The Nile Valley

Settling the Nile/ A Mighty River  When did people start to settle this area?  What did the Nile provide the Egyptians?  How long is the Nile?  What are cataracts?

When did people start to settle this area?  Between 6,000 and 5,000 B.C.

What did the Nile provide the Egyptians?  Drinking water, baths, farming, cooking, and cleaning. It provided FISHING and supported plants/animals.

How long is the Nile?  4,000 miles

What are cataracts?  Wild Rapids, prevent ships from traveling on up the Nile

A Sheltered Land  What is a delta?  What deserts surround the Nile?  What did the deserts provide the people of Egypt?  How were the villages in Egypt different then the villages in Mesopotamia?

What is a delta?  Low fan shaped area of fertile soil, at the mouth of a river.

What deserts surround the Nile?  The Sahara and the Eastern Desert

What did the deserts provide the people of Egypt?  Protection from enemies.

How were the villages in Egypt different then the villages in Mesopotamia?  They were friendly with one another.

The River People/Regular Flooding  How were Nile floods different then Tigris and Euphrates floods?  How did this affect the Egyptians?  Why did they call their land Kemet?

How were Nile floods different then Tigris and Euphrates floods?  They were gentler and more dependable. Egyptians were able to farm and lively securely.

How did this affect the Egyptians?  Again they didn’t have to worry about things like Mesopotamians.

Why did they call their land Kemet?  They called the dark, fertile mud Kemet, meaning black land.

Nile River vs Tigris/Euphrates  The T.T.A is whack yo!  They want you to travel back to 6,000 B.C. and start a new civilization. They said it is up to you if you want to settle in the Nile River Valley or the Fertile Crescent.  Which one should you choose? (YOU MUST CHOOSE NILE RIVER VALLEY AND PROVIDE 5 Reasons why you did so.)  Think about the geography and physical attributes of the two valleys.

How did the Egyptians use the Nile?  What types of crops did the Egyptians grow?  How did Egyptians use irrigation?  What is a shadoof?  What is papyrus?  What did the Egyptians use it for?

What types of crops did the Egyptians grow?  Wheat, barley, and flax seeds in the wet, rich soil.

How did Egyptians use irrigation?  They dug basins to hold flood waters for later use.

What is a shadoof? A bucket attached to a long pole, to lift water from the Nile to the basins.

What is papyrus?  A reed plant that grows along the shore of the nile.

What did the Egyptians use Papyrus for?  PAPER, baskets, sandals, and river rafts

What were Hieroglyphics?  What were Hieroglyphics?  Who could read and write?

What were Hieroglyphics?  Egyptians developed their own style of writing. It was made up of thousands of picture symbols.

 oglyph.htm

Who could read and write?  Egyptian Males

A United Egypt/The Rise of Government  What did surpluses of food lead to?  Why were governments needed?  Where was the kingdom of Lower Egypt?  Where was the kingdom of Upper Egypt?

What did surpluses of food lead to?  Specialization, and then trade.

Why were governments needed?  Control irrigation, ration food supplies, building projects, land disputes

Where was the kingdom of Lower Egypt?  Nile Delta

Where was the kingdom of Upper Egypt?  To the South, UPRIVER, is the UPPER KINGDOM.

Hieroglyphics Are Whack Yo! Write a sentence in Hieroglyphics, then with the person next to you see if you can translate each others sentences. The sentence must be a fact about Egypt that we learned today.

Egypt’s Ruling Families  Who united the two Kingdoms of Egypt?  Where did he rule from?  What are dynasties?  What 3 time periods was Egypt broken into?

Who united the two Kingdoms of Egypt?  Narmer, he used his armies to do it.

Where did he rule from?  Memphis, he built it between the two Kingdoms.

What are dynasties?  A line of rulers from one family.

What 3 Kingdom periods was Egypt broken into?  Old, Middle, and New Kingdom

Early Egyptian Life  What is a class system?  Who was in Egypt’s upper class?  Who was in Egypt’s middle class?  Who was in Egypt’s lower class?

What is a class system?  People held different places in society depending on what work they did and how much wealth or power they had.

Who was in Egypt’s upper class?  Nobles, priests, and other wealthy Egyptians

Who was in Egypt’s middle class?  Traders, Artisans, shopkeepers, and scribes.  Then Farmers and Herders

Who was in Egypt’s lower class?  Unskilled workers

Family Life  Pretty much the same as Sumerian women.

 Venn Diagram-Egypt vs Mesopotamia  Give 4 examples of how Egyptian Life was different then Mesopotamian life. Then give 2 ways it was similar.

Social Class is Nasty Fool.  In the book Social class is shown in the form of a pyramid. Please represent the social classes of Egypt in another way. Be Creative, include the classes and who is in what class. NO TRIANGLES. Then write 4 sentences describing your social class picture. You have to draw some of the people inside your larger drawing.