Portal:Ancient Egypt

THE ANCIENT EGYPT PORTAL

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Ancient Egypt was a cradle of civilization concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in the eastern corner of North Africa. It emerged from prehistoric Egypt around 3150 BC (according to conventional Egyptian chronology), when Upper and Lower Egypt were united by Menes, who is believed by the majority of Egyptologists to have been the same person as Narmer. The history of ancient Egypt unfolded as a series of stable kingdoms interspersed by the "Intermediate Periods" of relative instability. These stable kingdoms existed in one of three periods: the Old Kingdom of the Early Bronze Age; the Middle Kingdom of the Middle Bronze Age; or the New Kingdom of the Late Bronze Age.

The pinnacle of ancient Egyptian power was achieved during the New Kingdom, which extended its rule to much of Nubia and a considerable portion of the Levant. After this period, Egypt entered an era of slow decline. Over the course of its history, it was invaded or conquered by a number of foreign civilizations, including the Hyksos, the Kushites, the Assyrians, the Persians, and the Greeks and then the Romans. The end of ancient Egypt is variously defined as occurring with the end of the Late Period during the Wars of Alexander the Great in 332 BC or with the end of the Greek-ruled Ptolemaic Kingdom during the Roman conquest of Egypt in 30 BC. In AD 642, the Arab conquest of Egypt brought an end to the region's millennium-long Greco-Roman period.

The success of ancient Egyptian civilization came partly from its ability to adapt to the Nile's conditions for agriculture. The predictable flooding of the Nile and controlled irrigation of its fertile valley produced surplus crops, which supported a more dense population, and thereby substantial social and cultural development. With resources to spare, the administration sponsored the mineral exploitation of the valley and its surrounding desert regions, the early development of an independent writing system, the organization of collective construction and agricultural projects, trade with other civilizations, and a military to assert Egyptian dominance throughout the Near East. Motivating and organizing these activities was a bureaucracy of elite scribes, religious leaders, and administrators under the control of the reigning pharaoh, who ensured the cooperation and unity of the Egyptian people in the context of an elaborate system of religious beliefs.

Among the many achievements of ancient Egypt are: the quarrying, surveying, and construction techniques that supported the building of monumental pyramids, temples, and obelisks; a system of mathematics; a practical and effective system of medicine; irrigation systems and agricultural production techniques; the first known planked boats; Egyptian faience and glass technology; new forms of literature; and the earliest known peace treaty, which was ratified with the Anatolia-based Hittite Empire. Its art and architecture were widely copied and its antiquities were carried off to be studied, admired, or coveted in the far corners of the world. Likewise, its monumental ruins inspired the imaginations of travelers and writers for millennia. A newfound European and Egyptian respect for antiquities and excavations that began in earnest in the early modern period has led to much scientific investigation of ancient Egypt and its society, as well as a greater appreciation of its cultural legacy. (Full article...)

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The Rosetta Stone on display
in the British Museum, London

The Rosetta Stone is a stele of granodiorite inscribed with three versions of a decree issued in 196 BC during the Ptolemaic dynasty of Egypt, on behalf of King Ptolemy V Epiphanes. The top and middle texts are in Ancient Egyptian using hieroglyphic and Demotic scripts, respectively, while the bottom is in Ancient Greek. The decree has only minor differences across the three versions, making the Rosetta Stone key to deciphering the Egyptian scripts.

The stone was carved during the Hellenistic period and is believed to have originally been displayed within a temple, possibly at Sais. It was probably moved in late antiquity or during the Mamluk period, and was eventually used as building material in the construction of Fort Julien near the town of Rashid (Rosetta) in the Nile Delta. It was found there in July 1799 by French army officer Pierre-François Bouchard during France's invasion of Egypt. It was the first Ancient Egyptian bilingual text recovered in modern times, and it aroused widespread public interest with its potential to decipher this previously untranslated hieroglyphic script. Lithographic copies and plaster casts soon began circulating among European museums and scholars. When the British defeated the French, they took the stone to London under the terms of the Capitulation of Alexandria in 1801. Since 1802, it has been on public display at the British Museum almost continuously and it is the most visited object there. (Full article...)

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The Rosetta Stone is a fragment of a granite stele containing a decree written in Hieroglyphs, Demotic, and Greek. Discovered in 1799, the stone contributed greatly to the process of hieroglyph decipherment.

Did you know...

... that the Fayum mummy portraits (pictured) are stunningly realistic portraits that were attached the upper class mummies in Roman Egypt?

... that in the 3rd century BC Eratosthenes used arc measurement between Alexandria and Syene (modern Aswan) to accurately calculate Earth's circumference?

... that arguably only two empires, the Roman Empire and the Ottoman Empire, separate Ancient Egypt from World War I?

News

5th September 2018. Rock-cut Tomb discovered in a 4,000-year-old Elite Cemetery

August 2018: in the tomb of the mayor of Memphis Ptahmose who dates around 1300 BC was found well preserved cheese, more than 3000 years old. [1]

Selected biography -

Tutankhamun's golden funerary mask at the Grand Egyptian Museum in Giza, Egypt

Tutankhamun or Tutankhamen (Ancient Egyptian: twt-ꜥnḫ-jmn; c. 1341 BC – c. 1323 BC), was the thirteenth pharaoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty of ancient Egypt, who ruled c. 1332 – 1323 BC. Born Tutankhaten, he instituted the restoration of the traditional polytheistic form of ancient Egyptian religion, undoing a previous shift to the religion known as Atenism. Tutankhamun's reign is considered one of the greatest restoration periods in ancient Egyptian history, and his tomb door proclaims his dedication to illustrative constructions of the ancient Egyptian gods.

His endowments and restorations of cults were recorded on the Restoration Stela. The cult of the god Amun at Thebes was restored to prominence, and the royal couple changed their names to "Tutankhamun" and "Ankhesenamun", replacing the -aten suffix. He also moved the royal court from Akhenaten's capital, Amarna, back to Memphis almost immediately on his accession to the kingship. He reestablished diplomatic relations with the Mitanni and carried out military campaigns in Nubia and the Near East. Tutankhamun was one of only a few kings known to be worshipped as a deity during their lifetime. He likely began construction of a royal tomb in the Valley of the Kings and an accompanying mortuary temple, but both were unfinished at the time of his death. (Full article...)

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General images

The following are images from various ancient Egypt-related articles on Wikipedia.

Image 1Statuette of Merankhre Mentuhotep, a minor pharaoh of the Sixteenth Dynasty, reigning over the Theban region c. 1585 BC. (from History of ancient Egypt)
Image 2Merimde culture clay head, circa 5,000 BC. This is one of the earliest known representations of a human head in Egypt. (from Prehistoric Egypt)
Image 3Facial reconstruction and depiction created from the Nuwayrat Early Dynastic individual, carbon dated to 2855–2570 BCE, soon after the end of the Neolithic period. (from Prehistoric Egypt)
Image 4Mesopotamian king as Master of Animals on the Gebel el-Arak Knife, dated to the Naqada II period circa 3300-3200 BC, Abydos, Egypt. Louvre Museum, reference E 11517. This work of art both shows the influence of Mesopotamia on Egypt at an early date, and the state of Mesopotamian royal iconography during the Uruk period. (from History of ancient Egypt)
Image 5Aterian point from Zaccar, Djelfa region, Algeria. (from Prehistoric Egypt)
Image 6Tasian beaker, found in a Badarian grave at Qau; tomb 569, around 4000 BC; Upper Egypt; British Museum (from Prehistoric Egypt)
Image 7Qustul Incense Burner, excavated from a royal Nubian tomb in Lake Nasser, considered among the earliest representations of the White Crown Hedjet in Upper Egypt. (from History of ancient Egypt)
Image 8A Gerzeh culture vase decorated with gazelles, on display at the Louvre. (from History of ancient Egypt)
Image 9Portrait of "Black Pharaoh" Taharqa, Louvre Museum reconstruction (from History of ancient Egypt)
Image 10Megaliths from Nabta Playa displayed in Aswan, Upper Egypt (from History of ancient Egypt)
Image 11Location of the Qadan culture (from Prehistoric Egypt)
Image 12Egyptian soldier of the Achaemenid army, circa 470 BCE. Xerxes I tomb relief. (from History of ancient Egypt)
Image 13Evolution of Egyptian prehistoric pottery styles, from Naqada I to Naqada II and Naqada III (from Prehistoric Egypt)
Image 14A guardian statue which reflects the facial features of the reigning king, probably Amenemhat II or Senwosret II, and which functioned as a divine guardian for the imiut. Made of cedar wood and plaster c. 1919–1885 BC (from History of ancient Egypt)
Image 15Possible prisoners and wounded men of the Buto-Maadi culture devoured by animals, while one is led by a man in long dress, probably an Egyptian official (fragment, top right corner). Battlefield Palette. (from Prehistoric Egypt)
Image 16Limestone head of an early Egyptian king, The Petrie Museum. Modern Egyptologists have considered the stone bust to depict an Early Dynastic or Old Kingdom pharaoh. (from History of ancient Egypt)
Image 17Pottery model of a house used in a burial from the First Intermediate Period, on display at the Royal Ontario Museum. (from History of ancient Egypt)
Image 18Tell es-Sakan in modern-day Palestine was an Egyptian colony from 3300 t0 300 BC. (from History of ancient Egypt)
Image 19Arrowheads from Al Faiyum (from Prehistoric Egypt)
Image 20Egypt and its world in 1300 BC. (from History of ancient Egypt)
Image 21Nabta Playa "calendar circle", reconstructed at Aswan Nubia museum. (from Prehistoric Egypt)
Image 22Qustul Incense Burner, excavated from a royal Nubian tomb in Lake Nasser, considered among the earliest representations of the White Crown Hedjet in Upper Egypt. (from Prehistoric Egypt)
Image 23Clapper discovered in Maadi, Louvre Museum (from Prehistoric Egypt)
Image 24The Narmer Palette depicts the unification of the Two Lands. (from History of ancient Egypt)
Image 25E1b1b is the most common paternal haplogroup across much of Africa, including Egypt, "Haplogroup E is defined by the M96 SNP (and others), for which a cautious reading of all of the evidence would indicate an eastern tropical African origin (Cruciani, 2007; Gomes et al., 2010; Trombetta et al., 2015)". (from Prehistoric Egypt)
Image 26The prisoners on the Battlefield Palette may be the people of the Buto-Maadi culture subjugated by the Egyptian rulers of Naqada III. (from Prehistoric Egypt)
Image 27Naqada figure of a woman interpreted to represent the goddess Bat with her inward curving horns. Another hypothesis is that the raised arms symbolize wings and that the figure is an early version of the white vulture goddess Nekhbet, c. 3500–3400 B.C.E. terracotta, painted, 11+1⁄2 in × 5+1⁄2 in × 2+1⁄4 in (29.2 cm × 14.0 cm × 5.7 cm), Brooklyn Museum (from Prehistoric Egypt)
Image 28Ancient Badarian mortuary figurine of a woman, held at the Louvre (from Prehistoric Egypt)
Image 29An Osiris statue of Mentuhotep II, the founder of the Middle Kingdom (from History of ancient Egypt)
Image 30Ring with engraved portrait of Ptolemy VI Philometor as Pharao (3rd–2nd century BCE). Louvre Museum. (from History of ancient Egypt)
Image 31Greywacke statue of the pharaoh Menkaure and his queen consort, Khamerernebty II. Originally from his Giza temple, now on display at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. (from History of ancient Egypt)
Image 32Carved catfish bones, and jar discovered in Maadi (from Prehistoric Egypt)
Image 33Ancestry model of 3rd millennium Egyptian genome from Nuwayrat. (from Prehistoric Egypt)
Image 34Colossal depictions of Ramesses II at one of the Abu Simbel temples. (from History of ancient Egypt)
Image 3525th Dynasty (from History of ancient Egypt)
Image 36Chronology of state formation in Ancient Egypt. (from Prehistoric Egypt)
Image 37Nazlet Khater skeleton, Upper Paleolithic, 35,000 before present; National Museum of Egyptian Civilization, Cairo (from Prehistoric Egypt)
Image 38Map of Lower Egypt, and location of the Faiyum Oasis (from Prehistoric Egypt)
Image 39Stela of the Second Dynasty Pharaoh Nebra, displaying the hieroglyph for his Horus name within a serekh surmounted by Horus. On display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. (from History of ancient Egypt)
Image 40Ovoid Naqada I (Amratian) black-topped terracotta vase, (c. 3800–3500 BC). (from Prehistoric Egypt)

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De oprichting van de obelisk op het St. Pietersplein, RP-P-OB-207.655
Edwin Smith Papyrus v2
File, Asuán, Egipto, 2022-04-01, DD 93
Giambattista Tiepolo - The Banquet of Cleopatra - Google Art Project
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Grand sphinx de Tanis - Musée du Louvre Antiquités égyptiennes N 23 ; A 23 ; Salt 3837
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Templo funerario de Hatshepsut, Luxor, Egipto, 2022-04-03, DD 13
The Mummy 1932 film poster

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All Gizah Pyramids
Ancient Egypt map-en
Edwin Smith Papyrus v2
File, Asuán, Egipto, 2022-04-01, DD 93
Giambattista Tiepolo - The Banquet of Cleopatra - Google Art Project
Giza pyramid complex (map)
Le Jardin de Nébamoun
Sphinx partially excavated2
Standing Hippopotamus MET DP248993
Templo funerario de Hatshepsut, Luxor, Egipto, 2022-04-03, DD 13
The Mummy 1932 film poster

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