Old Kingdom, Middle Kingdom, New Kingdom
Daily life in Ancient Egypt
Middle Kingdom
- lasted from 2055 B.C. to 1650 B.C
- eventually collapsed
- They expanded by caonquering nubia and sending armies to Palistine and Syria but didn't stay, Pharohs sent traders to Kush, Syria, Mesopotamia, and Crete
- Pharoh was portraed as a shepherd of his people and expected to bild publlic works and provide for theire wellfare
Social classes
merchants, artisans,scribes,and tax collectors
homes were in the city, they were comfortable but not elegant , majority "worked the land"
peasants, farmed, paid taxes in form of crops to pharaoh, nobles, lived in small villages and provided military service and forced labor
Trade and Transportation
- exported linen, grain, gold, silver, and copper
- special ships for the Mediterranean was used for foreign trade
- Transportation within Egypt was strictly water
Work
- Artists and sculptors were expected to follow particular formulas in style
- made advances in mathematics
- Mathematics helped in being able to build
Education
- every father was a master of a craft and was expected to teach the craft to his son
- It was important for schools to teach reading and writing
Law/Government
- Normal successor of the throne was the son of the king and his chief queen
- Egypt was governed by kings who had the support of a very well-organized administration
- Kings most powerful official is the vizier
- Law depended entirely on the king
Religion
- Religion provided the egyptians with a sense of security and timelessness
- polytheistic
- positive towards daily life on earth
Family Life
- girls married at 12, and boys married at 14
- marriage to one person was the "normal" but if a husbands first wife was childless then he could have multiple wives
- Husband was master in the house
- Wife was in charge of household, education, and children
- Parents arranged marriages for their children
- Main purpose of marriage was to produce children
- Parent had close and affectionate relationships with sons and daughters but only sons could carry out the family name.
- Manages sometimes ended in divorce
New Kindom
- Hyksos were a group of people from western Asia that caused Middle Egypt to come to an end in 1650 B.C
- Hyksos used bronze to make farming tools and wepons
- They mastered military skills especially horse-drawn war chariots
- Massive wealth resulted in power of the New Kindgom Pharohs
- Hatshepsut was one of the first women to becom pharoh
- Akhenaten intorduced the worship of Aten( go of the sun disk and sole god)
- The "Sea Peoples" drove the Egyptians back withing their old frontiers and ended the egyptian empire
Old Kingdon
- lasted from around 2700 B.C to 2200 B.C
- Subjects believed that they were helping to maintain a stable world order by obeying their Pharaoh.
- Had absolute power- unlimited power to rule their people
- They had a bureaucracy and the vizier was a main official
- Pyramids were built as part of a larger complex of buildings dedicated to the dead
- Egyptians believed that human beings had two bodes-the spiritual body was called Ka
- Practiced mummification
- The Great Spinx - egyptians believed it was an important guardian of sacred sites
Important Vocabulary
Sources
Ancient Egypt
By:Morgan Kraft and Katie Froemke
- Monogamy - the practice or state of being married to one person at a time
- Ka - spiritual entity, an aspect of the individual, believed to live within the body during life and to survive it after death
- Dynasty - a series of members of a family who are distinguished for their success
- Pharaoh - a title of an ancient Egyptian king
- Mastabas - an ancient Egyptian tomb made of mud brick, rectangle in plan with sloping sides and a flat roof
- Vizier- steward of the whole land
- Mummification- preserve the physical body after death
- Bureaucracy- an administrative organization with officials and regular procedures
- Groliers
- textbook
- worldatlas.com
- freeworldmaps.net
- library.thinkquest.org
- www.penn.museum
- history4kids.info
- resources.woodland-junior.kent.sch.uk
- http://www.lightomega.org/Ind/Message-of-the-Sphinx.html
Pharaohs
Importance of the Nile River
- title of Egyptian monarch;means "great house" or "palace"
- had absolute power- complete, unlimited power to rule their people
- head in law and administration
- commander of army
- Egyptian's asked pharaoh's to speak to gods for them
- Egyptian's believed pharaoh's spirit lived for an eternity
- had help in ruling
- at first pharaoh's family helped
- bureaucracy helped pharaoh
- vizier directly responsible to pharaoh
- Egypt divided into 42 provinces; run by governors appointed by pharaoh
- Pharaoh's married wives who were chosen for them
- wives could be from a royal family or a commoner
- large pyramid was built for pharaohs burial
- smaller pyramids built for family
- wore ceremonial clothes
- world's largest river
- river floods yearly and creates fertile soil for growing crops
- leaves deposit of mud that creates an area of rich soil
- around the Nile River is the Nile Valley that produces a surplus of food
- fastest way to travel
- traveled by ships
- made transportation and communication easier
- irrigation
- Reeds, called papyrus grew along side Nile River
- made paper and boats from reeds