Eternal
Egypt
by Pierre Montet-Translated from the French by Doreen Weightman
I. The first chapter begins with a
description of the Nile valley in prehistoric
times and the
sweeping
changes it has gone through until the arrival of the first Europeans.
A.
The oldest flora known to ancient Egyptians was the
barley (iot) and emmer-wheat (boti).
B.
The most prominent tree par excellence that grew in the villages, at cross-roads, and on
the edges of the desert was the sycamore.
C.
Famous Egyptian fauna in Neolithic times included the
elephant, the giraffe, and the python.
D.
Egypt
has been synonymous with plagues, epidemics, floods, locust invasions, lice,
frogs, mosquitoes, flies, and hail in historical times.
II. Traces of tools found in Egypt
by geologists Sandford and Arkell date from early
Abbevillian period to the Mousterian
period. [1]
A.
The four races that lived in Egypt
in prehistoric times were the remtu
who were the Egyptians themselves, the Amu who had Asiatic features, the
Nehesiu who were black and lived south of Egypt ,
and lastly the Timihu who lived west of Egypt and were closely related to
the Asiatic in profile.
B.
Egypt
was a meeting-point for different races in prehistoric times as can be seen in
surviving statues that display different characteristics of human types.
C.
Though Egypt
had her own dwarfs, the Kings and the rich brought extra dwarfs from the
distant land of Punt
D.
In terms of population numbers and according to
Herodotus, there were twenty-thousand highly populated towns during the reign
of Amasis. [2]
III. In chapter 3, the author defines
Pharaoh as a literal translation of the Egyptian expression
Per-aa
which is in reference to the great house or in other words pertaining to the
royal
palace.
A.
Pharaonic kings were above ordinary mortals,
mummification ceremonies took seventy days, and that coronation celebrations
were signals for great rejoicing.
B.
Newly enthroned kings were crowned in the palace of the
departed father until the new sovereign king constructed his own palace.
C.
Egyptian kings
supervised the massive construction of the tombs that served as their final
resting abodes.
D.
Egyptian dynasties experienced assassinations and
plots.
IV. Egyptian pharaohs considered
themselves to be masters of two lands and that everything
in Upper and Lower
Egypt including people, livestock, buildings, lands, tools, and
even
furniture belonged to them.
A.
Kings of the Old Kingdom
wielded considerable powers and oversaw powerful administrative systems.
B.
During the days when Egypt was divided into two parts,
following the examples of the Greeks, the country experienced boundaries that
came to be referred to as nomes each displaying a distinct emblem.
C.
As noted by
Hesiod, Egyptians of his time made pictures and inscriptions of everyday work
on their tombs symbolizing a kind of concrete encyclopedia of Egyptian life.[3]
D.
A distinct community who went about their work naked or
wearing only a belt did most of the hunting and fishing in ancient Egypt .
V. Besides the two lands-Upper and Lower Egypt ,
the Pharaoh was also the Sovereign of the
Nine Bows-in reference to a
confederation of peoples that fell under the domain of the
Pharaoh.
A.
The military resources of the Egyptians during the New Kingdom comprised of mercenaries and prisoners of war
while Akhenaton’s personal bodyguards included Nubians, Libyans, and Syrians.
B.
Byblos which was part of
the eastern nations was the most noteworthy trading partner of Egypt from the
time Khasekhemui, the last king of the Second Dynasty, until the Ptolemaic era.
C.
In search of incense, Queen Hatshepsut sailed to the Land of Punt
D.
Amazingly, during the Fifth Dynasty, the Greeks and
Cretans lived primitive lives.
VI. Ancient Egyptians had a variety of
gods often shared by the array of nomes that
subdivided the kingdoms.
A.
The most notable of these gods were Neith, Thoth,
Hathor, Seth, Horus, Osiris, Amun-Ra and Ibis.
B.
Every important Egyptian god had altars managed by
priests who upon their deaths were succeeded by their sons.
C.
Egyptian gods were responsible for the protection of
their devotees against illness, against their enemies, and other external
forces.
D.
The kings’ duties to the gods included building
temples, seeing to their upkeep, and providing the means whereby the offering
tables could be constantly replenished.
VII. Because Egyptians worshipped the
dead; they gave them all the necessary attention as
they did for their kings.
A.
The intensification of funerary construction took
greater strides at the beginning of the Third Dynasty as stone took the place
of brick.
B.
The construction of mammoth pyramids dotted the
Egyptian landscape in the Fifth and Sixth Dynasties with special attention
given to the Valley of the Dead and
the Valley of the Living.
C.
The tombs of the queens, high-ranking officials, and
courtiers were low, smaller buildings that were smaller in dimensions.
D.
Ancient Egyptians conceived the idea of the judging of
the dead before they were allowed entry into the next world.
VIII. With the absence of writing on the
Neolithic or Amratian tombs, the respected
Author is of the view that hieroglyphic
signs were invented as early as the Chalcolothic
Period.
A.
In ancient Egypt , the occupation of a scribe
was the finest of all professions for scribes were employed in the temples, in
the main administrative departments, in prisons, and in the offices of
governors and magistrates.
B.
The first literary genre practiced by the Egyptians was
the collections of ‘instructions’ first written by the professional writer
Imhotep, now lost.
C.
According to the Greeks, ancient Egyptians were
absolutely eloquent and remarkably versed in mathematics, astronomy, and
medicine.
D.
Medical science was practiced at Memphis thus giving Egyptian doctors a high
standing throughout the whole of the ancient world.
IX. Ancient Egypt’s earliest known artist
was Imhotep as architecture, sculpture, drawing,
and design continued to evolve
until his time.
A.
Enthusiastic patrons of the arts in the New Kingdom included Queen Hatshepsut, Amenophis III,
Akhenaton, Seti I, and Ramses the Great.
B.
The names of the artists who meticulously did the
dedicatory inscriptions on the temples remain anonymous.
C.
Egyptians started to build monuments entirely out of
stone at the beginning of the Third Dynasty.
D.
Ancient Egyptian arts were influenced by the natural
world as can be seen from the inscriptions on the tombs, monuments, and
pyramids of ancient kings.
X. The final chapter of the book is
dedicated to those who had dealings with the Egyptians:
The Hebrews, the Greeks, and the
Romans.
A.
The greatest numbers of foreigners in ancient Egypt were represented
by the Greeks who became more numerous during the Twenty-Sixth Dynasty.
B.
The best known pioneer to decipher the hieroglyphics
was Kircher, a Jesuit, though Jean-Francois Champollion remains the greatest of
all names associated with the study of Egypt .
C.
The First World War marked a new period in the history
of Egyptology when Maspero, a French scientist was dispatched to Cairo by the French
government to train Egyptologists and Arabic scholars after the death of
Mariette who previously held the post of Service
des Antiquetes.
D.
Having excelled in the art of pyramid construction and
colossi or pectorals and pendants, Egyptians rival Greeks and outshine the
other peoples of antiquity.
References
[1] P.
Montet, La Geographie de l’Egypte ancienne, Paris, 1957-1961: I Tomehu, la Basse Egypte; II To-Chema, la Haute Egypte.
[2] Herodotus, II, 177. Diodorus, I, 31,
and Theocritus, XVII, 82-4, give different figures.
[3] P. Montet, Les
Scenes de la Vie privee dans les tombeaux de L’Ancien Empire, Paris 1925; Junker, Giza, 12 vols, and several articles by
Keimer. P. Montet La vie quotidienne en Egypte au temps
des Ramses, Paris, 1942; Posener, Sauneron, Yoyotte, Dictionnaire de la civilization égyptienne, Paris, 1959.
