I am an Egyptian living during Cleopatra's reign, I was born over 2000 years after the reign of Narmer, the first king of a unified Egypt. How much would I have felt I shared an identity and culture with the people living at the start of the Ancient Egyptian civilisation? | AskHistorians Archive Observer

I am an Egyptian living during Cleopatra's reign, I was born over 2000 years after the reign of Narmer, the first king of a unified Egypt. How much would I have felt I shared an identity and culture with the people living at the start of the Ancient Egyptian civilisation?

by the_grey_badger

This is something I've always been intrigued by. I can't help but think the collective consciousness of the population would have been significantly changed over such a enormous length of time. Would I know the names of Old Kingdom kings? Were our traditions and views on life and death the same? Heck, could we even have communicated with each other?

Edit: grammar

Bentresh

There's always more to be said on the topic, but I've touched on this in a few past posts.

I can't recommend Assmann's The Mind of Egypt: History and Meaning in the Time of the Pharaohs highly enough if you're interested in the intellectual history of ancient Egypt.

Imagining the Past: Historical Fiction in New Kingdom Egypt by Colleen Manassa and Never Had the Like Occurred: Egypt's View of its Past edited by John Tait are also relevant and interesting.