The Scorpion King has heard of it, right? So did you know that there is another king catfish?
In ancient Egyptian history, this king, named "The Fierce Catfish", unified Upper and Lower Egypt and established the First Dynasty. In the opinion of the author of "A Brief History of Ancient Egypt", the catfish king is more material and legendary than the scorpion king. Why didn't anyone make "Catfish King"? Although catfish are not as poisonous as scorpions, the king of water is also very mysterious!
"King Catfish" Narmai palette front and back view
Of the few Egyptian history books I've seen, this is one of the more interesting ones. Since it is a very brief history, it can only be written in an outline, and the author grasps the important points and aspects. The surface is the general trend of history, and the point is the key historical figures, events and buildings.
When writing the general trend of history, first list the brief next year, and divide the history of ancient Egypt into the Old Kingdom, the Middle Kingdom, the New Kingdom, and the Late Kingdom, plus the three intermediate periods in between, a total of seven stages. Then define these seven stages with the most typical characteristics: the pyramid era, the classical era, the imperial era, the Zhongxing era, the famine period, the Hyksos period, and the period of minority rule.
It's really much easier to remember.
History was followed by the political system, a "troika" driven by the pharaohs, including the inner palace, the outer palace, the temple and the army. The history of the central cities of ancient Egypt, the military situation, etc. are also clarified in a concise way. Even myths do not confuse people, you must know that in ancient Egypt, a country with different worships, the gods themselves had to fight, and it was really not easy to remember them.
After talking about the general trend of history, the author analyzes the core issues. What are the laws of the beginning and development of history? How did words drive the leap of civilization? How does a split arise? Why did this ancient nation die out after it was divided? This is the main brain of this book: civilization is born from the condensation of wisdom, brilliance in being able to stand at the forefront of the times, and declining in failing to keep up with the times.
I always feel that this author is referring to the writing method of the "History", and after writing and analyzing the general trend, the big people appear. This part of the content is more relaxed and lively, we can see the catfish king Narmai, the god of war Thutmose III, the ancient Egyptian version of Wu Zetian Hatshepsut, the infrastructure love of Ramses the Great, the half-human and half-god Prime Minister Imhotep, and of course, the long-known Cleopatra... Basically, I read it in one sitting, and the character portrayal exceeded my expectations for a scholar.
Finally, several famous battles and buildings.
By systematically combing through the history of ancient Egypt, I remembered several important points: the invention of writing was the dividing line from prehistory to history, while promoting the leap-forward development of Egyptian civilization; Human reason goes through four stages, from which human wisdom grows; Peace after war occurs in only three situations, either evenly matched, divided between victory and defeat, or yellow finches behind; The core reason for the decline of ancient Egyptian civilization is not only foreign invasion, but also the backwardness of tool civilization.
The author also refreshes two cognitive misconceptions. First, the ancient Babylon of the four ancient civilizations should be changed to ancient Iraq, because ancient Babylon is only a historical stage of Mesopotamian civilization; The second is the sea peoples that the pharaohs of the New Kingdom have fought many times, they belong to a mixed formation rather than a single people, and strictly speaking, they should be called "sea people". From what I see, the influence of these two old terms has long been deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, I wonder if such a correction can be officially answered?
In general, this is a very good popular science book on ancient Egyptian history, which is more academic than all kinds of minimalist histories flying in the sky, and adds more interest to the history books than Banzheng.