River Valley Civilizations: EGYPT 3500 to 500 BC Nile River The “Cradles of Civilization”

Egypt Geography Nile Delta and Nile River Valley (Northeast Africa)

Nile Delta The delta was located in Lower Egypt (northern Egypt - lower in elevation) Delta: broad, marshy, triangular area of land formed by deposits of silt at the mouth of a river.

Protected by deserts and seas View from space shuttle

Egyptian Government Pharoahs were rulers thought to be gods. They had absolute power (complete control) over the Egyptian Empire. They were thought to be responsible for making the sun rise, the Nile flood, and crops grow. Believed responsible for making the sun rise, the Nile to flood, and crops to grow

Egypt, had a rigid class system and slavery was accepted.

Egyptian Religion Like other River Valley peoples, Egyptians were polytheistic (believed in many gods).

Hieroglyphics: Pictures stood for sounds as well as ideas Egyptian Writing Means sacred carving Hieroglyphics: Pictures stood for sounds as well as ideas

KUSH Also called Nubia Located on the upper (southern) Nile Present-day Sudan

Kush and Egypt Ideas and goods flowed along the Nile between Kush and Egypt (Lower Nile) Nubian born Egyptian Queen. Kush (Upper Nile)

Gifts for the King from a country called Nubia Egypt dominated Kush for 1000 years Gifts for the King from a country called Nubia which was to the south of Egypt. Can you find gold rings, a baby leopard, a monkey , an ebony log? Gifts for the King from a country called Nubia

Kush conquered Egypt and established its own dynasty on the Egyptian throne Pharoah Taharka 690-664 BC Shabaka was the brother of Piye, the Kushite king who conquered Upper and Lower Egypt reestablishing central authority in the politically unstable land. It should be noted that the Egyptians did not treat these Nubians as foreign invaders but rather as close allies; the vast similarities in culture would readily explain this. Though Piye chose to govern from Kush, Shabaka instead completed the total reunification of Egypt and ruled from Waset. It was during this time that the then already ancient religous doctrine, The Memphite Theology, was copied onto a granite stone. (Photo courtesy of Ancient Egypt)

Kush was eventually conquered by the East African Kingdom of Axum

Contributions of Kush Meroitic script (writing)

Steep sided pyramids and palaces                      

Gold, copper, and iron working.

Kush

Golden Age of Meroe After the Assyrians conquered Egypt, Kush continued to prosper in the booming trade between Africa, Arabia and India Its last high point in ancient times was the state of Meroe (MAYR-o-way), a great cultural center whose scribes developed an alphabet around 180 BC to better express the Nubian language, which until then had been written with Egyptian hieroglyphs. The Meroitic alphabet is still largely undeciphered, and until linguists crack its code, the sizable number of remaining written records are inaccessible. O’Connor says once the linguistic puzzle has been solved, we’ll know more about the last days of ancient Nubia, which faded around 400 AD. In 500, Nubians turned from their own Egyptian-influenced religion to Christianity, and the region converted heavily to Islam a thousand years later. Scholars began e

Nubian Queen Nubian Queen Ahmes Nefertari Ahmes Nefertari of Egypt around 1550 B.C of Egypt around 1550 B.C