Egypt

(Chapter 2)

I. Ancient Kingdoms of the Nile

Geography: The “Gift of the Nile.”

The Nile, 4000 miles long. Upper Egypt is to the south, Lower Egypt is to the north

At the top of the Nile is the delta. The land about 10 miles wide along the Nile is fertile. Just beyond it on both side is desert.

As desert, Egypt had no violent storms. Egypt had no great floods -- nor myth of a great flood. Nor did the Egyptians have the problem with accumulation of salt which periodically ruined Sumerian farms. And living in a desert, Egyptians had little to fear from wild animals. People along the Nile worked with more cheer and confidence than did the people in Sumer. The abundance of food along the Nile allowed a rise in population greater than elsewhere in Africa, and, along the Nile, small villages with rectangular houses of dried mud grew into towns.

Perhaps the most influential aspect of the Nile was its yearly flooding.

1. This provided them with a sense of stability. The Nile flooded every year and made their civilization possible. Nature was their friend. The gods were not mean.

2. It’s regularity also gave them as sense of the passing of time. (They were the first to develop a calendar). They seemed obsessed about the afterlife. Egyptians hoped the afterlife would not be much different than life on Earth.

(overhead: World Art Transparencies #2)

Tomb painting was used to show the spirits what type of life a person lived on earth and what they hoped for in the afterlife. What can be said about this picture?

1) he is a noble (wealthy)

2) he likes to hunt (for sport, no so much a necessity any more)

3) the presence of fish and birds represents abundance.

4) he wants to be united with his family.

As among the Sumerians, communities came into conflict and warred against each other. Local kings vied with each other for wider power and control. And by 3200 BCE, people along the northern 600 miles (960 kilometers) of the Nile had amalgamated into a northern and a southern kingdom. The two kingdoms remained antagonistic toward each other, and in what was most likely a series of wars across generations during the 2900s, one of the kingdoms conquered the other. The conquering king, according to legend, was Menes -- the first king of all Egypt.

With the unification of Egypt came a new era of peace and security along the Nile. Along with unity, peace was served too by natural barriers against wandering tribes: the Mediterranean Sea in the north, vast deserts to the east and west, and a great mountain range to the south. Peace benefited Egypt's economy. Egypt's new dynasty of kings provided work for an increasing number of craftsmen. Carpentry increased, aided by the use of copper tools. Brick and stone of fine quality were drawn from nearby quarries and used in building.

Myth of Osiris

Ra, the sun god, found his wife cheating on him and cursed her so that she could have no children on any of the 360 days in the year. She looked for help to Ra’s rival, the moon god, who happened to gain a small portion of the sun’s light—enough to have a full moon every month. Taken together, his light was equal to the full sunlight of 5 days, so he added 5 days to the year. The curse had been broken and now Ra’s wife could have children on these five days.

Her five children:

1) Osiris (when he was born a voice proclaimed that he was the lord of all the earth)

2) Horus

3) Seth

4) Isis

5) Nephthys

Osiris married Isis and ruled Egypt. He taught the Egyptians Agriculture and raising animals. Then he left to spread this knowledge to other lands.

While gone, brother Seth became jealous and plotted against the king. He had a box built according the Osiris’ exact dimensions and during a celebration, asked who could fit in it. Osiris fit perfectly. When he got in, the lid was nailed down and molten led was poured in. Throws it into the Nile. Isis begins long journey to find the box. She finally gets it from the Nile, brings it back and mourns

Seth finds the box and furiously takes the body of Osiris and cuts it into 14 pieces and has them scattered across Egypt (there were 14 temples in Egypt where these pieces were found.) Isis collected them, wrapped them up, and threw them into the Nile. The power of the Nile restored the body and resurrected Osiris into the afterlife.

Isis had been secretly raising their son, Horus, to protect him from Seth. Horus grew up and his forces challenged the forces of Seth. The battle continues as the struggle between good and evil. Evil often won, but one day Seth would be victorious and his father, Osiris, would return from the underworld and rule the earth again.

This myth explained three things to the Egyptians:

1. Why there is a struggle between good and evil and how it will end.

2. Why there are 14 temples to Osiris throughout Egypt

3. The resurrection power of the Nile

II. The Three Periods of Egyptian History

The History of ancient Egypt started in about 2700 B.C. and lasted until 1100 B.C. (Contrast B.C. and A.D) This time is divided into three periods known as the Old, Middle, and New Kingdoms. During this time Egypt remained united and power was in the hands of a ruling family, or dynasty, and was passed down from generation to generation.

A. The Old Kingdom

During the Old Kingdom some basic features of Egyptian civilization began.

1) Rule by the Pharaoh

The Pharaohs claimed divine support. They claimed the pharaoh was a god and had absolute power in the kingdom. The pharaoh owned all the land; Egypt belonged completely to him. Pharaohs also selected ministers, or viziers, to help them administrate the kingdom. They ran the day-to-day business of Egypt and their instructions were written down by scribes.

2) Egyptian writing was first used

The Egyptians came up with a form of picture writing called hieroglyphics. It was used to keep records, write poetry, record laws, and preserve myths. They also developed a type of writing material made from papyrus. For over one thousand years this writing was not understood and the lives and culture of the Egyptians was a mystery. Then in 1801 Napoleon discovered the Rosetta Stone and hieroglyphics could be read.

3) Pyramids and mummification

The Old Kingdom is most famous because the great pyramids were built at Giza during this time as tombs for the pharaohs. A pharaoh would begin construction on his tomb as soon as he became king. It took as many as 20,000 workers over 20 years to build each of the great pyramids. People’s bodies were preserved through mummification.

FACTS: The Great Pyramid at Giza

· Its base is 13 acres and sits on a solid piece of rock.

· The four corners of the pyramid are lined up nearly perfect with the four points of the compass (North, South, East and West).

· The length of each side of the Great Pyramid is 365.2422 units, the exact number of days in a year.

· The height of the pyramid is 232.52 units. If you multiply the length of the base by 2 and divide by its height, you get 3.14 (p)

· The two diagonals of the pyramid’s base is 25,827 small units. The polar star alpha draconis was lined up with the site shaft to shine into the burial chamber in the year 2170 B.C. That star will not be visible again from the burial chamber for another 25,827 years.

Note: This has led some historians to conclude that the pyramids are not only tombs, but collections of knowledge that the Egyptians put on display for posterity.

The Old Kingdom came to an end after several crop failures and the high cost of public works (pyramids) got out of hand. There was over one hundred years of disorder until Egyptian civilization recovered and the Middle Kingdom emerged.

B. The Middle Kingdom

The Middle Kingdom was not as productive as the Old. Although they did build a major drainage project and expand the amount of land they could farm, there were many problems.

1) The flooding of the Nile became less standard

2) there were many rebellions and much corruption

3) the biggest event of this period was the invasion by the Hyksos, a group of people who lived in the delta area of the Nile. They used horse-drawn chariots. Although they conquered the Egyptians, they were so impressed with their culture that they assimilated it. They ruled Egypt for over 100 years.

C. The New Kingdom

During this time powerful pharaohs conquered a large Egyptian empire. Egypt came into contact with several other civilizations.

1) The most powerful pharaoh of this period was Ramses II. He built more public works than any other pharaoh and extended the Egyptian empire into the Middle East.

2) During the New Kingdom, a pharaoh named Akhentaton tried to change the religious myth that held Egyptian culture together. He claimed he was the god Aton rather than Amon-Re. He seems to have attempted to set up monotheism. He and his queen Nefertiti moved the capital city to break free from the powerful priests of Amon-Re. This plan did not work, and weakened people’s religious beliefs. Akhentaton’s son in law, Tutenkamen, moved the capital back to its original place and established the traditional religion.

3) Soon the power of Egypt declined. They fell to the Nubians from the South.

III. Egyptian Social

A. Social Life

1) Like most ancient civilizations, Egypt had a class system. At the top were the pharaohs who were supposed to be gods. At the bottom were the peasant farmers. By far, most Egyptians were peasant farmers and their daily lives consisted of hard work.

2) Although women did not have complete equality with men, that had many rights that most women in other ancient civilizations did not have. They could inherit and own property, they could enter into business, they could divorce and they had legal rights to the court systems. They could not become scribes or hold government jobs.

Sumer and other Ancient Civilizations

I. The Sumerians

A. Geography

From the Persian Gulf to the banks of the Mediterranean Sea there is a stretch of land called the Fertile Crescent. The eastern part of the Fertile Crescent lies between two rivers (Mesopotamia=the land between two rivers.) This was were civilization began with the Sumerians.

1) geographical features of Mesopotamia

a. It was very hot (in the summer, 120F in the shade.)

b. The rivers there (Tigris and Euphrates) violently flooded. Unlike the Nile in Egypt, they did not flood with regularity; they were unpredictable.

c. they were open to invasion; unlike Egypt, geographical feature did not protect or isolate them.

2) because of all of this, they had a very negative outlook on life. They did not believe the gods were nice to them (unlike Egypt).

B. Government

1) They had warrior kings; they believed their kings were gods.

2) Sumerian civilization was divided into city-states

a. each city had its own king; they never united into a large empire

b. because they never united, there were never able to resist foreign invasion

C. Religion

1) they were polytheistic (they believed in many gods)

2) the king was also the high priest (religion and government were the same.)

3) they attempted to please the gods by performing sacrifices (animal and human) in temples. These temples sat on the top of pyramids called ziggurats.

D. Achievements of the Sumerians

1) their greatest achievement was the writing. This was probably invented to keep records for trade and business. Their writing is called cuneiform.

2) They invented the wheel.

3) advanced mathematics (algebra and geometry)

4) school

5) they divided time into units of 60 (60 seconds in a minute, 60 minutes in an hour)

6) they came up with jewelry, dice, and were the first to brew beer.

II. Other Ancient Civilizations

A. The Babylonians.

1) the most important contribution of the Babylonians to history was the rule of law

2) Their famous king who put together this law was Hammurabi.

3) Their law was called the Code of Hammurabi

a. The Code of Hammurabi was based on the idea of an “eye for an eye.”

b. The Code of Hammurabi was necessary because the Babylonian empire was growing. The common set of laws brought unity to an empire made up of many different groups of people.

B. The Hittites

1) The Hittites were the first to make us of iron.

a. This technology gave them an advantage in war

b. They tried to keep this knowledge secret.

2) The started the colony of Troy in Asia Minor. After the Hittite empire fell, this city would remain strong. They fought the Greeks in the famous Trojan Wars.

C. The Assyrians

1) They used terror and brutality to intimidate and rule other people

2) They use of terror made others hate them. As soon as they became weak, their many enemies formed an alliance and destroyed them.

3) The formed the largest library of the ancient world in their capital city of Nineveh.

D. The Phoenicians

1) developed the first alphabet

2) They started many colonies, including Carthage, which would remain strong and challenge the Romans for control of the Mediterranean Sea.

E. The Persians

1) their most famous leader was called Darius. During his reign:

a. the Persians established the largest empire in the world at that time.

b. they developed standard units of measure for trade

c. they built hundreds of miles of roads to connect the empire

2) A new religion developed in Persia called Zoroastrianism.

a. The founder of this religion, Zoroaster, believed that history is directed by a battle between the forces of good and the forces of evil. Each person much chose which of these spirits they were going to obey.

b. At the end of all history, every person will be judged by their works and would enter paradise or a place of eternal suffering.

F. The Hebrews

1) Began in Mesopotamia until Abraham left for the Promised Land.

2) They believed in one God (monotheism)

3) They believe God made a covenant with them and that they were chosen for a special purpose in history.

4) When the Romans destroyed Jerusalem, the Jews were spread all over the world (the Diaspora). They retained their own traditions, dress, and identity. They were often the object of persecution.