Ques 1 :- explain the political ,economic and social development of early

Egyptian civilization .
The Egyptian civilisation developed parallel to Mesopotamia with similar
civilisational features but in entirely different ecological settings. Just like
Mesopotamia, which developed along the Euphrates and Tigris Valley, Egypt
developed around the Nile Valley. In early civilisations, study of religion,
society and polity cannot be separated as each had bearing on the other.
The pharaoh was the head of state and the divine representative of the gods
on earth. The role of a pharaoh in Egyptian society was controlling both
religious and political affairs. The government of ancient Egypt was a theocratic
monarchy as the king ruled by a mandate from the gods, initially was seen as
an intermediary between human beings and the divine, and was supposed to
represent the gods' will through the laws passed and policies approved.
Religion in the Bronze Age was dominated by mythopoeic thoughts and
therefore people experienced a sense of intimacy with the forces of nature.
Plants, animals, rivers, the sky, sun and the planets were personified as
anthropomorphic divinities. Thus, religion in early civilisations was
characterised by features such as worship of natural or cosmic forces, rituals,
myths, elaborate death rites and ancestor worship. At the level of the state,
institutionalised religion played a significant role in the perpetuation of state
and society. A belief was propagated that wellbeing of the community was
dependent on sacrifices and divination that came to be the monopoly of the
king. Further, to promote authoritarian character of kingship, power of the
king was sought to be strengthened either by deifying him or identifying him
with the supreme deity.

POLITY
The political development of Egypt , including its political unification and origin
of state are generally traced to the pre dynastic period which is supposed to
have began in 3200 BCE .Manetho (Greek priest ),who wrote his account
history of Egypt has mentioned 31 dynasties that ruled over Egypt from its
unification to invansion of alexander in 332 BCE. Manetho's History has been
found useful by modern historians to work out the chronology of ancient
Egypt. This is all the more so since many of the details mentioned by him have
been corroborated by archaeological evidence as well as other sources . These
dynasties were classified by him into several periods such as Old Kingdom,
Middle Kingdom and New Kingdom with intervening phases (First
Intermediate Period, Second Intermediate Period, etc.). Modern historians
continue to use Manetho's periodization.
The Early Dynastic Period was the period during which the First and Second
Dynasties ruled over Egypt (c. 3100 to 2686 BC). This was followed by the Old
Kingdom-Third Dynasty to Sixth Dynasty (c. 2686 to 2181 BC). For a short while
after the Sixth Dynasty the picture is somewhat confusing. This is called the
First Intermediate Period (c. 2181 to 2133 BC), Seventh to Tenth Dynasties. A
new phase commenced with the reign of the Eleventh Dynasty. This was the
Middle Kingdom (c. 2133 to 1786 BC), Eleventh and Twelfth Dynasties. After
the Twelfth Dynasty there was another intermediate period, the Second
Intermediate Period (c. 1786 to 1567 BC), Thirteenth to Seventeenth Dynasties.
The Second Intermediate Period was followed by the New Kingdom (c. 1567 to
1080 BC), Eighteenth to Twentieth Dynasties. According to Manetho, Egypt
was unified by a ruler named Menes. Archaeological excavations have brought
to light some evidence pertaining to a ruler by the name Nar-mer who might
have played an important role in the unification of Egypt. It has been
suggested that Nar-mer could be identified with the legendary Menes.
Unfortunately almost no records of the First Dynasty have survived. What we
know is that the first two dynasties came from the town of Thir in Upper Egypt.
Hence they are also called "Thinit Dynasties”. The First Dynasty was
responsible for the unification Lower and Upper Egypt. This unification was
possibly the work of Narmer (who may have been the same as Menes) The
memory of this event was preserved in the tradition of designating all Egyptian
rulers as kings of both 'Upper and Lower Egypt'. As a symbol of this unification
the kings wore a double crown: a white crown representing Upper Egypt and
a red crown representing Lower Egypt. The king was an all-powerful
monarch-the pharaoh. The word pharaoh is the Hebrew form of the ancient
Egyptian term per-o (or per-aa) which meant 'Great House'. This was a
reference to the palace. State formation was already taking place in the
predynastic period. A number of petty-states had emerged in the Nile valley.
These were ruled by chieftains who controlled relatively small territories. It
would seem that through a process of forming coalitions of petty-states or
through subjugation, larger territorial units were created eventually leading to
the political unification of the valley. Many of the predynastic petty-states
survived for a long time after unification in the form of provincial
administrative units. These administrative units were called nomes by the
Greeks . In the dynastic period nomes were stable entities and had well
defined territories. The provincial elites of these nomes could be quite
powerful. The nomes had their own emblems which were often animal
symbols. The symbols were originally totems of the dominant clans settled in
the respective nomes. Thus the nomes of the dynastic period probably had
their roots in the predynastic petty-states. After unification these states were
incorporated in the administrative structure in the form of nomes and in many
cases the territories of the nomes corresponded to the former predynastic
states, We are not in a position to estimate the number of petty states which
had come up in the predynastic period, but we learn that at the time of
unification there were forty-two nomes. Twenty-two of these were in Upper
Egypt and twenty were in Lower Egypt.It is likely that the political unification of
Upper Egypt took place much before Upper and Lower Egypt were merged. As
centralized administration became more and more complex, the pharaohs
began to appoint a chief minister to look after the day to day functioning of
the government. The chief minister bore the title taty and was usually from
the royal family. In the provinces the position of the adj-mer, who was initially
responsible for irrigation works in the nomes became increasingly powerful.
The adj-mer was virtually the head the provincial government, carried out the
biennial census in nomes, and dispensed justice. At the lower levels of
bureaucracy there were a large number of scribes who had been trained to
read and write the hieroglyphic script and to draft various types of official
documents. We can be certain that knowledge of the hieroglyphic script was
confined to a very small section of society (officials, priests, scribes, and the
aristocracy). The vast majority of the people were ignorant of the script.
Whereas the Egyptian state had evolved a fairly efficient system for centralized
control, beyond a certain point centralization was difficult for a premodern
state. In view of the historical limitations of a premodern state, the
government in ancient Egypt had to rely on ancient village level institutions for
routine local administration. We have references to village councils called seh
(or zazat) in the Old Kingdom and genbet during the Middle Kingdom. These
councils consisted of the saru local notables and some scribes. In other words,
the saru or members of these councils were drawn from among the dominant
groups in the villages. The seh or zazat had probably existed in the predynastic
period. The centralizing tendencies of the Egyptian state did not distroy these
institution . these councils now assisted the government in the village
administration . in the countryside , the saru became the main base of the
state and upheld the authority of the pharaoh.
ECONOMY
Agriculture made up a major part of ancient Egypt's economy. Agriculture
thrived because Egypt has a climate that is warm year-round, and the Nile
River's yearly flooding provided Egyptians with as many as three harvests each
year. Agriculture helped bring wealth to ancient Egypt Ancient Egypt also had
many natural resources, including flax, papyrus, stone, and gold. These
materials were used to make cloth, paper, buildings, and jewelry. This led to
the rise of industries with merchants and craftsmen creating and selling these
goods .The seed was sown in October/November when the floods began to
subside and water had been drained from the fields. Between August and
January the Nile can be utilized for irrigation by channelling the water into
fields. By February the level is too low for the purpose. The agricultural cycle
was divided into three seasons: akhet or flood; peret or germination
(sprouting); and chemu or harvest. It is worth noting that the annual
inundation coincides with the agricultural season, a feature which we do not
find in Mesopotamia. This renders irrigation a relatively easier task in Egypt.
Unlike Mesopotamia, where detailed attention has to be paid to irrigation
facilities depending on local conditions, only a generalized supervision of
irrigation is required in Egypt. The farmworker in this tomb painting is
harvesting grain. Barley was ancient Egypt's biggest grain crop. Ancient
Egyptians kept many of the same farm animals people keep today. The man on
the right is milking a cow Surplus crops provided Egypt with materials to
export or trade with other countries. This added wealth to the economy and
helped boost the growth of other industries and businesses in ancient Egypt.
By the Old Kingdom the Egyptian state had developed an extensive
bureaucratic structure with wide ranging administrative functions. This
bureaucracy carried out the systematic collection of tribute. Another major
function of the bureaucracy was to organize and coordinate tasks related to
irrigation. The overwhelming bulk of the tribute came from agriculture. Wheat,
barley and flax (a kind of fibre used for making cloth) were the main crops.
Besides, cattle rearing was an integral part of the agrarian economy. The
produce of the peasants (mertu is a term frequently used for peasants in
Egyptian documents) was appropriated in kind through a tax levied on them.
This tax was called mezed and it included grain, bread, flax and animal hides.
The mertu were also liable to kat, which implied forced labour either for the
state (construction of pyramids etc.), or for digging and maintaining canals and
dykes for irrigation. Artisans and craftsmen were generally bound to
workshops attached to temples, palaces and houses of wealthy families.
Although there were private traders, the state organized major trading
expeditions especially for procuring metal, wood and luxury goods. Every two
years the government conducted a census for assessing cattle and to some
extent land. This should not be confused with the modern concept of census,
since it would have been based on a rough estimate of the resources of each
province or nome. We do not know as to how efficient or thorough the census
was, but it was probably linked in some way to the system of taxation. The
officer who was responsible for this biennial census enjoyed a prominent
position in the state. The taxes collected in kind were stored in central
granaries located in various parts of the country. Payment kind were disbursed
from the granaries. In the Archaic Period there were two separate treasuries
for Upper and Lower Egypt the treasury of Upper Egypt was designated as
White House and that of Lower Egypt as Red House. In the Old Kingdom the
treasuries were merged into one central treasury called Double White House.
The granaries were managed by the Treasury, which also kept an account of
receipts, payments tribute, royal treasure and collection of flax and hides.
SOCIETY AND RELIGION
The Egyptian society was a highly stratified one with institutionalised
inequality established by the state. At the top level of the society, after the
ruler, were the bureaucrats who themselves were organised into a
bureaucratic hierarchy functioning at various levels of the state as governors,
tax collectors, adjudicators of legal disputes, state officials, village headmen,
and so on. Such hierarchies were considered to be fundamental for a well-
ordered state with the belief that such hierarchies were ordained by gods to
further that goal. It was, therefore, natural that there was an inequitable
distribution of surplus produced by the peasants as well as that of power and
prestige. The ruler and the nobles were at the apex of the society below which
there were several groups, ranging from leisured elite to enslaved war
captives. as a natural corollary to such a stratified society, surplus was
distributed in an inequitable manner with the biggest chunk of it going to the
Pharaoh, members of the royal family, the priestly class, the bureaucracy and
the army.
The archaeological remains of the Old Kingdom help us to reconstruct some of
the features of state and society in the Old Kingdom. The most impressive
buildings are the royal Tombs. The practice of constructing gigantic
monuments for the burial of pharaohs commenced in the Third Dynasty with
the step pyramid of Djoser. Djoser was the founder of Third Dynasty. He built
a huge monument at Saqqara (near Memphis) for his own burial. Before this
the pharaohs had been buried in large underground cemeteries called
'mastabas,. Djoser's step pyramid revolutionized Egyptian architecture, His
tomb was made entirely with stone, being the earliest Egyptian monument to
be built fully of stone. The stone were placed very skilfully in such a manner
that large steps were formed on each of the four sides of the building, The
arrangement of steps gave the structure a pyramidical shape. Djoser's step
pyramid is supposed to have been designed by imhotep whose name is
inscribed on it. The Greeks identified Imhotep with Asclepios, the god of
healing . The architecture of the pyramids continued to evolve under the
successors of Djoser-from step pyramids to true pyramids till it reached its
climax in the Fourth Dynasty. The Fourth Dynasty pyramids, situated in Giza
close to modern Cairo, are staggering in their dimensions. The Fourth Dynasty
pyramids highlight the unique position which the pharaohs occupied within the
Egyptian ruling class. They are also a reflection of the extensive resources
which were at the command of that class. The two most spectacular pyramids
of the Giza group are those of Cheops or Khufu (second ruler of the Fourth
Dynasty) and one of his successors, Chephren (or Khafre). The pyramid in
which Cheops was buried has a square base with each side measuring 235
metres. It is 146.5 metres high. The pyramid of Chephren has a base 215.25
square metres and is 143.5 metres high. The gigantic proportions of these
pyramids can be gauged from the fact that each of them was built out of at
least two million blocks of stone, a block weighing two-and-a-half tons on an
average. These pyramids exhibit a very high degree of architectural
perfection. The design involved considerable precision in mathematical
calculations. This was not just a matter of aesthetic appeal, but without such
precision the buildings would not have been architecturally feasible. Given
their weight, size and shape they would just have collapsed. It has been
estimated it would have required the labour of at least 10, 000 persons,
working together , to built each pyramids . The grand monuments built by the
pharaohs were intended to overawe the people as well as to impress upon
them that the pharaoh was no ordinary human being but a mighty god. The
pyramid-complex of Chephren has additionally a large and very unusual piece
of sculpture called sphinx .The sphinx is carved out of a single rock, and
depicts a lion with the body of a human being. The head is a representation of
the pharaoh Chephren. In order to promote the cult of the pharaoh the state
expended immense resources on the maintenance of these temple-cum-burial
complexes. From the Fourth Dynasty onwards the belief that pharaohs were
gods remained firmly entrenched in the minds of the Egyptians.This labour was
requisitioned when fields flooded by the Nile and no agricultural activity could
place. The construction work stretched over several season. Some historians
hold the view that the labour for pyramid construction was not forced labour
but essentially a way of providing livelihood and sustenance to the peasants
when agricultural work was slack However, considering the labour that went
into this task there must have been a element of coercion in mobilizing a
labour force for it.one should also keep in mind that engaging so many worker
in pyramid building, amounted to diverting a large labour force (mainly able
bodied adults) from economically productive activities. Even otherwise the
construction of tombs on such scale was a drain on the resources of Egypt. It is
hardly surprising that the pyramid built by Mycernius (Menkuns the successor
of Chephren, was architecturally inferior and much smaller in size (just 62
metres high and 1084 square metres at the base). After Mycernius there was
an overall decline in pyramid building for a long time after the Fourth Dynasty
the Egyptian economy could not afford such lavish monuments.
The pyramids were principally buildings in which the dead bodies of respective
pharaohs were buried. There was a significant ritual connected with the
burial. This ritual was intended to enable the dead pharaoh to be reborn, A
myth was invented according to which the life of the pharaoh did not
completely cease with death. The pharaoh was supposed to possess an after-
life. But this after-life (or life after death) had to be facilitated by performing
some complex burial ceremonies. The most important part of the ceremony
was the preservation of the dead body. The internal organs were removed and
the body was embalmed by applying some herbs and chemicals. It was then
wrapped in bandage-like strips of cloth. This process is usually called
"mummification”. The mummified body was put in a chamber inside the
pyramid alongwith various objects connected with the dead A ritual boat was
placed in the mausoleum to aid age to after-life . The dead pharaoh was
identified with Osiris, the god of the blessed dead. Osiris was regarded as the
god of vegetation and was supposed have taught humans how to cultivate. It
was believed that he had acquainted them with wheat, bread, and beer. Osiris-
Isis-Horus were worshipped together father-mother-son of a family. According
to an Egyptian myth, Set killed his brother Osiris and Horus then avenged the
death of his father by killing Set. W. B. Emery has interpreted this myth in
terms of a conflict between the indigenous and master race. All ruling
pharaohs identified with Horus, Horus had been originally linked to the
worship of the falcon totem. The falcon eventually became the symbol of all
pharaohs. The divinity of Egyptian kings was asserted by identifying pharaoh
with Horus and the dead pharaoh with Osiris.
The pyramids and other cemeteries had an ideological function. They were not
result of some peculiar Egyptian obsession with death after-life. Had that been
the case such burials would had been a universal feature in that society.
However, the major of the Egyptians were buried in very austere graves .The
graves of the poor were narrow pits in which the dead body was placed in a
crouching position in a very undignified manner. The Egyptian state, and the
ruling class which controlled it, was constantly engaged in perpetuating the
cult of the pharaoh. It is only a ruling class which is extremely confident of its
ability to mobilize financial, technical and human resources on a very large
scale that can undertake such an ambitious enterprise as the construction of
the great pyramids, Nevertheless the demands made by the ruling elite on the
productive resources of the country had become excessive by the end of the
Fourth Dynasty. There was growing pressure on marginal areas which probably
resulted in environmental degradation and declining productivity. This might
have been one of the causes which led to the momentary breakdown of the
centralized state at the end of the Old Kingdom.
We have already observed that in the dynastic period the official religious
ideology of Egypt revolved around the cult of the pharaoh. However, this cult
developed relatively late and it incorporated several aspects of Egyptian
religion which were much older (e.g. the worship of Osiris). The roots of
Egyptian religion go back to the Amratian and Gerzean cultures, or even
earlier. The first agricultural communities in Egypt worshipped mother-
goddesses and had their own fertility cults. As these communities got
organized into clans and tribes they adopted totems which symbolized
respective clans/tribes. When the clans or tribes settled down in the Nile
valley, they attached themselves to specific territories. The totems which were
held sacred by clans or tribes residing in a particular area became the
emblems of respective predynastic territorial units. Mother-goddess and
fertility cults as well as worship of certain elements of nature (sun, barren
desert) was prevalent. As in the case of Mesopotamia, it is not possible to
speak in terms of a single, uniform Egyptian religion. Even though Egypt was
politically unified at a very early date, religious beliefs and practices exhibited
great diversity. We must distinguish between state-sponsored religion, which
tried to embrace the country as a whole, and the local cults which were
confined to certain nomes or cities. Wepwawet was a wolf god associated
with the Asyut nome, Khentiamentiu was a jackal god in Abydos and Sobek
was a crocodile god in Thebes. All three might have been survivals of early
totems. Egyptian religion kept evolving over centuries so that some cults were
modified and transformed while others disappeared. In the dynastic period
there was a general decline in the importance of female deities and mother-
goddess worship. Female deities either disappeared altogether or else were
subordinated to male deities. In some cases they became consorts of
prominent gods. a lion-headed goddess, called Sekhmat, became the consort
of Ptah who was the main god of Memphis. Ptah was one of the gods who
retained a large following throughout the dynastic period, even when
Memphis ceased to be the capital. The worship of Ptah was popular within the
educated elite as well as among artisans. Another interesting characteristic of
Egyptian religion was the existence of numerous deities which were
represented as part animal (usually the head) and part human. Arsaphes was
the ram-headed god of Heracleopolis; Sokar was a falcon headed god
worshipped in the Memphis region.The most outstanding feature of Egyptian
religion at the level of the state was the worship of the sun god. From the
Third Dynasty the pharaohs patronized solar cults in some form or the other.
The solar cult embraced other cults as well.
The trend of royal worship of Re assumed significance under Djoser.
Gradually a theology evolved whereby Re, Osiris, Horus and pharaohs were
accommodated in the pantheon. According to the genealogy which was
created, Osiris and Horus were regarded as having descended from the sun
god Re. Thus the divine pharaoh was associated with Re as well as with Osiris
and Horus. The worship of Re was fully established by the Fourth Dynasty. Of
course the actual manner in which Re was worshipped underwent several
changes throughout this long period. At different points of time Re was linked
to separate deities. This was the direct outcome of political changes. As new
groups rose to power they sought to project their own cults by combining
them with the worship of Re. This was done by resorting to the device of
converting a given local deity into a manifestation of Re. For instance Amon
became Amon-Re, Atum became Atum-Re and Sobek became Sobek Re. This
formula was convenient for giving a more universal appeal to local deities.
The Old Kingdom came to an end with the collapse of the Sixth Dynasty. With
the decline of the centralized state in the First Intermediate Period the
Heliopolis priests and the Atum-Re cult suffered a setback. The focus shifted to
some powerful nomes, which asserted their independence. Provincial
governors became strong, and in Greek accounts such governors are referred
to as nomarchs. Heracleopolis became one of the major new centres of power.
With the rise of Heracleopolis, Arsaphes, the local god of the city became a
leading deity of the Egyptian pantheon for some time. When Egypt was once
again unified under the Eleventh and Twelfth Dynasties the worship of Atum-
Re was replaced by the worship of Amon-Re. In the Middle Kingdom the
centre of political power moved to Thebes in Upper Egypt. The rulers of the
Eleventh and Twelfth Dynasties came from Thebes. Amon was the main deity
of Thebes. Re was now conceptualized as Amon-Re and it was in this form
that the sun god was worshipped for most of the Middle and New Kingdoms.
We also have references to Sobek-Re. We have noted that Sobek was a
crocodile deity of Thebes. From the Twelfth Dynasty the pharaoh was
represented as being descended from Amon. The Amon cult became the
foremost cult of the Egyptian state. This cult was so influential that when
Amenhotep , one of the rulers of the Eighteenth Dynasty, tried to break away
from it by transferring the capital from Thebes to a new site called Akhet-
aten where he established the worship of another deity (Aten), his move was
short-lived His successor once again made Thebes the capital of the empire
and ensured the continued domination of Amon (or Amon-Re). During the
course of these changes, the Osirian cult was also modified. In the Old
Kingdom only the pharaoh enjoyed the privilege of being reborn as Osiris. Later
on, this privilege was extended to other members of the royal family and yet
later to provincial governors, nomarchs, and the aristocracy. Several sections
of the ruling class were allowed to perform the ritual for being reborn as
Osiris. One might comment here that by the end of the Fourth Dynasty the
notion that the pharaoh was a god was ingrained in the minds of the Egyptians
to such an extent that it was no longer necessary to rely on the Osirian myth to
perpetuate the idea of the pharaoh's divinity and immortality. The remains of
ancient Egyptian civilization, including the written texts which have survived,
leave us in no doubt about the impressive accomplishments of the Egyptians in
science and mathematics. The Greeks, who themselves made great advances
in these fields, readily acknowledged their debt to the Egyptians. The
Egyptians were not very good at theory but they were excellent observers
and adept at working out practical solutions to problems in science and
mathematics. The pyramids are the most noteworthy illustration this. Early
Egyptian geometry and arithmetic was a response to the need to measure
Nile floods and survey land for irrigation or taxation. This was used for
measuring the level of water in the Nile and was employed from the Old
Kingdom onwards. There was another linear measure which was employed for
ordinary purposes. The arithmetical calculations were mainly based on
addition and subtraction. Knowledge of the properties of multiplication was
very elementary. Multiplication involved a tedious method which was more
like an extended form of addition. This was also true for division. This is all the
more remarkable when we realize that calculations on a scale as vast as that of
have to tend to get enlarged exact. We know that the Egyptians used some of
their astronomical observations to work out the alignment of the great
pyramids. Egyptians were highly successful in preserving the human dead
body. The art of mummification had been perfected by the Fourth Dynasty.
Preservation of the dead body required a good understanding of human
anatomy and of the basic principles of chemistry. This was a highly specialized
job and the skill would have been acquired after a long period of training.
Unfortunately the expertise which was developed for mummification did not
lead to any breakthrough in medical science. The specialists who carried out
the preservation of the dead body got a chance to learn much about human
anatomy. This experience could not benefit medical science for the simple
reason that medicine was normally the domain of priests who did not directly
have anything to do with the actual process of preservation. Priests preferred
to use magical charms and spells for curing illness. A great historical
opportunity for the advancement of medicine was thereby lost.
CONCLUSION
The unification of Egypt under Menes paved the rise of the great civilization.
Religion was the basis of statecraft, administration, politics and society. The
monarchy was embedded in the concept of divinity. The Pharaoh or the King
was the epitome of power with a claim of sanction from divinity. The initial
dynasties saw the royal households occupying almost all the executive offices.
However, with the bureaucracy becoming more complex, the commoners
were included in the government offices. The size and density of Egyptian
settlements continued to increase with time, with the latter settlements
showing signs of Libyan and Nubian influences. Religion continued to play an
important role in the lives of Egyptians. The great civilization of Egypt declined
under the leadership of weak rulers and continuous foreign invasions. The
invasion of Alexander was the final nail in the coffin. The civilization declined
but the legacy of the Egyptians still lives on .