1. Clasping his shield he treads under foot,

2. No second blow needed to kill

3. None can escape his arrow,

4. None turn aside his bow.

5. From the story of Sinuhe

Weapons of combat and self-defense developed side by side with the tools of the farmer and craftsman. As a result, at times some examples of tools and weapons are indistinguishable from each other. It is often difficult to decide whether a hatchet was meant as a carpentry tool or as a hand-to-hand weapon, just as a spear or javelin could equally be used in hunting or in battle. Even so, the weapons of the Egyptian military were basically simple and practical in design. From the prehistoric and Predynastic periods the only evidence that has been preserved of what may be classified as weapons are stone axes and projectile points. The blades of axes are much like those found in every prehistoric culture, simple, near ovoid, and originally handheld but later meant to be bound to a wooden handle with leather thongs or cord. Some of the early points for spears and arrows eventually exhibit a higher technology and have convex curves in the butt end, to allow a better fit and more secure attachment to a wooden or reed shaft.

Egyptian weapons can be divided into two general classes on the basis of how they were used and what the distance was between combatants. The first class includes the direct-contact hand-to-hand weapons for clubbing, stabbing, and cutting. The second is made up of those that function at a distance, including the spear or javelin, and others that aid in the launch of a projectile, such as the sling for pellets and bow for arrows. Clubbing and stabbing weapons were probably among the first to be developed, because they were simple and immediate. These were gradually supplemented but not replaced by the development of more advanced armament such as the sling and the bow (Fig. 92).

Boats and Ships

The ancient Egyptians were blessed with a reliable and accessible means of transportation from the beginning of their civilization. The Nile River that made the region habitable also made easy communication possible and ultimately assisted in the development of a unified country and culture. The use of the Nile for both transport and communication was facilitated by the combination of two factors. The river current flows from the south to the north, and the prevailing wind is from the north to south. This meant that boats, barges, and other rivercraft could travel northward with the current using oars and against the current to the south with the assistance of sails. The Egyptians demonstrated the importance of this simple rule of river navigation even for the spirit in the next life by representations in the tombs illustrating boats with sails both furled and deployed.

The earliest evidence for water transport can be found in a series of crude clay models of a canoe-like craft that are dated to the early Badarian Period (5500–4000 BCE). More complete representations of complicated vessels are shown in designs on later Predynastic pottery (3500–3150 BCE) (Fig. 56). These early drawings and paintings depict boats complete with cabins, with many oars, flagpoles, and standards. Although the oarsmen are not shown, there are sometimes male and female figures standing on the roofs of the cabins. These images have caused a good deal of speculation as to their meaning and symbolism. They may have religious significance, and there are several suggested interpretations, but it is not possible to completely explain them. In any case, the boats depicted seem to be large and need to be propelled by large bodies of oarsmen. Often on the prow and on the cabins there are decorations in the form of tree branches and totem-like emblems. These branches and emblems may have religious or even geographical meanings, but these are also not completely understood. It is thought that some of the totems refer to clans, tribes, or regions and home ports, all interesting ideas but difficult to prove. It is enough to say that we have good evidence that the advantages of river transport were utilized early in the prehistoric period and that the construction and use of rivercraft is documented during the formative period of the Egyptian state and even before the development of writing.

Sport

In the world of the ancient Egyptian one of the most human insights available to us is provided by the knowledge we have of the types of leisure activities and competitions they engaged in. The importance of “pastimes” to the Egyptians is amply demonstrated by the extensive and varied evidence preserved that reflects traditions that lasted over most of the history of the ancient culture. Almost all of the activities that can be described as “sport” in ancient Egypt were directly rooted in masculine behavior that had developed out of the early survival activities of defense and the hunt. These included the typical sporting occupations of running, throwing, wrestling, and other kinds of specialized types of combat, as well as the more productive activities of hunting and fishing (Fig. 79).

The foot race must have been originally an informal challenge to prove strength and stamina. The first formal race that we have a record of was not a competition, however. It was a ceremonial race carried out by the king as part of a festival of rejuvenation. Early in Egyptian history it became a custom for the ruler to enact this symbolic race to demonstrate that he was physically sound and still capable of ruling. This was an important part of the heb sed festival that took place after the first thirty years of the king’s reign. One of the earliest records we have of the heb sed is preserved on a small ebony plaque from the Early Dynastic Period. However, in the Step Pyramid complex of King Djoser, of Dynasty Three, there are more complete depictions of the king in relief carvings in the act of running the race. Evidence of the markers of the course is still in place in the courtyard where the ceremony was held.

For many people today any mention of Egypt brings to mind images of pyramids and mummies, the products of an ancient and mysterious civilization so old as to defy imagination. The modern fascination with ancient Egypt and its monuments is seemingly without end and never seems to be satisfied. The land of Egypt and its culture provide the material for countless films, special presentations on television, and sensational news articles about recent excavations. Every new archaeological discovery is hailed as “the greatest find since King Tut.” So many misconceptions and misunderstandings abound concerning the history and archaeology of Egypt that it is often difficult to separate simple fact from romantic fiction. However, it is still possible even after so many centuries to know a great deal about how the Egyptians really lived, how they conducted their affairs, and the kinds of objects and materials they used.

The allure of the great monuments and the secrets of mummification cannot take away from the obvious fact that these ancient peoples were human beings. They lived their lives in a culture that seems foreign in many ways to us today, but they had many of the same basic needs that we do. Certainly there are differences in the ways many things were done, but this is more a matter of the long progress of developing technology rather than differences in culture. It is always amazing to see how many of the ordinary aspects of life have not changed from the way that the Egyptians carried them out thousands of years ago. We have excellent evidence of many aspects of their life to prove this, from the dwellings they lived in and the clothes they wore to the food they ate and even the games they played.

“The land of Egypt is the gift of the river,” one of the most often quoted observations about ancient Egypt, was made by Herodotus, the fifth-century BCE Greek historian. It was not an original idea of his, and he may have even borrowed it from another ancient author, but it was a common way in his time to describe the dependence that the country had on the life-giving renewal brought by the annual inundation, or flooding, of the river Nile. His statement also emphasized the fact that the fertile Nile delta had been built up over centuries by the silt carried downstream each year by that flood, and it was fundamentally the delta that the world of the Greeks and Romans knew best.

The landscape of Egypt as seen from space has been compared to a lotus flower on a long stalk, with only one large leaf on one side. In a satellite image the long ribbon of the Nile and the narrow cultivated area along its banks terminates in the fan-shaped delta, the “flower.” The “leaf” is the Fayum depression on the west, with its large lake. Although it is obviously a coincidence, the visual comparison of Egypt to the lotus is an apt one because the ancient Egyptians had a strong belief in the symbolism of the flower as an image of rebirth or resurrection.

Egyptian Faience

Scholars and excavators once applied the designation “faience” to a class of glazed material found in Egypt because it had a superficial resemblance to the glazed pottery made in the Italian region of Faenza. As is true with a number of early designations for Egyptian materials, objects, and types, faience has become a traditional term even though it is incorrect. It is better to differentiate it from the European pottery by referring to it as “Egyptian faience.” It is not ceramic, if the definition of ceramic is restricted to material made from clay. The word “ceramic,” after all, is derived from the Greek word keramos, which means “potter’s clay.” There is no clay in Egyptian faience except rather late in history, when some objects were made with an admixture of clay to the faience material.

Egyptian faience is a material composed of crushed or powdered quartzite (silica) with the addition of an alkali in the form of plant ash or natron, a naturally occurring soda (sodium sesquicarbonate) found in the deserts of Egypt, particularly in the Wadi Natrun, to the west of the Nile in the north. The ash or soda acts as a flux that makes it possible for the heated silica to fuse and become glassy by reducing the melting point of the silica. In addition to the two main constitutions, silica and alkali, a small amount of lime or other minerals, particularly copper compounds, were added to provide color. In experiments attempting to produce faience in modern times it has been estimated that faience fused at temperatures between 800 and 1,000 degrees centigrade, well within the limits possible with the ancient kilns.

Predynastic Period – Circa 5300–3000 BCE

Areas of North Africa along the south coast of the Mediterranean Sea began to become attractive for settlement after the end of the last Ice Age (around 10,000 BCE), especially where there was an available supply of fresh water. The Nile River and the small but fertile areas around its banks were particularly appealing to the peoples who were just beginning to emerge from a nomadic lifestyle and starting to seek hospitable locations in which to settle. From 10,000 to about 5000 BCE there is little preserved evidence of advancement in lifestyles from those of the Late Paleolithic (Old Stone Age). The evidence for these first dwellers in the Nile valley consists mainly of stone tools of types recognized in other parts of the world during the prehistoric period, primarily implements developed for chopping, pounding, and scraping. There is only some scattered evidence of art as it is known in other areas of the prehistoric world. There is a small number of examples of images and designs scratched on the rock outcroppings in desert areas, but there are also petroglyphs preserved in the Nile valley itself.

The beginnings of more advanced cultural directions can be documented by physical evidence during the period between roughly 5000 and 4500 BCE. This is the start of an age that Egyptologists term the Predynastic Period, literally the time before the recorded dynasties (groups of hereditary rulers). The approximately fifteen hundred years (4500 to around 3000 BCE) that make up the last phase of the Predynastic Period were a time of rapid change and development. The practices of agriculture, including the cultivation of emmer wheat, barley, and flax, and the domestication of animals, especially sheep, goats, and pigs, became central to life as villages and towns expanded and were organized to accommodate larger groups of people who chose to live together for mutual aid and protection. The rapid advancement in agriculture implies that the early dwellers also began to design and use more complex tools in the process.

1. As for the grain basket which you made, it is of coarse coiling....

2. Have another made which is of fine material.

3. From a letter

Basketry

Examples of basketry have been discovered from the Neolithic Period, including fragments of rush matting and the basket linings of grain storage bins. These prove that the processes of employing plant fibers to produce useful objects date back to the very beginnings of settlement on the banks of the Nile. There is also ample proof to show that baskets continued to be used throughout Egyptian history. The bulk of the evidence comes from the material that has been preserved in the dry atmosphere of tombs as a part of the religious beliefs that the spirit of the deceased should be provided for with material comforts in the next life. There are also numerous depictions of baskets in tomb paintings as they were used in agricultural activity and as containers for the offerings for the spirit of the deceased.

One of the most important uses of basketry and baskets in ancient Egypt was the safe storage of household and personal objects. Since the typical furnishings did not include wooden units that were particularly designed for storage (other than boxes), baskets served an important purpose for almost all classes. Unfortunately the physical conditions of preservation since antiquity were not always ideal. Basketry made from plant parts and fibers cannot withstand the ravages of insects or any exposure to humidity. As a consequence we know less about the use of baskets and other objects made with basketry techniques than objects made of other materials.

The study of ancient Egypt and ancient Egyptian culture has most often concentrated on the language, history, religion, and prominent monuments. Certainly attention has been paid to the activities of the Egyptians and the objects and processes that made them possible, but not to the same degree. With some rare exceptions archaeologists and historians did not always treat the ordinary tools and utensils with the consideration they deserved. To properly understand the material world in which the Egyptians lived and worked, the emphasis has to be redirected to a certain extent to remedy this. Still, there are bits and pieces of information embedded in histories and narratives that bear reexamination.

It is only natural that those things that made the ancient Egyptians seem different or unusual should command the most attention – pyramids and mummies being the most familiar examples. From the Greek and Roman authors and travelers to the present day, the emphasis, when examining and discussing Egypt, has been to a great extent on the spectacular, the unusual, and the mysterious. Herodotus, writing in the fifth century BCE, went to lengths to describe the country, its geography, and its history as he understood it. He also concerned himself with Egyptian religion and the gods and how they related to the customs and beliefs of the Greeks, but when he came to a discussion of activities and customs, he stressed differences, in part to emphasize some similarities.

The problems related to personal hygiene in ancient Egypt were not greatly different than in any other ancient or modern developing civilization. It is ironic that the problems were only made more complex and difficult to solve by the side effects of the two important physical realities that made life possible. These were the incessant heat of the sun and the abundant waters of the river Nile. While the constant sunshine was a great benefit, for it provided heat and light and was incidentally a source of vitamin D, it dried or burned the skin and also encouraged the breeding of insects that could transmit disease. The Nile was not only directly responsible for the fertility of the land, as well as providing the most important source of water for drinking and bathing, it also functioned as an all-too-handy waste removal system. The unintentional result of the two “assets” was a continued cycle of disease transmission.

When the prehistoric hunter-gatherers lived a nomadic life and constantly moved from place to place, they regularly abandoned temporary sites that were no longer habitable. In the process they left behind accumulated human and animal waste and garbage that was alive with vermin, parasites, and the consequent disease-breeding potential that they represent. When people began to establish permanent settlements and villages in the Nile valley, this regular process of cleansing by relocation by and large came to an end. Life in settlements brought with it conditions that encouraged the transmission of disease and the proliferation of parasites. For most of the population during the span of Egyptian history permanent housing usually meant conditions of constant crowding, poor ventilation, and little or no sanitary facilities as we know them today.