Contacts

Ancient Egypt Magazine

Issue Three - September / October 2000

Editor's Column

"Ancient Egypt was inhabited by mummies and they all wrote in hydraulics. They lived in the Sarah Dessert and traveled by Camelot. The climate of the Sarah is such that the inhabitants have to live elsewhere.”

The aforegoing gem came from the net and is supposed to be a genuine examination answer. Everyone thinks they know something about the ancient Egyptians, even when they don’t.

The ancient Egyptians have a lot to answer for – apparently. Here’s a useful tip - if you want to give something unbelievable antiquity, and thereby credibility, all you need to do is mention that the ancient Egyptians invented it.

The most recent manifestation of this came to light in an edition of the Saturday Times magazine, in which it was stated that the Egyptians invented tattooing, and, just to make sure that we had grasped the veracity of this statement, “between 2,600 and 2,400 BC”, or some such.  Give it a date and it must be true.

My favourite Egyptologists are the ones who open lectures boldly with the statement, “Oh, I never bother with dates myself” knowing that: a) this will shock the audience, particularly if it reckons itself a knowledgeable one, and b) many Egyptian dates are hard to prove. Most Egyptologists use reignal dates, that is, a reference framework given by the reigns of Egyptian monarchs. We have proof that King A ruled for 20 years, because he left records up to the 21st year of his reign; King B, who followed him, ruled for another eight, or so his records suggest. On some happy occasions an important event might coincide with the last year of King A’s reign and the first of King B’s; a particularly high Nile flood, for example, which means that we can be quite certain the length of King A’s reign is correct.

Gradually decades and centuries of reigns are built up, giving longer periods of time. These might be measured in dynasties, or in kingdoms, such as the Old, Middle and New Kingdoms. The result is that the set of absolute dates for ancient Egypt varies from book to book and scholar to scholar.

Here are some other things inven­ted by the ancient Egyptians: aromatherapy (true, after a fashion); hairpieces (as far as we can tell, true); false nails (true, also after a fashion, for mummies); chemistry (via alchemy, from Kmt, or Khemet, the Black Land, the ancient name for Egypt because of its black soil – or so some stories run, anyway); magic (hard to disprove); levitating huge blocks of stone by mindpower to build pyramids (alas, not). And tat­tooing? It would be interesting to hear the evidence, but it certainly isn’t the first thing to spring to mind when one thinks of ancient Egypt.

Ancient Egypt has great appeal and the subject has periodic peaks of activity in which there is suddenly huge public interest. Part of the reason for this is the enormous quantity of artefacts and constructions that have survived over the millennia due to Egypt’s hot, preserving climate. Beau­tiful wall paintings, sculptured reliefs, statues of ancient monarchs, stunning jewellery, soaring temples and pyramids and the remains of the people themselves have survived to inspire and to impress us, and to fill us with awe and wonder. We can read the stories of their lives in biographies from their tombs or tales written down on ancient papyrus.

It is little wonder that we credit the ancient Egyptians with so many things – even if they were not actually responsible for some of them. New Age therapies seem to be particularly susceptible to naming Egypt as their source, although no ancient culture seems to want to claim responsibility for colonic irrigation.

Such is the mesmerising power of Egypt that lecturers in Archaeology used to warn – and perhaps still do – of the seductive power of Egypto-centric hyperdiffusionism – the belief that the cultures of the ancient Mediterranean world, and the European cultures beyond, can show that their heritage is Egyptian. Everything is centred on Egypt; everything spread out from Egypt. This extreme view was countered with the thesis that other cultures were just as sophisticated as the Egyptians, but differences in climate meant that organic material did not survive, leaving us with no vivid impression of their lives and deaths. Cultures relying on an oral, rather than a written, tradition, are lost once their tales are no longer remembered or spoken.

Let’s stop assuming that the ancient Egyptians invented everything and give them credit for what they did achieve, which is still awe-inspiring.

 Miriam  A Bibby

Return to Home 

e- mail to: [email protected]

with questions or comments about Ancient Egypt Magazine.

or for sales, subscriptions, back numbers and advertising