Transcript Ancient Egypt - A Cultural Approach

Ancient Egypt
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Time and Geography
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
See Notes for video
SOCIAL
PEOPLE OF EGYPT
• Population overwhelmingly
peasant, tenant farmers
• Small merchants, craftspeople
lived in villages
• No real cities
• Trade and commerce were
government monopolies
People of Ancient Egypt
PEOPLE OF EGYPT
• Slavery
– Increased during Empire
– Due to debts by tenant farmers and prisoners of war
• Strong administrative control
Slaves of ancient Egypt
RELIGIOUS/ POLITICAL
PEOPLE OF EGYPT
Khafre Enthroned
• 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
Egyptian god Horus
Pharaoh
• 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
Statuette of Pepy I
(ca. 2338-2298
B.C.E.) wearing a
nemes headdress
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
Hyksos
forces
defeated
Reign of the Pharaohs
• 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
The Great Sphinx
of Giza in front of
the Great
Pyramid of Giza.
Egypt’s Kingdoms
31 Dynasties
Middle Kingdom (2100-1650 BCE)
– Political stability: refinement of arts, crafts
– Construction of Giza pyramids
– Trade more extensive
– Religion more democratic
Pyramids at Giza
Egypt’s Kingdoms
31 Dynasties
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
Abu Simbel Temple of
Ramesses II
INTELLECTUAL
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
Stripped of all its jewels, the mummy
of Tutankhamun remains in the Valley
of the Kings in his KV62 chamber
Tutankhamun's death mask
Cultural Achievements
• Hieroglyphics (“sacred
carvings”)
– Pictographs representing ideas,
phonetic sounds
– Never developed into an
alphabet
– Their use confined to small
groups of educated people
Egyptian Hieroglyphics
RELIGIOUS
Philosophy, Religion, and
Eternal Life
•
•
•
•
Polytheistic religion – at least 300 gods
Amun and Ra – embodiment of all gods
Deities: Anuket, Osiris, Anubis, Horus, Ptah
Believed firmly in afterlife
Ra and Amun, from the tomb
of Ramses IV.
Egyptian god Horus
Philosophy, Religion, and
Eternal Life
• 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”
Maat wearing feather of
truth
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
Bust of Akhenaten
ECONOMIC
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
Egyptians trading
Trade and Egypt’s Influence
Trading in Ancient
Egypt was very big.
Ancient Egyptians
started trading goods
to other countries in
the fourth century BCE
• 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
See Notes for Video
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?