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Ancient Egyptian Civilization

Decent Essays

Ancient Egypt is a civilization because we can tell from our research that the cities had an organized government, complex religion, social classes, specialized workers, and methods of record keeping. We know that the cities had a well-organized government because it had different leaders and different jobs and responsibilities to uphold. Such as the Pharaoh, who would mostly rule the entire city, and would also run religion. However, he was not allowed or able to run the government on his own, so he would recruit a hierarchy of leaders to rule under him and take care of the different sections of the government. The next government official was a vizier, he would oversee the land and make sure everything was running smoothly, then he would report back to the Pharaoh. The most famous vizier was the first one, Imhotep. Imhotep architected the first pyramid and was later a god. Essentially, we believe that Egyptian law was based on a common sense of what is wrong and right, following the codes based on the concept of Ma’at. Ma’at represented truth, order, and balance in the world. This concept allowed everyone, with the exception of slaves, should be considered equal under the law and government, regardless of their wealth or social position in the city. However, when punishment was carried out, most likely the family of the offender would also be punished. For example, when a person was sentenced to banishment, their children were automatically thrown out with them. Also if a relative fleas from a military service, or defaulted on the labor demands of the state, the whole family could become imprisoned. Royal moms, wives, and daughters got their status from their relationship with the king in their area. Most Ancient Egyptian kings had many wives, and royal families were extremely big. The most prolific ( the dude with the most babies) was Rameses The Second, he had eight wives and more than a hundred kids on record. To keep the royal pure, kings and queens would marry within their family if possible, Such as a half sister or brother and even direct sisters and brothers! In some hopefully rare cases, the kings could marry their daughters. It’s not clear if these marriages true conjugal unions. The

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