It’s only a small island – some 200 kilometres long and between 12 and 58 kilometres wide – but Crete, in the Aegean Sea, lies at the crossroads of Africa, Asia, and Europe. There, in 1900, British archaeologist Sir Arthur Evans began excavating some ancient ruins near the island’s present capital of Heraklion. What he found, and what has been discovered in subsequent excavations, has given shape to what we know today as the Minoan civilization.
Tribes of hunter-gatherers may have found their way to Crete as early as 125,000 years ago when, at the end of the Illinoian Ice Age, they left North Africa for the first time – only to be killed off or forced back to Africa by a subsequent ice age some 50,000 years later. Genetic evidence (i.e. the Y-chromosome groupings that define patrilineal descent), however, clearly indicates that contemporary inhabitants of Crete, like those of mainland Greece, came c. 7000 BCE from Anatolia (or what today is Turkey) and settled in fishing villages along the coast and farming villages on the fertile Mesara Plain.
Like all the great Bronze Age civilizations, the Minoan civilization emerged in the middle of the 4th millennium BCE through a process of urbanization of these early Neolithic communities. By 2700 BCE it had become an important centre of Aegean civilization that flourished for well over a thousand years. During their hey-day, they evolved a highly organised society, developed a distinctive written language, religion, and culture, and maintained an extensive mercantile trade with their Mediterranean neighbours. The skill of Minoan artists and metalworkers was renowned in the ancient world. Durable objects of Minoan manufacture – beautifully painted ceramics and exquisite jewellery made from copper, bronze, silver, and gold – have been found on mainland Greece, Cyprus, Syria, Anatolia, Egypt, Mesopotamia, and as far west as the coast of Spain.
The growth of several cities into major centres of commerce tended to accentuate class differences, eventually giving rise (c. 2000 BCE) to the emergence of kings, a dynastic power structure, and the construction of palaces throughout the island. Despite this, the Minoans seem to have maintained an equitable distribution of wealth. Multi-room homes, many two or three stories high, constructed of stone, wood, and mud-brick, are in evidence even in the “poor” sections of town. The cities themselves were connected by roads paved with stone slabs cut from large blocks, and a system of clay pipes provided water and sewer facilities to the upper class.
Unlike other Bronze Age civilizations, Minoan society was matrilineal (i.e. descent was traced through the female line) and women retained at least as much power as men. Bare-breasted, they dressed in a short-sleeved robe open to the navel, while the men wore loincloths and kilts. Farmers raised cattle, pigs, sheep, and goats, domesticated bees, and grew an assortment of grains as well as grapes, figs, and olives. Like the Sumerian and Egyptian temples, the Minoan palaces were more than centres of government and worship; they were storage facilities for the harvested produce. Augmented with the meat of wild deer and boar roaming the island, it all added up to a very healthy diet, a comfortable lifestyle, and a growing population.
Two distinctive features of Minoan life are especially noteworthy. The first is their apparent peacefulness. In his early excavations, Sir Arthur Evans found little evidence of ancient fortifications and coined the phrase pax Minoica or “Minoan peace.” Although subsequent scholars have challenged that idea, a recent (1998) conference of Minoan archaeologists in Belgium concluded that any evidence of armed conflict remains scanty. The superbly crafted Minoan swords seem more associated with fashion and ritual than with aggression. No evidence exists for a Minoan army, and few signs of warfare appear in their art. The inter-city strife and later expansionist aggression that characterised other contemporary civilizations seems entirely absent on the island of Crete.
A second and perhaps related feature that distinguishes Minoan culture is the persistence of the Mother Goddess at the heart of their religious worldview. In all other civilizations, the process of urbanization brought with it dramatic changes in social relations and in the supporting mythology. Urban cultures are typically organised around class rather than kinship. The excess of produce in agricultural societies leads inevitably to economic disparity and an accompanying social inequality. It also issues in a burgeoning population that requires an increasing level of governmental control. Because the agricultural wealth is both generated and defended primarily by male muscle power, the class distinctions are accompanied by a growing gender inequality, with men assigning to themselves the public roles of priests, kings, administrators, and military leaders who together control the society’s wealth. Such dramatic social changes are then reflected in, and supported by, changes in the society’s accompanying mythology and religious beliefs. The new male dominance requires a shift away from a nature-based matriarchal religion focused on the Mother Goddess towards a male-centred universe, governed by a testosterone-laced hierarchy of increasingly male deities ruled by one transcendent Father God.
Just why, of all the civilization, the Minoans should have bucked this trend remains a mystery. Although they certainly evolved a class-based society, there seems to have been little economic disparity between the classes and no inequality between men and women. The palace kings were always male, but women occupied all other important roles in public life and had a virtual monopoly on the priesthood. They even participated as equal participants in the popular sports of boxing and bull jumping. The latter was a highly dangerous sport in which a bull would charge headlong into a line of jumpers who, in order to survive, would grab the bull by the horns, somersault over it, and land on their feet behind the bull. Clearly, Minoan women had not been reduced to the status of the weaker sex.
Since we have only excavated remnants from Minoan culture, we can only guess at the beliefs and practices that comprised their rich religious life. What we can be sure of is that it was matriarchal – i.e. a goddess religion presided over by priestesses – and probably polytheistic. Three goddesses in particular have been identified, but whether they are separate deities or different aspects of a single Mother Goddess remains unclear. The first of these, known as “Mistress of the Animals,” later became the “Mountain Mother”. Accompanied by a saluting male, she was depicted as standing astride a high hill, protecting the animals and natural world. Another was the “Snake Goddess”, depicted with snakes entwined around her arms and body and worshiped in private homes as a kind of domestic mother goddess. A third form, found on a number of seals, appears to be a “Goddess of Vegetation.” A few more diminutive figures have been found that may or may not depict male deities. If so, they hold positions of little significance alongside their female counterparts.
The Minoan goddesses seem to represent a deification of the natural world with which humans could live in harmony. The entire world for the Minoans was suffused with the divine. And like most mother-child relationships, the connection of the Mother Goddess to the natural and human worlds was closer and more biological than that of the more distant male deities of other cultures. Like the Minoan women themselves, however, the Mother Goddess was far from a purely benign presence. Worshiped in an often exuberant fashion with music and dance in outdoor shrines – some in sacred caves, others in hill-top sanctuaries – the Goddess also demanded sacrifice. Judging from bones found at their religious sites, these were mostly of deer, oxen, and goats. A bull, of great importance in Minoan culture, would also be sacrificed at special festivals.
Still more sinister finds suggest that human sacrifice was also practiced. One sanctuary gave up the skeleton of an 18-year-old male, trussed in a fashion similar to that of a sacrificial bull, who had apparently been slain with a nearby bronze dagger and allowed to bleed to death. At another site, the remains of four children, aged between 8 and 12, and apparently in perfect health at the time of their death, have been found. The evidence indicates that they were butchered, cooked together with other edible substances, and cannibalised. Is it possible that such ritualised aggression is the price that must be paid to maintain the peace in other sectors?
However prosperous and peaceful, if sometimes bizarre, Minoan life may have been under the motherly providence of the Goddess, it was not entirely a bed of roses. About 1700 BCE, the palaces that had been built throughout the island were abruptly and utterly destroyed – probably by a powerful earthquake, though possibly by invaders from Anatolia. With astonishing resilience, however, the Minoans quickly rebuilt them into even more spectacular structures – the so-called “great palaces” at Knossos, Phaistos, Malia, and Zakros, alongside many smaller palaces that ranged across the Cretan landscape.
Then, during this same period, in 1645 BCE, there was a colossal volcanic eruption on the Aegean island of Thera or Santorini. Whether or not Minoan crops and animals were suffocated by volcanic ash is unknown, but the tsunamis and earthquakes associated with the eruption would almost certainly have caused extensive damage to the Minoan mercantile fleet and infrastructure. Some 200 years later, the Minoan civilization began its final decline towards extinction. About 1450 BCE, due perhaps to another earthquake or eruption of the Thera volcano, all the important palaces except Knossos were again destroyed. Finally, in 1420 BCE, it was “game over”. A Mycenaean army from mainland Greece invaded Crete, occupied the palace sites, and subjugated the Minoan people.
The male deities that everywhere were transforming these great Bronze Age civilizations into warmongering empires had finally won the day.
Saturday, February 19, 2011
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
The Ancient Egyptian Worldview
Because of our highly evolved capacity for self-awareness, we human beings are uniquely destined to ask “the big questions”. What’s happening in the universe at large? What’s our place in it? How should we live our lives? We have a profound need to orient ourselves within the larger scheme of things in a way that gives meaning and direction to our lives. So we create a worldview – an evolving set of answers to these questions that operates in us as a kind of orientation system.
For the ancient Egyptians, that orientation system or worldview was mythical. Lacking anything resembling a scientific method of inquiry or our concept of natural laws, what happens in this world, they believed, is governed by a pantheon of gods and goddesses whose activity was described in mythical stories. To ensure our survival and well-being, it is important that we align ourselves with these deities and avoid their displeasure in prescribed ways.
The most important myth undergirding their worldview was an account of how the world came into being. In the beginning there was only Nun – the dark lifeless waters of chaos. Out of this emerged a pyramid-shaped mound of land, still surrounded by the waters of chaos, on top of which stood Atum, the first god. Atum coughed and spat out Shu (god of the air) and Tefnut (goddess of moisture), who in turn had two children – Geb (god of the earth) and Nut (goddess of the sky). These in turn had four children – Osiris (king of the earth), Isis (his queen), Seth (the god of chaos), and Nephthys (a protective goddess of the dead). As the myth tells it, Seth, envious of his brother, one day murdered and dismembered him and declared himself to be king. Not to be overcome by chaos, however, Isis reassembled Osiris’ body, resurrected him, and proceeded to give birth to their only son, Horus, who became rightful heir to his father’s throne. The re-establishment of order over chaos is complete when Horus defeats Seth, regains the throne, and Osiris himself descends to the underworld to become king of the dead.
The death and resurrection of Osiris became linked both to the Egyptian agricultural cycle and to their belief in the resurrection of human souls after death, while the succession of Horus to the throne and his restoration of order provided the mythical basis for the succession of dynastic pharaohs and their role as upholders of order. Indeed, the importance of maintaining order over chaos was fundamental to the Egyptians. It was enshrined in their concept of ma’at - the divine force which, at the time of creation, brought order out of chaos and on which the continued existence of the world depended. Because of ma’at, Egyptians could have confidence in the order and stability of their world – the daily progression of the sun across the sky, the annual flooding of the Nile, the cyclical seasons of seedtime and harvest, the rhythmic pattern of birth and death and rebirth. All this was guided by the gods. But it required human cooperation too. Ma’at was never guaranteed. The creation of the universe – this bringing order out of chaos – is ongoing and must constantly be renewed. To avert catastrophe, humans must align themselves with the cosmic order and govern their behaviour accordingly.
Key to upholding ma’at was the pharaoh. Though human and subject to human frailties, he embodied “kingship” – a divine power associated with the god Horus with whom the pharaoh was identified. Indeed, the pharaoh was known as “the living Horus”. So he ruled both for the gods and as a god to maintain order in human society (through good governance) and sustain ma’at on a cosmic level (by ensuring that the gods were served with temple rituals and offerings). As over the centuries the Egyptian pantheon of gods and goddesses became more elaborate, ma’at itself became deified as a goddess, daughter of the sun god Ra.
Important though the maintenance of order was, both in the nation and the cosmos, the Egyptians were less concerned with order or consistency in their own cosmology. The divine residents of their pantheon were constantly changing, with some key deities repeatedly rearranged in a variety of combinations. The sun god Ra is a case in point. Although nowhere mentioned in the original creation myth, he emerged as the major deity in a popular cult centred in Heliopolis – the same city where Atum (who had previously been the #1 god in the creation myth) was also a local sun god. According to the cult, it was Ra, not Atum, who had created himself from a primeval mound and then created all the other gods. At some point the two were combined into Atum-Ra and worshiped as the original being and creator. Later Ra, who was clearly a survivor, became merged with Horus and was seen to rule all parts of the created world. Still later, the god Amun, who rose to prominence as the most powerful god during the New Kingdom, became fused with Ra and known as Amun-Ra. After pharaoh Akhenaten`s abortive effort to elevate Aten (another sun god) to the position of sole deity, Ra was restored to his place of pre-eminence and subsequently worshiped as the creator of all forms of life, including mankind.
The rise and fall of a particular deity depended in part on the region or city of which he was the patron. So Ptah (the god of craftsmen) gained power when his city of Memphis became the capital of Egypt. He was later eclipsed by Ra of Heliopolis, and then by Amun of Thebes. As a rule, whenever a new capital was founded, a new supreme deity was proclaimed. But even a god’s association with a particular locality could change. So Montu, originally a sun god associated with the city of Hermonthis, was exported to Thebes where for a while he gained the rank of state god, only to be subordinated later by Atum as “king of gods.” Still later, during the New Kingdom, Montu was venerated as a god of war, closely identified with the imperial reign of Rameses II, and borne as a strident spear-wielding figure aboard the warships of that time. Strangely, this same god of war was also cited in marriage documents as a protector of the happy home. Such were the vicissitudes of life for an Egyptian deity.
When Ra became merged with Horus, the combo was seen as father of the pharaoh, while several goddesses served as the pharaoh’s mother. Upon his death, the pharaoh became fully identified with Ra and worshiped as a deity in the many mortuary temples dedicated to him. During the day, Ra travelled across the sky in a barque, and during the night through the underworld where he was required to defeat a serpentine god of chaos named Apep. Having dispatched Apep, Ra could then meet with Osiris who, as god of resurrection, ensured his return at sunrise to the morning sky. Thus, day after day, night after night, the victory of order over chaos and the drama of rebirth were re-enacted. It is the theme that emerges repeatedly in Egyptian mythology. It matters little who the players are. They come and go. But the drama itself remains the same.
Although the true nature of the gods and goddesses always remained mysterious and unknown, they were often depicted as an animal – a ram, a hawk, a lion or lioness – to symbolize their role in nature. They were indeed not so much supernatural beings as the deification of natural forces. Each element of nature – the sun, the air, the earth, the Nile – was itself a divine force represented by one or several deities. Nature was not an inanimate “it”, but had a life and will of its own. And not only nature. The same was true of human functions such as writing, measurement, and embalming, and abstractions such as kingship, order, and justice. All of these had a vitality of their own, represented by one or other deity.
Because the forces of nature were capricious and the encroachment of chaos always a threat, it was critically important to appease the gods with offerings and prayers. Ordinary citizens worshiped private statues in their household shrines, but the priests alone had access to the temples where they performed prescribed rituals on the pharaoh’s behalf. The temple was the domain of a deity whose statue was housed in a shrine at the temple’s centre. Only on special feast days was it carried outside for public worship. As the pharaoh’s power diminished in the latter centuries of the civilization, however, his role as spiritual intermediary was correspondingly de-emphasized, and religious practice shifted towards a more direct worship of the gods.
Another shift also took place over the centuries from an originally polytheistic to a more monotheistic worldview. Different gods or combinations of gods could, as we have noted, rise within the pantheon to become the greatest of all. During the New Kingdom, this position was occupied by Amun whose power filled the universe. His true identity, however, was thought to be concealed from the world, while the other gods, still with their individual identities, came to be seen as aspects of this single hidden force. It was as if an essential unity was becoming recognised behind what, on the surface, still looked like a polytheistic system. Somewhat later, Amun-Ra and then Ra held this position until, during the reign of Amenhotep IV (1353-1336 BCE), Ra came to be invoked as Aten – god of the Great Solar Disc that illuminated all beings. In homage to Aten, the pharaoh changed his name to Akhenaten (Glorious Spirit of the Aten), built and moved his capital to Akhetaten, abolished the worship of all other gods, smashed their images, emptied their temples, and impounded their revenues. Then, in a move regarded by many as the first-ever introduction of monotheism, he suppressed any usage of the plural word for god.
Alas, worldviews do not change so easily, and Akhenaten’s monotheism (if that’s what it was) did not survive his death – at least not in Egypt. Indeed, his measures served only to enrage the populace who were not about to abandon their favourite deities so easily. In an effort to restore morale, his successor, Tutankhamen, appeased the offended gods, restored their temples, appointed new priests, had new images sculpted, and the people breathed a sigh of relief. They loved the old-time religion.
The legacy of Akhenaten, however, may not have died with him. Monotheism was in the air – and, through his presumed connection with Semitic peoples living in Egypt, Akhenaten may have influenced Moses and the emergence of Judaic monotheism. Sigmund Freud popularised the idea in his book Moses and Monotheism, arguing that Moses had been a priest of Aten who was forced to leave Egypt with his followers after Akhenaten’s death. And a contemporary Egyptian-born linguist, Ahmed Osman, contends that Moses was none other than Akhenaten himself. According to Osman, Akhenaten’s monotheism was so unpopular that he was forced to abdicate and flee Egypt, taking his followers with him in a grand exodus. While scarcely any scholars give credence to this theory, there is some evidence that the roots of Judaism are to be found in the Egypt of this time. What is thought to be the royal seal of the 8th century Judean Kingdom resembles the earlier image of Aten as a winged solar disc. And, while there is no established link between them, the Great Hymn to Aten, attributed to Akhenaten, bears a remarkable similarity to Psalm 104 in the Hebrew Bible.
A distinctive feature of Egyptian religion was that anyone could share in an afterlife. Humans posses a ka (or life force) and a ba (or personality) which, after death, went to the Kingdom of the Dead. There the deceased’s heart was weighed against the feather of truth and justice taken from the headdress of the goddess Ma’at. If the heart was heavier than the feather, the deceased was devoured by the demon Ammut. But if it was lighter, and providing other conditions were met – (the body must be properly mummified, food and drink must continue to be offered to the ka by those left behind, and the deceased must be able to recite appropriate spells from the Book of the Dead) – then immortality could be enjoyed in the Fields of Yalu, with the added bonus of accompanying the Sun on its daily journey across the sky.
And if all this sounds, as it does to me, like a big ask, then perhaps the heretical Akhenaten’s immortality is the only immortality that is assured. In truth it can be said that Akhenaten lives – in the monotheistic worldview that he inspired and that has prevailed in all the major Western religions to this day.
For the ancient Egyptians, that orientation system or worldview was mythical. Lacking anything resembling a scientific method of inquiry or our concept of natural laws, what happens in this world, they believed, is governed by a pantheon of gods and goddesses whose activity was described in mythical stories. To ensure our survival and well-being, it is important that we align ourselves with these deities and avoid their displeasure in prescribed ways.
The most important myth undergirding their worldview was an account of how the world came into being. In the beginning there was only Nun – the dark lifeless waters of chaos. Out of this emerged a pyramid-shaped mound of land, still surrounded by the waters of chaos, on top of which stood Atum, the first god. Atum coughed and spat out Shu (god of the air) and Tefnut (goddess of moisture), who in turn had two children – Geb (god of the earth) and Nut (goddess of the sky). These in turn had four children – Osiris (king of the earth), Isis (his queen), Seth (the god of chaos), and Nephthys (a protective goddess of the dead). As the myth tells it, Seth, envious of his brother, one day murdered and dismembered him and declared himself to be king. Not to be overcome by chaos, however, Isis reassembled Osiris’ body, resurrected him, and proceeded to give birth to their only son, Horus, who became rightful heir to his father’s throne. The re-establishment of order over chaos is complete when Horus defeats Seth, regains the throne, and Osiris himself descends to the underworld to become king of the dead.
The death and resurrection of Osiris became linked both to the Egyptian agricultural cycle and to their belief in the resurrection of human souls after death, while the succession of Horus to the throne and his restoration of order provided the mythical basis for the succession of dynastic pharaohs and their role as upholders of order. Indeed, the importance of maintaining order over chaos was fundamental to the Egyptians. It was enshrined in their concept of ma’at - the divine force which, at the time of creation, brought order out of chaos and on which the continued existence of the world depended. Because of ma’at, Egyptians could have confidence in the order and stability of their world – the daily progression of the sun across the sky, the annual flooding of the Nile, the cyclical seasons of seedtime and harvest, the rhythmic pattern of birth and death and rebirth. All this was guided by the gods. But it required human cooperation too. Ma’at was never guaranteed. The creation of the universe – this bringing order out of chaos – is ongoing and must constantly be renewed. To avert catastrophe, humans must align themselves with the cosmic order and govern their behaviour accordingly.
Key to upholding ma’at was the pharaoh. Though human and subject to human frailties, he embodied “kingship” – a divine power associated with the god Horus with whom the pharaoh was identified. Indeed, the pharaoh was known as “the living Horus”. So he ruled both for the gods and as a god to maintain order in human society (through good governance) and sustain ma’at on a cosmic level (by ensuring that the gods were served with temple rituals and offerings). As over the centuries the Egyptian pantheon of gods and goddesses became more elaborate, ma’at itself became deified as a goddess, daughter of the sun god Ra.
Important though the maintenance of order was, both in the nation and the cosmos, the Egyptians were less concerned with order or consistency in their own cosmology. The divine residents of their pantheon were constantly changing, with some key deities repeatedly rearranged in a variety of combinations. The sun god Ra is a case in point. Although nowhere mentioned in the original creation myth, he emerged as the major deity in a popular cult centred in Heliopolis – the same city where Atum (who had previously been the #1 god in the creation myth) was also a local sun god. According to the cult, it was Ra, not Atum, who had created himself from a primeval mound and then created all the other gods. At some point the two were combined into Atum-Ra and worshiped as the original being and creator. Later Ra, who was clearly a survivor, became merged with Horus and was seen to rule all parts of the created world. Still later, the god Amun, who rose to prominence as the most powerful god during the New Kingdom, became fused with Ra and known as Amun-Ra. After pharaoh Akhenaten`s abortive effort to elevate Aten (another sun god) to the position of sole deity, Ra was restored to his place of pre-eminence and subsequently worshiped as the creator of all forms of life, including mankind.
The rise and fall of a particular deity depended in part on the region or city of which he was the patron. So Ptah (the god of craftsmen) gained power when his city of Memphis became the capital of Egypt. He was later eclipsed by Ra of Heliopolis, and then by Amun of Thebes. As a rule, whenever a new capital was founded, a new supreme deity was proclaimed. But even a god’s association with a particular locality could change. So Montu, originally a sun god associated with the city of Hermonthis, was exported to Thebes where for a while he gained the rank of state god, only to be subordinated later by Atum as “king of gods.” Still later, during the New Kingdom, Montu was venerated as a god of war, closely identified with the imperial reign of Rameses II, and borne as a strident spear-wielding figure aboard the warships of that time. Strangely, this same god of war was also cited in marriage documents as a protector of the happy home. Such were the vicissitudes of life for an Egyptian deity.
When Ra became merged with Horus, the combo was seen as father of the pharaoh, while several goddesses served as the pharaoh’s mother. Upon his death, the pharaoh became fully identified with Ra and worshiped as a deity in the many mortuary temples dedicated to him. During the day, Ra travelled across the sky in a barque, and during the night through the underworld where he was required to defeat a serpentine god of chaos named Apep. Having dispatched Apep, Ra could then meet with Osiris who, as god of resurrection, ensured his return at sunrise to the morning sky. Thus, day after day, night after night, the victory of order over chaos and the drama of rebirth were re-enacted. It is the theme that emerges repeatedly in Egyptian mythology. It matters little who the players are. They come and go. But the drama itself remains the same.
Although the true nature of the gods and goddesses always remained mysterious and unknown, they were often depicted as an animal – a ram, a hawk, a lion or lioness – to symbolize their role in nature. They were indeed not so much supernatural beings as the deification of natural forces. Each element of nature – the sun, the air, the earth, the Nile – was itself a divine force represented by one or several deities. Nature was not an inanimate “it”, but had a life and will of its own. And not only nature. The same was true of human functions such as writing, measurement, and embalming, and abstractions such as kingship, order, and justice. All of these had a vitality of their own, represented by one or other deity.
Because the forces of nature were capricious and the encroachment of chaos always a threat, it was critically important to appease the gods with offerings and prayers. Ordinary citizens worshiped private statues in their household shrines, but the priests alone had access to the temples where they performed prescribed rituals on the pharaoh’s behalf. The temple was the domain of a deity whose statue was housed in a shrine at the temple’s centre. Only on special feast days was it carried outside for public worship. As the pharaoh’s power diminished in the latter centuries of the civilization, however, his role as spiritual intermediary was correspondingly de-emphasized, and religious practice shifted towards a more direct worship of the gods.
Another shift also took place over the centuries from an originally polytheistic to a more monotheistic worldview. Different gods or combinations of gods could, as we have noted, rise within the pantheon to become the greatest of all. During the New Kingdom, this position was occupied by Amun whose power filled the universe. His true identity, however, was thought to be concealed from the world, while the other gods, still with their individual identities, came to be seen as aspects of this single hidden force. It was as if an essential unity was becoming recognised behind what, on the surface, still looked like a polytheistic system. Somewhat later, Amun-Ra and then Ra held this position until, during the reign of Amenhotep IV (1353-1336 BCE), Ra came to be invoked as Aten – god of the Great Solar Disc that illuminated all beings. In homage to Aten, the pharaoh changed his name to Akhenaten (Glorious Spirit of the Aten), built and moved his capital to Akhetaten, abolished the worship of all other gods, smashed their images, emptied their temples, and impounded their revenues. Then, in a move regarded by many as the first-ever introduction of monotheism, he suppressed any usage of the plural word for god.
Alas, worldviews do not change so easily, and Akhenaten’s monotheism (if that’s what it was) did not survive his death – at least not in Egypt. Indeed, his measures served only to enrage the populace who were not about to abandon their favourite deities so easily. In an effort to restore morale, his successor, Tutankhamen, appeased the offended gods, restored their temples, appointed new priests, had new images sculpted, and the people breathed a sigh of relief. They loved the old-time religion.
The legacy of Akhenaten, however, may not have died with him. Monotheism was in the air – and, through his presumed connection with Semitic peoples living in Egypt, Akhenaten may have influenced Moses and the emergence of Judaic monotheism. Sigmund Freud popularised the idea in his book Moses and Monotheism, arguing that Moses had been a priest of Aten who was forced to leave Egypt with his followers after Akhenaten’s death. And a contemporary Egyptian-born linguist, Ahmed Osman, contends that Moses was none other than Akhenaten himself. According to Osman, Akhenaten’s monotheism was so unpopular that he was forced to abdicate and flee Egypt, taking his followers with him in a grand exodus. While scarcely any scholars give credence to this theory, there is some evidence that the roots of Judaism are to be found in the Egypt of this time. What is thought to be the royal seal of the 8th century Judean Kingdom resembles the earlier image of Aten as a winged solar disc. And, while there is no established link between them, the Great Hymn to Aten, attributed to Akhenaten, bears a remarkable similarity to Psalm 104 in the Hebrew Bible.
A distinctive feature of Egyptian religion was that anyone could share in an afterlife. Humans posses a ka (or life force) and a ba (or personality) which, after death, went to the Kingdom of the Dead. There the deceased’s heart was weighed against the feather of truth and justice taken from the headdress of the goddess Ma’at. If the heart was heavier than the feather, the deceased was devoured by the demon Ammut. But if it was lighter, and providing other conditions were met – (the body must be properly mummified, food and drink must continue to be offered to the ka by those left behind, and the deceased must be able to recite appropriate spells from the Book of the Dead) – then immortality could be enjoyed in the Fields of Yalu, with the added bonus of accompanying the Sun on its daily journey across the sky.
And if all this sounds, as it does to me, like a big ask, then perhaps the heretical Akhenaten’s immortality is the only immortality that is assured. In truth it can be said that Akhenaten lives – in the monotheistic worldview that he inspired and that has prevailed in all the major Western religions to this day.
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
Life in Ancient Egypt
The peace, power, and prosperity of ancient Egypt depended primarily on two things – the annual flooding of the Nile and a well-ordered centralised government under the absolute authority of the pharaoh. The first of these recurrently replenished the Nile’s fertile river banks and yielded an abundance of food. The second maintained the unity of the country under a system of labour and land management that maximised both human and natural resources. And these two were interlinked. When drought diminished the flooding of the Nile, as it did periodically, famine quickly followed, leading to civil unrest, a weakening of the pharaoh’s control, a splintering of the country’s unity, and a heightened exposure to foreign attack.
The Egyptians recognised three seasons that also depended on the Nile. During the flooding season (June – September), the river deposited on its banks a layer of mineral-rich silt ideal for growing crops. When the floodwaters receded, farmers ploughed, planted, and irrigated the land during the growing season (October – February). Finally, the harvest season (March – May) was the time to gather, winnow, grind into flour, and store the abundance that the river had yielded.
The agricultural produce belonged not to the farmers but to the state, temple, or noble family that owned the land. The farmers, who made up most of the population, were at the bottom of the social hierarchy and expected not only to work the land but to work on the massive state-run irrigation and construction projects as well. Of slightly higher status were the artists and craftsmen. But they too were under state control, worked in shops attached to the temples, and were paid directly from the state treasury. Then came the priests, physicians, and engineers with specialised training in their fields. And at the top of the heap were the scribes and officials. They comprised the nobility who wore bleached white linen garments as a mark of their status. Scribes were those who had learned to read and write hieroglyphs – the system of some 500 symbols that had been invented c. 3200 BCE at the dawn of Egyptian civilization. They inscribed the temples and tombs, kept government records, and wrote letters for the pharaoh. Other nobles included members of the pharaoh’s court, the Grand Vizier (the pharaoh’s second-in-command), and the governors of the 42 regional nomes who were accountable to him.
As Egypt grew into a more expansive empire, the role of the military became correspondingly more important. In earlier centuries, soldiers were recruited from the general population on an as-needed basis. When the campaign ended, the army would disperse and the men return to their previous jobs. By the time of the New Kingdom, however, the advantages of maintaining a standing army were apparent. There were more battles to be fought, more trade routes to be protected, and always some massive construction project to be staffed. So the career of the professional soldier was created. By the time of Rameses II (1279-1213 BCE), the standing army numbered 20,000 men. While some were still conscripted, most joined voluntarily – some signing up as young as 5 years of age to serve in the army for their entire life. The attraction lay in the prestige and benefits attached to being a soldier. Except for the priests, they were the only Egyptians to have special privileges. They were widely respected. They enjoyed formal awards for heroism as well as opportunities to plunder. And they were among the lucky few to receive a state pension. Some even gained sufficient power to become pharaohs.
Money in the form of coinage was not introduced until the 5th century BCE. Until then, workers were paid either with the standard sack (about 35 kgs) of grain or with the deben (about 3 ounces) of copper or silver. Like everything else, the economy was centrally controlled. A simple labourer might earn 5 sacks of grain per month, a foreman 7 sacks. Sacks of grain could be traded for other goods according to a list of state-decreed prices that were fixed throughout the country. The price of a shirt was set at 5 deben, a cow at 140 deben.
Whatever their social status, all Egyptians except slaves were equal under the law. Even the lowliest peasant was entitled to petition the vizier and his court for redress. Women too had a greater range of opportunity than exists in many countries even today. While they rarely held significant positions in the administration or temples and usually occupied child-care rather than income-generating roles, they had the right to own and sell property and were financially protected under the law in the event of divorce. Some (Hatshepsut and Cleopatra) even became pharaohs, and others were honoured as Divine Wives of the supreme deity Amun.
Ancient Egyptians lived with members of their immediate family in mud-brick homes furnished with wooden stools, tables, and beds. The floors were covered with reed mats and the white walls with dyed linen wall hangings. The two food staples, bread and beer, were made from cereal grains that were milled and baked in the open-roof kitchen. Fruits and vegetables were grown in nearby garden plots.
The Egyptians may have been the only people of that time to keep pets in their homes – usually dogs, cats, or monkeys. Lions and other more exotic animals were reserved for royalty. Animals were such an important part of Egyptian life that they were often identified with specific gods and goddesses. Cattle were the most important. The size of the herd reflected the prestige of the temple or estate that owned it, and they were taxed accordingly. Sheep, goats, pigs, and poultry were also raised. Oxen and donkeys were used for ploughing and as beasts of burden. Horses, introduced by the Hyksos c. 1700 BCE, were retained almost exclusively by the military to draw their chariots.
Hygiene and apparel were important. Most Egyptians bathed in the Nile, using soap made from animal fat. Men shaved their entire bodies, and boys, at age 12, were circumcised and similarly shaved. Boys and girls alike went without clothing until puberty. Clothing was cut from linen sheets woven of thread made from flax fibres. Both men and women in the upper classes wore wigs, jewellery, cosmetics, and perfumes.
Regarding leisure, some things never change. Girls played with home-made dolls, and boys with miniature toy weapons. Adults played board games – especially senet (the forerunner of backgammon) and mehen (similar to Snakes and Ladders) – which were sometimes buried with them for their amusement in the afterlife. The nobility enjoyed sports – especially boxing, wrestling, and javelin throwing, as well as hunting and boating. Accompanied by their families, they would cruise the Nile in flat-bottomed papyrus boats, hunt ducks and geese in the marshes, or go farther afield to hunt foxes, hare, and antelope. And, as always, the rich enjoyed lavish banquets, accompanied by dancers and musicians who entertained them with songs of love.
Overseeing all of this was a bureaucracy of scribes, religious leaders, and administrators under the control of a pharaoh whose authority was embedded in an elaborate system of religious beliefs. He was the political and religious leader of the nation. As “Lord of the Two Lands”, he made the laws, collected taxes, dispensed justice, acted as supreme military commander, and ensured Egypt’s dominance throughout the Near East. As “High Priest of Every Temple”, he performed rituals, represented the gods on Earth, and built temples to honour them. So interlinked were governance and religion that the temples were not only places of worship but granaries and treasuries where the nation’s wealth was stored and then redistributed. Coordinating this was the vizier who reported directly to the pharaoh and held to account the 42 governors or nomarchs who were responsible for their regional jurisdictions.
The remarkable success of Ancient Egypt is recorded in its lasting legacy – its invention of writing, its art, its mathematics, its practical system of medicine, its legal system, its introduction of monotheism, the first known ships, the earliest known peace treaty, and of course the quest for immortality expressed in its monumental architecture. There are some 80 pyramids known today from ancient Egypt. The earliest were simple mud-brick structures built over the burial pits of nobles to protect the bodies from exposure and provide a secure place for the deceased’s personal belongings. Then came the massive stone pyramids to house the mummies of the pharaohs and their queens. Of these, none can compare with those in the Valley of Giza. And there amongst them, on the west bank of the Nile, the largest monolith statue and oldest known monumental sculpture in the world – the Great Sphinx of Giza – stands as homage to the beauty and strength of this great civilization and her pharaohs.
The Egyptians recognised three seasons that also depended on the Nile. During the flooding season (June – September), the river deposited on its banks a layer of mineral-rich silt ideal for growing crops. When the floodwaters receded, farmers ploughed, planted, and irrigated the land during the growing season (October – February). Finally, the harvest season (March – May) was the time to gather, winnow, grind into flour, and store the abundance that the river had yielded.
The agricultural produce belonged not to the farmers but to the state, temple, or noble family that owned the land. The farmers, who made up most of the population, were at the bottom of the social hierarchy and expected not only to work the land but to work on the massive state-run irrigation and construction projects as well. Of slightly higher status were the artists and craftsmen. But they too were under state control, worked in shops attached to the temples, and were paid directly from the state treasury. Then came the priests, physicians, and engineers with specialised training in their fields. And at the top of the heap were the scribes and officials. They comprised the nobility who wore bleached white linen garments as a mark of their status. Scribes were those who had learned to read and write hieroglyphs – the system of some 500 symbols that had been invented c. 3200 BCE at the dawn of Egyptian civilization. They inscribed the temples and tombs, kept government records, and wrote letters for the pharaoh. Other nobles included members of the pharaoh’s court, the Grand Vizier (the pharaoh’s second-in-command), and the governors of the 42 regional nomes who were accountable to him.
As Egypt grew into a more expansive empire, the role of the military became correspondingly more important. In earlier centuries, soldiers were recruited from the general population on an as-needed basis. When the campaign ended, the army would disperse and the men return to their previous jobs. By the time of the New Kingdom, however, the advantages of maintaining a standing army were apparent. There were more battles to be fought, more trade routes to be protected, and always some massive construction project to be staffed. So the career of the professional soldier was created. By the time of Rameses II (1279-1213 BCE), the standing army numbered 20,000 men. While some were still conscripted, most joined voluntarily – some signing up as young as 5 years of age to serve in the army for their entire life. The attraction lay in the prestige and benefits attached to being a soldier. Except for the priests, they were the only Egyptians to have special privileges. They were widely respected. They enjoyed formal awards for heroism as well as opportunities to plunder. And they were among the lucky few to receive a state pension. Some even gained sufficient power to become pharaohs.
Money in the form of coinage was not introduced until the 5th century BCE. Until then, workers were paid either with the standard sack (about 35 kgs) of grain or with the deben (about 3 ounces) of copper or silver. Like everything else, the economy was centrally controlled. A simple labourer might earn 5 sacks of grain per month, a foreman 7 sacks. Sacks of grain could be traded for other goods according to a list of state-decreed prices that were fixed throughout the country. The price of a shirt was set at 5 deben, a cow at 140 deben.
Whatever their social status, all Egyptians except slaves were equal under the law. Even the lowliest peasant was entitled to petition the vizier and his court for redress. Women too had a greater range of opportunity than exists in many countries even today. While they rarely held significant positions in the administration or temples and usually occupied child-care rather than income-generating roles, they had the right to own and sell property and were financially protected under the law in the event of divorce. Some (Hatshepsut and Cleopatra) even became pharaohs, and others were honoured as Divine Wives of the supreme deity Amun.
Ancient Egyptians lived with members of their immediate family in mud-brick homes furnished with wooden stools, tables, and beds. The floors were covered with reed mats and the white walls with dyed linen wall hangings. The two food staples, bread and beer, were made from cereal grains that were milled and baked in the open-roof kitchen. Fruits and vegetables were grown in nearby garden plots.
The Egyptians may have been the only people of that time to keep pets in their homes – usually dogs, cats, or monkeys. Lions and other more exotic animals were reserved for royalty. Animals were such an important part of Egyptian life that they were often identified with specific gods and goddesses. Cattle were the most important. The size of the herd reflected the prestige of the temple or estate that owned it, and they were taxed accordingly. Sheep, goats, pigs, and poultry were also raised. Oxen and donkeys were used for ploughing and as beasts of burden. Horses, introduced by the Hyksos c. 1700 BCE, were retained almost exclusively by the military to draw their chariots.
Hygiene and apparel were important. Most Egyptians bathed in the Nile, using soap made from animal fat. Men shaved their entire bodies, and boys, at age 12, were circumcised and similarly shaved. Boys and girls alike went without clothing until puberty. Clothing was cut from linen sheets woven of thread made from flax fibres. Both men and women in the upper classes wore wigs, jewellery, cosmetics, and perfumes.
Regarding leisure, some things never change. Girls played with home-made dolls, and boys with miniature toy weapons. Adults played board games – especially senet (the forerunner of backgammon) and mehen (similar to Snakes and Ladders) – which were sometimes buried with them for their amusement in the afterlife. The nobility enjoyed sports – especially boxing, wrestling, and javelin throwing, as well as hunting and boating. Accompanied by their families, they would cruise the Nile in flat-bottomed papyrus boats, hunt ducks and geese in the marshes, or go farther afield to hunt foxes, hare, and antelope. And, as always, the rich enjoyed lavish banquets, accompanied by dancers and musicians who entertained them with songs of love.
Overseeing all of this was a bureaucracy of scribes, religious leaders, and administrators under the control of a pharaoh whose authority was embedded in an elaborate system of religious beliefs. He was the political and religious leader of the nation. As “Lord of the Two Lands”, he made the laws, collected taxes, dispensed justice, acted as supreme military commander, and ensured Egypt’s dominance throughout the Near East. As “High Priest of Every Temple”, he performed rituals, represented the gods on Earth, and built temples to honour them. So interlinked were governance and religion that the temples were not only places of worship but granaries and treasuries where the nation’s wealth was stored and then redistributed. Coordinating this was the vizier who reported directly to the pharaoh and held to account the 42 governors or nomarchs who were responsible for their regional jurisdictions.
The remarkable success of Ancient Egypt is recorded in its lasting legacy – its invention of writing, its art, its mathematics, its practical system of medicine, its legal system, its introduction of monotheism, the first known ships, the earliest known peace treaty, and of course the quest for immortality expressed in its monumental architecture. There are some 80 pyramids known today from ancient Egypt. The earliest were simple mud-brick structures built over the burial pits of nobles to protect the bodies from exposure and provide a secure place for the deceased’s personal belongings. Then came the massive stone pyramids to house the mummies of the pharaohs and their queens. Of these, none can compare with those in the Valley of Giza. And there amongst them, on the west bank of the Nile, the largest monolith statue and oldest known monumental sculpture in the world – the Great Sphinx of Giza – stands as homage to the beauty and strength of this great civilization and her pharaohs.
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
A Brief History of Egyptian Civilization
Given the extent to which climate has influenced our human habitation over the millennia, it is not surprising that talk about the weather should still top the list of our casual conversation. Certainly this must have been true for our ancestors who first ventured into northern Africa. For tens of thousands of years, the Sahara was so devoid of plant and animal life that the Nile Valley was the only habitable place to live. But then, about 8500 BCE, or just at the beginning of the Neolithic era, that situation changed dramatically. Within a few hundred years, a shift in the pattern of monsoon rains caused the desert to bloom. Shrubs and trees and grasses enticed elephants, giraffes, hippos, rhinos, and crocodiles into the area, accompanied by the humans who hunted them and who, like humans everywhere at this time, were learning the skills of agriculture and animal husbandry. By the end of the 6th millennia BCE, well-established human settlements were scattered throughout what is now the Sahara Desert and, according to the rock art of the time, people were frolicking in rain pools and freshwater lakes. Alas, the good times always come to an end. From 5300 BCE the rains began to retreat, and by 3500 BCE they had ended. No more frolicking. The Sahara was returned again to desert, and humans to the Nile Valley. There, with skills well honed by climatic challenges and in burgeoning settlements that grew rapidly into city-states, they proceeded to create the greatest civilization of ancient history.
Backed by a remarkable talent for centralised administration, the civilization took shape quickly. Autonomous city-states became administrative districts called nomes, each headed by a nomarch. These tended to cluster around tribal loyalties and a shared culture. In the north, the Badari culture was notable for its use of copper and high quality ceramics. In the south, the Naqada culture became itself a kind of proto-civilization that traded with Nubia to the south, the desert oases to the west, and the peoples of the eastern Mediterranean. By the middle of the 4th millennium BCE, the cultural differences between north and south were embodied in two distinct kingdoms – Upper and Lower Egypt – each with its own capital city and patron deity. Upper Egypt, known as Ta Shemau (“the land of reeds”), consisted of 22 nomes that were numbered progressively downriver from the Nubian border to just south of modern-day Cairo. Lower Egypt, known as Ta Mehu (“land of papyrus”), consisted of 20 nomes, again numbered in orderly fashion from just south of Cairo to the Mediterranean Sea. Amazingly, these 42 nomes remained in place as Egypt’s fundamental administrative structure for some 3500 years before finally being dismantled in 297 CE by the Roman Emperor Diocletian.
In 3150 BCE, the kingdoms of Upper and Lower Egypt were united under Narmer – the first pharaoh. Known as “king of the two lands”, he was the first of many to wear the Double Crown (the White Crown of Upper Egypt and the Red Crown of Lower Egypt) symbolising the pharaoh’s power over a unified Egypt. The unification was the most significant event in all of Egypt’s history. It allowed a now-centralised government to organise peasant labour, undertake massive irrigation projects, oversee the large-scale distribution of food, establish a justice system, collect taxes, and regulate trade. As a result, Egypt’s food surplus increased exponentially, as did the wealth of the now-deified pharaohs who proceeded to commission the colossal monuments, massive tombs, and exceptional works of art for which Egypt is famous.
From the time of its unification until it fell to foreign domination in the 1st millennium BCE, the history of this great civilization is divided into a series of three Kingdoms (the Old, Middle, and New Kingdoms), separated by periods of relative instability known as Intermediate Periods.
The Old Kingdom (c. 3150 – 2150 BCE) ushered in 1000 years of relative peace and prosperity – (not bad for a new-born civilization) – marked by huge increases in agricultural productivity, the growing power and wealth of the pharaohs, the rise of an elite class of educated scribes and administrative officials, and stunning advances in architecture, art, and technology. Hieroglyphic writing became established during this time. And most of the major pyramids, built as tombs for the pharaohs and their consorts, were built during the height of absolute pharoanic rule (2630 – 2400 BCE).
The 1st Intermediate Period (c. 2150 – 1975 BCE). Towards the end of the Old Kingdom, the extravagance of the pharaohs eroded their economic power and weakened their central administration. Fifty years of drought further exacerbated their economic woes, prompting individual nomes to assert themselves. Once in control of their own resources and free from their loyalties to the pharaoh, local governors (nomarchs) began competing with one another for territorial and political power, leading to civil war between rival cities. Only when the forces of Thebes in Upper Egypt decisively defeated those of Herakleopolis in Lower Egypt were the Two Lands united again.
The Middle Kingdom (1975 – 1785 BCE). The reunification of Egypt under a centralised government led again to the restoration of stability and prosperity, a resumption of pyramid building, and a renaissance in art and literature. It also saw an increase in military activity. Egyptian forces conquered Nubian territory rich in quarries and gold mines, and the “Walls of the Ruler” were built in the Eastern Delta to defend against foreign attack. But once again such projects, combined with insufficient flooding of the Nile, weakened the economy and precipitated a slow decline into the 2nd Intermediate Period.
The 2nd Intermediate Period (c. 1785 – 1550 BCE). During the latter years of the Middle Kingdom, Semitic peoples from western Asia, perhaps driven by famine, settled in the Delta region and provided needed labour for the regime’s ambitious mining and building projects. Known for their military prowess as charioteers and archers, they eventually seized control of the region and came to power as the Hyksos (“foreign rulers”). Forced to retreat to Thebes, the pharaohs found themselves trapped between the Hyksos to the north and their Nubian allies to the south. It was payback time. The pharaohs were treated as vassals and required to pay tribute.
The New Kingdom (c. 1550 – 1155 BCE) is sometimes referred to as the Egyptian Empire because of a new emphasis on territorial expansion initiated by pharaoh Ahmose I. After some 200 years of Hyksos rule, he gathered sufficient strength to eradicate the Hyksos, reunite Upper and Lower Egypt, push Egypt’s borders south into Nubia, and eventually expand eastward as far as the Euphrates. It was an imperial stance that continued for the next 400 years, with one notable exception. Amenhotep IV, being more interested in religion than in foreign affairs, changed his name (which meant “Amun is pleased”) to Akhenaten, in honour of a lesser god named Aten whom he promoted to replace Amun as “king of the gods.” In what is often misinterpreted as the first-ever introduction of monotheism, he proceeded to suppress the worship of all other deities and attack the power of the priestly establishment. Amun, as it turned out, was less than pleased, as were his devotees who, following Akhenaten’s death in 1336 BCE, destroyed his monuments, removed his name from wall reliefs and statues, and erased all mention of his heresy.
More representative of the New Kingdom’s militaristic and imperial stance were Rameses II and III. The former, who reigned for 67 years (1279 – 1212 BCE) and is thought to be the pharaoh with whom Moses negotiated prior to the Exodus, occupied territories in what is now Israel, Lebanon, and Syria, fought the Hittite empire to a standstill at the Battle of Qadesh, and went on to build more temples, erect more monuments, and sire more children than any other pharaoh in Egypt’s history. Egypt’s wealth, however, was making it an increasingly tempting target of invasion. Several decades later, the last of the “great” pharaohs, Rameses III (1186 – 1155 BCE), was forced to defend the empire, first against Libyan tribesmen in the Western Delta, and then against the invading Sea People (whose identity has never been established) in two great land and sea battles.
As has so often been the case throughout history, a combination of military, economic, and environmental factors contributed to the beginning of the end of this once-great civilization. Heavy military costs exhausted the treasury, and a dimming of the sun’s light (probably caused by a massive eruption of the Hekla volcano in Iceland) for two decades following the death of Rameses III led to a series of droughts, below-normal flooding of the Nile, and famine. Such economic woes led in turn to civil unrest, an increase in official corruption, and a serious weakening of the pharaohs’ power – all of which issued in yet another splintering of Upper and Lower Egypt. From c. 1100 BCE, a series of weak pharaohs ruled Lower Egypt and the high priests of the temple of Amun at Thebes became the de facto rulers of Upper Egypt.
From there it was downhill all the way. Libyan princes held control for more than 200 years (from 945 BCE), followed by Nubian kings (from 728 BCE), who were defeated by the Assyrians in 664 BCE, who yielded to the Persians in 525 BCE, who were conquered by Alexander the Great in 332 BCE, who was succeeded by the Ptolemies, until Egypt was finally annexed as a Roman colony in 30 BCE. It was “game over” – a sure and certain reminder that even the greatest of civilizations and empires must one day come to an end. From the middle of the 1st century CE, Christianity took root in Alexandria and, within a few hundred years, the great temples of Egypt had either become churches or were abandoned to the desert. A new era had begun.
Backed by a remarkable talent for centralised administration, the civilization took shape quickly. Autonomous city-states became administrative districts called nomes, each headed by a nomarch. These tended to cluster around tribal loyalties and a shared culture. In the north, the Badari culture was notable for its use of copper and high quality ceramics. In the south, the Naqada culture became itself a kind of proto-civilization that traded with Nubia to the south, the desert oases to the west, and the peoples of the eastern Mediterranean. By the middle of the 4th millennium BCE, the cultural differences between north and south were embodied in two distinct kingdoms – Upper and Lower Egypt – each with its own capital city and patron deity. Upper Egypt, known as Ta Shemau (“the land of reeds”), consisted of 22 nomes that were numbered progressively downriver from the Nubian border to just south of modern-day Cairo. Lower Egypt, known as Ta Mehu (“land of papyrus”), consisted of 20 nomes, again numbered in orderly fashion from just south of Cairo to the Mediterranean Sea. Amazingly, these 42 nomes remained in place as Egypt’s fundamental administrative structure for some 3500 years before finally being dismantled in 297 CE by the Roman Emperor Diocletian.
In 3150 BCE, the kingdoms of Upper and Lower Egypt were united under Narmer – the first pharaoh. Known as “king of the two lands”, he was the first of many to wear the Double Crown (the White Crown of Upper Egypt and the Red Crown of Lower Egypt) symbolising the pharaoh’s power over a unified Egypt. The unification was the most significant event in all of Egypt’s history. It allowed a now-centralised government to organise peasant labour, undertake massive irrigation projects, oversee the large-scale distribution of food, establish a justice system, collect taxes, and regulate trade. As a result, Egypt’s food surplus increased exponentially, as did the wealth of the now-deified pharaohs who proceeded to commission the colossal monuments, massive tombs, and exceptional works of art for which Egypt is famous.
From the time of its unification until it fell to foreign domination in the 1st millennium BCE, the history of this great civilization is divided into a series of three Kingdoms (the Old, Middle, and New Kingdoms), separated by periods of relative instability known as Intermediate Periods.
The Old Kingdom (c. 3150 – 2150 BCE) ushered in 1000 years of relative peace and prosperity – (not bad for a new-born civilization) – marked by huge increases in agricultural productivity, the growing power and wealth of the pharaohs, the rise of an elite class of educated scribes and administrative officials, and stunning advances in architecture, art, and technology. Hieroglyphic writing became established during this time. And most of the major pyramids, built as tombs for the pharaohs and their consorts, were built during the height of absolute pharoanic rule (2630 – 2400 BCE).
The 1st Intermediate Period (c. 2150 – 1975 BCE). Towards the end of the Old Kingdom, the extravagance of the pharaohs eroded their economic power and weakened their central administration. Fifty years of drought further exacerbated their economic woes, prompting individual nomes to assert themselves. Once in control of their own resources and free from their loyalties to the pharaoh, local governors (nomarchs) began competing with one another for territorial and political power, leading to civil war between rival cities. Only when the forces of Thebes in Upper Egypt decisively defeated those of Herakleopolis in Lower Egypt were the Two Lands united again.
The Middle Kingdom (1975 – 1785 BCE). The reunification of Egypt under a centralised government led again to the restoration of stability and prosperity, a resumption of pyramid building, and a renaissance in art and literature. It also saw an increase in military activity. Egyptian forces conquered Nubian territory rich in quarries and gold mines, and the “Walls of the Ruler” were built in the Eastern Delta to defend against foreign attack. But once again such projects, combined with insufficient flooding of the Nile, weakened the economy and precipitated a slow decline into the 2nd Intermediate Period.
The 2nd Intermediate Period (c. 1785 – 1550 BCE). During the latter years of the Middle Kingdom, Semitic peoples from western Asia, perhaps driven by famine, settled in the Delta region and provided needed labour for the regime’s ambitious mining and building projects. Known for their military prowess as charioteers and archers, they eventually seized control of the region and came to power as the Hyksos (“foreign rulers”). Forced to retreat to Thebes, the pharaohs found themselves trapped between the Hyksos to the north and their Nubian allies to the south. It was payback time. The pharaohs were treated as vassals and required to pay tribute.
The New Kingdom (c. 1550 – 1155 BCE) is sometimes referred to as the Egyptian Empire because of a new emphasis on territorial expansion initiated by pharaoh Ahmose I. After some 200 years of Hyksos rule, he gathered sufficient strength to eradicate the Hyksos, reunite Upper and Lower Egypt, push Egypt’s borders south into Nubia, and eventually expand eastward as far as the Euphrates. It was an imperial stance that continued for the next 400 years, with one notable exception. Amenhotep IV, being more interested in religion than in foreign affairs, changed his name (which meant “Amun is pleased”) to Akhenaten, in honour of a lesser god named Aten whom he promoted to replace Amun as “king of the gods.” In what is often misinterpreted as the first-ever introduction of monotheism, he proceeded to suppress the worship of all other deities and attack the power of the priestly establishment. Amun, as it turned out, was less than pleased, as were his devotees who, following Akhenaten’s death in 1336 BCE, destroyed his monuments, removed his name from wall reliefs and statues, and erased all mention of his heresy.
More representative of the New Kingdom’s militaristic and imperial stance were Rameses II and III. The former, who reigned for 67 years (1279 – 1212 BCE) and is thought to be the pharaoh with whom Moses negotiated prior to the Exodus, occupied territories in what is now Israel, Lebanon, and Syria, fought the Hittite empire to a standstill at the Battle of Qadesh, and went on to build more temples, erect more monuments, and sire more children than any other pharaoh in Egypt’s history. Egypt’s wealth, however, was making it an increasingly tempting target of invasion. Several decades later, the last of the “great” pharaohs, Rameses III (1186 – 1155 BCE), was forced to defend the empire, first against Libyan tribesmen in the Western Delta, and then against the invading Sea People (whose identity has never been established) in two great land and sea battles.
As has so often been the case throughout history, a combination of military, economic, and environmental factors contributed to the beginning of the end of this once-great civilization. Heavy military costs exhausted the treasury, and a dimming of the sun’s light (probably caused by a massive eruption of the Hekla volcano in Iceland) for two decades following the death of Rameses III led to a series of droughts, below-normal flooding of the Nile, and famine. Such economic woes led in turn to civil unrest, an increase in official corruption, and a serious weakening of the pharaohs’ power – all of which issued in yet another splintering of Upper and Lower Egypt. From c. 1100 BCE, a series of weak pharaohs ruled Lower Egypt and the high priests of the temple of Amun at Thebes became the de facto rulers of Upper Egypt.
From there it was downhill all the way. Libyan princes held control for more than 200 years (from 945 BCE), followed by Nubian kings (from 728 BCE), who were defeated by the Assyrians in 664 BCE, who yielded to the Persians in 525 BCE, who were conquered by Alexander the Great in 332 BCE, who was succeeded by the Ptolemies, until Egypt was finally annexed as a Roman colony in 30 BCE. It was “game over” – a sure and certain reminder that even the greatest of civilizations and empires must one day come to an end. From the middle of the 1st century CE, Christianity took root in Alexandria and, within a few hundred years, the great temples of Egypt had either become churches or were abandoned to the desert. A new era had begun.
Monday, January 3, 2011
The Indus Valley (Harappan) Civilization
For almost two thousand years (3300 – 1700 BCE), the Indus Valley civilization occupied the fertile valleys of the Indus River and its many tributaries in the western part of the Indian subcontinent. Sometimes called the Harappan civilization (named after the first of its cities to be unearthed in the 1920s), it covered some 300,000 square miles (the size of present-day Turkey) in what is now Pakistan, north-west India, and south-east Afghanistan. More than 1400 settlements have so far been found, including large cities such as Harappa and Mohenjo-daro that housed populations of up to 40,000 people.
The Indus Valley cities were the most advanced of their time. Laid out in well-planned grids, with neighbourhoods defined by their residents’ occupations, they reflect what may be the world’s first town planning and incorporate what is almost certainly the world’s first urban sanitation system. The one and sometimes two-storied, flat-roofed houses were built of standardised high-quality bricks, each opening onto its own inner courtyard. Each had access to clean drinking water and had its own private bathroom. Clay pipes led from the bathroom to sewers located under the streets that drained into nearby rivers. Although some houses were larger than others, even the smallest had access to water and were linked to the central drainage system – suggesting that this was a largely egalitarian society without high concentrations of wealth belonging to a ruling elite. The whole arrangement, indeed, appears to have been more efficient, sanitary, and egalitarian than that found in some areas of modern-day Pakistan and India. In India today, for example, one of every three urban households has no private bathroom facility.
Unlike other civilizations of that era, there is no conclusive evidence of palaces or temples, kings or priests, or any of the pomp and ceremony usually associated with such institutions. Each city had its own grain storage facilities, religious centres, and presumably a very efficient administration. But there appears to have been no central administration for the civilization as a whole. Unlike contemporary Sumerians, Egyptians, and Minoans with their ziggurats, pyramids, and palaces, the Harappans built no monumental structures. Although they had the engineering skills, as the architecture of their dockyards and granaries attests, they left behind no towering monuments or epic ruins. The only thing massive about the Indus Valley cities was their walls, the purpose of which remains unclear. With no evidence of any military class or armed conflict, the walls may have been built more to divert flood waters than to dissuade potential enemies.
In the surrounding farmlands, a variety of grains, fruits, and vegetables were cultivated, and a number of animals, including water buffalo, were domesticated. The city dwellers were mostly artisans and traders. Skilled in pottery, weaving, and metal work, they left a profusion of sculpture, pottery, jewellery, metal seals, and detailed figurines in bronze and terracotta that remained buried until our time.
The economy depended significantly on trade, utilizing camels, elephants, and bullock carts for overland transport, and flat-bottomed boats for transport on their rivers and canals. More distant trade was conducted in plank-built vessels with a single mast supporting a sail of woven rushes or cloth. From a sophisticated docking facility at their city of Lothal, they navigated the Arabian Sea, Persian Gulf, and Red Sea as far as the cities of Sumer and ancient Egypt. The importance of such trade is underlined by their development of a highly standardised decimal system of weights and measures, giving them great accuracy in measuring length, mass, and time.
What is undoubtedly most distinctive about Harappan culture is their use of engraved copper seals as religious amulets and perhaps for identifying property and shipments of goods. A treasure trove of these seals has been found at 80 different sites, including almost every room in the city of Mohenjo-daro. Most are square, no larger than a postage stamp, ranging in size from ½ - 2½ inches, and depict one or other of the Harappan deities as an animal, together with an inscribed message addressed to that god. The few that are rectangular in shape contain only an inscription.
The Harappan script inscribed on these seals, as well as that found on tablets, ceramic pots, and other materials, contains over 400 distinct and exquisitely tiny symbols – the earliest examples of which date from c. 3000 BCE. But because no one has yet been able to decipher these symbols – (more than 100 attempts have been made over recent decades) – it is difficult to draw conclusions about the Indus Valley worldview. Given the great many female figurines that have been found, it is widely thought that they worshipped a Mother Goddess symbolizing fertility. Some seals, however, show swastikas that are found in later religions such as Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism, suggesting that elements of Hinduism were already present at this time. One famous seal shows a figure seated in a posture reminiscent of the Lotus position.
The little we do know about Harappan religious belief and practice is this:
• Religious traditions differed from one city to another, with worship of the Mother Goddess evident in many, but not in all. Many small statues have been unearthed that are thought by some archaeologists to be female goddesses.
• Many different deities, often represented by an animal, have been identified. Citizens of Lothal, for instance, seem to have worshipped both a sea goddess and a fire god – the latter represented on seals by a horned deity and evidenced by private and public fire-altars for animal sacrifice. Major deities include those represented by the water buffalo, short-horned bull, elephant, and ram. The Mother Goddess (perhaps called Kali) may have been represented by the ox, and the principal Harappan deity (Mal ?) by a unicorn.
• In early phases of the civilization, the Harappans buried their dead. Later, the dead were cremated and their ashes buried in urns in a manner alluded to in the Rigveda – the earliest Hindu scriptures, composed in this same region of northwest India between 1700 and 1100 BCE, following the disappearance of the Indus Valley civilization.
The decline of this great civilization remains as enigmatic as its script. By 1700 BCE, most of its cities were abandoned. Were they ravaged by conquest, washed away by floods, destroyed by drought, eroded by a declining trade with Egypt and Mesopotamia, or all of the above? Or did its people just blend into other migrations that were settling the subcontinent? No one seems to know. In 1953, Sir Mortimer Wheeler proposed that it was destroyed by invading warriors from Central Asia called “Àryans”. Many scholars today believe that its collapse was associated with a drought linked to climate change. It seems that the Indus Valley climate grew significantly cooler and drier after 1800 BCE.
Whatever the reasons, and despite the damage done to these ancient sites by British colonials who used the cities’ bricks to build their railways, enough of this civilization still remains as testimony to its greatness. And its influence on later religious thought – Hindu, Buddhist, and Jain – is still felt in our world today.
The Indus Valley cities were the most advanced of their time. Laid out in well-planned grids, with neighbourhoods defined by their residents’ occupations, they reflect what may be the world’s first town planning and incorporate what is almost certainly the world’s first urban sanitation system. The one and sometimes two-storied, flat-roofed houses were built of standardised high-quality bricks, each opening onto its own inner courtyard. Each had access to clean drinking water and had its own private bathroom. Clay pipes led from the bathroom to sewers located under the streets that drained into nearby rivers. Although some houses were larger than others, even the smallest had access to water and were linked to the central drainage system – suggesting that this was a largely egalitarian society without high concentrations of wealth belonging to a ruling elite. The whole arrangement, indeed, appears to have been more efficient, sanitary, and egalitarian than that found in some areas of modern-day Pakistan and India. In India today, for example, one of every three urban households has no private bathroom facility.
Unlike other civilizations of that era, there is no conclusive evidence of palaces or temples, kings or priests, or any of the pomp and ceremony usually associated with such institutions. Each city had its own grain storage facilities, religious centres, and presumably a very efficient administration. But there appears to have been no central administration for the civilization as a whole. Unlike contemporary Sumerians, Egyptians, and Minoans with their ziggurats, pyramids, and palaces, the Harappans built no monumental structures. Although they had the engineering skills, as the architecture of their dockyards and granaries attests, they left behind no towering monuments or epic ruins. The only thing massive about the Indus Valley cities was their walls, the purpose of which remains unclear. With no evidence of any military class or armed conflict, the walls may have been built more to divert flood waters than to dissuade potential enemies.
In the surrounding farmlands, a variety of grains, fruits, and vegetables were cultivated, and a number of animals, including water buffalo, were domesticated. The city dwellers were mostly artisans and traders. Skilled in pottery, weaving, and metal work, they left a profusion of sculpture, pottery, jewellery, metal seals, and detailed figurines in bronze and terracotta that remained buried until our time.
The economy depended significantly on trade, utilizing camels, elephants, and bullock carts for overland transport, and flat-bottomed boats for transport on their rivers and canals. More distant trade was conducted in plank-built vessels with a single mast supporting a sail of woven rushes or cloth. From a sophisticated docking facility at their city of Lothal, they navigated the Arabian Sea, Persian Gulf, and Red Sea as far as the cities of Sumer and ancient Egypt. The importance of such trade is underlined by their development of a highly standardised decimal system of weights and measures, giving them great accuracy in measuring length, mass, and time.
What is undoubtedly most distinctive about Harappan culture is their use of engraved copper seals as religious amulets and perhaps for identifying property and shipments of goods. A treasure trove of these seals has been found at 80 different sites, including almost every room in the city of Mohenjo-daro. Most are square, no larger than a postage stamp, ranging in size from ½ - 2½ inches, and depict one or other of the Harappan deities as an animal, together with an inscribed message addressed to that god. The few that are rectangular in shape contain only an inscription.
The Harappan script inscribed on these seals, as well as that found on tablets, ceramic pots, and other materials, contains over 400 distinct and exquisitely tiny symbols – the earliest examples of which date from c. 3000 BCE. But because no one has yet been able to decipher these symbols – (more than 100 attempts have been made over recent decades) – it is difficult to draw conclusions about the Indus Valley worldview. Given the great many female figurines that have been found, it is widely thought that they worshipped a Mother Goddess symbolizing fertility. Some seals, however, show swastikas that are found in later religions such as Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism, suggesting that elements of Hinduism were already present at this time. One famous seal shows a figure seated in a posture reminiscent of the Lotus position.
The little we do know about Harappan religious belief and practice is this:
• Religious traditions differed from one city to another, with worship of the Mother Goddess evident in many, but not in all. Many small statues have been unearthed that are thought by some archaeologists to be female goddesses.
• Many different deities, often represented by an animal, have been identified. Citizens of Lothal, for instance, seem to have worshipped both a sea goddess and a fire god – the latter represented on seals by a horned deity and evidenced by private and public fire-altars for animal sacrifice. Major deities include those represented by the water buffalo, short-horned bull, elephant, and ram. The Mother Goddess (perhaps called Kali) may have been represented by the ox, and the principal Harappan deity (Mal ?) by a unicorn.
• In early phases of the civilization, the Harappans buried their dead. Later, the dead were cremated and their ashes buried in urns in a manner alluded to in the Rigveda – the earliest Hindu scriptures, composed in this same region of northwest India between 1700 and 1100 BCE, following the disappearance of the Indus Valley civilization.
The decline of this great civilization remains as enigmatic as its script. By 1700 BCE, most of its cities were abandoned. Were they ravaged by conquest, washed away by floods, destroyed by drought, eroded by a declining trade with Egypt and Mesopotamia, or all of the above? Or did its people just blend into other migrations that were settling the subcontinent? No one seems to know. In 1953, Sir Mortimer Wheeler proposed that it was destroyed by invading warriors from Central Asia called “Àryans”. Many scholars today believe that its collapse was associated with a drought linked to climate change. It seems that the Indus Valley climate grew significantly cooler and drier after 1800 BCE.
Whatever the reasons, and despite the damage done to these ancient sites by British colonials who used the cities’ bricks to build their railways, enough of this civilization still remains as testimony to its greatness. And its influence on later religious thought – Hindu, Buddhist, and Jain – is still felt in our world today.
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