Egyptian Timeline

• Old Kingdom (2700-2150)

– Hieroglyphics and religion

develop in Egypt

– pyramids built

• Middle Kingdom (2040-1786)

– extension of Egyptian control

into Nubia

• New Kingdom (1570-1075)

– militaristic - Hebrews enslaved

– mummification perfected

Outline

1. Geography

2. Religion

– Gods

– Pyramids

– Mummies

3. Government

– The Pharaoh

4. Daily Life

5. Middle Kingdom

6. New Kingdom

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I. Geography

• River dominates Egyptian world/thought

• Surrounded by desert with occasional oasis

– Permits some trade

– Defense from invasion

• Contributes to feeling of safety

– preserves artifacts

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“Egypt is the gift of

the Nile” -Herodotus

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I. The Nile

• yearly flooding - no concern for soil

depletion

– Predictable (Nileometer)

– Irrigation systems

• Encourages

– Trade

– Communication

– Political unity

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White Crown of Upper Egypt Red Crown of Lower Egypt

Double Crown of Egypt, revered

as the symbol of absolute

kingship for 3000 years

I. The Nile

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I. The Nile

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I. The Nile

I. The Nile

• Impact on religion

– divided life - living and dying.

• East (sunrise) is land of the living - cities, temples

• West (sunset) is land of the dead - tombs

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II. Religion

• Omnipresence of religion

• Polytheistic

– interaction with the natural environment shows

interrelated gods and goddesses yearly rebirth of Nile and

daily rebirth of sun

– over 2000 gods

• Pharaoh as living god

• Belief in Afterlife

– Life after death

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II. Osiris

• God of the Afterlife, Underworld, and Dead -

“rebirth” - and the weighing of the heart

• The ancient Egyptians believed if you did

something bad, your heart would be heavy, and the

god Ammut the Devourer could suddenly appear

and eat you!

• The god Ammut had a big part in the weighing of

the heart ceremony.

• To enter your afterlife, you had to have a light

heart. Light hearts were earned from a lifetime of

doing good deeds.

• To find out if your heart qualified for the trip to the

afterlife, your spirit had to enter the Hall of

Maat. The god Anubis weighed your heart. The god

Thoth recorded the findings.

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II. Horus

• Horus, god of balance and harmony

• maintained the natural order: the flow of the Nile and the fertility of

the soil.

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II. Early Pyramids

Zozer’s stepped pyramid - similar to

Babylonian ziggurats

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Why build Pyramids?

• Belief in the afterlife demanded:

1. Bodies be interred whole

2. Material goods for use in afterlife be present

• The need to protect the bodies demands

good burial tombs

1. First were mastabas

2. Then pyramids

3. Then later… hidden tombs

Mastaba

II. Great Pyramid

• Tomb for Khufu

• an almost perfect square (deviation .05%)

• Orientation is exactly North, South, East

West

• 2,300,000 blocks, 500ft high

• 20 years to build

• Average block weighs 2.5 tons

– Some weigh 9 tons!

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Pyramids of Menkaure, Khafre and Khufu

Queen Pyramids in front 2 3 4 5 1 6

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II. Mummies

• Not known when it started in Egypt

• Perfected by time of New Kingdom

• How to make a mummy: 70 steps

– 1) Removal of the brain through the nostrils 2) Removal of the

intestines through an incision in the side 3) Sterilization of the

body and intestines 4) Treating, cleaning, dehydrating the

intestines 5) Packing the body with natron (a natural dehydrating

agent) and leaving for 40 days 6) Removal of the natron agent 7)

Packing the limbs with clay or sand 8) Packing the body with linen

(soaked in resin), myrrh and cinnamon 9) Treating the body with

ointments and finally wrapping with a fine linen gauze, not less

than 1000 square yards .

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Canopic Jars made of alabaster jars with heads of the Four Sons of the

god Horus; for storage of heart, stomach, intestines and liver

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• Duamutef, the jackal-headed

god representing the east, whose

jar contained the stomach and

was protected by the goddess

Neith

• Hapi, the baboon-headed god

representing the north, whose jar

contained the lungs and was

protected by the goddess

Nephthys

• Imseti, the human-headed god

representing the south, whose jar

contained the liver and was

protected by the goddess Isis

• Qebehsenuef, the falcon-headed

god representing the west,

whose jar contained the

intestines and was protected by

the goddess Selket

Mummies

Claymation of the Mummification Process

Inner coffin

Mummy

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Second inner

coffin lid

Second inner

coffin

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Shawabti box

Gift bearers

Model boat

Funerary

Gifts

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III. The Pharaoh

• Pharaoh=God-King, unlike Mesopotamia’s

governmental king

– Temporal power

• owns all the land and people and what people posses

• law vs. Pharaoh's will

• irrigation

• no city walls

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III. The Pharaoh

• God-King - unlike Mesopotamia

– Religious

• direct descendant of the Sun god (Ra)

• controls access to the afterlife

• July-Sept, during floods life is controlled by the

Pharaoh

– 365 day calendar.

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III. Role played by size in Egyptian Artwork

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IV. Daily Life in Egypt

• Cosmetics, cleanliness (bathe 3 times a day), shaved

bodies, wigs

• main food is beer and bread

– Grow many crops: emmer, barley, flax, lentils, onion,

beans, and millet

• common building made of sun-dried mud bricks - up

to three stories in height

• Five social classes - slaves on the bottom

• Most common job … farming

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IV. Farmers in Egypt

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IV. Hieroglyphics

• Language is written without

vowels

• Different pronunciations

– MNFR as Memphis

– SR as Osiris

– TTMS as either Thutmose,

Thutmosis, Tatmusa or Atithmese

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IV. Hieroglyphics

• Use in temples, obelisks,

pyramids, sarcophaguses, for

religious ceremonies,

mummification, and prayers.

• People wrote (scribes) and

kept records on papyrus

paper.

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A section of the Egyptian Book of the

Dead written on papyrus paper.

Rosetta Stone • The Rosetta Stone is an ancient Egyptian stele

inscribed with a decree issued at Memphis in 196 BC

on behalf of the Pharaoh. The decree appears in three

scripts: the upper text is Ancient Egyptian

Hieroglyphics, the middle portion Demotic (the stage

of the Egyptian language after the New Kingdom)

script, and the lowest Ancient Greek. Because it

presents essentially the same text in all three scripts

(with some minor differences between them), it

provided the key to the modern understanding of

Egyptian Hieroglyphics.

• It was discovered in 1799 by a soldier, Pierre-

Francois Bouchard, of the French expedition to

Egypt. As the first Ancient Egyptian bilingual text

recovered in modern times, the Rosetta Stone

aroused widespread public interest with its potential

to decipher this untranslated ancient language.

One possible reconstruction of

the original stele

IV. Egyptian Artwork

Egyptian Farmers & animals

Stele (carved stone)

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Notice, all people drawn

from the side – even when

looking right at you!

V. Middle Kingdom 2050-1750 BCE

• End of civil wars, farming and trade return

• move capital south to Upper Egypt (Thebes)

• public improvements

– drain swamps, canal to Red Sea

• belief in afterlife expands to include

common people

• tombs instead of pyramids

– better protection for mummies.

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V. Middle Kingdom 2050-1750 BCE

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VI. New Kingdom 1550-1075 BCE

• Ahmose I expelled the invading Hyksos and

reunited Egypt

• Known as the Empire period

• development of “public” and “private”

zones at temples.

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Ahmose I leading Egyptians against the Hyksos

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VI. New Kingdom 1550-1075 BCE

• Characterized by a more militaristic and

imperialistic nature

– incorporated chariot, bronze working, horses

– development of a professional army

• became a slave based economy fueled by

war and expansion

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VI. Threats to Tradition

• Amenhotep IV (c. 1362-1347 B.C.)

introduced the worship of Aton, god

of the sun disk, as the chief god and

pursued his worship with

enthusiasm.

• Changed name to Akhenaten (“It is

well with Aton”)

• He closed the temples of other gods

and especially endeavored to lessen

the power of Amon-Re and his

priesthood at Thebes.

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VI. Threats to Tradition

1355-1335 BCE • Nefertiti

– Wife of Akhenaton the only

pharaoh to even partially

reject polytheism

– political move against priests

of Amon-Re

– moved capital to Amarna

– worshipped Aton, the sun

disk

• royal inbreeding.

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VI. Tutankhamen

1335-1325 BCE

• (King Tut)

• child ruler

• ruled nine years, died at 18

• young death meant burial

in the tomb of a lesser

person (noble) resulting in

preservation

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VI. Ramses II (1279-1213)

• greatest New Kingdom ruler

• military leader of Egypt

• expanded into southern Turkey

• built many monuments to

himself

• last gasp of Egyptian power.

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VI. Ramses II (1279-1213)

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VI. Ramses II (1279-1213)

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Decline of Ancient Egypt • Third Intermediate Period (1069 – 653 BCE)

- Assyrians conquer Egypt

- With no permanent plans for conquest, the Assyrians left control of Egypt to a

series of vassals

• Late Period (672 – 332 BCE)

- 525 BCE Persians conquer Egypt

• Ptolemaic dynasty

- In 332 BC, Alexander the Great conquered Egypt with little resistance from the

Persians and was welcomed by the Egyptians as a deliverer. The administration

established by Alexander's successors, the Greek Ptolemaic Dynasty was based on

an Egyptian model and based in the new capital city of Alexandria.

• Roman Period

- In addition, as Rome relied more heavily on imports of grain from Egypt, the

Romans took great interest in the political situation in the country.

- Egypt became a province of the Roman Empire in 30 BC, following the defeat of

Marc Antony and Ptolemaic Queen Cleopatra VII by Octavian (later Emperor

Augustus) in the Battle of Actium.

Blending of Cultures

The Fayum Mummy

Portraits epitomize the

meeting of Egyptian and

Roman cultures at the

decline of Ancient

Egypt.