1. SPRITE
Ancient Egypt

2. Questions:
How did the challenging environment of Egypt shape their culture?
What role did the Nile River play in forming a prosperous Egyptian society?
What are the major similarities and differences between Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia?

3. Geography Nile River flooded two time annually
Predictable, cyclical
“Gift of the Nile”
Upper and Lower Egypt (delta)
Depended on irrigation- lack of rainfall
Climate good for agriculture
Abundance of resources
self-sufficiency
Basalt, granite, copper, gold, reeds, clay, wild animals, fish,
Isolation due to desert
Unique culture
Less vulnerable to attacks

4. SOCIAL Heterogeneous population-dark and light skinned Hierarchy
King and high ranking officials
Lower level officials, local leaders and priests, artisans, professionals, well-off farmers
Peasants
Slaves
Peasants lived in villages, cultivated soil, and responsible for paying taxes and providing labor, sometimes forced
Slaves existed on a limited scale; treatment generally humane
Social mobility existed
Women
subordinate to men and engaged in domestic activities
Right to own property, inherit, retained rights over dowry after divorce
More rights than Mesopotamian women higher class women could rule
More rural than Mesopotamia
Hyksos- “rulers of the uplands,” Semitic, brought bronze weapons, worshipped Egyptian gods and modeled their monarchy after pharaonic system

7. POLITCAL
Political organization evolved from pattern of small states ruled by local kings to large, unified Egyptian state
Organized into 30 dynasties falling within three periods divided by periods of chaos and political fragmentation
Old Kingdom- Menes connects Upper and Lower Egypt 3100B CE, prosperity, evolution of religious beliefs, pyramids (required political organization and lots of labor)
Middle Kingdom- recovery and political stability
New Kingdom- ( BCE) “expansion and conquering, wealth”
push out Hyksos, subdued Nubia, and conquered Palestine and and parts of Syria
Creation of Egyptian Empire
Akhenaten- birth of monotheism
Governed by central administration in capital city=bureaucracy
Kept track of land, taxed, collected resources
Regarded foreigners as the enemy
More interested in acquiring resources than territory

8. King Tut Giza

9. RELIGION Beliefs based on cyclical view of nature Polytheistic
Predictable flooding
Polytheistic
Amon the sky-god, and Ra the sun-god
Embraced their gods and the afterlife
Spent large amount of energy and wealth building tombs/pyramids; contained food, even bathrooms
Size of tomb=social status
Mummified and prepared for afterlife, climate was dry and prevented quick decay
All organs except for the heart is removed, weighed by Osiris
Book of the Dead soul and body became part of the divine
Pharaoh was God on Earth and political leader- controlled wealth and resources
Akhenaten monotheism

10. akhenaten

11. Intellectual/Technology
Mathematics
Astronomy
Mummification and anatomy
Calendar making
Irrigation
Architecture
Writing hieroglyphics
Transportation canals

12. Economics Self-sufficient Traded with directly with Levant and Nubia
Exported papyrus, grain, and gold and imported incense, Nubian gold, Lebanese cedar, and tropical African ivory, ebony, and animals
Pharaoh controlled wealth, bureaucracy administered land

15. Review
How did the challenging environment of Egypt shape their culture?
What role did the Nile River play in forming a prosperous Egyptian society?
What are the major similarities and differences between Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia?

16. Mesopotamia vs. Egypt
Make a chart presenting the similarities and differences between Mesopotamia and Egypt
You can:
Make a same/different chart
Venn diagram
SPRITE chart comparing both and coded with S and D
Other ideas???
Make sure you know how the geogrpahy affected both these places??