Kenoyer- Egypt

Egypt-REGIONALIZATION ERA-referred to as the Pre-Dynastic or Proto-Dynastic

Two major cultural regions become established in North and South, each with a sequence of localized ceramic and material culture traditions:

Ma’adi in the North (Lower Egypt) and the site of Tel Fara’in/ Buto a port city in the Delta, that shows evidence for contact with Mesopotamian cultures

Naqada and Abydos, are important cemeteries in the south (Upper Egypt) - earliest large fortified settlements or cities developed in the south at Hierakonpolis and El Kalb

South to north developmental process and sequence?

Major Preconditions met between 5000 and 3000 BCE

Egypt-INTEGRATION ERA

Protodynastic, Early Dynastic, Old kingdom

Protodynastic Period (Late Naqada II through First Dynasty) 3200 - 2950 BCE

- the integration of the south and north resulted from military conflict, with the south emerging as the rulers sometime around 3200 BCE, possibly under a King Narmer of

Hierakonpolis or of a mythical king called Menes (Aha) who founded the First Dynasty

Early Dynastic Period (Dynasty 1-2) 3050 - 2695 BCE strong ideologies evolve to support the hierarchy of multiple city states and eventually a territorial state: dominated by the king, supported by priests and military, writing develops,

Old Kingdom (Dynasty 3 - 8) 2695 - 2160 BCE

- five distinct settlement types, national “capital” at Memphis, large walled towns, forts and trading posts, pyramid towns, small provincial villages and towns

-King Dzoser (Djoser), minister Imhotep, 2680 BCE Step Pyramid; 2580 BCE Great Pyramid of Giza for Kufu (Cheops), ? 2560 BCE Sphinx later claimed by Kaphre; 2480 BCE end of great stone pyramid building

- eventually pyramids were replaced by temples and smaller tombs

Egypt-Ideological Foundations

State = God King who in turn is supported by officials and priests, military and below them the agriculturalists

Horus = Re = Ra (Sun God) is the dominant deity, unification under a shared ideology;

Horus=King in life, Osiris = King in after life

Sexuality: fertility of the gods→ used on lands

Egypt-Social Hierarchy

ruler – king – Pharaoh > elites – land holders, priests > common people -laborers, generally >“slaves” - people tied to the land or labor through taxation or corvée, or war captives

Social order reinforced by military and ritual coercion (ma’at = right thing, truth and justice)

which are in turn supported by religion, monuments, writing, etc.

- the cyclical nature and relative stability of the Nile flooding reinforce the ideology of Maat- Truth, order and right

Egypt-Military Control

- infantry - used mercenaries and local Egyptian regulars,

- horse drawn chariots introduced in the Hyksos, Asiatic (Palestinian) nomadic conquerors in the 13th Dynasty

- navy – used both river boats and sea going vessels to transport troops and supplies and also in battle

Egypt-New Kingdom

1479-1457 BCE - Queen Hatshepsut, built many monuments, obelisks at Karnak and funerary

temple at Deir el Bahri, commercial expedition to Punt (Somalia or Arabia) to get exotic

goods, she was regent for her step son Thutmose III

1353-1338 BCE Amenhotep IV - revives the worship of Re = Aten - and renames himself

Akhenaten, queen Nefertiti

1336-1327 BCE Tutankhamun restored earlier religion and worship of Amun

Egypt-Order

Order of Egyptian society is known only from the elite perspective, we do not have any

information on how other members of society viewed the situation

Legitimation relates primarily to the rulers and the gods, great Wealth was spent on religion,

which was used to legitimate the rulers

Egypt-Gender Issues in Egypt

Patriarchal society with Men - dominant, Women - less powerful, but essential for rebirth

Fertility was key to rebirth in the afterlife

Other – Eunuchs, homosexuals, transvestite, etc. documented in texts, art and burials

Egypt-Monuments

earliest form of royal tomb is the mastaba - 3200 to 2700 BCE – early burials included human sacrifice of attendants who accompanied the ruler to the afterlife

Pyramid incorporates the symbol of the primeval hill that rose from the waters at creation and the symbol of Re the sun god of Heliopolis, Lower Egypt

Great Pyramids 2750-2480 BCE at the site of Saqqara, Lower Egypt

Step Pyramid - built during the reign of King Dzoser 2750 BCE and supposedly organized by his chief minister Imhotep

Egypt-Writing

Origins, type, who/why, details

Origins of Egyptian Writing

- no clear link to earlier graffiti and symbols on pottery, but this is probably due to lack of good stratigraphic excavations and well dated finds

- writing emerges from local needs and symbols, relates directly to key rituals and burial traditions

- no need to look to Mesopotamia for the idea of writing or any of the symbols

Writing - Hieroglyphs- pictographic and phonetic, Egyptian language is Hamito-Semitic

Hieratic - cursive script used by priests, and originated around the same time as Hieroglyphs

Demotic (c 700 BCE ) popular script, generally non-religious use emerges out of Hieratic, used for letter writing and for business transactions

Coptic – later script used by Greeks and continues to be used up to the present among Coptic Christian communities in Egypt.

- pictographs and phonetic symbols use the Rebus principal - uses symbols of concrete objects to create a word for an abstract concept - e.g. symbol for "bee" and "leaf" to create the word "belief."

- writing used for magical purposes and for communicating that the Pharaoh is the highest authority, is god, should be worshipped, etc.

- writing done on all manner of objects, monuments, houses, papyrus (not on clay tablets as in Mesopotamia)

- writing was the exclusive tool of the state, the king and the priests/scribes, there is little or no evidence of individual or local enterprise using writing (in contrast with Mesopotamia