Transcript The Rise of Egypt

The Rise of Egypt
Chapter 2 Lesson 1
Summary
• Along with the rise of civilization in
Mesopotamia, Egypt emerged along the Nile
River.
• Developing into a vast empire that had a
stable monarchy, religion, languages, and
trade networks in the Mediterranean Sea.
Guiding Question
• What was the significance of
geography to Egypt’s development?
Geography
• The Nile River played an
important role in Egyptian
civilization.
• The Nile River begins in the
heart of Africa and flows
northward for more than
4,000 miles.
• It is the longest river in the
world.
Nile Delta
• Before it empties into the Mediterranean sea,
the Nile splits into to major branches.
• This split forms a triangular territory called a
delta.
• The Nile Delta region is
called Lower Egypt.
• The land upstream, to
the south, is called Upper
Egypt.
Hymn to the Nile
• The Egyptians wrote of their reliance on the great river
in “Hymn to the Nile”
• Hail to thee O Nile!
Thou showest thyself in this land,
Coming in peace, giving life to Egypt:
O Ammon, (thou) leadest night into day,
A leading that rejoices the heart!
Overflowing the gardens created by Ra.
Giving life to all animals;
Watering the land without ceasing:
The way of heaven descending:
Lover of food, bestower of corn,
Giving light to every home, O Ptah!
Flooding of the Nile
• The Ancient Egyptians referred to the river’s
yearly flooding as the “miracle” of the Nile.
• The river rose in the summer from heavy rains
in central Africa.
• Reached its highest point in early Autumn
• Left a layer of mud that created an area of rich
soil several miles wide on both sides of the
river.
Surplus
• Farmers in the Nile Valley grew a surplus of
food, which made Egypt prosperous.
• The river also unified Egypt.
• The Nile was the fastest way to travel through
the land, making communication easier.
• North winds pushed sailboats south, and the
Nile’s current carried them north.
Natural Barriers
• Egypt’s natural barriers provided protection
from invasion and a sense of security.
• Deserts to the west and east
• Red Sea to the east
• Rapids on southern part of the Nile
• Mediterranean Sea to the north.
Stability
• The regularity of the Nile floods and the
isolation of Egyptians created a feeling of
security and changelessness.
• Unlike Mesopotamia, Egyptians faced life with
confidence in the stability of things.
• Ancient Egyptian civilization was characterized
by remarkable continuity over thousands of
years.
Bellringer
• Ancient Egyptian civilization was characterized
by remarkable security and continuity over
thousands of years.
• What explanation can you think of for this?
Egypt Timeline
Egyptian Kingdoms
• Historians divide Egyptian history into three
periods.
• Old Kingdom (2700 BC – 2200 BC)
• Middle Kingdom (2000 BC – 1600 BC)
• New Kingdom (1550 BC – 1069 BC)
King Menes
• Egypt’s history began around 3100 BC when
King Menes united upper and Lower Egypt
into a single kingdom.
• Menes created the first royal dynasty.
• Dynasty: a family of rulers who’s right to rule
is passed down within the family.
Double Crown
• From then on, Egyptian rulers would wear the
double crown, indicating the unity of all Egypt.
Narmer Palette
The Old Kingdom
• The Old Kingdom (2700 BC – 2200 BC) was a
time of prosperity and splendor.
• The Pharaohs (kings) of the Old Kingdom were
powerful rulers
• Egyptian Pharaohs possessed absolute power
• They had complete, unlimited power to rule
their people.
Bureaucracy
• During the Old Kingdom, a government
bureaucracy developed.
• Bureaucracy: government by a hierarchy of
bureaus, administrators, and officials.
Pyramids
• An example of the splendor of the Old
Kingdom is the building of the pyramids
• One of the greatest achievements of the
Egyptian Civilization.
• The Egyptians built pyramids as tombs for the
pharaohs and their queens.
• The pharaohs were buried in pyramids of
many different shapes and sizes
Pyramids at Giza
• There are about eighty pyramids known today
from ancient Egypt.
• The three largest and best-preserved of these
were built at Giza at the beginning of the Old
Kingdom.
• The most well-known was built for the
pharaoh Khufu, known as the 'Great Pyramid'.
Pyramid of Khufu
• The largest of the pyramids was constructed
under King Khufu in 2450 BC.
• Measures 756 feet (230 meters) at each side
of its base
• Stands 481 feet high (147 meters).
• People still debate how they were build with
such great precision.
The Great Pyramid
How Tall?
How Were The Pyramids Built?
Steps in Pyramid Building
1. Rocks were quarried from as far as 600
miles away in Aswan
2. Transported to Giza, probably on rafts down
the Nile during the rainy season.
3. A level surface was prepared and a
causeway was built from the Nile toward
Giza.
4. The stones were pulled on sleds or over
rolling logs near the pyramid, where
stonemasons prepared the slabs.
5. Once the four sides of the foundation of the
pyramids were set, each layer was added
smaller in area but higher off the ground.
Pyramids vs. Other Ancient Wonders
The Great Sphinx
• Guarding the Great Pyramid at Giza is a huge
figure carved from rock known as the Great
Sphinx.
• 240 feet long (73 m) and 66 feet (20m) high.
• Body of a lion and a human head.
• Historians debate the function of the Sphinx.
• Many Egyptians claim that it was an important
guardian of sacred sites.
The Great Sphinx, 1866
Early 20th Century Images of the Sphinx
Mummification
• To preserve the physical body after death,
Egyptians practiced mummification.
• Mummification: a process of slowly drying a
dead body to prevent it from rotting.
• The process took place in workshops run by
priests.
• Primarily for wealthy families who could afford
it.
Process of Mummification
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Pull brain out of nose using a hook
Make a cut on the left side of the body near the tummy
Remove all internal organs
Let the internal organs dry
Place the lungs, intestines, stomach and liver inside canopic
jars
Place the heart back inside the body
Rinse inside of body with wine and spices
Cover the corpse with salt for 70 days
After 40 days stuff the body with linen or sand to give it a more
human shape
After the 70 days wrap the body from head to toe in bandages
Place in coffin
Materials Used in Mummification
Preparation for
the Afterlife
Egyptian Mummies
Seti I
1291-1278 B. C. E.
Queen Tiye,
wife of
Amenhotep II
1210-1200 B. C. E.
Ramses II
1279-1212 B. C. E.
Archaeologist, Howard Carter (1922)
Treasures From Tut’s Tomb
The Osiris Myth
Significance
•The Osiris myth is central to Egyptian conceptions of kingship
and succession, conflict between order and disorder and,
especially, death and the afterlife.
•It also expresses the essential character of each of the gods at
its center, and many elements of their worship in ancient
Egyptian religion were derived from the myth.
• Osiris, the king of Egypt, and Isis, his
queen, was beloved by all his people.
• He was kind and just and taught them
to plow the earth, how to honor the
gods and he gave them laws to live by.
•But his brother Seth was jealous
and plotted against him to take over
the throne.
•Queen Isis was constantly on her
guard when Osiris traveled around
his kingdom, she never felt safe from
Seth´s scheming.
Can you identify Osiris and Isis?
• One day Osiris held a big banquet for his court
and as he was kind and just Seth was also
invited. This was the moment he had long
waited for.
• Seth began to describe a wonderful coffin that he
had been given, and soon enough he was asked to
have it brought in for people to see.
• It was indeed beautiful, made of the finest wood and
gilded and painted. He promised to give it as a gift to
whomever fit exactly into it.
• And as he already had acquired
Osiris´ measurements, the king was
the only one that fit into the coffin.
• Osiris was persuaded into testing it,
Seth´s servants quickly nailed the lid
to it.
• While the rest of the court was held
back, it was taken away and thrown
into the Nile where the current
carried it away.
• Isis was overcome with grief
and cut off a length of her
hair, dressed herself in
mourning clothes and went
on her way to look for the
coffin with her husband´s
body.
• She wandered for years
without finding a trace, until
she heard some children
saying that they had seen
the golden coffin being
thrown into the waters.
• She wandered for a long time, weeping and
searching for the casket, and often she
heard rumors that a golden casket had been
seen floating by some village.
• So she kept following after until she left
Egypt and came into the land of Byblos.
• Here the rumors spoke about a wonderful tree
that suddenly had started to grow on the shore.
Isis understood then that the coffin had floated
ashore and gotten stuck in a bush.
• Nurtured by the divine presence of Osiris´ body,
the bush had sprouted and grown into a large
tree which the king of Byblos had let cut down
and used in the buildings of a palace. When Isis
reached the place, she was shown to the palace
by the villagers.
• She waited outside the palace until she met the
Queen´s maidens. Soon enough she found the
tree trunk that enclosed her husband´s coffin.
• Isis stayed there, and every night she went into
the room where the coffin with her husband´s
body was and she wept and mourned for him.
• And Isis asked for the pillar with the coffin. When the King
and Queen of Byblos agreed, She cut it into pieces so that
the coffin could be taken out.
• Then she left Byblos by boat and headed for Egypt. After a
long journey, when she finally could bring the casket
ashore by the Nile again, she opened it and embraced
Osiris and wept for him.
• He looked as if he was only sleeping. Then the coffin was
closed again and she continued on her way home through
the marshlands to bury him.
• But that one night Seth and his men were out hunting
nearby.
• Seth found the casket, recognized it, and while Isis
slept he broke into it and tore Osiris´ body into many
pieces which he spread out all over the land.
• Only then did he feel safe that Isis would not be able
to find them.
• When Isis saw the empty casket, her cry of
anguish shook heaven and earth. She called
out to her sister Nephtys who came to console
her and once more she went on her way, now
with Nephtys by her side.
• For many long, sorrowful years
they searched the lands together.
Wherever they found a piece of
Osiris´ body, they built an altar,
giving thanks to the gods.
• When at last all the parts had
been assembled, Isis made Osiris
into the first mummy.
• She then proceeded to use her
powerful magic and breathed new
life into Osiris and so she was able
to conceive the child Horus.
• After this Osiris became in time the King of the Land of the
Dead, while Horus fought against his uncle Seth and won
his father´s throne and became the Living King of Egypt.
Egyptian Accomplishments
• One system of writing in Egypt emerged
around 3000 BC.
• The Greeks called this earliest Egyptian writing
hieroglyphics, combining the words hieros
(sacred) with glypho (inscriptions)
• The ancient Egyptians believed that writing
was invented by the god Thoth.
Decoding
• The hieroglyphic system of writing used
pictures and abstract forms
• Often difficult to decode, direction (right –
left, top – bottom) varied.
Ideograms
• Hieroglyphs are ideograms , or visual
representations of objects or ideas that were
familiar to Egyptians
• Examples: different species of animals, parts
of the human body, or varieties of food.
Ideograms
Modern Ideograms
Where are hieroglyphs found?
• The hieroglyphic script was used mainly for
formal inscriptions on the walls of temples
and tombs.
• In some inscriptions the glyphs are very
detailed and in full color, in others they are
simple outlines.
Hieratic script
• A simplified form of the hieroglyphic script
• people, animals and object depicted are no
longer easily recognizable
• Written almost exclusively from right to left in
horizontal lines and mainly in ink on papyrus
• Written in a number of different styles such as
"business hand" and the more elaborate
"book hand"
Hieratic Script and the Hieroglyphs
they evolved from.
• Challenge:
• Can you write the
number 2013 in
Hieratic numerals?
• How about the year
you were born?
Demotic Script
• The Demotic script developed from a
northern variant of the Hieratic script in
around 660 BC.
• Unlike Hieroglyphics, each letter in demotic
script represented a sound, rather than an
idea.
Demotic Script
Rosetta Stone
Rosetta Stone
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What is the Rosetta Stone?
The Rosetta Stone (196 BC) is a stone
with writing on it in two languages
(Egyptian and Greek), using three
scripts (hieroglyphic, demotic and
Greek).
Why is it in three different scripts?
The Rosetta Stone is written in three
scripts because when it was written,
there were three scripts being used in
Egypt.
The first was hieroglyphic which was
the script used for important or
religious documents.
The second was demotic which was
the common script of Egypt.
The third was Greek which was the
language of the rulers of Egypt at that
time.
The Rosetta Stone was written in all
three scripts so that the priests,
government officials and rulers of
Egypt could read what it said.