3620 South Street, Classroom 2
Philadelphia , PA 19104
Using a comparison to the immense cultural and technological changes wrought by the “Columbian Exchange,” or transfer of plants, animals, peoples and technologies between the Old and New Worlds in the aftermath of 1492 AD, this lecture explores how the cultures of Egypt, the ancient Near East, and north Africa were fundamentally altered by 1492 BC, a date close to the founding of Egypt’s famous 18th Dynasty of rulers.
In particular, the introduction of a set of related technologies from western Asia to north Africa in the preceding centuries, including the domesticated horse, the chariot, and the compound bow, changed the way in which warfare was conducted, and gave Egypt the tools to expand its empire to the maximum extent.
Other technologies, including advances in metalworking and the introduction of glassmaking, result from the extraordinarily productive cultural interaction of these times, and the results are reflected in many branches of the arts. This lecture uses the results of recent research to explore how Egyptian arts, letters, and culture were substantially impacted through participation in the developing international culture of warfare during the second millennium BC.