Life and Thought in the Ancient Near East

Theme and Variations on Herodotus’s Statement That “Egypt Is the Gift of the Nile”

EGYPT Theme and Variations on Herodotus’s Statement That “Egypt Is the Gift of the Nile” N o more accurate statement has ever been made in describing any country than the description of Egypt by the “Father of History” dating from the ‹fth century. The Nile is enclosed by rocky cliffs backed by deserts on the east and west. It ›ows through a kind of geological slot that is sometimes straight, sometimes curved. The natural limits of the country are a series of rocky cataracts to the south and a verdant and marshy delta, triangular in shape, that opens onto the Mediterranean Sea to the north. Inside this quasi-rectangular box, the ancient Egyptian lived permanently at the mercy of a benevolent river whose regime was gentle, for the most part, and whose regular and predictable rhythms of ›ood and recession set the stage for Egypt’s economic , political, and social life for millennia. Variation I The ‹rst theme to be considered is the nature of the river itself.1 On its ›ow to the Mediterranean from central Africa it carries enriching silt, which will nourish the ‹elds on its banks as it ›oods the valley ›oor. Below Khartoum, two great branches, respectively the Blue Nile and the White Nile, combine into a single stream, which expands owing to spring rains and summer monsoons on the Ethiopian Plains. As often happens when two imposing rivers combine into one, the single stream can be rapid and rough; in contrast the Nile remains gentle. Just as 39 ������������������������������������������������������������������������������ ������������������������������������������������������������������������������ important is that, unlike the Tigris-Euphrates system of Mesopotamia, whose ›oodwaters are alkaline and therefore destructive to inundated ‹elds, the Nile brings nourishing elements that renew fertility. It is an additive force provided by a benevolent nature. Yet natural gifts require management if they are to be bene‹cial to human life. The Nile ›ood essentially dictated the yearly calendar of Egypt. The inundation season lasted from July to October and inaugurated three months of intensive agricultural work. The ‹rst month found the valley submerged. Previously prepared catch basins, dikes, and channels for irrigation stood ready to retain the gently expanding waters. The effect of too much water was to damage the irrigation systems . On the other hand, and disastrously severe, too little water could produce famine. These possibilities spurred the invention of the nilometer, a device much in appearance like a vertical measure, with markers for height cut into rock, and located most notably on Elephantine Island at the First Cataract and also northward toward the old capital at Memphis. The inundation season comprised three months by Egyptian reckoning: the month of the actual ›ood; the month of the receding ›ood or the land’s drying out; and the month of seeding the new ‹elds. The harvest of wheat, barley, emmer, and other crops came in the spring. In sum, the agricultural year found the farmer-peasants intensively occupied with managing and controlling the ›ood through restoring the ‹elds; repairing arti‹cial channels, dikes, and basins; and harvesting the spring crops. It is easy to forget that Egypt is not really an urban society. Rather, it is a series of landed estates, temple and tomb complexes, and small villages. Ultimately these were forty-two habitation complexes, or administrative districts (nomes), which served as the skeletal structure of administrative Egypt. They were amalgamated after two thousand years or longer into two kingdoms—that of Upper, or southern, Egypt, with twenty-two nomes, and Lower, or northern, Egypt, with twenty nomes—and ‹nally, after 3000, into a single administrative unit under a ruler called the pharaoh. At whatever level of administration—single nome, regional, or national—the government was required to engage itself as surveyors of newly established ‹elds in order to adjust tax rates. This quick overview of Egyptian agricultural basics was undertaken to emphasize that the ground base of Egyptian civilization was the Nile River; from its rhythm evolved the entire basis of Egyptian existence as a nation throughout its history. 40 LIFE AND THOUGHT IN THE ANCIENT NEAR EAST Variation II A closely related theme is the organization of Egyptian life by administrators of nome or kingdom beyond the needs and strictures of the agricultural periods determined by the Nile ›ood. In the nome,2 the ruler, or nomarch, was both the political leader—for example, in matters of war and peace—and the administrator of the food supply. His position allowed him both to establish and maintain an administrative cadre of...