The Egyptian Civilization – Three Kingdoms
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Egyptian civilization can be stretched back to thousands of years, it was about in 6000 BCE when this civilization had its robust outgrowth. The history of Egypt is primarily divided into three periods based on their kingdom, which are - Old, Middle, and New. With this they had the shorter intermediate periods which separated these kingdoms.
In this section, we are going to learn about the Ancient Egyptian civilization which is a great part of the history of mankind. Students can take the help of these notes provided in terms of revision purpose or to gain historical knowledge.
Beginning of the Civilization
Before the outburst of the old kingdom period, the foundations had started which led to the Egyptian civilization. The civilization was being laid for around thousands of years, when people started to live around the Nile River. They started inhabiting near the river due to the sedentary style of agriculture. This also led to the urbanization and specialized growth in the non-agricultural economic activity, which acted like a spearhead source of livelihood in ancient Egypt.
Inhabitation of the Humans in the Sahara
Humans inhabited the Egypt culture right from the 6000 BCE, however, in the later years large settlement began in this region. During this time, the Sahara Desert has expanded.
Scientific study has found out that this expansion was caused by the tilt of the Earth, which probably happened at that period of time. While other studies have explored that there was a changing rainfall pattern, the causes are still not clear, that is why this data was not reliable. Expansion of civilization near the Sahara was because of the humans who resided closer to the Nile River in search of a good supply of water and food sources.
Egyptian Civilization History – The Kingdoms of Egypt, its Invasion and Decline
The civilization, ancient Egypt was a distinct civilization in the ancient part of North Africa. These regions were concentrated along the lower reaches of the River Nile. This river is situated in Egypt. The ancient Egyptian civilization was followed around 3100 BC with the political unification of the Upper and Lower sides of Egypt under the Narmer.
The history of Egypt was mostly noticed as a series of stable and distinct kingdoms which were marked by periods of relative instability, which was known as the Intermediate Periods. The periods were namely:
The Old Kingdom
The Early Bronze Age
The Middle Kingdom
Middle Bronze Age
New Kingdom
Late Bronze Age
Later in the declining age, civilization had a good portion in the Near East as well.
During the course of Egyptian history, the civilization was being invaded and conquered by many foreign powers.
Features of Egyptian Civilization
The Egyptian civilization can be featured in the following points as mentioned below:
Egyptian art and architecture were very rich. The ancient architectural monuments, the sculptures, paintings, and those with applied crafts were crafted in these dynastic periods of the first three millennium years.
The course of art in Egypt worked parallel to a large political history.
The civilization depended on the belief system of the natural, divine order which was maintained in Egypt.
The people of Egypt got artistic achievement in a representational art form as well as in architecture.
Their art was focused on the preservation of the forms and conventions.
They impressed in them the correct relationship between humankind (that is the common people of Egypt) and the king, and with the pantheon of the Gods, who were believed to have resided there.
Egyptian art activity appears as outwardly resistant to development and the exercise of an individual artistic judgment was also possible in this.
Hieroglyphics Meaning
Hieroglyph is a character that was structured in the pictorial form of writing. This form was prevalent in the Ancient Egyptian monuments. Hieroglyphic symbols also represent the objects which depict the usual stand for the specific sounds or the groups of any sounds.
Hieroglyph, meant in their Egyptian terminology as “sacred carving,” is a Greek translation of the Egyptian phrase meaning “the god’s words,” this was used at the time of the early Greek contacts with Egypt to distinguish the older hieroglyphs from the handwriting of the demotic.
The Egyptian Age was a striking and turning period in mankind. This age has witnessed the growth of the political feature, artistic and architectural features. The Ancient Egypt age is a very important chapter in the history of mankind also in the syllabus of a student studying history.
Thus, the students are advised to go through this capitulated study.
Did You Know?
FAQs on Ancient Egyptian Civilization
1. How old can be ancient Egypt?
For almost about 30 centuries, from the unification, Egypt was born. Around 3100 B.C. its conquest by Alexander the Great in 332 B.C which then ancient Egypt was the preeminent civilization of the Mediterranean world.
2. What was ancient Egypt well known for?
Ancient Egyptian civilization was well known for many achievements which included - quarrying, construction techniques, surveying. All these activities supported the building of the monumental pyramids, temples, and obelisks, this was a system of mathematics that was of great practical importance. It laid an effective system of medicine, with robust irrigation growth with good agricultural production techniques.
3. What was the old name for Egypt?
A very popular and ancient name for the Egyptian land was "Kemet," which meant the "black land." The scholars generally believed that this ancient name was derived due to the fertile soil which was found in this civilization. This fertile soil was the remains or leftovers of the Nile flood.
