1. Ancient Egypt

2. Geography Northeastern Africa Desert Nile River is 4,100 miles long
Upper Egypt and Lower Egypt divided by cataracts (rapids)
The delta empties the Nile into the Mediterranean Sea
Main source of the Nile is lake Victoria in Eastern Africa
Flooding in Ethiopia brought fertile soil to Egypt

3. Desert = Natural Defense
All of the cities and villages were found along the Nile
The Sahara desert to the west and the Arabian desert to the east
The deserts kept invaders out

5. Economics of the Nile Silt = Excellent for agriculture
Transportation of goods
Slow, annual floods
Silt = Excellent for agriculture
Wheat and barley
Olives and grapes
Irrigation
Sun
Before silt would harden, the workers would plow the soil, preparing it for planting:wheat and barley

7. Governments Unite
Small villages eventually united into agricultural districts called nomes
Each nome had its own specific rituals, gods, and chieftains
The nomes united into two groups: Upper and Lower Egypt
King Menes united all of Egypt
Lower Egyptian king wore a red crown and the upper wore a tall white one like a bowling pin
Menes wore a combo crown
Menes put his capital in the middle, Memphis

9. Pharaohs Dynasty: series of rulers from the same family
Ancient Egypt has 31 dynasties over 2,800 years
Pharaoh is head of government, religion, and army.
Very little turmoil or strife. Why?
Pharaohs were more than just political leaders, they were spiritual leaders too. The Pharaohs were gods on earth.
They cause the sun to rise, Nile to flood, and crops to grow.

10. Culture in Egypt
Nobles: governors, generals, tax collectors, and priests
Lived in luxury
Many servants
Middle class: army, shop keepers and artisans
A little social mobility
scribes
Peasants: farmers and slaves
Producing food or domestic service
Physical labor during flood season
Nobles were basically employed to serve the pharaohs and thus the empire
Women, own and trade property, propose marriage, seek divorce (1/3 the property)

12. Religious Practices Maat: Justice, truth, right, and order
Osiris would judge the dead, putting hearts on scale
The afterlife was really similar to real life
Priests could influence the gods for you
Maat was sort of a moral code. They law did not call for particular behaviors, but the religion did.
Heart could not be heavier than a feather. If you pass and your heart is weightless, you live forever.
Priests specialized in magical charms, and chants to protect the living and dead. The priests probably controlled more land, mores slaves, and more wealth than the pharaoh himself.

14. Religion and afterlife
Pharaohs ruled after death
People would need to provide for the eternal comfort of the Pharaoh
Preserving the body ensured the pharaoh could enter whenever he wanted
An eternal spirit, known as the ka. The ka has needs too. Servants, animals, food, cool stuff on tomb walls.
The ka was a spiritual being, but occasionaly it would refresh itself by entering the body.

15. First, they draw out the brains through the nostrils with an iron hook…Then with a sharp stone they make an incision in the side and take out the bowels…Then, having filled the belly with myrrh and other perfumes…They steep the body in mineral salt water for 70 days…Then they wash the corpse, and wrap the whole body in bandages of waxen cloth.

17. The Time of the Pyramids
Tombs=palaces for dead guys
Stones weigh 2 ½ tons
2 million blocks in each
All this work, no slaves
You too could have a career as a grave robber
The great pyramids were built willingly for the glory of the god-king. Good work during flood season. The government was keeping the population employed.
80 pyramids still stand. The pharaohs’ bodies are missing though.

19. Make-up! Kohl on the eyes, applied with a stick
Fragrant oils on skin and hair
Powdered iron ore and oil on lips and cheeks
The kohl made from powedered stone, malachite for dark green and galena fro black. Both men and women wore the eye make-up, it protected from the glare of the sun.
Hairdo cones
Protected skin, lips, and hair from dry dessert air

22. Culture/Technology Calendar: planting at the right time
Writing: Pictographs and ideographs are hieroglyphics
Rosetta stone
Papyrus
Numbers: assessing and collecting taxes
Geometry: plots of land and building
Calendar: planting at the right time
Medicine: famous doctors
In demand around the Mediterranean
Reset bones
studies
After the decline of Egypt, the knowledge of reading hieroglyphics was lost, not until 1799 was a tablet found in the city of Rosetta found. Written in 3 languages, 2 hieroglyphics and Greek
The governement of Egypt needed a way of doing arithmetic for taxes. The system was fairly clumsy for numbers greater than would need 27 symbols.
The Nile’s floods would yearly wipe out the boundaries of property so the land had to be measured and marked again. To save time and money, they began to develop an efficiant system.
Sirius on the eastern horizon before floods. Divided the year into 12 months of 30 days, adding 5 days for holidays and festivals, fell short of our solar calendar by about 6 hours