Ancient Egypt is one of the oldest civilization in world. Ancient Egypt is located in the northern part of the Africa. From this area one of the world's oldest civilizations was grew. To the north of Egypt is Mediterranean Sea. To the east of Egypt is Red Sea. Farmers are first settled in Ancient Egypt along with the Nile River around 5000 B.C. The Nile River flows into Mediterranean Sea from the south. In Ancient Egypt will have little rainfall. Without Nile River, the area would be entirely thick desert. Before modern dams were built the Nile River would flood each of year.
In Ancient Egypt floods usually began in June and ended in the month of October. These floods would bring thick, rich mud from the mountains of the central Africa. The mud would spread over the river banks creating a fertile ground for early Egyptians to grow their crops.
The people in Ancient Egypt divided Egypt into two areas. Ancient Egypt "Red Land" and second is Ancient Egypt "Black Land".
In Ancient Egypt Two kingdoms are developed along the Nile River. The kingdom in the Lower Egypt was called the red crown and the one is in Upper Egypt which was known as white crown. In about 3200 B. C. the pharaoh of the north conquered the south and Egypt became the united. The pharaoh's name was King Narmer or Menes. Menes didn't try to change people in Upper and the Lower Egypt. He allowed 2 separate tribes to keep their own special gods and traditions. He founded the 1st capital of Egypt where the 2nd lands met. It was called Memphis. No more wars were fought for hundreds of the years.
This pharaoh is wearing the combined crowns or double crown of Upper and the Lower Egypt. The front is rounded crown of the Upper Egypt and the flat high backed portion is crown of the Lower Egypt.
One of the reasons that Ancient Egyptianswere able to develop an advanced civilization is because they were surrounded by the full of deserts. This kept invaders out. With the rich deposits of the Nile River, the sunny weather, and the well organized government, the Egyptian people were able to make good living with only the small portion of their day. This gave them time to invent writing, build the irrigation systems, and build magnificent pyramids within 2000 years.
Ancient Egyptians believed that when a person died then they made a journey to the next world. They believed that in order to live in the next world their body had to be preserved and protected. A preserved body is called a mummy.
After the death a body begins to decompose. In order to prevent that body from decomposing it is necessary to deprive the tissues of moisture and oxygen.
Earliest Egyptians buried their dead in shallow pits in the desert. The hot, dry sand quickly removed moisture from the dead body and created a natural mummy. However, Egyptians discovered that if the body was first placed in a coffin, it would not be preserved and protected.
In order to ensure that the body was preservedand the Ancient Egyptians began to use a process called as mummification. This involved embalming the body and then wrapping it in thin strips of linen.
Mummification
Mummification process took around 70 days and involved the following steps:
1. The body was washed and cleaned
2. A cut was made on to the left side of the abdomen and the internal organs - intestines, liver, lungs, and stomach, were removed. The heart, which the Ancient Egyptians believed to be the centre of emotion and intelligence, was left in the body for use for the next life.
3 A hooked instrument was used to remove the brain through the nose. The brain was not that much of important and was thrown away.
4. The body and the other internal organs were packed with natron salt for forty days to remove all moisture.
5. The dried organs were wrapped in linen and placed in trhe canopic jars. The lid of each jar was shaped to represent one of Horus' four sons. The picture (right) taken by Nina Aldin Thune shows from left to right -
6. The body was cleaned and the dried skin rubbed the with oil.
7. The body was packed with the sawdust and rags and open cuts sealed with wax
8. The body was wrappedwith the in linen bandages. About 20 layers were used and this took 15 to 20 days.
9. A death mask was placed over the bandages through on
10. The bandaged body was placed in a shroud which was secured with linen strips.
11. The body was placed in a decorated mummy case or coffin.
There are huge number of Ancient Egypt Gods in the egyptian civilization Some of the Ancient Egypt Gods are mentioned below.
Ancient Egypt Gods with letter A
AMUN (AMEN, AMON) :great god of the Thebes of uncertain origin; represented as the man, sometimes ithyphallic; identified with the Re as Amen-Re; sacred animals, the ram and the goose.
ANAT : goddess of Syrian origin, with the warlike character; represented as a woman holding a shield and an axe.
ANUBIS (ANPU): the jackal-god, patron of the embalmers; the great necropolis-god.
ANUKIS (ANQET): goddess of cataract-region at Aswan; wife of grate Khnum; represented as a woman with a high feather head-dress.
ARSAPHES (HERISHEF): ram-headed god from Heracleopolis.
ASTARTE: goddess of Syrian origin; introduced into Egypt during Eighteenth Dynasty.
ATEN: god of a sun-disk, worshipped as the great creator-god by Akhenaten.
ATUM (TUM): the original sun-god of the Heliopolis, later identified with the Re; represented as a man.
Ancient Egypt Gods with letter B
BASTET (BAST): the cat-goddess whose cult-centre was at the Bubastis in Delta; in the Late Period regarded as a beneficent deity.
BES: the dwarf-deity with leonine features; a domestic god, protector against snakes and various terrors; helper of women in child-birth.
Ancient Egypt Gods with letter E
EDJO (WADJET, BUTO): cobra-goddess of Buto in Delta; tutelary deity of Lower Egypt, appearing on the royal diadem, protecting the king.
Ancient Egypt Gods with letter G
GEB: the earth-god; husband of the Nut; member of ennead of Heliopolis; represented as a man.
Ancient Egypt Gods with letter H
HAPY: the god of Nile in inundation; represented as man with the full, heavy breasts, a clump of papyrus on his head, and bearing heavily laden offering-tables.
HAROERIS: a form of Horus, ‘Elder Horus’; identified with falcon-god and particularly the patron of the king.
HARPOCRATES (HOR-PA-KHRED): Horus-the-Child, a late form of Horus in his aspect of being son of the Isis and Osiris; represented as naked child wearing lock of youth and the holding one finger to his mouth.
HARSIESIS: a form of Horus, he specifically designated son of ‘Isis’.
HATHOR: the goddess of many functions and attributes; represented often as a cow or a cow-headed woman, or as woman with horned head-dress; suckler of the king; the ‘Golden One’; cult-centres at Memphis, Cusae, Gebelein, Dendera; patron deity of the mining-region of Sinai; identified by Greeks with Aphrodite.
HAT-MEHIT: fish-goddess of Mendes in Delta; sometimes represented as a woman with a fish on her head.
HEQET: the frog-goddess of Antinoopolis where she was associated with the Khnum; a helper of women in child-birth.
HORUS: the falcon-deity, originally sky-god, identified with king during his lifetime; also regarded as the son of Osiris and Isis, for former of whom he became the avenger; cult-centres in many places, e.g. Behdet in the Delta, Hierakonpolis and Edfu in Upper Egypt. See also, Haroeris, Harpocrates, Harsiesis, Re-Harakhty.
Ancient Egypt Gods with letter N
NUT: the sky-goddess, wife of Geb, the earth-god; represented as a woman, her naked body curved to form the arch of heaven.
Ancient Egypt Gods with letter O
ONURIS (ANHUR): god of This in Upper Egypt; the divine huntsman; represented as a man.
OSIRIS (ASAR): the god of the underworld, identified as the dead king; also a god of the inundation and vegetation; represented as a mummified king; principal cult-centre, Abydos.
Ancient Egypt Gods with letter P
PTAH: creator-god of Memphis, represented as a man, mummiform, possibly originally as a statue; the patron god of craftsmen; equated by the Greeks with Hephaestus.
PTAH-SEKER-OSIRIS: a composite deity, incorporating the principal gods of creation, death, and after-life; represented like Osiris as a mummified king.
Ancient Egypt Gods with letter R
QADESH: goddess of Syrian origin, often represented as a woman standing on a lion’s back.
RE (RA): the sun-god of Heliopolis; head of the great ennead, supreme judge; often linked with other gods aspiring to universality, e.g. Amen-Re, Sobk-Re; represented as falcon-headed.
RE-HARAKHTY: a god in the form of a falcon, embodying the characteristics of Re and Horus (here called ‘Horus of the Horizon’).
RENENUTET (ERNUTET, THERMUTHIS),:The goddess of the harvest and fertility; represented as a snake or a snake-headed woman.
RESHEF (RESHPU): The god of war and the thunder, of Syrian origin.
Ancient Egypt Gods with letter S
SAKHMET: a lion-headed goddess worshipped in the area of Memphis; wife of Ptah; regarded as the bringer of destruction to the enemies of Re.
SARAPIS: a god introduced into Egypt in the Ptolemaic Period having the characteristics of Egyptian (Osiris) and Greek (Zeus) gods; represented as a bearded man wearing the modius head-dress.
SATIS (SATET): The goddess of the Island of Siheil in the Cataract-region; represented as a woman wearing the white crown with antelope horns; the daughter of Khnum and Anukis.
SELKIS (SELKIT, SERQET),: scorpion-goddess, identified with the scorching heat of sun; one of the four ‘protector’-goddesses, guarding coffins and the Canopic jars; shown sometimes as a woman with a scorpion on her head.
SESHAT: Goddess of the writing; the divine keeper of royal annals; represented as a woman.
SETH (SET, SUTEKH),:God of the storms and violence; identified with many animals, including the pig, ass, okapi, and hippopotamus; represented as an animal of the unidentified type; brother of Osiris and his murderer; the rival of Horus; equated by the Greeks with Typhon.
SHU: God of air; with Tefnut, forming the first pair of the gods in the Heliopolitan ennead; shown often as a man separating Nut (sky) from Geb (earth).
SOBK (SEBEK, SUCHOS),: A crocodile-god, worshipped throughout the Egypt, but especially in the Faiyum, and at Gebelein and Kom Ombo in Upper Egypt.
SOKARIS (SOKAR, SEKER),: a falcon-headed god of the necropolis; cult-centre in the Memphis.
SOPDU: ancient falcon-god of Saft el-Henna in the Delta; a warrior-god, protector of eastern frontier; represented often as a Asiatic warrior.
SOTHIS (SEPDET): The dog-star Sirius, deified as the goddess; shown as a woman with a star on her head.SOTHIS (SEPDET)
Ancient Egypt Gods with letter T
TATJENEN: Primeval earth-god of Memphis; later identified with the Ptah.
TEFNUT:Goddess of moisture; with the Shu forming the first pair of the Heliopolitan ennead.
THOERIS (TAURT, TAWERET),: hippopotamus-goddess; a beneficent deity, the patron of woman in child-birth.
THOTH: the ibis-headed god of the Hermopolis; the scribe of gods and the inventor of writing; the ape as well as the ibis being sacred to him.
Ancient Egypt Gods with letter U
UNNEFER (WENEN-NEFER, ONNOPHRIS),: the name meaning ‘he who is continually happy’, given to Osiris after his resurrection.
WEPWAWET (UPUAUT): jackal-god of Asyut in Middle Egypt; a god of necropolis and an avenger of Osiris.
The culture of ancient Egypt people is an amazing subject in itself, not only for the students and others who are related to the subject, but also for those who are very interested to learn about this mighty ancient civilization.
Ancient Egypt culture :- Housing
Most of the houses were built around an open courtyard, which also had a small section for an open-air kitchen evidenced, by the presence of hearths and so on.
The houses consist of three, four or more rooms, depending on the status of the family. The most houses that have been found on some of the ancient sites had been assigned to nobles, and consisted of three sections, viz. the entrance area, the reception rooms, and the private rooms.
Ancient Egypt culture :- Clothing
White linen was used as a clothing material for all.
Wool was also used sometimes as a clothing. But, considering the fact that it came from animals, it was not allowed strictly in the places of worship.
Both men and women belonging to the upper classe people wore jewelry and cosmetics.
Ancient Egypt culture :- Eating
Traditionally, the ancient Egyptians ate with their hands only.
The kind and amount of food a person ate was depended by his social status. So, where a rich man enjoyed a variety of breads and rich rice with numerous vegetables such as peas, cucumbers, lettuce and radishes, a poor man had to be satisfied only with bread, onion, and sometimes fish. fruits like apricots, dates and melons are taken by them. wine and beer is daily drink for then.
Ancient Egypt culture :- Language
The grate and oldest written sources of Egyptian language come in the form of signages and labels, and which belongs to 3200 B.C. The language of these sources has been referred to as Archaic Egyptian.
Old Egyptian language was came to be used from 2600 B.C. onwards, for a period of about 500 years. These languages are written in both hieratics and hieroglyphics.
Ancient Egypt culture :- Literature
Tale of Sinuhe, A popular piece of ancient Egyptian literature is a verse called the Tale of Sinuhe, and is a narrative portraying the outcome of the death of Pharaoh Amenemhat I.
The Book of the Dead is another effecive evidence of ancient Egyptian literature that is worth a mention.
The ancient Egyptians wrote on the varied surfaces, including walls, pyramids, tombs, and famed papyrus scrolls.
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