Transcript Chapter 3 Egypt - Riverdale High School

Chapter 3
Egypt
The Natural Environment
• Valley of 4000 mile long
Nile River
• Benevolent river, floods
regularly, deposits silt to
renew soil
• Year-long growing
season, 3 crops per year
Egypt’s Isolation and Uniqueness
• Egypt’s Protective Isolation
– Protected from invasion by deserts, cataracts, sea
– Invasion only possible from Sinai Peninsula
– Civilization developed in almost unbroken safety
• Egypt’s Uniqueness
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Egypt had many advantages
Believed gods smiled on them, had best of all worlds
Security eventually turned into weakness
Lost ability to adapt to external changes
The Pharaoh – Egypt’s God-King
• Decisively unified about
3100 BCE under a
pharaoh
• Foundation period (3100200 BCE) – greatest
triumphs, cultural
achievements
Pharaoh
• Pharaoh was a god who chose to live on Earth
– Reincarnation of god Horus
– He did the will of the almighty gods
– Wife and family shared some glory, but he alone was divine
• Government Under the Pharaoh
– Officials were noble landlords, great local power
– Two periods when pharaohs were weak
• 2200-2100 BCE – First Intermediate Period
• 1650-1570 BCE – Hyksos Invasion
– After each period, new dynasty appeared, restored control
– Pharaohs kept power because of many benefits in Egypt
Egypt’s Kingdoms
• 31 dynasties (rule by one family)
• Old Kingdom (3100-2200 BCE)
– Most successful period
– Art, architecture, religion, stability, prosperity
• Middle Kingdom (2100-1650 BCE)
– Political stability, continued refinement of arts, crafts
– Trade became more extensive
– Religion became more democratic
• New Kingdom (1500-700 BCE)
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Tried to convert neighbors to their lifestyle, government
Did not last – military reversals, internal dissent
Subjected to foreign invasions
Life of ordinary people saw no marked change
Cultural Achievements
• Pyramids
– Designed as tombs, built
while pharaoh was alive
– Possessed huge religious
significance
• Statues and Temples
– Some of temples still stand
– Vandalism, tomb robbers
have destroyed much
– Tomb of Tutankhamen
– Statues have graceful
lines, great dignity
– Had only primitive tools to
do this work
Cultural Achievements
• Other art forms
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Painting
Ceramics
Jewelry
Miniature sculpture for tombs
• Hieroglyphics (“sacred carvings”)
– Pictographs representing ideas, phonetic sounds
– Never developed into an alphabet
– Their use confined to small groups of educated
people
Religion and Eternal Life
• Polytheistic religion – at least 300 gods
• Amon and Ra, Isis, Osiris were most important
• Believed firmly in afterlife, life-essence (ka)
could roam at will
• They expected reward in afterlife
• Priests played powerful role
• Akhnaton’s experiment
– Tried to change from polytheism to monotheism (“one
god”)
– Unsuccessful, not seen until appearance of Judaism
– People went back to old ways after his death
Egypt’s People and Their Daily
Lives
• Population overwhelmingly peasant, most of them tenant
farmers
• Many small merchants, craftspeople
• No real cities
• Large-scale trade, relatively unimportant
• Small middle class
• Daily life changed remarkably little
• Slavery
– Slavery increased during Empire
– Mostly result of owing debts
– Serfdom and sharecropping
• In general, people were better off most of the time
Egypt and Mesopotamia Contrasts
• Egypt – enormous stability, predictability;
Mesopotamia – subject to violent change
• Egypt – protected by natural barriers, could
choose cultural influences to adopt;
Mesopotamia – crossroads, constant new
introductions
• Egypt – unified nation, false sense of security;
Mesopotamia – outsiders arrived with enough
power to establish themselves, no stagnation
• Egypt – “an island in space and time” with little
permanent influence; Mesopotamia – major
cradle of civilization
Discussion Questions
• 1. Akhnaton tried a revolutionary idea when he
introduced monotheism. Why do you think it
failed? Why did the Egyptian population not
convert to this radical new approach to religion?
• 2. Egypt and Mesopotamia both developed
along major river systems, yet a comparable
civilization did not apparently develop in North
America along the Mississippi River Valley. Why
do you thin this did not occur? What necessary
factors for the rise of civilization were missing?
Or was it simply a matter of accident?