Social Studies Essential UNIT Question: How did the ancient world contribute to the development of civilization?

Social Studies Standards Case study of an early people of the Middle East (Sumer, Egypt, or Mesopotamia): 3.1 a, 3.1 c, 3.1 d

DO-NOW: Update Table of Contents;

Focus Question # 22: What were the contributions of the Old Kingdom of Ancient Egypt? (Part 3)

Egyptians Leave Their Mark: The Egyptian pyramids were great monuments of stone, built at the direction of the pharaoh; Pyramids prepared the pharaoh’s passage to the afterlife; The Great pyramid of Pharaoh Khufu (KOO-Foo), built in 2,600 BCE, brought honor to many Egyptians; The pyramid walls contained inscriptions of the achievements of the pharaoh; There was also a dark side to the legacy of the pyramids: Many people were enslaved and forced to work as laborers on the pyramid’s construction.

Khufu’s Monument of Life & Death

A Written Legacy Early Egyptians scribes documented official court records (schedules, contracts, funeral rites, medical and religious writings, etc.) and left behind a body of literature by using a system of writing called hieroglyphs or sacred carvings: “hiero” means holy (Greek) and glyph (Greek) means to carve or shape by hand; Scribes practiced hieroglyphic writing on sheets of papyrus, which is a reed-like plant that grew in the Delta. It is the source of the word “paper.”

Making Papyrus

Continued Jean Chompollion, a Frenchman, was the first Western scholar to learn how to interpret/read Egyptian hieroglyphics, by cracking the code of the Rosetta Stone; Through the Rosetta Stone, Chompollion (Shahm-pohl-YON), learned about the Egyptian economy. Economics is the study of how one country uses its resources and coverts them into goods and services, which creates wealth for its people. For ex. Papyrus (resource) Paper (goods) Scribes (services).

Rosetta Stone Top portion was written in Egyptian hieroglyphics. The middle portion was written in modern “demotic” Egyptian. The bottom portion was written in Ancient Greek. Jean Champollion (top left) used Greek and demotic text as the basis through which he learned to read Egyptian hieroglyphics.

Preparations for Afterlife:

Sarcophagus & Canopic Jars Priests placed vital organs in jars Sarcophagus = Coffin

Tomb Raiders:

Stepped Pyramid:

Menes “The Pharaoh of Unity”

The Double Crown of Egypt Crown of Upper Egypt (White); Crown of Lower Egypt (Red) United Crown of Egypt

Lower and Upper Egypt:

Silt deposits = Rich soil Silt scooped out of the Nile Silt helps nourish soil

Egyptian Irrigation The Shadoof Canals

The Nilometer

Flax was used for clothing Egyptian Cloth Egyptian weavers Flax was used for clothing

The Flooding of the Nile River

Egyptian Transportation

Egyptian Domestication

The Nile and Its Delta

The Delta

Activity:

Homework # 31: See HW tab (Website)

Today’s Middle East http://www.worldatlas.com/webimage/countrys/me.htm

Today I Learned . . .