Ancient History, Part IIa: Ancient Egypt

Introduction

Ancient Egypt is considered by many- experts and laymen alike- to be one of the first truly great civilizations of the world. While extremely backward (by our standards) in some ways, they also made incredible advances in many areas. Ancient Egypt consisted mostly of Upper Egypt and Lower Egypt, each area with its own distinct culture and ways. Occasionally the two joined together, or conquered (or were conquered by, and absorbed) other countries/cultures.

Western Civilization Checklist: Writing.

Hieroglyphics have become a famous, if little-understood, form of ancient writing. Ancient Egyptians, like many peoples before the advent of dictionaries, had a curious habit of spellings things depending on A) The way they sounded and B) Their mood at the time. Without a stylized spelling of pretty much anything and a habit of dropping vowels seeming at random, it's not surprising that it took finding the Rosetta Stone to decipher the language.
There were three major forms of Ancient Egyptian writing: hieroglyphic, hieratic and demotic. Hieroglyphic is the most famous form, known for its pictographs that form letters, combinations of letters, sounds and/or ideas. Hieratic was a condensed form of the hieroglyphs. Like the evolving Mesopotamian languages previously mentioned, hieratic came from hieroglyphic. When even the more convenient hieratic failed to be a swift, short and easy to write as needed, demotic was developed. Demotic was cursive-like in appearance and easy for scribes (professional writers/secretaries) to use.
The Rosetta Stone, as it is called today, was our key to this puzzle, so to speak. It is a three-sided tablet, inscribed in hieroglyphic (which we did not understand), demotic (which, again, we did not understand), and Ancient Greek (which we did understand). Using one language we did understand, we were able to fairly translate what we did not. From there, we can extrapolate to decipher other elements of the language, including hieratic.

Unfortunately, as I mentioned earlier, the Ancient Egyptians did not have a set spelling system. It's similar to the way we spelled things before dictionaries: wheat as 'whate', 'wate', 'weat', wheyt', 'wete', and so on. Also unfortunately, Ancient Egyptians often dropped their vowels, depending entirely on the situation.

While it's difficult to imagine, looking at what seems to be a child's chalk-drawing of a sitting man, that it stands for something, let alone is millennia old, it's true.

Western Civilization Checklist: Government
Ancient Egypt government is difficult to understand, due to its being so interwoven with religion. At the pinnacle, the executive head of all life, was the pharaoh. He was the first and last authority on everything.
The pharaoh was considered part god, part human emperor-king, and in complete and utter control of all he surveyed. Intermarriage among the 'royal family' was common due to a desire to keep the so-called godly bloodline pure. This resulted in genetic deformities and illnesses that sometimes proved fatal for the family member. Due to the pharaoh's godly status, he could command his people to do nearly anything and be obeyed, no matter how insane (which was a definite consideration, taking into account the inbreeding). He had advisors and governors, whose job it was to oversee what he could not and carry out his directives. Egyptians also had bureacracy- court scribes recorded many things, from the size of pyramid walls to the current grain harvest.
The royal family was large and varied. The pharaoh had many, many wives, who, in turn, had many, many children. There is a record of one pharaoh having eighty children in one year. However, normal royal women were held to have little practical importance aside from child-bearing and bearing a royal heir (a son in the direct line) was one of the very few ways women could hold an important position at court.
A famous exception to the above was the pharaoh Hapshetsut, the first known female ruler. When it fell to her too-young nephew, Thutmose III, to rule, Hapshetsut had herself declared regent (which was not uncommon). What was uncommon was that she then declared herself Pharaoh of Egypt by right and began to dress and act like a man. Hapshetut ruled over a prosperous time, until Thutmose III eventually overthrew her, obliterated most of her monuments, and returned to male rule.