A Very Brief History Of Egypt

[Ursus]

Archaic Period

The incredibly fertile plains of the Nile river encouraged settlement of Neolithic communities. From these communities arose (circa 5000 BCE) the villages and towns that would form the regional districts of Egyptian history. These districts were later called

[Tobias]

I'll say this Ursus; that is perhaps one of the best brief histories of Egypt i've read. I've attempted to do this myself: but i scrapped it because the versions i did were either too comprehensive or too brief or too lacking facts.

 

Looking at Alexandria has always fascinated me; especially during the Roman times. For a city to be rather indifferent to the needs of the country if it wasn't in the interests of the greeks or Macedonians and be the power behind the throne seems very interesting, as well as the city being a combined multicultural place (i.e. the combined gods of Macedon, Greece and Egypt).

 

I love ancient Egypt almost as much as Ancient Rome, and that history is a very good one.

 

A question slightly off track; is it true that one of Napoleon's cannon blew the nose of the Sphinx?

Edited December 27, 2005 by Tobias

[WotWotius]

What a great summary.

It really helped me seeing as I know very little about the eygptian world, but have always wanted to.

 

 

Are you going to do more summaries of other civilizations?

 

Oh and BTW Its seems high unlikly that Napoleon's men shot off the Spinx's nose on account of there being no cannonball holes on its body. So Boney's men must have been one hell of a shot if they did!

Napoleon Bonaparte certainly committed many crimes, but desecrating the Great Sphinx is not one of them.

[Valerius]

I'll say this Ursus; that is perhaps one of the best brief histories of Egypt i've read. I've attempted to do this myself: but i scrapped it because the versions i did were either too comprehensive or too brief or too lacking facts.

 

Looking at Alexandria has always fascinated me; especially during the Roman times. For a city to be rather indifferent to the needs of the country if it wasn't in the interests of the greeks or Macedonians and be the power behind the throne seems very interesting, as well as the city being a combined multicultural place (i.e. the combined gods of Macedon, Greece and Egypt).

 

I love ancient Egypt almost as much as Ancient Rome, and that history is a very good one.

 

A question slightly off track; is it true that one of Napoleon's cannon blew the nose of the Sphinx?

 

 

Hi,

 

I've heard several versions about how the nose of the sphinx was damaged including the one about Napoleon's soldiers doing it. From what I can gather this is not true. Illustrations from the time show that the nose was already missing and it seems unlikely that Napoleon, who had gone to a great deal of trouble to bring scholars along with him, would have permitted such an outrage. The best explanation I've seen suggests that it was chisled away by Christians who saw it as a pagan symbol and, therefore, fair game.

[Tobias]

I've heard several versions about how the nose of the sphinx was damaged including the one about Napoleon's soldiers doing it. From what I can gather this is not true. Illustrations from the time show that the nose was already missing and it seems unlikely that Napoleon, who had gone to a great deal of trouble to bring scholars along with him, would have permitted such an outrage. The best explanation I've seen suggests that it was chisled away by Christians who saw it as a pagan symbol and, therefore, fair game.

 

Ah, thanks for that clarification. One hears these things bandied about, you know

I suppose, though, if Napoleon did aim a cannon at the Sphinx, the nose would be hard miss

Interesting though, do you mean that the Christians saw the Sphinx as a pagan symbol and sought to disfigure it by ridding it of it's nose, or that the nose was a pagan symbol.....

Edited December 28, 2005 by Tobias

[Valerius]

Ah, thanks for that clarification. One hears these things bandied about, you know

I suppose, though, if Napoleon did aim a cannon at the Sphinx, the nose would be hard miss

Interesting though, do you mean that the Christians saw the Sphinx as a pagan symbol and sought to disfigure it by ridding it of it's nose, or that the nose was a pagan symbol.....

 

 

Apparently so. Egypt has many examples of vandalism carried out by Christians. Many of the statues you see smashed were broken deliberately during ther Christian era. They were particularly interested in defacing erect penises - a common motif in ancient Egypt. The Christians did the same to Roman artifacts. In Britain the Cerne Abbas Giant was also defaced - his private parts being covered up during the Victorian period. Even today such things are not allowed to be seen on television - murders, yes, but no sex please we're Christian!

[Pertinax]

anyone who ever made lead or plaster soldier figures in a cast will tell you the nose always falls off.

or has an air bubble on it.

 

seriously:a neat ,concise appraisal of Egypt :it must have taken a serious effort to try and edit down to such sparse but correct bones.

[Ursus]

Thanks for the praise, fellows, but I'm indebted to Rosalie Davis for her very user friendly introduction to Egyptian history. I was merely summarizing it in my own language.

 

As far as the nose of the Sphinx, I've heard the story before that French troops used it for target practice. I can't find a source that confirms it. I think perhaps over 2000 years of exposure to sands may be the more probable explanation.

[Viggen]

This exellent article by Ursus is now a content page!

 

Brief History of Egypt

 

thanks Ursus...

 

cheers

viggen

[Onasander]

The Biblical account of foreign slaves constructing pyramids is not supported by history or archaeology.

 

Where does this come from, I havn't looked into Egyptian pyramid building indepth since the second grade, so don't really know the current theories on it's engineering and construction.

 

Also, what was that talk about Monotheism being inflicted upon the Egyptians? The political battle between the priests in Karnak vs. Ahmenhotep doesn't resemble the introduction of Christianity into Egypt in the least, unless you got a couple of sources I havn't read (it's a possibility given I'm not an expert on Eqyptian history)

 

However, the general economic power of Alexandria, the second largest city in the Empire, was not ignored. The Romans retained the Ptolemaic administration but did introduce Roman legal reforms.

How did Ptolemaic administration differ from others of the ancient world?

 

Also, I remember reading about a greek Island within the delta BEFORE Alaxander's conquest that the Egyptians used to for trading and allowed the greeks to operate freely from there, but the Egyptians kept control of it and even banished people to it. Does anyone know it's name, and if it differs from the rest of Egypt in character or race even to today?

[Pertinax]

theories are: many goods and records found at excavation sites suggest free men working on construction rather than enslaved population ( indeed suggested no slave labour at all), also I suspect the monotheism is a reference to Akhenaton and worship of the solar disc as a sole overriding god. The construction of Akhenatons "stand alone " capital was short lived ,Tutankh-aten quickly reverted to Tutank-amen and perished swiftly himself.

the Island? Pantagathus is probably the best man for any Poni/Phoneician realted trading entrepot information

Edited January 10, 2006 by Pertinax

[Viggen]

Interessting read...

Who Built the Pyramids? ...

Not slaves. Archeaologist Mark Lehner, digging deeper, discovers a city of privileged workers.

[Rameses the Great]

This question always fascinated me. Did the Egyptians put up any resistance against the Persains? I'm surprised that when large hoards of people attack Assyria and conquer it, can never breach through Egypt. It just does not seem right that they did not put up any resistance. Surely before Alexander they would have put up some line of defense to confront them.

[Pantagathus]

This question always fascinated me. Did the Egyptians put up any resistance against the Persains? I'm surprised that when large hoards of people attack Assyria and conquer it, can never breach through Egypt. It just does not seem right that they did not put up any resistance. Surely before Alexander they would have put up some line of defense to confront them.

 

They were very weak from their conquest by the Assyrians & then the Neo-Babylonians. When those folks rolled through there Egypt was a shadow of its former self. These war machines were too new and efficient for the old Egyptian military establishment to be able to adequately respond.

Edited June 19, 2006 by Pantagathus

[longbow]

Interesting though, do you mean that the Christians saw the Sphinx as a pagan symbol and sought to disfigure it by ridding it of it's nose, or that the nose was a pagan symbol.

 

 

I thought the destruction of the nose and beard had been atributed to the Islamic cleric,Sa'im al-dahr in the 14th CE.He apparently had the Sphinx dissfigured because the local Egyptions were leaving offerings to it at harvest time.