Essential facts about Ancient Egypt

1. Ancient Egypt

2. Egyptian Timeline
• Old Kingdom (2700-2150)
– Hieroglyphics and religion
develop in Egypt
– pyramids built
• Middle Kingdom (2040-1786)
– extension of Egyptian control
into Nubia
• New Kingdom (1570-1075)
– militaristic - Hebrews enslaved
– mummification perfected

3. Geography
• River dominates Egyptian world/thought
• Surrounded by desert with occasional oasis
– Permits some trade
– Defense from invasion
• Contributes to feeling of safety
– preserves artifacts

4. “Egypt is the gift of
the Nile” -Herodotus

6. The Nile
• Yearly flooding - no concern for soil depletion
– Predictable
– Irrigation systems
• Encourages
– Trade
– Communication
– Political unity
• Impact on religion
– divided life - living and dying.
• East (sunrise) is land of the living - cities, temples
• West (sunset) is land of the dead - tombs

7. The Nile

8. The Nile

9. The Nile

10. Religion
• Omnipresence of religion
• Polytheistic
– interaction with the natural environment shows
interrelated gods and goddesses yearly rebirth of Nile
and daily rebirth of sun
– over 2000 gods
• Pharaoh as living god
• Afterlife
– Evolution of who has an afterlife
• Old vs. New Kingdom

11. The Pharaoh
• God-King - unlike Mesopotamia
– Temporal power
• owns all the land and people and what people posses
• law vs. Pharaoh's will
• irrigation
• no city walls
• God-King - unlike Mesopotamia
– Religious
• direct descendant of the Sun god
• controls access to the afterlife
• July-Sept, during floods life is controlled by the Pharaoh
– 365 day calendar.

12. Daily Life in Egypt
• Cosmetics, cleanliness (bathe 3 times a day), shaved
bodies, wigs
• main food is beer and bread
– Grow many crops: emmer, barley, flax, lentils, onion,
beans, and millet
• common building made of sun-dried mud bricks -
up to three stories in height
• Four social classes - slaves on the bottom
• Most common job … farming

13. Social Hierarchy
• Pharaoh
– Egyptian kings of a centralized state
– Claimed to be gods living on earth in human form
• Bureaucrats
– Because the pharaoh was an absolute ruler there was little room for a
noble class as in Mesopotamia
– Instead professional military forces and an elaborate bureaucracy of
administrators and tax collectors served the central government
• Patriarchal
– Vested authority over public and private affairs in men
– However, more opportunities for women than in Mesopotamia as
evidenced by Queen Hatshepsut reigning as pharaoh
• Peasants and slaves
– Supplied the hard labor that made complex agricultural society possible
– Among the slaves were the Hebrews

14. Egyptian Social Hierarchy

15. Bureaucrats
• Below the pharaoh, the most powerful officer in the
hierarchy was the vizier, the executive head of the
bureaucracy
– All royal commands passed through the vizier
before being transmitted to the scribes in his
office.
• The scribes dispatched orders to the heads of towns
and villages, including rules related to the collection
of taxes.

16. Farmers in Egypt

17. Shaduf
• To lift water from the canal
Egyptians used a shaduf, a large
pole balanced on a crossbeam
with a rope and bucket on one
end and a heavy counter weight
at the other.
• When the rope was pulled, the
bucket would be lowered into the
canal.
• The counterweight would raise
the bucket.
• The farmer would then carry the
bucket to the field and water it.

18. Economic Exchange
• Egypt needed to trade because,
beside the Nile, it had few natural
resources
– For example, Egypt had very few trees
so all its wood came from abroad,
especially cedar from Lebanon
• Much trade between Egypt and
Nubia
– Importance of trade was reflected in
the names of southern Egyptian cities
• Aswan comes from the ancient
Egyptian word swene which means
“trade”
• Elephantine owed its name to the
elephant ivory trade

19. Hieroglyphics
• Language is written without
vowels
• Different pronunciations
– MNFR as Memphis
– SR as Osiris
– TTMS as either Thutmose,
Thutmosis, Tatmusa or Atithmese
• Who learns this writing style?

20. Hieroglyphics
• Use in
temples
• Rosetta Stone
• Napoleon and
Egyptology.

21. Egyptian Artwork
Egyptian Farmers & animals
Stela (carved stone)
Notice, all people drawn
from the side – even when
looking right at you!

22. Role played by size in Egyptian Artwork

23. Middle Kingdom 2050-1750 BCE

24. Middle Kingdom 2050-1750 BCE
• End of civil wars, farming and trade return
• move capital south to Upper Egypt (Thebes)
• public improvements
– drain swamps, canal to Red Sea
• belief in afterlife expands to include
common people
• tombs instead of pyramids
– better protection for mummies.

25. New Kingdom 1550-1075 BCE
• Ahmose I expelled the invading Hyksos and
reunited Egypt
• Known as the Empire period
• development of “public” and “private”
zones at temples.

26. Ahmose I leading Egyptians against the Hyksos

27. New Kingdom 1550-1075 BCE
• Characterized by a more militaristic and
imperialistic nature
– incorporated chariot, bronze working, horses
– development of a professional army
• became a slave based economy fueled by
war and expansion

28. Threats to Tradition
• Amenhotep IV (c. 1362-1347 B.C.)
introduced the worship of Aton, god
of the sun disk, as the chief god and
pursued his worship with
enthusiasm.
• Changed name to Akhenaten (“It is
well with Aton”)
• He closed the temples of other gods
and especially endeavored to lessen
the power of Amon-Re and his
priesthood at Thebes.

29. Threats to Tradition
1355-1335 BCE
• Nefertiti
– Wife of Akhenaton the only
pharaoh to even partially
reject polytheism
– political move against priests
of Amon-Re
– moved capital to Amarna
– worshipped Aton, the sun disk
• royal inbreeding.

30. Tutankhamen
1335-1325 BCE
• (King Tut)
• child ruler
• ruled nine years, died at 18
• young death meant burial
in the tomb of a lesser
person (noble) resulting in
preservation

31. Ramses II (1279-1213)
• greatest New Kingdom ruler
• military leader of Egypt
• expanded into southern Turkey
• built many monuments to
himself
• last gasp of Egyptian power.

32. Ramses II (1279-1213)

33. Ramses II (1279-1213)

34. Achievements
• Pyramids
 There were about 80 along the banks of the Nile River.
 The largest is the Great Pyramid, built by King Khufu in about
2600 B.C.
 It stands about 481 feet high and covers 13 acres.
 The pyramids functioned as huge burial tombs for the
Egyptians’ dead pharaohs and queens.
• Ship-building
 They used the Nile River like a highway to transport people and
goods to foreign lands.
 The first ships were made out of bundles of papyrus reeds tied
together to make a canoe-like vessel.
 As the ship trade flourished, the hulls of the ships were made
of cedar, and oars and sails were added for greater speed.
• Hieroglyphics
 These were pictures and symbols that served as one of the first
written languages in the world.
• Calendar
 Calendars were developed in 4241 B.C. with 365 days in a
year.
 It was based on the flooding of the Nile River.
 New Years was on June 1, not January 1!

35. Ancient Egyptian History
Periods Time Frame
Nile Culture Begins
Archaic
Old Kingdom
Middle Kingdom
New Kingdom
Late Period
Greek Ptolemaic
Era
Roman Period

36. Ancient Egyptian History
Periods Time Frame
Nile Culture Begins 3900 B. C. E.
Archaic 3100 – 2650 B. C. E.
Old Kingdom 2650 – 2134 B. C. E.
Middle Kingdom 2040 – 1640 B. C. E.
New Kingdom 1550 – 1070 B. C. E.
Late Period 750 – 332 B. C. E.
Greek Ptolemaic
Era
332 – 30 B. C. E.
Roman Period 30 B. C. E. – 395 C. E.

37. Mesopotamia Egypt
Agriculture
Specialization
Cities
Social
Hierarchy

38. Mesopotamia Egypt
Religion and
Education
New Technologies
Economic
exchange
Art and Writing

39. Mesopotamia Egypt
Agriculture +“Land between the rivers”
(Tigris and Euphrates forms
Fertile Crescent
+Artificial irrigation
+”Gift of the Nile”
+Artificial irrigation
Specialization +Pottery, textiles, woodworking,
leather, brick making,
stonecutting, masonry
+Pottery, textiles, woodworking,
leather production,
stonecutting, masonry
Cities -Numerous, densely populated
city-states (Ur and Babylon)
-Fewer cities with high
centralization (Memphis and
Thebes)
Social
Hierarchy
-Noble class
-Patriarchal
+Slaves
-Absolute authority of the
pharaoh made a noble class
unnecessary (had bureaucrats
instead)
-Patriarchal, but the presence
of Queen Hatsheput may
indicate greater opportunities
for women
+Slaves

40. Mesopotamia Egypt
Religion and
Education
-Polytheism
-No afterlife
-Polytheism, but brief period of
monotheism under Akhentan
-Afterlife and judgment
(mummification)
New Technologies -Superior in
metallurgy
-Papyrus, shipbuilding, pyramids
Economic
exchange
-Trade by land
and water
-Trade principally by water along the
Nile
-Trade more important because
Egypt lacked natural resources
beside the Nile
Art and Writing -Cuneiform -Hieroglyphs (more pictorial than
cuneiform)