The main feature of ancient Egyptian civilization is that: it was not dedicated only to kings. in Egyptian Museum collection statues for the whole society in ancient Egypt, not only kings and royal family members but also sculptures and figures of a scribe, workers, governors, priests, dwarfs, etc.
There were in this society great members who held significant roles & positions.
For example, in literature in ancient Egypt, sinuhe and his story.
According to architecture, senmut, the architect of Queen Hatshepsut, who designed her marvelous temple on the west bank of Luxor,
no one can also ignore priests’ role in medicine and mummification, crafts and artists’ roles in constructing the great mortuary temples, tombs, religious temples, etc.
So the role of Egyptian society interfered in each element of life in ancient Egypt . whatever the period and the personality. Still, a great person appeared at the beginning of this civilization in ancient Egypt, named “Imhotep, “and had a great position and value till the end of this civilization. One can say till the change of cult in Egypt from ancient Egyptian to Christianity.
Medicine and architecture
No one can write any research or assignment about medicine or architecture without mentioning the first architect and doctor Imhotep, who played a significant role in ancient Egypt in these two fields. His name is always connected to them. According to architecture, he is the overseer of the first step pyramid in Egypt. He is considered the oldest in the world. The oldest stone building in the whole world has more than 4600 years old.
According to medicine, in ancient Egypt, doctors were priests and initially not doctors but rather healers in gods’ temples. One of the most essential and prominent healers was Imhotep, responsible for healing the sick people in ancient times who visited the gods’ temples.
NAME
Imhotep was a prevalent name in ancient Egypt and consisted of two words Im and Hotep, Im it means he, Hotep it means peace, when we connect both comments, so it means that “he comes in peace. ”
Family
Interestingly, we can now define or determine this personality’s descending family, in a very suspended kind of detail even the birthday of this personality, who lived in the 26-century b.c.
Imhotep was born in one of the suburbs in Memphis -the capital of Egypt at that time – named ankhtowe, on the 16 days of “epiphany, “which was the third month of the harvest season of ancient Egypt.
However, the date of his birth is not exact or known till now. It is assumed that he lived during the reign of king zoser, the founder of the old kingdom period.
His father was a brilliant architect named kanofr, and his mother was called khredouanch. It seems that Imhotep had a free education as it was allowed in those ancient times, so he was variously talented, having a heavy load of an image, similar to Aristotle.
He dedicated his life to different activities could be summarized in his titles which were
- Vizier.
This vizier title in ancient Egypt revealed the highest level of respect and responsibility, overseeing different country sections.
And the examples of these responsibilities were: finance, army, internal army police, agriculture, and executing authority of this land.
Through these titles, Imhtop played a significant role during the ancient starvation in Egypt during king zoser.
The lack of Nile flood seven years caused starvation because the king ignored offerings to the Nile’s gods, so after the advice of Imhotep.
zoser wanted to satisfy god Khnum the local god on the first cataract, with offerings in the memorable visit allow the Nile flood of the, and finish the starvation thanks to Imhotep.
- Architect.
Because of his father kanfr, Imhotep became a brilliant architect like him and held the title “chief activities in upper and lower Egypt,” the great architect.
And the most hypothetical opinion says the leading architect and overseer on the step pyramid project in Saqqara and complex of king zoser was Imhotep. This pyramid complex is a precious intermediate point in religion and architecture in ancient Egypt. It is the first tomb made of limestone. All tombs earlier were built by mud-brick. Also, it is a new form of graves, and a pyramid was a new form for burials in ancient Egypt. It had never been repeated any complex pyramid like this for other kings, even by building pyramids, which is a great puzzle.
- High priest.
The class of priests in ancient Egypt was divided into two categories :
the high level of priests or elite, which were called “hmw ntr “”servants of gods,” and the second class was called normal priests “w3b “.
Some of the priests were working daily in the temples. At the same time, others were working temporally.
The high priest had duties and tasks: one of these duties was to attend the daily ritual of worship in the temple and to clean the statue of the king and smoke incense, and massage the figure of the king with oil, and to hymn the holy texts during religious rituals in the temple, and since these religious texts had a magical power, the priest as magician indeed.
- Wise and scribe.
One of the most Egyptian wise men was Imhotep. He wrote and edited a lot of dissertations in architecture, medicine, and other science. His dissertations were known till the Christian era.
He wrote many pearls of wisdom and virtue to make each person aware of his value and be grateful to his family and society.
In this issue, Imhotep held the title of “royal scribe, “so he was the connection channel between the king and his officers and overseers of his land through this title. Later on, he was known as “patron of scribes. “
- Astronomer.
Many shreds of evidence and attestations connected the name of Imhotep with god thot, the god of astronomy in ancient Egypt.
And the belief in the influence of stars on human fate and destiny was so popular, and this belief led to studying the traffic of the stars and other planets. Also, it led to the connecting moon to the sun to stars bind with the community of the gods in ancient Egypt.
No doubt that the proficiency in observing the oval tropic for stat “sothis “permitted ancient Egyptians to give them one whole full year by adding a quarter day to each year
. It is not easy determining the date of exploring this astronomical feature. Still, it is too old since most of the pyramids were built according to geographical and astronomical dimensions.
- Healer
Medicine and magic in ancient Egypt were in a mixture. The core of medicine in ancient Egypt is magic. The magical aspect could be useful, but it requires hyperpower to implement it.
Magic could erase evil and cure sick people and satisfy the needs of dead people. One of the features of magic is using unclear mysterious words to show some wisdom in it.
However, Imhotep was a great magician. Medicine was his prime passion and interest. His position in medicine brought him up to gods’ place by the end of ancient Egyptian civilization.