Ancient Egyptian Civilization: The Old Kingdom

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There have been awesome advances that have been made in regard to architecture, art and technology. These were made from the old kingdom. The increase in the agricultural productivity made it possible to develop a well centralized administration. There were many irrigation projects that were put into place and these were done to improve the crop yield. There were many peasants who worked on construction projects and these established a justice system primarily to maintain peace, law and order.

There were lots of resources that were made available by an economy which was both productive and stable. There were huge monuments whose contractions the state was sponsoring; these were also combined with the works of art and elite crafts from the Royal workshops.

Khufu and Djoser who built the Pyramids built the pyramids and these are the most memorable symbols of the ancient civilization. The power to do all this lied completely in the hands of the Pharaoh who controlled most everything in his kingdom.

There was rising importance which was given to a central administration and this gave rise to a completely new class of scribes who were educated. There were many officials who were granted land and the local temples here would ensure that the institutions here would have all the necessary resources they would need to worship the pharaoh after he died.

When the old kingdom started to come to an end, the economic power of the Pharaoh started to get eroded by five centuries of feudal practices. And precisely because of this, it became quite difficult to maintain a large and centralized administration. This is how the regional governors who were called Nomarchs started to challenge the divine supremacy of the Pharaohs.

Later on, all these problems; clubbed together with a drought; was quite severe and because of this for about one hundred and forty years this kingdom suffered a long famine and it was called the first intermediate period.

Right after the central government collapsed, the regional leaders could no longer depend on the king for help in times of crisis. This led to many civil wars and political disputes.



About the Author:
History of Civilizations is providing information of Western Civilization, World Civilizations, Ancient, Mayan & Greek Civilization. Here you can also get information of minoan civilization, inca civilization and many more.



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