Ancient Egypt
Ancient Egypt
Many current beliefs and ideals, as well as much of mans knowledge, had
Its origin in Egypt. The ancient Egyptians developed the worlds first national government. Their religion was one of the first to emphasize a life after death. They produced an expressive art and literature. The Egyptians introduced stone architecture and made the first convenient writing material, papyrus. They developed a 365-day year and set up the basic methods of geometry and surgery.
The black-haired, dark-skinned ancient Egyptians were short and slender.
They belong to the Mediterranean race of the Caucasoid (white) stock. As time went on, the Egyptians mixed with people from Asia, Negroes from other parts of Africa, and people from lands around the Mediterranean Sea. The Egyptians were divided into four social classes. They were from most important: the royalty and nobles; artisans, craftsmen, and merchants; workers; and slaves. The professional army gradually became almost a separate class. Egypt had no fixed caste system. A person of the poorest class could rise to the highest offices in the land. The ancient Egyptians spoke a mixed language. It included words from the Semitic language group of southwestern Asia and the languages of northeastern Africa. No one knows just how the spoken language of ancient Egypt sounded. The Egyptians developed from picture writing into an elaborate system of symbols called hieroglyphics. Hieroglyphics consisted of 24 alphabetic characters for consonants and semi-consonants.
Religion appeared in every part of life in ancient Egypt. The Egyptians believed that gods and goddesses took part in every human activity from birth to death. For the Egyptian, the good life depended on obeying the commands of the gods. After someone died, the gods would judge how well the person had obeyed