Download The Egyptian Empire

Ancient Egypt
Geography
Regions in Egypt:
• Nubia
• Upper Egypt
• Lower Egypt
• The Nile valley
kemet
• The desert
deshret
Environment
•965 km between Aswan and Cairo
•Average annual rainfall 10 millimeters
• Inundation
Upper Egypt
Nile at Aswan
1st cataract
Lower Egypt
Nile delta
Nile bank
Resources
•Agriculture
•Domesticated animals
• Stones and metals
Egyptian civilization lasted essentially unchanged
for 3000 years.
The Egyptians are the most successful human culture
in history.
Chronology
•Early Dynastic Period (c. 3100-2686 BC)
•Old Kingdom (c. 2686-2160 BC)
• 1st Intermediate period (c. 2160-2055 BC)
• Middle Kingdom (c. 2055-1650 BC)
• 2nd Intermediate period (c. 1650-1550 BC)
• New Kingdom (c. 1550-1069 BC)
• 3rd Intermediate period (c. 1069-664 BC)
• Late Period (664-332 BC)
• Ptolemaic period
(332-30 BC)
The Palette of Narmer
Funerary Mask,
Ptolemaic Period
Before the decipherment of the
Rosetta Stone in 1822 by
Jean Francois Champolion, we
had only classical authors such
as Herodotus (5th century BC)
and Manetho (3rd century BC)
from whom to reconstruct
Egyptian history.
Written Records
Of Egyptian Life
Scribes writing
Chester Beatty Papyrus
Edwin Smith
surgical papyrus
Ebers Papyrus
Hieroglyphic Writing
•Ideograms (signs standing for ideas
or concepts)
•Phonograms (signs standing for
sounds)
In addition to traditional
Hieroglyphic writing, two
alternate scripts also
evolved:
Hieratic
Demotic
Gods:
• take many forms
• have many names
• can be combined
• permeate all areas of human life
Gods are “conceptualizations of an
abstract force” which is the divine.
Pharaoh with
Hathor (left) and
Osiris (right)
The image of a god represents the essential, not the actual.
Egyptians had great
interest in
•cosmology (rules that
govern the universe as a
whole) and
•cosmogony (the creation
of the universe)
Society consists of four
parts:
• gods
• king
• blessed dead
• humanity
Ma’at = order
Personified as a goddess
Egyptian World View
•a love of paired opposites,
dualities and groups
• a love of symmetry
•a desire to impose order
• seeming inconsistency,
but insistence on
continuity
Ma’at
Tomb of Kha, 18th dynasty
Bread
Pomegranates
Jar of roasted duck
Linen robe from the tomb of Kha
Painting from tomb of Nebamun
More Scenes from Everyday Life
Winnowing grain
Herding cattle
Metalworkers
Veterinarians at work
Concluding Thoughts (for now):
• Writing and art are sacred; so just about everything
you can read or see means something.
• Human life in Egypt is seen as part of a sacred whole.
•Concepts of Ma’at (order) and Izfet (disorder) are
central.
•The potential for disaster is always present and
it’s typically humans who cause problems.
• The sun represents the potential for order and
continuity, and Osiris represents the
potential for rebirth.
•Amun, the Sun, represents a culmination
in Egyptian theological development.