Chapter 2
Section 2
 Do Now: Take out HW and switch with a partner;
discuss your answers in a group
 Obj: Discuss environmental challenges surrounding
the civilizations along the Nile
 Egyptian Life & Religion
 Compare/Contrast hieroglyphics and cuneiform
 HW: Active Reading pgs. #44- 49
 Crit. Thinking #3-5
 Delta
 Narmer
 Pharaoh
 Theocrasy
 Pyramid
 Mumification
 Hieroglyphics
 papyrus
 The Nile River supported
early life in Egypt
 Yearly flooding left
behind rich silt
(farming)
 Egyptians viewed the
Nile as a god
 Greek historian called
Egypt, “the gift of the
Nile”
 If water level was a few
feet low; people starved
 Too high destroy homes
and flood crops
 Forced people to live on
very small area of Egypt
 Desert protected the
people from constant
warfare
 Upper Egypt:
 Southern part of Egypt
above the first cataract
 Elevation is higher
 Boats can flow up river
with the rivers current
 Lower Egypt:
 Northern Egypt where
elevation is lower
 Leads to the Nile delta
region
 Strong winds can bring
boats down the river
against the current
 Makes contact and trade
very possible
 Upper and lower Egypt ruled by two kingdoms
 (3200 BC)
 United by King Narmer (King of Upper Egypt)
 King of Upper Egypt wore a white crown
 Lower Egypt wore a red crown
 Narmer Palette: both crowns as one
 Symbol of unification around 3000 BC
 Narmer settled his capital in Memphis, near where
Upper and Lower Egypt met.
 Egyptian kings known as pharaohs ruled as gods
 Government ruled by religious authority is called
theocracy
 Pharaohs had full responsibility for kingdoms well
being
 Pharaohs reign was expected to last forever; so their
tombs had to be as important as their palaces.
 Egyptians built massive structures called pyramids to
honor their dead kings
 Religion:
 Polytheistic
 Over 2,000 gods
 Belief in after life
 Judged for their deeds
 If passed lived in Other World forever\
 People of all classes planned their burials to ensure
their passage to the Other World
 Royal Egyptians would be mummified, so that the
body would not decay over time.
 Body would be placed in a tomb filled with material
belongings to be used in the after life
 Social Pyramid
Pharaohs
Merchants
and artisans
Peasant Farmers
and laborers
 Hieroglyphics: Greek- sacred carving
 Early writing; picture represented ideas
 Then pictures represented sounds
 Developed papyrus:
 Reeds from the Nile dried together to make paper like
material
 Developed a calendar
 Using astronomy to predict time between flooding of
the Nile.
 Solar Year:
 365 days divided into 12 months of 30 days.
 Was accurate to a true solar year within 6 hours!
 Mathematics:
 Number system to help asses collecting taxes
 Geometry helped to reset boundary lines after floods
and make accurate measurements for building pyramids