Politics

Two Kingdoms

• Many cities developed in the Nile river, but they were not separate and independent like in Mesopotamia.

• The kingdom in the North had a king who controlled all the cities in Lower Egypt.

• The kingdom in the South had a king who controlled all the cities in Upper Egypt.

Nation-State

• King Narmer of Upper Egypt, conquered Lower Egypt and created the world’s first nation-state.

• A nation-state is a political unit in which a group of people who share the same history, traditions, or language live in a particular area under one government

Narmer became the 1st pharaoh

United Egypt Crown

Upper Egypt Crown

Lower Egypt Crown

Pharaoh

• The pharaoh was the monarch of Egypt.• This power was passed on from father to son.

There have been many dynasties, or different families, who have controlled Egypt.

• The name pharaoh means, “Great House.”• There have been female pharaohs. Queen

Hatshepsut was very powerful and dressed like a man.

A Divine King

• The pharaoh was believe to be part god and part man.

• People owed the pharaoh absolute obedience.• Because the pharaoh was believed to be a

god, people also believed he had power over nature.

Social Order

Hierarchy

Men and Women

Men: the head of the familyWomen: could own and pass on property, buy and sell goods, make wills and obtain divorces

Religion

Egyptians worshipped many gods (Polytheism)

The Egyptians had gods for nearly everything, including the sun, the sky, and the earth. These gods would often mix human and animal forms.

Chief gods and goddesses

• The Sun god, Ra or Amon-Ra, was always very important

• Anubis was the god of the dead. He weighed souls to decide fate (light souls had been good in life and were rewarded, heavy souls were fed to a terrible monster)

Central to Egyptian religion was the belief in an afterlife, a land of the dead where souls would go to live. Because of this belief, Egyptians developed elaborate rituals regarding death

and burial.

• Physical body dies, releases ka

• Ka was individual’s personality

• Ka needed food and drink to survive

• Sought to prevent decomposition so ka would not vanish

Teachings

•Developed process to prevent breakdown of body

•Mummification only for kings, royal family at first

•Process available later to any who could afford

Mummification

Mummification and Burial

• Temples built to honor and provide homes for the gods

• Priests were responsible for the religious ceremonies and for cleaning the temple. Ordinary Egyptians were not allowed into the temple.