Kingdoms of Ancient Egypt

1
Kingdoms of Ancient Egypt
2
Early Egyptian Life

• 8,000 BC
• 1st human life in the area
• Quest for food brought the stone age man to the
  Nile River Valley
  
• Hunters roamed until the found the river valley
• Climatic changes caused northern Africa to become
  drier
  
• 7,000 BC
• Probable start of agriculture in the Nile region
• Barley, wheat and vegetables grown
• 3,000 BC
• Many small villages established along the Nile
• Area called Kemet
• Fertile, black soil

3
General Information

• Unification
• Originally two kingdoms developed along the Nile
• Lower Egypt
• Located along the northern Nile
• Good farmland
• Access to copper mines in Sinai Peninsula
• Upper Egypt
• Located along the southern Nile
• Ruler names Menes
• Established first dynasty
• Conquered lower Egypt, unifying the kingdom
• Built capital at Memphis
• Established by Narmar

4
General Information

• Approximately 30 dynasties (ruling families) from
  2700 BC to 1090 BC
  
• Dynasties ruled Egypt for a total of 2700
  years
  
• Ancient Egyptian history divided into three
  periods
  
• Old Kingdom
• Middle Kingdom
• New Kingdom
• Years between kingdoms without ruling dynasty
  usually marked by civil wars and/or invasion

5
Geography of the Nile Region

• River
• Flows north
• Originates in the highlands of Central Africa
• Ends in the Mediterranean Sea
• Longest river in the world at 4,160 miles
• Floods
• Until recently, flooded annually in July
• Floods predictable
• Added moisture to the soil
• Deposited silt, replenishing the soil with
  nutrients
  
• Caused delta to form at the mouth of the river

6
Influence of Geography on Civilization

• Natural barriers provide obstacles to potential
  invaders
  
• Mediterranean Sea to the North
• Libyan Desert to the West
• Nubian Desert to the Southeast
• Red Sea to the East
• 6 Cataracts in southern part of Nile
• Susceptible to invasion
• Across Sinai Peninsula
• Across Northern Sinai Desert
• Also enabled Egypt to invade others

7
Effect of Barriers

• Limited invasions from many angles
• Limited farming to a narrow region on either side
  of the river
  
• Caused river villages to be crowded
• As population grew, villages needed to expand
• Forced Egyptians to develop irrigation systems to
  create more fertile land
  
• Drained marshy swamps of the delta region in
  order to farm the land

8
Benefits

• The river served as a highway
• United villages along the river
• Travel was relatively easy on the river
• Currents carried barges downstream to the delta
• Sails used to catch winds to return upstream
• Additional benefits
• River attracted wildlife and provided fish for
  hunting sport
  
• Papyrus grew along river
• Used to make paper

9
Religion in Ancient Egypt

• Beliefs
• Nature important
• Polytheistic
• Gods control forces of nature
• Gods controlled all life and death
• Gods frequently identified with certain animals
• Egyptian Gods
• Aman Re
• Most important god
• Sun god
• East represented birth (sunrise)
• West represented death (sunset)
• Burial temples built on the West bank of the
  Nile
  

10
Religion

• Osiris
• God of the underworld
• Judges the dead
• Rise fall of the Nile believed to be the death
  rebirth of Osiris
  
• Set
• God of evil who killed Osiris
• Believed to cause failed harvest
• Isis
• Wife of Osiris
• Brought him back to life
• Nile floods and brings renewed life

11
Religion

• The Afterlife
• Egyptians believed in a life after death
• Believed the good lived in happiness
• Believed the dead needed to take with them things
  they would need in death
  
• Believed the earthly body would be
• needed as a home for the soul
• Preserved the bodies of the dead through
  mummification
  
• Originally reserved for rulers and nobels

12
System of Writing

• Record keeping of religious rituals prompted
  writing
  
• 3,100 BC
• pictograms- picture of object
• Ideograms added to convey ideas
• Added symbols for sounds
• No symbols for vowel sounds
• Symbols evolved into hieroglyphics
• Writings carved in wood or stone
• Later, symbols painted in ink on papyrus

13
The Rosetta Stone

• Slab of black rock carved in three languages
• Hieroglyphics
• Demotic (shorthand hieroglyphics)
• Greek
• Found in 1799
• 1822- French scholar Jean Chapollion cracked the
  code of hieroglyphics because he could read
  Greek
  
• Enabled scholars to decipher papyrus scrolls of
  hieroglyphics

14
What Characterized Civilization in Ancient Egypt?

• Civilizations developed when people could stay
  put and not have to wander after their food
  supply.
  
• When people began to grow food, they became more
  organized
  
• Divisions in labor developed to decide who did
  what
  
• Farmers, herders, artisans, government
• Cities grew with this organization
• Civilization cities often thought to go hand in
  hand

15
The Old Kingdom

• 2700-2200 BC
• Strong monarchs
• Tasks delegated to many govt officials

16
The Middle Kingdom

• 2050-1800 BC
• New capital Thebes in upper (southern) Egypt
• Human/Enviroment Interaction
• 1600 BC ruler becomes known as the pharoah
• Early female ruler Hatshepsut
• Has a tomb built as part of a major building
  project
  
• Suceeded by stepson, Thutmose III
• Thutmose established Egypt as an empire, gains
  wealth
  
• Through trade and conquest, Egyptians learn other
  ideas and blend cultures (movement)
  

17
New Kingdom

• 1570- 1090 BC
• 1370 BC Amenhotep rises to power
• makes many unsettling changes
• Makes Egyptians monotheistic
• Aton the sun god
• Claims to be equal to Aton
• Weak ruler, lost part of empire
• Priests soliders unhappy w/ changes
• Egypt returned to old ways after his death
• 1200s BC rule of Ramses II
• Long rule
• Many children (52 sons, plus daughters)
• Had temples and tombs built

Mummy of Ramses II
18
Corrupt government suffered frequent rebellions
Pharaohs organized centralized state
Pharaohs created a large empire
Built enormous tombs, the pyramids
Land drained for farming
Traded with lands along eastern Mediterranean and
Red Sea
Power struggles, crop failures and cost of
pyramids caused collapse
Hittites invaded and conquered
Nubians, then others invaded
19
(No Transcript)
20
Egyptian Society

• Social Class
• A persons social position and occupation
  determined at birth
  
• Parents taught their children their own trade
• Social Structure
• Top Pharaoh
• Ruling class of priests nobles
• Middle class of merchants, artisans, doctors
• Bottom Slaves

21
Egyptian Society

• Ruling Class
• Egyptian life revolved around religion
• Priests had highest status after pharaoh
• Only priests knew how to please gods
• Gods controlled nature
• Priests preformed rituals to obtain fertile land
  etc
  
• People paid tax to the temples
• Grain, gold, linen, etc
• Under priests were nobles who mainly held govt
  positions
  

22
Egyptian Society

• Middle Class
• Small group
• Settled in cities
• Cities (Memphis, Thebes) grew around temples
  palaces
  
• Provided goods services to the ruling class

23
Egyptian Society

• Peasants Slaves
• Majority of Egyptians
• Lifestyle unchanged for thousands of years
• Pharaoh owned all the land
• Over half of the crops had to be paid as taxes
• Usually had to work on palace or govt project
• Brought to Egypt as POWs or were descendents of
  POWs
  
• Some slaves lived comfortable lives
• Some became trusted officials (Joseph)
• Some earned their freedom
• Life was tough for most

24
Egyptian Society

• Status of Women
• Relatively high status for that time in history
• Could buy and sell property
• Could seek divorce (although rare)
• Property inherited through female line
• Role of wife mother important
• A womans status increased
• when she had children
• Sometimes women considered property,
• but were treated kindly
• Queen might rule with pharaoh
• If pharaoh had more than one wife, the first wife
  was most important
  
• Her son would be the next pharaoh

25
Education

• Original purpose of schools was to train priests
• Subjects taught
• Reading writing
• Math
• Religious ceremonies rituals
• Eventually temple schools provided more general
  education
  
• Usually schools attended only by the wealthy
• Girls did not attend school
• Taught domestic skills at home
• Students took notes on scraps of pottery
• Papyrus was expensive only used by advanced
  students
  
• Strict discipline

26
Scribes

• Scribes were very important
• Kept records, recorded history
• Could possibly become rich
• About the only social mobility of the era

27
Scientific Accomplishments

• In areas of math and science
• Developed system of surveying land
• Important due to annual floods
• Surveying land led to Geometry
• Area volume
• Development of astronomy
• To predict floods, eclipses
• Led to development of calendar
• 365 days, 12 months
• 3 seasons, 30 days for 11 months, 35 for the
  12th
  
• No leap year
• Development of building techniques
• engineering

28
Scientific Accomplishments

• Medical discoveries
• Magic heavily used
• Developed surgery
• Greeks Romans based much of their medical
  knowledge on that of the Egyptians

29
Other Ancient African Civilzations

• 3000 BC Nubia
• Located southern part of Nile Valley
• Military skills
• May have had close links to Egypt
• 2000 BC Nubia developed into Kingdom of Kush
• Had pyramids too
• 750 BC invaded Egypt added to Nubia, ruled like
  pharaohs respecting Egyptian traditions
  
• 671 BC pushed back out of Egypt by invading
  Assyrians
  
• 480 BC conquered by Axuin from the Red Sea Area