Download Floodplain Civilization: Egypt WH005 Activity Introduction Hey I`m

Floodplain Civilization: Egypt
WH005
Activity Introduction
Hey I’m (name) and today we’re going to… (gong)… walk like an Egyptian… …
Wait what? (muffled sound, perhaps wave hand over mic)
Oh, that’s not what we’re doing. Toots. Well, let’s at least talk about the Egypt’s
floodplain civilizations, for crying out loud! (gong) Bring in the mummy!
Video 1
Some people call me the dumb mummy but this here is my brain—looks big and smart,
dontcha think? Wheeeew! What stinks?! Ah yes, it’s probably me, because rotting
corpses tend to smell teeeerrrrrrrrrrrrrrible! But let’s talk about that later…
Anyways, greetings! Beer and Bread to you!
What? That’s not how you say ‘good day’ in your culture? Well ex-cuuuse me! But that’s
how we Ancient Egyptians greeted one another. And if you don’t know what “Beer and
Bread” means, then it’s probably a good thing I’m here to talk you about the Ancient
Egyptian Civilization, dontcha think?! Uh… don’t answer that…
So you see, we ancient Egyptians were an interesting bunch. Our rise to prominence
started back in thirty-one-hundred B.C.E. around the Nile Delta area, which is where the
Nile River empties into the Mediterranean Sea. Ah, the Nile, it was a bountiful river that
allowed my people to easily transition from a life of hunting and gathering to one of
agriculture and farming.
You see, even though ancient Egypt was an arid place surrounded by desert, the Nile
and its yearly flooding made it an ideal region for crops to develop and flourish. Yes,
indeed, the soil was so rich and fertile that it attracted people from all over. Because of
this, the Egyptian civilization emerged from a rather diverse bunch of people, including
people from the Sahara region, Western Asia, and other parts of Africa.
But back to the Nile! The glorious, glorious Nile!!! Earlier when I said the “yearly
flooding” of the Nile, I meant that it was on a rather precise schedule. Because of this,
we Egyptians, in order to feed the ever growing population of Egypt, began to create an
organized system of government so we could properly prepare for the event.
So, literally, the Egyptian state was a product of our need to control the Nile waters.
Pretty neat, eh?! And if Egypt had a weak and unorganized government, as it did from
time to time, it would severely affect the food supply, causing famine and hunger... all
because the Nile was not properly managed.
These times of disorder however did not stop Egypt and its people from thriving for
thousands of years. Yes indeed, by one-thousand B.C.E. Egypt supported a population
of around three million to four million people… living ones—not mummies like me…
Video 2
Now as my society grew, it became more and more, what’s the word…?...
sophisticated. One of the ways that historians determined this was by studying the
social stratification of Egyptian society, or the hierarchy. The Pharaoh, or the ruler of all
Egypt, was at the top. Under him were the priests and nobles, and then came the
scribes.
Scribes were pen-and-paper men that held some of the most envied positions in
Egypt… all they did was write things down, so they were therefore spared a lot of the
hard labor that Egypt offered its lower classes. But let me ask you this. Would a scribe
have sweet pipes like these? I don’t think so!
So anyways, where was I? Ah, yes…Below the scribes were the peasant farmers and
below the farmers were the slaves. It’s scary to think what we would have done without
our slaves… they built our pyramids!!! You know, those sandy triangle things?! Yep, it’s
true… between our architects and the hard-working slaves, we built the greatest and
most enduring structures of the ancient world.
So why were the pyramids built in the first place? Good question. They were
construction projects commissioned by the pharaohs and the Egyptian government. The
pointy structures were symbols of the sun and were intended to be the royal tombs of
the pharaohs, who we believed were the off-spring of the sun-god, Re.
Unfortunately, by the twenty-second century B.C.E., pyramids were no longer being
built, and that marked the end of what is now known as the Old Kingdom of Ancient
Egypt.
Though it eventually came to an end, the Ancient Egyptian civilization was around and
very relevant for thousands of years. It had an Old Kingdom that lasted from
approximately the twenty-seventh century B.C.E. to the twenty-second century B.C.E.
Then there was an Intermediate period that lasted about five hundred years … give or
take a few decades. After that, there was the Middle Kingdom, which lasted from the
end of the twenty-first century B.C.E. to about the mid-seventeenth century B.C.E.
The Middle Kingdom started strong, but gave way to conquest, like from Syria and
Palestine.
Then there was another Intermediate Period… and then the New Kingdom arose and
lasted from fifteen-fifty B.C.E. to ten-sixty-four B.C.E. This marked another comeback by
Egypt which was defined by a significant expansion of the Egyptian kingdom. This
period also saw the leadership of a rather impressive female pharaoh named
Hatshepsut. She was beautiful too… a minx-like goddess…
Anyways, around the eleventh century B.C.E., Egypt went into decline again and
eventually, by the seventh century B.C.E., it was conquered by the Assyrians. A century
later, we were conquered once again by the Persians. But the final nail in the Egyptian
coffin, heh, no pun intended, was when Egypt was conquered by the Roman Empire in
thirty B.C.E.
Reading Passage Introduction
So now that we’ve had a taste of the ancient Egyptian civilization, it’s time for the main
course.
As we learned, the ancient Egyptians were around for a very long period of time… more
than three thousand years! So obviously there’s a lot of historical ground to cover.
In this next passage, we’re going to cover two very big chunks of that ground: Religion
and Culture. So do a little reading and educate yourself on these two facets of ancient
Egypt.
Video 3
Hello, it’s me again, your new favorite mummy friend, and I’m here to talk to you about a
pharaoh that people in modern times have gone buck-wild over… King Tutankhamun,
or, more popularly, King Tut.
You see, old Tut was an Egyptian pharaoh who reigned during the New Kingdom, which
coincidently is when I too walked the earth.… yeah, I still got it!
Now I’m not jealous or anything, but King Tut’s whole ‘being a hot shot celebrity’ now is
funny to me. In my day, his reign had very little impact on Egypt… and honestly he was
kind of insignificant. Just trust me on this one… King Tut was NO Rameses the
fourth…whoa nelly! ...now HE was a pharaoh to remember.
Anyways, where was I? Ah yes, King Tutankhamun was not a very significant ruler
because he became king when he was only nine and died when he was about nineteen.
So he obviously didn’t rule Egypt for very long and therefore didn’t leave much of a
mark. Don’t get me wrong… his early death was tragic and all, but in the end, he didn’t
mean too much to us Egyptians.
So why did you guys go so crazy over him!? Well, I finally heard the story that explains
it…Once upon a time, in nineteen-twenty-two, there was a British archaeologist named
Howard Carter who snooped around the Valley of the Kings in Egypt hoping to find a
king's tomb that had not been robbed over the centuries; King Tut’s tomb, to be exact.
Although Carter and his men didn’t know where his tomb was, they did know there was
a young king named Tutankhamun whose grave had not been discovered yet.
Sorry, that spooky fairytale voice was hurting my throat. So anyways, Carter, whose
expedition was financed by a fellow named Lord Carnarvon, was trying to uncover new
information for a popular field of study called Egyptology. He was also trying to get a
little famous as well, but who isn’t these days? Not me…But old Carter got his wish, for
just as he was close to losing his support from Carnarvon, he made the discovery of a
lifetime! Yep, he found the untouched and treasure-filled tomb of King Tut loaded with
extravagant ornaments, thrones, and statues, not to mention Tut’s coffin itself, which
was made of gold. Cha-ching!
So anyways, as you can imagine, when news of Carter’s discovery got out, the world
went … uh…nuts for Tut…
Video 4
Carter’s find produced a series of mysteries that would surround the story of King Tut
from that point on. You see, people wanted to know how King Tut lived, but more
importantly they wanted to know how he died. Pish!!! And you all think we Egyptians
were morbid?! Baloney!
Anyways, scientists over the years have examined the body of King Tut to try to figure
out what took the life of the young pharaoh. In the process they found out important new
information about the Egyptian mummification, wrapping and burial process, which, take
it from a mummy, was a BIG part of Egyptian society.
So in the nineteen-sixties, “X-rays”, whatever they are, were taken of Tut’s body, and
some people began to speculate that Tut was murdered since he had a bone fragment
in his skull. Yep, since it looked like he received a blow to the head, conspiracy theories
spread about the supposed murder of King Tut.
However, in two-thousand-five most of the mystery behind the death of King Tut was
resolved when scientists performed something you all call a “CT Scan” on his remains.
The results of this CT Scan showed no signs of Tut's having been murdered. Rather,
he is believed to have died from a broken leg that developed a severe and oozing
infection. Oh man, that’s gross… Anyways, forensic scientists think that it might have
been an accident or more likely a battle wound. Alright, can we take the picture away
now?! Geez…
They also discovered that King Tut was a man of slight build, meaning he was rather
small and skinny, though they concluded he was well-nourished and a relatively healthy
young man. Previous investigations tried to claim that Tut was a fragile or sickly
individual. They also concluded that he had a pronounced overbite or buck teeth. This
overbite was actually a hereditary trait common among his royal lineage.
So there you have it. This skinny little buck-toothed king you call Tut died from breaking
his leg and allowing it to develop gangrene. So the moral of the story is, and I don’t
mean to be harsh on your hero, but this little buck-toothed kid wasn’t such a hot shot…
The last thing I’ll mention about the story of King Tut is that it teaches us that history is
constantly changing based on what we think we know today and what we later find out
because of new discoveries and new advancements in technology.