Ancient Egypt
by Descriptive notes on the Political organization, Social organization, and Religion of Ancient Egypt.
Ancient Egypt
Egypt is the “gift of the Nile” so wrote the great Greek, Herodotus in the 5th century BC. The source of the white Nile in lake Victoria in Central Africa. The source of the Blue Nile in Lake Tana in the highlands of Ethiopia.
The annual floods bring life giving water and fertile soil in the form of silt which is deposited along the river banks, and in the Nile Delta.
Unification of Egypt
By 5,000 BC. prosperous village life has appeared along the Nile. people are able to harness the potential of the annual flood by using irrigation to water the land along the river.
By 4,000 BC. a political structure has appeared. A king will rule in association with a priestly castle- who oversee the rituals of the temples devoted to the Egyptians gods and goddesses.
Circa 3,000 BC Menes, The king of upper Egypt, will lead his army into lower Egypt and Kill the king of lower Egypt, Thereby uniting the upper and lower Egypt. Menes is known to the Egyptians as the Smasher Of Foreheads, because of the mace he used to smash the face of the king of lower Egypt.
The political system and Economy of Ancient Egypt
Menes, king of Upper Egypt conquered the lower Egypt. He built his capital at Memphis where Upper and Lower Egypt met. He was Pharaoh, a king who established a dynasty. This means that power was passed down from father to son.
He was helped by:
- Government officials who governed different provinces in his name,
- Scribes who kept records and wrote messages, and
- Priests who oversaw the ’Magic Activities’ of the Egyptian religion and left the Servile population in Awe.
The economy of Egypt depended one main thing: Irrigation. Irrigation ensured the harnessing of the life – giving waters of the Nile and provided 3 rich grain harvests per year.
Egyptian Social Organization and Religion
Egyptian society was organized in strict Hierarchy, with Pharaoh and his household at the top, a small group of government officials, priests and scribes, small merchant class, a very large farming class, and at the bottom a slave class.
Religion: Polytheism, which is the belief in many gods and goddesses who control the annual flood, and the forces of nature (including the fertility of women, animals, and the land.) The most important god was Ra, the god of the sun, who gives earth life much like the Pharaoh who gives Egypt life. Many gods took the form of snakes, crocodiles, or animal heads.
The god Isis protected the people from illness. her husband Orisis represents the dead who await rebirth in the afterlife. Thus belief in the afterlife is a key element in the Egyptian Religion.
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