G06: Ancient Egypt - Social Stability and Change: Gr 4 Merchants and Artisans

Ancient Egyptian art has survived for over 5000 years and continues to fascinate people from all over the world. An ancient premise has become a modern reality: art is a path to eternal remembrance

Egyptian art and architecture, the ancient architectural monuments, sculptures, paintings, and applied crafts produced mainly during the dynastic periods of the first three millennia bce in the Nile valley regions of Egypt and Nubia. The course of art in Egypt paralleled to a large extent the country’s political history, but it depended as well on the entrenched belief in the permanence of the natural, divinely ordained order.

The ancient Egyptians were wonderful traders. They traded gold, papyrus, linen, and grain for cedar wood, ebony, copper, iron, ivory, and lapis lazuli (a lovely blue gem stone.) Ships sailed up and down the Nile River, bringing goods to various ports. Once goods were unloaded, goods were hauled to various merchants by camel, cart, and on foot. (Donkeys were used by farmers, not traders usually.) Egyptians traders met traders from other civilizations just beyond the mouth of the Nile, to trade for goods brought to them, but they did not often travel themselves much beyond the Nile River.

Egypt is a land rich in gold, and ancient miners employing traditional methods were thorough in their exploitation of economically feasible sources. In addition to the resources of the Eastern Desert, Egypt had access to the riches of Nubia, which is reflected in its ancient name, nbw (the Egyptian word for gold).

Trade began in the Predynastic Period in Egypt (c. 6000 - c. 3150 BCE) and continued through Roman Egypt (30 BCE-646 CE). For most of its history, ancient Egypt's economy operated on a barter system without cash. It was not until the Persian Invasion of 525 BCE that a cash economy was instituted in the country. Prior to this time, trade flourished through an exchange of goods and services based on a standard of value both parties considered fair.