Egypt

Preview & Processing• What do you think of when you think

of Egypt?

• What river runs through Egypt?

• What is considered the gift of the Nile?

• Who was Herodotus?

• Can you name at least one Egyptian ruler?

Facts about the Nile

• 4100 miles long

• Flooding predictable: June=flood

Oct.=rich soil

• Herodotus called the silt the “Gift of the Nile”

• Worshipped as a god

• Pop. Lived close to Nile bec. deserts on both sides of the territory

–Libyan (Sahara) and Arabian

–Helped to keep invaders out

• Farming villages: nomes wh = agric. district w/ own gov’t

• N. & S. Egypt w/ separate rulers

Egypt United

• 3200 BCE there were 2 Egypt's w/ 2 kings; upper and lower

• 3100 BCE Menes = upper Egypt

–Capt. @ Memphis

–Egyptian dynasties are born

• HW: What colors and symbols did Menes place on his newly unified crown?

The Kingdoms of Egypt

• Old, Middle, New

• Old Kingdom (2660-2180BCE)

–Pyramids

•Lgest. In Giza: 481 ft tall and covers 13 acres

•Built by peasants and slaves

•80 still standing

–Pharaohs=gods

–Immortal

–Ka: rule from grave wh/ = need for pyramid

–1st illness = Pharaoh's power doubted

• Middle Kingdom (2080-1640 BCE)– Capt. Moved from Memphis to

Thebes– Phar. Concerned w/ common

people1. Dug canals for trade2. Channeled Nile for irigation3. Drained swamps for farm land4. Everyone w/ afterlife (no longer

just for Pharaohs)

– 2nd illness• 70 yrs of civil War• Invaders came to Egypt

• Hyksos “rulers of the uplands”1. Make bronze2. Wage war from horse down chariots3. New kind of bow4. New technique of spinning &

weaving

• Hyksos defeated by Pharaoh Kamose

• New Kingdom (1570-1075 BCE)–Wealth & power–Pharaohs buried beneath desert

cliffs–Tutankhamen–Queen Hapshepsut (1478 BCE)–Rames II (1279-1212 BCE)

•99:150•Temples w/ own likeness

Ramses II

–Need to build empire

–Battle of Kadesh

•Hittites

•“brothers forever” official tie

•Ended E’s dominate power

•Over time E. would be controlled by the Assyrians, Persians Greeks and Romans

Daily life in Egypt

• Social Classes

1. Nobles: gov. generals, tax collectors, preist, etc.

• Women: property trade marriage, divorce

• Homes: gardens, wading pools

2. Peasants

• Wall painting in tombs

• Hard work on “borrowed land,” high taxes

• Tombs, dams, canals

• Social mobility• Pharoah’s service (i.e. army)

• Read & write

• Men & women

3. Slaves

• Homes or gold mines

Religion

• Maat: live a good life; in search of truth & justice

• Osiris (god of the dead)

– Weigh heart

– Devourer of the Souls

– After life: nothing changed

• Priest

–Magical charms, chants: Book of the Dead

–More power, slaves & land than pharaohs

• Akhenaton = Aton only = monotheism

• Tutankhamun = Amun (Amon) & return to polytheism

Education

–Writing: hieroglyphics “sacred carvings”

•1799 Rosetta Stone

•Papyrus: reed = paper

The Rosetta Stone

–Arithmetic, geometry, surveying

–Calendar: Sirius: 365 days, 12 mos. Of 30 days + 5 for holydays & festivals

–Medicine: heartbeat, broken bones, mummification