Ancient River Valley Civilizations
The common tie
between all 4
early civilizations
is how each rose
independently in
river valleys!
The 4 main River valley civilizations
are:
Egypt  Nile River Valley
 Mesopotamia  Tigris and
Euphrates river valleys
 Ancient India  Indus River Valley
 Ancient China  Huang He River
Valley

Egypt
Egyptian
civilization
developed
in
northeastern Africa along the Nile River
The Nile River
A. Since most of Egypt is
a desert, people settled along the Nile
River.
B. The Nile provided
water for drinking and
irrigation of crops.
C. Yearly floods soaked
the land and left rich
deposits of silt that
acted as fertilizer.
D. The river also acted as
a highway for travel.
3. Upper and Lower Egypt
A. Upper Egypt (to the
south) was a skinny
strip of land from the
First Cataract to the
Second Cataract.
B. Lower Egypt (to the
north, near the sea)
consisted of the Nile
Delta region, a broad
and marshy area of
land.
How did people cooperate to
control the Nile floods?
They built dikes, reservoirs, and irrigation
ditches to channel the rising river and
store water for dry season.
 The land was eventually united in 3100
B.C. by Menes, the king of upper Egypt.

Why was Egypt considered to
“bread basket” ?
Grew wheat for bread and flax- a plant
with fibers used for clothing
 Exported food to other parts around the
world.

Ancient Egyptian history can be
split into three sections:
Egypt (5,000 B.C.)
1. Old Kingdom: 2700-2200BCE
 Rise
of Pharaohs
 “Pyramid Age” –Pyramids, which
were tombs, suggest strength in
Egyptian civilization
 Eventually declined due to disunity
The Pyramid Age

Pharaohs organized a strong centralized
state, claimed divine support for their rule.
Egyptians believed pharaohs were godsabsolute power. Visier or chief minister
supervised the business of government.
2. Middle Kingdom: 2050-1800BCE
 Turbulent period of:
• Invasion/Rebellion
• Corruption/Power Struggles
• Crop failure
 Just as the Old Kingdom had fallen due to
disunity the Middle Kingdom fell to invaders
The Middle Kingdom

Why did the Old Kingdom Collapse?
Middle Kingdom- hard times because the
Nile did not rise regularly. Corruption and
rebellions.
 Hyksos (hihk sohs) invaded with their
horse drawn war chariots—they drove
away the people of the Middle Kingdom

3. New Kingdom:
1550-1100BCE
 Begins as an age
of conquest
when powerful
pharaohs created
a huge empire
 Ends with
invasions by
Romans, Greeks,
and Persians
New Kingdom
Contact with Middle East and other parts of
Africa—Reached the Euphrates river
 Queen Hatshepsut-1503-1482 b.c.

– Encouraged trade with Mediterranean lands—bring
back ebony, ivory, spices, leopard skins, and live
monkeys, incense, medicines and myrrh trees.
– Rames II- pushed Egyptian rule northward through
Palestine and as far as Syria. Fought against the
Hittites and finally signed a peace treaty.
– Invaders such as the Assyrians and Persians,
conquered the Nile region. Then Greek and Roman
armies marched into the Nile Valley. Why??
Egyptian Empire 1450 B.C.
The Nile Kingdom of Nubia developed.
 Fought for years with Egyptians. From Nubia
they acquired ivory, cattle, and slaves
 Egyptian art show Nubian influence—in showing
Nubian soldiers, musicians, or prisoners.
 Nubia regained independence and in about 750
B. C. Nubian they restored the Egyptian glory.
They ruled as the pharaohs of earlier ruled,
respecting their Egyptian traditions.

Scenes of Ancient Egyptian
Daily Life
Great Sphinx at Giza
What does the portrayal of the king as a lion suggest about
the nature of kingship in ancient Egypt?
Summary Question
How is the Great sphinx at Giza an example
of Civilization in Egypt????
Egyptian Civilization




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
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City—Old Kingdom, Middle Kingdom, New Kingdom
Religion- variety of belief systems and practices. Belief
of afterlife. mummification)
Social class- Most Egyptians were farmers. During New
Kingdom society grew as trade and warfare increased.—
some woman could be priest to serve goddess.
Specialty Job-Artisan, craftsman, dike repairs,
Astronomers –developed a calendar –became the basis
of western calendar.
Writing- Hieroglyphics- used to keep important
records-form of picture writing.
Public works- build dikes, labor on palaces, temples
and tombs
Art and architecture- hymns and prayers. Paintings
and sculpture of statues, carvings on temples
Gov’t- Pharaoh ruled as monarch. Divine rule.
Egyptian Social Hierarchy
Ancient Egyptian Housing
Middle Class
Homes
Peasant
Homes
Egyptian Nobility
Egyptian Priestly Class
Egyptian Scribe
Some Famous Egyptian
Pharaohs
Tutankham
on
1336-1327 B. C.
E.
Thutmose
III
1504-1450 B. C.
E.
Ramses II
1279-1212 B. C.
E.
Egyptian Math
1
10 100 1000 10,000 100,000 1,000,000
What number is
this?
King Tutankhamon
Preparation for
the Afterlife
Champollion & the Rosetta
Stone
Rosetta Stone- carving of in three different forms of
script- hieroglyphics, demotic and Greek. As a result
scholars could begin to read the thousand of
surviving record from ancient Egypt.
Summary Question

How were religion gov’t and art linked in
ancient Egypt?
Egyptian Gods & Goddesses:
“The Sacred ‘Trinity’”
Osiris
Horus
Isis
Materials Used in
Mummification
1. Linen
2. Sawdust
3. Lichen
4. Beeswax
Pads
6. Natron
7. Onion
8. Nile Mud
9. Linen
The Ankh – The “Cross” of
Life
HIEROGLYPHICS
Hieroglyphics is the Egyptian form of writing. They did not write on paper, but
on papyrus which is reeds cut into thin strips then pounded and dried.
Hieroglyphics are usually animals or things that mean something important in
their language. For example, the letter E stands for 2reed leaves.
 Egyptologists
say they have
identified the 3,000-year-old
mummy of Hatshepsut, Egypt's
most powerful female ruler.

In all, Hatshepsut
accomplished what no
woman had before her.
She ruled the most
powerful, advanced
civilization in the world,
successfully, for twenty
years. Even if there were
some who resented her
success, her success
stands for all eternity.

Queen Hatshepsut
dressed as a king,
even wearing a false
beard and the
Egyptian people seem
to have accepted this
unprecedented
behavior.

An X-ray image of
the mummy of
Pharaoh Queen
Hatshepsut is seen
at the Egyptian
museum in Cairo,
Egypt. (Discovery
Channel)
The Egyptians sent trading missions to Punt, a region of East Africa
that was rich in gold, resins, ebony, blackwood, ivory and wild
animals, including monkeys and baboons. They also went in search of
slaves. The best-documented mission was sent during the reign of
Hatshepsut. Scenes from these expeditions are illustrated on her
funerary temple at Deir el-Bahari, near the Valley of the Kings.
The mummy was discovered by
Howard Carter in 1903

A mummy found
more than 100
years ago has been
identified as
pharaoh Queen
Hatshepsut,. She
was one of the
most powerful and
mysterious of all
ancient rulers.
An Egyptian Woman’s “MustHaves”
Mirror
Perfume
Whigs
Egyptian Mummies
Seti I
1291-1278 B. C. E.
Queen Tiye,
wife of
Amenhotep II
Ramses II
1279-1212 B. C. E.

Hatshepsut, in a final bid to be
recognized as a legitimate queen,
constructed a fabulous temple in
the Valley of the Kings, of all
places, by a tall plateau at Deir-elBahri, across the Nile from
Thebes.
The Temple of Deir ElBahri is one of the most
characteristic temples in
the whole of Egypt, due to
its design and
decorations. It was built of
limestone, not sandstone
like most of the other
funerary temples of the
New Kingdom period.
The expedition set out in her name with five ships, each measuring seventy
feet (21 m) long, and with several sails; each ship accommodated 210 men,
including sailors and thirty rowers. Many goods were bought in Punt, notably
myrrh, which is said to have been Hatshepsut's favorite fragrance. Most
notably however, the Egyptians returned from the voyage bearing thirty-one
live frankincense trees, whose roots were carefully kept in baskets for the
duration of the voyage. This was the first ever recorded attempt to replant
foreign trees. She reportedly had the trees planted in the courts of her Deir el
Bahari mortuary temple