Nikolas Zazula

6th Hour WHAP

9/24/14

Chapter 3 Analysis Questions

1.

The Egyptians established communities in close range of the Nile River, allowing trade to
flourish and blossom in their society. Due to the flooding and changing course of the Nile River,
however, precious artifacts, structures, cultural creations, recordings of their history and their
literacy and the day-to-day lives about these people were erased. These ruined structures, such as
pyramids and tombs, provided detailed information of the economy, social classes and the skills
and talents of their people. The Egyptians had also created hieroglyphics, a form of writing to be
able to communicate with each other more easily and to record their history. The foundations of
these structures and the foundations of their literacy were eroded away by the river, keeping us
less knowledgeable about the architectural designs and the items these people prized. This makes
it difficult to determine which Egyptian civilizations were cities.
Agriculture was central to the foundation of these ancient Egyptian civilizations, and over
time many small villages became producers of cereal agriculture. While the Nile River was a
valuable resource as it provided water and nutrients to grow their crops, we cant be sure that this
mass production allowed for a surplus these cereals, allowing for specialization to convert these
villages into a complex society that a city is. And due to the similarity of goods produced in these
societies, trade between them became non-existent. This led to a large lack of developing
professions, social classes, and specialization within these communities, as the idea of coming up
with new and efficient ways to interact with other communities was redundant.
The society of Hierakonpolis is widely regarded as a large community rather than what
we would call a city. Though it exercised several functions of a city, it lacked the tightly-knit
population and the close and compact architecture. With a growth of about ten-thousand people
within three hundred years, this city flourished in terms of population, agricultural growth, and in
prestige. The complex irrigation systems that were set in place allowed for a reliable source of
water in the event of a drought, an idea that made food production much more reliable in 3500
B.C.E. The growing population also encouraged a form of government, and inevitably an
advancement of power. This community became the capital from which King Menes unified
Egypt. With the continued advancement of efficiency, political leaders dedicated themselves to
help advance the technological growth of Hierakonpolis, such as shaduf irrigation, and the
creation of an administrative foundation for the growing population to rely on.

2.

The belief in the afterlife in ancient Egyptian societies led them to create civilizations
centered on that religious idea. The pyramids and tomb tended to be the largest, most festive
buildings in these societies. The time, effort and resources used to create these structures showed
their dedication to their beliefs. Often, when people of importance are mummified, they are given
offerings such as food, tools, and jewelry to help them in the afterlife. Even though these
deceased people obviously cant use them on Earth anymore, the Egyptians believe that these will
allow the deceased to live a prosperous and fruitful afterlife.

3.

The autobiography of Si-Nuhe is clearly based on reality. It describes the process of

mummification, and how the ancient Egyptians let go of the deceased. Si-Nuhe was a highranking official, and a royal attendant of the Egyptian Kingdom. Fleeing the civilization due to a
transfer of power and fear of his safety, he was invited back many years later by the king himself.
Though he was a respected person of the king previously in power, Si-Nuhes social prestige was
in turn respected by many people, and he was given a very privileged ceremony in his death.
The tale begins with the body of Si-Nuhe being placed in a cool room filled with items of
luxury and beautiful artwork. Then, he goes on to describe how his body was altered during the
mummification procedure:
Years were made to pass from my body. I was plucked, and my hair was combed I was
clad in fine linen and anointed with prime oil
The years that were passed from his body refer the use of salt to preserve the remains of a
body. The salt dehydrates the body, preventing a large amount of decomposition. When the author
describes that he was plucked, two ideas come to mind. One, that the hair was simply plucked
from his body (other than his head of course), or that this plucking refers to the removal of
organs of importance from the body, such as the liver, lungs, stomach and intestines. The brain
was laughably thought unimportant, and was commonly discarded during this procedure. The
heart, on the other hand was held in great importance. The priests performing the procedure
believed that the deceased would use it as a way to make decisions and to navigate their way
through the afterlife. According to ancient mythology, an Egyptian god would weigh the heart on
a scale with a feather on the other side. If this scale was precisely equal, the heart was considered
pure, and the deceased could venture into the afterlife.
The author then goes on to describe the beautiful tomb constructed for him, while his
body waited in a separate building, with offerings of food brought to him three to four times a
day. The quote There is no poor man for whom like has been done allows us to assume that he
is telling us this story from the perspective of a deceased official, due to the magnificent prestige
of this grandiose ceremony.
This tale teaches us the amount of respect held for people of great influence and prestige,
and the way that the people of the ancient Egyptian societies viewed them. It also allows us to get
a sneak peak on how these rituals, of great importance to the religious society that Egypt was,
were preformed. It also gives us insight into how these people greatly relied on several higher
powers known as gods to judge their integrity, honesty and strength to deem them worthy of
living a prosperous and eternal afterlife.

4.

Without a proper system of literacy for us to decipher in the Harrapan society, much is
left to the imagination. We have no idea if this uniform civilization was able to establish any
centralized political system whatsoever, or if it had any cities of greater political and economical
importance than the other smaller villages. Its easy to observe the efficient construction and
health-based systems these ancient people were able to construct, though we do not know if this
civilization developed any decent-quality institutions for diplomacy and religious affairs. A lack
of a written form of communication leaves us with many questions as to how this society
functioned socially, economically, politically, and diplomatically. There is no way to record this
information; therefore these ancient people are left with no method to pass down information
about their culture when their civilization meets an inevitable end.

5.

It is appropriate to continue to refer to this Harrapan society as the Indus Valley

Civilization. The fact that the majority of this civilization is centered in the Indus Valley and
along the Indus River allows us to associate these smaller communities in a more simple way, and
also helps explain the connection between these separate cities/villages by the transportation of
The Indus River. Another factor is, at the mouth of the Indus River is the Arabian Sea. This opens
up the Harrapan civilization to the world for trade and interaction. This opens up other
civilizations to the plentiful, fertile, and widely populated Indus Valley.

6.

The efficiency observed in the remains of this ancient civilization reveal a determination
by the Harrapan people to advance their efficiency and technology. The discovery of how
carefully these cities were planned, with brick built buildings, grid-patterned cities, and an
underground sewage system show a growth of innovation and invention. The design of these
cities and the cultural products they produced, such as pottery, statuettes, games, jewelry and
clothing showed that these people were united in a single cultural unit. The Harrapan people
worked together in their society to improve their quality of life and to practice their creative
expression without being separated by class, wealth, or prejudice.