Egypt

The Egyptian Hall at the Carnegie Museum is an excellent way to study ancient Egyptian culture. I was surprised to see all of the interesting facts I could gather about the culture I once knew very little about. The research project for my anthropology class taught me a lot about the history of Egypt, and now I know more about the culture than I ever thought I would.

The first topic about Egypt we were to study was its geography. The Nile River is an important part in Egypt’s geography. The Nile is probably the most important resource the Egyptian people have. It provides water for many things: growing crops, fish and birds, and materials for bricks and pottery. It also serves as a means of transportation between different settlements. The Nile River is unique because every summer, it overflows its banks and floods the surrounding area with water and rich slit. Africa is characterized by an usually rainless environment, but this yearly inundation generally allows Egypt to raise enough food for itself. Aside from providing much needed water, the Nile’s valley also contains other resources such as rocks, minerals, and metals.

After geography, we studied Egypt’s mythology. Every culture has creation myths; Egy

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The king was divine; he was in contact with god, and acted as a mediator between the gods and the people. Nobility also held positions as religious leaders and military officers. Planned settlements, on the other hand, were specifically designed and laid out for a certain purpose. Something I found interesting about Egyptian life was the fact that marriages were arranged for the purpose of producing offspring to carry on the family name, but divorces were permitted. There, Atum, a part of the sun god Re, appeared out of a watery void (Nun) on a hill. Most houses belonged to some type of settlement, whether it be planned or unplanned. It is bound together with water to form a paste. Another widely used material was faience, a man-made substance made from ground quartz (sand) and natron (hydrated sodium carbonate). This was Egypt’s most extensive social class. Along with these, many shabits figures can be found in ancient tombs. I was also surprised to see that both a male and a female could initiate divorce. A few important animals were the falcon, ibis, cow, bull, ram, lion, and jackal. Some animals were also mummified in tombs. Predynastic burial traditions were much different than the elaborate ones we usually associate with Egypt. Egyptians carved jars, vases, pots, bowls, and palettes.

Approximate Word count = 1291
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)

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