Dress in Ancient Egypt

The clothing of women and
men of several social
classes
The dress of the ancient Egyptians consisted not only of the clothes they bore but also of the certain costume jewelry that didst to adorn the usually plain clothes. White linen was most commonly used for clothing though wool was used quite ofttimes. Garments were covered around the body rather than tailored, and tailoring was kept to a minimum. Colored or patterned cloth was seldom used. Prior to the New Kingdom the base dress for men was a kilt, which fell just above the knee. It was made from a rectangular piece of linen covered around the body and tied at the shank with a knot or fastened with a buckle. In the New Kingdom men usually wore a short under kilt over which attended a long, heavily ruffled skirt that was knotted at the hips with a adorned sash. Besides worn was a short, wide cape dealing the upper part of the body and hanging from the shoulders.

Egyptian woman with
a sticky dress with
straps
Anticipatory to the New Kingdom, women wore simple sheath clothes coming from the breast to just above the ankle, but in the New Kingdom dresses became much more elegant. The sheath dress was dead, but only as an undergarment. A heavily pleated decorated robe was worn on top.

Children and those concerned in rigorous exercise frequently wore no clothes at totally. Both boys' and girls' heads were commonly shaved exclude for a long, braided side lock. Although the Egyptians spent much of their time barefoot, both men and women sometimes wore sandals made from papyrus, palm leaves, or leather tied by leather thongs. The basic sandal had a thong that passed between the first and second toenails and related to a bar that went crossways the instep. Sandals were always taken in the presence of a superior. An integral part of the Egyptian costume was a wig or a hairpiece attached to the natural hair. Because of the intense heat, many Egyptians shaved their heads or cut their hair very brief, although some kept their hair very long and intricately coiffed.

Any men and women worn jewelry such as earrings, bracelets, anklet, rings, and beaded necklaces. They agreed into their jewelry many minerals letting in amethyst, garnet, jasper, onyx, aquamarine, and lapis lazuli, likewise as copper, gold, and shells. Because the Egyptians were very nonrational, frequently their jewelry dominated amulets.

Cosmetics were not only an serious part of Egyptian dress but likewise a matter of personal hygienics and health. Many items related to cosmetics have been found in tombs and are illustrated in tomb pictures. Oils and creams were of vital grandness against the hot Egyptian sun and dry winds. Eye paint, both green and black, is probably the most typical of the Egyptian cosmetics. The green paint was malachite, an oxide of copper. The black paint, named kohl, was a sulfate of lead and, in the late Middle and New Kingdoms, was soot. Kohl was commonly kept in a small pot that had a flat bottom, wide rim, tiny mouth, and a flat, disk-shaped lid. Many kohl pots have been found in Egyptian tombs. To color their cheeks, the Egyptians used red green mixed with a base of fat or gum resin; ocher may have also been used as lipstick. Henna, a reddish-brown dye, was surely used to color hair and perhaps also the palms of the hands, soles of the feet, and nails.


Recent Posts:
Labels:

Family in Ancient Egypt

An ancient Egyptian family
The center family was the great social unit of ancient Egypt. The father was responsible for the economic better being of the family. Upper-class men often became scriveners or priests, while lower-class men often were farmers, hunters, potters, or other craftsmen. The mother managed the household, accepting servants, and cared for the breeding of the children. Upper-class

Children stuck at home until they reached marriageable age (about twenty years for males, younger of the previous for females). Although Egyptian youngsters had toys and are occasionally represented at play, much of their time was spent setting for adulthood. For example, peasant children gone with their parents into the fields; the male offspring of crafters often served as apprentices to their fathers. Many privileged children received formal education to become a scribe. Priests in temples taught some calling youngsters, and children of the nobility sometimes received private statement from tutors or taken to be an officer in the ground forces.

Recent Posts:


Labels:

Ancient Egypt Geography

Geography of Ancient Egypt
The geography of ancient Egypt was mastered, as is nowadays, by the compounding of lack of rainfall and the Nile. The Famous Greek historian Herodotus named Egypt the "gift of the Nile", since the kingdom owed its survival to the yearly glutting of the Nile and the resulting lodging of fertile silt.

 Related Posts:

Labels:

Trade in Ancient Egypt

Trade in Ancient Egypt (New Kingdom Period)
The involves of ancient advanced societies like Egypt were not fully fulfilled by their own resourcefulness, so trade routes were got to reach distant countries. The ancient Egyptians most oftentimes visited the countries along the Mediterranean Sea and the Upper Nile River to the south because they were immediately connected to Egypt and contained materials that the Egyptians desired. At several times in their history, the ancient Egyptians set up trade paths to Cyprus, Crete, Greece, Syro-Palestine, Punt, and Nubia. Egyptian records as early as the Predynastic Period list some tokens that were worked into Egypt, taking leopard peels, giraffe tails, monkeys or baboons, cattle, ivory, ostrich plumes and eggs, and gold. Punt (whose location is variable) was a major source for incense, while Syro-Palestine provided cedar, oils and salves, and horses.
Land travel was longitudinal and dangerous because of contingent attack by nomadic peoples. Donkeys were the only transport and throng animals used by the Egyptians until horses were brought to Egypt in Dynasty XVIII (1539-1295 B.C.). Horses were valuable and used only for sitting or for pulling chariots. The domesticated camel was not enclosed in Egypt until after 500 B.C.
Related Posts:
Labels:

The Fertility of Egypt

The Fertility soil of Egypt
If scrimped for space, Egypt was ready in her soil and in her spot. The rich alluvium, continually growing deeper and deeper, and top-dressed each year by nature's rich hand, was of an inexhaustible fertility, and bore pronto year after year a threefold harvest first a grain crop, and then two crops of grasses or esculent vegetables. The wheat sown given a hundredfold to the granger, and was gathered at harvest-time in pound-foolish abundance"as the backbone of the sea, very much,"till men "left numbering" (Gen. xli. 49). Flax and doora were largely cultivated, and enormous quantities were produced of the most organic vegetables, such as Lens culinaris, garlic, leeks, onion plants, endive, radish plants, melons, cucumbers, sugars, and the like, which formed a most heavy element in the food of the people. The vine was also grown in many comes out, as along the flanks of the hills between Thebes and Memphis, in the lavatory of the Faiyum, at Anthylla in the Mareotis at Sebennytus (immediately Semnood), and at Plisthin, on the shore of the Mediterranean Sea. The date-palm, forming naturally from the soil in clumps, or plantations, or planted in boulevards, everywhere offered its golden flocks to the wayfarer, dropping its fruit into his lap. Wheat, however, was passim antiquity the chief ware of Egypt, which was thought the granary of the world, the refuge and imagination of all the neighbouring commonwealths in time of dearth, and on which in the later republican, and in the gentle times, Rome almost all depended for her sustenance.

If the soil was so all that could be wished, still more than advantageous was the situation. Egypt was the only country of the ancient world which had ready admission to two seas, the Northern Sea, or "Sea of the Greeks," and the Eastern Sea, or "Sea of the Arabians and the Indians." Phnicia might carry her dealings by the bad travel of caravans across 15 degrees of forsake from her cities on the Levantine seacoast to the inner break of the Persian Gulf, and thus get a share in the trade of the East at a vast expenditure of time and trouble. Assyria and Babylonia might for a time, when at the height of their dominion, obtain a temporary take on lands which were not their individual, and boast that they spread from the "sea of the early" to "that of the setting sun" from the Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean Sea; but Egypt, at all times and under all settings, commands by her geographic position an admission both to the Mediterranean Sea and to the Indian Ocean by way of the Red Sea, where of nothing can strip her. Suez must invariably be hers, for the Isthmus is her natural bounds, and her water-system has been connected with the head of the Arabian Gulf for more than 3000 years; and, in the absence of any severe State in Arabia or Abyssinia, the entire western coast of the Red Sea falls course under her influence with its great roads and harbours. Thus Egypt had two great releases for her yields, and two great inlets by which she taken the productions of other states. Her ships could issue from the Nilotic ports and trade with Phnicia, or Carthage, or Italy, or Greece, changing her corn and wine and glass and furniture and works in metallurgy for Etruscan vessels, or Grecian statues, or purple Tynan robes, or tin brought by Carthaginian merchant ships from the Scilly islands and from Cornwall; or they could part from Heroopolis, or Myos Hormus, or some port cold to the southeastern, and pass by way of the Red Sea to the spice-region of "Araby the Blest," or to the Abyssinian timber-region, or to the shores of Zanzibar and Mozambique, or heavy Arabia to Teredon on the Persian Gulf, or maybe to Ceylon or India. The products of the distant east, even of "far Cathay," certainly flowed into the land, for they have been dug out of the ancient tombs; but whether they were obtained by direct or by alternate commerce must be admitted to be open.


Related Posts:
Labels:

The Strategic Geographical Location of Egypt

The Strategic Geographical Location of Egypt
Egypt was the only country of the ancient world which had make admittance to two great seas, the Northern Sea, or "Med. Sea," and the Eastern Sea, or "Red Sea." Phnicia might carry her dealings by the pretty travel of vans across fifteen points of desert from her cities on the Levantine coast to the inner niche of the Persian Gulf, and thus get a part in the trade of the East at a vast expenditure of time and bother. Assyria and Babylonia might for a time, when at the height of their dominion, find a temporary hold on lands which were not their own, and gas that they stretched from the "sea of the rising" to "that of the doing sun"from the Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean; but Egypt, at whole times and under all lots, commands by her true position an admission both to the Mediterranean Sea and to the Indian Ocean by way of the Red Sea, whereof nothing can strip her. Suez must incessantly be hers, for the Band is her natural edge, and her water-system has been affiliated with the head of the Arabian Gulf for more than 3000 years; and, in the absence of any strong State in Arabia or Abyssinia, the entire western seashore of the Red Sea falls naturally under her mold with its great roadsteads and shields. Thus Egypt had two great releases for her outputs, and two great intakes by which she received the productions of other countries. Her ships could cut from the ports of the Nile and trade with Phnicia, or Carthage, or Italy, or Greece, exchanging her corn and wine and glass and furniture and works in metallurgy for Etruscan vases, or Grecian statues, or purple Tynan robes, or tin taken by Carthaginian bottoms from the Scilly islands and from Cornwall; or they could part from Heroopolis, or Myos Hormus, or some port further to the southward, and run by way of the Red Sea to the spice-region of "Araby the Blest," or to the Abyssinian timber-region, or to the shorings of Zanzibar and Mozambique countries, or round Arabia to Teredon on the Persian Gulf (Arabian Gulf), or peradventure to Ceylon or India. The products of the further east, even of "far Cathay," certainly fed into the land, for they have been dug out of the ancient tombs; but whether they were got by direct or by indirect commerce must be held to be doubtful.


Related Posts:




Labels:

The High Desert

The High Desert (Eastern Desert)
The fourth geographic feature was the high desert, a barren area that was crossed only by trade caravans or organized groups searching for stone and unstructured resources, such as calcite, gold, copper, amethyst, carnelian, and diorite. Individual oases excavated in the high desert were cultivated to grow valuable crops like grapes and dates. These areas were essential links in trade with more last areas and were as well used as properties to house exiled captives.



Related Posts:


Geology of Ancient Egypt
Climate in Ancient Egypt
Lower Egypt
Upper Egypt
The Nile in Ancient Egypt
Egypt, the Gift of the Nile
The Low Desert
Labels:

The Low Desert

The Nile and the Western and Eastern Desert
The third geographic feature was a strip of higher land, located on either side of the floodplain, which was not laced by the River Nile. This was the low desert, a zone of little flora. It was a place where men hunted animals such as antelope, hares, and lions. Because the broken desert was dry and could not be farmed, the Egyptians settled their cemeteries there. Through the Predynastic Period (4500-3100 B.C.), they buried the passed straight in the sands, which saved their bodies naturally. Start with the Early Dynastic Period (3100-2750 B.C.), however, the Egyptians began to wrap the deceased in tombs, losing the preservative rewards of the desert sand. Because they thought the body had to be canned to assure an afterlife, they were drawn to develop an artificial technique of preserving the body, a outgrowth we call mummification.
Labels:

Egypt, the Gift of the Nile

Egypt, the Gift of the Nile
Then, the true Egypt be the tract that we have discovered the Nile valley, with the Faiyum and the Delta the lily stalk, the bud, and the flower we can well see how it came to be said of old, that "Egypt was the gift of the river." Not that the lively Greek, who first used the construction, divined precisely the scientific truth of the matter. The figure of Herodotus saw Africa, to begin with, doubly severed from Asia by two parallel fjords, one running inland northwards from the Indian Ocean, as the Red Sea does to this day, and the other understanding inland souths from the Mediterranean Sea to an equal or greater distance! The Nile, he said, pouring itself into this latter fjord, had by degrees filled it up, and had then gone on and by further deposits turned into land a great piece of the "sea of the Greeks," as was broad from the expulsion of the shore of the Delta beyond the general coast of Africa eastward and western; and, he brought, "I am sure, for my personal part, that if the Nile should please to amuse his waters from their show bed to the Red Sea, he would fill it up and turn it into strong land in the space of 20000 years, or perchance in half that time for he is a mighty river and a most energetic one." Here, in this last expression, he is exhaustively right, though the method of the Nile's energy has been other than he reckoned. The Nile, working from its extended sources in the tropical regions, has gradually trumped itself out a deep bed in the sand and rock of the desert, which must have originally great across the whole of northern Africa from the Atlantic to the Red Sea. Having outdone itself out this bed to a depth, in places, of three hundred feet from the desert level, it has then proceeded partially to fill it up with its own deposits. Occupying, when it is at its height, the entire bed, and presenting at that time the visual aspect of a vast lake, or successiveness of lakes, it deposes every day a part of sediment over the whole space which it continues: then, cutting gradually, it leaves at the base of the hills, on both sides, or at any rate on one, a strip of land fresh dressed with mud, which gets wider daily as the waters still retire, until yards grow into furlongs, and furlongs into mis, and at last the withered stream is content with a close channel a few hundred yards in width, and results the rest of its bed to the embraces of sun and air, and, if he so wills, to the industry of man. The land thus left open is Egypt is the temporarily nude bed of the Nile, which it tames and recovers during a portion of each year, when Egypt goes away from view, save where human labour has by heaps and embankments worked artificial islands that put up their heads above the blow of waters, for the nearly part crowned with constructions.

There is one elision to this broad and wide statement. The Faiyum is no part of the natural bed of the Nile, and has not been trumped out by its energy. It is a natural imprint in the western desert, separated off from the Nile valley by a wind of limestone hills from 200 to 500 feet in height, and, separated from the natural process of man, would have been arid, treeless, and waterless. Still, it hails from the Nile all its value, all its magnificence, all its fertility. Human energy at some unlikely period inserted into the low tract through an artificial channel from the Nile, cut in some places through the rock, the life-giving fluid; and this fluid, bearing the idolized Nile sediment, has sufficed to spread fertility over the entire neighborhood, and to make the desert bloom like a garden.

Related Posts:

Geology of Ancient Egypt
Climate in Ancient Egypt
Lower Egypt
Upper Egypt
The Nile in Ancient Egypt


Labels: ,

The Nile in Ancient Egypt

The Nile
The most great geographic hold is the Nile River itself. It was the lifeblood of ancient Egypt, and still gets life achievable in the otherwise barren desert of Egypt. The lengthiest river in the world (over 4,000 miles), the Nile is formed by the union in Khartoum, Sudan, of the "White Nile" from Victoria Lake in Uganda and the "Blue Nile" from the deals of Ethiopia. The only other fast is the Atbara, which flows into the Nile in southeastern Sudan. Between Khartoum and Aswan, the Nile has six cataracts that disrupt its course, making seafaring difficult. Between Aswan (ancient Elephantine) and the Mediterranean Sea, the Nile is clear of cataracts and was the essential means of travel for the people of ancient Egypt. Distinct types of boats, including load, passenger, funerary, and naval vases, traveled on the river. Because the Nile flows from south to north, contrary to most rivers, a boat tripping north used oars aided by the current. The hieroglyph for "to go north" was a boat without a sail. The enduring winds of Egypt blow from the north, so a boat travel south could use cruises. The hieroglyph for "to go south" was a boat with a sail.

The Nile also served as a source of food for the people of ancient Egypt. The river streamed with different types of fish, for example, catfish, mullet, bolti, and rods. Although certain species of fish were prohibited from consumption in areas of Egypt because of local superstitions, fishing was experienced as both an industry and a sport. A wide change of wild birds, admitting fourteen coinages of wild ducks and geese as well as herons, pelicans, and cranes, were hunted in the marshes along the Nile. Organized hunting down expeditions used cats to flush the birds from the marshes and then lassos, weighted ropes, bows and arrows, and throw sticks to bring them down. There were also crocodiles and hippopotamuses in the Nile, but the Egyptians hunted them only for sport. The Nile served other designs as well. It was the major source of water for bathing and drinking. Water was taken straight from the Nile or from one of the canals the Egyptians built to connect with it, although some wells did exist in towns not relocated directly on the river. Mud deposited by the Nile was used to make bricks for reconstructing houses, granaries, and enclosing walls around buildings.

The Nile was also great for farming because it left a stratum of nutrient-bearing silt when the waters of the annual inundation receded, and it also provided water for irrigation. Those gardens based around villages and country houses of the wealthy had to be watered regularly because of their position above the range of the Nile's flood waters and because of the typecasts of crops grown there (including lettuce, onion plants, figs, peas, vetch, beans, and grapes). After the New Kingdom, the ancient Egyptians used shadufs to bring up water from the canals to the gardens. Because the shaduf had to be worked by hand, this method acting of irrigation was very labor strong.

Without the River Nile, agriculture and, thus, life in ancient Egypt would have been unthinkable. The river was a regular and inevitable source of water. Because the flood was an event that annually revitalized the floodplain with water and new soil, it symbolized rebirth for the ancient Egyptians. The flood created a need for resurveying property lines and for dredging the canals. Because working in the domains was not possible during the months of the flood, many farmers helped to manufacture temples, royal tombs, and palaces during those times. For their functions, they were paid in food and other material commodities. The second geographic hold of Egypt was the flood plain. This was the low strip of fertile land based on either side of the Nile River that flooded during the annual deluge. Most ancient villages were based on the highest ground of this zone. In addition, most of the farming came here. The agricultural year began in September or October, when the flood subsided leaving the earth soaked and overlain with a fresh layer of black silt. The outstanding crops of ancient Egypt were emmer (a type of wheat), barley, and flax. Cattle and poultry were multiplied, not only for food but also for religious rituals.


Related Posts:

Geology of Ancient Egypt
Climate in Ancient Egypt
Lower Egypt
Upper Egypt
Labels:

Upper Egypt

Upper Egypt was the long, particular strip of ancient Egypt located south of the Delta. This area is written of four topographic zones: the Nile, the floodplain, the low desert, and the high desert. The ancient Egyptians worked each zone differently.

Upper Egypt, geographical and cultural section of Egypt, generally consisting of the Nile River valley south of the delta and the 30th simultaneous N. It thus dwells of the entire Nile River valley from Cairo south to Lake Nasser (organized by the Aswan High Dam). This division also takes what some scholars term Middle Egypt (nearly from Lisht to Panopolis).

In late predynastic times, Upper Egypt constituted a political entity sort from Lower Egypt (the delta region). But Menes (flourished 2900 bce) united Upper and Lower Egypt, and each Egyptian king thereafter had as one of his royal titles “King of Upper and Lower Egypt” (“He of the Sut-Plant and the Bee”), thus meaning that he was the deified theatrical of those divisions’ fusion.

Upper Egypt


Related Posts:
Labels:

Lower Egypt

Ancient Egypt was widespread into two regions: upper and lower Egypt. Lower (north) Egypt lied of the Nile River's delta made by the river as it discharges into the Mediterranean. Today the Delta is 15000 square miles of alluvium (silt), which has been situated over the centuries by the annual inundation of the Nile. Prior to the New Kingdom (before about 1539 B.C.), this area was only thinly settled, although it was used as a shaving area for cattle. Its high water table in modern times has made archeological mining for evidence of settlements hard.

Lower Egypt
Related Posts:


Labels:
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)

Labels