Transcript Slide 1

Egyptian Civilization
“The Gift of the Nile”
Nile River
Begins in heart of Africa and runs over
4,000 miles
 Northern part- Lower Egypt
 Southern part- Upper Egypt
 Flooding
-Agriculture, 10 mile wide Black Land, Red
Land
 Natural Barriers
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Course of Egyptian History
Menes- king who united Upper and Lower
Egypt into single kingdom
-3100 BC
 First Dynasty
 First capital at Memphis
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Old Kingdom
2575 to 2130 BC – age of prosperity
 Pharaohs- absolute power and religious leader
 Bureaucracy- departments and levels of
authority
 Vizier- “steward of the whole land”, chief
minister
 Pyramids- dedicated to the dead
-mummification
 Great Pyramids at Giza built
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Mummification Steps
Announcement of
Death
Embalming the Body
Removal of Brain
Removal of Internal
Organs
Drying Out Process
Wrapping of the Body
Final Procession
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150 yrs of anarchy- crop
failures, cost of building Middle
pyramids, power
struggles
2050 to 1652 BC – golden
age – stability
Expansion into Nubia,
built fortresses
Trade with Crete
Hyksos came 1700 BC to
occupy land. They awed
the Egyptians with horsedrawn war chariots and
Hyksos adopted Egyptian
customs, beliefs, and
names.
Kingdom
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Invasion by the Hyksos ended this reign
New Kingdom
1567 to 1085 BC- new militaristic path, more
contact with Africa and Asia
 Hatshepsut- first female ruler
 Thutmose III- stepson, 17 campaigns
 Akhenaton- introduced god of sundisk
 Tutankhamen- restored old way, “boy king”
 Ramses II- 1279 to 1213 BC, fought back and
bragged all over temples
 Everything collapsed in 1085 BC
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Ramses II Tomb
Fought with Hittites
of Asia Minor but
signed first peace
treaty
 Used gold from
Nubia to pay army
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The Valley of the Kings is a valley in Egypt where,
for a period of nearly 500 years tombs were
constructed for the kings and powerful nobles of
the New Kingdom.
With the 2006 discovery of a new chamber and
the 2008 discovery of 2 further tomb entrances, the
valley is known to contain 63 tombs and chambers
(ranging in size from a simple pit to a complex
tomb with over 120 chambers)
The royal tombs are decorated with scenes from
Egyptian mythology and give clues to the beliefs
and funerary rituals of the period.
All of the tombs seem to have been opened and
robbed in antiquity, but they still give an idea of the
opulence and power of the rulers of this time.
Religion
Polytheistic
 Sun God- Amon Re
 Osiris- god of dead and Nile
- prove oneself to him
-Book of the Dead
 Isis- taught women roles
 Life after death- mummification
-buried with everything they would need
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Society in Ancient Egypt
Govnt Officials
Merchants
Peasants
Daily Life
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Married Young
-boys at 14, girls at 12
-monogamy
Men
Women- inherit property, enter business
deals, buy and sell goods, go to court,
divorce
-priesthood for goddesses
-no govn’t jobs or scribes
Concerns- family and property, produce
children, especially sons to carry on name
Writing and Education
Hieroglyphics- pictures and forms
 Hieratic script- simplified version, cursive
- record keeping, business transactions,
general needs of daily life
 Papyrus- plant woven together
 Boys start as early as 10 yrs old
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Rosetta Stone
Early 1800s Jean Champollion discovered
 Deciphered writings by comparing
hieroglyphics, demotic script, and Greek
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Science and Math
Distinctive style
 Geometry- buildings and surveying fields
-area and volume
 365 day calendar- 12 months 30 days +5
 Medical expertise in human anatomy
-splints, bandages, fractures, wounds, and
disease while giving out cures as well
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Art and Literature
Gods and pharaohs much larger
 People with heads of animals for certain
traits. Sphinx at Giza as powerful lion-man
 Tale of Sinuhe- how Egyptians viewed
selves and others
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Riddle of the Sphinx
The Sphinx is said to have guarded the
entrance to the Greek city of Thebes, and
to have asked a riddle of travelers to allow
them passage.
 “Which creature in the morning goes on
four legs, at mid-day on two, and in the
evening upon three, and the more legs it
has, the weaker it be?”
 Man
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