I took a break from writing the newsletter this summer, but school is back in session now, so let's keep going. In the last newsletter, I started writing about ancient empires from Bronze Age, and I wrote about the Old Kingdom and the Middle Kingdom of Ancient Egypt.
Egypt was the first Bronze Age empire I started writing about. In future newsletters, I will also write about Mesopotamia, Assyria, Babylon, and others. Honestly, I don't know much about these empires, so I am using this series as an opportunity to learn about these empires. I hope you will follow my learning journey.
Let's Review
I want to start with a short review from last time. I explained that Ancient Egypt had a very long history and that it went through several historical time periods. One of these time periods is known as the Early or Pre-Dynastic Period. This is basically the pre-historic time when Egypt was not a unified country but was instead a collection of tribal chiefdoms. Afterwards, powerful rulers grew their regional influence, and they united the whole kingdom. This is known the Dynastic Period, the time when Egypt was ruled by kings.
Then, during the Old Kingdom, the kings became so powerful that they became considered god-like pharaohs, and Egypt reached one of its "golden ages." It built pyramids, it was one of the first regions of the world to establish agriculture, it formalized its mythology and religion, it created a hieroglyphic system of writing, which is one of the oldest and most unique forms of writing, and it made major advances in sculpture and architecture.
The Pyramids
Believe it or not, the pyramids were built during the Old Kingdom. Afterwards, Egyptian rulers built other buildings and architecture, but they didn't build any more pyramids. These pyramids are marvels of architecture, mathematics, and science. First of all, they are huge. The Great Pyramid of Giza was the tallest building in the world for thousands of years, and its foundation is the size of a city block. The pyramids are also marvels of ancient logistics. They are built with mega-ton stones that were quarried, transported, and elevated to the correct spot. Historians are still not sure how Ancient Egyptians were able to carve stones so precisely and transport them with primitive tools.
The pyramids also involve some mind-blowing advanced mathematics. The four sides of the pyramids are aligned almost to true north, south, east, and west direction; they are off by only about one-fifteenth of a degree. They are also said to mirror the alignment of the stars on Orion's Belt, which is a collection of stars in the Orion star constellation.
The pyramid's ratio of base to height is also related to the Earth's diameter and circumference. An important multiplier in this ratio is also related to the number of years it takes the Earth to complete a rotation around its axis, called a "procession."
The pyramids also have mythological and religious significance. The pyramid is a burial site for the pharaoh, and it has religious inscriptions and objects that is meant to help the pharaoh transition to the afterlife. The pyramid also has "shafts" that point to important stars in space, and these shafts are believed to provide a passageway to the heavens for the pharaoh's spirit.
Why?
Why did the Ancient Egyptians take so much effort to make the pyramids so precise? Why did they use such huge stones rather than normal building blocks? Why did they align the sides of the pyramid exactly to the cardinal directions of the planet and to the stars? Why did they mirror the geographic measures and the rotation of the Earth? Many blocks are also cut so flawlessly and laid next to each other so tightly that you can't even slide a sheet of paper in between them. Why do that? Even today, we have very high-quality manufacturing and building design for standards like LEED Certification, but why take so much effort to do that thousands of years ago?
Then, once the Ancient Egyptians had this technology in the Old Kingdom, why not continue to use it in future historical periods?
Questions like these have plagued ancient historians for hundreds of years. Even more frustrating is that that they have little evidence for a build-up of architectural skill. Yes, there are a few "practice" pyramids such as the Bent Pyramid and the Red Pyramid that didn't have all these components, but, in general, Ancient Egypt went from a nomadic and hunter-gatherer lifestyle to a fully-developed civilization with genius-level architectural, mathematical, and astrological skill and also with a fully-developed system of writing and mythology.
It's Really Old
Historians have explained this quick build-up of skill in two ways. The most traditional and established way is to claim that it was a "miracle in the desert." These skills developed very quickly, seemingly overnight, and that's why the Old Kingdom is called a "golden age."
Another (controversial, less-accepted) explanation is that Ancient Egypt actually had a much longer historical period and that these skills developed slowly over time.
What does the archeological evidence say? Well, it's complicated… The stone of the pyramids is lifeless, so it can't be carbon dated. Some pyramids have some writings and archeological items in them, but some pyramids (including the Great Pyramids) don't have these, or they could have been added later by a pharaoh who wanted to take credit. The pyramids have also been dated by archeological items found near them, such as quarry sites, tools and housing used by workers, food items, and human remains. Foreign travelers and historians also wrote about what they saw, but this mostly happened in more modern times.
A few other historical items help identify the date, but these are contested and uncertain.
There are historical records of ancient kings and gods written on stone tablets. These records go back to thousands and thousands of years before the Old Kingdom, so they provide evidence that Ancient Egypt goes way, way back, way before 5,000 BCE. But these records are so different from the official historical record, and they contain stories about gods on Earth and super-powerful kings, that historians consider these stories mythology and story-telling, not an accurate historical record.
Another consideration is the weather of Ancient Egypt. In ancient times, Egypt was a lush green land that supported agriculture. This happened from the Nile River flooding and from rains which were pretty regular. Geological experts have compared the timelines of the ancient architecture and the ancient weather patterns, and they have concluded the environmental conditions would not support that kind of architecture. At that time, Egypt was flooded or too dry or too rainy. Instead, they identify the "Goldie Locks environmental condition" for such large architecture much further back in the pre-historical time.
They also point to the Sphinx. According to these archeologists, the Sphinx is really, really old, much older than the pyramids. The Sphinx has signs of water weathering from flooding and rains that could have happened only very far in the past. The Sphinx also has evidence of repair in more modern times; blocks were cut out and replaced to repair the damage.
Yes, all of these ideas are contested and not accepted as official history because they are not supported by existing evidence and because they are not aligned with accepted historical timelines. But these pieces of "evidence" have helped demonstrate that the Ancient Egyptian civilization is can be much, much older than what we have believed, and this belief about its very old age has helped explain how Ancient Egypt was able to reach the high zenith of architecture, astrology, mathematics, and mythology. In short, these processes started a very long time ago, and Ancient Egypt had a long time to develop their skills and knowledge.
Is this all true? I don't know. Probably not. We have evidence today of very fast technological and scientific progress in other civilizations, including our own, and these examples show that it can be possible for a civilization to develop rapidly, seemingly out of nowhere. For example, from the mid-1800s to today - a period of about 150-170 years - we have developed the steam engine, the combustion engine, cars, trains, airplanes, nuclear weapons, space ships, radios, TVs, computers, cell phones, many chemicals, many medicines, and even computer-generated artificial intelligence. Our civilization, plus the civilizations of Ancient Greece and Imperial Rome, demonstrate that scientific and technological progress can happen very quickly, and maybe the Ancient Egyptians of the Old Kingdom did something like that too.
Next…
I will continue my journey of discovery about the ancient empires of the Bronze Age, but I will probably spend some more time in Egypt first. Their architecture and mythology is endlessly fascinating, and there are many interesting leaders such as Ramses and Cleopatra that I want to learn about. I hope you will continue the learning journey with me.
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My name is Lirim Neziri, and I am an educator and a writer. I love to read and learn, and this newsletter (which I call Lirim’s Learning Club) lets me share interesting things I am learning. I write about History, Literature, Writing, Education, Technology, Leadership, and Personal Productivity. Please join my learning adventure.