From Pyramids to Ptolemy,

A Brief Political History of Ancient Egypt.

 

 

A Worth Reading(?) Rationale:

The Civilization of Ancient Egypt remained fundamentally unchanged for almost 4000 years. The mysterious Ancient Egyptians, with their fascination with eternity, their devout worship, and complex social structure, have been the subject of admiration for generations since their decline. In this spread, I wanted to convey the power and endurance of this civilization by constructing a timeline of key political events occurring in the Dynastic period that influenced the course of Ancient Egypt.

It is important to realize that this great culture never really ceased to exist; it merely evolved, adapted to the new world after years of stagnation as other conquerors took over the land. That is why the Nile river bleeds off the spread; it signifies a change in their government and way of life after centuries of remaining untouched, not the end of their existence.

The timeline begins with the head of a snake to demonstrate the power of the initial unification of Egypt. The Uraeus, or Egyptian cobra, was then used as a symbol of sovereignty, royalty, deity, and divine authority. The empire, not without turmoil, rose and prospered during this time, with the Pharaoh’s power at its peak. As the king’s power diminished and was distributed to viziers, priests and noblemen, the snake dwindles into the Nile river to represent a sort of stability that was gained after the first few centuries of the newly born Egyptian kingdom. While over the next thousands of years the country was often met with conflict and foreign invasion, the essential culture of the people remained the same. Foreign invaders and Pharaohs alike kept alive the traditions of Egypt because of the culture’s strong notion of perpetuity. To give a notion of just how long core Ancient Egyptian culture, ideas and religion lasted, here is a fact many find difficult to believe: Queen Cleopatra, the last pharaoh of Ancient Egypt, was born in 69 BC, and the great pyramid of Giza, that of Khufu, was built in 2566 BC by the fourth dynasty rulers. In fact, Cleopatra was born closer to the time of release of the iphone (2007 AD) than she was to the building of the great pyramids.

The spread ends with the termination of the Dynastic Era of Ancient Egypt –a period that held 31 consecutive dynasties over the span of 2768 years– and the beginning of the Ptolemaic Era in which Ancient Egypt was under the control of the Greek Empire (Hence the name: from pyramids to ptolemy).

PS: My name is included written in hieroglyphics at the end of the snake scale pattern, and is written in english in the river under the “First Intermediate Time” section of the spread.