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Ancient Egypt
Ancient Egypt
The Stable Civilization
3100 BCE – 30 BCE
The “SOUL” of
Ancient Egypt
• The Nile was the source of life and path to immortality
• Egyptians lived on Eastern side but buried on Western side
– River was symbol of passage of one life to next
• Creation story began in swirling waters of the Nile when
god Horus gave power to Pharaohs
Click here for Creation Story
Geography: Populated Areas
There were three main areas that were
populated in Egypt:
1. The Nile Valley
•
Sole source of water for Egypt
•
Predictable flooding provided rich
fertile soil
•
Revered and feared
2.
•
•
•
The Nile Delta
Nile empties into Mediterranean
Largest piece of fertile land
All the major cities of Egypt
3.
•
Faiyum
Lake Moeris lies at end of branch of
Nile is centre of oasis called Faiyum
Irrigation from Nile made Faiyum the
third most populated land
•
Geographic Effects on Egypt’s Stability
• Regular flooding of Nile
= predictability
• Deserts
– provided protection and
isolation
– source of minerals and
building supplies: copper,
tin, gold and natron
• Access to Mediterranean
increased and expanded
trade
• Philosophy of stability,
rejection of change
Historical Highlights
Unification of Egypt
• King Menes united
Upper and Lower Egypt
and wears double crown
in 3100 BCE.
• Beginning of the united
and stable civilization
• After Menes -31
dynasties over 3000
years
Personifications of Upper and Lower Egypt place
their crowns upon Menes head
Age of Pyramids
Old Kingdom 2690 BCE – 2181 BCE
• Embodiment of Pharaoh's god like absolute power
• Medium of immortality.
Mastaba – used
since before
Menes
Step Pyramid
at Saqqara for
Djoser 2650
BCE
Great Pyramids of Giza for
Khufu 2600 BCE
Imhotep
• First non-ruler whose
life is recorded
• Served Pharaoh Djoser
(2686-2613 BCE)
• Designed step pyramid
• Furnished and sculpted
stone images for tomb
• Founded Egyptian
medicine
Statuette in bronze of Imhotep at Louvre,
from Ptolemaic era (332-30 BCE)
National God Amon Re
• Popular as Amon or Amun in
many areas throughout entire
history of Egypt
• Associated with bull, goose,
ram and protector of the weak
• Amon, the local god of Thebes
merged with sun god Re and
became Egyptian national god
Amon-Re
Figure of Amon Re from late
period - ROM collection
Exodus
Colossal statue of Ramses II
from temple of Ptah - Spain
• Hebrew slaves under
Ramses II leave Egypt in
mass migration called
Exodus (13th c. BCE)
• Moses receives the 10
Commandments at Mount
Sinai but never finds the
“Promised Land”
Was Egypt Really a Stable
Civilization?
• Your tasks:
– Research a particular topic to discover if ancient Egypt really was
a stable civilization
– Write a thesis statement which answers the research question
• Simple thesis statements:
– Yes, Egypt was stable
OR
No, Egypt was not stable.
• More complex thesis statements:
– Egypt was stable for the most part except for…
– Egypt’s was mostly unstable, but we believe it to be stable only because
of …
– Provide evidence via a class presentation to prove your thesis
• Pod Organization
– Write an in class paper at the end of all presentations explaining
your final point of view.