Notes on Ancient Egypt

• Geography

• Egyptian life is centered around the Nile River

• water for drinking, for irrigating, for bathing, and for transportation

• Every July it floods

• Every October it leaves behind rich soil 

• the delta is a broad, marshy triangular area of fertile silt

• managing the river required technological breakthroughs in irrigation

• Pyramids

• The Great Sphinx of Giza

• built 2555 - 2532 BC

• a recumbent lion with a human's head

• oldest monumental statue in the world

• Daily Life
• Pharaoh
• government officials - Nobles, Priests
• Soldiers
• Scribes 
• Merchants
• Artisans
• Farmers
• Slaves and Servants

• Slaves/servants helped the wealthy with household and child raising duties

• raised wheat, barley, lentils, onions - benefitted from irrigation of the Nile 

• artisans would carve statues and reliefs showing military battles and scenes in the afterlife

• money/barter system was used - merchants might accept bags of grain for payment - later, coinage came about

• scribes kept records, told stores, wrote poetry described anatomy and medical treatments

• they wrote in hieroglyphs and in hieratic 

• Religious and Political Leader

• soldiers used wooden weapons (bow and arrows, spears) with bronze tips and might ride chariots

• upper class known as the "white kilt class" - priests, physicians, engineers

• Pharaohs

• the political and religious leader of the Egyptian people, holding the titles 'Lord of the Two Lands' and 'High Priest of Every Temple'

• as 'Lord of the Two Lands' the pharaoh was the ruler of Upper and Lower Egypt.  He owned all land, made laws, collected taxes and defended Egypt from all foreigners

• Hatshepsut was a woman who served as a pharaoh 

• Cleopatra VII also served as a pharaoh, but much later (51-30 BC) more on her when we study Greece

• Goddesses And gods 

• over 2000 gods and Goddesses

• they "controlled" the lives of humans