John Tyman's Cultures in Context Series EGYPT and the SAHARA www.johntyman.com/sahara |
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2.3 Egypt in the Time of the Pharaohs : 083-096 |
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John Tyman's Cultures in Context Series EGYPT and the SAHARA www.johntyman.com/sahara |
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2.3 Egypt in the Time of the Pharaohs : 083-096 |
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| .083. Egypt was settled in early Neolithic times (the “New Stone Age”), some 10,000 years ago, by groups that were descendants of nomadic tribes, who withdrew to the Nile valley as their savanna lands grew progressively drier. Egypt was, and is, the gift of the Nile, though it’s entire valley represents only 4% of the country’s total area. (Nile with traditional feluccas below Kom Ombo) |
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| .084. Rising in humid equatorial regions south of the desert, the Nile carried nutrient-rich silt as well as water, and it built a great delta into the dry gulf created by the shrinking of the Mediterranean Sea (which at one time extended inland of the present site of Cairo). (Fine-textured silts above Kom Ombo) |
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| .085. At the time of its original settlement the valley of the Nile was subject seasonally to uncontrolled and destructive flooding. It was bordered by marshlands of reeds and papyrus: and the need to drain and clear these marshy thickets, and control flooding, forced the former nomads to adopt a more settled way of life. (Marshlands alongside Nile below Kom Ombo) |
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| .086. Land was leveled where necessary to prepare it for cultivation, drainage and irrigation channels were excavated (and realigned later as required), and the area was divided into irrigation basins surrounded by dykes. When the flood came, gaps were cut in the dykes to admit water and closed later, when the entire basin had been watered sufficiently. Twenty days or so later the water would have subsided, the soil could be worked and seed sown. (Irrigation basins today near Kom Ombo) |
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| .087. The yearly round of activity was in theory divided into three seasons of equal length -- Ahket, the flood season, from June 15th to October 15th; Peret, the growing season, from October 15th to February 15th; and Shemu, the season of harvest and drought, from February 15th to June 15th. (Riverbank worked today using traditional hoe on island near Edfu) |
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| .088. During the flood season little could be done. Villages on levees stood out as islands above the drowned countryside. They could only communicate with one another by boat, and spent much their time fishing or making handicrafts. (Fishing in wetlands below Kom Ombo) |
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| .089. People then lived at the mercy of the river. If there was insufficient water they were threatened by famine: if there was too much water both fields and levees could be destroyed. (Flooded area below Edfu) |
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| .090. To ensure the people’s survival and the kingdom’s prosperity, the pharaohs entrusted the management of food production to viziers. They were “to keep a watch over all that must be done”.... to direct the flow and use of water, to maintain registers of landholdings and taxes paid, to supervise the harvest and fill the granaries. Even today, though the river has been dammed, fluctuations in the flow of the river are obvious from the rocks. (Elephantine Island at Aswan) |
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| .091. Nilometers were marked out along the banks as means of determining the likelihood of a good harvest. They indicated the river’s height and were significant for both farm output and taxation. If the river level was high it meant that there would be enough flooding to ensure a good harvest. And a good harvest meant that both farmers and merchants could afford to pay higher taxes! (Flight of steps defining water level in nilometer in the temple at Edfu) |
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| .092. In the nilometer near Aswan a series of steps and an accompanying scale of heights rise from the water’s edge to a temple honouring the god of inundation. It was established here first more than 3000 years ago, during the “New Kingdom”, but it was rebuilt by the Romans. The river’s height here was measured in cubits. A cubit was the length of a man’s forearm from the elbow to the tip of the middle finger: 18 cubits or less warned of famine, 24 cubits promised abundance, and more than 27 cubits threatened disaster. (Nilometer on Elephantine Island opposite Aswan) |
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| .093. With the water’s retreat, the soft
black silts that remained were worked with wooden ploughs drawn by long-horned
cattle (according to tomb paintings), and seed was broadcast from baskets.
(Painting
in temple at Deir el-Medina, near Luxor courtesy Crystalinks.com
)
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| .094. The grain was reaped using saw-toothed sickles, threshed in the farmyard under the feet of oxen, and winnowed to separate the grain from the chaff. In addition to wheat they grew grapes for wine, and harvested wild barley and millet. (Painting at Deir el-Medina of husband reaping and wife gleaning) |
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| .095. They also gathered papyrus from the banks of the river, and used it in making not only paper and brushes for writing, but also ropes, sandals and boats. To make paper they split the inner pith of the plant into thin strips, arranged these at right angles to the previous layer, hammered them together to form a single sheet, and dried this under pressure. (Papyrus on riverbank at Edfu) |
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| .096. The productiveness of Egyptian farming then is obvious from Jewish scriptures. Abraham took his family there to escape drought in his own land, and his grandson’s family did the same thing later, when Joseph was given charge of grain production. And farmlands of the Nile valley were irrigated in this way for 5000 years at least ... under a succession of Egyptian pharaohs; Persian, Greek, Roman and Arab conquerors; and British administrators. (Between Kom Ombo and Edfu) |
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