Kathy Hecker
Pre-AP World History P.5
Reader’s Notebook Chp.3
9/7/10
CHAPTER 3 SECTION 1: THE KINGDOMS OF EGYPT
Ancient Egypt was a land protected mostly geologically in the beginning; the Egyptians were protected by the Sahara Desert,
cataracts—rocky stretches marked by swift currents and rapids—of the Nile River. The Nile River made it so that a civilization was possible
in Egypt, the floods helped the crops grow and the river provided water for the villages. The river was so large that it had a delta—an area to
the mouth of the river, often triangular shaped, made up of slit deposits—at its mouth which created fertile soil near the delta. Egypt was
divided into two kingdoms, Lower and Upper Egypt. Lower Egypt was located at the lower end of the Nile mostly around the delta; they
worshiped a cobra making their symbol a snake. Upper Egypt was located at the Nile’s upper stretches; they worshiped a vulture goddess
making their symbol a vulture. Menes unified the two kingdoms using both symbols to represent that he ruled all of Egypt. The old kingdom
was about 500 years long. One of the most famous creations of this time was the Pyramids. These pyramids were created as burial places for
the pharaohs, many of the pharaohs had them built for themselves. The pyramids took so long to construct that new pharaohs would order one
to be made as soon as he entered his rule. Pharaohs—kings of Egypt, the word meaning great house— ruled all of Egypt, the pharaoh was in
charge of the army and acted as judges. They were thought of as gods in human form. Egypt’s pharaohs were closely linked to religion which
was a theocracy—a state ruled by figures. Pharaohs couldn’t rule all of Egypt alone so they had a bureaucracy—highly structured
organization managed by officials; most of these men were relatives of the pharaoh. These officials acted as the pharaoh told them to but some
gained great power. The most powerful official was the vizier who was usually a relative of the pharaoh who was his closest advisor and who
tried court cases. The old kingdom’s government collapsed around 2100B.C. for almost 200 years there was civil war, economic problems and
invasions. This led into the Middle Kingdom which created trade to Mesopotamia. In this time the Egyptians were conquered by the Hyksos
who used chariots and armor which were new battle tactics to the Egyptians. The new Kingdom was brought by nobles rebelling against the
Hyksos and taking Egypt back. This told the Egyptians that they had to prepare more for an outside attack than before so the created a stronger
army containing chariots and archers. Hatshepsut was the first woman Pharaoh and dressed as a man to be treated like any other pharaoh, she
promoted trade but after she died and her nephew took over he destroyed almost everything that she created. Amenhotep IV was the 1st pharaoh
to introduce monotheism to Egypt; he believed that they should only worship the sun god, Aten. This only lasted through his rule as soon as his
successor came it was destroyed and put back to the regular theocracy. Ramses the Great ruled for 60 years, He created more temples and
monuments than any other pharaoh, and due to his political achievements no other pharaoh is remembered more than Ramses the Great.
Ramses marked the last period of greatness in Egypt. They were invaded by the Sea People, their invasion helped to end the Hittites rule which
loosened Egypt’s hold on Syria. For over 700 years a lot of foreign people took over Egypt. In the late 500B.C. the Persians took over Egypt,
after 120 years The Egyptians were able to take their rule back but in 343B.C. they killed the last Egypt-born pharaoh but their rule didn’t last
long, in 332B.C. the Greeks took over Egypt for 300 years only to be taken over by the Romans later.
Kathy Hecker
Pre-AP World History P.5
Reader’s Notebook Chp.3
9/7/10
CHAPTER 3 SECTION 2: EGYPTIAN CULTURE
The culture of the Egyptians contained of their religion, their burials, their daily life and their accomplishments in math, art,
and science. The Egyptian religion was polytheistic; they worshiped hundreds of gods for a multitude of things of daily life. Their main god
through most of Egyptian history was Re- the god of the Sun. Re was later combined with the sky god to become Amon-Re; he was the king of
the gods and thought to be the father of the pharaohs. Other gods and goddesses they worshiped were Anubis- protector of the dead, Osirisintroduced civilization, later became the judge of the dead, Isis- goddess of nature and renewal, Hathor- goddess of love, there were also gods
that had power over small areas. To honor their gods, the Egyptians built temples, many of the temples feature obelisks—tall, thin pillars with
pyramid shaped tops. Priest would perform daily rituals to keep the gods happy, only priests preformed rituals and other people weren’t usually
allowed in the temples and worshiped on during festivals. Burial and mummification were created to ensure eternal life to the pharaohs. They
believed that the ka—the person’s personality—was released when a person died. They believed that the ka would vanish if the body
decomposed so they invented mummification—the making of mummies to prevent the breakdown of a dead body—to preserve the person into
the afterlife. The first step of mummification was to take out all the internal organs, 2 nd step was to stuff the body special materials to keep its
shape. They used salts to dry out the body and then they wrapped it. Artists painted the outside of the mummy so that the ka could recognize
the body. The Egyptians were buried with their food, drink, and belongings because they believed that they needed them to create eternal
happiness in the afterlife. The walls of the tombs were painted elaborately with colorful scenes of the person’s life which was also supposed to
promote happiness in the afterlife. The caste system of the Egyptians was the pharaoh, the royal family, govt. officials, priests, scribes,
military leaders, land owners, doctors, artisans, crafts people, merchants, peasant farmers, and slaves. Very few people moved up in social
status but the most common ones to were scribes. Family life was different for different social statuses, such as marriage, pharaohs would often
marry their sister to keep pure blood and usually had more than one wife while peasants would only have one. In most families the father was
the head and usually included children and possibly unmarried family members. Women’s primary duty was to keep the children and the
house, though they had more rights than women in other civilizations, they could be priestesses or divorce their husbands. Young boys would
learn their father’s trade while girls would learn how to keep the house. Women of all classes wore long dresses while men wore loincloths of
low social statuses and long skirts of higher social status, children didn’t usually wear clothes until adolescence. Egyptians made both paintings
and sculptures; they represented the gods and pharaohs. The Egyptians used hieroglyphics—the Egyptians writing style which used picture
symbols to represent objects, sounds and ideas—they were so complex that they were considered an art. For quick writing they used hieratic
which was simpler hieroglyphics that were usually written on papyrus—a reedy plant’s pulp that was dried to make a paper-like sheets. For
centuries how to read hieroglyphics was lost but the discovery of the Rosetta Stone—a slab with the same message written in Greek and
hieroglyphics—which made it so that we could read hieroglyphics. The Egyptians were able to basic arithmetic and geometry, which is
apparent in all their works of art. They used sciences to make their lives easier and to discover how to heal people, which they became good at.