我相信各位老師在教歷史的時候常遇到的問題 之一是,學歷史有什用處。尤其是,古代史有 什麼用處?
雖然這不是什麼新鮮的問題,但的確是重要而
值得不斷思考的問題。我們不能說讀歷史只是 為了聴故事,或者為了找出解決某種問題的答 案,譬如有關政治或社會問題的某些事件的來 龍去脈,以及是非對錯,責任歸屬的問題,尤 其是近現代史,歷史扮演了提供證據的角色,
有它撼衛正義,還原公道的作用。
但是古代史,既然與現實世界的問題以乎沒 有直接關係,有什麼用呢?
1)與近現代史的功能有些類似,找出某些 歷史上事件的真相,
2)在找尋真相的時候,瞭解世界,瞭解人 類社會,瞭解現代世界的形成。
3)給學生一種時間感,一種站在高處回顧
世界的心胸和能力。人的氣質,可以因為具
有歷史的眼光和分析能力而變得更有深度。
要說明古代史和現代的關係,古埃及可以是 一個例子,但當然不是唯一的例子。
在眾多古文明中,埃及一直占有最受矚目的 排行榜第一,是有它的原因的:
1)古蹟的遺留
2)自古以來的名聲
3)歐洲文明自文藝復興時代以來的推崇
我們今天不談古蹟文物本身,而是要看看其
它兩項因素。
希望今天能夠傳達的要點:
1)現代世界的文化多元性。
2)每一件事物都有它的歷史,都可能有一段 曲折而長遠的故事。
3)不但每一件事物有它的歷史,每一個我們 身邊的現象也都不是偶然,而可能有其特殊的 來源。
4)歷史教育的目標之一,就是告訴學生這些 可能性,以及探索這些可能性的興趣和能力。
1. THE IMAGE OF EGYPT IN EUROPE THROUGHOUT THE AGES
所有的歷史都是現代史
NAPOLEON IN EGYPT 1799
http://i491.photobucket.com/albums/r r280/FoundingFather1776/Top
%205%20Sinister
%20Logos/Pic14napoleon.jpg
Please use the following link to view the picture
Napoleon in Egypt 1799
Why Egypt?
Institute d’ Égypte (Mathmatics, physic s, literature, political economy)
Déscription d’ Égypte (1809-1828)
Rosetta stone
The Rosetta Stone
http://jdownsrosetta.files.wordpress.c om/2010/04/rosetta-stone-11.jpg
Please use the following link to view picture of The Rosetta Stone
Egypt in the Eyes of the Greeks
Iliad II, IX, 383-384
Thebes was a rich place, it has a hundred gat es, every gate could allow two hundred warrio rs and their chariots to pass through.
Odysseus IV, 220-23;232
Egypt was a far away country, but Helen broug ht back from there the magical grass which co uld let people forget sorry and pain. Egyptia ns are the most knowledgeable doctors in the world.
Some Greek terms originated in Egyptian
MEMPHIS=Mn-nfr=The beautiful fortress
Egypt=Aegyptus= Hut-ka-Ptah=Mansion o f the soul of the god Path
New Kingdom wall paintings: Minoans from Crete had visited Egypt
http://www.malerei-meisterwerke.de/images/maler-der- grabkammer-des-mencheperresonb-grabkammer-des- mencheperresonb-hohepriester-des-amun-szene-
asiatischer-tributbringer-05844.jpg
Please use the following link to view the wall paintings
Greek perceptions of Egypt:
the beginning of an ambivalent attitude 1. idealizing
2. scandalizing
Herodotus: Egypt was the oldest nation in the world, Egypt possess great wisdom, the Egypti an priest are the wisest and most intelligent people.
On the other hand, he noted some strange cust oms of the Egyptians: The Egyptians have ado pted customs and practices which almost invar iably are the opposite of those followed by p eople elsewhere: men weave, women work the la nd, people eat outside of the house, but defe cate inside; in mourning they allow their bea rds to grow while in Greece the men shave; me n carry weights on their heads and women on t heir shoulders; women urinate standing up whi le men squat down.
Plato (428-347BCE)
Egypt is an ideal state, a model, whe re everything was orderly; music, art and dance are part of the religious c eremonies.
In Greek tragedy, Egypt‘s image was not positive, because it was on the Persian side during the Persian Wars. (for examp le, the Egyptians were thought to be dec eptors, the term “to Egyptize” means t o deceive.) But on the other hand Egypt was a rich country, its priests were wis e people who guided the people.
Diodorus Siculus (fl. 1st century BCE)(General History) was other serious writer about Egypt.
D. visited Egypt in about 59 B. C., and quoted his personal experience in Egypt, but he also relied upon previous writers such as Herodotus very heavily. He recounts the story that Osiri s was a beneficent king resembling Dionysus. E gypt had three classes: the Priest, the soldie rs, and the technicians. Their trades were her editary. The king did everything according to the sacred law, thus what he did was all accor ding to the highest standards.
Strabo (63 BCE-24CE), Geographica
Lived at Alexandria for some years , and ha d travelled through Egypt from north to sou th. In his Geographica his gave a rather de tailed and accurate survey of the land of E gypt. Thus his work is still quite useful i n the study of ancient geography of Egypt.
Plutrach. (A. D. 50-120) In his De Is ide et Osiride, (Isis and Osiris), he narrated the famous Egyptian mytholog ical story about the murder of Osiris and the avenge of his son Horus again st his murderer and brother Seth.
Plutrach gave various explanations to the myt h: Osiris was the Nile, Isis the earth, Seth (Typhon) the sea; or, Osiris the moonlight, S eth the sun; or Seth the drought, Horus, who finally avenged his father, was the rain.
His explanation can be see as “nature allego ry”
Roman period
Because of the affairs of Caesar and Mark Antony with Cleopatra, Egyptian culture was much known in Rome. The g oddess Isis, already an important mot her goddess in the Hellenistic period , was once widely worshipped in the R oman world.
Antinous, a Roman dressed in Egypti an Style (2
ndcentury CE)
http://webfea.fea.aub.edu.lb/arch121/
Roman%20Art/VII24.jpg
Please use the following link to view the picture
Roman wall paintings with Egyptian themes from Herc ulaneum
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/r omans/images/gal_daily_isis.jpg
Please use the following links to view pictures of Roman wall paintings
http://www.scalarchives.com/scalapic/
011206/c/0053865c.jpg
A pyramid in Rome (tomb of Cestius Epulo, 12 BCE)
Please use the following link to view the picture of pyramid in Rome http://www.alchimiabb.net/ita/images/
piramide_cestia.jpg
Recent study shows that quite a n
umber of Graeco Roman papyri reco
rded cultural interactions betwee
n Greek culture and Egyptian cult
ure. These are mainly a variety o
f Demotic and Greek documents. Th
ere are evidence of Greek words b
orrowed by Egyptian, or vise vers
a. In literary texts, mutual borr
owing and influence are evident.
During the Graeco Roman period the int
ellectuals of Egypt and Greece were in
contact, thus the idea that the Greeks
and Romans knew little about Egypt was
not correct. This is probably caused b
y the bias of the traditional Classic
scholars. Another reason: the Demotic
literature of the Graeco-Roman period
has not been well understood
.Europe from Medieval to Renaissance
Christian theology was the major in tellectual guide of European intell ectuals during the Medieval period.
In the Christian tradition, the ima
ge of Egypt was mainly a negative o
ne, since in the Bible Egypt was a
place where the Israelites suffered
. Early Christians in Egypt used to
destroy the Egyptian temples and st
atues for those are the idols of th
e heathen.
The Arabs
The Arabs of the Medieval period re garded the ancient architectures we re built by giants or magicians. Th eir main interests were to find tre asures. In the 9
thcentury, a person named Ma’mun dug into the great p yramid of Giza, but found nothing.
In the tenth century, the casing st
one of the Giza pyramids were move
d to build the city of Cairo.
Medieval Arab scholars were rather i nterested in ancient Egyptian antiqu ities.
1200, a doctor named Abd’ el-Latif went to visit the Giza pyramids and found that the Sphinx was intact. He gave a detailed description of it, b ut since it was written in Arabic, i t was unknown to the Europeans until the 19th century.
Abu Ja’far Al-Idrisi (d. 1251)
was the first Arab scholar who
studied the pyramids systematic
ally. He not only analyzed the
shape and reason for the buildi
ng of the pyramid, but also stu
died the chemical compound of t
he dirt in the buildings to det
ermine the origin of the buildi
ngs
. The Arabs also studied Coptic t
exts, which was of help to the
European scholars in the deciph
erment of the Egyptian script.
In sum, the Greeks knew of the ancient histo ry of Egypt, and they idealized Egyptian wis dom, but these were not enough to encourage them to study in depth Egyptian civilization . The Romans regarded Egypt as their granary , yet were not really interested in Egyptian culture. The Arabs had certain interest in E gypt, yet their main stream Arabic culture d id not allow them to go further into this c ulturally and religiously very different anc ient civilization. Before the Renaissance, E gypt was not really regarded in the eyes of the Europeans as an important place in histo ry and culture.
After the Renaissance
Because of the struggle between the Europeans a nd the Arabs during the late Medieval period, E uropeans did not have much contact with Egypt.
After the 14th century, because of the effort of Renaissance intelletcuals, classics of the Grea co-Roman period were re-discovered, and with th is the interest in Egypt.
When the Turkish empire began to c
rumble, the obstacle between East
and West travel was gradually rem
oved. Many Europeans began to trav
el to the East and wrote about the
ir experience in Egypt. Thus Europ
eans in general began to know more
about Egypt.
17
thand 18
thcentury
There were about 200 travelogues about Egypt f rom 1400 to 1700, which shows the European int erest in Egypt. The development of imperialis m als0 increased the interest in Egypt. But th e Egyptian language was still seen as a myster ious symbol system, each sign was regarded as having secrete meaning, the entire text was a combination of series of symbolic meanings tha t contain the secrete of the world and ultimat e wisdom.
Such understanding no doubt came fr
om the ancient Greek idea that Egyp
t possessed the supreme wisdom.
Athanasius Kircher (1602-1680) was a Jesuite fat her, wrote many works about Egypt, and studied the Egyptian language. His contribution in this regard are two fold: one, he discovered the importance of Coptic in the study of Egyptian hieroglyphs, two, his study of the Egyptian hieroglyphs was still us ing the symbolic understanding, thus he did not fi nd the key to decipher the Egyptian writing.
2. The establishment of Egyptology
When the Rosetta Stone was found in 1799, the French scholars made rubbings and sent back f or study. But after the war, French was defea ted by the British, the Rosetta Stone was shi pped to London and put in the British Museum.
Johan D. Akerblad (1763-1819) first recognize d some Demotic alphabets, but because he thou ght that all demotic signs were monosyllabic, he failed to make further progress.
Thomas Young (1773-1824)discovered that Demotic signs an d Hieratic signs are evolved from the hieroglyphic signs , thus he knew that Demotic was not a complete alphabet ical system. Thus he thought that Egyptian writing was a combination of phonetic signs and ideographic signs. He correctly identified 6 hieroglyphic signs and the corres ponding Greek alphabets and thought that the Egyptian wr iting and Coptic had a close relationship.
F. Champollion (1790-1832)
Building upon the research of previous scholar s, he finally deciphered in 1824 the Egyptian hieroglyphic writing, which was basically phon etic writing with phonetic signs of various sy llabus, plus a number of non-phonetic signs or ideographic signs that denote the meaning of t he word. He became the first Egyptological p rofessor at the College de France in 1831.
Richard Lepsius, Denkmäler aus Ägypten und Äthiopien (Berlin, 1849-50; 1884), 12vols of plates, 7 volumes of documents.
First Egyptological Journal: Zietschrift f ür Aegyptische Sprache und Altertumskunde.
Auguste Mariette (1821-1881), fi rst systematic archaeologist, es tablished the Cairo Museum
Gaston Maspero (1846-1916), turn
ing the goal of archaeology: fro
m object and treasure collecting
to using objects to understand t
he life of the ancients.
Flinders Petrie (1853-1942) founder of modern archaeology
In order to understand the ancient society, o ne has to study the relationship between obje cts. He established a sequence dating system using pottery shapes to determine the relativ e chronology between different sites.
Archaeology is a science that involves planni ng, digging, recording, publishing, protectin g, and museum display.
In 1892, Petrie became the first Eg
yptological professor at the Univer
sity of London (the late famous Chi
nese archaeologist Xia Nai 夏鼐 wa
s his student).
20
thCentury
現代社會中的古埃及形象
音樂,電影,小說,時尚,建
築
Movies
e.g. Cleopatra
The Mummy
Music and opera
e.g. Aida
Novels
e.g. Ramses - The Son of the Light, Christian Jacq
Ramses - The Lady of Abu Simbel, Christian Jacq
Fashion
Obelisks around the world
Vatican
Paris
London