Egyptian Civilization
Senior 1 · History and Citizenship
Egyptian Civilization
Lesson 1 of 5
20 min
This painted wooden model was placed in the tomb of Meketre, a high official, at Thebes in Upper Egypt, around 1980 BCE. Archaeologists of the Metropolitan Museum of Art found it in 1920, together with models of boats, workshops and a garden. Look closely at what each little figure is doing.
Worked example: what the granary model tells us
Conclusion: one small object reveals five features of a civilisation. That is what makes Egypt a civilisation rather than a collection of farming villages.
Definition
Civilisation: a complex society with cities, an organised government, writing or record-keeping, specialised jobs, social classes, organised religion, monuments and trade, all supported by a food surplus. Example: ancient Egypt, from about 3100 BCE.
Definition
Surplus: an amount of food or goods greater than what the producers need for themselves. Example: the grain stored in Egyptian granaries.
Definition
Specialisation: doing one particular kind of work full-time instead of producing one's own food. Example: scribes, priests, potters and stone masons in Egypt.
Historians do not all use the same list, but most agree on the features in Figure 1. Notice the chain that links them:
Warning
"Civilisation" is a technical word in history, not a judgement of how good or clever a people were. Hunter-gatherers and village farmers had rich cultures, knowledge and beliefs. The word describes a particular way of organising a large society.
Egypt is the best known, but civilisations grew up in many parts of Africa. South of Egypt, along the Nile in today's Sudan, the kingdom of Kush had cities, kings, temples and its own writing. Its later capital, Meroë, was a great centre of iron-working, and its rulers were buried under more than 200 steep pyramids.
| Civilisation | Where | When (approximately) | Known for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ancient Egypt | Nile valley, Egypt | c. 3100 to 30 BCE | pyramids, hieroglyphs, pharaohs |
| Kush (Napata and Meroë) | Nile valley, Sudan | c. 800 BCE to 350 CE | ruled Egypt c. 747 to 656 BCE; iron; pyramids at Meroë |
| Aksum | Ethiopia and Eritrea | c. 100 to 700 CE | stone obelisks, coins, Red Sea trade, the Ge'ez script |
| Great Zimbabwe | Zimbabwe | c. 1100 to 1450 CE | stone walls built without mortar, gold trade |
Tip
Memory hook: the components of a civilisation spell C-G-W-S-S-R-M-T: "Cities Grow When Surplus Supports Rulers, Monuments and Trade": cities, government, writing, specialisation, social classes, religion, monuments, trade.
CrashCourse: "Rethinking Civilization". Listen for the features the presenter uses to define a civilisation, and for his reasons why the idea of civilisation needs rethinking.
Think, pair, share: Was the Rwanda Kingdom of the 19th century a civilisation? Check it against each component in Figure 1. Which components clearly fit? Which fit only partly, and why? (Hint: think about writing and cities.)
Practice
Sources and credits
This lesson adapts CC BY-SA material and is shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.
