Old Kingdom Research Paper

Early Civilizations and Stability

Nature is a big part of life when it plants, water, and animals we need nature to survive our day-to-day lives especially in Old Kingdom Egypt. The Nile River was a huge source to the Old Kingdom and when it started to flood everything started to change. This caused a shortage on food known as a famine, which was one of the reasons for the fall of the Old Kingdom. It’s amazing how nature not only affected how the people in Egypt survived but more specifically the social and cultural institutions in Ancient Egypt.

Early Egypt is also called the Old Kingdom. Old Kingdom is often referred to as the “Age of the Pyramids”. The kings of the Old Kingdom were called Pharaohs. Some say the Pharaohs organized the

first irrigation system know as the Nile. The Nile River is a big part of the Egyptian life. The Nile provides crops, water supply, and food like fish. The Egyptians also was big on social class. The top of the social class had all the power and controlled the Nile and it brought them in a lot of money. At the bottom of the social class were the peasants, and they were the hardest working. The peasants completed all the labor work involved with agriculture and anything else labor related. Can you imagine everything you base your life off of to survive be gone? That’s what happened with the Nile and caused the downfall of the Old Kingdom. The climate became to cold and there was too much rainfall causing the Nile to flood and the food supply to be ruined. Also this caused a lot of riots between the Old Kingdom and it affected the way they lived.
Nature took a big toll on the Old Kingdoms social institutions such as politics and economics. Nothing prepared Egypt for the downfall of royal power and poverty that came after Pepy. Egypt was determined to survive their downfall and reinvent a new centralized government. The collapse of the Old Kingdom was caused by a sudden and fatal reduction in the Nile floods over the years. The Nile River was the source of life in Egypt it gave them water supply and harvested their food. The serve shortage on food paralyzed the political institutions. People were forced to commit unheard of barbarities such as eating their own children and violating the sacred sanctity of the royal dead. The cold climate led to less rainfall and a decrease in the water flow. The Nile brought along obligations for the rulers to exploit the land’s fertility. The bad crops led to the Pharaohs being responsible for the crops, which hurt their prestige. “The Key factor in the collapse of the monarchy was the loss of revenues from the provinces as famine became widespread because of presently low Nile floods (O’Connor).” "The Archaeology and Art of Ancient Egypt: Essays in Honor of David B. O'Connor." (Book, 2007) [WorldCat.org]. Trans. David B. O'Connor. Web. 23 Sept. 2015. As the conditions worsened peasants began to die which led to less labor work and an increase on the shortage of food. With shortage of food and everyone becoming desperate the peasant started riots and as thee violence increased the social class started to crumble. In result of the social class taking a downfall, thugs started to take over towns. The Memphite kings began to weaken and were no longer in charge they could not fixed what was lost.
Cultural Institutions like religion and social norms were affected when it came to nature in the Old Kingdom.

The Nile, which was so fundamental to the country's life, was surprisingly unimportant in religion (Baines 7). The Old Kingdom was based fundamentally on nature. The economic dependence was based on the Nile. The Old Kingdom prayed continuously on the floodwaters of the Nile, and even created they’re on gods. The Nile River led the Old Kingdom to view cycles of death, birth and re-birth. The Nile was a symbol of life and afterlife. All tombs and any other special monuments are located on the West Bank of the Nile, because the west symbolizes death. This influenced the way Egypt worshiped and created one of the many cultures to believe in an afterlife. They prepared the dead based on rituals practiced by the Old Kingdom and they built monuments to bury their rulers and royal family. And left items for the dead o use on their journey to the afterlife. There was a God of the Nile called Hapy, who brought fertility, water, and was an essential image to abundance. Another God of the Nile was Osiris, he was the ruler of the Netherworld. Osiris became the god of the afterlife, an important figure in the Old Kingdom. Although the Old Kingdom did not dedicate a lot of their time to the worship the Nile, it is responsible for the religious artifacts that were left behind. The Nile River helped in the invention of papyrus a form of paper, used to record Egyptian writing. Due to the success of cultivating the Nile, Egypt increased in population they developed a form of writing called hieroglyphics. They used papyrus made from the reeds located right near the Nile River to make paper to write their stories on. The river provided food and provided the water for farming. The Nile was a huge part in transportation process for the Old Kingdom and allowed trade between different

businesses.
Its amazing how one river can affect how a society lives their day to day lives. The Nile provides plants, water, and animals. For example if the Nile is ruined it’ll after the tombs built on the side disrupting the Egyptians religion. When it came to the riots after the Nile flooded and people became apart of poverty the social class started to crumble. People that were in power were all of sudden no longer in power because of this misfortune. Nature didn’t just affect the Old Kingdoms food supply but the social and cultural instutuions.