Last updated 9/1/2015
Learning Target: I can understand the factors that formed early Egyptian society.
Hydraulic Civilization- Tigris and Euphrates would flood other civilizations and were unpredictable- civilization that focuses on a river - the Nile- Nile was a NICE river.
- flooded regularly- easily predictable- could be used for agriculture
- Strong Central Government was established to control the river- decide who can use the river ie. build a dam- headed by Pharaohs (Greek term that was used by Egypt)
- god in human form. once they died they became a god- strong pairing with religion and government (theocracy)- Bureaucracy was set up- people who conduct daily business of running the
government (just like the BMV takes care of our transportation needs and Post Office delivers the mail)
Agriculture- grew WHEAT and BARLEY
- had bread and beer because they would stay good for a long period of time- drank beer because the water was bad (dirty); fermentation kills off the bacteria
and makes the water safe to drink- Irrigation was easy
- water level would rise, when it fell back it would leave a layer of silt after flooding. this is fresh new dirt that is great for planting
- flooding was an annual event and was predictable. The Egyptians set their calendar by when the Nile would flood (This was the beginning of the new year.)
A Divided Land- based on the flow of the Nile- upper Egypt is in the South because that is the direction the
river is headed- Salt was extremely valuable and found in upper Egypt- Lower Egypt (in the north) is very wealthy because they have
easy access to trade- Lower Egypt was a delta fertile area
Government- Ruled by Pharaoh
- god in human form- Narmer was the first pharaoh
- he united upper and lower Egypt
- new capital is in Thebes
- Pharaohs organized into dynasties
- Ruling family- the sons will take over ruling the country- had to act like they were a god in human form
Chronology of Ancient Egypt
OLD KINGDOM- you have an entire life after you die, so you need to take what you need so you have it in
death.
- built mastaba to take care of these needs:
- To improve how things we go in the afterlife, step pyramids are developed:
Meidum Pyramid- built by Sneferu- There was an accident and this one started to fall
apart!
*** The Step Pyramid is just a lot of mastabas built on top of each other.*** The Bent Pyramid is built at a funny angle because it was safer and avoided any more disasters since there had been an accident that had killed hundreds of workers. *** The Red Pyramid was built because Sneferu had a fit when his Bent Pyramid was not as pretty as he wanted it to be.
NEW KINGDOM
Amun - was a hidden god. You couldn’t see him, but he was absolutely
everywhere.- combined with Ra to become king of the gods- end of the Middle Kingdom and mostly the New Kingdom
Karnak- massive temple complex
- ranked second in size because it is so large
- the Basilica could fit into a single room here
- had 80,000 servants and slaves living there at one time
- Geese and rams and over 421,000 head of cattle- these were intended for sacrifice
Where did Ra come from?
- The mound Ra was born from is called Ben Ben
Kings of Earth
Akhenaten
- Atenism shows up before every other monotheistic religions- moves the capital to a new temple to the court at Amarna
- they use mud brick to build this temple so all of the bricks used are uniform
- When Nefertiti dies (his wife), Akhenaten goes off the deep end and creates a secret police. He rounds people up to kill them.
King Tut- son of Akhenaten- we know a lot of stuff about King Tut only because
the people that raided his tomb were modern. All of the other tombs had been ravaged.
- found by Howard Carter and Lord Carnarvon (two British guys)
- people think of him as a pretty boy because of what we see in his death mask, but he died so suddenly he has a borrowed mask
- he actually had a cleft palate and a club foot because of the long line of incest in his family.
- only pharaohs were required to marry within their family
Ramses II- called Rameses the Great- also called the Justice of Ra- he was a great builder- he built more than any other
pharaoh, putting his name and image on a bunch of things
- he was a great military general, or so he says- he claims to have killed an entire army all by himself
- had a LOT of children- 96 sons- 60 daughters
- lived into his 90’s, so he outlived most of his grandchildren
- Statues of his wife are each 40 feet tall; they were equal in size to his statues, showing he saw her as an equal to him.
Mummification Making of the Mummy Rest in Peace
Egyptian Dating- man would present a bundle to the prospective mate. If she
approved she would accept, if not she would say no way.- One of the only ancient civilizations where the woman had a
choice.
Egyptian Make-up- hair was seen as unclean so everyone walked around bald- invented the mascara brush- men and women both wore makeup
- the Egyptian makeup kept the sun out of their eyes like eye black that football players wear
Egyptian Economy- paid with wheat and barley most of the time- added honey to the bread recipe to make the bread more
sweet.
Egyptian Family- goddess of fertility and motherhood had cow ears (Hathor) - women wanted to be like her
Egyptian Pyramids Hathor- contained maps of the underworld and how to get into the underworld so a person would
not get lost