History of ancient Egypt
The study of ancient Egypt’s political, social, economic, and cultural development, from its early kingdoms through the end of pharaonic rule.
Predynastic Egypt: The communities and cultures in the Nile Valley before Egypt’s first dynasties, including the Naqada cultures. Its growing political centers preceded the unification that begins dynastic history.
Pharaoh: The title commonly used for the kings who ruled ancient Egypt and embodied its royal office. Royal authority organized political life and was expressed through religious and administrative roles.
Hatshepsut: An Eighteenth-Dynasty pharaoh who ruled Egypt as king and sponsored extensive building and trade expeditions. Her reign illuminates royal authority and state prosperity during the New Kingdom.
Egyptian archaeology: The study of ancient Egypt through the excavation and analysis of its sites, objects, and material remains. Archaeology supplies evidence for periods and communities poorly represented in written records.
New Kingdom of Egypt: The Eighteenth through Twentieth Dynasties, when Egypt became a major imperial power in the eastern Mediterranean and Nubia. Its expansion and later contraction shaped Egypt’s place among neighboring states.
Narmer: An early Egyptian king associated with the formation of a unified Egyptian state around the beginning of the First Dynasty. The Narmer Palette offers evidence for royal power at the start of dynastic rule.
Ancient Egyptian bureaucracy: The officials and administrative offices that managed taxation, labor, records, and government in ancient Egypt. Bureaucratic offices translated royal authority into provincial administration and resource collection.
Akhenaten: An Eighteenth-Dynasty pharaoh who promoted the exclusive worship of the Aten and founded a new capital at Amarna. His religious and political changes mark a dramatic episode within New Kingdom history.
Rosetta Stone: A granodiorite decree inscribed in hieroglyphic, Demotic, and Greek scripts, central to deciphering Egyptian hieroglyphs. Its decipherment opened a large body of Egyptian historical evidence to modern study.
Third Intermediate Period of Egypt: The period after the New Kingdom, marked by divided authority and the rise of Libyan and Nubian ruling houses. It traces the weakening of unified kingship before renewed foreign conquest.