I chose him frist as most modern works use him as a bibliographical
source. He is the guy who has allllllllllllllllll that
lonnnnnnnnnnnnnnng long translated kmt text that he published.
I am cutting and pasting from his book A History of Egypt
After an archaic age of primitive civilization, and a period
of small and local kingdoms, the various centres of civiliza-
tion on the Nile gradually coalesced into two kingdoms : one
comprising the valley down to the Delta; and the other
made up of the Delta itself. In the Delta, civilization rap-
idly advanced, and the calendar year of 365 days was intro-
duced in 4241 B. C., the earliest fixed date in the history of
the world as known to us. 1 A long development, as the
"Two Lands, ' : which left their imprint forever after, on
the civilization of later centuries, preceded a united Egypt,
which emerged upon our historic horizon at the consoli-
dation of the two kingdoms into one nation under Menes
about 3400 B. C. His accession marks the beginning of the
dynasties, and the preceding, earliest period may be conve-
niently designated as the predynastic age. In the excava-
tions of the last ten years, the predynastic civilization has
been gradually revealed in material documents exhibiting
the various stages in the slow evolution which at last pro-
duced the dynastic culture.
A uniform government of the whole country was the secret
of over four centuries of prosperity under the descendants
of Menes at Thinis, near Abydos, close to the great bend of
the Nile below Thebes, and probably also at or near later
Memphis. The remarkable development of these four cen-
turies in material civilization led to the splendour and power
of the first great epoch of Egyptian history, the Old King-
dom. The seat of government was at Memphis, where four
royal houses, the Third, Fourth, Fifth and Sixth Dynasties,
ruled in succession for five hundred years (2980-2475 B. C.).
Art and mechanics reached a level of unprecedented excel-
lence never later surpassed, while government and adminis-
tration had never before been so highly developed. Foreign
enterprise passed far beyond the limits of the kingdom ; the
mines of Sinai, already operated in the First Dynasty, were
vigourously exploited; trade in Egyptian bottoms reached
the coast of Phoenicia and the Islands of the North, while in
the south, the Pharaoh's fleets penetrated to the Somali coast
on the Red Sea ; and in Nubia his envoys were strong enough
to exercise a loose sovereignty over the lower country, and
by tireless expeditions to keep open the trade routes leading
to the Sudan. In the Sixth Dynasty (2625-2475 B. C.)
the local governors of the central administration, who had
already gained hereditary hold upon their offices in the
Fifth Dynasty (2750-2625 B. C.), were able to assert them-
selves as landed barons and princes, no longer mere func-
tionaries of the crown. They thus prepared the way for
an age of feudalism.
The growing power of the new landed nobility finally
caused the fall of the Pharaonic house, and after the close
of the Sixth Dynasty, about 2400 B. C., the supremacy of
Memphis waned. In the internal confusion which followed,
we can discern nothing of Manetho's ephemeral Seventh
and Eighth Dynasties at Memphis, which lasted not more
than thirty years ; but with the Ninth and Tenth Dynasties
the nobles of Heracleopolis gained the throne, which was
occupied by eighteen successive kings of the line. It is now
that Thebes first appears as the seat of a powerful family
of princes, by whom the Heracleopolitans and the power of
the North are gradually overcome till the South triumphs.
The exact lapse of time from the fall of the Old Kingdom
to the triumph of the South is at present indeterminable, but
it may be estimated roughly at two hundred and seventy five
to three hundred years, 1 with a margin of uncertainty of
possibly a century either way.
With the restoration of a united Egypt under the Theban
princes of the Eleventh Dynasty about 2160 B. C., the issue
of the tendencies already discernible at the close of the Old
Kingdom is clearly visible. Throughout the land the local
princes and barons are firmly seated in their domains, and
with these hereditary feudatories the Pharaoh must now
reckon. The system was not fully developed until the
advent of a second Theban family, the Twelfth Dynasty, the
founder of which, Amenemhet I, probably usurped the
throne. For over two hundred years (2000-1788 B. C.) this
powerful line of kings ruled a feudal state. This feudal
age is the classic period of Egyptian history. Literature
flourished, the orthography of the language was for the first
time regulated, poetry had already reached a highly artistic
structure, the earliest known literature of entertainment was
produced, sculpture and architecture were rich and prolific,
and the industrial arts surpassed all previous attainments.
The internal resources of the country were elaborately devel-
oped, especially by close attention to the Nile and the inun-
dation. Enormous hydraulic works reclaimed large tracts
of cultivable domain in the Fayum, in the vicinity of which
the kings of the Twelfth Dynasty, the Anienemhets and the
Sesostrises, lived. Abroad the exploitation of the mines in
Sinai was now carried on by the constant labour of permanent
colonies there, with temples, fortifications and reservoirs for
the water supply. A plundering campaign was carried into
Syria, trade and intercourse with its Semitic tribes were con-
stant, and an interchange of commodities with the early
Mycenaean centres of civilization in the northern Mediter-
ranean is evident. Traffic with Punt and the southern coasts
of the Bed Sea continued, while in Nubia the country between
the first and second cataracts, loosely controlled in the Sixth
Dynasty, was now conquered and held tributary by the
Pharaoh, so that the gold mines on the east of it were a con-
stant resource of his treasury.
The fall of the Twelfth Dynasty in 1788 B. C. was followed
by a second period of disorganization anc 1 obscurity, as the
feudatories struggled for the crown. Now and then an
aggressive and able ruler gained the ascendency for a brief
reign, and under one of these the subjugation of Upper
Nubia was carried forward to a point above the third cat-
aract; but his conquest perished with him. After possibly
a century of such internal conflict, the country was entered
and appropriated by a line of rulers from Asia, who had
Seemingly already gained a wide dominion there. These
foreign usurpers, now known as the Hyksos, after Manetho 's
designation of them, maintained themselves for perhaps a
century. Their residence was at Avaris in the eastern Delta,
and at least during the later part of their supremacy, the
Egyptian nobles of the South succeeded in gaining more or
less independence. Finally the head of a Theban family
boldly proclaimed himself king, and in the course of some
years these Theban princes succeeded in expelling the
Hyksos from the country, and driving them back from the
Asiatic frontier into Syria.
It was under the Hyksos and in the struggle with them
that the conservatism of millennia was broken up in the
Nile valley. The Egyptians learned aggressive war for the
first time, and introduced a well organized military system,
including chariotry, which the importation of the horse by
the Hyksos now enabled them to do. Egypt was trans-
formed into a military empire. In the struggle with the
Hyksos and with each other, the old feudal families perished,
or were absorbed among the partisans of the dominant
Theban family, from which the imperial line sprang. The
great Pharaohs of the Eighteenth Dynasty thus became
emperors, conquering and ruling from northern Syria and
the upper Euphrates, to the fourth cataract of the Nile on
the south. Amid unprecedented wealth and splendour, they
ruled their vast dominions, which they gradually welded
together into a compact empire, the first known in the early
world. Thebes grew into a great metropolis, the earliest mon-
umental city. Extensive trade relations with the East and the
Mediterranean world developed; Mycenaean products were
common in Egypt, and Egyptian influences are clearly dis-
cernible in Mycenaean art. For two hundred and thirty years
(1580-1350 B. C.) the Empire flourished, but was wrecked at
last by a combination of adverse influences both within and
without. A religious revolution by the young and gifted
king Ikhnaton, caused an internal convulsion such as the
country had never before experienced; while the empire in
the north gradually disintegrated under the aggressions of
the Hittites, who pushed in from Asia Minor. At the same
time in both the northern and southern Asiatic dominions
of the Pharaoh, an overflow of Beduin immigration, among
which were undoubtedly some of the tribes which later
coalesced with the Israelites, aggravated the danger, and
together with the persistent advance of the Hittites, finally
resulted in the complete dissolution of the Asiatic empire of
Egypt, down to the very frontier of the northeastern Delta.
Meanwhile the internal disorders had caused the fall of the
Eighteenth Dynasty, an event which terminated the First
Period of the Empire (1350 B. C.).
Harmhab, one of the able commanders under the fallen
dynasty, survived the crisis and finally seized the throne.
Under his vigourous rule the disorganized nation was grad-
ually restored to order, and his successors of the Nineteenth
Dynasty (1350-1205 B. C.) were able to begin the recovery
of the lost empire in Asia. But the Hittites were too
firmly entrenched in Syria to yield to the Egyptian onset.
The assaults of Seti I, and half a generation of persistent
campaigning under Ramses II, failed to push the northern
frontier of the Empire far beyond the limits of Palestine.
Here it remained and Syria was never permanently recov-
ered. Semitic influences now powerfully affected Egypt.
At this juncture the peoples of southern Europe emerge
for the first time upon the arena of oriental history and
together with Libyan hordes, threaten to overwhelm the
Delta from the west. They were nevertheless beaten back
by Merneptah. After another period of internal confusion
and usurpation, during which the Nineteenth Dynasty fell
(1205 B. C.), Ramses III, whose father, Setnakht founded
the Twentieth Dynasty (1200-1090 B. C.), was able to main-
tain the Empire at the same limits, against the invasions of
restless northern tribes, who crushed the Hittite power ; and
also against repeated immigrations of the Libyans. With
his death (1167 B. C.) the empire, with the exception of
Nubia which was still held, rapidly fell to pieces. Thus,
about the middle of the twelfth century B. C. the Second
Period of the imperial age closed with the total dissolution
of the Asiatic dominions.
Under a series of weak Ramessids, the country rapidly
declined and fell a prey first to the powerful high priests of
Amon, who were obliged almost immediately to yield to
stronger Eamessid rivals in the Delta at Tanis, forming
the Twenty First Dynasty (1090-945 B. C.). By the middle
of the tenth century B. C. the mercenaries, who had formed
the armies of the second imperial period, had founded pow-
erful families in the Delta cities, and among these the
Libyans were now supreme. Sheshonk I, a Libyan mercenary
commander, gained the throne as the founder of the Twenty
Second Dynasty in 945 B. C. and the country enjoyed
transient prosperity, while Sheshonk even attempted the
recovery of Palestine. But the family was unable to control
the turbulent mercenary commanders, now established as
dynasties in the larger Delta towns, and the country grad-
ually relapsed into a series of military principalities in
constant warfare with each other. Through the entire
Libyan period of the Twenty Second, Twenty Third and
Twenty Fourth Dynasties (945-712 B. C.) the unhappy
nation groaned under such misrule, constantly suffering
economic deterioration.
Nubia had now detached itself and a dynasty of kings,
probably of Theban origin had arisen at Napata, below the
fourth cataract. These Egyptian rulers of the new Nubian
kingdom now invaded Egypt, and although residing at
Napata, maintained their sovereignty in Egypt with varying
fortune for two generations (722-663 B. C.). But they were
unable to suppress and exterminate the local dynasts, who
ruled on, while acknowledging the suzerainty of the Nubian
overlord. It was in the midst of these conflicts between the
Nubian dynasty and the mercenary lords of Lower Egypt,
that the Assyrians finally entered the Delta, subdued the
country and placed it under tribute (670-662 B. C.). At this
juncture Psamtik I, an able dynast of Sais, in the western
Delta, finally succeeded in overthrowing his rivals, expelled
the Ninevite garrisons, and as the Nubians had already been
forced out of the country by the Assyrians, he was able to
found a powerful dynasty, and usher in the Restoration.
His accession fell in 663 B. C., and the entire period of
nearly five hundred years from the final dissolution of the
Empire about 1150 to the dawn of the Restoration in 663 B.
C., may be conveniently designated the Decadence. After
1100 B. C. the Decadence may be conveniently divided into
the Tanite-Amonite Period (1090-945 B. C.), the Libyan
Period (945-712 B. C.), the Ethiopian Period (722-663 B.
C.), and the Assyrian Period, which is contemporary with
the last years of the Ethiopian Period.
Of the Restoration, like all those epochs in which the seat
of power was in the Delta, where almost all monuments have
perished, we learn very little from native sources; and all
too little also from Herodotus and later Greek visitors in
the Nile valley. It was outwardly an age of power and
splendour, in which the native party endeavoured to restore
the old glories of the classic age before the Empire ; while the
kings depending upon Greek mercenaries, were modern poli-
ticians, employing the methods of the new Greek world,
mingling in the world-politics of their age, and showing little
sympathy with the archaizing tendency. But their combi-
nations failed to save Egypt from the ambition of Persia,
and its history under native dynasties, with unimportant
exceptions, was concluded with the conquest of the country
by Cambyses in 525 B. C.
Such, in mechanical review, were the purely external
events which marked the successive epochs of Egypt's his-
tory as an independent nation. With their dates, these
epochs may be summarized thus :
Introduction of the Calendar, 4241 B. C.
Predynastic Age, before 3400 B. C.
The Accession of Menes, 3400 B. C.
The first Two Dynasties, 3400-2980 B. C.
The Old Kingdom: Dynasties Three to Six, 2980-2475
B.C.
Eighteen Heracleopolitans, 2445-2160 B. C.
The Middle Kingdom: Dynasties Eleven and Twelve,
2160-1788 B. C.
Internal Conflicts of the Feudatories,
,, , 1788-1580 B. C.
The Hyksos,
The Empire : First Period, The Eighteenth Dynasty, 1580-
1350 B. C.
The Empire : Second Period, The Nineteenth and part of
the Twentieth Dynasty, 1350-1150 B. C.
Last Two Generations of Twentieth Dy-
nasty, about 1150 to 1090 B. C.
Tanite-Amonite Period, Twenty First Dy-
nasty, 1090-945 B. C.
The Decadence -j Libyan Period, Dynasties Twenty Two to
Twenty Four, 945-712 B. C.
Ethiopian Period, 722-663 B. C. (Twenty
Fifth Dynasty, 712-663 B. C.).
Assyrian Supremacy, 670-662 B. C.
The Restoration, Saite Period, Twenty Sixth Dynasty,
663-525 B. C.
Persian Conquest, 525 B. C.
Lession: History : Auxillary : Petrie on dynasty 1
In political position we see the records of the gradual
conquest of the kingdom before Mena ; then the establishment
of Memphis, and in the next reign that of
Buto ; by the middle of the dynasty the conquest of the
eastern border ; and at the end of the dynasty the
figure of a Libyan captive.
In internal organisation we see the gradual growth
of a bureaucracy ; the first office is that of chamberlain
under Narmer and Mena; next, the manager of the
inundation under Zer ; the ad mer under Zat ; the list
of nomes, and the keeper of the wine under Merneit ;
the royal seal-bearer and royal architect under Setui ;
the keeper of the royal vineyards under Azab; the
leader of the peers (tep ha), and the follower of the
king, under Mersekha ; the master of the ceremonies
(ar khet) under Qa. The reign of Zer is that of the
first fresh completion of the style, under Den is the
greatest magnificence, and under Mersekha political
corruption ; these are the Louis IXth, XlVth, and
XVIth of that age. The history of Egypt is no longer
a strange enigma to us, but stands now on the same
lines as that of the development of other monarchies.
taken from Breasted's egyptian history:
ON the now bare and windswept desert plateau, through
which the Nile has hollowed its channel, there once dwelt a
race of men. Plenteous rains, now no longer known there,
rendered it a ferti'e and productive region. The geological
changes which have> since made the country almost rainless,
denuded it of vegetation and soil, and made it for the most
part uninhabitable, took place many thousands of years
before the beginning of the Egyptian civilization, which we
are to study; but the prehistoric race, who before these
changes, peopled the plateau, left behind them as the sole
memorial of their existence vast numbers of rude flint imple-
ments, now lying scattered about upon the surface of the
present desert exposed by the denudation. These men of
the paleolithic age were the first inhabitants of whom we
have any knowledge in Egypt. They can not be connected
in any way with the historic or prehistoric civilization of
the Egyptians, and they fall exclusively within the province
of the geologist and anthropologist.
The forefathers of the people with whom we shall have
to deal were related to the Libyans or north Africans on the
one hand, and on the other to the peoples of eastern Africa,
now known as the Galla, Somali, Bega and other tribes. An
invasion of the Nile valley by Semitic nomads of Asia,
stamped its essential character unmistakably upon the lan-
guage of the African people there. The earliest strata of
the Egyptian language accessible to us, betray clearly this
composite origin. While still coloured by its African ante-
cedents, the language is in structure Semitic. It is more-
over a completed product as observable in our earliest pre-
served examples of it; but the fusion of the Libyans and
east Africans with the Nile valley peoples continued far into
historic times, and in the case of the Libyans may be traced
in ancient historical documents for three thousand years or
more. The Semitic immigration from Asia, examples of
which are also observable in the historic age, occurred in an
epoch that lies far below our remotest historical horizon.
We shall never be able to determine when, nor with cer-
tainty through what channels it took place, although the
most probable route is that along which we may observe a
similar influx from the deserts of Arabia in historic times,
the isthmus of Suez, by which the Mohammedan invasion
entered the country. While the Semitic language which
they brought with them, left its indelible impress upon the
The affinities observable in the language are
confirmed in case of the Libyans, by the surviving products
of archaic civilization in the Nile valley, such as some of the
early pottery, which closely resembles that still made by the
Libyan Kabyles. Again the representations of the early
Puntites, or Somali people, on the Egyptian monuments,
show striking resemblances to the Egyptians themselves.
The examination of the bodies exhumed from archaic burials
in the Nile valley, which we had hoped might bring further
evidence for the settlement of the problem, has, however,
produced such diversity of opinion among the physical
anthropologists, as to render it impossible for the historian
to obtain decisive results from their researches. The conclu-
sion once maintained by some historians, that the Egyptian
was of African negro origin, is now refuted ; and evidently
indicated that at most he may have been slightly tinctured
with negro blood, in addition to the other ethnic elements
already mentioned.
and the emblem of Neit, its chief goddess was tattooed by
the Libyans upon their arms. It may possibly therefore
have been an early residence of a Libyan king of the Delta,
Reliefs recently discovered in Sahure's pyramid-temple
at Abusir show four Libyan chiefs wearing on their brows
the royal uneus serpent of the Pharaohs, to whom it there-
fore descended from some such early Libyan king of the
Delta.
History of Egypt
Petrie
The condition of the country at the invasion of the
dynastic people was that of a decadent civilisation of
the prehistoric age ; the highest development of that
earlier time had taken place perhaps a thousand years
before, and several different races had pressed into the
country as the earlier inhabitants became enfeebled.
On the earliest sculptures there have been traced live
different races older than the dynastic people, (i) The
old' aquiline race of the Libyo-Amorite type, to which
belongs the bulk of the prehistoric remains.
(2) A
people with curly hair and plaited beards, most like a
type found later in the Hittite region. (3) A people
with pointed nose and long pigtail of hair, who probably
lived in the mountains by the Red Sea, as they wore
long warm robes, and bring stone vases as tribute.
(4) A people with short and tilted nose, who seem to
have occupied Middle Egypt. (5) A somewhat similar
people, with rather longer nose and a projecting beard,
who may belong to the Delta (see J.A.I, xxxi, pis.
xviii-xx). Upon all these came in (6) an entirely
different race, having a straight bridge to the nose,
and a very vigorous and capable type of face. This
race, starting from Upper Egypt, gradually dominated
the country, and sealed its conquest by the founding
of Memphis under Menes. Whence this dynastic race
came can only be guessed from their first being established
in Upper Egypt at Abydos ; this points to their
having entered the country from the Red Sea, across
the desert at Koptos. To trace their origin further
must be a matter of speculation, until research has
opened up the history of the Red Sea region.
The conquest of Middle Egypt by the allied people of
the upper country is figured in several forms on the
early sculptures upon slate palettes. One of the most
unmistakable is a fragment bearing seven figures of
fortified towns (Fig. i) which are being destroyed by
the animals which were the ensigns of the tribes, using
No comments:
Post a Comment