Egypt Notes

The land of the Pharaohs

The Nile and the “Two Lands”

• Upper Egypt was a 500 mile long strip of fertile land along the Nile; Lower Egypt was the wide land of the Nile delta, emptying into the Mediterranean Sea
• The Nile was the major provider of life for the Egyptians and was much revered in lore and writing
• around 3100 B.C. the two lands were united under a single king or “pharaoh”
  
  
  Government by the God-King
  • Pharaoh was all powerful, worshipped as a god and intimately connected to the other major Egyptian gods and goddesses
  • Egyptians relied on a harmony and balance of the universe, which they called “maat”
  • Pharaohs had multiple wives, and all routes to financial and social success were through the palace
  • Women could inherit money and land and divorce their husbands, though only a tiny few ever wielded real political power
  
  
  Gods, humans, and everlasting life
  • Gods were often portrayed with animal heads or bodies
  • Egyptians believed in an afterlife and mummified bodies to preserve them for this post-death journey
  • All souls would need to justify themselves at the point of death and be either sent to an after-world paradise, or the jaws of a monster
    
    
    The writing of the Words of God
    • Earliest Egyptian writing formed c. 3100 B.C. and were small pictures known as hieroglyphs
    • Hieroglyphs represented religious words, or parts of words, and most commonly adorned temples
    • Hieratic script was a shorthand developed by scribes and priests
    • Hieratic script was usually written in ink on papyrus, which was made from mashed Nile reeds
    • Papyrus, the precursor to paper, was stored in scrolls and these scrolls were the books of ancient Egypt
      
      
      Calendars and Sailboats
      • Egyptian astronomers created a calendar with 12 months and 365 days to make better sense of the seasonal cycles
      • Due to their excellent knowledge of human anatomy, Egyptian doctors wrote extensively on health issues and created potions and cures for a number of common ailments
      • Wooden sailboats were constructed to increase transport ability on the Nile