Download Chapter 2 Section 2

Chapter 2 Section 2
Egyptian Life and Culture
Review section 1
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What Direction does the Nile river flow?
Why did geographic isolation benefit the
Egyptians?
Name the outside invaders that came in and
took over Egypt for a while
The Achievements of ancient Egypt
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The Egyptians lived on a dependability of the annual
Nile floods and their geographic isolation
They are most recognized for their building of the
pyramids and the sphinx
About 80 pyramids still stand along the west bank of
the Nile
The best known pyramids are in Giza and the Great
pyramid is 13 acres at its base (566,280 sq ft)
It was 480 Ft high and contains over 2 million blocks
of stone each weighing 5,000 lbs
Building of the pyramids took great skill. Egyptian
architects and engineers were the best in the world
The Great Pyramid
Other Egyptian Art
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The pyramids were built using ramps and levers, but
the Egyptians were just as good at traditional art
Other forms of art include small statues of pharaohs,
animals, and gods
The painters decorated buildings with pictures of
everyday life
They showed farmers in their fields, people at
banquets, and artisans at work
Even the hieroglyphic form of writing was an art
form
Science, math, and medicine
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Early in their history the Egyptians developed a
calendar based on the movements of the moon
{They later found that the annual floods would
happen after a bright star appeared above the
horizon}
Then there would be 365 days until the next time the
star appeared on the horizon
The Egyptians then based their calendar on this new
found cycle
12 months with 30 days each and the last 5 days were
used for holidays and feasting
To keep track they kept count using the pharaohs
years of reign
Continued
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In addition to developing the calendar the Egyptians
had a number system based on 10
They used fractions along with whole numbers and
used geometry to build the pyramids and restore
fields after flooding
They made important discoveries in medicine and
human anatomy
They used this knowledge to treat illness and preserve
bodies after death
The treatments for illness often used “magic spells”
but involved herbs and medicine
Education
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For the ancient Egyptians focused mainly on
the elite group known as scribes, or clerks
They learned to read and write so that they
could work for the government
They focused on religious instruction which
was the base for Egyptian life
In fact the schools were usually attached to the
temples
The Gods
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In the earliest days of the Egyptian civilization each
village has its own local god or gods
The gods had their own animal symbol that they
considered sacred
Sacred animals include the cat, bull, crocodile, and
the scarab beetle
Some of the gods became worshiped by people
through out Egypt
The most important of these was Amon or Amon-Re
the sun god or the creator
Amon-Re and Osiris
The Gods continued
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Osiris was the judge of the after life and was
associated with the Nile river
She died and was reborn just like the Nile flooded
and receded
Isis was Osiris’s wife and was the goddess of the
royal throne
The Afterlife
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{The afterlife was at first believed to only be
available to the pharaohs, later it was believed that
life after death was for everyone}
{In the afterlife your heart was weighed and it would
tell if you had lied, murdered, or been too proud}
Your heart was weighed against a sacred feather on a
great scale. If it balanced you entered a place of
eternal hapiness
If the scale did not balance the heart was thown to the
eater of the dead
Egyptian Mummy in NY Museum
The afterlife continued
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In the afterlife the body needs to be preserved to
make life after death possible
To do this they developed a process known as
mummification: the organs of the body are removed,
the body is treated with chemicals
Workers placed the body in the tombs stocked with
food, tools and weapons
The objects were considered important for use in the
afterlife
Years later the Book of the Dead was placed in the
tombs as a guide to the afterlife
The book of the dead (from the
mummy movie)
Farming
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Farming was divided into large estates and was
done mostly by the peasants
Wheat and Barley were the chief crops, but
flax was grown then spun and woven into linen
Cotton was also grown and used for cloth
Part of the crop was kept by the peasant the
rest went to the pharaoh as rent and taxes
Life for the farmer was difficult
Trade
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The peasants were able to grow more food than what
was needed so they used it to trade
This developed new opportunities for the growing
middle class
Merchants rode in caravans (groups of people
traveling together) for safety
They traveled deep into Africa and West into Asia
They were among the first people to build boats to
travel by sea trading in the Mediterranean and Red
sea and traveled the African coast
Review
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What did the Egyptians base their calendar on?
What was the Egyptian Number system based
on?
What happened to you in the afterlife?
Were the Nile floods predictable?
The End?