How Does Ancient Egyptian Civilization Develop?

Write About It... You have read about Egypt s geography for home work. Which two features of Egypt s geography had the greatest impact on Egyptian society? How did Egypt s geography impact the development of Egyptian civilization?

Nation State Basically a modern-day country; a self-governing, geographically defined area ruled by one central power; the people share a common culture religion, language, dress, etc. and believe in a shared history and future.

Cities

Arts and Architecture

Karnak Temple Complex Karnak is a complex in Egypt where ancient ruined temples are located. These temples are from the era of Pharoah Ramses II, from around 1391-1351 BC. This area was the most important place for worship during this time. The Great Temple of Amun was a very large building, and it is still available to visitors today. The Karnak Temple Complex is located near Luxor, south of Cairo, Egypt. It is visited more than any other historical area in the world, after the Giza Pyramids, and it is the largest ancient religious preservation in the world There are four main temples in the complex, and the Precinct of Amun-Re is the largest. Here, people worshiped the god Amun-Re. The complex contains many monuments and structures, and it is very large. --- www.karnak.org

Centralized Government

The pharaoh was the head of the state and also the divine representative of the gods. During the old kingdom, the pharaohs considered themselves to be living gods ruling with absolute power. By the middle kingdom, they were representatives of the gods on earth. To reinforce their images as the representatives of the gods they were often depicted as warriors who single-handedly defeated their enemies. The different pharaohs and the eras in which they ruled, are classified into dynasties. There are thirty-one dynasties in all. Not all pharaohs were men. There were several female rulers, the most famous of which is Queen Hatshepsut. Of course, pharaohs did not single-handedly rule Egypt. One of the earliest forms of bureaucracy was started in ancient Egypt. The pharaoh or king was the supreme head of state. Right below him was the vizier, who was the prime minister, head priest and the executive head of the bureaucracy. The vizier was also the supreme judge of the state and ruled on all petitions and grievances brought to the court. All royal commands were sent out through the vizier before being given to the lower officials and administrators in his office. Then these lower officials dispatched these orders to governors in charge of specific areas of Egypt. http://library.thinkquest.org/16325/e-gov.html

Social Classes

Complex Religion

The Book of the Dead Books of the Dead constituted as a collection of spells, charms, passwords, numbers and magical formulas for the use of the dead in the afterlife. This described many of the basic beliefs of Egyptian mythology. They were intended to guide the dead through the various trials that they would encounter before reaching the underworld. Knowledge of the appropriate spells was considered important to achieving happiness after death. Spells or enchantments vary, depending on the prominence and other class factors of the deceased. Books of the Dead were usually illustrated with pictures showing the tests to which the deceased would be subjected. The most important was the weighing of the heart of the dead person against Ma'at, or Truth (carried out by Anubis). The heart of the dead was weighed against a feather, and if the heart was not weighed down with sin (if it was lighter than the feather) he was allowed to go on. The god Thoth would record the results and the monster Ammit would wait nearby to eat the heart should it prove unworthy.

Why Mummify? The ancient Egyptians paid a lot of attention to the afterlife, and it's no mystery why: Life in the hot desert was extremely difficult, leading the Egyptians to dream of an idyllic world beyond death. If a person was prepared, the three spirits that compose a person -- the Ka, the Ba and the Akh -- would pass on to that world after death. In order to be comfortable in the afterlife, the spirits would need all the comforts of daily life, including food, clothing and furniture. They would also need their old body to be preserved on Earth. The Ka, the spirit that accompanied the physical body in life, was inexorably linked to the person's corpse. If the corpse were destroyed, the spirit was destroyed along with it. Unlike the first death, this second death was final. Consequently, immortality depended on the mummification of the physical body Taken from: http://science.howstuffworks.com/mummy1.htm

King Tut s Burial Mask A death mask applied to the wrapped mummy was an important detail for the dead body which, after prayers and consecration [the process of making holy], was put into a sarcophagus [large, elaborate coffin]. The mask was believed to strengthen the spirit of the mummy and guard the soul from evil spirits in its way to the afterworld.

Mystical beast portrayed with the head of a man and the body of a lion. It is shown wearing the royal head cloth. (nemes) The ancient Greek word sphinx means strangler. The arabs call it, 'Abu Hol', meaning; The Father of Terror. However some believe that the name may come from the Egyptian phrase 'shesep ankh', which means living image. The Great Sphinx sits in front of the pyramid of Khafra, next to the funerary causeway. And its face probably represents the 4th Dynasty ruler. The sphinx is associated with both pharaoh and the sun-god, Ra, and is considered to be the Guardian of the Necropolis of Giza. Necropolis means City of the Dead. The Sphinx of Giza

Job Specialization

Public Works

In ancient Egypt, the construction of canals was a major endeavor of the pharaohs and their servants, beginning in Scorpio's time. One of the first duties of provincial governors was the digging and repair of canals, which were used to flood large tracts of land while the Nile was flowing high. The land was checkerboarded with small basins, defined by a system of dikes. Problems regarding the uncertainty of the flow of the Nile were recognized. During very high flows, the dikes were washed away and villages flooded, drowning thousands. During low flows, the land did not receive water, and no crops could grow. In many places where fields were too high to receive water from the canals, water was drawn from the canals or the Nile directly by a swape or a shaduf. These consisted of a bucket on the end of a cord that hung from the long end of a pivoted boom, counterweighted

Writing

Hieroglyphics are an ancient for of formal writing used by the Egyptians as a way to communicate and document events. The symbols used for hieroglyphics include shapes, animals and designs which represent different letters, words and phrases. Hieroglyphics have been found on the walls of tombs, on artifacts and written on scrolls. Archaeological discoveries suggest that Egyptian hieroglyphs may be the oldest form of writing. The earliest evidence of an Egyptian hieroglyphic system is believed to be from about 3300 or 3200 BC, and the Egyptians used hieroglyphs for the next 3,500 years. The hieroglyphic system used in ancient Egypt had between 700 and 800 basic symbols, called glyphs. This number grew in the last centuries of ancient Egyptian civilization, because of an increased interest in writing religious texts. Egyptians wrote hieroglyphs in long lines from right to left, and from top to bottom. They did not use spaces or punctuation. The walls of tombs were designed using hieroglyphics, which tell a historical story behind the person buried in the tomb and his family. Rosetta Stone, a slab of black basalt that provided scholars with their first key to ancient Egyptian hieroglyphic writing. Using the Rosetta Stone as a dictionary, scholars were able to translate other inscriptions and manuscripts written in hieroglyphics. The stone was discovered in 1799 near Rosetta, Egypt, by a French engineer of Napoleon's army. On it are inscriptions in three kinds of writingâ hieroglyphic, demotic (simplified hieroglyphic), and Greek. The Greek text was read easily. It is a decree prepared in 196 B.C. by a group of priests ordering the commemoration of the first anniversary of the coronation of their pharaoh, Ptolemy V Epiphanes. The hieroglyphs proved most difficult to read. In 1822 a French scholar, Jean-Francois Champollion, drawing upon his knowledge of the ancient Coptic language of Egypt, correctly determined that the hieroglyphs represented both sounds and words, thus finding the key to the translation of hieroglyphics.

Cities WRITING Centralized Government Public Works Egyptian Civilization Complex Religions Social Classes Arts & Architecture Job Specialization