Download blank student outlines for notes, if lost.

Ancient Egypt
I. Geography created opportunity for this great empire.
A. The Nile River created three separate regions. (Read p 52-57)
1. Above the rapids, this region was isolated from _____ travel.
2. _______ Egypt was a band of _________ land next to the river.
3. _______ Egypt was _____ miles from the Mediterranean Sea.
4. The Nile created a _____________ link between upper & lower
B. Egypt is the gift of the ________ ____________
1. Rains in __________ cause seasonal _______________
2. When the waters receded, a rich, black ____________
3. Peasants farmed this land for __________ & _____________
4. The Nile was worshipped as a ____ who gave _____ & _______
C. Egypt was mostly protected on all four sides.
1. Red Sea to east and Mediterranean Sea to north limit access
2. The Nile ______ upriver kept many from traveling that way.
3. To the west was the Libyan _____________
4. The Isthmus of Suez provided the only __________ route.
D. Egypt developed into a single kingdom.
3. They were responsible for the
4. They lived on forever, so their tombs were to be
a. Pyramids were large stone structures with
b. The pharaoh’s body was mummified to
c. Every need was left for the pharaoh from
B. The Old Kingdom (2660-2180 BC) (4th-8th Dynasties)
1. Most of the Great Pyramids at Dahshur and Giza
a. One theory today is that it was not
b. The pyramid served both as a gigantic training
project and as a source of 'Egyptianisation'. The workers who
left their communities of maybe 50 or 100 people, to live in a
town of 15,000 or more strangers, returned to the provinces
with new skills, a wider outlook and a renewed sense of
national unity that balanced the loss of loyalty to local
traditions.
c. The use of shifts of workers spread the burden
and brought about a thorough redistribution of pharaoh's
wealth in the form of rations.
2. Pyramids and elite tombs include the first extensive
1. Farm formed into small ___________
2. These grew into ______ - regional districts - with rituals & gods
3. From __________________ traders, Egypt developed _______
and formed into 2 _______________
4. About ________ BC Upper Egyptian King __________ united
inscriptions - hieroglyphics.
3. 2125-1975 BC 1st Interm Per (9th-11th Dynasties)
a. Egypt splits into two smaller states ruled from
b. Thebes
both kingdoms and crowns and moved the capital to between the two
c. Division brought about a decentralization of
regions. (The _______________ Kingdom)
d. This period is often called the First Illness,
II. Egypt rises and falls through 3 kingdoms, but the pharaoh
A. The pharaohs were
1. They were not mere representatives, but actual
2. They were to be
C. Middle Kingdom 1975-1640 BC (11th-14th Dynasties)
1. Mentuhotep
2. The Pharaoh was not an absolute monarch but
rather a feudal lord, and his vassals held their land in their own
power.
3. The Middle Kingdom reached its zenith under the XII
4. It advanced up the Nile to the 2nd Cataract.
5. A uniform system of
6. Classical period of art and literature
7. Afterlife for commoners, taking away from the
8. After 214 years the XII dynasty came to an end in the
1640s, when Egypt passed for more than a century under the
Hyksos (the so-called shepherd kings), who were apparently
Semites from Syria.
a. 1630-1520 BC 2nd Interm Per (15th-17th D)
b. Hyksos kings seize power in
c. Theban 17th dynasty in
d. Egyptians learned a lot from Hyksos.
1.)
2.)
3.)
4.)
9. Amasis I (Ahmose I) expelled the Hyksos from
Egypt, and founded the XVIII dynasty, and the New Kingdom.
D. New Kingdom 1539-1075 BC (18th-20th Dynasties)
1. The XVIII dynasty is the most important and the
2. The lands
3. Its boundaries were extended into Asia, with a
foreign province reaching the Euphrates.
4. Rule of woman pharaoh Hatshepsut, Akhnaton
neglected his rule in the pursuit of religion, an attempt to
introduce a monotheistic religion (he was the sun god - Aton)
5. Tutankhamen is important for his law code and his
enforcement of those laws through the courts.
6. Architecture was at its zenith with the enormous and
impressive buildings at and around Thebes. Elaborate tombs
of the Valley of Kings
7. Ramesses II rules for 67 years.
a.
b. Fathered
c.
d.
8. Worn out after conflicts with the Hittites, Egypt began
to be ruled by the Theban priesthood in a sort of theocracy for
450 years.
9. Later they were ruled by a Libyan dynasty came to
power, then by the alien rule of Nubians, black Africans who
advanced from the south to the delta, and finally attacked by
10. Egypt will ultimately be conquered by both the
III. Egyptian way of life
A. Nobles were almost at the top of the Egyptian social
1. Nobles served the pharaoh as
2. Women also served as officials and priests, for they
3. Nobles lived in luxury:
4. One could move from peasantry to nobility by
B. Peasants led a life of toil.
1. Their lives were not important, so scribes wrote
2. Worked land owned
3. Worked for the pharaoh
4. Found time for music and games, and were
C. Slaves
1. Slavery had existed from at least the
2. It grew greatly during the New Kingdom from
3. Slaves were
cataracts (54)
4. Slave families were forced to
delta (54)
D. Religion was a central part of life in Egypt.
1. Religion taught that you should always try to act
2. ___________________ was to follow this belief.
3. Everyone was to be judged by Osiris
4. Outcome was either being eaten by the Devourer
5. In the afterlife
6. The job of the priests was to use magic charms to
7. One Pharaoh tried to change religion.
a. Polytheism is the
b. Monotheism is the
c. He said that Aton (the sun god) was the only god,
d. He ordered all other cults to shut down
E. Egyptians studied many subjects. (read p 68-69)
1. Writing
a. _______________ sacred carvings or picture writing.
b. Written on _______ and ____________ from reeds paperlike material.
c. The _____________ Stone - hieroglyphics, Egyptian, Greek
2. _______________ system needed for taxes, but clumsy
3. From need to survey after each flood, the Egyptians developed
the origin of __________________
4. A calendar to help with planting was created based on the
_____ ________
5. __________________, though they used __________, also
used herbs and they knew other medical info.
dynasty (58)
process of mummification (58)
Egyptian cosmetics (65)
maat (66)
Book of the Dead (67)