Firstly can I say I really like the content of these forums, a forum on Egyptology has been really been a challenge to find. I'm hoping to stick around and broaden my knowledge though you guys :-)
Secondly I’m after a little help if possible with my Egyptology course I’m doing.
I have the following assignment and have no idea where to start.
“In an essay of approx 3000 words, consider and discuss both those Positive and negative influences that early Egyptian Civilisation may well have had on their surrounding cultures and civilisations”
....The other assignments have been fine but I only seem to be able find influences on Egyptian culture and not the other way around with this one.
Any pointers?
Thanks for taking the time to read. Jason
Posts: 8 | From: Ipswich, Suffolk, UK | Registered: Aug 2007
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I know about the influences the Egyptians had on other cultures. All of them were discussed in this forum, but since we no longer have a search engine, it's gonna be hell trying to retrieve it.
The Egyptians had significant influences on both Southwest Asia and southern Europe. One major area was writing. The written scripts of the Semitic speaking peoples of the Levant (Palestine, Syria, etc.) are derived from Egyptian heiroglyphs, while the Linear A script of the pre-Greek Aegean peoples such as the Minoans was also based on heiroglyphs.
I have to go through the archives and find all the topics discussing Egyptian influence (I would appreciate some help from others in the forum).
Posts: 26252 | From: Atlanta, Georgia, USA | Registered: Feb 2005
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posted
With the return of the search engine, your answers will come much sooner, clarkjason. Posts: 26252 | From: Atlanta, Georgia, USA | Registered: Feb 2005
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Where to begin? Let's start with a significant cultural achievement-- writing.
As explained ]here, the writing used by Semitic speaking peoples of the Levant area which include Ugarites, Aramaeans, Hebrews, Pheonicians, etc. all derived proto-Canaanite which was in turn derived from a script called Sinaitic which was found in the Sinai mountains; with Sinaitic itself was based on Egyptian hieroglyps!
Phoenician and proto-Cananite
For a long time it was thought that Sumerian Cuneiform was the oldest script in the world, but recent evidence explained here shows that Egyptian hieroglyphics not only date older than Cuneiform, but that there was even a little influence on Sumerian writing!
As it pertains to the West, if you know the history of our modern alphabet, you would know that the alphabet which descended from the Greeks was taken from the Phoenicians, as explained here.
Classical Greek writing is directly descended from Linear script B which was based on the earlier Linear script A which was used by the pre-Greek indigenous inhabitants of the Aegean such as the Minoans. Although we have not deciphered Linear A, it is apparent that it was heavily influenced by Phoenician and therefore Egyptian. As shown here
Greek and Phoenician
Egypt also had an influence on the Aegean civilizations and so Greece, in terms of sculpture as shown here.
Notice the similarities between pharaonic standing statues and the Kouros statues of Greece:
More to come...
Posts: 26252 | From: Atlanta, Georgia, USA | Registered: Feb 2005
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Egyptian influence was actually strong enough to be a formative factor in Aegean civilization, particularly that of the Minoans as shown here.
Arthur Evans was convinced of North African migrations to Neolithic Crete. He pointed out that:
"The multiplicity of these connections with the old indigenous race of the opposite African coast, and which we undoubtedly have to deal with in the pre dynastic population of the Nile Valley, can in fact be hardly explained on any other hypothesis than that of an actual settlement in Southern Crete."
Historian H.R. Hall, also Oxford trained, shared Evans' position on the early population of Minoan Crete:
"While the majority of the original Neolithic inhabitants of Crete probably came from Anatolia, another element may well have come in oared boats from the opposite African coast, bringing with them to the southern plan of Messara the seeds of civilization that, transplanted to the different conditions of Crete, developed into the great Minoan culture, a younger more brilliant, and less long-lived sister of that of Egypt."
Whether the Minoan culture was more brilliant than that of Egypt is highly questionable at best, but on the other points Hall seems to just about to hit the mark. Evans, again, indeed considered Egypt and Libya as the springboards of Minoan civilization; so much so that he structured his own Minoan chronology on that of dynastic Egypt. He was particularly struck by the similarities in the contents of the of the tombs of the ancient Minoans and Egyptians:
"So numerous, in fact, are the points, of comparison presented by the contents of these early interments with those of pre dynastic Egypt that, far-fetched as the conclusion might appear at first sight, I was already some years since constrained to put forth the suggestion that about the time of the conquest of the lower Nile Valley by the first historic dynasty some part of the older population had actually settled in this southern foreland of Crete."
Gordon Childe also commented on the relations between Crete and pre dynastic Egypt:
"At least on the Mesara, the great plain of southern Crete facing Africa, Minoan Crete's indebtedness to the Nile is disclosed in the most intimate aspects of its culture. Not only do the forms of early Minoan stone vases, the precision of the lapidaries' technique and the aesthetic selection of variegated stones as his materials carry on the the pre dynastic tradition, Nilotic religious customs such as the use of the sistrum, the wearing of amulets in the forms of legs, mummies and monkeys, and statuettes plainly derived from Gerzean `block figures,' and personal habits revealed by depilatory tweezers of the Egyptian shape and stone unguent palettes from the early tombs and, later, details of costumes such as the penis-sheath and loin-cloth betoken something deeper than the external relations of commerce."
Notice the white tassels from the Minoan men's skirts fall in the shape of triangles.
Compare with Egyptian triangled skirts
Minoan priestesses' dresses:
Egyptian:
Posts: 26252 | From: Atlanta, Georgia, USA | Registered: Feb 2005
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Based on my interpretation of the chart, some scripts witnessed numerous diversions and engendered many other scripts over time. Is it flawed to reason that because of such, some scripts will appear less similar to their place of origin?
To rephrase this in the context of the chart, would the ethiopian script have more similarities with proto arabic, than arabic with phonecian?
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Looking on your map Djehuti it says that Ethiopian derives from Arabic. So Ethiopian is not African in origin?
Posts: 87 | Registered: Dec 2007
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posted
^ First of all, it is not my map. Second, the map shows written scripts used. Yes Ethiopian script is derived from Arabic, but the ancestral script of all these Middle Eastern writings is proto-Canaanite which although the map doesn't show is derived from Egyptian hieroglyphs which is African.
Posts: 26252 | From: Atlanta, Georgia, USA | Registered: Feb 2005
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quote:Originally posted by Naga Def Wolofi: Looking on your map Djehuti it says that Ethiopian derives from Arabic. So Ethiopian is not African in origin?
Naga Def Wolofi . Yom has went over this numerous times, and no, it is in no way clear that the Ethiopian script (Ge'ez) is derived from Arabic. Tthe theories inferred from textual evidence, that it was derived from Sabean-South Arabian. This is a dubious claim in its self given discoveries at Askum showing Ge'ez to be independent by way of distinct inscriptions attributed to both the latter (Sabean) and the former (Ge'ez).
It would be nice to know its exact/direct lineage subsequent to its divergence from Proto-Canaanite or early Egyptian (the map in no way extrapolates on this).
Posts: 4021 | From: Bay Area, CA | Registered: Mar 2007
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Military Campaigns Sometimes called Egypt's greatest conqueror Thutmose III was the sixth Pharaoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty. He is recorded to have captured 350 cities during his rule and conquered much of the Near East from the Euphrates to Nubia during seventeen known military campaigns creating an empire that stretched from southern Syria through to Canaan and Nubia.
-Jason
Posts: 8 | From: Ipswich, Suffolk, UK | Registered: Aug 2007
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posted
^ There were no negative influences as far as I know of. Unless you can find any.
Posts: 26252 | From: Atlanta, Georgia, USA | Registered: Feb 2005
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