Egyptian Civilization Analysis

The book Ancient Civilizations by Christopher Scarre and Brian M. Flaggan concerns, as the title would suggest, the history of ancient civilizations. My paper will be covering one of the chapters from the book: Chapter Eight: Egyptian Civilization. The authors make a few main points in the chapter, from which the rest of the information stems: The main factors contributing to the inception and longevity of the Egyptian Kingdom were the environment, a hierarchical and bureaucratic centralized government, and a strong common theological belief system. All too often, however, the authors seem to look at the ancient world through a modern lense, and show quite obviously their “modern” bias.

The first point put forth by the authors is that the

These communities competed with each other for trade, and by “unforeseen advantages,” some grew more powerful than others, which led to a few large chiefdoms having sway over a large portion of Egypt, who would later be united by a single king. Evidence for the process leading up to the unification is sparse, and the authors do point it out, “The elaborate processes of state formation leave few signals in the archeology” (111). Near the end of the chapter, the authors state that “The roots of Egyptian Civilization lie in the Nile Valley itself” (144). The argument that the inception of Egyptian civilization is hard to disprove, and evidence from other “river based” civilizations such as Mesopotamia tell a similar story: Small communities formed around fertile land due to river floods, and as they grow they compete for resources and trade routes. It stands to reason that a similar process happened in Egypt, but the chapter never addresses its assumptions of the quicker and expansion of these larger chiefdoms (~3200 b.c - 2920 b.c), as compared to the slower period of city state development seen in Mesopotamia (~3500 - 2900 b.c). Overall, the authors do make a convincing argument for the importance of the Nile in aiding the creation of the Egyptian Kingdom, and its influences are seen in a myriad of archeological finds and written