FEATURE Dates

Location

Resource

Unification

Urbanised

Ancient Civilisations of the East DESCRIPTION Civilisation between 3100BC to 30BC Old Kingdom: 1st Intermediate Middle Kingdom: 2nd Intermediate New Kingdom: 3rd Intermediate Late Period Ptolemaic Period Desert = temptation, religion, place of death. Valley/Delta = agricultural areas, sustaining, vital. Egypt of two lands with the Delta and Desert both united by the River Nile. IMPACT UPON PEOPLES IDEAS OF THE WORLD as is an unusual environment. Desert: Stone, alabaster, sandstone, limestone (significant as impervious, hard, resistant against weather, with low porosity /water absorption so ideal for building), granite, semi-precious stones, slate, copper, gold, electrum, and basalt Exotic Goods: skins, incense, ivory, wood, ostrich, feathers, lion, giraffes, cheetahs, resins, woods, coopers. Hard stones were imported for the elite to show their power and control: not natural, needed to import and trade with other areas. Grain accounts: recording of production of grain allowed elites to deduce how much could produce annually. Main Resource: THE NILE AND ITS FLOOD sources, cataracts, the INUNDATION (mid July 3months waiting period for water levels to lower a change in colour of water and rose 1.5/2.5meters above normal height). Ideological and practical implications of flooding on an annual basis leads to ORGANISATION; Nile acting as highway and communication network (boats significant in iconography as a metaphor?); and canals, marshes, levees and geziras as the irrigation project. Emergence of a state within a complex society involves several processes: evolution of a central power and uniform material culture, with much evidence coming from cemeteries demonstrating social stratification, material culture, tradition Processes which have been present at some point in the Unification of Egypt: GAME THEORY: describes the rise of Confederates based on the main cities of NAQADA, THINIS, HIERAKONPOLIS, and BUTO. A group each controls water, trade and agricultural resources then gradual shift in power as each competes with the other to form a larger state. Could have emerged from warfare, diplomatic marriage, trade links, exchange of technology and mutual benefits (cemetery at Thinis, centre at Hierakonpolis). CULTURAL DIFFUSION: This is the gradual homogenisation of culture and effectively shows the spread of Naqada cultures through the Nile Valley and Lower Egypt. BUTO where local Lower Egyptian pottery and Syro-Palestinian imports are replaced by Naqada pottery: trade, amalgamation, adoption, emulation. CONQUEST: Centres of power fight against each other in aggressive armed conflict late pre-dynastic palettes showing battles and fighting; Tomb 100 at Hierakonpolis; Narmer Palette. DEVELOPMENT OF COMPLEX ECONOMIES: Controlled access to resources is shown by the increasing use of materials from the burial assemblages copper, hard stone, gold. Craftsmen quarters in cities and organisation of agricultural resources to support them: EMERGENCE OF SPECIALISTS (Hierakonpolis). TRADE: Increased trade with outside centres may have given one area an advantage over others in terms of prestige, power and support. Evidence of trade up and down the Nile Valley with spread of copper and stone, also contact with Mesopotamia with evidence of cylinder seals, Master of the Beasts motif, Gebel el Arak knife handle. POPULATION PRESSURE: Generally increase in size and number of settlements at this time lead to expansion, with more burials gradually containing more grave assemblages. Perhaps due to calmer Nile floods increased land reclamation and development of basin irrigation to produce more agricultural product. In addition, more people led to mass movements to new places with resultant pressure on areas already settled. DYNASTIC UNION WITH RESULTING POLITICAL/ADMINISTRATIVE STRUCTURES: Can be seen in the development of written evidence after unification of c.3100BC. May have occurred due to bilateral agreements, marriages, rituals and cultural exchange. POLITICAL AMBITION/INDIVIDUAL CHARRISMA: One person got up and unified the country. In Egyptian myth this was King Menes who joined Upper and Lower Egypt and founded a new capita; at Memphis. Evidence: From the late 6th millennium, agricultural communities appear (wetter climate): shelter from sandstone, wild animals for hunting, fish, coarse handmade pottery and flints for arrowheads appear. Emergence of different culture in PDP Iconography: the Narmer Palette which has been traditionally read as a historical document detailing the violent defeat of the Lower Egyptian King (perhaps at Buto), but may simply be a ritual re-telling of the myth. One side shows Narmer wearing a White Crown destroying the marsh-people on the other side he wears the Red Crown and inspects decapitated bodies of the enemy. Complex society evident in Egypt long before final unification of country. Unification into one state was perhaps due to slow processes of economic development, ideological development and trade contacts, created small state-lets, then larger protostates and then around 3100BC one state. Surviving evidence from: rectangular walled cities (Hierakonpolis with temple at the centre, by the administrative unit); workmens towns (Giza and Kahun) specialised workers areas for large projects well managed and run. Little evidence for mass of small villages and agricultural units. Cities as centres of NOMES: large with temples and administration and

Kingship

storage areas at centre. Towns away from cities. Administrative centres through which to channel agricultural resources. Villages/hamlets: smaller irregular pattern, based around family units, mainly for agricultural workers. HIERAKONPOLIS: was the capital of an Upper Egyptian state in Pre-Dynastic times from around 3500 to 3100BC before unification. Hierakonpolis is on the west side of the Nile, has a narrow flood plain and is at the end of a Wadi (valley) which may have been controlling trade routes into the Western desert. Hierakonpolis 29A: remains of the 3-phase structure made of wooden posts, wattle and danb. There appears to be a large structure according to position of posts, others indicate a series of small huts which contained material for bread making and amulet manufacture. Reconstructed as a CULT CENTRE with specialist workshops (evidence of specific pots) attached where animals were eaten. Burials at Hierakonpolis 43/6: burials are crouched, many facing east, covered with mats. Upper Egypt and 1-2 Delta pots could suggest contact and trade between Upper and Lower. The burials are demonstrative of moderately elite people with particular roles and customs with burial assemblages of luxury items like pendants, grinding pebbles, ivory combs. Also an elephant burial found with objects important ritualistic symbol? Hierakonpolis II: evidence of a town. In the Old Kingdom period, by going through those layers, you can reach earlier periods: evidence of walls, living spaces, monumental gateways and stone vessel workshops for specialist craftsmen. GIZA: Royal Cemetery of Dynasty 4 shows us how Egyptians organised their workforces and what constituted a city. At Giza ongoing work has excavated large workmans town: it is enclosed, with a gallery complex, Hypostyle Hall and Royal administrative building. Galleries: open area with bench running down, no rooms to the south. Columns in the northern section and at back evidence of cooking and roasting (kitchens?). OPEN PUBLIC SPACE WITH PRIVATE AREA. Hypostyle Hall/Workers Houses: suggested that this was a place for fish processing drying/salting and jarring (surviving lids). Is this evidence of a self-sufficient food processing area? Royal Administrative Building: numbers of sealings and silos found here indicative of royal and administrative storage with lots of cattle and pig bones: central storehouse supplying individual groups living in galleries. Admin centre probably for the workmen who built the pyramids: HIGHLY ORGANISED AND WELL SUPPLIED. Evidence of craftwork but not so much of living materials either perished or suggests a place of work and ritual feasting for a CHANGING workforce. NOT normal but shows organisation. King owned all land in Egypt: some given to temple cults but rest maintained as royal land, administered through complex system. Kingship is how the king promoted the ideology behind his power. Kings described as the successor of gods who had ruled in the beginning, they had been fated. Ideology of unification could argue that without the Two Lands there could be no king. However there is evidence that the ideology of kingship changed reflecting social/economic changes but again all evidence is predicated on the role of the king in Egypt: historical/cultural context dictated by the king, very little archaeological evidence surrounding the rest of civilisation TOP DOWN EVIDENCE. In addition it was an autocratic/totalitarian society with no evidence of democracy: it was acknowledged that the king owned all land and could do whatever he wanted, demonstrated through the monumentality stating that it was THEIRS-monuments making elites. Practical Actions: Found a new capital city Add to existing temples Foreign campaigns Promote members of family/friends to important political positions / bestowal of titles Marry someone of note or from a politically important family Reward military men ICONOGRAPHY - NARMER PALETTE: superhuman in size, regalia, costume, temple context: on a par with gods, motif of striking individual king has the power to give and take life, POWERFUL IMAGES recreated through time. Formal public appearances and private restricted depictions (but remember BIAS). Kings power demonstrated in relation to animals, e.g. bull, lion, sphinx, Falcon of King Khafre D4: protection and authority. CARTOUCHE: eternal protection. King as a Builder King as a Warrior King as a Defeater of Chaos MORTUARY CULT: establishing of many cults of the kings throughout Egypt, setting up shrines, legitimising rule + divinity. Offering to the gods (control of cosmic harmony) the king was expected to recreate the original state of Maat (personification of the fundamental order of the universe) and offer to the gods, maintaining harmony, keeping out chaos: duty of king. Changing Images: Old Kingdom divine, confident ruler in the company of the gods (Menkaure, D4 builder of pyramid at Giza). Middle Kingdom consolidation of kingship after traumatic events, change in facial representation, size, type of stone used, scribes depict a more human king, less divine and more like a shepherd of his herd (Merikare). New Kingdom MYTH FACTORY CREATED BY AMUNHOTEP III whereby statues of him were young, rejuvenated, fat and beautiful, image of a god. Many of the rulers (Amunhotep III / Hatshepsut) used divine birth scenes to legitimise their rule.

Script

HIEROGLYPHS: Egyptian term is Dd mdw (divine words), a pictorial script used in monumental and funerary inscriptions. Signs have a number of uses from phonetic to representing ideas. They can be written horizontally/vertically, read either way. They are all used in aesthetic ways mainly because they are pictorial. Seen to hold magical importance, e.g. animals could be disabled to pose no threat. Debate as to whether it began in Egypt or was brought over from Mesopotamia. IDENTIFICATION AND NAMING: significant aspect to the cognitive function of the brain identify, classify, name and so statues identified when name is inscribed on it and so removal of name changes identity (also has repercussions for person: To show possession, communicate with others who could read what was written (tomb context?) POWER? Public Inscriptions Stelai for people visiting tomb or making offerings (restricted audience) Private Inscriptions sealings, labels for the use of the dead so they know what is in each offering Monumental Hieroglyphic Texts temples, tombs, royal edicts, historical accounts; who is the main audience, gods/dead? HIERATIC: short hand and cursive form of writing, principally developed to write of papyrus, ivory labels. Many uses including: accounts, inventories, informal records, literary texts, prayers and hymns (private), medical texts (administrative and business script), CURSIVE FOR ADMIN AND LETTERS, e.g. Book hand for Books of the Dead. Egyptians write letters which travelled up/down the Nile: maintain method of communication between periphery and court and residence at a real world level, Letters to the Dead illustrate communication on supernatural level. More WIDESPREAD script, but still uncertain as to who exactly used this and how widely it was recognised? LITERACY: estimations of literacy have been based on calculations from the tombs, surrounding Giza pyramids: percentage of population who was literate was around 1% out of 1.5million, rose between 7-10% in the later periods out of 7million these were the elite, administrators and scribes. Each village had a scribe compiling records to be sent up the chain (acted as an official and scribe, literacy = power), scribes used to write communities letters, scribes = effectively spies for elite. SCRIBES: specialist job, wear white, pale skinned, honoured, formed different clique, priestly some elite female literacy. DOCUMENTS: masses of documentation at work in Egypt, e.g. a mathematical text with calculations concerning how many people it would take to build a ramp of a certain size. Also concerned with magic: uses full potential of writing, not just at village level where people cannot read but in a fully developed ritual way fully expounded on temple walls. This is extreme power use: to control everything and everyone. THE ROSETTA STONE: Jean-Francois Champollion used all three languages (hieroglyphs, Demotic, Greek) to decipher the script. Egyptian hieroglyphs stand for different things (sounds, words, ideas) and recognising this problem he could go on to decipher ESOTERIC aspect of language.