Ancient Egypt ANCIENT EGYPT [Excerpted from Egypt: A Country Study. Helen Chapin Metz, ed. Washington, DC: Federal Research Division of the Library of Congress, 1990] Historical Setting THE ROOTS OF EGYPTIAN civilization go back more than 6,000 years to the beginning of settled life along the banks of the Nile River. The country has an unusual geographical and cultural unity that has given the Egyptian people a strong sense of identity and a pride in their heritage as descendants of humankind's earliest civilized community. Within the long sweep of Egyptian history, certain events or epochs have been crucial to the development of Egyptian society and culture. One of these was the unification of Upper Egypt and Lower Egypt sometime in the third millennium B.C. The ancient Egyptians regarded this event as the most important in their history, comparable to the "First Time," or the creation of the universe. With the unification of the "Two Lands" by the legendary, if not mythical, King Menes, the glorious Pharaonic Age began. Power was centralized in the hands of a god-king, and, thus, Egypt became the first organized society.

The ancient Egyptians were the first people of antiquity to believe in life after death. They were the first to build in stone and to fashion the arch in stone and brick. Even before the unification of the Two Lands, the Egyptians had developed a plow and a system of writing. They were accomplished sailors and shipbuilders. They learned to chart the heavens in order to predict the Nile flood. Their physicians prescribed healing remedies and performed surgical operations. They sculpted in stone and decorated the walls of their tombs with naturalistic murals in vibrant colors. The legacy of ancient Egypt is written in stone across the face of the country from the pyramids of Upper Egypt to the rock tombs in the Valley of the Kings to the Old Kingdom temples of Luxor and Karnak to the Ptolemaic temples of Edfu and Dendera and to the Roman temple to Isis on Philae Island. ANCIENT EGYPT The Predynastic Period and the First and Second Dynasties, 6000-2686 B.C.

During this period, when people first began to settle along the banks of the Nile (Nahr an Nil) and to evolve from hunters and gatherers to settled, subsistence agriculturalists, Egypt developed the written language, religion, and institutions that made it the world's first organized society. Through pharaonic Egypt, Africa claims to be the cradle of one of the earliest and most spectacular civilizations of antiquity. One of the unique features of ancient Egyptian civilization was the bond between the Nile and the Egyptian people and their institutions. The Nile caused the great productivity of the soil, for it annually brought a copious deposit of rich silt from the monsoon-swept tableland of Ethiopia. Each July, the level of the Nile began to rise, and by the end of August, the flood reached its full height. At the end of October, the flood began to recede, leaving behind a fairly uniform deposit of silt as well as lagoons and streams that became natural reservoirs for fish. By April, the Nile was at its lowest level. Vegetation started to diminish, seasonal pools dried out, and game began to move south. Then in July, the Nile would rise again, and the cycle was repeated.

Because of the fall and rise of the river, one can understand why the Egyptians were the first people to believe in life after death. The rise and fall of the flood waters meant that the "death" of the land would be followed each year by the "rebirth" of the crops. Thus, rebirth was seen as a natural sequence to death. Like the sun, which "died" when it sank on the western horizon and was "reborn" in the eastern sky on the following morning, humans would also rise and live again. Sometime during the final Paleolithic period and the Neolithic era, a revolution occurred in food production. Meat ceased to be the chief article of diet and was replaced by plants such as wheat and barley grown extensively as crops and not gathered at random in the wild. The relatively egalitarian tribal structure of the Nile Valley broke down because of the need to manage and control the new agricultural economy and the surplus it generated. Long-distance trade within Egypt, a high degree of craft specialization, and sustained contacts with southwest Asia encouraged the development of towns and a hierarchical structure with power residing in a headman who was believed to be able to control the Nile flood.

The headman's power rested on his reputation as a "rainmaker king." The towns became trading centers, political centers, and cult centers. Egyptologists disagree as to when these small, autonomous communities were unified into the separate kingdoms of Lower Egypt and Upper Egypt and as to when the two kingdoms were united under one king. Nevertheless, the most important political event in ancient Egyptian history was the unification of the two lands: the Black Land of the Delta, so-called because of the darkness of its rich soil, and the Red Land of Upper Egypt, the sun-baked land of the desert. The rulers of Lower Egypt wore the red crown and had the bee as their symbol. The leaders of Upper Egypt wore the white crown and took the sedge as their emblem. After the unification of the two kingdoms, the pharaoh wore the double crown symbolizing the unity of the two lands. The chief god of the Delta was Horus, and that of Upper Egypt was Seth. The unification of the two kingdoms resulted in combining the two myths concerning the gods. Horus was the son of Osiris and Isis and avenged the evil Seth's slaying of his father by killing Seth, thus showing the triumph of good over evil.

Horus took over his father's throne and was regarded as the ancestor of the pharaohs. After unification, each pharaoh took a Horus name that indicated that he was the reincarnation of Horus. According to tradition, King Menes of Upper Egypt united the two kingdoms and established his capital at Memphis, then known as the "White Walls." Some scholars believe Menes was the Horus King Narmer, whereas others prefer to regard him as a purely legendary figure. With the emergence of a strong, centralized government under a god-king, the country's nascent economic and political institutions became subject to royal authority. The central government, either directly or through major officials, became the employer of soldiers, retainers, bureaucrats, and artisans whose goods and services benefited the upper classes and the state gods. In the course of the Early Dynastic Period, artisans and civil servants working for the central government fashioned the highly sophisticated traditions of art and learning that thereafter constituted the basic pattern of pharaonic civilization. The Old Kingdom, Middle Kingdom, and Second Intermediate Period, 2686 to 1552 B.C.

Historians have given the name "kingdom" to those periods in Egyptian history when the central government was strong, the country was unified, and there was an orderly succession of pharaohs. At times, however, central authority broke down, competing centers of power emerged, and the country was plunged into civil war or was occupied by foreigners. These periods are known as "intermediate periods." The Old Kingdom and the Middle Kingdom together represent an important single phase in Egyptian political and cultural development. The Third Dynasty reached a level of competence that marked a plateau of achievement for ancient Egypt. After five centuries and following the end of the Sixth Dynasty (ca. 2181 B.C.), the system faltered, and a century and a half of civil war, the First Intermediate Period, ensued. The reestablishment of a powerful central government during the Twelfth Dynasty, however, re-instituted the patterns of the Old Kingdom. Thus, the Old Kingdom and the Middle Kingdom may be considered together. Divine kingship was the most striking feature of Egypt in these periods. The political and economic system of Egypt developed around the concept of a god incarnate who was believed through his magical powers to control the Nile flood for the benefit of the nation.

In the form of great religious complexes centered on the pyramid tombs, the cult of the pharaoh, the godking , was given monumental expression of a grandeur unsurpassed in the ancient Near East. Central to the Egyptian view of kingship was the concept of maat, loosely translated as justice and truth but meaning more than legal fairness and factual accuracy. It referred to the ideal state of the universe and was personified as the goddess Maat. The king was responsible for its appearance, an obligation that acted as a constraint on the arbitrary exercise of power. The pharaoh ruled by divine decree. In the early years, his sons and other close relatives acted as his principal advisers and aides. By the Fourth Dynasty, there was a grand vizier or chief minister, who was at first a prince of royal blood and headed every government department. The country was divided into nomes or districts administered by nomarchs or governors. At first, the nomarchs were royal officials who moved from post to post and had no pretense to independence or local ties. The post of nomarch eventually became hereditary, however, and nomarchs passed their offices to their sons. Hereditary offices and the possession of property turned these officials into a landed gentry.

Concurrently, kings began rewarding their courtiers with gifts of tax-exempt land. From the middle of the Fifth Dynasty can be traced the beginnings of a feudal state with an increase in the power of these provincial lords, particularly in Upper Egypt. The Old Kingdom ended when the central administration collapsed in the late Sixth Dynasty. This collapse seems to have resulted at least in part from climatic conditions that caused a period of low Nile waters and great famine. The kings would have been discredited by the famine, because pharaonic power rested in part on the belief that the king controlled the Nile flood. In the absence of central authority, the hereditary landowners took control and assumed responsibility for maintaining order in their own areas. The manors of their estates turned into miniature courts, and Egypt splintered into a number of feudal states. This period of decentralized rule and confusion lasted from the Seventh through the Eleventh dynasties. The kings of the Twelfth Dynasty restored central government control and a single strong kingship in the period known as the Middle Kingdom. The Middle Kingdom ended with the conquest of Egypt by the Hyksos, the so-called Shepherd Kings.

The Hyksos were Semitic nomads who broke into the Delta from the northeast and ruled Egypt from Avaris in the eastern Delta. Pyramid Building in the Old and Middle Kingdoms With the Third Dynasty, Egypt entered into the five centuries of high culture known as the Pyramid Age. The age is associated with Chancellor Imhotep, the adviser, administrator, and architect of Pharaoh Djoser. He built the pharaoh's funerary complex, including his tomb, the Step Pyramid, at Saqqarah. Imhotep is famed as the inventor of building in dressed stone. His architectural genius lay in his use of durable, fine-quality limestone to imitate the brick, wood, and reed structures that have since disappeared. The first true pyramid was built by Snoferu, the first king of the Fourth Dynasty. His son and successor, Kheops, built the Great Pyramid at Giza (Al Jizah); this, with its two companions on the same site, was considered one of the wonders of the ancient world. It contained well over 2 million blocks of limestone, some weighing fifteen tons apiece. The casing stones of the Great Pyramid were stripped off to build medieval Cairo (Al Qahirah).

The building and equipping of funerary monuments represented the single largest industry through the Old Kingdom and, after a break, the Middle Kingdom as well. The channeling of so much of the country's resources into building and equipping funerary monuments may seem unproductive by modern standards, but pyramid building seems to have been essential for the growth of pharaonic civilization. As Egyptologists have pointed out, in ancient societies innovations in technology arose not so much from deliberate research as from the consequences of developing lavish court projects. Equally important, the continued consumption of so great a quantity of wealth and of the products of artisanship sustained the machinery that produced them by creating fresh demand as reign succeeded reign. The pyramids of the pharaohs, the tombs of the elite, and the burial practices of the poorer classes are related to ancient Egyptian religious beliefs, particularly belief in the afterlife. The Egyptian belief that life would continue after death in a form similar to that experienced on earth was an important element in the development of art and architecture that was not present in other cultures. Thus, in Egypt, a dwelling place was provided for the dead in the form of a pyramid or a rock tomb.

Life was magically recreated in pictures on the walls of the tombs, and a substitute in stone was provided for the perishable body of the deceased. The New Kingdom and Third Intermediate Period, 1552-664 B.C. Around the year 1600 B.C., a semi-autonomous Theban dynasty under the suzerainty of the Hyksos became determined to drive the Shepherd Kings out of the country and extend its own power. The country was liberated from the Hyksos and unified by Ahmose (ruled 1570-1546 B.C.), the son of the last ruler of the Seventeenth Dynasty. He was honored by subsequent generations as the founder of a new line, the Eighteenth Dynasty, and as the initiator of a glorious chapter in Egyptian history. During the New Kingdom, Egypt reached the peak of its power, wealth, and territory. The government was reorganized into a military state with an administration centralized in the hands of the pharaoh and his chief minister.

Through the intensive military campaigns of Pharaoh Thutmose III (1490-1436 B.C.), Palestine, Syria, and the northern Euphrates area in Mesopotamia were brought within the New Kingdom. This territorial expansion involved Egypt in a complicated system of diplomacy, alliances, and treaties. After Thutmose III established the empire, succeeding pharaohs frequently engaged in warfare to defend the state against the pressures of Libyans from the west, Nubians and Ethiopians (Kushites) from the south, Hittites from the east, and Philistines (sea people) from the Aegean-Mediterranean region of the north. Toward the end of the Twentieth Dynasty, Egyptian power declined at home and abroad. Egypt was once more separated into its natural divisions of Upper Egypt and Lower Egypt. The pharaoh now ruled from his residence-city in the north, and Memphis remained the hallowed capital where the pharaoh was crowned and his jubilees celebrated. Upper Egypt was governed from Thebes. During the Twenty-first Dynasty, the pharaohs ruled from Tanis (San al Hajar al Qibliyah), while a virtually autonomous theocracy controlled Thebes.

Egyptian control in Nubia and Ethiopia vanished. The pharaohs of the Twenty-second and Twentythird dynasties were mostly Libyans. Those of the brief Twentyfourth Dynasty were Egyptians of the Nile Delta, and those of the Twenty-fifth were Nubians and Ethiopians. This dynasty's ventures into Palestine brought about an Assyrian intervention, resulting in the rejection of the Ethiopians and the reestablishment by the Assyrians of Egyptian rulers at Sais (Sa al Hajar), about eighty kilometers southeast of Alexandria (Al Iskandariyah) on the Rosetta branch of the Nile. Art and Architecture in the New Kingdom As historian Cyril Aldred has said, the civilization of the New Kingdom seems the most golden of all the epochs of Egyptian history, perhaps because so much of its wealth remains. The rich store of treasures from the tomb of Tutankhamen (1347-1337 B.C.) gives us a glimpse of the dazzling court art of the period and the skills of the artisans of the day. One of the innovations of the period was the construction of rock tombs for the pharaohs and the elite.

Around 1500 B.C., Pharaoh Amenophis I abandoned the pyramid in favor of a rock-hewn tomb in the crags of western Thebes (present-day Luxor). His example was followed by his successors, who for the next four centuries cut their tombs in the Valley of the Kings and built their mortuary temples on the plain below. Other wadis or river valleys were subsequently used for the tombs of queens and princes. Another New Kingdom innovation was temple building, which began with Queen Hatshepsut, who as the heiress queen seized power in default of male claimants to the throne. She was particularly devoted to the worship of the god Amun, whose cult was centered at Thebes. She built a splendid temple dedicated to him and to her own funerary cult at Dayr al Bahri in western Thebes. One of the greatest temples still standing is that of Pharaoh Amenophis III at Thebes. With Amenophis III, statuary on an enormous scale makes its appearance. The most notable is the pair of colossi, the so-called Colossi of Memnon, which still dominate the Theban plain before the vanished portal of his funerary temple.

Ramesses II was the most vigorous builder to wear the double crown of Egypt. Nearly half the temples remaining in Egypt date from his reign. Some of his constructions include his mortuary temple at Thebes, popularly known as the Ramesseum; the huge hypostyle hall at Karnak, the rock-hewn temple at Abu Simbel (Abu Sunbul); and his new capital city of Pi Ramesses. The Cult of the Sun God and Akhenaten's Monotheism During the New Kingdom, the cult of the sun god Ra became increasingly important until it evolved into the uncompromising monotheism of Pharaoh Akhenaten (Amenhotep IV, 1364-1347 B.C.). According to the cult, Ra created himself from a primeval mound in the shape of a pyramid and then created all other gods. Thus, Ra was not only the sun god, he was also the universe, having created himself from himself. Ra was invoked as Aten or the Great Disc that illuminated the world of the living and the dead. The effect of these doctrines can be seen in the sun worship of Pharaoh Akhenaten, who became an uncompromising monotheist.

Aldred has speculated that monotheism was Akhenaten's own idea, the result of regarding Aten as a self-created heavenly king whose son, the pharaoh, was also unique. Akhenaten made Aten the supreme state god, symbolized as a rayed disk with each sunbeam ending in a ministering hand. Other gods were abolished, their images smashed, their names excised, their temples abandoned, and their revenues impounded. The plural word for god was suppressed. Sometime in the fifth or sixth year of his reign, Akhenaten moved his capital to a new city called Akhetaten (present-day Tall al Amarinah, also seen as Tell al Amarna). At that time, the pharaoh, previously known as Amenhotep IV, adopted the name Akhenaten. His wife, Queen Nefertiti, shared his beliefs. Akhenaten's religious ideas did not survive his death. His ideas were abandoned in part because of the economic collapse that ensued at the end of his reign. To restore the morale of the nation, Akhenaten's successor, Tutankhamen, appeased the offended gods whose resentment would have blighted all human enterprise.

Temples were cleaned and repaired, new images made, priests appointed, and endowments restored. Akhenaten's new city was abandoned to the desert sands. The Late Period, 664-323 B.C. The Late Period includes the last periods during which ancient Egypt functioned as an independent political entity. During these years, Egyptian culture was under pressure from major civilizations of the eastern Mediterranean and the Near East. The socioeconomic system, however, had a vigor, efficiency, and flexibility that ensured the success of the nation during these years of triumph and disaster. Throughout the Late Period, Egypt made a largely successful effort to maintain an effectively centralized state, which, except for the two periods of Persian occupation (Twenty-seventh and Thirty-first dynasties), was based on earlier indigenous models. Late Period Egypt, however, displayed certain destabilizing features, such as the emergence of regionally based power centers. These contributed to the revolts against the Persian occupation but also to the recurrent internal crises of the Twenty-eighth, Twenty-ninth, and Thirtieth dynasties. The Twenty-sixth Dynasty was founded by Psammethichus I, who made Egypt a powerful and united kingdom.

This dynasty, which ruled from 664 to 525 B.C., represented the last great age of pharaonic civilization. The dynasty ended when a Persian invasion force under Cambyses, the son of Cyrus the Great, dethroned the last pharaoh. Cambyses established himself as pharaoh and appears to have made some attempts to identify his regime with the Egyptian religious hierarchy. Egypt became a Persian province serving chiefly as a source of revenue for the far-flung Persian (Achaemenid) Empire. From Cambyses to Darius II in the years 525 to 404 B.C., the Persian emperors are counted as the Twentyseventh Dynasty. Periodic Egyptian revolts, usually aided by Greek military forces, were unsuccessful until 404 B.C., when Egypt regained an uneasy independence under the short-lived, native Twenty-eighth, Twenty-ninth, and Thirtieth dynasties. Independence was lost again in 343 B.C., and Persian rule was oppressively reinstated and continued until 335 B.C., in what is sometimes called the Thirty-first Dynasty or second Persian occupation of Egypt.

Egypt - ANCIENT EGYPT ANCIENT EGYPT Egypt Table of Contents The Predynastic Period and the First and Second Dynasties, 6000-2686 B.C. During this period, when people first began to settle along the banks of the Nile (Nahr an Nil) and to evolve from hunters and gatherers to settled, subsistence agriculturalists, Egypt developed the written language, religion, and institutions that made it the world's first organized society. Through pharaonic Egypt, Africa claims to be the cradle of one of the earliest and most spectacular civilizations of antiquity. One of the unique features of ancient Egyptian civilization was the bond between the Nile and the Egyptian people and their institutions. The Nile caused the great productivity of the soil, for it annually brought a copious deposit of rich silt from the monsoon-swept tableland of Ethiopia. Each July, the level of the Nile began to rise, and by the end of August, the flood reached its full height. At the end of October, the flood began to recede, leaving behind a fairly uniform deposit of silt as well as lagoons and streams that became natural reservoirs for fish.

By April, the Nile was at its lowest level. Vegetation started to diminish, seasonal pools dried out, and game began to move south. Then in July, the Nile would rise again, and the cycle was repeated. Because of the fall and rise of the river, one can understand why the Egyptians were the first people to believe in life after death. The rise and fall of the flood waters meant that the "death" of the land would be followed each year by the "rebirth" of the crops. Thus, rebirth was seen as a natural sequence to death. Like the sun, which "died" when it sank on the western horizon and was "reborn" in the eastern sky on the following morning, humans would also rise and live again. Sometime during the final Paleolithic period and the Neolithic era, a revolution occurred in food production. Meat ceased to be the chief article of diet and was replaced by plants such as wheat and barley grown extensively as crops and not gathered at random in the wild. The relatively egalitarian tribal structure of the Nile Valley broke down because of the need to manage and control the new agricultural economy and the surplus it generated.

Long-distance trade within Egypt, a high degree of craft specialization, and sustained contacts with southwest Asia encouraged the development of towns and a hierarchical structure with power residing in a headman who was believed to be able to control the Nile flood. The headman's power rested on his reputation as a "rainmaker king." The towns became trading centers, political centers, and cult centers. Egyptologists disagree as to when these small, autonomous communities were unified into the separate kingdoms of Lower Egypt and Upper Egypt and as to when the two kingdoms were united under one king. Nevertheless, the most important political event in ancient Egyptian history was the unification of the two lands: the Black Land of the Delta, so-called because of the darkness of its rich soil, and the Red Land of Upper Egypt, the sun-baked land of the desert. The rulers of Lower Egypt wore the red crown and had the bee as their symbol. The leaders of Upper Egypt wore the white crown and took the sedge as their emblem. After the unification of the two kingdoms, the pharaoh wore the double crown symbolizing the unity of the two lands. The chief god of the Delta was Horus, and that of Upper Egypt was Seth.

The unification of the two kingdoms resulted in combining the two myths concerning the gods. Horus was the son of Osiris and Isis and avenged the evil Seth's slaying of his father by killing Seth, thus showing the triumph of good over evil. Horus took over his father's throne and was regarded as the ancestor of the pharaohs. After unification, each pharaoh took a Horus name that indicated that he was the reincarnation of Horus. According to tradition, King Menes of Upper Egypt united the two kingdoms and established his capital at Memphis, then known as the "White Walls." Some scholars believe Menes was the Horus King Narmer, whereas others prefer to regard him as a purely legendary figure. With the emergence of a strong, centralized government under a god-king, the country's nascent economic and political institutions became subject to royal authority. The central government, either directly or through major officials, became the employer of soldiers, retainers, bureaucrats, and artisans whose goods and services benefited the upper classes and the state gods.

In the course of the Early Dynastic Period, artisans and civil servants working for the central government fashioned the highly sophisticated traditions of art and learning that thereafter constituted the basic pattern of pharaonic civilization. Custom Search Divine and royal headdresses and crowns Ancient Egypt: Divine and royal headdresses and crowns <a href="../ifwindow.htm" target="_blank">Search</a> Divine and royal headdresses and crowns The Egyptians, like many other Africans, did not wear any head-dresses. They sometimes wore headbands or covered their hair with wigs, but hats or caps were not worn by the people. The pharaoh and their families on the other hand availed themselves of the increased stature headdresses bestowed upon them. The kings, like the gods, are rarely shown with uncovered heads. Divine crowns Many of the gods can be identified by their headdress, but just as their identities sometimes merge with each other, a certain crown primarily worn by one god may also be depicted crowning another. The White and Red Crowns were more than just headdresses a king put on.

They embodied the two lands, the victorious Upper and the vanquished Lower Egypt: The triumph of the White Crown White-crown goes forth, She has swallowed the Great; White-crown's tongue swallowed the Great, Tongue was not seen! Unas Pyramid Texts, Utterance 239 M. Lichtheim Ancient Egyptian Literature, Vol I, p.32 The original wearer of the crowns of Egypt had been Osiris Glory be to thee, O Osiris Un-Nefer, thou great god in Abtu (Abydos), King of Eternity, Lord of Everlastingness, God whose existence is millions of years, eldest son of Nut, begotten by Geb, the Ancestor-Chief, Lord of the Crowns of the South and the North, Lord of the High White Crown Book of the Dead, tr. W.E. Budge After his demise and resurrection he relinquished them in favour of his son Horus, and took to wearing the plumed atef crown.

As ruler of the underworld the dead were brought before him and implored him for help The deceased then addresses Osiris, and says, "Hail, thou who art exalted upon thy standard, thou Lord of the Atefu Crown, whose name is 'Lord of Winds,' save me from thy Messengers (or Assessors) with uncovered faces, who bring charges of evil and make shortcomings plain, because I have performed the Law (or Truth) for the Lord of the Law (or Truth). Book of the Dead, tr. W.E. Budge (The feathered waset sceptre) Pharaonic crowns Seshed (sSd) diadems, metal headbands to which uraei were affixed, were worn since the Old Kingdom and some have been recovered by archaeologists, notably the one worn by the mummy of Tutankhamen. Other headdresses were seemingly mostly made from organic materials and few remains have survived. The forms of most of the crowns are known from depictions only. In early times there were few different royal crowns. They were kept in the Double Chapel guarded by the Lower Egyptian goddess Wadjet and the Upper Egyptian Nekhbet.

After purifying himself the king to be crowned entered the chapel and the crown was placed on his head and a priest spoke these words Nothing is lost to thee, nothing has ceased for thee. Behold, thou art renewed and more powerful than the gods of Upper Egypt and its spirits. Pyramid Texts 222 The crowns, like the sceptres, were symbols of might. Conferring them upon a person meant also investing him (or her) with their power. A king could share them with his successor or they were inherited after the king's demise. Amenhotep II wrote about his accession that Amen-Re crowned him king upon the throne of the living and if during the Old Kingdom there had been just two crowns and the nemes to wear, New Kingdom pharaohs had a whole cupboard full of them - although some of the crowns may have been virtual: Risen as king upon the great throne, He has joined the Great Magicians; The double-crown clings to his head, Re's atef-crown to his brow.

His face is adorned with southcrown and northcrown, He wears the headband and the helmet; The tall-plumed ibes-crown is on his head, The headcloth embraces his shoulders. Gathered are the crowns of Atum, Handed over to his image, As ordained by the maker of gods, [Amun], the most ancient, who crowned him. Pyramid Texts 222 M. Lichtheim, Ancient Egyptian Literature, Vol.2, p.40 According to an inscription, Thutmose I crowned his daughter Hatshepsut on the auspicious New Years Day, though in reality she began her reign sometime during the twelfth month. Moreover, the events as described by the queen are unlikely to have happened in this fashion. Come, glorious one; I have placed (thee) before me; that thou mayest see thy administration in the palace, and the excellent deeds of thy ka's that thou mayest assume thy royal dignity, glorious in they magic, mighty in thy strength.

Thou shalt be powerful in the Two Lands; thou shalt seize the rebellious; thou shalt appear in the palace, thy forehead shall be adorned with the double diadem, resting upon the head of the heiress of Horus, whom I begat, daughter of the white crown, beloved of Buto. The diadems are given to thee by him who presides over the thrones of the gods. J. H. Breasted, Ancient Records of Egypt, Part Two, § 235 If Hatshepsut was stretching the truth well beyond breaking point, co-regents were appointed in such a manner. Ramses II, another monarch who was liberal in his attitude towards veracity, told the story of his coronation in the Great Abydos Inscription: When my father appeared to the public, I being a child between his arms. [He] sa[id] concerning me: "Crown him as king, that I may see his beauty while I live with him." [Thereupon approached (?)] the courtiers, to set the double diadem upon my head. "Place for him the crown upon his head," so spake he ///////// because the love of me was so great in his bowels. J.

H. Breasted, Ancient Records of Egypt, Part Three, § 267 Ramses III entrusted the future of his son, Ramses IV, to Amen: Hear my petition! O my father, my lord, I am alone among the gods who are at thy side. Crown my son as king upon the throne of Atum, establish him as mighty Bull, lord L.P.H., of the two shores, King of Upper and Lower Egypt, Lord of the Two Lands: Usermare-Setepnamon. pHarris J. H. Breasted, Ancient Records of Egypt, Part Four, § 246 and to make sure that his son would succeed him he also enlisted the help of Re: Establish my son to be king, as lord of the Two Regions, that he may rule the Two Lands, like thee, as sovereign, L.P.H., in Egypt: Usermare-Setepnamon, L.P.H., whom thou hast chosen for thyself, to be heir, to magnify thy name. Set the white crown and the divine double crown upon his head, like as thou wert crowned upon earth, as Horus, wearer of the double diadem. pHarris J. H.

Breasted, Ancient Records of Egypt, Part Four, § 304 The uraeus, a cobra in attack position, often formed part of the royal headdress, sometimes as double or even triple uraeus. It protected from evil and was also called the fiery eye of Re. It was a symbol of kingship, also worn by the divine rulers of Upper and Lower Egypt, Seth and Horus, as Eye of Re by Hathor, and as Upes, the goddess of fire, by Tefnut. Use mouseover to see examples of the crowns Nemes Hemhem Triple atef crown The Nemes was a striped, two coloured headcloth covering the shoulders and neck. The nemes, the oldest example of which covers the head of a statue of Netjerikhet [ 25 ], and the khat were the most frequently worn royal headdresses.[ 24 ] The nemes was worn with a uraeus seshed. The uraeus was generally part of all royal headdresses [ 30 ] The blue or, more rarely, black khepresh (xprS) was often depicted as worn by pharaohs in war situations, though this was apparently not its main use.

It began to be worn during the late Second Intermediate Period. The first royal statue with a blue crown was made for Amenhotep III [ 24 ] The cap crown, in representations shown in blue, white or gold, was seemingly made of linen and at times emroidered. The god Ptah is generally shown wearing it. The Deshret and Hedjet are known since earliest historic times. They symbolize respectively Lower and Upper Egypt. The red Deshret was the headdress of the goddess Neith and referred to as n.t. Collectively they were referred to as the Two Great of Magic (wr.tj HkA.w). The uraeus was also called wr.t HkA.w, Great of Magic The double crown, also called the Two powerful Ones (sxm.tj or pA sxmt.j) represented the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt. The atef (Atf) is the white crown decorated with two ostrich feathers. It was also worn by Osiris who was a god of rebirth. [ 27 ] Like so much else Egyptian the atef-crown was adopted by the Nubian kings [ 28 ].

The khat (xA.t) was a single coloured headcloth. Its oldest depiction is on an ivory label of Den [ 26 ]. Remnants have been found in the tomb of Tutankhamen, where four statues of goddesses wear the khat. It has been suggested that during the Amarna period queens wore the khat [ 23 ] Depictions of the Hemhem (hmhm) are known since the Amarna period but was most often represented under the Ptolemies. It appears to have had connections with the rising sun, i.e. rebirth, as it is at times shown in conjunction with the solar child in the lotus flower [ 31 ][ 29 ]. Interestingly, hmhm.tj, the roarer, was an epithet for Seth or Apophis . While some khat, nemes, and cap headdresses have survived, no white, red or double crown has. It makes one wonder whether these crowns were—or perhaps became in the course of history—virtual: depicted in reliefs, set on the heads of sculptures, and referred to in inscriptions.

[1] Anhuret: Onuris, god of the city This, bearer of the skies, identified with Shu (Onuris-Shu) in the New Kingdom. He is Lord of Slaughter who defeats the enemies of the sun god. According to the myth he returned the Eye of Re. [2] Anuket: one of the goddesses of the cataracts. Generally depicted in human form. An ostracon depicts her as a gazelle calling her Lady of the Sky and Princess of the Gods. [3] Atem, also Atum, creator god of Heliopolis. [4] Ayebt, Eiebt etc.: personification of the East. [5] Bes: Popular protective god [6] Ha: God of the western desert [7] Hah: Personification of infinity and eternity [8] Harakhte: Horus of the Horizon, merged with Re into Re-Harakhte. [9] Maat: Embodiment of the divine order and justice.

[10] Hemsut: Protective goddess AllRefer.com - Egypt - Ancient Egypt - The Predynastic Period and the First and Second Dynasties, 6000-2686 B.C. | Egyptian Information Resource Unavailable Figure 2. Ancient Egypt During this period, when people first began to settle along the banks of the Nile (Nahr an Nil) and to evolve from hunters and gatherers to settled, subsistence agriculturalists, Egypt developed the written language, religion, and institutions that made it the world's first organized society. Through pharaonic (see Glossary) Egypt, Africa claims to be the cradle of one of the earliest and most spectacular civilizations of antiquity (see fig. 2 ). One of the unique features of ancient Egyptian civilization was the bond between the Nile and the Egyptian people and their institutions. The Nile caused the great productivity of the soil, for it annually brought a copious deposit of rich silt from the monsoon-swept tableland of Ethiopia. Each July, the level of the Nile began to rise, and by the end of August, the flood reached its full height.

At the end of October, the flood began to recede, leaving behind a fairly uniform deposit of silt as well as lagoons and streams that became natural reservoirs for fish. By April, the Nile was at its lowest level. Vegetation started to diminish, seasonal pools dried out, and game began to move south. Then in July, the Nile would rise again, and the cycle was repeated. Because of the fall and rise of the river, one can understand why the Egyptians were the first people to believe in life after death. The rise and fall of the flood waters meant that the "death" of the land would be followed each year by the "rebirth" of the crops. Thus, rebirth was seen as a natural sequence to death. Like the sun, which "died" when it sank on the western horizon and was "reborn" in the eastern sky on the following morning, humans would also rise and live again. Sometime during the final Paleolithic period and the Neolithic era, a revolution occurred in food production. Meat ceased to be the chief article of diet and was replaced by plants such as wheat and barley grown extensively as crops and not gathered at random in the wild.

The relatively egalitarian tribal structure of the Nile Valley broke down because of the need to manage and control the new agricultural economy and the surplus it generated. Long-distance trade within Egypt, a high degree of craft specialization, and sustained contacts with southwest Asia encouraged the development of towns and a hierarchical structure with power residing in a headman who was believed to be able to control the Nile flood. The headman's power rested on his reputation as a "rainmaker king." The towns became trading centers, political centers, and cult centers. Egyptologists disagree as to when these small, autonomous communities were unified into the separate kingdoms of Lower Egypt and Upper Egypt and as to when the two kingdoms were united under one king. Nevertheless, the most important political event in ancient Egyptian history was the unification of the two lands: the Black Land of the Delta, so-called because of the darkness of its rich soil, and the Red Land of Upper Egypt, the sun-baked land of the desert. The rulers of Lower Egypt wore the red crown and had the bee as their symbol. The leaders of Upper Egypt wore the white crown and took the sedge as their emblem.

After the unification of the two kingdoms, the pharaoh wore the double crown symbolizing the unity of the two lands. The chief god of the Delta was Horus, and that of Upper Egypt was Seth. The unification of the two kingdoms resulted in combining the two myths concerning the gods. Horus was the son of Osiris and Isis and avenged the evil Seth's slaying of his father by killing Seth, thus showing the triumph of good over evil. Horus took over his father's throne and was regarded as the ancestor of the pharaohs. After unification, each pharaoh took a Horus name that indicated that he was the reincarnation of Horus. According to tradition, King Menes of Upper Egypt united the two kingdoms and established his capital at Memphis, then known as the "White Walls." Some scholars believe Menes was the Horus King Narmer, whereas others prefer to regard him as a purely legendary figure. With the emergence of a strong, centralized government under a god-king, the country's nascent economic and political institutions became subject to royal authority.

The central government, either directly or through major officials, became the employer of soldiers, retainers, bureaucrats, and artisans whose goods and services benefited the upper classes and the state gods. In the course of the Early Dynastic Period, artisans and civil servants working for the central government fashioned the highly sophisticated traditions of art and learning that thereafter constituted the basic pattern of pharaonic civilization. Data as of December 1990 Egyptian Pharaohs Egyptian Pharaohs Comparison between Egyptian Pharaohs and democratic Presidents Criteria Images Social Status The pinnacle of Egyptian society, a god in Earth - an incarnation of Horus the falcon god A common citizen Access to power The ascent of the throne was the succession of the eldest son of a dead Pharaoh, Sometimes the heir's coronation as a co-regent prior to the father's death was performed Universal elections Limited by law and election mandate Administrative power Supreme Power, the Pharaoh himself was the figure upon whom the whole administrative structure of the state rested. These god Pharaohs usually commanded tremendous resources, was the head of the civil administration and the supreme warlord Distribution of power between different State institutions Titles The kings of Egypt were not called Pharaohs by the Egyptians.

The title of "Pharaoh" actually comes to us from the Greek language and its use in the Old Testament. In Egypt a whole range of titles were used for a full statement of a Pharaoh's name and title, these included: Representative of the people Responsibilities The Pharaoh was subject to grave responsibilities, he was tasked with keeping the order and defeat the enemies of the country. making sufficient offerings and otherwise satisfying the gods so that they would bless Egypt with a bountiful Nile flood. failure at these tasks meant a weakening of the state, and in some cases, such as at the end of the Old Kingdom , this failure lead to a complete collapse of the country.

Responsible for state affairs according to mandate, but performance constantly monitored by the people and State institutions Judgment of Rule Worshipped during his reign and after his death, never judged - few exceptions occurred when dead Pharaohs were defamed by succeeding rival Pharaohs such as Akhenaten and Hatshepsut Subject to criticism during and after his rule Royal Regalia Pharaohs wore and were buried with the religious Magical Amulets that protected them from evil powers They also wore other regalia connected to their divine power and authority such as crowns, flails and crooks It is noted that despite of widespread depiction in royal portraits, no ancient crown ever has been found, Tutankhamen's tomb, discovered largely intact, did contain his crook and flail, but not a crown. This official State item was not retained by dead pharaohs as personal possessions, and had to be passed along to a successor.

Crowns may have been temple property, after all the pharaoh was crowned by the High Priest Crook and Flail - Royal Authority The Crook and Flail are the emblems of Osiris , these two objects are Shepherd's tools -one of the epithets of Osiris was "Good shepherd." They were the symbols of divine authority carried by Pharaohs in State festivals , and became two of the most prominent items in the royal regalia They were commonly represented together, held across the chest of the Pharaoh The crook was a cane with a hooked handle, sometimes gold-plated and reinforced with blue copper bands It symbolized the very concept of rule and was even employed as the hieroglyph for the word "rule" The flail was a rod with three attached beaded, strands. It derived from the shepherd's whip It symbolized the Pharaoh's ability to punish his enemies The Uraeus The Uraeus was a cobra in upright position a symbol worn on the crown or headdress of royalty. It symbolized the Lower Egyptian goddess Wadjet The cobra snake was on the Pharaoh's forehead to spit fire at his enemies the way a cobra spits poison into an enemy's eyes.

The pharaoh was recognized only by wearing the Uraeus, which conveyed legitimacy to the ruler The Golden Uraeus of Senusret 2 is of solid gold , it has black eyes of granite , a snake head of deep "ultramarine" carnelian inlays. For mounting on the Pharaoh's crown, two loops in the rear-supporting tail of the cobra, provide the attach points The White Crown - Hedjet The crown of Upper Egypt (south) is a tall white conical headpiece It depicted as early as 3000 BC on the Narmer Palette The White crown was worn by the rulers of Upper Egypt (south) before the unification with Lower Egypt (north) This crown had a special association with the goddess Nekhbet. They were made of fabric or felt, though no actual examples of these crowns have survived The Red Crown - Deshret The crown of Lower Egypt consisted of a cylindrical section with a tall extension at the back and a 'thread' on the front with a curled end. The Egyptian pharaohs, wore it to symbolize their authority over Lower Egypt and for the desert Red Land on either side of the Nile river basin.

This crown is also depicted on the reverse side of the Narmer Palette The Red Crown was the emblem of Neith the goddess of warfare, who was the patron of the city of Sais in Lower Egypt. The Double Crown - Pschent Menes founded the First Egyptian Dynasty around 3100 BC and unified the Two Lands of Upper and Lower Egypt. With the unification, the red crown and the white crown were combined to become the double crown, known as the "Two Mighty Ones" The crown bore two animal emblems, the Uraeus symbol of the Lower Egyptian goddess Wadjet, and an Egyptian vulture representing the Upper Egyptian goddess Nekhbet. These were fastened to the front of the Pschent and referred to as the Two Ladies. The Pschent represented the pharaoh's power over all of unified Egypt Just as is the case with the Deshret and the Hedjet Crowns, no Pschent has survived. It is known only from statuary, depictions, and inscriptions.

The Nemes Crown This crown was known from the times of Zoser in the 3rd Dynasty More of a head-dress than a crown, the Nemes was the striped head cloth worn by pharaohs. It covered the whole crown and back of the head and nape of the neck When a pharaoh was depicted as a sphinx , a Nemes always adorned the head of the sphinx, which suggests that this crown along with the false beard were inspired from the lion's mane The Nemes was used almost exclusively in statuary and funerary representation representing the royal Ka However paintings showing the pharaoh performing daily activities such as hunting or at war, never shown the king wearing the Nemes crown This suggests that this crown was actually symbolic only, but were never actually worn When did kings begin to wear crowns? - Historum - History Forums When did kings begin to wear crowns? User Name Need help with the website? Contact Us anytime. General History General History Forum - General history questions and discussions Page 1 of 2 Posts: 93 When did kings begin to wear crowns? What is the oldest recorded example of a ruler wearing some kind of headpiece to symbolise his worldly power?

My guess is Egypt with the nemes [[ame=""]Nemes - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia[/ame]] Joined: Aug 2012 Posts: 34 Here is an example from the 18th century BCE but the tradition was likely much older. The guy with the big fancy hat is always the leader right? Sumerian carvings usually show the King wearing a distinctive headdress(looks like a cap) Blog Entries: 18 Of course it depends on what you mean with the word "crown". Ancient Egyptian Pharaohs were used to wear at least one crown and after the unification of the High and Low Egypt they begun to wear two crowns [called "pschent" when together]. From: Michigan, USA. Posts: 446 Depends on where you live at what time period. In, europe before the Prodestant Reformation, monarchs wore simple gilded bands and diadems to essay their authority given by God via the Catholic Church as bishops would be the ones to place the circlet upon the noble's brow.

This piece of headgear began in Achmaemenid Perisa, later adopted by Constantine which -like everything else he adopted- spread all over Europe. This is the Iron Crown of Lombardy, one of the oldest pieces of royal symbology in Europe and believed to have been used by Constantine himself as a gift from his mother. Makes sense no? As the continent matured however and grew more secular, noble accessories become more ornate in tandem with the growing authority of the King and Queen. Just take a glance at how blue-bloods arrayed themselves in Elizabethan England or the Sun King. As for a more general reference to the world, you can find crowns and other similar manifestations of royalty on nearly every continent. The oldest example of crowns are the Pharaoh's dual-crown. Posts: 462 Amratian/Naqada I, found at Gebelein. EDIT: I should add that while this is the oldest unambiguous proof of a royal headdress I can think of, I am fairly certain that there are older Sumerian depictions of divine headwear. Last edited by Sokar Rostau; August 22nd, 2012 at 11:38 AM.

Blog Entries: 4 Two stone vessels found in rich graves at Qustul, in northern Nubia, dating to about 3400-3200 BCE, carved of Nubian stone, show kings sitting in boats and wearing the "White Crown". This crown was once associated only with Egyptian kings. Because these vessels came from Nubia, some archaeologists think these kings may not be Egyptian but very early Nubian rulers. Also shown in these carvings are: a palace front, bound prisoners (suggesting that these scenes commemorate a victory), and a lion in a boat (perhaps symbolizing the king). As early as 3200BC, the kings of Southern Egypt are depicted wearing the "White Crown" Posts: 1,749 The first King of England to wear a crown was Athelstan. He was Alfred the Great's grandson and became King of Wessex in 924. But it was during his reign that, in 927, the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms unified to form England, so he became the first King of England, and held that title until he died in 939.

Before Athelstan, Anglo-Saxons kings wore ceremonial helmets instead of crowns. As a result of this, Athelstan was the first English (and probably British, full stop) monarch to be shown wearing a crown on coinage. Last edited by Brunel; August 29th, 2012 at 03:29 AM. Quote: Originally Posted by MinoanGoddess Two stone vessels found in rich graves at Qustul, in northern Nubia, dating to about 3400-3200 BCE, carved of Nubian stone, show kings sitting in boats and wearing the "White Crown". This crown was once associated only with Egyptian kings. Because these vessels came from Nubia, some archaeologists think these kings may not be Egyptian but very early Nubian rulers. Also shown in these carvings are: a palace front, bound prisoners (suggesting that these scenes commemorate a victory), and a lion in a boat (perhaps symbolizing the king).

As early as 3200BC, the kings of Southern Egypt are depicted wearing the "White Crown" I don't think that that image is showing the White Crown only, the one on the left looks more like the Red Crown. It's also very interesting to note that, in the lower half of the image, the king with the Red Crown has a royal beard and is holding a flail (at least that's how it's been reconstructed), while the one with the White Crown has neither. For reference, the Amratian/Naqada I culture that produced the figurine in my earlier post dates to c.4000 - 3500 BCE. Quote: Originally Posted by Sokar Rostau I don't think that that image is showing the White Crown only, the one on the left looks more like the Red Crown. It's also very interesting to note that, in the lower half of the image, the king with the Red Crown has a royal beard and is holding a flail (at least that's how it's been reconstructed), while the one with the White Crown has neither.

For reference, the Amratian/Naqada I culture that produced the figurine in my earlier post dates to c.4000 - 3500 BCE. This is the categorization of the Egyptian Crowns: Based on the iconography it does look like a white crown, and not a double crown or red crown as it is tall and cononical in shape. The White Crown - Hedjet (The Bright One - hdt). The crown of Upper Egypt is a tall white conical crown, known from as early as the Pre-Dynastic Period and is depicted on the Narmer Palette, it is associated with the kingship of the two lands. Worn by the king to show him as ruler of Upper Egypt. The Red Crown - Deshret (The Red One - dsrt). The crown of Lower Egypt is a stair like headress suplemented by a wire that ends in a spiral. This crown is also depiceted on the Narmer Palette and is worn by the king to show him as rule of Lower Egypt. The Double Crown - Pschent.

(The Two Powerful Ones - sekhemti) This was the Double Crown of Ancient Egypt and it symbolised the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt, it was worn by the king to show him as a ruler of both Upper and Lower Egypt.

Question: What ancient rulers wore a double-crown symbolizing their joined upper and lower lands?
Answer: Pharoahs