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Egyptians
The Egyptians are one of the earliest groups that we know quite a bit about, partially because some of them built very large pyramids and of course they also recorded a great deal in hieroglyphics. While it is obvious that the group that did the writing was probably biased to record what they thought to be important, what they recorded as well as the artifacts that have been found by archeologists are what the experts have to project from. The time span of the pharaonic state is about 3 thousand years. There is little information about its creation until the building of the Great Pyramid of Giza around 2550 BC. After this there are a number of hieroglyphic texts as the pharaonic state grew. (Doug apparently got most of his information from books by Romer, Clayton, and Merymin.) The state was based around the royal residence, which was a large estate including, not only the large extended royal family, but also craftsmen’s studios. There were 4 large pyramids constructed in a period of about a hundred years. They consisted of more than seventeen million tons of limestone in approximately 240 blocks each one weighing about two and a half tons. Most of the population of about one million must have been involved. In the 300 years following these constructions, several smaller pyramids were built along the Nile. There is very little information as to the construction of the large pyramids, but it is certain there must have been an elaborate supply chain. The oldest known evidence of this chain is a hieroglyphics list of products at the warehouses at the port of Wadi el-Jarthef. These products came from the Nile delta destined for the Great Pyramid of Gaza. Hieroglypics were not in the first pyramids but started to be written in pyramids around 2380 BC. This marked a change in how hieroglyphics where written. Rather than just a list of items as earlier on, they started to contain a grammar and thus began to resemble a spoken language. At about 2200 BC, suddenly all pyramid/tomb building stopped and all mention of the family that had ruled Egypt för centuries ceased. It appears that the change that made hieroglyphics into a language was seen to reduce the need of pyramids/tombs to project the importance of a king or other important person. The importance of an individual could be elaborated in text, which would exist forever. Time was measured by the tropical year, divided into 12 months of thirty days. Then 5 days at the start of each year to keep the 360-day calendar year. Little is known of the farming population, but they probably lived along the banks of the Nile and
Captivating History. Merymin, (2014). Upptäck Forntida Egypten. Kina, Känguru. Romer, J. (2017). A History of Ancient Egypt. G.B., Penguin Random House. |