Ancient Egypt

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Ancient Egypt
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Geography
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• Regions in Egypt
• Nubia
• Upper Egypt
• Lower Egypt
• The Nile valley kemet
• The desert deshret

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Environment

• 965 km between Aswan and Cairo
• Average annual rainfall 10 millimeters
• Inundation

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Upper Egypt
Nile at Aswan
1st cataract
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Lower Egypt
Nile delta
Nile bank
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Resources

• Agriculture
• Domesticated animals
• Stones and metals

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Egyptian civilization lasted essentially
unchanged for 3000 years.
The Egyptians are the most successful human
culture in history.
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Chronology

• Early Dynastic Period (c. 3100-2686 BC)
• Old Kingdom (c. 2686-2160 BC)
• 1st Intermediate period (c. 2160-2055 BC)
• Middle Kingdom (c. 2055-1650 BC)
• 2nd Intermediate period (c. 1650-1550 BC)
• New Kingdom (c. 1550-1069 BC)
• 3rd Intermediate period (c. 1069-664 BC)
• Late Period (664-332 BC)
• Ptolemaic period (332-30 BC)

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The Palette of Narmer
Funerary Mask, Ptolemaic Period
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Before the decipherment of the Rosetta Stone in
1822 by Jean Francois Champolion, we had only
classical authors such as Herodotus (5th century
BC) and Manetho (3rd century BC) from whom to
reconstruct Egyptian history.
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Written Records Of Egyptian Life
Edwin Smith surgical papyrus
Scribes writing
Chester Beatty Papyrus
Ebers Papyrus
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Hieroglyphic Writing

• Ideograms (signs standing for ideas or concepts)
• Phonograms (signs standing for sounds)

In addition to traditional Hieroglyphic writing,
two alternate scripts also evolved Hieratic Dem
otic
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• Gods
• take many forms
• have many names
• can be combined
• permeate all areas of human life

Gods are conceptualizations of an abstract
force which is the divine.
Pharaoh with Hathor (left) and Osiris (right)
The image of a god represents the essential, not
the actual.
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• Egyptians had great interest in
• cosmology (rules that govern the universe as a
  whole) and
• cosmogony (the creation of the universe)
• Society consists of four parts
• gods
• king
• blessed dead
• humanity

Maat order Personified as a goddess
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Egyptian World View

• a love of paired opposites,
• dualities and groups
• a love of symmetry
• a desire to impose order
• seeming inconsistency,
• but insistence on
• continuity

Maat
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Tomb of Kha, 18th dynasty
Bread
Pomegranates
Jar of roasted duck
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Linen robe from the tomb of Kha
Painting from tomb of Nebamun
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More Scenes from Everyday Life
Winnowing grain
Herding cattle
Metalworkers
Veterinarians at work
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• Concluding Thoughts (for now)
• Writing and art are sacred so just about
  everything you can read or see means something.
• Human life in Egypt is seen as part of a sacred
  whole.
• Concepts of Maat (order) and Izfet (disorder)
  are central.
• The potential for disaster is always present and
• its typically humans who cause problems.
• The sun represents the potential for order and
  continuity, and Osiris represents the
• potential for rebirth.
• Amun, the Sun, represents a culmination
• in Egyptian theological development.