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149-427: B C D F G H I K M N P Q R S T U W The ancient Egyptians believed that a soul ( kꜣ and bꜣ ; Egypt. pron. ka/ba) was made up of many parts. In addition to these components of the soul, there was the human body (called the ḥꜥ , occasionally a plural ḥꜥw , meaning approximately "sum of bodily parts"). According to ancient Egyptian creation myths ,

298-639: A ceramic glaze known as faience , which was used well into the Roman Period to decorate cups, amulets, and figurines. During the last predynastic phase, the Naqada culture began using written symbols that eventually were developed into a full system of hieroglyphs for writing the ancient Egyptian language. The Early Dynastic Period was approximately contemporary to the early Sumerian - Akkadian civilization of Mesopotamia and of ancient Elam . The third-century   BC Egyptian priest Manetho grouped

447-469: A corvée system. Artists and craftsmen were of higher status than farmers, but they were also under state control, working in the shops attached to the temples and paid directly from the state treasury. Scribes and officials formed the upper class in ancient Egypt, known as the "white kilt class" in reference to the bleached linen garments that served as a mark of their rank. The upper class prominently displayed their social status in art and literature. Below

596-417: A nomarch , who was accountable to the vizier for his jurisdiction. The temples formed the backbone of the economy. Not only were they places of worship , but were also responsible for collecting and storing the kingdom's wealth in a system of granaries and treasuries administered by overseers , who redistributed grain and goods. Much of the economy was centrally organized and strictly controlled. Although

745-586: A "doubleworld" with essential people and objects for the owner of the ka. As Ancient Orient Curator Andrey Bolshakov explains: "The notion of the ka was a dominating concept of the next life in the Old Kingdom. In a less pure form, it lived into the Middle Kingdom, and lost much of its importance in the New Kingdom, although the ka always remained the recipient of offerings." An important part of

894-444: A balanced relationship between people and animals was an essential element of the cosmic order; thus humans, animals and plants were believed to be members of a single whole. Animals, both domesticated and wild , were therefore a critical source of spirituality, companionship, and sustenance to the ancient Egyptians. Cattle were the most important livestock; the administration collected taxes on livestock in regular censuses , and

1043-607: A brief but spirited resurgence in the economy and culture, but in 525   BC, the Persian Empire, led by Cambyses II , began its conquest of Egypt, eventually defeating the pharaoh Psamtik III at the Battle of Pelusium . Cambyses II then assumed the formal title of pharaoh, but ruled Egypt from Iran, leaving Egypt under the control of a satrap . A few revolts against the Persians marked the 5th century   BC, but Egypt

1192-597: A bꜣ, a unique character, and indeed Old Kingdom pyramids often were called the bꜣ of their owner. The bꜣ is an aspect of a person that the Egyptians believed would live after the body died, and it is sometimes depicted as a human-headed bird flying out of the tomb to join with the kꜣ in the afterlife. In the Coffin Texts , one form of the bꜣ that comes into existence after death is corporeal—eating, drinking and copulating. Egyptologist Louis Vico Žabkar argues that

1341-646: A confident, eloquent style. The relief and portrait sculpture of the period captured subtle, individual details that reached new heights of technical sophistication. The last great ruler of the Middle Kingdom, Amenemhat III , allowed Semitic -speaking Canaanite settlers from the Near East into the Delta region to provide a sufficient labor force for his especially active mining and building campaigns. These ambitious building and mining activities, however, combined with severe Nile floods later in his reign, strained

1490-542: A cornerstone in the history of human civilization. Nomadic modern human hunter-gatherers began living in the Nile valley through the end of the Middle Pleistocene some 120,000 years ago. By the late Paleolithic period, the arid climate of Northern Africa had become increasingly hot and dry, forcing the populations of the area to concentrate along the river region. In Predynastic and Early Dynastic times,

1639-611: A heart scarab carefully secured to the body above it to prevent it from telling tales. According to the text of the Books of Breathing : It was thought that the heart was examined by Anubis and the deities during the Weighing of the Heart ceremony. If the heart weighed more than the feather of Maat , it was immediately eaten by the monster Ammit , and the soul became eternally restless. A person's shadow or silhouette, šwt ( shut ),

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1788-400: A house, though it is not right that one like me should have to do it. This have I done for thy sake. But, behold, thou dost not know good from bad. A person's name, or rn ( 𓂋 𓈖 'name') was an essential aspect of individuality and central to one's survival after death. Most ancient Egyptian names embodied a meaning which was believed to have a direct relationship with its owner. Placing

1937-516: A large-scale building campaign to promote the god Amun , whose growing cult was based in Karnak . They also constructed monuments to glorify their own achievements, both real and imagined. The Karnak temple is the largest Egyptian temple ever built. Around 1350   BC, the stability of the New Kingdom was threatened when Amenhotep IV ascended the throne and instituted a series of radical and chaotic reforms. Changing his name to Akhenaten , he touted

2086-439: A name on a statue ceded the image to the dead named, providing a second body. The obliteration of a name from an object or monument destroyed this connection and in some cases was done intentionally to hinder one's prospects in the afterlife. The bꜣ ( Egyptological pronunciation : ba ) 𓅽 was everything that makes an individual unique, similar to the notion of 'personality'. In this sense, inanimate objects could also have

2235-576: A period of economic and cultural renaissance known as the Middle Kingdom . The kings of the Middle Kingdom restored the country's stability and prosperity, thereby stimulating a resurgence of art, literature, and monumental building projects. Mentuhotep II and his Eleventh Dynasty successors ruled from Thebes, but the vizier Amenemhat I , upon assuming the kingship at the beginning of the Twelfth Dynasty around 1985   BC, shifted

2384-630: A person's physical abilities in death, but also to release a Ba ' s attachment to the body. This allowed the bꜣ to be united with the kꜣ in the afterlife, creating an entity known as an ꜣḫ. Ancient Egypt Ancient Egypt was a civilization of ancient Northeast Africa . It was concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River , situated within the contemporary territory of modern-day Egypt . Ancient Egyptian civilization followed prehistoric Egypt and coalesced around 3100   BC (according to conventional Egyptian chronology ) with

2533-508: A piece of papyrus or an ostracon . A combination of favorable geographical features contributed to the success of ancient Egyptian culture, the most important of which was the rich fertile soil resulting from annual inundations of the Nile River. The ancient Egyptians were thus able to produce an abundance of food, allowing the population to devote more time and resources to cultural, technological, and artistic pursuits. Land management

2682-469: A pole mounting a pot, was a symbol associated both with Osiris as god of the underworld and with Anubis , god of mummification, was sometimes included among a deceased person's funerary equipment. The first phase of the festival was a public drama depicting the murder and dismemberment of Osiris, the search for his body by Isis, his triumphal return as the resurrected god, and the battle in which Horus defeated Set. According to Julius Firmicus Maternus of

2831-689: A queen who established herself as pharaoh, launched many building projects, including the restoration of temples damaged by the Hyksos, and sent trading expeditions to Punt and the Sinai. When Tuthmosis III died in 1425   BC, Egypt had an empire extending from Niya in north west Syria to the Fourth Cataract of the Nile in Nubia , cementing loyalties and opening access to critical imports such as bronze and wood . The New Kingdom pharaohs began

2980-499: A ram-specific necropolis . Banebdjed was consequently said to be Horus' father, as Banebdjed was an aspect of Osiris. Regarding the association of Osiris with the ram, the god's traditional crook and flail are the instruments of the shepherd, which has suggested to some scholars also an origin for Osiris in herding tribes of the upper Nile. Plutarch recounts one version of the Osiris myth in which Set (Osiris' brother), along with

3129-633: A red tree in the forms of the sixteen dismembered parts of Osiris, the cakes of "divine" bread were made from each mold, placed in a silver chest and set near the head of the god with the inward parts of Osiris as described in the Book of the Dead (XVII). The idea of divine justice being exercised after death for wrongdoing during life is first encountered during the Old Kingdom in a Sixth Dynasty tomb containing fragments of what would be described later as

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3278-608: A rival dynasty in the delta arose in Leontopolis , and Kushites threatened from the south. Around 727   BC the Kushite king Piye invaded northward, seizing control of Thebes and eventually the Delta, which established the 25th Dynasty . During the 25th Dynasty, Pharaoh Taharqa created an empire nearly as large as the New Kingdom 's. Twenty-fifth Dynasty pharaohs built, or restored, temples and monuments throughout

3427-662: A series of vassals who became known as the Saite kings of the Twenty-Sixth Dynasty . By 653   BC, the Saite king Psamtik I was able to oust the Assyrians with the help of Greek mercenaries, who were recruited to form Egypt's first navy . Greek influence expanded greatly as the city-state of Naucratis became the home of Greeks in the Nile Delta. The Saite kings based in the new capital of Sais witnessed

3576-409: Is always present. Because of this, Egyptians surmised that a shadow contains something of the person it represents. Through this association, statues of people and deities were sometimes referred to as shadows. In a commentary to The Egyptian Book of the Dead ( BD ), Egyptologist Ogden Goelet, Jr. discusses the forms of the shadow: In many BD papyri and tombs the deceased is depicted emerging from

3725-774: Is from the middle of the Fifth Dynasty of Egypt (25th century BC), although it is likely that he was worshiped much earlier; the Khenti-Amentiu epithet dates to at least the First Dynasty , and was also used as a pharaonic title. Most information available on the Osiris myth is derived from allusions in the Pyramid Texts at the end of the Fifth Dynasty, later New Kingdom source documents such as

3874-489: Is said to represent [Osiris], the next best is somewhat inferior and cheaper, while the third is cheapest of all." Because the state of the body was tied so closely with the quality of the afterlife , by the time of the Middle Kingdom , not only were the burial chambers painted with depictions of favourite pastimes and great accomplishments of the dead, but there were also small figurines ( ushabtis ) of servants, slaves, and guards (and, in some cases beloved pets) included in

4023-431: Is taken by the devourer is subject first to terrifying punishment and then annihilated. These depictions of punishment may have influenced medieval perceptions of the inferno in hell via early Christian and Coptic texts. Purification for those who are considered justified may be found in the descriptions of "Flame Island", where they experience the triumph over evil and rebirth. For the damned, complete destruction into

4172-509: The Atef crown, which is similar to the White crown of Upper Egypt , but with the addition of two curling ostrich feathers at each side. He also carries the crook and flail . The crook is thought to represent Osiris as a shepherd god. The symbolism of the flail is more uncertain with shepherd's whip, fly-whisk, or association with the god Andjety of the ninth nome of Lower Egypt proposed. He

4321-583: The Amarna Period . Around 1279   BC, Ramesses II , also known as Ramesses the Great, ascended the throne, and went on to build more temples, erect more statues and obelisks, and sire more children than any other pharaoh in history. A bold military leader, Ramesses II led his army against the Hittites in the Battle of Kadesh (in modern Syria ) and, after fighting to a stalemate, finally agreed to

4470-508: The Egyptian climate was much less arid than it is today . Large regions of Egypt were covered in treed savanna and traversed by herds of grazing ungulates . Foliage and fauna were far more prolific in all environs, and the Nile region supported large populations of waterfowl . Hunting would have been common for Egyptians, and this is also the period when many animals were first domesticated . By about 5500 BC , small tribes living in

4619-524: The Fourth Dynasty , is found: "An offering the king gives and Anubis " . By the end of the Fifth Dynasty, the formula in all tombs becomes " An offering the king gives and Osiris ". Osiris is the mythological father of the god Horus , whose conception is described in the Osiris myth (a central myth in ancient Egyptian belief ). The myth describes Osiris as having been killed by his brother Set , who wanted Osiris' throne. His wife, Isis , finds

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4768-501: The Great Kenbet , over which the vizier or pharaoh presided. Plaintiffs and defendants were expected to represent themselves and were required to swear an oath that they had told the truth. In some cases, the state took on both the role of prosecutor and judge, and it could torture the accused with beatings to obtain a confession and the names of any co-conspirators. Whether the charges were trivial or serious, court scribes documented

4917-613: The Macedonians under Alexander the Great . The Greek Ptolemaic Kingdom , formed in the aftermath of Alexander's death, ruled until 30   BC, when, under Cleopatra , it fell to the Roman Empire and became a Roman province . Egypt remained under Roman control until 642 AD, when it was conquered by the Rashidun Caliphate . The success of ancient Egyptian civilization came partly from its ability to adapt to

5066-971: The Mouseion . The Lighthouse of Alexandria lit the way for the many ships that kept trade flowing through the city—as the Ptolemies made commerce and revenue-generating enterprises, such as papyrus manufacturing, their top priority. Hellenistic culture did not supplant native Egyptian culture, as the Ptolemies supported time-honored traditions in an effort to secure the loyalty of the populace. They built new temples in Egyptian style, supported traditional cults, and portrayed themselves as pharaohs. Some traditions merged, as Greek and Egyptian gods were syncretized into composite deities, such as Serapis , and classical Greek forms of sculpture influenced traditional Egyptian motifs. Despite their efforts to appease

5215-496: The Near East . The New Kingdom pharaohs established a period of unprecedented prosperity by securing their borders and strengthening diplomatic ties with their neighbours, including the Mitanni Empire, Assyria , and Canaan . Military campaigns waged under Tuthmosis I and his grandson Tuthmosis III extended the influence of the pharaohs to the largest empire Egypt had ever seen. Between their reigns, Hatshepsut ,

5364-517: The Negative Confessions performed in front of the 42 Assessors of Ma'at . At death a person faced judgment by a tribunal of forty-two divine judges. If they led a life in conformance with the precepts of the goddess Ma'at , who represented truth and right living, the person was welcomed into the kingdom of Osiris. If found guilty, the person was thrown to the soul-eating demon Ammit and did not share in eternal life. The person who

5513-772: The New Kingdom of the Late Bronze Age . Ancient Egypt reached the pinnacle of its power during the New Kingdom, ruling much of Nubia and a sizable portion of the Levant . After this period, it entered an era of slow decline. During the course of its history, ancient Egypt was invaded or conquered by a number of foreign powers, including the Hyksos , the Nubians , the Assyrians , the Achaemenid Persians , and

5662-584: The Nile . They also traded with Nubia to the south, the oases of the western desert to the west, and the cultures of the eastern Mediterranean and Near East to the east. The Naqada culture manufactured a diverse selection of material goods, reflective of the increasing power and wealth of the elite, as well as societal personal-use items, which included combs, small statuary, painted pottery, high quality decorative stone vases , cosmetic palettes , and jewelry made of gold, lapis, and ivory. They also developed

5811-467: The Nubians to the south of Egypt, but failed to defeat the Hyksos. That task fell to Kamose's successor, Ahmose I , who successfully waged a series of campaigns that permanently eradicated the Hyksos' presence in Egypt. He established a new dynasty and, in the New Kingdom that followed, the military became a central priority for the kings, who sought to expand Egypt's borders and attempted to gain mastery of

5960-509: The Old Kingdom to the New Kingdom , at times changing from one dynasty to another, from five parts to more. Most ancient Egyptian funerary texts reference numerous parts of the soul: Collectively, these spirits of a dead person were called the Akh after that person had successfully completed its transition to the afterlife . Egyptologist R. David, at the University of Manchester, explains

6109-549: The Persians and was welcomed by the Egyptians as a deliverer. The administration established by Alexander's successors, the Macedonian Ptolemaic Kingdom , was based on an Egyptian model and based in the new capital city of Alexandria . The city showcased the power and prestige of Hellenistic rule, and became a centre of learning and culture, that included the famous Library of Alexandria as part of

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6258-600: The Shabaka Stone and " The Contendings of Horus and Seth ", and much later, in the narratives of Greek authors including Plutarch and Diodorus Siculus . Some Egyptologists believe the Osiris mythos may have originated in a former living ruler — possibly a shepherd who lived in Predynastic times (5500–3100 BC) in the Nile Delta , whose beneficial rule led to him being revered as a god. The accoutrements of

6407-619: The Thirtieth , proved to be the last native royal house of ancient Egypt, ending with the kingship of Nectanebo II . A brief restoration of Persian rule, sometimes known as the Thirty-First Dynasty , began in 343   BC, but shortly after, in 332   BC, the Persian ruler Mazaces handed Egypt over to Alexander the Great without a fight. In 332   BC, Alexander the Great conquered Egypt with little resistance from

6556-549: The Wadi Natrun for mummification , which also provided the gypsum needed to make plaster. Ore-bearing rock formations were found in distant, inhospitable wadis in the Eastern Desert and the Sinai, requiring large, state-controlled expeditions to obtain natural resources found there. There were extensive gold mines in Nubia , and one of the first maps known is of a gold mine in this region. The Wadi Hammamat

6705-451: The chaff from the grain, and the grain was then ground into flour, brewed to make beer, or stored for later use. The ancient Egyptians cultivated emmer and barley , and several other cereal grains, all of which were used to make the two main food staples of bread and beer. Flax plants, uprooted before they started flowering, were grown for the fibers of their stems. These fibers were split along their length and spun into thread, which

6854-581: The composite bow and the horse-drawn chariot . After retreating south, the native Theban kings found themselves trapped between the Canaanite Hyksos ruling the north and the Hyksos' Nubian allies, the Kushites , to the south. After years of vassalage, Thebes gathered enough strength to challenge the Hyksos in a conflict that lasted more than 30 years, until 1555   BC. The kings Seqenenre Tao II and Kamose were ultimately able to defeat

7003-458: The earliest known peace treaty , made with the Hittites . Ancient Egypt has left a lasting legacy. Its art and architecture were widely copied, and its antiquities were carried off to be studied, admired or coveted in the far corners of the world. Its monumental ruins have inspired the imaginations of travelers and writers for millennia. A newfound respect for antiquities and excavations in

7152-407: The hope of new life after death , Osiris began to be associated with the cycles in nature, in particular the sprouting of vegetation and the annual flooding of the Nile River , as well as the heliacal rising of Orion and Sirius at the start of the new year. He became the sovereign that granted all life, "He Who is Permanently Benign and Youthful". The first evidence of the worship of Osiris

7301-523: The vizier and his court for redress. Although slaves were mostly used as indentured servants, they were able to buy and sell their servitude, work their way to freedom or nobility, and were usually treated by doctors in the workplace. Both men and women had the right to own and sell property, make contracts, marry and divorce, receive inheritance, and pursue legal disputes in court. Married couples could own property jointly and protect themselves from divorce by agreeing to marriage contracts, which stipulated

7450-555: The "Lord of Silence" and Khenti-Amentiu , meaning "Foremost of the Westerners". In the Old Kingdom (2686–2181 BC) the pharaoh was considered a son of the sun god Ra who, after his death, ascended to join Ra in the sky. After the spread of the Osiris cult, however, the kings of Egypt were associated with Osiris in death – as Osiris rose from the dead, they would unite with him and inherit eternal life through imitative magic. Through

7599-572: The Assyrians. The effects of external threats were exacerbated by internal problems such as corruption, tomb robbery, and civil unrest . After regaining their power, the high priests at the temple of Amun in Thebes accumulated vast tracts of land and wealth, and their expanded power splintered the country during the Third Intermediate Period. Following the death of Ramesses XI in 1078   BC, Smendes assumed authority over

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7748-476: The Christian emperor Theodosius introduced legislation that banned pagan rites and closed temples. Alexandria became the scene of great anti-pagan riots with public and private religious imagery destroyed. As a consequence, Egypt's native religious culture was continually in decline. While the native population continued to speak their language , the ability to read hieroglyphic writing slowly disappeared as

7897-435: The Delta, seized control of Egypt and established their capital at Avaris , forcing the former central government to retreat to Thebes . The king was treated as a vassal and expected to pay tribute. The Hyksos ('foreign rulers') retained Egyptian models of government and identified as kings, thereby integrating Egyptian elements into their culture. They and other invaders introduced new tools of warfare into Egypt, most notably

8046-418: The Egyptian soul was thought to be the jb ( ib ), or heart . In the Egyptian religion, the heart was the key to the afterlife. It was essential to surviving death in the nether world, where it gave evidence for, or against, its possessor. Like the physical body ( ẖt ), the heart was a necessary part of judgement in the afterlife and it was to be carefully preserved and stored within the mummified body with

8195-453: The Egyptians, the Ptolemies were challenged by native rebellion, bitter family rivalries, and the powerful mob of Alexandria that formed after the death of Ptolemy IV . In addition, as Rome relied more heavily on imports of grain from Egypt, the Romans took great interest in the political situation in the country. Continued Egyptian revolts, ambitious politicians, and powerful opponents from

8344-504: The Greeks towards the Egyptians, some traditions such as mummification and worship of the traditional gods continued. The art of mummy portraiture flourished, and some Roman emperors had themselves depicted as pharaohs, though not to the extent that the Ptolemies had. The former lived outside Egypt and did not perform the ceremonial functions of Egyptian kingship. Local administration became Roman in style and closed to native Egyptians. From

8493-545: The Late Period, the worship of the gods in their animal form was extremely popular, such as the cat goddess Bastet and the ibis god Thoth , and these animals were kept in large numbers for the purpose of ritual sacrifice. Egypt is rich in building and decorative stone, copper and lead ores, gold, and semiprecious stones. These natural resources allowed the ancient Egyptians to build monuments, sculpt statues, make tools, and fashion jewelry . Embalmers used salts from

8642-452: The Late Period. There is also evidence to suggest that elephants were briefly used in the Late Period but largely abandoned due to lack of grazing land. Cats , dogs, and monkeys were common family pets, while more exotic pets imported from the heart of Africa, such as Sub-Saharan African lions , were reserved for royalty. Herodotus observed that the Egyptians were the only people to keep their animals with them in their houses. During

8791-525: The Near East made this situation unstable, leading Rome to send forces to secure the country as a province of its empire. Egypt became a province of the Roman Empire in 30   BC, following the defeat of Mark Antony and Ptolemaic Queen Cleopatra VII by Octavian (later Emperor Augustus) in the Battle of Actium . The Romans relied heavily on grain shipments from Egypt, and the Roman army , under

8940-569: The Nile valley had developed into a series of cultures demonstrating firm control of agriculture and animal husbandry , and identifiable by their pottery and personal items, such as combs, bracelets, and beads. The largest of these early cultures in upper (Southern) Egypt was the Badarian culture , which probably originated in the Western Desert ; it was known for its high-quality ceramics, stone tools , and its use of copper. The Badari

9089-474: The Nile valley, including at Memphis, Karnak, Kawa, and Jebel Barkal. During this period, the Nile valley saw the first widespread construction of pyramids (many in modern Sudan) since the Middle Kingdom. Egypt's far-reaching prestige declined considerably toward the end of the Third Intermediate Period. Its foreign allies had fallen under the Assyrian sphere of influence, and by 700   BC war between

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9238-522: The Old Kingdom, and provided both honey and wax. The ancient Egyptians used donkeys and oxen as beasts of burden , and they were responsible for plowing the fields and trampling seed into the soil. The slaughter of a fattened ox was also a central part of an offering ritual. Horses were introduced by the Hyksos in the Second Intermediate Period . Camels, although known from the New Kingdom, were not used as beasts of burden until

9387-405: The Old Kingdom. Under the direction of the vizier , state officials collected taxes, coordinated irrigation projects to improve crop yield , drafted peasants to work on construction projects, and established a justice system to maintain peace and order. With the rising importance of central administration in Egypt, a new class of educated scribes and officials arose who were granted estates by

9536-576: The Queen of Ethiopia , conspired with 72 accomplices to plot the assassination of Osiris. Set fooled Osiris into getting into a box, which Set then shut, sealed with lead, and threw into the Nile. Osiris' wife, Isis , searched for his remains until she finally found him embedded in a tamarisk tree trunk, which was holding up the roof of a palace in Byblos on the Phoenician coast . She managed to remove

9685-460: The Ruler ", to defend against foreign attack. With the kings having secured the country militarily and politically and with vast agricultural and mineral wealth at their disposal, the nation's population, arts, and religion flourished. In contrast to elitist Old Kingdom attitudes towards the gods, the Middle Kingdom displayed an increase in expressions of personal piety. Middle Kingdom literature featured sophisticated themes and characters written in

9834-499: The administration, aside from the royal high priestesses, apparently served only secondary roles in the temples (not much data for many dynasties), and were not so probably to be as educated as men. The head of the legal system was officially the pharaoh, who was responsible for enacting laws, delivering justice, and maintaining law and order, a concept the ancient Egyptians referred to as Ma'at . Although no legal codes from ancient Egypt survive, court documents show that Egyptian law

9983-484: The afterlife, akh represented the deceased, who was transfigured and often identified with light. It was associated with thought, but not as an action of the mind; rather, it was intellect as a living entity. The ꜣḫ also played a role in the afterlife. Following the death of the ẖt (physical body), the bꜣ and kꜣ were reunited to reanimate the ꜣḫ. The reanimation of the ꜣḫ was only possible if the proper funeral rites were executed and followed by constant offerings. The ritual

10132-507: The ancient Egyptians did not use coinage until the Late period , they did use a type of money-barter system, with standard sacks of grain and the deben , a weight of roughly 91 grams (3 oz) of copper or silver, forming a common denominator. Workers were paid in grain; a simple laborer might earn 5 + 1 ⁄ 2  sacks (200 kg or 400 lb) of grain per month, while a foreman might earn 7 + 1 ⁄ 2  sacks (250 kg or 550 lb). Prices were fixed across

10281-407: The ancient Egyptians include the quarrying , surveying , and construction techniques that supported the building of monumental pyramids , temples , and obelisks ; a system of mathematics , a practical and effective system of medicine , irrigation systems, and agricultural production techniques, the first known planked boats, Egyptian faience and glass technology, new forms of literature , and

10430-419: The aspect and form of Seker-Osiris. Osiris' soul, or rather his ba , was occasionally worshipped in its own right, almost as if it were a distinct god, especially in the Delta city of Mendes . This aspect of Osiris was referred to as Banebdjedet , which is grammatically feminine (also spelt " Banebded " or " Banebdjed "), literally "the ba of the lord of the djed , which roughly means The soul of

10579-446: The bodies of children on a potter's wheel and inserted them into their mothers' bodies. Depending on the region, Egyptians believed that Heqet or Meskhenet was the creator of each person's kꜣ, breathing it into them at the instant of their birth as the part of their soul that made them be alive . The Egyptians also believed that the kꜣ was sustained through food and drink. For this reason food and drink offerings were presented to

10728-408: The body of Osiris and hides it in the reeds where it is found and dismembered by Set. Isis retrieves and joins the fragmented pieces of Osiris, then briefly revives him by use of magic. This spell gives her time to become pregnant by Osiris. Isis later gives birth to Horus. Since Horus was born after Osiris' resurrection, Horus became thought of as a representation of new beginnings and the vanquisher of

10877-452: The bꜣ is not merely a part of the person but is the person himself , unlike the soul in Greek, or late Judaic, Christian or Muslim thought. The idea of a purely immaterial existence was so foreign to Egyptian thought that when Christianity spread in Egypt, they borrowed the Greek word ψυχή psychē to describe the concept of soul instead of the term bꜣ. Žabkar concludes that so particular was

11026-410: The coffin and retrieve her husband's body. In one version of the myth, Isis used a spell to briefly revive Osiris so he could impregnate her. After embalming and burying Osiris, Isis conceived and gave birth to their son, Horus. Thereafter Osiris lived on as the god of the underworld. Because of his death and resurrection, Osiris was associated with the flooding and retreating of the Nile and thus with

11175-410: The complaint, testimony, and verdict of the case for future reference. Punishment for minor crimes involved either imposition of fines, beatings, facial mutilation, or exile, depending on the severity of the offense. Serious crimes such as murder and tomb robbery were punished by execution, carried out by decapitation, drowning, or impaling the criminal on a stake. Punishment could also be extended to

11324-534: The concept of the bꜣ to ancient Egyptian thought that it ought not to be translated but instead the concept be footnoted or parenthetically explained as one of the modes of existence for a person. In another mode of existence the bꜣ of the deceased is depicted in the Book of the Dead returning to the mummy and participating in life outside the tomb in non-corporeal form, echoing the solar theology of Ra uniting with Osiris each night. The word bꜣw ( baw ), plural of

11473-419: The conditions of the Nile River valley for agriculture . The predictable flooding and controlled irrigation of the fertile valley produced surplus crops, which supported a more dense population, and social development and culture. With resources to spare, the administration sponsored mineral exploitation of the valley and surrounding desert regions, the early development of an independent writing system ,

11622-505: The control of a prefect appointed by the emperor, quelled rebellions, strictly enforced the collection of heavy taxes, and prevented attacks by bandits, which had become a notorious problem during the period. Alexandria became an increasingly important center on the trade route with the orient, as exotic luxuries were in high demand in Rome. Although the Romans had a more hostile attitude than

11771-401: The country and recorded in lists to facilitate trading; for example a shirt cost five copper deben, while a cow cost 140   deben. Grain could be traded for other goods, according to the fixed price list. During the fifth century   BC coined money was introduced into Egypt from abroad. At first the coins were used as standardized pieces of precious metal rather than true money, but in

11920-403: The country's economy. Regional governors could not rely on the king for help in times of crisis, and the ensuing food shortages and political disputes escalated into famines and small-scale civil wars. Yet despite difficult problems, local leaders, owing no tribute to the king, used their new-found independence to establish a thriving culture in the provinces. Once in control of their own resources,

12069-421: The criminal's family. Beginning in the New Kingdom, oracles played a major role in the legal system, dispensing justice in both civil and criminal cases. The procedure was to ask the god a "yes" or "no" question concerning the right or wrong of an issue. The god, carried by a number of priests, rendered judgement by choosing one or the other, moving forward or backward, or pointing to one of the answers written on

12218-453: The dead, although it was the kꜣ within the offerings that was consumed, not the physical aspect. In the Middle kingdom a form of offering tray known as a soul house was developed to facilitate this. The kꜣ was often represented in Egyptian iconography as a second image of the king, leading earlier works to attempt to translate kꜣ as double . In the Old Kingdom private tombs, artwork depicted

12367-432: The death of the god, on the same day that grain was planted in the ground (Isis and Osiris, 13). The annual festival involved the construction of "Osiris Beds" formed in shape of Osiris, filled with soil and sown with seed. The germinating seed symbolized Osiris rising from the dead. An almost pristine example was found in the tomb of Tutankhamun . The imiut emblem- an image of a stuffed, headless skin of an animal tied to

12516-399: The deceased was found worthy (by Osiris and the gods of the underworld) of passing through into the afterlife, the sꜥḥ ( sah ; spiritual representation of the physical body) forms. This spiritual body was then able to interact with the many entities extant in the afterlife. As a part of the larger construct, the ꜣḫ, the sꜥḥ was sometimes seen as an avenging spirit which would return from

12665-495: The deceased wished to support or, alternately, to take revenge on his enemies. The ẖt (Egyptological spelling: khet ), or physical form, had to exist for the soul ( kꜣ / bꜣ ) to have intelligence or the chance to be judged by the guardians of the underworld . Therefore, it was necessary for the body to be preserved as efficiently and completely as possible and for the burial chamber to be as personalized as it could be, with paintings and statuary showing scenes and triumphs from

12814-400: The deceased's life. In the Old Kingdom, only the pharaoh was granted mummification and, thus, a chance at an eternal and fulfilling afterlife. By the Middle Kingdom, all dead were afforded the opportunity. Herodotus , an ancient Greek scholar, observed that grieving families were given a choice as to the type and or quality of the mummification they preferred: "The best and most expensive kind

12963-411: The early modern period by Europeans and Egyptians has led to the scientific investigation of Egyptian civilization and a greater appreciation of its cultural legacy. The Nile has been the lifeline of its region for much of human history. The fertile floodplain of the Nile gave humans the opportunity to develop a settled agricultural economy and a more sophisticated, centralized society that became

13112-572: The economy and precipitated the slow decline into the Second Intermediate Period during the later Thirteenth and Fourteenth dynasties. During this decline, the Canaanite settlers began to assume greater control of the Delta region, eventually coming to power in Egypt as the Hyksos . Around 1785   BC, as the power of the Middle Kingdom kings weakened, a Western Asian people called the Hyksos , who had already settled in

13261-483: The extant information about the rites of Osiris can be found on the Ikhernofret Stela at Abydos erected in the Twelfth Dynasty by Ikhernofret , possibly a priest of Osiris or other official (the titles of Ikhernofret are described in his stela from Abydos) during the reign of Senwosret III (Pharaoh Sesostris, about 1875 BC). The ritual reenactment of Osiris's funeral rites were held in the last month of

13410-424: The fertile delta region, as well as the lucrative and critical trade routes to the Levant . The increasing power and wealth of the kings during the early dynastic period was reflected in their elaborate mastaba tombs and mortuary cult structures at Abydos, which were used to celebrate the deified king after his death. The strong institution of kingship developed by the kings served to legitimize state control over

13559-524: The financial obligations of the husband to his wife and children should the marriage end. Compared with their counterparts in ancient Greece, Rome, and even more modern places around the world, ancient Egyptian women had a greater range of personal choices, legal rights, and opportunities for achievement. Women such as Hatshepsut and Cleopatra VII even became pharaohs, while others wielded power as Divine Wives of Amun . Despite these freedoms, ancient Egyptian women did not often take part in official roles in

13708-613: The first recorded peace treaty , around 1258   BC. Egypt's wealth, however, made it a tempting target for invasion, particularly by the Libyan Berbers to the west, and the Sea Peoples , a conjectured confederation of seafarers from the Aegean Sea . Initially, the military was able to repel these invasions, but Egypt eventually lost control of its remaining territories in southern Canaan , much of it falling to

13857-427: The floodwaters had receded, the growing season lasted from October to February. Farmers plowed and planted seeds in the fields, which were irrigated with ditches and canals. Egypt received little rainfall, so farmers relied on the Nile to water their crops. From March to May, farmers used sickles to harvest their crops, which were then threshed with a flail to separate the straw from the grain. Winnowing removed

14006-417: The following centuries international traders came to rely on coinage. Egyptian society was highly stratified, and social status was expressly displayed. Farmers made up the bulk of the population, but agricultural produce was owned directly by the state, temple, or noble family that owned the land. Farmers were also subject to a labor tax and were required to work on irrigation or construction projects in

14155-549: The fourth century, this play was re-enacted each year by worshippers who "beat their breasts and gashed their shoulders.... When they pretend that the mutilated remains of the god have been found and rejoined...they turn from mourning to rejoicing." ( De Errore Profanarum Religionum ). The passion of Osiris was reflected in his name 'Wenennefer" ("the one who continues to be perfect"), which also alludes to his post mortem power. B C D F G H I K M N P Q R S T U W Much of

14304-409: The god Atum created the world out of chaos, utilizing his own magic ( ḥkꜣ ). Because the earth was created with magic, Egyptians believed that the world was imbued with magic and so was every living thing upon it. When humans were created, that magic took the form of the soul, an eternal force which resided in and with every human. The concept of the soul and the parts which encompass it has varied from

14453-412: The government, who relied on a bureaucracy of officials to manage his affairs. In charge of the administration was his second in command, the vizier , who acted as the king's representative and coordinated land surveys, the treasury, building projects, the legal system, and the archives . At a regional level, the country was divided into as many as 42 administrative regions called nomes each governed by

14602-522: The inundation (the annual Nile flood), coinciding with Spring, and held at Abydos which was the traditional place where the body of Osiris drifted ashore after having been drowned in the Nile. The part of the myth recounting the chopping up of the body into 14 pieces by Set is not recounted in this particular stela. Although it is attested to be a part of the rituals by a version of the Papyrus Jumilhac, in which it took Isis 12 days to reassemble

14751-411: The king in payment for their services. Kings also made land grants to their mortuary cults and local temples , to ensure that these institutions had the resources to worship the king after his death. Scholars believe that five centuries of these practices slowly eroded the economic vitality of Egypt, and that the economy could no longer afford to support a large centralized administration. As the power of

14900-593: The kingdom's capital to the city of Itjtawy , located in Faiyum . From Itjtawy, the kings of the Twelfth Dynasty undertook a far-sighted land reclamation and irrigation scheme to increase agricultural output in the region. Moreover, the military reconquered territory in Nubia that was rich in quarries and gold mines, while laborers built a defensive structure in the Eastern Delta, called the " Walls of

15049-528: The kings diminished, regional governors called nomarchs began to challenge the supremacy of the office of king. This, coupled with severe droughts between 2200 and 2150   BC, is believed to have caused the country to enter the 140-year period of famine and strife known as the First Intermediate Period. After Egypt's central government collapsed at the end of the Old Kingdom, the administration could no longer support or stabilize

15198-507: The land, labor, and resources that were essential to the survival and growth of ancient Egyptian civilization. Major advances in architecture, art, and technology were made during the Old Kingdom , fueled by the increased agricultural productivity and resulting population growth, made possible by a well-developed central administration. Some of ancient Egypt's crowning achievements, the Giza pyramids and Great Sphinx , were constructed during

15347-497: The long line of kings from Menes to his own time into 30 dynasties, a system still used today. He began his official history with the king named "Meni" (or Menes in Greek), who was believed to have united the two kingdoms of Upper and Lower Egypt . The transition to a unified state happened more gradually than ancient Egyptian writers represented, and there is no contemporary record of Menes. Some scholars now believe, however, that

15496-451: The lord of the pillar . The djed , a type of pillar, was usually understood as the backbone of Osiris. The Nile supplying water, and Osiris (strongly connected to the vegetable regeneration) who died only to be resurrected, represented continuity and stability. As Banebdjed , Osiris was given epithets such as Lord of the Sky and Life of the ( sun god ) Ra . Ba does not mean "soul" in

15645-408: The many facets of the soul as follows: The Egyptians believed that the human personality had many facets—a concept that was probably developed early in the Old Kingdom. In life, the person was a complete entity, but if he had led a virtuous life, he could also have access to a multiplicity of forms that could be used in the next world. In some instances, these forms could be employed to help those whom

15794-464: The mid-first century AD, Christianity took root in Egypt and it was originally seen as another cult that could be accepted. However, it was an uncompromising religion that sought to win converts from the pagan Egyptian and Greco-Roman religions and threatened popular religious traditions. This led to the persecution of converts to Christianity, culminating in the great purges of Diocletian starting in 303, but eventually Christianity won out. In 391,

15943-528: The mythical Menes may have been the king Narmer , who is depicted wearing royal regalia on the ceremonial Narmer Palette, in a symbolic act of unification. In the Early Dynastic Period, which began about 3000   BC, the first of the Dynastic kings solidified control over lower Egypt by establishing a capital at Memphis , from which he could control the labor force and agriculture of

16092-447: The name in various ways, such as Asar, Ausar, Ausir, Wesir, Usir, or Usire. Several proposals have been made for the etymology and meaning of the original name; as Egyptologist Mark J. Smith notes, none are fully convincing. Most take wsjr as the accepted transliteration, following Adolf Erman : However, recently alternative transliterations have been proposed: Osiris is represented in his most developed form of iconography wearing

16241-405: The nobility were the priests, physicians, and engineers with specialized training in their field. It is unclear whether slavery as understood today existed in ancient Egypt; there is difference of opinions among authors. The ancient Egyptians viewed men and women, including people from all social classes, as essentially equal under the law, and even the lowliest peasant was entitled to petition

16390-682: The north, while a rival clan based in Thebes , the Intef family , took control of Upper Egypt in the south. As the Intefs grew in power and expanded their control northward, a clash between the two rival dynasties became inevitable. Around 2055   BC the northern Theban forces under Nebhepetre Mentuhotep II finally defeated the Herakleopolitan rulers, reuniting the Two Lands. They inaugurated

16539-676: The northern part of Egypt, ruling from the city of Tanis . The south was effectively controlled by the High Priests of Amun at Thebes , who recognized Smendes in name only. During this time, Libyans had been settling in the western delta, and chieftains of these settlers began increasing their autonomy. Libyan princes took control of the delta under Shoshenq I in 945   BC, founding the so-called Libyan or Bubastite dynasty that would rule for some 200 years. Shoshenq also gained control of southern Egypt by placing his family members in important priestly positions. Libyan control began to erode as

16688-462: The organization of collective construction and agricultural projects, trade with surrounding regions, and a military intended to assert Egyptian dominance. Motivating and organizing these activities was a bureaucracy of elite scribes , religious leaders, and administrators under the control of a pharaoh , who ensured the cooperation and unity of the Egyptian people in the context of an elaborate system of religious beliefs . The many achievements of

16837-435: The perfect king, Horus . Further, as attested by tomb-inscriptions, both women and men could syncretize (identify) with Osiris at their death, another set of evidence that underlines Osiris' androgynous nature. Plutarch and others have noted that the sacrifices to Osiris were "gloomy, solemn, and mournful..." (Isis and Osiris, 69) and that the great mystery festival, celebrated in two phases, began at Abydos commemorating

16986-608: The pieces, coinciding with the festival of ploughing. Some elements of the ceremony were held in the temple , while others involved public participation in a form of theatre. The Stela of Ikhernofret recounts the programme of events of the public elements over the five days of the Festival: Contrasting with the public "theatrical" ceremonies sourced from the Middle Kingdom Ikhernofret Stele, more esoteric ceremonies were performed inside

17135-557: The political unification of Upper and Lower Egypt under pharaoh or king Menes (often identified with Narmer ). The history of ancient Egypt unfolded as a series of stable kingdoms interspersed by periods of relative instability known as "Intermediate Periods". The various kingdoms fall into one of three categories: the Old Kingdom of the Early Bronze Age , the Middle Kingdom of the Middle Bronze Age , or

17284-528: The previously obscure sun deity Aten as the supreme deity , suppressed the worship of most other deities, and moved the capital to the new city of Akhetaten (modern-day Amarna ). He was devoted to his new religion and artistic style . After his death, the cult of the Aten was quickly abandoned and the traditional religious order restored. The subsequent pharaohs, Tutankhamun , Ay , and Horemheb , worked to erase all mention of Akhenaten's heresy, now known as

17433-621: The provinces became economically richer—which was demonstrated by larger and better burials among all social classes. In bursts of creativity, provincial artisans adopted and adapted cultural motifs formerly restricted to the royalty of the Old Kingdom, and scribes developed literary styles that expressed the optimism and originality of the period. Free from their loyalties to the king, local rulers began competing with each other for territorial control and political power . By 2160   BC, rulers in Herakleopolis controlled Lower Egypt in

17582-718: The role of the Egyptian temple priests and priestesses diminished. The temples themselves were sometimes converted to churches or abandoned to the desert. In the fourth century, as the Roman Empire divided, Egypt found itself in the Eastern Empire with its capital at Constantinople . In the waning years of the Empire, Egypt fell to the Sasanian Persian army in the Sasanian conquest of Egypt (618–628). It

17731-427: The sacred rituals and, below the painted images, the text of the liturgy for opening of the mouth can be found. This ritual which, presumably, would have been performed during interment, was meant to reanimate each section of the body: brain, head, limbs, etc. so that the spiritual body would be able to move in the afterlife. If all the rites, ceremonies, and preservation rituals for the ẖt were observed correctly, and

17880-604: The shepherd, the crook and the flail – once insignia of the Delta god Andjety , with whom Osiris was associated – support this theory. Osiris is a Latin transliteration of the Ancient Greek Ὄσιρις IPA: [ó.siː.ris] , which in turn is the Greek adaptation of the original name in the Egyptian language . In Egyptian hieroglyphs the name appears as wsjr , which some Egyptologists instead choose to transliterate as ꜣsjr or jsjrj . Since hieroglyphic writing lacks vowels , Egyptologists have vocalized

18029-402: The size of a herd reflected the prestige and importance of the estate or temple that owned them. In addition to cattle, the ancient Egyptians kept sheep, goats, and pigs. Poultry , such as ducks, geese, and pigeons, were captured in nets and bred on farms, where they were force-fed with dough to fatten them. The Nile provided a plentiful source of fish . Bees were also domesticated from at least

18178-427: The soul. Many scholars define sḫm ( sekhem ) as the living force or life-force of the soul which exists in the afterlife after all judgement has been passed. It is defined in a Book of the Dead as the "power" and as a place within which Horus and Osiris dwell in the underworld. The ꜣḫ "(magically) effective one" was a concept of the dead that varied over the long history of ancient Egyptian belief. Relative to

18327-604: The substance of Earth and Water." ( Isis and Osiris, 39). Yet his accounts were still obscure, for he also wrote, "I pass over the cutting of the wood" – opting not to describe it, since he considered it as a most sacred ritual ( Ibid. 21). In the Osirian temple at Denderah , an inscription (translated by Budge, Chapter XV, Osiris and the Egyptian Resurrection) describes in detail the making of wheat paste models of each dismembered piece of Osiris to be sent out to

18476-404: The sunken city of Thonis-Heracleion . These ceremonies were fertility rites which symbolised the resurrection of Osiris. Recent scholars emphasize "the androgynous character of [Osiris'] fertility" clear from surviving material. For instance, Osiris' fertility has to come both from being castrated/cut-into-pieces and the reassembly by female Isis, whose embrace of her reassembled Osiris produces

18625-494: The temples by priests. Plutarch mentions that (for much later period) two days after the beginning of the festival "the priests bring forth a sacred chest containing a small golden coffer, into which they pour some potable water...and a great shout arises from the company for joy that Osiris is found (or resurrected). Then they knead some fertile soil with the water...and fashion therefrom a crescent-shaped figure, which they cloth and adorn, this indicating that they regard these gods as

18774-510: The time I lived with thee as thy husband down to today, what have I done to thee that I need hide? When thou didst sicken of the illness which thou hadst, I caused a master-physician to be fetched ... I spent eight months without eating and drinking like a man. I wept exceedingly together with my household in front of my street-quarter. I gave linen clothes to wrap thee and left no benefit undone that had to be performed for thee. And now, behold, I have spent three years alone without entering into

18923-471: The tomb by day in shadow form, a thin, black, featureless silhouette of a person. The person in this form is, as we would put it, a mere shadow of his former existence, yet nonetheless still existing. Another form the shadow assumes in the BD , especially in connection with gods, is an ostrich-feather sun-shade, an object which would create a shadow. Little is known about the Egyptian interpretation of this portion of

19072-431: The tomb's offering chapel also in order to help living family members, e.g., by intervening in disputes, by making an appeal to other dead persons or deities with any authority to influence things on earth for the better, but also to inflict punishments. The separation of ꜣḫ and the unification of kꜣ and bꜣ were brought about after death by having the proper offerings made and knowing the proper, efficacious spell, but there

19221-487: The tombs, to serve the deceased in the afterlife. Before a person could be judged by the gods, they had to be "awakened" through a series of funerary rites designed to reanimate their mummified remains in the afterlife. The main ceremony, the opening of the mouth ceremony , is best depicted within Pharaoh Seti I 's tomb. All along the walls and statuary inside the tomb are reliefs and paintings of priests performing

19370-409: The town where each piece is discovered by Isis. At the temple of Mendes, figures of Osiris were made from wheat and paste placed in a trough on the day of the murder, then water was added for several days, until finally the mixture was kneaded into a mold of Osiris and taken to the temple to be buried (the sacred grain for these cakes were grown only in the temple fields). Molds were made from the wood of

19519-494: The two states became inevitable. Between 671 and 667   BC the Assyrians began the Assyrian conquest of Egypt . The reigns of both Taharqa and his successor, Tanutamun , were filled with constant conflict with the Assyrians, against whom Egypt enjoyed several victories. Ultimately, the Assyrians pushed the Kushites back into Nubia, occupied Memphis, and sacked the temples of Thebes . The Assyrians left control of Egypt to

19668-441: The underworld to seek revenge on those who had wronged the spirit in life. A well-known example was found in a tomb from the Middle Kingdom in which a man leaves a letter to his late wife who, it can be supposed, is haunting him: What wicked thing have I done to thee that I should have come to this evil pass? What have I done to thee? But what thou hast done to me is to have laid hands on me although I had nothing wicked to thee. From

19817-432: The usurper Set. Ptah-Seker (who resulted from the identification of the creator god Ptah with Seker ) thus gradually became identified with Osiris, the two becoming Ptah-Seker-Osiris . As the sun was thought to spend the night in the underworld, and was subsequently "reborn" every morning, Ptah-Seker-Osiris was identified as king of the underworld , god of the afterlife , life, death, and regeneration. Osiris also has

19966-400: The western sense, and has to do with power, reputation, force of character, especially in the case of a god. Since the ba was associated with power, and also happened to be a word for ram in Egyptian , Banebdjed was depicted as a ram, or as Ram-headed. A living, sacred ram was kept at Mendes and worshipped as the incarnation of the god, and upon death, the rams were mummified and buried in

20115-437: The word bꜣ, meant something similar to "impressiveness", "power", and "reputation", particularly of a deity. When a deity intervened in human affairs, it was said that the bꜣw of the deity were at work. The kꜣ ( ka ), 𓂓 , was the Egyptian concept of vital essence, which distinguishes the difference between a living and a dead person, with death occurring when the kꜣ left the body. The Egyptians believed that Khnum created

20264-414: The yearly growth and death of crops along the Nile valley. Diodorus Siculus gives another version of the myth in which Osiris was described as an ancient king who taught the Egyptians the arts of civilization, including agriculture, then travelled the world with his sister Isis, the satyrs , and the nine muses , before finally returning to Egypt. Osiris was then murdered by his evil brother Typhon , who

20413-490: Was a notable source of granite, greywacke , and gold. Flint was the first mineral collected and used to make tools, and flint handaxes are the earliest pieces of evidence of habitation in the Nile valley. Nodules of the mineral were carefully flaked to make blades and arrowheads of moderate hardness and durability even after copper was adopted for this purpose. Ancient Egyptians were among the first to use minerals such as sulfur as cosmetic substances. Osiris Osiris

20562-490: Was also the beginning of trade with Mesopotamia , which continued into the early dynastic period and beyond. Over a period of about 1,000 years, the Naqada culture developed from a few small farming communities into a powerful civilization whose leaders were in complete control of the people and resources of the Nile valley. Establishing a power center at Nekhen (in Greek, Hierakonpolis), and later at Abydos , Naqada III leaders expanded their control of Egypt northwards along

20711-422: Was an attendant risk of dying again. Egyptian funerary literature (such as the Coffin Texts and the Book of the Dead ) were intended to aid the deceased in "not dying a second time" and to aid in becoming an ꜣḫ. Ancient Egyptians believed that death occurs when a person's kꜣ leaves the body. Ceremonies conducted by priests after death, including the " opening of the mouth ( wp r ) ", aimed not only to restore

20860-560: Was at times considered the eldest son of the earth god Geb and the sky goddess Nut , as well as being brother and husband of Isis , and brother of Set , Nephthys , and Horus the Elder , with Horus the Younger being considered his posthumously begotten son. Through syncretism with Iah , he was also a god of the Moon . Osiris was the judge and lord of the dead and the underworld ,

21009-423: Was based on a common-sense view of right and wrong that emphasized reaching agreements and resolving conflicts rather than strictly adhering to a complicated set of statutes. Local councils of elders, known as Kenbet in the New Kingdom, were responsible for ruling in court cases involving small claims and minor disputes. More serious cases involving murder, major land transactions, and tomb robbery were referred to

21158-409: Was commonly depicted as a pharaoh with a complexion of either green (the color of rebirth) or black (alluding to the fertility of the Nile floodplain) in mummiform (wearing the trappings of mummification from chest downward). The Pyramid Texts describe early conceptions of an afterlife in terms of eternal travelling with the sun god amongst the stars. Amongst these mortuary texts, at the beginning of

21307-421: Was crucial in ancient Egypt because taxes were assessed based on the amount of land a person owned. Farming in Egypt was dependent on the cycle of the Nile River. The Egyptians recognized three seasons: Akhet (flooding), Peret (planting), and Shemu (harvesting). The flooding season lasted from June to September, depositing on the river's banks a layer of mineral-rich silt ideal for growing crops. After

21456-541: Was followed by the Naqada culture : the Naqada I ( Amratian ), the Naqada II ( Gerzeh ), and Naqada III ( Semainean ). These brought a number of technological improvements. As early as the Naqada I Period, predynastic Egyptians imported obsidian from Ethiopia , used to shape blades and other objects from flakes . Mutual trade with the Levant was established during Naqada II ( c.  3600–3350 BC ); this period

21605-651: Was identified with Set. Typhon divided the body into twenty-six pieces, which he distributed amongst his fellow conspirators in order to implicate them in the murder. Isis and Hercules (Horus) avenged the death of Osiris and slew Typhon. Isis recovered all the parts of Osiris' body, except the phallus , and secretly buried them. She made replicas of them and distributed them to several locations, which then became centres of Osiris worship. Annual ceremonies were performed in honor of Osiris in various places across Egypt. Evidences of which were discovered during underwater archaeological excavations of Franck Goddio and his team in

21754-577: Was never able to overthrow the Persians until the end of the century. Following its annexation by Persia, Egypt was joined with Cyprus and Phoenicia in the sixth satrapy of the Achaemenid Persian Empire . This first period of Persian rule over Egypt, also known as the Twenty-Seventh Dynasty , ended in 402   BC, when Egypt regained independence under a series of native dynasties. The last of these dynasties,

21903-470: Was termed s-ꜣḫ "make (a dead person) into an (living) ꜣḫ". In this sense, it developed into a sort of roaming ghost (when the tomb was not in order any more) during the Twentieth Dynasty . An ꜣḫ could do either harm or good to persons still living, depending on the circumstances, causing, e.g., nightmares, feelings of guilt, sickness, etc. It could be invoked by prayers or written letters left in

22052-476: Was then recaptured by the Byzantine emperor Heraclius (629–639), and was finally captured by Muslim Rashidun army in 639–641, marking the end of both Byzantine rule and of the period typically considered Ancient Egypt. The pharaoh was the absolute monarch of the country and, at least in theory, wielded complete control of the land and its resources. The king was the supreme military commander and head of

22201-420: Was used to weave sheets of linen and to make clothing. Papyrus growing on the banks of the Nile River was used to make paper. Vegetables and fruits were grown in garden plots, close to habitations and on higher ground, and had to be watered by hand. Vegetables included leeks, garlic, melons, squashes, pulses, lettuce, and other crops, in addition to grapes that were made into wine. The Egyptians believed that

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