ANCIENT EGYPT SPORTS

Many of today's sports were practiced by the Ancient Egyptians, who set the rules and regulations for them. In Egypt, sport was born and flourished, and from there spread to Greece, Rome and to the rest of the world. Inscriptions on monuments indicate that they practiced wrestling, weightlifting, long jump, swimming, rowing, shooting, fishing and athletics, as well as various kinds of ball games. Ancient Egyptian kings, princes and statesmen were keen on attending sports competitions, which they encouraged and provided with the necessary equipment. Drawings on pharaonic monuments tell us that several thousand years ago, the Egyptians had laid down 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. The scenes depicted on pyramid and temple walls that ancient Egyptians knew how to keep fit; obviously in ancient Egypt sports must have been a part of the daily life and culture.

On ancient Egypt sports was comprised of a variety of games and sports. Quite surprisingly ancient Egypt games and sport are not that different from the games we practice and enjoy today. Murals and paintings dating back to the days of the ancient Egyptians indicate that the pharaoh and his people enjoyed such activities as wrestling and javelin throwing. Javelin throwing was most likely associated with hunting for both sport and the provision of food. Likewise, archery was a very popular sports recreation in Egypt; although it seems to have been practiced more by royalty for entertainment purposes than for practical means.

With the fact that Egypt lies on the banks of the Nile River it is quite likely to assume that many of the ancient Egyptian sports were water related. Evidence indicates that Egyptians enjoyed such sporting events as swimming, fishing and rowing. 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 learnt the sport. The calm waters of the Nile encouraged youths to hold swimming competitions in which they could show their skills. On the other hand fishing was one of the sports practiced by kings, princes and commoners. Finally Rowing was one of the sports that required most physical strength on the part of the ancient Egyptian. The 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.

Although, Ancient Egypt sports also included an assortment of ball games. One of the games involving ball play appears to be a version of handball, the ball was made of leather and stuffed with plant fibers or hay, or made of papyrus plants in order to be light and more durable. Each team throws the ball to the other at the same time. Players can either be on their feet or on top of their teammates' backs while exchanging balls. Other games were played using balls and bats fashioned from palm trees. Ball games appear to have been enjoyed by children and adults alike. In a tomb of an Egyptian child, were pins and a ball, this mystery game was actually bowling dated back four thousand years ago. The pins and ball were made of hard rock that was ground to form their smooth surfaces. The bowling ball has evolved quite a bit. Obviously, bowling then was not as advanced as it is today. Nevertheless, Egyptians had a great time playing what we call bowling. Bowling is still a wonderful and a very popular pastime for people of all ages. Although Ancient Egyptians played a game that is similar to our days hockey. The hockey ball was made of compressed papyrus fibers covered with two pieces of leather in the shape of a semicircle. The ball was dyed in two or more colors.

In addition, ancient Egypt sports included lengthy marathons that were recorded in a number of ancient Egyptian texts. 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. For these marathons, the Egyptians must practice gymnastics (consecutive vault) the players performed consecutive vaults without touching the floor with their heads and making more than one complete turn in the air. At the end of the exercise the players stand firmly upright, which is one of the basic rules of floor exercise applied in today's Olympics.

The idea that sports today were influenced by sports up to five-thousand years ago seems merely impossible. Though, the truth of the matter is a lot of sports today were actually being played during ancient historical times. No matter what technological advances have been made throughout the past five-thousand years it seems that human society has always had a knack for competing in sports and games.

By Paula López Novoa

ANCIENT EGYPT TRADITIONS , BELIEFS AND RITUALS

Egypt Ancient civilization is one of the influential and further than any other cultures in order to comprehend and preserve their belief and rituals in the pass of history .Today is relevant to know more about different societies that brought to us many traditions and social aspects. Specially Egypt was the most advanced civilization of the ancient world in terms of its culture, science, medicine, politics, social structure, and perhaps most importantly its incredibly sophisticated approach to spirituality.

One of the keys to understanding the ancient civilization is the Rosetta stone. This artifact was discovered in 1799 and helps us even today to interpret the writings of the ancient hieroglyphics. Egypt´s history, religion, and beliefs were left on these hieroglyphics. Some of the writings included stories of the kings that ruled during the different dynasties. Gods were also very prominent during this time and played a major role in the way people lived their lives.

This culture have been characterized essentially for all the Goddesses like Nuit , lady of the stars, Ast , queen of heaven , Asar, God of our fathers, Nebt-Het , Goddess of That Death Which Is Not Eternal ,Suti , the Adversary, Heru , Lord of Things To Come, Anpu , Guide to the Dead which Egyptian people accept as true and dedicate time to make them happy and glorifying them consecutively to get blessing of them through sacrifice or other types of formal procedure as a ceremonies.

An example of that is "Maat has two meanings in the ancient Egyptian language. Maat is first the goddess of justice and truth, who gave meaning to the world and bestowed order upon the chaos of creation in the First Times. She governs the movement of the stars, the rising and setting of the sun, the inundation and retreat of the Nile, and the laws underlying all of nature. In the Judgment Hall of the Tuat the heart of the deceased is weighed against Maat's feather, which represents truth. If the heart is found to be free from the weight of sin, the deceased joins the company of the gods; otherwise, the soul is devoured and destroyed. Thus Maat is the standard by which we are measured.”[1].

Heka is the general term for Egyptian magic. The rites listed below provide a core foundation in Egyptian ritual magic for the esoteric practitioner. One of those fundamental or traditional rituals that Egyptian people does are: The Opening of the Mouth, The Gathering of Heka, The Dedication of the Temple, The Passion of Ast and Nebt-Het and so on .

Other significant aspect in order to talk about Egyptian civilization is the tradition of mummification ritual, because was one of the most imperative feature of ancient Egyptian life , that is preparing for life after death. Egyptians believed that, in addition to a body, every person had a soul or spirit that would live on after death.

So the odor of a slowly drying body, especially in the hot desert climate of Egypt, need that hands and feet amulets were placed on the decaying body before the wrapping process took place. The moisture dripped through a channel as the lower end into a pan or bucket. A society woman had to struggle for equality among men. The Egyptians washed their bodies and mouth out everyday.

Once the body was thoroughly dried, the abdominal cavity was packed with more natron and with fresh spices wrapped in linen. This has been one of the most documented fascinations of the modern day world. The wrappings covered whatever jewelry had been placed on the mummy.

To sum up the Egyptian civilization have many characteristics that make this societies very interesting and conservative, particularly about their ethnicity, beliefs, thoughts, government rules, rituals and religion that expressed the complexity of the relationships between humanity, the world, and the divine, with an inventiveness and subtlety that is without parallel. They rituals of mummification, the mystery of the pyramids, hieroglyphics ,their ceremonies to glorify their goddesses repeatedly to receive blessings and prosperity to their community are one of those things that characterized Egypt civilization from other and defend a role in the world history with they perform.

[1] http://www.idolhands.com/egypt/maat/

By Adriana Fuentes Amorocho

Ancient Egypt - Paula Lopez Novoa

Ancient Egypt - Adriana Fuentes

ANCIENT CIVILIZATION HEROES

ALEXANDER THE GREAT VS ATTILA - By Adriana Cifuentes

In the Ancient Civilization a person who achieved too many aims on his life and conquested all the land around him, he will get the affability of a whole town and would be considered as a remembering heroe. I´m going to talk about similarities and differences between those heroes who belonged the history of their Empires with their values and determinative thought that characterized them.

One of those Heroes is Alexander the Great, who was an ancient Greek King of Macedon and conquered most of the world known to Constantinople and Rome ( Europe in general)likewise Attila, recognized as Attila The Hun or the Scourge of God , who was Kahn of the Huns leadered the Hunnic Empire which stretched from Germany to the Ural River. Those leaders of a Nation have beguiling personalities, an incredible courage and turn on fearsome to their enemies.

Even though they have similarities also there are some differences like Attila is remembered as an Epitome of Cruelty and Rapacity. In contrast Alexander the Great as a noble and kind King. Despite that, each ones death was distinguished, came about unlike places and time, Alexander the great was undefeated in battle on June 10 of 323 BC and Attila had an uneventful dead on 434.

To sum up, however heroes made in their Ancient Civilization, they played a relevant role in their Societies development, no mater their weaknesses or strength, they justified their actions according to their contemplation and a challenge showing their similitude’s and differences between them.

OSIRIS VS ISIS - By Paula López Novoa

Religion in ancient Egypt was not unlike modern times. Today, not everyone believes in the same way, or of the same god. Egypt was no different. Individual kings worshipped their own gods, as did the workers, priests, merchants and peasants. The gods lived, died, hunted, went into battle, gave birth, ate, drank, and had human emotions. Likewise, the myths changed with the location of the gods, as did their names. Each god had five names, and each was associated with an element, such as air, with celestial bodies, or was a descriptive statement about the god, such as strong, virile or majestic. We see many similarities and differences between the two gods Osiris and Isis.

Ancient Egyptian religion consisted of several different traditions and beliefs. However, it was predominantly based upon polytheism, as they worshipped over two thousand gods and goddesses; they viewed their gods as deities who cared naught about the Egyptian people. Thus, it was believed that if they failed to pay homage to their gods. Osiris and Iris were great goods, which marked the history of egypt civilization, depended on its myths and worshipped both as a symbol of gratitude. Both were gods devoted all day to Egypt and although both were created by the same god Ra, each will dedicate a portion of its people, thus leaving his teachings and belief to Egypt.

Nevertheless, there are some conspicuous differences. Osiris was the son of Geb and Nut and was born in Thebes in Upper Egypt; in the other hand Isis the mother of Horus and sister and consort of Osiris was worshipped at Philae. Finally, they contrast in kind of god: Osiris was the god of the dead, a very important role in ancient Egypt and this carried over into the rituals and beliefs of Egyptians much later, as well. It was because of the legend of Osiris that Egyptians believed they had the right to be transformed and to live in the afterlife. His first deed was to abolish cannibalism and teach the arts of agriculture. In contrast Isis not only used the words of power, but she also had knowledge of the way in which to pronounce them so that the beings or things to which they were addressed would be compelled to listen to them and, having listened, would be obliged to fulfill her bequests.

To sum up the ancient Egyptians were extremely devout in their beliefs. They were dedicated to their gods and worshipped daily in many different ways. Their way of life revolved around these beliefs. They had a strong sense of justice and endeavored to do that which was right. They were a highly sophisticated society with values and morals.

HORUS VS RA - By Camila Giraldo

In Egypt there were not heroes. The heroes of this ancient civilization were the gods how the people thought they were the must important thing and they give them some names to represent something. In this essay I am going to talk more about the two goods that has some differences and similarities.

Horus was the god of the sky, it was the champion of the light again the shadow compare to Ra that was the god of the sun he was the one that establish the gods. Also Ra was the father of all the gods or the beginners of the rise of the others gods, this god engender Geb y Nut by his self in contrast of hours those there fathers were Osiris and Seth.

The dress of Horus it was similar to the dress of Ra. Horus is shown as a hawk, or a man with a hawk's head and the crown of all Egypt. This makes him look similar to Ra, but Ra is crowned with the sun disk. Horus crown is made of two parts. The white part is the crown of Upper Egypt and the red part is the crown of Lower Egypt.

In the summary of the history of this ancient civilization that is Egypt, is one of the must amazing places in the world. But being and today is just one attraction for people around the world, loosing the essence of the place itself. These are some of the gods that help to create this entire beautiful place.

On the old days Egypt didn’t had machines to created all the constructions they did. They used the slaves to construct all that. The machines on that time were like a big oblong of wood with two wheels and whit that they construct the pyramids and others things really big but each of the construction had a way to be like that, things to had for example the pyramids were big and in that position because with that they knew the time. They trade the things that they had for others that they need because they didn’t have money to buy to others countries things that they need to live. On the contrary of nowadays the constructions are different because on this times we used different machines to construct like the mixer and must of the constructions doesn’t have a way to be they just construct something that have to be pretty. Also we used the money to buy things that we doesn’t have and we sell the things that we have.

DAILY LIFE

Most ancient Egyptians were farmers tied to the land. Their dwellings were restricted to immediate family members, and were constructed of mud- brick designed to remain cool in the heat of the day. Each home had a kitchen with an open roof, which contained a grindstone for milling flour and a small oven for baking bread. Walls were painted white and could be covered with dyed linen wall hangings. Floors were covered with reed mats, while wooden stools, beds raised from the floor and individual tables comprised the furniture.
The ancient Egyptians placed a great value on hygiene and appearance. Most bathed in the Nile and used a pasty soap made from animal fat and chalk. Men shaved their entire bodies for cleanliness, and aromatic perfumes and ointments covered bad odors and soothed skin. Clothing was made from simple linen sheets that were bleached white, and both men and women of the upper classes wore wigs, jewelry, and cosmetics. Children went without clothing until maturity, at about age 12, and at this age males were circumcised and had their heads shaved. Mothers were responsible for taking care of the children, while the father provided the family's income.
The staple diet consisted of bread and beer, supplemented with vegetables such as onions and garlic, and fruit such as dates and figs. Wine and meat were enjoyed by all on feast days while the upper classes indulged on a more regular basis. Fish, meat, and foul could be salted or dried, and could be cooked in stews or roasted on a grill. Music and dance were popular entertainments for those who could afford them. Early instruments included flutes and harps, while instruments similar to trumpets, oboes, and pipes developed later and became popular. In the New Kingdom, the Egyptians played on bells, cymbals, tambourines, and drums and imported lutes and lyres from Asia. The sistrum was a rattle like musical instrument that was especially important in religious ceremonies.
The ancient Egyptians enjoyed a variety of leisure activities, including games and music. Senet, a board game where pieces moved according to random chance, was particularly popular from the earliest times; another similar game was mehen, which had a circular gaming board. Juggling and ball games were popular with children. The wealthy members of ancient Egyptian society enjoyed hunting and boating as well.

ART

The Egyptians were influenced by many things. Their religion and beliefs were shown in most of their paintings. Paintings had pictures of gods and goddesses doing different activities. Colored portraits made predictions of the afterlife they believed in.
Egyptians had several kinds of art forms. Mummy cases, or sarcophaguses, were built for the bodies of kings or important people. They believed that the body went to an afterlife and the sarcophagus was to be a beautiful and valuable place for the body to rest. The body was wrapped in white bandages then it was put in its own case with a unique design. But the more significant people were given more than one case, which were piled inside each other. Another interesting art form was relief art. In relief art, the picture was carved into layers to give a raised look. Reliefs showed every kind of activity, from feasting to working, from learning to dancing. Statues were another common art form Egyptians liked making. Most were of gods, goddesses, pharaohs, and queens. The statues could be made small or large. Statues were not suppose to copy nature, but they were meant to be symbols of the people's beliefs. Statues always had to be youthful figures. The paintings and drawings of Egyptian people look flat and strange, because they were painted in a particular way. I mportant people were painted larger than others. Heads were shown from front view. Eyes and the top half of the body were shown from the front, but arms and legs were shown from the side, so that they were easier to see.