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To the west of the Fertile Crescent in Africa, another
river makes its way to the sea. While Sumerian civilization was on the rise, a similar process took place along the banks of this river, the Nile in Egypt. Yet the Egyptian civilization turned out to be very different from the collection of city-states in Mesopotamia. Early on, Egypt was united into a single kingdom, which allowed it to enjoy a high degree of unity, stability, and cultural continu ity over a period of 3,000 years.
Ancient Egyptians lived along the Nile from the mouth well into the interior of Africa.
The Nile provided a reliable system of transportation between Upper and Lower Egypt.
The prevailing winds of Egypt blow from north to south, carrying sailboats against the river current. The ease of contact made possible by this watery highway helped unify Egypt’s villages and promote trade.
Egyptians lived in farming villages as far back as 5000 B.C., perhaps even earlier. Each village had its own rituals, gods, and chieftain. By 3200 B.C., the villages of Egypt were under the rule of two separate kingdoms, Lower Egypt and Upper Egypt. Eventually the two kingdoms were united.
Eventually, the history of ancient Egypt would consist of 31 dynasties, spanning 2,600 years
In Mesopotamia, kings were considered to be representatives of the gods. To the Egyptians, kings were gods.
The Egyptian god-kings, called pharaohs, were thought to be almost as splendid and powerful as the gods of the heavens. This type of government in which rule is based on religious authority is called a theocracy.
It was the pharaoh who caused the sun to rise, the Nile to flood, and the crops to grow. It was the pharaoh’s duty to promote truth and justice
Since kings expected to reign forever, their tombs were even more important than their palaces. For the kings of the Old Kingdom, the rest ing place after death was an immense structure called a pyramid. The pyramids also reflect the strength of the Egyptian civilization.
Like the Mesopotamians, the early Egyptians were polytheistic, believing in many gods. The most important gods were Re, the sun god, and Osiris, god of the dead.
The most important goddess was Isis, who represented the ideal mother and wife.
In all, Egyptians worshiped more than 2,000 gods and goddesses.
Egyptian Writing
As in Mesopotamia, the development of writing was one of the keys to the growth of Egyptian civilization. Simple pictographs were the earliest form of writing in Egypt, but scribes quickly developed a more flexible writing system called hieroglyphics.
This term comes from the Greek words hieros and gluph, meaning “sacred carving.”
As with Sumerian cuneiform writing, in the earliest
form of hieroglyphic writing, a picture stood for an idea.
For instance, a picture of a man stood for the idea of a man.
In time, the system changed so that pictures stood for
sounds as well as ideas. The owl, for example, stood for an m sound or for the bird itself.
The Egyptians soon invented a writing surface—papyrus reeds.