Egypt Lecture Notes

Egypt - Geography

Where is Egypt located?

Northeast corner of Africa, (were Africans)
Along Nile River = world's longest river (4,000 miles)
Northern most 750 miles of Nile
12-mile wide strip of fertile land
Nile flows north into Mediterranean Sea
Lower Egypt = lower in elevation, to north, final 150 miles and delta
Upper Egypt = higher elevation, to south,

What is the land like?
About 5,000 BCE Sahara changed from savanna to desert
Strip of fertile soil surrounded by cliffs and desert
Surrounded: Sea to North, Desert to East and West, Jungle to South
Predictable annual flooding from central Africa (July - September)
Important because brought fertile silt from central Africa to desert
Egyptians called it Kemet = Black Land (vs. desert was "Deshret" - Red Land)

What is the climate like?
Hot, dry
Never rains along Nile (narrow strip along Mediterranean coast gets some winter rain)
Two crops each year

How did the Nile bring the Egyptian people together?
Egypt called "Gift of the Nile"
River highway
Flowed north, steady wind to south
Took collective action to build irrigation system
Canals, dams, storage ponds

Egypt - Political System



What was the government like?

Theocracy = government by a god regarded as the ruling power or by priests or officials
claiming divine sanctions
Pharaoh/king/god responsible for dispensing justice and order, right, truth, law, order
Royalty - total authority
Kings not challenged so government doesn't change
Unquestioned so lead to 2,000 year of stability
marked beginning of world's first nation/state
Priests and scribes = could be very powerful
Old Kingdom (built pyramids 2613 - 2040 BCE)
Middle Kingdom
New Kingdom (zenith of empire in 1,400 BCE)
Each kingdom (years) contain many dynasties (seasons)
Each dynasty (season) has many kings (months)



How did government get workers for pyramids?

Labor tax required work for government
During inundation when they couldn't farm


After the New Kingdom, what different people controlled Egypt?
Nubians, Assyrians, Persians, Egyptians, Persians, Greeks, Romans, Arabs, Turks, French, Egyptian
Usually protected from invaders by desert and jungles, only vulnerable from North



Egypt - Social Structure

What are the classes or people?
Royalty, priests (part of the government, advisors), scribes (powerful advisors)
Upper class = nobles, rich land owners, government officials, doctors, army officers, high priests
Middle class = manufacturers, craft workers, traders, artists
Lower class = peasants = majority = unskilled laborers, farm workers
Soldiers
Slaves = prisoners of war, could be freed
Could change class with talent, hard work, or marriage


What was Egyptian education like?

Learned writing, reading, math, algebra, geometry, astronomy, medicine,
Hieroglyphics originated 3300 BCE
Prepare students for governmental service or public scribes
Only 1 in 20 males educated, mostly upper class (women much less so)
Most boys followed father's occupation, could apprentice with professionals
Girls learned household responsibilities from mothers

What did women do in Ancient Egypt?
Unique in ancient world
Enjoyed same legal and economic right as males within the same social class
Usually in charge of households
Also worked in crafts, fields, workshops, and as temple priestesses
Only upper classes learned writing, math and literature
(they were rich enough to not have to work, other not educated so no government work for women)
Could manage, sell, bequeath property (land, livestock, goods, money, servants, slaves,)
Could sue, contract own marriage, divorce, adopt, or sell self into slavery
"I am your servant, together with my children and my children's children. I shall not be free in your precinct forever and ever. You will protect me; you will keep me safe; you will guard me. You will keep me sound; you will protect me from every demon, and I will pay you … until the completion of 99 years, and I will give it to your priests monthly"
(contrast with Greek women that needed male representative for all legal contracts)
free to go about in public,
legally free to travel but custom probably discouraged it
did not wear a veil
had more freedom and rights than women in rest of ancient world

Egypt - Economy

What was the economy based upon?
Agriculture, most people were farm laborers
Crops = wheat, barley, beans, flax, cotton (Egyptian Cotton = long stranded)
figs, dates, grapes, melons, cucumbers, onions, lettuce,
Livestock = cattle, goats, sheep, pigs, ducks, geese, fish, donkeys, bees
Crafts = textiles, jewelry, glass, metal (copper, gold, tin), pottery, bricks, tools, weapons, furniture, baskets, rope, papyrus, engineers, carpenters, bakers, butchers, teachers, scribes, accountants, musicians, embalmers
Traded within Egypt, Mediterranean, and Red Sea
No money, all barter

Who controlled the land and people of ancient Egypt?
Pharaohs all-powerful
Huge gap between rich and poor
1,000,000 - 4,000,000 populations along river, more in delta to north
Pyramids built by peasants paying "labor tax" (during inundations when they wouldn't be farming anyway)

Describe Egyptian innovations.
Mathematics = better Pi, but no zero
Medicine = surgery, bone setting with plaster casts, herbs
first believed diseased caused by evil spirits, by 1600 BCE treated disease as natural
Surplus calories allows surplus labor allows trade, art, architecture
Architecture - pyramids very sophisticated, based on astrology, tombs, not temples, 450' tall
Inventions = better calendar to predict floods (365 days), plow, hoes, chariots (1600 BCE), after time of pyramids (2,000 BCE), so "Prince of Egypt" wrong)
First national government
Hieroglyphics = 700 symbols for ideas and sounds, pictures and script
Papyrus (where we get our word for paper)
One of the first religions emphasizing life after
Great cities with professional trades (architects, doctors, engineers, painters, sculptors)
Sails for boats


Egypt - Religion



How did Egyptian Religion change over time?
Always polytheistic
Archaic - animism, each village had their own gods and spirits
Old Kingdom
only pharaoh was immortal
Re (sun god) became most powerful,
built pyramids = stairway to heaven for Pharaoh
Middle Kingdom
everyone immortal
Osiris (god of underworld), attracted many followers
New Kingdom
Short period of monotheism
Returned to polytheism with next ruler (Tutankhaton - boy king)

How did the Egyptians explain events in nature?
Stories about their gods explained natural events
Many gods with different responsibilities - wisdom, love, , Nile, sun
Dung beetle rolls sun across sky
Sun born each morning, dies each nigh

Why did Egyptians preserve bodies as mummies?
Death = extension of life
Bodies mummified because needed in afterlife
Soul appears before Osiris and heart is weighed
Light as a feather vs. heavy with sin

Scarab insect : larvae - pupae -
Egyptian: human - - afterlife
Christian: alive - tomb - resurrection
Caterpillar - cocoon - butterfly

Who were the main gods?
Re = sun (also called Amon or Amon-Re)
Isis = goddess mother/wife
Osiris = god of vegetation and
Horus = god of sky (falcon headed)
Thoth = god of wisdom and writing