Ancient Egypt
Terms you need to know
• Pharaohs
• Theocracy
• Delta
Ancient Egypt
• app. 10,000 sq. miles
• the same as Sumer and
Akkad
• radically different in
shape
• a ribbon of fertile land
600 miles long
– half a dozen miles wide
for most of its length
• compared to 165 miles
in Mesopotamia
The Gift of the Nile
• Every year in July, rains and melting snow from the mountains
of east Africa caused the Nile River to rise and spill over its
banks. When the river receded in October, it left behind a rich
deposit of fertile black mud called silt.
• Before the scorching sun could dry out the soil, the peasants
would prepare their wheat and barley fields. All fall and
winter they watered their crops from a network of irrigation
ditches.
• In an otherwise parched land, the abundance brought by the
Nile was so great that the Egyptians worshiped it as a god who
gave life and seldom turned against them.
• (this is the basis of their religion. Kind Shepherd)
Nile Irrigation-the Shaduf
Environmental Challenges
• Egyptian farmers were much more fortunate than
the villagers of Mesopotamia. The Nile was as
regular as clockwork. Even so, life in Egypt had its
risks.
– When the Nile’s floodwaters were just a few feet
lower than normal, the amount of fresh silt and water
for crops was greatly reduced. Thousands of people
starved.
– When floodwaters were a few feet higher than usual,
the unwanted water destroyed houses, granaries, and
the precious seeds that farmers needed for planting.
– The vast and forbidding deserts on either side of the
Nile acted as natural barriers between Egypt and
other lands. They forced Egyptians to live on a very
small portion of the land and reduced interaction with
other peoples.
Comparison and Contrast with
Babylon
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profound differences
because of environmental conditons
Mesopotamia: open to invasion
Egypt: isolated by geography
invasion as culturally stimulating ????
evolutionary maximums: reached early in the
culture
• Egyptian culture: static, outwardly opposed
to innovation
Ancient Egyptian Housing
Middle Class
Homes
Peasant
Homes
Scenes of Ancient Egyptian
Daily Life
Making Ancient Egyptian
Beer
Making Ancient Egyptian
Wine
An Egyptian Woman’s “MustHaves”
Mirror
Perfume
Whigs
Egyptian Social Hierarchy
Some Famous Egyptian
Pharaohs
Tutankhamon
1336-1327 B. C. E.
Thutmose
III
1504-1450 B. C.
E.
Ramses II
1279-1212 B. C.
E.
Egyptian Nobility
Egyptian Priestly Class
Egyptian Scribe
Hieroglyphics “Alphabet”
24 “letters” + 700 phonetic symbols
Papyrus  Paper
Hieratic Scroll
Piece
Papyrus Plant
Papyrus
text
Hieroglyphics
On a temple
Making papyrus
Egyptian Math & Draftsmenship
1
10 100 1000 10,000 100,000 1,000,000
What number is
this?
Hieroglyphic
“Cartouche”
A cursive script…for
when you are in a
hurry…
Champollion & the Rosetta
Stone
Sculpture
• early and sophisticated development
• human figures and archicectural forms
• led to great expertise in painting and other
representational arts
Unifier of Upper & Lower Egypt
• There is conflicting
historical evidence over
who united Upper and
Lower Egypt. Some
evidence points to a king
called Scorpion. More
solid evidence points to a
king named Narmer. (also
known as Menes)
c. 3050 B. C. E. ?
Kings and Queens of Egypt
• Pharaoh: link between the gods and
people
• Pharaoh: divine
– his rule eternal and absolute
• Egypt was not just ruled for the gods
but by a god
Distinctions ?
• human vs. divine ??
• They could tell the difference
• in practice: whoever held the throne
was divine
• including: women, foreigners,
commoners
The Pharaoh
• shed his impermanent and human
status
• assumed the eternal and
unchangeable divine status
• became the embodiment of the divine
• led a divinely unified Egyptian state
Egyptian Book of the Dead
Religion of Egypt
• ma’at
• basis of justice and authority
– meaning: “truth, justice, order,
righteousness, balance”
• a cosmic or divine force for harmony
and stability,
– dating from the beginning of time
Ma’at
Personified as a
goddess
Ma’at, con’t
• good rule and administration
embodied ma’at
• these confirmed, consolidated and
perpetuated the rule of the Pharaoh
• this unified and stabilized the state
Egyptian Religion
• each city had its patron deity
• emergence of national government
caused some to be more important
• as dynasties changed, the primary
gods changed
• why??
Examples
• Memphis: Ptah
• later, as the center of power changed,
Re/Ra
• or Horus
• etc.
Ptah
Amun
Atum
Osiris, god of
resurrection
Also known, as
the Throne
Isis
Sister and
wife of
Osiris,
mother of
Horus
Isis, with the child
Horus
Virgin Birth
Provides the
iconographic style for
the later
representations of
Mary and the baby
Jesus
Horns removed,
the moon is dropped,
behind the head,
to become the halo.
Horus
Horus
• Horus is the son of the god Osiris
• Born of a virgin
• Baptized in a river by Anup the Baptizer
– Who was later beheaded
• Horus was tempted while alone in a desert
• Healed the sick and the blind
• Cast out demons
Horus continued
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Walked on water
Resurrected “Asar” from the dead.
This translates to “Lazurus”
Had 12 disciples
Was crucified
After 3 days two women announced that Horus, the
savior of humanity has risen from the dead
Egyptian Gods & Goddesses:
“The Sacred ‘Trinity’”
Osiris
Isis
Horus
Thoth
The wisest of the gods,
giver of writing, knowing
the true names of all
things, including the gods
Sits with Osiris in the Hall
of Judgment….
The Gods
• Mesopotamian gods: mostly
anthropomorphic
• Egyptian gods: vary wildly
• animals, human, celestial bodies, etc.
Cosmology
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Gods created Order out of Chaos
various stories
not mutually exclusive
like the monotheistic religions
Early Creation Story
• Atum
• primeval mound of mud (Annual
inundation of the Nile?)
• godly masturbation (How do you get a
date when there is nobody there but
you?)
• generation of the gods
Different Perspectives
• Mesopotamians: pessimistic
– life is unpredictable, their gods unstable,
their afterlife indistinct and undesirable
• Egyptian religion inspired confidence
– in the eternal, stable order of the
universe
Different Perspectives, con’t
• divinely guided, rhythmic cycle of life
and death
• and belief in a final, eternal bliss
Egyptian Mummies
Seti I
1291-1278 B. C. E.
Queen Tiye,
wife of
Amenhotep II
1210-1200 B. C. E.
Ramses II
1279-1212 B. C. E.
Journey to the Underworld
The dead travel
on the “Solar
Bark.”
A boat for the
journey is
provided for a
dead pharaoh in
his tomb.
Giza Pyramid Complex
Plan of the Great Pyramid
of Khufu
The Valley of the Kings
Archaeologist, Howard Carter
(1922)
Entrance to King “Tut’s” Tomb
King Tutankhamon’s Death
Mask
1336-1327 B. C. E.
King Tutankhamon
King Tutankhamun’s Tomb
Treasures From Tut’s Tomb
The Valley of the Queens
1473-1458 B. C.
E.
Temple of Queen
Hatshepsut
Egyptian religion
• extremely tolerant of difference
• extremely tolerant of many gods
– as opposed to, say.. Hebrew religion
• the principal deity (national/Pharoah’s
deity) allowed other gods to flourish
• the number is considerable
Religion as a Unifying Force
• Mesopotamia: master-slave
relationship
• Egypt: gods conceived of as
shepherd
–who cherish and care for the people
Religion, con’t
• probably the origins of the idea of
Jehovah-as-shepherd
–especially in the Psalms
–which are pre-dated by Egyptian
psalms
–Akhenaton’s Hymn to the Sun
Permanence of the Cycle of Life
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everything was a cycle
eternal, unchanging
life and death
continuous and rhythmic
human life existed in a never-ending
interchange of natural and universal
elements
The Idea of the Cosmos
• religious ideas: rooted in a static and
changeless universe
• influenced every aspect of Egyptian life
• influenced every aspect of Egyptian
development
• gave very strong resilience to Egyptian
culture
– survived virtually unchanged for 3,000
years
The Pharonic State: Ancient
Economy
• the “pyramid” model
–pharaoh as “capstone”
–pharaoh as “commander-inchief”
–pharaoh as “royal administrator”
–pharaoh as “owner of Egypt”
Egyptian Social Hierarchy
Achievements of the Old Kingdom
• efficient, centralized authority
• astronomy, arithmetic, geometry
• medicine
The Most Important
• Solar calendar
• pyramids
• belief in immortality
Solar Calendar
• Egyptian solar calendar: 3rd
millennium B.C.
• Connected with the rising of Sothis
–the Dog Star (Sirius)
–companion of Orion
Solar Calendar, con’t
• length of the solar year and the rising
of Sothis are virtually identical
• only a few minutes difference
• we get our solar calendar from the
Egyptians
• by way of the Romans
Pyramids
• Imhotep: architect and developer of
the calendar?
– Imhotep: physician, architect, doctor, miracle
worker, giver of wisdom
– designed the Step Pyramid of Zoser
– processor of the Pyramids of Giza
Step pyramid of Zoser
Djoser
Imhotep
Architect of the
pyramids…later
he become a
god…
The Broken Pyramid of Snefru
The Bent Pyramid of Snefru
The Red Pyramid of Snefru
Pyramids, con’t
• eternal home for the immortal
pharaoh
• insured their divinity for all eternity
Pyramids, con’t
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Khufu, Khafre, Menkure
Cheops, Cehphren, Mycerinus
amazing architecture
how?
Belief in Immortality
• first to really develop the idea
• sophisticated consciousness
• another order of existence
Map
Showing
Egypt,
Nubia,
And
Kush
Decline of the Old Kingdom
• Old Kingdom: the most stable period
• the Pharaoh dominated life
– forestalled the emergence of provincial power
– but gradually lost power to royal officials
• gradual drying of the environment
– failure of the Nile to flood on time
Decline of the Old Kingdom
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Pepi II: ruled 94 years
at his death: rapid decline
followed by Nitocris
collapse of central power
First Intermediate Period
• 2180-2050 B.C.
– localism, anarchy, short reigns, palace coups,
assassinations
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“seventy kings in seventy days”
reversal of established order
dissolution of law and order
disruption of trade and agricultual production
The Middle Kingdom
• 2050-1800 B.C.
• united under the Eleventh Dynasty
• from Thebes, not Memphis
– followers of the god Amon
– elevated to the rank of primary god
– modern examples??
The Middle Kingdom
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solidification of Egyptian borders
military garrisons on the borders
new office: the vizier
separate administrations of Upper and Lower
Egypt
• suppression of the nobility; rise of the “middle
class”
The Middle Kingdom
• decline with the Twelveth Dynasty
• Pharaoh Sobekeneferu
• beginning of the Second Intermediate
Second Intermediate Period
• 1800-1570 B.C.
• Thirteenth and Fourtheenth Dynasties
– contemporaries
• invasion by the Hyksos
• Semitic peoples from Palestine
• Hyksos dynasty by 1650 B.C. (Fifteenth
Dynasty)
The New Kingdom
• rise of the Seventeenth Dynasty
– Thebes
• beginning of the imperial period
• reconquest of Egypt
– “We had to destroy this village to save it.”
The New Kingdom
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1570-1150 B.C.
reaction to control by a foreign people
policy of planned aggression
create a “buffer zone” (cordon sanitare) in
Palestine
– any modern examples ???
The New Kingdom
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more cosmopolitian
international trade
large, professional army
the usual bureaucracy
Imperialism: 18th Dynasty
• Thutmoses I
• Hatshueput I
• Thutmoses III
– conquest of an Asian Empire
– successor had problems
Akhenation: the Amarna Revolution
• worship of the Aton
– the solar disk
• elevated the worship of the Aton
– suspended the worship of other gods
– particularly Amon
Amarna Revolution: Political Terms
• struggle with the priests of Amon
• innovation vs. conservative stagnation
• monotheism ???
– “henotheism” / “monolatry”
The Aten—the physical
disk of the sun
Lost of Empire
• to Indo-European states
• emerging in Asia Minor and other areas
High Point
• Nineteenth Dynasty
– Rameses II
– pharaoh of the Exodus ??
• New Kingdom collapse
– ca. 1150 B.C.
Ancient Egyptian History
Periods
Time Frame
Nile Culture Begins
Archaic
Old Kingdom
Middle Kingdom
New Kingdom
3900 B. C. E.
3100 – 2650 B. C. E.
2650 – 2134 B. C. E.
2040 – 1640 B. C. E.
1550 – 1070 B. C. E.
Late Period
Greek Ptolemaic
Era
Roman Period
750 – 332 B. C. E.
332 – 30 B. C. E.
30 B. C. E. – 395 C. E.
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Assyrians