Early Dynastic Period of Egypt
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| tȝwy 'Two Lands' in hieroglyphs |
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The Archaic or Early Dynastic Period of Egypt immediately follows the unification of Lower and Upper Egypt c. 3150 BC. It is generally taken to include the First and Second Dynasties, lasting from the Protodynastic Period of Egypt until 2686 BC, or the beginning of the Old Kingdom. With the First Dynasty, the capital moved from Abydos to Memphis where an Egyptian god-king ruled a now unified polity that extended from the Nile Delta to the first cataract at Aswan. Abydos remained the center of cult worship in the south. The distinctive hallmarks of ancient Egyptian civilization, such as art, architecture and many aspects of religion, took shape during the Early Dynastic period.
Prior to the unification of Egypt, the land was settled with autonomous villages. With the early dynasties, and for much of Egypt's history thereafter, the country came to be known as the Two Lands. The rulers established a national administration and appointed royal governors. The buildings of the central government were typically open-air temples constructed of wood or sandstone. State formation in Egypt was primarily indigenous in character, and it is likely that a common language, namely Egyptian, was spoken in Upper and Lower Egypt in variant dialects, which facilitated the unification. The earliest hieroglyphs appear just before this period, though nothing is certain about the spoken language represented by the writing at the time.
According to Manetho, the first king was Menes. However, the earliest recorded king of the First Dynasty was Hor-Aha, and the first king to claim to have united the two lands was Narmer (the final king of the Protodynastic Period). His name is known because it is written on a votive palette used for grinding minerals for kohl, used by ancient Egyptians to outline the eyes. Funeral practices for the peasants would have been the same as in predynastic times, but the rich demanded something more. Thus, the Egyptians began construction of the mastabas which became models for the later Old Kingdom constructions such as the Step pyramid. Cereal agriculture and centralization contributed to the success of the state for the next 800 years.
It has also so been interpreted that King Menes and the whole traditional story of an Egypt unified under a single conquering ruler, who led his armies and conquered lower Egypt to establish the first dynasty in the lower Egyptian city of Memphis, is just mythology as are the twin kingdoms story. It seems certain that Egypt became unified as a cultural and economic domain long before its first king ascended to the throne in the lower Egyptian city of Memphis where the dynastic period did originate. Political unification proceeded gradually, perhaps over a period of a century or so as local districts established trading networks and the ability of their governments to organize agriculture labor on a larger scale increased, divine kingship may also have gained spiritual momentum as the cults of gods like Horus, Seth and Neith associated with living representatives became wide spread in the country[1]
[edit] References
- ^ The Penguin Historical Atlas of Ancient Egypt pg 22-23(1997)By Bill Manley
[edit] Further reading
- Wilkison, Toby (2001). Early Dynastic Egypt: Strategies, Society and Security. New York: Routledge. ISBN 0415260116.
- Wengrow, David (2006). The Archaeology of Early Egypt: Social Transformations in North-East Africa, c. 10,000 to 2,650 BC. New York: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521835860.
