2. INTRODUCTION TO ANCIENT EGYPT

EGYPT

·Location
·Modern Egypt vs. Ancient Egypt
·Geography and Environment
•Historical overview

Egypt in the modern world

MODERN EGYPT:
Arab Republic of Egypt

Area: about 400,000 square miles
Population: about 55,000,000 people
Official Language: Arabic
Majority Religion: Islam
(significant minority of Coptic Christians)
Government: Republic

Main sources of income: Agriculture and Tourism

ANCIENT EGYPT
Kemet
Aigyptos, Aegyptus > Egypt

Area: varies
Population: never more than a few million
Official language: Ancient Egyptian, later Greek
Religion: indigenous Egyptian belief system (subject of course!)
Form of government: monarchy (divine king as ruler)
Major economic activities: Agriculture and (later) tourism

Nile River:

-Nile flows north from central Africa
-Annual flooding of Nile irrigates farm land
-Nile branches into Delta
-Nile flows into Mediterranean Sea

NILE: cross-section
-Nile
-Farm land/flood plain
-Low desert
-High desert

Regular cycle of agriculture

Cyclical thinking/cyclical time

Repeating religious calendar

Environmental features important for religion?

Nile
Sun
Desert
Fertile farm land
Water

Ancient Egypt:

Dating
Chronological Systems

Dating Systems:
B.C. / A.D.
"Before Christ" / "Anno Domini"

B.C.E. / C.E.
"Before Common Era" / "Common Era"

Course covers roughly
3000-300 BC/BCE

"Circa"
or "c."

"About"

As in:
c. 1950 B.C.E. =
"about 1950 B.C.E."

Egyptians date by kings' regnal years
Also group kings into families = "Dynasties"

Egyptologists use Dynasties, grouped into
larger periods to organize Egyptian history

Historical overview of ancient Egypt
(But ignore the dates!)

Prehistoric Period (before c. 5300 BCE)
• Tribal groups along the Nile
• Local cultures, religions

Predynastic Period (c. 5300-3100 BCE)
• Predynastic period: Coalescing of tribal groups
• development of technologies, industries
• gradual coming together of language and religion

c. 3100 BCE: "Unification"
•King, agriculture, writing

Archaic Period (Dynasties 0-2, c. 3100-2686 BCE)

Old Kingdom (Dynasties 3-6, 2686-2160 BCE)
• Step Pyramid of Djoser (3rd dynasty)
• Pyramids and Sphinx of Giza (4th Dynasty)
• Problems by 6th dynasty

First Intermediate Period (Dynasties 7-11, c. 2160-2055 BCE)
• de-centralization, local styles

Middle Kingdom (Dynasties 11-13, c. 2055-1650 BCE)
• Strong central control, powerful kings
• flowering of art, literature

Second Intermediate Period (Dynasties 14-17, c. 1650-1550 BCE)
• Hyksos conquest of Egypt, foreign domination

New Kingdom (Dynasties 18-20, c. 1550-1070 BCE)
• Prosperity and control
• Egypt on the international scene
• Akhenaten and the Amarna Period: Atypical interlude
•Tutankhamun and order restored
• Later New Kingdom: Foreign conquest under Ramesses II and successors

Third Intermediate Period (Dynasties 21-25, c. 1070-664 BCE)
• Fragmentation of Royal power
•Priests (sometimes) more powerful than kings
• Libyan "invasion" by assimilation
• Nubian conquest by force

Late Period (Dynasties 26-31, 664-332 BCE)
• Saite "Renaissance"
• Last indigenous kings

Ptolemaic Period (332-30 BCE)
• Alexander the Great conquest Egypt in 332 BCE
• Macedonian Greek Ptolemies rule Egypt

Problems for the beginning Egyptologist:

Names
Different spellings
Amen, Amon, Amun, Ammon, etc.
Amenhotep, Amunhotpe, Amenophis, etc.
Egyptian versus Greek
Hor/Horus, Ise/Isis, Djheuty/Thoth,
Taweret/Thoëris, etc.

Dates
No one agrees!