Chapter 7

Lesson One

The five gifts of the Nile

1. water for irrigation and drinking
1. irrigation channels
2. dams
2. the yearly flooding of the Nile during June-Sept. left the fields covered with a thick black mud that fertilized the land; the mud was also used for construction
3. papyrus grew on the banks of the Nile
1. baskets
2. boats/barges
3. sandals
4. paper
5. e. the word paper comes from papyrus

4. source of protein rich food - birds and fish
5. transportation route for trade with neighboring communities along the Nile and via the Mediterranean Sea into which the Nile emptied

Egypt was protected from its enemies by its geography

1. the blazing hot Sahara Desert to the east and west of the Nile

2. mountains to the south and east

3. cataracts on the upper (southern) part of the Nile (steep rapids)

4. Mediterranean Sea to the north

The Nile is a river in Egypt

The Nile is the longest river in the world

It starts in the Ethiopian highlands & travels 4,241 miles to the Mediterranean Sea!

It has six cataracts

Its mouth spreads out considerably and resembles a lotus flower

It travels in a northerly direction

It slows down as it nears the mouth as the accumulated silt & debris overwhelms the river

Flooded during June-Sept.

Planting followed from Sept.-Feb

Harvesting followed from Feb through May

The Nile flooded in a very predictable manner. Droughts, however, were not unknown. Overall, farming was easier in Egypt than it was in Mesopotamia.

Chapter 7

Lesson 2

Pyramids

1. King Zoser had the first large pyramid built – Zoser’s Step Pyramid

2. Over 80 pyramids survive to this day

3. The Great Pyramid was the largest building in the world until the 19^th century

4. The steps sere seen as a stairway for the king to use to get to heaven

5. Later pyramids lacked the steps but the smooth sides represented the slope of the sun’s rays

Egyptian Religion

1. believed in an afterlife – a life that would continue after death

2. they believed that the body needed to follow the spirit into the afterlife

- if the body decayed, so too would the spirit

- the Egyptians there treated the body with chemicals to protect it (embalming)

- embalming the body changed the body into a mummy

- remove all internal organs except the heart and place them in jars

- cover body for about 40 days with natron, a salt that dried the body

- hot , liquid tree sap was used to seal the body

- next, the body was washed and oiled

- up to 400 yards of linen strips were used to wrap the body

- magic amulets were tucked into the wrappings

- spells and prayers were painted on the human like coffins

- the face of the dead person was often painted on the coffin

3. the dead person was buried with everything one would need to live; food and drink, clothes, games, jewelry, mirrors, etc.

4. poorer people were buried with less objects than the wealthy people

5. scenes from everyday life were painted on the tomb’s walls to ensure that good things would continue in the afterlife

6. prayers, magic spells, and hymns could be found in the Egyptian Book of the Dead

- part of the book discusses the feather of truth

- the feather was sued to weigh the heart of the dead person

- if one’s heart was too heavy with sin, one died a second death from which there was no return

- the soul that passed the test went on to a splendid afterlife

The gods of ancient Egypt

1. ancient Egyptians were polytheistic
2. the gods created and ruled the world
3. each village also had its own god
4. many Egyptians built small shrines in their homes
1. Ra was the sun god
2. Osiris was the god of the dead
3. Small gods appeared in human form, while some were part human and part animal

Ancient Egyptian Writing

1. scribes spent years learning the 700 symbols used to write hieroglyphics

2. very few people in ancient Egypt knew how to write or read

3. scholars were not able to understand hieroglyphics until a French man translated the Rosetta Stone in the early 1800’s.

- the Rosetta stone contained the same passage written in two forms of hieroglyphics and Greek, language known by most scholars

- using a dictionary compiled by Jean Champollion, scholars could know translate the many documents written in hieroglyphics

- scribes would write business records, songs, poems, jokes, stories, religious texts, government announcements – just about anything that people write today

The pharaoh in Egyptian society

1. the pharaoh was both a king and a god

2. he or she owned all the land and was very wealthy

3. power was often transferred from parent to child

4. the pharaoh was at the top of the social pyramid

5. everyone worked for him and reported to him or members of the royal family