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Kwun Tong Maryknoll College F.1E History Project Work(2002-2003) Group members: Chan Chi Man(1) Cheung Kit(5) Law Ming Chau(14) Leung Chun Kin(15) Leung Tsz Fung(16) Lo Man Ho(18) Introduction The geographic background of Egypt The rise of ancient Egypt The class structure of ancient Egypt The religion of ancient Egypt pyramids Hieroglyphics Sphinx Conclusion mummy Reference We choose “The early civilization of The Nile Valley in Egypt” for our project title because Clay tablets discovered in Egypt prove that the ancient egyptians developed the earliest known writing by humans. The tablets that the writings are on have been dated to be 5300 years old and show records of linen and oil paid as taxes to a King called Scorpion I. This shows that 5300 years ago the Egyptians already had a civilization with a king, laws, taxes, writing, police, courts and all that goes with such a civilization. Egypt is in northeast Africa, to the southwest of the Fertile Crescent. It is in the Nile Valley which is a long narrow piece of land along the River Nile. The Nile Valley Egypt has many deserts but very little rain. In south Egypt, the average rainfall in about 13cm a year. North Egypt has even less rain. It gets only about 3cm a year. So few people could live in Egypt without the Nile. The Nile flooded in July every year. The floods left thick black mud on both sides of the river. Ancient Egyptians farmed on this fertile black mud. They could have as many as four harvests a year. An Early civilization began in the Nile Valley from about 4000BC. At first, ancient Egypt was divided into Upper and Lower Egypt. In about 3200BC, the king of Upper Egypt called Menes unified Egypt. He was the first pharaoh to wear a double crown. Generally, the King in Upper Egypt wore a white crown. The King in Lower Egypt wore a red crown. Now King Menes wore a double crown of red and white after the unification of Egypt. For further information of the list of Kings of Ancient Egypt, please note: the list of kings.htm A timeline, which explores more than 3,000 years of Ancient Egyptian history, from the end of prehistory at around 3,000 BC to the closing of the last Egyptian temple in 535 or 537 AD, helps us navigate through history and discover the formidable Pharaohs of Ancient Egypt. For further information of the timeline of Ancient Egypt, please note:A Chronology of Ancient Egypt.htm Pharaoh Priests Farmers Craftsmen and merchants Slaves Egyptians built big temples to worship gods. Each village and town worshipped different gods and goddesses. These gods had a human body and the head of a bird or an animal. Driven by religious zeal and a strong belief in the after life, the Ancient Egyptians left the world and impressive legacy of temples and tombs. For further information of the religion of Ancient Egypt, please note:gods and religion.htm Pyramids are Pharaohs’ tombs. Today, a total of 110 pyramids have been discovered in Egypt. The Great Pyramid was the Largest. It was built in about 2,600 BC. Many people believe the Great Pyramid and the Sphinx were built according to legend of the stars in the Orion Belt as they appeared to the ancient Egyptians. The Sphinx, was long considered to have been built during the 4th dynasty with the Great Pyramid. Now the age of the Sphinx is in question, some of the rock erosion patterns on the body of the Sphinx suggest that they were caused by flowing water from rainfall. People living in ancient Egypt believed in the life after death. They thought that if the body of a dead person did not decay, he or she would live forever in another world. So they preserved dead bodies. In the case of a royal or noble burial, the embalmers set up workshops near the tomb of the mummy. High-ranking officials, priests and other nobles who had served the pharaoh and his queen had fairly elaborate burials. The pharaohs, who were believed to become gods when they died, had the most magnificent burial of all. 1) The body was washed and ritually purified. 2) The inner organs of a dead body were took out. 3) Some salt and spices were put in the dead body. A Pharaoh's funeral procession 4) The dead body was dried in the sun. 5) The dried dead body was wrapped by long pieces of cloth, and named as the mummy. 6) The mummy was then put in a coffin carved like a person. 7) The mummy was preserved in the coffin which was buried in a tomb. Mummification in ancient Egypt was a very long and expensive process. From start to finish, it took about seventy days to embalm a body. The Egyptian developed a kind of picture-writing called Hieroglyphics or ‘holy carvings’. At first, no one could read hieroglyphics. In AD1822, a French historian found that the signs used in hieroglyphics, such as birds or baskets, stood only for sounds, not for words. This discovery helped him find the key to read hieroglyphics. Textbooks: Yan.N.Y.Y. (2002) JOURNEY THROUGH HISTORY: A MODERN COURSE, Book I, Aristo Educational Press Ltd. Yan.N.Y.Y. (2002) JOURNEY THROUGH HISTORY: A MODERN COURSE, Workbook I, Aristo Educational Press Ltd. Websites: http://home.att.net/~smith.smith/ http://www.ancient-egypt.org/ http://www.carnegiemuseums.org/cmnh/exhibits/egypt/religion.html http://touregypt.net/egyptantiquities/ Kwun Tong Maryknoll College F.1E History Project Work(2002-2003) THE END