Rating: Not rated
Tags: History, Lang:en
Summary
Includes pictures
Africa may have given rise to the first human beings, and
Egypt probably gave rise to the first great civilizations,
which continue to fascinate modern societies across the globe
nearly 5,000 years later. From the Library and Lighthouse of
Alexandria to the Great Pyramid at Giza, the Ancient Egyptians
produced several wonders of the world, revolutionized
architecture and construction, created some of the
world’s first systems of mathematics and medicine, and
established language and art that spread across the known
world. With world-famous leaders like King Tut and Cleopatra,
it’s no wonder that today’s world has so many
Egyptologists. What makes the accomplishments of the Ancient Egyptians all
the more remarkable is that Egypt was historically a place of
great political turbulence. Its position made it both valuable
and vulnerable to tribes across the Mediterranean and the
Middle East, and Ancient Egypt had no shortage of its own
internecine warfare. Its most famous conquerors would come from
Europe, with Alexander the Great laying the groundwork for the
Hellenic Ptolemy line and the Romans extinguishing that line
after defeating Cleopatra and driving her to suicide. Perhaps the most intriguing aspect of ancient Egyptian
civilization was its inception from the ground up, as the
ancient Egyptians had no prior civilization which they could
use as a template. In fact, ancient Egypt itself became a
template for the civilizations that followed. The Greeks and
the Romans were so impressed with Egyptian culture that they
often attributed many attributes of their own culture (usually
erroneously) to the Egyptians. With that said, some minor
elements of ancient Egyptian culture were, indeed, passed on to
later civilizations. Egyptian statuary appears to have had an
initial influence on the Greek version, and the ancient
Egyptian language continued long after the pharaonic period in
the form of the Coptic language. Although the Egyptians may not have passed their
civilization directly on to later peoples, the key elements
that comprised Egyptian civilization - their religion, early
ideas of state, and art and architecture - can be seen in other
pre-modern civilizations. For instance, civilizations far
separated in time and space, such as China and Mesoamerica,
possessed key elements that were similar to those found in
ancient Egypt. Indeed, since Egyptian civilization represented
some fundamental human concepts, a study of pharaonic culture
can be useful when trying to understand many other pre-modern
cultures. Thus, anyone who reads about ancient Egyptian
civilization in this regard is best served by looking at its
earliest phases: the Early Dynastic Period and the Old Kingdom.
By examining the Old Kingdom and the period immediately
preceding it, attributes considered quintessentially
“Egyptian” in later periods will become
clearer. The end of the Ptolemies also happened to coincide with the
most famous period of Roman history. In the latter 1st century
BCE, men like Julius Caesar, Mark Antony, and Octavian
participated in two civil wars that would spell the end of the
Roman Republic and determine who would become the Roman
emperor. In the middle of it all was history’s most
famous woman, Cleopatra, who famously seduced both Caesar and
Antony and thereby positioned herself as one of the most
influential people in a world of powerful men. Cleopatra was a
legendary figure even to contemporary Romans and the ancient
world, and she was a controversial figure who was equally
reviled and praised through the years, depicted both as a
benevolent ruler and an evil seductress (occasionally at the
same time). The Dynasties of Ancient Egypt: The History and Legacy of
the Pharaohs from the Beginning of Egyptian Civilization to the
Rise of Rome chronicles the tumultuous history of Ancient
Egypt. **
Includes ancient accounts
*Includes online resources and a bibliography for further
reading