Page:General History of Europe 1921.djvu/39

Egyptian Civilization controlled such vast undertakings was no longer a local chieftain, like the earliest rulers of Egypt, but he now ruled a united Egypt, the earliest great unified nation, having several millions of people. 24. Earliest Seagoing Ships. In the Pyramid Age the Egyp- tians began to extend their trade beyond the boundaries of Egypt. A few surviving blocks from a fallen pyramid-temple south of Gizeh bear carved and painted reliefs showing us the ships which they ventured to send be- yond the shelter of the Nile mouths far across the end of the Mediterranean to the coast of Phoenicia (see map, p. 24). This was in the middle of the twenty-eighth EGYPTIAN PEASANT MILKING IN THE PYRAMID AGE The cow is restive, and the ancient cow- herd has tied her hind legs. Behind her another man is holding her calf, which rears and plunges in the effort to reach the milk. Scene from the chapel of a noble's tomb century B.C., and this relief contains the oldest known picture of a seagoing ship. 25. Agriculture. A stroll among the tombs clustering so thickly around the pyramids of Gizeh is almost like a walk among the busy communities of this populous valley in the days of the pyramid-builders, for the stone walls are often covered from floor to ceiling with carved scenes, beautifully painted, picturing the daily life on the great estate of which the buried noble had been lord. The tallest form in all these scenes is that of the dead noble. He stands looking out over his fields and inspect- ing the work going on there. These fields, where the oxen draw the plow and the sowers scatter the seed, are the oldest farming scenes known to us. Here, too, are the herds, long lines of sleek fat cattle. But we find no pictures of horses in these tombs of the Pyramid Age, for the horse was then unknown to the Egyptian. 26. Craftsmen. On the next wall we find again the tall figure of the noble overseeing the sheds and yards where the crafts- men of his estate are working. The coppersmith could make