1. “The Gift of the Nile” 3100 B.C.E.
Egypt
“The Gift of the Nile”
3100 B.C.E.

2. The Gift of the Nile Outside the Nile river valley, was desert
Survival and success= source of fresh water

3. Egypt Rule by king- 3100 BCE Continued for 2600 years
Survival benefits
Rule by king
Floods every July, August, and September.
Natural irrigation, nutrient silt for fertilization
Flanked by desert protected against external invasion on the east and west
Cataracts- impassable waterfalls in the river, buffer invasion from the South
Mediterranean Sea was easy to defend on the North
Rule by king BCE
Continued for 2600 years
Eventually called Pharaohs after the palaces they built

4. Early Egypt: before the kings
12,000 BCE using stones to grind wild grasses into food, eventually became flour
6,000 BCE wheat, barley, grasses and cereals, domesticated sheep and goats
3,600 BCE first string of villages every 20 miles along river
3,300BCE first walled towns appear as population grows

5. First intermediate period (2200-2040 BCE)
Egypt
Egyptian history is broken into four time periods:
Old Kingdom ( BCE)
First intermediate period ( BCE)
Middle Kingdom ( BCE)
Second intermediate period ( BCE)

6. Written word
One of the first written word developed: Hieroglyphs- ‘sacred carvings’
Wrote on stone, limestone, pottery, and papyrus
Start for business and administration
Grew into autobiographies, stories, wisdom texts of moral instruction, love poems, chronological lists of kings, religious inscriptions, spells to protect the dead, biographies, hymns to gods, prayers, and mathematical, astronomical and medical texts

8. Unification of Egypt Menes- first king of Egypt
Known as Early Dynastic period
Lasted about 400 years BCE
Monumental building and
funerary objects increase
Uneven distribution of wealth
National religious ideology
Centralized control of political administration
Artistic productivity

9. Egyptian Religion Polytheistic- many gods with different roles
Isis, Osiris, and Horus- most important gods
Chief gods of Egypt
Amon re- universal god- ram headed
Anubis- god of funerals- Jackal headed
Hathor- goddess of love, woman with cows horns
Horus- god of light-falcon headed
Isis- goddess of magic and fertility
Nephthus- funerary goddess
Osiris- ruler of the underworld- breaded man
Ptah- patron of the arts- mummy
Seth- god of evil
Thoth- supreme scribe- dog headed baboon

10. Horus
Anibus
Isis
Osiris
Ptah

11. Hathor
Seth
Thoth

12. Egyptian Mummification
Horus became the patron god of the kings.
Kings believed if they lived ordered lives, they would be reunited with Horus in the afterlife
This inspired mummification and the construction of the pyramids as final resting places for the pharaohs until they their soul and life force could make its way to the afterlife.

13. Pyramids and Fortresses

14. Egypt- period of disunity
Old Kingdom falls
First intermediate period
Provincial officials collected taxes privately and kept private armies.
Famine was prevalent
The Nile didn’t flood as high, irrigation technology couldn’t keep up
Old Kingdom fell in 2181 BCE
Local officials held power
Then two cities emerged in a contest for power:
Herakleopolis in the North
Thebes in the south

15. Egypt - reunifies Second Intermediate period Middle kingdom
King Mentuhotpe of Thebes defeats his rivals and reunifies the kingdom
Trade flourished
Arts flourished
Egypt’s power and influence spread to countries in the Middle East.
Invasions by the Hyksos ended the Middle Kingdom influence and control
King Amenhotep IV
Changed the religion to monotheistic
Aten- god of the sun chief god
Built a new capital city to practice his new religion
When he died future Egyptian kings dismantled the city and moved the capital back to Thebes, changed the religion back to its original form

16. The Indus Valley Civilizations

17. Indus Valley Moved into the forested river valley in the winter months
Moved back to the hills in the summer
Started to farm along the river
Trade by boat along the Indus and into the Persian gulf
Arts and crafts: Pottery making, dying, metal work, bead making, sculpture in stone and bronze, first use of cotton as a fiber
Artifacts show a classless society