posted                         

quote:

---

Excerpts from The African Origin of Civilization ch10
any kind of hi-lighting is mine as an aid in finding prime relevancies

p. 209
. . . the great reign of the Eighteenth Dynasty began under Tuthmosis III,
that other outstanding southern monarch, whose mother was a Sudanese
Nubian. He overpowered all the States of Western Asia and the islands
of the Eastern Mediterranean, reducing them to the status of vassals
compelled to pay annual tribute. This was the case with Mitanni (an
Indo-European state on the Upper Euphrates), Babylonia, Cilicia, the
Hittite State, Cyprus, Crete, etc. Syria and Palestine were simply
integrated into the Egyptian kingdom.

. . . After the Eighteenth Dynasty, the Egyptians acquired the habit of
holding as hostages the sons of vassal rulers of Asia and the
Mediterranean, training them in the Pharaoh's court in the hope that
they might later govern their countries as good vassals.

p. 211
. . . With the deification of Ramses II, feudal privilege and royal absolutism
reappeared. The clergy recovered its former prerogatives, as at the time
of the Sixth Dynasty. The temples again profited from immense holdings,
endowed with immunity which empowered them to dispense justice to their
tenants (cf. Pirenne, I, 21). At the same time they received tens of thousands
of Aryan slaves branded with a hot iron. These were the only cases of a
slave labor force in Egypt for large-scale production.

p.212
The end of the reign of Ramses II and that of Merneptah witnessed great
migrations of peoples that upset the ethnic balance around the
Mediterranean and in Western Asia. Circa 1230 B.C., Merneptah
conquered the first large coalition of Indo-Europeans led by Merirey, as
we have seen. . . . Another group, probably the Etruscans, under-Aeneas,
settled in Italy; these were the same ones who had joined the Libyan
coalition defeated by Merneptah. On the Egyptian inscriptions they were
designated by the name Tursha. coalition defeated by Merneptah. After
the defeat, the survivors followed the coasts of Cyrenaica as far as Queen
Dido's Carthage, or traveled there by the open sea.

. . . But Carthage was not founded until the ninth century B.C.
. . . Should we then assume that they spent considerable time in Libya,
where their stay is in fact mentioned in Egyptian documents? Perhaps
they remained there after the coalition was defeated by Merneptah.
During that sojourn they doubtless acquired various elements of Egyptian
culture (sarcophagus, agrarian life, the divining art, architectural skills) which
they definitely lacked at the outset. The 9,000 or so captives taken in battle
Merneptah gave as slaves to the various temples to express his gratitude
to the gods. . . .

p. 213
So it was as a prisoner of war, transformed into a slave, chained and
branded, that the white man first entered Egyptian civilization.

. . . From then on Egypt continually had to defend its borders against
the immense thrust of-white-skinned peoples from the north, from the
sea, and the east.

. . . The White slaves given to the temples were employed by the priests
either in farming or in the local militia. With the collapse of the central power,
local militias increasingly assumed local security functions. Taking advantage
of the anarchy, Syrian, Palestinian, and Libyan slaves had rebelled under
the leadership of foremen and military officers of their race who supervised
their labor. Pirenne quotes a passage from Diodorus relating that Aramaean
slaves captured by Ramses II took advantage of the turmoil to revolt and
create near Memphis a village that they controlled and called Babylon, in
memory of their country. Similarly, Phrygians founded a shortlived village
called Troion, in memory of Troy.

p. 214
. . . The most formidable coalition ever witnessed during Antiquity was
formed against the Egyptians. It comprised the whole group of
white-skinned peoples who had been unstable since the first migrations
of the thirteenth century.; . . .

p. 215
. . . the ancient ethnic groups must have been disrupted all around the
Mediterranean, except for Egypt which alone had been able to repulse
the Indo-Aryan invasion.

Meanwhile, the Libyans in the western part of the Delta, were organizing
still another coalition, the fifth directed against the Black Egyptian nation
by the Indo-Europeans. Ramses III defeated them at Memphis in 1188 B.C.
After that date the White Libyans never again revolted against Egypt, but
they tried by every possible means to infiltrate peacefully and to settle
there as serfs or semi-serfs, working at various kinds of manual labor, as
farmers or artisans, especially in the Delta. They were also employed in
the army as an auxiliary foreign corps called Kehek.

The situation was identical in the Nubian Sudan where Libyans were
also used as semi-serfs in the army. But the Libyans settled in the Delta,
because of its proximity. These people, whose alien slave origin was
obvious, would gradually be freed by Egyptian law. Later, some would
become notables as a reward for "loyal" services to the Egyptian ruler.
Yet, their slave origin would never be forgotten by the true Egyptian
national, even when they took advantage of troubled periods to exercise
control of a given district in the Delta where military command had been
entrusted to them by the Pharaoh. We shall see how these foreign elements,
who felt no real sentimental attachment to Egyptian soil, were to undermine
political mores beginning with Psammetichus.

To protect the country against invasion, Ramses III had to resort to
conscription, drafting one Egyptian national out of ten (cf. Pirenne, II, 476).
Because of their immunity, we do not know whether this measure was
applicable to the temple properties. Since Ramses II, Libyans and other
White foreigners who were recruited into the auxiliary armed services had
farmed land belonging to the royal domain, of which the well-informed
Egyptian administration kept a strict accounting. To prevent their flight in
troubled periods, Ramses III had them all branded with the seal of the
local administration. This old Egyptian practice leaves no doubt about
their slave status, whether they were farmers in peacetime or enrolled in
the auxiliary forces in time of war. Authors often misuse the term "mercenaries"
to designate those who were, in fact, slaves bearing the indelible mark of their
royal master. . . .

p. 216
The Egyptian army was losing its nationality. It was rapidly becoming a
force of free mercenaries or semi-slaves commanded by national officers;
only the high command and a few detachments of archers remained
Egyptian (cf. Pirenne, II, 477). This procedure reached its climax under
the Libyan usurpers of the Twenty-sixth Dynasty, more precisely, under
Psammetichus. . . .

The political and social situation under Ramses III and immediately after
his death is described in detail by the Harris Papyrus, an exceptionally
long document of some 115 pages. A review of the land registry shows
that the temple properties constituted one-seventh of the arable lands
which, according to modem authors, covered about 5 million acres. Lands
allocated to the Theban temples, enjoying general immunity, amounted to
approximately 585,000 acres, with 86,436 slaves to farm them. For Heliopolis,
there were 113,000 acres and 12,364 slaves; for Memphis, 6,800 acres and
3,079 slaves.

. . . Quoting several ancient writers, Marcel Reinhard and Andre Armengaud
adopt an average of seven to eight millions for the population of Egypt,
corresponding to a density or the order of 200 per square kilometer (some
520 per square mile). Though the White slaves were rather numerous, the
Egyptian population could easily absorb them. The 30,000 slaves acquired
during the Asian expedition of Ramses III represented a small minority
when we consider the density of the indigenous national population. We
can easily understand how that indigenous population was able to remain
ethnically Black throughout Antiquity, despite the influx of Whites. This was
why, strictly speaking, Egypt never adopted an economy dependent on
slaves; that always remained marginal.

p. 218
While Upper Egypt was becoming feudalistic, Libyans in Middle Egypt
fomented a revolt that quickly spread to the Delta. This involved White
slaves who had been in Lower Egypt since Ramses II and III and who
were settled on plots of rigorously inventoried land. During the low period,
they tried to seize every opportunity to become free and even to establish
a kind of military feudalism. Facing this definite threat to national unity, the
country was saved for the fifth time by the South, the Nubian Sudan.

. . . Under the Twenty-second and Twenty-third Dynasties, feudalism had
attained its zenith. All the Libyan and Achaean "freedmen" who occupied
posts of any importance in the army set themselves up as chiefs or
"princes" in their localities. Political power was thus usurped and fragmented
by the Whites of the Delta, more commonly designated by the generic term
"Libyan." Not one of them, however, was able to impose his authority over
the country; anarchy and decadence became general.

p. 219
When the Libyan usurper, Osorkon, tried to force his son on Thebes as
an Amon priest, the Theban clergy fled to the Nubian Sudan. The King of
Sudan, Piankhi, moved immediately to reforge Egyptian unity by subduing
one after another all the foreign rebels of Lower Egypt. These aliens had
formed a new northern coalition under Tefnakht. Only two of the alien feudal
lords in the north had refused to join that alliance. . . . So the country was
divided into two camps: in the north, the coalition of White rebels, former
slaves; in the south, the authentic Egyptian nation solidly behind the Sudanese
king. In the eyes of the clergy, the guardian of tradition, this full-blooded Black
from the; land of the ancestors was monarchical legitimacy incarnate.

---

Posts: 8014 | From: the Tekrur in the Western Sahel | Registered: Feb 2006  |  IP: Logged | 

posted                         

quote:

---

Ancient Egypt was not a slave society

---

quote:

---

where the primary workers or capita of the society was generated by slaves. There were prisoners of war that were settled on temple estates. I know of a few examples of a person buying and selling a person during the Old Kingdom period. The person mentioned in this text was a Syrian. I would say most captives of war came from Western Asia with a minority from south of the first cataract.

---

Posts: 5555 | From: Tha 5th Dimension. | Registered: Apr 2006  |  IP: Logged | 

posted                      

quote:

---

Originally posted by Ephestion:
So what do you think? The Giza pyramids were built by slaves?

---

Posts: 8804 | From: The fear of his majesty had entered their hearts, they were powerless | Registered: Nov 2007  |  IP: Logged |