Rich and beautiful ancient history. Egypt, Babylon, Jerusalem - these names are close and understandable to every person who is even remotely familiar with the chronology of human development. Consider the culture of Ancient Egypt in this article.
How did the Egyptian state come about?
According to historians, a government entity called Egypt was created in North Africa, in a valley of a huge river called the Nile. This civilization belongs, along with Indian and Chinese, to archaic agrarian cultures. The origin of Egyptian statehood dates back to about 4-5 millennium BC.
Today there is a whole science - Egyptology, which studies Egyptian culture as a single and diverse integrity.
Historians distinguish the following stages of development of this state:
- Pre-dynastic Egypt.
- The former kingdom.
- The ancient kingdom.
- Middle Kingdom
- The new kingdom.
- The late kingdom.
- The reign of Ptolemy.
The most ancient history: Egypt at the beginning of its historical path
State education on this earth begins with the formation of two poles, Upper and Lower Egypt. The capital of the new state is the city of Menfis. The unification processes of the two parts of Egypt are carried out by the ruler Menes. At the same time, the necessary institutions of statehood arise: hieroglyphic writing, the army, religious cults and one's own ideology.
The heyday of the state
Egypt reached its peak in the middle of its history. This time is commonly called the dynastic period when the dynasties of the pharaohs succeeded each other on the throne.
The fact is that in Egypt a special religious cult was created, which, in addition to the deification of the forces of nature, included the deification of the personality of the king. The power of the pharaohs was huge, because he was the personification of all his people on earth. Accordingly, if Pharaoh led a righteous life and was pleasing to the gods, then he and his people received salvation in the afterlife.
Hence the special attention to the preservation of the bodies of the dead, because religious beliefs suggested the resurrection of the bodies. The first Egyptian pyramids began to be built precisely as huge and magnificent tombs of the dead pharaohs.
What are the most magnificent tombs?
Traditionally, the dead pharaohs were buried in the valley of the kings. Their bodies were mummified, and with them many art and household items were put into a multilayer sarcophagus. However, in the middle of their history, the Egyptians began to build majestic tombs for the pharaohs, called the pyramids.
Today, the most famous are the tombs of the pyramidal form of the pharaoh Joser, the rulers of Cheops and Chephren. These pyramids are majestic structures, leaving a sharp triangular end into the sky.
There are still many hypotheses about why they began to be built, how they were built by ancient architects and craftsmen, why the construction of the pyramids stopped abruptly.
The secrets of the tombs attract the attention of both curious tourists and attentive scientists. As a matter of fact, it was thanks to these ancient burials that the magnificent Egyptian culture was opened to the modern world. This happened only in the century before last, when Egypt became a colony of Great Britain. It was the British scientists who were able to unearth the only untouched tomb of the young pharaoh Tutankhamun.
Egyptian Culture: Own Texts
Modern Egyptology has moved very far from the time before last century. Today there are a fairly large number of sources, thanks to which you can learn a lot about ancient culture. Let's consider them in more detail.
The first and main source of knowledge are Egyptian texts written in hieroglyphs. For a long time, this ancient civilization was a secret, because hieroglyphic writing was completely incomprehensible to Europeans. A real breakthrough in Egyptology was made by the French scientist Jean-Francois Champollion, who was able to decipher the language of the ancient people. By the way, British scientists also struggled over this, but it was Champollion who came up with the idea to turn to the Coptic language - the ancient descendant of the Egyptians, who in the 1st century AD adopted Christianity and completely abandoned the pagan heritage.
Egyptian Culture: Texts Near Living Peoples
The second source of knowledge about Egyptian culture is the texts of Greek authors, as well as works by historians of the ancient era. However, relations between Egypt and other states were complex, so some of the information presented in these materials is somewhat inaccurate.
And finally, the Bible’s texts became the last source of information about Egyptian culture. The very name of the state is often found in the Holy Scriptures and other religious texts of the Jews. In particular, the mass exodus of the Jewish people from Egypt is described in detail (which is confirmed in the studies of modern scholars). It is in the Bible that the ancient civilization in the future will lose its power and become an ordinary state.
Egyptian art
The ancient Egyptian kingdom went down in the history of mankind and as a state in which the greatest monuments of sculpture, architecture and painting were created. Modern museums in most cases possess precisely those cultural monuments that have been preserved in ancient Egyptian tombs. All of them are associated with religious cults. In particular, sculptural images of Egyptian gods and goddesses, the souls of a deceased person, jewelry made of precious metals and amazingly beautiful pieces of furniture (carved chairs covered with gold with engravings embossed on them, etc.) are presented.
Special Egyptian frescoes are known that were painted with natural colors, which is why they were preserved in a dry Egyptian climate. Their primary colors are red, black, blue, white, yellow, and angry. They depicted scenes from court life or religious paintings on the theme of the afterlife, which awaits every soul after death.
Egyptian culture sunset
During the late kingdom, the state fell into decay, and was therefore conquered by the Roman Empire. It happened this way: many pharaohs were succeeded on the throne. Some of them were great statesmen (such as Amenhotep III). These kings significantly expanded the boundaries of their possessions, bringing them to the territory of Syria.
Other pharaohs either did little in government affairs, or even proposed radical reforms. Such a reformer was the father of Tutankhamun Akhenaten, who dreamed of creating a new religious cult of the sun god (Ra). However, his reforms failed completely, and the state fell into decay.
The causes and consequences of the decline of Egypt
The gradual decline of Egyptian power by historians is associated with two circumstances: the decline of the former religious system based on the deification of the pharaoh, as well as the clan struggle of the Egyptian elite.
The first circumstance was very serious for the state, which held on the belief that the pharaoh, as the father of the people, could lead all his subjects to immortality and God. Kings often behaved inappropriately, and this was noticeable even to ordinary people. In addition, slander, intrigue and murder reigned in the palaces (by the way, many Egyptologists suggest that most of the reigning pharaohs did not die by their own death).
The clan struggle within the Egyptian elite intensified and led to the fact that the military leaders declared themselves pharaohs and sought to rule a certain part of Egypt. This made the state weak and fragmented, therefore vulnerable to the armies of other states.
All this led to the fact that Egypt fell under the onslaught of the troops of the young and proud military leader Alexander, nicknamed the Macedonian. And after the early and sudden death of this great conqueror, the Egyptian state passed to one of his associates - Ptolemy.
Thus began the rule of the Ptolemaic dynasty alien to the state . The Egyptian capital was then transferred to the city of Alexandria, which has been famous for centuries for its amazing library. Egypt itself, from a once powerful state, turned into an agricultural country, which was a food supplier for the ancient world.
The ancient kingdom forever lost its independence. The last queen of the Ptolemaic family was the famous beauty Cleopatra. She committed suicide, realizing that the Roman troops were ready to take her throne from her. So Egypt has become one of the provinces of the formidable Roman Empire.
The value of ancient Egyptian civilization
Many of our contemporaries are familiar with ancient history. Egypt takes the first and honorable place among other states. Many tourists today come to this country not so much because of its warm climate, but for the sake of wonderful excursions to ancient places.
For the development of mankind, Egyptian civilization means a lot. She showed an example of government. A strong and cohesive education with such social institutions as a combat-ready army, an ideological development system, and a system of education and upbringing gives generally very positive results. The state becomes a leader among its neighbors, so it can claim a high position and gives its members a sense of relative security and confidence.
Ancient history is diverse, Egypt and its civilization are a wonderful example of government.
By the way, the biblical prophecy came true: with the advent of a new era, ancient civilization forever lost the status of a great power.
Later this state was subjected to the Arab conquest, therefore, today Egypt is one of the Arab countries. The indigenous population, called the Copts, experiences some discrimination due to the fact that these people are Christians living in a Muslim country.