Introduction to Ancient Egypt

Egyptian civilization in its characteristic from suddenly and mysteriously emerged from prehistory around 3100 BC. although the nature of Egyption society underwent a process of slow change over the centuries many of its outward features survived into a period 300 years later when the country was ruled by greek speaking ptolmies and after them by the roman emperors most of our knowledge of ancint egypt conerns the history and culture of the egyption court that centered on a hereditary divine kingship at the head of a powerful administrative apparatus egyptologists have grouped the families of kings or pharaohs into thirty one dvnasties leading to the time of the conquest of egypt by alexander the great in 332BC. ordered rule under the old Kingdom -dynasties 3-6 - collapsed through what appears to be a social revolution in about 2280 BC. after a little more than two centuries {Dtnasties 11& 12} The second collapse beginning late in the 18th century BC, was largely due to the incursions of the asiatic Hyksos, who for a time ruled much of egypt the new kingdom was established by about 1575 BC and flourished for about 500 years {dynasties 18-20}.

A comprehensive and accurate picture of the development of Egyptian civilization is not however, as clear as the preceding chronological listing implies. To put it quite bluntly, while the hieroglyphic language of the Egyptians was deciphered by Champollion in 1822 and succeeding generations of archaeologists have done admirable work in excavating preservivng and measuring the monumental arcchitecture of the Egyptians current Egyptological {science} Knows next to nothing about the origins of Egyptian civivzation and the fundamental philosophy that underlaid it. This matter is far to comlex to deal with in this essay but a few quotes from Egyptian specialists will alert my readers to the very limited knowledg we have concerning the ancient Egyptian culture and , most particularly, its origins.