2. The civilization of ancient Egypt existed between the
time of 2800 BCE and the beginning of the common
era. It was located at the shore of the Nile River and
stretched to the Mediterranean Sea. It was one of
most powerful civilizations of its time. Their culture is
fascinating because of the structure of
society, organized trading system, trained army and
many legacies.
3. Structure of Society
The Ancient Egyptians had different levels of importance in society. Their Pharaoh
or a Queen was the most important person. They believed that the Pharaoh was a
god in a personâs body who couldnât do anything wrong. Then they had
grandvizers, nobles, high priest and high priestess. The grandvizers were like the
Pharaohâs second hand; they checked that all his orders were carried out. The
priests and priestesses took care of the shrines of gods and goddesses, and
bathed four times a day. The next level of society included
craftsmen, artists, scribes, tax gatherers, priest and priestess. At the lower
end, there were builders, farmers, scribes, wabs and soldiers (who led dangerous
lives). Most people in Ancient Egypt were actually farmers who lived off their crops.
If they didnât pay taxes, they were beaten. Least of all were the slaves who were
captured as hostages during war and
led hard lives. Therefore, it is clear that
the ancient Egyptian society had many
levels which affected their wealth and lives.
4. Trading system
The ancient Egyptians did not have any money system like
the Romans and Greeks. Instead, they used weights called
deben and kite. Originally, a deben was as heavy as14
grams, then later it increased in weight to 91 gram. Ten kite
were worth one deben. The Egyptians traded vegetables
(that were as heavy as1 deben) for a piece of meat (that
also weighed 1 deben). The ancient Egyptians often traded
flax, rope and wheat at the marketplace. They were famous
for exporting wheat and importing gold. The Egyptians wrote
receipts on stone tablets to keep track of payments.
As you can see, even though the ancient
Egyptians had
no money
system, their
trading system worked very well.
5. Egyptian warfare
The ancient Egyptians had one of the best trained armies during
their golden age. Although their army didnât often fight against
invaders (because the desert protected their country), they still
fought in many civil wars. They used silver slicing axes, spears and
shields made of ox hide. The Pharaohs in the new kingdom fought
from horse-drawn chariots. The ancient Egyptians had already
invented their own battle tactics. First, they used a shower of
arrows. Then, the foot soldiers came to fight the main part of the
battle. At last, they chased down any remaining enemy soldiers.
Therefore, we know that the ancient Egyptains had a well
organised army that led many great battles.
6. Legacies
The ancient Egyptians invented many great things. They invented
the shaduf(that they used to lift water from the Nile). They also
invented one of the first kinds of paper. It was called papyrus, grown
with the water from the river nile) and made out of papyrus reeds.
The word paper comes from the word papyrus. They also invented
a system of writing. There were two kinds of writing: one was called
hieratic it was used for daily use, then there where hieroglyphs used
for religious inscriptions. The Egyptians were very famous for their
agriculture. They learned to use a flood plain because they built
dams, shades and channels to keep the water in the field that they
got from the River Nile. Therefore we now know that many of
Egyptâs important inventions resulted from the River Nile.
7. In conclusion, ancient Egypt was one of
the most advanced civilizations of its
time. This report has described their
systems of trade, structure of society and
warfare. Many of the Egyptian inventions
are still used today including the
shaduf, writing and some of their
agriculture lessons.
8. References
Author Date
Title
James Mason 1991 Ancient
Egypt
Jane Shutter 1991 The Ancient
Egyptians
John Mallam 1999
Mummies
Website
19-10-11 www.historyforekids.com
