Transcript Chapter 3 Egypt

Chapter 3
Egypt
The Natural Environment
• Valley of 4000 mile-long Nile River
• Benevolent river: floods regularly, deposits silt to
renew soil
• Geographic isolation: deserts, cataracts, sea
• More than 1,000 years of peaceful existence
Map 3.1
PEOPLE OF EGYPT
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Population overwhelmingly peasant, tenant farmers
Small merchants, craftspeople lived in villages
No real cities
Trade and commerce were government monopolies
Slavery
– Increased during Empire
– Due to debts by tenant farmers and prisoners of
war
• Strong administrative control
• Pharaohs and priests enacted ritual prayers and
sacrifices to favor gods
The Pharaoh – Egypt’s God-King
• Gradual unification
• Nilotic states controlled by one king pharaoh (“from the great house”) 3100 BCE
• (3100-2500 BCE) - greatest triumphs, cultural
achievements
• ruled by unbroken line of god-kings who
faced no serious internal/external threats
Pharaoh
• Pharaoh was a god who chose to live on Earth
– Reincarnation of the god of order, Horus
– Embodiment of land and people
– Carried out will of the almighty gods
– His will was law. His wisdom all knowing
– Wife and family shared some glory, but he alone divine
• Government Under the Pharaoh
– Officials were noble landlords, temple priests with local
power
– Pharaoh responsible for welfare of Egypt:
• Administration and order to protect subjects
• directed productive efforts
• maintained good relations with gods to assure
prosperity and prevent natural disasters
Reign of the Pharaohs
• 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 for 2000 years because:
– belief in divinity of king/queen (3 female pharaohs)
– conviction that Egypt was specially favored and
protected by the gods
– climate and geography resulted in perpetual
agricultural abundance
Egypt’s Kingdoms
31 Dynasties
Old Kingdom (3100-2200 BCE)
– Most successful period
– Art, architecture, religion, stability, prosperity
Middle Kingdom (2100-1650 BCE)
– Political stability: refinement of arts, crafts
– Construction of Giza pyramids
– Trade more extensive
– Religion more democratic
New Kingdom (1500-700 BCE)
– Tried to convert neighbors to their lifestyle, government
– Did not last: military reversals, internal dissent, foreign
invasions
– Life of ordinary people saw no marked change
Cultural Achievements
• Pyramids
– Tombs were built while pharaoh was alive
– Religious significance
• Statues and Temples
– Some temples still stand today, most vandalized by
tomb robbers
– Tomb of Tutankhamen
– Statues have graceful lines, great dignity
– Had only primitive tools to do this work
Cultural Achievements
• Hieroglyphics (“sacred carvings”)
– Pictographs representing ideas, phonetic
sounds
– Never developed into an alphabet
– Their use confined to small groups of
educated people
Philosophy, Religion, and
Eternal Life
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Polytheistic religion – at least 300 gods
Amun and Ra – embodiment of all gods
Deities: Anuket, Osiris, Anubis, Horus, Ptah
Believed firmly in afterlife
Ka - life-essence that could return to life
Eternal reward/punishment for their ka, which
had to submit to the moral Last Judgment
• Goddess, Maat
• The universal order and “rightness”
Attempt at Monotheism
Akhnaton’s experiment with wife Nefertiti
• Polytheism to monotheism (“one god”)
– cult of sun god, newly renamed Aton
– heavenly father worshiped as single and
universal god of all creation
– Monotheism unsuccessful, not seen again
until appearance of Judaism
– At his death, priests returned to old ways
under the boy-pharaoh Tutankhamen
Egypt and Mesopotamia
Contrasts
EGYPT
-stability, predictability
-peace: natural barriers
-handpicked cultural
influences
-unified nation, stagnation,
complacency, no reform
-“an island in space and
time” with little influence
on others
MESOPOTAMIA
-violent instability: floods
-wars: pastoralists vs. farmers
-trade brought new ideas
-outsiders arrived with military
and economic power to
establish themselves - no
stagnation
-became a major cradle of
Western traditions and
beliefs
Trade and Egypt’s Influence
• Sought wood for palaces, pyramids, and temples from
Byblos in Phoenicia
• Ivory and gold from the south in Nubia
• Made conquests in southwestern Asia - Sinai Peninsula:
copper and gold mines
• Defended lucrative trade routes to eastern
Mediterranean
• naval expeditions to the Land of Punt: luxuries from
India, southern Arabia, and eastern Africa for spices,
frankincense, myrrh, and gold
• Pushed south to Nubian land of Kush where population
became Egyptianized: rule and religion
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 think this did not occur? What necessary
factors for the rise of civilization were missing?
Or was it simply a matter of accident?