Topic Three: Mesopotamia and Egypt, the First Bronze Age Civilizations, pt.2
Egypt or Hi Ku Ptah (in Greek, Aiguptos)
I. Prehistoric Egypt to ca. 7000 B.C.
A. Was lush and green
1. the Sahara Desert will slowly encroach
B. by 5000 B.C. Egypt is mostly desert, the only water is the Nile and several oases
1. earliest known settlements on the Nile date to ca. 5000 B.C.
2. This is where civilization develops in Egypt
3. not much know about early period
4. by 4000 B.C. had elaborate funeral practices
C. Geography is exceedingly important to Egyptian development
1. Egyptians are isolated when their civilization begins along the Nile
2. The Nile is their source of communication
3. No trees, but have stone and papyrus
4. isolation and the Nile will influence their outlook on life
5. Egyptians emphasize lack of change, stability, order, peace and the cyclical nature of life
D. Archaic or Unification Period 3100 to 2650 B.C.
1. Upper and Lower Egypt unified by Menes (a title not a name)
2. idea of monarchy developed, unified state, centralized authority
3. writing is developed, earliest example around 3100 B.C., pictographs called hieroglyphs
4. had contact with Mesopotamian city-states
E. Old Kingdom 2650 to 2200 B.C.
1. king is divine and absolute ruler, only he can be mummified
2. irrigation and food surplus
3. pyramid building, tombs for powerful kings, religious and political statement
4. all the monument building will eventually bankrupt the government
F. First Intermediate Period 2200 to 2050 B.C.
1. crop failures brought by drought (all over the Middle East)
2. power of the monarchy fails, power devolves to local nobility
G. Middle Kingdom 2050 to 1640 B.C.
1. noble family out of Thebes gains control
2. kings not as powerful as Old Kingdom monarchs
3. public works improves economy, also trade starts again
4. this is Egypt’s Golden Age, stuff done
5. kings and queens buried in the Valley of Kings and Valley of Queens
6. everyone can be mummified now
H. Second Intermediate Period 1640 to 1550 B.C.
1. a group called the Hyksos take over Egypt (Hyksos is the Greek term)
2. many foreigners had been attracted to Egypt because of it’s wealth
3. the Hyksos had been settling in large numbers and eventually take over
4. they are Indo-Europeans and have horse and chariots
5. this is probably when the Israelites came to Egypt
6. the “horse-kings” create various kingdoms and control Egypt for about 100 years
I. New Kingdom 1550 to 1070
1. noble family out of Luxor wage war of the Hyksos and drive them out, 18th Dynasty
2. pharoah (king now called pharoah) is now a warrior king as well as divine
3. Egypt will wage campaigns to establish a defensive frontier
4. not aloof pharoah, but administrators and active rulers
5. also started expelling foreigner from Egypt (Moses and the Hebrews?)
6. one exception to these warrior kings was Amenhotep IV or Akhenaton
a. experimented with monotheism
b. successor was Tutankamon (or Tutankaton)
7. most famous were the Ramses kings, but after Ramses XI Egypt is no longer unified
a. ruled by a succession of other civilization or just devolved into local rule
J. Society and Culture
1. Pharoah was a god-king, responsible for keeping ma’at
a. ma’at is order, justice, truth and BALANCE
b. the gods decree this balance and Horus is the guarantor of ma’at
c. pharoah is Horus on earth
d. live in the “eternal now”, change is bad, evolution is bad
e. pharoah has the huge responsibility to maintain Egypt, largest employer also
2. Egyptians had a sense of nationhood, identified themselves as Egyptians
a. content with life, no real ambition or drive to improve
b. easy to grow crops, content with simple pleasures
c. pharoah usually has resources to feed population during bad times
d. grains, vegetables, beer, grapes, apples, honey, milk, butter, cheese, pigeons, ducks,
geese
e. houses were painted and decorated, loved flowers and water, many had water gardens
3. Women had high status
a. married couples seemed to be affectionate
b. daughters shown same affection as sons
c. women have same legal status as men
d. women could become pharoah, could only be pharoah if descended from female royal
4. Two types of writing
a. hieroglyphs, or priest carvings, found in temples and tombs, pictographs, doesn’t really
change much because carved on walls
b. hieratic, used for administrative purposes