Early Civilizations
Egypt
Name:_____________________________________________________________________Period:_________
1
1.
Read the following excerpt about Ancient Egypt.
Over 3,500 years ago, Rome was no more than a soggy marsh and the Acropolis was just an empty rock, but Egypt was on the brink of its greatest age - the New Kingdom.
There was an explosion of creativity, wealth and power in Egypt that would make it the envy of the world. After defeating the Hyksos invaders, successive Pharaohs expanded and maintained their Empire through both force and diplomacy. In the process, they won Egypt vast amounts of gold, influence and respect.
They included; Ahmose, Hatshepsut, Tuthmosis III, Amenhotep III, Akenhaten, Tutankhamen and Ramesses
III.
Behind the power of the Egyptian empire lay a vast wealth of natural resources. Chief among these was the river Nile, the freeway of the ancient world, whose floodplains also provided huge expanses of fertile farming ground that kept Egypt self-sufficient and usually famine-free.
Along the banks of the Nile, the humble papyrus plant was used to create a bureaucratic efficiency and cultural sophistication previously unknown to mankind.
The golden touch
To the south, in the deserts of Nubia, gold mines gave Egypt the unimaginable wealth that formed the real power behind the throne. The same gold also saw the start of a golden age for Egyptian art and architecture, as Pharaohs built magnificent temples and tombs for themselves and their families.
But the Pharaohs are only part of the story. Although they sat at the top of society, Egypt's success and legacy owes a great deal to those beneath them: the soldiers, craftsmen, priests and farmers.
Modern women
Just as important were the women. Egyptian religion gave women a central role in the divine order and they were seen as central to their husbands' success. Although there were few women in power like Nefertiti and Tiy, all women were treated with respect and enjoyed legal rights that other women would still be waiting for, thousands of years later.
The New Kingdom saw the reign of some of Ancient Egypt's most powerful and charismatic pharaohs.
The word pharaoh comes from the Egyptian 'per-aa', meaning 'great house' and referred to the royal palace.
Only quite late in the New Kingdom did it come to refer to the king himself.

Early Civilizations
Egypt
Like other kings, the pharaoh sat at the top of the social and political order, acted as commander-in-chief and controlled all military occupations. But the pharaoh was much more than just the head of state. He also helped maintain 'Maat' - the divine order in the world. Without the pharaoh, The Egyptians believed that the world would descend into chaos.
The pharaohs of the New Kingdom show how individual strengths and weaknesses could affect the fortunes of the Egyptian empire. Ahmose successfully expelled the Hyksos from Northern Egypt and defeated the Nubians to the south, while Hatshepsut used her cunning to overcome her gender, tame her army and boost her own reputation.
2
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Tuthmosis III was forced to wait for 20 years before becoming king, but wasted no time: his victory at Megiddo saw Thebes become one of the richest and most powerful cities in the ancient world. Amenhotep III avoided the need for war altogether through a clever combination of diplomacy, marriage and gold.
But his son, Akenhaten, nearly threw it all away by his religious obsession and persecution of other gods.
This would not last. His son, Tutankhamen, abandoned Egypt's new capital,
Amarna, and overturned his father's heresy, before dying mysteriously at the age of just 19. Finally, the propaganda, diplomacy and monumental building programs of Ramesses II made him the ultimate pharaoh. His death, however, would mark the beginning of the end for the Egyptian empire.
Ancient Egypt was an ordered society with a distinct hierarchy. Yet things were beginning to change.
The demands of an expanding empire offered opportunities for the educated and the skilled to be upwardly mobile.
The social order
The class structure in Egypt was extremely rigid: everyone knew where they stood in society and most accepted their position. At the top of the tree was the pharaoh, an almost god-like figure who stayed aloof from his people. Underneath him were Egypt's social elite, the nobles, who effectively governed Egypt for the pharaoh.
Lower down were the educated professional classes, such as scribes, accountants and doctors. Beneath them were the workers and craftsmen, like soldiers and builders. At the very bottom were the slaves and servants, as well as farmers who worked on land owned by the pharaoh and the social elite.
Reading and writing
Before the New Kingdom era, your status was dictated by that of your father and ancestors. Movement between social classes was almost impossible.

Early Civilizations
Egypt
But as the empire grew, Egypt needed more educated men to run it properly. There was a massive increase in the professional, educated classes and this enabled bright young Egyptians to move up the social ladder.
3
Click on the image for a gallery view
Opportunities for all?
The empire provided new opportunities for many. The need to conquer and then control new countries put new responsibilities onto the army. Professional soldiers became more respected and better paid.
The vast amounts of money pouring into Egypt also led to a huge increase in the number of temples, which gave priests much more power. This money was also used to build magnificent new tombs and temples: an entire village - Deir el-Medineh - was constructed to house the skilled workers who would build these tombs.
The more things changed...
Although the empire did bring some social change, much stayed the same. Peasants and servants remained at the bottom of the heap. And although women were highly respected and enjoyed many legal rights, they were still largely confined to the home, tending to children and housework. Egypt was changing, but it wasn't changing that much.

Early Civilizations
Egypt
Name:____________________________________________________________________Period:__________
4
1.
What were Egypt’s natural resources?
2.
What is the meaning of Pharaoh?
3.
What was the role of the emporer?
4.
Who was Ahmose? What did he do?
5.
What was Ramses II known for?
6.
Explain the social order of Egypt.
7.
How did Egyptians move up the social order?
8.
What was Deir el-Medineh?

Early Civilizations
Egypt
2.
Go to the website: http://www.pbs.org/empires/egypt/special/timeline/prenewkingdom.html
a.
Use the information from the website to create a timeline of Egypt’s Pharaohs in the New Kingdom. A list of the Pharaohs is found at the bottom of the webpage.
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Early Civilizations
Egypt
6
3.
Read the following information about hieroglyphics.
In AD 391 the Byzantine Emperor Theodosius I closed all pagan temples throughout the empire. This action terminated a four thousand year old tradition and the message of the ancient Egyptian language was lost for
1500 years. It was not until the discovery of the Rosetta stone and the work of Jean-Francois Champollion
(1790-1832) that the Ancient Egyptians awoke from their long slumber. Today, by virtue of the vast quantity of their literature, we know more about Egyptian society than most other ancient cultures.
The script was developed about four thousand years before Christ and there was also a decimal system of numeration up to a million.
Unlike other cultures the early picture forms were never discarded or simplified probably because they are so very lovely to look at.
Hieroglyphs were called, by the Egyptians, "the words of God" and were used mainly by the priests. These painstakingly drawn symbols were great for decorating the walls of temples but for conducting day to day business there was another script, known as hieratic This was a handwriting in which the picture signs were abbreviated to the point of abstraction.
Hieroglyphs are written in rows or columns and can be read from left to right or from right to left. You can distinguish the direction in which the text is to be read because the human or animal figures always face towards the beginning of the line. Also the upper symbols are read before the lower.
Hieroglyphic signs are divided into four categories:
1. Alphabetic signs represent a single sound. Unfortunately the Egyptians took most vowels for granted and did not represent such as 'e' or 'v'. So we may never know how the words were formed.
2. Syllabic signs represent a combination of two or three consonants.
3. Word-signs are pictures of objects used as the words for those objects. they are followed by an upright stroke, to indicate that the word is complete in one sign.
4. A determinative is a picture of an object which helps the reader. For example; if a word expressed an abstract idea, a picture of a roll of papyrus tied up and sealed was included to show that the meaning of the word could be expressed in writing although not pictorially.

Early Civilizations
Egypt
Name:______________________________________________________________________Period:________
7
Answer the following questions.
1.
What is the Rosetta Stone? Search the internet to find an answer. Write down the name of the website you used and why you believe it is a valid website.
2.
Why was the Rosetta Stone important?
3.
When was Egyptian script developed?
4.
Why did the Egyptians keep hieroglyphics as the mode of written communication?
5.
What did the Egyptians call hieroglyphics?
6.
What are the categories of hieroglyphics?

Early Civilizations
Egypt
Name:___________________________________________________________________Period:___________
8
Go to the website, http://www.pbs.org/empires/egypt/special/hieroglyphs/name_spell.html
Type your name in the space then write your name in hieroglyphs below.
Now, go to the website, http://www.pbs.org/empires/egypt/special/hieroglyphs/egyptian_words.html
Take the quiz. Record your results.

Early Civilizations
Egypt
9
Navigate to the website: http://www.pbs.org/empires/egypt/index.html
Select the ‘enter’ button at the bottom of the page.
Follow the links below to answer the questions about mummification and Egyptian beliefs of death.
Religion
Priests
Workers
Architecture

Early Civilizations
Egypt
10
1.
Why were elaborate tombs so important to pharaohs as well as everyday Egyptians?
2.
Ancient Egyptians believed in the afterlife. Discuss this concept and the specific things Egyptians did as part of their burial customs to prepare for this journey to the afterlife.
3.
What religious ceremonies and/or gods and goddesses were associated with Egyptian burial and death?
4.
What does the way a tomb is decorated and the items buried with the dead tell us about the person buried there?
5.
What were some of the typical, everyday items that might be included in an ancient Egyptian tomb, and why were they included?
6.
How did the tombs of the pharaohs and royal family members differ from those of the average
Egyptian?
7.
What did traditional Egyptian artwork look like during the time of the great pharaohs?
8.
Why was being a tomb builder considered a very important job in ancient Egypt?
9.
Describe, briefly, the process of mummification and why it was used by the ancient Egyptians.
10.
List other important information associated with death, tombs, and burial in ancient Egypt.