Through this theme, students will learn about the nature of power held by the pharaohs in Ancient Egypt from the Archaic, Old, and Middle Kingdoms to the New Kingdom. They will investigate changes and continuities over time in pharaonic power, as well as major aspects of culture during these periods. The syllabus aims to provide an understanding of the rise and decline of the pharaohs throughout Egyptian history.

1. Studies of
Pharaonic Power
Power of the Pharaoh

2. Studies of Pharaonic
Power
Through this theme, students will come to understand
the nature of pharaonic power in the history of Ancient
Egypt, including the rise and decline of the pharaohs
during the Archaic, Old and Middle Kingdoms, and
important historic events of the New Kingdom. Students
will also investigate changes and continuities over time,
and major aspects of the culture of the above periods.
QSA Ancient History Syllabus (2004)

3. Brainstorm: Pharaonic
Power

4. Crash Course in Ancient
Egypt
 As you watch this video, write down five
points that you can identify about Ancient
Egypt - it could be a person, place, event,
year etc.
 Video

5. Power
http://www.nmimages.com/thumbs/L501_Pyramids.jpg
What is it?

6. Power is the ability to do things and
control others. Simply put, power is
the ability to get the outcomes you
want and to affect the behaviour of
others to make this happen.
Source: Held & KoenigArchibugi, American Power in the 21st
Century, p.125

7. Soft power
Soft power is about getting others
to want what you want…if I can get
you to want to do what I want, then
I do not have to force you to do
what you do not want. Simply
put, soft power is attractive power.
Source: Held & Koenig-Archibugi, American Power in the 21st Century, p.125

8. Hard power
Military and economic power are
examples of “hard” and command
power that can be used to get
others to change their position.
Source: Held & Koenig-Archibugi, American Power in the 21st Century, p.125

9. Power is universal and
generational
Barry Kemp claims that the
“ancient world contains the seeds
of the modern world: TV news presidential motorcades on
thronged boulevards, excited
crowds cheering a leader, public
acts of worship”.
Source: www.ancientegyptmagazine.com/reviews05.htm

10. Who has power/influence in society today?
Leaders & Revolutionaries
Dalai Lama
Vladimir Putin
Barack Obama
Hillary Clinton
Hu Jintao
Kevin Rudd
Heroes
Brad Pitt & Angelina Jolie
Oprah Winfrey
Hugh Jackman
Roger Federer

11. Who had power in Ancient
Egypt? Why?

12. Key Question: How do the surviving
sources portray the construction and
implementation of power by
Hatshepsut and Ramessess the Great?

13. Our hypothesis:
Both Hatshepsut and Ramesses II
exemplify the nature of Pharaonic
power.

14. Power of the
Pharaoh
Background

16. The physical environment
of ancient Egypt
 Ancient Egypt owes much of its character to
the nature of the Nile River, the length and
shape of the river valley, the enclosing deserts
and the climate.

17. The physical environment
of ancient Egypt
 “Not only is the Egyptian climate peculiar and
the Nile different in its behaviour from other
rivers elsewhere, but the Egyptians themselves
in their manners and customs seem to have
reversed the ordinary practices of mankind”
Herodotus

18. The physical environment
of ancient Egypt
 Nile river and the sun were the two great
forces which dominated the lives of the
ancient Egyptians
 Their gifts of water, fertile soil and
warmth created life and potentially
brought death

19. The Nile River
 The Nile’s source is in tropical Africa
 Every year at the same time the Nile flooded
 Flood referred to as the inundation – most important
event in the lives of the Egyptian people
 Nile’s life-giving waters and annual deposits of
rich, black soil enabled the Egyptians to develop a
prosperous agricultural society instead of remaining as
desert-dwelling nomads

20. The Nile River
September –
Flood waters
reach their
peak
May – River at
its lowest
June – Nile
began to rise
and flood the
valley between
Aswan and
Memphis

21. The Two Lands of Upper
and Lower Egypt
 Upper Egypt (Shemau)
 amount of land available for growing food was
limited and it was a constant battle for the
inhabitants to keep the desert sands from covering
their valuable farmland
 Lower Egypt (To-mehu)
 more naturally fertile than Upper Egypt
 Desert was further away from the settlements of
Lower Egypt
 More contact with other cultures due to being on the
Mediterranean coastline
 More vulnerable to invasion

23. The Two Lands of Upper
and Lower Egypt
 Before the Two Lands were united into one
kingdom (c. 3100 BC), each one had its own
ruler who wore a distinctive crown
 The tall conical White Crown of Upper Egypt
 The Red Crown of Lower Egypt

24. Egyptian Lifestyle
 Almost all activities in Egypt, from the
more mundane tasks of the farmer to the
coronation of the king, were determined
by the Nile and its annual flood

25. Egyptian Lifestyle
 Three seasons in the yearly calendar
 Akhet
 Season of the flood (approx July)
 The first day of the inundation, was one of only
two days when a king could hold his coronation
 Large-scale building activities carried out
 Perit
 Began approx November
 The time of sowing the seeds
 The first day of this season was the only other
time that the king could be officially crowned
 Shemu
 Began approximately early March
 Season of harvest

26. Administration
 Survival of Egypt depended on the Nile
 A central bureaucratic government was required:
 To make predictions about the timing and nature of the flood
 To plan irrigation works
 To organise local community effort to get the land back in
order after the flood
 To re-survey the land and mark out farm boundaries which had
disappeared under the floodwaters
 Local nobles, responsible to the central
government, conscripted, organised and supervised
large work gangs to build and maintain irrigation
schemes

27. Religious beliefs and
morality
 Egyptian religious beliefs were partly
inspired by the nature of the land and its
climate
 Physical environment reflected in:
 Their view of creation
 The nature of their gods
 Their belief in life after death and the nature
of the afterlife

28. Activity
 OneNote - Key definitions and concepts

29. Activity
 Using Microsoft PowerPoint, create a one slide
timeline which identifies the key time periods of
Ancient Egyptian history.
 This will include the Old Kingdom, Middle
Kingdom and the New Kingdom. Also look to
refer to the intermediate periods. Based on
your research, try to include some key events.
Try your best to make the timeline visually
attractive.