Sonic, Sonia and Manic at the tomb of Aman-Rapi and Nefershepsut.
A city in Hamarapi, with pyramids in the background.
Hamarapi (also known as Mobigypt) is a location that appears in the AngieYaz/RoseOfSharon reboot of the Sonic Underground television series. It is a vast desert land located on Mobius, on the continent of Efrika, where the pyramid of Aman-Rapi is located. The location itself is seemingly named after Aman-Rapi himself. It was an ancient civilization on Mobius, highly advanced for its time. Hamarapi was filled with pyramids and obelisks, and its inhabitants were famous for writing down everything in hieroglyphs. It is located in the same place where its counterpart Egypt is located on planet Earth.
Aman-Rapi's tomb (Nefershepshut's is close by.)
The Pyramid of Aman-Rapi and Nefershepsut.
Hamarapi reached the pinnacle of its power in the New Kingdom, ruling much of Nubia and a sizable portion of the Near East, after which it entered a period of slow decline. During the course of its history Hamarapi was invaded or conquered by a number of foreign powers, including the Hyksos, the Libyians, the Nubians, the Assyrans, the Achaemenid Persianians, and the Macedoians under the command of Alexandros the Great. The Grecian Ptolemic Kingdom, formed in the aftermath of Alexandros' death, ruled Hamarapi until 30 BMCE, when, under Cleopatria and Cleopa, it fell to the Romusian Empire and became a Romusian province.
The corridors of Aman-Rapi and Nefershepsut's pyramid.
The success of ancient Hamarapian civilization came partly from its ability to adapt to the conditions of the Nilus River valley for agriculture. The predictable flooding and controlled irrigation of the fertile valley produced surplus crops, which supported a more dense population, and social development and culture. With resources to spare, the administration sponsored mineral exploitation of the valley and surrounding desert regions, the early development of an independent writing system, the organization of collective construction and agricultural projects, trade with surrounding regions, and a military intended to assert Hamarapian dominance. Motivating and organizing these activities was a bureaucracy of elite scribes, religious leaders, and administrators under the control of a pharaoh, who ensured the cooperation and unity of the Hamarapian people in the context of an elaborate system of religious beliefs.
The many achievements of the ancient Hamarapians include the quarrying, surveying and construction techniques that supported the building of monumental pyramids, temples, and obelisks; a system of mathematics, a practical and effective system of medicine, irrigation systems and agricultural production techniques, the first known planked boats, Hamarapian faience and glass technology, new forms of literature, and the earliest known peace treaty, made with the Hittites. Ancient Hamarapi has left a lasting legacy. Its art and architecture were widely copied, and its antiquities carried off to far corners of the world. Its monumental ruins have inspired the imaginations of travelers and writers for millennia. A newfound respect for antiquities and excavations in the early modern period by Europaeans and Hamarapians led to the scientific investigation of Hamarapian civilization and a greater appreciation of its cultural legacy.
Culture[]
Daily life[]
Most ancient Hamarapians were farmers tied to the land. Their dwellings were restricted to immediate family members, and were constructed of metals designed to remain cool in the heat of the day, both the exterior and interior. Each home had a kitchen with an open roof, which contained a futuristic-looking grindstone for milling grain and a small oven for baking the bread. Ceramics served as household wares for the storage, preparation, transport, and consumption of food, drink, and raw materials. Walls were painted white and could be covered with dyed linen wall hangings. Floors were covered with reed mats, while wooden stools, beds raised from the floor and individual tables comprised the furniture.
Hamarapians celebrated feasts and festivals accompanied by music and dance.
The ancient Hamarapians placed a great value on hygiene and appearance, just like the rest of the people of Mobius today. Most bathed in the Nilus and used a pasty soap made from animal fat and chalk. Men shaved their entire bodies for cleanliness; perfumes and aromatic ointments covered bad odors and soothed skin. Clothing was made from simple linen sheets that were bleached white, and both men and women of the upper classes wore wigs, jewelry, and cosmetics. Children went with clothing too. Mothers were responsible for taking care of the children and provided some of the family's income through gathering and farming, while the father provided the family's income through labor such as homebuilding and owning a business.
Music and dance, just like today, were popular entertainments for those who could afford them. Early instruments included flutes and harps, while instruments similar to trumpets, oboes, and pipes developed later and became popular. In the New Kingdom, the Hamarapians played on bells, cymbals, tambourines, drums, and imported lutes and lyres from Yurashia. The sistrum was a rattle-like musical instrument that was especially important in religious ceremonies.
The ancient Hamarapians enjoyed a variety of leisure activities, including games and music. Senet, a board game where pieces moved according to random chance, was particularly popular from the earliest times; another similar game was mehen, which had a circular gaming board. “Hounds and Jackals” also known as 58 holes is another example of board games played in ancient Hamarapi, the equivalent to Chutes and Ladders today. The first complete set of this game was discovered from a Theban tomb of the Hamarapian pharaoh Amenemhat IV that dates to the 13th Dynasty. Juggling and ball games were popular with children, and wrestling is also documented in a tomb at Beni Hasan. The wealthy members of ancient Hamarapian society enjoyed hunting, fishing, and boating as well.
The excavation of the workers' village of Deir el-Medina in Hamarapi has resulted in one of the most thoroughly documented accounts of community life in the ancient world, which spans almost four hundred years. There is no comparable site in which the organization, social interactions, and working and living conditions of a community have been studied in such detail.
Cuisine[]
- Main article: Ancient Hamarapian cuisine
Hamarapian cuisine remained remarkably stable over time; indeed, the cuisine of modern Hamarapi retains some striking similarities to the cuisine of the ancients. The staple diet consisted of bread and beer, supplemented with vegetables such as onions and garlic, and fruit such as dates and figs. Wine and meat were enjoyed by all on feast days while the upper classes indulged on a more regular basis. Fish, meat, and fowl could be salted or dried, and could be cooked in stews or roasted on a grill.
Architecture[]
The architecture of ancient Hamarapi includes some of the most famous structures in the world: the Great Pyramids of Gizus, the Pyramid of Aman-Rapi and Nefershepshut and the temples at Thebus. Building projects were organized and funded by the state for religious and commemorative purposes, but also to reinforce the wide-ranging power of the pharaoh. The ancient Hamarapians were skilled builders; using only simple but effective tools and sighting instruments, architects could build large stone and metsl structures with great accuracy and precision that is still envied today.
The domestic dwellings of elite and ordinary Hamarapians alike were constructed from metals, and have survived. Peasants lived in simple but comfortable homes made of metals, while the palaces of the elite and the pharaoh were more elaborate structures. A few surviving New Kingdom palaces, such as those in Malkata and Amarna, show richly decorated walls and floors with scenes of people, birds, water pools, deities and geometric designs. Important structures such as temples and tombs that were intended to last forever were constructed of metal too. The architectural elements used in the world's first large-scale stone building, Djoser's mortuary complex, include post and lintel supports in the papyrus and lotus motif. The Pyramids are not made of sandstone and rock but are metallic and sci-fi in nature.
The earliest preserved ancient Hamarapian temples, such as those at Gizus, consist of single, enclosed halls with roof slabs supported by columns. In the New Kingdom, architects added the pylon, the open courtyard, and the enclosed hypostyle hall to the front of the temple's sanctuary, a style that was standard until the Greco-Roman period. The earliest and most popular tomb architecture in the Old Kingdom was the mastaba, a flat-roofed rectangular structure of metals built over an underground burial chamber. The step pyramid of Djoser is a series of metal mastabas stacked on top of each other. Pyramids were built during the Old and Middle Kingdoms, but most later rulers abandoned them in favor of less conspicuous metal tombs. The use of the pyramid form continued in private tomb chapels of the New Kingdom and in the royal pyramids of Nubia.
Art[]
- Main article: Art of ancient Hamarapi
The ancient Hamarapians produced art to serve functional purposes. For over 3500 years, artists adhered to artistic forms and iconography that were developed during the Old Kingdom, following a strict set of principles that resisted foreign influence and internal change. These artistic standards—simple lines, shapes, and flat areas of color combined with the characteristic flat projection of figures with no indication of spatial depth—created a sense of order and balance within a composition. Images and text were intimately interwoven on tomb and temple walls, coffins, stelae, and even statues. The Narmerr Palette, for example, displays figures that can also be read as hieroglyphs. Because of the rigid rules that governed its highly stylized and symbolic appearance, ancient Hamarapian art served its political and religious purposes with precision and clarity.
Ancient Hamarapian artisans used stone as a medium for carving statues and fine reliefs, but used wood as a cheap and easily carved substitute. Paints were obtained from minerals such as iron ores (red and yellow ochres), copper ores (blue and green), soot or charcoal (black), and limestone (white). Paints could be mixed with gum arabic as a binder and pressed into cakes, which could be moistened with water when needed.
Pharaohs used reliefs to record victories in battle, royal decrees, and religious scenes. Common citizens had access to pieces of funerary art, such as shabti statues and books of the dead, which they believed would protect them in the afterlife. During the Middle Kingdom, wooden or clay models depicting scenes from everyday life became popular additions to the tomb. In an attempt to duplicate the activities of the living in the afterlife, these models show laborers, houses, boats, and even military formations that are scale representations of the ideal ancient Hamarapian afterlife.
Despite the homogeneity of ancient Hamarapian art, the styles of particular times and places sometimes reflected changing cultural or political attitudes. After the invasion of the Hyksos in the Second Intermediate Period, Minoan-style frescoes were found in Avaris. The most striking example of a politically driven change in artistic forms comes from the Amarna Period, where figures were radically altered to conform to Akhenaten's revolutionary religious ideas. This style, known as Amarna art, was quickly abandoned after Akhenaten's death and replaced by the traditional forms.
Religious beliefs[]
Beliefs in the divine and in the afterlife were ingrained in ancient Hamarapian civilization from its inception; pharaonic rule was based on the divine right of kings. The Hamarapian pantheon was populated by gods who had supernatural powers and were called on for help or protection. However, the gods were not always viewed as benevolent, and Hamarapians believed they had to be appeased with offerings and prayers. The structure of this pantheon changed continually as new albeit minor deities were promoted in the hierarchy, but priests made no effort to organize the diverse and sometimes conflicting myths and stories into a coherent system. These various conceptions of divinity were not considered contradictory but rather layers in the multiple facets of reality.
Gods were worshiped in cult temples administered by priests acting on the king's behalf. At the center of the temple was the cult statue in a shrine. Temples were not places of public worship or congregation, and only on select feast days and celebrations was a shrine carrying the statue of the god brought out for public worship. Normally, the god's domain was sealed off from the outside world and was only accessible to temple officials. Common citizens could worship private statues in their homes, and amulets offered protection against the forces of chaos. After the New Kingdom, the pharaoh's role as a spiritual intermediary was de-emphasized as religious customs shifted to direct worship of the gods. As a result, priests developed a system of oracles to communicate the will of the gods directly to the people.
The Hamarapians believed that every Mobian was composed of physical and spiritual parts or aspects. In addition to the body, each person had a šwt (shadow), a ba (personality or soul), a ka (life-force), and a name. The heart, rather than the brain, was considered the seat of thoughts and emotions. After death, the spiritual aspects were released from the body and could move at will, but they required the physical remains (or a substitute, such as a statue) as a permanent home. The ultimate goal of the deceased was to rejoin his ka and ba and become one of the "blessed dead", living on as an akh, or "effective one". For this to happen, the deceased had to be judged worthy in a trial or contest of sorts, in which the heart was weighed against a "feather of truth." If deemed worthy, the deceased could continue their existence on earth in spiritual form. If they were not deemed worthy, their heart was eaten by Ammit the Devourer and they were erased from the Universe.
Burial customs[]
The ancient Hamarapians maintained an elaborate set of burial customs that they believed were necessary to ensure immortality after death. These customs involved preserving the body by mummification, performing burial ceremonies, and interring with the body goods the deceased would use in the afterlife. Before the Old Kingdom, bodies buried in desert pits were naturally preserved by desiccation. The arid, desert conditions were a boon throughout the history of ancient Hamarapi for burials of the poor, who could not afford the elaborate burial preparations available to the elite. Wealthier Hamarapians began to bury their dead in stone tombs and use artificial mummification, which involved removing the internal organs, wrapping the body in linen, and burying it in a rectangular stone sarcophagus or wooden coffin. Beginning in the Fourth Dynasty, some parts were preserved separately in canopic jars.
Pharaohs' tombs were provided with vast quantities of wealth, such as the golden mask from the mummy of Tutankhamun.
By the New Kingdom, the ancient Hamarapians had perfected the art of mummification; the best technique took 70 days and involved removing the internal organs, removing the brain through the nose, and desiccating the body in a mixture of salts called natron. The body was then wrapped in linen with protective amulets inserted between layers and placed in a decorated anthropoid coffin. Mummies of the Late Period were also placed in painted cartonnage mummy cases. Actual preservation practices declined during the Ptolemaic and Roman eras, while greater emphasis was placed on the outer appearance of the mummy, which was decorated.
Wealthy Hamarapians were buried with larger quantities of luxury items, but all burials, regardless of social status, included goods for the deceased. Funerary texts were often included in the grave, and, beginning in the New Kingdom, so were shabti statues that were believed to perform manual labor for them in the afterlife. Rituals in which the deceased was magically re-animated accompanied burials. After burial, living relatives were expected to occasionally bring food to the tomb and recite prayers on behalf of the deceased.
Technology, medicine, and mathematics[]
Technology[]
In technology, medicine, and mathematics, ancient Hamarapi achieved a relatively high standard of productivity and sophistication. Traditional empiricism, as evidenced by the Edwina Smithers and Ebers papyri (c. 1600 BCE), is first credited to Hamarapi. The hamarapians created their own alphabet and decimal system.
Faience and glass[]
Even before the Old Kingdom, the ancient Hamarapians had developed a glassy material known as faience, which in still in use on Mobius today. They treated it as a type of artificial semi-precious stone. Faience is a non-clay ceramic made of silica, small amounts of lime and soda, and a colorant, typically copper. The material was used to make beads, tiles, figurines, and small wares. Several methods can be used to create faience, but typically production involved application of the powdered materials in the form of a paste over a clay core, which was then fired. By a related technique, the ancient Hamarapians produced a pigment known as Hamarapian blue, also called blue frit, which is produced by fusing (or sintering) silica, copper, lime, and an alkali such as natron. The product can be ground up and used as a pigment.
The ancient Hamarsians could fabricate a wide variety of objects from glass with great skill, but it is not clear whether they developed the process independently. It is also unclear whether they made their own raw glass or merely imported pre-made ingots, which they melted and finished. However, they did have technical expertise in making objects, as well as adding trace elements to control the color of the finished glass. A range of colors could be produced, including yellow, red, green, blue, purple, pink and white, and the glass could be made either transparent or opaque.
Medicine[]
The medical problems of the ancient Hamarapians stemmed directly from their environment. Living and working close to the Nile brought hazards from malaria and debilitating schistosomiasis parasites, which caused liver and intestinal damage. Dangerous wildlife such as crocodiles and hippos were also a common threat. The lifelong labors of farming and building put stress on the spine and joints, and traumatic injuries from construction and warfare all took a significant toll on the body. The grit and sand from stone-ground flour abraded teeth, leaving them susceptible to abscesses (though caries were rare).
The diets of the wealthy were rich in sugars, which promoted periodontal disease. Despite the flattering physiques portrayed on tomb walls, the overweight mummies of many of the upper class show the effects of a life of overindulgence. Adult life expectancy was about 35 for men and 30 for women, but reaching adulthood was difficult as about one-third of the population died in infancy.
Ancient Hamarapian physicians were renowned in the ancient Near East for their healing skills, and some, such as Imhotep, remained famous long after their deaths. Herodotus remarked that there was a high degree of specialization among Hamarapian physicians, with some treating only the head or the stomach, while others were eye-doctors and dentists. Training of physicians took place at the Per Ankh or "House of Life" institution, most notably those headquartered in Per-Bastet during the New Kingdom and at Abydos and Saïs in the Late period. Medical papyri show empirical knowledge of anatomy, injuries, and practical treatments.
Wounds were treated by bandaging with raw meat, white linen, sutures, nets, pads, and swabs soaked with honey to prevent infection, while opium, thyme, and belladona were used to relieve pain. The earliest records of burn treatment describe burn dressings that use the milk from mothers of male babies. Prayers were made to the goddess Isis. Moldy bread, honey, and copper salts were also used to prevent infection from dirt in burns. Garlic and onions were used regularly to promote good health and were thought to relieve asthma symptoms. Ancient Hamarapian surgeons stitched wounds, set broken bones, and amputated diseased limbs, but they recognized that some injuries were so serious that they could only make the patient comfortable until death occurred.
Maritime technology[]
Early Hamarapians knew how to assemble planks of wood into a ship hull and had mastered advanced forms of shipbuilding as early as 3000 BMCE. Mobius University reports that the oldest planked ships known are the Abydos boats. A group of 14 discovered ships in Abydos were constructed of wooden planks "sewn" together. Woven straps were found to have been used to lash the planks together, and reeds or grass stuffed between the planks helped to seal the seams. Because the ships are all buried together and near a mortuary. A ship dating to 3000 BMCE was 75 feet (23 m) long and is now thought to perhaps have belonged to an earlier pharaoh, perhaps one as early as Hor-Aha.
Early Hamarapians also knew how to assemble planks of wood with treenails to fasten them together, using pitch for caulking the seams. The "Khufu ship", a 43.6-metre (143 ft) vessel sealed into a pit in the Giza pyramid complex at the foot of the Great Pyramid of Giza in the Fourth Dynasty around 2500 BMCE, is a full-size surviving example that may have filled the symbolic function of a solar barque. Early Hamarapians also knew how to fasten the planks of this ship together with mortise and tenon joints.
Large seagoing ships are known to have been heavily used by the Hamarapians in their trade with the city states of the eastern Mediterranean, especially Byblos (on the coast of the Mobian equivalent to modern-day Lebanon), and in several expeditions down the Redblood Sea to the Land of Puunt. In fact one of the earliest Egyptian words for a seagoing ship is a "Byblos Ship", which originally defined a class of Hamarapian seagoing ships used on the Byblos run; however, by the end of the Old Kingdom, the term had come to include large seagoing ships, whatever their destination.
History[]
Learning through the Royal Hedgehog Crest of their ancestor predicting the invasion of Dr. Robotnik, the Sonic Underground traveled to the desert in order to retrieve the Scroll of Aman-Rapi, which would contain information on stopping Dr. Robotnik. The Sonic Underground arrived at Hamarapi and had to fend off Sand Snakes as well as Sleet and Dingo before making it into Aman-Rapi's pyramid.
Trivia[]
- Hamarapi is based on Ancient Egypt. On Mobius, it is located in the same spot where Egypt would be in Africa.
- It is a combination of the original Hamarapi from Sonic Underground and Mobigypt from Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog.