Ancient Egypt

Introductory Documentary

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vedycfT3-S8

Why was the Nile crucial to Ancient Egypt? • Ancient Egypt civilization

emerged more than 5000 years ago

• It started near the Nile River, because the land was fertile

• The Nile flooded the area every year and left mud which made the fields fertile

• The egyptians built dams and canals to control the Nile

• The Nile was also used to transport people and goods in sailing ships

The Nile was so important that they had a god which represented the river

Chronology – Use your book to answer these questions!

• Egyptian history started with the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt under the first pharaoh

• Which periods do you think were stable?

-Old Kingdom, Middle Kingdom, New Kingdom

• Which periods do you think were more unstable?

-The Intermediate Periods

• What were Egypt’s capitals during each of the Kingdoms?

Memphis during Old Kingdom, Thebes during Middle and New

• During which Kingdom was Egypt at its largest?

New Kingdom

Egyptian Writing

• Egyptians developed hieroglyphic writing, which consisted of a succesion of symbols and drawings. They commonly used papyrus for writing

The Rosetta stone

• The Rosetta stone is a fragment of basaltic stone found in 1799 by napoleonic troops in a village called Rosetta.

• On it there is a text written three times, each time in a different script: demotic, hieroglyphic and Greek

• The inscription is a commemoration of the coronation of Pharaoh Ptolemy V

• Translated by a French scholar named Champollion

Champollion

• Champollion was a french scholar who dedicated his life to decipher the egyptian writing.

• He was able to find the name of the Pharaoh in hieroglyphic writing and compare it with its greek translation on the Rosetta Stone

What was Ancient Egyptian society like? Describe it according to this diagram.

Homework: search information about pharaohs.

Pharaoh

Priests and Noblemen

Soldiers

Scribes

Merchants

Craftsmen

Peasants

Servants and Slaves

Who were the pharaohs?

• The pharaoh was the king of ancient egyptians

• The first pharaoh was king Menna, who united all the territories along the River Nile, the lower and the upper Egypt

The Pharaoh

• The Pharaoh was all-powerful

• He passed laws

• He ruled the country

• He owned most of the land

• He controlled trade

• He led the armies

Pharaoh

• Egyptians believed that the pharaohs were gods

• They believed too that the pharaohs had magical powers and could make the waters of the Nile rise.

Imagine you are going to interview a pharaoh. What questions would you ask

him? In pairs, write at least five questions to ask. Join with another parter and act out the

interview

The Judgement of Osiris

The scene reads from left to right. To the left, Anubis brings Hunefer into the judgement area. Anubis is also shown supervizing the judgement scales. Hunefer's heart, represented as a pot, is being weighed against a feather, the symbol of Maat, the established order of things, in this context meaning 'what is right'. If the heart did not balance with the feather, then the dead person was condemned to non-existence, and consumption by the ferocious 'devourer', the strange beast shown here which is part-crocodile, part-lion, and part-hippopotamus. However, as a papyrus devoted to ensuring Hunefer's continued existence in the Afterlife is not likely to depict this outcome, he is shown to the right, brought into the presence of Osiris by his son Horus, having become 'true of voice' or 'justified'.

What were Egyptian religious beliefs? • The Egyptians were

polytheistic

• The main god was the Sun, called Ra

• Other important gods were Isis, Osiris and Horus. Each god had a temple, where priests made offerings to its statue.

• Homework: draw your favorite god.

• Let´s see some of them!

AFTERLIFE

• Egyptians believed there was an afterlife, as long as the body was preserved.

• The soul (ka) needed a body to stay in, which is why they practised mummification

• To enter the afterlife the soul had to pass the Judgement of Osiris. The Book of Dead was a guide on how to pass this Judgement

MUMMIFICATION http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/interactive/games/mummy_make

r/index_embed.shtml

• First, the embalmers wash his body with good-smelling palm wine and rinse it with water from the Nile

MUMMIFICATION

• One of the embalmer's men makes a cut in the left side of the body and removes many of the internal organs. It is important to remove these because they are the first part of the body to decompose.

MUMMIFICATION

• The liver, lungs, stomach and intestines are washed and packed in natron which will dry them out. The heart is not taken out of the body because it is the centre of intelligence and feeling and the man will need it in the afterlife

• A long hook is used to smash the brain and pull it out through the nose

EXTRACTION OF THE BRAIN

MUMMIFICATION

• The body is now covered and stuffed with natron which will dry it out. All of the fluids, and rags from the embalming process will be saved and buried along with the body

MUMMIFICATION

• After forty days the body is washed again with water from the Nile. Then it is covered with oils to help the skin stay elastic

MUMMIFICATION

• The dehydrated internal organs are wrapped in linen and returned to the body

MUMMIFICATION

• In the past, when the internal organs were removed from a body they were placed in hollow canopic jars.

• Canopic jars were still buried with the mummy to symbolically protect the internal organs.

Imsety, human headed, kept the liver Hapy the baboon, the lungs Duamutef, the jackal, the stomach Qebesenuef, the falcon, the intestines

MUMMIFICATION

• Finally, the body was wrapped in linen and a priest reads spells out loud. These spells will help ward off evil spirits and help the deceased make the journey to the afterlife

• The mummy was then put in a sarcophagus

Tutankhamun and Howard Carter

Mummies

Tutankhamun

Mummies

Ramses II

Pyramids

What did it take to build the pyramids?

• But the pyramids are more than mathematical puzzles. They hold the key to understanding the structure of Egyptian society. The pyramids were built, not by the gangs of slaves often portrayed by Hollywood film moguls, but by a workforce of up to 5,000 permanent employees, supplemented by as many as 20,000 temporary workers, who would work for three or four months on the pyramid site, before returning home.

• 10 to 20-year period to build a pyramid.

Mastaba

Saqqara

Bent Pyramid of Snofru

Red Pyramid of Snofru

How pyramids were built? http://www.wat.tv/video/bbc-documentary-pyramids-how-u0el_2gt67_.html