Background of the Nile and Egyptians

Geography

• The Nile is 4,145 miles long. (longest river in the world)

• Only river that flows south to north• The White Nile and Blue Nile join in

Khartoum just above the 6th cataract in the Sudan ( Nubia/Kush)

• What sea does it empty in to?

Egypt’s natural defenses

• Cataracts were natural defenses along the river rocky sections that included waterfalls.• Eastern and Western deserts • The Delta marshes.• Egyptians mostly concerned about attacks from the south.Made brick forts

Egypt’s heart

• Ancient Egypt included parts of Sudan, Egypt Israel, Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon

• The heart was strip of land on sides of Nile rarely wider than 12 miles until the delta.

• This created rich soil, floods originated in Africa. How so?

• Egyptians developed a flood system. Floods were from June to Sept.

• Oct. to Feb. was emergence of land

Plants & Animals

• Ra created all plants and animals with his creation of the world according to Egyptians.

• Three parts of land animals and plants lived in…

• Marsh/Delta: papyrus, lotus, hippos, crocodiles, cobras, geese, ducks, ibis, pelicans, Nile perch, catfish

• Farmlands: cattle, barley, emmer wheat, flax, onion, garlic, leeks, beans, lettuce, melons, cucumber

• Deserts: vultures, falcons, jackals, lions, gazelles, antelope

Egypt’s mines & quarries • In the beginning of their empire the

Egyptians used clay, mud, reed made bricks.

• Step pyramid of Saqqara, first of stone. 3rd dynasty

• Quarries belonged to the pharaoh.• Stone was carved by hand.• Minerals and different stone was

found throughout Egypt.

Farms on the Nile• Ancient Egyptian farmers rented land

from nobles.• Family was important for survival,

boys worked in fields & girls worked in the household. Everyone worked in fields during harvest.

• After the Nile went down from flooding the planting happened. They plowed, broke up soil, and sent pigs and sheep out in the mud!

Harvesting

• Flint blades were used to cut the grain

• Grain would be threshed by human hand or by the feet of cows, oxen, or sheep.

• Then the grain is winnowed.

Irrigation • Canals were dug from the Nile into

fields within the heart of the Nile.• Ditches divided the fields into local

squares to divide crops• Shaduf was used to distribute water

Hieroglyphs

• is made up of about… oh thousands of signs; people, animals, plants, and objects.

• Originally pictographs • 24 symbols that represent sound• No vowels• Were arranged vertical columns and

horizontal lines.• Read from right to left.

The Rosetta Stone• Found around

Memphis in ancient Egypt, from196 BC

• Was originally moved from true area to Christian fort in Rashid (Rosetta) came from royal town of Sais around 392 AD

• Has three languages on it. Hieroglyphs, Demotic, and Greek.

• Deciphered/translated by: Jean-François Champollion

Some pictures

• Demoticdelta area

Egyptian commerce • Was based on a barter system/trade• Value was calculated on the “Deben”

about .5 ounces of copper. Later to 3.5 oz. each Deben was worth 10 “Kite”

• I.E. a goat was worth 1 Deben, a bed was about 2.5 Deben,1 slave girl 4 deben of silver

length

• Math was necessary, why?• Egyptians were very good craftsmen

that constructed many objects by figuring out the slope, angles and degrees.

• Egyptians had a measurement system based on the human body; even though everybody is different on size it was based on an average.

Length• palm a handbreadth; 4 fingers measured

across the knuckles• cubit length of the arm from the elbow to

the tip of the thumb• thumb 1 and 1/3 fingers (measured across

the knuckles)• short cubit 6 palms (24 fingers)• royal cubit 7 palms (28 fingers)• fathom 4 cubits or the height of a standing

man• setat 100 cubits square (about 2/3 of an

acre)• Measurements based on the body

Volume

• Used to record taxes for pharaoh• Measured different items like flour &

grain• Measured liquid by the jugfuls, jugs

were marked with their volume.

Volume

• hekat equal to 4.8 liters• (or just over a gallon)• great hekat 4 hekats• khar 4 great hekats or 2/3 cubic

cubit• hin 1/10 of a hekat• (liquid measure equal to 0.5 liter)

Quality/Calendar• Egyptians used a term “Pesu” to determine

the quality of a product the higher the Pesu the better the quality.

• Year was divided into 12 months and 3 seasons.

• 1 month had 3 weeks of 10 days, 4 months in each season (flood, planting & harvest).

• Calendars had lucky days in black and unlucky in red.

• Farmers calendar tracked the appearance of the star Sirius, it would be blocked for 70 days, when it showed…flood. Civil and farmer calendar matched every 1,460… no leap year in civil

Time/numbers

• Measured like us in 12 day and 12 night hours

• Egyptians used water clocks for time, small hole on bottom the clock was wider at top than bottom for pressure.

Counting

• 1 = stroke • 10 = cattle hobble • 100 = coil of rope • 1000 = lotus plant • 10,000 = finger • 100,000 = tadpole • 1,000,000 = god with arms

supporting sky

Beginning • The first dynasty c.3100 BC

The unifying of Upper and Lower Egypt into a single kingdom is the event pointed to by the ancient Egyptians themselves as the beginning of their civilization.

Lower Egypt is roughly the broad delta of the river, where it separates into many branches before flowing into the Mediterranean. Upper Egypt is the long main channel of the river itself, possibly as far upstream as boats can reach - to the first waterfall or cataract, at Aswan.  Egyptian tradition credits the uniting of Upper and Lower Egypt to a king called Menes. But that is merely a word meaning 'founder'. It is possible that the real historical figure is a ruler by the name of Narmer, who features in warlike mood on an early slate plaque.

Whatever the name, the first historical dynasty is brought into being by the king or pharaoh who in about 3100 BC establishes control over the whole navigable length of the Nile. His is the first of thirty Egyptian dynasties, spanning nearly three millennia

Old Kingdom

• The Old Kingdom: c.2580-c.2130 BC• ancient Egypt, the capital is at

Memphis, near modern-day Cairo. • But at the peak of Egyptian power,

during the period from about 2000 to 1200 BC, the city of Thebes - several hundred kilometers up the Nile - was a place of greater importance.

• The pyramids remain today to show the early greatness of Memphis, in the period known as the Old Kingdom.

Middle Kingdom

• The Middle Kingdom: c.2000-c.1630 BC • Thebes is capital city• The Middle Kingdom lasts for four

centuries before giving way to another era defined only as falling between kingdoms

• Hyksos come from Syria 100 yrs• Brought over horse and chariot

New Kingdom• The New Kingdom: c.1540-c.1080 BC• The New Kingdom, also sometimes known

as the New Empire, lasts half a millennium and provides the bulk of the art, artifacts and architecture (apart from the pyramids) for which ancient Egypt is famous. Pharaohs of the New Kingdom create at Thebes the great temples of Karnak and Luxor and are buried, on the other side of the Nile, in the Valley of the Tombs of the Kings.

• The kingdom spans three dynasties but it is the first two, the 18th and 19th, which provide its greatest glories in temples of Amen-Re (though there is an interim period in the 18th dynasty, under Akhenaten, when this time-honored god of the pharaohs is forcefully rejected).