Ancient Egypt Notes

1
Ancient Egypt Notes

• Matthew Ripley-Moffitt
• World Cultures
• Cary Academy

2
Location relation to Environment

• 5 cataracts (huge waterfalls)
• Deserts act as natural defense
• Floods are predictable
• People can control responses to flooding

• Northeast Africa
• Around Nile River
• 4160 miles long
• Longest river in world
• Flows North
• Winds blow South

3
Prehistory
4
Old Kingdom 2660 2180 BCE

• Rulers were thought of as gods
• Established a bureaucracy group of government
  officials
• Time of great building projects
• Pyramids large, 5-sided, all stone structures
• Step Pyramid for King Djoser mid-2600 BCE
• 3 pyramids at Giza, including Great Pyramid

5
First illness

• 2180 2080 BCE
• Period of drought and near famine
• Leads to doubts about monarchs divinity
• Civil strife because food shortage leads to
  peasants not being paid
• Separates the Old Kingdom from the Middle Kingdom

6
Middle Kingdom 2080-1640 BCE

• prosperous times
• Belief that afterlife is possible for all
  Egyptians
• New monarch reunites Egypt
• Moves capital to Thebes
• Builds canal to Red Sea trade with Syria
• Captures Nubia to the South

7
Second Illness 1640 1570 BCE

• Hyksos from west Asia invade Egypt
• Have bronze tools and weapons
• Have war chariots
• Rule Egypt from 1600 1570 BCE
• Egyptians learn bronze technology and chariots
• Queen Anhotep and King Ahmose drive out the Hyksos

8
New Kingdom 1570 1075 BCE

• Very wealthy and powerful time
• Title of pharaoh invented great house of king
• Queen Hatshepsut rules 1478 1456
• Known more for trade than war
• Funeral temples and tombs move to Valley of the
  Kings

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New Kingdom 1570 1075 BCEcontinued

• Reign of Thutmose III is time of empire building
• Use bronze weapons chariots to conquer an
  empire many territories under one rule
• Much cultural diffusion bronze weapons,
  chariots, writing, precious metals

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New Kingdom 1570 1075 BCEthe end

• Ramses II (1279 1212 BCE) also known as
  Ramses the Great
• Builds temples and tombs decorated with huge
  statues of himself
• Ramses III goes to war with Syria (1100 BCE)
• By 945 BCE Egypt has split back into 2 Kingdoms

11
Egyptian Society

• Upper Class royals, nobles, bureaucrats, priests
• Middle Class scribes, artisans, merchants
• Peasants farmers-paid rent for land, off season
  pyramids
• Slaves from conquered lands

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Women In Egyptian Society
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Polytheism many gods

• Ra Amon joined into Amon-Ra
• Osiris Isis ruled life, death, judged you in
  afterlife

• Emphasis on afterlife embalming, mummification.
  Tombs, burial with possessions
• Maat virtues of good life, truth, justice,
  order, prevented you from immoral acts

14
Achievements

• Hieroglyphics picture words stood for objects,
  ideas, sounds
• Hieratic a faster. Everyday cursive
• Scribes went to school to learn to write
• Girls could also learn to write
• Scribes could move up social order government
  or religious work
• Recorded prayers, hymns, stories, poems, proverbs
• Rosetta Stone (200 BCE) hieroglyphs,
  demotic,Greek

15
Egyptian Math

• Formulas for area volume (buildings)
• Geometry used for dividing land after floods
• Calendar 365 days based on movements of Sirius
  (Dog Star)
• Water Clocks for tracking elapsed time

16
Medical knowledge

• Advanced medical knowledge
• Masters of human anatomy
• Use of surgical techniques
• Many recipes for cures including herbal,
  animal, and mineral medicinal compounds, spells,
  prayers, and animal sacrifices
• Athothes (2nd King of Egypt) credited as first to
  use and record advanced medical practices

17
Egyptian Military

• Spear, dagger, bow used since Old Kingdom
• Battle ax introduced during Middle Kingdom
• Composite bow, shield, chariot introduced during
  new Kingdom
• Army organized in Battalions and Divisions
  Divisions named after principle gods
• A core unit of soldiers was always managed by the
  King