Ancient Middle East and Egypt Chapter Two Ancient Middle East and Egypt 3200 B.C.-500 B.C.

Egyptian Civilization Section Four Egyptian Civilization

The ancient Egyptian civilization had an organized religion. Ancient Egyptians believed that many gods and goddesses ruled the world and the afterlife.

Amon-Re was the most important Egyptian god. Most pharaohs received their right to rule from Amon-Re, but this belief evolved. This is the pharaoh Hatshepsut kneeling before Amon-Re.

The pharaoh was believed to be a god and a monarch. This is a relief on a wall at the Temple of Edfu. In it, the goddesses of the Lower Nile and the Upper Nile, each wearing the crown of their respective kingdoms, are crowning the Pharaoh with the new combined crown.

This is Horus in a relief, also from the Temple of Edfu. Ancient Egyptian pharaohs were thought to be incarnations of the god Horus. This is Horus in a relief, also from the Temple of Edfu.

Ancient Egyptians believed that a new life that was eternal would begin after death in this world. The gods Osiris and Isis symbolized the union of the male and female. They promised ancient Egyptians eternal life.

Ancient Egyptians believed that after their deaths their souls would be carried across a lake of fire to the hall of Osiris. The photograph at the right is of a papyrus from the 21st dynasty. It shows the darkened bodies of the damned floating in the Lake of Fire in the underworld, which is fed by flames from braziers along the lake’s edges. This is the Lake of Fire, painted red, with burning braziers and baboons, from the Book of the Dead.

Once across the Lake of Fire, ancient Egyptians believed they would be judged in the Hall of Osiris. In the Hall of Osiris, the dead person’s heart would be weighed against the feather of truth.

The souls of the dead were sentenced to eternal paradise or hell in the Hall of Osiris. Sinners were fed to the Eater of the Dead which had the head of a crocodile, the torso of a lion and the girth of a hippopotamus. Worthy souls then had to complete a dangerous journey through the underworld.

The Book of the Dead gave guidance for the dangerous journey to the afterlife. The Book of the Dead is a series of spells written on long sheets of papyrus. Ancient Egyptians relied upon the spells to get them safely to the Fields of Rushes where they would live forever.

The Fields of Rushes was a reflection of the real world they had just left. The Fields of Rushes are described as having blue skies, rivers and boats for travel, gods and goddesses to worship, and fields and crops to tend and harvest.

The dead were granted a plot of land in the Fields of Rushes and were expected to maintain it. To an ancient Egyptian, to live in a field of rushes was to always be near to the life-giving waters of the Nile.

Amenhotep IV changed ancient Egyptian religious beliefs Amenhotep IV changed ancient Egyptian religious beliefs. He also changed his name. Amenhotep IV was a pharaoh of the eighteenth dynasty of Egypt. Nefertiti was his queen. Tutankhamen was his son. She is known only as “The Younger Lady.” Nefertiti was not Tutankhamen’s mother. His mother is at the right.

Amenhotep IV abandoned polytheism and introduced worship centered on the Aten. Amenhotep IV took the name Akhenaten, which means “He who is of service to the Aten.” This new belief was an early form of monotheism. At left, Akhenaten and his family worship the Aten.

Aten is the disk of the sun in ancient Egyptian mythology. In his poem “Great Hymn to the Aten,” Akhenaten praises Aten as the creator, giver of life, and nurturing spirit of the world. Akhenaten forbid the worship other gods. This is a papyrus depicting Akhenaten, Nefertiti and their family under the Aten.

While Akhenaten worshiped Aten, his subjects worshipped him. After Akhenaten’s death, later pharaohs discredited him and Egypt returned to polytheism. This is an artist’s recreation of Amarna, the ancient Egyptian capital city built by Akhenaten in honor of the Aten.

Champollion’s translation of the Rosetta Stone allowed Egyptologists to decipher the meanings of thousands of surviving ancient Egyptian records. The Rosetta Stone is a text written by a group of priests in Egypt to honor the Egyptian pharaoh. It lists all of the things that the pharaoh has done that are good for the priests and the people of Egypt.

Egyptologists used the Rosetta Stone to decipher hieroglyphics. The Rosetta stone has three different alphabets; Egyptian hieroglyphs, Demotic (a Northern Egyptian script), and classical Greek. These were the languages commonly in use in Egypt when the stone was created. The Rosetta Stone was carved in 196 B.C. It was found in 1799 by French soldiers in a small village in the Delta called Rosetta.

Champollion recognized the Greek text, then deciphered the Demotic signs, and used those two translations to make educated guesses about what the hieroglyphs stood for. Many people worked on deciphering hieroglyphs over several hundred years. After many years of studying the Rosetta Stone, Jean-François Champollion deciphered hieroglyphs in 1822.

some more final exam questions… and now… some more final exam questions…

Which is a characteristic shared by the Ancient Egyptian Civilization, Ancient Mesopotamian civilizations, Ancient Indus Valley Civilization, and Ancient Chinese Civilization? a) Anyone who wasn’t wealthy was a slave. b) Each had an organized religion. c) They used the same coins for money. d) They spoke the same language.

Which is a characteristic shared by the Ancient Egyptian Civilization, Ancient Mesopotamian civilizations, Ancient Indus Valley Civilization, and Ancient Chinese Civilization? a) Anyone who wasn’t wealthy was a slave. b) Each had an organized religion. c) They used the same coins for money. d) They spoke the same language.

The Egyptian system of writing is referred to as a) cuneiform. b) hieroglyphs. c) Linear B script. d) characters.

The Egyptian system of writing is referred to as a) cuneiform. b) hieroglyphs. c) Linear B script. d) characters.