Foundations of Democratic Rule

Solon and Peisistratus

     Athens avoided tyranny for many years, first, by giving in to demands for a written code of law, and second, by appointing a special magistrate called an archon to try to solve continuing problems between aristocrats and common citizens. The law code, written by Draco in 620 BCE was significant because it recognized that once laws were written down, they could be criticized and changed. The archon appointed in 594 BCE was Solon, who brought in a number of economic and social reforms. These included changes in the law code that helped relieve the debt and land problems of the poor. Solon also abolished the practice of selling debtors into slavery.
      Solon's political reforms were an important step on the road to democracy. The most significant reform allowed all wealthy men, aristocrat or not, to run for the highest government offices. Solon also created a new institution called the Council of 400. One hundred citizens from each of the four traditional tribes of Athens were elected annually and met regularly to prepare legislation to be voted on by the entire Citizen Assembly. The Council probably also acted as a court of appeal for judgments of the archons.
      Many adults living in Athens, or in any Greek polis for that matter, still had no political power at all. This included women, since citizenship ultimately derived from the ability to fight in the army; the large slave population, which had no personal rights whatsoever; and foreigners, who rarely acquired citizenship cause normally it was only bestowed by birth.
      One man who eventually did become tyrant of Athens was Peisistratus, a noble famous for his generalship, and very ambitious. He actually made three tries for tyrant's rule, interspersed with periods of exile. On the second try (ca. 555 BCE), he boldly decided to have a handsome women named Phye dress up like the goddess Athena, with armour and spear, and ride through the streets of Athens in a chariot proclaiming that she, the goddess herself, had come to restore Peisistratus to power! On his third attempt (ca. 546 BCE), Peisistratus defeated his opponents in battle and took the city. He ruled until his death in 527 BCE, when power was handed over to his son, Hippias.

Cleisthenes Establishes Democracy

      Hippias continued the tyranny in Athens after his father's death, but eventually lost support. In 510 BCE, the army of Sparta, Athens's most powerful adversary, besieged Athens and forced an end to the tyranny of Hippias. He and his family surrendered and were forced into exile and the tyranny ended. Athens again had to find new political solutions to her problems of government.
      The solution this time was proposed by Cleisthenes, a member of another noble family, in 508-507 BCE, Cleisthenes's novel approach set aside the ancient division of Athenian citizens into four tribes based on clan relationships and created an equitable division of citizens into ten new tribes, each with members from all parts of the city-state. Cleisthenes also replaced the old Council of 400 with a new Council of 500, with 50 members elected from each tribe. Not only did these 50 members take part in meetings of the full Council, for one tenth of the year, they also acted as the executive committee of the Council. Each tribe also elected a general (strategos) who would lead the city in all its military affairs. By 487 BCE, it was recognized that only the generals had to be highly qualified elected officials. In truly democratic fashion, the other offices came to be filled by drawing lots every year. Any fit citizen could now hold these high offices.
      Another novel measure was introduced in these democratic reforms -- the practice called ostracism. This measure was meant to rid Athens of any citizen who might want to become a tyrant. Ostracism allowed the city to send any citizen and his family into exile for a period of ten years. Every year around January (the middle of the Athenian calendar year), the Assembly voted on whether an ostracism was needed that year. For the ostracism procedure, a minimum of 6000 votes needed to be cast, and the person whose name appeared most often on the ostraka (pieces of broken pottery used as ballots) was send into exile. The first ostracism occurred in 487 BCE and the last was held 70 years later.

Slaves in Greek Society

      For those who had once been free, slavery was generally regarded as a wretched, degrading state. Conditions varied greatly -- household slaves of the wealthy were the best off, while leased slaves working in state mines were probably the worst. In any case, slavery was common and totally accepted throughout the Greek world. Legally, slaves were simply property; they might be treated humanely or cruelly, depending on their owners. At the master's discretion, they were allowed to marry, have a home, and keep their children. Slaves were certainly an important part of the economy, filing virtually every occupation except government and military positions.
      Athens was a major slave-owning state, obtaining new slaves in markets where foreign war captives or Greeks captured by pirates were for sale. Educated guesses suggest no more than one third (60 000 to 80 000) of the total population of Attica (greater Athens) in the fifth century BCE were slaves, of which the majority worked in manufacturing. For example, we learn from the fourth-century BCE orator Demosthenes that his father left him an estate that included a knife- and sword-making workshop with 32 skilled slaves, and a couch-frame-making workshop with 20 slaves. According to Thucydidies, more than 20 000 slaves, of whom the majority were crafts workers, deserted Athens during the darkest part of the Peloponnesian War (412-404 BCE).
       In 414 BCE, Cephisodorus, a metic (foreign resident) from Piraeus, had his 16 confiscated slaves sold for prices ranging from 72 drachmas for a boy, to 301 drachmas for a skilled man (1 drachma was a day's wage for a skilled worker at this time). These slaves included five Thracians, three Carians, two Syrians, two Illyrians, and one each from Colchis, Scythia, Lydia, and Malta.
      Inscriptions in Athens dating between 349 and 320 BCE list 135 slaves (79 males, 56 females) who received their freedom (manumissions). The men, where known, paid an average of 178 drachmas to be freed, while the women paid 180 drachmas on average.
      Among the men in crafts, there was a bronzesmith, an ironworker, three goldsmiths, nine leather cutters, a pail maker, a glue boiler, and a sofa maker. Of the 48 women in crafts, 40 were wool workers. Retail workers included sellers of bread, pickled meats, incense, sesame seeds, fish, wool, rope, and cooked foods. Slaves did virtually every form of work need for life to go on normally in Athens.

Lycurgus and Spartan Society

      Of the more than 300 Greek city-states, Athens and Sparta were the most the most powerful. However, that is where any similarity between these two rivals ends. Spartans were foremost known as warriors, and despite their relatively small numbers, perhaps 5000 full Spartan warriors in good times, they enjoyed a position of leadership in Greece from some three centuries. 

      When other city-states were suffering from lack of land in the eighth century BCE and sending excess population overseas to settle, the Spartans took a different course. In along war, Sparta defeated its neighbours to the west and thereby captured more needed territory. The conquered people joined the large and sometimes rebellious population of Spartan helots, the state slaves who worked the land.

      The political, social, and military systems of Sparta were attributed in antiquity to one great legislator named Lycurgus. So much is credited to Lycurgus, but so little is known, that he has become an almost mythic figure. He may have lived in the early seventh century BCE and is supposed to have laid down the tough military training program that allowed Sparta to produce the best soldiers in the Greek world. At the same time, he proposed a constitution that guaranteed all Spartan citizens -- meaning only adult males born to citizen parents -- a minimum level of political equality. There were still rich and poor Spartans, aristocrats and ordinary people, but all who were "equals" (homoioi) could vote in the Assembly, have a share of Spartan land, and benefit from the work of the enslaved helots.  

      Sheltered family life for Spartan citizen boys ended at the age of seven when military training and rugged barracks life began. Spartiate boys learned to withstand pain without complaint, be unquestioningly obedient to leaders, cunning when necessary, and above all, never to admit defeat. Though military service continued, only at age 30 did Spartan men become full citizens, able to vote in the Assembly, hold political office, marry, have a house, and receive an estate worked by helots. 

     The Spartan government was unusual in that it had two kings who ruled equally. This system provided a strong check on the powers of the monarchy since one king could oppose the other. Advising the kings was a Council of Elders, 28 men over the age of 60 who belonged to the Spartan aristocracy. Only this body could present legislation to the Assembly for approval. The Assembly could not initiate legislation, nor could it even discuss the legislation. The Council of Elders would explain the legislation to the Assembly and even give opposing views, but then the Assembly had to vote in favour or against it. Its decision was final. As a kind of advocate for the common citizens, a new institution, the Ephorate, was created; it soon took a leading role in running Spartan affairs. The Ephorate consisted of five men called Ephors who were elected by the Assembly to hold office for one year. The Ephors presided over the Council and Assembly, but were not part of either of those bodies. 

      The Spartan system of government was conservative in order to prevent revolt by the helots. Babies who were not healthy were abandoned at birth. Boys were sometimes brutally  beaten and whipped. Interestingly though, Spartan women enjoyed more freedom and privileges than women anywhere else in Greece. As girls, they were encouraged to take part in sports to develop healthy bodies so they could have healthy children. They were given training in music and dance, like the boys, and when they reached adulthood, had both property and marriage rights. Other Greeks admired Spartan women, both for their independence and because they were said to be the most beautiful in all Greece. 

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Government in Greece

The Age of Tyrants

      Democracy is just one of many political systems developed by humankind to govern its communities. The Greeks were the first people to invent a formal democratic system in which citizens governed themselves through voting. The word democracy comes from two Greek words, demos meaning "the people" and kratos meaning "the rule" or "power." But democracy was not invented easily -- it was arrived at after a long, painful process. Other systems of government had been tried and failed. 

      The early Greek states were usually focused around the main town in a valley area. The normal system of rule was government by a king, and each king acted as the chief judge, leading administrator, military leader, and at times, priest of the state cult (religion). These kings, however, did not have absolute power, nor was their power automatically passed on to their heirs. A king's authority was limited by the rights and powers of a small, close-knit group of aristocrats who acted as his counsellors. 

      During the Dark Ages, many of the kings lost some or all of their powers to other members of the local aristocracy. Arbitrary rule by aristocratic families replaced the monarchy in some Greek states. But arbitrary administration of unwritten laws was just one concern. The power held by some aristocrats and not by others provoked dissent, as did the lack of a voice in government for wealthy men of non-aristocratic background. Poorer Greeks suffered loss of land, debts, and even enslavement for debt at the hands of wealthy nobles. However, the aristocrats could keep their power as long as they continued to be the military backbone of the state. Down to the early seventh century BCE, fighting depended on heavily armed individual warriors backed up by their lightly armed supporters. Only wealthy aristocrats could afford the arms and armour needed for this style of warfare. 

      This all changed in the period ca. 675-650 BCE, as a new style of warfare was introduced, one that depended on the unified movement of larger numbers of warriors, called hoplites. These were heavily armed men with large round shields, shin protectors (greaves), helmets, body armour, and spears, which they thrust rather than threw. by standing side by side, six to ten lines deep, and maintaining their places in the lines, these warriors could easily defeat the old style of fighting. Large numbers of warriors were crucial to preventing the hoplite lines from being surrounded and attacked from behind. But there simply were not enough aristocrats to fill the new battle lines. Consequently, any citizen who could afford the armour eventually came to stand shoulder to shoulder with the aristocrats. The strategic importance of these new soldiers was probably one factor that led to their demand for more political power. 

      People in control of a government usually do not surrender their power willingly. In the richer Greek states near the Isthmus of Corinth, a man of noble blood named Cypselus was excluded from the ruling circle of nobles at Corinth, despite his ability and great ambition. He gathered a military force composed of other discontented citizens and in 657 BCE defeated and forced the ruling clan of nobles into exile. Cypselus took control of the government and began to rule for the benefit of the middle class people who had supported him. The Greeks called such a person, one who had seized power unconstitutionally (for good or bad), a tyrannos or tyrant. 

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The Archaic Period

      Several significant developments mark the end of the Dark Ages in Greece and point to a great new culture. First was the appearance of a new national literature, epitomized by Homer's work. this not only provided Greeks with a glorious past, whether real or imagined, but also gave them a common view of their god,s almost like a national religion. Second was the resurgence of trade as the Greeks again regularly plied the waters beyond the Aegean Sea. Their first destinations were in the eastern Mediterranean, probably to exchange food or metal for manufactured goods. But more important than the objects they bought were the skills and ideas they soon acquired: shipbuilding and metal-working techniques, better knowledge of geography and navigation, artistic and religious ideas, and not least, an alphabet. The alphabet we use today for English and many other languages came for the Greeks by way of the Romans. The Greeks themselves learned it from the Phoenicians, a seafaring people who lived in the region of present-day Lebanon. The new script had only 27 letters, and was easy enough for almost anyone to learn.
      Soon after their voyages to the east began, the Greeks also began sailing westward, establishing contacts and settlements in Italy. They now had access to the iron and other metals found to the north of Rome, where a people known as the Etruscans were beginning to flourish. This led to the third development, colonization. Trading expeditions soon brought news to Greeks at home about the rich agricultural lands in Italy, Sicily, and other locations on the coasts of the Mediterranean. Since pressures to find better land were building in Greece, the trickle of groups emigrating from the Aegean soon became a flood. Hundreds of new Greek settlements were established abroad over a 200-year period, making much of the Mediterranean and Black Sea coasts an extension of the Greek homeland. While theses settlements are often called colonies, for the most part, they were new, independent Greek city-states.
      A fourth development, though minor at first, later became more important. The first Olympic Games in honour of the god Zeus were held in 776 BCE. This is the first date we have in Greek history, the starting point from which later Greeks marked their own past. The Olympic festival was one of four Panhellenic ("all Greece") games that drew competitors and spectators from every corner of the Greek world. Since the prizes at these prestigious festivals were treasured crowns of sacred tree branches, they were called Crown Games. There were some 300 other local athletic games around Greece where winners received very valuable rewrads. These were called Prize Games. They Olympic Games continued until 393 ACE when the Roman emperor Theodosius I, a Christian, ordered all pagan sanctuaries closed.

Colonization

      Towns in Greece wanting to establish new settlements abroad often consulted the oracle of Apollo at Delphi, a sacred place where priestesses or priests could answer questions put to the god about the new territory (or anything else). Then with the oracle's blessing, a group of several hundred men equipped with ships and all the tools and equipment they would need ( at great expense) and promises of further help, would sail away in excitement and anticipation. Whether women and children went out these expeditions or came later, we do not know. We do know that many Greek men took native wives in their new homes,but many more probably brought their Greek wives with them.
      Below is an inscription discovered in Cyrene, Libya, that preserves the original foundation agreement between the colonists of Cyrene and their mother city, Thera. In this case, famine was forcing the mother city to send some of its hungry citizens away. Part of the agreement reads:

Agreement of the Founders

Decided by the assembly. Since Apollo has given a spontaneous prophesy to Battus and the Theraeans ordering them to colonize Cyrene, the Theraeans resolve that Battus be sent to Libya as leader and king: that the Theraeans sail as his companions: that they sail on fair and equal terms, according to family; that one son be conscripted from each family; that those who sail be in the prime of life; and that, of the rest of the Theraeans, any free man who wishes may sail. ...But he who is unwilling to sail when the city sends him shall be liable to punishment by death and his goods shall be confiscated. And he who receives or protects another, even if it be a father his son or brother, shall suffer the same penalty as the man unwilling to sail... 

      Once colonists had arrived at their destination, they had to choose the best location for their new home, usually a harbour site. Besides the endless work of dividing the land, planting the first crops, and building their homes, settlers also had to contend with the native peoples whose land they were taking. The colonists of Cyrene, for example, were often helped by the native Libyans, but there were also bitter wars. In one battle, says Herodotus, the Libyans killed 7000 Greeks. The number of dead sounds unbelievably high but it points out the seriousness of the problem of conflict between Greek colonists and the natives of the lands they colonized.

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The Earliest Greeks: The Mycenaeans

      Mainland Greece developed in the same way as Crete, and at about the same pace, down to around 2000 BCE. Neolithic farming villages were scattered in the narrow valleys of Greece from ca. 65000 BCE to 3000 BCE. Then, as elsewhere around the Aegean, bronze came into common use, people learned to exploit natural resources more effectively, contacts with other regions increased, and life slowly changed. A new era began, now called the Early Helladic period, to distinguish this culture from the Early Minoan. Archaeologists have excavated several large, carefully planned houses that show the increased wealth of the Early Helladic people at this time. Then, toward the end of the third millennium, development was interrupted by episodes of destruction and signs of depopulation, a pattern widely found around the eastern Mediterranean, including Crete. Why this happened is now well known, but in mainland Greece, one cause might have been invasions of various peoples that began some time after ca. 2300 BCE. By ca. 2000 BCE, most vestiges of the prosperous Early Helladic culture were gone and a simpler, less wealthy farming-herding culture (called Middle Helladic) had taken its place. Meanwhile, in sharp contrast to mainland Greece, the Minoans on Crete had recovered from their late third-millennium disasters and begun reaching new heights of prosperity, including the construction of huge palaces for their monarchs.
      There is no evidence that the invaders of mainland Greece at the end of the third millennium spoke Greek. The Greek language might have developed after their arrival as the language of the invaders mixed with that the Mycenaeans, the descendants of these Middle Helladic peoples, did speak an early form of Greek.
      During the seventeenth and sixteenth centuries BCE (1700-1500 BCE), a surprising change occurred in Greece, or so it seems from the evidence first revealed by archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann (1822-1890). Powerful and wealthy chiefdoms sprang up and consolidated control of the small farming villages of the previous few centuries. What caused this rapid and important transformation is still not well understood. Most archaeologists now call this new culture Mycenaean, after its largest political centre, Mycenae. By the fourteenth century BCE, these chiefdoms had been further transformed into well-defined states ruled by kings with administrative centres (in palaces), a writing system for record keeping, and state institutions including a state religion.
      Schliemann did not know what he had found when he uncovered the fabulously wealthy graves at Mycenae in the fall of 1876. He thought he had discovered the burials of King Agamemnon and his family. He then declared that the epic poems of Homer, the Iliad and the Odyssey, were based in history. The two poems describe the adventures of Greek heroes who fought in the Trojan War around 1200 BCE, about 450 years before Homer's own time. Agamemnon of Mycenae, the leader of the Greek army at Troy, returned home from the war successfully, only to be murdered by his wife Clytemnestra.

The Legend of the Trojan War

Sing of the building of the horse of wood, which Epeius made with Athena's help, the horse which once Odysseus led up into citadel as a thing of guild, when he had filled it with the men who sacked Troy.

Homer Odyssey VII. 492-495 

      The Trojan War itself, despite Homer's long descriptions, is still a vaguely understood event in Mycenaean history, if it was an event at all, and not pure legend. Excavations at Troy show that a city there was destroyed in a battle ca. 1240 BCE. At that time, the city was really just a fortified town, only 2 ha in area, with a rather poor standard of living. No wonder some scholars have suggested that the Trojan War was merely a dispute over fishing rights or control over shipping, and not the great conflict of West versus East, as later Greeks believed.
      Schliemann could not have known that the graves he had found actually belonged to a royal family of Mycenae, which predated the legendary Trojan War by 300-400 years. The wonderful gold funeral masks, inlaid bronze daggers, and other exquisite objects of gold, silver, ivory, and faience are stunning testimony of a wealthy and powerful royalty or nobility living in Greece ca. 1650-1550 BCE.
      Mycenaean rulers were similar to feudal lords, each governing his own wide area of central or southern Greece from a well-fortified palace. All of them might have owed some allegiance to the king of Mycenae. Indications from the tombs and the walls at Mycenae certainly point to it being the most powerful of the Mycenaean states. They wealth of these kings probably came from trade, particularly in metals like gold or tin. We known from the Linear B tablets that the palaces acted as redistribution centres, taking in commodities from the areas under their control, storing them, and then sending them (or products made at the palace workshops -- pottery, weapons, etc.) to places within the kingdom and beyond.

The End of the Mycenaean World

      The archaeological evidence shows that the first widespread destruction of Mycenae occurred around 1250 BCE. In order to protect water supplies,workshops, and storage areas from further destruction, the rulers extended the fortification walls. But around 1200 BCE, another series of disasters brought an end to the centralized administration, including the use of writing, and caused great depopulation in some areas. People continued to live at Mycenae, Tiryns, and Athens, but the monumental palaces fell into disuse. There was certainly a long process of decline, when the political and economic structure was weakened. Scholars continue to debate the cases of this decline, focusing on three main reasons: natural catastrophes (probably earthquakes), foreign attacks, and internal strife, or a combination of these factors. Clearly, the Mycenaean world had come to an end, leaving many impressive ruins and a deep-seated memory of a glorious past.

The Dark Ages

     There was a period of recuperation lasting about 350 year,s during which various groups of Greek-speaking peoples from the north settled in the Peloponnese (the Greek peninsula), established new homes,built new sanctuaries for their gods, farmed their new land, and built secure communities. But beyond vague notions of what life was like based on sparse archaeological finds, or what political changes were occurring, we know very little about this period. The collapse of the Mycenaean civilization took with it both the wealth and the writing used to keep track of that wealth. There are absolutely no written documents from this 350-year period and later Greeks did not preserve anything about his part of the past in their collective memory. For this reason, the period is called the Dark Ages of Greece. The Greeks did remember their distant, Mycenaean past as an age of heroes and supermen, like Herakles, Hector, Jason, and Achilles. Minstrels wandered from village to village, finding the houses of local nobles and singing their tales of past glory and brave adventures. In return, they would get a bed for the night, a meal, and a small gift. By the second half of the eighth century, the handing down and constant enhancing of these tales provided Homer with they details he used to compose the Iliad and the Odyssey.

Geography and the Greek City-State

      In what kind of land did the Greeks make their home? Flying into Athens today, a visitor is struck by three things: the tall grey mountains are everywhere, isolating one valley from another, one small cultivable area from its neighbour, and reducing the habitable land by well over half. But these mountains are more like partitions than real barriers. They trap the fall and winter rains, provide pasturage fro animals, yield highly prized marble, but otherwise keep the nation separated into small communities. any of these isolated communities quite naturally grew and developed into what the Greeks called a polis, an independent city-state.
      While the mountains hindered communication and transportation between city-states, the sea was a special blessing -- a vast blue highway linking all parts of the country. This highway, however, extended well beyond the bounds of the Greek nation, stretching hundreds of kilometers in all directions to join the Greeks to all the other nations of the Mediterranean. Since at least 7000 BCE, geography has forced the people of Greece to become fine sailors. Greek sailors brought home ideas and wealth from abroad and this gave their culture a special advantage in antiquity.

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External Forces

      The new palaces were rebuilt almost immediately after their destruction in 1750 BCE. They were virtually identical to those that had been destroyed, with no sign of major changes to their structure or decoration, and were as large and as fine as ever. Minoan life continued for another 250 years, reaching new heights of wealth and vigour. Then, around 1490 BCE, the palaces were destroyed again -- except for the one at Knossos. This time, the cause was probably not a natural disaster. It might have had something to do with the Mycenaean warriors who began to arrive on Crete.
      There is considerable evidence to suggest that Mycenaean lords took over the rule of Crete, with Knossos as their administrative centre, ca. 1500 BCE. The most convincing evidence for this is the use of a new language, which we call Linear B, that was being written on clay tablets to keep track of palace goods. This form of writing was derived from Linear A (the Minoan script), but recorded the language of the early Greek-speaking Mycenaeans, not the non-Greek language of the Minoans. This discovery was made when a young Englishman, Michael Ventris, deciphered Linear B in 1952.
      How and why the Mycenaeans invaded Crete is impossible to say. The Minoans might have been weakened by fighting among themselves, or perhaps by natural disasters. Whatever the cause, they could not hold back the newcomers. The palace at Knossos seems to have been taken intact and for about 80 years served as a main administrative centre. Many distinctive features of Minoan culture disappeared, such as buildings with central courts, art forms depicting scenes from nature, finely carved stone vases, and the Linean A script. Graves near Knossos contain the bodies and weapons of some of these new overlords. Eventually, the palace at Knossos was also destroyed, this time by a great fire. Whether the fire was accident or was caused by an attack is not known, but the Mycenaean lords did not rebuild Knossos. Life on the island began reverting to its simpler past, and the finest accomplishments of the Minoans quietly disappeared.

The Myth of the Minotaur

      Later Greeks had several myths about the Minoans, some of which may hold a kernel of truth. The most famous is the myth of Theseus and the Minotaur. The wife of King Minos of Knossos gave birth to a monster called the Minotaur, who was half man and half bull. The bloodthirsty Minotaur was imprisoned in a maze-like structure built by Daedalus, the court inventor. The Greeks called this the Labyrinth. since the Minotaur's diet included young unmarried men and women, every year King Minos forced the people of Athens to select 14 of its finest youth as a sacrifice. This horrific practice would have continued annually but for the young hero, Theseus, who volunteered to go to Knossos as part of the sacrifice. with the help of King Minos's daughter, Ariadne, Theseus killed the Minotaur, found his way out of the Labyrinth by following a string he trailed behind himself and saved the youth of Athens.
      This tale of human sacrifice seems out of character for the Minoans, who loved to show peaceful scenes of nature in their art. Nevertheless, in a few of the wall paintings and seal stones preserved at Knossos there are depictions of what looks like a very dangerous sport or ritual. Young men and women are shown leaping over the backs and long, pointed horns of charging bulls. Sometimes these acrobats are successful but some are gored and severely injured. Perhaps there is an echo of the Minotaur myth in these scenes. This idea is strengthened by the fact that the palace of Knossos itself could well be compared to a maze, given its complex plan of rooms and corridors.

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The Earliest Civilization in Europe: The Minoans

       Crete is a land of abundant agricultural wealth. The people of ancient Crete, whom we call Minoans, were highly proficient navigators. This navigational skill in combination with the island's agricultural bounty led the Minoans to become the first Europeans to acquire some of the facets of civilization. By about 1900 BCE, the Minoans had developed a form of writing, a palace-led social organization, advanced metal-working skills, and sophisticated artistic expression.

      Crete is an island about 200 km long and divided into regions by tall mountain ranges. It enjoys a very pleasant, semi-tropical climate. when the first settlers made their way to the island from Asia Minor in the seventh millennium (7000-6000 BCE), they found a fertile, inviting home. Over the centuries, the settlers spread across the island, building small villages, growing grain, raising sheep and goats, hunting and fishing, and occasionally trading with neighbors on their own and nearby islands. 

Innovations: The Introduction of Bronze

      After more than 3000 years of this Neolithic farming life, several new elements were introduced to the culture. One of the most important was the use of metal to make better tools and weapons. The metal of greatest importance was bronze, an alloy of about nine parts copper to one part tin. Its introduction had as profound an impact on Crete as it did elsewhere in the ancient world, and the arrival of bronze on the island marks the Early Minoan period (ca. 3000-2100 BCE). 

      The  copper used on Crete may have come first from the small island of Kythnos to the north, but it was especially plentiful at Lavrion near Athens on the mainland. On the eastern island of Cyprus, copper was plentiful, but tin was much rarer and therefore more expensive, perhaps coming from the mountains of southern Turkey. Separately, tools made of these metals were not much better than tools made of stone, but combined, they produced a tough but malleable metal with a reasonably low melting point, ideal for producing sharp knives and spear points, tough saws, hard chisels and many other implements. 

      How did the Minoans pay for bronze? Crete had no other valuable products to exchange except agricultural goods. It is likely that a new market developed, even if only on a small scale, involving surplus production of food or linen and wool clothing. Sailors, traders, merchants, and metal workers reaped profits for their work in the exchange system. There is certainly evidence of a great increase in the population of the island, and of better use of the land for agriculture: ploughing heavier soils, making cheese from milk, and planting grape vines. The farmers of Crete also planted olive trees to produce one of them sot important staples of Mediterranean life: olive oil. 

      The process was slow, but over a thousand years, these changes brought about a society with more diverse skills and occupations, some accumulation of wealth, and greater contacts with peoples outside Crete. However, this development was interrupted toward the end of the third millennium (ca. 2300-2100 BCE), perhaps because of problems elsewhere in the eastern Mediterranean. It is not yet understood why settlements were abandoned and trading contacts severed. 

Cross-cultural Influences and the Minoans

      At the beginning of the Middle Minoan period, ca. 2100 BCE, a recovery occurred, with new population growth helped in part by immigration. Very quickly, life on Crete began to flourish in completely new ways. Foreign trade with the Near East increased as it stabilized following a period of turmoil. There were new burial customs, impressive buildings, higher levels of artisanship, and a system of writing. There were now sacred grounds called sanctuaries built on hilltops. This was where temples, sacrificial altars and other forms or architecture were built in honor of the gods. Very clearly, some families on the island were accumulating substantial wealth. Archaeological evidence shows that these newly wealthy people found ways to enjoy their riches. They built bigger and finer houses -- some on the scale of palaces -- where possessions could be stored and administered. They had fine jewelry and clothing and enjoyed works of art and luxury imported products, many of which came from Egypt or elsewhere in the Middle East. to keep track of their property, the wealthy first developed a method of marking ownership with seals, they a system of record keeping using hieroglyphic characters, perhaps borrowed from Egypt. Eventually the Minoans developed a script of their own, which we call Linear A, By about 1900 BCE, civilization had appeared on the threshold of Europe. 

Politics and the Palaces

      The largest and most important palace on Crete was always at Knossos. It was also the earliest, along with the palaces of Phaestus and Mallia. These were certainly centres of political power. Knossos must have been home to the most powerful monarch on the island, king or queen, with other royal families ruling for other palaces. Power was partly exercised by controlling certain goods and products, so the palaces were also centres of exchange for the Minoan economy. The large storerooms for agricultural produce and for items of prestige created in the palace workshops are evidence of the role of the palace in the local economy. 

      The palaces were the most impressive buildings constructed by the Minoans. Dozens of interconnecting rectangular rooms on two, three, or more storeys were grouped around a large open courtyard in the centre of the palace. There were areas for administration, residences, religious purposes, storage, and workshops. The finest rooms were decorated with colorful wall frescoes depicting processions of gift bearers, scenes of nature, lively ceremonies, or charging bulls. Fine building skills can be seen in the masonry reinforced by wooden beams to protect it from earthquakes, in the deep light wells (like elevator shafts) to bring air and light to the lower storeys, and in the advanced plumbing. 

      All these palaces were destroyed around 1750 BCE, possibly as a result of a massive earthquake. Earthquakes and volcanoes are common in the Aegean region, but are rarely strong enough to cause such widespread destruction. Nevertheless, a little more than a century later, the volcano on the tiny island of Thera, to the north of Crete, erupted with cataclysmic results. 

The Eruption of Thera

      The beautiful island of Thera exploded in a tremendous eruption, dated by tree rings to around 1628 BCE. This explosion enlarged an existing caldera from earlier volcanic activity. The sea poured in and caused even more turmoil when it met the red-hot lava. A small, thriving town was buried by the ash that rained down on the south coast of the island. In 1967, the Greek archaeologist Spyridon Marinatos came upon this town, which had been wonderfully preserved. Unlike the later volcanic eruption at Pompeii, the people of Thera had had sufficient time to save themselves, but had to leave behind many of their possessions. The vibrant wall paintings are only the most famous legacy left to us by this culture. Remarkably, this devastating eruption seems to have had little long-term effect on Minoan culture on Crete, only about 120 km away. 

Writing; ECHOES from the past published by McGraw-Hill Ryderson Ltd.

Sons and Daughters of the Commandent

      The term Bar Mitzvah means literally "son of the commandment." Bar means "son" in Aramaic (at one time, a common Near Eastern language), and Mitzvah means "commandment." Bat means "daughter" in Hebrew and Aramaic. Under Jewish Law, children are not held responsible for observing all the commandments (613 of them) until a certain age. At some point, likely between 516 BCE and 70 ACE, age thirteen plus a day was deemed the age that a Jewish boy becomes Bar Mitzvah, and a full member of his community.
      It is not known exactly why thirteen was picked as the age for conferring some serious adult responsibilities. Possibly, the age was picked because Abraham was believed to have rejected idols and begun his jorney with God at the age of thirteen; or perhaps, it was because Moses was said to have made thirteen copies of the Torah. Thirteen may have just seemed like the appropriate age for a coming-of-age observance. Many other cultures and civilizations have ceremonies that recognize adolescence as a gateway to adulthood. Eventually,it was written into the Talmud (Jewish Laws) that "...At age thirteen, one becomes subject to the commandments." Interestingly Bar Mitzvah is not mentioned in the Torah, which actually suggests 20 as the age when adult obligations begin.
      To become Bar Mitzvah, no ceremony is really needed and no ceremony is mentioned in the Talmud. It is simply the age that confers the status. After becoming Bar Mitzvah, certain obligations and privileges are assumed. These include:

   -responsibility for observing the 613 mitzvot (commandments)
   -observance of fast days (for example, Yom Kippur)
   -status in the count for a minyan (the quorum of ten required for community prayer)\
   -eligibility for aliyot (being called upon to read from the Torah)
   -the right to take part in religious services

      When becoming Bar Mitzvah, the celebrant not only enters a new phase in the life cycle, but also adds to the strength of t he community, and this could be another reason for the relatively young age of thirteen. It came to be celebrated in a ceremony (along with birth, marriage, and death) during which the thirteen-year-old blesses and, perhaps, reads from the Torah. Eventually, a celebratory meal was also added.
      Bat Mitzvah ceremonies are a much more modern development, although according to Jewish Law, girls mature faster than boys and are responsible for monies in traditional Orthodox communities, a girl's Bat Mitzvah often went unacknowledged, except by family and by her being subject to most of the commandments. different communities adapted different habits when it came time for a girl to become Bat Mitzvah. The first recorded public Bat Mitzvah ceremony, where a girl read from the Torah, did not occur until the early 1920s/ Today it is a much more common practice.

Writing: ECHOES from the past published by McGraw-Hill Ryderson Ltd.

Nebuchadrezzar II: A Force To Be Reckoned With

      Nebuchadrezzar II (also known as Nebuchadnezzar), King of Babylon from 605 to 562 BCE, was a formidable leader. his reign was chronicled by ancient writers in several Books of the Old Testament, in the historical works of the Roman-Jewish writer Josephus, and in the text known as the Apocrypha, as well as by modern scholars.
      Some ancient texts portray Nebuchadrezzar as mad, and this characterization has been used in several later works of art and literature about him. It is possible that the taint of madness came from Nebuchadrezzar's immense capacity for both wanton destruction and brilliant rebuilding. Following in his father's footsteps, Nebuchadrezzar pursued a military policy of expansion. His aim was to have no opposition from "horizon to sky," and so his army was always on the move, taking over an ever-widening circle of states through Syria, Palestine, Arabia, Judah, and even Egypt. He was always a force to be reckoned with.
      Nebuchadrezzar captured Jerusalem twice. The first time was 597 BCE. Typically, when Nebuchadrezzar invaded an area, the siege was quite complete: physical destruction was extensive, anything of value (property, wealth, and people) was deported out of the area to Babylon. Someone loyal to Babylon was then left in charge of the decimated region. Unfortunately for Jerusalem, the man left in charge, Zedebiah, did not remain loyal to Nebuchadrezza, so the second invasion, in 587-586 BCE, was even more horrible than the first.
      In II Kings 25: 8-12 of the Old Testament, it is reported that virtually nothing was left standing in Jerusalem. Even the sacred and beloved Temple of Solomon was burned to the ground. All the people fled or were deported. This ended the days of the First Temple and began the Jewish Diaspora, the dispersion of the Jewish people from their homeland, which would go on for centuries.
     While he was a ruthless military strategist, Nebuchadrezzar was also known for his skillful diplomacy (despite the destruction in Jerusalem, he is not portrayed as totally bad in Jewish tradition) and his numerous building projects. Many temples were constructed during his reign, along with canals and fortifications. Nebuchadrezzar will always be remembered for directing the largest zigguarat project of them all -- the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, one of the wonders of the ancient world.

Writing: ECHOES from the past published by McGraw-Hill Ryderson Ltd.

Ancient Israel

      Most of our information regarding the early history of Israel comes from the Old Testament, the first part of the bible. According to this text, nomadic tribes wandered into Palestine from the east about 1900 BCE. Each tribe was led by a patriarch, of which Abraham is the most famous. God is said to have appeared before Abraham at a place called Harran, a city east of Euphrates River, and to have given him the following instructions: "Leave your own country, your kinsmen, and your father's house, and go to a county that i will show you. I will make you into a great nation." According to the Old Testament, when Abraham arrived at the city of Shechem in Cannan, God again appeared to him and said: "I give this land to your descendants."
      Later, Abraham's grandson Jacob, who took the name Israel, meaning "God ruled," organized the people into 12 tribes. Some of these tribes remained in Cannan while others, perhaps fleeing drought and famine, settled in Egypt and became subjects of the Pharaohs. To these numbers were added many slaves taken captive by the Egyptians during their conquest of Cannan in the fifteenth through thirteenth centuries BCE.
      Perhaps the most important and famous part of the history of Israel concerns Moses, who led the Israelites out of bondage in Egypt. The oppression suffered by the Israelites was considerable. Under Ramses II, Egypt was undergoing its most ambitious period of construction since the days of the pyramids. Much of the labour required was supplied by conscripted foreigners, like the Israelites. They were forced to serve in the army, till the fields, pave the roads, build temples, and construct a new palace and two new cities. In the face of harsh treatment, many wanted to escape their oppression by Egypt. Some time around the end of the thirteenth century BCE, there was amass migration of Israelites from Egypt (called Exodus) under the leadership of a man with the Egyptian name Moses. Moses organized the tribes of Israel into a confederation bound by a covenant (a solemn agreement) to a god named Yahweh. According to the Old Testament, Moses received instructions directly from Yahweh, including what are called the Ten Commandments, a body of laws based on right conduct and stating, above all, "Thou shalt have no other gods before me." Four the first time, the Israelites were united under one god (monotheism) and the foundations were laid for the religion that would profoundly shape Western civilization.
      The Israelites established themselves in Palestine, and in 1230 BCE, guided by Joshua, the successor to Moses, invaded Cannan and took the city of Jericho by siege. Despite being delivered from Egypt and led to victory by Joshua, the Israelites still had no central government, and over the years, the tries drifted aprat. Eventually, about 1020 BCe, a man named Saul became the first king of the Israelites and led them against their greatest enemy, the Philistines. Under David, Saul's successor, the Israelites captured the city of Jerusalem and extended the kingdom's boundaries to its greatest extent.
      David's son Solomon is best remembered for his wisdom and skillful administration. He has also been credited with writing some of the books of the bible, including Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and the Song of Solomon, although it is quite certain that these were written much alter. Solomon ruled at a time when many Near Eastern powers were weak, and he was able to maintain peace through a series of alliances and by increasing the size of the standing army he equipped with chariots.
      the greatest monument to Solomon's rule was the Temple of Jerusalem, which he had built to house the Arc of the Covenant, a sacred box used to hold the holy text called the Torah. The temple has been described as :a marvel of cedar beams, cast-bronze pillars, ivory-paneled doors, golden vessels, and carved stone ornaments..." This magnificent temple was destroyed during a Babylonian invasion, rebuilt in the sixth century BCE, and destroyed again in 70 CE by the Romans. All that remains today is a party of the western wall of the outer court *(now called the Wailing Wall). Solomon's other great building was his new palace, said to be sufficiently large to house his 700 wives and to have stables for 12000 horses!
      Following the death of Solomon, the Kingdom of Israel split in two. While the northern part retained the name of Israel, the southern half, with Jerusalem as its capital, became known as Judah. Weakened by internal divisions, Israel was conquered by the powerful Assyrians in 722 BCE, and its leaders dispersed throughout the Assyrian Empire. The scattered people became known as the ten lost tribes of Israel. Judah was all that remained of the former kingdom of Israel, and it too would fall. In 586 BCE, Judah fell to Chaldea, or New Babylon, and the captives were deported to Babylon. Slowly, the Israelites trickled back into Palestine, but the Kingdom of Israel had passed.
      Although the ancient Israelites may not have established a vast empire or left a great deal of monumental architecture, their spiritual ideas have profoundly influenced much of Western culture, and continue to exert tremendous force on the modern world. Central to understanding the development of the Jewish faith is the concept of the Covenant. The Covenant was a formal agreement between the Hebrews and their god, Yahweh, that was first made at the time of Abraham and later renewed under Moses. According to this contract, the Hebrews were to worship Yahweh as their only god, and they, in turn, were to be Yahweh's chosen people and promised the land of Cannan.
      Initially, Yahweh was likely just one god among many that were worshiped in the Near East. as the main god of the Hebrews, Yahweh would have faced competition from other gods such as Baal, Enlil, Marduk, and Amon-Re. Over time, the Hebrews came to regard Yahweh as the only true God, thus laying the foundations for a monotheistic (one god) religion. Yahweh, as he appears in the Old Testament, is an all-powerful and all-knowing god who created the world and then stood outside of it. He is, at times, portrayed as a jealous, vindictive, and intolerant god, but despite his often harsh nature, Yahweh was a god for everyone; a god who cared for all classes, and was not too aloof to care for the individual. The Hebrews believed that their god intervened in human affairs and forgave those who truly regretted their wrongs.
      What made the Jewish faith stand apart from other faiths at the time of Moses was that it was a religion of the people. It was deeply and passionately felt from within, not imposed from above. It must be remembered that leaders such as Moses were not kings and, therefore, could not force the people to obey laws. These men of ordinary status were able to exert tremendous influence on the ethical behaviour of a society -- an influence that has lasted for over 3000 years.
      Critical to the success and development of Judaism was the passion of the prophets who emerged throughout Israel's history. A theme common to all the prophets was the corruption of society and God's forgiveness if people repented their sins. The prophets declared that God would prove his love for his people by providing a Messiah ( a person with divine power) to lead the nation of Israel. from about 200 BCE on, Jewish thought maintained that a king would someday appear to lead the people of Israel and restore their power and glory.
   

History Continues to Unfold

      Despite the dispersion of the Jewish people throughout Europe and around the world that began with the Diaspora in 70 CE, Jewish culture and religious beliefs have influenced all the ancient cultures of the Near East. Many of the traditions of the Israelites live on today -- not only among the Jews, but also among several other major religions. It has been said that without Moses, there could have been no Jesus or Muhammad. to what degree this is true is difficult to say, but it is certain that the three of the world's most dominant religions -- Judaism, Christianity, and Islam -- all find their spiritual roots in the beliefs of the ancient Israelites.

Writing: ECHOES from the Past, published by McGraw-Hill Ryderson Ltd. 

Stability Through Education

      Education played a crucial role in the stability and continuity of ancient Egypt. All children, regardless of social class, received at least some education. One of the texts central to the education of Egypt's youth was Instructions in Wisdom, a moral and ethical guide.  One of the primary goals of the ancient Egyptian educational system was to ensure that the youth grew up to exhibit self-control an good manners, and be contributing members of society. By the age of fourteen, children were streamed into the careers of their parent,s with boys either joining their fathers in the filed or workshop, and girls learning from their mothers the proper way to run a household.
      The sons of priests, Pharaohs, and administrative families were educated in a more formal manner, but these classes also passed on the father's position. Literacy was if great importance in running the highly bureaucratic Egyptian society. Teaching children to read and write was a priority. Children learned two types of writing: the rewriting of existing poetry and prose, and business wiring. Business writing was required for the varied tasks that gave the scribe his rank and importance in society. Mathematics also received considerable attention in the curriculum. Overall, the Egyptian system of education was highly respected in the ancient world for its efforts at creating a well-rounded individual who could become a valuable member of society.

Science and Technology

      The conservatism and practicality of the Egyptians are also evident in their scientific and technical achievements. They created what was needed and refined it until it was practical and could be used efficiently. Examples of this very practical nature include the development of Egyptian writing, medicine, their techniques for preserving the dead for thousands of years, and a calendar that allowed the Egyptians to predict accurately the yearly flooding of the Nile.

Writing

      The ancient Egyptians' form of writing, known as hieroglyphics, dates back to the earliest periods of their history. It is though that the Egyptians likely borrowed from the Mesopotamians, who had developed cuneiform script -- a script that had evolved from a series of pictographs. The Mesopotamians developed a more comprehensive system of writing to replace pictographs, but Egyptian hieroglyphics retained their pictographic nature. By about 3100 BCE, the Egyptians had a fully developed written language that used a combination of ideaograms (symbols that express a whole word or idea) and pnograms (symbols that suggest a particular sound).
      At the time of the New Kingdom, there were about 700 hieroglyphs in common usage, of which about 100 remained strictly visual, while the rest were phonograms. The system of hieroglyphic writing, while aesthetically pleasing and well-suited to the adornment of temples and tombs, proved impractical for day-to-day use. From the earliest period, scribes adapted hieroglyphic symbols in order to create handwriting known as hieratic writing. This simplified form of hieroglphics was more suited to rapid writing using a brush on wood or a reed pen on papyrus. A further refinement of hieratic script ular script, came into use for secular matters such as letters, accounts, and record keeping.
      As ancient Egyptian civilization waned, hieroglyphics faded from use. The last recorded use of hieroglyphics is found on the Temple of Isis at Philae dating to 394 CE. By this time, hieroglyphics were a mysterious text used only by a few priests who kept their meaning secret. It was not until the nineteenth century when Jean Francois Champollion cracked the hieroglyphic code, that we were able to unlock the secrets of ancient Egyptian writing.

Medicine

      Names marked on Egyptian tombs clearly indicate that there were doctors in Egyptian society. Medicine was a literate profession, and medical knowledge was recorded from a very early date, the oldest text dating back to 2000 BCE. These accumulated texts were a mixture of observation, medical and surgical descriptions, diagnosis, and prescriptions. They contain medical knowledge, plus observations mingled with nonsense, magic, and religion. Some of the inaccuracies stem from an inadequate knowledge of anatomy and the belief that disease was imposed as a punishment by the gods.
      Some common medical problems that appear in the texts -- and can easily be verified by examination of mummies -- are worm infestations, arthritis, small pox, tuberculosis, and gallstones. The medicines concocted were made of beer, milk, oil, plants, herbs, and animal substances. Bandages, splints, and disinfectants were used and doctors usually treated and stitched open wounds.
      The texts comprised a sacred and unchangeable wisdom that was greater than the abilities of the doctors. This resulted in a stagnation of the development of medicine since no further research or modification was seen to be necessary. Resourcefulness and practicality were part of the Egyptians' mentality, as was the confining conservatism. They created the tools necessary to live a comfortable life in the Nile Valley.

Egypt's Legacy

      One of the great achievements of Egyptian culture was its longevity. For over two thousand years, Egypt remained a dominant political and cultural force in the Near East. In fact, its influence spread throughout the Mediterranean, helping to shape, first, Minoan culture and , later, the culture of mainland Greece. As one of the world's first civilizations and one of the earliest powers to dominate the eastern Mediterranean, Egypt played a critical role in the development of the Near East. Although conservative, the ancient Egyptians made significant advances in many fields, including art, architecture, and technology. In the end, although we may marvel at the pyramids and be intrigued by the tombs and treasures of the Pharaohs, we must not lose sight of the ancient Egyptians as a people. They had a rich and vibrant society whose costumes and traditions reflected their dependence on nature and their optimistic view of the afterlife.

Writing: ECHOES from the past, published by McGraw-Hill Ryderson Ltd. 

The Mummification Process

      A desire to preserve the body after death was central to Egyptian religion and beliefs about the afterlife. Egyptians expected that the afterlife would be spend enjoying the best that this life had to offer: fishing, hunting, feasting, sailing, and so on. There were two basic requirements for the afterlife: a body preserved in its lifelike form, and a supply of goods to last through eternity. Egyptians also believed that in death, their spiritual double, the ka, would reside near their body, and have the same needs -- food, clothing, perfume, furniture -- as their living body had.
      Mummification in Egypt probably began about 2400 BCE, and continued into the Greco-Roman period. Some of our best information came from the Greek historian Herodotus, who documented the process in 450 BCE. Preserving bodies became a fully developed craft with its own guild of practitioners. It was also a religious rite presided over by a priest who uttered chants and prayers while wearing a jackal mast to represent Anubis, the god of embalming.

How to Make a Mummy

1. The brain, considered useless, was removed through the nostrils with an iron hook and discarded. What could not be reached was dissolved by chemicals. 

2. The presiding priest turned the body onto its right side, made an incision on the left, and removed all the major organs except the heart. Because the heart was considered the seat of intelligence and the ka's bodily home, it was left in place. 

3. The liver, lungs, stomach and intestines were cleaned, then dried with a substance called natron. The organs were then placed in four separate canopic jars, usually made of limestone, calcite, or clay. The lid of each jar was shaped to look like one of Horus' four sons. (Natron, obtained from dried-up riverbeds, is a compound of four salts: sodium carbonate, sodium bicarbonate, sodium chloride, and sodium sulfate. It draws water out and creates a hostile environment for bacteria.)

4. The body was washed with wine and the cavity stuffed with different materials: linen, Nile mud, sawdust, or lichen, plus aromatic substances such as myrrh. It was covered with more natron and dried for up to 70 days.

5. Once dried, the body was washed in oils and spices; the mouth and nose were cleaned and stuffed with linen, and the eyelids were stuffed with small onions or linen pads. The body incision was closed and covered with a plate, sometimes gold. 

6. Finally, the body was wrapped in several layers of linen that had been coated with resins and oils. Amulets and jewelry were hidden amongst the layers. Towards the time of the Middle Kingdom, it was customary to place a mask over the face. usually the masks were made of cartonnage (papyrus or linen coated with plaster), or sometimes wood. Silver and gold were for royalty. 

Writing: ECHOES from the past, published by McGraw-Hill Ryderson Ltd.

Social Structure: Daily Life in Egypt

      History is often a record of the lives and exploits of the powerful and the wealthy. They won the battles; they built the tombs; they were the focus of society and reaped its benefits. understanding the life of the masses has, in recent years, become of greater concern to historians. Ethnohistory is a new and challenging field that combines various disciplines such as archaeology, anthropology, and historical studies to unearth a part of our past that has often been neglected. To do a civilization justice, we must look at all levels of society and all the elements that made up the daily lives and routines of all the people.
      They bountiful harvest that was collected annually in the Nile Valley and the security afforded by Egypt's relative isolation gave all Egyptians, regardless of their station in life, a comfortable existence. Recent studies of Egyptian daily life offer a fascinating perceptive on a lifestyle of well over 3000 years ago. This perspective was supplied by the wealth of funerary offerings found in the tombs: agricultural implements, domestic items, colorful and lively paintings, and small figurines engaged in all sorts of everyday activities.
      An artisan, merchant, trade, or a common labourer in ancient Egypt would have lived in a one storey mud-brick home that looked no different from the rest of the dusty yellow houses on the crowded street. These houses had four, square rooms with only window slits to ensure privacy and cool shelter from the hot midday sun. Furnishings would have been simple -- reed mats and cushions, sometimes a wooden chest or a table. This was home to an average ancient Egyptian.

Agriculture

      The Nile dictated everyone's life. At the beginning of the year, when the Nile flooded, dams and canals had to be maintained and repaired. As much of this valuable water as possible had to be retained for the time after the Nile had receded. The river also left behind fertile soil, and as soon as surveyors had marked out the land with ropes, laborers sowed the seeds. Grains such as barley and wheat, and vegetables such as onions, leeks, lettuce, radishes, gourds, melons, peas, and lentils grew well in these fertile areas. Planting did not take much time because the soil was usually soft and wet. Children and laborers drove herds of animals over the saturated earth to churn up the ground and stamp in the sees. During the rest of the growing season, the crops were cultivated and the livestock herded to the filed to graze. Then the tax collectors and scribes descended on the files to calculate the yield and assess taxes. The harvest would end up up in the landowner's kitchen, the town market, or given to the laborers as payment.

The structure of ancient Egyptian society. 

The Family

      The home was the refuge and gathering place for the family -- a place to wash the dust away and eat and sleep. Children were fed and dressed simply and allowed few extravagances. Mothers or elder sisters cared for the children until they were four to six years old, when they were sent off to be educated. Children would be taught either in a teaching room by a priest or by their father, who would pass on all he knew about his trade or occupation. 

The Role of Women

      Our knowledge of ancient Egyptian life comes mainly from tomb decorations, and this includes what we know about the role of women in Egyptian society. Women were generally well treated and enjoyed considerable legal rights compared with women in other ancient civilizations. At least in the theory, women shared the same legal rights as men, including the right to won and dispose of land and property, the right to seek a divorce, and the right to initiate a court case or serve as a witness. These legal rights allowed women to be economically independent. It appears that women'ts primary social role was in domestic life. The fact that female skin is colored yellow in wall paintings, rather than the much darker skin tones of men, may indicate that women led a sheltered life, out of the sun. In early tomb decorations, women are often missing from culturally important work. At times, their role seems purely decorative, since they are usually depicted in deal, slender and young form. Later, women were depicted much more often and in more elaborate clothing. Women did not hold important title,s had little political power, were usually illiterate, and were barred from intellectual and government life.

      While a woman's role in society at large was limited, the home was the wife's domain. In fact, the common title for a married woman in ancient Egypt was nebet per, meaning "the lady of the house." In the ancient book Institutions in Wisdom, Egyptian men are cautioned: 

Do not control your wife in her house, 

When you know she is efficient;

don't say to her: "Where is it? Get it!"

When she has put it in the right place.

Let your eye observe in silence,

Then you will recognize her skill. 

      Women took great pride in managing the household and raising their children. Although home, Egyptian women faced few restrictions in public. When going out, perhaps to visit the market, women were not required to wear any kind of covering over their faces as in some ancient cultures. At home, the baking of bread and brewing of beer, both for family consumption and as offerings to the dead, occupied much of a woman's time.
      Aside from the daily routine of running the household, a woman's main function in society was to bear and raise children. Children were so important to the ancient Egyptians that early marriages were encourages so women could have children while they were young. Infertility was dreaded. A woman who was unable to conceive would make peas to the gods and goddesses of fertility and childbirth: Bes, Taweret, and, especially, Hathor. Women would resort to spells, amulets, and herbal remedies in order to conceive. For couples who were, despite their best efforts, unable to bear children adopting a child was considered the proper course of action. Despite their general love of children, there were occasions when pregnancy was not wanted, and ancient Egyptian recipes for contraception appear to have had some effectiveness.

The Role of Men

      The husband was the head of the family and passes on the inheritance to his children. Marriage property was agreed upon by a marriage settlement, and did not necessarily follow a rigid pattern. Men were not restricted in the number of wives they could have, but economics usually dictated that one man took only one wife. The priests also exerted a powerful moral influence, and although harems and concubines existed, sexual excesses were not evident in everyday social life. The man of the household was the laborer, the craftsperson, or the official. Since the father was the holder of the office or the occupation, he passed this on the his sons. It took many generations to acquire the skills and secrets of a trade, and sons were expected to continue the tradition. Change was not encouraged, because this involved risk.

Clothing of the Commoner

      A day in the fields would begin early, making use of the cooler hours. The laborer wore as little as possible -- a pleated or knotted  loincloth made of very light material or, perhaps, nothing at all. Workers may have worn wigs to protect their heads from the sun. Children and servant girls often wore only an amulet around their neck or a string of beads around their waist. The women wore long, close-fitting robes made of a light, almost transparent linen that was easy to clean and good protection against the heat. Among the commoners, going barefoot was preferable.

Foods and Festivals

      The fall season was a time for festivals since food had been assured until the next year. The people were relived of their agricultural duties, and were now involved in community jobs such as building temples and tombs. Festivals were joyous occasions for young and old, rich and poor. Reasons for celebrating included religious festivals, political events, and butchering of an ox, or the end of a successful hunt in the marshes.

      A banquet or a festival required preparation. The room was decorated with flowers and perfumed, the food was prepared, and the entertainment arranged. The kitchen would be full of servants busily preparing the festival fare: a freshly slaughtered ox; an assortment of roasted or boiled game, such as wild goat, gazelle, quail, duck, and fish; and vegetables that were in seasons, such as leeks, melons, onion, beans, chickpeas, lettuce, and radishes. Seasonings for the meat and vegetables would include garlic, onions, beer, milk, and wine. There would also be a wide selection of while and cultivated fruits, among these grapes, figs, dates, and pomegranates. Pastries and cakes were shaped and decorated with preserves and sweetened with honey. The guests could help themselves directly from the heaping plates placed on tables or offered to them by servants. Food was eaten using many different types of bread to clean up the plate. 

Clothing and Jewelry of the Upper Classes

      A love of functional ornament was obvious in the clothing of the wealthier Egyptians -- it was practical yet elegant. Their jewelry was a means of personal expression. The sophistication in dress and jewelry increased with the importance of rank or family. 

     Men wore a loincloth, just as did the lower classes, but covered it will a full linen tunic with sleeves, secured with an elegant belt. Although sandals were not very comfortable, they were also indicative of aristocratic stature. To insult their enemies, Pharaohs often wore pictures of them on the soles of their shoes.

     The women wore clothing similar to that of the women of the lower classes, but the cloth was finer and decorated with lively patterns and bright colors. The finest, softest cloth was, of course, kept for the queen. Jewelry could actually reflect a break from traditional Egyptian art because jewelers were less bound by convention and rules than other artists. Their work demonstrates a skill that has never been surpasses. Using gold, silver, agate, jasper, garnet, amethyst, and turquoise in fanciful engraved or twisted forms, the Egyptians fashioned exquisite accent pieces. This jewelry was stoed in finely crafted boxes of ivory or wood covered in gold.

Cosmetics

      Beside the jewelry box was another box of materials and utensils needed to apply cremes and make-up. Fashionable eyes were almond shaped, with eyebrows and eyelids made up in blue, green, or dark grey. Men and women applied this heavy make-up for two reasons: beauty and protection from dust, infection, and the glare of the sun and sand. Women smoothed a red, fat-based paint over their lips, and after bathing -- which was done frequently -- they applied perfume. The barber would come during this time to shave men's heads, because short hair was much easier to keep clean and more comfortable in the confines of their own homes. Wigs worn in public would be made from real hair or dyed black wool. The women wore shoulder-length hair that was braided and usually ornamented with a band or jewelry.  

Writing: ECHOES from the past, published by McGraw-Hill Ryerson. Ltd

Continuity And Conventions In Egyptian Art

      The art of the ancient Egyptians reveals a very conservative people. Conservatism was one of three key factors that shaped Egyptian art. The other two were virtually all art was produced for religious purposes, and that the Pharaoh was the chief patron and subject of the arts. Egyptian art was not innovative, but sought to remain unchanged by following traditions established during the Old Kingdom. The resistance to change inherent in Egyptian art reflects a quest for permanence achieved through conventions and idealizations. The fact that Egyptian art followed these conventions, remaining nearly unchanged for over three thousand years, is in itself impressive. Art, for the Egyptians, served to capture for eternity the ideal form of the individual represented.

Sculpture

      The most majestic works of art produced by the Egyptians were their statues. Egyptian sculpture ranged in size from small models to colossal statues such as the Sphinx (20 m high and 73 m long) and the statues of Ramses II (20 m high). Egyptian statues generally looked straight ahead and were not engaged in any activity; they are rigid and without emotion. While Egyptian sculpture may not have had the lifelike qualities of later Greek statues, it did capture the grandeur of the Pharaohs for all time. 

Carved Relief and Painting

      The artistic forms commonly found in the tombs of the Pharaohs and the nobility are reliefs and wall paintings. Both served a similar purpose: to convey to the gods the character of the deceased, or to illustrate the activities to be enjoyed in the afterlife. Carved reliefs are pictures that are cut into stone. Paintings were generally considered second best, and were usually done in tombs where poor rock surfaces made relief work difficult. In some cases, paintings were selected over reliefs because they were less costly and time consuming. 

      Egyptian artists were not particularly concerned with perspective. Instead, they produced mathematically precise paintings and reliefs that conveyed the necessary information. Realism was the least of the artist's concerns. Aside from the contrived stance and the disproportionate size of the figures, Egyptian paintings show many other examples of how information took precedence over realism. For example, Egyptian artist often used what is called false transparency. In a picture showing a side view of someone dipping a ladle into a pot, the viewer would not be able to see what is it the pot or the ladle. The Egyptian artist made both the contents and the ladle visible -- as if the pot were made of glass -- to provide necessary information. 

      It is important to view Egyptian art from the Egyptians' perspective, not ours. The task set before the ancient Egyptian artist was to capture for eternity the essence and character of the deceased. In this conservative society, artists were not supposed to be innovators. 

Writing: ECHOES from the past, published by McGraw-Hill Ryderson Ltd.

Intellectual Life

      The Egyptians had a very complex explanation for their existence. Aside from the physical body, each individual had a ka, ba, and akh. According to Egyptian beliefs, infants were placed in the other's womb after being created on a potter's wheel by the god Khnum. For each human crafted, Khnum also made a spiritual duplicate. This was called the ka. The ka was stored in the heart, and at death, was separated from the body. It would inhabit the tomb of the individual to be near the body in which it had spent its life. Like the livign body from which it had come, the ka would need items such as food, clothing, perfume, and furniture.
      The ba was a non-physical element unique to each person. It entered the body at the time of birth and left the body at death. The ba is best described as a person's character or personality, and was depicted as a human-headed bird. When someone died, his or her mummy needed to be transformed into a form that could exist in the afterworld. This form was called the akh. The transformation took place through the use of magical spell said over the mummy.
      A concept central to Egyptian religion was that of Ma'at. This was essentially order, truth, and justice -- at the time of creation. Only by living in accordance with Ma'at could the Egyptians achieve harmony with the gods and be assured entry into the hereafter.

The Afterlife

      The Egyptian concept of the afterlife is a reflection of their zeal for life and their optimistic outlook. The Egyptians saw the afterlife as a duplication of the best moments on Earth. They expected that, in their afterlife, they would be engaged in the activities they enjoyed most, such as fishing, hunting, feasting, and sailing. Death to the Egyptians was not an end, but a beginning.
      The concept of an afterlife was common to all Egyptians regardless of their social status. The preparation for the afterlife varied considerably depending on whether the individual was royal, noble, or a peasant. For all, however, there were two basic requirements. First, the body must be preserved in a lifelike form; second, the deceased must be provided with the items necessary for a life in the hereafter. The goods provided ranged from the few simple possessions of a peasant to the elaborate storehouse of treasures that accompanied the kings and queens. Royal tombs commonly held large food supplies, furniture, tools, weapons, chest full of clothes, jewelry, and game.s All Egyptian, whether rich or poor, believed that the essence of the deceased continued to be tied to this world even after death. This essence, or the ka, returned via the preserved body and received its sustenance from the food, drink, and material possessions left in the tomb.

Egyptian Burial Practices

      Central to Egyptian religious beliefs was the need to preserve the body. It is likely that mummification was a stage in the development of Egyptian burial practices. The earliest people to settle in the Nile Valley buried their dead in pit-graves dug in the hot desert sands bordering Egypt. The rainless climate and dryness of the sand around the body caused a natural process of desiccation whereby the body fluids were absorbed by the sand, preventing the body from decaying.
      As Egyptian burials became more elaborate, the body of the deceased came to be placed in a lined tomb. Since the bodies were no longer covered by sand, desiccation did not occur naturally and the bodies decomposed. As a consequence, the Egyptians developed an artificial means to duplicate what had previously happened naturally -- mummification. Initially, the Egyptians simply wrapped the body of the deceased in resins-soaked linens to preserve a lifelike form. Eventually, a more elaborate process was devised that enabled them to prevent the body from decaying. This process was lengthy and expensive and, therefore, the special reserve of royalty and the nobility. Peasants continued to rely on the natural desiccation that occurred when the deceased were buried in pit-graves in the sand.

An Egyptian Funeral

      The funerals of Egypt's elite were lengthy and elaborate affairs. When someone died, a period of loud mourning took place.The female relatives of the deceased, as well as paid mourners, would bare their breasts and walk through the streets crying out in grief. They would be followed by male relatives who were also bare to the waist and pounding their chests in sorrow. Later, there would be a more composed procession in which the body was transferred from the home to the embalmers where the mummification took place. This process took about 70 days to complete. Once the process of mummification was completed, the mummy was returned to the family and the final procession to the tomb would begin. In this procession, the mummy was placed on a sledge drawn boy oxen. A second sledge followed, carrying the canopic jars containing the deceased's preserved internal organs. At the rear of the procession, were the servants who carried objects the deceased would need in the afterlife. Upon arrival at the tomb, a priest would touch the mummy's eyes, and the grave goods were lowered into place through the roof since there was no entrance. Once everything was in place, the entire structure was roofed over. Some tombs were massive and elaborate structures designed to imitate palace facades. Later tombs for royalty were surrounded by smaller tombs containing the bodies of followers, and, possibly, mortuary chapels, where offerings were brought.
      By the beginning of the Old Kingdom, Egyptian kings were assumed to be the living embodiment of Horus, the son of the god Osiris. Obviously, a person of such stature had to be laid to rest in a tomb that reflected this status. Thus, the pyramid evolved. The choice of the pyramid shape may have been an attempt to re-create the primeval mound the Egyptians believed had emerged from the waters of chaos at the time of creation. Over 40 pyramids have been discovered in Egypt, mostly from the Old Kingdom, although some from the end of the Middle Kingdom and the New Kingdom have also been found.
      The earliest pyramids were, in fact, a series of mastabas (oblong tombs) stacked one on top of the other. The famous Step Pyramid at Saqqara, built form King Djoser, began as a single mastaba on which five additional mastabas, descending in size, were placed. Customarily, the burial chamber of the king remained underground.
      Pyramid construction reached its climax with the building of King Khufu's tomb at Giza. Known as the Great Pyramid, this structure rose 146 m and had sides 238 m long. In total, the base of the Great Pyramid covers six hectares. It is constructed of 2.5 million stone blocks, each weighing on average 2.5t. This remains the largest stone structure in the world. Construction was completed during the 23 years of Khufu's reign, without the aid of the wheel, lifting devices, or draft animals.
      By the time of the New Kingdom, the Pharaohs had come to realize that building massive pyramids was a mistake. Nothing better advertised to grave robbers where a deceased Pharaoh and his riches could be found than these monuments rising majestically from the desert. In hopes of eternal security, the Pharaohs of the New Kingdom chose two quiet, hidden valleys they believed would be safe from robbers. These valleys near Luxor we now call the Valley of the Kings and the Valley of the Queens.
     Here, the Pharaohs had elaborate tombs cut deep into the valley walls. The tombs had high corridors brightly painted with inscriptions from various religious texts such as the Book of What is in the Underworld. These corridors led to burial chambers and side chambers that contained the royal grave goods. The burial chamber was covered with scenes from the life of the deceased, designed to convince the gods that he or she had led a good life in accordance with Ma'at. The ceiling of the burial chamber was often covered with a map of the heavens.

Temples

Not all of the Egyptians' time and effort went into building tombs for the Pharaohs. A great deal of time was devoted to the construction of temples dedicated to the gods. These massive structures, usually made of sandstone, were designed to be experienced from the inside during a ceremony -- not as a means to decorate the landscape. All Egyptian temples had the same basic features: a monumental gateway, a roofless colonnaded court, a great hall with a ceiling resting on massive sandstone columns, and a private sanctuary of the god. The massive temple was, in turn, part of an even larger complex that included living quarters, workshops, a school, a sacred pool, complexes contained all the necessary facilities to support a community dedicated to serving the god. The largest and most famous of these temples is the Temp of Amon at Karnak. In this temple, 134 pillars -- all displaying scenes of the king worshiping Amon -- stand like a forest. 

Writing: ECHOES from the past, published by McGraw-Hill Ryderson Ltd. 

Egyptian Military Traditions

      By the time of Tuthmosis III, Egypt had earned a well-deserved reputation for having one of the best trained armies in the Near East. Ironically, the Egyptians were actually among the least warlike people of ancient times. The bounty of the Nile Valley provided for their needs, and the deserts on either side served as natural barriers to their enemies. The wealthy of ancient Egypt did, however, attract the attention of greedy neighbors who sought to seize control of the rich and fertile country. The success of the Hyksos invasion alerted the Egyptians to the need for a strong army to defend against future attacks. Fighting abroad was always viewed with anxiety, since nothing was more distressing to an Egyptian than the thought of dying away from home and being buried in a foreign land. Later in the New Kingdom, the powerful army did begin to expand Egypt's boundaries through conquests, but as in the past, mercenaries made up a significant part of the Egyptian army.
      The Egyptian army was a highly trained and disciplined fighting machine. With each military campaign, the Egyptians invoked the power of the goes to ensure their victory. Wars were fought with great pomp and ceremony, with trumpeters leading the army into battle. At the head of the attack was the Pharaoh's chariot, carrying a flag decorated with a ram's head and the sum, symbolic of the god Amon-Re.

Akhenaton's Challenge to Authority

In the midst of unparalleled wealth and power, the Egyptians faced an attempted religious revolution. Amonhotep IV, who changed his name to Akhenaton, concentrated his energies on reforming Egyptian religion. Akhenaton opposed the worhip of Amon-Re, traditionally the supreme god of the Egyptians. In place of Amon-Re, Akhenaton sponsored the worship of Aton. To promote the new cult, he took the name Akhenaton, meaning "he who serves Aton," and built a new capital city called Akhentaton *"Place of the Glory of Aton") far from the major urban centres of Egypt. Akhenton also had the temples of other gods closed and their possessions confiscated. These actions have since caused some to refer to Akhenaton as the first monotheist (believer in one god). This term is somewhat inaccurate since the Egyptian people were still expected to worship the Pharaoh while the royal family worshiped Aton. Akhenaton defined his new religion through hymns, some of which are preserved on the walls of tombs in the city he founded. Here is a sample of Akhenaton's writing:

Splendid you rise in heaven's lightland,

O living Aton, creator of life!

When you have dawned in eastern lightland,

You fill every land with your beauty. 

      Akhenaton's break with Egyptian traditions can also be seen in the art of his reign. Unlike other Pharaohs, who insisted on idealized representations of themselves, Akhenaton is portrayed with all of his human flaws: a slight pot-belly, and an oddly shaped head. There are also depictions of tender moments between Akhenaton and his wife and children -- scenes rare in Egyptian art.
      Akhenaton's preoccupation with reforming Egyptian religion left him little time to govern the empire built by his predecessors. In fact, once his new city was built, Akhenaton vowed never to leave it. In essence, he had refused to fill the traditional role of the Pharaoh -- leading the army into battle or attending to matters of the state that required him to travel outside his new city. By the time of his death the Egyptian empire was crumbling from neglect, and while still a dominant power, Egyptian civilization had begun its long decline.

Tutankhamun

      Tutankhamun came to power as a young child under the name Tutankhaton. It is likely that he was the son of Akhenaton and a minor wife. When Akhenaton died, the only surviving members of the royal family were two children, Tutankhaton and his half-sister Ankhesenpaton. A marriage of the two youngsters was hastily arranged, and the ten-year old Tutankhaton ascended to the throne. 

      It is unclear how big a role Tutankhaton played in the destruction of his father's new religion and the restoration of traditional beliefs. He may have been well aware of the strife that had befallen Egypt and, guided by his advisors, sought to restore stability by halting the religious revolution. He may also have simply accepted the dictates of his advisors, who either for the good of Egypt or for their own personal ambitions, sought to reverse Akhenatons' changes. 

      Within a few years of coming to the throne, Tutankhaton had changed his name to Tutankhamun, signalling a rejection of the cult of Aton and a return to traditional Egyptian religion. He also restored the priests and moved the capital of Egypt back from exile in Akhetaton to Thebes. Tutankhamun's short rule ended suddenly when he died from an apparent blow to the head at the age of eighteen. The sudden and unexpected death of the young Pharaoh created a problem, since the preparationg of a Pharaoh's tomb took many years to complete. Having no competed tomb in which to lay the mummy of Tutankhamun, a nearly completed tomb of a member of the nobility was used instead. This may explain why the tomb of King Tut, as he has come to be known, lay undisturbed until its dramatic discovery in 1922; perhaps grave robbers thought it was not worth the effort.

      Tutankhamun should be remembered as the Pharaoh who restored traditional Egyptian religion. As successor to Akhenaton, it was Tutankhamun and his advisors who destroyed the cult of Aton. He is, however, better known for the unsurpassed wealth found in his tomb. The treasures Howard Carter found in 1922 included gold inlaid furniture, lavish jewelry, and a solid-gold coffin.

Ramses II  

      By the time of Ramses II, 60 years after Tutankhamun, Egypt was in its twilight years. During his 67-year reign, Ramses II constructed more buildings and colossal statues than any other Egyptian king. Among his greatest monuments are the two huge temples at Abu Simbel. In the 1960s, these were the focus of a massive undertaking to save them from being submerged beneath the artificial lake that was created with the construction of the Aswan High Dam. The salvage operation involved dismantling the temple facades by cutting them into huge blocks and moving them 210 m away from the river. The operation took four years and cost $40 million. 

      Not long after the reign of Ramses II, Egypt was invaded and eventually fell under the rule of foreigners. During the next thousand years, Nubians, Assyrians, Persians, Greeks, and Romans would govern the state of Egypt. Despite being subjected to the rule of foreigners, the grandeur of Egypt has never been lost.

Writing: ECHOES from the past. published by McGraw-Hill Ryderson Ltd.