Egypt

World History
Chapter 4
3100 B.C. – 671 B.C.
 The Dating Game
 What does B.C. mean?
 It stands for Before Christ, and it
means the number of years
before the birth of Jesus Christ.
That was 2000 years ago, so
the date 552 B.C. means 2552
years ago.
 Some people use B.C.E.
instead. That stands for Before
the Common Era, and is used in
order to avoid Christian
references. History for Kids feels
that since this is a Christian
dating system, it's a little silly to
try to hide that.
 What does A.D. mean?
 A.D. stands for Anno Domini,
which is Latin for "year of our
Lord," and it means the number
of years since the birth of Jesus
Christ. That was 2000 years
ago, so the date 500 A.D.
means 1500 years ago.

 Some people use C.E. instead.

That stands for Common Era,
and is used in order to avoid
Christian references. History for
Kids feels that since this is a
Christian dating system, it's a
little silly to try to hide that.
 Introduction
 Where is Egypt?
What do you know about
ancient Egyptian people?
What can we infer about ancient Egyptians
from these pictures?
 Section 1
The Nile
 Area where Egyptians settled
 Civilization lasted about 2000 years
– lasting impression
 Flows north 4,145 miles
– central Africa to Mediterranean
– last 600 miles in Egypt
 Advantages of the Nile
– flooded
– how is this an advantage?
 leftovers make good soil
 What did the people do?
– farmers
 flax, wheat, barley, grapes
– inventive
 shadoof
 Section 2
The Old Kingdom
 The Beginning
– Upper Egypt-Led by King Narmer

– Lower Egypt- invaded by King Narmer (3100

bc)
 King married lower Egyptian princess
 two kingdoms unite
 called “wearer of both crowns”
– lasted about 500 years
 How They Lived
 The City
– center of religion and government
– Kings, government officials, Priests, Artisans
 The Estates
– Rich Egyptians lived
– commoners lived in villages on estates
 The People
 Rich Egyptian
– homes made of wood/brick
– along the Nile
– servants, artisans
 Average Egyptian
– farmers
– villages on estates of rich
– homes made of reeds or
sunbaked mud. (built high to
avoid the yearly flood)
– also built monuments, roads
etc.
 The Pharaoh

 Strong ruler = strength

and unity of country
 King ---- Pharaoh
(great house)
 Believed to be
– ruler
– priest
– god
– ruled on earth (not
heaven)
 What came with being a Pharaoh!
 owned all the land Egypt
 gave gifts of land to the
rich
 built dams and irrigation
canals for crop production
 storage granaries for food
preservation
 chose all government
officials
 word of Pharaoh was law
 traded with other countries
 Rituals of Pharaoh
 people relied completely
on Pharaoh
 started the planting season
by opening the water dikes
 driving of the sacred bull
– rich soil
 first to cut the grain
– rich harvest
 Egyptians bowed before
him, smelling earth
 Pyramids
 way of showing respect to the Pharaoh
 called houses of eternity
– tombs
– west bank of Nile because sun went down
– buried with their personal belongings for
happiness
 Religious Beliefs
 Believed in many gods
 Hapi – river god
– water and good soil
 Re - sun god
– crops to grow
 Osiris – harvest &
eternal life
 Isis – Wife of Osiris
– they ruled the
underworld
 Way down yonder …
 souls went to the underworld
 weighed on a scale
 spells, good life, scales balanced
– granted life after death
 Book of the Dead
– spell book
 The Mummy…Whaaaaaa
 NO STINKY PHAROAHS ALLOWED
– embalming to preserve the bodies
– believed the soul could not live without the body
– covered body with a chemical called natron
 dried up all the bodies water causing it to shrink
 wrapped in linen after dried up
– How to Make A Mummy!
 The Middle Kingdom
 2300 B.C. Jealousy strikes
– Government wants to run the show
– 200 years of confusion for Egyptians
– Pharaohs regain control
 not as powerful
 no longer buried in pyramids/cliffs
 Egyptians began to look beyond their borders for
trade
 End of the Middle Kingdom
 Invaded by Hyksos in 1786 B.C.
– Western Asia
 horse drawn chariots
 weapons of bronze & iron
 Egyptians fought on foot
 weapons of copper and stone
 they lost
 Fall of the Hyksos
 rules for about 150 years
 Egyptians hated them
 Prince Ahmose (Ah moo sa)
– led uprising using their weapons
 The New Kingdom
 Prince Ahmose started pharaoh line again
 Egypt prospered
 Began taking their armies outside
boundaries of the Nile
 Conquering neighboring lands
– Egyptian Empire
 Religion of the New Kingdom
 New kingdom, new god
 Amon, god of Thebes
– Thebes becomes new capitol of Egypt
– Combine Amon with Re to make Amon-Re
 most powerful god of all
 Pharaohs of the New Kingdom
 Hatshepsut
– Woman pharaoh
– not interested in war and expanding into other countries
– trade and building of new temples
 ivory, ebony, monkeys, dogs, leopard skin, incense
 The Pharaoh Queen

 Thutmose III
– stepson of Hatshepsut
– invaded Syria, Palestine
 Temples of Amon-Re
 built by enslaved people
 also industrial centers
 artisans worked there
 boys trained to be scribes
– religious works,spells,charms,prayers
– record keepers
 Egyptian Writing
Hieroglyphics
 pictures stand for
words or sounds
 painted or carved them
on their monuments
 The Translator
 Decline of Egypt
 priests began to take control away from
pharaoh
 1370 B.C. Amenhotep IV
– tried to regain full control
– closed all Amon-Re temples
– created a new religion and god- Aton
– changed his name to Akhenaton (spirit of Aton)
– not many followed
 Tutankhamen
aka “King Tut”
 took over after the death of his father-in-law
Amenhotep died.
 He was nine years old; and married!
 Reverted back to Amon-Re
 Died at 18
Factors that brought an end to Egypt

 constant struggle for power between the

priests and pharaohs
 pharaohs desire to conquer neighboring
countries
 using money to import iron for weapons that
other countries already had
 671 B.C. Assyrians take them over
 Egyptian Contributions
 Papyrus paper – made from flattened reeds
 ink – to write on the papyrus
 mathematical system based on 10 (metric)
 survey methods
 made a calendar based on the flooding of the Nile
 specialists in medicine
– splints, bandages, stitches, setting bones
– stomach ache-castor oil
– hair loss- dog toes, dates and donkey hoof
 http://www.goegypt.org/images/program_pic
s/giza_sphinx.jpg