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Ancient Egypt. Rule of the God King. Nile River. 4000 miles long Central Africa north to Mediterranean Sea Desert Reliable Flooding in June, receding in October Convenient for agriculture Deposited fertile soil Excellent Communication and Transportation River flows north - PowerPoint PPT Presentation
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ANCIENT EGYPTRule of the God King
Nile River
4000 miles long Central Africa north to Mediterranean Sea Desert Reliable
Flooding in June, receding in October Convenient for agriculture
Deposited fertile soil Excellent Communication and
Transportation River flows north Winds blow south
Egypt
Geographically isolated Deserts – east and west Marsh – Southern Sudan Shallows – Mediterranean Sea
Old Kingdom (2700 – 2181 BCE)
Blessed by gods Regular and fertile flooding Assumed order, didn’t legislate it
King Living god Political and religious unity = stability Ma’at – proper behavior brought prosperity
Ptah-hotep (2450 BCE) Pharaoh – “great house”
Old Kingdom (2700 – 2181 BCE)
Prosperity and peace Abundance of crops
Farming methods Irrigation
Mineral resources Copper
Trade Mediterranean Sea Nubia
Gold, ivory, gems, aromatics Middle East
Textiles, wood
Family Life
“If you are prosperous you should establish a household and love your wife as is fitting…Make her heart glad as long as you live.”
– Ptah-hotep
Family Life
Loving family Husband and wife side-by-side
Implies gender equality Couple embracing Smiling Children below
Religion
Ra Sun
Amun The Hidden One
Khepri Movement of the Sun
Set Chaos
Religion
Geb Earth
Nut Sky
Religion
Isis Magic, motherhood, and fertility
Osiris Nile and the afterlife
Anubis Judgement
Hieroglyphs
“Sacred writing” Used for religious or magical power Represents real or mythical object and its
power Types of characters:
Pictogram – object Ideogram – abstract idea Phonogram – speech sounds
Didn’t change much over time
Other Writing
Hieratic “Cursive” hieroglyphs Still looked very similar to hieroglyphs
Demotic Day-to-day writing Lost many pictographic elements
Papyrus Paper-like material
14
Pyramids
Proof of excess, greatness Saqqara
First pyramid Pharaoh Djoser Step pyramid
Designed by Imhotep (2650 BCE) Similar to ziggurat
Made of cut stone, not mud brick “Stairway to heaven”
Pyramids
Great Pyramid at Giza Pharaoh Khufu (2590 BCE)
13 acres More than 2 million blocks 20 years to construct 100,000 laborers
Pyramids
Tombs Houses for departed spirits Same food and goods as in life Immortality Afterlife
Improved version of living world Happy Field of Food
Afterlife
“Death is before me todayLike a man’s longing to see his home
When he has spend many years in captivity”
--Ancient Egyptian Poem
Sphinx
Pharaoh Khafra (2500 BCE) Largest monolithic sculpture
Carved from bedrock
Riddle of the Sphinx
"A thing there is whose voice is one;Whose feet are four and two and three.So mutable a thing is noneThat moves in earth or sky or sea.When on most feet this thing doth go,Its strength is weakest and its pace most slow."
First Intermediate Period(2181 – 2140 BCE)
Climate change Drought in Nubia Low floods in Egypt
Pepi II (2270 – 2180 BCE) Strong ruler Ruled 90 years
Average life expectancy: 40 years Grew weak in later years
Authority broke down, couldn’t maintain ma’at Series of short reigns/ineffective kings
First Intermediate Period(2181 – 2140 BCE)
“Everything is filthy: there is no such thing as clean linen these days. The dead are thrown into the river… The ladies of the nobility exclaim: ‘If only we had something to eat!’ They are forced to prostitute their daughters. They are reduced to sleeping with men who were once too badly off to take a woman.”
-- Ancient Egyptian
Middle Kingdom(2060 – 1650 BCE)
Amenemhat I of Thebes Restored peace to Nile Valley “None was hungry in my years, none thirsted then;
men dwelled in peace.” Conquered Nubia
Lots of gold Brought sub-Saharan Africa into contact with
Mediterranean world Integrated African goods and elements into Egyptian
culture Engineering projects
17,000 acres of new irrigated land Exapanded trade with Middle East
Second Intermediate Period(1650 – 1570 BCE)
Nubian revolt Broke away from Egyptian control Took all their gold with them
Invasion of the Hyksos Settled in Nile Delta New warfare technology
Bronze weapons Chariots Body armor
New Kingdom (1570 – 1085 BCE)
Egyptians adopted Hyksos military technology
Overthrew the Hyksos No longer relied on geographic isolation Foreign wars established Egyptian Empire
New Kingdom(1570 – 1085 BCE)
Hatshepsut (1504 – 1482 BCE) Female pharaoh Diplomat, not warmonger
Focused on trade, rebuilding kingdom
New Kingdom(1570 – 1085 BCE)
Amenhotep IV (r. 1377 – 1360 BCE) Priests becoming as powerful as pharaohs Consolidated gods into single god:
Aten: the sun-disk Changed his name to Akhenaten
“follower of Aten” Known as “the Criminal”
New Kingdom(1570 – 1085 BCE)
Tutankhamen (r. 1347 – 1338 BCE) Renounced his father’s religious views Began to restore the old gods Died at age 18
New Kingdom(1570 – 1085 BCE)
Ramses II (1279 – 1213 BCE) Reestablished imperial frontiers in Syria Restored peace under traditional gods Negotiated treaty with Hittites
First recorded non-aggression pact Built many temples and monuments to glorify
himself
“Ozymandias”Percy Bysshe Shelley
I met a traveller from an antique landWho said: "Two vast and trunkless legs of stoneStand in the desert. Near them, on the sand,Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,Tell that its sculptor well those passions readWhich yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed:And on the pedestal these words appear:'My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!'Nothing beside remains. Round the decayOf that colossal wreck, boundless and bareThe lone and level sands stretch far away."