Unit 2 - Chapter 5: Ancient Egypt and Kush

Egyptian Kingdoms

  • 3150 BC Narmer Unites Egypt
  • 2675 -2130 BC Old Kingdom
  • 1980 - 1630 BC Middle Kingdom
  • 1539 - 1075 BC New Kingdom
  • 730 - 671 BC Kush Kingdom

Chapter 5.1: The Nile River

The Nile River Valley

  • Developed ALONG the Nile
  • Kush: far southern part of the Nile River Valley

Valley Civilization

  • 5000 BC: Began to more from dry areas of Africa and Southwest Asia
  • Egyptians: Northern Region of Nile River Valley
    • Called land “Kemet” (black land) for the dark and rich soil
  • Study ruins

The Gift of the River

  • Hot and dry climate: Little rainfall
  • Depended on the Nile for drinking and bathing and growing crops
  • Praised the Nile and called it “the creator of all good”
  • Nile is the longest river that flows north 4,000 miles to the Mediterranean
  • Blue Nile
    • Begins in snowy mountains and easter Africa
  • White Nile
    • Starts in the tropics of central Africa
    • Join south of Egypt to form the Nile River

A Protected Land

  • Forms a fan-shaped delta before reaches the Mediterranean
  • West of Nile river is the Libyan Desert, one of the largest in the world and to the east is the Eastern Desert
    • Kept Egyptians isolated from the invaders because of the scorching deserts
  • Cataract: danger moving waters; protects Egypt from enemy ships

Text Questions

==Why was the Nile River important to the ancient Egyptians?==

It was important because it provided a water source for drinking, bathing, and growing crops.

==How were the Egyptians protected by their physical environment?==

The deserts to the east and west stopped invaders because of the scorching heat. Also, the cataracts in the Nile made the river dangerous, therefore not allowing enemy ships to come through.

People of the River

  • Unpredictable rivers - seasonal and consisted rivers

Predictable Floods

  • Nile was less destructible than Tigris and Euphrates Rivers
  • Late spring: rain and melting snow caused Nile to flood in the summer
    • Thick deposits of fertile soil remained

How did Egyptians Farm?

  • Wheat, barley, and flax seeds planted when soil wet
  • Dry season: used irrigation
  • Created a shadoof (bucket attached to long pole and lifts water: Nile → crop)
  • Geometry used to divide fields
  • Papyrus: reed plant used to wear rope, sandals, baskets, river rafts, and paper

How did Egyptians Write?

  • Hieroglyphics: Egyptian writing system that represents sounds (letters)
  • Wrote/painted on papyrus

Text Questions

==How did the Egyptians rely on the Nile to grow crops?==

For the use of irrigation and water supply. Also, they used shadoofs to help grow these crops

==What kind of writing system did the Egyptians develop?==

They developed a writing system called hieroglyphics.

Uniting Egypt

  • Grew Surpluses because protected by outside enemies → trading
  • Traded goods with people outside of boundaries (Ex: Nubia, Mesopotamia)

Forming Kingdoms

  • Need to government to oversee construction and develop grain storage (conflicts had to be settled)
  • 4000 BC: Egypt made up of 2 large kingdoms
  • Upper Egypt: located in south-central part of the Nile River Valley (higher elevation → Mountains)
  • Lower Egypt: located along the Nile River’s north delta (lower elevation)
  • Small kingdoms taken over by big kingdoms

Who was Narmar?

  • King of Upper Egypt
    • 3100 BC: conquered Lower Egypt and married one of their princesses (unified kingdoms)
    • All of Egypt ruled by one king
  • Memphis = New capital
  • Dynasty: Ruling passed from father to son

Text Questions

==How did the separate small kingdoms of Egypt unite?==

The larger and more powerful kingdoms took over the smaller and weaker kingdoms.

Chapter 5.2: Life in Ancient Egypt

Egypt’s Early Rulers

  • 2600-2200 BC: Old Kingdom
  • Theocracy: government in which the same person is both the political leader and the religious leader

A Political Leader

  • Pharaoh: referred to the grand palace where the family lived
    • Held total power
    • Believed that pharaoh’s intelligence would help us to survives disasters
    • Owned all of the land
  • Bureaucrats: government officials used to carry out his orders

A Religious Leader

  • Egyptians loyal to pharaoh because they thought he was the son of Re (Egyptian Sun god)
  • Participated in ceremonies thought to help the kingdom thrive
    • Rode bull because they believed it would keep soil fertile
    • First person to cut the ripened grain → produce abundant crops

Religion in Egypt

  • Religion was a big influence (polytheism)
    • Gods and goddesses were believed to control natural forces and human activities
  • Depended on sun to grow crops and Nile River to make soil fertile
    • Sun god = Re; River god = Hapi
  • Osiris: early pharaoh who gave Egyptian people laws and taught farming
    • Wife, Isis, ruled with him over the world of the dead
  • Thoth: god of learning

The Afterlife

  • Believed that life after death would be better
  • The Book of the Dead
    • Studied its prayers and magic spells to prepare for the afterlife
  • Thought that pharaoh’s soul resided in body and must be protected
    • If decayed, soul would not have a place to live (embalmed the bodies *mummification)
  • Embalm
    • Removed body’s organs (stored in special jars), covered body in natron (dried up water in body and shrunk), wrapped with strips of linen (mummy), placed in coffin and decorated tomb

Medical Skills

  • Embalming helped to develop basic medical skills
  • First to use splints, bandages, and compresses
  • Wrote medical information on papyrus scrolls; world’s first medical books

Pyramid Tombs

  • Made of stone
  • Protected the bodies of dead pharaoh from floods, wild animals, and robbers
  • Thought pharaohs would be happy in after life after death with their belonging, placed them with where their reside.

How were the pyramids bulit?

  • Took many years to build
  • Imhotep: first great pyramid engineer, also was official for the pharaoh
  • Used wooden sleds to carry the stone → dragged/pushed up pyramid ramps
  • All entrances faced north (lead to development of 365 day calendar and basis for our modern calendar)
  • Advancements in mathematics: angles, calculation of how much stone, invented system of numbers based on 10 and adding, subtraction, division and fractions

An Egyptian Wonder

  • The Great Pyramid: the biggest and grandest of them all
    • Mid-2000s BC
    • Lies 10 miles from modern city of Cairo
    • Built for King Khufu
    • For more than 4,000 years, stood as tallest structure in the world

Daily Life

Daily Life

  • At its peak was home to 5 million people
  • Most lived in fertile Nile valley and delta

Egypt’s Social Groups

  • Roles reflected social status/position in society

How People Lived

  • Upper class
    • Fancy, big houses, servants to wait on them
  • Middle class
    • Less fancy, dressed more simple
  • Largest class had farmers, unskilled workers, and slaves
    • Unskilled workers performed manual labor (unloading cargo)

Egyptian Families

  • Family was very important
  • Father = head of family; women had more rights in contrast to earlier civilizations
  • Children had time for fun and respected their parents
  • Oldest son: learned fathers trade because would very often inherit the business
  • Expected to get married and start families as teenagers
  • Oldest son and daughter sometimes expected to take care of parents when old/sick
    • Responsible to give a proper burial

Chapter 5.3: Egypt’s Empire

The Middle Kingdom

  • Known as “Golden Age”- 2030 to 1650 B.C.
    • Leaders greatly expanded Egypt through war and trade
  • Conquered new territories
    • Nubia
  • They added new land for agriculture
  • Built a canal between Nile River and Red Sea
  • Egyptian arts and architecture thrived during the Middle Kingdom
    • All of artwork usually showed stories of deities and pharaohs
  • Developed new kind of architecture
    • No more pyramids, tombs were cut into to limestone cliffs by the Nile
    • Known Valley of the Kings
  • Middle Kingdom was weakened (nobles wanted to go against pharaohs)
    • Hyksos, powerful warriors, took over Egypt
    • Ruled Egypt for more than 100 years
    • Egyptian prince (Ahmose) formed an army and drove the Hyksos out of Egypt around 1500s B.C.

The New Kingdom

  • 1550 b.c. to 1070 b.c.
  • Reached the height of its power
    • Egyptians were no longer isolate
  • Hatshepsut (a woman pharaoh)
    • Ruled with her husband, but husband died
    • She became pharaoh instead of her young nephew
    • Dress in male clothes and wear a fake beard
    • She had to prove that she was a good ruler
  • Hatshepsut was more interested in trade rather than war
    • They would sail to the ports in Arabia and East Africa to trade
    • Egyptians valued wood (there wasn’t much wood near the Nile)
    • Also traveled to east coast of Mediterranean Sea
    • Present day country Lebanon is located there
    • Phoenicians were located in the region
      • Greatly impacted other cultures in the region (came up with alphabet and system of writing)
    • Traded wheat, paper, gold, copper, tin and tools to the Phoenicians for purple dye, wood, and furniture
    • By trading with the Phoenicians, Egyptians spread their food and goods across Southwest Asia
    • Trade in the eastern Mediterranean helped make the Egyptian kingdom wealthier
    • To maintain close ties, pharaohs and the other rulers also exchanged representatives
    • Actions marked the first time in history that a group of nations tried working together to reach common goals
    • Thutmose III (Hatshepsut’s nephew) became leader after she died
    • Was a strong leader that expanded territories
    • Egypt became wealthier and slavery was more common
    • Amenhotep (new pharaoh- around 1370 B.C.)
    • Wanted to change religion
    • Thought that priests had too much power
    • Believed only one god (sun god- Aton)
    • He closed temples and removed priests from their position
    • Most of Egypt didn’t like him because they thought he neglected his duty as a pharaoh
    • Egypt lost most of their lands in Western Asia because of his weak rule
    • King Tut (son of Amenhotep) was ruler after his father died around 1350 B.C.
    • Was only ten years old and relied of advice from priests and officials to rule
    • Restored the belief of deities
    • Wasn’t an influential leader but is now the most famous pharaoh
    • After dying only nine years after his rule, he died
    • Most of the other tombs of pharaohs were robbed except him which made him very famous
    • During 1200s b.c., pharaohs worked to restore Egypt's greatness.
    • Fought battles for more territory, increased Egypt's wealth through trade, and built large temples and monuments
    • Most successful pharaoh during this time period was Ramses II
    • Temples were an important part of the economy
    • Pharaohs constantly fought expensive wars after Ramses II died- caused Egypt’s decline
    • Armies from the eastern Mediterranean attacked Egypt. By 1150 b.c., the Egyptian empire controlled only the Nile delta
    • In the 900s b.c., the Libyans conquered Egypt. Then, the people of Kush seized power. Finally, in 670 b.c., Egypt was taken over by the Assyrians from Mesopotamia.

Chapter 5.4: The Kingdom of Kush

The Nubians

  • South Egypt
    • Present-day Sudan
  • Nubian villages flourished
    • Didn’t have to depend on Nile (already had fertile soil)
    • Hunters and warriors used the bow and arrow to hunt

The Rise of Kerma

  • Kerma formed when stronger Nubian villages conquered the weaker ones
  • Kerma had a good relationship with Egypt in North

Egyptian Invasion

  • 1400s B.C. (Egyptian armies invaded Nubia)
  • After 50-year war, Egyptians conquered Kerma
    • Ruled for the next 700 years

^^Why did Kerma become an important center for trade?^^

  • Their farming and hunting methods were efficient, allowing them to have extra resources to trade. To add, they traded cattle, gold, ivory, giraffes, leopards, and enslaved people to the Egyptians.

The Rise of Kush

  • 850: Nubians formed an independent kingdom known as Kush
  • Capital: Napata

Kush Conquers Egypt

  • 750 BC: Kushite King named Kashta invaded Egypt
    • His son, Piye, founded the 25th dynasty in 728 BC
  • Kushites believed in close relationship with rulers and deities
  • Built white sandstone temples and monuments similar to those in Egypt
  • Small pyramids as tombs for their kings

Using Iron

  • Kush ruled for about 60 years
  • 671 BC: Assyrians defeated the Kushites
    • Kushites = Bronze weapons (not as strong)
  • Iron helped to farm and boost military strength
    • Learned how to make it from the Assyrians

The Capital of Meroe

  • 540 BC: Kush moved capital to Meroe → made them safer from the Assyrians
  • Meroe became a major center for iron production (iron ore in rivers) and trading
  • Had iron furnaces, different than typical Egyptian city (left lots of waste)

A Trading Center

  • Traded valuable skins and woods from tropical interior of Africa
  • Enslaved people also traded
  • Kush was a great trading kingdom for 600 years, Axum emerged near the red sea (located in present day Ethiopia)
  • AD 350: Axum invaded kush and destroyed Meroe

^^How did the use of iron affect the Kush?^^

  • The use of iron helped the Kush create stronger weapons to defend their kingdom. It also helped to farm because it created new tools that made it more efficient.