ANCIENT EGYPTRule of the God King

Nile River

4000 miles long Central Africa north to Mediterranean Sea Desert Reliable

Flooding in June, receding in October Convenient for agriculture

Deposited fertile soil Excellent Communication and

Transportation River flows north Winds blow south

Egypt

Geographically isolated Deserts – east and west Marsh – Southern Sudan Shallows – Mediterranean Sea

Old Kingdom (2700 – 2181 BCE)

Blessed by gods Regular and fertile flooding Assumed order, didn’t legislate it

King Living god Political and religious unity = stability Ma’at – proper behavior brought prosperity

Ptah-hotep (2450 BCE) Pharaoh – “great house”

Old Kingdom (2700 – 2181 BCE)

Prosperity and peace Abundance of crops

Farming methods Irrigation

Mineral resources Copper

Trade Mediterranean Sea Nubia

Gold, ivory, gems, aromatics Middle East

Textiles, wood

Family Life

“If you are prosperous you should establish a household and love your wife as is fitting…Make her heart glad as long as you live.”

– Ptah-hotep

Family Life

Loving family Husband and wife side-by-side

Implies gender equality Couple embracing Smiling Children below

Religion

Ra Sun

Amun The Hidden One

Khepri Movement of the Sun

Set Chaos

Religion

Geb Earth

Nut Sky

Religion

Isis Magic, motherhood, and fertility

Osiris Nile and the afterlife

Anubis Judgement

Hieroglyphs

“Sacred writing” Used for religious or magical power Represents real or mythical object and its

power Types of characters:

Pictogram – object Ideogram – abstract idea Phonogram – speech sounds

Didn’t change much over time

Other Writing

Hieratic “Cursive” hieroglyphs Still looked very similar to hieroglyphs

Demotic Day-to-day writing Lost many pictographic elements

Papyrus Paper-like material

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Pyramids

Proof of excess, greatness Saqqara

First pyramid Pharaoh Djoser Step pyramid

Designed by Imhotep (2650 BCE) Similar to ziggurat

Made of cut stone, not mud brick “Stairway to heaven”

Pyramids

Great Pyramid at Giza Pharaoh Khufu (2590 BCE)

13 acres More than 2 million blocks 20 years to construct 100,000 laborers

Pyramids

Tombs Houses for departed spirits Same food and goods as in life Immortality Afterlife

Improved version of living world Happy Field of Food

Afterlife

“Death is before me todayLike a man’s longing to see his home

When he has spend many years in captivity”

--Ancient Egyptian Poem

Sphinx

Pharaoh Khafra (2500 BCE) Largest monolithic sculpture

Carved from bedrock

Riddle of the Sphinx

"A thing there is whose voice is one;Whose feet are four and two and three.So mutable a thing is noneThat moves in earth or sky or sea.When on most feet this thing doth go,Its strength is weakest and its pace most slow."

First Intermediate Period(2181 – 2140 BCE)

Climate change Drought in Nubia Low floods in Egypt

Pepi II (2270 – 2180 BCE) Strong ruler Ruled 90 years

Average life expectancy: 40 years Grew weak in later years

Authority broke down, couldn’t maintain ma’at Series of short reigns/ineffective kings

First Intermediate Period(2181 – 2140 BCE)

“Everything is filthy: there is no such thing as clean linen these days. The dead are thrown into the river… The ladies of the nobility exclaim: ‘If only we had something to eat!’ They are forced to prostitute their daughters. They are reduced to sleeping with men who were once too badly off to take a woman.”

-- Ancient Egyptian

Middle Kingdom(2060 – 1650 BCE)

Amenemhat I of Thebes Restored peace to Nile Valley “None was hungry in my years, none thirsted then;

men dwelled in peace.” Conquered Nubia

Lots of gold Brought sub-Saharan Africa into contact with

Mediterranean world Integrated African goods and elements into Egyptian

culture Engineering projects

17,000 acres of new irrigated land Exapanded trade with Middle East

Second Intermediate Period(1650 – 1570 BCE)

Nubian revolt Broke away from Egyptian control Took all their gold with them

Invasion of the Hyksos Settled in Nile Delta New warfare technology

Bronze weapons Chariots Body armor

New Kingdom (1570 – 1085 BCE)

Egyptians adopted Hyksos military technology

Overthrew the Hyksos No longer relied on geographic isolation Foreign wars established Egyptian Empire

New Kingdom(1570 – 1085 BCE)

Hatshepsut (1504 – 1482 BCE) Female pharaoh Diplomat, not warmonger

Focused on trade, rebuilding kingdom

New Kingdom(1570 – 1085 BCE)

Amenhotep IV (r. 1377 – 1360 BCE) Priests becoming as powerful as pharaohs Consolidated gods into single god:

Aten: the sun-disk Changed his name to Akhenaten

“follower of Aten” Known as “the Criminal”

New Kingdom(1570 – 1085 BCE)

Tutankhamen (r. 1347 – 1338 BCE) Renounced his father’s religious views Began to restore the old gods Died at age 18

New Kingdom(1570 – 1085 BCE)

Ramses II (1279 – 1213 BCE) Reestablished imperial frontiers in Syria Restored peace under traditional gods Negotiated treaty with Hittites

First recorded non-aggression pact Built many temples and monuments to glorify

himself

“Ozymandias”Percy Bysshe Shelley

I met a traveller from an antique landWho said: "Two vast and trunkless legs of stoneStand in the desert. Near them, on the sand,Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,Tell that its sculptor well those passions readWhich yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed:And on the pedestal these words appear:'My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!'Nothing beside remains. Round the decayOf that colossal wreck, boundless and bareThe lone and level sands stretch far away."