Ancient egypt

Ancient EgyptAncient Egypt

LocationLocation

• Nile River Valley down to the first cataract

Geographic InfluencesGeographic Influences

• Isolation – flat land, protective deserts• Nile River

– “lifeline” or “gift from the gods”– Transportation, communication, and good

agriculture despite the surrounding deserts

• Adaptations– Predictable floods– Used “basin irrigation” to retain water for

farming when the flooding ended

• When?

• 3200 BCE – 1000 BCE

• Three time periods:

• Old Kingdom – 2700-2200

• Middle Kingdom – 2050 - 1800

• New Kingdom – 1550 - 1100

GovernmentGovernment

• Originally 3 kingdoms governed by an absolute monarch

• Later, Egypt unifies into one great kingdom ruled by a Pharaoh or “God-King”– Theocracy – government

ruled by a divine figure or by religious law

ReligionReligion• Polytheistic• Priests held spiritual and

political power– And shaved all hair from their

bodies• Aton – Sun god• Amon – god of Egypt• Osiris – god of the Dead

– Weighs all human hearts on a scale. If lighter than a feather they are pure and will live forever. If heavier, the impure heart will be destroyed and eaten by the Devourer of Souls

• Book of the Dead– Collection of prayers and

meditations, seen as holy scriptures

• Pure heart involved “Maat”– Virtues of good life, truth,

justice, and order

Picture from the Book of the Dead

Nefirtiti worshipping Aton

View of Life, Death, and ChangeView of Life, Death, and Change

• Egyptians believed:– Life should be traditional and enjoyed– Mummification – preserving the body for life

after death• Ka – eternal spirit that lives on in Pharaohs• Pyramids were designed to provide a comfortable

place in which to live (including drawings, jewelry and clothing)

– Imagined the future life for pure souls to be much like the present

Cultural AccomplishmentsCultural Accomplishments

• An advanced, progressive culture– Hieroglyphics

• “sacred carving,” used clay and papyrus

– The best ancient calendar (6 hours short of a true solar calendar year

– Geometry • Used to survey lands

– Medicine• Understood heart rates/pulses• Broken bones, fevers, treating wounds• Even used electric fish in pools for

healing and therapy

• Women were respected, shared many rights with men– Including divorce and marriage

• Complex number system– Kept financial and tax records

• Very stratified society– Literacy a significant factor– Social mobility, even for slaves (esp. through service

in the army or to the Pharaoh)

• Pyramids

• Pyramids– Tombs for the Pharaohs– Perfectly symmetrical structures– Required over 2 million stones

• Some stones weighed 200 tons • Some poured in molds like concrete

– 80 pyramids in Egypt• Largest at Giza

– Most treasures and mummies stolen by thieves– Probably willingly built by peasants

Significant People and EventsSignificant People and Events

• King Menes – unified the 3 separate empires into the “Old Kingdom”– Capital at Memphis ~3100 BCE

• 3100-1600 BCE – “ups and downs”– Middle Kingdom emerges during high point– Pyramids built– Art and Architecture flourished

• New Kingdom 1570-1075 – True, great Egyptian empire and civilization– Desert not enough, Egyptians create buffer zone

Queen HatshepsutQueen Hatshepsut

• Ancestor of King Tut• Declares herself

Pharoah– First female ruler of a

civilization/empire

• 22 yr reign • Killed (probably by

her stepson Thutmose III)

Thutmose IIIThutmose III

• Conquers Syria and Palestine – Height of the Egyptian

empire

• Hebrews who had come willingly to Egypt are forced into slavery– (this sets up the LMPG

thing)

AkenatonAkenaton• ~1375 he tried to force Egypt to be

monotheistic– “Aton is the only God”

• Moved the capital– Thebes to Akhetaton

• Changed is name– From Amonhotep to Akenaton (not much better)

• Replaced by King Tut

King TutKing Tut

• About 8 or 9 yrs old

• Restores the old capital and belief system – So Egyptians liked him

• The 3,300-year-old mummy of the ancient King Tutankhamun lies exposed on a CT machine in Luxor, Egypt on Wednesday as Egyptian antiquities chief Zahi Hawass, left, looks on.

Ramses IIRamses II

• The last great Pharaoh• Was in charge when

Moses led Hebrews out of Egypt (Exodus)

• 67 yr reign• Est. peace w/ Hittites• Built many temples and

statues of himself• Fathered over 150

children before dying at age 99

• Luxor Album:

• https://picasaweb.google.com/115051500693139274056/Luxor?authuser=0&feat=directlink

New Kingdom AccomplishmentsNew Kingdom Accomplishments

• Built the Valley of the Kings– Great temples and tombs beneath desert cliffs (less

conspicuous than pyramids)– Near Thebes– King Tut, Ramses II, and others were inside

Success and DeclineSuccess and Decline

• Desert protection helped

• Weren’t by outsiders challenged like Mesopotamia was

• Used Nile ingeniously

• Empire collapses due to – ineffective Pharaohs– Strengthening Assyrians and Persians

• Who conquer Egypt c.1000 BCE

Rosetta StoneRosetta Stone

• Slab of black stone with Greek, Hieroglyphics, and Demotic writing

• Discovered by Jean Champollion in 1799

• Code broken in 1822– **first time

hieroglyphics were read and understood