Ancient Egypt

Ms. Morris

                               

   

What do you know about Ancient Egypt?

Egypt was different from Sumer

Egypt was a land of cultural, ethnic, and racial diversity throughout its 3,000 year history.

Review: What are the 5 requirements of a civilization? Will Egypt have these?

What was the most important geographic feature for Ancient Egypt? Nile River

Egyptian Vocabulary

Delta: an area at the mouth of a river, often triangle-shaped, made up of silt deposits

Silt gives the Nile its dark color

Cataracts: rocky stretches along the Nile marked by swift currents and rapids

Natural protection

Egyptian Vocabulary

Pharaoh: King of the Egyptians. The Pharaoh has absolute power.

Pharaoh means “Great House”; he was not only a king, but also a god!

Theocracy: A state ruled by religious figures.

Since the Pharaoh is also looked at as a god, Egypt was a Theocracy.

Egyptian Vocabulary

Bureaucracy: a highly structured organization managed by officials loyal to the Pharaoh

The Pharaoh could not rule Egypt alone; therefore he hired people (usually family) to help rule his kingdom.

The Beginnings of Ancient Egypt6,000 B.C.--The first inhabitants begin to settle around the Nile River.3,100 B.C.--The King of Upper Egypt named Menes, united Upper and Lower Egypt.Menes makes the city of Memphis his capital city.

Menes & The Old Kingdom Members of Menes’s family passed the double crown of upper and lower Egypt from father to son to grandson.

A series of rulers from a single family is called a dynasty; Menes starts the 1st dynasty of Egypt.

Ancient Egypt would consist of 31 dynasties, spanning 2,800 years.

The Old Kingdom (2650-2100 B.C.)

The Old Kingdom began with the 3rd Dynasty. It was the great age of pyramid building in ancient Egypt.

How were these pyramids built?

The pharaohs expected to reign forever. Their tombs (pyramids) were more important than their palaces.

Pyramids at Giza

Immortality of the PharaohEgyptians believed that their pharaoh ruled even after his death. He had an eternal spirit, or ka, that continued to take part in the governing of Egypt. The ka was a living spirit.Pharaoh’s Tomb needed the following:

Eternal comforts: Artists decorated the walls of the burial chamber with pictures of whatever he might need or like. (Endless meals, loved ones, devoted servants, etc.)Luxuries: Fine jewelry, game boards with precious stones, rich clothing.Inscriptions: Writings of what the pharaoh achieved in life were also found on the tomb walls.

Hieroglyphics

A form of Egyptian writing based on pictorial characters for words and sounds. Hieroglyphs were found on the walls of a Pharaoh’s tombs.

Old Kingdom Ends

Power of the pharaohs declined.More and more power fell to the nobles and officials; Local rulers struggled among themselves for power.

Disease, famine and Civil War tore Egypt apart!

Old Kingdom collapses around 2100 BC.

Royal Power Returns in the Middle Kingdom (2055-1640 B.C.)Law & Order returned to Egypt under some strong kings.Farming revived, trade grew, and the arts flourished.

Relations with Phoenicians, Nubians, and Minoans

The capital moved from Memphis to Thebes (Two massive Temples Built were there).Public projects were created by the great trade brought in.

Second Illness Brings Ruin Again

Civil War breaks out again.

Trade routes not always safe; Egypt became prey to outside invaders.

Egyptians were ruled by Asian Nomads called Hyksos from 1650-1570 B.C.

Egyptians despised the less civilized nomads and vowed to get them out.

The New Kingdom: An Age of Empires (1570-1075 B.C.)

This kingdom was more powerful and wealthier than ever before.The famous King Tut, Queen Hatshepsut, and Ramses the Great ruled during this time period.Egyptians became conquerors.

Professional Army assembled which included: Bowmen, Charioteers, & Infantry.Used outside lands as protection-buffer lands

Right: A facial-reconstruction model of King Tutankhamun made by a French team based on CT scans of the boy king's mummy.

Above: Nov. 4, 2007: King Tut's mummy, unmasked and on public display in Egypt for the first time since being discovered 85 years ago.

Right: One of the two mummified fetuses found in the tomb of King Tutankhamun in 1922 during modern preparations for a DNA test in Cairo, Egypt.

Tutankhamen's tomb (lower left) in the Valley of the Kings in western Thebes, Egypt.

Queen Hatshepsut

Above: Queen Hatshepsut

In 1500BC; Hatshepsut’s husband died. She proclaimed herself Queen and ruled for 22 years!

Accomplished a huge trading network through the Red Sea. When she died, her nephew tried to destroy all the

records of her reign!

Ramses II ("the Great") may be the most famous of all Egyptian kings. He reigned for 67 years and lived well into his 80s. He took the throne at age 17, had 99 children, and married a Hittite princess to end a feud between the 2 warring empires.

Egypt’s Power Declined

1200 B.C.– Invasions destroyed many kingdoms.Egyptian records speak of attacks by “The People of the Sea.” Little is known of these invaders, but the destruction they left behind was vast.

Both the Egyptian and Hittite kingdoms fell to these mysterious enemies.

In 671 B.C. Assyrians took over Egypt. A century and a half later it was the Persians turn to conquer Egypt.