Last updated 9/1/2015

Learning Target: I can understand the factors that formed early Egyptian society.

Hydraulic Civilization- Tigris and Euphrates would flood other civilizations and were unpredictable- civilization that focuses on a river - the Nile- Nile was a NICE river.

- flooded regularly- easily predictable- could be used for agriculture

- Strong Central Government was established to control the river- decide who can use the river ie. build a dam- headed by Pharaohs (Greek term that was used by Egypt)

- god in human form. once they died they became a god- strong pairing with religion and government (theocracy)- Bureaucracy was set up- people who conduct daily business of running the

government (just like the BMV takes care of our transportation needs and Post Office delivers the mail)

Agriculture- grew WHEAT and BARLEY

- had bread and beer because they would stay good for a long period of time- drank beer because the water was bad (dirty); fermentation kills off the bacteria

and makes the water safe to drink- Irrigation was easy

- water level would rise, when it fell back it would leave a layer of silt after flooding. this is fresh new dirt that is great for planting

- flooding was an annual event and was predictable. The Egyptians set their calendar by when the Nile would flood (This was the beginning of the new year.)

A Divided Land- based on the flow of the Nile- upper Egypt is in the South because that is the direction the

river is headed- Salt was extremely valuable and found in upper Egypt- Lower Egypt (in the north) is very wealthy because they have

easy access to trade- Lower Egypt was a delta fertile area

Government- Ruled by Pharaoh

- god in human form- Narmer was the first pharaoh

- he united upper and lower Egypt

- new capital is in Thebes

- Pharaohs organized into dynasties

- Ruling family- the sons will take over ruling the country- had to act like they were a god in human form

Chronology of Ancient Egypt

OLD KINGDOM- you have an entire life after you die, so you need to take what you need so you have it in

death.

- built mastaba to take care of these needs:

- To improve how things we go in the afterlife, step pyramids are developed:

Meidum Pyramid- built by Sneferu- There was an accident and this one started to fall

apart!

*** The Step Pyramid is just a lot of mastabas built on top of each other.*** The Bent Pyramid is built at a funny angle because it was safer and avoided any more disasters since there had been an accident that had killed hundreds of workers. *** The Red Pyramid was built because Sneferu had a fit when his Bent Pyramid was not as pretty as he wanted it to be.

NEW KINGDOM

Amun - was a hidden god. You couldn’t see him, but he was absolutely

everywhere.- combined with Ra to become king of the gods- end of the Middle Kingdom and mostly the New Kingdom

Karnak- massive temple complex

- ranked second in size because it is so large

- the Basilica could fit into a single room here

- had 80,000 servants and slaves living there at one time

- Geese and rams and over 421,000 head of cattle- these were intended for sacrifice

Where did Ra come from?

- The mound Ra was born from is called Ben Ben

Kings of Earth

Akhenaten

- Atenism shows up before every other monotheistic religions- moves the capital to a new temple to the court at Amarna

- they use mud brick to build this temple so all of the bricks used are uniform

- When Nefertiti dies (his wife), Akhenaten goes off the deep end and creates a secret police. He rounds people up to kill them.

King Tut- son of Akhenaten- we know a lot of stuff about King Tut only because

the people that raided his tomb were modern. All of the other tombs had been ravaged.

- found by Howard Carter and Lord Carnarvon (two British guys)

- people think of him as a pretty boy because of what we see in his death mask, but he died so suddenly he has a borrowed mask

- he actually had a cleft palate and a club foot because of the long line of incest in his family.

- only pharaohs were required to marry within their family

Ramses II- called Rameses the Great- also called the Justice of Ra- he was a great builder- he built more than any other

pharaoh, putting his name and image on a bunch of things

- he was a great military general, or so he says- he claims to have killed an entire army all by himself

- had a LOT of children- 96 sons- 60 daughters

- lived into his 90’s, so he outlived most of his grandchildren

- Statues of his wife are each 40 feet tall; they were equal in size to his statues, showing he saw her as an equal to him.

Mummification Making of the Mummy Rest in Peace

Egyptian Dating- man would present a bundle to the prospective mate. If she

approved she would accept, if not she would say no way.- One of the only ancient civilizations where the woman had a

choice.

Egyptian Make-up- hair was seen as unclean so everyone walked around bald- invented the mascara brush- men and women both wore makeup

- the Egyptian makeup kept the sun out of their eyes like eye black that football players wear

Egyptian Economy- paid with wheat and barley most of the time- added honey to the bread recipe to make the bread more

sweet.

Egyptian Family- goddess of fertility and motherhood had cow ears (Hathor) - women wanted to be like her

Egyptian Pyramids Hathor- contained maps of the underworld and how to get into the underworld so a person would

not get lost