enjoyed enormous local power and prestige setting up a dangerous pattern repeated throughout the dynastic era: powerful local nobles becoming too wealthy and independent.

Besides putting down internal squabbles, kings were also busy obtaining reliable supplies of the industrial materials they needed and the luxury goods they craved. Third Dynasty kings began extensive mining in the Sinai Peninsula, especially for copper and turquoise. Keeping the
mines open often meant military action against local Bedouin tribes. Keeping prized gold flowing north from Nubian mines was a problem faced by kings throughout the dynastic era. Third Dynasty king Djoser extended the boundary of Upper Egypt to the first cataract at Aswan to help secure the southern trade routes.

Djoser’s success at managing internal affairs let him turn attention to his tomb. He wanted to do something different, and had just the man to do it: his brilliant vizier (chief official), Imhotep. Imhotep designed the world’s first pyramid, the Step Pyramid, at Saqqara. The Step Pyramid is a stack of successively smaller mastabas (the Arabic word for “bench”; it is a small, oblong tomb with sloping sides and a flat roof) piled atop one another. It measures 467 feet by 393 feet, and is 200 feet tall. It was the first all-stone building in the world.

Egypt Before The Empire

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IN EARLY PREHISTORIC TIMES, THE NILE VALLEY WAS NOT Agreat place to live. Each summer, floodwaters filled the narrow gorge cliff to cliff. When they receded, the valley remained wet and marshy.

But it was a hunter’s paradise. The Nile was alive with fish. Papyrusthickets teemed with game birds. Antelopes, gazelles, oryxes, andwild bulls grazed in lush greenery near the cliffs. Crocodiles and hippospatrolled river shallows and muddy pools.

From 8000 to 5000 B.C.E., the Nile valley and surrounding deserts were much cooler and wetter than they are today. But the climate was changing rapidly, turning hotter and drier. The valley started drying out more quickly after the annual floods. Soon, some spots on the sandy
plateaus that rose up to the cliffs were dry year-round.

Around 5000 B.C.E., people started living year-round in the NileRiver valley. Great droughts in Asia had set masses of people adrift. These unwilling wanderers longed to resume the lifestyles they had left: agriculture (growing grains and other foodstuffs) and animal husbandry (tending herds of animals for meat, milk, hides, wool, and transportation). To them, the Nile valley looked very inviting.

Archaeologists have identified several Predynastic Egyptian cultures, named for modern towns where remains of ancient cultures were found. The Badarian culture arose about 5000 B.C.E. It was succeeded by the Amratian culture (also called Naqada I) about 4000 B.C.E. The Early and Late Gerzean Periods (also called Naqada II) followed around 3500 B.C.E. and 3300 B.C.E.

Because these cultures did not leave written records, it can seemthat Egyptian civilization sprang out of nowhere. But it was just that the ancient Egyptians had settled down and prospered in the Nile valley longbefore they learned to write. Archaeologists have uncovered enough physical evidence to piece together a general picture of early civilization in the valley. But over thousands of years, the Nile’s annual flood buried most evidence of Predynastic Egyptian life. What is known about these people comes mostly from cemeteries, pottery, tools, weapons, jewelry, and other metal objects.

Early Nile valley settlers carefully buried their dead in locations safe from the floodwater. Archaeologists have discovered many cemeteries on high ground near the cliffs. Villages were located on “turtle-backs” (small rises of land) on the valley floor. Evidence of only a few valley floor settlements has survived, mostly by chance. By studying layers of mud, archaeologists and geologists have determined that many more settlements are buried deep beneath millennia of mud.

In the Delta, the Nile has gradually shifted eastward over thousands of years, wiping out signs of many important early settlements. Other ancient villages lie buried deep beneath modern towns and cities. Many of these sites have been continuously inhabited for up to 8,000 years. Many ancient settlements were dismantled, brick by brick, by the Egyptians themselves. Most ancient buildings were made of sun-dried mud-brick. As mud-brick decays, it turns into sebakh—the organic debris of human occupation; it makes a cheap, handy compost and fertilizer. Over the centuries, sebakh gatherers have removed all traces of entire ancient villages and towns.

Predynastic Egyptians lived in small, self-supporting villages on humps of dry land near the river’s edge, close to hunting and fishing grounds and to cultivated fields. They tended herds of animals. They wove baskets and mats from papyrus and reeds. They grew wheat and barley, storing the grains in pits lined with reed mats. They used milling and grinding stones and simple cooking equipment.

They protected their eyes from the harsh sun with “eye paint”: minerals mixed with oils and ground on stone palettes. They pressed cleansing oils from the wild castor plant. Compared to people in other parts of the ancient world, they enjoyed a good life. Food, both cultivated and
wild, was usually plentiful.

They believed in an afterlife. They laid a dead person on his left side, knees touching his chin, wrapped him in a reed mat or animal skin, or placed him in a basket, and buried him in a shallow oval pit in the sand, facing west. Graves often included jars of beer and food, pottery,make-up palettes, weapons, personal ornaments, and small figurines symbolizing fertility or life. In the hot, dry sand, bodies dried out before they had a chance to rot, creating natural mummies.

Predynastic religion included animal cults. Animal cemeteries, located near human graves, included the bodies of dogs, jackals, sheep, and cows, wrapped in linen or matting and carefully buried.

Coming Together

During the Badarian era, perhaps about 100,000 people lived in what was to be Egypt. This increased to 250,000 people during the Amratian Period. With more people to feed, better organization was necessary. Egypt always faced the danger of a low or high Nile (see page 7). When disaster struck, it took discipline, cooperation, and strong leadership to quickly restore food production and distribution.

Villages gradually banded together into confederations under strong chieftains. These regional alliances became the permanent administrative districts of dynastic Egypt. Egyptologists call these districts nomes, and their leaders, nomarchs.

During the late Gerzean era, important people such as nomarchs were buried in increasingly large, complex, rectangular mud-brick structures. Ordinary people were still buried in simple pits in the sand.

There is controversy among Egyptologists about what this two-tier burial system means. Sir Flinders Petrie (1852–1942), father of scientific archaeology, thought it meant that a “dynastic race” had invaded Egypt from the Near East or Nubia, taken over, and introduced writing and
other cultural advances. Other scholars believe the social divisions were a natural part of cultural trends already in motion.

The later Gerzean Period saw increased political activity. The population continued to grow rapidly. Since there are no written records, little is known about how the nomes finally joined up, forming two distinct cultures in Upper Egypt and Lower Egypt: the Delta culture and the Naqada culture. By 3400 B.C.E. Egypt ended up with two kingdoms.

The Ta-Mehu culture in Lower Egypt’s Delta had its capital at Pe (later Buto). Its king wore a red crown (known as deshret). Its patroness was the cobra goddess Edjo (Wadjet) and its symbols were the papyrus and the bee. While there is no evidence that the ancient Egyptians called this the Red Land, modern scholars have referred to it that way.

The Ta-Shomu culture in the long, narrow gorge of Upper Egypt had its capital at Nekhen (later Hierkonpolis). Its king wore a tall, conical white crown (known as hedjet). Its patroness was the vulture goddess Nekhbet and its symbols were the lotus and the sedge (a kind of marsh grass). This culture has come to be known as the White Land. There were struggles for dominance among factions within each of the two lands, and between Ta-Mehu and Ta-Shomu. An ambitious local chieftain arose in Ta-Shomu, and united its districts under his rule. He then did the same in Ta-Mehu.

To piece together the story of Egypt’s unification, archaeologists have made many guesses based on a small number of objects: large commemorative palettes (shield-shaped stones) and ceremonial mace heads (hammer-like weapons) carved with scenes depicting political events.
The chieftain who united the two lands (in about 3100 to 3150 B.C.E.) is traditionally called Narmer. His triumphs are depicted on the Palette of Narmer, now in the Cairo Museum. On one side, Narmer wears the white crown as he slays his foes; on the other side he wears the red crown. After Narmer, Egyptian kings wore the combined double crown (known as sekhemty), and adopted names and titles that symbolized their dominion over the two lands.

No one knows who taught the inhabitants of the Nile valley to write. It might have been refugees from Mesopotamia. Mesopotamian cuneiform (wedge-shaped) writing, scratched into slabs of damp clay, bears little relation to Egyptian writing. But the idea of expressing ideas
using symbols could have planted a seed. Hieroglyphics, Egyptian picture- writing, emerged during the late Predynatsic Period, and hieroglyphs are found in a tomb that has been dated to 3250 B.C.E.