14 Chapter 1the Egyptians did not adopt the use of bronze until
about 1500 B.C., long after it was common elsewhere.
Wood was the chief import. Egypt was self-
sufficient in most other commodities, but the Nile val-
ley contained few trees and those that existed were of
species unsuitable for boat building or for the exquisite
cabinetry favored by the royal court. Long before the
First Dynasty, ships were sailing to Byblos on the coast
of Lebanon and returning with cargos of rare timber.
This trade probably was the primary vehicle for cultural
and demographic contacts with Asia.
The role of Egypt as a connecting link between
Asia and Africa was reflected in the appearance of its
people. In Upper Egypt, the predominant physical type
was slender with dark skin and African features. The
people of the delta were heavier, with broad skulls and
lighter complexions that betrayed Asian or European
origins. But representatives of both types were found
everywhere, and the Egyptians as a whole seem to have
been indifferent to racial or ethnic classifications. No
apparent connection was made between rank and skin
color. Immigrants from Palestine to the north and Nu-
bia in the south were found in the army as well as in
civilian society and often achieved high office. The
Egyptian language, too, contained a mixture of African
and Semitic elements.
Women enjoyed considerable status. In art they
were often, though not always, portrayed as equal to
their husbands (see illustration 1.5). They could hold
property, initiate divorce, and undertake contractual
obligations in their own right. The women of the
royal family owned vast estates and seem to have
exerted an influence on politics. At least one queen
ruled Old Kingdom Egypt in her own name, and two
women ruled in the New Kingdom—Hatshepsut
(c. 1503–1482 B.C.), who devoted her reign to the de-
velopment of commerce and commissioned some of
the finest monuments of Egyptian architecture, and
Tawosre. But no evidence exists that women served as
scribes or as officials in the royal administration.
The absence of a legal code and the shortage of
court records makes evaluating the true status of
women in Egyptian society difficult, but several fac-
tors seem to have operated in their behalf. The iden-
tity of a child’s mother, not its father, established
heredity, and the matrilineal inheritance of private
property, a practice dating from predynastic times,
was far more common in Egypt than in other parts of
the ancient Near East. Attitudes may also have been
affected by the respect accorded to women of the
royal family.
Egyptian Culture, Science, and Religion
Writing evolved in Egypt and in Mesopotamia at about
the same time, but the two systems were different.
Egyptian writing is known as hieroglyphics and in its
earliest form consisted of lifelike pictures representing
specific objects or actions. By a process similar to word
association certain hieroglyphs acquired additional
meanings, and by about 2700 B.C., seventy-eight of
them were being used phonetically to represent conso-Illustration 1.
The Pharaoh Menkaure and His Queen.This statue from
the Old Kingdom (Fourth Dynasty) is remarkable, not only for
its artistic skill, but also for its intimacy. The couple is portrayed
as affectionate equals, something that would have been virtually
unthinkable in other ancient societies where the place of women
was openly inferior.