Ancient Egypt

Ancient Egypt

 
        
                                 
          

              
 What was the “SOUL” of Ancient
Egypt?

Click here for Creation Story

 Gods and Goddesses
Creation Story
GEB
NUT TEFNUT
ATUM NUT

SHU MA’AT HORUS

ANUBIS
ISIS
Website: Gods and Goddesses ATUM
 Religion: How did it Atum
contribute to stability?
• The Egyptians were deeply religious people

• Religious roots were in the worship of nature

deities – their first gods were in animal forms

• Those responsible for creation were the most

important gods (Atum is the creator God)

• They later developed national gods around the

Middle Kingdom (Amon- local god of Thebes;
gods of Dead: Osiris, Anubis, Horus and
Thoth)

• Religion was instrumental to stability of Egypt

(life, social structure, education, laws, rule of
Pharaoh, economy, death, afterlife)
 Geography: Populated Areas
There were three main areas that were populated
in Egypt:

1. The Nile Valley

• sole source of water for Egypt
• Predictable flooding provided rich fertile soil
• Both revered and feared (too much flooding or
droughts)

2. The Nile Delta

• Area were Nile empties into Mediterranean
Sea
• Largest piece of fertile land
• Encompassed major centers of Egypt

3. Faiyum
• Lake Moeris lies at end of branch of Nile is
center of oasis called Faiyum
• Irrigation from Nile made Faiyum the third
most populated land
 Geographic Effects on Egypt’s
Stability and History
• Fertile soil
• Deserts provided protection and shelter from outside
influences
• Access to Mediterranean increased and expanded trade
and culture
• Culture was one of stability and not rapid change
• Deserts were an important source of minerals and
building supplies (copper, tin, gold and natron, the
drying agent used in mummification)
• Mediterranean Sea
• Upper Egypt
• Lower Egypt
• Giza
• Memphis
• Cairo
• Red Sea

Shade and Label:

• Nile River
• Eastern Desert
• Western Desert
• Nubian Desert
• River Delta
 Politics
How did Pharaoh's rule?
•absolute rulers of the land
•believed to be the earthly embodiment of the god Horus who
was the son of Amon-Re
•Therefore they had the divine right to rule
•This allowed them to move between god and their people
•People followed their orders because they believed they were
from god
•No one would challenge the King’s authority and he could rule
in relative peace
•The throne passed on to eldest son of Principal
Queen who was usual the eldest daughter of the
previous king therefore the king’s sister
•Pharaohs owned all the land – they had a hierarchy
of government officials to help him rule
•Second to the Pharaohs were the scribes who would
record the doings of the Pharaoh
 What were the legal
traditions?
• Law was governed by religious principle of
Ma’at
• GODDESS MA’AT represented truth,
righteousness and justice= balance and order
• Laws were applied equally to all classes
specifically protected the family (children and
wives)
• Punishments could be quite severe- act as a
deterent or disgrace the guilty (Examples:
minor crimes had 100 lashed; rapist were
castrated; corrupt officials had their hands
amputated; crimes that resulted in a death
sentence could have choice= devoured by a
crocodile, suicide, burning alive)
 Social Roles
Role of Women
• Well treated and had
considerable legal rights
compared to other
civilizations
• Same legal rights as men (land,
property, divorce)
• Left women to be economically
independent
• Primary role was in domestic life
• Common title for a married
women in ancient Egypt was
“nebet per” meaning “the lady of
the house”
• Bear and raise children
Role of Men
• Head of the family
• Men could have numerous wives
but economically men had only 1
wife
• Labourers, craftsmen
• Jobs were hereditary
Jobs
• Labour required for construction
projects and was mostly filled by
poor, serfs
• Stability of Egypt thrived as
skilled trades were passed from
father to son
• Children always learned the trade
from parents; seldom could choose
occupation
 What determined Egypt’s
economic prosperity?
Wealth
• Agriculture made up most of Egypt’s wealth
– grain, vegetables, fruit, cattle, goats, pigs and fowl
• Abundance and management of food supplies
(not royal treasury) was the measure of Egypt’s
wealth = full granaries, plenty of wildlife and fish,
and thriving herds were the signs of prosperity.
These were the images used in the tombs of the
Pharaohs to illustrate the wealth of their reigns

Economy
• Simple economy based on food production and minerals from desert
• access to the Mediterranean their routes extended trade as far as Northern Europe, subtropical
Africa and the Near East
• Trading was done by bartering goods (grain, oil, wheat)
• Taxes, salaries and loans were all paid entirely on goods
• extensive trading made Egypt a powerful influence on culture, art, ideas and technology (ie.
Western calendar was taken from the Romans who had borrowed it from the Egyptians)
• Trade eventually grew and expanded, bringing new ideas and goods into Egyptian society
 Education

• Contributed to stability and continuity of Egypt

• All children, regardless of social class, received some
education
• Followed a moral and ethical guide “Instructions in
Wisdom”
• Goal for education was to ensure youth exhibited self
control and good manners
• At 14, young boys followed fathers in jobs, and girls
learned from mothers in the household
• Children of priests were schooled more formally
• Literacy was stressed for government jobs
• Education respected for creating a well rounded
individual
Hieroglyphics
• History of Writing:
1) pictograms (sun= sun)
2) ideograms (sun = sun, daylight, warmth,
light)
3) phonograms: symbols that suggest a
particular sound; related ideas and also sound
(Sun = sun, son, Sunday)

• Each hieroglyph found in pyramids and tombs

often symbolized more than one consonant. Not
only that, but actual Egyptian hieroglyphs were
a combination of sound-signs, pictograms, and
ideograms. No wonder it was so hard to decode
them!
• New Kingdom= 700
hieroglyphs in common
usage, while rest were
phonograms
• 100 were strictly visual,
while rest were
phonograms
• Eventually scribes
adapted hieroglyphic
symbols
• By 700 BCE, script was
refined to the demotic
(or popular script) was
used for secular matters
such as letters, accounts
and record keeping
 What is the Rosetta Stone?
Rosetta Stone • The Rosetta Stone is a stone with writing on it
in two languages (Egyptian and Greek), using
three scripts (hieroglyphic, demotic and
Greek). It was carved in 196 BCE.

Why is it in three different scripts?

• The Rosetta Stone is written in three scripts
(hieroglyphs for religious documents;
demotic- common script of Egypt; Greek-
language of the rulers of Egypt at that time)
• The Rosetta Stone was written in all three
scripts so that the priests, government officials
and rulers of Egypt could read what it said.

When was the Rosetta Stone found?

• The Rosetta Stone was found in 1799 by
French soldiers who were rebuilding a fort in
Egypt (in a small village in Delta called
Rosetta (Rashid)

What does the Rosetta Stone say?

• The Rosetta Stone is a text written by a group
of priests in Egypt to honour the Egyptian
pharaoh. It lists all of the things that the
pharaoh had done that were good for the
priests and the people of Egypt.
 Life and Death
• Life and death was measured in accordance to Ma’at: the goddess
and symbol of equilibrium of the universe and the king had to rule
according to her principles

Death viewed as a new beginning

• Afterlife common to all, regardless of social status
(preparation varied as well as goods stored in tombs) MA’AT
-symbol of
the equilibrium
• 2 Common Principles:
1) body preservation in a lifelike form of the universe
2) the deceased must have items necessary for life in the afterworld

• Personal belongings were usually placed in the tomb to make the Ka more at
home and to assist the dead in their journey into the afterlife.

• Text was read from the 'Book of the Dead' which was a collection of spells,
charms, passwords, numbers and magical formulas for the use of the deceased
in the afterlife.
This scene depicts what occurs after a person has died, according to the
ancient Egyptians.
• panel of 14 judges
• Ka (soul /spiritual duplicate), ba (personality) ankh (form mummy took
in afterlife / the key of life)
• Weighing of the heart vs Ma’at
• Judgment of scale
• record of the outcome
• Mummification focused Mummification
on Egyptian belief of the
importance of • Removal of organs (lungs, stomach,
preserving the body intestines, liver) in Canopic Jars
were closed with stoppers fashioned
• Afterlife would be spent in the shape of four heads -- human,
enjoying best of life baboon, falcon, and jackal -
experiences representing the four protective
spirits called the Four Sons of Horus.
• Body covered with
• brain was sucked out of the cranial
natron and dried for up cavity and thrown away because the
to 70 days Egyptian's thought it was useless.
• Body wrapped in linen
coated with resins and
oils
• Middle Kingdom
became customary to
place a mask over the
face
Ancient Egypt: Why so stable?
• Ancient Egypt
lasted for 3500
years due to
factors in:
• Geography
• Politics
• Social structure
• Education
• Economy
• Religion

= Stability was
goal and change
slow and
cautious