SPRITE
ANCIENT EGYPT
QUESTIONS:
How did the challenging environment of Egypt
shape their culture?
 What role did the Nile River play in forming a
prosperous Egyptian society?
 What are the major similarities and differences
between Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia?
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GEOGRAPHY
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Nile River flooded two time annually
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Upper and Lower Egypt (delta)
Depended on irrigation- lack of
rainfall
Climate good for agriculture
Abundance of resources
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Predictable, cyclical
“Gift of the Nile”
self-sufficiency
Basalt, granite, copper, gold, reeds, clay,
wild animals, fish,
Isolation due to desert
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Unique culture
Less vulnerable to attacks
SOCIAL
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Heterogeneous population-dark and light skinned
Hierarchy
1.
2.
3.
4.
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Peasants lived in villages, cultivated soil, and responsible for paying taxes and
providing labor, sometimes forced
Slaves existed on a limited scale; treatment generally humane
Social mobility existed
Women
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King and high ranking officials
Lower level officials, local leaders and priests, artisans, professionals, well-off farmers
Peasants
Slaves
subordinate to men and engaged in domestic activities
Right to own property, inherit, retained rights over dowry after divorce
More rights than Mesopotamian women higher class women could rule
More rural than Mesopotamia
Hyksos- “rulers of the uplands,” Semitic, brought bronze weapons, worshipped
Egyptian gods and modeled their monarchy after pharaonic system
POLITCAL
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Political organization evolved from pattern of small states ruled by local
kings to large, unified Egyptian state
Organized into 30 dynasties falling within three periods divided by
periods of chaos and political fragmentation
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Old Kingdom- Menes connects Upper and Lower Egypt 3100B CE, prosperity,
evolution of religious beliefs, pyramids (required political organization and lots
of labor)
Middle Kingdom- recovery and political stability
New Kingdom- (1570-1075 BCE) “expansion and conquering, wealth”
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Governed by central administration in capital city=bureaucracy
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push out Hyksos, subdued Nubia, and conquered Palestine and and parts of Syria
Creation of Egyptian Empire
Akhenaten- birth of monotheism
Kept track of land, taxed, collected resources
Regarded foreigners as the enemy
More interested in acquiring resources than territory
KING TUT
GIZA
RELIGION
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Beliefs based on cyclical view of nature
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Polytheistic
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Amon the sky-god, and Ra the sun-god
Embraced their gods and the afterlife
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Predictable flooding
Spent large amount of energy and wealth building tombs/pyramids;
contained food, even bathrooms
Size of tomb=social status
Mummified and prepared for afterlife, climate was dry and prevented
quick decay
All organs except for the heart is removed, weighed by Osiris
Book of the Dead soul and body became part of the divine
Pharaoh was God on Earth and political leader- controlled wealth
and resources
Akhenaten monotheism
AKHENATEN
INTELLECTUAL/TECHNOLOGY
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Mathematics
Astronomy
Mummification and anatomy
Calendar making
Irrigation
Architecture
Writing hieroglyphics
Transportation canals
ECONOMICS
Self-sufficient
 Traded with directly with Levant and Nubia
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 Exported
papyrus, grain, and gold and imported
incense, Nubian gold, Lebanese cedar, and tropical
African ivory, ebony, and animals
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Pharaoh controlled wealth, bureaucracy
administered land
REVIEW
How did the challenging environment of Egypt
shape their culture?
 What role did the Nile River play in forming a
prosperous Egyptian society?
 What are the major similarities and differences
between Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia?

MESOPOTAMIA VS. EGYPT
Make a chart presenting the similarities and
differences between Mesopotamia and Egypt
 You can:
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 Make
a same/different chart
 Venn diagram
 SPRITE chart comparing both and coded with S and
D
 Other ideas???
 Make sure you know how the geogrpahy affected
both these places??