Society in the Egyptian Period

I. Introduction

Location of Egypt

Egypt, located in northeastern of Africa along the river Nile, an ancient civilization flourished long before the Roman Empire but ultimately faded from importance after thousands of years. The Ancient Egypt Civilization prospered near the Nile River due to the natural factors combined. Egypt usually has cloudless sky and the Sun almost always shone, consistently providing heat and light. The Nile River served as a water highway for the people and the constant source of life-giving water. And since there are seasonal rains in Africa every year, the Nile River overflows the banks of Egypt, after the water had receded; a rich black soil covers the floodplain. Enabling the Egyptians to cultivate and develop a successful economy based on agriculture. In addition, natural barriers provide good protection from hostile attacks.

Society in the Egyptian Period

The Ancient Egyptians were very sophisticated and creative. They produced a vast body of written records, including ethical and moralistic treatises, instructional texts, religious and magical scrolls, reminiscent love poetry, epic stories and tales. They also possessed the understanding of mathematics and the principles of architecture enabling them to construct large stone buildings. The villages and town were mostly located near the Nile for the reason that it is the chief highway for transportation. Houses back then were built using mud brick and the walls are richly colored. Windows were small and have high openings covered usually by matting. The most fashionable district back then was more often located near the palace. Even so, the houses were built close together in order to save space for farmlands.

The Upper-class Egyptians spent most of their time grooming themselves. They bathed with soda instead of soap and rubbed oil onto their skin. Men cut their hair short and wore wigs or added false braids onto their hair. Both men and women wore make-ups. They darken their eyelids with black or green paints. Women however, rouged their cheeks and lips and stained their nails with henna. The luxurious life of the pharaoh and the noble men were made possible by the continual labor of the peasants. Peasants usually work on farms, cultivating the land and harvesting the crops. After their job in the farm, the pharaoh regularly calls the peasants to go off to labor on the irrigation system, quarry stones or to built tombs and temples. Their only pay for the job were grains, clothes, oil, fish and vegetables. The craftsman and artists, however, have a better life. They work near the palace or near the noblemen and priests. Their work is never hurried and their job is hereditary. The smiths made weapons, tools, tableware, jewelry, etc. Potters turned clay into furnaces as tall as a man and some other cooking utensils and decorative pots. Women wove fabrics for clothing and tapestries and awnings to decorate the house.

Egyptians are pagans. They worship a lot of gods and goddesses of different nature. But the most significant gods are Ra (the sun-god), Horus (the sky-god) and Osris (the god of the dead). Each town has its own "town-god". And if a town grew in influence, the "town-god" becomes more important too. They worship the "town-god" as part of the allegiance to the town. Occasionally, people combine their worship of the town-god and that of Ra especially when the town is very progressive.

Wonders of Egypt

The Ancient Egyptians used writing as the major instrument for communication. It came in two basic forms namely, the hieroglyphs that were used for monuments and display, and the cursive form known as hieratic. Hieroglyphic writing was widely recognized with Egypt. (Perhaps because the Egyptian writing was seldom adapted to write other languages.) A lot of the literary texts found were from the Middle Kingdom. These texts consist of stories, dialogues, lamentations, and especially instructions on how to live a good life and they supply a well-to-do interpretation on the more one-dimensional expression of public inscriptions. Literary works at those times were continued until the Roman times or the Late Egyptian in the 19th dynasty to 700BC. But many of the finest and most complex text were recorded in the early times. Although the uniqueness and the importance of Egypt's writing, only about below one percent of the population then was literate and that made the restriction of the use and potential of writing. So as to why up until about 2650BC, the use of writing for administration was discontinued.

The love for Architecture led the pharaohs into competing as to who would be able to build the most magnificent temples, pyramids, tombs, statues, etc. As a result and as a fact, two of the Seven Wonders of the World is found in Egypt: the pyramids at Giza and the lighthouse at Alexandria. Egyptians think that death is just a chapter of a person's life. They give much importance on their tomb to the extent that they furnish it with expensive things and decorate it magnificently. Temples in honor of their gods and goddesses were also built skillfully and could be found everywhere in Egypt. In this locale, a lot of paintings, scrolls, artifacts, sculptures, etc are found. It was said that the priests back then perform magic to heal and cast spells inside the temples as to protect the riches buried within it including the mummy.

Rulers of Egypt

Before the Middle Kingdom, the civil and the military were not distinguished. Military forces consisted of local militants under their own officials and some included foreigners, and nonmilitary expeditions to dig out minerals from the desert or to transport heavy loads through the country were organized in similar fashion. Not until the New Kingdom there was no separate priesthood. Holders of civil office also had priestly titles, and priests had civil titles. Often priesthoods' chief significance was the income they brought. The same was true of the minor civil titles accumulated by high officials. At a lower level, minor priesthoods were held on a rotating basis by "laymen" who served every fourth month in temples. State and temple were so closely interconnected that there was no real tension between them before the late New Kingdom.

The history of the Ancient Egypt Civilization was divided into kingdoms. Each of the Kingdoms was characterized by the accomplishments of their own. The Old Kingdom (2700BC-2200BC), was the period where the great pharaohs built the pyramids. The Middle Kingdom (2000BC-1800BC), Egypt started to broaden its political strength and conducted transactions