Egyptian culture: general characteristics

The Egyptian culture developed and evolved over some 3,000 years around the Nile River Valley, a key river for the establishment of this new civilization since thanks to it agrarian life will depend and therefore its economy. From there, there were some forms of life, as well as customs and traditions of the Egyptian civilization that ended around the year 1100 BC. C. Next, in this lesson from a TEACHER we offer you the general characteristics of Egyptian culture, a culture that is perhaps one of the most amazing in history.

Index

1. Geographical location of Ancient Egypt
2. Political organization of ancient Egypt
3. Social organization of Egyptian culture
4. Economic organization
5. Egyptian religion
6. Cult of the dead in Egyptian culture
7. Writing in Ancient Egypt

Egypt is located in northwestern Africa. In ancient times it was bounded to the north by the Mediterranean Sea, to the south by the Nubian Desert, to the east by the Red Sea and to the west by the Libyan Desert.

Geographically speaking it had two regions the Upper Egypt which was to the south and ranged from Aswan to Cairo and the Lower egypt which was to the north and included from Cairo to the Mediterranean Sea.

We start with the general characteristics of Egyptian culture knowing how it was organized at the political level. The Egyptian government was based on a hereditary theocratic monarchy. The power was in the hands of the Pharaoh which had a court composed of officials, noble priests and warriors.

The pharaoh was the governor of the country, the one who controlled the entire empire and as such was the owner of all the lands and waters of the Nile, he was also in charge of dictating laws, controlling trade... part magical powers were attributed to him for this was considered the son of the God Ra (Sun).

There were so many functions that a pharaoh could have that many of them were delegated to officials, among them we could highlight the Type Real Since he was in charge of keeping accounts of farm income and controlling trade, these were really experts in writing and numbers.

On the other hand, we are also at Grand vizier, the intermediary between the authorities in charge of controlling the nomes (provinces of the territory) and the pharaoh. And finally the figure of Grand Priest who was in charge of presenting the pharaohs as descendants of the Gods.

The social organization in Egyptian culture It was divided into several groups characterized by the great inequalities between them. These were:

• The priests: who belonged to the group of the privileged and were in charge of the religious cult, and the intermediaries between the gods, the pharaoh and men. In addition, they took care of the temples.
• The scribes: They were men of a wide culture, since they were in charge of administering the country, watching over the buildings, enlist the soldiers for the army, as well as collect the taxes and keep the accounts of the agricultural products that received.
• The Warriors: they were the ones who defended the country and the conquerors of the new territories. According to their merits, they could receive slaves or land as a reward.
• The village: It was the largest social group, made up of farmers, artisans, and merchants. All were required to pay taxes, to serve as soldiers whenever there was war, and to tithe even in times of poor harvests.
• The slaves: they were the prisoners of war or the men who had been bought in the foreign market. His job was to serve the privileged classes in the toughest jobs.

We continue with the general characteristics of Egyptian culture speaking, now, of the economic issue. The economy basically depended on the Nile River. This had two annual floods and when the water level dropped it left a kind of fertile mud that favored the sowing especially of wheat, barley, vegetables and some legumes.

Another of the tasks of the Egyptian people was dose the water to prevent the stages of drought, since apart from the fact that floods could be disastrous if not controlled they could destroy crops and even populations. For this, the construction of nilometers, dams and canals were carried out.

Industry and commerce were also of great importance in Egyptian times. We have to highlight the linen weaving industry, the production of metals with which they made weapons, jewelry, and combs; pottery and the preparation of a type of papyrus-based paper.

As regards trade, it was carried out through barter in which art objects and fabrics were exchanged for wood, metals and livestock.

The Egyptian religion was a polytheistic religion and among the main divinities we find Ra (God of the Sun) and main divinity of Egypt, Amun (creator of the world), Osiris (the Setting sun that represented fertility), Seth (the night that represented evil), Anubis (judge of the dead) and Thot (God of the wisdom).

In this other lesson from a TEACHER we dwell in detail on the Egyptian gods giving a list with the most important and their meaning.

Another of the most important characteristics of Egyptian culture are the funeral rites. The cult of the dead is perhaps one of the strangest and at the same time surprising things about this culture, since that the Egyptians believed in a life after death and therefore followed a series of norms that came in the Book of the Dead.

The Book of the Dead was the one that contained all the funeral rites and magic formulas that had to be done when a person died. One of the most important chapters within this was where all the sins that should be avoided appeared so that when the soul was judged before Anubis (judge of the dead) it would pass without difficulties to the life of the most there.

It was thought that the human being did not die completely and that the soulka) was always alive, hence the construction of the pyramids, their houses in the afterlife, which as they believed that they would be the same as the first one, they were buried with all their jewels, belongings, food….

All Egyptians waited for the time of their death to live in the afterlife and prepared for it according to economic possibilities, their body and tomb. All organs were removed from the corpses that were placed in the canopic vessels (intestines, stomach, lungs and liver) to finally mummify them.

The Egyptians used as paper the stems of the papyrus that was a plant that grew on the banks of the Nile River. This writing was deciphered by Jean-François Champollion in 1822 thanks to the discovery of the Rosetta stone in 1799 by Pierre-François Bouchard. We find three types of writing.

• Hieroglyphic writing: It was the type of writing that was used in tombs and temples and is characterized by its difficult interpretation since it is made up of images of animals and objects and signs.
• Hieratic writing: its use was restricted only to people of great culture and priest. It is the same as the previous one, only abbreviated.
• Demotic Writing: It is an abbreviation of the previous one and it was the one used by the people.

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