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Image Courtesy of the Michael C. Carlos Museum of Emory University/Photo by Kay Hinton
By SUE D'AURIA, Associate Curator Ancient Egypt was, as the early historian Herodotus stated, "the gift of the Nile."
The Nile River, the longest in the world, flows from south to north, and its annual flooding left a deposit of rich fertilizer on a narrow band of land adjacent to the river. Most human activity and settlements were concentrated on this "black land," which wasfarmed through irrigation. In contrast was the "red land" of the desert, which comprised more than 90 percent of the country. To the Egyptians, it was associated with death and disorder, and it was the location of cemeteries and funerary monuments. The river was also the main source of transportation, and boats plied their way up and down its length from the earliest times. The climatic and agricultural stability of Egypt contributed to great achievements in art, architecture, astronomy, mathematics, and medicine.
Ancient Egyptian civilization spanned a period of nearly 3,000 years, beginning about 3100 B.C. The country was ruled by a series of kings called pharaohs (from per aa, meaning "great house") who were organized in later times into 30 dynasties. Long periods of political stability and prosperity were interrupted by "intermediate periods," when the central government broke down and rival dynasties often vied for control. The earliest object in this exhibition dates to Dynasty 18, when the three great pyramids at Giza were already more than 1,000 years old. Most of the objects date to the Third Intermediate Period, a time when new dynasties composed of non-royal high priests and foreigners (Libyans) challenged the traditional order.
Egyptian culture was permeated by the idea of the cycles of life: the classic cycle of the sun god, who was born anew each morning and traversed the sky, set at night, traveled through the Underworld, and was reborn again in the morning; the cycle of the Nile with its annual flooding; and the cycle of human life-birth, life, death, and resurrection.
Daily Life
The Egyptians lived in a remarkably stable environment. The annual cycle of the Nile contributed to dependable harvests of food, and the climate was warm and dry. The natural barriers of the desert with its enclosing cliffs, the Mediterranean Sea to the north, and turbulent river cataracts to the south, sheltered the country from hostile invasions for much of its early history.
Most of the population was engaged in farming for a living, and spent hours toiling in the fields. The staples of the Egyptian diet were bread (made from emmer wheat) and beer (made from barley), supplemented by vegetables, fruits, fish, fowl, and small wild animals such as hare and gazelle. The wealthy had meat in the form of oxen.
The Egyptians lived in rural villages, larger towns, or royal cities such as Thebes and Memphis. Houses were built of mud bricks that were dried in the sun, and each house generally had a living area, sleeping platforms, and an open kitchen with domed oven. The roof was often used as a living space because of the agreeable climate. Costlier houses had entrance courtyards and larger reception rooms with supporting columns made of palm logs, as well as bedrooms and bath chambers.
Clothing was simple and suitable for the desert climate, and undyed linen was the fabric of choice. In early periods, men who were farmers or craftsmen wore little more than a loincloth or a short kilt tied at the waist. Women wore ankle-length sheath dresses with one or two shoulder straps. Later, styles became more elaborate, and long, beautifully pleated kilts and dresses were worn by the elite. Men's hair was usually cut short (priests shaved their heads completely), and beards and moustaches were uncommon. Women wore long hair, and wealthy people of both sexes were adorned with heavy curled wigs for special occasions. Jewelry was popular and worn by men and women alike. From the lively depictions of daily activities found on tomb walls, it appears that the Egyptians hoped that the enjoyment of life in this world would extend into the next.
Funerary Practices
For the ancient Egyptians, death meant the beginning of a new state of existence, which involved three different parts of the human soul. In order to become an effective spirit, or akh, in the afterlife, certain preparations were necessary. The ka, or life-force, of the individual, had to be maintained in the tomb with offerings of food and drink. And the ba, another aspect of the human spirit that could freely move between the world of the living and the tomb, must reunite with the body. In order to preserve the corpse for this purpose, mummification was developed.
Before 3000 B.C., the dead were buried in simple pits in the desert sands, which dried the bodies and naturally preserved them. When burial customs became more elaborate, and the dead were placed in coffins and tomb chambers, the absence of contact with the drying effects of the sand made it necessary to chemically preserve the bodies.
The method that came into use by the 4th Dynasty (2625-2500 B.C.), first for royalty, continued to be used for almost 3,000 years by anyone who could afford it, with many variations over time. An incision was made in the left flank of the body, and four major organs removed: the lungs, liver, stomach, and intestines. These were placed in jars that were buried separately in the tomb or, in the 21st Dynasty, wrapped and replaced in the body. The brain was removed through the nose and discarded, but the heart was left in place, as it was thought to be the seat of intelligence. The corpse was then filled with natron, a salt found in Egypt, for a period of 40 days. After this phase, which completely dried the body, it was packed with linen, sawdust, and other materials to fill out its shrunken appearance and give it a more pleasant aroma. Jewelry or protective amulets were sometimes placed on the mummy's breast, and then it was wrapped in layers of linen. The linen bandages were often collected during a person's lifetime, and could include household bed sheets and clothing. A layer of fine linen purchased especially for the mummy completed the wrappings.
The entire mummification process took 70 days, after which the mummy and burial equipment were transported to the tomb for the funeral. An "opening of the mouth" ritual was performed at this time, which magically restored to the deceased the physical abilities, such as speaking and eating, needed for its new life in the next world.
Writing
Ancient Egyptian is one of the oldest written languages in the world. The earliest inscriptions were composed before the First Dynasty began about 3100 B.C. Different types of writing were used for different purposes throughout Egyptian history. Scribes used the picture-writing known as hieroglyphs (Greek for "sacred signs") on monuments that were intended to survive the ages, such as temples and tombs. Religious texts such as funerary spells tended to be written in a less detailed form of hieroglyphs called cursive hieroglyphs. Everyday documents such as letters, financial accounts, literature including love poems and stories, medical treatises, and legal documents such as court proceedings, were recorded in a more cursive form called hieratic ("writing of priests").
Hieroglyphs were painted or carved, and there were several hundred signs in regular use. Only the consonants were written, so we cannot be sure how the language actually sounded, and there was no punctuation or spaces between words.
Inscriptions were generally written from right to left, but could also be written from left to right, and from top to bottom. (Signs representing animals and people always face the beginning of the inscription.) There were different types of signs, including some that represented what was pictured (as the oxen and fowl in the inscription above); some that were pronounced phonetically and represented one, two, or three letters (as the horned snake equals the letter "f," or the flag equals "ntr"); or some that had no value of their own, but provided a category for the word (as the seated woman at the end of the inscription indicates a woman's name). This inscription is a standard request for food and drink in the afterlife, to be given by the gods through their intermediary, the king.
Hieratic texts were written in ink on papyrus (from which the modern word paper derives), which was made by pressing together strips of papyrus reed and gluing them together to form scrolls. Scribes were able to write more rapidly in hieratic, as we use script instead of printing today, and different styles emerged, from a "business" hand to a more literary style.
More unconventional texts are known from ancient Egypt as well. Graffiti can be found on monuments, placed there by ancient visitors, and small fragments of stone or pottery were used as scrap paper, many of which have survived. Only a small proportion of the population was able to read or write, perhaps as little as 0.4 percent, and priests and high officials were among the most literate.
Religion
The Egyptians were a religious people, and ritual and belief were a part of their lives on a daily basis. The Egyptians worshipped many gods, from great state gods such as Amun-Re, whose influence extended over the entire country, to minor deities with small local centers of worship.
Still others were household gods revered at home. Often there were family groups consisting of a god, his goddess-wife, and their child. Egyptian gods and goddesses were portrayed in the form of humans, animal-headed humans, or animals. Animals were not worshipped directly, but were thought to be manifestations of the god on earth.
Temples to the gods dotted the landscape up and down the Nile, and served as the focus of the religious rituals. The temples were not places of public worship, but were the residences of the gods. Access to the innermost sanctuary housing a statue of the god was restricted to priests and the king, who in theory was the high priest of each temple. Priests were responsible for performing daily rituals to ensure the continuation of divine and earthly order, called maat. These rituals included dressing the statue daily and presenting food offerings to it. Major festivals took place frequently that enabled the general populace to participate in religious life.
Great emphasis was placed on funerary practices. From very early times, each king constructed a mortuary temple for the maintenance of his funerary cult's rituals, and most Egyptians spent significant time and resources in preparation for eternity. The concept of the afterlife, and the average Egyptian's access to it, changed over time, but life after death was generally thought to mirror life here on earth.
As time progressed, Egyptian religion became ever more complex, as the power of various deities waxed and waned. Gods were sometimes combined into a composite deity, and new theological beliefs were created without the disposal of old, sometimes contradictory, ones. The priesthood became more powerful as temples grew wealthy with the spoils of the Egyptian empire. With the end of native Egyptian rule in 332 B.C, influence of the Greek and Roman world over Egyptian religion increased. Eventually, the rise of Christianity put an end to the old polytheistic religion.
