h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: Egypt Project Page - A25160645
Author: Giford - U187177
Subeditor: Galaxy Babe - U128652

A25088709 History of Egypt Part 1 - General Notes
A25709853 History of Egypt Part 2 - The Rise of Egypt
A25089609 History of Egypt Part 3 - Rebuilding
A25089762 History of Egypt Part 4 - From the Depths to the Heights
A25160375 History of Egypt Part 4a - The Amarna Period
A25090175 History of Egypt Part 5 - The Long, Slow Decline
A25159340 Egyptian Mummies
A25159520 Egyptian Pyramids
A25159755 Egyptian Theology 1 - Myths
A25159962 Egyptian Pantheons

Right, I've tweaked the titles as I think fit; added banners and links, etc., to each Entry. Feel free to comment

Time for methinks.

The introductory paragraphs (when Giford writes them) should mention that this series of entries is only about Ancient Egypt. It doesn't cover the last 2,000 years of Egypt's history.

I do apologise Gnomon, I never saw your posts as I still had my old window open
Thank you for the links

Would you like some

I prefer myself.

goes off to make some.

In 'History of Egypt - Rebuilding' a footnote says, 'David Rohl thinks Amenemhat III may have been connected to the Biblical story of Joseph.'

In what way?

"You have "The 'bent pyramid' of Snofru at Dashur pronounced Sa-aara" -- this is not at all clear. What is pronounced Sa-aara?>>
Not done, leaving for Giford to comment,"

That footnote is in totally the wrong place! It should refer to Saqqara, a couple of paragraphs higher up.

I'm not sure I'll get a chance to do a big rewrite of the intro today, may be tomorrow before I get to it.

Gif

If that's the pronunciation of Saqqara, then I don't agree with it. I believe it is pronounced using the Arabic "uvular k", which is the same sound as is on the end of the name Iraq. It certainly doesn't sound like nothing at all. I'd leave out that footnote entirely.

"Amyrtaeus, who managed to evict the Persians. A descendant of the 16th Dynasty kings -- do you really mean 16th here? The 16th dynasty was more than a thousand years earlier. Or did you mean 26th?"

Yes, that should say 26th.

Gif

Hi Al,

The Biblical story of Joseph features an unnamed Pharaoh who is ruling while Joseph lives in Egypt. Rohl thinks this was Amenemhat III.

Gif

(I've been thinking about writing an Entry about Joseph (perhaps aka Pharaoh Yu-yu) for some time.

Saqqara footnote removed
16th changed to 26th
The "Joseph" footnote has been extended to incorporate that information and I've added that David Rohl is an Egyptologist
Big Al, I'll look forward to that

GB. (It's on the list )

The qq in Saqqara was pronounced as a glottal stop when I was there.

Gif

In that case the pronunciation would be Sa'ara.

Would you like me to footnote that? Or just leave it (IMHO the pronunciation isn't that unusual)

<> I know that feeling, Big Al

Hi All,


"Horemheb died without an heir in around 1295 BC which, combined with his lack of royal blood, brought the 18th Dynasty to an end-- I'd like to see the phrase "combined with his lack of royal blood" removed from this, because this was never a problem. The first ruler of any dynasty never had "royal blood" with reference to the previous kings."

- The 'Dynasties' are a bit random, and may have been decided centuries after the events. Sometimes a change of capital city was taken to constitute a change of dynasty, even when the first Pharaoh of the later dynasty was the son of the last Pharaoh of the previous dynasty. When this was not the case, the new dynasty was usually founded by a more distant relative of the previous Pharaoh, as with European royal families during the Middle Ages. The issue with Horemheb was that he was not related to the Pharaohs in any way - he had been a 'commoner' who became Vizier. He was therefore regarded by some as an upstart who was unable to trace his ancestry back to the gods.

Is that too much to go in a footnote?

*****

On Saqqara: I kind of had half an eye on the idea that readers of this entry might be interested in seeing some of these ruins for themselves. It can be difficult to find busses, taxis, etc if you are pronouncing it with a 'k' sound in the middle.

*****

Here's my first stab at an intro:

The Nile Valley in Egypt was home to one of the earliest and longest-surviving of ancient cultures. There can be few people for whom the very word does not conjure up images of sand, pyramids and golden head-dresses. Yet this view of Egypt can in many ways be misleading. In reality, Egyptian culture changed greatly over this time, with both long periods of stability and longer periods of decline. This series of Entries will attempt to provide an overview of the politics and rulers of classical Egypt, from the dawn on civilisation to the end of the Pharaonic period.

*****

Titles:

How's about:

Pharaonic Egypt Project Page
An Introduction to Pharaonic Egypt
Egyptian History Part 1 - The Rise of Egypt
Egyptian History Part 2 - Rebuilding
Egyptian History Part 3 - From the Depths to the Heights
Egyptian History Part 4 - The Amarna Period
Egyptian History Part 5 - The Long, Slow Decline
Egyptian Mummies
Egyptian Pyramids
Egyptian Legends and Theology
Egyptian Gods

Gif

Royal blood - leave it as it is.

Saqqara - put in your pronunciation if you want

Intro - it's good except "dawn on civilisation" --> "dawn of civilisation"

Titles - good

G

Intro added
Titles changed (I can't change the project page title)
Footnote tweaked and added
Pronunciation of Saqqara added