Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
How ancient Egypt influences modern society
AP Art History Outline Ancient Egypt
AP Art History Outline Ancient Egypt
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: How ancient Egypt influences modern society
Many civilizations have left an impact on the world. One of the major civilizations is Ancient Egypt. This civilization, now modern-country Egypt, became unite at around 3150 BC in Eastern North Africa. Three of the important things about ancient Egypt are Religion, Art/Architecture/Culture/Tradition and Education.
The ancient Egyptian Religion changed and evolved many times. During the early Pre-Dynastic Period, gods, were generally, embodied in a certain animal. In the Old Kingdom, the sun cult was upgraded and the sun temple was as well as a little pyramid. During this dynasty, the worship of the sun god Ra began and the pyramid writings started in “Unas” Pyramid.
In the middle Kingdom, between the 11th and the 12th dynasty, a new religious writing came to be: coffin writings.
“By the 18th Dynasty Amun –the local god of Thebes- became Ancient Egypt’s greatest god, united with Ra as Amun-Ra. The high priests of Amun gained power and challenged Pharaonic authority by the late 20th Dynasty.” When Akhenaten ruled, monotheism was accepted. This special cult was displeasing to the Ancient Egyptians and so, after Akhenaten died, polytheism returned.
Last but not least, the Ptolemaic Period. In this period, Ptolemy 1 Soter –one of Alexander the Great’s most trusted generals- invented a new cult of Serapis. This cult spread in the Hellenistic world and Alexandria, but Ancient Egyptian Gods were still worshiped in the rest of the country.(3)
The ancient Egyptians had a set of burial customs, which they believed were required to guarantee an everlasting life after their death. These customs and rules included mummification, casting of magic spells, and burial with certain goods. These rules changed over time, however a few of e...
... middle of paper ...
...y.html
2. http://www.nhne.com/specialreports/srpyramid.html
3. http://www.aldokkan.com/religion/religion.htm
4. http://www.kingtutone.com/pyramids/beginning/
5. http://egypt.mrdonn.org/afterlife.html
6. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_Egyptian_burial_customs
7. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Art_of_ancient_Egypt
8. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egyptian_pyrami3ds
9. http://www.islandnet.com/~kpotter/egypt/cloth.htm
10. http://iml.jou.ufl.edu/projects/Fall04/Hilton/earth.htm
11. http://www2.sptimes.com/Egypt/EgyptCredit.4.2.html
12. http://members.tripod.com/ancient_egypt/ee.html
13. http://www.historyforkids.org/learn/egypt/literature/hieroglyphs.htm
14. http://chalk.richmond.edu/education/projects/webunits/egypt/Basics.html
15. http://www.bukisa.com/articles/232859_education-in-ancient-egypt
16. http://historylink101.net/egypt_1/a-education.htm
In the ancient Egyptian culture, the belief was that there was a life force and spirit inside of the body, known as the ‘Ka’. Therefore, mummification was performed as a ritual to preserve the physical features of the body as well as to protect its inner spirit, mainly to ensure that the ‘Ka’ could recognize the body where it may dwell in the eternal life. Thus, the funerary psychology of ancient Egyptians was that death did not bring an end to living, but instead was only an escape from the physical human life and a gateway to immortal being. Due to the fact that a being’s life span was short in ancient times, people’s main hopes rested in their afterlives, where they would be with the gods (Stockstad 121).
Ancient Egyptian culture was largely focused on the afterlife. One of their most important deities, Osiris, became the ruler of the Underworld through death. The pharaoh and elite class prepared for their impending deaths throughout their lives. Much of what survives from ancient Egypt today was found in tombs and temples of the dead. When one of the elite died, the process of laying him or her to rest was extensive. Harold Hays explains that “the ritualized process of embalming and mummification is usually stated as lasting seventy days” (Hays 5). "Funeral Procession, Tomb of Pairy" shows two of the processes that Hays details. The first depicted is the procession to the tomb. Pairy’s body would have already been through several processions, mummification, and embalming. This particular procession’s goal is to lead not just the body, but also the spirit into the afterlife. People of both high and low classes attended this procession, carrying with them the tomb goods (Hays 6-7). The second depicted
The Old Kingdom of Egypt (from 2700 to 2200 B.C.), saw the commencement of many of the rigid, formal beliefs of the Egyptian civilization, both in regards to their religious and political beliefs, as they were very closely intertwined. "... There was a determined attempt to impose order on the multitude of gods and religious beliefs that had existed since predynastic times... and the sun-god Re became the supreme royal god, with the ki...
The reunification of upper and Lower Egypt catalysed the syncretism of prominent sun deities Amun and Re. Consequently, a powerful cult emerged that became the prevailing religious ideology, as well as an important political power base which secured dynastic legitimacy. The importance and impact of the Amun cult is diverse, as it developed social cohesion, shaped the ideology of kingship, facilitated economic and military prosperity, and formed a new power base; the Amun Priesthood.
Akhenaten went completely against the former views of New Kingdom Egypt – that Amun-Re is the god of gods. Instead he put in place the Aten which is the ‘sun disc’ above Ra’s head and forced this religion upon his people. A fact which is acknowledged by an American university professor of history, Damen (2013) who states that by the third year of Akhenaten’s reign a major shift in Egyptian religion began. Firstly, Akhenaten changed his name from Amunhotep IV to honour his own god Aten by ridding his name of the god Amun-Re. Akhenaten also removed the word ‘gods’ from inscriptions replacing it with ‘god’ and destroyed some of Amun’s temples and monuments, thus declaring war against the dominant religious authority of his day {Damen (2013)}). An educated opinion by oft-cited English historian and Egyptologist, Weigall (1910) insinuates that Akhenaten ‘objected heroics and loved naturalness’ tel...
During the Reign of pharaoh Akhenaton (Amunhotep IV) which was a short 16 years from 1360 to 1344 B.C.E. He managed to change religion from what it had been to would it became. It went from many gods to a single god and he tried to rub out the existence of other gods. He never listened to anything the people he ruled said and many other things I will discuss in the paper.
Egyptian religion is polytheistic. The gods are present in the form of elements of life – natural forces and human condition. Greek religion is also polytheistic. Like Egypt, the Greek gods exist to represent different aspects of life, but they also play an active social role in the people’s lives. In Greek mythology, the gods have feelings and flaws as the normal people do. Greek Gods have even had children and committed adultery with people. The Egyptian gods interact more with each other than with the people. They interact with the people more on a supernatural level. Osiris, the Egyptian god of agriculture and afterlife, judges people when they die. Amon, the king of gods, is hidden inside the ruler (This “king of gods” title was not always so as the popularity of Aton, the sun-disk rose through the reformation of Pharaoh Akhenaton in 1369-1353 BC). Hebrew religion, being monotheistic, had only one all-powerful god. Instead of being believed by the people to be somewhere in the world, the Hebrew god was completely separated from the physical universe. Abraham in Canaan (about 1800 BC) is the first known practicer of monotheism. As for monotheistic resemblance in other cultures, the Greek god Zeus is seen as a leader of the other gods, but not independent of them. Akhenaton’s short-lived reform of Egyptian religion reveres Aton as the source of all life. This is the earliest religious expression of a belief in a sole god of the universe. Akhenaton’s challenge to the power of the priests did not last beyond his own lifetime.
The Nile River helped shape Ancient Egypt into the civilization we know of today. There were a lot of contributing factors that the Nile had on Egypt. For example, the Nile allowed for transportation between the surrounding cities. The Nile River could be navigated all year long, and this was a way that the cities could communicate. Egypt is located in Northeastern Africa and has the Libyan and Arabian deserts surrounding the river. Without the river, Egypt would have remained a desert and not been transformed into the civilization that we know it as. The Nile River was truly considered “the gift of Egypt” because the Nile economically, socially, and spiritually provided support for Egypt; without the Nile, Egypt would have remained a desert
The grandeur with which Egyptians regarded their funerary customs does not come without explanation. They delighted in tying the occurrences of the natural world with supernatural dogma, and their burial practices exemplified this deluge of religion. A special deity was even attributed to cemeteries and embalmers: Anubis (Fiero, 46). Due to this deep sense of religion, a fixation with the afterlife developed within their culture. The Egyptian afterlife, however, is not synonymous of heave, but, rather, of The Field of Reeds, a continuation of one’s life in Egypt meant “to secure and perpetuate in the afterlife the ‘good life’ enjoyed on earth” (Mark 1; “Life in Ancient Egypt” 1). The pursuit of this sacred rest-place prompted the arousal of intricate Egyptian funeral rituals.
Egypt is one of the oldest and most complex civilizations of the world. Their religion and beliefs are fascinating and have been a mystery for centuries. Even today, there are some things that we still do not understand. In this research, I will investigate the basic concepts of Egyptian mythology and its gods.
Although there are few religions that still consider the ways of the ancient Egyptian culture important, they are still out there. They are influenced every day by the history, which permeates their rituals, scriptures, and more. Furthermore, Egypt’s political influence may be outdated and not the clearest system, but it led the way for further development and refinement for future use. Without the influence of Egypt, we would not be the civilization that we are
Egyption people believed When a person died, they would continue their journey into the Afterlife. “While the dead person was being prepared, the family went i...
Religion was very important to the ancient Egyptians the believed in many gods, meaning they were polytheistic.
The ancient Egyptians were people of many firsts. They were the first people of ancient times to believe in life after death. They were the first to build in stone and to fashion the arch in stone and brick. Even before the unification of the Two Lands, the Egyptians had developed a plow and a system of writing. They were accomplished sailors and shipbuilders. They learned to chart the cosmos in order to predict the Nile flood. Their physicians prescribed healing remedies and performed surgical operations. They sculpted in stone and decorated the walls of their tombs with naturalistic murals in vibrant colors. The legacy of ancient Egypt is written in stone across the face of the country from the pyramids of Upper Egypt to the rock tombs in the Valley of the Kings to the Old Kingdom temples of Luxor and Karnak to the Ptolemaic temples of Edfu and Dendera and to the Roma...
"The Egyptian sun god Ra, considered the father of all pharaohs, was said to have created himself from a pyramid-shaped mound of earth before creating all other gods. The pyramid’s shape is thought to have symbolized the sun’s rays" (Donald B. Redford, Ph.D., Penn State).[2]