Ancient Egypt: The Rule of The God King

1. Ancient Egypt: The Rule of The God King The Old Kingdom 2700-2181 B.C. The Middle Kingdom: 2060- 1785 B.C. The New Kingdom:1570-1085 B.C.

2. The Nile Valley • Crops that grew in Mesopotamia arrive in the Nile Valley • Nile River over floods its banks on a yearly basis depositing a rich silt • Silt is the fertile topsoil carried by rivers and deposited on fields • Nile River used as a transportation system because river flowed north and winds blew north to south • Egypt was strategically protected by land forms • Deserts to the east an west • Coastline of Egypt was shallow • Marshes to the south

5. The Nile Valley

6. The Nile Valley

7. Pharaoh • Egyptians believed that their kings were gods • Pharaoh’s were rulers of Egypt • Pharaoh’s purpose was to bring truth, justice and order to Egypt • Egyptians were expected to follow a code of order as well • This order was called ma’at a concept of justice or social order based on the balance or reconciliation of conflicting principles

8. The Old Kingdom:Prosperity • Soil rich fields provided a surplus of food which could be used for trade • Rich deposits of mineral resources such as • Silver • Gold • Turquoise • Copper was Egypt's most profitable resource because it was in demand for tools • Abundance of food surpluses and minerals helped Egypt trade for goods like textiles for clothes and timber for ships and housing • Prosperity was responsible for the growth of families

9. The Old Kingdom: The Family • Families were large and encouraged to be so • Families were loving and caring • Wives had equal relationships in households • Wealth still had it’s privileges in respect to life opportunities and experiences

10. The Old Kingdom: Egyptian Society • Housing design (small v. spacious), construction (brick v. stone) and placing (city v. countryside) • Jewelry showed wealth • Women protected by laws but could still be beat • Food consumption based on social rank

11. The Old Kingdom: Egyptian Society • Egyptian Society was ranked by importance • Pharaoh • High Priest,Nobles and generals • Engineers, doctors and Priest • Scribes • Craftsmen and merchants • Soldiers, farmers and tomb makers • Possible to move up one’s social rank

12. The Old Kingdom:Sacred Writings • Influenced by Sumerian writing-Egyptians introduce Hieroglyphs • Hieroglyphs or “scared words” were called so because it was believed that the symbols represented a real or mythical power • Hieroglyphs had three meanings • It signified an object • An idea associated with the object • A sound associated with the object

13. The Old Kingdom:Sacred Writings • Hieroglyphs were too cumbersome to use everyday preferred to use Hieratic for record keeping and Demotic for writing • Hieroglyphs craved on stone but everyday records written on papyrus • Papyrus was a paper made from the papyrus reed

14. The Old Kingdom: Pyramids and the Afterlife • Pyramids were vast funeral monuments which held dead pharaoh remains and served as the center of worship to the dead king • Size of pyramids symbolized the the Pharaoh’s immortality and length of order he brought to the land • Great Pyramid of Giza took twenty years to construct and required 100,000 workers to complete

16. The Old Kingdom: Pyramids and the Afterlife

17. The Old Kingdom: Pyramids and the Afterlife • Egyptians introduced the version of a pleasant afterlife • On death of Pharaoh an embalmer would remove internal organs and preserve them as well as body • Tomb was then stocked with items the dead would need in the afterlife

18. The Old Kingdom: 2200-1570 B.C. • Pepi II (2270-2180 B.C.) ruled for 90 years (longest) by consolidating power through marriage and favorable appointments (made people loyal to him) • Following rulers were weak and indecisive • Droughts and infighting signal an end to the Old Kingdom