During this semester we talked a lot about how the concept of time is important to the Egyptians. I found this discovery very intriguing. While the concept of time could be for the actual time of year it could also be used to shape their memory of past time. As we know, the Egyptians had to use the Nile as a natural resource, that provided food and water to the villages. The flooding of the Nile could either help the Egyptians prosper or be their downfall. To prevent the suffering of the people, the Egyptians created riverside structures that allowed them to predict the season and the rise of the water throughout the year, called Nilometers. We talked of two different Nilometers that are located and shaped a bit differently from each other. The Elephantine Nilometer has an opening along the Nile into a temple. At first sight, you may think that it’s an entrance for people, but once you get up close and take a look along the walls of the structure you’ll see that the walls contains scripture that indicates the rise of the water. This allows the Egyptians to track the flow of the Nile , so they can then predict whether it will be a low, medium, or high flood (Watrall 2018). The Egyptians depend on the Nile flood to water their crops so low or high floods can quiet devastating if it reoccurs each year. The other Nilometer is called the Kom Ombo Nilometer. It’s different from the Elephantine Nilometer because it is actually located a few feet away from the Nile, but it is still connected to the Nile. Its connection to the Nile allows the circular Nilometer to fill up  with water and the Egyptians are still able to interpret the type of flood as they can with the pervious Nilometer (Watrall 2018).

The Egyptians interpretation of their own past is also interesting to me. A few artifacts that allow archaeologists and Egyptologists to understand how the Egyptians perceive their own past are the Kings lists. I found it interesting that the Pharaohs would omit certain past rulers from their own retelling of the past. The Tjenry List on the Saqqara Tablet is a good example of Pharaohs omitting former Pharaoh off the Kings List for political advancement (Watrall 2018).  This list was found in a funerary tomb above the resting place of a priest that lived during the reign of Ramesses II. This list starts with Ramesses II and then it goes backwards in chronological order to end with Adjib. This list only lists 58 kings, with the omission of the foreign rulers as well as a few native rulers. I find it interesting that this list leaves out foreign rulers, “the purpose of this list was to show celebrated ‘ancestors’, instead of showing a complete kings list (Lundstrom 2018). I found the concept of time within Egypt to be a very broad topic and can be understood through various sites and artifacts.

 

Lundstrom, Peter. “Saqqara King List in Detail, with Detailed Hieroglyphics.” Pharaoh.se, 2018, pharaoh.se/saqqara-king-list.