The world we witness today has a long history. Today our societies have completely transformed and developed into structures of modernity. This whole transformation has come up after massive power struggles and other changes to which people from different cultures and civilizations came across. World in this course has witnessed numerous civilizations. Some of the remains of those civilizations provide us the glimpse of how people might have lived in the prior ages. Among these remains, those of ancient Egyptian civilization are the most fascinating. In Egypt, we can see pyramids that tell us about the great era of Pharaohs and the people they ruled. Among several of the ancient cities we come across a city named
Thebes which is located around 800 Km to the southern side of Mediterranean towards the eastern bank of river Nile and in situated within the modern day Luxor. Thebes came to prominence in the ancient Egypt in around 2000 BC when Theban king, Mentuhetep II stabilized the country from anarchy caused by less prominent pharaohs in the first intermediate period that dates from 2130 BC to 2000 BC (Purdy, 2006). For Thebes, this was a time for great prominence as King Mentuhetep II made Thebes his base. Prominence of Thebes can also be attributed to the fact that it was a city of royal residence and the seat of the worship of god Amon. Furthermore, Thebes was the dubbed as Valley of the Kings where the then kings and the elites were entombed in a luxurious manner in cellar cut into the cliffs towards the wet bank of river Nile (Brass, 2006). This all highlights the prestigious status that the city had.
If I was born during that era of distinction in Thebes my life could have been affected severely. It would have been different due to the very fact that I was born during an era when Thebes was the center of Egyptian activities. The Pharaoh belonged to my land. It would have been a very different experience as to live a life among a civilization, which does not exist entirely. Nevertheless, acceptance to cultural change depends on how much adaptable one’s personality is. In this regard, I can confirm that it would have been an easy task to mold my life in accordance to the style of life that existed by that time.
My standard of living would be that of a noble man who enjoys close companionship with royal family. As far as the nobles of that era are concerned, they used to live a lavish life, which they wanted eternally which can be observed from the fact that in the Valley of Kings and Temple of Queens many tombs of nobles do exist. Life would have been difficult as compared to that of today as there was no presence of technology at all. In addition, with technology every individual living in the modern era has become used to. We need technology to satisfy every mean of our life let it be transport, communication, entertainment etc.
Therefore, my approach would have been similar to that of the people of that time as only my appearance would have remained same but my mindset would have been that of the people of that era. That would have served ways in which I would dress, eat, and conduct my day-to-day activity. The difference would have been in all major activities of life. Today we like to have quick meals quite frequently, but living in 2000 BC in Thebes I would have eaten differently. The only thing similar that I feel would have remained in my life would have been my thinking but that too in a different way in accordance to the available resources. If my preference in today’s era is to reach, a place five minutes early then similar would have been at that time. Furthermore, my attitude would have been same. I would react to people (in ancient Egyptian language) the same way that I do today.
References
Brass, M. (2006). Urbanism in ancient Egypt. In H. Birx (Ed.), Encyclopedia of anthropology. (pp. 2259-2261). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications,
Purdy, E., Prono, L., & Parcak, S. (2006). Egypt, ancient. In H. Birx (Ed.), Encyclopedia of anthropology. (pp. 788-798). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications,
