Lecture # 4: Ancient Egyptian Civilization:
Presented by
Abul Kalam Azad
Senior Lecturer, GED
Northern University Bangladesh
E-mail: kalamadd@gmail.com
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Egyptian Civilization
The basic element in the lengthy
history of Egyptian civilization is
geography. The Nile River rises from
the lakes of central Africa as the
White Nile and from the mountains of
Ethiopia as the Blue Nile. The White
and Blue Nile meet at Khartoum and
flow together northward to the Nile
delta, where the 4000 mile course of
this
river
spills
into
the
Mediterranean Sea.
The flood per year and the deposition of
sediment created the land fertile that
helped the agricultural production. Its
water would be used for the irrigation and
flow of water for the navigation. Many
achievements of the ancient Egyptians
included a system of mathematics,
quarrying, surveying and construction
techniques that facilitated the building of
vast pyramids, temples, glass technology
etc.
Geographic Condition of Egyptian Civilization
 The land and the climate of Nile valley were
favorable to human progress;
 The climate was hot but not too hot to thrive
life to the animal and the plant;
 The long season was problematic to plant
and harvest two crops a year;
 The sluggish watercourse encouraged in
navigation;
 The Egyptian took advantages in it and
became pioneer in trading in the history;
 They carried their commodities to the
neighboring countries and brought back
copper,
cobalt,
cloth,
pottery,
metal
weapons and many necessary supplies.
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Government System
The people of Nile valley turned into imperial
organization from a clan. At a local level, the
country was divided into 42 administrative
regions. The early political period in Egypt can
be divided into three ages:
1.The Pyramid Age (3400-2500 B.C.)
2.The Feudal Age (about 1800 B.C.)
3.The Empire (1580-1150 B.C.)
Socio- economic Development
The people of Egypt became differentiated
into three distinguishable classes as
followsa) The leisure Class
b) The Middle Class
c) The Lower Class
a) The leisure Class
The Pharaoh, VIPs in the empire, priests
and the land owners are in the leisure
class. The people of leisure class did
permit progress in the arts, science and
industry.
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b) The Middle Class
The artisan and all the merchants
are in the middle class.
c) Lower Class
The people at the bottom list such as
the slaves, serfs, servants etc are in
the Lower Class.
So a greatest variation was existed
in the social classes at that period in
the Egypt.
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Position of the Women
▶The position of women was
a unique
characteristics of the Egyptian society.
Queen ruled the country from time to
time.
▶The wife was independent of her own right.
▶The wife of a ruler has the right to transmit
the kingship to her children.
▶The position that women held in Egypt was
not equal.
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Agriculture
▶Agriculture was the most important
profession of the Egyptian civilization.
▶The actual work was done by the slaves
but
government
officials
carefully
supervised the work.
▶Government’s engineers and scientists
constructed the irrigation project.
▶Ox and the donkey were the main beasts.
Sheep and goats were driven over the
planted fields in order to march the grain
and cover it with soil.
▶The most important crops were the barley,
wheat, millet, onions, beans, lettuce and
peas.
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Agriculture
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Crafts & Architecture
►Though the main profession of the people
of Egyptian civilization was agriculture,
they involved with other activities
Such as Industrial work, construction,
Brick making, masonry, metal working
and wool carving.
►Ship building became an important trade.
They also involved with the work of
pottery, jewelry and furniture.
►Their
Occupations
indicated
the
diversification of their work and Shows
their beauty.
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Architecture
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Military
Technology: Faience and glass
Commerce
▶Commerce did not develop in Egyptian
civilization as it was in the Mesopotamian
civilization largely because agriculture
were more profitable.
▶But there also some trade existed. Goods
were carried up and down the Nile. Gold
and silver also exchanged there.
▶ Spices, dyes, cosmetics and perfumed
woods were brought from Arabia and
India. Gold, Ivory and negro slaves were
brought from Sudan.
▶As early as 1900 B.C a cannel was
constructed through Isthmus of Suez.
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Arts & Culture
▶The
Egyptians
were
developed
in
architecture,
painting,
Sculpture,
furniture and the other minor arts.
▶Different temples, pyramids are the
symbols of their expert in architecture
and sculpture.
▶The use of couches, chairs, shrines
(sacred place) and utensils of various
kinds were the symbols of their expert in
furniture.
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Culture
Religion
▶ Religion dominated the political, economic,
social and intellectual life of the Egyptians.
▶They preserved the bodies of the dead with
such success known as the Mummies.
▶Some of the Pharaohs have been identified
from their mummies even after thousand
years of the construction.
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Religious beliefs
Variety of Religions
▶The religious practices of the Egyptians
varied from the most fetishism to a close
monotheism.
▶Egyptian worshiped sacred animals, the
sun, the moon, The Nile river. At that
times, there were general confusions and
anarchy of Gods.
▶There were people who believed in
monotheism and future life and the power
of Pharaohs.
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Literature
 The people of Egyptian civilization introduced a
new era in writing.
 Their written system was known as the
Hieroglyphic.
 Hieroglyphic was not so popular form of writing
like today.
 The word Hieroglyphic means sacred carving or
the written system of the priests.
However the Egyptians had no universal written
system but the combination of ideographic,
Syllabic and alphabetic systems. The most
important literature work of the Egyptian
civilization were “The Book of The Dead”, “Coffin
Text” and The Song of Harper” etc.
So they have played important role in the literature
as well as other sectors.
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Learning
The Egyptians made contribution to culture
and learning aside from literature. Learning
was prized very highly. A teacher’s instruction
to his pupil was: “ give thy heart to learning
and love her like a mother, for there is nothing
precious as learning”.
The Egyptians studied medical science,
Chemistry Commerce and Politics. The
Egyptians
had
a
government-supervised
educational system from which they were
taught politics and commerce. After the
completion of graduate from the temple
school they sent to the government officials to
get the practical knowledge. There was one of
the earliest school system in the history of
civilization.
Writing & Literature
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Reasons for Decline
The reasons for the decline of Egyptian
civilization were as follows:
 The lack of making perfect workable
political system and the large variation
among the social groups;
 Imperial
administration
was
the
contributing factor;
 Then the Assyrians, the Macedonians, and
the Romans ruled Egypt;
 Political independence of Egypt destroyed
her civilization.
Finally we can say that the Egyptian
civilization was the milestone and the
source of encouragement of all the
civilization in the history.
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