Egypt and Incas

Lsn 3

Part 1: Egypt

ID & SIGs

• Amon-Re, hieroglyphs, Lower Egypt, Memphis, mummification, Nile River, pharaoh, pyramids, Queen Hatshepsut, Thebes, Upper Egypt

Centralized Aspects of Egyptian Civilization

• Nile River– Agriculture– Trade

• Cities

• Social Hierarchy

• Religion

The Nile River Basin:

A Ribbon of Green

Agriculture

Agriculture

• Herodotus called Egypt the “Gift of the Nile”

• Egyptians took advantage of the Nile’s annual floods to become an especially productive agricultural region– After the floods receded in late summer,

cultivators could go into the floodplains in late summer and sow their seeds without extensive preparation of the soil

Agriculture

• Expanded agriculture led to expanded populations and demand for increased production

• Cultivators moved beyond the Nile’s immediate floodplains building dikes to protect their fields from floods and catchment basins to store water for irrigation

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.

Economic Exchange

• The Nile provided excellent transportation which facilitated trade.

• Nile flows north so boats could ride the currents from Upper to Lower Egypt.

• Prevailing winds blow almost year-round from the north so by using sails, boats could then make their way back upriver.

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

Cities

Upper and Lower Egypt• Ancient Egypt was

divided into two regions: Upper and Lower Egypt.

• Lower (northern) Egypt consisted of the Nile River’s delta made by the river as it empties into the Mediterranean.

• Upper (southern) Egypt was the long, narrow strip of ancient Egypt located south of the Delta.

Cities• Relatively few cities and high

administrative centralization• Memphis

– Founded by Menes around 3100 BC as capital of a united Upper and Lower Egypt

– Located at the head of the Nile River Delta

• Thebes– Administrative center of

Upper Egypt– Seat of worship for Amon

Religion and Education

Religion and Education

• Two main gods were Amon (Thebian deity associated with the sun, creation, fertility, and reproductive forces) and Re (the sun god worshipped at Heliopolis)– Eventually the two

were combined in the cult of Amon-Re

Brief Period of Monotheism

• For a brief period Akhentan challenged the Amon-Re cult by proclaiming Aten as the one and only true god– Once Akhenaten

died, traditional priests restored the Amon-Re cult

The sun disc Aten shining on the names of the royal family

Mummification

• In order to prepare a person for the long and hazardous journey before they could enjoy the pleasures of the afterlife, the body of a dead person was preserved by a process called mummification.

The Judgment• The Egyptians viewed the heart as the seat of

intellect and emotion.• Before entering the pleasures of eternity, the

dead person had to pass a test in which Anubis, the god of the dead, weighed the person’s heart against Ma’at, the goddess of justice and truth, who was represented by a feather.

The Judgment

• If the deceased’s good deeds outweighed the bad, then his heart would be as light as the feather (heavy hearts bore the burden of guilt and evil), and Osiris would welcome the newcomer to the next world.

• If the deceased fell short in his judgment, his body would be eaten by a monster that was part crocodile, part lion, and part hippopotamus.

Osiris

• Patron of the underworld, the dead, and past pharaohs

• Cult of Osiris demanded observance of high moral standards– As lord of the underworld, Osiris had the

power to determine who deserved the blessing of immortality and who did not

Social Hierarchy

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

Pharaohs

Tutankhamun (King Tut) 1334 and 1325 BC

Ramesses II 1279-1213 BC

Pyramids• Pyramids

– Symbols of the pharaoh’s authority and divine stature; royal tombs

– Pyramid of Khufu involved the precise cutting and fitting of 2,300,000 limestone blocks with an average weight of 2.5 tons

– Estimated construction of the Khufu pyramid required 84,000 laborers working 80 days per year for 20 years

The Sphinx and Great Pyramid of Khufu at

Giza. 

Specialization

• Building a pyramid would require– Laborers– Architects– Engineers– Craftsmen– Artists

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.

Part 2: Incas

ID & SIG:

• Cuzco, Inca roads, forced labor, public relief, Inca religion, terrace farming

Centralized Aspects of Incan Civilization

• Cuzco

• Roads

• Social Hierarchy

• Religion

Inca

Inca

• By the 13th Century, the Inca had established domination over the regional states in Andean South America

• In 1438, Pachacuti launched a series of military campaigns that greatly expanded Inca authority

• By the late 15th Century, the Inca empire covered more than 2,500 miles, embracing almost all of modern Peru, most of Ecuador, much of Bolivia, and parts of Chile and Argentina

Cities

Cities: Cuzco

• Inca capital at Cuzco served as the administrative, religious, and ceremonial center of the empire

• May have supported 300,000 residents at the height of the Inca empire in the late 15th Century

• Tremendous system of roads emanated from Cuzco

New Technologies

Major Roads of the Inca Empire

New Technologies: Roads

• Built an all-weather highway system of over 16,000 miles – Ran “through deep valleys and over mountains,

through piles of snow, quagmires, living rock, along turbulent rivers; in some places it ran smooth and paved, carefully laid out; in others over sierras, cut through the rock, with walls skirting the rivers, and steps and rests through the snow; everywhere it was clean swept and kept free of rubbish, with lodgings, storehouses, temples to the sun, and posts along the way.” (Ciezo de Leon)

• Allowed the Inca government to maintain centralized control, including by means of the military

New Technologies: Roads

• Allowed the Inca government to maintain centralized control by moving military forces around the empire quickly, transporting food supplies where needed, and tying the widespread territories together

• Rest stations were built a day’s walk apart

• Runners were positioned at convenient intervals to deliver government messages

Economic Exchange

Inca gold

Economic Exchange

• Inca society did not produce large classes of merchants or skilled artisans

• Locally they bartered among themselves for surplus agricultural production and handcrafted goods

• Long distance trade was supervised by the central government using the excellent Inca roads

Economic Exchange

• Gold, the Inca’s most valuable commodity, proved to be their undoing when Spanish conquistadors destroyed much of the empire in the early 1500s in search of gold

• The Spanish melted down almost all the gold so few works of art remain

Arrival of Francisco Pizarro in South America

Social Hierarchy

Social Hierarchy

• In order to rule the massive territory and populations they had conquered, the Incas completely restructured much of Andean society– Relocated populations– Reordered the economy– Constructed an extensive transportation

network– Inculcated a state religion

Social Hierarchy

• Rulers

• Aristocrats

• Priests

• Bureaucrats

• Peasant cultivators of common birth– Much fewer skilled craftsmen than other

people of Mexica and the eastern hemisphere

Social Hierarchy

• Chief ruler was a god-king who theoretically owned everything and was an absolute and infallible ruler

• Dead rulers retained their prestige even after death– Remains were mummified and state

deliberations often took place in their presence in order to benefit from their counsel

– Were seen as intermediaries with the gods

Social Hierarchy

• Aristocrats lived privileged lives including fine foods, embroidered clothes, and large ears spools– Spanish called them “big ears”

Inca ear spools

Social Hierarchy

• Priests often came from royal and aristocratic families– They lived celibate and ascetic lives– Influenced Inca society by education and religious

rituals• Large class of bureaucrats to support

centralized government– Bureaucrats administered over sections of the

population based on numerical rather than geographic distribution

– Bureaucrats often were drawn from the loyal ranks of conquered people

Social Hierarchy

• Peasants worked lands allocated to them and delivered substantial portions of their production to the bureaucrats– Surplus supported the ruling, aristocratic, and priestly

classes as well as providing public relief in times of famine or to widows

• Also owed compulsory labor services to the Inca state– Men provided heavy labor– Women provided tribute in the forms of textiles,

pottery, and jewelry

Religion and Education

Inti Raymi, the feast of the sun

Religion and Education

• Main god was Inti, god of the sun– In the capital of Cuzco, some 4,000 priests, attendants, and

virgin devotees served Inti

• Sacrificed agricultural produce or animals rather than humans

• Inca religion taught that sin was a violation of the established or natural order– Believed sin could bring divine disaster for individuals and

communities– Had rituals for confession and penance

• Believed in life after death where an individual received rewards or punishments based on the quality of his earthly life

Next Lesson

• Byzantium