Download Egypt group notes 2016

Egypt Group Notes 2016
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Nile River Valley
Group #1
The Nile River is the longest river in the world and flows 3,500 miles upstream.
Black Land: Really fertile soil and floods around the Nile River.
Red Land: Scorching hot deserts.
Nile River has a delta, “Nile Delta”.
Kemet means “The Black Land”.
If the floods were too high, it could cause a natural disaster. If the floods were too low, it
could cause a drought.
The Egyptians treasured the Nile River.
Upper Egypt is upstream.
Lower Egypt is downstream.
The Blue Nile and The White Nile are the two main sources of the Nile River.
The cataracts (intense rapids) made it impossible to travel upstream.
The most important thing to Egypt was the rich, dark soil that was dropped by the Nile
River.
Group 2 - Civilization Develops and Egyptian Society
• The floods of the Nile river leaves fertile soil good for growing crops
• When the Nile flooded the Egyptians learned to build structures to control the water
• The Egyptians were able to grow a surplus of food on the fertile soil
• Most people of Egypt were farmers
• Most powerful families collected farmer's surplus of food as taxes and used it for trade
• Rulers used the taxed surplus to trade for clothing, jewelry, and luxury goods
• Social pyramids included slaves on the bottom and Pharaohs on the top
• The people of Egypt looked at pharaohs as God-Kings
Group 3 - Kingdoms of Egypt
Ben, Byron, Mikinley, Ellie
• Around 3000 B.C two kingdoms developed around the Nile River. (Upper and Lower Egypt.
• The upper kingdom kings wore white crowns while the lower kingdoms wore red crowns.
• A pharaoh is a king of united Egypt.
• Legends saw Narmer united the two kingdoms.
• Bureaucracy is the system of offices and officials that handle the business of the government.
GLOBAL STUDIES
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• Narmer the pharaoh also founded Egypts earlier dynasty, which is a continually ruling family.
• The new kingdom lasted from about 1550 B.C to 1070 B.C.
• Egypts bureaucracy was led by an official called the Vizier.
• The bureaucracy collected taxes from farmers usually in the form of crops.
• The pharaoh of the new kingdom wore a double crown of red and white to represent upper and
lower Egypt.
• The old kingdoms lasted from 2686 B.C to 2125.
Group 4 Two Great Rulers
• Egypt's great pharaohs were powerful figures who shaped its history
• Hatshepsut was one of the few women rulers of Egypt, her rule was peaceful
• Hatshepsut was the daughter of one pharaoh and the wife of another
• Hatshepsut carried out all the rituals expected of a king to gain support (she even wore a fake
beard because the citizens didn't accept her gender)
• Ramses II ruled about 200 years after Hatshepsut
• Ramses II was a great builder. During his reign, he built more monuments than any other
pharaoh.
• Hatshepsut achieved wealth through trade, while Ramses II did it through war.
Group 5
~ Egyptians in ancient times preserved dead bodies in a process called mummification to prepare
for afterlife. They believed that it preserved their spirits.
~ Egyptians worshiped hundreds of gods because they believed that the gods controlled
everything.
~ Three of the most worshiped God's are Amon-Re the sun God and Isis the caring God for
protection during life and afterlife, and Osiris, the God of the underworld.
~ Scientist learned about Egyptians and their religion based on mummification.
~ Egyptians believed that priest could help a person gain favor of the gods.
~ The poor were buried in the desert and the rich had tombs made for them.
~ Egyptians believed in living a good life prepared for a forever
-lasting after life.
~ Egyptians believed the more money you had the better prepared your body was.
Group 6 - Ancient Egypt Writing and Literature
• Egyptians were some of the worlds first people to develop a writing system.
GLOBAL STUDIES
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• The writing system they developed was called Hieroglyphics.
• Hieroglyphics are drawings or symbols that represent a word or sound.
• Scribes are officials that knew how to write in hieroglyphics.
• Ancient Egyptians invented a material very similar to paper called "Papyrus"
• Papyrus could last a long time in dry environments. There is still some surviving papyrus
today.
• Ancient Egyptians literature included teaching, stories, poems, religious texts, and histories.
• One famous text that the Egyptians Wrote was called "The Book of the Dead" which was a
guide to the afterlife for dead souls.
Group 7 - Architecture and Art
• The Egyptians built tombs and pyramids for Pharaohs and gods
• The burial chambers contained items that might be important to whomever needed them in the
afterlife.
• The largest of the Great Pyramids was Khufu, it stood for 4,000 years.
• The Egyptians might have used slaves to complete the Great Pyramids, but may scholars
thought that the workers were not slaves.
• In 2,200 B.C., the Great age of pyramid building ended.
• The burial chambers of pharaoh contained sculptures of things pleasing to them.
• The Great Pyramid 481 feet tall.
• Pyramids show advanced mathematics and complex building skills.
GLOBAL STUDIES
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