Through the Eras

Era Overviewsculpture. Finally, the order of rituals and the relationshipbetween the gods and their sacred animals are justtwo aspects of religion that can be studied through art.Without Egyptian art, scholars would not know anythingabout many of these subjects. Yet interpretingthe evidence of visual art is not always straightforward.The Egyptian conventions used in art lead scholars tointerpret rather than merely report on what they see invisual art.WRITING. The Egyptians were probably the firstto invent writing, perhaps as early as 3500 B.C.E. Thistremendous innovation, the ability to represent languagegraphically, allowed for accurate communication acrosstime and space and led to a revolution in intellectual history.For the first time, it was possible to send words andthoughts formulated in one place hundreds or thousandsof miles away. It was also possible to build on an intellectualheritage and accurately remember the words utteredby ancestors generations before. The Egyptiansthemselves recognized the importance of this accomplishment.As with anything truly important, they attributedthe invention of writing to the gods. Hieroglyphswere to the Egyptians the “words of the gods.” Thoth,the ibis-headed scribe of the gods, was patron for all humanscribes. The Egyptians also recognized that writinghad shifted the balance of power in their society.Although physical labor still had great value in Egyptiansociety, a new kind of power emerged with writing andthe existence of the scribal class. For scribes, as the Egyptianswere fond of saying, were really the people in controlof everything. Certainly the scribal class played a keyrole in preserving ancient Egyptian heritage, for it islargely through their writings that modern scholars areable to judge and understand Egyptian accomplishments.These writings provide important evidence not only ofthe literature of the time, but also about the religiousceremonies and beliefs, the role of music, and even dancesteps. The writings that accompany artistic representationsof Egyptian life are invaluable in deciphering thisvisual evidence, casting a stronger light on the shadowyworld of ancient Egyptian culture.LINGUISTS. Though all Egyptologists study theEgyptian language, philologists specialize in this field. Ingeneral Egyptian philologists are familiar with the fivehistorical dialects of Egyptian and the four ways of writingthose dialects. The dialects divide the language intofive historical periods closely mirroring the time wheneach of them was the spoken language. They include OldEgyptian, Middle Egyptian, Late Egyptian, Demotic,and Coptic. Very roughly they represent the spoken languageof the Old Kingdom, Middle Kingdom, NewKingdom, Late Period, and Graeco-Roman Period. Theearliest four dialects were written with hieroglyphic signsand hieratic signs, a simplified, cursive writing system.Demotic had its own writing system based on hieraticwhile Coptic was written with the Greek alphabet.Philologists study the grammatical systems of the dialectsand are generally less interested in the writing system itself.They very often specialize in one or more of the dialects.Paleographers and epigraphers, on the other hand,specialize in the writing systems themselves. Paleographersstudy handwriting such as is generally found onpapyrus and on limestone ostraca. Epigraphers, in contrast,are generally interested in the carved and paintedhieroglyphs found on temple and tomb walls. Paleographersand epigraphers make texts available through publicationfor philologists to study. Historians of ancientEgypt are trained primarily as philologists.ARCHAEOLOGISTS. Though most philologists havespent some time studying objects, archaeologists specializein this field. A large number of specialties amongarchaeologists have developed in Egyptian archaeologyin the years since World War II. Traditionally archaeologistsstudied only art and architecture. These fieldsremain vital and continue to make progress as newmethods of analysis emerge. Other scholars concentrateon less glamorous objects such as ceramics, tools, andhuman, animal, and plant remains. These objects areimportant for understanding daily life and the lives ofthose ancient people who could not write. As is generallytrue in history, post-World War II scholars have triedto learn about all classes in the ancient world rather thanconcentrating only on the elite. Some archaeologistsprefer to work in the field, excavating new objects forstudy. Others study the existing collections of Egyptianartifacts found in museums and other private and publiccollections. Most are involved in studying a combinationof the two, both newly excavated objects andthose already in collections.THE PROBLEM OF DATES. The study of history generallydeals in absolute dates, in which events are linkedwith concrete years and follow a specific chronology.Such methodology is more problematic when discussingancient history, however, given the absence of precisedating systems. Ancient Egyptians used a chronology ofrulers when referencing time periods, referring to eventsas happening in the reign of a particular king rather thanin a particular year or range of years. Egyptologists haveattempted to marry this rather vague dating system withactual ranges of years, but there is much disagreementregarding the exact dates of rulers’ reigns or the lengthof certain periods of history. The disagreements that usedxivArts and Humanities Through the Eras: Ancient Egypt (2675 B.C.E.–332 B.C.E.)