The Egyptian civilization developed along the fertile banks of the Nile River around 5,000 years ago. The annual flooding of the Nile provided rich soil for agriculture and transportation. A unified kingdom emerged under King Menes, and powerful pharaohs ruled absolute over the stratified society from Memphis and Thebes. Egyptians mummified their dead and built elaborate tombs and pyramids to prepare for the afterlife judged by Osiris. Their artistic canons emphasized idealized figures in monumental architecture, painting, and sculpture that served religious and political functions. Hieroglyphic writing and the priesthood supported the dominant polytheistic religion.

1. THE FIRST CIVILIZATIONS: EGYPT
María Jesús Campos
learningfromhistory.wikispaces.com

2. THE FIRST URBAN CIVILIZATIONS: THE RIVER
CIVILIZATIONS
 Some 6 000 years ago,
some Neolithic villages
became cities as a result of
the agricultural and
commercial prosperity.
 These civilisations invented
writing.

3.  The first great civilizations developed along large
rivers surrounded by fertile land:
 Mesopotamia: Tigris and Euphrates River
 Egypt: Nile River
 India: Indus River
 China: Huang He (Yellow) and Yangtze (Blue) Rivers

5. EGYPT AND THE NILE
 The Egyptian civilization
developed 5.000 years ago,
along the River Nile.
 The area is basically a desert
irrigated by the Nile River,
which runs from south to
north.
 The Nile provided:
 Fertility to the land (agriculture)
 A way of transportation and
communication
 A geographical and
administrative organization.

6.  FERTILITY TO THE
LAND:
 Each year River Nile rises
and floods the surrounding
area. When the water level
decreases, it leaves mud
that make the fields fertile.
 As this flood happened
every year, the Egyptians
built dams and canals to
carry the water and irrigate
crops.
 Thanks to the Nile, the
Egyptians became an
important agrarian
civilization.

7.  Flowing south to north,
the Nile also provided an
excellent way of
transportation and
communication
 The Nile, also divided the
area in two regions:
 Upper Egypt, in the south:
arid area fertilised by the
Nile.
 Lower Egypt, in the north:
large valley formed by the
Nile Delta.

8.  The Nile was in the centre of the
development of the Egyptian
civilization.
 It was so important for Egypt
that they even had a god which
represented the river.

9. EGYPT’S POLITICAL EVOLUTION
 Around the year 5000 BC,
some neolithic villages
along river Nile learnt how
to control and direct the
river’s water, especially
during the floods. Thus,
developing an important
agrarian civilization.
 Agricultural and
commercial development
led to an urban
civilization with
independent city-states.

10.  Around the year 3100 BC, King Menes unified the
Lower and the Upper Egypt creating an Empire
 Kingdoms/Empires:
 Old Kingdom: 3100 BC to 2200 BC. Capital city:
Memphis
 1st Intermediate Period: division and struggles. 2200
BC to 2050 BC.
 Middle Kingdom: 2050 BC to 1800 BC. Capital city:
Tebas. Expansion to the south.
 2nd Intermediate Kingdom: 1800 to 1580 BC. Started
with a foreign invasion.
 New Kingdom: 1600 BC to 1100 BC. Conquest of Libya
and Syria.
 Foreign Rule: 1100 BC to 31 BC. Foreign people
invaded Egypt: Assyrians, Persians, Greeks, Romans…

11. EGYPT’S POLITICAL ORGANIZATION
 The Pharaoh was the most
important position.
 He had absolute power:
 Religious power: he represented
god on Earth so he was
worshipped.
 Executive power: ruled the
country, owned the land, controlled
trade, decided everything.
 Legislative and judicial power:
passed laws and imparted justice.
 Military power: led the army and
decided between peace and war.

12.  The pharaoh was advised by
governors and civil
servants that helped him in
governing the territory and
implementing his decisions.
 Scribes were very important
as they were in charge of
collecting and controlling
taxes, organising the army,
transcribing the pharaoh’s
orders, noting the commercial
transactions and alliances,
etc.

13. EGYPTIAN SOCIETY
Pharaoh
High official in
the civil service /
Priests /Scribes
Soldiers, Peasants, Farmers,
Merchants, Traders…
Slaves

15.  Divided into privileged groups and non-privileged
groups.
 The Pharaoh was at the top of society. He owned
all the land and had absolute power.
 Privileged-groups:
 Noblemen: usually members from the upper civil
service. They received land and wealth from the
pharaoh. They ruled the provinces and the army.
 Priests: conducted religious rites. They received land
from the pharaoh and supported him.
 Scribes: they were in charge of official documents and
taxation.

16.  Non-privileged groups: protected the
population or produced the products needed by
society
 Soldiers
 Farmers, peasants, stockbreeders…
 Merchants, traders, craftsman...
 Slaves: group without rights. They were their
master’s property. They became slaves through
conquest (war prisoners) or debts.

17.  Egyptian women had some
rights and more freedom than
other women in the Ancient
Age:
 Could own property
 Could inherit
 Could get divorced
 They worked in the house or as
peasants. Some also worked in
the administration and like
Hatshepsut , Nefertari or
Cleopatra, became pharaohs.

19. EGIPTIAN RELIGION: GODS
 Polytheistic
 Religion preserved the order of the
universe.
 Gods:
 Ra: the sun (also Amun or Atum)
 Osiris: god of the dead
 Seth: god of darkness
 Horus: god of war
 Isis: goddess of fertility
 Anubis: god of the underworld
 Thot: god of wisdom

21.  Each god lived in a
temple or sanctuary
in the form of a
statue.
 Priests worshipped
them and made them
offerings.

22. EGIPTIAN RELIGION: THE AFTERLIFE
 Egiptians believed there was an
afterlife, as long as the body
was preserved.
 Mummification: the dead body
was dried and embalmed to
make a mummy. The mummy
was placed in a sarcophagus in
a tomb.
 The tomb contained all the
things the dead person would
need in the afterlife (food,
jewels, furniture, clothes,
servants…)

24.  Egyptians believed that the dead person would
present himself in front of Osiris. The
Judgement of Osiris would weigh his/her soul.
The trial would decide if the person would enter
in the afterlife.

26.  The type of tomb
evolved during Egyptian
history:
 Mastaba
 Pyramid
 Hypogeum
 The tombs tried to
preserve the body and
the things from grave-
robbers

27. EGIPTIAN ART
 Art was very important in
Egypt.
 Artists were the pharaoh’s
civil servants but they were
considered craftsmen rather
than artists so they rarely
signed their works.
 Purposes:
 Religious
 Political
 Decorative

28.  Representations:
 Architecture: temples,
palaces and tombs
 Paintings: in the walls
 Sculpture: religious
meaning (gods, idols,
afterlife…)

29. EGYPTIAN ART: ARCHITECTURE
 Strict rules
 Materials: Stone
 Supporting structures:
 Columns
 Pillars
 Lintels
 Supported structures:
 Flat roof
 Lintels

30.  Other characteristics:
 Monumentalism:
power of the gods
and the pharaohs
 Decoration:
paintings,
engravings, and
sculptures
 Types of buildings:
 Temples
 Tombs
 Palaces

31. Temples:
 The house of the god
 Structure: An avenue of sphinxes led to the entrance.
The entrance had enormous pillars and obelisks. Inside
the building there was a patio, followed by a columned
hall with a high ceiling (a hypostile hall). At the end there
was a dark sanctuary with the statue of the god.

32.  Only the priests and the
pharaoh could enter the
sanctuary. Nobles and civil
servants could go as far as the
hypostyle hall. Common people
would only enter the patio.
 Ears were carved on the walls
of some temples so that
ordinary people could ask the
gods for help.

34. Tombs:
 Built to preserve the dead
body for the afterlife.
 Pharaohs and nobles had
large tombs. Poor people
were buried in pits or
beneath the desert sands.
 Richly decorated with
engravings and paintings.
 Types:
 Mastabas
 Pyramids
 Hypogeums

35.  Mastabas: simple low
rectangular buildings with
underground funeral
chambers.
 Pyramids: Huge pyramid-
shaped buildings. Secret
entrance. Pathways to false
funeral chambers. False walls
to hide the real funeral
chambers and its “treasures”.
 Hypogeums: to prevent
robberies. Excavated into the
rock with large funeral
chambers.

36.  Pyramids: Keops, Kefren and Mikerinos
 Hypogeums: Tutankamon and Nefertari in the
Valley of the Kings.
 Temples: Karnak, Luxor and Abu Simbel.

37. EGYPTIAN ART: PAINTING
 Strict rules
 Figures painted without
perspective.
 Figures and objects seen
from the front, although the
head, arms and legs are seen
in profile.
 Idealised figures
 Static to show stability and
continuity.
 Simple colours
 Purpose: decoration, religious
purpose.

38. EGYPTIAN ART: SCULPTURE
 Strict rules
 Idealised figures
 Static to show stability and
continuity.
 Simple colours
 Purpose: decoration, religious
purpose.

40. EGYPTIAN CULTURE
 Hieroglyphs (writting):
created 5000 years ago.
Signs that represent ideas
and/or sounds. Written
horizontally, vertically, from
left to right or from right to
left.
 Scribes
 The Roseta Stone:
discovered in the 19th
century. Its a stone with the
same text written in
hieroglyphs, “demótica” and
greek language.

41. Developed by María Jesús Campos
Chusteacher
wikiteacher