Ancient Egyptian History

Ancient Egyptian History

Introduction

This book is intended to give the reader a brief and easy account of Ancient Egyptian History. Our history study will include many aspects of the civilization throughout the different periods, like kingship, government, burial customs, religious beliefs, arts, industries and mining activities, contacts to the foreign world and organization of Ancient Egypt.

The author has tried to include in this history much of the customs, beliefs, arts, industries and organisation of Ancient Egypt.

    

The Egyptian history started around 3200 BC with the political unification of Upper and Lower Egypt under Narmer or Mena, and it developed over the next three millennia.  Its history occurred in a series of stable Kingdoms, separated by periods of relative instability known as Intermediate Periods.

  

The History of Ancient Egypt

                                     

A- Dawn of Predynastc Period

1.     The Paleolithic Period

2.     The Neolithic Period

B- The Predynastic Period

C- The Dynastic Period including 30 dynasties:

The Old Kingdom: Dynasties 1-6

The Middle Kingdom: Dynasties 11-12

The New Kingdom: Dynasties 18-20

Many remains of a primitive civilisation are to be found in Egypt. Stone implements show us that the time when man used a stone axe, roughly hewn, to that when he had learned to make the polished flint daggers of the Neolithic Period, this country was continuosly inhabited. The conditions of life and climate helped the Egyptians to found one of the oldest centres of civilisation in the ancient world.

It seems that the most major factors which helped in achieving the prosperity and the continuous evolution of civilisation in Ancient Egypt are:

                                                                             

1-    A pleasant climate which is quite suitable for animal life and plant growth.

2-    The fertility of the Nile Valley.

3-    Abundance of water, especially at the time of the annual inundation.

4-    The growth of nearly all the cereals and vegetables necessary for man in the Nile Valley.

5-    The presence of the Eastern and Western Deserts on both sides of the Nile Valley, which protected it from the invasions of the neighbouring nations.

6-    The geographical situation of Egypt, between Africa and Asia and very close to Europe.

                                

Thus we may conclude that the success of ancient Egyptian civilization stemmed partly from its ability to adapt to the conditions of the Nile River Valley. The predictable flooding and controlled irrigation of the fertile valley produced surplus crops, which fueled social development and culture.

With resources to spare, the administration sponsored mineral exploitation of the valley and surrounding desert regions, the early development of an independent writing system, the organization of collective construction and agricultural projects, trade with surrounding regions, and a military power intended to defeat foreign enemies and assert Egyptian dominance. Motivating and organizing these activities was a bureaucracy of elite scribes, religious leaders, and administrators under the control of a pharaoh who ensured the cooperation and unity of the Egyptian people in the context of an elaborate system of religious beliefs.

Map of ancient Egypt, showing major cities and sites

of the Dynastic period (c. 3200 BC to 30 BC)

Sources of Ancient Egyptian History

The Sources of Ancient Egyptian History are either documentary or classical.

            

A-  The documentary sources:

These include

1-    tables giving the names of the kings, written in order,

2-    inscribed monuments scattered everywhere in Egypt.

                  

The most important tables giving the names of kings are the following:

1-    Palermo Stone: The Palermo Stone is a large fragment of a stela known as the Royal Annals of the Old Kingdom. This gave a list of the kings of Egypt from before the First Dynasty until the middle of the Fifth Dynasty, together with the important events or annals, including the height of the Nile, year by year.

              

•         The stela, made of black basalt or greywake, was engraved toward the end of the fifth dynasty, in the 25th century BC. It lists the kings of ancient Egypt following the unification of Lower Egypt (the region of the Nile River Delta in the north of Egypt) and Upper Egypt (extending from the middle of modern Egypt to the southern border with Nubia). The text begins by listing several thousands of years of rulers — presumed by many to be mythical — predating the rise of the god Horus, who, according to the text, conferred the kingship on Menes, the first human ruler listed. The text credits Menes with the unification of Egypt. (Another name for Menes is thought to be Narmer, but this could also be the name of the next ruler.)

•         The text goes on to list the names of the kings who ruled Egypt up to King Neferirkare Kakai, a ruler of the early fifth dynasty, although the original stela may have recorded events after his reign on portions that have since been lost.

                    

The Palermo Stone

2-    List of Saqqara: This gives the names of 47 kings ending with Rameses II.

3-    Turin Papyrus: The Turin King List, also known as the Turin Royal Canon, is a hieratic papyrus thought to date from the reign of Ramesses II, now in the Museo Egizio (Egyptian Museum) at Turin.

The papyrus was originally a tax roll, but on its back is written a list of the gods, demi-gods, spirits, and mythical and human kings traditionally thought to have ruled Egypt from the beginning. That the back of an older papyrus was used may indicate that the list was not of great formal importance to the writer.

The papyrus was found by the Italian traveller Bernardino Drovetti in 1820 at Luxor and was acquired in 1824 by the Egyptian Museum in Turin. When unpacking the box in which it had been transported to Italy, it had disintegrated into small fragments. Jean-Francois Champollion, examining it, could recognize only some of the larger fragments containing royal names, and produced a drawing of what he could decipher. The beginning and ending of the list, however, are now lost; there is no introduction, and the list does not continue after the 17th Dynasty. The composition may thus have occurred at any subsequent time, from the reign of Ramesses II to as late as the 20th Dynasty.

•         The papyrus lists the names of rulers, the lengths of reigns in years, and months and days for individual kings.

•          In some cases they are grouped together by family, which approximately corresponds to the dynasties of Manetho’s outline. The list includes the names of ephemeral rulers or those ruling over small territories that may be unmentioned in other sources. The list includes the Hyksos rulers (often left out of other King Lists), although they do not have cartouches, and a hieroglyphic sign is added to indicate that they were foreigners.

                                                                 

In 2009 previously unpublished fragments were discovered in the storage room of the Egyptian Museum of Turin, in good condition. A new edition of the papyrus is expected.

4-    List of Abydos:

The Abydos King List, also called the Abydos Table is a list of the names of seventy-six kings beginning with Menes, the founder of the First Dynasty, and ending with Seti I, the third king of the Nineteenth Dynasty. It is found on the walls of the Temple of Seti I at Abydos. It consists of three rows of thirty-eight cartouches on each row. The upper two rows contain names of the kings, while the third row merely repeats Seti I's throne name and praenomen.

Besides providing the order of the Old Kingdom rulers , it is the sole source to date of the names of many of the rulers of the Seventh and Eighth Dynasties, so the list is valued highly for that reason.

This list omits the names of many pharaohs who were 'erased' from this revised history — such as Hatshepsut, Akhenaten, Smenkhkare, Tutankhamen, and Ay.

5-    List of Karnak:

The Karnak Kings List was located in the southwest corner of the Akh-Menu Hall at the Karnak Temple. Composed during the reign of Thutmose III, it lists sixty-one kings beginning with Sneferu. Only the names of forty-eight kings are still legible, and one is not written in a cartouche.

It is not a complete list of the Egyptian Pharaohs, as others kings are known from other lists, but this list is valuable as it contains the names of kings of the First and Second Intermediate periods, which are omitted in most other king lists.

In 1843, French adventurer Emile Prisse dismantled and stole the blocks containing the king list at night, claiming to act "in the interests of France." He had found out that a German expedition led by Egyptologist Karl Richard Lepsius was making its way up the Nile to Karnak. Severely damaged, it is now on display at the Louvre in Paris (Chambre des Ancetres.)

        

B-   The Classical Sources:

Many books on Egypt were compiled by ancient writers, the most important of 

whom are:

           1-Herodotus: A Greek Historian who visited Egypt about 450 B.C. and wandered all 

     over the country, asking the priests about its history and religion. He devoted the second volume of his “Histories” to Egypt. He, however, added some personal observations and allowed in his book for many inaccuracies.

2Manetho: An Egyptian priest of the Ptolemaic Period (About 300 B.C.) originally from Samannud. He wrote in Greek by order of King Ptolemy, three “Egyptian Memoirs” in which he grouoped the kings, from Menes to Nectanebo II, into 30 dynasties which correspond to the various royal houses that ruled Egypt successively. Manetho’s works are lost, but fragments of them have been preserved by others.