DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.67683#0038
EGYPTIAN PERIOD
*4
Sahara plateau was a thick morass until men of the Stone Age,
coming in from the plateau, reclaimed the valley and built their
hamlets along the stream. By 42.41 b.c. they had invented a
calendar; by 4000 had discovered metal, perhaps accidentally,
as the molten drops of copper separated from the rock in their
camp fires in the Sinai peninsula; and long before 3000, they had
evolved a system of picture writing. Tiny states began to emerge
along the river, and
slowly coalesced into
two kingdoms, Upper
and Lower Egypt, which
were finally united about
3400 by a king called
Menes. At the head of
the political and social
system we see a supreme
pharaoh, who probably
owned all the land; a
group of nobles sup-
pressed, receiving their
appointments from him;
the mass of the people,
with possible excep-
tions, slaves. The chief
economic basis was agri-
culture, though the in-
dustries of the potter,
stone-cutter, and gold-
smith were highly de-
veloped and commerce
was carried on with the
Bedouins of Sinai, and
with the Aegean lands. The government became highly efficient
and thoroughly organized with different administrative depart-
ments. Toward the end of the period, however, a change can be
discerned. As the nobles gained in power, the strength of the
pharaoh weakened while the official class became hereditary,
laying the foundation of a feudal state.
The Egyptian noble we see living in a villa (Fig. 17) set in a
garden with trees and pools of water, all surrounded by a high
wall. His life was spent for the most part in the out-of-doors,
in which he found many of his pleasures, too. For we see him
in his reed boat, accompanied by his family, hunting fowl in
*4
Sahara plateau was a thick morass until men of the Stone Age,
coming in from the plateau, reclaimed the valley and built their
hamlets along the stream. By 42.41 b.c. they had invented a
calendar; by 4000 had discovered metal, perhaps accidentally,
as the molten drops of copper separated from the rock in their
camp fires in the Sinai peninsula; and long before 3000, they had
evolved a system of picture writing. Tiny states began to emerge
along the river, and
slowly coalesced into
two kingdoms, Upper
and Lower Egypt, which
were finally united about
3400 by a king called
Menes. At the head of
the political and social
system we see a supreme
pharaoh, who probably
owned all the land; a
group of nobles sup-
pressed, receiving their
appointments from him;
the mass of the people,
with possible excep-
tions, slaves. The chief
economic basis was agri-
culture, though the in-
dustries of the potter,
stone-cutter, and gold-
smith were highly de-
veloped and commerce
was carried on with the
Bedouins of Sinai, and
with the Aegean lands. The government became highly efficient
and thoroughly organized with different administrative depart-
ments. Toward the end of the period, however, a change can be
discerned. As the nobles gained in power, the strength of the
pharaoh weakened while the official class became hereditary,
laying the foundation of a feudal state.
The Egyptian noble we see living in a villa (Fig. 17) set in a
garden with trees and pools of water, all surrounded by a high
wall. His life was spent for the most part in the out-of-doors,
in which he found many of his pleasures, too. For we see him
in his reed boat, accompanied by his family, hunting fowl in