EGYPTIAN ENTERTAINMENT

From the scenes depicted on pyramids and temples it is obvious that sports were a fundamental part in the Egyptian daily life. Quite surprisingly ancient Egyptian games and sports are not that different from the games we practice and enjoy today. Many of today's sports were practiced by the Ancient Egyptians who set the rules and regulations for them.

Inscriptions on monuments indicate that the pharaoh and his people enjoy sports such as wrestling, weightlifting, long jump, swimming, rowing, shooting, fishing and athletics, as well as various kinds of ball games. This was practiced more by royalty for entertainment purposes rather than for practical means.

Drawings on monuments tell us that several thousand years ago; the Egyptians had established basic rules for games, chosen a neutral referee, a uniform for players, and a means of announcing the winners by awarding them different collars. Both winner and loser were met with ovation, the first for his superiority and the latter for his sporting spirit.

Due to the fact that Egypt was situated on the banks of the Nile River, many Egyptian sports were water related. Evidence indicates that Egyptians enjoyed such sporting events as swimming and rowing.

One of the games involved balls, and others palm trees used as bats. Those games were enjoyed by children and adults with the purpose of having entertainment and diversion. Today soccer is still being practiced and is quite popular in modern Egypt just as it was with their ancestors. They still have sports such as squash, tennis, and even golf.

In addition, ancient Egypt sports included lengthy marathons that were recorded in a number of ancient Egyptian texts. Marathons seem to have even played a part in the coronation festivities of pharaohs throughout most ancient Egyptian history.

Gymnastics: Consecutive Vault
This painting represents pharaonic gymnastics. The players performed consecutive vaults without touching the floor with their heads and making more than one complete turn in the air.

Fishing
Fishing was one of the sports practiced by kings, princes and commoners. There are many drawings of scenes of fishing as a hobby on the Saqqara tombs of the Old Kingdom as much as there are on the New Kingdom monuments.

Weightlifting
Weightlifting was one of the sports known by the ancient Egyptians. One method of weightlifting was the attempt to lift a heavy sack of sand with one hand (clean and jerk lift) and keep it high in a quasi-vertical position. The player had to stay in that position for a short period. This is one of the rules of weightlifting applied till now.

Rowing
Rowing was one of the sports that required most physical strength on the part of the ancient Egyptian. Plates recorded team-rowing in which the players depended on harmonizing their rowing according to the directives of their leader who held the rudder. The leader also controlled their movement through a high-pitched systematic call to unify the moment when oars touched the surface of the water and that helped to push the boat forward more steadily and swiftly - a method still being adopted in rowing nowadays.

Swimming
Swimming was the favorite sport of the ancient Egyptians, who made use of the River Nile to practice it. The Nile was not the only place for swimming contests. Noblemen's palaces had swimming pools in which princes learned the sport.
The calm waters of the Nile encouraged youths to hold swimming competitions in which they could show their skills.

Archery
Was a well-known sport and was often recorded on plates in ancient temples. These plates show the kings' and princes' skill in accurate aiming at the target, and their strength in pulling the bow.
Archery competitions were common. In the 21st century BC King Amenhotep II boasted that he pierced the middle of a thick brass target with four arrows. He then set a prize for anyone who could do the same.

Marathon
Marathon races were of the utmost importance in ancient Egypt, particularly during celebrations marking the assumption of power of new kings. One of the rituals of these celebrations was to hold a marathon run by the king around the temples before spectators to reveal his physical strength and his ability to rule using his bodily as well as mental capabilities.

Bibliography

Egypt State Information System

http://www.sis.gov.eg/

SOME EGYPTIAN INVENTIONS AND TRADITIONS

Ancient Egypt achieved a very high standard of productivity, organization, and sophistication.
They were the firsts to invent hydraulic cement. The Egyptians created their own alphabet and the decimal system, though it is unclear due to the margin of error in carbon-dating tests that don’t lead scientist to study this completely. They developed some basic math concepts as in algebra and geometry, they could use fractions, besides the four basic mathematical operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication and division), and they also compute the volumes of boxes and pyramids and calculate the surface area of rectangles, triangles, circles, and even spheres.

Traditional empiricism, as evidenced by the Edwin Smith and Ebers Papyry (circa 1600 BC), was first credited to Egypt, and the roots of the scientific method can also be traced back to the ancient Egyptians.

Archeologists have recently uncovered the remains of an ancient Egyptian glass factory. Glass-making is known to have been highly developed in ancient Egypt based on the glass beads, jars, figures, and ornaments discovered in the tombs.

Ancient Egyptian physicians were renowned for their healing skills. They protect and treat their patients using prayers, protective amulets, and medicines derived from natural resources. There were some advantages in getting remedies due to the fact that they were found in their houses or their own crops.

They used to bandage the wounds with raw meat, but this leads an almost certain infection produced by the germs of the meat and the lack of hygiene in the process. Honey was used to prevent the infection and opium was used to control and relieve pain. Garlic and onions were used regularly to promote good health and were thought to relieve asthma symptoms. Ancient Egypt surgeons in spite of stitching wounds, repaired broken bones and amputated diseased limbs. They recognized when the injuries were so serious that the only course of action was to wait until the death of the patient.

In conclusion, we can see that Egypt led us to some of the most important concepts in math that has been a help for architecture and engineering. Today we also use some natural products to heal and treat wounds. All of these inventions were a factor in creating today’s modern society.

Bibliography
· www.cofc.edu
Peter A. Piccione, Assistant Professor, Egyptologist, University of Charleston.

A VIEW OF THE FAMILY IN THE ANCIENT AND THE MODERN CULTURE

The family was considered the core in ancient Egypt; some gods were predestined to take care of that group. In marriage, the women held stronger social positions. Marriage was purely a social arrangement that regulated property. Once an adolescent man was mature enough, it was appropriate for him to look for a partner and begin his own family; on the other hand it was thought that the females were ready for marriage after their first menses. Due to the lack of contraceptives of that age, people used to have a large family, but that was traditional and accepted for the society.

Nowadays people get married more often when they have a definite economical situation and a job, thus they have the means to support a family. Also companies and health centers make plans to prevent and help families with a lack of means to avoid pregnancy or have more then two or three kids; they have to recognize their situation and know that if they don’t use contraceptives methods the end result will bring them more poverty.

Once the couples were married in Egypt it was to be expected that they were totally faithful to each other. Therefore if the women of the men were unfaithful then they received a punishment that could sometimes be death. Nonetheless, in Egypt divorce was common, despite of the fact that sometimes people would remarry. However, there were some “rules” for the divorce that involved the marital joint property; when a woman chose to divorce, she could leave with what she had brought into the marriage plus a share (about one third to two thirds) of the marital joint property. But in case a woman abandoned her sick husband, in the resulting judgment she was forced to renounce all their joint property. Nevertheless, if the husband left the marriage he was liable to a fine or payment of support (analogous to alimony), and in many cases he forfeited his share of the joint property.

That is similar to modern life, because now it is common to hear or see couples divorcing as a result of their troubles; after a divorce those persons can get married again. However, the law makes them divide the shared property in half for each one. In case the couple has kids, the father is forced to pay a certain amount destined to serve as alimony support for his children.

Egyptian women had greater freedom of choice and more equality under social and civil law than their contemporaries and in some cases even that of the women in our time, because nowadays there are still women who submit for their husband.

In summary, there are some similarities and differences in how ancient Egypt and our civilization consider marriage, but the only thing that is known is that in spite of any circumstances the family had and still has to be the center of the society.