Transcript Ancient Egypt

Ancient Egypt
Geography
• Northeastern Africa
• Desert
• Nile River is 4,100 miles
long
• Upper Egypt and
Lower Egypt divided
by cataracts
• The delta empties the
Nile into the
Mediterranean Sea
Desert= Natural Defense
• All of the cities and
villages were found
along the Nile
• The Arabian and
Sahara deserts to the
west and the Arabian
desert to the east
• The deserts kept
invaders out
Economics of the Nile
• Slow, regular floods
• Silt=Excellent
agriculture
– Wheat and barley
– Irrigation
– Olives and grapes
Governments Unite
• Small villages eventually united into
agricultural districts called nomes
• Each nome had its own specific rituals,
gods, and chieftains
• The nomes united into two groups: Upper
and Lower Egypt
• King Menes united all of Egypt
Pharaohs
• Dynasty: series of rulers from the
same family
• Ancient Egypt has 31 dynasties over
2,800 years
• Pharaoh is head of government,
religion, and army.
• Very little dissidence. Why?
Culture in Egypt
• Nobles: governors, generals, tax
collectors, and priests
– Lived in luxury
– Many servants
• Middle class: army, shop keepers and
artisans
– A little social mobility
– scribes
• Peasants: farmers and slaves
– Producing food or domestic service
– Physical labor during flood season
Religious Practices
• Maat: Justice, truth, right, and order
• Osiris would judge the dead, putting
hearts on scale
• The afterlife was really similar to real
life
• Priests could influence the gods for
you
Religion and afterlife
• Pharaohs ruled after death
• People would need to provide for
the eternal comfort of the Pharaoh
• Preserving the body ensured the
pharaoh could enter whenever he
wanted
First, they draw out the brains through the nostrils with an iron
hook…Then with a sharp stone they make an incision in the side
and take out the bowels…Then, having filled the belly with myrrh
and other perfumes…They steep the body in mineral salt water for
70 days…Then they wash the corpse, and wrap the whole body in
bandages of waxen cloth.
The Time of the Pyramids
• Tombs=palaces for
dead guys
• Stones weigh 2 ½ tons
• 2 million blocks in
each
• All this work, no slaves
• You too could have a
career as a grave
robber
Make-up!
• Kohl on the eyes,
applied with a
stick
• Fragrant oils on
skin and hair
• Powdered iron ore
and oil on lips and
cheeks
Culture/Technology
• Writing: Pictographs
and ideographs are
hieroglyphics
– Rosetta stone
– Papyrus
• Numbers: assessing
and collecting taxes
• Geometry: plots of
land and building
• Calendar:
planting at the
right time
• Medicine: famous
doctors
– In demand around
the Mediterranean
– Reset bones
– studies