Transcript Ancient Egypt

Ancient Egypt
Physical Features
The Nile River:
+Longest river in the world
+annually floods/ Fertile Silt is then left behind
+ Prevailing Wind – blows in a southerly direction,
allowing Egyptians to sail against the current of the Nile
+Delta – triangle shaped mouth of the river
+Cataracts - rapids
*Aswan Dam – where the Nile
was dammed in the 1960’s/1970’s
at the 1st cataract
Historic
Protections:
+Deserts – Arabian &
Libyan
+Seas – Mediterranean &
Red
+Cataracts/ Swamps
* Isthmus of Suez/Sinai Peninsula –
these do later become an invasion route
Accomplishments
Hieroglyphics:
+600 to 700 Symbols
+ written on
Papyrus (made from
a reed found along
the nile) and
chiseled on stone
+ Scribes –
professional writers
Cartouche – oval enclosing a (pharaoh’s) name
+ Rosetta
Stone :
•Jean Champollion: French linguist
who deciphers it 20 years after it’s
found by Napoleon’s men in a.d. 1799
Says the same thing on it in 3
different languages, including
Hieroglyphics and Greek
*It becomes the key to re-learning
how to read the hieroglyphics
A famous library in Alexandria, Egypt was filled with papyrus
scrolls, but was tragically burned and most of the books were lost
Calendar:
- 12 months of 30 days
- 5 days for holidays
* Based on the sun
Mathematics:
- Based on #10
- Used fractions
*Eye of Horus
* Used geometry – for
resurveying fields after
the annual flood and for
their engineering projects
Medicine
Mummification practices gave them knowledge
of anatomy *A limitation here was that they had the functions
of the brain and heart reversed
Doctors, respected around the region, diagnosed symptoms
and prescribed treatments for diseases
Medicine was intertwined with religion and included
knowledge of herbs, other plants, poultices, surgery, etc
but also saw the use of spells, chants, and incantations as well
Architecture/ Engineering:
+Irrigation Systems
+ Temples & Tombs
+ OBELISKS + Sphinxes * Pyramids –
developed from
single level
mastabas, to
step pyramids,
to the “great
pyramids” of
Giza
+Mastabas - single level tombs that
later lead to the idea of pyramids
Imhotep and the step pyramid:
Priest/architect who designed the
first pyramid, the step pyramid
Located at Saqqara, 9 miles south of
the (later) Great Pyramids of Giza
The “BenT pYramiD”
MAIDUM PYRAMID
*Other pyramids leading
up to the Great Pyramids
at Giza
The “Great Pyramids” on the Giza plateau
outside of Cairo
Great Sphinx- Face of a
man (a pharoah), body of
a lion
Art:
- Painting
- Sculpture
- Craftsmanship!
•Jewelry,
furniture,
weaponry,
etc.
Society
+ STATUS BASED ON YOUR SOCIAL CLASS
+Hereditary dynasties - the power to rule is
passed down from generation to generation
within the same family
+ Cosmetics &
beauty
+ Games,
music,
feasts
+ Women’s status – relatively high for that era
Ex. Could own property & businesses, sue in court, etc.
Religion
+ Polytheistic – believed in many gods
+ Pharaoh - ruler of Egypt, considered a god,
translates to “Great House”
+ FOUR OF THE MAIN GODS INCLUDE:
Amen Re: seen as the king
of the gods
Osiris: God of Nile/Underworld,
judges your soul in afterlife
Isis: Wife of Osiris, subject of a later
cult that Cleopatra worships
Anubis: God of dead/ Embalming
*Jackal Headed
+ Amulets, Symbols include:
Scarab - Dung beetle,
associated with the
Sun and Resurrection
Ankh - symbol of
Life
Wedjet – Eye of Horus
+ Sacred
Animals
include:
Bull
Cat
Falcon
Hippo
Crocodile
+Afterlife
- Mummification - Process of preserving
the body after death
- Journey to Hall of Truth, where your
soul was judged
-Book of the
Dead -
-Immortality Middle coffin
Innermost
coffin
Tut’s outermost coffin
Canopic Jars: Internal organs were stored
in these and placed in the tomb with the
mummy
Timeline
2900 B.C. Menes:
Unites upper (vulture) and
lower (cobra) Egypt, starts first hereditary
dynasty (of 34 total – for over 3,000 years)
2650-2180 B.C. Old Kingdom (4th
– 8th Dynasties):
- Great Pyramids Built
- Declines due to growing power of
nobles, civil war
2040-1650 B.C. Middle Kingdom
(12th -13th Dynasties):
-Commoners can now be mummified
(if they had the money to pay for it!)
- Pharaoh burials now in Valley of
Kings (in hillside tombs)
- Canal built from Red Sea to
Nile River
1650- 1570 B.C. Hyksos Rule (a foreign dynasty):
Superior weapons and wheeled war chariots
allow them to (cross the Isthmus of Suez and)
dominate the (lower) egyptians for nearly a
century
1570-1100 B.C. New Kingdom or Empire
(18th – 19th Dynasties):
-Hyksos
overthrow
(And kicked out)
-Territorial
expansion
(across the Sinai
peninsula and
southward up the
Nile)
Exs.
Palestine,
Syria, Nubia
1100’s-300’s BC Invasions & Continued
Dynasties: Ex. Nubians, Assyrians, Persians
300’s- 40’s BC Ptolemaic Dynasty (Greek):
- Descendants of Alexander the Great’s
general, Ptolemy
- Cleopatra essentially the last Pharoah
40’s B.C. - 500’s A.D. Roman
Empire/Influence
*A.D. – Anno Domini, Latin for “year of our Lord”
A.D.700’s Islamic
Influence begins
*Today – Egypt is an independent and
important country in the middle east
(though currently mired in turmoil &
upheaval)
Famous Pharaohs
Menes – unites upper & lower Egypt
Hatshepsut:
female, rules capably
for 20 yrs
Amonhotep/Akenaton:
“the heretic pharaoh”,
attempts unpopular
shift to monotheism
Tutankaton/Tutankamon (Tut): (The boy king)
Returns egypt to polytheism,
tomb found in 1922 by Howard Carter
Ramses II
(The
Great):
Warrior, builder, lives to 90,
Hebrew oppression/story of
Moses occurs during his reign
*Abu Simbel - temple moved when
Nile was dammed at Aswan in 1960’s
Cleopatra:
last pharaoh of ancient egypt
Romantically involved with julius Caesar and
Marc Antony
Commits suicide with an asp (cobra) when
conquered by rome