Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Written notation had been perfected, and scribes and other literates wrote complex thoughts
and elegant poetry on papyrus (hence our word paper). Agriculture enhanced by irrigation
flourished. And Egypt's consequent wealth and leisure helped to create a thriving urban
life along with magnificent architecture and the means to assure that the dead would live
on through a journey after this life.
That life is a journey is a near-universal human conviction. Also nearly universal is the
conviction that the human journey continues after death—in another way, in another realm.
For the ancient Egyptians, nothing was more important to the afterlife journey than a well-
preserved corpse from which the soul could venture forth into death's realm and, from time
to time, return from death's domain to find sanctuary on earth.
To speak of ancient Egypt is to summon a culture that prospered for more than 3,000
years, during which time beliefs and ideas changed and evolved. Even so, the basic idea
abides that life after death was a continuation of the journey that begins at birth.
WHAT WAS THE PHARAOH'S ROLE IN ANCIENT EGYPT?
Similar to other oriental despotisms (Persia, Babylon, China), the pharaoh had a god-like
status. Like other such despots, the ruler of Egypt presided over rituals that kept the cos-
mos in order. For Egypt, an orderly cosmos helped assure that the Nile, through its annual
flooding, would make the Egyptian desert bloom. Egyptian rulers claimed descent from
the sun god, Ra, who was worshipped continuously all through ancient Egypt's long his-
tory—so much so that Pharaoh Amenhotep (about 1350 to 1334 BCE) proclaimed Aton,
god of the sun, as omnipotent. And to signify that supremacy, the pharaoh changed his
name to Akenaton (“He who is devoted to Aton”). In keeping with his new name and the
status of his namesake, Akenaton shifted his capital to a new city built to celebrate Aton as
the one true God.
But however supreme, no pharaoh ruled alone. He was supported by a vast organiza-
tion of nobles, officials, bureaucrats, soldiers, and priests. It has been many times remarked
that Egyptian society resembled its pyramids: a tiny ruling family at the peak and below
them a small elite: nobles, court officials, great landowners, generals, and priests. Beneath
them and greater in number were military leaders and persons of skills and technical ac-
complishments. And at the very large base was the vast majority of society: tenant farmers,
workers, common soldiers, and slaves.
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