Download Ancient Egypt

Ancient Egypt
How do we know it was
a civilization?
They had advanced cities….
• Cities developed
along the Nile River
(longest river in the
world).
• The Nile River
helped to unify
Egypt’s cities and
promote trade.
• Each city had its own
rituals, gods, and
ruler.
They had complex institutions…
• Government
– To the Egyptians, kings were gods and
called pharaohs
– Theocracy: rule is based on religious
authority
• Religion
– Egyptians believed in many gods/goddesses
(polytheism)
– Egyptians built pyramids as tombs
– Egyptians believed in the afterlife
(“Other World”)
– Mummification was used to
preserve the bodies
Mummification & Tomb Building
Think About This
• Would you care if someone hundreds of
years of now excavated your grave in the
name of science/history?
• What if the person was an archeologist?
• What if it was the grave of a deceased
family member?
• What about a President?
• What if you knew it would be used for
educational, technological, or medical
advances?
They had specialized workers…
King, queen, royal family
Wealthy landowners, government
officials, priests, army commanders
(upper class)
Merchants, artisans (middle class)
Farmers, laborers (lower class)
•Slaves became a widespread source of labor in the later periods of Egyptian history
•Women held many of the same rights as men
They had record-keeping…
• Hieroglyphics –
writing system;
means “sacred
carving”
• Egyptians invented
a better writing
surface – papyrus
reeds
They had advanced technology…
• Developed a calendar (to keep track of
seasons and floods)
• Developed written numbers for counting,
adding, and subtracting (for tax collection)
• Used geometry
• Made advances in medicine
• Created examples of
remarkable architecture
(pyramids, palaces)
So…is ancient Egypt
considered a civilization?
Let’s take a deeper look into
the Egyptian’s ideas about
death
Word Splash
Use all of the following words to try to make
one coherent sentence.
Post
Technical
Guard
Block
Use all of the following Words in
a sentence
• Sumerians
• Clay tablets
• cuneiform
Word Splash Egypt
Use all of the following words to make one
coherent sentence.
Pharaoh
Polytheism
Hieroglyphics
Nile River
Papyrus