埃及漫游 探访文明古国(下)

<正>诱人的红海从开罗出发,沿东部沙漠乘车向东南方向行驶,将近7小时,终于在晚上8点半来到了迷人的红海。由于一路旅行劳顿,晚间早早休息,没有外出。我们落脚的地方叫Hurghada,当地人发这个音很像中国人说“红疙瘩”。入住的酒店坐落在沙漠与大海交会点上,三面临海,是令人惬意的旅游胜地。第二天早上醒来,打开阳台的门,迈出房间一看,顿时让我惊呆了。一排排鳞次栉比的楼房,林立岸边;一顶顶阳伞,一张张躺椅,整齐有序地排列在沙滩上;楼房下在太阳的照射下,色彩斑斓,楼房前面蓝色的海浴场,     

埃及漫游探访文明古国(上)

带着儿时对金字塔的遐想、地中海的憧憬、木乃伊的好奇、尼罗河的向往,201 6年的初冬,我们随团展开一段快乐而难忘的旅程.埃及7000年的厚重历史,终于被我掀开了一角! 探秘金字塔 埃及,作为四大文明古国之首,有着太多的历史遗存.来到这里,最想看的,首选就是吉萨的“金字塔”.因为它集中了埃及文明中所有的重要元素,是埃及的象征.从它建成的那天起,它俯视埃及大地已有4700多年,目睹了人世间和大自然无数的变化.在阿拉伯谚语中有这样一句名言:“万物终有消逝,金字塔永存.”     

Engendering Egypt

Watterson, Barbara Women in Ancient Egypt Tyldesley, Joyce Daughters of Isis: Women of Ancient Egypt Robins, Gay Women in Ancient Egypt Montserrat, Dominic Sex and Society in Graeco-Roman Egypt     

古代埃及的档案

公元前4000年代,古埃及人在尼罗河流域创造了光辉灿烂的化,发明了象形字,产生了用字记载下来的各种献记录,形成了埃及奴隶制国家最早的档案。古代埃及档案献的种类齐全,内容丰富。并设有专门的档案保管库,充分为埃及法老政府所利用,促进了古代埃及的化、艺术和科学技术的发展。     

Eco-Archaeometry: Interdisciplinary Applications in Egypt

Abstract

One of the problems currently faced by modern society is the worldwide catastrophic deterioration of archaeological and cultural sites directly exposed to the action of the environment. Frequently, it has proved difficult to identify the processes responsible for these deteriorations, which are often the result of an abrupt change in site specific environmental conditions. To understand them a broad interdisciplinary approach is needed, and consequently, a substantial input from several disciplines, such as archaeology and archaeometric, environmental and conservation sciences, is necessary. Such interaction is particularly necessary on a basic research level, and can best be achieved if the relevant disciplines are drawn together a priori on equal footing into a complementary effort in eco-archaeometry. The primary goal of eco-archaeometry is to identify and quantify physicochemical processes which cause the deterioration of ancient cultural patrimony. Its findings are essential prerequisites for the development of optimum, safe methods for conservation and preservation of ancient monuments. Some examples of the eco-archaeometric approach in Egypt are summarised and it is demonstrated that without an interdisciplinary approach such studies would not have been successful.     

The Predynastic of Egypt

The Predynastic of Egypt, spanning an interval from ca. 4000 to 3050 B.C., was an eventful period. After the inception of food production in the Nile Valley at least a millennium before, it was the time when the identity of Egyptian society was forged. Egypt was settled by refugees from the deserts of the eastern Sahara and the southern Levant, fleeing from mid-Holocene droughts, and became a melting pot of indigenous Nilotes and desert herders, part-time cultivators, and hunters. Within a millennium, an increasing dependence on agriculture led to sedentary life and, in some cases, to the development of sizable communities. By 4000 B.C., the settled communities had also developed a distinct division of labor between men and women and ritual and religious beliefs in which women, grain, fertility, and death were salient and interrelated elements. The Predynastic communities were also faced by the most destabilizing factor of agricultural economy, namely, fluctuations of yield. Attempts to dampen the fluctuations through interregional integration led to the emergence of community representatives and eventually chiefs. Legitimation of the status of chiefs through affiliation with the traditional and supernatural power associated with women, fertility, and death and the acquisition of exotic goods stimulated trade and an industry in funerary goods. Enlargement of economic units through alliances, with occasional incidences of fighting, especially after 3600 B.C., led to the rise of a state society governed by supreme rulers. The wedding of the funerary cult of Late Predynastic Egypt with political power and military might was the basis for the most fascinating aspects of Ancient Egypt—religion and kingship.     

In search of Egypt

R. Hrair Dekmejian, Egypt under Nasir: A Study in Political Dynamics, Albany, State University of New York Press, 1971, 368 pp.. $10.00.

Iliya F. Harik, The Political Mobilization of Peasants: A Study of an Egyptian Community, Bloomington, Indiana University Press, 1974, 309 pp., $12.50.

James B. Mayfield, Rural Politics in Nasser's Egypt: A Quest for Legitimacy, Austin, University of Texas Press, 1971, 288 pp., $10.00.

Amos Perlmutter, Egypt: The Preatorian State, New Brunswick, Transaction Books, 1974, 234 pp., $9.95.     

The determinants of labor migration in Egypt

The factors which affect individual decisions with regard to geographic movement in Egypt are examined and the magnitude in which each factor exerts its influence on aggregate geographic labor supply adjustments is estimated. The spatial unit used in the study is the administrative region, of which there are 25. No effort is made to esimate the impact which migration has had on the origin or destination region. The migrant will presumably choose that destination which, given his information, the migrant thinks will be best. The model which is employed attempts to explain gross interregional migration without the explicit introduction of an individual decision function. Rather, migration is related to certain aggregate proxy variables. Among the independent variables employed in the analysis are (origin and destination) income, education, urbanization, and population. The other explanatory variable used is the distance between region i and region j. The migration measure employed refers to cumulative male migration which occurred prior to 1960; the independent variables are defined for a given point in time (1960). The independent variables explain a reasonably large percentage of the variance in migration between regions in Egypt. All variables were significant at the 5% level or better. The findings indicate that distance acts as an important impediment to migration. Migration is away from low wage and toward high wage regions, which may have contributed to a narrowing of regional wage differentials. Migrants are attracted to regions which have large populations and to regions which have a large percentage of urban to total population. A tendency exists for migrants to come from regions with large populations. There is also some tendency for migrants to come from regions which have a relatively large urban population. Migrants do not appear to come from regions with high educational levels.