Download • Chapter 2 • Ancient Egypt • Without the Nile River, Egypt would be

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Chapter 2
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Ancient Egypt
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Without the Nile River, Egypt would be just the desert that surrounds the river.
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The Nile River rises in the highlands of Ethiopia and the lakes of central Africa. Every spring the
rains in this region send water down from the streams that feed the Nile.
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In ancient times, the Egyptians eagerly awaited the annual flood. It soaked the land with much
needed water and deposited a layer of rich silt.
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The people had to cooperate to control the Nile’s floods.
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Under the direction of early governmnet, they built dikes, reservoirs, and irrigation ditches to
channel the rising river and to store water for the dry season.
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Ancient Egypt had two distinct regions:
1. Upper Egypt in the south
2. Lower Egypt in the north
3. Upper Egypt stretched from the Nile’s first waterfall to within 100 miles of the
Mediterranean Sea, where it forms the Nile Delta (delta is a triangular area of
marshland formed by deposits of silt at the mouth of some rivers.)
4. About 3100 BC, Menes, the king of Upper Egypt, united the 2 regions.
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Menes founded Egypt’s first capital at Memphis, a site where the Nile empties into its delta.
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Menes and his successors used the Nile as a highway linking the North and South. They could
send officials or armies to towns along the river. Thus, the Nile River helped make Egypt one of
the world’s first unified states.
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3 main periods of
ancient Egyptian history:
1. Old Kingdom (2575-2130 BC):
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During this period, Egyptian rulers, called pharaohs, organized a strong, centralized
state.
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Pharaohs held absolute power and played key roles in government and religion.
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Egyptians belived each pharaoh was a both god and human. They were expected to
behave morally and were judged for their deeds.
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Pharaohs ruled through a bureaucracy and depended on a vizier, or chief minister, to
supervise the government.
Old Kingdom
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Under the vizier, various departments looked after tax collection, farming, and the allimportant irrigation system.
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During the Old Kingdom, pharaohs built many necropolises, or cemetaries, containing
pyramids in the areas surrounding Memphis.
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Today the best known are the Great Pyramids at Giza.
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Tombs within the pyramids were thought to be homes in which the deceased lived
forever.
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Egyptians preserved the dead bodies and provided them with everything they would
need in the afterlife.
2. Middle Kingdom (1938-1630BC):
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Power struggles, crop failure and the cost of building the pyramids all contributed to the
collapse of the Old Kingdom. After more than a century of disunity, new pharaohs
reunited the land and ushered in a new era.
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The Middle Kingdom was a turbulent period.
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The Nile did not rise like it had in the past.
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Corruption and rebellions were common.
Middle Kingdom
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About 1700 BC, foreign invaders called the Hyksos occupied the Nile Delta region.
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The Hyksos took over the governance of Egypt but there was little conflict between the
new rulers and the Egyptian people.
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The Hyksos brought horse-drawn war chariots to Egypt and the Egyptians mastered this
new military technology.
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The Hyksos were impressed by Egyptian civilization. They soon adopted Egyptian
customs, beliefs and even names.
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After more than 100 years of Hyksos rule, new Egyptian leaders arose and established a
new era.
3. New Kingdom (1539-1075 BC):
A number of new, ambitious and powerful pharaohs created a large empire.
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At its height in 1450 BC, the Egyptian empire reached as far north as Syria and the
Euphrates River.
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The era proved to be an age of conquest that brought Eqyptians into greater contace
with peoples in SW Asia and other parts of Africa.
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Egypt’s first female ruler named Hatshepsut came to power and exercised all the rights
of a pharaoh.
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She encouraged trade along the Red Sea coast of Africa and with eastern
Mediterranean lands.
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New Kingdom
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Hatshepsut’s stepson, Thutmose III, took over as pharaoh once he reached adulthood.
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He was a great military general and he stretched Egypt’s borders to their greatest extent
ever.
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Much later, Ramses II became pharaoh and he continued to extend the empire.
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He is one of the best known Egyptian rulers because he boasted of his conquests on
numerous temples and monuments.
New Kingdom
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During the reign of Ramses, Egypt fought a number of fierce battles with the Hittites of
Asia Minor.
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After years of fighting, they signed a peace treaty, the first such document in history
known to have survived.
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After 1100 BC, Egyptian power slowly declined. Invaders such as the Assyrians and the
Persians took control of the Nile region.
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In 332 BC, the last Egyptian dynasty ended as the Greeks took control.
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Egyptian Religion
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Chief gods and goddesses:
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The chief god of Egypt was the sun god.
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During the Old Kingdom the sun god was named Re (ray).
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By the Middle Kingdom, Egyptians associated Re with another god named Amon and
they called this great lord of the gods Amon-Re.
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The pharaohs were believed to receive their right to rule from Amon-Re.
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Egyptian Religion
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Most Egyptians related to the god Osiris and the goddess Isis.
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According to mythology, Osiris ruled Egypt until his jealous brother, Set, killed him, cut him up
into little pieces and tossed them all over Egypt.
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Osiris’ wife, Isis, saved him by reassembling his body and bringing him back to life.
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Because Osiris could no longer rule over the living, he became god of the dead and judge of
souls seeking admission into the afterlife.
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To Egyptians Osiris was especially important because, in addition to ruling over the underworld,
he was the god of the Nile.
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In that role, Osiris controlled the annual flood that made the land fertile.
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Isis had special appeal for women, who believed that she had first taught women to grind corn,
spin flax, weave cloth, and care for children.
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Like Osiris, Isis promised the faithful that they would have life after death.
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About 1380 BC, a young pharaoh named Amenhotep IV challenged the powerful priests of
Amon-Re.
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He devoted his life to the worship of Aton, a minor god.
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The pharaoh took the name Akhenaton, meaning “he who serves Aton.”
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He ordered priests to worship only Aton and to remove the names of other gods from their
temples.
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Akhenaton’s radical ideas were not successful. The priests and the people resisted the change.
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Belief in the afterlife affected all Egyptians, from the highest noble to the lowest peasant.
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The Egyptians believed that each soul had to pass a test to win eternal life.
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First, the dead soul would be ferried across a lake of fire to the hall of Osiris.
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Then, the dead person’s heart would be weighed against the feather of truth.
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Those Osiris judged to be sinners would be fed to the crocodile-shaped Eater of the Dead.
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Worthy souls would enter the Happy Field of Food, where they would live forever in bliss.
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To survive the dangerous journey through the underworld, Egyptians relied on the Book of the
Dead. It contained spells, charms and formulas for the dead to use in the afterlife.
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Egyptians believed the afterlife would be much like life on Earth.
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As a result, they buried their dead with everything they would need for eternity.
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To give a souls use of its body in the afterlife, Egyptians perfected skills in mummification, the
preservation of dead bodies by embalming them and wrapping them in cloth.
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In 1922, British archaeologist Howard Carter discovered the tomb of the young pharaoh
Tutankhamen (King Tut), who was the son-in-law of Akhenaton.
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The body of the 18 year old pharaoh had been placed in a solid gold coffin, nested with richly
decorated outer coffins.
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The treasures in his tomb included chariots, weapons, furniture, jewelry, toys and games.
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Egyptian Class System
1. Pharaoh and royal family
2. Government officials, high priests and priestesses (who served the gods and goddesses)
3. Merchants, scribes and artisans (tiny class who provided the needs for the rich and powerful)
4. Peasants who worked the land (largest group)
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Many of these were slaves who worked the fields. In the off-season, they were expected
to serve the pharaoh building temples, palaces and tombs.
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During the New Kingdom, trade offered new opportunities to the growing merchant class.
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Foreign conquests brought riches to Egypt, which in turn meant more business for artisans.
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Egyptian women enjoyed a higher status and greater independence than women elsewhere in
the ancient world.
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Under Egyptian law women could inherit property, enter business deals, buy and sell goods, go
to court, and obtain a divorce.
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Also, a woman’s work was not confined to the home.
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Scribes played a central role in Egyptian society. Some kept records of ceremonies, taxes, and
gifts. Others served government officials or the pharaoh. Scribes acquired skills in mathematics,
medicine, and engineering.
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Hieroglyphics was a system of writing in which symbols or pictures called hieroglyphs
represented objects, concepts, or sounds.
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The Egyptians used hieroglyphs to record important economic, administrative, and royal
information.
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Scribes developed hieratic writing, a simpler script for everyday use. Hieratic was a cursive form
of writing created by simplifying the shapes of the hieroglyphs.
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Overtime, hieratic script was replaced by a similar form of writing called demotic.
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The Egyptians also learned to make paper like writing material from papyrus, a plant that grows
along the banks of the Nile River.
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Writing cursive scripts with reed pens and ink on the smooth surface of papyrus strips was much
easier than chiseling words onto stone.
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Jean Champollion
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Rosetta Stone
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Advancements in medicine, science and mathematics