الاثنين، 22 أغسطس 2011
Red Sea coral reefs in Egypt
In addition to these types of tourism, "Diving Centers Tourism" represents a tourist activity that attracts large numbers of tourists. Sharm el-Sheikh city is one of the largest diving centers in the world because of its potential environment and unique diversified nature which leads Sharm el-sheikh to be one of the major centers for attracting domestic and international tourism, in addition to being a resort for armatures fishing, tourism and diving. There you will find the biggest diving centers equipped with the latest devices, because of which, World Travel Awards awarded Sharm el-Sheikh the best global destination for diving in 2007.
In order to achieve further flourishing and tourist attractions, "Time-sharing Tourism", which was developed by Egypt, has revived. This new type of tourism grant non-Egyptians the right of ownership and usage of small units of accommodation in some new urban areas as well as in tourist areas in each of the distinguished cities such as Sidy Abdul Rahman, Hurghada, Red Sea and Marsa Matrouh.
Moreover, conference tourism in Egypt has steadily increased over the past six years where the total events held in Cairo International Conference Center amounted to 665 events, including 132 international and local conferences and 235 exhibitions and 298 cermonies and occasions. In 2008, Egypt witnessed a significant recovery for conference tourism, where many world conferences have been held on its territory such as Davos economic forum in Sharm El-Sheikh, The National Conference on Population and the African Summit.
Festival tourism is also one of the most important and latest types of tourist attractions, either sport, recreational, or artistic festivals. Egypt solely holds many popular festivals such as Cairo International Song Festival, International Film Festival, and Tourism and Shopping Festival, the annual fishing festival for amateurs and Alexandria International Festival for Mediterranean Song and the Sharm el-Sheikh International Championship for Bowling.
In September 2007, Al-Alsharkeya governorate organized the XVI International Festival for Arab Horses, which is one of the most important tourism festivals in Egypt.
The festival has organized several shows including the musical horse taming and horseback gymnastics and other show of various musical trots with horses, in addition to, the skill of brandishing weapons while riding a horse.
In 2007, Egypt won the second rank among the best 5 tourist destinations in the Middle East for setting up conferences and festivals on the sidelines of Egypt's participation in the Gulf Incentive Business Travel & Meetings ExhibitionEgyptian Tourism Revenue 2009
Tourism revenue in Egypt fell in the first four months of 2009 compared to the same period in 2008, according to the latest figures from Reuters and the Ministry of Tourism. While the numbers from the two sources differ, it is clear that the world financial crisis has taken its toll on tourism to Egypt.
According to Reuters, tourism receipts for the period from January through March were down by 17.3 percent to $2.19 billion. A spokesperson for the Ministry of Tourism, Omayma El-Huseini, said that figure fell by 11 percent from a year ago, and that the number of tourists decreased by 9.3 percent.
For all of 2008, tourism revenue in Egypt amounted to $11 billion, which was slightly over 11 percent of the country’s gross domestic product. The sector also employs about 12.6 percent of the Egyptian workforce.
The Tourism of Egypt
Egypt was known throughout its history as a destination for tourists and travelers since it was visited by "Herodotus" during the ancient time, when he got surprised because of the vast difference between Egypt and his homeland. Egypt maintained this image throughout the middle and modern history. However, the discovery of the Pharaonic antiquities long time ago has added a special charm to Egypt, besides its unique religious and cultural monuments. On the other hand, Egypt enjoys a geographical location, and a moderate climate all the year-round, along with its smooth vast coastlines, and beaches with its unique treasures of coral reefs, providing Egypt with advantages of a competitive edge.
 The Great Pyramid of Giza was the world's tallest building from c. 2570 BC to c. 1300 AD. Today it is one of Egypt's largest tourist attractions. |
Attractions
The greatest tourist attractions in Egypt are the antiquities for which Egypt is known worldwide. Principal attractions include the pyramids and Great Sphinx at Giza, the Abu Simbel temples south of Aswan, the Valley of the Kings, and the The Mosque of Muhammad Ali Pasha in Cairo, also coastal areas in Sinai.
Giza is most famous as the location of the Giza Plateau: the site of some of the most impressive ancient monuments in the world, including a complex of ancient Egyptian royal mortuary and sacred structures, including the Great Sphinx, the Great Pyramid of Giza, and a number of other large pyramids and temples.
Saqqara, located some 30 km south of modern-day Cairo is a vast, ancient burial ground in Egypt, serving as the necropolis for the Ancient Egyptian capital, Memphis. Saqqara features numerous pyramids, including the world's oldest standing step pyramid, as well as a number of mastabas.
 An Egyptian man looks at Abu El-Hagag mosque (L), which was built over a portion of Luxor temple, in the port city of Luxor, around 650 km (404 miles) south of Cairo, August 16, 2009. [Agencies] |
Diversity of the Egyptian tourism modes
Egypt enjoys various fields of tourism attraction, the most important are archeological or cultural tourism as one of the oldest types of tourism in Egypt, where the landmarks of the ancient civilizations are visible to the naked eye, an incarnation of the nations that constructed these civilizations since the dawn of history. Despite the multiple types of tourism, and Egypt's cultural tourism remains the unrepeated, unique and non-competitive component of tourism as Egypt possesses one third of the world's known monuments.
Besides cultural and archaeological tourism, many tourism attraction types have come into existence and addressed broader segments of tourists across the world, including recreational tourism, beaches tourism, religious tourism, therapeutic tourism, eco-tourism, sports tourism, golf tourism, safari tourism, desert tourism, yacht tourism, and maritime tourism in addition to festivals tourism, and cultural events and finally conferences and exhibitions tourismChallenges to the recovery of tourism in Egypt
.Tourism to the Middle East, or should we more accurately describe it as the Muddle East, has been under serious siege during 2011. With half of 2011 behind us, inbound tourism to Tunisia, Egypt, Jordan and Syria are well down over the record 2011 levels. Israel has experienced a slight downturn. Political instability in Egypt, Tunisia and Syria has had a ripple effect on tourism in neighboring countries, including Jordan, and Israel is expected to continue for some time. The usually popular multi-destination combination tours, which include combinations involving one or more of Egypt, Jordan, Israel and Syria, have suffered a major downturn in 2011 especially as Egypt is usually the core destination for these tours.
Political instability emanating from growing anti-regime opposition in Syria and the Syrian government’s violent attempts to crush the protest movement has had a negative impact on Syria’s tourism industry which was enjoying significant growth in 2010. The political instability in Tunisia and Egypt is far from resolved. The recently announced postponement of elections slated for September in Egypt is likely to prolong the agony experienced by the Egyptian tourism industry during 2011.
السبت، 20 أغسطس 2011
these are modern examples of the powerThe Charm of the Amulet
In any case, amulets were worn from infancy through death. As stated in, Breaking the Color Code, the gemstones used to create the amulets were as important as the shapes or images carved upon them. The power of the gem coupled with the symbolism on the amulet served as powerful protection against harm and evil both on earth and in the afterlife. In order to give an amulet its power, it had to be made and dedicated in strict
The Scarab amulet was one of several amulets dedicated to the Sun God Ra, and was one of the most important of over thirty funerary amulets. The Scarab was a stylized depiction of the dung beetle, which ancient Egyptians used to illustrate life-giving powers. The dung beetle was chosen for this honor because after it laid its egg in animal dung and rolled it into a ball, it then pushed the ball into the sun so that the sun’s heat hatched the egg. Thus, the important connection with the life-giving powers of the sun was recognized. In addition, the Scarab was known as the "protector of the heart", so this amulet was placed in the mummy’s heart cavity while a priest read an appropriate dedication from the Book of the Dead.During life, Egyptians carried the Scarab amulet to protect their hearts and give them long lives.
Three of the first Egyptian gods, often referred to as the Egyptian trinity, were Osiris, Isis, and Horus, and the amulets associated with them are the Djet, the Knot of Isis, and the Wedjat, or Eye of Horus, respectively. The Djet was used to cure or protect the wearer against injury to the back in general and to protect the spine. When used as a royal funerary amulet, it guaranteed that Osiris’ spirit would accompany the pharaoh’s soul to the underworld, and he would then be reborn with a strong spine. The Djet can be recognized in its two forms: That of a square column topped by four cross pieces (older version) which was a stylized symbol of the tree that hid Osiris’ body after it was retrieved from the Nile; and that of a short "T" shaped cross, a stylized symbol of a bone from Osiris’ spine.
The Knot of Isis was a stylized representation of the genitals of Isis and was always made of red stone. Almost every woman carried this amulet in order to be granted all of Isis’s wisdom and knowledge. When Isis was shown clutching the Papyrus Scepter (described below), the amulet would contain a green stone and served as a fertility charm.
Papyrus plants grew abundantly in ancient Egypt; therefore, they symbolized fertility and life. As an amulet, it was called either the Papyrus Scepter or Papyrus Wand, shaped like a papyrus shoot, and when used as a funerary amulet, it assured the deceased of great fertility in the next life.
During the New Kingdom, a funerary amulet called the Collar of Gold was added to the Book of the Dead. The Collar, a stunning necklace of which most people have seen illustrations, was made from small oblong gold plates strung together. In larger, more ornate pieces usually worn by royalty, there could be several rows of plates, sometimes alternating between gold and lapis lazuli. Originally, the Collar’s purpose was to enable the mummy to break free of his bandages during resurrection, but eventually its purpose changed to that of protecting the throat from accidental harm and infection. Perhaps it was because of the Collar’s beauty that it also became a very popular amulet among the living.
During the period of the 11th to 22nd Dynasties, some major changes took place in Egypt regarding the standard traditions of amuletic magic. These changes, brought about by the Rekh-Khetu, or temple wise men, also changed amuletic traditions in civilizations all over the world. The first change was that the lengthy consecration ritual that priests normally performed on amulets carried by the living was now considered unnecessary. During the original consecration ritual, the appropriate chapter from the Book of the Dead was read, but according to this new decree, the amulet only needed to be inscribed with the chapter number or the first line of the prayer. However, the original consecration ritual was still performed on funerary amulets, which the temple wise men claimed doubled the amulets’ powers.
With these and other new changes, the purposes fulfilled by amulets grew, as did the number of amulets. No longer were amulets simply to protect the deceased and keep the living safe from illness and accidents, but new amulets were created to fulfill almost any wish, even for tangible goods.
These are only a few examples of the amulets used in ancient Egypt. Just as there were many major and minor gods, there were also quite a few amulets dedicated to each god. Some symbols differ only subtly; for example, the principal symbol for the powerful god Amun was a ram with curved horns, yet the symbol for the minor god Khnum was a ram with wavy horns. With so many gods and even more amulets, it’s no wonder that the manufacture of amulets in ancient Egypt became a major industry
Bread in Ancient Egypt depending on their wealth and status
Bread was made from a variety of ingredients, though often only a specific species of wheat was thought best (Triticum aestivum), though almost any cereal was suitable. Depending on the type of flour, the structure and texture of a loaf could be very different, and just as today, all breads were not light, risen or spongy.
Thankfully, the climate of Egypt, which is very arid in many locations, is responsible for preserving a rich record of organic materials, including bread loaves. Hundreds of specimens have survived, mostly from funerary offerings that have found their way into the museums of the world. These even include fragments from Predynastic graves of the Badarian culture. Talk about stale! These loaves are over five thousand years old.
These ancient loaves, though a direct source of evidence about ancient Egyptian bread and baking, have actually not been studied much by modern scholars. Hence, though many breads and cakes are known from historical documents, their distinguishing features are in fact unknown. Some scholars have suggested that pesen-bread was a flat round loaf, not unlike that found in Egypt today. However, preserved loaves have shown that breads of the same shape were not always made from the same ingredient or the same recipe and, therefore, may not have been known by the same name. For example, extant hand-formed conical loaves were frequently made from emmer wheat (Triticum dicoccum), though one known specimen was made mostly from figs (Ficus carica). At the same time, various shapes and textures of bread could also be made from the same batch of dough.
We mostly know the process of baking from the evidence of artistic scenes in which it is depicted. For example, one of the best examples comes from a relief in a 5th Dynasty tomb at Saqqara belonging to Ti. However, there are also Old Kingdom statuettes that portray baking activities. Middle Kingdom models, notably from the tomb of Meketra, also provide some details, as well as give us a idea of a busy, robust bakery. Also, several tombs at Beni Hasan contain bread-making scenes, and at least one other is found in the New Kingdom wall paintings of Nebamun's tomb on the West Bank of Thebes (modern Luxor).
The preparations for making bread in Ancient Egypt were somewhat more difficult that in our modern times, principally because of the distinctive nature of their staple wheat, emmer, which differs in some properties from most modern wheat used to make bread. Emmer was used into the Ptolamic Period. Today, typical bread wheat (Triticum aestivum) has ears that easily separate into chaff and grain when threshed. The traditional process for processing it uses winnowing and sieving to remove the chaff from the grain.
However, emmer requires more extensive processing, which at least in families was usually performed by women. Usually, only enough grain was ground at one time to fill the needs of a day's meals.
After threshing, it breaks into packets called spikelets, each of which is a thick envelope of chaff that tightly surround two kernels. Prior to winnowing and sieving to clean the chaff from the kernels, a process is needed to break the chaff apart without damaging the grain.
From various research and experimental evidence, we do have some idea of the procedures employed to processes the spikelets by the ancient Egyptians. We believe that whole spikelets were moistened with a small amount of water and than pounded with wooden pestles in limestone mortars. Since the water made the spikelets pliable, the chaff could be shredded without crushing the grain kernels inside. This was not a time consuming process, although the ancient Egyptian mortars were usually small and several batches of spikelets had to be processed before enough freed kernels were produced to make bread for even a family. Even after this added process, the released grain kernels and broken chaff then had to be tried, probably under the sun. Afterwards, it went through a series of winnowing steps, and sieving, The sieves made from rushes and the like were not very efficient and allowed grains of sand and little flakes of stone to remain in the flour, especially when soft mill stones were used. In fact, the last step in the process was the removal of final fragments of chaff which were picked out by hand.
Next, the the whole grain was milled into flour, usually using a flat grinding stone known as a saddle quern. From Neolithic times through the Old Kingdom, these grinding stones were placed on the floor, which made the process difficult. However, tombs scenes of the Middle Kingdom show the querns raised onto platforms, called quern emplacements. Some of these have been excavated at a few New Kingdom sites. They made life much easier, and probably made the work quicker as well. Modern experimentation with these devices has shown that no grit was required to aid the milling process, as has sometimes been suggested by scholars, and the the texture of the flour could be precisely controlled by the miller.
Baking also evolved over ancient Egypt's long history. Excavation of a bakery dating to the Old Kingdom at Giza evidences that heavy pottery bread molds were set in rows on a bed of embers to bake the dough placed within them. By the Middle Kingdom, square hearths were used, and the pottery moulds were altered into tall, narrow, almost cylindrical cones. Then, by the New Kingdom, a new oven was introduced with a large, open-clay cylinder encased in thick mud bricks and mortar. The flat disks of dough, perhaps leavened, were slapped onto the pre heated inner oven wall. When baked, they peeled off and were caught before they could fall into the embers below.
Bread loaves are especially numerous in tombs of the New Kingdom, and are not limited as to size, shape or decorations. In fact, some loaves were formed into recognizable shapes, such as fish and human figures. Others were not as fancy, taking simple shapes such as disks and fans. The dough textures of these loaves range from very fine to mealy, mostly only indicating the
people, as today, probably had preferences in the type of bread they liked to eat. Whole or coarsely cracked cooked grains were often added, creating a texture not unlike modern multigrain breads. Emmer flower was almost always used for these loaves. Barley (Hordeum vulgare) was very rarely used in these bread loaves, and the amount that does show up is in such small amounts that it may have accidentally gotten into the mix. Somtimes, the sour dough left over from the previous day might be added, or some barm from the last time beer was brewed. There were flavorings, such as coriander seeds (Coriandrum sativum), honey, butter, eggs, oil an herbs, as well as fruits such as dates (Phoenix dactylifera) which were occasionally added. Yeast might also be added to some recipes, but leavening was not always used.
Seemingly, brad flavored with more exotic ingredients were probably only infrequently available to the poorer classes of Egyptians, though more research is needed to determine what breads were available to the various social classes. Unfortunately, funerary loaves comprise most of our evidence of early breads, which might not be representative of the day-to-day variety. However, the remains of cereal-processing equipment and baking installations at settlements sites has provided some evidence for the preparation of ancient Egyptian bread, and these sites may yet yield
Anyone who has studied the ancient pharaohs knows that their names were important
Anyone who has studied the ancient pharaohs knows that their names were important from the earliest times through the end of ancient Egyptian history, frequently offering clues to their personality, the period in which they lived and particularly, the gods that they most worshipped. But it was not only the kings who placed great store in names. All Egyptian's names were carefully chosen, apparently for commoners and royalty alike, though one major difference is that the names of common Egyptians were not preserved in cartouches, as were those of royalty..
At times, some of the naming techniques of the ancient Egyptians could also lead to considerable confusion. This is obvious among some kings, who had a number of different names, but at times also changed their names, particularly when they inherited or otherwise ascended to the throne of Egypt. Furthermore, some individuals seem to possibly have had different names in different parts of Egypt. It has been suggested, for example, that the first born son of Ramesses II, Amunhikhopshef, may have been called Sethikhopshjef in the north of Egypt. Hence, the god Amun of the south was used in Upper Egypt while the favored deity, Seth, was used in Lower Egypt. The possibility that people could be called one name in one location, and a different one elsewhere, has some justification in the names of gods. For example, chapter 142 of the Book of the Dead carries the heading "Knowing the names of Osiris in his every seat where he wishes to be", and is an extensive list of geographically local versions of Osiris.
However, it should be noted that this may have been a complete name change, or possibly even another son of Ramesses II. Such is the confusion with ancient Egyptian names.
The most simple names in ancient Egypt were nouns or adjectives, such as Neferet, meaning "beautiful woman". Others took the form of statements such as Rahotep, meaning "Ra is satisfied", or Khasekhemwy, meaning "the two powers appear".
Many ancient Egyptian names contained the name of a god. At times, the god may be assumed, so we have names that contain the phrase "god is gracious", or "whom god loves", but here the term god undoubtedly refers not to an abstract deity but rather to a specific, assumed deity which might be a local god, or the god to whom the parents prayed. Much of the time, the god was named.
Common words or phrases were often used in names. These included ankh (life), mery (beloved), hotep (peace), nefer (beautiful) and khenemet (one who is joined with)
Many names could be used by both males and females, and in these instances, an identifier, such as a hieroglyphic man or woman, was appended to the name in order to make it masculine or feminine. However, "et" on the end of a name, or sometimes in the middle of it, appears to have been a feminine identifier, and "pa-sheri" (masculine) or "ta-sherit" (feminine) was somewhat similar to the equivalent of "Junior" today. We also find Si, meaning son, or Sit, meaning daughter.
Ancient Egyptians believed in keeping honored names alive within the family. Hence, it was necessary for identification to sometimes provide a "ren nefer", or beautiful name. Hence, the first name would be the formal name and the second name would be the known by name. It should also be noted that Egyptian probably used nicknames not unlike we do today, either to shorten longer names or to describe a characteristic of the individual.
“In Egypt the name of a thing or person did more than express identity, it incorporated identity,” writes Stephen Quirke (Who Were the Pharaohs? 1990). The essence of the individual was encapsulated in the name given to the child at birth.
In fact, the ancient Egyptians thought that names were an essential element of the human individual, just as necessary for survival as the Ka (sustenance, life force, or double), Ba (soul) or Akh (effectiveness). Names for non-royal individuals often followed those of the rulers of the time, and often incorporated the name of a deity chosen either because they were pre-eminent at that period or were locally important in the place where the individual was born. Hence, the name of an individual is frequently a clue as to the date or geographical region in which he was born.
The importance of names, not merely as abstract symbols but as physical manifestations of the named phenomena themselves, is re-emphasized by the so-called Memphite Theology, inscribed on the Shabaqo (Shabaka) Stone, in which the god Ptah creates everything in the universe by pronouncing each of the names.
In the same way, the Egyptian reference works known as onomastica simply consisted of lists of names for such things as people, professions and places, without any description or definition, because it was presumed that the name or word was itself a perfect expression of the phenomenon concerned. To the ancient Egyptians, knowing the name of a thing made it familiar, gave it a place in one's mind, reduced it to something that was manageable and could be fitted into one's mental universe.
Like the shadow, the name was thought of as a living part of each individual, which had to be assigned immediately at birth, for otherwise it was felt that the individual would not properly come into existence. In the case of the King Lists inscribed on the walls of temples and tombs, the cult of the royal ancestor was celebrated by writing out the cartouches of past rulers, and in a sense, it was the list of names on which the cultic rituals focused rather than the individual rulers themselves.
Names were so important that their removal from monuments or statuary was considered to be equivalent to the destruction of the very memory and existence of that person. So long as one's name was remembered, the deceased was believed to be immortal so the greatest horror was to have one's name destroyed. Conversely, the addition of a new name to a relief or statue, known as usurping by Egyptologists, was considered to imbue it with the essence and personality of the new owner, regardless of its actual physical appearance.
The Egyptians attached very great importance to the knowledge of names, and the knowledge of how to use and to make mention of names which possessed magical powers was a necessity both for the living and the dead. It was believed that if a man knew the name of a god or a demon, and addressed him by it, he was bound to answer him and to do whatever he wished; and the possession of the knowledge of the name of a man enabled his neighbor to do him good or evil. The name that was the object of a curse brought down evil upon its owner, and similarly the name that was the object of a blessing or prayer was thought to bring him many good things.
Though this text is primarily concerned with the names of individuals, we must also point out that Egyptians literally seem to have named everything of any importance. Not only was every temple given a name, but so too were individual parts of temples, as well as other building
The Ancient Egyptian Bride
For all that religion played in ancient Egyptian life, there was one place it had no role at all: the Egyptian marriage. There wasn’t even a civil ceremony. Rather, marriage simply took place when two young people decided to move in together (usually the bride would move in with her husband) and start a common household. But that doesn’t mean that marriage was not taken seriously. From the paintings we have found, letters that were left from grieved widowers to their deceased mates, and from statues from all periods of ancient Egyptian history, we see that marriage and a close family played an integral role in ancient Egypt.
Love and Marriage
A bride would be young, about 14 or 15 years old. Her husband could be anywhere from 17 to 20—or older if he was divorced or a widower. The ancient Egyptians were encouraged to marry young, considering that the life span at this time was relatively short.
"Take a wife while you are young,
that she may make a son for you
while you are youthful…" (Instructions of Ani)
Interestingly, one of the most affectionate titles one could call their love was "brother" or "sister" in ancient Egypt. This had nothing to do with sibling relations, but led many archaeologists and scholars to wrongly assume that most ancient Egyptians married their siblings. Actually, this usually occurred only among royalty, and was not a common occurrence otherwise. So we find part of a love poem written by a young ancient Egyptian woman which tells us that, "My brother torments my heart with his voice, he makes sickness take hold of me; he is neighbor to my mother’s house, and I cannot get to him!"
The Marriage Settlement
It wasn’t necessary, but most marriages had a contract drawn up between the parties. The poorer classes probably did not do this because they probably had few possessions to consider and also the cost of a scribe would have been prohibitive.
Marriage settlements were drawn up between a woman’s father and her prospective husband, although many times the woman herself was part of the contract. The sole purpose of the contract was to establish the rights of both parties to maintenance and possessions during the marriage and after divorce if it should occur, very similar to today’s prenuptial agreements. What is really fascinating is the equality women held with men in their rights to own, manage and receive property.
If the marriage ended in divorce, the rights of the wife were equally protected. Generally, she was entitled to support from her husband, especially if she was rejected by him through no fault of her own. The amount might equal one third of the settlement or even more. If the bride ended up committing adultery (which was extremely frowned upon for both men and women), she still had certain rights to maintenance from her former husband. Monogamy, except for some of the higher classes and royalty, seemed to be the rule for most ancient Egyptian couples
Childbirth and Children in Ancient Egypt
Children were considered a blessing in ancient Egypt. Sons and daughters took care of their parents in their old age. They were often called "the staff of old age," that is, one upon whom the elderly parents could depend upon for support and care. The scribe Ani instructed that children repay the devotion of Egyptian mothers:
"Repay your mother for all her care. Give her as much bread as she needs, and carry her as she carried you, for you were a heavy burden to her. When you were finally born, she still carried you on her neck and for three years she suckled you and kept you clean."
It was also expected that the older son or child carry on the funerary provisioning of the parents after their death. Children had value in ancient Egypt. The Greeks, who were accustomed to leaving infants exposed to the elements, were stunned to observe that every baby born to Egyptian families were cared for and raised. This care was not easy. Many children died to infection and disease. There was a high rate of infant mortality, one death out of two or three births, but the number of children born to a family on average were four to six, some even having ten to fifteen.
The Kahun, Berlin and Carlsberg papyri contain an extraordinary series of tests for fertility, pregnancy and to determine the sex of the unborn child. These tests cover a wide range of procedures, including the induction of vomiting and examination of the eyes. Perhaps the most famous test says: to see if a woman will or will not bear a child. Emmer and barley, the lady should moisten with her urine every day, like dates and like sand in two bags. If they all grow, she will bear a child. If the barley grows it will be a male, if the emmer grows it will be a female, if neither grow she will not bear a child.
This technique was tested in the late 20th century, and it showed no growth of either seed when watered with male or non-pregnant female urine. With forty specimens from pregnant women, there was growth of one or both species in more than 50% of the cases. While this seemed a good indicator of pregnancy, no growth failed to exclude pregnancy in 30% of the cases. When only one species germinated, the prediction of gender was correct in seven cases, and incorrect in sixteen cases
While agriculture is important throughout the world, for the people of Egypt
While agriculture is important throughout the world, for the people of Egypt it has always been a matter of working closely with the seasons and understanding their change. Throughout history, Egypt has celebrated the relationship between the land they farm and the Nile.
The Nile is the longest river in the world, a majestic body of water that flows with the very life of Egypt in its currents. The shape of the Nile is that of a Lotus flower, the ancient Egyptian symbol for regeneration of life. Rainfall is almost non-existent in Egypt, and the Nile has always been the source of water for crops and animals.
The land of ancient Egypt was divided into sections with varying proximity to the Nile. The lower land on either side of the Nile is known as the floodplain. This is the most fertile land in Egypt and most of the crops were grown here. Farming in ancient times occurred on the highest ground in this zone. The land was rich and fertile, dark black in color.
A little higher, above the floodplains was the low desert. The Nile did not water this area of land. Egyptians used this portion of land to hunt and bury their dead. It was scant with any kind of vegetation, which made it perfect for such activities.
Even higher still, was the high desert area. The area was most likely used for travel of large caravans in search of stones to cultivate. Mineral resources were sought after in this region, but there was little inhabitation. What inhabitation that did exist in the high desert was there for the strict purpose of producing dates and grapes to insure a link to remote areas. These were little pieces of paradise in the desert, often called oases.
The tools used in ancient Egypt agriculture included: plows, sickles, hoes, forks, scoops, baskets, shaduf, skiffs, and sieves. The farmers also used cattle, oxen, donkey, and goats to aid in the cultivation of their fields. The hoe most often used was made of two separate pieces fitted together and bound with rope. The first piece was a handle and the second a blade. Hoes were used to mix water and dirt in brick making, to break up dirt clods, and to manage the growing crops. Sickles were often made of glazed wood that was sharpened to cut. A shaduf is a mechanical irrigation device used to bring water from the canals to the fields. Skiffs were made of papyrus and were used for travel on the Nile, as well as fishing.
In the cultivation of grain, there were eight steps that the ancient farmer knew as well as he knew his own land. The cultivated land was ploughed with a wooden axe. Ploughing may have been done with the aid of an animal, or exclusively by human strength. Sowing was done by hand, with the help of goats that walked over the newly sown fields to push the seeds out of the reach of bird looking for a quick meal. Once the grain was ready for harvesting, the fields would come to life with the harvesting. The harvesting of the grain was done with sickles. The grain was then bundled and carried, on the back of donkeys, to a safe and dry place to avoid spoilage. The grain was then put through the process known as threshing. It was spread in a contained area and trampled on by the hooves of donkeys. In the Middle Kingdom of Egypt, often cows were used in this process. This process aided in the beginning of separating the grain from the chaff. The next step is often depicted in the tomb paintings of ancient Egyptians. Often done by women, wooden forks were used to eliminate the light chaff and straw from the grain. Next, they would use sieves made from reeds and palm leaves to separate the longer chaff and weeds from the grain. The final step was to secure the crop of grain in bins until consumption.
The ancient Egyptians were thorough in their cultivation of grain, as it was their main staple. Barley and emmer were used to make bread and beer. Excessive grain was exported to neighboring countries. This exportation of grain allowed the Egyptian treasury to accumulate income.
The main vegetables grown in ancient Egypt were onions, leeks, beans, lentils, garlic, radish, cabbage, cucumbers, and lettuce. The fruit grown consisted of dates, figs, grapes, pomegranates, and melons. Due to the wonderful variety of flowers grown in ancient Egypt, bees were able to pollinate and produce honey. Women cultivated and processed honey to be used in desserts. Flax was grown and processed to make linen. Papyrus was converted into in to sandals, skiffs, paper, and mats.
Animals were raised for; food, hides, milk, and dung (used in cooking fires). Oxen increased agricultural productivity. Others animals were domesticated and used by farmers of ancient Egypt. They raised cattle, goats, sheep, pigs, ducks, goats, and oxen. Around 1600 B.C., horses and donkeys were introduced to Egypt from Asia. Camels were unknown during the time of the pharaohs, as they were introduced at a much later time.
For centuries the Nile flooded the valley, and the Egyptians established a routine in dealing with the seasons. The flooding period was called Aketo. This lasted from July to December, using the current calendar months. During this time the farmlands were under water. The farmers used their irrigation canals to run water to the lands not reached by the Nile. Animals were moved during this time to a safer place, to avoid drowning. The outflow period was known as Peleto. This was the coolest season, and it ran from December to March. Seeds were sown during this time and crops cultivated. From March to July they experienced a dry season known as the Syumuu. This was a busy time of bringing in and storing the crops. The yearly flooding was known as the "gift of the Nile," for without it the people of ancient Egypt would have perished.
The average rise in the Nile at flood time was twenty-seven feet. The monsoon rains from Ethiopia were predictable, but often the amount of the rise was not so predictable. If the Nile rose lower than the expected twenty-seven feet, there was famine and loss of crops and lives. If the Nile rose higher than the expected twenty-seven feet, there was damage to villages and a loss of livestock and human life. The flooding was predictable in its coming, but often caused chaos when it was too much or too little. The annual flooding of the Nile continued in to modern times. The completion of the high damn in 1988, at Aswan, has made the flooding controllable. The construction of the Aswan dam started in 1902, and has been built taller through the history of Egypt, to its current height.
In ancient Egypt, most people were involved in some fashion in the agricultural process. It was so interwoven in to the very society and economy that no one was spared the work of farming, excluding those noblemen and scribes that were not suited for the work. However, even then, the noblemen were included in the economic part of agriculture, as they often owned the land being farmed and supervised the tending of such.
There were full time farmers. They often worked the land of wealthy landowners and were paid in food, clothes, and shelter. Some families rented land from the landowners, and they gave the owners a portion of their crops as payment. Still, others were forced by the government of Ancient Egypt to dredge canals, survey land, and prepare the ground as a form of taxation. This was called being drafted through corvee. Anyone that tried to avoid the corvee was dealt with harshly, as was his family.
The Egyptians were the first culture to establish gardens of an ornamental nature. The first recorded garden dates around 2200 B.C. The gardens included pools for fish, fig and pomegranate trees, grapevine covered trellises, and beds of flowers. The pharaohs and government officials used them as oases of privacy and cool and shady retreats from the hot desert sun. They were also found at many religious and sacred sites.
Today, agriculture is still an integral part of Egyptian society and culture. They have continued to use traditional methods handed down through the centuries. Many still use the ancient methods of irrigation, organic manure, and crop rotation. Egypt is an agricultural country with as much beauty as practicality. The wealth derived from agriculture in Egypt can be weighed in more than just coins. The history of agriculture in Egypt has made them rich in knowledge. The courage of past generations has become the courage and wisdom of present and future generations in Egypt. Egypt is a shining example that pride, skill and determination are the foundations of a successful nation
The first hieroglyphs appear on labels and pottery objects dated to about 3100 BCE
The ibis-headed god Thoth was considered to be the patron deity of writing and scribes. A relief from the temple of Ramesses II at Abydos shows the god sitting on a throne, holding a long scribal palette in one hand and in the other, holding the reed with which he plans to write. King Ramesses himself is shown assisting the god by holding a water pot.
The first hieroglyphs appear on labels and pottery objects dated to about 3100 BCE in the late Predynastic Period, and the last glyphs appear on the island of Philae in a temple inscription carved in 394 ACE. Originally, hieroglyphs were used to write different kinds of texts on different surfaces, but as hieratic developed, hieroglyphic script became confined to religious and monumental useage, mostly carved in stone. Upon seeing these temple and other religious inscriptions, the Greeks called the script hiera grammata, "the sacred letters," or ta hieroglyphica, "the sacred carved letters."
A hieroglyphic inscription is arranged on its surface either in columns or in horizontal lines. There are no punctuation marks or spaces to indicate the divisions between words. The signs are generally inscribed facing rightward, (though the opposite orientation does appear in certain contexts) and are usually read from right to left; if they appear in horizontal lines, one reads from upper to lower.
Hieroglyphic script is largely pictorial in character. Most are recognizable pictures of natural or man-made objects, often symbolically color-painted. The ground plan of a simple house, or pr, might stand for the word for "house." These are called ideograms. We do something similar when we use a picture of a heart to represent the word "love" in this sentence "I love New York."
Hieroglyphic script also includes phonograms, sign-words for concepts that cannot be conveyed by a simple picture. The phonogram is best represented by the "rebus principle." A rebus is a message spelled out in pictures that represent sounds rather than the things they are pictures of: for example, the picture of an eye, a bee and a leaf in English might be used to make the English sentence "I Believe," or "eye-bee-leaf." The sentence itself has nothing to do with eyes, bees or leaves.
A broader example of this is found in the writing of the name Amun. "Amun" was the great state god of Thebes, and his name was written usually with the reed-leaf, i + the playing board with game pieces read as men and for final clarity the letter n.
One example of the rebus in statuary is a statue of Senenmut, adviser to the female king Hatshepsut. Her throne name was MaatKaRe. The statue shows Senenmut kneeling behind the horned cobra-uraeus, which represents Ra with the sun-disk between the horns, and also the goddess Maat, who is often called the daughter, or Eye of Ra. Below the uraeus is the upraised arm sign for the word ka.
Words spelled with phonograms usually have an ideogram added at the end. This extra sign is now called a determinative. It shows that the signs before it are to be considered phonograms and not ideograms, and it indicates the general idea of the word. Since the goose represents both the bird itself as well as the word "son," often the determinative of the man appears after the goose to show that that goose is not herein meant.
Hieratic
Hieratic is an adaptation of the hieroglyphic script, the signs being simplified to make their writing quicker. Hieratic was the administrative and business script throughout most of its history, and recorded documents of a literary, scientific and religious nature. It was most often used on papyrus rolls or sheets, or on bits of pottery or stone ostraca.
The earliest body of hieratic texts thus far are estate records that date from the Fourth Dynasty. It was supplanted by demotic script in the Late Period around 600 BCE. After that time the script was used only for religious documents, hence acquiring its name hieratika, meaning "priestly" in Greek.
Hieroglyphs were written with a reed brush and ink on papyrus, leather or wood, and on those surfaces it was harder to attain the crisp quality and detail of the signs as carved on stone. So cursive hieroglyphic was merely a simpler form of each hieroglyphic sign. A hieratic sign was not always as clear a counterpart to its hieroglyphic sign as was cursive hieroglyphic.
Hieratic should not be confused with cursive hieroglyphic script, though the two resemble each other. Cursive hieroglyphic script is usually written from right to left in columns, though just as with hieroglyphic it could vary, and is found almost exclusively in religious texts such as the Book of the Dead. Hieratic could be written in columns or horizontal lines, but it always read from right to left. It also sometimes contained punctuation in the form of a small dot to separate units of thought.
Demotic
The word "Demotic" comes once again from Greek, meaning "popular script." By the Hellenistic period of the Ptolemies, demotic was the only native script in general daily use. It is a very cursive script, having been derived directly from hieratic, making it difficult to read and almost impossible to transcribe into any hieroglyphic counterpart.
Demotic texts were generally administrative, legal and commercial, though there are a few literary compositions as well as scientific and religious texts. The Rosetta Stone contains a section inscribed in demotic along with hieroglyphic and Greek
season when they were harvested, and most importantly, the layer of pith used in manufacture
and included information on the various grades of Papyrus: For practical purposes, the papyrus was limited to a standard size running 47 cm in length at the most (29-33 cm on the average), and 22 cm in width, though by no means was this always so, particularly over Egypt's long history. For longer documents, these pages were joined to create a papyrus roll (scroll). In fact, papyrus sheets were usually not sold individually, but in rolls (of about 20 sheets), with the fibers running in the same direction, except for the end sheets, which were reversed in order to add stringth. However, in later periods, we also find papyrus books, called codex, which finally triumphed over the roll. Just like there are many different kinds and qualities of paper today, the same was true for papyrus. Each type was used for a different purpose. Very cheaply made coarse papyrus was used by merchants to wrap items. The finest and most expensive varieties were reserved for religious or literary works.
Quality depended upon a number of factors. Where the papyrus plants were grown, the age of the plants, the season when they were harvested, and most importantly, the layer of pith used in manufacture were all factors that affected the quality of the finished product. The finest papyrus was made using the innermost pith layers and was said to have come from the Delta region. A typical roll was usually constructed of papyrus sheets of varying quality. The best sheets would be used for its ends, since they received the most wear and tear, and lesser quality sheets for its inner sections. To add additional strength and help prevent fraying, at the end margins, a strip of papyrus would be glued along the ends of the roll. In some cases, each end of the scroll would be wound around a stick (called an umbicus) which had attached cords to keep the roll from unraveling. The various varieties and sizes of papyrus were often named in honor of emperors or officials. This information, particularly during the Roman and Byzantine periods, was written on the first sheet of a roll and was called a protocol. Additionally, the protocol often included the date and place of manufacture of the papyrus. Generally, the protocol would be cut off before using the roll. However, for legal documents, this practice was forbidden by the Laws of Justinian. The practice of adding a protocol to a finished papyrus roll continued into Islamic times. Usually, the ancient Egyptians and others only wrote on one side of the papyrus, with the sheet oriented so that the fibers ran horizontally (recto). Rarely was there actually graphics applied to papyrus, particularly outside ancient religious matter. Egyptian rulers realizing the importance of Papyrus, made its production a state monopoly, and guarded the secret of Papyrus jealously. Soon, Egyptians were even exporting their papyrus "paper", though outside of Egypt, not much of it has survived. This is due to the climate of Egypt and a few parts of Mesopotamia, where the dry climate is conducive to such preservation. However, Papyri have also been found in Asia and Europe. Few fragments of papyri from the classic period have been found in Greece, though dozens of drawings of rolls and papyri appear on vases of the same period.
Of course, there was a concentration of papyrus in the debris of ancient towns and the necropolises of Egypt. In the external history of the discoveries the most noteworthy feature is that so many of the papyri have been dug up with the spade from Egyptian rubbish-heaps. The fact that so many of the papryi are found among the dust-heaps of ancient cities is a valuable indication of their general significance. The multitude of papyri from the Fayoum and a few other locations, do not, as was at first supposed, but simply the everyday trash of ancient civilization. Furthermore, in Egypt, papyrus was recycled in the form of mummy cartonnage. In the mummification process, the ancient Egyptians first prepared the corpses and wrapped them in linen. Then they covered the deceased with pieces of cartonnage covered with plaster and painted in bright colors. This cartonnage, at least in certain periods of Egyptian history, consisted of several layers of papyrus usually discarded by administrative offices. Actually, the largest percentage of papyrus that has survived was written during the Greco-Roman Period of Egyptian history and afterwards, from about the late fourth century BC until the middle of the seventh century AD. Most of this text is written in Greek. After the conquest of Egypt by Alexander the Great, almost all administration of Egypt was largely conducted in Greek, and this remained so even after the Romans took control of Egypt. In fact, Greek continued to be used for this administrative purposes even after the Arab conquest in 642 AD. However, there also remains considerable text written
in Coptic, Latin and Arabic on papyrus as well as some Hieratic and more commonly, Demotic Egyptian. The ancient subject matter recorded on papyrus can be extremely varied, and can include literature, religious texts, magical texts and even instrumental music. Religious topics recorded on Papyrus can include subjects related to ancient religions both in Egypt and outside, as well as biblical, including early Christian text. That biblical literature was originally written on papyrus (rather than on parchment) is evident from archaeological finds and textual analysis. In wadi Murbaat (near the Dead Sea) a papyrus has been found from the 7th century BC, and another one, dating from the 4th century BC, has been found above Jericho. These findings support the scholarly claim that the "books" mentioned in the Bible (Jer 36; 15,16; Ezek 2,8-3,3) were actually written on papyrus. Over 800 scrolls have been found in Qumran (The Dead Sea Scrolls), of which more than 60 (8%) are papyrus scrolls. However, a large body of papyrus documentation exits on administrative matters such as official tax accounts, private documents from tax receipts to letters, court documents and others. In fact, these texts illustrate life in ancient Egypt under Greek and Roman rule in all its aspects, and the study of this body of
information is called papyrology. The first recorded purchase of papyri by European visitors to Egypt was in 1778. In that year a nameless dealer in antiquities bought from some peasants a papyrus roll of documents from the year 191 - 192 AD., and looked on while they set fire to fifty or so others simply to enjoy the aromatic smoke that was produced. Since that date an enormous quantity of inscribed papyri in all possible languages, of ages varying from a thousand to nearly five thousand years, have been recovered from the magic soil of the ancient seats of civilization in the Nile Valley. From about 1820 to 1840 the museums of Europe acquired quite a respectable number of papyri from Memphis and Letopolis in Middle Egypt, and from This, Panopolis, Thebes (modern Luxor), Hermonthis, Elephantine, and Syene (Aswan) in Upper Egypt. Not many scholars took any notice of them at first, and only a very few read and profited by them. The next decisive event, apart from isolated finds, was the discovery of papyri in the province of El-Fayoum (Middle Egypt) in 1877. To the north of the capital, Medinet el-Fayoum, lay a number of mounds of rubbish and debris, marking the site of the ancient "City of Crocodiles," afterwards called "The City of the Arsinoïtes," and these now yielded up hundreds and
thousands of precious sheets and scraps. Since then there has been a rapid succession of big finds, which have not ceased even yet: we are still in a period of important discoveries. The job of the papyrologist can be considerably difficult. By far, the majority of the some 50,000 papyri published since 1788 (out of an estimated 400,000 preserved in collections around the world) are very fragmentary. Hence, the work of a papyrologist not only involves deciphering, transcribing and editing this material, but also reconstructing very complex puzzles. Most fragments of literature have come from rolls of papyrus, which could extend up to some 35 feet in length. For a while, papyrus actually disappeared from the Egyptian landscape after the invention of paper.
The Egyptian placed an embargo on exporting papyrus at the end of the 7th century AD led the way to parchment, and later on to 'modern' paper, the successor to the papyrus. 'Ground' paper (the predecessor of modern paper) was invented in China in the second century AD, but reached western Asia only after the Muslim conquest of Turkistan in 751 Hence, Arabs introduced a process for making pulp paper, which they learned from Chinese prisoners. Though this new paper was less durable then papyrus, it was also easier and far less expensive to make. Gradually, the Egyptians abandoned the production of {Papyrus paper and neglected the cultivation of their papyrus plantations. Eventually, papyrus itself disappeared from the Egyptian landscape. Papyrus making was not revived until around 1969. An Egyptian scientist named Dr. Hassan Ragab reintroduced the papyrus plant to Egypt from the Sudan and started a papyrus plantation near Cairo on Jacob Island. He also had to research the method of production. Unfortunately, the ancient Egyptians left little evidence about the manufacturing process. There are no extant texts or wall paintings and archaeologists have failed to uncover any manufacturing centers. Most of our knowledge about the actual manufacturing process is derived from its description in Pliny the elder's Natural History and modern experimentation. Dr. Ragab finally figured out how it was done, and now papyrus making is back in Egypt after a very long absence. Notation: Modern Egyptian papyrus art is available in our on-line store for Egypt
Hieroglyphics and Their Decipherment
Examples of passages and groupings of hieroglyphics that may already be familiar to us are the hetep di nisu or "an offering which the king gives," most commonly seen on coffins and funerary texts, and in the cartouches bearing the names of the Kings. We may have already begun to recognize individual and increasingly familiar glyphs. Look at the accompanying photo of part of the beautiful Tomb of Nefertari, the favorite wife of Rameses II. How many hieroglyphs can you make out? Can you translate any of the signs? What was said here? To understand a people, understand their language as closely as possible.
The spread of Christianity in Egypt and the consequent development of the Coptic script sounded the death-knell for the medu netjer, which had been primarily used for official documents in both government and temple administration. By the end of the fifth century ACE, knowledge of how to read and write the old scripts was extinct. The hieroglyphs were fully surrendered to the larger myth of ancient Egypt, the land of strange customs ad esoteric wisdom nurtured in belief by classical writers.
The belief that the hieroglyphs were somehow symbolic and imbued with secret meaning, rather than simply being a popular script, had become well-rooted before Diodorus Siculus visited Egypt in the first centiry BCE. He wrote: "their writing does not express the intended concept by means of syllables joined to one another, but by means of the significance of the objects which have been copied, and by its figurative meaning which has been impressed upon the memory by practice." The influential philosopher Plotinus writing in the third century said the hieroglyphs were nothing less than Platonic ideas in visual form, "each picture…a kind of understanding and wisdom" revealing to the initiated true knowledge as to the essence and substance of things.
Such inaccuracies were hard to shake. The very scientific and pragmatically-minded Europe wanted to hold on to the thought that perhaps there were mysteries in the world if an initiate could just find the key. Hieroglyphics were a mystery all right, but not mysterious or mystical. And the key was found in the 18th and 19th centuries of the Common Era.
In the seventeenth century ACE the Jesuit Athanasius Kircher made a good beginning when he recognized the linguistic derivation of Coptic from the language of the hieroglyphics, though he took this to be a symbolic writing. A linguist of great ability, Kircher’s translations of hieroglyphics were based entirely on these preconceived notions as to their symbolic functioning. Kircher does however hold an honored place in Egyptological circles, since he authored the first Coptic grammar and vocabulary. Knowledge of Coptic, the spoken and written language of the Egyptian people at the time the Rosetta Stone was discovered, would prove to be a vital element in eventually deciphering the hieroglyphs. The ancient Egyptian language could not have been understood without knowledge of Coptic, which was written using Greek letters and a few signs derived from demotic, and was used in translations of the Bible, liturgies and other writings of Christianity.
Then 1785 ACE Jean Barthelemy suggested that the cartouches surrounding some hieroglyphs contained divine and royal names.
Napoleon had brought with him many scientists from all branches, botanists, geologists, artists, etc, to explore and take notes on the culture and monuments of Egypt. He soon realized the significance of this stone, and had two artists come in to make rubbing copies. These were sent to scholars all over Europe.
Meanwhile, the French lost their military position to Britain, and the Rosetta Stone was sent to London, where it still resides in the British Museum. The Stone is a commemorative stela from an Egyptian temple. It was incised on one side with an inscription dated to Year 9 of the reign of Ptolemy V Epiphanes, in 196 BCE, a copy of a decree issued by a general council of priests recording the honors bestowed upon the king by the temples. While all three of the sections are damaged the hieroglyphs at the top were the most damaged.
The writing on the Stone is in Greek and Egyptian. After the Stone was transferred to the British, the Greek section was fully translated in 1802 by Rev Stephen Weston. The Egyptian is in both Hieroglyphic, part of which was missing on the Stone, and in Demotic writing. Demotic was the principal writing form at the time when the stone was carved, whereas hieroglyphics were used for formal inscription of documents and monuments, similar to our use today of Old English font instead of a more modern one where an impressive presentation is desired. Sylvestre de Sacy concentrated on the demotic section. He began with the Greek proper names and attempted to isolate their demotic versions and managed to successfully isolate the names for Ptolemy and Alexander, but could get no further
A Swedish diplomat and student of de Sacy named Johan Akerblad made more progress. He identified the demotic proper names that corresponded in the Greek, among them, Arsinoe, Berenice and Aelos. He then built up a demotic alphabet of 29 letters, almost half of which were actually correct. He then demonstrated that the phonetic signs used to write the names were also used to spell ordinary words such as "temple," "love," "him," "his," "Egyptian," and "Greek," providing the first indication of the general phonetic character of demotic. He was also able to correlate these to their Coptic equivalents. Mistakenly, however, Akerblad then became convinced that the demotic was entirely phonetic or alphabetic, and could continue no further.
In 1814 fragments of a papyrus were submitted to Thomas Young for study. Young deduced that the demotic writing was not entirely alphabetic, as the Swede had incorrectly deduced twelve years before. He began with the demotic and within a few weeks isolated most of the graphic groups representing individual words and related them to their equivalents in the Greek. He also noticed that at least some of the demotic characters resembled the corresponding hieroglyphs and were adopted as verbal characters and mixed with letters of the alphabet.
By 1815 Young had developed a vocabulary of 86 words associating the Greek with the demotic. He recognized the names of Cleopatra, Berenice and Ptolemy in this fashion. Young published the results of his four years of research in 1819 in an article entitled "Egypt" for the Supplement to the fourth edition of the Britannica.
Champollion realized that he must isolate a pair of already known names having several hieroglyphs in common, so they could act as independent checks on each other and serve in additional identifications. By chance, another bilingual inscription fell into his hands. An obelisk and its base block, which had stood in the temple of Philae near Aswan, was brought back to England by a traveler. On the base was a Greek inscription mentioning two royal names, Ptolemy and Cleopatra, while the obelisk contained two different cartouches which were inferred to belong to those Kings. Sure enough the hieroglyphs in the Ptolemy cartouche matched the Ptolemy glyphs from the Rosetta Stone identified by Young. A lithograph was made of both the Greek and hieroglyphic names, and Champollion received a copy of this lithograph.
Champollion also received copies of reliefs and inscriptions from Egyptian temples, one from the temple of Abu Simbel in Nubia. This contained cartouches enclosing a name repeated in a variety of ways. Using what he had already learned, he identified the names of Rameses and Tuthmosis. He wrote a letter to the Secretary of the French Academie Royale des Inscriptions, Baron Joseph Dacier, outlining this discovery. This Lettre a M. Dacier is regarded as the definitive document by which hieroglyphs could be translated. Champollion published his Precis du systeme hieroglyphique in 1824
When Champollion died unexpectedly of a stroke in 1832, his brother put together all his notes, edited them and published these and many other subsequent discoveries as Grammaire and Dictionnaire.
Work continues on decipherment and translation as more texts are found and understanding of the ancient Egyptian culture is expanded and enriched. Next time you walk by a museum coffin richly painted with symbols, or if you are in Karnak some day amidst the glyphs along the pillars, stop a moment and look. A story was written there
Discovering Writing Egyptian
The Significance of Writing
The invention of script (in the late fourth millennium BC) marks a quantum leap forward in human cultural development. Time and space cease to be barriers to the transmission of knowledge and information. To grasp the magnitude of this advance, try to imagine our culture today without writing (for even today's visual media and high technology communications usually depend on written drafts and scripts). It is impossible to imagine our schools and universities teaching, our scientists conducting and reporting research, our government governing or our civil service functioning without the written word.
The ancient Egyptians knew full well that writing was the mainstay of civilized life. A seated scribe holding a papyrus roll was one of the most popular subjects in their early art. He was revered and honored, for the early Egyptians recognized that writing was the foundation of ordered life and government and, to some extent, transcended death itself. For now ideas, discoveries, wisdom and experience need no longer die with the individual, but could be transmitted through endless generations, right down to us, indeed, as we read the fine literature, the religious and scientific texts of these early scribes.
The Egyptian school was called "The House of Life" (Per-Ankh), for writing bestowed a kind of immortality. As one scribe expressed it: the names of scribes "are still preserved because of their books... and their memory lasts to the limits of eternity".
Writing was not one, but two inventions. First, the script itself - a comprehensive series of signs capable of representing all the words or sounds of human speech. Then a second invention - just as remarkable - the technological development of materials (papyrus, pen, ink) capable of recording, transmitting and preserving the script.
At a very early date (c.3000 BC) both these extraordinary advances were uniquely developed in ancient Egypt, that great center of early literacy, from whom we have learnt to write with pens on paper in an alphabetic script descended directly (if distantly) from Egyptian hieroglyphs.
The Early Script The Alphabet
The Alphabet
All scripts, even modern alphabets, are artificial conventions limited in their ability to reproduce spoken speech. To take two instances from the English (or Roman) alphabet: 1) Its first letter "a" can represent quite different vowel sounds, for example, in the words father, man and take. 2) Different combinations of letters can represent similar sounds (homophones) in words with quite different meanings: compare "rough" and "ruff"; "pair" and "pear"; "side" and "sighed"; or "write" and "right". You can probably think of other instances to show how imperfectly the alphabet reflects variations in pronunciation, intonation or stress.
The 26-letter Roman alphabet is a distant - but direct - descendant of the complex, ornate script of ancient Egypt, which scholars believe inspired the development of the world's first alphabetic scripts, Phoenician and Aramaic, from which the Greek and Roman alphabets derive. And earlier still, the idea of writing spread from Egypt to the Aegean, in particular influencing the mysterious and still undeciphered "Linear A" script of Minoan Crete, which has marked similarities to Egyptian hieroglyphs.
The ancient Egyptian script, like other early scripts, was pictographic: that is to say, it drew pictures of the words represented: ox, house, man, etc. Writing was associated with Thoth, the ibis-headed god of learning and writing, and referred to as "words of god". Later, the Greeks, retaining this original meaning, called the signs hieroglyphs, from hieros "sacred" and glyphein "to carve". Hieroglyphs make art out of writing, and lend an extraordinary grace and beauty to inscribed texts (Fig.4). Egyptian writing is a "mixed" script - combining signs denoting ideas (ideograms) with phonetic signs.
Words and Syllables
It was an easy step for a pictogram (object sign) to become an ideogram (idea or concept sign). Thus the pictogram for foot could also express the verbal idea to walk. Pictograms could be combined to provide extended meanings: a man with a container on his head denoted the verb to carry; a wall drawn in a sloping position expressed the verb to fall, etc. Naturally, an ideographic script requires a very large number of signs for even a basic reading knowledge of Chinese. Yet Egyptian has less than a quarter this number - around 700 signs. Still, if you compare this with our alphabet with its mere 26 signs, you will understand why the scribe in ancient Egypt belonged to a specialized and privileged profession and underwent a long and arduous training. Literacy was limited.
The Egyptian script managed with fewer signs than the Chinese because it was not purely ideographic. It also contained some phonetic signs capable of expressing syllables: these were derived from the ideograms. For example, imagine English written in hieroglyphs. We could have a pictogram for the insect bee, and one for the word leaf. We could also use these signs for the sound syllables, and combine them phonetically: bee + leaf= belief. The script was thus ambiguous, as the same sign could be read as a whole word or as a sound syllable. This ambiguity was reduced by signs called determinatives which were written after a word, to denote the class of object to which it belonged.
Hieroglyphic writing made its debut remarkably early, in the First Dynasty (3100-2900 BC). It was used extensively, with relatively little change in form, not only in Egypt itself, but also throughout Near Eastern territories under Egyptian influence or control for some 3,000 years, though few papyri have survived outside the dry climate of Egypt. In fact the script persisted well into the Christian era, and the latest recorded hieroglyphic inscriptions dated AD 39 are on the temples of Philae.
Unlike most alphabetic scripts which are always written in the same direction (i.e left to right, like English, or right to left like Arabic) hieroglyphs could be written from left to right, or from right to left, or in vertical columns. You can tell from which direction reading should commence from human or animal (or other) signs with fronts and backs, since these always face the beginning of the inscription. When writing hieroglyphs, the ancient Egyptians consistently omitted vowel sounds, as is done in Arabic and Hebrew today.
With the passage of time there developed, from the formal hieroglyphic script used on monuments, two simpler, cursive styles: (a) hieratic (from the Greek hieratikos, "priestly"), and (b)demotic (from the Greek demotikos "popular"), a development from hieratic around 700BC capable of being written even more rapidly. Both hieratic and demotic were practical, everyday scripts used for commonplace needs.
Discovery of Script
There are isolated references to hieroglyphics by classical visitors: the Greek historian Herodotus (c.484-425 BC); Diodorus, another Greek historian, who lived at the time of Julius Caesar and traveled to Egypt between 60 and 57 BC; and the Roman historian, Tacitus (c.55-120 AD). All were fascinated by the mysterious hieroglyphic writings which they realized were concerned with historical events. One classical writer, Horapollon of Phaenebythis, Egypt, (about 5th century AD) wrote at some length on the subject of hieroglyphic translations and made the first attempt at decipherment. Although some of his identifications were correct, his reasons for reaching them bordered on fantasy and were quite unrealistic. It was a further thirteen centuries before the script was properly understood.
Pen and Papyrus
Paper
Look at the sheet of paper you are reading; consider its smoothness of surface, legibility, lightness, compactness, durability, and so on. We owe the invention of paper to the Egyptians and, for convenience to both writer and reader, it remains unsurpassed even in the age of the floppy disc and microfiche.
Egyptian 'paper' was made from the papyrus reed, more than 2,000 years before the Chinese are known to have invented a paper made from vegetable pulp.
The Arabs learned paper technology from the Chinese, in the 8th century AD. They manufactured paper, using linen and other vegetable fibres, on a large scale and introduced the process into Europe.
Papyrus
The ancient Egyptians were thus the first (by two or three thousand years) to solve the demanding technological problem of manufacturing an exceptionally high quality writing material. We know that they did so as early the first Dynasty (3100- 2900 BC), since an uninscribed roll of papyrus was found in a mastaba (tomb) of this period at Saqqara.
Now extinct in lower (northern) Egypt, the papyrus reed (Cyperus Papyrus) grew profusely along the banks of the Nile in antiquity. It reached a considerable height, 12 to 25 feet, and its triangular stems were almost two inches thick, covered with a hard rind or skin, around a soft inner spongy tissue or pith.
The Versatile Plant
Papyrus was a valuable commodity with multiple uses: the rind, stripped from the stem, was used for making mats, cloth, sandals and rope. The pith was a popular food, eaten either cooked or raw. As a substitute for wood, the woody roots of the plant were used to make household utensils and also as fuel.
In addition, and most importantly in a country where the chief highway was a river, bundles of papyrus stems, which were extremely buoyant, were lashed together to make boats - rather like the reed boats used today by the Marsh Arabs of Southern Iraq.
Manufacturing Papyrus
The use of papyrus as writing material surpasses in ingenuity all its other uses. The process certainly originated from the mind of someone with tremendous inventive ability.
After removing the rind from several papyrus stems, cut to the required length, the inner pith was sliced into thin strips laid side by side, overlapping on a piece of cloth placed on a hard level surface. When the required width had been reached, further strips were laid on top of, and at right angles to, the first layer, again slightly overlapping each other.
Next, the pile of neatly arranged pith was covered with a second piece of cloth, and carefully, but firmly, beaten for a prolonged period with a length of heavy wood, possibly a mallet or similar tool. This beating both separated the individual papyrus fibers in both layers, and also, by means of the starch exuded from the pith, welded them together. The process required considerable skill to ensure that the vertical and horizontal fibers were not displaced during the beating operation.
After beating, the finished sheet was about the same thickness as modern writing paper. It was then sun dried and, if necessary, surface polished by rubbing with a smooth stone.
The sheets were together to form a long scroll according to the requirements of the scribes. The length of these rolls varied considerably: the Great Harris Papyrus is the longest known scroll. It measures 135 feet.
Pen and Ink
Another reed (Juncus Maritimus) supplied the pen. Cut about 10 inches long, the tip was cut on a slant and then crushed or chewed by the scribe to from a comparatively fine brush. Both black and red ink were common, made from carbon or fine soot and finely ground red ochre respectively. The constituents were mixed with a weak solution of gum and the paste shaped into small cakes, dried and placed on the scribe's palette. The reed brush was then dipped into water and rubbed over the surface of the hardened block. The scribe's standard kit included ink palette, water cup and brush holder. Other colors were also used, for decorating papyri with colorful pictures (like a medieval manuscript).
Variety of Texts
Papyrus was by no means the only writing material used. Fragments of pottery (ostraca) and pieces of limestone were frequently used, as were boards painted with gesso (a mixture of gum and whiting). Nevertheless, for thousands of years papyrus was the dominant and preferred writing material.
The papyrus literature that has come down to us is not confined to religious texts. Business, historical, poetic and magical documents, and even the most enchanting fictional stories have survived, in addition to scholarly works on mathematics, astronomy and medicine.
The treatise now known as the Edwin Smith surgical papyrus (now in the New York Academy of Medicine), and other medical papyri, clearly indicate that some ancient practitioners were not only good observers, but actually carried out useful and serious work in the field of bone surgery. The Greek physicians Hippocrates (c.500BC), the acknowledged "Father of Medicine", and Galen (c.130-200 AD), acknowledged that some of their data came from Egyptian scripts they had studied in the temple of Imhotep at Saqqara. Thus it is clear the ancient Egyptian made a lasting and valuable contribution to medical science.
One of the most beautiful of the numerous surviving papyri, with exceptionally colorful illustrations (or vignettes), measuring 78 feet in length, is the "Book of the Dead" (British Museum, London), prepared for the high-ranking scribe Ani, who died about 1400BC.
The unique climate of Egypt has preserved countless inscribed papyri, whose texts were written by a highly sophisticated and articulate people, at a time when European man lived in caves, clothed himself in animal skins and hunted with primitive flint weapons.
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