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Ancient Egypt was a civilization in northern East Africa concentrated along the middle to lower reaches of the Nile River that reached its greatest extent in the second millennium BC during the New Kingdom. It stretched from the Nile Delta in the north to as far south as Jebel Barkal, located at the Fourth Cataract of the Nile in modern-day Sudan. The fluid geographic range of ancient Egypt also included, at different times, areas of the southern Levant, the Eastern Desert and the Red Sea coastline, the Sinai Peninsula, and the oases of the Western desert.^[1]

Ancient Egyptian civilization began around 3150 BC with the political unification of the major Nile Valley cultures under the first pharaoh, and it developed over the next three millennia. ^[2] Its history is divided into a series of golden ages, known as Kingdoms, that are separated by periods of relative instability known as Intermediate Periods. After the end of the last golden age, known as the New Kingdom, the civilization of ancient Egypt entered a period of slow, steady decline, during which Egypt was conquered by a succession of foreign adversaries. The power of the pharaohs officially ended in 31 BC when the early Roman Empire conquered Egypt and made it a province.^[3]

The civilization of ancient Egypt was based on balanced control of natural and human resources under the leadership of the pharaoh, religious leaders, and court administrators. It was notable for many innovations: controlled irrigation of the fertile Nile Valley, mineral exploitation of the valley and surrounding desert regions, the early development of literature and an independent writing system, the organization of collective construction and agricultural projects, trade with surrounding regions in east and central Africa and the eastern Mediterranean, and finally, military ventures that defeated foreign enemies and asserted Egyptian dominance throughout the region. Motivating and organizing these activities was a bureaucracy of elite scribes, religious leaders, and administrators under the control of the divine pharaoh who ensured the cooperation and unity of the Egyptian people by means of an elaborate system of religious beliefs.^[1][4]

History

History of Ancient Egypt

Predynastic Egypt

Protodynastic Period

Early Dynastic Period

Old Kingdom

First Intermediate Period

Middle Kingdom

Second Intermediate Period

New Kingdom

Third Intermediate Period

First Persian Period

Late Period

Second Persian Period

Ptolemaic Dynasty

Roman Egypt

Arab Conquest

Main articles: History of ancient Egypt and History of Egypt

By the late Paleolithic, the arid climate of northern Africa had become increasingly hot and dry, forcing the population to concentrate along the Nile valley, and since nomadic hunter-gatherers began living in the region during the Pleistocene some 1.8 million years ago, the Nile has been the lifeline of Egypt.^[1] The fertile floodplain of the Nile gave humans the opportunity to develop a settled agricultural economy and a more sophisticated, centralized society that became a cornerstone in the history of human civilization.^[1]

Predynastic period

By about 5500 BC, small tribes living in the Nile valley had developed into a series of unique cultures demonstrating firm control of agriculture and animal husbandry and identifiable by their unique pottery and personal items, such as combs, bracelets, and beads. The largest of these early cultures in upper Egypt, the Badari, was known for its high quality ceramics, stone tools, and its use of copper.^[5] Their burials, simple pit graves with signs of social stratification, suggest that the culture was coming under the control of more powerful leaders.^[1]

In southern Egypt, the Naqada culture, similar in culture to the Badari, began to expand along the Nile by about 4000 BC. Over a period of about 1000 years, the Naqada culture developed from a few small farming communities into a powerful civilization whose leaders were in complete control of the people and resources of the Nile valley.^[6] Establishing a power center at Hierakonpolis, and later at Abydos, Naqada leaders expanded their control of Egypt northwards along the Nile and engaged in trade with Nubia, the oases of the western desert, and the cultures of the eastern Mediterranean.^[1]

The Naqada culture manufactured a diverse array of material goods, reflective of the increasing power and wealth of the elite, which included painted pottery, high quality decorative stone vases, cosmetic palettes, and jewelry made of gold, lapis, and ivory. They also developed a ceramic glaze known as faience which was used well into the Roman Period to decorate cups, amulets, and figurines.^[7] During the last phase of the predynastic, the Naqada culture began using written symbols which would eventually evolve into a full system of hieroglyphs for writing the ancient Egyptian language.^[8]

Early dynastic period

The ancient Egyptians chose to begin their official history with a king named "Meni" (or Menes in Greek) who they believed had united the two kingdoms of Upper and Lower Egypt.^[10] The transition to a unified state actually happened more gradually than the ancient Egyptian writers would have us believe, and there is no contemporary record of Menes. Scholars now believe, however, that the mythical Menes may have actually been the pharaoh Narmer, who is depicted wearing royal regalia on the ceremonial Narmer Palette in a symbolic act of unification.^[11] The third century BC Egyptian priest Manetho grouped the lengthy line of pharaohs following Menes into 30 dynasties, a system still in use today.^[12]

In the early dynastic period about 3150 BC, the first pharaohs solidified their control over lower Egypt by establishing a capital at Memphis, from which they could control the labor force and agriculture of the fertile delta region as well as the lucrative and critical trade routes to the Levant. The increasing power and wealth of the pharaohs during the early dynastic period was reflected in their elaborate mastaba tombs and mortuary cult structures at Abydos which were used to celebrate the deified pharaoh after his death.^[1] The strong institution of kingship developed by the pharaohs served to legitimize state control over the land, labor, and resources that were essential to the survival and growth of ancient Egyptian civilization.^[13]

Old Kingdom

Stunning advances in architecture, art, and technology were made during Old Kingdom, fueled by the increased agricultural productivity made possible by a well developed central administration.^[14] Under the direction of the vizier, state officials collected taxes, coordinated irrigation projects to improve crop yield, drafted peasants to work on construction projects, and established a justice system to maintain peace and order.^[15] With the surplus resources made available by a productive and stable economy, the state was able to sponsor construction of colossal monuments and to commission exceptional works of art from the royal workshops. The pyramids built by Djoser, Khufu, and their descendants stand as eternal symbols of the power of the pharaohs.

Along with the rising importance of a central administration arose a new class of educated scribes and officials who were granted estates by the pharaoh in payment for their services. Pharaohs also made land grants to their mortuary cults and local temples to ensure that these institutions would have the necessary resources to worship the pharaoh after his death. By the end of the Old Kingdom, five centuries of these feudal practices had slowly eroded the economic power of the pharaoh, who could no longer afford to support a large centralized administration.^[16] As the power of the pharaoh diminished, regional governors called nomarchs began to challenge the supremacy of the pharaoh which, coupled with severe droughts between 2200 and 2150 BC,^[17] ultimately caused the country to enter a 140 year period of famine and strife known as the First Intermediate Period.^[18]

First Intermediate Period

After Egypt's central government collapsed at the end of the Old Kingdom, the administration could no longer support or stabilize the country's economy. Regional governors could not rely on the king for help in times of crisis, and the ensuing food shortages and political disputes escalated into famines and small scale civil wars. Yet despite difficult problems, local leaders, owing no tribute to the pharaoh, used their newfound independence to establish a thriving culture in the provinces. Once in control of their own resources, the provinces became economically richer—a fact demonstrated by larger and better burials among all social classes.^[1] In bursts of creativity, provincial artisans adopted and adapted cultural motifs formerly restricted to the royalty of the Old Kingdom, and scribes developed literary styles which expressed the optimism and originality of the period.^[1]

Free from their loyalties to the pharaoh, local rulers began competing with each other for territorial control and political power. By 2160 BC, rulers in Hierakonpolis controlled Lower Egypt while a rival clan based in Thebes, under the name Intef, took control of Upper Egypt. As the Intefs grew in power and expanded their control northward, a clash between the two rival dynasties became inevitable. Around 2055 BC the Theban forces under Nebhepetre Mentuhotep II finally defeated the Herakleopolitan rulers, reuniting the Two Lands and inaugurating a period of economic and cultural renaissance known as the Middle Kingdom.^[3]

Middle Kingdom

The pharaohs of the Middle Kingdom restored the country's prosperity and stability, thereby stimulating a resurgence of art, literature, and monumental building projects.^[19] Mentuhotep II and his 11th Dynasty successors ruled from Thebes, but the vizier Amenemhet I, upon assuming kingship at the beginning of the 12th Dynasty around 1985 BC, shifted the nation's capital to the city of Itjtawy located in Faiyum.^[3] From Itjtawy, the pharaohs of the 12th Dynasty undertook a far-sighted land reclamation and irrigation scheme to increase agricultural output in the region. Moreover, the military reconquered territory in Nubia rich in quarries and gold mines, while laborers built a defensive structure in the Eastern Delta, called the "Walls-of-the-Ruler", to defend against foreign attack.^[1]

Having secured military and political security and vast agricultural and mineral wealth, the nation's population, arts, and religion flourished. In contrast to elitist Old Kingdom attitudes towards the gods, the Middle Kingdom experienced an increase in expressions of personal piety and a so-called democratization of the afterlife, in which all people possessed a soul and could be welcomed into the company of the gods after death.^[1] Middle Kingdom literature featured sophisticated themes and characters written in a confident, eloquent style,^[20] and the relief and portrait sculpture of the period captured subtle, individual details that reached new heights of technical perfection.^[9]

The last great ruler of the Middle Kingdom, Amenemhat III, allowed Asiatic settlers into the delta region to provide a sufficient labor force for his especially active mining and building campaigns. These ambitious building and mining activities, however, combined with inadequate Nile floods later in his reign, strained the economy and precipitated the slow decline into the Second Intermediate Period during the later 13th and 14th dynasties. It was during this decline that the foreign Asiatic settlers began to seize control of the delta region, eventually coming to power in Egypt as the Hyksos.^[1]

Second Intermediate Period and the Hyksos

Around 1650 BC, as the power of the Middle Kingdom pharaohs weakened, Asiatic immigrants living in the Eastern Delta town of Avaris seized control of the region and forced the central government to retreat to Thebes, where the pharaoh was treated as a vassal and expected to pay tribute.^[21] These Asiatic Hyksos, or "foreign rulers", imitated Egyptian models of government and portrayed themselves as pharaohs, thus integrating Egyptian elements into their Middle Bronze Age culture.^[1]

After their retreat, the Theban kings found themselves trapped between the Hyksos to the north and the Hyksos' Nubian allies, the Kushites, to the south. Nearly 100 years of tenuous inaction followed, and it was not until 1555 BC that the Theban forces finally gathered enough strength to challenge the Hyksos in a conflict that would last more than 30 years.^[21] The pharaohs Seqenenre Tao II and Kamose were ultimately able to defeat the Nubians, but it was Kamose's successor, Ahmose I, who successfully waged a series of campaigns that permanently eradicated the Hyksos' presence in Egypt. In the New Kingdom that followed, the military became a central priority for the pharaohs seeking to expand Egypt’s borders and secure her complete dominance of the Near East.^[1]

New Kingdom

By military force the pharaohs of the New Kingdom expanded the country's borders and defeated its enemies. Campaigns under Tuthmosis I and his grandson Tuthmosis III to Syria and Nubia extended the reach of the pharaoh's influence, who could command obedience and tribute from these neighbors. Diplomatic connections between the major Near Eastern powers were strengthened, cementing loyalties between Egypt's allies and opening access to critical imports such as bronze, wood, and luxuries. ^[22]

With prosperity secured, the New Kingdom pharaohs began an impressive building campaign to promote the newly ordained state god, Amun, whose growing cult was based in Karnak temple at Thebes. Amun was not the only one commemorated by monuments of the New Kingdom; pharaohs wasted no opportunity to glorify their own achievements, real or imagined. The pharaoh Hatshepsut used such propaganda to legitimize her claim to the throne over her nephew-stepson Tuthmosis III, who was then a child.^[23] Although Hatshepsut had a successful reign, launching trading expeditions to punt, building an elegant mortuary temple, and erecting a colossal pair of obelisks and a chapel at Karnak temple, Tuthmosis III decided to erase the legacy of this female pharaoh and usurper near the end of his reign. ^[1]

As the pharaohs of the New Kingdom continued expanding, building, and amassing great wealth, the future looked secure. But around 1350 BC, Amenhotep IV unexpectedly ascended the throne and initiated a series of radical reforms that threatened the stability and prosperity his ancestors had worked for nearly 200 years to achieve. Changing his name to Akhenaten, he promoted the worship of the previously obscure god Aten as the supreme deity, suppressing the worship of other deities, and attacking the power of the entrenched priestly establishment. ^[24] Moving the capital to a new city which he called Akhetaten (modern-day Amarna), Akhenaten turned a deaf ear to foreign affairs and absorbed himself in his new religion and artistic style. After his death, the cult of the Aten was quickly abandoned, and the subesquent pharaohs Tutankhamun, Aye, and Horemheb quietly erased all mention of the heresy, now known as the Amarna Period.^[25]

The last three kings of the 18th Dynasty, Tutankhamun, Aye, and Horemheb, all died without an heir, and the throne passed to a military man, Ramesses I, beginning the 19th Dynasty. His grandson, Ramesses II (known as "the great") ascended the throne around 1279 BC at the age of 18, and built more temples, erected more statues and obelisks, and sired more children than any other pharaoh in history.^[3]A bold military leader, Ramesses led his army into battle against the Hittites in the battle of Kadesh which, ending in a stalemate, led to the first recorded peace treaty and a quiet end to hostilities between the two nations. ^[26] But despite this temporary peace, internal struggles and foreign threats would again challenge the peace and prosperity of the region. ^[27]

Egypt's wealth made it a tempting target, and the pharaohs of the late New Kingdom were repeatedly challenged by invasions from the Libyans and a coalition of Asiatics known as the Sea Peoples. Initially, the military was able to repel these invasions but eventually Egypt's control of Syria and Palestine was lost. The administration was having internal problems of its own: corruption, theft from the royal tombs in the Valley of the Kings, civil unrest, and political plotting undermined the unity of the country and the authority of the Pharaoh. Throughout the New Kingdom, the high priests at the temple of Amun in Thebes had accumulated vast tracts of land and wealth, and their growing power would splinter the country during the Third Intermediate Period. ^[28]

Third Intermediate Period

After the death of Ramesses XI, his successor Smendes ruled from the city of Tanis in the north, while the High Priests of Amun at Thebes had effective rule of the south of the country, whilst still nominally recognizing Smendes as king.^[29] In fact, this division was less significant than it seems, since both priests and pharaohs came from the same family. Piankh, assumed control of Upper Egypt, ruling from Thebes, with the northern limit of his control ending at Al-Hibah. They were replaced without any apparent struggle by the Libyan kings of the twenty-second dynasty.

Shoshenq I, the first king of the new dynasty, briefly re-unified the country, putting control of the Amun clergy under that of his own son. The scant and patchy nature of the written records from this period suggests that it was an unsettled time, leading eventually to a separate group of pharaohs who established their control over Upper Egypt (comprising the twenty-third dynasty) which ran concurrently with the latter part of the twenty-second dynasty.

Under king Piye, the Nubian founder of twenty-fifth dynasty, the Nubians pushed north in an effort to crush his Libyan opponents ruling in the Delta. He managed to attain power as far as Memphis. His opponent Tefnakhte ultimately submitted to him, but he was allowed to remain in power in Lower Egypt and founded the short-lived twenty-fourth dynasty at Sais. Piye was succeeded first by his brother, Shabaka, and then by his two sons Shebitku and Taharqa.

The international prestige of Egypt declined considerably by this time. The country's international allies had fallen under the Assyrian sphere of influence and, from about 700 BC the question became when, not if, there would be war between the two states. Taharqa's reign and that of his successor, Tanutamun, were filled with constant conflict with the Assyrians against whom there were numerous victories. Ultimately Thebes was occupied and Memphis sacked.

Late Period

From 664 BC Egypt was ruled by client kings established by the Assyrians, establishing the Twenty-Sixth Dynasty. Psamtik I was the first to be recognized as the king of the whole of Egypt, and he brought increased stability to the country during a 54-year reign from the new capital of Sais. Four successive Saite kings continued guiding Egypt successfully and peacefully from 610-526 BC. By the end of this period a new power was growing in the Near East: Persia. The pharaoh Psamtik III had to face the might of Persia at Pelusium; he was defeated and briefly escaped to Memphis, but ultimately was captured and then executed at Susa, capital of the Persian king Cambyses, who assumed the formal title of Pharaoh, starting a period of Persian domination.

Memphis and the Delta region became the target of many attacks from the Assyrians, until Psammetichus I managed to reunite Middle and Lower Egypt under his rule forming the Twenty-sixth dynasty.

The last pharaoh of the Twenty-Sixth dynasty, Psammetichus III, was defeated by Cambyses II of Persia in the battle of Pelusium in the eastern Nile delta in 525 BC, Egypt was then joined with Cyprus and Phoenicia in the sixth satrapy of the Achaemenid Empire. Thus began the first period of Persian rule over Egypt (also known as the Twenty-Seventh dynasty of Egypt), which ended around 402 BC.

The Thirtieth Dynasty was established in 380 BC and lasted until 343 BC. This was the last native house to rule Egypt. The brief restoration of Persian rule is sometimes known as the Thirty-First Dynasty, which lasted for a brief period (343–332 BC). In 332 BC Mazaces handed over the country to Alexander the Great without a fight. The Achaemenid empire had ended, and for a while Egypt was a satrapy in Alexander's empire. Later the Ptolemies and then the Romans successively ruled the Nile valley.

Ptolemaic dynasty

In 332 BC Alexander III of Macedon conquered Egypt with little resistance from the Persians. He was welcomed by the Egyptians as a deliverer. He visited Memphis, and went on pilgrimage to the oracle of Amun at the Oasis of Siwa. The oracle declared him to be the son of Amun. He conciliated the Egyptians by the respect which he showed for their religion, but he appointed Greeks to virtually all the senior posts in the country, and founded a new Greek city, Alexandria, to be the new capital. The wealth of Egypt could now be harnessed for Alexander's conquest of the rest of the Persian Empire. Early in 331 BC he was ready to depart, and led his forces away to Phoenicia. He left Cleomenes as the ruling nomarch to control Egypt in his absence. Alexander never returned to Egypt.

Following Alexander's death in Babylon in 323 BC, a succession crisis erupted among his generals. Initially, Perdiccas ruled the empire as regent for Alexander's half-brother Arrhidaeus, who became Philip III of Macedon, and then as regent for both Philip III and Alexander's infant son Alexander IV of Macedon, who had not been born at the time of his father's death. Perdiccas appointed Ptolemy, one of Alexander's closest companions, to be satrap of Egypt.

Ptolemy ruled Egypt from 323 BC, nominally in the name of the joint kings Philip III and Alexander IV. However, as Alexander the Great's empire disintegrated, Ptolemy soon established himself as ruler in his own right. Ptolemy successfully defended Egypt against an invasion by Perdiccas in 321 BC, and consolidated his position in Egypt and the surrounding areas during the Wars of the Diadochi (322 BC-301 BC). In 305 BC, Ptolemy took the title of King. As Ptolemy I Soter ("Saviour"), he founded the Ptolemaic dynasty that was to rule Egypt for nearly 300 years.

The later Ptolemies took on Egyptian traditions by marrying their siblings, had themselves portrayed on public monuments in Egyptian style and dress, and participated in Egyptian religious life.^[30][31]

Hellenistic culture thrived in Egypt well after the Muslim conquest. The Ptolemies had to fight native rebellions and were involved in foreign and civil wars that led to the decline of the kingdom and its annexation by Rome.

Roman domination

After the defeat of Marc Antony and Ptolemaic Queen Cleopatra VII in the Battle of Actium in 30 BC by Octavian (the future Emperor Augustus), Egypt became a province of the Roman Empire, encompassing most of modern-day Egypt except for the Sinai Peninsula, bordered by the provinces of Cyrenaica to the west and Arabia, Egypt would come to serve as a major producer of grain for the empire. The reign of Constantine also saw the founding of Constantinople as a new capital for the Roman Empire, and in the course of the fourth century the Empire was divided in two, with Egypt finding itself in the Eastern Empire with its capital at Constantinople. This meant that within a few years Latin, never well established in Egypt, disappeared, and Greek reasserted itself as the language of government. During the fifth and sixth centuries the Eastern Roman Empire gradually became the Byzantine Empire, a Christian, Greek-speaking state that had little in common with the old empire of Rome, which disappeared in the face of the Islamic invasions in the fifteenth century. Another consequence of the triumph of Christianity was the final oppression and demise of the pagan culture: with the disappearance of the Egyptian priests and priestesses who officiated at the temples, no-one could read the hieroglyphics of Pharaonic Egypt, and its temples were converted to churches or abandoned to the desert.

The Eastern Empire became increasingly "oriental" in style as its links with the old Græco-Roman world faded. The Greek system of local government by citizens had now entirely disappeared. Offices, with new Byzantine names, were almost hereditary in the wealthy land-owning families. Alexandria, the second city of the empire, continued to be a centre of religious controversy and violence. Cyril, the patriarch of Alexandria, convinced the city's governor to expel the Jews from the city in 415 with the aid of the mob, in response to the Jews' nighttime massacre of many Christians. The murder of the philosopher Hypatia marked the final end of classical Hellenic culture in Egypt. Another schism in the Church produced a prolonged civil war and alienated Egypt from the Empire.

Government and economy

Administration and commerce

The pharaoh was the absolute monarch of the country and, at least in theory, in complete control of the land and its resources. The king was also the supreme military commander, responsible for all military and policy decisions. The king relied on a bureaucracy of officials to manage his affairs, and in charge of the administration was his second in command, the vizier. The vizier acted as the king's representative and coordinated land surveys, the treasury, building projects, the legal system, and the archives.^[32] At a local level, the country was divided into administrative regions called nomes which, by the late period, had increased to 42 in number. Each nome's governor, called a nomarch, was accountable to the vizier for his jurisdiction. The temples formed the backbone of the economy, and were not only houses of worship but were responsible for collecting and storing the nation's wealth in a system of granaries and treasuries. From these central storage facilities administered by overseers, grain and goods could be distributed to the populace.^[33]

Society was highly stratified and status expressly displayed. Farmers made up the bulk of the population, but agricultural produce was owned directly by the state, temple, or noble family who owned the land.^[34] Most of the population did not have freedom of movement or a free choice of career. Farmers were also subject to a labor tax, and were required to work on irrigation or building construction projects in a corvée system.^[35] Artists and craftsmen were of higher status than farmers, but were also under state control, working in the shops attached to the temples and being paid directly from the state treasury. Scribes and officials formed the upper class in ancient Egypt, prominently displaying their social status in art and literature. Slavery was known in ancient Egypt, but it is not clear how widespread the practice was.^[36]

The economy was centrally organized and strictly controlled. The ancient Egyptians did not use coinage, but money was known in other forms: standard sacks of grain and the deben, a mass of roughly 91 grams, formed a common denominator.^[37] Prices were fixed across the country and recorded in lists to facilitate trading; for example a shirt might cost five copper deben, while a cow might cost 140 deben.^[38] Laborers were paid in grain; a laborer might earn 5½ sacks (191 kg) of grain per month while a foreman might earn 7½ sacks (261 kg). Grain could be traded for other goods, according to the fixed price list.^[39]

Legal system

The head of the legal system in ancient Egypt was officially the pharaoh, who was responsible for proclaiming laws, delivering justice, and maintaining law and order, a concept the ancient Egyptians referred to as Ma'at.^[4] Though no legal codes from ancient Egypt have survived, the many court documents which have survived show that Egyptian law was based on a common sense view of right and wrong that emphasized reaching agreements and resolution of conflict rather than strict adherence to a complicated set of statues.^[40][41]

The ancient Egyptians viewed men and women, and people from all social classes except slaves, as essentially equal under the law, and even the lowliest peasant was entitled to petition the vizier and his court for redress.^[40] Both men and women had the right to own and sell property, make contracts, marry and divorce, receive inheritance, and pursue legal disputes in court. Married couples could own property jointly and protect themselves from divorce by agreeing to marriage contracts, which stipulated the financial obligations of the husband to his wife and children should the marriage end.^[40]

Local councils of elders, known as Kenbet by the New Kingdom, were responsible for making rulings in court cases involving small claims and minor disputes, though the kenbet's ability to enforce its rulings was limited.^[4] Local Kenbets deferred serious or complicated cases involving murder, major land transactions, and tomb robbery to the Great Kenbet, over which the vizier or pharaoh presided. Plaintiffs and defendants were expected to represent themselves in legal matters, and were required to swear an oath to an Egyptian deity that they had told the truth.^[42] In cases of tomb robbery or assassination plots, the state took on both the role of prosecutor and judge, and could torture the accused with beatings to obtain a confession and the names of any co-conspirators. Whether the charges were trivial or serious, court scribes documented the complaint, testimony, and verdict of the case for future reference.^[41]

Punishment for minor crimes involved either imposition of fines, beatings, facial mutilation, or exile, depending on the severity of the offense. Serious crimes such as murder and tomb robbery were punished by death, which could be carried out by decapitation, drowning, or by impaling the criminal on a stake. Punishment could also be extended to the criminal's family.^[4]

Agriculture

See also: Ancient Egyptian cuisine

Egypt has a favorable combination of geographical features which contributed to the success of the ancient Egyptian culture, the most important of which was the rich fertile soil provided by annual inundations of the Nile river. This resulted in the ability of the ancient Egyptians to grow an abundance of food, which freed up the population to devote more time and resources for cultural, technological, and artistic pursuits. Land management was crucial in ancient Egypt, because taxes were assessed based on the amount of land a person owned.^[4]

Farming in Egypt was dependent upon the cycle of the Nile River. The Egyptians distinguished between three seasons in their written records, which they called Akhet (flooding), Peret (planting), and Shemu (harvesting). The flooding season lasted from June to September, after which a layer of mineral-rich silt was deposited on the banks, being perfect for growing crops.

The growing season occurred between October and February, after the flood waters had receded. Farmers plowed and planted seeds in the fields, which were irrigated with dikes and canals. Egypt receives little rainfall, so farmers relied on the Nile to water their crops.

The harvesting season followed in March, April, and May. Farmers would harvest the crops by cutting them down with sickles. The crops would then be threshed by beating them with a flail, in order to separate the straw from the grain. Then the crops would be winnowed to remove the chaff. The grain was then ground on a stone to make flour, brewed to make beer, or stored for later use.

The ancient Egyptians cultivated wheat, emmer, barley, and several other cereal grains, which they used to make their two main food staples, bread and beer. Flax plants were grown, uprooted before they started flowering, and the fibres of their stems extracted. These fibres were split along their length, spun into thread which was used to weave sheets of linen to make into clothing. Papyrus growing on the banks of the Nile River was used to make paper. Vegetables and fruits were grown in garden plots close to their habitations on higher ground and had to be watered by hand.^[43]

Natural resources

Egypt is a land rich in building and decorative stone, copper and lead ores, gold, and semiprecious stones, which the ancient Egyptians used to build monuments, sculpt statues, make tools, and fashion jewelry. They left no stone unturned in their search for gold, as no deposits of gold have since been found in Egypt that they overlooked.^[44] Embalmers used salts from the Wadi Natrun for mummification, which also provided the gypsum needed to make plaster.^[45]

The ore bearing rock formations in Egypt are found in distant, inhospitable Wadis in the eastern desert and the Sinai and required large state controlled expeditions to obtain the gold, copper ores, and decorative stones found there. The Wadi Hammamat was a notable source of granite, greywacke, and gold. Whenever possible, prisoners and slaves were forced into mining service, but Egyptian peasants might also be conscripted for this unpleasant labor.^[46]

Flint was the first mineral collected and used to make tools, and flint handaxes are the earliest evidence of habitation in the Nile valley. Nodules of the material were carefully flaked to make blades and arrowheads of moderate hardness and durability even after copper was adopted for this purpose.^[47] The Egyptians worked deposits of the lead ore galena at Gebel Rosas to make net sinkers, plumb bobs, and small figurines. Copper was the most important metal for toolmaking in ancient Egypt, and was smelted in furnaces from malachite ore mined in the Sinai.^[48] Workers collected gold by washing the nuggets out of sediments in alluvial deposits, or by the more labor intensive process of grinding and washing gold-bearing quartzite. Iron deposits found in upper Egypt were utilized in the Late Period.^[49]

High quality building stones are abundant in Egypt; the ancient Egyptians quarried limestone all along the Nile valley, granite from Aswan, and basalt and sandstone from the wadis of the eastern desert. Deposits of decorative stones such as porphyry, greywacke, alabaster, and carnelian dot the eastern desert and were collected even before the First Dynasty. In the Ptolemaic and Roman Periods, miners worked deposits of emeralds in Wadi Sikait and amethyst in Wadi el-Hudi.^[49]

Language

Main article: Egyptian language

The Egyptian language belongs to the Afro-Asiatic language phylum, and is related to the Semitic languages (including Arabic and Hebrew) as well as Hamitic languages from North Africa, such as Berber and Cushitic. Used continuously from before 3000 BC until the 11th century AD, ancient Egyptian was the longest surviving language in the world.^[50] The language underwent major changes in its pronunciation and usage over the course of history and was spoken in many dialects. The oldest phase of the language, Old Egyptian, was used until about 2100 BC when it was gradually displaced by the classic phase of the language, called Middle Egyptian. By 1600 BC Late Egyptian began to develop, and was used until about 600 BC. Demotic developed from Late Egyptian and survived until the 5th century AD, alongside Coptic, the final phase of the language, that was used from the 1st century AD until the 11th century. In one dialect, Coptic remained in use for services of the Coptic church, and is still in limited use today.^[51]

Writing

See also: Egyptian hieroglyphs

The ancient Egyptian writing system is known as hieroglyphic (incorrectly as hieroglyphics) and is composed of some 500 symbols called hieroglyphs. There is no explanation for exactly how the system was devised, but it was suddenly adopted and developed shortly before 3000 BC. Each hieroglyph is a picture of a real thing, such as a bird, tool, or body part. Most of the common hieroglyphs correspond to a letter or letter combination in the alphabet, and words in the language are spelled out by stringing together the hieroglyphs whose sounds make up the word. Like other semitic languages, ancient Egyptian does not indicate the vowels.^[53]

Hieroglyphs were a formal script, and were used on large stone monuments. Formal hieroglyphs may be as detailed as individual works of art, but in day to day writing scribes used a cursive form of writing called hieratic, which they could write more quickly and easily. While formal hieroglyphs may be read in rows or columns in either direction, hieratic was always written from right to left, and usually in rows. After Demotic became the dominant spoken language, a new form of writing, also called Demotic, became the everyday writing style, and it is this form of writing (along with formal hieroglyphs) that accompany the Greek text on the Rosetta Stone. In the 1st century AD, the Coptic Christians living in Egypt discarded the pagan demotic script and instead wrote their language using modified Greek characters, in a script known as Coptic.^[54] Although formal hieroglyphs were used in a ceremonial role until the 4th century AD, only a small handful of highly educated priests could still read them and as the priestly establishments were disbanded, the knowledge of their meaning was lost. Only in 1822, after the discovery of the Rosetta stone in 1799 and years of research by Thomas Young and Jean-François Champollion, were the meaning of the hieroglyphs finally deciphered.^[55]

Literature

See also: Ancient Egyptian literature

Writing first appears associated with kingship, labels and tags for items found in royal tombs. This developed by the Old Kingdom into the tomb autobiography, such as those of Harkhuf and Weni. The genre known as Instructions evolved to provide teachings and guidance from famous nobles, the Ipuwer papyrus, a poem of lamentations describing natural disasters and social upheaval, is an extreme example of an instruction, although from an uncertain date. During the First Intermediate Period and the Middle Kingdom, the prose style of literature evolved, with the Story of Sinuhe perhaps being the classic of Egyptian Literature.^[56] Also written at this time (although the surviving copies date from the end of the Second Intermediate Period), the Westcar Papyrus is a set of stories told to Khufu by his sons relating the marvels performed by priests.^[57] Towards the end of the New Kingdom, the Story of Wenamun tells the story of a noble who is robbed on his way to buy cedar from Lebanon, and his struggle to return to Egypt, and shows the end of the united Egypt, and the start of the Third Intermediate Period, a period of turmoil known as wehem mesut.

Culture

Architecture

See also: Ancient Egyptian architecture

The architecture of ancient Egypt includes some of the most famous structures in the world, such as the Great Pyramids of Giza, Abu Simbel, and the temples at Thebes. All major building projects were organized and funded by the state, whose purpose was not only to provide functional religious, military, and funerary structures but to reinforce the power and reputation of the pharaoh and ensure his legacy for all time.^[58] The ancient Egyptians were skilled builders with expert knowledge of basic surveying and construction techniques. Using simple but effective measuring ropes, plum bobs, and sighting instruments, architects could build large stone structures with accuracy and precision.

Most buildings in ancient Egypt, even the pharaoh's palace, were constructed from perishable materials such as mud bricks and wood, and do not survive. Important structures such as temples and tombs were intended to last forever and were instead constructed of stone. The first large scale stone building in the world, the mortuary complex of Djoser, was built in the Third Dynasty as a stone imitation of the mud-brick and wooden structures used in daily life.^[59]

The architectural elements used in Djoser's mortuary complex, including post and lintel construction with huge stone roof blocks supported by external walls and closely spaced columns, would be copied many times in Egyptian history. Decorative styles introduced in the Old Kingdom, such as the lotus and papyrus motifs, are a recurring theme in ancient Egyptian architecture.^[58]

The earliest tomb architecture in ancient Egypt was the mastaba, a flat-roofed rectangular structure of mudbrick or stone built over an underground burial chamber. The mastaba was the most popular tomb among the nobility in the Old Kingdom, and the first pyramid, the step pyramid of Djoser, is actually a series of stone mastabas stacked on top of each other. The step pyramid was itself the inspiration for the first true pyramids. Pharaohs built pyramids in the Old Kingdom and later in the Middle Kingdom, but later rulers abandoned them in favor of less conspicuous rock-cut tombs.^[60] New Kingdom pharaohs built their rock-cut tombs in the Valley of the Kings. By the Third Intermediate Period, the pharaohs had completely abandoned building grand tomb architecture.

The earliest preserved ancient Egyptian temples, from the Old Kingdom, consist of single enclosed halls with columns supporting the roof slabs. The mortuary temples connected to the pyramids at Giza are examples of this early type. During the Fifth Dynasty, pharaohs developed the sun temple, the focus of which is a squat pyramid-shaped obelisk known as a ben-ben stone. The ben-ben stone and other temple structures are surrounded with an outer wall and connected to the Nile by a causeway terminating in a valley temple. In the New Kingdom, architects added the pylon, the open courtyard, and the enclosed hypostyle hall to the front of the temple's sanctuary. Because the common people were not allowed past the entry pylon, the deity residing in the inner sanctuary was distanced from the outside world. This type of cult temple was the standard used until the Ptolemaic and Roman Periods.^[61]

Art

See also: Art of Ancient Egypt

The ancient Egyptians produced art that was made for functional purposes rather than as a form of pure creative expression. Artists adhered to artistic forms that were developed during the Old Kingdom for more than 3500 years, following a strict set of principles that resisted foreign influence and internal change.^[9] Their artistic canon, characterized by the flat projection of figures with no effort to indicate spatial depth, combined with simple lines, shapes, and flat areas of color, created a sense of order and balance within a composition. Because of the rigid rules that governed its highly stylized and symbolic appearance, ancient Egyptian art served its political and religious purposes with precision and clarity.^[4]

Pharaohs used reliefs carved on stelae, temple walls, and obelisks to record victories in battle, royal decrees, and religious scenes. These art forms glorify the pharaoh, record that ruler's version of historical events, and establish the relationship between the Egyptians and their deities. Common citizens had access to pieces of funerary art, such as shabti statues and books of the dead, which they believed would protect them in the afterlife.

The ancient Egyptians made little distinction between images and text, which were intimately interwoven on tomb and temple walls, coffins, stelae, and even statues. This mentality is evident even in the earliest examples of Egyptian art, such as the Narmer Palette, where the characters themselves may be read as hieroglyphs.^[9]

Religious beliefs

See also: Ancient Egyptian religion

The belief in the divine and life after death was ingrained in the ancient Egyptian civilization from its very beginning. The pharaoh's right to rule stemmed from his connection to the gods, as he acted as a mediator between the mortal and spiritual realms. The Egyptian pantheon was populated by a diverse array of gods who had supernatural, though sometimes limited powers, and could be called upon for help or protection. The gods were not always beneficent, and had to be appeased with offerings and prayers. The structure of this pantheon changed continually as new deities were promoted in the hierarchy, and priests made no effort to reconcile the diverse and sometimes conflicting creation myths and stories into a coherent system.^[62]

Officially, the gods were worshipped in cult temples by priests acting on the king's behalf. At the center of the temple, the cult statue of the god was placed in a shrine which acted as a place for the god to manifest himself. Temples were not places of public worship or congregation; instead the god's domain was sealed off from the outside world, only accessable by temple officials. Only on select feast days and celebrations would a shrine carrying the statue of the god be brought out for public worship. Common citizens seeking a more direct interaction with the gods could worship private statues and stelae in the home, and amulets offered continuous, personal protection against the forces of chaos.^[63][64]

After the New Kingdom, the pharaoh's connection to the divine was de-emphasized as religious devotion shifted to worship of the gods directly, bypassing the pharaohnic intermediary. As direct worship of the gods increased, priests developed a system of oracles to communicate the will of the gods.^[65] An oracle might take the form of a statue of the god which could be asked a yes or no question, to which the statue could respond by the hidden actions of a priest, or the query might take place behind closed doors. Oracles became very popular for appealing legal verdicts or for justifying military actions and political decisions.^[66]

The Egyptians believed every human being was composed of physical and spiritual parts, called aspects. In addition to the body, each person had a šwt (the shadow), a ba (the personality or soul), a ka (the life-force), and a name.^[67] The heart was considered the seat of thoughts and emotions. After death, the spiritual aspects were released from the body and could move at will, but required the physical remains (or a substitute, such as a statue) as a permanent home. The ultimate goal of the deceased was to rejoin his ka and ba and become one of the blessed dead, living on as an akh, or "effective one." In order for this to happen, the deceased had to be judged worthy in a trial in which the the heart was weighed against the feather of truth. Once deemed worthy, the deceased would continue their existence living on earth in spiritual form.^[68]

Burial customs

See also: Ancient Egyptian burial customs

The ancient Egyptians maintained an elaborate set of burial customs that they believed were necessary to ensure their immortality after death. These customs involved preservation of the body by mummification, performance of burial ceremonies, and interment with grave goods for the deceased to use in the afterlife.^[1]

Before the Old Kingdom, bodies buried in desert pits were naturally preserved by desiccation. This was the best scenario available for the poor throughout the history of ancient Egypt, who could not afford the elaborate burial preparations available to the elite. When the Egyptians started to bury their dead in stone tombs, natural mummification from the desert did not occur. This necessitated artificial mummification which, for the wealthy in the Old and Middle Kingdoms, meant removing the internal organs, wrapping the body in linen, coating with plaster or resin, and sometimes painting or sculpting facial details. The body was buried in a rectangular stone sarcophagus or wooden coffin. From the Fourth Dynasty, the intestines, lungs, liver and stomach were preserved separately and stored in canopic jars; symbolically protected by likenesses of the Four sons of Horus.^[69]

By the New Kingdom, the art of mummification was perfected; the best technique took 70 days and involved removing the internal organs, removing the brain through the nose, and desiccating the body in a mixture of salts called natron. The body was then wrapped in linen with protective amulets inserted between layers, and placed in a decorated anthropoid coffin. By the Late Period, mummies were placed in painted cartonnage mummy cases. In the Ptolemaic and Roman periods, preservation technique declined and emphasis was placed on the outer appearance of the mummy, decorated with elaborate rhomboidal patterns formed by the wrapping bandages.^[70]

All burials regardless of social status included grave goods such as food and personal items such as jewelry. Wealthy members of society expected larger quantities of luxury items and furniture. From the New Kingdom, books of the dead were popular items of funerary literature which contained spells and instructions for protection in the afterlife. New Kingdom Egyptians also expected to be buried with shabti statues, which they believed would perform manual labor for them in the afterlife.^[71]

Whether they were buried in mastabas, pyramids, or rock-cut tombs, every Egyptian burial would have been accompanied by rituals in which the deceased was magically re-animated. This procedure involved touching the mouth and eyes of the deceased with ceremonial instruments to restore the power of speech, movement, and sight. After burial, living relatives were expected to occasionally bring food to the tomb and recite prayers on behalf of the deceased.

Leisure and games

The ancient Egyptians enjoyed a variety of leisure activities, including games and music. The game of senet, a kind of board game with pieces moving according to random chance, was particularly popular from the very earliest times. Another similar game was mehen, which had a circular gaming board. Juggling and ball games were popular with children, and wrestling is documented in a tomb at Beni Hasan.^[4] The wealthy members of ancient Egyptian society enjoyed hunting and boating as well.

Music and dance were popular entertainments for those who could afford them in ancient Egypt. Early instruments included probably flutes or harps.. Later, instruments similar to trumpets, oboes, and pipes became popular. In the New Kingdom, lutes and lyres were traded in from Asia. and bells, cymbals, tambourines, and drums also were played by Egyptians.^[72] The sistrum, a musical instrument that was especially important in religious ceremonies, was a rattle, and there were several other devices used as rattles.

Foreign relations

Trade

The ancient Egyptians engaged in trade with their foreign neighbors to obtain rare, exotic goods not found in Egypt. In the predynastic, they established trade with Nubia to obtain gold and incense. They also established trade with Palestine, as evidenced by Palestinian type oil jugs found in burials of the First Dynasty pharaohs.^[1] By the Second Dynasty the ancient Egyptians had established trade with Byblos, a critical source of quality timber not found in Egypt. In the Fifth Dynasty, trade was established with the Land of Punt, which provided gold, aromatic resins, ebony, ivory, and wild animals such as monkeys and baboons.

Egypt relied on trade with Anatolia for supplies of tin, a component of bronze which was not mined by the ancient Egyptians, and supplementary supplies of copper. The ancient Egyptians prized the blue stone lapis lazuli, which had to be imported from far-away Afghanistan. Egypt's Mediterranean trade partners also included ancient Greece and Crete, which provided, among other goods, supplies of olive oil.^[3] Hatshepsut is known to have imported live trees for transplantation into her gardens. In exchange for its luxury imports and raw materials, Egypt mainly exported grain, gold, linen, and papyrus, in addition to other finished goods including glass and stone objects.^[73]

Military

Main article: Military history of Ancient Egypt

The ancient Egyptian military was responsible for maintaining Egypt's domination in the ancient near-east. The military protected mining expeditions to the Sinai in the Old Kingdom and fought civil wars during the First and Second Intermediate Periods. The military was responsible for maintaining forts along important trade routes, for example at the city of Buhen on the way to Nubia. Forts also were constructed to serve as military bases, such as the fortress at Sile, which was a base of operations for expeditions to the Levant. In the New Kingdom, a series of pharaohs used the standing Egyptian army to attack and conquer Kush and territory in the levant.^[1]

Typical military equipment included round-topped shields made of animal skin stretched over a wooden frame, bows and arrows, and spears. In the New Kingdom, the military began using chariots which were introduced by Hyksos invaders in the Second Intermediate Period. Weapons and armor continued to improve after the adoption of bronze. Shields were now made from solid wood with a bronze buckle, spears were tipped with a bronze point, and a type of scimitar made of bronze, the Khopesh, was adopted from Asian soldiers.^[4]

The Egyptian pharaoh usually is depicted in art and literature leading at the head of the Army, and there is certain evidence that at least a few pharaohs are known to have, such as Seqenenre Tao II and his sons.^[1] Soldiers were recruited from the general population, but during and especially after the New Kingdom, mercenaries from Nubia, Kush, and Libya were hired to fight for Egypt under the command of their own officers.^[4]

Technology, medicine, and mathematics

See also: Ancient Egyptian technology and Egyptian mathematics

The achievements of ancient Egypt are well known, and the civilization achieved a very high standard of productivity and sophistication. Hydraulic cement was first invented by the Egyptians. Beekeeping is known to have been particularly well developed in Egypt, as accounts are given by several Roman writers — Virgil, Gaius Julius Hyginus, Varro, and Columella. It is unknown whether Egyptian beekeeping developed independently or as an import from Southern Asia.

The earliest evidence (circa 1600 BC) of traditional empiricism is credited to Egypt, as evidenced by the Edwin Smith and Ebers papyri. The roots of the scientific method may be traced back to the ancient Egyptians. The Egyptians created their own alphabet (however, it is debated as to whether they were the first to do this because of the margin of error on carbon dated tests), the decimal system.^[74]

Glass making was highly developed in ancient Egypt, as is evident from the glass beads, jars, figures, and ornaments discovered in the tombs.^[75] Recent archeology has uncovered the remains of an ancient Egyptian glass factory.^[76]

Medicine

Ancient Egyptian physicians were well renowned in the ancient near-East for their healing skills, and medical papyri show that they relied on thorough patient examinations and treatments based on a combination of natural product derived remedies, prayers, and protective amulets. Wounds were treated by bandaging with raw meat, honey was used to prevent infection, and opium was used to relieve pain. Garlic and onions were used regularly to promote good health and were thought to relieve asthma symptoms. Ancient Egyptian surgeons stitched wounds, set broken bones, and amputated diseased limbs, but recognized that some injuries were so serious that the only advice they could offer was to "Moor [the patient] at his mooring stakes, until the period of his injury passes by..." in other words, until the patient died.

Mathematics

Texts such as the Rhind Mathematical Papyrus and the Berlin Papyrus show that the ancient Egyptians understood basic concepts of algebra and geometry, plus some advanced principles such as solving simple sets of simultaneous equations.^[77] They were comfortable using fractions and could perform addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, and calculation of the surface areas of rectangles, triangles, circles and even spheres. They could also calculate the volumes of boxes and pyramids.

The ancient Egyptians knew that they could approximate the area of a circle as follows:

Area of Circle = [ (Diameter) x 8/9 ]^{2 [78]}

The Rhind Papyrus also shows that the ancient Egyptians knew a good approximation for π.^[79] The Moscow Mathematical Papyrus shows that they could also calculate the volumes of frustrums.

The golden ratio seems to be reflected in many constructions, such as the Egyptian pyramids.^[80] This may be a consequence to an ancient Egyptian practice of combining the use of knotted ropes with an intuitive sense of proportion and harmony.^[81]

See also

Notes and References

References

Bibliography

History

Ancient Egypt has inspired a vast number of English-language publications, ranging from scholarly works to generalised accounts (in addition to a large number of speculative, supernatural, or pseudo-scientific explorations). A selection of generally reliable survey treatments, published within the last two decades, includes:

Pharaonic Egypt

• Adkins, L. and Adkins, R (2001). The Little Book of Egyptian Hieroglyphics. London: Hodder and Stoughton. 
• Andrews, Carol (1994). Amulets of ancient Egypt. Austin: University of Texas Press. ISBN 0-292-70464-X. 
• Baines, John and Jaromir Malek (2000). The Cultural Atlas of Ancient Egypt, revised edition, Facts on File. 
• Bard, KA (1999). Encyclopedia of the Archaeology of Ancient Egypt. NY, NY: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-18589-0. 
• Bierbrier, Morris (1984). The Tomb Builders of the Pharaohs. New York, NY: Charles Scribner's Sons. ISBN 0-684-18229-7. 
• Booth, Charlotte (2005). The Hyksos Period in Egypt. Shire Egyptology. ISBN 0-7478-0638-1. 
• Callender, Gae (2000). The Middle Kingdom Renaissance. Oxford: The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt. 
• Cerny, J. Egypt from the Death of Ramesses III to the End of the Twenty-First Dynasty' in The Middle East and the Aegean Region c.1380-1000 BC. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-08691-4. 
• Clarke, Somers (1990). Ancient Egyptian Construction and Architecture. Dover Publications. ISBN 0-486-26485-8. 
• Clayton, Peter A. (1994). Chronicle of the Pharaohs. Thames and Hudson. ISBN 0-500-05074-0. 
• Dodson, Aidan (2004). The Complete Royal Families of Ancient Egypt. Thames & Hudson. 
• Edgerton, William F. (July 1951). "The Strikes in Ramses III's Twenty-Ninth Year". JNES 10. 
• Gillings, Richard J. (1972). Mathematics in the Time of the Pharaohs. 
• Greaves, R.H.; O.H. Little (1929). Gold Resources of Egypt, Report of the XV International Geol. Congress, South Africa. 
• Grimal, Nicolas (1992). A History of Ancient Egypt. Blackwell Books. 
• Harris, Geraldine (1990). Ancient Egypt. New York: Facts on File. ISBN 0-8160-1971-1. 
• Herodotus ii. 55 and vii. 134
• Kemp, Barry (1991). Ancient Egypt: Anatomy of a Civilization. Routledge. 
• Kitchen, Kenneth Anderson (1996). The Third Intermediate Period in Egypt (1100–650 BC), 3rd ed., Warminster: Aris & Phillips Limited. 
• Lehner, Mark (1997). The Complete Pyramids. London: Thames & Hudson. 
• Lucas, Alfred (1962). Ancient Egyptian Materials and Industries, 4th Ed.. London: Edward Arnold Publishers. 
• Dr. Peter Der Manuelian (1998). Egypt: The World of the Pharaohs. Bonner Straße, Cologne Germany: Könemann Verlagsgesellschaft mbH. ISBN 3-89508-913-3. 
• Myśliwiec, Karol (2000). The Twighlight of Ancient Egypt: First Millennium B.C.E. (trans. by David Lorton). Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press. 
• Nicholson, Paul T. et al. (2000). Ancient Egyptian Materials and Technology. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. 
• Robins, Gay (2000). The Art of Ancient Egypt. Harvard University Press. ISBN 0-674-00376-4. 
• Ryholt, Kim (January 1997). The Political Situation in Egypt During the Second Intermediate Period. Museum Tusculanum. ISBN 8772894210. 
• Scheel, Bernd (1989). Egyptian Metalworking and Tools. Haverfordwest, Great Britain: Shire Publications Ltd. 
• Shaw, Ian (2003). The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-500-05074-0. 
• Wasserman, James; Faulkner, Raymond Oliver; Goelet, Ogden; Von Dassow, Eva (1994). The Egyptian Book of the dead, the Book of going forth by day: being the Papyrus of Ani. San Francisco: Chronicle Books. ISBN 0-8118-0767-3. 
• Wilkinson, R. H. (2000). The Complete Temples of Ancient Egypt. London: Thames and Hudson. 
• Wilkinson, R.H. (2003). The Complete Gods and Goddesses of Ancient Egypt. London: Thames and Hudson. 
• Yurco, Frank J. (1999). "End of the Late Bronze Age and Other Crisis Periods: A Volcanic Cause". SAOC 58. 

Ptolemaic Egypt

• Bowman, Alan K (1996). Egypt after the Pharaohs 332 BC – AD 642, 2nd ed., Berkeley: University of California Press, 25-26. ISBN 0520205316. 
• Lloyd, Alan Brian (2000). The Ptolemaic Period (332–30 BC) In The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt, edited by Ian Shaw. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press. 
• Stanwick, Paul Edmond (2003). Portraits of the Ptolemies: Greek kings as Egyptian pharaohs. Austin: University of Texas Press. ISBN 0292777728. 

Roman Egypt

• Günther Hölbl (trans. Tina Saavedra) (2001). A History of the Ptolemaic Empire. London: Routledge. 
• Peacock, David (2000). The Roman Period (30 BC–AD 311). In The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt, edited by Ian Shaw. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press. 

Literature

• Gardiner, Alan (1964). Egypt of the Pharaohs. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 
• Lichtheim, Miriam (1975). Ancient Egyptian Literature, vol 1. London, England: University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-02899-6. 
• Simpson (2003). in Simpson, William Kelly: The Literature of Ancient Egypt, Ritner, Tobin & Wente, New Haven & London: Yale University Press. 

External links

• Ancient Egypt — maintained by the British Museum, this site provides a useful introduction to Ancient Egypt for older children and young adolescents
• BBC History: Egyptians — provides a reliable general overview and further links
• Ancient records of Egypt; historical documents from the earliest times to the Persian conquest. Volume I: The first to seventeenth dynasties, Volume II: The eighteenth dynasty, Volume III: The nineteenth dynasty, Volume IV, Volume V, by James Henry Breasted (1906) — A reference work on Egyptology.
• Texts from the Pyramid Age Door Nigel C. Strudwick, Ronald J. Leprohon, 2005, Brill Academic Publishers
• Ancient Egyptian Science: A Source Book Door Marshall Clagett, 1989
• Digital Egypt for Universities. Outstanding scholarly treatment with broad coverage and excellent cross references (internal and external). Artifacts used extensively to illustrate topics.
• Ancient Egyptian Metallurgy A site that shows the history of Egyptian metalworking

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