• Settling in (3500-2700)
• Old Kingdom (2700-2150)
• Middle Kingdom (2040-1786)
• New Kingdom (1570-1075)

1. Geography
2. Religion
– Gods
– Pyramids
–
Mummies
3. Government
–
The Pharaoh
4. Daily Life
5. Middle Kingdom
6. New Kingdom
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• River dominates Egyptian world/thought
• Surrounded by desert with occasional oasis
– Permits some trade
– Defense from invasion
• Contributes to feeling of safety
– preserves artifacts
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“Egypt is the gift of the Nile” -Herodotus
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• yearly flooding - no concern for soil depletion
– Predictable
– Irrigation systems
• Encourages
– Trade
– Communication
– Political unity
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• Impact on religion
– divided life - living and dying.
• East (sunrise) is land of the living - cities, temples
• West (sunset) is land of the dead - tombs
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• Omnipresence of religion (It’s Everywhere)
• Polytheistic
– interaction with the natural environment shows interrelated gods and goddesses yearly rebirth of Nile and daily rebirth of sun
– over 2000 gods
• Pharaoh as living god
• Afterlife
– Evolution of who has an afterlife
• Old vs. New Kingdom
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• God of the Dead - “rebirth” and the weighing of the heart
• Evolution of Egyptian mythology
– known as a ruler in the Nile delta -
– a local god
– regional god.
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• Horus, god of balance and harmony
• maintained the natural order: the flow of the Nile and the fertility of the soil.
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Zozer’s stepped pyramid - similar to
Babylonian ziggurats
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• Belief in the afterlife demanded:
1. Bodies be interred whole
2. Material goods for use in afterlife be present
• The need to protect the bodies demands good burial tombs
1. First were mastabas
2. Then pyramids
3. Then later… hidden tombs

• Tomb for Khufu
• an almost perfect square (deviation .05%)
• Orientation is exactly North, South, East
West
• 2,300,000 blocks, 500ft high
• 20 years to build
• Average block weighs 2.5 tons
– Some weigh 9 tons!
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Pyramids of Menkaure, Khafre and Khufu
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Queen Pyramids in front

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• Not known when it started in Egypt
• Perfected by time of New Kingdom
• How to make a mummy: 70 steps
– 1) Removal of the brain through the nostrils 2) Removal of the intestines through an incision in the side 3) Sterilization of the body and intestines 4) Treating, cleaning, dehydrating the intestines 5) Packing the body with natron (a natural dehydrating agent) and leaving for 40 days 6) Removal of the natron agent 7)
Packing the limbs with clay or sand 8) Packing the body with linen
(soaked in resin), myrrh and cinnamon 9) Treating the body with ointments and finally wrapping with a fine linen gauze, not less than 1000 square yards .
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Canopic Jars made of alabaster for storage of heart, stomach, intestines and liver which were also treated
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Mummy
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Inner coffin

Second inner coffin
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Second inner coffin lid

Gift bearers
Shawabti box
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Model boat
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• God-King - unlike Mesopotamia
– Temporal power
• owns all the land and people and what people posses
• law vs. Pharaoh's will
• irrigation
• no city walls
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• God-King - unlike Mesopotamia
– Religious
• direct descendant of the Sun god
• controls access to the afterlife
• July-Sept, during floods life is controlled by the
Pharaoh
– 365 day calendar.
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III. Role played by size in Egyptian Artwork
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• Cosmetics, cleanliness (bathe 3 times a day), shaved bodies, wigs
• main food is beer and bread
– Grow many crops: emmer, barley, flax, lentils, onion, beans, and millet
• common building made of sun-dried mud bricks - up to three stories in height
• Four social classes - slaves on the bottom
• Most common job … farming
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• Language is written without vowels
• Different pronunciations
– MNFR as Memphis
– SR as Osiris
– TTMS as either Thutmose,
Thutmosis, Tatmusa or Atithmese
• Who learns this writing style?
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• Use in temples
• Rosetta Stone
• Napoleon and
Egyptology.
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Stela (carved stone)
Egyptian Farmers & animals
Notice, all people drawn from the side – even when looking right at you!
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• End of civil wars, farming and trade return
• move capital south to Upper Egypt (Thebes)
• public improvements
– drain swamps, canal to Red Sea
• belief in afterlife expands to include common people
• tombs instead of pyramids
– better protection for mummies.
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• Ahmose I expelled the invading Hyksos and reunited Egypt
• Known as the Empire period
• development of “public” and “private” zones at temples.
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Ahmose I leading Egyptians against the Hyksos
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• Characterized by a more militaristic and imperialistic nature
– incorporated chariot, bronze working, horses
– development of a professional army
• became a slave based economy fueled by war and expansion
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• Amenhotep IV (c. 1362-1347 B.C.) introduced the worship of Aton, god of the sun disk, as the chief god and pursued his worship with enthusiasm.
• Changed name to Akhenaten (“It is well with Aton”)
• He closed the temples of other gods and especially endeavored to lessen the power of Amon-Re and his priesthood at Thebes.
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• Nefertiti
– Wife of Akhenaton the only pharaoh to even partially reject polytheism
– political move against priests of Amon-Re
– moved capital to Amarna
– worshipped Aton, the sun disk
• royal inbreeding.
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• (King Tut)
• child ruler
• ruled nine years, died at 18
• young death meant burial in the tomb of a lesser person (noble) resulting in preservation
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• greatest New Kingdom ruler
• military leader of Egypt
• expanded into southern Turkey
• built many monuments to himself
• last gasp of Egyptian power.
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