esEgypt

There's no place like Home **EGYPT** - a river valley civilization


 * Geography **: Africa, Nile river(flows North), desert, silt, black land-fertile, red land-desert, predictable flooding but how much?, Nile "is" a god! "egypt is a gift from the Nile"


 * Environmental Challenges **: flooding too much/ too little it'll kill or starve, desert forced to live on small strip of land by the river and it cut off interaction w/ other peoples-trading limited, shut out invaders spared war for a while, cataracts - rapids caused by boulders impossible for boats to pass


 * Transportation :** boads on the Nile travel agains the current use sail "water highway" promoted trade unigied villages


 * Important People **: Marmer united upper and lower Egypt and estavlished first dynasty


 * Government **: theocracy- government based on religion divied into upper and lower, came to have 31 dynastys Paraohs controlled nature and ruled after death(Ka) Pyramids where tombs for Pharaohs, power of pharaohs declined in 2180 bc end of lold kingdom during middle kingdom strong pharaohs regained power Hykos took over egypt 1630-1523 bc.


 * Religion :** Polytheistic-belief in many gods (Re Osiris Isis Annubis), mummification, weigh heart - eaten by devouorer of souls or ...


 * Afterlife **: kings ruled after death, pyramids tombs of the kings, embalming-injected wit chemical to preserve the body, book of dead- guides soul to the other world tells you what to do (spells) ...


 * Architecture **: pheasants built pyramids, used stome granite limestone. high levels of organization in government [[image:01807_menkaure_pyramid.jpg width="530" height="319"]]


 * Social Classes **: top- royal family kings queens upper- wealthy landowners, government officials, priests, army commanders middle- merchants artisans lowest- slaves (labor from wars for the goldmines or rich families), pheasants, farmers, laborers **note not locked in... can move up in the social class!**


 * Writing **: hieroglyphics-sacred carving, simple pictographs werre the earliest form of writing, picture stood for and idea, then writing became more complex- pictures stood for a sound, could almost be used as letters of the alphabet, first writing done on stone and clay, invented new writing surface Papyrus (reeds and grasses), Rosetta Stone found in 1779 in 3 languages greek and two forms of hieroglyphics used greek to decode hieyroglyphics **how we learned to read hieroglyphics**
 * Technology **: papyrus, calander- kept track of time between floods 365 days ( 12 months 30 days 5 holidays) used star to calculate, developed a system of #'s for counting buisness/taxes geometry surveying/ resetting property boundaries after floods, math helped: engineers/architects to make pyramids, first to use stone columns, medicne- to check heart rate/pulse/set broken bones/treat wounds/ fevers/knew surgury, embalming-preserving a body for burial by injecting with chemicals!


 * Comparisans.... Mesopotamia vs. Egypt **

tigris and euphrates vs. nile fertile cresent vs. river valley flooding- unpredictable vs. predictable silt both had it deserts both had it egypt had cataracts sargon and hammurabi vs. narmer priest and strong men vs. pharaoh poytheism both had it land of no return vs. afterlife ziggarat vs. pyramid social classes different see notes on both cuniform vs. hieroglyphics