Culture Identification: Ancient Egypt

Ancient Egypt, a time which revolutionised history and set a mark for itself. Famous for the Pyramids of Giza, the wild waters of the Nile, and thanks to many films, you know you shouldn't mess around with Ancient Egyptian curses—thank you, Universal Pictures' The Mummy. Ancient Egypt is known for how advanced their abilities were, especially in the form of advanced medical treatments and construction.

Cultural Religion

If you know your religious history, you know that Egypt was featured in the Christian bible too many times to count. The most famous of the stories being that of Moses, later developed into a film by DreamWorks, The Prince of Egypt. However, we're not here to talk about Christianity.

Ancient Egypt religion includes over two thousand deities, from gods to goddesses, and many of these include the names Anubis, Bast, Isis, Osiris, Nut, and Ra; the list goes on. In ancient Egypt, creation was not made from The Big Bang and evolution theory. The Ancient Egyptians believed that life was created by the sun god, Atum, who created the universe in one day, and proceeded to create the god Shu. She's the wife of Tefnut.

Shu and Tefnut bared two children, Nut and Geb, sky and earth. The two siblings wed and had Osiris, Horus the Elder, Isis, and Nephthys. These were the first three days. In the last three, human kind was believed to have been made by Khnum. The ancient Egyptians believed that Khnum made humankind from clay and breathed life into the clay figures.

Sound familiar? Prometheus, an ancient Greek titan, created man from clay and breathed life into them before he stole from the sun god and gave it to humans.

However, who borrowed from who?

Mummification

If there is anything we have learnt about mummies, especially those from Ancient Egypt, you DO NOT touch them, you DO NOT steal from them, and most importantly, YOU AVOID THEM as much as you can.

The english word mummy, although very similar to that of the childlike term for one to call their mother, mummy is taken from the latin word mumia, which is borrowed from the medieval Arabic word mūmiya (مومياء), and the Persian word for wax, mūm. Mummies can be both human and animals.

The ancient Egyptians were one of the ancient civilisations which frequently practiced mummification for burial rituals. Mummification was not just practiced to preserve the outer human body but also the internal organs. In ancient Egypt, the eternal organs were preserved in jars, decorated with the head of a different god related to that organ.

Mummification would sometimes be done deliberately, or given the environment it would happen naturally such as many cases in China, where mummification is not a practice for burial rituals.

Mummification has been seen around the globe in many cultures. In Christian culture made saints were mummified in order for their bodies to be preserved. Apart from Egypt, mummies have been discovered in different area of Africa, which brings to the question, was mummification original to Ancient Egypt civilisation?

Libya, South Africa, Siberia, Philippines, Iran, and China have been made of the places where mummies were unearthed. However, Philippines, Iran, and China can be ruled out. Philippines because the mummies only date as far back as the 14th century, and that is definitely too young for Ancient Egypt. Iran was due to the high salt density in the salt mines, and China because of the environment, too.

Libya, Siberia, Egypt, Europe, and South Africa are the other places across the globe where mummies were discovered. Europe is in fact one of places where even into the 21st century mummies are being discovered. So is there a possibility that Europe could've actually practiced mummification before the ancient Egyptians?

Evaluation

Although short, I think we can agree that the Ancient Egyptian culture is as unique as culture can get. From its religion to its mummification process, Ancient Egypt was, if anything, the civilisation that revolutionised the world. With no Silk Road, the Egyptians were able to maintain this unique culture to themselves, and even though they imported medicine and herbs, it still was enough for them to share their fast urbanisation with the world.

Ancient Egyptians could possibly be regarded as the mother of civilisations with how much it achieved and how it was able to maintain its name even to this day, from non-fiction to fiction.

To answer the earlier questions:

Ancient Greece was only established in 2900 BC when the Bronze Age and the Early Aegean cultures started to emerge. Ancient Greek mythology was not established until 2112 BCE. So, from this we can identify that the Greeks borrowed their gods from the Egyptians. Similarities very much alike, however the tales are very different. Apart from the gods, mummification is debatable that it was an Ancient Egyptian burial technique. It was mentioned in scriptures and historical facts found within the pyramids' Pharaoh mummies.

Another factor that makes Ancient Egyptian culture unique would be glass making. Very interesting, huh? A lot of people get mistaken that glass only came into play in the later nineteenth century, however glass making is an ancient Egyptian technique, which played a big role in its economy.

So how unique is Egyptian culture?

I think it's safe to say that it passes the unique identification test.