Ancient Egypt Culture

Chapter three is about early Africa and Egypt. Africa is divided into five sections by climatic and vegetative differences. The five sections were: Mediterranean, Sahel, Deserts, rainforest and savannah. Depending on the climate section in which they lived, the range of people in Africa urbanized special ways of being. The chapter also talked about the people that lived during this time. The first group was called the Khoisan. Initially they populated the eastern part of Africa. The next groups were called the Nilo-Saharan and Afro-Asiatic. At first regions by the Nile River valley were occupied. The final group was called Niger-Congo. They occupied the forests of western Saharan Africa over the wet phase.

Another way the Nile helped shape ancient Egypt was in document B,agriculture. The nile provided them with

Thesis: The Nile River undoubtedly shaped the Egyptian’s lives -- for the better. It affected every aspect of their lives, which included economics, government, culture, and agriculture.

The Nile: The Heartbeat of Ancient Egypt Egypt was one of the most developed civilizations of its time. How was this possible? The Nile was an enormous part of Egypt’s success. It held Egypt together from the time of the first unification in 2920 B.C.E. to the time of Egypt’s downfall in 30 B.C.E. The Nile’s sources were Lake Tana in the Ethiopian highlands and Lake Victoria in Kenya. When Egypt began to develop into an empire, the Nile was needed more than ever.

Over the last several thousand years, dozens of great civilizations have risen from nothing and fallen back into obscurity. Not all civilizations, however, leave a lasting mark on the world, especially not one so profound that influences the world as it exists today. One such civilization that has had a profound impact on daily modern lives was that of Ancient Egypt. Their systems of religion and technological innovation helped not only to leave a permanent impression on the world, but also served to mold both the civilizations that directly followed it as well as society today.

Chapters 1 & 2 focused on religions in the Americas and religions in Africa. One of those religions is the Ancient Egyptians. Discuss in detail the religion of the Ancient Egyptians. Pick one other religion discussed in these two chapters discuss it in detail.

The Nile was the source of everything in Ancient Egypt. Early people built their lives around a river, eventually developing into Ancient Egypt. The Nile did not shape Ancient Egypt literally, but culturally. The Nile grew Egypt’s crops, created its traditions, making jobs, giving life to and protecting all.

Because Ancient Egypt had an arid climate, and so does modern Egypt today, it was hard to grow crops. Ancient Egypt doesn't have a lot of fertile land. Agriculture depended on the irrigation from the Nile River. The Egyptian farmers grew crops which were mostly cotton, fruits, vegetables, rice, beans, wheat, and many more goods that still are grown in modern Egypt today. Ancient Egypt used animals such as sheep for wool. They also used animals like camels and donkeys to help in the fields.

Egypt was a complex civilization because it had all of the important civilization indicators. Egypt was a smart resourceful they had strong beliefs. Under the rule of the Pharaoh, they build an empire and even now a thousand year later it is still one of the greatest civilization in history.

Before someone can talk about a culture of any country, one must know what defines culture and what influences culture to change throughout history. Characteristics or “common ground’ within a group of individuals defines culture. Therefore, multiple things define a country’s culture, such as: beliefs, customs, ideas, behaviors, and traditions of a country that has passed through generations. Furthermore, culture is always evolving through the years due to change from people’s beliefs, technology advancement, and views of the future. When visiting Egypt for the first time, understanding its culture can improve one perception of the country. Many things define Egypt’s culture; however, the focus will be on its environment, political, and military views.

Ancient Egyptian society reflected many things like the pyramids that it built. They placed the pharaoh at the top, but he relied on a group of officials, priests, and nobles to administer his kingdom. All of these people were assisted with scribes, which is a writing system that was used, perhaps adapted from Mesopotamia or created independently. The eldest known hieroglyphic writings date back to the 3rd millennium B.C. though the script must have been created way before that. Egyptian scribes created two different writing systems: they created what is known today as hieroglyphs to use as a way to communicate and record things through engraving important political and religious texts on stones or writing them on papyrus that was made from reeds growing along the Nile, and a more simple system called hieratic which allowed scribes to be written more quickly and was used for documentation of daily life. Students would learn how to write hieratic first, and those who had families with high aspirations or who were well-off took the time to continue and learn hieroglyphics. It underwent no major change until 390 A.D. when Egypt was dominated by Rome, although over the centuries the number of signs dramatically increased from approximately seven hundred to around five thousand.

One of the key areas that the Nile River helped develop in ancient Egypt was agriculture. The Nile River allowed for the Ancient Egyptians the ability to grow their own crops. The predictable annual flooding allowed for ancient Egypt to farm. In the article Sustainable Agriculture in Ancient Egypt, the author J. Donald Hughes states that “The sustainability of Egyptian agriculture was

Ancient Egyptian culture is focalized around religion and century old tradition. Religion was integrated into every aspect of life, and played a role in nearly every decision a person would make. This is most evident in the customs surrounding burials, which the Egyptians took very seriously. The process following a death was a long and arduous one, with the mummification process itself traditionally spanning over a time of seventy days. Following this, the specificities of each burial would depend on one’s social standing and wealth. Though, generally the tomb would be beautifully decorated with hieroglyphs and paintings of the process of entrance into the Field of Reeds where one would live as they had in life, regardless of the status of the deceased. The body itself would often be decorated as well once the mummification process had been finished. The linen-wrapped body would be covered, either entirely or with pieces of cartonnage. This feature of the funerary practices of the Ancient Egyptians is the focal point of the following analysis; holding far more significance than it may appear to at first glance. Cartonnage held a significant amount of value to the deceased, bearing inscriptions of the spells and protective renderings of the many deities and symbols that would herald the ka, or soul, safely into the afterlife.

A river today could be classified as physical feature that is a stream of water that deposits into a sea, lake or other body of water. The Nile river, the longest river in the world that can be found in Egypt is just that- a stream of water that deposits into the Mediterranean Sea. However, what the Nile river means now is totally different than what it meant hundreds of years ago. For the ancient Egyptians, it was more than just a river- the Nile river was their light in the darkness, their god- it was their culture.

Have you ever wondered how Ancient Egypt helped shape the world today? Ancient Egyptians were a group of folks who were heavily influenced by religion. They feared dying anywhere but Egypt. The Egyptian Empire held a fascinating and very distinctive culture. Being one of the world 's most advanced cultures and creating tons of wealth is what separated them from everybody else. Between the outstanding artwork, teaching methods, and amazing pyramids is what helped their society advance altogether. No other civilization of the ancient world history had such a popular appeal and none as important as human society and its organization. Egyptians have made great steps in shaping the world we all know today, which have made studying their culture and society easier than some previous historical eras.