Chapter 2Section 2 Notes

Amon-Re---sun god (chief god of Egypt) Osiris---god of the dead and Nile

Egyptian Religion

Amon-Re

Osiris

The Egyptians believed that each soul had to pass a test in order to win eternal life. According to Egyptian belief, the dead soul would be ferried across a lake of fire to the hall of Osiris. There, Osiris would weigh the dead person’s heart against the feather of truth. Those he judged to be sinners would be fed to the crocodile-shaped Eater of the Dead. Worthy souls would enter the Happy Field of Food, where they would live forever in bliss.

Belief in an Afterlife

To survive the dangerous journey through the underworld, Egyptians relied on the Book of the Dead.

Book of the Dead---contained spells, charms, and formulas for the dead to use in the afterlife

The Book of the Dead was written on scrolls and placed in tombs

Belief in an Afterlife

Mummification---the preservation of the dead Skilled embalmers extracted the brain of the

dead person through the nostrils and removed most of the internal organs. They filled the body cavity with spices, then later dried and wrapped the body in strips of linen. This costly process took months to complete. At first, mummification was a privilege reserved for rulers and nobles. Eventually, ordinary Egyptians also won the right to mummify their dead.

Belief in an Afterlife

Mummy

Many Egyptian pharaohs were buried in the desolate Valley of the Kings

In 1922, British archaeologist Howard Carter unearthed the tomb of the 18 year old pharaoh Tutankhamen (King Tut)

King Tut’s tomb had remained almost untouched for more than 3,000 years

The body of King Tut had been placed in a solid gold coffin, nested within richly decorated outer coffins

Today, the dazzling array of objects found in the tomb fills several rooms in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. They include chariots, weapons, furniture, jewelry, toys, games, and food.

Belief in an Afterlife

Valley of the Kings

Valley of the Kings

Sarcophagus

King Tut’s Tomb

Howard Carter

King Tut’s Mummy

Like other early civilizations, Egypt had its own class system

Pharaoh and royal family, high priests and priestesses, nobles, merchants/scribes/artisans, peasant farmers

In the off-season, peasant men were expected to serve the pharaoh laboring to build palaces, temples, and tombs

Egyptian women generally enjoyed a higher status and greater independence than women elsewhere in the ancient world

Egyptian Society

Hieroglyphics---Egyptian form of picture writing Hieroglyphics were used to keep important records

and were first carved on stone The earliest hieroglyphics were pictograms that

depicted objects. Later Egyptians added ideograms, pictures that symbolized an idea or action.

Over time, scribes developed demotic, a simpler form of writing for everyday use.

They also learned to use papyrus to make a paperlike material

Writing with reed pens and ink on the smooth surface of papyrus strips was much easier than chiseling words onto stone

Egyptian Learning

Hieroglyphics

Papyrus

After the New Kingdom declined, Egyptians forgot the meanings of ancient hieroglyphics

Not until the early 1800s did French scholar Jean Champollion unravel the mysterious writings on Egypt’s monuments

Rosetta Stone---flat, black stone that had the same message carved in three different forms of script---hieroglyphics, demotic, and Greek

By comparing the three versions, Champollion patiently worked out the meanings of many hieroglyphic symbols

Egyptian Learning

Rosetta Stone

Egyptian doctors became skilled at mummification, observing symptoms, diagnosing illnesses, finding cures, and performing complex surgical operations

Some medicines used by ancient Egyptian doctors are still used today---anise, castor beans, and saffron

Egyptians used geometry to measure fields and to calculate the exact size and location of each block of stone to be placed in a pyramid or temple

Egyptian Learning