Ancient+Egypt

=Ancient Egypt: A survey of Egyptian geography, society, culture and politics= by Huang Chang and Marian Ho

**Geography**
One of the most important geographical features that affected the Egyptian civilization is **the Nile River**. "The Nile is 4,160 miles long- the world's longest river. It begins near the eaquator in Africa and flows north to the Mediterranean Sea. For centuries, heavy rains on the Ethiopian Plateau caused the Nile to flood every summer. The floods deposited rich soil along the Nile's shores. The soil was fertile, which means it was good for growing crops."(Carnine, et. al, 2009) Without the Nile Rier, the Egyptian civilization may not occur. "Egypt is called 'the gift of Nile'. The ancient Egyptians lived in narrow bads of land on each side of the Nile. They called this region black land because of the fertile soil that the floods deposted. The red land was the barren desert beyond the fertile region." (Carnine, et. al, 2009)

This is a picture of the geographical features of ancient Egypt.

The weather in Egypt was very dry and hot. The parts of Egypt that were far away from the Nile River were deserts. The conditions in the deserts were very harsh and people couldn't survive there. These deserts acted as barriers between ancient Egypt and other countries, they protected ancient Egypt from being attacked by other countries.

The Nile River had a great effect on ancient Egypt's economic development. The soil near the river was very rich and suitable for growing crops. This allowed ancient Egyptians to grow a large amount of food each year. " The Nile provided so well for Egytianns that they often had surpluses, or more goods than they needed. They began to trade with each other. Ancient Egypt had no money, so people traded their surplus goods. This method of trade is called bartering."(Carnine, et. al, 2009) The ancient Egyptianns also traded with other nearby peoples, such as the people in Lebanon and Syria. They used reed boats with sails and oars to transport the goods on the Nile River. Nile River became a highway.(Carnine, et. al, 2009) The Nile River had a positive effect on ancient Egypt's economic development both within and outside the country.

Society:
This is a pyramid of the people from different social class in ancient Egypt.

From this pyramid, you can see that the ruler, or the pharaoh, was on the top of the society. "He was considered a god."(Carnine, et. al, 2009) People below him were the priests and the viziers. "Priests followed formal rituals and took care of the temples."(Carnine, et. al, 2009) The people at the bottom of the society were the labours and slaves. Slaves had no human rights in ancient Egypt. They belong to the richer people who owned them. Most of the slaves were soldiers that were captured from the losing side in wars, but some slaves were kidnapped from Lybia since there were shortages of slave labour and the pharaoh Ramses II sent soldiers there to kidnap them. Most of the slaves worked on public building projects, such as pyramids or temples, under very harsh conditions. Assignment to these work sites was often a one-way trip.(Carnine, et. al, 2009) In general, ancient Egypt had a society with few people at the top and many people at the bottom.

People were seperated by social class. People treated others from different social class very differently. For example, most people showed great respect to the pharaoh, but they ordered the slaves to do things for them and sometimes they didn't even consider the slaves as human. Normal people wouldn't marry slaves and only children from wealthy families went to schools fun by scribes or priests. Most other children (from poor families) learned their parents jobs.

"Egypt was one of the best places in the ancient world to be a woman. Unlike other ancient African cultures, in Egyptian society men and women had fairly equal rights. For example, they could both own and manage their own property. The main job of most women was to care for their children and home, but some did other jobs too. Some women wove cloth. Others worked with their husbands in fields or workshops."(Carnine, et. al, 2009) In general, men were in charge of temples and temple administration.(Ziegler, 1993)

A person from the noble families' day: I woke up in the morning. My slave told me that King Djoser, the pharaoh wanted to see me. I went to the palace, remained kneeling down until he asked me to stand up. He told me that he wanted his pyramid to be done as soon as possible, so I went to see how the construction was going on. I whipped the slaves because some of them were very slow and I didn't want the pharaoh to be mad at me. Finally, I returned home, played with my favourite pet- a cat, and soon, my son had come back home from school. His school was held by scribes and priests. My wife cooked dinner for us. We ate dinner, had a chat and I went to bed very early because I was very tired.

**-Languange:**
"Written records of the ancient Egyptian language have been dated from about 3200 BC. The language survived until the 5th century AD in the form of Demotic and until the Middle Ages in the form of Coptic. Thus it had a lifespan of over four millennia. Egyptian is one of the oldest recorded languages known." (Ancient Egyptian Language) "Beginning about 3000B.C., Egyptians developed a writing system using hieroglyphs. Hieroglyphs are pictures that stand for different words or sounds. Early Egyptians created a hieroglypic system with about 700 characters. Over time the system grew to include more than 6,000 symbols."(Carnine, et. al, 2009) This is a picture of what some hieroglyphic characters mean in English. I think that the hieroglyphic system in ancient Egypt was special for two reasons. The first reason is that some characters represent sounds but some characters are simple picture writing. There was a combination of ways to present ideas. The second reason is that this system is quite developed at that time becuase it had 6000 symbols and ancient Egyptians could actually create some articles with those symbols.

**-Artistic expression:**
"Egyptian art included many topics about death. They drew the gods of death, the parth to heaven and the hell on the inside wall of the pyramids." (百度百科，2011) This is a picture of the paintings on the wall inside the pyramids. I think one thing that made the ancient Egypt art so special is that death was the main theme of their art. Unlike art in other different ancient civilizations, Egyptians worked hard to imgaine and express death where as the other civilization's art, for example Greece, focused on the beauty of human's body. The paintings on the pyramids were very colourful and the some of the paintings can still be seen even today. This showed that the ancient Egyptians' art skills were quite mature.

**-Belief system:**
In ancient Egypt, people believed that the gods favored them and one's prosperity could continue into a happy afterlife.(Carnine, et. al, 2009) In their belief system, there are many gods. This is a picture of the gods in the ancient Egypt belief system. Amon is the sun god, Osiris was a god who judeged Egyptians after death, Isis was a fertility goddess, she's Osiris' wife, Anubis is a god of the dead with the head of a jackal. These are the most important gods in the belief system, most of them were worshiped in certain areas only. (Carnine, et. al, 2009)

``The Book of the Dead` was a sacred text made up of magic formulas and charms designed to aid the deceased in their journey into the afterlife. Egyptians belief that bad deeds made a heart heavy. According to the Book of the Dead, the god Anubis weighed each dead person`s heart. If it was lighter than a feather, the reward was a happy afterlife. If not, Anubis fed the heart to the demon Ammit.``(Carnine, et. al, 2009) Ammit was part crocodile, part lion and part hippo.

Since the ancient Egyptians were afraid of having their heart eaten by Ammit, they would do less bad deeds. Less bad deeds would make their heart not so heavy and this would let them have an happy afterlife. In general, this belief system encouraged people to do good things and behave well.

Because of their belief system, Egyptians usually embalmed their dead bodies and put it into a tomb. This way, the body won`t decay. In the tomb, there were many of the everyday objects any person might want or need, such as food, drink, tools, clothing and furniture. The dead person`s relatives were supposed to bring fresh food and drink to the tomb daily. Prayers for the dead person`s soul were also to be said everyday. (Carnine, et. al, 2009)

Economy:
One of the major economic activities in ancient Egypt is trading with other nearby peoples. ``The ancient Egyptians engaged in trade with their foreign neighbors to obtain rare, exotic goods not found in Egypt. In the Predynastic Period, they established trade with Nubia to obtain gold and incense. They established trade with Palestine, as evidenced by Palestinian-style oil jugs found in the burials of the First Dynasty pharaohs.`` ( BC, a. 5., 2011) Egypt also traded north east across the Mediterranean with what are today Lebanon and Syria. (Carnine, et. al, 2009) Egyptians transported the goods with the reed boats with sails and oars like the one below. The oars could make the boat go faster while they were travelling with the current to the north, and the sail let the winds push them while they were travelling south. (Carnine, et. al, 2009) The Egyptians adapted to the environment cleverly by finding ways to put their surroundings on the boat. In the hull below the boat`s deck, they stored containers of fruit and sacks of barley and wheat. The boat had a basket and oar at either end. Once the boat sets sail, traders will stand in the basket and use the oar to steer. On the boat`s deck, traders stired more goods and tied up the sheep and goats. (Carnine, et. al, 2009)

Government:
"Ancient Egypt could not have achieved such stability and grandeur without the co-operation of all levels of the government. The pharaoh was at the top of the social hierarchy. Next to him, the most powerful officers were the viziers, the executive heads of the bureaucracy. Under them were the high priests, followed by royal overseers (administrators) who ensured that the 42 district governors carried out the pharaoh's orders. " (Canadian museum of civilization,1998)

"The ancient Egyptians thought the pharaoh was a child of the gods and a god himself, religion and government were not seperate in Egypt." (Carnine, et. al, 2009) The pharaoh was afraid of angering the gods, so whenever he made laws, he asked for the priests' permission. This made the priests powerful in the government. The pharaoh and the priests had the most power.

Change:
One big change that the ancient Egyptians experienced was the introduce of Akhenaton's new ways of thinking. "When Akhenaton became pharaoh in 1353 B.C., he lifted a sun god called Aton to the highest status. He then closed the temples of other gods." (Carnine, et. al, 2009) This change in belief had a great effect on the ancient Egypt society. The Egyptian's turned into monotheism. The priests who served the other gods lost power. The new way of thinking also affected art. " In the past, Egyptian artwork usually tried to show perfect images of the pharaohs. In the Middle Kingdom, small steps toward realism began to appear." (Carnine, et. al, 2009) The Egyptians feared that the new way of thinking would anger the other gods, so after Akhenaton dead, they turned back into polytheism. "Technological advancements in the field of black smithy have paved way for remarkable improvement in the development of new weapons. The blacksmith at Ancient Egyptian Civilization had lot of work to be done in short duration of time."(Ancient Egyptian Technology) The blacksmith was very essential for the ancient Egyptians to obtain good quality weapons. It made the country strongest in the area at that time.
 * -Big events:**
 * -Technology:**

Citation:
Ancient Egypt | Places, Times, Visual Art, Sculpture, Paintings | thomas horter. (n.d.). //thomas horter//. Retrieved November 27, 2011, from []

Ancient Egyptian Language. (n.d.). //Crystalinks Home Page//. Retrieved November 27, 2011, from []

Ancient Egyptian Technology. (n.d.). //Ancient Egypt & Ancient Egyptians - Culture and Life//. Retrieved November 28, 2011, from []

Armament history: Seagoing merchant ship of ancient Egypt. (n.d.). //Armament history//. Retrieved November 27, 2011, from []

BC, a. 5. (n.d.). Ancient Egypt - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. //Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia//. Retrieved November 27, 2011, from []

Canadian museum of civilization, C. m. (n.d.). Civilization.ca - Egyptian civilization - Government. //Musée canadien des civilisations - Canadian Museum of Civilization//. Retrieved November 28, 2011, from [] Century, t. f., & understanding, f. E. (n.d.). Ancient Egyptian Writing - Understanding Hieroglyphs. //Egypt Vacations - A Travel Guide to the Land of the Pharaohs//. Retrieved November 27, 2011, from [|http://www.all-about-egypt.com/understanding-hieroglyphs.html]

Landmarks of Ancient Egypt. (n.d.). //Welcome to the lab site of TeachNet//. Retrieved from []

The UnMuseum - Mummy Case Markings. (n.d.). //The Museum of UnNatural Mystery//. Retrieved November 27, 2011, from []

Ziegler, C. (n.d.). egypt. //Home | The University of Texas at Austin//. Retrieved November 27, 2011, from []

百度百科. (n.d.). //古埃及.// Retrived November 28, 2011, from []