Transcript Ancient Egypt - sheehansocialstudies

“The Gift of the Nile”
 Northeast Africa
 Located along the Nile River
 South of the Mediterranean Sea
 Three eras define Ancient Egypt – the Old Kingdom,
Middle Kingdom, and New Kingdom.
 During the Old Kingdom….
 5000 BCE people began farming along the Nile
 3100 BCE Egypt unites and becomes a massive empire
 2600 BCE pyramids are built
 The climate in Egypt is dry and desert-like, not ideal
for farming
 Yet every year, from July – October, the river flooded
and everything became swampy and muddy
 The flooding turned the valley green and allowed for
farming
 Provides water and food in the desert
 Egyptians believe it was a blessing from their gods
 World’s longest river
 Flows for more that 4,000 miles.
 Water flows from south to north and empties in the
Mediterranean Sea.
 River floods with rainwater and snow from nearby
mountains and spreads silt.
 Delta – The land to the north near the Mediterranean
Sea which is especially fertile because the river
branches and divides
 Lower Egypt – Northern Egypt where the Delta is
located, it is called Lower Egypt because the Nile flows
from South to North
 Upper Egypt – Southern Egypt, the landscape is
defined by stone cliff and desert sands.
 Upper and Lower Egypt were 600 miles apart. To go
from one to the other would take a month by foot and
two weeks by boat.
 In October, when the flooded land started to dry farmers
planted
 wheat,barley
 cucumbers, lettuce, onions, beans
 flax – a plant used to make cloth
Farmers used irrigation systems to bring water to their
crops.
Farmers were able to produce more food than they
needed because the land was so fertile. They used the
surplus to trade
Flax Plant
Irrigation
Water Channels
 Upper Egypt – had king that wore a white crown
 Lower Egypt – had a king that wore a red crown
 During the Old Kingdom, in 3100 BCE Menes, the king
of Upper Egypt, invaded and conquered North Egypt.
 Menes then wore a double crown that was white a red
to symbolize the unification, or coming together, of
both regions.
 Menes was Egypt’s first ruler, or Pharaoh.
Menes
 Pharaoh’s had great political and religious power.
 Pharaoh’s were thought to be children of the sun god.
 Egyptians believe the sun god, Ra, gave life to earth.
 They also believed Pharaoh’s gave life to Egypt.
 They believed both Ra and Pharaohs should be
worshipped.
 Egyptians were polytheistic and believed different
gods had different roles.
 Egyptians believed in an afterlife and they would be
buried with important things that they wanted to take
to the “Next World”.
Ra
Dead buried with possessions
 Since the Pharaoh was thought to be a god, everything
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belonged to him.
The Pharaoh was the ruler of the economy, which means he
managed how money and resources were used.
Egypt was able to thrive and be successful because farmers
produced a lot of extra food that could be used for trade.
The Pharaoh collected taxes from everyone, usually in the
form of food and goods.
Some had to pay tax in the form of time, which means they
were forced to work to dig canals during flood season.
All of these taxes help keep the king rich.
 Egyptian system of writing is called hieroglyphics.
 It consists of 800 picture signs.
 Each individual sign was called a hieroglyph.
 Hieroglyphs could stand for objects or letter sounds.
 Scribes traveled throughout Egypt to keep records.
 They often went into fields to record the amount of
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crops available.
They drafted letters and marriage contracts.
Writing was only taught to a select few, so scribes were
highly respected.
Only boys could become scribes and they started to
train at age 10.
Once they learned the specific hieroglyphs they
learned how to prepare the papyrus, which is a reed
plant that they used for paper.
Scribe
Papyrus Plant
 Pyramids were huge stone structures used as tombs for
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pharaohs.
The Great Pyramid is the largest. It was built for King
Khufu in 2600 BCE
It took 20 years to build. More than 100,000 people
worked on it.
A huge portion of Egypt’s resources were used to built
these monuments.
Food and cloth was used to feed and cloth workers,
cliffs were knocked down to obtain stone to build with.