1500 BC what century. Jewelry and ornaments of the Egyptians

ARKAIM- a fortified settlement of the Bronze Age (XVII-XV centuries BC) in the Chelyabinsk region. Round shape with a diameter of approx. 170 meters. Rectangular houses made of adobe bricks. They are located in semicircles around the central platform, without doors, access to the roof by stairs. The outer wall of the outer circle of houses served as the wall of the city. Similar to settlements in the Middle East. A series of such fortresses is located at a distance of 25-30 km from each other in the south of the Trans-Urals and indicates the arrival of a large group of people from the south and their mixing, apparently, with a related (Indo-European?) population of the Surtandin culture.

Identical houses and fortresses were found in the Middle East and are well described by the archaeologist Mellart: “Each house had only one floor, the height of which corresponded to the height of the walls; They entered the house through a hole in the roof along a wooden ladder leaning against the south wall. Due to the originality of the exit system, the outer part of the settlement was a massive wall, and other defensive structures were not needed.

ARKAIM AND THE "COUNTRY OF CITIES" IN THE SOUTHERN URALS

"Country of Cities" is the conventional name of the territory in the Southern Urals, within which there is a compact group of fortified settlements of the Bronze Age - monuments of the 18th-16th centuries. BC. They belong to the Petrovsky-Sintashta cultural layer, the discovery of which was a significant page in the history of archaeological science and marked the beginning of the study of a new category of monuments in the archeology of the steppes of Central Eurasia.

Discovery history

The first information about the existence of ancient fortifications on the territory of the Ural-Kazakhstan steppes was obtained in the late 60s - early 70s of our century in Northern Kazakhstan on the Ishim River (G.B. Zdanovich, S.Ya. Zdanovich, V. F. Seibert), when, during excavations of multi-layered settlements of the II-I millennium BC. Novonikolsky and Bogolyubovo-I, defensive ditches were recorded, the filling of which contained ceramics, known from the burial ground near the village of Petrovka in the Ishim region. At the same time, a whole complex of fortifications was uncovered at the Petrovka-P settlement. Research by T.M. Potemkina, N.N. Kuminova, N.K. Kulikov of the Kamyshnoe-II settlement in the Kurgan region, V.V. Evdokimov and V.N. Logvin in the Kustanai region in the 70s confirmed the conclusion about the existence of an ancient building horizon, which included defensive structures.

The next important step was the discovery and study of the Sintashta complex of monuments dated within the second quarter of the 2nd millennium BC. (V.F. Gening, G.B. Zdanovich, V.V. Gening). The complex included a fortified settlement, earth and burial mounds connected with it, and a temple structure - the Great Sintashta sanctuary mound. The studied objects contained complex wood-and-earth constructions and numerous items made of bronze, bone, stone and clay, various animal sacrifices. Today it is one of the richest archaeological sites of the steppes and forest-steppes of Eurasia. Most of the elements of the monument turned out to be possible to compare and explain, based on the main sources characterizing the culture of the early Aryans - the Rigveda and the Avesta (V.F. Gening, E.E. Kuzmina). However, scientists continued to look skeptically at the Sintashta phenomenon, considering it a single and inexplicable phenomenon.

In the last decade, vast archaeological material has been accumulated in the steppes of the Southern Urals and the Trans-Urals, which can serve as the basis for the most serious scientific research. In particular, the fortified settlement of Arkaim (G.B. Zdanovich) was discovered and carefully studied, excavations of the Ustye cultural complex - a monument of the same circle (N.B. Vinogradov) are underway. At the same time, a new method of searching for and studying archeological monuments buried under sediments was introduced into the archaeological science of the Southern Urals - the interpretation of aerial photography materials (I.M. Batanina). This made it possible to discover in the Southern Urals a whole country of fortified settlements of the 18th-16th centuries. BC, later called the "Country of Cities", in the characterization of which one can confidently use such terms as "early statehood", "proto-civilization", "proto-city".

In "Land of Cities"

The "Land of Cities" stretches along the eastern slopes of the Urals from north to south for 400 km and for 100-150 km from west to east. Today, 17 settlements are known with 21 fortified settlements, as well as numerous settlements and cemeteries.

The territory of the "Country of Cities" is characterized by a certain set of physical and geographical features, which predetermined the living conditions of the people of the Bronze Age, the traditions of economy and urban planning, their level of culture.

The "Country of Cities" is located on the eastern slope of the Southern Urals, the deep geological structure of which predetermined the appearance of numerous copper deposits. During the formation of peneplain ores were "brought" to the surface ... "Land of cities" occupies the watershed of Asian and European rivers. Here the waters of the north and south, the waters of the Caspian Sea and the Arctic Ocean merge ...

Gently sloping river valleys with vast water meadows, wide steppe spaces were a necessary condition for the development of cattle breeding. According to the materials of the Arkaim settlement, the basis of the herd was large and small cattle. Horse breeding had two directions: meat and military production. In general, livestock breeding was of a distant pasture character.

Thus, on the territory of the "Country of Cities" there were all the necessary conditions for the emergence of the phenomenon of the Sintashta-Arkaim culture: the proximity of forests (building material and fuel), vast and rich pastures, high-quality drinking water, the presence of copper ores and flint rocks used to make objects weapons - arrowheads and spears.

The territory of the "Country of cities" has not yet been sufficiently surveyed. We can say with confidence that not all fortified settlements are open, some of them are forever lost to science - destroyed by natural processes or modern buildings. However, it can already be argued that the fortified centers within the "Country of Cities" were located at a distance of 40-70 km from each other. The average radius of the developed territory of each administrative and economic center was approximately 25-30 km, which corresponds to the distance of one day's march. Within these limits, in the vicinity of the "city", seasonal camps of pastoralists and fishermen were located, small unfortified settlements of people were built, which were closely connected in economic, military and religious terms with the "fortified city", with the "temple city".

Aerial photographs show that the "cities" have different layouts - oval, circle, square. The location of houses and streets is dictated by the configuration of fortifications. The earliest surveyed monuments of the "Country of Cities" are probably settlements with an oval layout, then circular and square settlements appear. All of them, of course, belong to the same cultural and historical layer. Various geometric symbols, expressed in the architectural and spatial characteristics of the "cities", most likely reflect the distinctive features of the religious worldview.

The most complete information about the structure of the "city"-fortress is provided by the Arkaim settlement, which was surrounded by two rings of defensive walls and ditches. Behind each wall in a circle were dwellings. In the center was a square square.

Necropolises are usually located not far from the settlements - from several tens of meters to a kilometer. The layout of the burial complex-mound is based on a circle with a clearly defined square in the center, underlined by the contour of large grave pits, wooden ceilings, and ground calculations. This layout is close to the principle of the Mandala - one of the main sacred symbols of Buddhist philosophy. The word "mandate" itself is translated as "circle", "disk", "circular". In the Rig Veda, where it is first encountered, the word has many meanings: “wheel”, “ring”, “country”, “space”, “society”, “collection” ... The universal interpretation of the Mandala as a model of the Universe, “maps space", while the Universe is modeled and depicted in plan using a circle, a square, or a combination of both. Arkaim and its dwellings, where the wall of one house is the wall of another, probably reflect the "circle of time", in which each unit is determined by the previous one and determines the next one.

In the "Country of Cities" it is not the richness of material culture that is striking - its amazing spirituality is striking. This is a special world where everything is saturated with spirituality - from settlement and funeral architecture to sculptural images of a person made of stone. It can be argued that the worldview systems that were formed in the Arkaim time determined the development of human communities in the steppe Eurasia and, probably, far beyond its borders for thousands of years ahead.

Who and where

The discovery of the "Country of Cities" sharply raised the question of the ethnicity of its bearers. What nation was the creator of a unique culture?

According to the study of anthropological materials (the remains of human skeletons), the population of the proto-urban centers of the Southern Trans-Urals of the 18th-16th centuries. BC. was Caucasoid, without noticeable signs of Mongoloid features (R. Lindstrom). The typical craniological type is characterized by a very long and narrow (or very narrow) and rather high skull. The average height of adult men is set within 172-175 cm, women are slightly lower, on average 161-164 cm.

The Arkaim type of man is close: to the population of the ancient pit culture, which occupied vast areas of the Eurasian steppes in the Eneolithic and early Bronze Ages. It should be noted the similarity of the Arkaimians with the later Srubnaya population of the Volga region and the people of the Bronze Age of Western Kazakhstan. The degree of similarity with the Andronovo population of Southern Siberia and East Kazakhstan (“Andronovo anthropological type”, according to G.F.Debets) is much less than with the people of the Bronze Age who lived west of the Ural Range.

Judging by the bone remains, the population of the Trans-Urals was distinguished by good health. Despite the noted common features, the people of the "Country of Cities" differed significantly from each other, and it is impossible to talk about a single physical type. This once again forces us to emphasize the complex composition of the genetic population of people - the creators of the Sintashta-Arkaim civilization.

Today, having a huge archaeological material, it is possible with great reason to return to the development of a scientific hypothesis about the South Ural ancestral home of the Aryan tribes.

The geography of the deep layers of the Rigveda and Avesta is quite compatible with the historical geography of the Southern Urals in the 18th-16th centuries. BC. It has its own holy mountain Hara, and seven rivers, and lake Varukasha. It is possible that in the geographical tradition of the Avesta, much goes back to the Paleolithic era, when a powerful ice sheet stretched from west to east along the line that today conditionally separates the Southern and Middle Urals.

ZdanovichG.B.,BataninaTHEM.« Country of cities» - fortified settlements of the Bronze Age of the 18th-16th centuries. BC. in the southern Urals

To know how our civilization has developed is informative and interesting. Now there are many different disputes and questions about the generally accepted chronology. However, I propose to recall the school course and pay attention to the key events that took place as our civilization developed. Let's start by looking at events from 5000 to 1000 BC. A lot of things happened during this time, but let's talk about everything in order.

5000-4000 AD BC e. Eneolithic cultures in Mesopotamia: Eredu, El-Ubeid, Uruk. Appears artificial irrigation, potter's wheel. Al-Ubeid was already a large settlement with an area of up to 10 hectares

3900 BC e. The origin of statehood in Mesopotamia. Historically, Sumer consisted of cities (Akkad, Eshnunna, Ur, Uruk, Lagash), some of which were at times city-states

OK. 3000 BC e. King Menee united Upper and Lower Egypt under his rule and founded the capital - the city of Abydos. In memory of the unification, the pharaohs wore two crowns inserted one into the other - red (Lower Egypt) and white (Upper Egypt)

3000 BC e. The first lunar calendar appeared in Mesopotamia

3000-2000 BC e. The existence of the city-state Ashur on the Tigris, in the future the core of the Assyrian state. The existence of an agricultural Trypillian culture on the territory of Ukraine, Moldova and Romania

3000-2800 AD BC e. The period of rule in Egypt of the first two dynasties - Early Kingdom (capital - Memphis)

2800-2250 BC e. The period of the Old Kingdom in Egypt, the appearance of the first pyramids

2750-2315 BC e. The foundation of the city-states of Ur, Uruk, Lagash, Kish, Nippur in Mesopotamia and the struggle for leadership between them

2675 BC e. Strengthening of the city-state of Uruk in Mesopotamia, led by King Gilgamesh

2609 BC e. The beginning of the reign of Pharaoh Djoser in Egypt. Creation of a stone step pyramid

OK. 2551 BC e. The coming to power of Pharaoh Cheops, the construction of the pyramid

OK. 2600 BC e. The Emergence of the Mohenjo-Daro and Harappa Cultures in India

2316-2176 BC e. The unification of Mesopotamia under the rule of Sargon the Ancient, ruler of Akkad. The Sumero-Akkadian kingdom arises and develops

2250-2050 BC e. The period of the first collapse of Egypt

OK. 2050 BC e. Unification of Egypt by the 11th dynasty pharaoh Mentuhotep I

2050-1785 BC e. Middle Kingdom period in Egypt

2003-1595 BC e. Old Babylonian kingdom

OK. 2000 BC e. Beginning of Maya culture in Mesoamerica (Central America)

1913-1903 BC e. War between Egypt and Nubia

1900 BC e. Achaean invasion of Greece

1792-1750 BC e. The reign of the Babylonian king Hammurabi, the emergence of the first written code of laws (laws of Hammurabi)

1785-1580 BC e. Period of the second collapse of Egypt

OK. 1700s BC e. The invasion of Egypt by the Hyksos tribes from northern Arabia and southern Syria

1600-1027 BC e. The period of existence of the Shang-Yin state

1650-1200 BC uh. The emergence and development of the ancient Hittite kingdom.

1595 BC e. The destruction of Babylon by the Hittite king Mursili I. The fall of the Old Babylonian kingdom and the transition of Mesopotamia under the rule of the nomadic Kassite tribes

1580-1085 BC e. The period of the New Kingdom in Egypt (the completion of the defeat of the Hyksos by Pharaoh Ahmose, the revival of Egypt)

OK. 1500 BC e. The emergence of the Olmec culture on the coast of the Gulf of Mexico

1365-1348 BC e. The reign of Pharaoh Amenhotep IV (Akhenaton). Religious reform in Egypt - an attempt to introduce a monotheistic religion (worship of the single god Aton)

OK. 1320 BC e. Exodus of Jews from Egypt

1290-1224 BC e. The reign of the pharaoh of the XIX dynasty - Ramesses II. Wars with the Hittites. The economic and political flourishing of Egypt, the division of Syria between Egypt and the Hittites

1280-1261 BC e. The first written evidence of the existence of the state of Urartu

OK. 1260 BC e.. Capture by the Achaean Union of the strategically important city of Ilion (Troy) in Asia Minor

1223 BC e. Assyrian capture of Babylonia

1200-800 AD BC e. The heyday of the Phoenician (Sidonian) state

1200-1100 BC e. The invasion of the Dorian tribes and the destruction of the Achaean civilization

1122-770 BC e. The reign of the Zhou Dynasty in China. Existence of the state of Western Zhou

1197 BC e. Restoration of a territorially unified Egypt under Pharaoh Setnakht I

1125-1103 BC e. The reign of the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar I and the strengthening of the role of Babylon in Asia Minor

1115-1077 BC e. The reign of the Assyrian king Tiglath-Pileser I

1075-945 BC e. The fall of Egypt and its division into two parts

1029-928 BC e. The emergence and development of Ancient Israel - a single kingdom of the Jewish people, founded by King Saul

1500 BC

Open Orthodox Encyclopedia "TREE".

Chronology

Centuries: 16th century BC. 15th century BC. 14th century BC.

1505 1504 1503 1502

1501 1500 1499 1498

1497 1496 1495 1494

passed away

Right. Phinehas the high priest.

The date is approximate.

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Open Orthodox Encyclopedia "TREE". Chronology of the Centuries: XIV XV XVI 1495 1496 1497 1498 1499 1500 1501 1502 1503 1504 1505 ...
reverse, the thirty-first letter of the Russian alphabet. According to the outline, it goes back to the letter "E" of the South Slavic manuscripts of the 13th-14th centuries. and connected throughout...
in the Encyclopedic Dictionary of Brockhaus and Euphron:
\[Words that the reader will not find under the letter E, see the section of words starting with E.\]E (the so-called e "backward") - thirty-first ...
in the Modern Encyclopedic Dictionary:
e [e reverse], the thirty-first letter of the Russian alphabet, has no prototype in Cyrillic, goes back to the letter E, which appeared in South Slavic ...
[Words that the reader will not find under the letter E, see the section of words on E.] E (the so-called, e "reverse") ? thirty …
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FINLAND* in the Encyclopedia of Brockhaus and Efron.
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CHINA, STATE IN ASIA in the Encyclopedia of Brockhaus and Efron.
BIBLIOGRAPHY in the Encyclopedia of Brockhaus and Efron.
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AESTHETICS in the Lexicon of non-classics, artistic and aesthetic culture of the XX century, Bychkov:
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It happened 10 thousand years ago or a little earlier... A small detachment of hunters who came from the Sahara, then still a flourishing plain, approached the edge of the plateau, behind which a new, unknown country opened up. Antelope hunters, familiar only with small rivers of their native steppes that dry up in summer, have never seen such a miracle! A wide, full-flowing river majestically carried muddy waters past them; where and where - no one knew. Without breaking the silence, people looked at the river for a long time, seized with sacred awe and the desire to fall on their knees before the mighty ruler of these places. The hunters did not even dare to go down to the very water, near which venomous snakes swarmed. The banks of the river were swampy for hundreds of meters and overgrown with thick reeds. Hippos and crocodiles rested on the shallows. The hunters left, but they, and later their descendants, had to return to the tempting and frightening shores. Game in the drying steppes of the Sahara became less and less, skirmishes between hunting tribes became more and more fierce and bloody. Defeated, pushed back from the familiar steppe, the tribes settled on the unfamiliar banks of a large river. The population of the Nile Valley gradually formed from small groups that “leaked” here, among which were people with different skin colors - olive-yellow, brownish or completely dark. The first settlements discovered by archaeologists on the banks of the Nile date back to a rather late time - VI-IV millennium BC. e. They were located on high sections of the river valley, far from the water - people were afraid of floods. They still did not know how to properly cultivate the fertile soil of the "lower fields", although they already knew the simplest methods of caring for cultivated plants.

The settlers (they were later called Egyptians) retained an affectionate and respectful attitude towards the mighty stream. The Nile was a living being to them; in prayers and songs they addressed him as a father. And the father in the view of the ancients is the one who gives food, takes care of his children. Of course, the Egyptians had to get their own food, but Father Nil gave them the most important thing - the fertile lands of their banks and water for their irrigation.

The dark land in the Nile Valley was so different from the rocky and clay soil of the neighboring plateaus that the Egyptians called their country "Kemet" - "Black". The river itself brought extraordinary land, millimeter by millimeter laying a fertile layer on the stone foundation of the banks. The water in the Nile is muddy because it contains many tiny particles of various origins - there are grains of rocks in it, picked up by the river where it flows along a rocky bed, and plant remains brought by tributaries from coastal tropical forests.

When at the beginning of summer in East Africa, where the source of the Nile is located, the mountain snows begin to melt, the water level in the river rises and the flood begins. The Nile slows down its already calm course and floods the low banks, turning them into real swamps for several months. In stagnant water, suspended particles gradually settle down, and when the river returns to its channel, the banks are covered with a new layer of fertile silt. In the southern regions of Egypt, the rise of water begins in mid-July, and above all - 8-10 m above the usual

Jewelry and ornaments of the Egyptians.

War Egyptian chariot.

Economic work of the Egyptians.
Fragment of the painting of an ancient tomb.

We can only guess what a big role in the formation of Egyptian culture and the state was played by the early period of Egyptian history - the time from 4000 to 3000 BC. e. and the period of the Early Kingdom (3000-2800 BC). Only a few stone tablets have come down to us (they are called "palettes") with images of the first pharaohs striking their enemies. The large number of titles and positions mentioned in ancient Egyptian inscriptions suggests that the Egyptians were looking for the best way to organize the state. Already by the beginning of the Old Kingdom period (2800 BC), the set of titles becomes very stable. Successfully united in this early era and the culture of the Semites - immigrants from Asia - and the African population. The Egyptians themselves had the deepest respect for the first, early centuries of their history. Their imaginations populated these times with great sages and mighty kings.

Even under the rule of the pharaohs, the nome continued to be the main component of Egyptian society and the state. The nomarchs often built tombs for themselves that were not inferior in luxury to the royal ones, and kept their own armed detachments. The nomarch could freely dispose of the fields of his nome - to increase the plowing in difficult years, to bring the crop to his own barns, to give it to the population in the form of rations. Only certain, especially important branches of production, such as cattle breeding, were placed under the direct supervision of the pharaoh's officials. In such cases, the nomarch had only to provide the royal people with normal working conditions, without interfering in their affairs. Most of the population of the nome saw their real master and breadwinner not in the pharaoh, but in the nomarch. In the event of uprisings and rebellions against the central government, the nobility could firmly count on the support of many ordinary people.

Egyptian culture was attractive to many peoples of the Ancient East. The Egyptian influence was very strong in Nubia, an African country located upstream of the Nile. There were times when temples dedicated to the Egyptian gods appeared in abundance in Syria and Phoenicia. Egyptian religion seems to have had a strong influence on the ancient Jews. But the Egyptians, despite the extensive conquests, did not manage to create a huge power, an empire that included many countries and peoples. The point here, probably, is that the Egyptians are accustomed to "fold" their state from nomes - small areas connected with each other by the Nile and common economic interests. The Egyptians simply did not know how to play with other "dice", therefore the powerful cultural influence of Egypt on Asia Minor did not lead to its accession to the power of the pharaohs for a long time.

Prince Rahotep Princess Nofret. 2600 BC e.

level! - the water rises in August - September and stays high until mid-November. During a flood, the water rises slowly, its level rising by several centimeters a day, so that people have time to leave, taking their property and livestock. The main difficulty in cultivating the most fertile flooded "lower fields" is due to the fact that after a drop in water, moisture is unevenly distributed - high-lying areas lose it too quickly, while coastal fields, on the contrary, become swampy, because water stands on them almost all year round. And the Egyptians came up with a very simple device that allowed them to adjust the amount of water in the fields at their discretion. In much the same way as children build earthen dams on streams in the spring, the Egyptians began to build walls of densely beaten earth, plastered with clay, on the flood banks of the river, so that water would not seep through them. From a bird's eye view, the Nile Valley looked like a notebook sheet lined in a box. During the spill, water fell into the "cells" - pools, and people could dispose of it as needed - to hold it for a long time in high places or, conversely, having broken through the earthen wall, drain excess water. Gradually, individual structures were linked into long chains that stretched along the Nile for tens of kilometers. To maintain this complex system, people created control centers for chains of dams - the first Egyptian cities. Each city united around itself a small area, which the Greeks, who later conquered Egypt, called "nome", and its ruler - "nomarch". The rulers gave orders to prepare the fields for sowing, build new earthen dam walls and lay channels to drain excess water, ensure that the entire crop from the fields was brought to the city barns, and the grain was more or less equally distributed throughout the year to the entire population. The nomarchs fought fiercely with each other for supreme power over the entire country, ruining the cities of their neighbors, stealing their cattle and enslaving Egyptians like themselves. By the time of formation

Egyptian kitchen utensils.

Ancient Egyptian warship (Old Kingdom).

united Egyptian kingdom (about 3000 BC), there were about forty such nomes.

The Egyptians rarely prepared their own food - most often they took the resulting grain to special "canteens" in which the whole village or several neighboring villages were fed. These "canteens" were also under the supervision of the nomarchs or the king himself, who was called "pharaoh". A special official ensured that the cooks did not steal food, equally distributed stew, porridge and beer, he also collected taxes from the peasants and examined their cases in court.

The Egyptians were industrious farmers and received on their rich lands the highest yields in the ancient world, although the tools with which they worked did not differ much from those used by other peoples of the Ancient East. The abundance of grain in the country made it possible to free some people from working on the land and use them as builders or soldiers. We will talk about how and what the Egyptians built later, but for now let's see how and why they fought.

The pharaoh, who most often stood at the head of the Egyptian army, tried to fight quickly in order to return home to the capital in a few months. The army consisted of two parts: a small detachment of specially trained and well-trained soldiers and a large militia of peasants recruited into the army for only a few months and temporarily released from field work. The Egyptians did not know how to take enemy fortresses by storm, so they besieged them, which took a lot of time.

The connected Ethiopian and the Syrian are a symbol of the peoples subject to Egypt.

Often, the Egyptian army returned home after a three-four-month campaign, capturing only one or two small fortresses. Major battles were rare - the generals took care of the soldiers, whom they called "the herd of God." Neither the Egyptians nor their opponents wanted to take risks: the Nubians in the south, the rulers of small Syrian and Palestinian cities, and the Hittite kings in the north. Very rarely, victory in a war led to the capture of a foreign kingdom, because it was difficult and troublesome to manage it. The pharaohs preferred to put a ruler loyal to Egypt on the throne in a foreign country, and if he became rebellious, replace him with another, who for the time being was kept at the court as an honorary hostage.

The main goal of the war was military booty - slaves, cattle, rare woods, ivory, gold, precious stones. After a successful campaign, the pharaohs returned with piles of wealth; a lot went to ordinary soldiers. A soldier could bring 3-5 slaves and either profitably sell them on the slave market, or use them in his household. The thirst for military booty was, however, not the only reason that forced the pharaohs to go with the army to foreign lands.

The fact is that Egypt did not have good timber for the construction of ships, mines for

It seemed that nature itself took care to turn the Nile Valley into an impregnable fortress. From the west and east, access to Egypt was reliably protected by the Libyan and Arabian deserts; in the south, the Egyptians, even in ancient times, blocked the path of enemies along the Nile, building several powerful fortresses in the southern Nome of Elephants. The most vulnerable place in the defense of the country was the north - the lower reaches at the confluence of the Nile into the Mediterranean Sea were open to the conquerors. When the power of the pharaohs in the country was strong, it was here that the Egyptians kept the bulk of their fleet and land army. But during the uprisings against the royal power, the defense of the northern borders was sharply weakened, and the Asian nomads could freely penetrate into Egypt. At such moments, "all Asiatics became like Egyptians, and Egyptians - like strangers thrown out on the road," as Ipuser, a witness to one of these nomadic raids, put it.

Around 1750 BC. e. the invasion of the nomadic Hyksos "owls, who came from the north, ended with the conquest of Egypt. The Hyksos had bronze weapons and a chariot army - this was enough to capture the country, weakened by internal strife. Despite their military superiority over the Egyptians, the Hyksos could not establish lasting power over the whole The southern nomes of Egypt only verbally recognized the supremacy of the Hyksos kings, accumulating strength to fight against them.

The Hyksos quickly realized that they were unable to manage the conquered country - there were too few of them, and their experience of the steppe life was very ill-suited to the new conditions. Therefore, the Hyksos began to adopt the Egyptian system of government, beliefs and rituals. The rulers of the Hyksos were crowned with the crown of the pharaohs, took the Egyptian royal title, and brought Egyptian nobles closer to themselves. At the same time, the Hyksos encouraged the resettlement of their kindred nomads from the Sinai Peninsula to Egypt, hoping to create an additional support for their power.

But all attempts by the Hyksos to gain a foothold in Egypt were in vain. The last Hyksos pharaohs lived locked in their capital-fortress Avaris, built in the lower reaches of the Nile. The struggle for the liberation of Egypt from foreigners was led by the rulers of Thebes, who founded the eighteenth dynasty of the pharaohs, the most brilliant dynasty in the history of the country. In 1580 BC. e. the last detachments of the Hyksos were expelled from the coastal regions of Egypt. Egyptian legend tells that the defeated Hyksos were offered a choice: leave Egypt free or remain slaves in it.

The Hyksos preferred the second - such was the attractive force of the Egyptian culture, under the influence of which they lived for 170 years.

The priests were surrounded in ancient Egypt by universal reverence. The Egyptians very often thought about what awaits a person after death; they had complex ideas about life after death, about the resurrection of people who performed all the necessary rites during their lifetime and were buried properly. It was believed that the priests had all the necessary knowledge about the world, providing people with eternal life; the most important of this knowledge was recorded in ancient times in the "Book of the Dead", which was sacred to the Egyptians. Only the priests kept in their memory the texts of spells and prayers addressed to the gods, who gave people warmth and light, water and crops. In addition to magical knowledge, the priests had the skills to build complex architectural structures, were able to follow the movement of the stars in the sky, calculate the area of land, and were engaged in healing.

As a rule, pharaohs and priests rarely clashed; their relationship was for the most part well-established. The priests glorified the kings, and the pharaohs exempted the temple facilities from taxes and working off for the state. Contradictions first arose when Egypt began active hostilities in Asia Minor in the era of the New Kingdom (from 1580 BC). Temples demanded their share

extraction of various metals and even stone, necessary for the construction of temples and palaces. The more perfect the Egyptian buildings and tools of artisans became, the more the country depended on the import of the necessary materials from foreign lands. The widespread use of copper required the constant presence of Egyptian military detachments in the Sinai Peninsula, where the richest copper mines were located. Valuable tree species were exported from the Levant. Even more difficult was the position of Egypt, when around 1500 BC. e. Bronze, an alloy of copper and tin, became widely used. Weapons made of bronze were much better than copper, and an army armed with bronze swords, arrows and bronze-tipped spears had a great advantage over the enemy. The Egyptians could get copper, but there were no tin mines nearby, and the famous pharaohs of the New Kingdom era (1580-1085 BC) Thutmose III and Ramses II had to wage long and difficult wars in Syria and Palestine up to the Euphrates River , in order to bring under Egyptian control the main trade routes along which tin was transported (see Art. "Hittite Kingdom"). In some cases, the Egyptians bought the products and materials they needed, but more often they sought to get what they needed by force.

The huge wealth accumulated by the pharaohs allowed the Egyptians to build so much, majestically and beautifully, as no other people in the Ancient East could do. The construction was supervised by a specially trained priest-architect, who was able to perform rather complex mathematical calculations. The names of the most famous architects have come down to our time. There were not so many construction workers, headed by foreman officials, and they did the most difficult work - the final processing of large stone blocks, their grinding and laying. This was done so carefully that even now, after more than four thousand years, it is impossible to insert a thin razor blade between many stone blocks - they are so tightly packed. A lot depended on the accuracy in the processing and laying of stones, because the Egyptians did not fasten the stones with a special mortar, but simply laid them one on top of the other, as children building a tower from wooden cubes do. The strength and stability of the building depended on how well the "cubes" fit together.

The simplest work - dragging weights, rough hewing of stones, laying roads to the construction site - was given to peasants driven from nearby villages. The chiefs took care that they did not sit idly by even during the flood of the Nile, when there was no work in the fields. Slave labor was rarely used on construction sites. Although there were always a lot of slaves in Egypt, before the era of the New Kingdom, they were mainly engaged in household chores: they baked, washed, cleaned rooms, guarded the owners' house, wove canvases, and looked after poultry.

The pharaoh's officials united free Egyptians into "working detachments", consisting of several dozen people. They performed many different tasks: in just a year, a person could change several occupations, such as cultivating fields, digging canals, laying roads, building buildings. In the era of the Old Kingdom (2800-2250 BC), the pharaoh controlled the working detachments through his officials, and even noble people were forced to turn to the pharaoh with a request to provide them with workers to cultivate the land. During the Middle Kingdom (2050-1750 BC), the nobles already acquired their own dependent people and disposed of them at their discretion.

The largest temples and pyramids were built over decades. The temple, not completed by one king, was completed by his successor on the throne, but the pyramid sometimes remained unfinished. The pyramids are the tombs of the pharaohs; the coffin with the body of the king, turned by masters into an imperishable mummy, was installed in a secret room inside the pyramid; the entrances to the burial room and the pyramid itself were blocked with stones. The pharaoh began to build a pyramid for himself with

booty - after all, they supplied the army of the pharaoh with people, and cattle, and grain. At the same time, the "new people", people from the lower classes of Egyptian society who served in the army, did not agree with such a division and claimed most of the captured. The collision was, apparently, so sharp that around 1500 BC. e. under Queen Hatshepsut, Egypt was even forced to temporarily stop campaigns in Syria and Palestine. The way out was later found in the increased robbery of the conquered countries: the captured slaves, cattle and grain should have been enough for everyone. From 1400 to 1200 BC e. not far from Thebes, the most luxurious Egyptian temples of Karnak and Luxor were built; their construction was supposed to symbolize the restoration of the alliance between the royal power and the priests.

Pyramid of Djoser.

1. The conquests of the Egyptian pharaohs.

2. The territory of the Egyptian kingdom around 1500 BC. e.

3. Oasis.

days of his reign, but not everyone had time to finish it.

The highest (they are called "Great") pyramids were erected in the era of the Old Kingdom near the city of Memphis, the then capital of Egypt, by the pharaohs Khufu (the Greeks called him Cheops) and Khafre (Chephren). The height of the first of them in antiquity was 146.7 m, the second - 143.5 m.

Egyptian weapons.

Their tops have suffered quite a lot from time to time, and now both pyramids are several meters lower. During the construction of such huge structures, Egyptian architects had to solve complex technical problems. The pyramid of Khufu, for example, is made up of 2,300,000 stone blocks, each of which weighs about two and a half tons. The total weight of the pyramid - 6.5 or 7 million tons - should be calculated so that the pressure on the interior (gallery, burial chambers, sanctuaries) is evenly distributed and the pyramid does not collapse inward from its own gravity. The admiration of the Egyptians themselves and their neighbors for the Great Pyramids was so great that they were considered one of the seven wonders of the world.

Why did the Egyptians build gigantic tombs for their kings? To understand this, you need to know at least a little about the gods of Ancient Egypt and the religious ideas of its inhabitants. We are accustomed to speak of the human "soul"; the Egyptians, on the other hand, believed that a person had several such souls, and eternal life after earthly death is bestowed by the gods on those people whose souls are well cared for by priests-priests. The tomb was seen as the home of one of these souls, which the Egyptians called "Ka" (double of the deceased person). Therefore, kings and nobles during their lifetime did not spare gold, silver, precious stones, ebony and ebony, ivory in order to make the future home of their “Ka” beautiful and pleasant. Unfortunately, most of the tombs

Golden mask of Pharaoh Tutankhamun. 1562-1352 BC e.

robbed by thieves and robbers in ancient times. Only a few, accidentally preserved and certainly not the richest burials have come down to us. The tomb of Tutankhamen, a young king who died at the age of nineteen, was widely known by archaeologists.

In Egypt, many gods were revered. Some of them were very ancient and looked more like animals than people. Their images have dog heads, horns, or other signs of animals. Therefore, in many cities they deified animals - cats, bulls, crocodiles - and kept them in special rooms, ponds or stalls. Insulting animals was punishable by death, for damage was done to the gods they personified. Each nome had its own gods (sometimes little known outside of it), but there were also common Egyptian deities, whose temples were built throughout the country: Horus, Ra, Osiris, Isis and others. The god of the most influential nome was considered the most powerful. When, after the collapse of the Old Kingdom, the capital of the country was transferred from Memphis to Thebes, the Theban Amon-Ra began to be considered the supreme deity. It is also known that Pharaoh Akhenaten tried to ban the worship of all gods, except for the god of the solar disk named Aton. But the attachment of the Egyptians to the old gods turned out to be stronger than the fear of the formidable king. Akhenaten's attempt failed, and his successors tried to erase even the memory of him.

The Egyptians associated myths about the gods with natural phenomena, the change of seasons, and the floods of the Nile. When hot winds began to blow from the desert, the inhabitants of Egypt said that the insidious god of the desert, Seth, killed his brother Osiris and now reigns supreme in the world. According to the Egyptians, the tears of the goddess Isis, mourning her husband Osiris, caused the Nile to flood. The beginning of the emergence of crops was considered the resurrection of Osiris, who was saved by his son Horus. All this became known when, in the first third of the 19th century. the Frenchman Champollion deciphered Egyptian hieroglyphs, and scientists were able to read the inscriptions in the pyramids and the "Book of the Dead" with a description of the underground kingdom of the dead. Some of the myths were written on papyrus - the Egyptian forerunner of paper, made in a complex way from the papyrus plant - and have survived to this day.

For a long time, the Egyptians managed to protect the Nile Valley from foreign invasions. During the first two thousand years of Egyptian history, the country was only once conquered by the nomadic tribes of the Hyksos around 1750 BC. e. (see Art. "Military Affairs of the Ancient East"). Less than 200 years later, the conquerors were expelled, and Egypt entered an era of long prosperity. However, neighboring countries developed faster than Egypt, which had difficulty learning new things because of its adherence to its traditions, and in the 1st millennium BC. e. the country in the Nile valley was conquered first by the Assyrians, then by the Iranians, Greeks and, finally, by the Romans. But even under foreign rule, the Egyptians for a long time retained their unique culture, memories of the great past of their homeland.