Ancient Egypt was a long-lived civilization in north-eastern Africa. It was concentrated along the middle to lower reaches of the Nile River, reaching its greatest extension during the second millennium BC, which is referred to as the New Kingdom period. It reached broadly from the Nile Delta in the north, as far south as Jebel Barkal at the Fourth Cataract of the Nile. Extensions to the geographical range of ancient Egyptian civilization included, at different times, areas of the southern Levant, the Eastern Desert and the Red Sea coastline, the Sinai Peninsula and the Western Desert (focused on the several oases)
Ancient Egypt developed over at least three and a half millennia. It began with the incipient unification of Nile Valley polities around 3150 BC and is conventionally thought to have ended in 31 BC when the early Roman Empire conquered and absorbed Ptolemaic Egypt as a state. This last, however, did not represent the first period of foreign domination; the Roman period was to witness a marked, if gradual transformation in the political and religious life of the Nile Valley, effectively marking the termination of independent civilizational development.
The civilization of ancient Egypt was based on a finely balanced control of natural and human resources, characterised primarily by controlled irrigation of the fertile Nile Valley; the mineral exploitation of the valley and surrounding desert regions; the early development of an independent writing system and literature; the organization of collective projects; trade with surrounding regions in east / central Africa and the eastern Mediterranean; finally, military ventures that exhibited strong characteristics of imperial hegemony and territorial domination of neighbouring cultures at different periods. Motivating and organising these activities were a socio-political and economic elite that achieved social consensus by means of an elaborate system of religious belief under the figure of a (semi)-divine ruler (usually male) from a succession of ruling dynasties and which related to the larger world by means of polytheistic beliefs.
Contents
History
Main article: History of Ancient Egypt
Dynasties of Pharaohs
in ancient Egypt
Predynastic Egypt
Protodynastic Period
Early Dynastic Period
1st 2nd
Old Kingdom
3rd 4th 5th 6th
First Intermediate Period
7th 8th 9th 10th
11th (Thebes only)
Middle Kingdom
11th (All Egypt)
12th 13th 14th
Second Intermediate Period
15th 16th 17th
New Kingdom
18th 19th 20th
Third Intermediate Period
21st 22nd 23rd 24th 25th
Late Period
26th 27th 28th
29th 30th 31st
Graeco-Roman Period
Alexander the Great
Ptolemaic dynasty
Roman
Archaeological evidence indicates that a developed Egyptian society extends far into prehistory (see Predynastic Egypt). The Nile River, around which much of the population of the country clusters, has been the lifeline for Egyptian culture since nomadic hunter-gatherers began living along the Nile during the Pleistocene. Traces of these early peoples appear in the form of artifacts and rock carvings along the terraces of the Nile and in the oases.
Along the Nile, in the 10th millennium BC, a grain-grinding culture using the earliest type of sickle blades had been replaced by another culture of hunters, fishers, and gathering peoples using stone tools. Evidence also indicates human habitation in the southwestern corner of Egypt, near the Sudan border, before 8000 BC. Climate changes and/or overgrazing around 8000 BC began to desiccate the pastoral lands of Egypt, eventually forming the Sahara (c.2500 BC), and early tribes naturally migrated to the Nile River where they developed a settled agricultural economy and more centralized society. There is evidence of pastoralism and cultivation of cereals in the East Sahara in the 7th millennium BC.
By about 6000 BC, organized agriculture and large building construction had appeared in the Nile Valley. At this time, Egyptians in the southwestern corner of Egypt were herding cattle and also constructing large buildings. Mortar was in use by 4000 BC. The Predynastic Period continues through this time, variously held to begin with the Naqada culture. Some authorities however place the start of the Predynastic Period earlier, in the Lower Paleolithic.
Between 5500 and 3100 BC, during Egypt's Predynastic Period, small settlements flourished along the Nile. By 3300 BC, just before the first Egyptian dynasty, Egypt was divided into two kingdoms, known as Upper Egypt (Ta Shemau) and Lower Egypt (Ta Mehu).[1] The dividing line was drawn roughly in the area of modern Cairo.
The history of ancient Egypt proper starts with Egypt as a unified state, which occurred sometime around 3150 BC. Menes, who unified Upper and Lower Egypt, was the first king. Egyptian culture was remarkably stable and changed little over a period of nearly 3000 years. This includes religion, customs, art expression, architecture and social structure.
Egyptian chronology, which involves regnal years, began around this time. The conventional Egyptian chronology is the chronology accepted during the 20th century, but it does not include any of the major revision proposals that have also been made in that time. Even within a single work, often archeologists will offer several possible dates or even several whole chronologies as possibilities. Consequently, there may be discrepancies between dates shown here and in articles on particular rulers. Often there are also several possible spellings of the names. Typically, Egyptologists divide the history of pharaonic civilization using a schedule laid out first by Manetho's Aegyptaica (History of Egypt).
* List of pharaohs: The time of the Pharaohs stretches from before 3000 BC to about 30 BC.
* Dynasties (see also: List of Egyptian dynasties):
o Early Dynastic Period of Egypt (1st to 2nd Dynasties; until ca. 27th century BC)
o Old Kingdom (3rd to 6th Dynasties; 27th to 22nd centuries BC)
o First Intermediate Period (7th to 11th Dynasties)
o Middle Kingdom of Egypt (11th to 14th Dynasties; 20th to 17th centuries BC)
o Second Intermediate Period (14th to 17th Dynasties)
+ Hyksos (15th to 16th Dynasties, c. 1674 BC to 1548 BC)
o New Kingdom of Egypt (18th to 20th Dynasties; 16th to 11th centuries BC)
o Third Intermediate Period (21st to 25th Dynasties; 11th to 7th centuries BC)
o Late Period of Ancient Egypt (26th to 31st Dynasties; 7th century BC to 332 BC)
+ Achaemenid Dynasty
o Graeco-Roman Egypt (332 BC to AD 639)
+ Macedonian Kings (332 BC to 305 BC)
+ Ptolemaic Dynasty (305 BC to 30 BC)
+ Roman Empire (30 BC to 639 AD)
Administration and taxation
18 m (59 ft) high sandstone statues of Amenhotep III, flanking the entrance to his mortuary temple in Western Thebes - erroneously identified as the Colossi of Memnon by Greek travellers in antiquity
18 m (59 ft) high sandstone statues of Amenhotep III, flanking the entrance to his mortuary temple in Western Thebes - erroneously identified as the Colossi of Memnon by Greek travellers in antiquity
For administrative purposes, ancient Egypt was divided into nomes (the Greek word for "district"; they were called sepat in ancient Egyptian). The division into nomes can be traced back to the Predynastic Period (before 3100 BC), when the nomes originally existed as autonomous city-states. The nomes remained in place for more than three millennia, with the area of the individual nomes and their order of numbering remaining remarkably stable. Under the system that prevailed for most of pharaonic Egypt's history, the country was divided into 42 nomes: 20 comprising Lower Egypt, whilst Upper Egypt was divided into 22. Each nome was governed by a nomarch, a provincial governor who held regional authority. The position of the nomarch was at times hereditary, at times appointed by the pharaoh.
The ancient Egyptian government imposed a number of different taxes upon its people. As there was no known form of currency during that time period, taxes were paid for "in kind" (with produce or work). The Vizier (ancient Egyptian: tjaty) controlled the taxation system through the departments of state. The departments had to report daily on the amount of stock available, and how much was expected in the future. Taxes were paid for depending on a person's craft or duty. Landowners paid their taxes in grain and other produce grown on their property. Craftsmen paid their taxes in the goods that they produced. Hunters and fishermen paid their taxes with produce from the river, marshes, and desert. One person from every household was required to pay a corvée or labor tax by doing public work for a few weeks every year, such as digging canals or mining. However, a richer noble could hire a poorer man to fulfill his labor tax.
Language
Main article: Egyptian language
Ancient Egyptian constitutes an independent part of the Afro-Asiatic language phylum. Its closest relatives are the Berber, Semitic, and Beja groups of languages. Written records of the Egyptian language have been dated from about 3200 BC, making it one of the oldest and longest documented languages. Scholars group Egyptian into six major chronological divisions:
* Archaic Egyptian (before 3000 BC)
Consists of inscriptions from the late Predynastic and Early Dynastic period. The earliest known evidence of Egyptian hieroglyphic writing appears on Naqada II pottery vessels.
* Old Egyptian (3000–2000 BC)
The language of the Old Kingdom and First Intermediate Period. The Pyramid Texts are the largest body of literature written in this phase of the language. Tomb walls of elite Egyptians from this period also bear autobiographical writings representing Old Egyptian. One of its distinguishing characteristics is the tripling of ideograms, phonograms, and determinatives to indicate the plural. Overall, it does not differ significantly from the next stage.
* Middle Egyptian (2000–1300 BC)
Often dubbed Classical Egyptian, this stage is known from a variety of textual evidence in hieroglyphic and hieratic scripts dated from about the Middle Kingdom. It includes funerary texts inscribed on sarcophagi such as the Coffin Texts; wisdom texts instructing people on how to lead a life that exemplified the ancient Egyptian philosophical worldview (see the Ipuwer papyrus); tales detailing the adventures of a certain individual, for example the Story of Sinuhe; medical and scientific texts such as the Edwin Smith Papyrus and the Ebers papyrus; and poetic texts praising a god or a pharaoh, such as the Hymn to the Nile. The Egyptian vernacular already began to change from the written language as evidenced by some Middle Kingdom hieratic texts, but classical Middle Egyptian continued to be written in formal contexts well into the Late Dynastic period (sometimes referred to as Late Middle Egyptian).
* Late Egyptian (1300–700 BC)
Records of this stage appear in the second part of the New Kingdom. It contains a rich body of religious and secular literature, comprising such famous examples as the Story of Wenamun and the Instructions of Ani. It was also the language of Ramesside administration. Late Egyptian is not totally distinct from Middle Egyptian, as many "classicisms" appear in historical and literary documents of this phase. However, the difference between Middle and Late Egyptian is greater than that between Middle and Old Egyptian. It's also a better representative than Middle Egyptian of the spoken language in the New Kingdom and beyond. Hieroglyphic orthography saw an enormous expansion of its graphemic inventory between the Late Dynastic and Ptolemaic periods.
* Demotic Egyptian (7th century BC–4th century AD)
Main article: Demotic Egyptian
* Coptic (3rd–17th century AD)
Main article: Coptic language
An Obelisk with Egyptian writing.
An Obelisk with Egyptian writing.
Writing
For many years, the earliest known hieroglyphic inscription was the Narmer Palette, found during excavations at Hierakonpolis (modern Kawm al-Ahmar) in the 1890s, which has been dated to c.3150 BC. However recent archaeological findings reveal that symbols on Gerzean pottery, c.3250 BC, resemble the traditional hieroglyph forms.[2] Also in 1998 a German archeological team under Günter Dreyer excavating at Abydos (modern Umm el-Qa'ab) uncovered tomb U-j, which belonged to a Predynastic ruler, and they recovered three hundred clay labels inscribed with proto-hieroglyphics dating to the Naqada IIIA period, circa 33rd century BC.[3][4]
Egyptologists refer to Egyptian writing as hieroglyphs, today standing as the world's earliest known writing system. The hieroglyphic script was partly syllabic, partly ideographic. Hieratic is a cursive form of Egyptian hieroglyphs and was first used during the First Dynasty (c. 2925 BC – c. 2775 BC). The term Demotic, in the context of Egypt, came to refer to both the script and the language that followed the Late Ancient Egyptian stage, i.e. from the Nubian 25th dynasty until its marginalization by the Greek Koine in the early centuries AD. After the conquest of Amr ibn al-A'as in the 7th century AD, the Coptic language survived as a spoken language into the Middle Ages. Today, it continues to be the liturgical language of the Christian minority.
Beginning from around 2700 BC, Egyptians used pictograms to represent vocal sounds -- both vowel and consonant vocalizations (see Hieroglyph: Script). By 2000 BC, 26 pictograms were being used to represent 24 (known) main vocal sounds. The world's oldest known alphabet (c. 1800 BC) is only an abjad system and was derived from these uniliteral signs as well as other Egyptian hieroglyphs.
The hieroglyphic script finally fell out of use around the 4th century AD. Attempts to decipher it in the West began after the 15th century, though earlier attempts by Muslim scholars are attested (see Hieroglyphica).
Literature
* c. 1800 BC: Story of Sinuhe and Ipuwer papyrus
* c. 1600 BC: Westcar Papyrus
* c. 1400 BC: Tulli Papyrus
* c. 1300 BC: Ebers papyrus
* c. 1180 BC: Papyrus Harris I
* c. 1000 BC: Story of Wenamun
Culture
See also: Ancient Egyptian architecture
The Egyptian religion, embodied in Egyptian mythology, is a succession of beliefs held by the people of Egypt, as early as predynastic times and all the way until the coming of Christianity and Islam in the Graeco-Roman and Arab eras. These were conducted by Egyptian priests or magicians, but the use of magic and spells is questioned.
Every animal portrayed and worshipped in ancient Egyptian art, writing and religion is indigenous to Africa, all the way from the predynastic until the Graeco-Roman eras, over 3000 years. The Dromedary, domesticated first in Arabia, first appears in Egypt (and North Africa) beginning in the 2nd millennium BC.
The temple was a sacred place where only priests and priestesses were allowed. On special occasions people were allowed into the temple courtyard.
The religious nature of ancient Egyptian civilization influenced its contribution to the arts of the ancient world. Many of the great works of ancient Egypt depict gods, goddesses, and pharaohs, who were also considered divine. Ancient Egyptian art in general is characterized by the idea of order.
Evidence of mummies and pyramids outside ancient Egypt indicate reflections of ancient Egyptian belief values on other prehistoric cultures, transmitted in one way over the Silk Road. Ancient Egypt's foreign contacts included Nubia and Punt to the south, the Aegean and ancient Greece to the north, the Levant and other regions in the Near East to the east, and also Libya to the west.
Although analyzing the hair of ancient Egyptian mummies from the Late Middle Kingdom has revealed evidence of a stable diet,[5] mummies from circa 3200 BC show signs of severe anemia and hemolytic disorders.[3][4][6]
Ancient achievements and unsolved problems
Achievements
Louvre Museum antiquity
Louvre Museum antiquity
See Predynastic Egypt for inventions and other significant achievements in the Sahara region before the Protodynastic Period.
The achievements of ancient Egypt are well known, and the civilization achieved a very high standard of productivity and sophiscation. The art and science of engineering was present in Egypt, such as accurately determining the position of points and the distances between them (known as surveying). These skills were used to outline pyramid bases. The Egyptian pyramids took the geometric shape formed from a polygonal base and a point, called the apex, by triangular faces. Hydraulic cement was first invented by the Egyptians. The Al Fayyum Irrigation (water works) was one of the main agricultural breadbaskets of the ancient world. There is evidence of ancient Egyptian Pharaohs of the twelfth dynasty using the natural lake of the Fayyum as a reservoir to store surpluses of water for use during the dry seasons. From the time of the First dynasty or before, the Egyptians mined turquoise in the Sinai Peninsula.
The sarcophagus found in the great pyramid has been recently re-examined. According to the author Nigel Appleby ('Hall of the Gods') the holes drilled in the sides were considered to have been drilled at a speed and bore rate that cannot be reproduced today. Independent published corroboration by scientists and engineers is awaited for both of these claims.
The earliest evidence (circa 1600 BC) of traditional empiricism is credited to Egypt, as evidenced by the Edwin Smith and Ebers papyri. The roots of the scientific method may be traced back to the ancient Egyptians. The Egyptians created their own alphabet (however, it is debated as to whether they were the first to do this because of the margin of error on carbon dated tests), decimal system[7] and complex mathematical formularizations, in the form of the Moscow and Rhind Mathematical Papyri. The golden ratio seems to be reflected in many constructions, such as the Egyptian pyramids,[8] however this may be the consequence of combining the use of knotted ropes with an intuitive sense of proportion and harmony.[9]
Glass making was highly developed in ancient Egypt, as is evident from the glass beads, jars, figures and ornaments discovered in the tombs.[10][11] Recent archeology has uncovered the remains of an ancient Egyptian glass factory.[12]
Open problems, scientific inquiry and speculation on Ancient Egypt
Main article: Unsolved problems in Egyptology
Ancient Egypt has been a fertile field for scientific inquiry, scholarly study, religious inspiration, and open speculation, ranging from the use of electricity to model airplanes.[citation needed] Speculation and inquiry includes the degree of sophistication of ancient Egyptian technology, and there are several open problems concerning real and alleged ancient Egyptian achievements. Certain artifacts and records do not fit with conventional technological development systems. It is not known why there seems to be no neat progression to an Egyptian Iron Age nor why the historical record shows the Egyptians possibly taking a long time to begin using iron. A study of the rest of Africa could point to the reasons: Sub-Saharan Africa confined their use of the metal to agricultural purposes for many centuries. The ancient Egyptians had a much easier form of agriculture with the annual Nile floods and fertile sediment delivery. They thus had no impetus for the development of agricultural implements that would have spurred the adoption of iron.[citation needed] It is unknown how the Egyptians shaped and worked granite. A clue is found in the exquisite granite carvings of the Yoruba in West Africa. For years researchers could not fathom how they were carved so smoothly until contemporary workmen demonstrated the simple system of rubbing the quartz with sand and water. The exact date the Egyptians started producing glass is debated.
There is some question whether the Egyptians were capable of long distance navigation in their boats and when they became knowledgeable sailors. It is also contentiously disputed as to whether or not the Egyptians had some understanding of electricity and if the Egyptians used engines or batteries. The relief at Dendera is interpreted in various ways by scholars. The topic of the Saqqara Bird is controversial, as is the extent of the Egyptians' understanding of aerodynamics. It is unknown for certain if the Egyptians had kites or gliders. Beekeeping is known to have been particularly well developed in Egypt, as accounts are given by several Roman writers — Virgil, Gaius Julius Hyginus, Varro and Columella. It is unknown whether Egyptian beekeeping developed independently or as an import from Southern Asia.
Timeline
(All dates are approximate; see Egyptian chronology for a detailed discussion.)
Predynastic
See main article and timeline: Predynastic Egypt.
* 3500 BC: Senet, world's oldest (confirmed) board game
* 3500 BC: Faience, world's earliest known earthenware
Dynastic
The Great Pyramid of Giza.
The Great Pyramid of Giza.
Egypt was first to create glass objects.[citation needed]
Egypt was first to create glass objects.[citation needed]
3D red_cyan glasses recommended for your viewing pleasure
* 3300 BC: Bronze works (see Bronze Age)
* 3200 BC: Egyptian hieroglyphs fully developed (see First dynasty of Egypt)
* 3200 BC: Narmer Palette, world's earliest known historical document
* 3100 BC: Decimal system,[13] world's earliest (confirmed) use
* 3100 BC: Wine cellars, world's earliest known[14]
* 3050 BC: Shipbuilding in Abydos[15]
* 3000 BC: Exports from Nile to Palestine and Levant: wine (see Narmer)
* 3000 BC: Copper plumbing (see Copper: History)
* 3000 BC: Papyrus, world's earliest known paper
* 3000 BC: Medical Institutions
* 2900 BC: possible steel: carbon-containing iron[16]
* 2700 BC: Surgery, world's earliest known
* 2700 BC: precision Surveying
* 2700 BC: Uniliteral signs, forming basis of world's earliest known alphabet
* 2600 BC: Sphinx, still today the world's largest single-stone statue
* 2600s–2500 BC: Shipping expeditions: King Sneferu and Pharaoh Sahure. See also,[17][18]
* 2600 BC: Barge transportation, stone blocks (see Egyptian pyramids: Construction)
* 2600 BC: Pyramid of Djoser, world's earliest known large-scale stone building
* 2600 BC: Menkaure's Pyramid & Red Pyramid, world's earliest known works of carved granite
* 2600 BC: Red Pyramid, world's earliest known "true" smooth-sided pyramid; solid granite work
* 2580 BC: Great Pyramid of Giza, the world's tallest structure until AD 1300
* 2500 BC: Beekeeping[19]
* 2400 BC: Astronomical Calendar, used even in the Middle Ages for its mathematical regularity
* 2200 BC: Beer[20]
* 1860 BC: possible Nile-Red Sea Canal (Twelfth dynasty of Egypt)
* 1800 BC: Alphabet, world's oldest known
* 1800 BC: Moscow Mathematical Papyrus, generalized formula for volume of frustum
* 1650 BC: Rhind Mathematical Papyrus: geometry, cotangent analogue, algebraic equations, arithmetic series, geometric series
* 1600 BC: Edwin Smith papyrus, medical tradition traces as far back as c. 3000 BC
* 1550 BC: Ebers Medical Papyrus, traditional empiricism; world's earliest known documented tumors (see History of medicine)
* 1500 BC: Glass-making, world's earliest known
* 1300 BC: Berlin Mathematical Papyrus,[21] 19th dynasty - 2nd order algebraic equations
* 1258 BC: Peace treaty, world's earliest known (see Ramesses II[22])
* 1160 BC: Turin papyrus, world's earliest known geologic and topographic map
* 1000 BC: Petroleum tar used in mummification[citation needed]
* 5th–4th century BC (or perhaps earlier): battle games petteia and seega; possible precursors to Chess (see Origins of chess)
Middle Age
The Middle Ages formed the middle period in a traditional schematic division of European history into three "ages": the classical civilization of Antiquity, the Middle Ages and Modern Times. The Middle Ages of Western Europe are commonly dated from the 5th century division of the Roman Empire (into the Western Roman Empire and the Eastern Roman Empire) and the barbarian invasions until the 16th century schism of Christianity during the Protestant Reformation and the dispersal of Europeans worldwide in the start of the European overseas exploration. These various changes all mark the beginning of the Early Modern period that preceded the Industrial Revolution.
The Middle Ages are commonly referred to as the medieval period or simply medieval (sometimes spelled "mediaeval" or, historically, "mediæval").
Early Middle Ages
Main article: Early Middle Ages
In Western Europe from the 3rd Century onward, the political unity of the Roman Empire began to fragment. As the central authority of Rome faded, the imperial territories were infiltrated by succeeding waves of "barbarian" tribal confederations. Some of these "barbarian" tribes rejected the classical culture of Rome, while others, like the Goths, admired and aspired to it. The Huns, Bulgars, Avars and Magyars along with a large number of Germanic and later Slavic peoples, were prominent tribal groups that migrated into Roman territory. Some of the incursions were by agreement, in which tribal groups were assigned lands to farm and settle in return for acting as allies and confederates of Rome. In other cases, particularly from the 4th Century onward, incursions were hostile, the land was seized and settled by force. By the end of the 5th Century, the institutions of the Western Roman Empire had crumbled under the pressure of these incursions. Where semblances of Roman governance survived, these were largely in the form of weak and isolated city governments or else regional military commanders who had turned themselves into local strongmen in the absence of central authority. In the more developed eastern half of the empire, however, centralized institutions still continued to function, centred on the impregnably defended city of Constantinople. Often now termed the Byzantine Empire, this Eastern Roman Empire was a direct continuation of the Christian Roman Empire of late antiquity.
This era, often characterized by historians as one of dramatic population and cultural change, is sometimes referred to as the Migration Period, and as the Völkerwanderung ("wandering of the peoples") by German historians. Historically this period has been more pejoratively termed the "Dark Ages" by some Western European historians. The term "Dark Ages" has now fallen from favour, partly to avoid the entrenched stereotypes associated with the phrase, but partly because more recent research and archaeological findings about the period has revealed that complex cultural influences persisted throughout this period.
Romanesque architecture flourished in the early Middle Ages: Hildesheim.
Romanesque architecture flourished in the early Middle Ages: Hildesheim.
The question of what happened to the settled and Romanized populations of the western Empire is a complex one. In few cases do historians consider that the existing populations were driven out or killed off entirely by the new arrivals. Only in England, the Rhine Valley and the Balkans did the languages spoken by the original inhabitants largely disappear, to be replaced by those of the incomers (the meaning of this is debated). However changes everywhere would have been notable as established society went through changes in law, culture, religion, and patterns of property ownership. The Pax Romana, with its accompanying benefits of safe conditions for trade and manufacture, and a unified cultural and educational milieu of far-ranging connections, had already been in decline for some time as the 5th century drew to a close. Now it was largely lost, to be replaced by the rule of local potentates with a dramatic change in economic and social linkages and infrastructure. Roman landholders, however, could not just pack up their land and move elsewhere. Some were dispossessed, others quickly changed their allegiances to those of their new rulers. In areas like Spain and Italy, this often meant little more than acknowledging a new overlord, while Roman forms of law and religion could be maintained. In other areas where there was a greater weight of population movement, it might be necessary to adopt new modes of dress, language and custom. In such areas those who remained soon dropped their former pretences of Roman citizenship, so that within a generation or two it would have been difficult to distinguish between a Roman and a barbarian.
The breakdown of Roman society was often dramatic as it became unsafe to travel or carry goods over any distance and there was a collapse in trade and manufacture for export. Major industries that depended on long-distance trade, such as large-scale pottery manufacture, vanished almost overnight in places like Britain. The Islamic invasions of the 7th and 8th centuries, which conquered the Levant, North Africa, Spain, Portugal and some of the Mediterranean islands (including Sicily), increased localization by halting much of what remained of seaborne commerce. Thus, whereas sites like Tintagel in Cornwall had managed to obtain supplies of Mediterranean luxury goods well into the 6th century, this connection was now lost. The administrative, educational and military infrastructure of the Roman Empire quickly vanished, leading, among other things, to decreased literacy among the upper tiers (the majority of Rome's population were always illiterate) and the reduced governmental sophistication mentioned above. While the authority of Rome weakened, the authority of the bishops increased. Augustine of Hippo is such an example and is sometimes used to mark the end of the classical age and the beginning of the Middle Ages. One historian (Thomas Cahill) supports this saying that Augustine was the last of the classical men and the first of medieval men.
New order
Until recently it has been common to speak of "barbarian invasions" sweeping in from beyond Imperial borders and bringing about the end of the Roman Empire. Modern historians now acknowledge that this presents an incomplete portrait of a complex time of migration. In some important cases, such as that of the Franks entering Gaul, settlement of the newcomers took place over many decades, as groups seeking new economic opportunities crossed into Roman territory, retaining their own tribal leadership, and acculturating to, or displacing the Gallo-Roman society, often without widespread violence. This migration of the barbarians into the Roman empire took place over such a long period of time that, the Romans did not even perceive them as a threat. By speaking of this time as a time of "Barbarian invasions," it implies that it was an organized attack, which it certainly was not. Other outsiders, like Theodoric of the Ostrogoths, although warlike, also saw themselves as successors to the Roman tradition, employing cultured Roman ministers, like Cassiodorus. Like the Goths, the Franks and the Burgundians many of the outsiders were foederati, military allies of the Empire, who had earned rights of settlement.
Between the 5th and 8th centuries a completely new political and social infrastructure developed across the lands of the former empire, based upon powerful regional noble families, and the newly established kingdoms of the Ostrogoths in Italy, Visigoths in Spain and Portugal, Franks and Burgundians in Gaul and western Germany, and Saxons in England. These lands remained Christian, and their Arian conquerors were soon converted, following the example of the Frank Clovis I. The interaction between the culture of the newcomers, the remnants of classical culture, and Christian influences, produced a new model for society. The centralized administrative systems of the Romans did not withstand the changes for lack of a tax base, and the institutional support for large scale chattel slavery largely disappeared. The new system was incapable of supporting the depth of infrastructure required to maintain libraries, public baths, arenas and major educational institutions. While not actively destroying such things, the new rulers generally saw no point in striving to maintain them, and the economic base to support them no longer existed. New building was on a far smaller scale. Outside of Italy building in stone was rarely attempted until the 8th Century, when a new form of architecture called the Romanesque, and based on Roman forms, gradually developed.
In art, Celtic and Germanic barbarian forms were absorbed into Christian art, although the central impulse remained Roman and Byzantine. High quality jewellery and religious imagery were produced throughout Western Europe, Charlemagne and other monarchs provided patronage for religious artworks and books. Some of the principal artworks of the age were the fabulous Illuminated manuscripts produced by monks on vellum, using gold, silver and precious pigments to illustrate biblical narratives. Early examples include the Book of Kells and many Carolingian and Ottonian Frankish manuscripts.
The Christian Church, the only centralized institution to survive the fall of the Western Roman Empire intact, was the major unifying cultural influence, preserving its selection from Latin learning, maintaining the art of writing, and a centralized administration through its network of bishops. Bishops were central to Middle Age society due to the literacy they possessed. As a result, they often played a significant role in shaping good government. However beyond the core areas of Western Europe there remained many peoples with little or no contact with Christianity or with classic Roman culture. Martial societies such as the Avars and the Vikings were still capable of causing major disruption to the newly emerging societies of Western Europe.
Map of the world civilizations, c. 820 (Old World unaware of the New World's existence, and vice versa)
Map of the world civilizations, c. 820 (Old World unaware of the New World's existence, and vice versa)
Outside the de-urbanized remains of cities, the power of central government was greatly reduced. Consequently government authority, and responsibility for military organization, taxation and law and order, was delegated to provincial and local lords, who supported themselves directly from the proceeds of the territories over which they held military, political and judicial power. In this was the beginnings of the feudal system. The hierarchy of military obligations, known as feudalism, bound each knight (Latin miles meaning soldier) to serve his superior in return for the latter's protection. This made for a confusion of territorial sovereignty (since allegiances were built up one on top of the other, could be contradictory, and were subject to change over time). The benefit of feudalism however, was its resiliency, and its ability to provide stable local government in the absence of a strong royal power.
The Early Middle Ages were characterized by the urban control of bishops and the territorial control exercised by dukes and counts. The rise of independent urban communes free of lordly or episcopal control, marked the beginning of the High Middle Ages. The High Middle Ages would also see the regrowth of centralized power, and the growth of new "national" identities, as strong rulers sought to eliminate competition (and potential threat to their rule) from powerful feudal nobles. Well known examples of such consolidation include the Albigensian Crusade and the Wars of the Roses.
In the east, the Eastern Roman Empire (called by historians the "Byzantine Empire"), maintained a form of Christianized Roman rule in the lands of Asia Minor, Greece and the Slavic territories bordering Greece, and in Sicily and southern Italy. The eastern emperors had maintained a nominal claim to rule over the west, (partially reconquered by Belisarius), but this East Roman claim was a political fiction under Lombard rule and became strongly disputed from 800.
[edit] Rise of the Franks and Islamic invasions
Two dynamics combined to change Europe forever: the rise of Islam in the East (which led to the Islamic conquest of Iberia and invasions of Europe) and the rise of the Franks as the first real Imperial power in the West since Rome, along with their halting the tide of Islamic expansion under the rule of Charles Martel. The rise of Islam also began the long, slow, slide into extinction of the Eastern Roman Empire, which though it would endure for another seven hundred years, and even achieve renewed glory in the tenth century, would never again regain the territories in Africa and the Levant it had possessed before the Islamic conquests of the seventh century. Islam's coming had the unexpected result of shifting Christian power decisively to the West.
In the West, the first beginning of a new order arose with the Carolingians, who began as Mayors of the Palace for the Frankish Kings. At their onset, these were merely romanized Germanic barbarians, civilized to some degree by Christianity and a gradual evolution into a central government controlled by the Carolingian nobility, which actually ruled the Franks. This system came both to its height, and its end, during the reign of Charles Martel. At the beginning of Charles Martel's career, in 716, he had many internal opponents and felt the need to appoint his own kingly claimant, Clotaire IV, to the by then in-name only Kingship of the Franks. By his end, however, the dynamics of rulership in Francia had changed, no hallowed Meroving was needed, neither for defence nor legitimacy: Charles divided his realm between his sons without opposition (though he ignored his young son Bernard). In between, he strengthened the Frankish state by consistently defeating, through superior generalship, the host of hostile foreign nations which beset it on all sides, including the heathen Saxons, which his grandson Charlemagne would fully subdue, and Moors, which he halted on a path of continental domination.
Charles was a brilliant strategic general and tactical commander, able to adapt his plans mid-battle to the unforeseen and repeatedly defeat enemies, even, as at Tours, when they were far superior in men and weaponry. Charles used ground, time, place, and troop morale to offset his foes' superior weaponry and tactics.
He was also a skilled administrator and ruler, organizing what would become the medieval European government - a system of fiefdoms, loyal to barons, counts, dukes and ultimately the King, or in his case, simply maior domi princeps et dux Francorum. ("highest of the king's [great] household and commander of the Franks") His close coordination of church with state also began the medieval pattern for such government. He created the first western standing army since the fall of Rome. In essence, he changed western Europe from a horde of barbarians fighting with one another, to an organized state. He also halted Islamic expansion into Europe, and his crucial defeats of Muslim invading armies at Tours, Arles, and River Berre, stopped the Islamic tide while the Caliphate was still united, and set the stage for his son Pippin the Short to assume the Frankish Throne in what was already the basic Carolingian Empire, and his grandson to assume the title of the first Western Roman Emperor since Rome's fall, three centuries before.
[edit] West Roman Empire of Charlemagne (Post-800)
Charlemagne was crowned emperor in Rome by the Pope on Christmas Day, 800; his rule briefly united much of modern day France, western Germany and northern Italy. For 200 years after Charlemagne's death, Europe was in conflict, with east and west competing for power and influence in the partly un-christianized expanses of far northern Europe, and power devolving to more localized authorities.
The spread of Christianity in the Migrations Period, both from the Mediterranean area and from Ireland, occasioned a pre-eminent cultural and ideological role for its abbots, and the collapse of a res publica meant that the bishops became identified with the remains of urban government. Christianity provided a new cultural stability to people groups that were radically different. Whole people groups converted to win the support of the church, and to gain power and influence. Christianity provided the basis for a first European "identity," Christendom, unified until the separation of the Roman Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church in the Great Schism of 1054, one of the dates that marks the onset of the High Middle Ages.
[edit] Carolingian Renaissance
Main article: Carolingian Renaissance
During Charlemagne's lifetime, however, as well as that of his son, Louis the Pious, the Frankish-ruled Holy Roman Empire experienced a flourishing of intellectual and cultural revival. During this period there was an increase of literature, the arts, architecture, jurisprudence, liturgical and scriptural studies. The period also saw the development of Medieval Latin and Carolingian minuscule, providing a common language and writing style that allowed for communication across most of Europe. After the decline of the Carolingian dynasty, the rise of the Saxon Dynasty in Germany was accompanied by the Ottonian Renaissance.
See also the careers of Charlemagne, Louis the Pious, and Otto I, Holy Roman Emperor.
[edit] High Middle Ages
Main article: High Middle Ages
Beginning about the year 1000, greater stability came to the lands of Western Europe. With the brief exception of the Mongol incursions, major barbarian invasions had ceased. The advance of Christian kingdoms and military orders into previously pagan regions in the Baltic and Finnic northeast brought the forced assimilation of numerous native peoples to the European entity.
The "High Middle Ages" describes the expansionist culture and intellectual revival from the late 11th century to the beginning of the 14th (the "12th Century Renaissance"). The High Middle Ages saw an explosion in population. In central and northern Italy and in Flanders the rise of towns that were self-governing to some degree within their territories marked a beginning for re-urbanization in Western Europe.
In Spain and Portugal, a slow reconquest of the urbane and literate Muslim-ruled territories began. One consequence of this was that the Latin-literate world gained access to libraries that included classical literature and philosophy. Through translations these libraries gave rise to a vogue for the philosophy of Aristotle. Meanwhile, trade grew throughout Europe as the dangers of travel were reduced, and steady economic growth resumed. This period saw the formation of the Hanseatic league and other trading and banking institutions that operated across western Europe. The first universities were established in major European cities from 1080 onwards, bringing in a new interest and inquisitiveness about the world. Literacy began to grow, and there were major advances in art, sculpture, music and architecture. Large cathedrals were built across Europe, first in the romanesque, and later in the more decorative gothic style.
[edit] Crusades
Main article: Crusade
Following the Great Schism, prime examples of the force of the divided cultural identities of Christendom can be found in the unfolding developments of the Crusades, during which popes, kings, and emperors drew on the concept of Christian unity to inspire the population of Western Europe to unite to fight against Islam. From the 7th century onward, Islam had been gaining ground along Europe's southern and eastern borders. Muslim armies conquered Egypt, the rest of North Africa, Jerusalem, Spain, Sicily, and most of Anatolia (in modern Turkey), although they were finally turned back in western Europe by Christian armies at the Battle of Tours in southern France. Political unanimity in Europe was less secure than it appeared, however, and the military support for most crusades was drawn from limited regions of Europe. Substantial areas of northern Europe also remained outside Christianity until the twelfth century or later; these areas also became crusading venues during the expansionist High Middle Ages.
[edit] Science and technology
Main article: Medieval technology
During the 12th and 13th century in Europe there was a radical change in the rate of new inventions, innovations in the ways of managing traditional means of production, and economic growth. The period saw major technological advances, including the invention of cannons, spectacles, and artesian wells; and the cross-cultural introduction of gunpowder, silk, the compass, and the astrolabe from the east. There were also great improvements to ships and the clock. The latter advances made possible the dawn of the Age of Exploration. At the same time huge numbers of Greek and Arabic works on medicine and the sciences were translated and distributed throughout Europe. Aristotle especially became very important, his rational and logical approach to knowledge influencing the scholars at the newly forming universities which were absorbing and disseminating the new knowledge during the 12th Century Renaissance.
[edit] Late Middle Ages
Main article: Late Middle Ages
The first half of the 14th century witnessed an economic decline that began with the first retrenchment after the long, gently inflationary rise of a unified economy that had been under way since the 11th century. The European climate itself was worsening, after the long Medieval Warm Period, leading to the onset of the Little Ice Age. In the Black Death, large areas of Western Europe lost around a third—in some places as much as half—of their population to disease, especially in the crowded conditions of the towns. As a consequence, the mass population loss greatly accelerated social and economic change during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. In Western Europe, the sudden scarcity of cheap labour provided an incentive for landlords to compete for peasants by offering wages and freedoms, an innovation that, some argue, represents the roots of capitalism.
Politically, the later Middle Ages were typified by the decline of feudal power replaced by the development of strong, royalty-based nation-states, especially in England, France and the Iberian Peninsula. This consolidation did not decrease the frequency of war, the Late Middle Ages seeing such protracted conflicts as the Hundred Years' War between England and France. Participation in these wars weakened the eastern Christian nations in their confrontations with an increasing expanding Islamic world. Indeed, throughout this period the Byzantine Empire was in decline, having peaked in influence during the Early Middle Ages. After the Battle of Manzikert (1071), the former empire was reduced to a shell; it survived in a diminished and weakened form until 1453, and ceased to exist by the end of the Late Medieval period.
Christendom was increasingly divided in this period, notably during the 14th century. This troubled century saw both the Avignon Papacy of 1305–1378, also called the Babylonian Captivity, and the so-called Western Schism that lasted from 1378–1418. These divides resulted in greater loyalty to regional or national churches, and though lay piety rarely wavered, secular solutions, rather than religious ones, were increasingly sought for the social problems of the time. The Lutherans' split with the Roman Catholic Church in 1517, and the subsequent division between Catholicism and Protestantism signaled the end of the old order.
Throughout the Late Middle Ages, stresses such as the Great Famine of 1315–1317, the Black Death of 1348, and popular uprisings, particularly in the west, encouraged creative social, economic, and technological responses that signaled the end of the old medieval order and laid the groundwork for further great changes in the Early Modern Period.
Europe in 1328
Europe in the 1430s
Europe in the 1470s
[edit] Historiography
[edit] Middle Ages in history
Main article: Middle Ages in history
After the Middle Ages ended subsequent generations imagined, portrayed and interpreted the Middle Ages in different ways. Every century has created its own vision of the Middle Ages; the 18th century view of the Middle Ages was entirely different from the 19th century which was different from the 16th century view. The reality of these images remains with us today in the form of film, architecture, literature, art and popular conception.
[edit] Medieval and Middle Ages
[edit] "Middle Age"
The term "Middle Age" ("medium ævum") was first coined by Flavio Biondo, an Italian humanist, in the early 15th Century. Until the Renaissance (and some time after) the standard scheme of history was to divide history into six ages, inspired by the biblical six days of creation, or four monarchies based on Daniel 2:40. The early Renaissance historians, in their glorification of all things classical, declared two periods in history, that of Ancient times and that of the period referred to as the "Dark Age". In the early 15th Century it was believed history had evolved from the Dark Age to a Modern period with its revival of things classical so scholars began to write about a middle period between the Ancient and Modern, which became known as the Middle Age. This is known as the three period view of history.
The plural form of the term, Middle Ages, is used in English, Dutch, Russian and Icelandic while other European languages use the singular form (Italian medioevo, French le moyen âge, German das Mittelalter). This difference originates in different Neo-Latin terms used for the Middle Ages before media aetas became the standard term. Some were singular (media aetas, media antiquitas, medium saeculum and media tempestas), others plural (media saecula and media tempora). There seem to be no simple reason why a particular language ended up with the singular or the plural form. Further information can be found in Fred C. Robinson: "Medieval, the Middle Ages" in Speculum, Vol. 59:4 (Oct. 1984), p. 745-56. The term "medieval" (traditionally spelled "mediaeval") was first contracted from the Latin medium ævum, or more precisely "middle epoch", by Enlightenment thinkers as a pejorative descriptor of the Middle Ages.
The common subdivision into Early, High and Late Middle Ages came into use after World War I. It was caused by the works of Henri Pirenne (in particular the article "Les periodes de l'historie du capitalism" in Academie Royale de Belgique. Bulletin de la Classe des Lettres, 1914) and Johan Huizinga (The Autumn of the Middle Ages, 1919).
A medieval era can also be applied to other parts of the world that historians have seen as embodying the same feudal characteristics as Europe in this period. The pre-westernization period in the history of Japan is sometimes referred to as medieval. The pre-colonial period in the developed parts of sub-Saharan Africa is also sometimes termed medieval. Today historians are far more reluctant to try to fit the history of other regions to the European model and these terms are less often used.
[edit] Periodization issues
See also: Periodization
It is difficult to decide when the Middle Ages ended, and in fact scholars assign different dates in different parts of Europe. Most scholars who work in 15th century Italian history, for instance, consider themselves Renaissance, while anyone working elsewhere in Europe during the early 15th century is considered a medievalist. Others choose specific events, such as the Turkish capture of Constantinople or the end of the Anglo-French Hundred Years' War (both 1453), the invention of printing by Johann Gutenberg (around 1455), the fall of Muslim Spain or Columbus's voyage to America (both 1492), or the Protestant Reformation starting 1517 to mark the period's end. In England the change of monarchs which occurred on 22 August 1485 at the Battle of Bosworth is often considered to mark the end of the period, Richard III representing the old medieval world and the Tudors, a new royal house and a new historical period.
Similar differences are now emerging in connection with the start of the period. Traditionally, the Middle Ages is said to have begun when the West Roman Empire formally ceased to exist in 476. However, that date is not important in itself, since the West Roman Empire had been very weak for some time, while Roman culture was to survive at least in Italy for yet a few decades or more. Today, some date the beginning of the Middle Ages to the division and Christianization of the Roman Empire (4th century) while others, like Henri Pirenne see the period to the rise of Islam (7th century) as "late Classical".
The Middle Ages are often subdivided into an early period (sometimes called the "Dark Ages", at least from the fifth to eighth centuries) of shifting polities, a relatively low level of economic activity and successful incursions by non-Christian peoples (Slavs, Arabs, Scandinavians, Magyars); a middle period (the High Middle Ages) of developed institutions of lordship and vassalage, castle-building and mounted warfare, and reviving urban and commercial life; and a later period of growing royal power, the rise of commercial interests and weakening customary ties of dependence, especially after the 14th-century plague.
[edit] Religion
* Holy Roman Empire
* The Crusades
* Pilgrimage
* Papacy
* Medieval Inquisition
* Heresy (for example, Arian; Cathar; John Wyclif)
* Monastic orders
o Benedictines
o Carthusians
o Cistercians
* Mendicant friars
o Franciscans
o Dominicans
o Carmelites
o Augustinians
* Judaism
* Islam (Western Europe): Moors
* Islam (Eastern Europe): Sultanate of Rûm & Ottoman Empire
[edit] Article by regions
* Medieval Britain
* Byzantine Empire
* Bulgarian Empire
* Medieval Czechs lands
* Medieval France
* Medieval Germany
* Medieval Italy
* Medieval Poland
* Medieval Romania
* Medieval Scotland
* Medieval Spain