1. 9/25/2015 What is your definition of an empire
9/25/2015 What is your definition of an empire? What system and/or skills do you think are necessary to run an empire?

2. Egyptian Life and Culture

3. Architecture and the Arts
The Pyramids!
About 80 pyramids still stand including the Great Pyramid
Built in 2600 B.C., it covers about 13 acres at base
Originally 480 feet high and with 2 million blocks of stone each weighing 5,000 pounds

4. Engineers built ramps and levers which were used to move the heavy stones
Sculptors also crafted small statues of rulers and animals and artists painted everyday life

5. Science and Math Calendar
First lunar, until unmovable star was noticed
12 months of 30 days+5 days for holidays=365
Used a number system based on ten, fractions, whole numbers, and geometry
Similar to decimal system

6. Education
Only an elite group of people went to school…scribes or clerks
Learned to read/write to work for the government
Schools were usually attached to temples

7. The Afterlife Everyone, including animals, had an afterlife
In the next life, after the person died:
Their heart would be weighed on a scale against a sacred feather (the symbol of truth)
If the scale balanced the person told the truth
If it didn’t their heart was thrown to the Eater of the Dead

8. Mummification: Process in which bodies were preserved
The body and organs were then placed in tombs with other objects considered necessary for the afterlife
Number and value of additional objects depended on importance of the dead person
Book of the Dead was placed for guide

9. The Gods Many villages had their own gods
Gods often had animal symbols that were sacred
Sacred animals-cat, bull, crocodile, and scarab beetle
Important Gods:
Amon: The Creator - symbol was the sun
Osiris: God of Nile - judged people after death
Isis: Goddess of royal throne - wife of Osiris

10. Society and Economy
Social classes were set - if you were in a lower class you almost never left
Women were equals of their husbands:
Could own property
Could leave property to their daughters

11. Trade Egyptians really picked up on trading Caravans:
It benefited their economy greatly!
Caravans:
Groups of people traveling together for safety over long distances
Egyptians were among first people to build seagoing ships