Download Class Notes: Chapter 3, Lesson 1

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Class Notes: Chapter 3, Lesson 1
1. Ancient Egypt flourished for nearly 3000 years in the Nile River Valley of Africa.
2. People began to move into the Nile River Valley after 10,000 BC, during the New Stone Age, and by
4500 BC many small villages formed.
3. People were drawn to the Nile River Valley because it was fertile land in the middle of the North
African desert. Fertile land means good for farming.
4. The Nile River is the longest river in the world and its flows into the Mediterranean Sea.
Class Notes: Chapter 3, Lesson 1 Part II
1. The Nile River brought life to the desert because year after year, every summer, it overflowed its
banks. Instead of washing away minerals it deposited silt and left behind rich fertile soil.
2. The Nile River empties into the Mediterranean Sea and the silt deposits formed a delta, or triangleshaped area of marshy land.
3. Farming was the basis for the economy. The economy of a country is the way it uses its people and
resources to produce goods. Everyone has to work together for the crops to be successful.
4. The early Egyptians developed irrigation. Irrigation is the watering of dry land by means of streams,
canals, and pipes.
5. The Nile River helped unite the villages along its banks. People had to work to make farming
successful.
Class Notes: Chapter 3, Lesson 2
Upper and Lower Egypt were two different kingdoms, each ruled by a different crown: Upper Egypt white crown, Lower Egypt - red crown.
In 3100BC Menes, the Upper Egyptian King, swept into Lower Egypt and changed the course of Egyptian
history. He united the two kingdoms. From then on, the kings of ancient Egypt wore a double crown.
Menes built the city of Memphis for his capital. There he built a great palace. After that, the ruler of Egypt
was called the pharaoh, which means "great palace". Pharaohs were considered gods.
The Egyptians had a system of government. The pharaohs divided Egypt into 40 regions and named a
governor to each region, and established laws that were set up by the pharaohs.
Chapter 3-3
A. Ancient Egyptian developments were numerous:
1. farming economy
2. system of government under the pharaohs
3. system of writing
4. ideas about religion grew more complex
5. jobs became more civilized
6. villages grew into cities
B. Ancient Egyptian culture (system of government, religion and learning) grew far beyond the New
Stone Age societies.
1. We know this because the Egyptians left behind written records.
(a) Hieroglyphics was the system of writing using pictures and signs and dates back to 3000BC.
(b) The ancient Egyptians carved out a story of a person's life on the walls of the tombs.
(c) Most written records were on papyrus, a paper made from layers of reeds pasted together
(gotten from the Nile River).
(d) Scribes were people trained to write hieroglyphics. (men only)
(e) The Rosetta Stone enabled archaeologists to decipher, or understand hieroglyphics. It was a
black stone found in Rosetta, near the Nile Delta, that contained the writing in three
languages: hieroglyphics, ancient Egyptian, and Greek. This allowed us to compare the Greek
(which is known) to the hieroglyphics and understand it, much like a decoder.