Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 5.djvu/384

 EGYPT

336

EGYPT

"Egypt" (6th ed., 1908), with the exception of the year 408, the last of the Twenty-seventh Dynasty and first of the Twenty-eighth, which we copy from Maspero, " Guide to the Cairo Museum ' ' (Cairo, 1903), p. 3:—

4241* B. c. Introduction of Calen-

dar 3400 B. c. Accession of Menes and

beginning of dynas- ties 3400-29S0 B. c. Fu-st and Second Dy- nasties 2980-2900 B. c. Third Dynasty 2900-2750 B. c. Fourth Dynasty t2750-2625 b. c. Fifth Dynasty t2625-2475 B. c. Sixth Dynasty 2475-2445 b. c. Seventh and Eighth Dy- nasties 2445-2160 B. c. Ninth and Tenth Dynas- ties 2160-2000 B. c. Eleventh Dynasty 2000*-17SS* B. c. Twelfth Dynasty tl788*-15S0 B. c. Thirteenth to Seven- teenth Dynasties (in- cluding Hyksos times) tl5S0-1350 B. c. Eighteenth Dynasty tl350-1205 B. c. Nineteenth Dynasty tl205-r200 B. c. Interim tl200-1090 B. c. Twentieth DjTiasty tl090-945 B. c. Twenty-first Dynasty t945-745 B. c. Twenty-second Dynasty

t745-718 B. c. Twenty-third Djmasty

t718-712 B. c. Twenty-fourth DjTiasty

t712-663 B. c. Twentv-fifth Djmasty

663-525 B. c. Twenty-sLxth Dynasty

525-408 B. c. Twenty-seventh Dy-

nasty 408-398 B. c. Twentv-eighth Dynasty

398-378 B. c. Twenty-ninth Dj-nasty

378-341 B. c. Thirtieth Djiiasty

Dates marked with an asterisk in the above table are astronomically computed and correct within three years, while the date 525 is attested by the Canon of Ptolemy. Several dates besides, within the period of the Eighteenth DjTiasty and the initial date of She- bataka, second king of the Tn'enty-fifth DjTiasty, are also astronomically determined. The dagger sign (t) indicates that the numerical difference between the two following dates is the minimum of duration al- lowed by the monuments for the corresponding dynas- ties. The double-dagger (J) on the contrary, indicates the maximum of duration. This is the case only for the period from the Thirteenth to the Seventeenth Dynasties. "What this period may lose some day will be the gain of the nine following dynasties, but the e.xtreme dates, 1788 and 663, will not be affected. The duration of 285 years for the Ninth and Tenth Dynas- ties, indicated by the two extreme dates 2445-2160, is an estimate, in round numbers, based on an average of 16 years for each of their 18 kings. The uncertainty which attaches to that period affects the dates of all the preceding dynasties, which, consequently, may some day have to be shifted as much as a century either way.

GlNZEL, Uandbuch der mathemaiischen und technischen Chranotoffie: I. Zeilrtchnung der Babytonier, Aegypter, Mokam- medaner, Peraer, etc. (Leipzig, 1906) — pp. 234 sqq, contains a com- plete bibliography of Egyptian chronology — Lehmann, Zwei Hauplprobleme der altorienlatiechcn Chronologic (Berlin, 1898); Meyer. A egyptliche Chronologic (publication of the Berl. Akad.. 1904); NiEBUHR, Die Chr&nologie der Geschichtc Israels, Aegyp- tens. Bahylonicns und Assyriens (Leipzig, 1896): also chapters in works cited in bibliography at end of next section, especially in Breasted, Ancient Records^ and Petrie, Illustrated History oj Egypt, I.

Ethnology. — Scholars are at variance as to the origin of the Egyptians. Some, chiefly philologists, suppose that the Egyptians of historical times had come from Western Asia either directly, through the Isthmus of

Suez, or, as most wiU have it, through the Straits of Bab-el-Mandeb and Ethiopia. Others, principally naturalists, think they came from, or at least through, Libya, while others still place the original home of the Egj'ptians in Central Africa. The first hypothesis is now the most commonly received. Several considera- tions tend to make it plausible: the fact, for instance, that wheat and barley, which have been found in the most ancient tombs dating from before the First Dy- nasty, are originally indigenous to Asia, as well as linen, wine, and the produce of other cultivated plants which are represented among the funeral offerings in the tombs of the earliest djiiasties. And the same can be said of the two sacred trees of the Egyptian pantheon, the sycamore and the persea. Finally, the fact that the ancestor of the domesticated Egyptian ass had its home in the wildernesses south of Egypt would show that the Asiatic invaders or settlers came through Ethiopia. This theory tallies with the Bibli- cal narrative. Gen., x, 6, which makes the ancestor of the Egj^ptians, under the ethnic name of Misraim, the brother of Cush the Ethiopian, of Phut (e. g. Puanit, the Poeni of the Latins), and Canaan, all three of whom certainly had their original homes in Asia. What seems more certain is that the Egyptians of his- torical tunes belong to the same stock as the Libyans and other races, some of which were absorbed, while others were totally or partly driven away by them. Five at least of these are given in the Bible (Gen., x, 13, 14) under ethnic names as .sons of Misraim, i. e. Ludim (according to Maspero, " Histoire Ancienne des peuples de I'Orient", Paris, 1908, p. 16, the Rotu or Romitu of the hieroglj^phics, i. e. the Eg}7)tians proper), Laabim (the Libyans), Naphtuchim (the in- habitants of No-Phtah, or Memphis), Patriisim (the inhabitants of the To-resi, i. e. L^pper Egypt), Anamim (the Anus, who, in prehistoric times, foimded On of the North, or Heliopolis, and On of the South, or Her- monthis).

Preclynastic History. — At all events, in the predynas- tic times, when the light of history begins to dawn on EgjTJt, various races which at different periods had settled in Egj'pt, had been blended under the mould- ing influence of the climate of their new home, and turned into a new race, well characterized and easily distinguishable from any other race, Asiatic, Euro- pean, or African — the Egj'ptian race. Naturally, a difference of occupation created a certain variety of types within that race. While the tiller of the soil was short and thick-set, the men of the higher classes and the women generally were rather tall and slender, but all were broad-shouldered, erect, spare, flat- footed. The head is rather large, the forehead square and rather low, the nose short and fleshy, the lips thick, but not turned up, the mouth rather large, with an undefinable expression of instinctive sadness. This type perpetuated itself through thirty or forty centuries of revolutions, invasions, or pacific immigra- tions and survives to this day in the peasant class, the fellaheen, who form the bulk of the population and the sinews of the national strength. All agree that, even before the Egyptian race had attained that remark- able degree of ethnological permanence, Egypt, from a merely pastoral region, had become an agricultural country, as a result of the immigration (or invasion) of Asiatic tribes, for, before the dawn of historical times, they had learned to grow wheat and barley, using the plough in their cultivation. Next came the political organization of the coimtry. It was sub- divided into a number of small independent States, which became the nomes of pharaonic times, each with its own laws and religion. In course of time seme of these States were merged in one another until they formed two large principalities, the Northern King- dom (To-Mehi) and the Southern Kingdom (To- Resi), an arrangement which must have lasted some time, for when the final degree of centralization was