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EGYPT

Step pyramid of Djoser at Saqqâra (Third Dynasty, ca. 2700 b.c.e.). The surrounding courts and chapels featured limestone columns and carved walls and ceilings (F. J. Yurco)

Terraced mortuary temple of Hatshepsut at Deir el-Bahri, West Thebes. Nearly 200 statues and reliefs glorified her divine birth and royal exploits (F. J. Yurco)

One of the earliest and greatest civilizations of the ancient world, situated along the Nile River.

Naqada I-II

The Nile Valley has many traces of Paleolithic to Mesolithic peoples, but the earliest precursors of pharaonic culture arose from a movement of Neolithic peoples from the Sahara regions into the Nile Valley where they blended with indigenous hunter-gatherers and developed the earliest settlements. The Saharans had domesticated cattle and had acquired sheep and goats, as well as emmer wheat and barley cultivation, these probably coming from the Levant initially. In Egypt, these peoples developed two distinct cultures, the Upper Egyptian valley cultures, of which the earliest was Badarian, and in the Delta, another series of cultures, distinct from the valley.

From the Badarian later evolved the Naqada I-II cultures. Naqada I developed larger villages, and began to quarry flint from the Nile limestone cliffs. The people lived in circular houses, and formed the earliest known religious cults. They developed several types of fine pottery, including one style of decorated ware which depicts Nile-type fauna and flora and sometimes shows hunting. This culture also spread farther up and down the Nile Valley.

Naqada II (ca. 3600-3300 b.c.), which evolved directly out of Naqada I, marks the burgeoning of the valley culture and its gradually growing prosperity. The first power centers emerged in this era in areas in which the Nile Valley gave access to routes into the eastern desert, where the Naqadans found good quality stone and, more importantly, deposits of gold and copper. Two major centers developed, Nubt (“The Golden”), also called Naqada, in Middle Egypt near the Wadi µammâmât, and Nekhen, farther south near the Wadi Mia. Both these centers planted cities on the eastern bank, near the wadi entrances, Koptos for Nubt and Elkab for Nekhen. Access to the desert resources greatly enriched both towns and led to the rise of an elite class. These communities also started long-distance trade, which led to the rise of other centers, Buto and Maʿadi in the north and Ta-seti and Qustul in the south. These new centers gained prosperity by controlling the long-distance trade the Naqadans desired: cedar timber and oil from Lebanon, lapis lazuli from farther afield, and in the south, ivory, ebony, panther skins, baboons, and other products. The centers involved in the trade also prospered. Maʿadi conducted the overland trade, including copper from Sinai and Canaan, while Buto maintained the sea trade with Lebanon and the ʿAmuq Valley. From the ʿAmuq region, the Egyptians came into contact with Mesopotamians via the Buto settlement.

Proto-dynastic

The Naqada II period evolved into Naqada III, or the Proto-dynastic era. In this period the elites developed into paramount chiefs. These leaders were also responsible for the beginnings of Egyptian hieroglyphic writing, which originated in the decorated buff ware of the Naqada II period. That ware frequently represented ships, reflecting an already lively Nile Valley trade. Many of the ships showed standards behind their cabins topped with signs that can be read as nome names or divine names; much of the ware was produced in the area between Abydos and Luxor, and signs linked with the nomes of this area are common on the standards. The emergent elites of Naqada III came into conflict with their neighbors, and the chiefs commemorated their victories with signs derived from the decorated ware. This gave rise to a pattern known as the pharaonic cycle, depicting a boat procession towards a palace complex. Such scenes were carved on enlarged graywacke palettes or maceheads, rock wall faces, decorated flint knife handles, or even painted on linen. As the Naqada III period progressed, such scenes proliferated and are known from Nubt, Nekhen, and Qustul in Lower Nubia. Another development during this period was the serekh, a decorated palace entrance such as that excavated at Nekhen. Houses since the Naqada II period were rectangular and built of mudbrick; some wattle and daub construction continued, but mainly in temporary field shelters. A type of reed fenced structure known as zeriba was further developed. Religious shrines became more prominent, now marked front and back with flags on poles. Some shrines boasted colossal images of the deity, such as Koptos or Min. Other shrines remained preformal, and might be a grove of trees or a niche between two boulders, as at Elephantine. Decorated palettes and maces also depict shrines, with a defined structure: a court, with standard topped by the divine emblem, then a shrine building, sometimes with a colossal depiction of the deity.

Toward the end of the Naqada III period, the power centers engaged in a series of conflicts. Nekhen apparently emerged triumphant in a conflict with Ta-seti. Its ruler, known as Scorpion, then conquered Nubt. In triumph he assumed Nubt’s Red Crown. (The crown of Nekhen and Qustul was the White Crown.) Abydos, a new royal cemetery in the Nubt nome, now became the burial place of the victorious Nekhen rulers. Scorpion’s successors campaigned northward and by Nar-mer’s time took control of the Delta. Buto was transformed into a national shrine of Lower Egypt, as the Delta came to be known. Nekhen in Upper Egypt became a national shrine, while Elkab became Upper Egypt’s tutelary center. The two deities of Buto and Elkab, a cobra and a vulture, respectively, now became national deities. On one decorated macehead, Nar-mer is depicted enthroned as king of Lower Egypt. This macehead evidently contains an enumeration of the Delta’s resources, cattle, small livestock, and men (120 thousand). Extrapolating from this by adding females and children, ca. 500 to 600 thousand persons can be estimated for the Delta, and most scholars postulate a slightly larger populace for the dominant Valley culture (700 thousand). This would set the population of all Egypt at ca. 1.4 to 1.6 million around the date of the Unification (ca. 3100).

Whether Nar-mer is the real unifier, or his son and successor Aḥa, who founded the city of Memphis (then known as “White Walls”), is debated. Aḥa also created the Royal Annals, a year by year record of the deeds of the pharaohs, by stringing together the events formerly conveyed by decorated macehead or palette into a continuous sequence, linked by regularly recurring events such as the biennial cattle census. Later in the 1st Dynasty, a small box at the bottom of each year entry would record the annual height of the Nile flood. The now fragmentary list known as the Palermo Stone, which represented the annals of the Old Kingdom, preserves Aḥa’s last two regnal years. The royal titulary also began to evolve. Already Nar-mer had a “Two Ladies” name. The names used for these early kings are Horus names, conveyed by the royal name atop the serekh topped by the falcon deity Horus of Nekhen. All the crafts developed in Naqada II-III proliferated, especially stone vases, but the early pharaohs destroyed the trade centers, Maʿadi and Qustul, as they sought to monopolize foreign trade. Metal working became better established, the pottery wheel was introduced, and woodworking flourished, with the best work done for the elites. The pharaohs also established the first bureaucracy to administer their realm. The pattern of estimating the height of the Nile flood, realigning boundary markers of fields, assessing taxes, and conducting the cattle census and taxation all developed in this era. A high official, the vizier, was appointed to administer these programs. The kings, and evidently one regnant queen, Meryt-neith, were buried in the royal ground of Abydos, complete with funerary temples of niched mudbrick and burials of hundreds of court retainers. Thus arose the pharaonic state of ancient Egypt, with a king acknowledged as a deity.

The 2nd Dynasty arose ca. 2850, and its rulers switched their burial ground to Saqqâra. Their royal names bear hints of two powers, the deities Horus of Nekhen and Seth of Nubt. Surviving records hint at troubles in the form of rebellions. Then at mid-dynasty, a major conflict burst forth. One pharaoh abandoned Horus, and instead placed Seth atop his serekh. This may be the rebellion of the Naqada people who had progressively lost status in the unification process. Another Horus king, Khasekhem, arose in Nekhen and progressively defeated the rebels and reunified Egypt. He now proclaimed himself pharaoh, with Horus and Seth atop his serekh, his Two Ladies name reading “the two powers are content in him.” The rebellion was ended. The royal tomb returned to Abydos, and the later King Khasekhemwy’s queen became the mother of the first two pharaohs of the 3rd Dynasty. A new royal title developed, Horus atop the gold glyph, or Horus over Nubt.

Old Kingdom

The new pharaoh Sanakht may be an enigma, but his brother Djoser shines forever as the founder of the Old Kingdom. Djoser found a master architect, Imhotep, who built for him the first complete stone structure known, the grand Step Pyramid of Saqqâra. It was surrounded by a complex enclosed in a rendition of the “White Walls” in limestone blocks the size of mudbricks, marking the evolution of Egyptian architecture from wood, reed, and mudbrick into stone. The buildings simulated a µeb-sed jubilee court, and all the original detail was faithfully copied in stone. The next king, Sekhemkhet, built his complex behind Djoser’s, but already the enclosure wall stones were larger blocks. The following kings were shorter lived and built unfinished step pyramids, but each complex shows a greater mastery of stone masonry. The last king, µuni, built a complete step pyramid at Meidum. For the first time, the funerary temple was shifted around to the east of the pyramid and linked by a long causeway to a valley temple. (Previously, funerary temples were on the northern side of the tomb, evidently linked to a belief that the dead was resurrected to join the circumpolar stars.) Now, the dead was to join the rising sun, a powerful resurrection symbol. Also marking this transition to the solar cult, the step pyramid was altered into a true pyramid.

The true pyramid had its basis in the benben stone top of the sacred stone of Heliopolis, center of the solar cult. The benben was a short, squat obelisk, its top forming a pyramid. Sneferu, Huni’s son, and founder of the 4th Dynasty, built the first true pyramids at Dahshur. He also tried transforming his father’s pyramid into a true pyramid, but the monument met with disaster, collapsing at some state of its history. Now only the core of the Step Pyramid stands, with the added masonry visible at the base. Khufu (Cheops), Sneferu’s son, moved his pyramid complex to Giza, perhaps viewing it as a western benben, where the sun set as viewed from Heliopolis. In three changes of plan, Khufu shifted his burial chamber up in the pyramid’s masonry. With Sneferu and Khufu, the final two titles of the king evolved, the praenomen and nomen both in cartouches, joined by the title “son of Re,” stressing the solar cult. The final solar emblem was the Great Sphinx. Known later as Hor-em-akhet, “Horus on the Horizon,” it may be viewed as the deity manifest between Khufu and Khafre’s (Chephren) pyramids.

The 5th Dynasty marked the triumph of the solar cult. The royal pyramid now was smaller and not as well built, but the pyramid temples grew to be exquisite. Grander still were the solar temples the kings built at Abusir in the western desert. Open to the sky, they were decorated with reliefs that celebrated the seasons and the creativity of Re in nature. The final kings of the 5th Dynasty were buried farther south at Saqqâra and built no solar temples, but the last king, Unas, was the first whose pyramid interior was carved with what became known as the Pyramid Texts. An eclectic grouping of spells, these texts include much older material with allusions to burials in the ground, in brick mastabas, and finally in stone pyramids. In one long spell the king, resurrected through Re, becomes master of heaven. Texts from later pyramids show a change. Now, the king seeks resurrection through Osiris. Yet another grand transformation of the religion had occurred. According to the Great Myth of Creation, Osiris had been ruler, but Seth was jealous of him and had him murdered. Isis, wife to Osiris, raised Osiris from death, creating the first mummy. Eventually Osiris became lord of the afterlife and the kings became Osiris, while their successor became Horus, son of Isis and Osiris. The kings of the 6th Dynasty revived the southern foreign trade, and started massive importation of Nubian archers into Egypt as mercenaries. These helped them fight foreign wars, according to several autobiographies. Pepy II of the 6th Dynasty went on to reign over 90 years, but with him the Old Kingdom tottered, only to fall in the 8th Dynasty as the Nile failed to flood in a major climate crisis. The Egyptians marked the end of the Old Kingdom as the end of an era, noting that 930 years had elapsed since the Unification in the 1st Dynasty.

Middle Kingdom

In the next hundred years, two competing dynasties arose, the 9th and 10th Dynasties at Heracleopolis and the 11th Dynasty at Thebes in the south. During this First Intermediate Period, the provincial governors aligned with one or the other, Middle Egypt with the 9th and 10th Dynasties, the south with the 11th Dynasty. By 2060 a powerful Theban king, Montuhotep II, arose, defeating the Heracleopolitans in a series of battles and emerging as the reunifier of Egypt ca. 2020. His successors tried ruling Egypt from Thebes, but it proved impractical, and the 12th Dynasty’s Amenemhet I, who displaced them and initiated the Middle Kingdom period, moved the residence to Itjtawy, S of Memphis, which remained the capital into the 13th Dynasty. The 12th Dynasty also came into contact with Kish, another Nilotic powerful state that arose at Kerma near the Third Cataract of the Nile. They built powerful fortresses to hold Kush at bay, but also to help exploit the resources of Nubia, where the 12th Dynasty kings had found rich gold deposits. Senwosret III, who pushed farthest south, also developed a rich trade with Kish, funnelled through the Iken-mirgissa fortress. The Story of Sinuhe, written early in the 12th Dynasty, describes an Egyptian in self-exile in Canaan and southern Syria who took residence with a migratory chieftain (called Heka-khaswet) with a lifestyle not unlike that of Abraham and Jacob. Later in the dynasty, a governor at Beni Hasan in Middle Egypt depicted a Canaanite delegation that came to his local court to trade. The women were clad in many-colored coats, recalling the coat of Joseph.

Hyksos

In 1786, ca. 100 years after the 12th Dynasty ended, a group of foreigners with horse-drawn chariots, a new compound bow, and an improved battle-axe invaded the Delta and set themselves up in a city called Avaris (Hwt-waret). These were the Hyksos, a term derived from Heka-khaswet, “rulers of foreign lands.” For 108 years these people dominated Egypt. They seized Memphis and terminated the 13th Dynasty, while the 17th Dynasty barely survived in Thebes as vassals. The 14th Dynasty was a dissident group in the western Delta; the 15th Dynasty comprised the six great Hyksos kings, and the 16th Dynasty was their myriad of vassals, some Hyksos, some Egyptians. Through the oasis route the Hyksos contacted Kush and allied themselves with it. Then in 1628 a volcano erupted cataclysmically, throwing out great quantities of ash and creating tsunami, which devastated the Delta, striking the Hyksos a grave blow. This disaster evidently encouraged the Thebans to revolt under Seqenenre Taʾaa II. He died in battle, but his son Kamose continued the struggle, along with his mother, the king’s widow. Finally Ahmose I, Kamose’s younger brother, was able to evict the Hyksos from Egypt, pursuing them to Sharuhen in Canaan. Then the kings of the 18th Dynasty attacked Kush and destroyed its power. An officer, known as viceroy of Kush, became its ruler. However, not until Queen Hatshepsut crushed them in three campaigns were the Kushites quelled.

New Kingdom

Thutmose III in a series of 17 campaigns reduced Canaan and Syria to Egyptian hegemony and created a navy on the Mediterranean to help control it and to carry the fight to the Mitanni kingdom in northern Syria. This held until Akhenaten’s time, when the Hittites destroyed Mitanni, only to have Assyria reappear as a great power. Under Amenhotep III Egypt also contacted Mycenae. Now the Mycenaeans began to trade extensively with the Levant, but some of the Anatolian and Mycenaean people also started piratical raids. Under the Ramesside dynasties Egypt first fought the Hittites for superiority over Kadesh and Amurru in Syria. The Sea Peoples raiders, however, became a greater threat, and Rameses II built a series of fortresses west of the Delta to forestall their raids. Nonetheless, they made a landing in Cyrenaica, and with the Libyans, whom they armed, attacked Egypt under Merenptah. The Hittites and Egypt earlier had signed a peace treaty, which helped Egypt now survive. Merenptah also aided the Hittites with grain and arms. However, Egypt could not resist the third onslaught of Sea Peoples that struck in Rameses III’s 8th regnal year. These Sea Peoples also attacked Egypt by sea and land through Canaan. The sea raiders were annihilated, but Rameses III had to allow the land contingent to settle in coastal Canaan, where they became the Philistines and their allies, known from the Bible. Shortly thereafter, Egypt lost all her levantine empire, and at the middle of the 20th Dynasty the eruption of the volcano Hekla III in Iceland produced economic crisis in Egypt and the eastern Mediterranean. Many societies collapsed, but others like the Libyans, Arameans, and Sea Peoples set to wandering. Only Assyria and Egypt emerged intact from this disaster. The high priest of Amon, under Herihor, ended the 20th Dynasty and set up a theocratic dual state in Egypt, with kings reigning from Tanis in the eastern Delta and high priests in Thebes in Upper Egypt. Large numbers of Libyans, including Herihor’s family, had settled in Egypt and came to power when Sheshonq I founded the 22nd Dynasty.

Third Intermediate Period

During the Third Intermediate period (1070-712) the high priests fought the last viceroy of Kush, and so lost Kush for Egypt. This led to a serious impoverishment, as Kush’s gold mines had helped fuel the New Kingdom’s expansion and its soldiers manned the Egyptian army. Now the northern realm became wealthier. Shoshenq I (biblical Shishak) also fought with Rehoboam, king of Judah, and triumphed. Later the Egyptians allied with the levantine states, as Assyria loomed as a greater threat. The 22nd Dynasty fragmented after 805 as a rival dynasty, the 23rd, arose in Leontopolis, and a little later another rival dynasty emerged in Sais in the western Delta. In Kush an indigenous dynasty had arisen, and it now intervened in Egypt. Piye campaigned against the Libyan dynasties, and Shabaka eliminated them in 712, choosing to rule Egypt from Memphis. Egyptianized, the Kushites worshipped Amon-Re, and so the Egyptians accepted them. However, in 701 they aided Hezekiah against the Assyrian king Sennacherib, and so became entangled with the Assyrians. Esarhaddon invaded Egypt in 671, and Taharqa retreated south. Taharqa, however, soon counterattacked, expelling the Assyrians. Assurbanipal, the next Assyrian king, attacked in 667, and Taharqa again retired south. When Taharqa again counterattacked, Assurbanipal retaliated once more, and made Psamtik of Sais his chief vassal. Anlamani, Taharqa’s successor, attacked the Assyrians in 664, slaying Psamtik’s father Necho I. This time Assurbanipal decided to attack Thebes, which had loyally supported the Kushites. In 663 he sacked Thebes, forcing the Kushites out of Egypt. Psamtik was able to make himself king, also separating from Assyria and allying with Lydia. By 656 he controlled all of Egypt and founded the 26th Saite Dynasty. He heavily fortified the eastern Delta, but his successor Necho II (biblical Neco) went to assist Assyria against the Medes and Neo-Babylonians. At Carchemish, he fought a bitter engagement, but lost and retired to Egypt. Earlier, he had killed Josiah of Judea, who had tried to block his route of advance.

Saite-Persian Period

In 601 and again in 568 the Saites defeated two Neo-Babylonian attempts to invade Egypt. The Saites built a Mediterranean navy and sought alliances with Greek states. After the fall of Jerusalem in 586, Egypt accepted some Jewish refugees and posted them to guard Aswan against the Kushites. In 539, however, the Persians and Medes defeated the Neo-Babylonians, and after Amasis died in 525, the Persian ruler Cambyses attacked and invaded Egypt, ending Saite rule. Made into a satrapy, Egypt was again a province. In 405 Egypt revolted successfully, and the 28th-29th and 30th Dynasties sought alliances with Greece in efforts to resist a Persian counterattack. In 343, however, Darius II Ochus attacked and broke into Egypt, again reducing it to a province. However, in 332 Alexander the Great attacked the Persian Empire and liberated Egypt. Now a Macedonian administration replaced the Persian.

Hellenistic-Roman Rule

Alexander’s general Ptolemy I Soter claimed Egypt as his territory, and in 323 proclaimed himself king. Ruling from newly built Alexandria, he held Egypt and some overseas territories. Under the later Ptolemies, Egypt became entangled with the Seleucids of Syria, and soon had to appeal to the Roman Republic for help. The Romans answered with aid, but they too invaded the eastern Mediterranean, first crippling the Macedonian kingdom, then the Seleucid, so that only Egypt remained of the Hellenistic realms. The royal line faltered after Ptolemy X, and Ptolemy XI bankrupted Egypt in his effort to buy his legitimacy from Roman politicians.

At Ptolemy XII’s death, Cleopatra VII and two younger brothers inherited Egypt, but soon fell to quarreling. Pursuing Pompey the Great, Julius Caesar followed him to Egypt in 48-47 b.c. and became enmeshed in the royal quarrel. He found Cleopatra VII the most able, and threw his support to her. Cleopatra planned marriage to Caesar in a bid to secure her realm, bearing him a son, Caesarion (Ptolemy XV). Caesar’s murder in 44 forestalled her plans, and she retired to Egypt. In 42 Mark Antony summoned Cleopatra to appear in Syria, and she utterly suborned him. He had three children by Cleopatra, but Octavian tried to woo him away with his sister. Antony, though, could not resist Cleopatra, who helped his bloodied army after his attack on the Parthians failed. After revenging himself on the Armenian king, Antony decided to hold his triumph in Alexandria and to elevate Cleopatra as his consort and co-ruler, along with all her children as junior rulers. Octavian was outraged, and using a fierce propaganda campaign, attacked Antony and Cleopatra as debauched and serpentine figures. The two sides squared up for war. Cleopatra had restored Egypt to prosperity fielding 60 ships. Antony’s land army bridled at Cleopatra’s insistence on taking part in battle, and when the tide turned against them Cleopatra retired her ships and fled to Egypt. Antony followed her, losing most of his army. The Nabatean king burned Cleopatra’s ships when she tried to transfer them to the Red Sea, and so their situation grew desperate. Antony attempted suicide, and then Cleopatra followed his example, as Octavian closed in on Egypt. So ended the last Hellenistic kingdom, and Egypt became an imperial province. Octavian so feared Egypt as a power base that he forbade any Roman senator from setting foot there.

Bibliography. M. A. Hoffman, Egypt Before the Pharaohs, rev. ed. (Austin, 1991); A. J. Spencer, Early Egypt (Norman, 1995); N.-C. Grimal, A History of Ancient Egypt (Oxford, 1992); K. A. Kitchen, The Third Intermediate Period in Egypt (1100-650 b.c.), 2nd ed. (Warminster, 1986); W. W. Tarn, Hellenistic Civilization, 3rd ed. (London, 1952); F. W. Walbank, The Hellenistic World, rev. ed. (Cambridge, Mass., 1993).

Frank J. Yurco

Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

EGYPT

Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (2000)