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Ancient Egypt
Part 2
Section 3: The Middle Kingdom
2050 BC -1750 BC
• The Old Kingdom fell around 2200 BC and a period of
hardship and famine began. Local nobles battled for
power, trade was disrupted, and farming and
monument building declined.
• Around 2050 BC, Mentuhotep II defeated his rivals
and became pharaoh of all of Egypt. This began a
period of stability and prosperity known as the Middle
Kingdom.
• The Middle Kingdom lasted for about 300
years until a group called the Hyksos
invaded and ruled Egypt for the next
200 years.
Mentuhotep II
The New Kingdom: 1550 – 1050 BC
• Around 1550 BC, Ahmose of Thebes drove the Hyksos
out of Egypt and declared himself King of Egypt. His
rise to power started the era known as the New
Kingdom.
The mummified head of Ahmose I.
After being conquered during the
Middle Kingdom, the Egyptians
decided to create a professional
army and began conquering their
neighbors. By the 1400s BC, Egypt
spread from the Euphrates
River to Southern Nubia. They
became wealthy from the
natural resources, trade, and
payments the new lands gave to them.
Queen Hatshepsut
(1472 – 1458 BC)
• Hatshepsut was the daughter of Pharaoh
Thutmose I. Upon her father’s death, she
married her half-brother Thutmose II.
(It was common among the pharaoh’s family
to marry within the family. This tradition kept power
within their dynasty.) When Thutmose II died, he had
only a daughter and a young son by a lesser wife.
Hatshepsut felt that this young boy could not rule
Egypt effectively and declared herself pharaoh. She
had a successful, 22 year reign and is best known for
increasing trade and bringing wealth back to
Egypt. She used this money to renew the
tradition of building monuments and temples.
After Hatshepsut’s death, Thutmose III had all of the
monuments she built destroyed. These are a few
that remain.
A sphinx bearing the
head of Hatshepsut
Hatshepsut’s
mortuary temple
Ramses the Great (1279 – 1213 BC)
• A great warrior and monument builder who is
considered to be Egypt’s greatest and most
powerful pharaoh
• Fought the Hittites and Tehenu and stopped them
from conquering Egypt
• Built many forts to strengthen Egypt from invaders
• Built many monuments and temples in Egypt and
Nubia including Karnak, Abu Simbel, Set, and
the Ramesseum (his
memorial temple)
• Built his own city Pi-Ramesse
Ramesseum
Statue of Ramses
at Abu Simbel
Mummy of Ramses
Work Life
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Egypt’s complex society allowed people to have different
jobs. The most common jobs:
Scribes – kept records for the government and wrote and
copied religious and literary texts
Artisans – sculptors, builders, carpenters, jewelers, and
metalworkers
Architects – designed temples and royal tombs
Artists – painted pictures in pharaoh’s tombs and
decorated temples
Soldiers – received land as payment and could keep
treasures captured in war
Farmers/Peasants – had to give crops to the pharaoh as
taxes and work on building projects
Slaves – could earn their freedom; generally worked on
building projects or farms
Daily Life
Women
• had legal rights and regarded as equal to
men (had the right to own property,
divorce their husband, and make contracts)
• Some had jobs outside of the home (priestess, artisan)
Children
• Most boys received an education (reading, writing, math,
and religion)
• Girls stayed home and learned how to run the household
• At the age of 14 boys left school and entered the same
profession as their father (unless the family had saved
money to send the son to school to learn a new vocation)
Section 4: Egyptian Achievements
HIEROGLYPHICS – the Egyptian writing system that
used over 600 symbols (mostly pictures and objects
that represented a sound or an object/idea)
Hieroglyphics could be written horizontally or vertically,
right to left or left to right. This made it very difficult
to read.
Papyrus
• The Egyptians learned to make papyrus paper
from the papyrus reeds that grew along the Nile
River. They rolled the papyrus into scrolls.
Because of Egypt’s dry climate, the papyrus did
not decay and many Egyptian texts still survive
today.
The Rosetta Stone
• In 1799, a group of French soldiers discovered the
Rosetta Stone in a fort near the Nile River. The
Rosetta Stone is inscribed with hieroglyphics,
Greek, and a later Egyptian writing. Scholars who
knew Greek used it to translate the hieroglyphics.
Historians could finally read the writing of the
Ancient Egyptians.
Today, the Rosetta Stone
is housed in the British
Museum.
Egypt’s Great Temples
• Temples – homes to the gods and places of worship
• Features:
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Rows of sphinxes lined path to the entrance
Entrance was a huge gate, usually with obelisks on each side
Massive columns supported the roof inside
Hieroglyphics and paintings decorated the walls and columns
Statues of gods and
pharaohs inside
• Sanctuary at the end
of the temple
Egypt’s Most Famous Temples
The Temple Of Abu Simbel built by Ramses the Great
The Temple of Luxor (completed by King
Tut and added to by Ramses the Great)
The Temple at Karnak
Egyptian Art
The Egyptians were master artists. They painted on
temples (to honor the gods), tombs (for the dead to enjoy
in the afterlife), canvas, papyrus, pottery, wood, and
plaster. They also sculpted and made beautiful jewelry.
They had a unique way of drawing. Animals were drawn
realistically, but humans were seen from 2 views. The
heads and legs were drawn from the side while the
upper body was drawn from the front. Important
figures (gods, pharaohs) were drawn larger than others.
King Tutankhamen (1336 to 1327 BC)
• King Tut was only 8 or 9 years old when he
became pharaoh. His father, Akenhaten (also
known as Amenhotep IV), changed Egyptian
religious beliefs. Akenhaten banned the
polytheistic religion and began a monotheistic
religion with the god Aten as the sole god
worshipped. Because of this, he was not very
popular with the priests or the people of Egypt.
Upon his death, his son Tutankhaten was given
power. The priests approached Tut and had him
restore the old polytheistic religious beliefs. At
this time, he changed his name to Tutankhamen
(in honor of Amon-Re the sun god).
King Tut’s death
There is still much mystery surrounding
King Tut’s death at the age of 19. Scientists
have taken x-rays of his mummified remains and
discovered an injury on the lower part of his skull.
This injury suggests Tut could have been murdered by
a blow to the back of the head or died as the result of
an accident. A 2005 CT Scan showed Tut had badly
broken his leg shortly before his death and perhaps
died as a result of a gangrene infection.
2005 CT scan of Tutankhamen
The possible injury at the base
of the skull is
being pointed out.
King Tut’s Tomb
• In 1922, archaeologist Howard Carter discovered King
Tut’s tomb in the Valley of the Kings. The tomb was a
magnificent discovery because it had not been
destroyed by grave robbers and was in the exact
condition it had been left in at the time of Tut’s death.
There were four chambers in the tomb and more than
5,000 artifacts were discovered.
It took the team more than 10
years to record all of the
artifacts found. Archaeologists
today are still studying these objects.
We learned a lot about burial practices
religious beliefs from Tut’s tomb.
King Tut’s Treasures
Section 5: Ancient Kush
• Kush developed along the Nile River to the south of
Egypt. It was the first great civilization to develop in
the interior of Africa.
• Just like the Egyptians, the Kushites depended on the
floods of the Nile River for their agriculture. As in
other civilizations, their farming settlements grew into
villages, the villages grew into towns, and the towns
eventually joined together into one kingdom.
• Egypt and Kush often traded with each other during
times of peace along
the Red Sea and the
Mediterranean Sea.
Kush and Egpyt
Around 1500 BC, Egypt conquered Kush and controlled
it for 450 years. Many Egyptians settled there and built
temples and monuments. Kushite culture was greatly
influenced by Egyptian culture.
In 1050 BC, the Kushites won their independence.
During the 700s BC, Kush attacked Egypt. Their leader
Piankhi successfully conquered the Egyptian Empire.
After Piankhi’s death, his brother Shabaka took control
and declared himself pharaoh (starting the 25th Dynasty).
Shabaka continued Egyptian traditions and practices.
Kushite rule only lasted 40 years however. The Assyrians
(from Mesopotamia) conquered Egypt and drove the
Kushites out.
Later Kush
• Developed Iron – Kush developed Africa’s first iron
industry in Meroe, Kush’s capital
• Expanded Trade – exported gold, pottery, iron
tools, ivory, leopard skins, ostrich feathers,
elephants and slaves; imported fine jewelry and
luxury items
• Kush eventually lost power for three reasons:
• Cattle overgrazed the land causing the soil to blow away
• The iron industry used all the trees in the forests so they
could not produce weapons or trade goods
• Lost trade routes