THE BRONZE AGE

Ancient Egypt

Its all about Location!

Running over 4,000 miles, the Nile is the longest river in the world.

The most important fact about the Nile is that it floods each year, enriching the soil around it.

This is called the “Gift of the Nile”

The Nile River as seen from space.

Egypt The Fortress

Unlike Mesopotamia, Egypt had geographical barriers that protected it from invasion:

the deserts to the west and east,

the Red Sea to the east, the Mediterranean Sea

to the north, and rapids in the

southern Nile.

Two Halves to a Whole

Unlike Mesopotamia, which was a series of city states, Egypt was a kingdom.

Egyptian history began around 3100 B.C. when Menes created the first royal dynasty in Egypt.

United Egypt Government

A dynasty is a family of rulers. Their right to rule is passed on through the family.

Egyptian rulers became known as pharaohs. Pharaoh means “great house” or “palace.”

Egyptian pharaohs had absolute power.

Egyptian Government

However, they were aided first by their families and then by a large bureaucracy–an administrative organization of officials and regular procedures–that developed during the Old Kingdom.

Egyptian Vizier meets with his

ruler.A Vizier is directly responsible to the

Pharaoh.

Egyptian Religion

Religion gave the Egyptians a sense of security and timelessness.

The Egyptians were polytheistic.

http://www.ancientegypt.co.uk/gods/explore/main.html

Egyptian Economy

Agriculture created most of Egypt's wealth.

Grain, vegetables, fruit, cattle, goats, pigs and fowl were grown, and fish from the Nile were caught, and eventual surpluses, after deduction of the various taxes, were sold on the markets.

Egyptian Social Classes Ancient Egypt had a

social Hierarchy. Hierarchy: a system

or organization in which people or groups are ranked one above the other according to status or authority.

At the top was the Pharaoh and his family, and at the bottom was slaves.

What do you notice that is different from Mesopotamia?

Egyptian Writing

Writing in ancient Egypt was called Hieroglyphics.

Hieroglyphics: is a form of pictograph writing in which the symbols mean words.

A simpler form called Hieratic script was used for business deals and everyday writng.

Kingdoms of Egypt

Historians divide Egyptian history into three major periods of stability, peace, and cultural flourishing:

Pre-Dynastic The Old Kingdom The First Intermediate. The Middle Kingdom. The Second Intermediate The New Kingdom. Hellenistic Period

Pre-Dynastic and Unification of Egypt The Archaic or Early Dynastic

Period of Egypt immediately follows the unification of Lower and Upper Egypt c. 3100 BC.

It is generally taken to include the First and Second Dynasties,

Lasting from the Proto-Dynastic Period of Egypt until about 2686 BC, or the beginning of the Old Kingdom.

The first king of the unified Upper and Lower Egypt was Menes who is now identified with Narmer.

Old Kingdom

The Old Kingdom lasted from 2700 to 2200 B.C.

The Old Kingdom consisted of the 3rd,4th,5th, and 6th Dynasties

The pyramids were built during the Old Kingdom.

Egypt's Old Kingdom was one of the most dynamic periods in the development of Egyptian art.

Architects and masons mastered the techniques necessary to build monumental structures in stone.

Artist reconstruction of the Great Pyramids at Giza

The Great Pyramids at Giza

They served as tombs for the pharaohs and their families.

They contained food, weapons, artwork, and household goods for the person in the afterlife.

Historians are still amazed at the builders’ precision.

Huge stones are fitted so closely that a hair cannot be pushed between them.

http://www.history.com/topics/ancient-egypt/videos#deconstructing-history-the-great-pyramid

Mummification Perfected.

Mummification: is a process in which the skin and flesh of a corpse can be preserved.

Anubis: God of the Dead.

Mummification

In mummification a body was slowly dried to keep it from rotting.

It was done in workshops that priests ran for wealthy families.

Then the body was covered with salt to absorb moisture.

Mummification

Workers would first remove certain internal organs, placing them in four special jars put in the tomb with the mummy.

What Organs do you think were kept in here?

Canopic jars

Hapi, the baboon-headed god representing the north, whose jar contained the lungs and was protected by the goddess

Nephthys Duamutef, the jackal-headed god representing the east, whose jar contained the stomach and was protected by the goddess

Neith Imseti, the human-headed god representing the south, whose jar contained the liver and was protected by the goddess Isis

Qebehsenuef, the falcon-headed god representing the west, whose jar contained the intestines and was protected by the goddess Selket

Mummification They also removed

the brain through the nose. (Or Was It?)

Later, workers filled the body with spices and wrapped it in resin-soaked linen.

This process took about 70 days.

Why, oh Why?

Why would the Ancient Egyptians go through all this trouble to preserve a body?

The ancient Egyptians believed that part of the human spirit was permanently linked to the viability of the body.

Therefore, it was necessary to preserve the body if one wanted to achieve immortality in the Egyptian religion's afterlife.

Allowing the body to rot effectively meant destroying the person's soul.

Unlike people of many other religions and cultures, the Egyptians believed that the body needed to be intact to serve as a host for the soul.

http://www.history.com/topics/ancient-history/ancient-egypt/videos/how-to-make-a-mummy?m=528e394da93ae&s=undefined&f=1&free=false

First Intermediate Period

The First Intermediate Period, often described as a "dark period" in ancient Egyptian history.

Spanned approximately one hundred years, from ca. 2181–2055 BC, after the end of the Old Kingdom.

It included the seventh, 8th, 9th, 10th, and early part of the 11th dynasties.

The First Intermediate Period was a dynamic time in history where rule of Egypt was roughly divided between two competing power bases.

First Intermediate Period

It is believed that during this time, the temples were pillaged and violated, their existing artwork was vandalized, and the statues of kings were broken or destroyed as a result of this alleged political chaos.

Middle Kingdom.

The Middle Kingdom was between 2050 and 1652 B.C. Egyptians later portrayed this time as a golden age.

Egypt expanded into Nubia, and trade reached into Mesopotamia and Crete

This period included the later part of the 11th dynasty, 13th, and 14th Dynasties.

The pharaoh was now portrayed as a shepherd of the people.

Second Intermediate Period.

However the Middle kingdom would not last long.

The Second Intermediate Period marks a period when Ancient Egypt fell into disarray for a second time, between the end of the Middle Kingdom and the start of the New Kingdom.

This would comprise the 15th,16th, and 17th Dynasties of Egypt.

New Kingdom

Rise of the Egyptian Empire.

The New Kingdom lasted from 1567 to 1085 B.C.

The Eighteenth Dynasty contained some of Egypt's most famous pharaohs, including:

Ahmose I Hatshepsut Thutmose III Amenhotep III, Akhenaten and Tutankhamen.

New Kingdom Pharaohs

The first female pharaoh, Hatshepsut. If not the first, then the most prolific of all the rulers.

Hatshepsut was one of the most prolific builders in ancient Egypt.

Later pharaohs attempted to claim some of her projects as theirs.

Why would they claim her works later?

Thutmose III He was an active

expansionist ruler, sometimes called Egypt's greatest conqueror or "the Napoleon of Egypt."

New Kingdom Pharaohs

Amenhotep III, also known as Amenhotep the Magnificent.

His reign was a period of unprecedented prosperity and artistic splendor, when Egypt reached the peak of her artistic and international power.

New Kingdom Pharaohs

He is especially noted for abandoning traditional Egyptian polytheism and introducing worship centered on the Aten, which is sometimes described as monotheistic or henotheistic.

Akhenaton tried to make Egyptians monotheistic and worship only the sun god.

Many believed this change would upset the cosmic order and destroy Egypt.

Amenhotep IV/Akhenaton I Monotheistic

: Belief in only one god.

He also portrayed himself very differently than any other previous Pharaoh.

Nefertiti

Akhenaton was married to one of the more famous queens, Queen Nefertiti.

She was important as she was one of the more powerful queens in ancient Egypt's time.

New Kingdom Pharaohs After Akhenaton’s

death, the boy-pharaoh Tutankhamen restored the old gods and polytheism.

He is famous because his tomb is the most intact tomb we have ever discovered in the Valley of the Kings

http://www.history.com/topics/ancient-egypt/videos#coroners-report-king-tut

Top: A composite rendering of King Tut Right: Famous Death Mask

New Kingdom Pharaohs

Akhenaton’s religious reforms caused upheavals that led the Egyptians to lose their empire.

Ramses II, who reigned from 1279 to 1213 B.C., regained some of the empire.

He is often regarded as the greatest, most celebrated, and most powerful pharaoh of the Egyptian Empire

Right: Ramses IIBottom: Ramses II Great Temple

End of the Egyptians New

invasions by the “Sea Peoples” then ended the Egyptian Empire once and for all. The New Kingdom collapsed in 1085 B.C.

Who were the “Sea People”?

No one really knows who they were.

There are many speculations that they were invading people from the Aegean Peninsula as well as displaced Minoans, and other indo-European people.

Rulers of ancient Egypt that were not Egyptian:

Libyan Period Nubian Period Persian Empire Period Macedonian Period Ptolemaic

Period(Cleopatra, Julius Caesar and Mark Anthony)

Roman Periodhttp://www.history.com/topics/ancient-egypt/videos#cleopatra

Conclusion

In all, from its unification to the end, there were a total of 31 dynasties that ruled of Egypt.

This time line spanned from c. 3100 B.C.E. to 30 B.C.E.

If you are interested in learning more about this subject. Research Ancient Egypt Unification to Roman Conquest.

The Video Replay!