EGYPT 



1969 



EGYPT 



did not have an alphabet, but conveyed infor- 

 mation by means of pictures, which seem to 

 have answered very well all their purposes. A 

 literature existed which had its beginnings 

 very early, and consisted not only of inscrip- 

 tions on tombs and monuments, but of real 



M D 1 ..T 



MAP 



OF 



ANCIENT 

 EGYPT 



20 * 60 80 HO BO 



papyrus books as well. To decipher this old 

 writing was a very difficult task for modern 

 scholars, and only after the discovery of the 

 Rosetta Stone was it satisfactorily accom- 

 plished. The ancient Egyptians seem to have 

 been very fond of stories, and manuscripts 

 are found of tales which bear a curious re- 

 semblance to many of the tales of magic which 



date from medieval or modern times. For in- 

 stance, the prince who is shut up in a castle 

 by his father to escape some horrible fate 

 which had been prophesied is a familiar figure 

 in those old Egyptian stories who has corre- 

 sponding characters in more than one modern 

 tale. 



Astronomy, and its older phase, astrology, 

 were known to the Egyptians, and they had 

 a considerable knowledge of arithmetic. They 

 used the bellows and the blowpipe, the lever, 

 the balance and the siphon, and they knew 

 how to obtain the fiber from flax and spin it 

 into cloth. 



Art. Certain branches of art the Egyptians 

 had evolved to a high degree of excellence. 

 Their buildings were for the most part not 

 specially graceful or beautiful, but they were 

 massive and imposing, while their sculptures, 

 if showing no knowledge of perspective and 

 lacking ease and naturalness, convey the ideas 

 of strength and of vigorous action. Beautiful, 

 glazed pottery, filigree and inlay work of rare 

 design, have also been found in their old tombs 

 and temples, and specimens of skilfully enam- 

 eled jewelry are numerous. 



Religion. The dominating religious tend- 

 ency was a belief in the immortality of the 

 soul, and the conviction that some day it 

 would return to the body, which must be 

 preserved in readiness to receive it. It was 

 this belief which led the ancient Egyptians to 

 embalm their dead so carefully that many of 

 the bodies have been preserved in an excel- 

 lent state until the present time, and to erect 

 such vast burial places as the Pyramids. In 

 the MYTHOLOGY index may be found a sub- 

 head treating of Egyptian mythology, while in 

 the article TRANSMIGRATION OF THE Sort ia a 

 discussion of the curious belief which resulted 

 in the setting aside of a number of animal* 

 as sacred. 



History of Egypt 



Just how old was the civilization of this 

 most ancient of countries cannot be known, 

 but it is certain that Egypt was a flourishing 

 nation long before 3000 B.C. The monuments 

 and inscriptions tell much concerning the an- 

 cient period, but leave much in doubt as to 

 chronology. Thirty dynasties of kings, accord- 

 ing to the old historian Manetho, ruled in 

 succession; some were comparatively insignifi- 

 cant, some very powerful and determined to 

 leave their impress on the people. The Fourth 

 124 



Dynasty, for instance, which was at it* height 

 about 2800 B.C., left ..s its memorials th< 

 greatest of the Pyramids. From 1700 to 1600 

 B.C., or thereabouts, the country was under 

 the sway of foreign sovereigns who ruled by 

 conquest the Hyksos, or Shepherd King?; and 

 after they were driven out there came a won- 

 deYful period when the Theban kings reveled 

 in the building of magnificent palaces and tem- 

 ples, the ruins of which still exist at Thebes. 

 Seti I and Rameses II (see articles under 



