Treasure hunt begins in England

Chapter 932 Communication

"From the inscriptions carved on the stele outside the temple, we can see that there was a long conflict between ancient Egypt and Nubia in the south." After reading the content on the stele, Liang En turned to the audience in the auditorium. The attendees said.

"We'll find that the stele's words reveal the importance of the southern fortress, and it also reveals one of the duties of the Egyptian pharaoh: to guard the border and expand it."

"The other stone tablet in the same temple records the achievements of another pharaoh during his reign, and we can see more information from it." Liang En said and switched to another stone tablet with the projector.

"This is an article about the construction of large-scale projects during the pharaoh's reign. From these records, we can see that the southern fortress was a very important facility for ancient Egypt."

"Even the style of the entire fortress is changing over time. For example, the renovation or new construction of some facilities written in it can be seen to be related to the impact of the invasion of other kingdoms."

"For example, the invasion of the Hyksos revolutionized the Egyptians' defensive thinking and the use of war horses, and the rise of the Nubian dynasty deepened Egypt's emphasis on the southern fortress."

However, because these military buildings were abandoned after the end of the ancient Egyptian era, these buildings were not only gradually destroyed and collapsed, but also completely forgotten by people.

Now, according to the records of wars in those temples, people have re-determined the location of the fortresses in the ancient Egyptian era and started exploration work.

The results of the exploration are very gratifying. As the most important fortress group in ancient Egypt, archaeologists found a large number of cultural relics with high historical value in excavating this important site.

For the ancient Egyptian dynasties, it was very important to follow the Nile River to Nubia, that is, the area along the Nile River between southern Egypt and northern Sudan today.

Because this place between Egypt and the African black area is the only way for the expansion of ancient Egypt, and it is also an important source of most of the gold, ivory, timber and slaves of ancient Egyptian civilization.

Although it is considered in ancient history books that Egypt is a rich place, in fact, Egypt itself is basically not self-sufficient in the important materials in ancient times except food and copper ore.

Therefore, this country is extremely dependent on the outside world. Therefore, Egypt in its strong period must include the Nubian region in the south of the Near East River, so that it can have enough wealth, materials and manpower to maintain the operation of the entire country.

Among those wealth, resources from the south are absolutely important. For example, in terms of timber, there is not much timber production in Egypt.

After all, most of Egypt is a desert, and only the banks of the Nile River and a small part of the oasis are suitable for the growth of various plants and human survival.

However, the climate in these places is only suitable for growing palms or dates, which are valuable, but the wood quality is not very good, and there is no way to meet the needs of the ancient Egyptians for wood.

Therefore, the ancient Egyptians could only go out of the country to find wood, such as using cedar from Lebanon for shipbuilding, and also obtained hardwoods such as ebony from the south for making various furniture and containers.

As for slaves, they are also very important. If you think about the ancient Egyptian buildings that have been handed down to today, you know that the construction of these buildings requires a lot of manpower, not to mention the important proportion of Nubian archers in the ancient Egyptian army.

I have to complain about the long history of slaves being captured in sub-Saharan Africa: it was first captured by the ancient Egyptians, then by the Persians, then by the ancient Greeks, by the ancient Romans, by the Arabs, and finally by the Europeans. to America.

It is also for this reason that the southern fortress during the Middle Kingdom was one of the most glorious moments in its history: as a defensive fortress, its strategic significance has been fully utilized.

Even after the second intermediate period, the frontier defense line was advanced to the vicinity of the fourth waterfall of the Nile.Egypt at this time was undoubtedly brilliant and powerful, and it also entered the most prosperous period of ancient Egypt.

"If you just look at the contents of the steles, the fortress exists as a defense mechanism and has important strategic significance, but in fact it's not just that."

After I introduced the stele, Liang En quickly switched the picture to the archaeological site photo of the fortress on the Nile River, then took out the pointer and began to tell about another discovery he had made.

"According to the archaeological situation at the site, the most outstanding Middle Kingdom period of the fortress hardly left any traces of being attacked by the Nubians or exchanging fire with the Nubian army, only a little burning and looting were left in the second intermediate period. Mark of.

"What needs to be emphasized is that archaeological evidence shows that most of the soldiers stationed in the fort were local residents. In other words, the southern fort did not have a large number of military forces stationed there."

Unlike today, ancient times did not have such convenient means of logistics and communication as today, so the differences between regions are far greater than today, so it is easy to judge from the excavated things where the people living here came from.

"Through the textual information we found, we determined that this relic is a fortress established since the time of the Old Kingdom. The name "Elephantine" means "elephant" or "where elephants appear." Knock on the screen and say.

"Everyone can think about what was the greatest value of an elephant thousands of years ago? I think it should be the ivory as a mount or as a work of art."

The professors and students below nodded. Liang En's explanation was very reasonable, especially when it matched the previous archaeological results. After receiving everyone's feedback, Liang En nodded and continued.

"According to the archaeological conclusions, there are no large military forces stationed in these fortresses, so naturally there will be no elephants as mounts, so for this place, its symbolic meaning can only be ivory."

"And what can you think of from ivory? Economy and trade. At least in the Middle Kingdom, Elevantine was a key node on the trade route between Egyptian officials and Nubia, so it was called the "Ivory Road" "

"Buchen, the fortress, also took on the heavy responsibility of trade and communication between Egypt and Nubia. Even archaeological discoveries have found that Buchen should be a major copper smelting stronghold during the Old Kingdom."

"So we can infer that these buildings are not so much military buildings on the border, but more like a border trade center, and may not be a fortified military fortress as it is recorded in the record—is there anything wrong? ?”

Speaking of this, Liang En stopped suddenly, because he found a professor raised his hand to indicate that he had a question to ask, and this is also one of the meeting procedures: any academic question can be asked in time.

"That's right, Mr. Liang, I have two questions." The professor who didn't look very old pushed his glasses and said.

"The first question is whether we have found evidence to prove that this is a trade route besides the traces at the archaeological site. The second question is if it is not so tense here, then why is there such a record on the temple? ?”

(End of this chapter)