THE ORIENTAL TYPE OF CIVILIZATION
_The Governments of the Early Oriental Civilizations_.--In comparing
the Oriental civilizations which sprang up almost independently in
different parts of Asia and Africa with European civilizations, we
shall be impressed with the despotism of these ancient governments. It
is not easy to determine why this feature should have been so
universal, unless it could be attributed to human traits inherent in
man at this particular stage of his development. Perhaps, also, in
emerging from a patriarchal state of society, where small, independent
groups were closely united with the oldest male member as leader and
governor of all, absolute authority under these conditions was
necessary for the preservation of the tribe or group, and it became a
fixed custom which no one questioned.
Subsequently, when the population increased around a common centre and
various tribes and groups were subjected to a central organization, the
custom of absolute rule was transferred from the small group to the
king, who ruled over all. Also, the nature of most of these
governments may have been influenced by the type of religion which
prevailed. It became systematized under the direction of priests, who
stood between the people and the great unknown, holding absolute sway
but working on the emotion of fear. Perhaps, also, a large group of
people with a limited food supply were easily reduced to a state of
slavery and dwelt in a territory as a mass of unorganized humanity,
subservient only to the superior directing power. It appears to be a
lack of organized popular will. The religions, too, looked intensely
to the authority of the past, developing fixity of customs, habits,
laws, {171} and social usages. These conditions were conducive to the
exercise of the despotism of those in power.
_War Existed for Conquest and Plunder_.--The kings of these Oriental
despotisms seemed to be possessed with inordinate vanity, and when once
raised to power used not only all the resources of the nation and of
the people for magnifying that power, but also used the masses of the
people at home at labor, and abroad in war, for the glory of the
rulers. Hence, wars of conquest were frequent, always accompanied with
the desire for plunder of territory, the wealth of temples, and the
coffers of the rulers. Many times wars were based upon whims of kings
and rulers and trivial matters, which can only be explained through
excessive egoism and vanity; yet in nearly every instance the idea of
conquest was to increase the wealth of the nation and power of the king
by going to war. There was, of course, jealousy of nations and rivalry
for supremacy, as the thousand years of war between Egypt and Babylonia
illustrates, or as the conquest of Babylon by Assyria, or, indeed, the
later conquest of the whole East by the Persian monarchs, testifies.
These great wars were characterized by the crude struggle and slaughter
of hordes of people. Not until the horse and chariot came into use was
there any great improvement in methods of warfare. Bronze weapons and,
later, iron were used in most of these wars. It was merely barbarism
going to war with barbarism in order to increase barbaric splendor.
_Religious Belief Was an Important Factor in Despotic Government_.--In
the beginning we shall find that animism, or the belief in spirits, was
common to all nations and tribes. There was in the early religious
life of people a wild, unorganized superstition, which brought them in
subjection to the control of the spirits of the world. In the slow
development of the masses, these ideas always remained prominent, and
however highly developed religious life became, however pure the system
of religious philosophy and religious worship, as represented by the
most intelligent and farthest advanced of the {172} people, it yet
remains true that the masses of the people were mastered and ruled by a
gross superstition; and possibly this answers the question to a large
extent as to why the religion of the Orient could, on the one hand,
reach such heights of purity of spirit and worship and, on the other,
such a degradation in thought, conception, and practice. It could
reach to the skies with one arm and into the grossest phases of
nature-worship with the other.
It appears the time came when, as a matter of self-defense, man must
manipulate and control spirits to save himself from destruction, and
there were persons particularly adapted to this process, who formed the
germs of the great system of priesthood. They stood between the masses
and the spirits, and as the system developed and the number of priests
increased, they became the ones who ruled the masses in place of the
spirits. The priesthood, then, wherever it has developed a great
system, has exercised an almost superhuman power over the ignorant, the
debased, and the superstitious. It was the policy of kings to
cultivate and protect this priesthood, and it was largely this which
enabled them to have power over the masses. Having once obtained this
power, and the military spirit having arisen in opposition to foreign
tribes, the priests were at the head of the military, religious, and
civil systems of the nation. Indeed, the early king was the high
priest of the tribe, and he inherited through long generations the
particular function of leader of religious worship.
It will be easy to conceive that where the art of embalming was carried
on, people believed in the future life of the soul. The religious
system of the Egyptians was, indeed, of very remarkable character. The
central idea in their doctrine was the unity of God, whom they
recognized as the one Supreme Being, who was given the name of Creator,
Eternal Father, to indicate the various characters in which he
appeared. This pure monotheism was seldom grasped by the great masses
of the people; indeed, it is to be supposed that many of the priestly
order scarcely rose to its pure conceptions. But there {173} were
other groups or dynasties of gods which were worshipped throughout
Egypt. These were mostly mythical beings, who were supposed to perform
especial functions in the creation and control of the universe. Among
these Osiris and Isis, his wife and sister, were important, and their
worship common throughout all Egypt. Osiris came upon the earth in the
interests of mankind, to manifest the true and the good in life. He
was put to death by the machinations of the evil spirit, was buried and
rose, and became afterward the judge of the dead. In this we find the
greatest mystery in the Egyptian religion. Typhon was the god of the
evil spirits, a wicked, rebellious devil, who held in his grasp all the
terrors of disease and of the desert. Sometimes he was in the form of
a frightful serpent, again in the form of a crocodile or hippopotamus.
Seeking through the light of religious mystery to explain all the
natural phenomena observed in physical nature, the Egyptians fell into
the habit of coarse animal worship. The cat, the snake, the crocodile,
and the bull became sacred animals, to kill which was the vilest
sacrilege. Even if one was so unfortunate as to kill one of these
sacred animals by accident, he was in danger of his life at the hands
of the infuriated mob. It is related that a Roman soldier, having
killed a sacred cat, was saved from destruction by the multitude only
by the intercession of the great ruler Ptolemy. The taking of the life
of one of these sacred creatures caused the deepest mourning, and
frequently the wildest terror, while every member of the family shaved
his head at the death of a dog.
There was symbolism, too, in all this worship. Thus the scarabeus, or
beetle, which was held to be especially sacred, was considered as the
emblem of the sun. Thousands of these relics may be found in the
different museums, having been preserved to the present time. The
bull, Apis, not only was a sacred creature, but was held to be a real
god. It was thought that the soul of Osiris pervaded the spirit of the
bull, and at the bull's death it passed on into that of his successor.
The worship of the lower forms of life led to a coarseness in religious
{174} belief and practice. How it came about is difficult to
ascertain. It is supposed by some scholars that the animal worship had
its origin in the low form of worship belonging to the indigenous
tribes of Egypt, and that the higher order was introduced by the
Hamites, or perhaps by the Semites who mingled with and overcame the
original inhabitants of the Nile valley. In all probability, the
advanced ideas of religious belief and thought were the essential
outcome of the learning and speculative philosophy of the Egyptians,
while the old animal worship became the most convenient for the great
masses of low and degraded beings who spent their lives in building
tombs for the great.
The religious life of the Egyptians was protected and guarded by an
elaborate priesthood. It formed a perfect hierarchy of priest, high
priest, scribes, keepers of the sacred robes and animals, sculptors,
embalmers, besides all the attendants upon the services of worship and
religion. Not only was this class privileged among all the castes of
Egypt as representing the highest class of individuals, but it enjoyed
immunity from taxation and had the privilege of administering the
products of one-third of the land to carry on the expenses of the
temple and religious worship. The ceremonial life of the priests was
almost perfect. Scrupulous in the care of their person, they bathed
twice each day and frequently at night, and every third day shaved the
entire body. Their linen was painfully neat, and they lived on plain,
simple food, as conducive to the service of religion. They exerted a
great power not only over the religious life of the Egyptians but, on
account of the peculiar relation of religion to government, over the
entire development of Egypt.
The religion of Oriental nations was non-progressive in its nature. It
had a tendency to repress freedom of thought and freedom of action.
Connected as it was with the binding influence of caste, man could not
free himself from the dictates of religion. The awful sublimity of
nature found its counterpart in the terrors of religion; and that
religion attempted to {175} answer all the questions that might arise
concerning external nature. It rested upon the basis of authority
built through ages of tradition, and through a continuous domineering
priest-craft. The human mind struggling within its own narrow bounds
could not overcome the stultifying and sterilizing influence of such a
religion. The lower forms of religion were "of the earth, earthy."
The higher forms consisted of such abstract conceptions concerning the
creation of the earth, and the manipulation of all the forces of nature
and the control of all the powers of man, as to be entirely
non-progressive. There could be no independent scientific
investigation. There could be no rational development of the mind.
The religion of the Orient brought gloom to the masses and cut off hope
forever. The people became subject to the grinding forces of fate.
How, then, could there be intellectual development based upon freedom
of action? How could there be any higher life of the soul, any moral
culture, any great advancement in the arts and sciences, or any popular
expression regarding war and government?
_Social Organization Was Incomplete_.--All social organization tended
toward the common centre, the king, and there was very little local
organization except as it was necessary to bring the people under
control of official rule. There were apparently very few voluntary
associations. Among the nobility, the priests, and ladies of rank, we
find frequently elaborate costumes of dress, manifold ornaments,
necklaces, rings, and earrings; but whatever went to the rich seemed to
be a deprivation of the poor. Indeed, when we consider that it cost
only a few shillings at most to rear a child to the age of twenty-one
years in Egypt, we can imagine how meagre and stinted that life must
have been. The poorer classes of people dressed in a very simple
style, wearing a single linen shirt and over it a woollen mantle; while
among the very poor much less was worn.
However, it seems that there was time for some of the population to
engage in sports such as laying snares for birds, {176} angling for
fish, popular hunts, wrestling, playing checkers, chess, and ball, and
it appears that many of these people were gifted in these sports. Just
what classes of people engaged in this leisure is difficult to
determine. Especially in the case of Egypt, most of the people were
condemned to hard and toilsome labor. Probably the nobility and people
of wealth were the only classes who had time for sports. The great
temples and palaces were built with solid masonry of stone and brick,
but the dwelling-houses were constructed in a light, graceful style,
surrounded with long galleries and terraces common at this period of
development in Oriental civilization. The gardening was symmetrical
and accurate, the walks led in well-defined lines and were carefully
conventional. The rooms of the houses, too, were well arranged and
tastefully decorated, and members of the household distributed in its
generous apartments, each individual finding his special place for
position and service.
For the comparatively small number of prosperous and influential
people, life was refined and luxurious so far as the inventions and
conveniences for comfort would permit. They had well-constructed and
well-appointed houses, and, judging from the relics discovered in tombs
and from the records and inscriptions, people wore richly decorated
clothing and lovely jewels. They had numerous feasts with music and
dancing and servants to wait upon them in every phase of life. It is
related, too, that excursions were common in summer on the great
rivers. But even though there was a life of ease among the wealthy,
they were without many comforts known to modern times. They had cotton
and woollen fabrics for clothing, but no silk. They had dentists and
doctors in those days, and teeth were filled with gold as in modern
times. Their articles of food consisted of meat and vegetables, but
there were no hens and no eggs. They used the camel in Mesopotamia and
walked mostly in Egypt, or went by boat on the river. However, when we
consider the change of ancient Babylon to Nineveh, and the Egyptian
civilization of old Thebes to that {177} which developed later, there
is evidence of progress. The religious life lost a good many of its
crudities, abolished human sacrifice, and developed a refined mysticism
which was more elevating than the crude nature-worship.
The rule of caste which settled down over the community in this early
period relegated every individual to his particular place. From this
place there could be no escape. The common laborers moving the great
blocks of stone to build the mighty pyramids of the valley of the Nile
could be nothing but common laborers. And their sons and their
daughters for generation after generation must keep the same sphere of
life. And though the warriors fared much better, they, too, were
confined to their own group. The shepherd class must remain a shepherd
class forever; they could never rise superior to their own
surroundings. So, too, in Babylon and India. There was, indeed, a
slight variation from the caste system in Egypt and in Babylon, but in
India it settled down from the earliest times, and the people and their
customs were crystallized; they were bound by the chain of fate in the
caste system forever. We shall see, then, that the relation of the
population to the soil and the binding influences of early custom
tended to develop despotism in Oriental civilization.
The result of all this was that there was no freedom or liberty of the
individual anywhere. With caste and despotism and degradation men
moved forward in political and religious life as on a plane which
inclined so slightly that, except as we look over its surface through
the passing centuries, little change can be observed. The king was a
god; the government possessed supernatural power; its authority was not
to be questioned. The rule of the army was final. The cruelty of
kings and the oppression of government were customary, and thus crushed
and oppressed, the ordinary individual had no opportunity to arise and
walk in the dignity of his manhood. The government, if traced to its
source at all, was of divine origin, and though those who ruled might
stop to consider for an instant their own despotic actions, and in
special cases yield {178} in clemency to their subjects, from the
subject's standpoint there could be nothing but to yield to the
despotism of kings and the unrelenting rule of government.
We shall find, then, that with all of the efforts put forth the greater
part was wasted. Millions of people were born, lived, and died,
leaving scarcely a mark of their existence. No wonder that, as the
great kings of Egypt saw the wasting elements of time, the waste of
labor in its dreary rounds, having employed the millions in building
the mighty temples dedicated to the worship of the gods; or having
built great canals and aqueducts to develop irrigation that greater
food supply might be assured, thus observing the majesty of their
condition in relation to other human beings, they should have employed
these millions of serfs in building their own tombs and monuments to
remain the only lasting vestige of the civilization long since passed
away. Everywhere in the Oriental civilization, then, are lack of
freedom and the appearance of despotism. Everywhere is evidence of
waste of individual life. No deep conception can be found in either
the philosophy or the practice of the Egyptians or the Babylonians of
the real object of human life. And yet the few meagre products of art
and of learning handed down to European civilization from these
Oriental countries must have had a vast influence in laying the
foundations of modern civilized life.
_Economic Influences_.--In the first place, the warm climate of these
countries required but little clothing; for a few cents a year a person
could be clothed sufficiently to protect himself from the climate and
to observe the rules of modesty so far as they existed in those times.
In the second place, in hot climates less food is required than in
cold. In cold countries people need a large quantity of heavy, oily
foods, while in hot climates they need a lighter food and, indeed, less
of it. Thus we have in these fertile valleys of the Orient the
conditions which supply sustenance for millions at a very small amount
of exertion or labor. Now, it is a well-established fact that cheap
food among classes of people who have not developed {179} a high state
of civilization favors a rapid increase of population. The records
show in Babylon and Egypt, as well as in Palestine, that the population
multiplied at a very rapid rate. And this principle is enhanced by the
fact that in tropical climates, where less pressure of want and cold is
brought to bear, the conditions for successful propagation of the human
race are present. And this is one reason why the earliest
civilizations have always been found in tropical climates, and it was
not until man had more vigor of constitution and higher development of
physical and mental powers that he could undertake the mastery of
himself and nature under less favorable circumstances.
The result was that human life became cheap. The great mass of men
became so abundant as to press upon the food supply to its utmost
limit. And they who had the control of this food supply controlled the
bodies and souls of the great poverty-stricken mass who toiled for
daily bread. Here we find the picture of abject slavery of the masses.
The rulers, through the government, strengthened by the priests, who
held over the masses of the lower people in superstitious awe the
tenets of their faith, forced them into subjection. There was no value
placed upon a human life; why, then, should there be upon the masses of
individuals?
We shall find, too, as the result of all this, that the civilization
became more or less stationary. True, there must have been a slow
development of religious ideas, a slow development of art, a slow
development of government, and yet when the type was once set there was
but little change from century to century in the relation of human
beings to one another, and their relation to the products of nature.
When we consider the accomplishments of these people we must not forget
the length of time it took to produce them. Reckon back from the
present time 6,000 years, and then consider what has been accomplished
in America in the last century. Think back 2,000 years, and see what
had been accomplished in Rome from the year of the founding of the
imperial city until the Caesars lived {180} in their mighty palaces, a
period of seven and a half centuries. Observe, too, what was
accomplished in Greece from the time of Homer until the time of
Aristotle, a period of about six and a half centuries; then observe the
length of time it took to develop the Egyptian civilization, and we
shall see its slow progress. It is also to be observed that the
Egyptian civilization had reached its culmination when Greece began,
and had begun its slow decline. After considering this we shall
understand that the civilization of Egypt finally became stationary,
conventionalized, non-progressive; that it was only a question of time
when other nations should rule the land of the Pharaohs, and that sands
should drift where once were populous cities, covering the relics of
this ancient civilization far beneath the surface.
The progress in industrial arts and the use of implements was, of
necessity, very slow. Where the laboring man was considered of little
value, treated as a mere physical machine, to be fed and used for
mechanical purposes alone, it mattered little with what tools he
worked. In the building of the pyramids we find no mighty engines for
the movement of the great stones, we find no evidence of mechanical
genius to provide labor-saving machines. The inclined plane and
rollers, the simplest of all contrivances, were about the only
inventions. Also, in the buildings of Babylon, the tools with which
men worked must of necessity have been very poor. It is remarkable to
what extent modern invention depends upon the elevation of the standard
of life of labor, and how man through intelligence continually makes
certain contrivances for the perfection of human industry. However, if
we consider the ornaments used to adorn the person, or for the service
of the rich, or the elaborate clothing of the wealthy, we shall find
quite a high state of development in these lines, showing the greatest
contrast between the condition of the laboring multitudes on the one
hand and the luxurious few on the other. Along this line of the rapid
development of ornaments we find evidence of luxury and ease, and, in
the slow development of {181} industrial arts, the sacrifice of labor.
And all of the advancement in the mighty works of art and industry was
made at the sacrifice of human labor.
To sum this up, we find, then, that the influence of despotic
government, of the binding power of caste, of the prevalence of custom,
of the influence of priestcraft, the retarding power of a
non-progressive religion, concentration of intelligence in a privileged
class that seeks its own ease, the slow development of industrial
implements, and the rapid development of ornaments, brought decay. We
see in all of this a retarding of improvement, a stagnation of
organizing effort, and the crystallization of ancient civilization
about old forms, to be handed down from generation to generation
without progress.
_Records, Writing, and Paper_.--At an early period papyrus, a paper
made of a reed that grows along the Nile valley, was among the first
inventions. It was the earliest artificial writing material discovered
by any nation of which we have a record; and we are likely to remember
it from its two names, _biblos_ and _papyrus_, for from these come two
of our most common words, bible and paper. Frequently, however,
leather, pottery, tiles, and stone, and even wooden tablets, were used
as substitutes for the papyrus. In the early period the Egyptians used
the hieroglyphic form of writing, which consisted of rude pictures of
objects which had a peculiar significance. Finally the hieratic
simplified this form by symbolizing and conventionalizing to a large
extent the hieroglyphic characters. Later came the demotic, which was
a further departure from the old concrete form of representation, and
had the advantage of being more readily written than either of the
others.[1] These characters were used to inscribe the deeds of kings
on monuments and tablets, and when in 1798 the key to the Egyptian
writing was obtained through means of the Rosetta stone, the
opportunity for a large addition to the history of Egypt was made.
Strange as it may seem, these ancient people had written romances and
fairy tales; one especially to be mentioned {182} is the common
_Cinderella and the Glass Slipper_, written more than thirteen
centuries B.C. But in addition to these were published documents,
private letters, fables, epics, and autobiographies, and treatises on
astronomy, medicine, history, and scientific subjects.
The Babylonians and Assyrians developed the cuneiform method of
writing. They had no paper, but made their inscriptions on clay
tablets and cylinders. These were set away in rooms called libraries.
The discovery of the great library of Ashur-bani-pal, of Nineveh,
revealed the highest perfection of this ancient method of recording
events.
The art of Egypt was manifested in the dressing of precious stones, the
weaving of fine fabrics, and fine work in gold ornaments. Sculpture
and painting were practically unknown as arts, although the use of
colors was practised to a considerable extent. Artistic energy was
worked out in the making of the tombs of kings, the obelisks, the
monuments, the sphinxes, and the pyramids. It was a conception of the
massive in artistic expression. In Babylon and Nineveh, especially the
latter, the work of sculpture in carving the celebrated winged bulls
gives evidence of the attempt to picture power and strength rather than
beauty. Doubtless the Babylonians developed artistic taste in the
manufacture of jewelry out of precious stones and gold.
_The Beginnings of Science Were Strong in Egypt, Weak in Babylon_.--The
greatest expression of the Egyptian learning was found in science. The
work in astronomy began at a very early date from a practical
standpoint. The rising of the Nile occurred at a certain time
annually, coinciding with the time of the rise of the Dog-star, which
led these people to imagine that they stood in the relation of effect
and cause, and from these simple data began the study of astronomy.
The Egyptians, by the study of the movement of the stars, were enabled
to determine the length of the sidereal year, which they divided into
twelve months, of thirty days each, adding five days to complete the
year. This is the calendar which was {183} introduced from Egypt into
the Roman Empire by Julius Caesar. It was revised by Pope Gregory XIII
in 1582, and has since been the universal system for the Western
civilized world. Having reached their limit of fact in regard to the
movement of the heavenly bodies, their imagination related the stars to
human conduct, and astrology became an essential outcome. It was easy
to believe that the heavenly bodies, which, apparently, had such great
influence in the rise of the river and in the movement of the tides,
would have either a good influence or a baneful influence, not only
over the vegetable world but upon human life and human destiny as well.
Hence, astrology, in Egypt as in Babylonia, became one of the important
arts.
From the measurement of the Nile and the calculation of the lands,
which must be redistributed after each annual overflow, came the system
of concrete measurement which later developed into the science of
geometry. Proceeding from the simple measurement of land, step by step
were developed the universal abstract problems of geometry, and the
foundation for this great branch of mathematics was laid. The use of
arithmetic in furnishing numerical expressions in the solution of
geometrical and arithmetical problems became common.
The Egyptians had considerable knowledge of many drugs and medicines,
and the physicians of Egypt had a great reputation among the ancients;
for every doctor was a specialist and pursued his subject and his
practice to the utmost limit of fact and theory. But the physician
must treat cases according to customs already established in the past.
There was but little opportunity for the advancement of his art. Yet
it became very much systematized and conventionalized. The study of
anatomy developed also the art of embalming, one of the most
distinctive features of Egyptian civilization. This art was carried on
by the regular physicians, who made use of resins, oils, bitumens, and
various gums. It was customary to embalm the bodies of wealthy persons
by filling them with resinous substances and wrapping them closely in
linen {184} bandages. The poorer classes were cured very much as beef
is cured before drying, and then wrapped in coarse garments preparatory
to burial. The number of individuals who were thus disposed of after
death is estimated at not less than 420,000,000 between 2000 B.C. and
700 A.D.
_The Contribution to Civilization_.--The building of the great empires
on the Tigris and Euphrates had a tendency to collect the products of
civilization so far as they existed, and to distribute them over a
large area. Thus, the industries that began in early Sumer and Akkad,
coming from farther east, were passed on to Egypt and Phoenicia and
were further distributed over the world. Especially is this true in
the work of metals, the manufacture of glass, and the development of
the alphabet, which probably originated in Babylon and was improved by
the Phoenicians, and, through them as traders, had a wide dispersion.
Perhaps one ought to consider that the study of the stars and the
heavenly bodies, although it led no farther than astrology and the
development of magic, was at least a beginning, although in a crude
way, of an inquiry into nature.
In Egypt, however, we find that there was more or less scientific study
and invention and development of reflective thinking. Moreover, the
advancement in the arts of life, especially industrial, had great
influence over the Greeks, whose early philosophers were students of
the Egyptian system. Also, the contact of the Hebrews and Phoenicians
with Egypt gave a strong coloring to their civilization. Especially is
this true of the Hebrews, who dwelt so long in the shadow of the
Egyptian civilization. The Hebrews, after their captivity in Babylon,
contributed the Bible, with its sacred literature, to the world, which
with its influence through the legal-ethicalism, or moral code, its
monotheistic doctrines, and its attempted development of a commonwealth
based on justice, had a lasting influence on civilization. But in the
life of the Hebrew people in Palestine its influence on surrounding
nations was not so great as in the later times when the Jews were
scattered over the {185} world. The Bible has been a tremendous
civilizer of the world. Hebrewism became a universal state of mind,
which influenced all nations that came in contact with it.
But what did this civilization leave to the world? The influence of
Egypt on Greece and Greek philosophy must indeed have been great, for
the greatest of the Greeks looked upon the Egyptian philosophy as the
expression of the highest wisdom. Nor can we hesitate in claiming that
the influence of the Egyptians upon the Hebrews was considerable.
There is a similarity in many respects between the Egyptian and the
Hebrew code of learning; but the art and the architecture, the learning
and the philosophy, had their influence likewise on all surrounding
nations as soon as Egypt was opened up to communication with other
parts of the world. A careful study of the Greek philosophy brings
clearly before us the influence of the Egyptian learning. Thus Thales,
the first of the philosophers to break away from the Grecian religion
and mythology to inquire into the natural cause of the universe, was a
student of Egyptian life and philosophy.
SUBJECTS FOR FURTHER STUDY
1. What are the evidences of civilization discovered in
Tut-Ankh-Amen's tomb?
2. Give an outline of the chief characteristics of Egyptian
civilization?
3. What caused the decline of Egyptian civilization?
4. What did Oriental civilization contribute to the subsequent welfare
of the world?
5. The influence of climate on industry in Egypt and Babylon.
6. Why did the Egyptian religion fail to improve the lot of the common
man?
7. Retarding influence of the caste system in India and Egypt.
[1] See Chapter VII.
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