Crafts

Synopsis of the social structure of Egyptian society. The social structure of ancient Egyptian society and features of social and property relations. Writing and knowledge of the ancient Egyptians

3.Features of the power of the pharaoh

True, it cannot be said that throughout the entire existence of Ancient Egypt, the power of the pharaoh was constantly undivided. Periods of decline and prosperity were characteristic of his influence as well. For example, towards the end of the Old Kingdom, the importance of the king began to wane. The number of his lands decreased from constant handouts and gifts to officials, the treasury was devastated by an army of hangers-on and parasites. The political crisis was replaced by an economic one. A similar phenomenon could be observed in some years of the Middle Kingdom. Then the nomarchs sought to get their hands on the maximum possible privileges and power, which reduced the general authority of the pharaoh. On the whole, the extreme slowness of the evolution of the social structure was a distinctive feature of the social structure of Ancient Egypt.

Doctrine of command and control in ancient Egypt

The system of supreme power could not have been viable if the ruler had not surrounded himself with a cohort of nobles, his closest associates. In order to keep and guarantee their loyalty, the pharaoh gives away part of the wealth, land, delegates certain powers, strengthening the system of government. But in the presence of Pharaoh, the nobility still had to behave modestly and humiliatingly - they were not even always allowed to stand next to the king. In any case, the Egyptian aristocracy was the most important link in the social hierarchy, supporting the power of the supreme ruler and possessing great rights and powers.

On an equal level with the nobility are the priests, whom the pharaohs encouraged in every possible way to the maximum, given the influence of faith on ordinary citizens who worshiped the gods in the cult temples run by the priests. The priesthood received significant amounts of wealth and land. The life of every inhabitant of Ancient Egypt was inextricably linked with religion, since the Egyptians believed that the priests were endowed with an exceptional ability to communicate with the Gods. The priests officially confirmed the divine origin and status of the ruler. Using the authority of the priests, the pharaohs could carry out all kinds of unpopular social, tax and social reforms, explaining this by the desire to fulfill the will of the Gods. To this no Egyptian could resist or object. The lower ranks, the uabu, were subordinate to the high priest of the temple. They took care of the temple, performed rituals and made offerings to the gods: everything was in accordance with the routine and traditions. Astronomer priests watched the stars and predicted the future, reciters recited prayers and sacred texts, librarians watched papyri and tables.

History of Dr. Egypt dates back to around 3000-2300 BC. in the era of the formation of the Early Kingdom, which became the first sovereign on Earth. Gradually, the first state increased its power and became a power claiming world domination. At the head of the state was the Pharaoh, who had an absolute. power: all of Egypt, its natural resources, labor, material and cultural values were considered the property of the pharaoh. The state itself was identified with the concept of "nom", or the house of the pharaoh. Public life reflected the content and structure of the ancient Egyptian religion - polytheism. Polytheism is a belief in a pantheon, or many gods. Gods Dr. Egypt was personified by natural phenomena and at the same time by the phenomena of public order. Ptah is the god of water, earth and the world mind, the creator of all that exists. He was revered as a patron of arts and crafts and was portrayed only in the form of a person. He enjoyed special veneration among the inhabitants of Memphis, but according to the versions of the priests of other cities, the emergence of the world began with the primitive water chaos - Nun, from which the Sun god, Atum, turned into the god Ra, and the entire subsequent hierarchy of gods: the god of air Shu, the goddess of moisture Tefnut, the god of the earth Geb, the goddess of the sky Nut and others. The god Maat had an important social. meaning and personified the social order. The world around was divided in the worldview of the ancient Egyptians into the earthly world and the world beyond the grave, over which the sun of Ra equally shone. The mythology and religion of the Egyptians became the basis of the belief in the funeral cult, which consisted in protesting against death, which they considered an "abnormality" and organized lavish festivities for the deceased. The Egyptians believed in the immortality of the human soul, or in its immortal counterpart - Ka. The disagreement of the Egyptians with the inevitability of death gave rise to the doctrine according to which death is not the end of life and the deceased can be resurrected. This belief made it necessary to build mastabas and pyramids. Mastabs are multi-tiered burials with cells for utensils that ensure the existence of the deceased beyond the threshold of death. One of the first pyramids was built about 5 thousand years ago in honor of Pharaoh Djoser. It was distinguished by a stepped structure and rose like a staircase to the sky. The most famous and grandiose pyramid in its scale was built over 20 years and was erected near the city of Giza in honor of Pharaoh Cheops.

16 Taoism: theory, practice, reflection in literature and art

Taoism originated in the 6th-5th centuries. BC, this is a religious-philosophical teaching about Tao, or about the path of life - a single, objective law, to which the whole world is subordinate. Its founder is Lao Tzu, and its representative is Chuang Tzu. Taoists spoke out against the consistency and logic of presentation, and their treatises were replete with allegorical parables. They wrote about what constitutes the elusiveness of emptiness outside of composition and structure. But at the same time, Taoism is a completely holistic teaching, in which everything is subordinated to the main category - that which is "hidden", "miraculous", "divine" - Dao. For the Taoist, the world is unlimited and eternal, and earthly standards are hopelessly limited. In the book Tao Te Ching, Lao Tzu compares Tao with the emptiness that lies at the basis of the world and is in non-action (wu wei), but at the same time there is nothing that it does, and in its action it is inexhaustible : “The transformations of the invisible Tao are endless. Tao is the deepest gateway to birth. " The Tao Path is the path of dispassionate cognition of the essence of all that exists. Tao Chuang Tzu defines the form of being as "naturalness", which acts as the all-encompassing unity of all that exists, in relation to which there can be no outside influence. "Naturalness" as a single entity is not being itself, but the principle of being - "emptiness", or "perfect purity" (non-being). Tao itself is subordinated to the irresistible stream of "spiritual changes (shen hua) of naturalness" and finds itself in the act of self-denial or return to the origins, Te is the unthinkable skill and creative power of natural, spontaneous human activity. Te is virtue. , not realizing herself as a virtue, and therefore, when she creates a being, does not seek to possess it, and when she leads, does not consider himself a master. A person endowed with virtue, or de, is internally perfect and is able to subjugate people. return to the origins through the attainment of a state of naturalness, found in spontaneous action or non-action. In art, Taoism asserted the continuity of uncreated chaos and technical activities of people in the inexhaustible concreteness of being. Beauty among the Taoists, according to the law of symbolic form, is a contrasting unity of concealment and expression Painting, m language, poetry. Art was directed towards the inner realization of the human. a spirit that has no external form and is accessible only to symbolic expression. We can say that the art of Dr. China is the creative deployment of Tao as the source of what is proper, beautiful, useful, but cannot be reduced to either duty, or beauty, or benefit. The main theme of ancient Chinese art becomes the idea of "emptiness" (xu), or reality, which contains everything in itself and devastates itself. Emptiness in Taoist philosophy meant both the absence of presence, and the ultimate integrity, and the endless prospect of self-transformation of being. The symbolism of "self-emptying emptiness", i.e. self-revealing reality, surpasses not only its manifestations, but also the very principle of manifestations.

Ancient Egypt was characterized by an extreme slowdown in the evolution of the social structure, the determining factor of which was the almost undivided domination of the state tsarist-temple economy in the economy. In the context of the general involvement of the population in the state economy, the difference in the legal status of individual strata of the working people was not considered as significant as in other countries of the East. It was not even reflected in terms, the most commonly used of which was the term for a commoner - meret. This concept did not have a clearly expressed legal content, as well as the controversial concept of "servant of the king" - a semi-free, dependent worker, which existed in all periods of the unique and long history of Egypt. The main economic and social unit in Ancient Egypt in the early stages of its development was the rural community. The natural process of intracommunal social and property stratification was associated with the intensification of agricultural production with the growth of surplus product, which is beginning to be appropriated by the communal elite, who have concentrated in their hands the leading functions of creating, maintaining, and expanding irrigation facilities. These functions were subsequently transferred to the centralized state.

Social stratification processes ancient Egyptian society especially intensified at the end of the 4th millennium BC. when a dominant social stratum was formed, which included the tribal nominal aristocracy, priests, and well-to-do community members-peasants. This stratum is more and more separated from the bulk of free communal peasants, who are levied by the state rent-tax. They are also involved in forced labor for the construction of canals, dams, roads, etc. From the first dynasties, Ancient Egypt was known for the periodic censuses of “people, cattle, gold” conducted throughout the country, on the basis of which taxes were established.

The early creation of a single state with a land fund centralized in the hands of the pharaoh, to which the functions of managing a complex irrigation system are transferred, the development of a large tsarist-temple economy contributes to the actual disappearance of the community as an independent unit associated with collective land use. It ceases to exist along with the disappearance of free farmers, independent of state power and beyond its control. Permanent rural settlements remain a kind of community, the heads of which are responsible for paying taxes, for the uninterrupted operation of irrigation facilities, forced labor, etc. centralized administrative apparatus and priesthood. Its economic power is growing, in particular, due to the early system of royal grants of land and slaves. From the time of the Old Kingdom, royal decrees have survived, establishing the rights and privileges of temples and temple settlements, evidence of royal grants of land plots to the aristocracy and temples.

Various categories of dependent forced persons worked in the royal households and the households of the secular and spiritual nobility. This included disenfranchised prisoner-of-war slaves or fellow tribesmen brought to a slavery state, “servants of the king,” who carried out their prescribed work norm under the supervision of the tsar's overseers. They owned a small amount of personal property and received a meager food from the royal storehouses.

The exploitation of the "servants of the king", cut off from the means of production, was based on both non-economic and economic coercion, since the land, implements, draft animals and so on were the property of the king. The boundaries separating slaves (of whom there were never many in Egypt) from “the king’s servants” were not clearly defined. Slaves in Egypt were sold, bought, passed on by inheritance, as a gift, but sometimes they planted land and gave them property, demanding part of the harvest from them. One of the forms of the emergence of slave dependence was the self-sale of the Egyptians for debts (which, however, was not encouraged) and the transformation of criminals into slaves.

The unification of Egypt after a transitional period of turmoil and fragmentation (XXII century BC) by Theban nomes within the borders of the Middle Kingdom was accompanied by successful wars of conquest of the Egyptian pharaohs, the development of trade with Syria, Nubia, the growth of cities, the expansion of agricultural production. on the one hand, to the growth of the royal temple economy, on the other, to the strengthening of the position of the private economy of noble dignitaries and temple priests, organically connected with the former. my father's house ”), seeks to turn his holdings into property, resorting for this purpose to the help of temple oracles, who could attest to its hereditary character.

The early revealed inefficiency of the cumbersome tsarist farms, based on the labor of forced farmers, contributes to the wide development at this time of the allotment-rent form of exploitation of the working people. The land began to be given to the "king's servants" on lease, it was cultivated by them mainly with their own tools in a relatively isolated economy. At the same time, the rent-tax was paid to the treasury, temple, nomarch or nobleman, but labor service was still performed in favor of the treasury.

In the Middle Kingdom, other changes are also revealed, both in the position of the ruling circles and the lower strata of the population. An increasingly prominent role in the state, along with the nominal aristocracy and priesthood, is beginning to play an untitled bureaucracy.

From total mass The so-called not “jes” (“Little ones”) stand out among the “servants of the king”, but among them “strong ones”. Their appearance was associated with the development of private land tenure, commodity-money relations, the market. It is no coincidence that in the XVI-XV centuries. BC. in the Egyptian lexicon the concept of “merchant” appears for the first time, and silver becomes the measure of value in the absence of money.

Nejes, together with artisans (especially such scarce specialties in Egypt as stonecutters, goldsmiths), being not so strongly associated with the royal temple economy, acquire a higher status, selling part of their products on the market. Along with the development of crafts, commodity-money relations, cities are growing, in cities there is even a semblance of workshops, associations of artisans by specialties. The change in the legal status of wealthy groups of the population is also evidenced by the expansion of the concept of "home", which previously denoted a kindred-clan group of family members, relatives, slave servants, subject to the nobleman. Strong nedjes, together with the lower ranks of the priesthood, petty bureaucracy, and wealthy artisans in the cities, make up the middle, transitional layer from small producers to the ruling class. The number of private slaves is growing, and the exploitation of dependent landowners, who bear the main burdens of taxation and military service in the tsarist troops, is increasing. The urban poor are even more impoverished. This leads to an extreme exacerbation of social contradictions at the end of the Middle Kingdom (intensified by the invasion of Egypt by the Hyksos), to a major uprising that began among the poorest strata of free Egyptians, who were later joined by slaves and even some representatives of wealthy farmers.

The events of those days are described in the colorful literary monument “The Speech of Ipuver”, from which it follows that the rebels captured the king, expelled dignitaries-nobles from their palaces and occupied them, took possession of the royal temples and temple bins, smashed the court chamber, destroyed the books of accounting of harvests, etc. "The earth turned upside down like a potter's wheel," writes Ipuver, warning the rulers against a repetition of such events that led to a period of civil strife. They lasted 80 years and ended after many years of struggle against the invaders (in 1560 BC) with the creation of the New Kingdom by the Theban king Ahmose.

As a result of victorious wars, Egypt of the New Kingdom becomes the first largest empire in the ancient world, which could not but affect the further complication of its social structure. The positions of the nominal clan aristocracy are weakening. Ahmose leaves in place those rulers who have expressed complete obedience to him, or replaces them with new ones. The well-being of the representatives of the ruling elite from now on directly depends on what place they occupy in the official hierarchy, how close they are to the pharaoh and his court. The center of gravity of the administration and the entire support of the pharaoh is significantly shifting to the untitled strata of natives of officials, warriors, farmers and even close slaves. The children of strong nedges could take a course in special schools run by the tsar's scribes, and upon graduation, receive one or another official position.

Along with nejes, a special category of the Egyptian population appeared at this time, close to it in position, designated by the term “nemhu”. This category included farmers with their own economy, artisans, warriors, minor officials, who, at the behest of the Pharaonic administration, could be raised or lowered in their socio-legal status, depending on the needs and requirements of the state. This was due to the creation, as it was centralized in the Middle Kingdom, of a system of nationwide redistribution of labor. In the new kingdom, in connection with the further growth of the numerous imperial, hierarchically subordinate layer of bureaucracy, the army, etc., this system found further development. Its essence was as follows. In Egypt, censuses were systematically conducted, taking into account the population in order to determine taxes, manning the army by age categories: youths, youths, men, old people. These age categories to a certain extent were associated with a peculiar class division of the population directly employed in the royal economy of Egypt into priests, troops, officials, craftsmen and “ordinary people”. The peculiarity of this division was that the numerical and personal composition of the first three class groups was determined by the state in each specific case, taking into account its needs for officials, craftsmen, etc. This happened during the annual reviews, when the states of a particular state economic unit were formed. the royal necropolis, craft workshops.

The “outfit” for permanent qualified work, for example, an architect, jeweler, artist, assigned the “common man” to the category of masters, which gave him the right to official ownership of land and inalienable private property. Until the master was transferred to the category of "ordinary people", he was not a powerless person. Working in one or another economic unit at the direction of the Tsar's administration, he could not leave it. Everything that was produced by him at the appointed time was considered the property of the pharaoh, even his own tomb. What was produced by him outside school hours was his property.

Officials and craftsmen were opposed to “ordinary people”, whose position was not much different from that of slaves, they could only be bought or sold as slaves. This system of distribution of labor did little to affect the bulk of allotment farmers, who supported this huge army of officials, military men and foremen. Periodic accounting and distribution of the main labor force in Ancient Egypt to work were a direct consequence of the underdevelopment of the market, commodity-money relations, and the complete absorption of Egyptian society by the state.

Krasheninnikova N., Zhidkova O. History of State and Law of Foreign Countries. M .: Publishing group NORMA-INFRA, 1998

Pyramids

Civilization of Mesopotamia

The most important feature of the ancient Egyptian civilization was the construction of the pyramids. In the III - II millennium BC. e. both pyramids and temples - buildings for the gods - were built of stone. These are masterpieces of the ancient Egyptian art of building. The efforts of the Egyptians were aimed at making life after death long, safe and happy: they took care of burial utensils, sacrifices, and these worries led to the fact that the life of the Egyptian consisted of preparations for death. They often paid less attention to their earthly dwellings than to their tombs.

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Ancient Egyptian civilization originated in the Nile Delta region. Over the history of Ancient Egypt, 30 dynasties of rulers were replaced. 32 BC e. considered the boundary of existence of the ancient Egyptian civilization. The surrounding of Egypt by mountains predetermined the closed nature of the civilization that arose here, which was of an agricultural nature. Agricultural labor, due to favorable climatic conditions, did not require large physical costs, the ancient Egyptians harvested twice a year. They processed clay, stone, wood and metals. Agricultural implements were made from baked clay. In addition, granite, alabaster, slate and bone were also used. Small vessels were sometimes carved out of rock crystal. The perception and measurement of time in ancient Egypt was determined by the rhythm of the flooding of the Nile. Each new year was regarded by the Egyptians as a repetition of the past and was determined not by the solar cycle, but by the time required for the harvest. They depicted the word “year” (“renpet”) as a young sprout with a bud. The annual cycle was divided into three seasons, 4 months each: the flood of the Nile (akhet - "flood, flood"), after which the sowing season began (overt - the "coming out" of the earth from under the water and germination of seedlings), followed by the harvest season (shemu - "drought", "dryness"), i.e. recession of the Nile. The months had no names, but were numbered. Every fourth year was a leap year, every fifth day of the decade was a day off. The time was kept by the priests. High level the lives and well-being of the ancient Egyptians are confirmed by the fact that they have two customs that are not characteristic of other ancient civilizations: to keep all the elderly and all newborn babies alive. The main clothing of the Egyptians was a loincloth. They wore sandals very rarely, and the main means of demonstrating social status was the number of jewelry (necklaces, bracelets). The ancient Egyptian state had features of a centralized despotism. Pharaoh was the personification of the state: in his hands the administrative, judicial and military powers were united. The ancient Egyptians believed that the god Ra (the sun god in Egyptian mythology) takes care of their welfare and sends his son, the Pharaoh, to earth. Each pharaoh was regarded as a son of the god Ra. The tasks of the pharaoh included the performance of sacred, cult rites in temples, so that the country was prosperous. Pharaoh's daily life was strictly regulated, since he was the high priest of all the gods. In modern parlance, the pharaohs were professional statesmen with the necessary knowledge and experience. Their power was unlimited, but not unlimited. And since power was inherited from the Egyptians through the maternal line, the eldest son of Pharaoh and his eldest daughter had to enter into an incestuous marriage. The ancient Egyptian state was divided into certain geographical units - nomes, which were ruled entirely by nomarchs subordinate to the pharaoh. A feature of the political system of Ancient Egypt was that, firstly, the central and local authorities were in the hands of the same social stratum - the nominal nobility, and secondly, administrative functions, as a rule, were combined with the priestly, that is, the temple the farm also supported some of the officials of the state apparatus. In general, the system of government of the ancient Egyptian state was characterized by indivisibility of economic and political functions, indivisibility of legislative and executive power, military and civil, religious and secular, administrative and judicial. In ancient Egypt, since pre-dynastic times, there was an effective system of internal and exchange trade. Domestic trade is especially widespread in 2 thousand.

FEATURES OF THE CIVILIZATION OF ANCIENT EGYPT

BC, when the word "merchant" first appears in the Egyptian lexicon. Silver bars are gradually replacing grain as the yardstick of market values. In ancient Egypt, not gold, but silver performed the function of money, since gold was a symbol of divinity, providing the pharaoh's body with an eternal afterlife. The systemic sign of the organization of ancient Egyptian society was the possession of a profession. The main positions - warrior, artisan, priest, official - were inherited, but it was possible to “take office” or be “appointed to the position”. The social regulator here was the annual reviews of the working population, during which people received a kind of annual “dress” for work in accordance with their profession. The bulk of the able-bodied Egyptians were used in agriculture, the rest were employed in crafts or services. The strongest youths were selected during the examinations in the army. From the number of ordinary Egyptians serving labor service, detachments were formed that worked on the construction of palaces and pyramids, temples and tombs. A large volume of unskilled labor was used in the construction of irrigation systems, in the rowing fleet, when transporting heavy loads. The construction of such colossal monuments as the pyramids helped to create a new structure for organizing people in which state-controlled labor could be directed towards performing public works.

Culture of Ancient Egypt.

Eastern type of culture.

Topic. Culture of the Ancient East.

Eastern type of culture.
Culture of Ancient Egypt.

In the 4th millennium BC, in the East, the first states in the history of mankind appear between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers and in the Nile river valley. The foundations of the Babylonian and Egyptian civilizations were laid. In the 3-2 millennia, in the valley of the Indus River, Indian civilization appears, in the valley of the Honghe River - Chinese, in Asia Minor, the civilization of the Hittites and Phoenicians takes shape, in Palestine - the Hebrew.

Specificity oriental type culture in relation to

A. primitive culture:

Separation of handicrafts from agriculture,

- social strata, differing in professional activities and financial situation,

- the presence of writing, statehood, civil society, urban life.

B. from other cultures:

Despotic centralized power

Sacralization of power

State property

Strict hierarchy of society

Collectivism, community psychology

Patriarchal slavery, other forms of dependence

Ancestor cult, traditionalism, conservatism

The fusion of man and nature

Religious beliefs of an introverted nature (striving for the inner world of a person), the search for the highest truth through personal enlightenment

The idea of tranquility, harmony as a leitmotif of Eastern culture

The non-necessity of belief in specific gods, since the World Law, Tao, Brahman, etc. can be higher than God.

Religion and philosophy are inseparable

The idea of cyclicality, repetition, isolation (for European culture - development, progress)

The eternal peace of the law realizes itself after death through the rebirth of the soul, the character of which is determined by the way of life

The idea of the illusory nature of the visible world and the reality of the unknowable absolute

The mystical esoteric nature of the mind: a person does not live in the world, but experiences (perceives with feelings) the world. The essence is not logic (European rationality), but feelings.

The basis of culture was an archaic worldview: denial of personality in the modern sense, which resulted in harshness and cruelty towards a person, especially towards strangers; reference point to myth, ritual, subordination to the natural cycle.

Meaning.

3) Civilization of Ancient Egypt

Culture had a huge impact on ancient, European and world culture, made many discoveries that formed the basis of scientific knowledge and technological progress.

Egypt is the oldest state that has existed for about four thousand years with almost no changes. Its systematic study began in the 19th century. In 1822, the French scientist François Champillon was able to decipher the Egyptian hieroglyphs. As a result, wall inscriptions, manuscripts (papyri) of various contents became available for study. The main features of the ancient Egyptian civilization:

- early emergence of class relations and statehood;

The isolated geographical position of the country, which led to the absence of cultural borrowing;

Cult of the "Kingdom of the Dead"

- the deification of the power of the ruler, which extended to the subjects even after the death of the pharaoh;

- Eastern despotism, hierarchy of power;

- connection between art and religious worship.

Ancient Egypt- the most ancient civilization, one of the first centers of human culture, originated in North-East Africa, in the Nile River valley. The word "Egypt" (Greek Ayguptos) means "Black earth", fertile (compare: black earth), in contrast to the desert - "Red earth". Herodotus called Egypt "the Gift of the Nile". The Nile was the backbone of the economy.

Traditional periodization:

Pre-dynastic period 5-4 thousand BC

Early kingdom 3000-2300 BC

The first collapse of Egypt 2250-2050 BC

Middle Kingdom 2050 - 2700 BC

Second collapse of Egypt 1700-1580 BC

New kingdom 1580-1070 BC

Late period 1070-332 BC.

- Greco-Roman period 332 BC - 395 AD

Civilization of Ancient Egypt

Formation of civilization on the banks of the Nile.

Egypt is a country with an ancient, amazing culture, full of secrets and mysteries, many of which have not yet been resolved. Its history goes back several thousand years. Historians claim that the Egyptian civilization had neither "childhood" nor "youth." One of the hypotheses about the origin of the Egyptian civilization claims that some mysterious settlers stood at the origins of the Egyptian civilization, another hypothesis says that the founders were the descendants of the Atlanteans.

Two centuries ago, the world knew almost nothing about Ancient Egypt. The second life of his culture is the merit of scientists.

For the first time, the educated circles of Western Europe got the opportunity to more or less widely get acquainted with the culture of ancient Egypt thanks to the military expedition of Napoleon Bonaparte in Egypt in 1798, which included various scientists, in particular archaeologists. After this expedition, a valuable work was published, dedicated to "Description of Egypt", which consisted of 24 volumes of text and 24 volumes of tables, reproducing drawings of the ruins of ancient Egyptian temples, copies of inscriptions and numerous antiquities.

Pyramids

Civilization of Mesopotamia

Natural features, their influence on the economy of the Egyptians.

Natural conditions became an essential factor in the development of the ancient Egyptian civilization. In the Nile Valley, the Egyptians harvested two crops a year, and the harvest was very, plentiful - up to 100 centners per hectare. However, this valley constituted 3.5% of the territory of Egypt, in which 99.5% of the population lived.

The culture developed in isolation, its characteristic feature was tradition. The origin of Egyptian civilization dates back to the III millennium BC: it was then that Pharaoh Mina unites disparate regions - the nomes. The pharaoh's head is crowned with a double diadem - a symbol of the unity of the South of Egypt and the Delta region.

Features of the political system of Egypt. Deification of the Pharaoh, a special role of the priesthood.

"The secret of power, the secret of the subordination of people to the bearers of power has not yet been fully solved," wrote N.A. Berdyaev. - the bearers of power? " ("The Kingdom of the Spirit and the Kingdom of Caesar". In the book "The Fate of Russia". - M., 1990, p. 267).

Pharaoh was at the head of the state. He had absolute power in the country: all of Egypt with its colossal natural, land, material, labor resources was considered the property of the pharaoh. It is no coincidence that the concept of "House of Pharaoh" - (nom) coincided with the concept of the state.

Religion in ancient Egypt demanded unquestioning obedience to the Pharaoh, otherwise a person was threatened with terrible disasters during life and after death. It seemed to the Egyptians that only the gods could give them such unlimited power, which the pharaohs enjoyed. This is how the idea of the divinity of the pharaoh was formed in Egypt - he was recognized as the son of God in the flesh. AND simple people, and noble nobles fell prostrate before the pharaoh and kissed the traces of his feet. It was considered a great favor to allow the Pharaoh to kiss his sandal. The deification of the pharaohs was central to the religious culture of Egypt.

The Egyptians recognized the presence of the divine principle "in everything that is on land, in water and in the air." Some animals, plants, objects were revered as the embodiment of the deity. The Egyptians worshiped cats, snakes, crocodiles, rams, dung beetles - scarabs and many other living creatures, considering them their gods.

Religious beliefs of the Egyptians. Creation myths. Sun worship. Formation of the Egyptian pantheon of deities, personifying natural phenomena, abstract concepts and life. Anthropomorphic character of the Egyptian gods. The cult of sacred animals.

The funeral cult. The cult of the dead. The ideas of the Egyptians about several hypostases of the human soul and the need to preserve the body as a receptacle for the soul. Mummification. Formation of concepts about the afterlife and the posthumous judgment of Osiris. "Book of the Dead", "Pyramid Texts", "Sarcophagus Texts". The influence of religion on the life of ancient Egyptian society.

The most important feature of the religion and culture of Ancient Egypt was the protest against death, which the Egyptians considered "abnormal". The Egyptians believed in the immortality of the soul - this was the main doctrine of the Egyptian religion. The passionate desire for immortality determined the entire worldview of the Egyptians, the entire religious thought of Egyptian society. It is believed that in no other civilization has this protest against death found such a vivid, concrete and complete expression as in Egypt. The desire for immortality became the basis for the emergence of the funeral cult, which played an extremely important role in the history of Ancient Egypt - not only religious and cultural, but also political, economic and military. It was on the basis of the disagreement of the Egyptians with the inevitability of death that the doctrine was born, according to which death does not mean the end, a wonderful life can be prolonged forever, and the deceased can await resurrection.

Egyptian mythology as the basis of Egyptian “art for eternity”. The defining influence of the funeral cult in the artistic culture of Egypt. Pyramids of the Old Kingdom, funeral temples of the era of the Middle and New Kingdoms.

Features of Ancient Egypt

The efforts of the Egyptians were aimed at making life after death long, safe and happy: they took care of burial utensils, sacrifices, and these worries led to the fact that the life of the Egyptian consisted of preparations for death. They often paid less attention to their earthly dwellings than to their tombs.

The pyramids were built for the pharaohs and for the nobility, although according to the teachings of the Egyptian priests, every person, and not only a king or nobleman, possessed eternal vitality. However, the bodies of the poor were not embalmed or placed in tombs, but wrapped in mats and dumped in heaps on the outskirts of cemeteries.

Archaeologists have counted about a hundred pyramids, but not all of them have survived to this day. Some of the pyramids were destroyed in antiquity. The earliest of Egyptian pyramids- the pyramid of Pharaoh Djoser, erected about 5 thousand years ago. It is stepped and rises like a staircase to heaven. Its decoration uses a black and white contrast of protrusions and niches. This pyramid was conceived and implemented by the main royal architect named Imhotep. Subsequent generations of Egyptians honored him as a great architect, sage and magician. He was deified and libations were performed in his honor before the start of other construction work. Pyramids shake the human imagination with their size, geometric precision.

The most famous and most significant in size is the pyramid of Pharaoh Cheops in Giza. It is known that only the road to the future construction site was laid for 10 years, and the pyramid itself was built for more than 20 years; these jobs employed a huge number of people - hundreds of thousands. The dimensions of the pyramid are such that any European cathedral could easily fit inside: its height was 146.6 m, and its area was about 55 thousand square meters. m. The Pyramid of Cheops is built of giant limestone stones, and the weight of each block is about 2 - 3 tons.

Sculpture and painting, their sacred role.

The artists of Ancient Egypt were characterized by a sense of the beauty of life and nature. Architects, sculptors, painters were distinguished by a subtle sense of harmony and a holistic view of the world. This was expressed, in particular, in the striving for synthesis inherent in Egyptian culture - the creation of a single architectural ensemble in which all types of fine arts would take place.

Sphinxes were placed in front of the funeral temples: a stone image of a creature with the head of a man and the body of a lion. The head of the sphinx depicted the pharaoh, and the sphinx as a whole personified the wisdom, mystery and strength of the Egyptian ruler.

The largest of all the ancient Egyptian sphinxes was made in the first half of the 3rd millennium BC. - he still guards the pyramid of Khafre (one of the 7 wonders of the world).

Other remarkable and now widely known monuments of ancient Egyptian art all over the world are the statue of Pharaoh Amenemhat III, the stele of the nobleman Hunen, the head of Pharaoh Sensusert III. A masterpiece of ancient Egyptian fine art of the 2nd millennium BC. art critics consider the relief depicting the pharaoh Tutankhamun with his 29 young wives in the garden, made on the lid of the casket. Tutankhamun died young. His tomb was accidentally discovered in 1922, although cleverly disguised in the rock.

Confirmation of the high culture of Egypt in the 1st millennium BC. e. (XIV century BC) is a sculptural portrait of the wife of Amenhotep IV - Nefertiti (ancient Egyptian - "beauty is coming") - one of the most charming female images in the history of mankind.

The visual arts of Ancient Egypt were distinguished by bright and clear colors. Architectural structures, sphinxes, sculptures, figurines, and reliefs were painted. The paintings and reliefs that covered the walls of the tombs reproduced in detail detailed pictures of a prosperous life in the kingdom of the dead, everyday life on earth.

The influence of the ancient Egyptian civilization on the Mediterranean countries should be noted. The civilization of Egypt has made a huge contribution to world culture.

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One of the oldest civilizations in the world, the civilization of Egypt originated in Northeast Africa, in the valley of one of the longest rivers in the world - the Nile. It is believed that the word "Egypt" comes from the ancient Greek "Ayguptos". It probably arose from Het-ka-Ptah - a city that the Greeks later called Memphis. The Egyptians themselves called their country Ta Keme - Black Earth: according to the color of the local soil. The history of Ancient Egypt is usually divided into periods of the Ancient (late IV - most of the III millennium BC), Middle (until the 16th century BC), New (until the end of the 11th century BC) kingdoms, late (X-IV centuries) , as well as Persian (525-332 BC - under the rule of the Persians) and Hellenistic (IV-I centuries BC, as part of the Ptolemaic state). From 30 BC to 395 AD, Egypt was the province and granary of Rome, after the partition of the Roman Empire until 639 - the province of Byzantium. The Arab conquest in 639-642 led to a change in the ethnic composition of the population, language and religion in Egypt.

Ancient Egypt

According to Herodotus, Egypt is a gift of the Nile, for the Nile was and is the source of inexhaustible fertility, the basis of the economic activity of the population, since almost the entire territory of Egypt lies in the zone of tropical deserts. The relief of most of the country is a plateau with prevailing heights of up to 1000 meters within the Libyan, Arabian and Nubian deserts. In Ancient Egypt and its neighboring regions, there was almost everything necessary for the existence and life of a person. The territory of Egypt in ancient times was a narrow strip of fertile soil stretching along the Nile coast. The fields of Egypt were covered with water every year during floods, which brought with it fertile silt, which enriched the soil. On both sides, the valley was bordered by mountain ranges rich in sandstone, limestone, granite, basalt, diorite and alabaster, which were excellent building materials. To the south of Egypt, in Nubia, rich gold deposits were discovered. In Egypt itself, there were no metals, so they were mined in the areas adjacent to it: on the Sinai Peninsula - copper, in the desert between the Nile and the Red Sea - gold, on the coast of the Red Sea - lead.

Signs of the civilization of ancient Egypt

Egypt had an advantageous geographical position: the Mediterranean Sea connected it with the Central Asian coast, Cyprus, the islands of the Aegean Sea and mainland Greece.

The Nile was the most important navigable thread linking Upper and Lower Egypt with Nubia (Ethiopia). In such favorable conditions on this territory already in V-IV millennium BC construction of irrigation canals began. The need to maintain an extensive irrigation network led to the emergence of nomes - large territorial associations of early agricultural communities. The very word denoting the area - nom, was written in the ancient Egyptian language with a hieroglyph depicting the land divided by an irrigation network into areas of regular shape. The system of ancient Egyptian nomes, formed in the 4th millennium BC, remained the basis administrative division Egypt until the very end of its existence.

The creation of a unified system of irrigated agriculture became a prerequisite for the emergence of a centralized state in Egypt. At the end of the 4th - beginning of the 3rd millennium BC, the process of uniting separate nomes began. The narrow river valley - from the first Nile rapids to the delta - and the delta area itself were developed unevenly. This difference throughout Egyptian history remained in the division of the country into Upper and Lower Egypt and was reflected even in the titles of the pharaohs, who were called "the kings of Upper and Lower Egypt." The ancient Egyptian crown was also double: the pharaohs wore a white Upper Egyptian and a red Lower Egyptian crown, inserted into each other. Egyptian tradition attributes the merit of the unification of the country to the first Pharaoh I the Ming dynasty. Herodotus tells that he founded Memphis and was its first ruler.

From this time in Egypt, the era of the so-called Early Kingdom begins, which covers the period of the reign of the I and II dynasties. Information about this era is very scarce. It is known that already at that time in Egypt there was a large and carefully managed tsarist economy, agriculture and cattle breeding were developed. They cultivated barley, wheat, grapes, figs and dates, bred cattle and small ruminants. The inscriptions on the seals that have come down to us testify to the existence of a developed system of government positions and ranks.

History of ancient civilizations →

Egyptian state →

The concept of property value nature of culture The structure of culture

The work was added to the site samzan.ru: 2016-03-05

Exam questions for credit (exam) (correspondence)

Subject, goals, objectives of cultural studies.
Concept, properties, value nature of culture
The structure of culture.
The main functions of culture.
Cultural genesis basic approaches and concepts.
Subjects and institutions of culture.
Typology of cultures.
Theoretical concepts of the emergence and development of culture.
Form culture languages, classification.
The relationship between the concepts of culture and civilization.
Culture and religion.
The culture of a primitive society.
Socio-cultural characteristics of the ancient Egyptian society.
The basic principles of the culture of ancient India. Hinduism.
Buddhism as a religious and philosophical worldview.
Taoism: theory and practice.
The role of Confucianism in the culture of China.
Features of the world outlook of a person in the culture of Ancient Greece.
The specificity of the socio-cultural development of Ancient Rome. Greece and Rome: common and special.
Peace, man, society in the Muslim picture of the world. Islam.
Man in the culture of the European Middle Ages. Christianity as a cultural phenomenon.
Romanesque and Gothic in Medieval Europe.
Revival: general characteristics... The principles of humanism and anthropocentrism: essence and significance for European culture.
Reformation in the culture of Europe.
The idea of progress and its role in the European culture of the Enlightenment.
Classicism, baroque, sentimentalism, rococo: general characteristics of styles.
The main ideas and trends in the development of European culture in the 19th century. (positivism, communism, irrationalism, eurocentrism, scientism).
Romanticism in European culture.
Realism, naturalism, impressionism, modern as sociocultural projects, their reflection in art.
Postmodernism in European culture of the 20th century
Culture of Kievan Rus 9-13 centuries. (the conditions for the formation of the Slavic ethnos, the state, the Baptism of Rus as a turning point in its history).
Culture of Moscow Russia 14-17 centuries. (Orthodoxy in the history of Russian culture, the ideological significance of the concept "Moscow is the third Rome", the problem of the Schism in the sociodynamics of Russian culture).
Historical and cultural meaning of Peter's reforms, features of the Russian Enlightenment.
Domestic thinkers of the 19th century in search of a "Russian idea" (A. Herzen, P.
What are the features of the civilization of Ancient Egypt?

Chaadaev, N. Berdyaev, "Slavophiles" and "Westernizers").
"Silver Age" of Russian culture.
Features of socialist culture.
Problems of the development of Russian culture in the post-Soviet period.
"East-West" the problem of dialogue.

39. Globalization of cultural and historical processes in the 20th century.

The success of military campaigns could not but affect the social structure of ancient Egyptian society. In the event of a victory, the main prey of the warriors were not only land, jewelry, valuables, but above all people. These people who were captured by the Egyptians turned into slaves. There were hundreds of thousands of people. All of them became, in the main, slaves. They were forced to work on the land: plant, sow, collect, dig. Someone was a good craftsman and helped in the workshop. They also watched over the livestock, participated in the construction of houses, temples, any organizations and institutions.

Also, a large proportion of the captives were brought to the royal court, courtyards of temples. They brought them to the estates of the nobles. A small part was divided between people of average origin, and even the warriors took their slaves. In the royal court, they performed all the household work: they dug, sowed, planted on the land. In the house of the pharaoh: they cooked food, cleaned, did any construction work. If a slave was a good craftsman, then he could be engaged in a craft business. In the temple households, they also helped and did all the work of the servants. And for the soldiers who had plots of land, they worked on the ground. The slave masters provided them with meager food, clothing, and shelter.

One of the documents says that the Egyptian soldiers were very fond of sharing the captured loot. They immediately shared the land with the slaves. Together with the captives, they brought a variety of livestock: horses, cows, bulls, goats. Also a variety of utensils and luxury items: things made of gold and silver, all kinds of vessels, necklaces and rings, bronze items.

In the old days, after the seizure of territories, the Egyptians only took their livestock, valuables and drove people away, turning them into slaves. But this was not the case in the New Kingdom. In addition to the fact that they drove cattle, turned the people of the defeated states into their slaves, took all the gold and other jewelry, now they also imposed a large annual tribute on the occupied territories.

The tribute was paid every year at the same time. They gave livestock, slaves, grain. Also, every country conquered by the Egyptians was obliged to give back the products that they made themselves. They also gave away some of their natural resources.

From Ethiopia, they brought gold and elephant bones. Various metals from Palestine and Syria. They also brought various fabrics and paints of different colors. They brought precious stones. The forest from Lizana, in order to build ships, was especially valuable cedar.

A huge number of slaves, various raw materials (metals) played a big role in the development of the Egyptian economy. The economy grew many times over, the country grew richer, people began to live better (the indigenous population, the Egyptians themselves). But despite the huge number of slaves, raw materials, values. They mainly went not to ordinary people or even soldiers, but to wealthy nobles, temples and the pharaoh. This wealth was used without any benefit.

The development of the Egyptian economy was facilitated not only by a huge amount of material resources, a large amount of labor, but also by the fact that the Egyptians improved their technical base. Improved production technology. Tools of labor in more began to be made of bronze.

There were no tin deposits on Egyptian soil; tin reserves were delivered from Syria, which was subject to the influence of Egypt. Bronze was used to make tools, weapons, which are one of the best in terms of their qualities. The process of obtaining metal has also been improved. It was made in a different way: they used bellows, which provided a powerful flow of air. Thanks to the fact that they learned how to cast metal, they could already make complex things. For example, they could have made a large gate for a temple. They could also make fine products. All this made it possible to use metal very economically.

The Egyptians also received opaque paste glass and it became an independent industry. Vessels and small handicrafts could be made of this glass. These things were valued both domestically (both the poor and the rich bought them in the markets) and in the foreign market (these crafts were exported outside the country for sale).

Agricultural machinery was improved. A very convenient plow with sheer handles became widespread, there were special holes for the hands. Huge hammers were made, which were suspended on long sticks, it was convenient to break clods of earth with them.

It is known that in Egypt there was often a drought, and only after the flood and the return of the Nile to its banks did moisture remain and was. But not everywhere. Therefore, it was necessary to make structures with the help of which the fields and vegetable gardens were irrigated.

Another plus of the conquests was that the Egyptians learned to grow new types of plants, new breeds of livestock. Horse breeding has become a special branch of animal husbandry. Since it was necessary for the Egyptian chariots.

Pharaohs had huge amount slaves, livestock, metals. They pursued a policy that contributed to the revitalization of economic life and the prosperity of agriculture.

The number of sown areas and the quality of their cultivation increased. The floods of the Nile were constantly monitored, the water level in the river was measured before and after it. The destroyed canals were repaired, and irrigation facilities began to be built.

The pharaohs of the 19th dynasty began to carry out large-scale work on reclamation of the Delta, drainage of swampy areas, and the draining of excess water. Consequently, in the era of the New Kingdom, the economy made it possible to obtain much more products in agriculture and the craft workshop than in previous times.

The country now already possessed large reserves of material resources and economic potential. Pharaohs with the help of these riches could supply the army and raise the economy and actively carry out the external economy. Various palaces and temples were also built.

Material opportunities were created for the further development of Egyptian culture.

Society of Ancient Egypt was divided into three classes: the class of lords - those who owned slaves, houses, workshops, estates, wealth; small producers - farmers and artisans, they obtained food by their own labor; slaves are people who worked day and night for their master: they cleaned, cooked food, drove cattle, looked after cattle, worked on the land that belonged to the owner, participated in the construction of the temple, palaces.

But even in the period of the New Kingdom, with so many changes in the economy and politics, there were changes within each class. Some layers have strengthened, others have become weaker. New classes have appeared. Other classes lost their importance. Slave relations became an important change in this structure, and they became stronger every day. The number of slaves increased due to the fact that more and more lands were captured by the pharaohs with their army. They turned captives and inhabitants of these states into slaves.

During the period of the New Kingdom, a layer of slave owners appeared who possessed 2-7 slaves. Slaves could be bought by rich farmers who had land. They acquired slaves to work on their lands

Serious changes have also taken place among the ruling class. The middle strata of the population, the so-called small and medium slave owners, appear. They occupied the lowest and middle posts in Egypt. Received land and slaves from the ruler.