Download Egypt and Babylon

The Egyptians
• 5000 BC, nomads began settling along the Nile
• Farming villages that grew wheat and barley
The Two Kingdoms
• Early Egypt divided into
north and south
• Lower Egypt in the north
where Nile empties into
Mediterranean
• Upper Egypt in the south
bordering Ethiopia
The Old Kingdom
• 2700 BC to 2200 BC
the two kingdoms
began to merge
identities under one
central government
• Theocracy evolved
with a king and his
bureaucracy
• First pyramids built
during this time as
tombs for the kings
The Middle Kingdom
• Old Kingdom collapsed
• New Dynasty seized power in 2050 BC to
establish the Middle Kingdom with capital
at Thebes
The New Kingdom
• Around 1700 BC, invaders from southwest Asia
attacked Egypt
• Hyksos conquered Egypt with bronze weapons
and horse drawn chariots (Egyptians fought on
foot with copper and stone weapons)
• Around 1500BC, Ahmose led the revolt against
Hyksos rule and drove them out
• Ahmose was the first ruler of the New
Kingdom, first to use the title pharaoh
(great house of the king)
• Ahmose rebuilt Egypt to even greater glory
The Woman Pharaoh
• Around 1480 BC,
Hatshepsut came to power
when her husband
Thutmose II died.
• Her stepson was too
young to rule
• She became Regent of
Egypt
Hatshepsut
• About 7 years into her
regency, she proclaimed
herself pharaoh and wore
men’s clothing and the false
beard
• Why?
• Had to take on the persona
of a male pharaoh to gain
legitimacy and acceptance
• Huge building programs under her reign,
including the Valley of the Kings
• Thutmose III became
pharaoh upon her death
• Unlike his stepmother,
focused on military and
conquest
• Conquered northern
Mesopotamia and parts
of central Africa
• Huge wealth came into
Egypt from conquered
areas
• After Thutmose III died,
series of weak pharaohs
brought about decline
• Saved from destruction
by Ramses II
• After Ramses II died
in 1237 BC, Egypt
began to
• Finally conquered by
Libyans from the
west and Kushites
from the south
Egyptian Culture and Society
• Similar to Sumer:
a) Upper class—nobility
and priests
b) Middle class—
artisans, merchants,
scribes
c) Lower class—farmers
and laborers
d) slaves
Religion
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Polytheistic
Greater focus on afterlife
Idea of god/king
Religion evolved over time to include afterlife for
all people
• Originally only royalty and nobility had an
afterlife, but by the New Kingdom the concept
was universal
Hieroglyphics
• Writing with pictures
• Scribes
• Papyrus paper
Other Advancements
•
•
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Mathematics—geometry
Calendar with 365 days
Embalming and surgeries
medicines
Age of Empire
• What is an empire? It involves a
government that rules over multiple
cultures and/or ethnic groups.
The First Empires
After the fall of
Sumer to the
Amorites, a
series of
foreign
invasions
swept the
region.
The Akkadians
• Semitic nomads moved into
northern Mesopotamia and settled
at Akkad around 5000 BC
• 2300 BC Sargon I seizes power and
launches invasions across
Mesopotamia
• Akkadian Empire predated Egyptian
New Kingdom by 800 years
• Adopted Sumerian customs while
maintaining Akkadian language
• Akkadian control ultimately did not disrupt
Sumerian civilization. Only the ruling class
changed, along with the spoken
language—Akkadian eventually took over.
Adapted the Akkadian language to
cuneiform.
• Akkadians were basically “Sumerized”.
Akkadian Empire
• After the
death of
Sargon’s
grandson,
NaramSin, the
empire
began to
collapse.
The Amorites
• Another Semitic group from eastern Syria, the
Amorites, conquer the region
• Conquered the Sumerian city-states to the south
• Established capital at Babylon
• Greatest expansion and growth under King
Hammurabi
King and Lawgiver
• Strong leader who united most of
Mesopotamia
• Growth of trade and agriculture
• Hammurabi is most famous for
his written code of laws
282 sections with laws from
around the region—created a
type of equity of law
• Specific laws with harsh
punishments kept harmony
Babylonian Society
• Similar class system to Sumer with
laws/punishments differing for each class
• Borrowed heavily from Sumerian culture
and adopted cuneiform to their Semitic
language
Collapse of Babylon
• After Hammurabi’s
death, empire
collapsed
• Successors unable to
keep empire together
• Hittite invasion
destroyed Babylon