Egypt

Nile river valley

The Nile would flood each year, depositing rich black silt in the river valley. This made the soil fertile. Egypt outside of the Nile flood plain is a desert, and not good for farming.

Time Periods in Ancient Egypt Old Kingdom c. 2700 B.C. – 2200 B.C. Middle Kingdom 2040 B.C. – 1786 B.C. New Kingdom 1570 B.C. – 1085 B.C.

The first dynasty (beginning of Old Kingdom) began when the king Narmer united Upper and Lower Egypt. dynasty – a series of rulers from the same family

Palette of Narmer

Written Language Three different scripts were used in ancient Egypt: Hieroglyphic Sacred text, used for monumental inscriptions and religious text Hieratic A more cursive form of Hieroglyphic, used for sacred text as well as administrative text Demotic A later text used mainly for administrative purposes

Heiroglypic

Heiratic

Demotic

The Rosetta Stone Written in three texts: Heiroglyphic, Demotic, and Ancient Greek Allowed scholars to learn to translate ancient Egyptian texts