history of egypt essay

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• The Nile valley and delta
• The Eastern Desert
• The Western Desert
• Sinai Peninsula
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• Ethnic groups
• Rural settlement
• Urban settlement
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• Resources and power
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• The Arab conquest
• Early Arab rule
• Egypt under the caliphate
• The Ṭūlūnid dynasty (868–905)
• The Ikhshīdid dynasty (935–969)
• Islamization
• Arabization
• Growth of trade
• The end of the Fāṭimid dynasty
• Saladin’s policies
• Power struggles
• Growth of Mamluk armies
• Political life
• Contributions to Arabic culture
• Religious life
• Economic life
• The Ottoman conquest
• Ottoman administration
• Mamluk power under the Ottomans
• Religious affairs
• The French occupation and its consequences (1798–1805)
• Military expansion
• Administrative changes
• ʿAbbās I and Saʿīd, 1848-63
• Ismāʿīl, 1863–79
• Renewed European intervention, 1879–82
• ʿAbbās Ḥilmī II, 1892–1914
• World War I and independence
• The interwar period
• World War II and its aftermath
• The Nasser regime
• The Sadat regime
• The Mubarak regime
• Unrest in 2011: January 25 Revolution
• Transition to an elected government
• The June 30 Revolution
• Return to authoritarianism

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Egypt , country located in the northeastern corner of Africa . Egypt ’s heartland, the Nile River valley and delta, was the home of one of the principal civilizations of the ancient Middle East and, like Mesopotamia farther east, was the site of one of the world’s earliest urban and literate societies. Pharaonic Egypt thrived for some 3,000 years through a series of native dynasties that were interspersed with brief periods of foreign rule. After Alexander the Great conquered the region in 323 bce , urban Egypt became an integral part of the Hellenistic world . Under the Greek Ptolemaic dynasty , an advanced literate society thrived in the city of Alexandria , but what is now Egypt was conquered by the Romans in 30 bce . It remained part of the Roman Republic and Empire and then part of Rome’s successor state, the Byzantine Empire , until its conquest by Arab Muslim armies in 639–642 ce .

Until the Muslim conquest, great continuity had typified Egyptian rural life. Despite the incongruent ethnicity of successive ruling groups and the cosmopolitan nature of Egypt’s larger urban centres, the language and culture of the rural, agrarian masses—whose lives were largely measured by the annual rise and fall of the Nile River, with its annual inundation—had changed only marginally throughout the centuries. Following the conquests, both urban and rural culture began to adopt elements of Arab culture, and an Arabic vernacular eventually replaced the Egyptian language as the common means of spoken discourse. Moreover, since that time, Egypt’s history has been part of the broader Islamic world, and though Egyptians continued to be ruled by foreign elite—whether Arab, Kurdish, Circassian, or Turkish—the country’s cultural milieu remained predominantly Arab.

Egypt eventually became one of the intellectual and cultural centres of the Arab and Islamic world , a status that was fortified in the mid-13th century when Mongol armies sacked Baghdad and ended the Abbasid caliphate . The Mamluk sultans of Egypt, under whom the country thrived for several centuries, established a pseudo-caliphate of dubious legitimacy. But in 1517 the Ottoman Empire defeated the Mamluks and established control over Egypt that lasted until 1798, when Napoleon I led a French army in a short occupation of the country.

The French occupation, which ended in 1801, marked the first time a European power had conquered and occupied Egypt, and it set the stage for further European involvement. Egypt’s strategic location has always made it a hub for trade routes between Africa, Europe , and Asia , but this natural advantage was enhanced in 1869 by the opening of the Suez Canal , connecting the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea . The concern of the European powers (namely France and the United Kingdom , which were major shareholders in the canal) to safeguard the canal for strategic and commercial reasons became one of the most important factors influencing the subsequent history of Egypt. The United Kingdom occupied Egypt in 1882 and continued to exert a strong influence on the country until after World War II (1939–45).

In 1952 a military coup installed a revolutionary regime that promoted a combination of socialism and Pan-Arab nationalism . The new regime’s extreme political rhetoric and its nationalization of the Suez Canal Company prompted the Suez Crisis of 1956, which was only resolved by the intervention of the United States and the Soviet Union , whose presence in the Mediterranean region thereafter kept Egypt in the international spotlight.

During the Cold War , Egypt’s central role in the Arabic-speaking world increased its geopolitical importance as Arab nationalism and inter-Arab relations became powerful and emotional political forces in the Middle East and North Africa . Egypt led the Arab states in a series of wars against Israel but was the first of those states to make peace with the Jewish state, which it did in 1979.

Egypt’s authoritarian political system was long dominated by the president, the ruling party, and the security services. With opposition political activity tightly restricted, decades of popular frustration erupted into mass demonstrations in 2011. The uprising forced Pres. Hosni Mubarak to step down, leaving a council of military officers in control of the country. Power was transferred to an elected government in 2012, and a new constitution was adopted at the end of the year. This elected government, however, was toppled a year later when the military intervened to remove the newly elected president, Mohamed Morsi , a member of the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood , following a series of massive public demonstrations against his administration. (For a discussion of unrest and political change in Egypt in 2011, see Egypt Uprising of 2011 .)

The ancient Greek historian Herodotus called Egypt the “gift of the Nile.” Indeed, the country’s rich agricultural productivity—it is one of the region’s major food producers—has long supported a large rural population devoted to working the land. Present-day Egypt, however, is largely urban. The capital city, Cairo , is one of the world’s largest urban agglomerations , and manufacturing and trade have increasingly outstripped agriculture as the largest sectors of the national economy. Tourism has traditionally provided an enormous portion of foreign exchange, but that industry has been subject to fluctuations during times of political and civil unrest in the region.

The world of ancient Egypt

Few civilizations have enjoyed the longevity and global cultural reach of ancient Egypt. Their distinct visual expressions, writing system, and imposing monuments are instantly recognizable by viewers all around the world even today—put simply, their branding was on point. 

Pyramid of Khafre, Egypt (photo: MusikAnimal, CC BY-SA 3.0)

Despite portraying significant stability over a vast period of time, their civilization was not as static as it may appear at first glance, particularly if viewed through our modern eyes and cultural perspectives . Instead, the culture was dynamic even as it revolved around a stable core of imagery and concepts. The ancient Egyptians adjusted to new experiences, constantly adding to their complex beliefs about the divine and terrestrial realms, and how they interact. This flexibility, wrapped around a base of consistency, was part of the reason ancient Egypt survived for millennia and continues to fascinate.  

Read an introductory essay about ancient Egypt

Ancient Egypt: an introduction

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The Natural World of Egypt

View of the Nile River, Egypt (photo: Badics, CC BY-SA 3.0)

With the blazing sun above, flanked by vast seas of shifting sand, and fed by the life-giving Nile River (which hid frightening creatures beneath its dark waters), the natural world of Egypt was inherently beautiful but also potentially deadly. Outside the lush river valley, there was little protection from the ever-dominant sun, whose intensity was both feared and revered. The deserts were home not only to many dangerous creatures, but the sands themselves were also unpredictable and constantly shifting. The clear night skies dazzled with millions of stars, some of which seemed to move of their own accord while others rose and fell at trackable intervals. The Nile, with its annual floods, brought fertility and renewal to the land, but could also overflow and wreak havoc on the villages that lined its banks. Careful observers of their environment, the Egyptians perceived divine forces in these phenomena and many of their deities, such as the powerful sun god Ra, were connected with elements from the natural world.

Hieroglyphs, detail from the White Chapel, Karnak (photo: Dr. Amy Calvert)

The perception of divine powers existing in the natural world was particularly true in connection with the animals that inhabited the region. There was an array of creatures that the Egyptians would have observed or interacted with on a regular basis and they feature heavily in the culture. One of the most distinctive visual attributes of Egyptian imagery is the myriad deities that were portrayed in hybrid form, with a human body and animal head. In addition, a wide range of birds, fishes, mammals, reptiles, and other creatures appear prominently in the hieroglyphic script —there are dozens of different birds alone.

Nebamun fowling in the marshes, Tomb-chapel of Nebamun, c. 1350 B.C.E., 18th Dynasty, paint on plaster, 83 x 98 cm, Thebes (© Trustees of the British Museum)

The Nile was packed with numerous types of fish, which were recorded in great detail in fishing scenes that became a fixture in non-royal tombs. Most relief and painting throughout Egypt’s history was created for divine or mortuary settings and they were primarily intended to be functional. Many tomb scenes included the life-giving Nile and all it’s abundance with the goal of making that bounty available for the deceased in the afterlife. In addition to the array of fish, the river also teemed with far more dangerous animals, like crocodiles and hippopotami. Protective spells and magical gestures were used from early on to aid the Egyptians in avoiding those watery perils as they went about their daily lives.

Hunefer (center) flanked by two deities: the ibis-headed Thoth (left) and the falcon-headed Horus (right), from Hunefer’s Judgement in the presence of Osiris, Book of the Dead of Hunefer, 19th Dynasty, New Kingdom, c. 1275 B.C.E., papyrus, Thebes, Egypt (British Museum)

The desert, likewise, was full of potentially dangerous creatures. Lions, leopards, jackals, cobras, and scorpions were all revered for their attributes and feared for their ferocity. Soaring above were birds of prey, like falcons who were sharp-eyed hunters, and massive vultures that consumed decaying flesh and fed it to their young. Scarab beetles also seemingly brought new life from decay and the sacred ibis with their curved beaks found sustenance hidden in the muddy banks of the Nile. All of these creatures (and many others) became closely associated with different deities very early in Egyptian history. The Egyptians did not worship animals; instead, certain animals were revered because it was believed that they were related to particular gods and thus served as earthly manifestations of those deities.

Model scene of workers ploughing a field, Middle Kingdom, late Dynasty 11, 2010–1961 B.C.E., wood, 54 cm (MFA Boston)

Even domesticated animals, such as cows, bulls, rams, and geese, became associated with deities and were viewed as vitally important. Cattle were probably the first animals to be domesticated in Egypt and domesticated cattle, donkeys, and rams appear along with wild animals on Predynastic and Early Dynastic votive objects , showing massive herds that were controlled by early rulers, demonstrating their wealth and prestige. Pastoral scenes of animal husbandry appear in numerous private tomb chapels and wooden models, providing detailed evidence of their daily practices. Herdsmen appear caring for their animals in depictions that include milking, calving, protecting the cattle as they cross the river, feeding, herding, and many other aspects of their day-to-day care.

The Battlefield Palette , c. 3100 B.C.E., mudstone, found at el-Amarna, Egypt, 19.6 x 32.8 cm (© Trustees of the British Museum)

Already in the Predynastic period the king was linked with the virile wild bull, an association that continues throughout Egyptian history—one of the primary items of royal regalia was a bull tail, which appears on a huge number of pharaonic images. An early connection between the king and lions is also apparent. One scene on a Predynastic ceremonial palette ( The Battlefield Palette), shows the triumphant king as a massive lion devouring his defeated foes. First Dynasty kings appear to have kept lion cubs as pets.

The Great Sphinx (photo: superblinkymac, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

In addition, lions (among other animals) were associated with the burials of some early rulers. One of the most iconic images from ancient Egypt is the massive Great Sphinx at Giza, which was sculpted from the living rock of the plateau. This fused form, with the body of a lion and the head of the king, became a common visual expression of royal power. 

Historical Setting

While many of the religious and cultural characteristics of ancient Egypt were evident from very early on and continued all the way through the Roman era (contributing to overall cultural stability), sweeping conceptual developments and adoptions of external elements are also evident. Throughout ancient Egypt’s long history, periods of unified control were interspersed with moments of instability where parts of the country were controlled by different authorities. These repeated waves of political and cultural development create a decidedly complex history that  spans thousands of years.

Read essays to understand the historical setting and basic characteristics of each era

Ancient Egyptian chronology and historical framework: an introduction

Predynastic and Early Dynastic:  an introduction

Old Kingdom and First Intermediate Period: an introduction

Middle Kingdom and Second Intermediate Period: an introduction

New Kingdom and Third Intermediate Period: an introduction

Late Period and the Ptolemaic and Roman Periods: an introduction

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Social Organization

Conceptually, the Egyptian state was an absolute monarchy where the office of pharaoh itself was considered divine. The pharaoh (king) was viewed as the earthly manifestation of the god Horus, and was responsible as the supreme commander for making all decisions affecting the nation. In reality, the king stood at the head of a hierarchical administrative structure with layers of civil officials that oversaw various systems and were responsible to the king for their success. 

Seated Scribe​ , c. 2500 B.C.E., c. 4th Dynasty, Old Kingdom, painted limestone with rock crystal, magnesite, and copper/arsenic inlay for the eyes and wood for the nipples, found in Saqqara (photo: Steven Zucker, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

Most Egyptians followed the careers of their fathers and were taught by apprenticeship. Only the children of the higher classes, destined to become officials, were taught in schools and learned to read and write. Money in the modern sense did not exist in Egypt until the mid-fourth century B.C.E., so wages were usually paid in grain that could then be exchanged for copper or silver. Agriculture was the basis of the Egyptian economy and the foundation of the state, and produce was delivered to central storehouses to be administered and distributed.

Read essays about the various social strata in Egyptian society

Egyptian Social Organization: The Pharaoh

Egyptian Social Organization: Administrative officials, priests, ranks of the military, and the general population

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Art and Function

Large Kneeling Statue of Hatshepsut , c. 1479–1458 B.C.E., Dynasty 18, New Kingdom (Deir el-Bahri, Upper Egypt), granite, 261.5 x 80 x 137 cm (The Metropolitan Museum of Art)

Egyptian art is sometimes viewed as static and abstract when compared with the more naturalistic depictions of other cultures (ancient Greece for example). Much of Egyptian imagery—especially royal imagery—was governed by decorum (a sense of what was appropriate), and remained extraordinarily consistent throughout its long history. This is why their art may appear unchanging—and this was intentional. For the ancient Egyptians, consistency was a virtue and an expression of political stability, divine balance, and clear evidence of ma’at and the correctness of their culture. The Egyptians even had a tendency, especially after periods of disunion, towards archaism where the artistic style would revert to that of the earlier Old Kingdom which was perceived as a “golden age.”

Read essays about art and function

Ancient Egyptian art: an introduction its function and basic characteristics

Materials and techniques in ancient Egyptian art: an introduction

Consistency and balance

The canon of proportions grid is clearly visible in the lower, unfinished register of the Stela of Userwer, and the use of hieratic scale (where the most important figures are largest) is evident the second register that shows Userwer, his wife and his parents seated and at a larger scale than the figures offering before them. Detail of the stela of the sculptor Userwer, 12th dynasty, limestone, from Egypt, 52 x 48 cm wide (© Trustees of the British Museum)

Consistency in representation was closely related to a fundamental belief that depictions had an impact beyond the image itself. This belief led to an active resistance to changes in codified depictions. Even the way that figures were planned and laid out by the artists was codified. During the Old Kingdom, the Egyptians developed a grid system, referred to as the canon of proportions, for creating systematic figures with the same proportions. Grid lines aligned with the top of the head, top of the shoulder, waist, hips, knees, and bottom of the foot (among other body joints). 

King Menkaura (Mycerinus) and Queen, 2490–2472 B.C.E., Old Kingdom, Dynasty 4, greywacke, Menkaura Valley Temple, Giza, Egypt, 142.2 x 57.1 x 55.2 cm, 676.8 kg (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; photo: Steven Zucker, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

The grid aided the artist in ensuring that the proportions of their figures were correct, but those proportions shifted over time. For example, although 18 squares was the standard used for much of Egypt’s history, in the Amarna period 20 squares were used, resulting in figures with more elongated proportions. 

Thutmose, Model Bust of Queen Nefertiti , c. 1340 BCE, limestone and plaster, New Kingdom, 18th dynasty, Amarna Period (Egyptian Museum and Papyrus Collection/Neues Museum, Berlin)

Below are several examples of Egyptian art that demonstrate their primary stylistic characteristics. These include:

• the use of hierarchical scale
• the use of registers
• use of the canon of proportions (described above)
• a preference for balance
• the integration of perspectives.  

Read essays and watch videos about consistency and balance

Stela of the sculptor Userwer: The lower part is still covered with the grid used for ensuring that the proportions of the figures were correct.

King Menkaure (Mycerinus) and queen: They both look beyond the present and into timeless eternity, their otherworldly visage displaying no human emotion whatsoever.

Thutmose, Model Bust of Queen Nefertiti : This stunning bust exemplifies a change in style.

The Seated Scribe: This painted statue differs from the ideal statues of pharaohs.

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Creative details

Nude figure of the Seal Bearer Tjetji, 2321 B.C.E.–2184 B.C.E. (6th Dynasty), from Akhmim, Upper Egypt, wood, obsidian, limestone, and copper, 75 cm high (© Trustees of the British Museum)

Although much Egyptian art is formal, many surviving examples of highly expressive depictions full of creative details prove that the ancient Egyptian artists were fully capable of naturalistic representations. Note, for example, the sensitive modeling of the musculature and close attention paid to realistic physical detail evident in a wood statue of a high official (the Seal Bearer Tjetji) from a Late Old Kingdom tomb. These very unusual and enigmatic statuettes of nude high officials, which are depicted in a standard pose of striding forward with left leg advanced and holding a long staff, were often painted and had eyes of inlaid stone set in copper. 

Musicians and dancers (detail), A feast for Nebamun, Tomb-chapel of Nebamun, c. 1350 B.C.E., 18th Dynasty, paint on plaster, whole fragment: 88 x 119 cm, Thebes © Trustees of the British Museum

Nebamun’s tomb, with its spectacular paintings, includes several examples that demonstrate a careful observation of the natural world—especially notable in the energetic hunting cat and the sinuous dancing of the entertainers at the banquet. A marvelous wooden head of Queen Tiye presents a woman of strong personality with details that hint at her formidable character. 

Portrait Head of Queen Tiye with a Crown of Two Feathers , c. 1355 B.C.E., Amarna Period, Dynasty 18, New Kingdom, Egypt, yew wood, lapis lazuli, silver, gold, faience, 22.5 cm high (Egyptian Museum and Papyrus Collection at the Neues Museum, Berlin)

Read essays about creative details

Wooden tomb statue of Tjeti: T he sculptor of this example has carefully modeled the muscles on the torso and legs, and paid close attention to the detail of the face.

Paintings from the Tomb-chapel of Nebamun: He is shown hunting birds from a small boat in the marshes of the Nile with his wife Hatshepsut and their young daughter.

Portrait Head of Queen Tiye: She was a powerful figure, but her royal life was complicated, as demonstrated through this changing statue.

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Metalworking Traditions

Scene showing the manufacture of valuable items, such as jewelry. Wall-painting, probably from the tomb of Sobekhotep, Thebes, c. 1400 B.C.E., New Kingdom, reign of Thutmose IV, painted stucco, 60 x 58.5 (© Trustees of the British Museum)

Egyptian artisans were highly skilled metalworkers from early times; although few metal sculptures have survived, those that are preserved show an incredible level of technical achievement. As with other types of craft, like woodworking, preserved images of artisans in their workshops found in private tombs provide information about the processes of production For instance, we can see a group of jewelers at work in a painting from the tomb of Sebekhotep.

Pectoral and Necklace of Sithathoryunet with the Name of Senwosret II, Middle Kingdom, Dynasty 12, reign of Senwosret II, c. 1887–1878 B.C.E., Egypt, Fayum Entrance Area, el-Lahun (Illahun, Kahun; Ptolemais Hormos), Tomb of Sithathoryunet (BSA Tomb 8), EES 1914, Gold, carnelian, feldspar, garnet, turquoise, lapis lazuli

The most beautifully crafted pieces of jewelry display elegant designs, incredible intricacy, and astonishingly precise stone-cutting and inlay, reaching a level that modern jewelers would be hard-pressed to achieve. The jewelry of a Middle Kingdom princess, found in her tomb at el-Lahun in the Fayum region is one spectacular example.  

Statuette of Thutmose IV, 1400–1390 B.C.E., 19th Dynasty, ancient Egypt, bronze, silver, calcite, 14.7 x 6.4 cm (© Trustees of the British Museum)

The metal statues that survive demonstrate a high level of skill in both sheet working/metal forming and casting in copper and bronze. This marvelous hollow-cast bronze statuette of a kneeling Thutmosis IV, presenting an offering of wine, provides a peek into the abilities of Egypt’s craftsmen. Note that the arms were created separately and joined to the body on tenons and the eyes were originally inlaid.

Read essays and watch a video about metalworking traditions

Paintings from the tomb of Sebekhotep: Images show jewelers at work.

Pectoral and necklace of Sithathoryunet: Fashioned delicately in gold, carnelian, feldspar, garnet, turquoise, and lapis lazuli.

Bronze statuette of Thutmose IV:  Very few metal statues survive that date from before the Late Period, though the Egyptians did have the technology to make large copper statues as early as the Old Kingdom.

This brief glimpse at the world of ancient Egypt is just a springboard for gaining an understanding of this compelling and complex culture. 

A final note

The wonder of the internet is the astonishing access to information; one of the big problems with the internet is that anyone, regardless of knowledge or training, can post whatever they like and that information is presented at the same level as content put out by the experienced and trained. Information about ancient Egypt should always come from a well-vetted source, as there is a great deal of misinformation. The culture is astonishing enough on its own. Egypt remains highly influential across different areas of culture and vast swaths of time and space—Egyptian glass beads have been excavated in Viking tombs and revivals of Egyptian style still happen on an almost cyclical basis, even millenia later. We are surrounded by Egyptian imagery and concepts even if we don’t realize it; those emojis we use with such abandon are decidedly hieroglyphic. The more we know about what came before, the better we can grasp everything that has happened since. Only by understanding the past can we really envision the possibilities of the present and plan for the future.   

Key questions to guide your reading

How did the annual flooding of the nile help form the egyptian view of the world, how might the regular behavior of certain animals—like falcons, vultures, snakes, and scarab beetles— suggest "heavenly wisdom" to the careful observer, how would you want to be depicted for eternity what identifying symbols would you want to include, terms to know and use.

canon of proportions

hierarchical scale

Need teaching images?  Here is a  Google Slideshow with many of the primary images in this chapter

Read a chapter about Ancient Egyptian religious life and afterlife

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Home — Essay Samples — History — Ancient Egypt — History of Egypt

History of Egypt

• Categories: Ancient Egypt

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Words: 671 |

Published: Jan 31, 2024

Words: 671 | Page: 1 | 4 min read

Table of contents

Ancient egypt, the ptolemaic period, roman and byzantine rule, arab and islamic egypt, ottoman and european domination, modern egypt.

• Shaw, Ian. The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt. Oxford University Press, 2003.
• Manniche, Lise. An Ancient Egyptian Herbal. University of Texas Press, 1989.
• Mokhtar, G. The Cultural Treasures of the Egyptian Museum. The American University in Cairo Press, 2006.
• Bard, Kathryn A. An Introduction to the Archaeology of Ancient Egypt. Wiley-Blackwell, 2015.

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The Oxford History Of Ancient Egypt

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The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt is the only up-to-date, single-volume history of ancient Egypt available in English. The accessible essays and attractive illustrations portray the emergence and development of the distinctive civilization of the ancient Egyptians, from their prehistoric origins to their incorporation into the Roman Empire, covering the period from c. 700,000 BC to AD 311. The authors - all experts working at the cutting edge of their particular fields - outline the principal sequence of political events, including detailed examinations of the three so-called 'intermediate periods' which were previously regarded as 'dark ages' and are only now beginning to be better understood. Against the backdrop of the rise and fall of ruling dynasties, this Oxford History also examines cultural and social patterns, including stylistic developments in art and literature. The pace of change in such aspects of Egyptian culture as monumental architecture, funerary beliefs, and ethnicity was not necessarily tied to the rate of political change. Each of the authors of this history has therefore set out to elucidate, in both words and pictures, the underlying patterns of social and political change and to describe the changing face of ancient Egypt, from the biographical details of individuals to the social and economic factors that shaped the lives of the population as a whole.

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Ancient Egypt

Egypt was a vast kingdom of the ancient world. It was unified around 3100 B.C.E. and lasted as a leading economic and cultural influence throughout North Africa and parts of the Levant until it was conquered by the Macedonians in 332 B.C.E.

Anthropology, Archaeology, Social Studies, Ancient Civilizations, World History

History of Egypt

The history of Egypt has fascinated many scientists, archeologists, and anthropologists. The country has a rich history dating back to the unification of 3100 B.C. to when the Kingdom was conquered by Alex the Great in 332 BC. The Kingdom was a manifestation of the civilization of the middle east and the Mediterranean. Numerous pieces of evidence manifest the rich history and why it fascinates many. In fact, the richness of the history of the Kingdom in aspects of religions, way of life, and beliefs has led to the emergence of a new field of anthropology: Egyptology. The study assesses the ancient monuments such as hidden cities, pyramids, artifacts, and architectural richness of the Kingdom. The mystery of some historical aspects of Egyptian society, which lack substantive scientific explanations, will continue to fascinate scholars.

Scholars have attempted to fully understand Egyptian culture with minimal success. There is evidence that they fail scientific tests. For example, the pyramids of Egypt are unexplainable in how they were constructed and lasted for a long time. The construction techniques used to make the pyramids are a mystery to modern engineers (4, 8). Smith asserts that modern engineers cannot succeed in building the pyramids “because we do not have the same dedication as the ancient Egyptians” (4, 8). The Pyramids of Giza are an example of how archaeologists portray pyramids as mysterious structures whose contents and structures are now fully understood. A 2017 internal imaging of a pyramid showed that it has a network of rooms and caves that make it difficult to decipher the contents. I believe this is a major reason to say that Egyptian society was more advanced for their period and reflected the epitome of human civilization.

The discovered lost golden city contains preserved remains of ancient buildings. The city is over 3000 years old. I believe that such a city should have disappeared due to the acts of nature. The discovery unearthed pottery, jewelry, mud bricks, and amulets. A significant finding was that mud bricks had king Amenhotep III seals showing the period it was constructed. The fact that the city appears well preserved, with some structures intact, reveals the prowess of Egyptian in construction. Scholars have also been unable to explain the existence of a temple in the city with features that did not exist anywhere else in the Hellenistic world (3, 431). From my perspective, the discovery could point to the emergence of another religion in the city which did not subscribe to traditional Egyptian beliefs and deities. It may be one of the reasons the city was abandoned. Nevertheless, the structures in the lost city, alongside the pyramids, show that Egyptians had intensive knowledge of construction.

The Egyptian societies valued their kings in life and in death. It is worth noting that the pyramids were constructed for the leaders, which acted as their forever home. Puigdevall and Cañagueral note that pyramids were “the most important architectural creation of the ancient empire, and a fundamental part of an architectural collection and dedicated to worship of the pharaohs” (2, 16). The pyramids were also equipped with precious things that the leaders valued the most and would be useful in the afterlife. For example, the leaders were sent away with golden furniture, tableware, chariots, and golden horses. The essence of the pyramids in Egyptian culture was that people believed strongly in the afterlife. I think that the people expected that their Kings and pharaohs would also be their leaders in the afterlife and thus gave them a comfortable sendoff. However, the correct thinking and rationale for these pyramids remain a mystery to date.

Another element of Egyptian culture that fascinates modern scholars is how Egyptians preserved dead bodies. Modern archaeologists have unearthed bodies buried in sand and others in pyramids. The preserved bodies are thought to be those of leaders and notable persons. The fascinating issue about the bodies is that they have not decomposed after more than 4500 years (3, 413). An example is the recent discovery of the Tutankhamun sarcophagus. The scientists determined that the corpse was more than 3,300 years old and intact. It is one of the few tombs that are undisturbed. Scholars can equate traditional Egyptian preservation, also known as mummification, to modern-day embalming of dead bodies. The preservation techniques used in Egypt show that the society was advanced scientifically.

The Egyptian way of life revolved around kings, gods, and art. The available evidence points to the fact that all aspects of the culture have specific artistic elements which communicate vital information. For example, the temples had artistic elements that indicated commitments to their gods, praising the gods and appeasing them. The temples were also laden with art, “with each one of them dedicated to some particular deity, whose name and images appear in the decorations” (1, 371). Some mysteries regarding the arts are how they were sculpted, the tools, and the time period. It was used to appease the gods and deities to allow the kings to enter the afterlife and also appease the gods for rain, harvest, and natural calamities.

In summary, Egyptian culture is fascinating to scholars due to the inability to construct scholarly explanations regarding its basic components. Art, architecture, religion, gods, and kings were a significant part of the Egyptian way of life. Scholars have been unable to explain how Egyptians were advanced architecturally, as evidenced by the sunken cities and Egyptian pyramids. The architectural marvels show that society was advanced and civilization was high. History also points to substantive literacy and scientific development. This is evidenced by preservation techniques used in mummification. Scholars have sought to understand how knowledge was acquired, retained, and transferred across generations for centuries. Such knowledge formed the backbone of Egyptian society.

Works Cited

Georges Chipiez, Charles Perrot.  A history of art in ancient Egypt: Volume 1 . BoD – Books on Demand, 2018.

Puigdevall, Federico, and Albert Cañagueral.  The Secrets of Ancient Egypt: Egyptian Pyramids and the Secrets of the Pharaohs . Cavendish Square Publishing, LLC, 2017.

Shaw, Ian, and Elizabeth Bloxam.  The Oxford Handbook of Egyptology . Oxford UP, USA, 2020.

Smith, Craig B.  How the Great Pyramid Was Built . Smithsonian Institution, 2018.

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Why the Nile River Was So Important to Ancient Egypt

By: Patrick J. Kiger

Updated: August 6, 2024 | Original: July 12, 2021

When the Greek historian Herodotus wrote that the ancient Egyptians' land was "given them by the river," he was referring to the Nile , whose waters were essential to the rise of one of the world’s earliest great civilizations.

The Nile, which flows northward for 4,160 miles from east-central Africa to the Mediterranean, provided ancient Egypt with fertile soil and water for irrigation, as well as a means of transporting materials for building projects. Its vital waters enabled cities to sprout in the midst of a desert.

In order to benefit from the Nile, people who lived along its banks had to figure out how to cope with the river’s annual flooding. They also developed new skills and technology, from agriculture to boat and ship building. The Nile even played a role in the construction of the pyramids, the massive marvels that are among the most recognizable reminders of their civilization. Beyond practical matters, the vast river had a profound influence upon the ancient Egyptians’ view of themselves and their world, and shaped their religion and culture.

The Nile was "a critical lifeline that literally brought life to the desert," as Lisa Saladino Haney, assistant curator of Egypt at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh, writes on the museum's website. "Without the Nile, there would be no Egypt," writes Egyptologist in his 2012 book, The Nile .

The Nile Was a Source of Rich Farmland

The Nile's modern name comes from the Nelios , the Greek word for river valley. But the ancient Egyptians called it Ar or Aur , meaning "black," a reference to the rich, dark sediment that the Nile's waters carried from the Horn of Africa northward and deposited in Egypt as the river flooded its banks each year in late summer. That surge of water and nutrients turned the Nile Valley into productive farmland, and made it possible for Egyptian civilization to develop in the midst of a desert.

The Nile Valley's thick layer of silt "transformed what might have been a geological curiosity, a version of the Grand Canyon, into a densely populated agricultural country," explains Barry J. Kemp in Ancient Egypt: Anatomy of a Civilization .

The Nile was such a focal point to the ancient Egyptians that their calendar began the year with the first month of the flooding. The Egyptian religion even venerated a deity of flooding and fertility, Hapy , who was depicted as a chubby man with blue or green skin.

According to the UN’s Food And Agriculture Organization , ancient Egyptian farmers were one of the first groups to practice agriculture on a large scale, growing food crops such as wheat and barley, as well as industrial crops such as flax for making clothing. To get the most out of the Nile's waters, ancient Egyptian farmers developed a system called basin irrigation . They constructed networks of earthen banks to form basins, and dug channels to direct floodwater water into the basins, where it would sit for a month until the soil was saturated and ready for planting.

"It is obviously challenging if the land on which you have built your home and grow your food gets flooded by a river every August and September, as the Nile used to do before the Aswan High Dam," explains Arthur Goldschmidt, Jr., a retired Penn State University professor of Middle East history and the author of A Brief History of Egypt . "Creating dikes, channels and basins to move and store some of the Nile waters required ingenuity and probably much trial-and-error experimentation for the ancient Egyptians."

To predict whether they faced dangerous floods or low waters that could result in a poor harvest, the ancient Egyptians built nilometers —stone columns with markings that would indicate the water level.

The River Served as a Vital Transportation Route

In addition to nurturing agriculture, the Nile provided ancient Egyptians with a vital transportation route. As a result, they became skilled boat and ship builders who created both large wooden craft with sails and oars , capable of traveling longer distances, and smaller skiffs made of papyrus reeds attached to wooden frames . 

Artwork from the Old Kingdom , which existed from 2686 to 2181 B.C., depicts boats transporting cattle, vegetables, fish, bread and wood. Boats were so important to the Egyptians that they buried deceased kings and dignitaries with boats that sometimes were so well-constructed that they could have been used for actual travel on the Nile.

The Nile Valley as Part of Identity

The Nile influenced how Egyptians thought of the land in which they lived, according to Haney. They divided their world into Kemet , the "black land" of the Nile Valley, where there was enough water and food for cities to thrive. In contrast, the hot, dry desert areas were Deshret, the "red land." They linked the Nile Valley and oases in the desert areas with life and abundance, while the deserts were associated with death and chaos.

The Nile also played an important role in the creation of the monumental tombs such as the Great Pyramid of Giza . An ancient papyrus diary of an official involved in the construction of the Great Pyramid describes how workers transported massive blocks of limestone on wooden boats along the Nile, and then routed the blocks through a canal system to the site where the pyramid was being constructed. 

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Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History Essays

Kings and queens of egypt.

Head of Ahmose I

Seated Statue of King Menkaure

Stela of King Intef II Wahankh

Head of Tutankhamun

Statue of Nebhepetre Mentuhotep II in the Jubilee Garment

Head of King Amenemhat III

Statuette of a Late Middle Kingdom Queen

Relief of Thutmose III

Sphinx of Hatshepsut

Arm Panel From a Ceremonial Chair of Thutmose IV

Amenhotep III in the Blue Crown

Face from a Composite Statue, probably Queen Tiye

Fragment of a Queen's Face

Trial piece of Akhenaten, on the reverse a horse's head

Relief of Haremhab

Relief from the North Wall of a Chapel of Ramesses I

Head of King Seti II Wearing the Blue Crown

Ramesses III and Prince Amenherkhepeshef before Hathor

Nina de Garis Davies

Kneeling statuette of King Amasis

Head Attributed to Arsinoe II

Susan Allen Department of Egyptian Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art

October 2004

The ancient Egyptians regarded their king and the office of kingship as the apex and organizing principle of their society. The king’s preeminent task was to preserve the right order of society, also called maat . This included ensuring peace and political stability, performing all necessary religious rituals, seeing to the economic needs of his people, providing justice, and protecting the country from external and internal danger. It has sometimes been said that the ancient Egyptians believed their kings to be divine, but it was the power of kingship, which the king embodied, rather than the individual himself that was divine. The living king was associated with the god Horus and the dead king with the god Osiris, but the ancient Egyptians were well aware that the king was mortal. One of their most ancient rituals was the Sed festival, or jubilee, at which the mortal king reaffirmed his fitness to continue as king.

The descent of kingship was usually from father to son, but the role of mothers and queens was equally important. Ideally, the successor was the son of the king by the chief royal wife, who, as a close blood relative of the king, provided a double legitimacy to the succession. Throughout Egyptian history, the role of the queen as mother of the king, and therefore as a symbol of the powers of creation and rebirth, gave royal women considerable status and influence. Occasionally for political or dynastic reasons, queens assumed the kingship but, except for Hatshepsut, their reigns were usually brief.

While historical records of succession are few, it seems that the inherent desire for the proper order of the world mitigated against usurpation of power and messy dynastic affairs such as were seen in the Ptolemaic Period. The most important task of a king on his succession was to see to the burial of his predecessor and therefore to ensure order in both this world and the afterlife. The office of kingship was also flexible enough to allow for an occasional coregency, in which two rulers, an elder king and his junior partner, governed jointly.

The ancient Egyptians also referred to the king as “pharaoh,” a term still in use today. It is the Hebrew pronunciation of the ancient Egyptian term per-aa , meaning “Big House.” Originally it referred to the royal estate, but came to be used for the king himself, just as we might say “The Palace” or “The White House.” Each king upon his accession was known by five names, which formed his titulary. These were his Horus name, the Two Ladies name, the Gold Falcon name, his King of Upper and Lower Egypt name (throne name), and the Son of Re name, which was his personal name given at birth. The throne name and personal name are enclosed in a cartouche, or name ring, in inscriptions. Though the Nile valley and the Delta had been unified by the first rulers of Dynasty 1, this dual kingship of Upper and Lower Egypt was preserved in many aspects of kingship, including the two crowns of Egypt: the white crown of Upper Egypt and the red crown of Lower Egypt. Kings are depicted wearing either crown, as well as the merged double crown.

Allen, Susan. “Kings and Queens of Egypt.” In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History . New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/kqae/hd_kqae.htm (October 2004)

Further Reading

Payne, Richard K. “Standing Fast: Fudō Myōō in Japanese Literature.” Pacific World: Journal of the Institute of Buddhist Studies (Fall 1987), pp. 53–58.

Dodson, Aidan, and Dyan Hilton. The Complete Royal Families of Ancient Egypt . London: Thames & Hudson, 2004.

Redford, Donald B., ed. The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Egypt . New York: Oxford University Press, 2001.

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Ancient Egyptian Writing

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Ancient Egyptian Writing is known as hieroglyphics ('sacred carvings') and developed at some point prior to the Early Dynastic Period (c. 3150 -2613 BCE). According to some scholars, the concept of the written word was first developed in Mesopotamia and came to Egypt through trade . While there certainly was cross-cultural exchange between the two regions, Egyptian hieroglyphics are completely Egyptian in origin; there is no evidence of early writings which describe non-Egyptian concepts, places, or objects, and early Egyptian pictographs have no correlation to early Mesopotamian signs. The designation 'hieroglyphics' is a Greek word; the Egyptians referred to their writing as medu-netjer , 'the god 's words,' as they believed writing had been given to them by the great god Thoth .

According to one ancient Egyptian tale, in the beginning of time Thoth created himself and, in the form of an ibis, lay the cosmic egg which held all of creation. In another story, Thoth emerged from the lips of the sun god Ra at the dawn of time, and in another, he was born of the contendings of the gods Horus and Set, representing the forces of order and chaos. In all of these, however, the constant is that Thoth was born with an immense breadth of knowledge and, among the most important, the knowledge of the power of words.

Thoth gave human beings this knowledge freely, but it was a responsibility he expected them to take seriously. Words could hurt, heal, elevate, destroy, condemn, and even raise someone from death to life. Egyptologist Rosalie David comments on this:

The main purpose of writing was not decorative, and it was not originally intended for literary or commercial use. Its most important function was to provide a means by which certain concepts or events could be brought into existence. The Egyptians believed that if something were committed to writing it could be repeatedly "made to happen" by means of magic. (199)

This concept is not as strange as it might first appear. Any writer knows that one often has no idea what one wants to say until the end of the first draft, and every avid reader understands the "magic" of discovering unknown worlds between the covers of a book and making that magic happen again each time the book is opened. David's reference to "concepts or events" coming into existence through writing is a common understanding among writers. American author William Faulkner stated in his Nobel Prize address that he wrote "to create out of the materials of the human spirit something which did not exist before" (1). This same motivation has been expressed in different words by many writers over the centuries, but before any of them even existed the ancient Egyptians understood this concept well. The great gift of Thoth was the ability not only to express one's self but to literally be able to change the world through the power of words. Before that could happen, however, before the gift could be put to its full use, it had to be understood.

The Creation of Writing

However much Thoth had to do with giving humans their system of writing (and, to the Egyptians, 'humanity' equaled 'Egyptian'), the ancient Egyptians had to work out for themselves what this gift was and how to use it. Sometime in the latter part of the Predynastic Period in Egypt (c. 6000 - c. 3150 BCE), they began to use symbols to represent simple concepts. Egyptologist Miriam Lichtheim writes how this early script "was limited to the briefest notations designed to identify a person or a place, an event or a possession" (3). Most likely the earliest purpose writing served was in trade, to convey information about goods, prices, purchases, between one point and another. The first actual extant evidence of Egyptian writing, however, comes from tombs in the form of Offering Lists in the Early Dynastic Period.

Death was not the end of life for the ancient Egyptians; it was only a transition from one state to another. The dead lived on in the afterlife and relied upon the living to remember them and present them with offerings of food and drink. An Offering List was an inventory of the gifts due to a particular person and inscribed on the wall of their tomb . Someone who had performed great deeds, held a high position of authority, or led troops to victory in battle were due greater offerings than another who had done relatively little with their lives. Along with the list was a brief epitaph stating who the person was, what they had done, and why they were due such offerings. These lists and epitaphs might sometimes be quite brief but most of the time were not and became longer as this practice continued. Lichtheim explains:

The Offering List grew to enormous length till the day on which an inventive mind realized that a short Prayer for Offerings would be an effective substitute for the unwieldy list. Once the prayer, which may already have existed in spoken form, was put into writing, it became the basic element around which tomb-texts and representations were organized. Similarly, the ever lengthening lists of an official's ranks and titles were infused with life when the imagination began to flesh them out with narration, and the Autobiography was born. (3)

The autobiography and the prayer became the first forms of Egyptian literature and were created using the hieroglyphic script.

Development & Use of Hieroglyphic Script

Hieroglyphics developed out of the early pictographs. People used symbols, pictures to represent concepts such as a person or event. The problem with a pictogram, however, is that the information it contains is quite limited. One may draw a picture of a woman and a temple and a sheep but has no way of relaying their connection. Is the woman coming from or going to the temple? Is the sheep an offering she is leading to the priests or a gift to her from them? Is the woman even going to the temple at all or is she merely walking a sheep in the vicinity? Are the woman and sheep even related at all? The early pictographic writing lacked any ability to answer these questions.

The Sumerians of ancient Mesopotamia had already come upon this problem in writing and created an advanced script c. 3200 BCE in the city of Uruk . The theory that Egyptian script developed from Mesopotamian writing is most sharply challenged by this development, in fact, because if the Egyptians had learned the art of writing from the Sumerians, they would have bypassed the stage of pictograms and begun with the Sumerian creation of phonograms - symbols which represent sound. The Sumerians learned to expand their written language through symbols directly representing that language so that if they wished to relay some specific information regarding a woman, a temple, and a sheep, they could write, "The woman took the sheep as an offering to the temple," and the message was clear.

The Egyptians developed this same system but added logograms (symbols representing words) and ideograms to their script. An ideogram is a 'sense sign' that conveys a certain message clearly through a recognizable symbol. The best example of an ideogram is probably a minus sign: one recognizes that it means subtraction. The emoji is a modern example familiar to anyone acquainted with texting; placing the image of a laughing face at the end of one's sentence lets a reader know that one is joking or finds the subject funny. The phonogram, logogram, and ideogram made up the basis for hieroglyphic script. Rosalie David explains:

There are three types of phonograms in hieroglypics: uniliteral or alphabetic signs, where one hieroglyph (picture) represents a single consonant or sound value; biliteral signs, where one hieroglyph represents two consonants; and triliteral signs where one hieroglyph represents three consonants. There are twenty-four hieroglyphic signs in the Egyptian alphabet and these are the phonograms most commonly used. But since there was never a purely alphabetic system, these signs were placed alongside other phonograms (biliterals and triliterals) and ideograms. Ideograms were often placed at the end of a word (spelled out in phonograms) to clarify the meaning of that word and, when used in this way, we refer to them as "determinatives." This assists in two ways: the addition of a determinative helps to clarify the meaning of a particular word, since some words look similar or identical to each other when spelled out and written down only in the phonograms; and beacuse determinatives stand at the end of the word they can indicate where one word ends and another begins. (193)

A modern-day example of how hieroglyphics were written would be a text message in which an emoji of an angry face is placed after an image of a school. Without having to use any words one could convey the concept of "I hate school" or "I am angry about school." If one wanted to make one's problem clearer, one could place an image of a teacher or fellow student before the angry-face-ideogram or a series of pictures telling a story of a problem one had with a teacher. Determinatives were important in the script, especially because hieroglyphics could be written left-to-right or right-to-left or down-to-up or up-to-down. Inscriptions over temple doors, palace gates, and tombs go in whatever direction was best served for that message. The beauty of the final work was the only consideration in which direction the script was to be read. Egyptologist Karl-Theodor Zauzich notes:

The placement of hieroglyphs in relation to one another was governed by aesthetic rules. The Egyptians always tried to group signs in balanced rectangles. For example, the word for "health" was written with the three consonants s-n-b. These would not be written [in a linear fashion] by an Egyptian because the group would look ugly, it would be considered "incorrect". The "correct" writing would be the grouping of the signs into a rectangle...The labor of construction was lightened somewhat by the fact that individual hieroglyphs could be enlarged or shrunk as the grouping required and that some signs could be placed either horizontally or vertically. Scribes would even reverse the order of signs if it seemed that a more balanced rectangle could be obtained by writing them in the wrong order. (4)

The script could easily be read by recognizing the direction the phonograms were facing. Images in any inscription always face the beginning of the line of text; if the text is to be read left-to-right then the faces of the people, birds, and animals will be looking to the left. These sentences were easy enough to read for those who knew the Egyptian language but not for others. Zauzich notes how "nowhere among all the hieroglyphs is there a single sign that represents the sound of a vowel" (6). Vowels were placed in a sentence by the reader who understood the spoken language. Zauzich writes:

This is less complicated than it sounds. For example, any of us can read an advertisement that consists almost entirely of consonants: 3rd flr apt in hse, 4 lg rms, exclnt loc nr cntr, prkg, w-b-frpl, hdwd flrs, skylts, ldry, $600 incl ht (6).

In this same way, the ancient Egyptians would be able to read hieroglyphic script by recognizing what 'letters' were missing in a sentence and applying them.

Other Scripts

Hieroglyphics were comprised of an 'alphabet' of 24 basic consonants which would convey meaning but over 800 different symbols to express that meaning precisely which all had to be memorized and used correctly. Zauzich answers the question which may immediately come to mind:

It may well be asked why the Egyptians developed a complicated writing system that used several hundred signs when they could have used their alphabet of some thirty signs and made their language much easier to read and write. This puzzling fact probably has a historical explanation: the one-consonant signs were not "discovered" until after the other signs were in use. Since by that time the entire writing system was established, it could not be discarded, for specific religious reasons. Hieroglyphics were regarded as a precious gift of Thoth, the god of wisdom. To stop using many of these signs and to change the entire system of writing would have been considered both a sacrilege and an immense loss, not to mention the fact that such a change would make all the older texts meaningless at a single blow. (11)

Even so, hieroglyphics were obviously quite labor-intensive for a scribe and so another faster script was developed shortly after known as hieratic ('sacred writing'). Hieratic script used characters which were simplified versions of hieroglyphic symbols. Hieratic appeared in the Early Dynastic Period in Egypt after hieroglyphic writing was already firmly developed.

Hieroglyphics continued to be used throughout Egypt's history in all forms of writing but came primarily to be the script of monuments and temples. Hieroglyphics, grouped in their beautifully formed rectangles, leant themselves to the grandeur of monumental inscriptions. Hieratic came to be used first in religious texts but then in other areas such as business administration, magical texts, personal and business letters, and legal documents such as wills and court records. Hieratic was written on papyrus or ostraca and practiced on stone and wood. It developed into a cursive script around 800 BCE (known as 'abnormal hieratic') and then was replaced c. 700 BCE by demotic script.

Loss & Discovery

It has been argued that the meaning of hieroglyphics was lost throughout the later periods of Egyptian history as people forgot how to read and write the symbols. Actually, hieroglyphics were still in use as late as the Ptolemaic Dynasty and only fell out of favor with the rise of the new religion of Christianity during the early Roman Period. There were lapses throughout the country's history in the use of hieroglyphics, but the art was not lost until the world the script represented changed. As Coptic script continued to be used in the new paradigm of Egyptian culture ; hieroglyphic writing faded into memory. By the time of the Arab Invasion of the 7th century CE, no one living in Egypt knew what the hieroglyphic inscriptions meant.

When the European nations began exploring the country in the 17th century CE, they had no more of an idea that the hieroglyphics were a written language than the Muslims had. In the 17th century CE, hieroglyphics were firmly claimed to be magical symbols and this understanding was primarily encouraged through the work of the German scholar and polymath Athanasius Kircher (1620-1680 CE). Kircher followed the lead of ancient Greek writers who had also failed to understand the meaning of hieroglyphics and believed they were symbols. Taking their interpretation as fact instead of conjecture, Kircher insisted on an interpretation where each symbol represented a concept, much in the way the modern peace sign would be understood. His attempts to decipher Egyptian writing failed, therefore, because he was operating from a wrong model.

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Many other scholars would attempt to decipher the meaning of the ancient Egyptian symbols without success between Kircher's work and the 19th century CE but had no basis for understanding what they were working with. Even when it seemed as though the symbols suggested a certain pattern such as one would find in a writing system, there was no way to recognize what those patterns translated to. In 1798 CE, however, when Napoleon 's army invaded Egypt, the Rosetta Stone was discovered by one of his lieutenants, who recognized its potential importance and had it sent to Napoleon's institute for study in Cairo. The Rosetta Stone is a proclamation in Greek, hieroglyphics, and demotic from the reign of Ptolemy V (204-181 BCE). All three texts relay the same information in keeping with the Ptolemaic ideal of a multi-cultural society; whether one read Greek, hieroglyphic, or demotic, one would be able to understand the message on the stone.

Work on deciphering hieroglyphics with the help of the stone was delayed until the English defeated the French in the Napoleonic Wars and the stone was brought from Cairo to England . Once there, scholars set about trying to understand the ancient writing system but were still working from the earlier understanding Kircher had so convincingly advanced. The English polymath and scholar Thomas Young (1773-1829 CE) came to believe that the symbols represented words and that hieroglyphics were closely related to demotic and later Coptic scripts. His work was built upon by his sometimes-colleague-sometimes-rival, the philologist and scholar Jean-Francois Champollion (1790-1832 CE).

Champollion's name is forever linked with the Rosetta Stone and the decipherment of hieroglyphics because of the famous publication of his work in 1824 CE which conclusively showed that Egyptian hieroglyphics were a writing system composed of phonograms, logograms, and ideograms. Contention between Young and Champollion over who made the more significant discoveries and who deserves the greater credit is reflected in the same ongoing debate in the present day by scholars. It seems quite clear, however, that Young's work lay the foundation on which Champollion was able to build but it was Champollion's breakthrough which finally deciphered the ancient writing system and opened up Egyptian culture and history for the world.

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Bibliography

• Lichtheim, M. Ancient Egyptian Literature: The Old and Middle Kingdoms, Volume I. University of California Press, 2006.
• Shaw, I. The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt. Oxford University Press, 2016.
• Simpson, W. K. The Literature of Ancient Egypt: An Anthology. Yale University Press, 1663.
• William Faulkner's Nobel Prize Address , accessed 24 Jan 2017.
• Zauzich, K. Hieroglyphs without Mystery: An Introduction to Ancient Egyptian Writing. University of Texas Press, 1992.

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Mark, J. J. (2016, November 16). Ancient Egyptian Writing . World History Encyclopedia . Retrieved from https://www.worldhistory.org/Egyptian_Writing/

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Mark, Joshua J.. " Ancient Egyptian Writing ." World History Encyclopedia . Last modified November 16, 2016. https://www.worldhistory.org/Egyptian_Writing/.

Mark, Joshua J.. " Ancient Egyptian Writing ." World History Encyclopedia . World History Encyclopedia, 16 Nov 2016. Web. 13 Sep 2024.

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