Download Egyptian Timeline

Egyptian Timeline
• Old Kingdom (2700-2150)
– Hieroglyphics and religion
develop in Egypt
– pyramids built
• Middle Kingdom (2040-1786)
– extension of Egyptian control
into Nubia
• New Kingdom (1570-1075)
– militaristic - Hebrews enslaved
– mummification perfected
Outline
1. Geography
2. Religion
–
–
–
Gods
Pyramids
Mummies
1 2 3 4 5 6
3. Government
–
The Pharaoh
4. Daily Life
5. Middle Kingdom
6. New Kingdom
I. Geography
• River dominates Egyptian world/thought
• Surrounded by desert with occasional oasis
– Permits some trade
– Defense from invasion
• Contributes to feeling of safety
– preserves artifacts
1 2 3 4 5 6
“Egypt is the gift of
the Nile” -Herodotus
1 2 3 4 5 6
1 2 3 4 5 6
I. The Nile
• yearly flooding - no concern for soil
depletion
– Predictable (Nileometer)
– Irrigation systems
• Encourages
– Trade
– Communication
– Political unity
1 2 3 4 5 6
White Crown of Upper Egypt
Double Crown of Egypt, revered
as the symbol of absolute
kingship for 3000 years
Red Crown of Lower Egypt
I. The Nile
1 2 3 4 5 6
I. The Nile
1 2 3 4 5 6
I. The Nile
I. The Nile
• Impact on religion
– divided life - living and dying.
• East (sunrise) is land of the living - cities, temples
• West (sunset) is land of the dead - tombs
1 2 3 4 5 6
II. Religion
• Omnipresence of religion
• Polytheistic
– interaction with the natural environment shows
interrelated gods and goddesses yearly rebirth of Nile and
daily rebirth of sun
– over 2000 gods
• Pharaoh as living god
• Belief in Afterlife
– Life after death
1 2 3 4 5 6
II. Osiris
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God of the Afterlife, Underworld, and Dead “rebirth” - and the weighing of the heart
The ancient Egyptians believed if you did
something bad, your heart would be heavy, and the
god Ammut the Devourer could suddenly appear
and eat you!
The god Ammut had a big part in the weighing of
the heart ceremony.
To enter your afterlife, you had to have a light
heart. Light hearts were earned from a lifetime of
doing good deeds.
To find out if your heart qualified for the trip to the
afterlife, your spirit had to enter the Hall of
Maat. The god Anubis weighed your heart. The god
Thoth recorded the findings.
1 2 3 4 5 6
II. Horus
• Horus, god of balance and harmony
• maintained the natural order: the flow of the Nile and the fertility of
the soil.
1 2 3 4 5 6
II. Early Pyramids
Zozer’s stepped pyramid - similar to
Babylonian ziggurats
1 2 3 4 5 6
Why build Pyramids?
• Belief in the afterlife demanded:
1. Bodies be interred whole
2. Material goods for use in afterlife be present
• The need to protect the bodies demands
good burial tombs
1. First were mastabas
2. Then pyramids
3. Then later… hidden tombs
Mastaba
II. Great Pyramid
• Tomb for Khufu
• an almost perfect square (deviation .05%)
• Orientation is exactly North, South, East
West
• 2,300,000 blocks, 500ft high
• 20 years to build
• Average block weighs 2.5 tons
– Some weigh 9 tons!
1 2 3 4 5 6
1 2 3 4 5 6
1 2 3 4 5 6
Pyramids of Menkaure, Khafre and Khufu
1 2 3 4 5 6
Queen Pyramids in front
1 2 3 4 5 6
II. Mummies
• Not known when it started in Egypt
• Perfected by time of New Kingdom
• How to make a mummy: 70 steps
– 1) Removal of the brain through the nostrils 2) Removal of the
intestines through an incision in the side 3) Sterilization of the
body and intestines 4) Treating, cleaning, dehydrating the
intestines 5) Packing the body with natron (a natural dehydrating
agent) and leaving for 40 days 6) Removal of the natron agent 7)
Packing the limbs with clay or sand 8) Packing the body with linen
(soaked in resin), myrrh and cinnamon 9) Treating the body with
ointments and finally wrapping with a fine linen gauze, not less
than 1000 square yards .
1 2 3 4 5 6
Mummies
Canopic Jars made of alabaster jars with heads of the Four Sons of the
god Horus; for storage of heart, stomach, intestines and liver
Claymation of the Mummification Process
1 2 3 4 5 6
• Duamutef, the jackal-headed
god representing the east, whose
jar contained the stomach and
was protected by the goddess
Neith
• Hapi, the baboon-headed god
representing the north, whose jar
contained the lungs and was
protected by the goddess
Nephthys
• Imseti, the human-headed god
representing the south, whose jar
contained the liver and was
protected by the goddess Isis
• Qebehsenuef, the falcon-headed
god representing the west,
whose jar contained the
intestines and was protected by
the goddess Selket
Mummy
Inner coffin
1 2 3 4 5 6
Second inner
coffin
Second inner
coffin lid
1 2 3 4 5 6
Funerary
Gifts
Gift bearers
Shawabti box
Model boat
1 2 3 4 5 6
1 2 3 4 5 6
III. The Pharaoh
• Pharaoh=God-King, unlike Mesopotamia’s
governmental king
– Temporal power
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•
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•
owns all the land and people and what people posses
law vs. Pharaoh's will
irrigation
no city walls
1 2 3 4 5 6
III. The Pharaoh
• God-King - unlike Mesopotamia
– Religious
• direct descendant of the Sun god (Ra)
• controls access to the afterlife
• July-Sept, during floods life is controlled by the
Pharaoh
– 365 day calendar.
1 2 3 4 5 6
III. Role played by size in Egyptian Artwork
1 2 3 4 5 6
IV. Daily Life in Egypt
• Cosmetics, cleanliness (bathe 3 times a day), shaved
bodies, wigs
• main food is beer and bread
– Grow many crops: emmer, barley, flax, lentils, onion,
beans, and millet
• common building made of sun-dried mud bricks - up
to three stories in height
• Five social classes - slaves on the bottom
• Most common job … farming
1 2 3 4 5 6
IV. Farmers in Egypt
1 2 3 4 5 6
IV. Hieroglyphics
• Language is written without
vowels
• Different pronunciations
– MNFR as Memphis
– SR as Osiris
– TTMS as either Thutmose,
Thutmosis, Tatmusa or Atithmese
1 2 3 4 5 6
IV. Hieroglyphics
• Use in temples, obelisks,
pyramids, sarcophaguses, for
religious ceremonies,
mummification, and prayers.
• People wrote (scribes) and
kept records on papyrus
paper.
1 2 3 4 5 6
A section of the Egyptian Book of the
Dead written on papyrus paper.
Rosetta Stone
•
The Rosetta Stone is an ancient Egyptian stele
inscribed with a decree issued at Memphis in 196 BC
on behalf of the Pharaoh. The decree appears in three
scripts: the upper text is Ancient Egyptian
Hieroglyphics, the middle portion Demotic (the stage
of the Egyptian language after the New Kingdom)
script, and the lowest Ancient Greek. Because it
presents essentially the same text in all three scripts
(with some minor differences between them), it
provided the key to the modern understanding of
Egyptian Hieroglyphics.
•
It was discovered in 1799 by a soldier, PierreFrancois Bouchard, of the French expedition to
Egypt. As the first Ancient Egyptian bilingual text
recovered in modern times, the Rosetta Stone
aroused widespread public interest with its potential
to decipher this untranslated ancient language.
One possible reconstruction of
the original stele
IV. Egyptian Artwork
Stele (carved stone)
Egyptian Farmers & animals
Notice, all people drawn
from the side – even when
looking right at you!
1 2 3 4 5 6
V. Middle Kingdom 2050-1750 BCE
• End of civil wars, farming and trade return
• move capital south to Upper Egypt (Thebes)
• public improvements
– drain swamps, canal to Red Sea
• belief in afterlife expands to include
common people
• tombs instead of pyramids
– better protection for mummies.
1 2 3 4 5 6
V. Middle Kingdom 2050-1750 BCE
1 2 3 4 5 6
VI. New Kingdom 1550-1075 BCE
• Ahmose I expelled the invading Hyksos and
reunited Egypt
• Known as the Empire period
• development of “public” and “private”
zones at temples.
1 2 3 4 5 6
Ahmose I leading Egyptians against the Hyksos
1 2 3 4 5 6
VI. New Kingdom 1550-1075 BCE
• Characterized by a more militaristic and
imperialistic nature
– incorporated chariot, bronze working, horses
– development of a professional army
• became a slave based economy fueled by
war and expansion
1 2 3 4 5 6
VI. Threats to Tradition
• Amenhotep IV (c. 1362-1347 B.C.)
introduced the worship of Aton, god
of the sun disk, as the chief god and
pursued his worship with
enthusiasm.
• Changed name to Akhenaten (“It is
well with Aton”)
• He closed the temples of other gods
and especially endeavored to lessen
the power of Amon-Re and his
priesthood at Thebes.
1 2 3 4 5 6
VI. Threats to Tradition
1355-1335 BCE
• Nefertiti
– Wife of Akhenaton the only
pharaoh to even partially
reject polytheism
– political move against priests
of Amon-Re
– moved capital to Amarna
– worshipped Aton, the sun
disk
• royal inbreeding.
1 2 3 4 5 6
VI. Tutankhamen
1335-1325 BCE
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•
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(King Tut)
child ruler
ruled nine years, died at 18
young death meant burial
in the tomb of a lesser
person (noble) resulting in
preservation
1 2 3 4 5 6
VI. Ramses II (1279-1213)
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•
•
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greatest New Kingdom ruler
military leader of Egypt
expanded into southern Turkey
built many monuments to
himself
• last gasp of Egyptian power.
1 2 3 4 5 6
VI. Ramses II (1279-1213)
1 2 3 4 5 6
VI. Ramses II (1279-1213)
1 2 3 4 5 6
Decline of Ancient Egypt
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Third Intermediate Period (1069 – 653 BCE)
Assyrians conquer Egypt
With no permanent plans for conquest, the Assyrians left control of Egypt to a
series of vassals
Late Period (672 – 332 BCE)
525 BCE Persians conquer Egypt
Ptolemaic dynasty
In 332 BC, Alexander the Great conquered Egypt with little resistance from the
Persians and was welcomed by the Egyptians as a deliverer. The administration
established by Alexander's successors, the Greek Ptolemaic Dynasty was based on
an Egyptian model and based in the new capital city of Alexandria.
Roman Period
In addition, as Rome relied more heavily on imports of grain from Egypt, the
Romans took great interest in the political situation in the country.
Egypt became a province of the Roman Empire in 30 BC, following the defeat of
Marc Antony and Ptolemaic Queen Cleopatra VII by Octavian (later Emperor
Augustus) in the Battle of Actium.
Blending of Cultures
The Fayum Mummy
Portraits epitomize the
meeting of Egyptian and
Roman cultures at the
decline of Ancient
Egypt.