of Egypt shows remarkable coincidences with that of Babylonia,
the language is of a Semitic type, the religion may well be a
compound of a lower African and a higher Asiatic order of ideas.
According to the evidence of the mummies, the Egyptians were
of slender build, with dark hair and of Caucasian type. Dr
Elliott Smith, who has examined thousands of skeletons and
mummies of all periods, finds that the prehistoric population of
Upper Egypt, a branch of the North African-Mediterranean-Arabian
race, changed with the advent of the dynasties to a
stronger type, better developed than before in skull and muscle.
This was apparently due to admixture with the Lower Egyptians,
who themselves had been affected by Syrian immigration. Thereafter
little further change is observable, although the rich lands
of Egypt must have attracted foreigners from all parts. The
Egyptian artists of the New Empire assigned distinctive types
of feature as well as of dress to the different races with which they
came into contact, Hittites, Syrians, Libyans, Bedouins, negroes,
&c.
The people of Egypt were not naturally fierce or cruel.
Intellectually, too, they were somewhat sluggish, careless and
unbusinesslike. In the mass they were a body of patient
labourers, tilling a rich soil, and hating all foreign lands and ways.
The wealth of their country gave scope for ability within the
population and also attracted it from outside: it enabled the
kings to organize great monumental enterprises as well as to
arm irresistible raids upon the inferior tribes around. Urged
on by necessity and opportunity, the Egyptians possessed
sufficient enterprise and originating power to keep ahead of
their neighbours in most departments of civilization, until the
more warlike empires of Assyria and Persia overwhelmed them
and the keener intellects of the Greeks outshone them in almost
every department. The debt of civilization to Egypt as a
pioneer must be considerable, above all perhaps in religious
thought. The moral ideals of its nameless teachers were high
from an early date: their conception of an after-life was
exceedingly vivid: the piety of the Egyptians in the later days
was a matter of wonder and scoffing to their contemporaries;
it is generally agreed that certain features in the development of
Christianity are to be traced to Egypt as their birthplace and
nidus.
For researches into the ethnography of Egypt and the
neighbouring countries, see W. Max Müller, Asien und Europa nach denaltäg. Inschriften (Leipzig, 1893), Egyptological Researches (Washington,
1906); for measurements of Egyptian skulls, Miss Fawcett
in Biometrika (1902); A. Thomson and D. Randall-MacIver, TheAncient Races of the Thebaid (Oxford, 1905) (cf. criticisms in Man,
1905; and for comparisons with modern measurements, C. S. Myers,
Journ. Anthropological Institute, 1905, 80). W. Flinders Petrie has
collected and discussed a series of facial types shown in prehistoric
and early Egyptian sculpture, Journal Anthropological Institute,
1901, 248. For Elliott Smith’s results see The Cairo Scientific Journal,
No. 30, vol. iii., March 1909.
Divisions.—In ancient times Egypt was divided into two
regions, representing the kingdoms that existed before Menes.
Lower Egypt, comprising the Delta and its borders, formed
the “North Land,” To-meh, and reached up the valley to include
Memphis and its province or “nome,” while the remainder of the
Egyptian Nile valley was
“the South,” Shema (ŠMꜥW
).
The south, if only as the abode of the sun, always had the precedence
over the north in Egypt, and the west over the east. Later
the two regions were known respectively as P-to-rēs (Pathros),
“the south land,” and P-to-meh, “the north land.” In practical
administration this historic distinction was sometimes observed,
at others ignored, but in religious tradition it had a firm hold.
In Roman times a different system marked off a third region,
namely Middle Egypt, from the point of the Delta southward.
Theoretically, as its name Heptanomis implies, this division
contained seven nomes, actually from the Hermopolite on the
south to the Memphite on the north (excluding the Arsinoite
according to the papyri). Some tendency to this existed earlier.
Egypt to the south of the Heptanomis was the Thebais, called P-tesh-en-Ne, “the province of Thebes,” as early as the XXVIth
Dynasty. The Thebais was much under the influence of the
Ethiopian kingdom, and was separated politically in the troubled
times of the XXIIIrd Dynasty, though the old division into
Upper and Lower Egypt was resumed in the XXVIth Dynasty.
If Upper and Lower Egypt represented ancient kingdoms,
the nomes have been thought to carry on the traditions of tribal
settlements. They are found in inscriptions as early as the end
of the IIIrd Dynasty, and the very name of Thoth, and that
of another very ancient god, are derived from those of two
contiguous nomes in Lower Egypt. The names are written by special
emblems placed on standards, such as
an ibis
,
a jackal
,
a hare
,
a feathered crown
,
a sistrum
,
a blade
,
&c.,
suggesting tribal badges. Some nomes having
a common badge but distinguished as “nearer” or “further,”
i.e. “northern” or “southern,” have simply been split, as they
are contiguous: in one case, however, corresponding “eastern”
and “western” Harpoon nomes are widely separated on opposite
sides of the Delta. In a few cases, such as “the West,” “the
Beginning of the East,” it is obvious that the names are derived
solely from their geographical situation. It is quite possible
that the divisions are geographical in the main, but it seems
likely that there were also religious, tribal and other historical
reasons for them. How their boundaries were determined is not
certain: in Upper Egypt in many cases a single nome embraced
both sides of the river. The number and nomenclature of the
nomes were never absolutely fixed. In temples of Ptolemaic and
Roman age the full series is figured presenting their tribute to
the god, and this series approximately agrees with the scattered
data of early monuments. The normal number of the nomes
in the sacred lists appears to be 42, of which 22 belonged to
Upper Egypt and 20 to Lower Egypt. In reality again these
nome-divisions were treated with considerable freedom, being
split or reunited and their boundaries readjusted. Each nome
had its metropolis, normally the seat of a governor or nomarch
and the centre of its religious observances. During the New
Empire, except at the beginning, the nomes seem to have been
almost entirely ignored: under the Deltaic dynasties (except of
course in the traditions of the sacred writing) they were named
after the metropolis, as “the province (tosh) of Busiris,” “the
province of Sais,” &c.: hence the Greek names Βουσιρίτης νομός,
&c. The Arsinoite nome was added by the Ptolemies
after the draining of the Lake of Moeris (q.v.), and in the later
Ptolemaic and the Roman times many changes and additions
to the list must have been made. In Christian texts the
“provinces” appear to have been very numerous.
See H. Brugsch, Geographische Inschriften altägyptischerDenkmäler (3 vols., Leipzig, 1857–1860), and for the nomes on monuments
of the Old Kingdom, N. de G. Davies, Mastaba of Ptahhetep andAkhethetep (London, 1901), p. 24 et sqq.
King and Government.—The government of Egypt was
monarchical. The king (for titles see Pharaoh) was the head of
the hierarchy: he was himself divine and is often styled “the
good god,” and was the proper mediator between gods and men.
He was also the dispenser of office, confirmer of hereditary titles
and estates and the fountain of justice. Oaths were generally
sworn by the “life” of the king. The king wore special
headdresses and costumes, including the crowns of
Upper
and Lower Egypt
(often united
),
and the cobra upon his
forehead. Females were admitted to the succession, but very
few instances occur before the Cleopatras. The most notable
Pharaonic queen in her own right was Hatshepsut in the XVIIIth
Dynasty, but her reign was ignored by the later rulers even of
her own family. A certain Nitōcris of about the VIIIth Dynasty
and Scēmiophris of the XIIth Dynasty are in the lists, but are
quite obscure. Yet inheritance through the female line was
fully recognized, and marriage with the heiress princess was
sought by usurpers to legitimate the claims of their offspring.
