Download Egyptian Culture

Notable Facts about Egyptian Culture
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Social Classes: Like Mesopotamia, ancient Egyptians recognized a series of well-defined social
classes. For example, the peasants controlled food production and were a majority in numbers.
Slaves and peasants also supplied hard labor, making a complex agricultural society possible.
o The organization of ruling classes differed—Egyptians had a supreme ruler.
Mesopotamians had urban kings. Egyptians had no noble class because their Pharaoh
was an absolute ruler.
Patriarchal society: Like Mesopotamian counterparts, Egyptian peoples built patriarchal
societies that vested authority over public and private affairs in their men.
o Women of upper elite classes oversaw the domestic work of household servants
o Women performed domestic work
o Both men and women could own property
o With rare exception, men were the rulers in Egyptian society.
Economic and Specialization of Trade:
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In Mesopotamia the bronze age came as early as 3000 b.c.e. The Hyksos were able to impose
authority on the Nile through the use of bronze, which the Egyptians later adapted into their
military culture.
Iron production (which was also prominent in Anotolia—Hittites—remember?) arose
independently from local experimentation in Africa at around 900 b.c.e.
Transportation:
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The Nile flows north
Egyptian craftsmen worked from the early days to create efficient water transportation to
traverse up the Nile.
Egyptians also made use of the Mesopotamian-style wheeled vehicles for local transportation.
Relied on donkey caravans for transportation between the Nile and the Red Sea.
Trade: transportation encouraged the development of long-distance trade.
o Egypt has few natural resources—so trade was essential. Traded throughout Nubia and
north along Mesopotamia and the Mediterranean.
o Wood was a significant good they traded
Writing:
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Hieroglyphic Writing: Appeared in Egypt by 3200 b.c.e.
o Like Mesopotamia, writing was pictographic.
o Later used pictographs with symbols
representing sounds and ideas.
o Egyptians made paper out of papyrus—plant
that grows along the banks of the Nile.
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Hieroglyphics were lost with the fall of the Egyptian Empire in the New Kingdom
Not until the early 1800s did a French scholar, Jean Champollion unravel the Egyptian
writings. He did this by deciphering the figures on the Rosetta Stone. The stone had
Greek and Egyptian writing—enabling a translation.
Education:
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Scribes were the educated elite
o Scribes were critical parts of Egyptian culture
o Record keeping (maintained economic—taxes—political and administrative records)
Math and Science: doctors were skilled at observing symptoms, diagnosing and curing.
o Performed complex surgical operations
o Astronomers studied the heavens, mapping constellations and carting the movements
of the planets. They developed a calendar that included 12 months of 30 days each as
well as five days added at the end of each year. Almost exactly our calendar.
o Scholars developed geometry to survey the land and calculate the average flooding. Also
used geometry in the construction of the pyramids.
o Engineering was used in the building of the pyramids.
Mummification:
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Whereas Mesopotamians believed that death brought an end to an individual’s existence, many
Egyptians believed that death was not an end so much as a transition to a new dimension of
existence.
The yearning for immortality helps to explain the Egyptian practice of mummifying the dead.
During the Old Kingdom Egyptians believed that only the ruling elites would survive the grave,
so they mummified only pharaohs and their close relatives. Later, however, other royal officials
and wealthy individuals merited the posthumous honor of mummification.
During the New Kingdom, Egyptians came to think of eternal life as a condition available to
normal mortals as well as to members of the ruling classes.
Osiris:
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The lord of the underworld. Associated with the Nile—which flooded,
retreated, and then flooded
Following death, an individual’s soul faced the judgment of Osiris.
Egyptians were polytheistic