Ancient Egypt

Cultivation in the Nile Valley was relatively easy, and tools remained simple. Hoes were the most common tool, and ploughs, which were introduced during the old kingdom, were little more than hoes with shafts for a draught animal. Seed was scattered by hand and trodden into the ground by herds of sheep driven over the fields. The food shortages and disastrous famines that occurred in the intermediate periods were usually a result of the collapse of central government, which led to failures in the water control administration, local misuse of water resources and civil wars, which disrupted agriculture.

Egyptian society remained largely rural throughout its history. Cities were centers of government and religion but not of manufacturing or commerce, and most of the people lived in small rural villages. The Pharaohs owned the land, the title deeds having been assigned to them by the gods; they gave land to their subjects but were able to take it back. Large parts of the kingdom, usually the best arable land, remained under the Pharaoh's control, and large endowments were made to the temples of the various gods. Many rural workers were serfs who belonged to the estate and were transferred with the land if it changed hands. Settled agriculture began in about 5000 B.C. Neolithic farmers camped at the edge of reed beds or lived in flimsy huts in small villages. These early agriculturalists relied a great deal on hunting wild game, and many of the settlements were temporary.

During the first half of the fourth millennium B.C., the Early Pre-dynastic period, settlement became more permanent and social structure more complex. Villages contained a chief's house and a shrine for the local god. Skills in weaving, tool-making and pottery were developed, and craftsmen devoted much time to producing elaborate personal ornaments. Shifting cultivation, mainly of wheat and barley, remained the main agricultural pursuits along with the herding of sheep, cattle and goats.

During the Middle Pre-dynastic period (3600-3400 B.C.) agriculture became more settled, and population pressure on available agricultural land increased. The basis of political life in the Nile Valley was a tribal area ruled from a large village or market town by a chief who was seen as a son of the local god. Trade expanded significantly by 3400 B.C., and raw materials for tool-making and building were imported from Sinai, Lebanon and Syria.

In the period 3400-3200 B.C., the tribal groups appear to have merged gradually until the two separate, well organized monarchies of Upper and Lower Egypt emerged. The two monarchies battled for supremacy and, by 3200, the southern kings had conquered the north. The unified Egyptian kingdom stretched from Aswan to the Mediterranean, and its first ruler was Menes. Menes built a new capital which he called White Walls, later known as Memphis, about 32 km upstream from the apex of the Nile delta. Although Egypt was unified, it was known as the kingdom of the Two Lands; throughout Egyptian history, there were always southern and northern centers of government.

During the first dynasty, Egyptian culture was influenced strongly by that of south-west Asia. A new architecture emerged, clearly based on Asian styles.

The wattle and daub or rush constructions of early Egyptian buildings were replaced by mud brick constructions similar in design to those of south-west Asia. Egyptian writing adopted and adapted the advanced cuneiform script developed in Mesopotamia but, instead of clay tablets and reeds, the Egyptians used papyrus and developed a simplified cursive script that could be written on the papyrus with ink.

The first dynasty lasted until 2900 B.C. During the second dynasty (2900-2700 B.C.), tension between the north and south occurred, and conflict appears to have lasted for three generations until it was settled by the last king of the second dynasty.

The second dynasty was followed by the four dynasties of the old kingdom (2700-2180 B.C.). It was during the reign of the Pharaohs of the old kingdom that most of the pyramids were built. The oldest pyramid, the step pyramid at Saqqara, was built by the Pharaoh Zoser and his official, Imhotep, during the third dynasty; this pyramid was the first monumental structure in Egypt to be built of local stone. During the reign of Snefru (fourth dynasty), the first true, straight-sided pyramid was built at Dahshur. Snefru's son, Khufu, and grandson, Khaefre, were the builders of the two great pyramids at Giza, and Khaefre also commissioned the building of the Sphinx.

During the fifth dynasty (2480-2340 B.C.), the Pharaohs built less impressive tombs than the great pyramids, and apparently the religious power of the Pharaohs declined owing to a rise in the influence of the priesthood of On and the sun god Ra. The wealth that had been expended on the pyramid tombs of the Pharaohs was, in the fifth dynasty, used to build massive temples where Ra was worshiped. The Pharaoh's position as absolute political ruler also weakened during the fifth and sixth dynasties as the nobility became increasingly ambitious and powerful. Dynastic unrest continued until the end of the old kingdom (2180 B.C.). During the first intermediate period, which followed, covering the seventh to the tenth and the beginning of the eleventh dynasties, there was no effective central government in Egypt.

Egypt was reunified in about 2040 B.C. under the rule of Mentuhotep, whose reign began the middle kingdom, the first years of which were ones of relative peace as rulers attempted to stabilize their political and economic affairs. However, by 1640 B.C., the middle kingdom had collapsed, and the second intermediate period began. As with the first intermediate period, centralized government collapsed, and in the period 1640-1570 B.C. Egypt was ruled by at least 217 kings.

The age of the new kingdom began with the rule of Amosis I, who founded the eighteenth dynasty. The new kingdom was characterized by nationalism and imperialism, when the Pharaohs sought to conquer the south and also dominate their Asian neighbors.

During the new kingdom, Egypt was also attacked by foreign invaders, such as the Libyans and Sea People (the Achaens, Lycians, Etruscans, Sicilians and Philistines).

Economic unrest was also common, and the workers often refused to work in protest against the poor conditions and inadequate rations. During the last period of the new kingdom, there was theft and corruption in high government places, trouble caused by Libyans and other foreigners living in Egypt and a great outbreak of tomb robbery in Thebes, owing in part to the poverty and dissatisfaction of tomb workmen. The new kingdom, and with it the true age of the Pharaohs, ended in about 1100 B.C.

During the twenty-first dynasty, a Libyan leader, Shoshenek, seized supreme power in Egypt. During later dynasties, the government was further weakened by the emergence of ambitious nobles and soldiers who ruled as local princes. In 730 B.C., a Kushite ruler, Piankhi, established control over Egypt which lasted for nearly 70 years until the Assyrian ruler, Esarhaddon, conquered Memphis and established his own governors throughout Egypt.

Egyptian rule was re-established 15 years later under Psammetichus, who established the twenty-sixth dynasty, the last in which Egypt was prosperous and independent.

In 525 B.C., the Persian army invaded and conquered Egypt and in 332 B.C. Egypt was conquered by Alexander the Great, and the Egyptian civilization became absorbed into the Hellenistic world.