Ancient Egypt

VI

Economy

Ancient Egypt’s economy was based on agriculture, and the rich bounty of its farmers depended on the Nile. In addition, the river’s waters and marshes were a source of fish and fowl, important parts of the ancient Egyptians' diet. The fertile soil left by the Nile’s yearly receding floodwaters provided the means for growing a wide variety of grains, vegetables, and fruits. Two of the most important crops, emmer (a type of wheat) and barley, were used to make bread and beer, the staples of the diet. After the crops were harvested, the same fields served as grazing areas for herds of cattle, sheep, and other animals, which in turn served as sources of meat and dairy products.

Farming the fields, tending livestock, hunting wildlife, and similar agrarian activities were the main duties of the majority of Egypt's lower classes. These people used simple tools, such as hoes, sickles, threshers, winnowing fans, forks, and baskets. Laborers tilled the soil by their own efforts or used plows drawn by cattle or oxen. In addition to this agrarian work, the Egyptians developed associated industries, such as beer and wine making, textile production, leather tanning, woodworking, pottery making, and baking. A portion of the crops and animal products that the farmers produced served as the raw materials for some of these industries. A portion of all the goods produced was used for bartering in the marketplace, as there was no monetary system. Taxes consumed a large share of the total production.

Much of the land was under the control of the throne or the temple, but private ownership also existed. Farmers who did not own land could lease private land, working the fields and keeping part of what they produced. Because so much depended on the Nile’s annual flood, the Egyptians sought to control as much of it as they could by constructing dikes, maintaining high walls, and digging irrigation channels. They also developed a simple mechanism to lift small amounts of water out of the channels and onto the fields. That device, called a shadoof, consists of a bucket set at one end of a counterweighted pole. It is still used today.

Despite all their efforts to control the annual flood, the ancient Egyptians could not prevent problems. An inundation that was too high could result in damaging floodwaters. One that was too low might not provide sufficient water for irrigation.

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The ancient Egyptians had other natural resources besides the Nile. The country was rich in a wide variety of minerals, which the people learned to exploit early. They mined gold and copper and established a metalworking industry that produced jewelry, vessels, statues, weapons, and tools, among other objects. They learned to make bronze in around 1500 bc, but evidence for iron smelting does not appear before the 6th century bc. They quarried many types of stone, including limestone, calcite, granite, and diorite. The stoneworkers used bronze tools and hard pounding stones in the quarrying process. Stone quarrying provided the raw material for architectural projects, statues, sarcophagi, and vessels. Minerals such as galena, natron, and feldspar were also mined, as were carnelian, malachite, amethyst, and other semiprecious gemstones. Some of these minerals were used for jewelry and decorative purposes, and others were used for cosmetic and funerary preparations. The demand for various types of wood for furniture, coffins, statues, and architectural components exceeded what was available in Egypt. As a result, wood, along with oils and certain manufactured items, was among the materials for which the Egyptians traded their emmer, gold, natron, produce, and other natural resources. The Egyptians carried on trade with the Nubians and with many of the peoples of southwestern Asia, including those of Canaan, Syria, and Mesopotamia.

VII

Contributions and Legacy

As one of the world's earliest major and long-lived civilizations, ancient Egypt left a legacy of important innovations, discoveries, and contributions that have affected humankind over the millennia. The ancient Egyptian religion survived for thousands of years. Over that time, revisions were made to religious texts, the powers of certain gods waxed and waned, some deities were combined, and some even fell completely out of favor. Yet out of that ancient religion survived a basic belief in a good and moral life on earth as a major means of attaining an afterlife, a concept that is reflected in most modern religions. The brief period of religious reform associated with the pharaoh Akhenaton, known today as the Amarna period, introduced the world to a belief in a single god. Akhenaton's doctrines may have been the impetus for the monotheistic religion developed by the Hebrews that surfaced in the Middle East shortly thereafter. It, in turn, gave rise to Christianity.

Literacy may have been limited to a small percentage of the population, but the large quantity of written material that survives indicates the importance of the written word to the ancient Egyptians. Their hieroglyphs may well represent humankind's earliest attempt to write. The ancient Egyptians developed the use of writing on papyrus, the product of a native plant of the same name that they processed. Many of their documents were used for teaching purposes, and they produced manuals with model letters for apprentice scribes.

Some of the mathematical texts taught the finer points of arithmetic, geometry, and even word problems, and are not unlike modern primers. These and other texts indicate that the ancient Egyptians understood and could add fractions and could even find the area of a trapezoidal pyramid. Without the advanced mathematics they originated, the ancient Egyptians would not have been able to build the pyramids and other large structures.

Medical papyri taught physicians how to deal with both internal medicine and surgery, and there were texts devoted to pharmaceutical remedies, dental procedures, and veterinary medicine. These papyri represent some of the earliest known texts on these subjects.

Religious texts recorded and preserved the major tenets of Egyptian beliefs. Literary papyri cover a broad range of genres, from epics, love poetry, and wisdom literature (selections from which are the ancestors of some biblical proverbs) to political propaganda, satire, comic stories, and drama (perhaps the first recorded examples). What may have been the world's first fairy tale came from ancient Egypt. Oral communication helped spread the literature, and some myths appeared in later Roman stories. Collections of assorted texts were deposited in early examples of libraries, known as houses of life.

The ancient Greeks credited the Egyptians with many early discoveries in the fields of philosophy, art, and science. It is clear also that the Greeks benefited from and were influenced by the achievements of the Egyptians in sculpture and architecture. For example, early Greek statues of youths, called kouroi, are clearly modeled on Egyptian statuary, and Greek fluted columns are undeniably similar to columns constructed in Egypt centuries earlier. The association of certain Greek gods with Egyptian deities underscores the connection between the two civilizations. For example, Imhotep, the ancient Egyptian architect and sage who was deified (elevated to the rank of a god) long after his death, was associated primarily with medicine in the Hellenistic period and was often identified with Asclepius, the Greek god of medicine.

The influence of the ancient Egyptians is even seen today. The obelisk, an architectural feature of many temples, is still used, as can be seen in the Washington Monument in Washington, D.C. Other features of Egyptian architecture, such as the temple pylon, figured relief, and columns, have been used in the last few centuries in the construction of structures such as museums, mausoleums, office buildings, and government buildings.

The ancient Egyptians were masters of the arts of stoneworking and metalworking and the production of faience and glass. Their products were used throughout the ancient world. Their understanding of astronomy was very advanced, and this knowledge was passed on to the generations that followed. Based on their observations of the Sun and the stars they developed a calendar. Eventually they produced a version of the zodiac.

Ancient Egypt and modern Egypt are separated by a long period of time, a different language, and distinct concepts and beliefs. Nevertheless, scholars have suggested that the roots of some Arabic folktales may stretch back to ancient Egypt. Some modern Egyptian phrases and proverbs may also have originated in the ancient language. Certain ancient religious concepts and imagery survive in the Coptic Church, a Christian church that still exists in Egypt today. These concepts and imagery include the Virgin suckling the infant Jesus, based on ancient Egyptian images of Isis and her son Horus; the crux ansata, a Coptic cross derived from the ankh, the ancient Egyptian word for life; and an association of the four evangelists with the four sons of Horus.

VIII

Egyptology

Interest in learning about ancient Egypt goes very far back in time, but serious research by scholars in a field of study known as Egyptology began only in more modern times. Scholars in the late 18th century realized that the monuments and the sites they came from had to be recorded properly in order to reconstruct the history and civilization of ancient Egypt. The decipherment of the ancient Egyptian language by Jean François Champollion in 1822 added to the sources of knowledge and created the field of Egyptian philology (study of written texts) and linguistics. Today, experts in a variety of specialized fields contribute to the study of Egyptology. They include archaeologists, art historians, philologists, medical and dental specialists, anthropologists, paleopathologists (scientists who study diseases in dead bodies from ancient times), paleobotanists (scientists who study the plant life of ancient times), computer specialists, geologists, and epigraphers (scholars who copy, study, and translate ancient inscriptions). Dating methods such as carbon dating, thermoluminescence, and dendrochronology (the study of tree rings) are used to determine the approximate age of objects. Some types of archaeology do not necessitate the excavation of entire areas to uncover sites. New noninvasive methods that use remote sensing devices can locate potential sites, pinpointing archaeological fixtures below the surface. Scientists today use sophisticated scans, computer imaging, X-ray analysis, bone studies, and DNA testing to learn about ancient diseases and nutrition. Conservators use the most up-to-date techniques to preserve monuments in the field and in museums. In the late 20th century, discoveries in the harbor of Alexandria opened the field to underwater archaeology. Photographic advances, such as the video recorder and digitizing camera, have also been used to record monuments and artifacts. Sophisticated computer programs have simplified the compiling of databases, have aided epigraphers, and have become invaluable in archaeological reconstructions and surveys. And the discovery in 2006 of a new intact tomb in the Valley of the Kings—the first such discovery since 1922—appeared to dispel the belief that there were no more important tomb discoveries to be made. All of the information gathered by archaeologists aids scholars in interpreting the messages left by the silent monuments of Egypt's past, enabling them to communicate the wonders of this once grand civilization to the rest of humankind.

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