ANCIENT EGYPT

Lesson Four
 ANCIENT EGYPT

• Egypt was possibly the most influential of the ancient River Valley
civilizations
• You may not know the names of Assyrian kings or recognize the As-
syrian language, but you’ve probably heard of the pharaohs and can
recognize hieroglyphs

• When we think of the ancient world, we often think of Egypt.

Why?
• The pyramids are the last of the 7 Wonders of the Ancient World
• More importantly, ancient Egyptian civilization lasted from 3000
BCE to 332 BCE.
• That’s a really, really long time. Ancient Egypt was around for longer
than there have been years in the Common Era.
 STUDY OF HISTORY

• There are many ways to view the study of history

• Discussion of thousands of years of philosophy
• Clashes between “great men”
• View history from the lens of traditionally neglected groups, like women, indigenous people, or slaves

• During our study of world history, we’ll try to view history from many of these different angles
• Like with many decisions, however, with every path something is gained and something is lost
 PRE-HISTORY
• With pre-history, we’ve mostly been focused on viewing events
through the lens of resource distribution and geography. Why?
• Those determined the survival of the people at the time, and there
wasn’t much else happening

• The Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, around Mesopotamia, were violent

and unpredictable. How would this affect their world view?
• Many of their beliefs involved the violent and chaotic nature of the
world.

• In the same way, the Nile shaped the world view of the Egyptians.
 THE NILE
• The Nile River is regular, navigable, and benign. This makes it one of
the safest and richest agricultural areas in the world.
• The Nile flooded each year at exactly the same time, leaving behind nutri-
ent-rich silt perfect for the planting season.
• Farming around the Nile was so easy that Egyptian farms just tossed seeds
onto the ground and let their cows and pigs stomp them into the ground.
• And still they grew grains, wheat, figs, pomegranates, and many more

• Unlike other river valley civilizations, Egyptians built their communities

only along the Nile. What effects would this have?
• They were able to trade easily with one another, sending lumber and gold
back and forth with little difficulty.
• Their farming was also simple, compared to that of other river valley civi-
lizations.
 THE NILE CONTINUED
• This meant they could create large food surpluses with relatively little
work. What would this allow them to do?
• Build some pretty impressive architecture
• Make some pretty impressive art and literature

• This also explains the generally optimism of Egyptian culture

• While ancient Sumerian religions saw the afterlife as this gloomy, dark place,
Egyptians were often buried with things that were useful and pleasurable in
this life. What does this tell us about their beliefs in the afterlife?
• It was basically a continuation of this life, which, in Egypt, was pretty good.
 DATES
• Let’s talk about dates.
• No, not that kind of date.
• This kind of date.

• Historians have divided Egyptian history into three broad

categories.
• Each of these is divided into all sorts of numbered dynasties,
but we don’t need to worry about those.

• Old Kingdom: 2649-2152 BCE

• Middle Kingdom: 2040-1640 BCE
• New Kingdom: 1550-1070 BCE
• Called this because it’s only 3000 years old

• Why do you think there is time between the ages?

 OLD KINGDOM
• This is the “Glory Age” of ancient Egypt.
• This is when all the stuff was made that would make Indiana Jones possible.
• Pyramids at Giza
• Sun King Ra
• Idea of Divine Kingship

• The King (or Pharaoh) was considered either a god or very close to one.
This seems like a pretty good gig, but what might be the drawbacks?
• He was expected to act like a god, not a person. What does that mean in ancient
Egypt?
• Act like the Nile: calm, cool, benevolent
• In other words, not very fun.
• The pyramids also represent an impressive degree of social control over the
population. Why?
• It isn’t easy to convince someone to devote their lives to building a tomb for some-
one else.
 THE PYRAMIDS

• Most of the famous pyramids were built between 2575 and 2465 BCE.
• The one with the Sphinx was built for Kefran
• The biggest one, the “Great Pyramid”, was built for the Pharaoh Khufu

• Who built the pyramids?

• The pyramids were built partly by peasants who were required by law to
work for the government for certain months of the year, and
• Partly by slaves.
• But not by Moses and the Jews, who showed up about a thousand years
later.

• So why were the pyramids built? This requires us to look at Egyptian

mythology
 EGYPTIAN MYTHOLOGY
• Ra, the sun god, started out as a regional god. What does that mean?
• He ruled one place, often a city – in this case, Heliopolis

• He eventually became central to the entire pantheon of gods in

Egypt. He was the god of the sun, but also the god of creation.
• The Egyptian belief was that, as long as humans did their jobs, the
gods would maintain order in the universe.
• The Pharaohs were believed to become gods on their death. What
does that mean?
• It made sense to please them, even to the extent of building pyramids.

• Egyptian beliefs also included the use of magic, amulets, talismans,

even animals that had mystical powers. What animal specifically?
• Cats!
 OLD KINGDOM CONTINUED

• Old Kingdom Egypt was remarkably literate. They had two forms of
writing:
• Hieroglyphics for sacred writing
• Demotic Script for everything else

• It was also ridiculously rich. Why?

• It had the best (easiest) spot for farming.

• But then, around 2250 BCE, the Old Kingdom fell. What causes king-
doms to fall?
• Extended period of droughts
• Pharaohs started fighting each other over who should have power

• And so began an “intermediate period”.

 MIDDLE KINGDOM

• The Middle Kingdom (which, unlike Middle Earth, had no hobbits) restored Pha-
ronic rule in 2040 BCE with some distinct changes.
• First, the new rulers were outsiders from a place called Nubia, upriver on the Nile.
• Second, they created a new pantheon of gods, at the center of which was Amun, which
means “Hidden”
• Hidden gods tend to last much longer than others (like Pharaohs). Why?
• “Just because you can’t see them doesn’t mean they aren’t there.”
• Amun merged with Ra to form the god Amun-Ra, and all the Pharaohs built temples and
gave tribute to him.

• The Middle Kingdom also took an interest in conquering its neighbors – specifi-
cally, Nubia, the homeland of its new Pharaohs, to the south.
 MIDDLE KINGDOM CONTINUED
• They were also conquered by the Semitic peoples from the Levant
(modern day Lebanon). What allows one group to conquer another
group?
• Superior technology – in this case, Bronze weapons, compound
bows, and chariots
• Superior tactics – use of cavalry and bows

• Eventually, one group (the Hyksos) totally conquered Egypt. What

did they do then?
• Not a lot. They just relaxed like the Nile, joining Egyptian culture
with themselves as the new Pharaohs.
• Egyptians also adopted this new technology.
• They then used that technology to destroy the Hyksos and kick them
out of Egypt, and again there was an Egyptian pharaoh – Amoses.

• This gives rise to the New Kingdom

 NEW KINGDOM
• What do you think the New Kingdom Egyptians began to do?
• Conquer their neighbors and build an empire using the Hyksos tech-
nology.

• They headed south with the goal of finding gold and slaves (a com-
mon goal for empires) but also northeast into Semite territory.
• The most expansive of the New Kingdom pharaohs was Hatshepsut,
a woman who ruled Egypt for 22 years.
• She expanded Egypt not through military might, but through…
• Trade!

• Most New Kingdom pharaohs focused on military expansion, how-

ever, and brought them into conflict with the Assyrians
• And then the Persians (who we’ll meet next week)
• And then Alexander the Great (who we’ll meet in a few weeks)
• And finally the Romans (who we’ll meet right after that
 NEW KINGDOM CONTINUED

• Why do most empires expand and conquer?

• For resources. Why did Egypt?
• Because they could and there were other empires growing at the time.
Was this a good decision?
• Probably not. Egypt was prosperous and peaceful, and likely could have
stayed that way for a long time.

• One more note – there was a crazy New Kingdom pharaoh named
Akhenaten who tried to invent a new god for Egypt – Aten.
• He was the crazy dictator of Egypt – he had a feared police force, a
strange cult of personality, and he was a total nutjob.
• Anyway, when he died, his wife took over Egypt, then their daughter,
and then a son - Tutankaten
 TUTANKHAMUN
• Tutankaten realized his dad was crazy and abandoned the new god Aten,
changing his name to Tutankhamun. (We call him King Tut)
• King Tut had a pretty crappy life. He was forced to marry his sister (re-
member, crazy dad) and he had a cleft palate and probably scoliosys
• And then King Tut died, probably when he was around 17. He didn’t really
accomplish much, but he is easily the most famous pharaoh. Why?
• Most pharaohs had their graves robbed by ancient people
• King Tut had his grave robbed by 20th Century British people

• King Tut may not have had the best life, but his afterlife has been awesome.
• He is easily one of the most famous ancient people to ever have lived
• People have devoted their lives to studying him – new technology was invented
just so we could learn how he died (an infected broken leg and malaria)
• His mummy has visited six of the seven continents, having no real reason to
visit Antarctica
• And numerous television shows are based around him – like the really quite ter-
rible Tutenstein
 IN CONCLUSION

• King Tut leads us nicely to the really crucial thing about Egyptian culture, because he lived
around the time the Pyramids were built, right?
• Wrong! The Pyramids were built in the Old Kingdom, over 1200 years before King Tut.
• That period of time alone is 5 times longer than America has been a country
• But because Egypt was so similar for so long, their history tends to blend together.

• Ancient Egypt lasted 1000 years longer than Christianity has been around, and 800 years longer
than that other super-long civilization, China.
• It lasted longer than all of Western civilization, and collapsed before the West was even born.