The rise of civilization
in Egypt took place during the same period of time as the forming of civilzation in Mesopotamia, yet each of these civilizations
sprung up quite indigenous to each other. In the earliest times of African history migrating tribes of food gatherers settled
near the Faiyum lake; they left behind remnants of their exsistence such as microlithic flints, elephant and hippopotamus
bones, and little or no pottery. A few centuries later the inhospitable weather of the desert drove them to the edge
of the jungle swamps along the Nile river.
A later culture, found
at Merimdeh Beni-Salameh at the southwestern margin of the Delta, built crude oval mud huts about fourteen by nine feet in
diameter. These people produced tools, weapons, beads, baskets, pottery, graineries, and bones of domesticated
animals. Advancements such as these indicate that man no longer roamed about in search of food, but began to cultivate
the ground and supply for his own exsistence.(1)
Two great forces in
nature influenced Egyptian psychology, the sun and the Nile river. The annual flooding of the Nile became the deciding
factor in whether or not the Egyptians would produce a successful harvest or not. If the waters of the Nile were too
low it meant famine; if the waters were to high it meant flooding and destruction.
In the most ancient
of times, the Nile river was revered as a god, capable of providing Egypt with a good and plentiful harvest. In later
times, however, the focus of the Nile as a god diminished. The Nile god, Hapy, played a prominent role in the religious
beliefs, politics, and economical and social development, but it was Osiris, a vegetation god, who gained greater admiration
in the Egyptian pantheon.(2)
There are various versions
of the Osiris myth but they can be summarized basically as this:
Plutarch relates that
Osiris was the son of Nut, who personifies the heavenly dome of the sky, and Geb the earth-god, and that he was the brother
of Isis, Nephthys and Seth. He married his sister Isis and at first reigned over earth with benevolence, continually
extending Egypt's frontiers and maintaining justice and happiness within its borders. However his brother Seth became
jealous of his renown and decided to supplant him. One day Seth invited him to a banquet to which he had summoned seventy-two
conspirators and showed him a chest which he had secretly made to Osiris' measurements. He declared that he would present
it to whoever could fill it completely by lying down in it. None of the guests who tried could satisfy the condition;
Osiris then tested it himself, as soon as he laid down in the chest the conspirators hastily slammed the lid and nailed it
down. Then they tied up the chest with rope and threw it into the Nile.
In great distress,
Isis wandered the world in search of her husband and finally found him washed up on the bank of the river Byblos. She
brought his body back to the marshes of the Delta region where Seth discovered it again, cut it up and scattered the pieces
throughout Egypt. Once more Isis set out in search of the fragments, which she succeeded in reassembling with the exception
of the male organ which had been swallowed by an oxyrynchus fish. At this point Plutarch's account comes to an end,
but fortunately it is supplemented by Egyptian texts, which state that the sun god Re sent Anubis, the jackal-headed god,
down from the sky in order to watch over all embalming in future. Anubis carefully put the body together again and wrapped
it in its own skin. Osiris thus appeared as we know him now, clothed in a shroud which covered his legs, his arms folded
on his chest, and his head dressed in a white bonnet with two large feathers at the sides. Isis and Nephthys then waved
their broad-winged arms up and down in order to fan the body back to life, and so Osiris was born a second time, though his
reign on earth had now come to an end and he was henceforward god of the dead. Every dead person became in a sense an
Osiris.(3)
Osiris symbolized the
death and re-birth of the vgetation; he was also considered to be the lord over the ressurrection of individual souls after
death. The Egyptian phylosophy of death and ressurrection was closely linked to the elements in nature. The nightly
death of the sun and its reappearance the following morning; and the annual death of the crops, with their
revival the following year, prompted the Egyptians to consider an afterlife for the human soul.
About 3400 BCE a new
race of man became evident; skelton remains indicate the newcomers to have larger bodies and wider skulls. Advancements
in architecure, certain forms of script, maceheads, and inscribed cylinder seals, seem to indicate that the new race
migrated to the fertile soil of the Nile valley from the Mesopotamian area.
Shortly after the arrival
of the newcomers, separate village communities became organized into larger units. Gradually these units were almagamated
in larger groups which were similar to the later 'nomes'. These districts had their own independent capital city,
surrounded by land with loosly defined boundaries.
As time progressed,
these districts merged into two distinctly separate kingdoms. The unification of these two kingdoms took place about
3100 BCE, when the kings of Upper Egypt and thier allies conquered the kings of Lower Egypt. Final credit for the unification
has been ascribed to king Narmer, who became the first king of the First dynasty.
During the Predynastic
period (before the First dynasty) the dead were buried in small shallow graves in the desert; this provided for the maximum
use of the fertile land for cultivation. The bodies were buried usually on their left side and facing west. There
is no evidence that this custom was necessarily linked to sun-worship but seem to suggest that a belief that the soul of the
dead would be revived in another world as the rising sun was revived each morning.
Bodies of this period were
adorned with linen clothing, belt and headware, and provided with jewellery, combs and palettes for grinding eye-paint, cosmetics
and ivory cosmetic jars, flint tools and pottery, all believed to have been put in their graves for use in the next life.
Kings of the later periods were found to have been buried with wives, servants, food and everything they would need in the
afterlive. Spells and curses were utilized to protect the kings from scavengers and grave robbers.
During the Predynastic
period each village had its own god. Some of the principle gods known by thier locations include: Horus of Nekhen, Seth
of Ombos, Sobek of Gebelein, Min of Coptos, Thoth of Hermopolis, Ptah of Memphis, Atum of Heliopolis, and Neith of Sais.(4)
The Egyptians believed
a man's life was on a journey; According to the Book of the Dead, his eternal destination was determined
by his behavior during his mortal life. His good deeds were weighed in a balance against the wrongs he committed in
this life. Whichever side of the scale is weightier determines the eternal destination of the individual.(5)
The Hebrews adopted this belief, a few examples of this are found in: Job 31:6 states, "Let me be weighed in an even balance,
that God may know my integrity,"Psalms 62:9, "Surely men of low degree are vanity, and men of high degree are a lie: to be
laid in the balance, they are altogether lighter than vanity," and Daniel 5:7, "Thou art weighed in
the balances, and art found wanting."
Ancient Egyptians believe
man's being was comprised of three elements: the body; the ka (a small fragment of divine essence issued from the universal
spirit which gives life to all matter) which gives the body personality; and the ba, the union between the body and the ka,
man's conscience. The ba bears the resposibilty for man's behavior when he comes to face the gods. All three of these
elements had to be intact to ensure the person's survival in the afterlife. In some instances bodies were found to be
dismembered; this is believed by some scholars to indicate the people were afraid the person would return for revenge of some
wrong wrought him. By dismembering the body, it prevented the person from returning.(6)
For
many centuries, the priests of Helioplis had been concerned about the adoption of Amun-Re as the state god. Whereas
the pharaohs of the Old Kingdom had worshipped the sun god as Re-Atum, the pharaohs of the mIddle and New kikngdoms worshiped
him as Amun-Re. Although the two gods were almost identical, they were symbolized differently. The priests of Heliopolis believed
that the true sun god could only be symbolized by the solar disk (the aton); the feathers and other insignia of Amun-Re were,
they believed, a corruption.(7)
Amenhotep IV (approx.
1379-1362 BCE)initiated a new form of worship to Aton and banned all other form of worship throughout the kingdom. He
then changed his name to Akhenaton (the glory of Aton). This brief period of Aton worship ended when he died
and his ten year old son-in-law, Tutankhaton, reinstated the worship of Amun-Re and other gods.
From these evidences
we can understand that the Egyptians evolved, as every other culture, from a primitive mindset. Ancient peoples across
the globe have tried to explain the creation and the gods that ruled the forces in nature through their limited understanding.
Without the advantages of modern technology, men were left to the fears of their imaginations and they usually feared the
worst. A strike of lightning or a flood might have been considered a judgment from the god. It was out of these fears that
men formed religion to encourage or reprimand their behavior.
