It’s truly fucked up how ancient Ancient Egypt really is. Like, the New Kingdom period of Egyptian history ended in the 11th century BC, and that’s the one they call the New Kingdom. King Tut’s reign was one thousand years before the time of Cleopatra. The Great Pyramid of Giza was older to the Romans than the Romans are to us. Ancient Egypt is just fucked up old and it blows my mind every time I think about it.
It blew my mind when I found out that all three of the Old, Middle and New Kingdoms were pre-Bronze Age Collapse. I had as implicitly assumed that at least the New Kingdom was post-Collapse.
just chillin’ in the desert for a couple of thousand years.
hiiii local Egyptologist here coming in with a reminder that the Egyptians and/or the Mesopotamians (consensus flips every couple of years) developed writing c.3300 BCE. Which is *checks notes* about 700 years before they built the Pyramids (c.2600 BCE).
If we want to get to the start of Egypt’s civilisation we have to go to c.6120 BCE. Roughly about 3000 years before the invention of writing and almost 4000 years before the Pyramids. This is called the Pre-Dynastic period and I encourage people to check out the Naqqada pottery because it’s cool as shit.
Tutankhamun reigned c.1332 BCE which is 1300 years (1302 if we’re being pedantic) before Cleopatra and 1300 years after the Pyramids were built. He’s slap bang average.
The Bronze Age collapse happens *during* the New Kingdom as that period in Egypt’s history doesn’t end until c.1069 BCE and the BAC ends c.1150 BCE. Trust me, it had a punishing effect on Egypt with famine and tomb robbery being common.
Ancient Egypt was quite green. The idea that it was all a desert is that classic ‘yellow filter’ they use for foreign places in TV/Movies. They lived on the Nile. That big river that flooded once a year and left really beautifully fertile soil in its wake from which grew an abundance of life. It was GREEN. Yes there was desert, but nowhere near as much of it as people think there is.
So this vast amount of time should put a few things into perspective. Egypt’s civilisation began in c.6120 BCE and ended with the death of Cleopatra in c.30 BCE. That’s 6090 years. Yes. Six Thousand and Ninety.
So when we think of the Egyptians doing things and someone says ‘the Egyptians did X’ I’m going to ask you to ask yourself ‘which time period of Egypt is that?’ because SIX THOUSAND YEARS is a bit too long for one thing to be true for all of it.
- Pharaohs had Pyramids? Really only the Old Kingdom (there are a couple of Middle Kingdom ones but they’re shit)
- Pharaohs had Chariots? Only in the New Kingdom (that’s also when they got the horse…yes…up until the beginning of the New Kingdom, Egypt didn’t have the horse)
- Egyptians really liked cats? Not ever true. They had a trade of killing them to use as offerings to Bastet from the Late Period onwards (after the New Kingdom)
- The Middle Kingdom? Pretty chill and has good literature.
- Mummification? Really only took off for everyone in the New Kingdom
- Pharaohs used the word Pharaoh? Only in the New Kingdom
Because Ancient Egypt was around for this long it really does the civilisation a disservice to reduce it to ‘they always did this.’ You wouldn’t say any country in the world now is the same as it was 200 years ago or even 30 years ago for many of them. So lets not think that a civilisation that lasted nearly 6100 years was completely static. It would be beneficial to my mental health.
Anyway, Ancient Egypt is really fucking cool. Learn more about it please.
amhrancas 