1. Chapter 4
Ancient Egypt & Kush

2. Section 1
Gift of the Nile

3. Geography of Ancient Egypt
• Nile River has fed Egyptian civilization for over
5,000 years

4. The Longest River
• Nile River
▫ Longest river
▫ Has cataracts (waterfalls)
▫ Branches into a delta (area near a river’s mouth
where the water deposits silt)
▫ Flows north to Mediterranean Sea
▫ Use to flood every summer causing silt to be
deposited along Nile’s shores
 Silt was fertile & good for growing crops

5. Black Land, Red Land
• Egyptians
▫ Lived in narrow bands of land on each side of the Nile
 Called black land because of fertile soil
 Red land was the desert region beyond the fertile region
• Weather
▫ Always the same; 8 months sunny & hot, 4 months of
winter were sunny but cooler
• Deserts
▫ Acted out barrier to keep out enemies
• Mediterranean Coast
▫ Swampy & lacked good harbors

6. Land of Plenty
• Ibises birds
▫ Flew up from the south
▫ Egyptians knew when these birds arrived annual
flood waters would soon follow
 When waters drained away crops were planted in
fertile soil

7. Agricultural Techniques
• Developed ways to control yearly flood
• Irrigation canals
▫ Dug to divert water to dry areas
• Catch basins
▫ Areas where water would pool to be used at a later
date
• Removed earth was used to make embankments to
protect areas from the flood
• Shadoof
▫ Introduced in 1600 B.C.
▫ Used to move water between the Nile and a canal, a
canal and a catch basin or a catch basin and a field

8. Egyptian Crops
• Variety of crops grown
▫ Wheat & barley were important
 1st to grind wheat into flour & add yeast to make
bread
▫ Vegetables were also grown
▫ Also grew materials for their clothes
 1st to weave fibers from flax plants into linen

9. Egyptian Houses
• Used bricks made of mud & straw
• Had narrow windows
• Painted walls white to reflect the sun
• Used sticks & palm branches for roofs
• Woven reed mated covered the dirt floor
• Wealthier people had fancier homes
▫ Tree-lined courtyards, pools with lotus blossoms &
fish

10. Geography Shapes Egyptian Life
• Economy depended on farming
• Also used natural resources for everyday need &
developed economic activities

11. Minin
• Mined & quarried different metals & minerals
▫ Copper: used to make tools & weapons
▫ Iron: stronger metal choice
▫ Gold: prized by Egyptians
▫ White limestone: used to build important religious
centers & artistic centers
▫ Turquoise & emeralds: precious stones used to
make jewelry

12. Fishing & Hunting
• Rafts were made to go onto the Nile
• Used nets & harpoons to catch fish
• Hippopotamuses & crocodiles
• Captured quail & nets
▫ Used boomerangs to knock down flying ducks and
deese

13. Transportation & Trade
• Sails & oars were later added to reed boats
▫ Nile became a highway
• Nile provided a surplus of food
▫ Began to trade with each other
▫ There was not money so people bartered

14. Section 2
Life in Ancient Egypt

15. Work and Family Life
• Surplus leads to economic expansion
• Cities become centers of culture & power
▫ People learn different jobs
 i.e. scribes

16. Specialized Jobs
• Complex civilizations led to new jobs
▫ Artisans: created stone or brick houses & temples;
other made pottery, mats, furniture, clothing,
sandals, or jewelry
▫ Traders: traded with other Africans; traded
Egyptian products (scrolls, linen, gold & jewelry)
for exotic woods, animal skins, & live beasts

17. Rulers & Priests
• Growth led to need for organization
• Empire divided into 42 provinces
• Army created for defense
• Jobs:
▫ Priests: highest jobs; followed rituals & cared for
temples; pleased the gods
▫ Slaves: bottom of society; most captured in war;
worked on public building projects; some were
domestic servants

18. Women & Children
• Best place to be a woman
▫ Had equal rights
• Women
▫ Care for children and home
▫ Wove clothes
▫ Worked in fields or workshops
• Children:
▫ Played w/ toys (dolls, animal figures, board games, etc.)
▫ Rough games: balls mad of leather or reeds
▫ Some went to school
▫ Most learned parents jobs
▫ Most married in their early teens

19. Pets
• Dogs
▫ Used on hunting trips
▫ Lapdogs
• Cats
▫ Favored pet
▫ Even cat goddess, Bastet

20. Expanding Knowledge
• Came from priests studying the world to find
ways to please the gods
• Because of practical discoveries

21. Writing
• Hieroglyphs developed
▫ Over time included more than 6,000 symbols
• Papyrus developed
▫ Easy to carry

22. Math & Science
• Developed 1st geometry
▫ Surveyors used it to restore property lines
▫ Used to design royal temples & monuments
• Study of the sky allowed them to develop the 1st
calendar

23. Medicine
• Prepared bodies for burial
• Knowledge of the body helped w/ surgeries
• Penicillin
▫ Antibiotic that changed modern medicine
• Willow bark
▫ Similar to aspirin

24. Life After Death
• Positive view of life
• Not just pharaoh or nobles could look forward to
life after death
▫ Afterlife: life believed to follow death
 Views of what made for a happy afterlife varied

25. Many Gods
• Polytheists
• Worshiped gods that were related to the afterlife
& to parts of nature
• Many gods were worshipped in certain areas
only

26. Making Mummies
• Bodies embalmed before they were placed in
tombs
▫ All organs removed except the heart
 Organs kept & treated
▫ Body was washed & purified
▫ Body packed and covered w/ natron
 Body transformed into a mummy
▫ Linen was wrapped around the mummy
▫ Whole process took about 70 days

27. Egyptian Tombs
• Tombs held everyday objects any person might
want or need
▫ Food, drink, clothing, & furniture
 Living relatives were suppose to bring fresh food &
drink daily, as well as prayers for persons soul

28. Section 3
The Pyramid Builders

29. The Old Kingdom
• King Narmer
▫ Legend says he united Upper & Lower Egypt
▫ Occurred in about 3100 B.C.
▫ History divided into Old, Middle, & New Kingdom
▫ Pyramids built during Old Kingdom

30. The First Dynasties
• Began when Egypt was unified
• First three before Old Kingdom
• Dynasty: a line of ruler from the same family
▫ When king died one of his children took place as
ruler
▫ Succession: order in which members of a royal
family inherit a throne
• More than 30 dynasties ruled Egypt

31. Pharaohs Rule
• Pharaoh
▫ King of Egypt
▫ Ruled from capital city of Memphis
▫ Though to be child of the gods & a god himself
▫ Happy lives = pharaoh pleased gods
▫ Suffering = pharaoh angered gods; new pharaoh
usually took over
• Religion & Government were not separate
▫ Priests had a lot of power in government

32. Kufu’s Great Pyramid
• 1st rulers
▫ Buried in an underground tomb topped by mud
bricks
• Soon mud bricks replaced w/ small pyramids
• King Djoser
▫ Built step pyramid

33. The Great Pyramid
• King Kufu
▫ Had great pyramid built
 760 feet long 7 core was built from 2.3 million blocks of
stone
▫ Hard work to build pyramid
 Blocks of stone cut using copper saws & chisels
 Stones pulled up ramps & put in place
 Farmers did heavy labor
 Hauled stone during flood season
▫ Took 20 years to build
▫ 20,000 Egyptians worked on it
▫ City of Giza was built for pyramid workers & for the
people who fed, clothed, & housed them

34. Grave Robbers
• Pyramids stopped being built
▫ Pyramids drew attention to tombs; grave robbers
broke into tombs to steal treasure buried there
• Robbed Tomb
▫ Believed if tomb was robbed the person buried there
could not have a happy afterlife
• New Kingdom
▫ During this period pharaohs built secret tombs in the
Valley of the Kings
▫ Treasures, however, were stolen from almost every
tomb
▫ Only one not was that of Tutankhamen
 Discovered in 1922

35. Middle Kingdom
• 2160 B.C.
▫ Central power of pharaohs began to break down
▫ Disunity, civil war, & invasion plagued Egypt for
100 years
• Mentuhotep II
▫ 2055 B.C. brought stability back to Egypt
▫ Period known as Middle Kingdom

36. Connect to Tradition
• Amenemhet I
▫ Founded 12th Dynasty in 1985 B.C.
 Not a member of the royal line
 Claimed ancient prophecy supported his claim to the
throne
• Prophecy of Neferti dated from the time of Snefru
(4th Dynasty pharaoh)
▫ Fortold of the coming of a king, Ameni, who would
save Egypt from chaos
• The Truth
▫ Amenemhet had this story written to connect him to
Snefru & show his kingship was meant to be

37. Strength & Prosperity
• Egypt extended boundaries with military during 12th
Dynasty
▫ Wanted to control Numbia’s resources
• 1800 B.C.
▫ Reached 2nd cataract of the Nile
▫ Built fortresses to control new territory
• Agriculture
▫ Boosted during Middle Kingdom
▫ Vast swamps were drained in area known as Faiyum
 150,000 acres created
 Increased food production
• The arts flourished, trade expanded, & pharaohs were
stable & orderly during the thriving 12th Dynasty

38. Decline & Overthrow
• 13th Dynasty
▫ Weaker rule
▫ Asiatics (people from Sinai Peninsula) immigrated
to eastern Nile Delta
▫ Hyksos invaded from Palestine & Syria
 Conquered Lower Egypt w/ the help of better
weapons & horse-drawn chariots
 Eventually drove out after 100 years in Egypt

39. Section 4
The New Kingdom & Kush

40. A Woman Pharaoh
• Period of most powerful rulers of Egypt
• New capital city of Thebes created
• Empire expanded
• Queen Hatshepsut
▫ 1st woman pharaoh
 Wife of pharaoh who died shortly after taking power
 Ruled with stepson Thutmose III
 Eventually declared herself only ruler
 Wore a false beard reserved for pharaohs alone

41. Trade Grows
• Empire expanded through war
• Hatshepsut
▫ Used war as well as trade to expand empire
 Sent traders to the Red Sea; ships brought back rare
spices, scented wood, live monkeys, and potted trees
to make incense

42. Hatshepsut’s Legacy
• Erected the obelisk
▫ Four-sided shaft with a pyramid shaped top
▫ Carved from blocks of red granite
▫ Hieroglyphs recorded her great deeds
• After ruling for 15 years Hatshepsut disappeared
▫ Died peacefully or killed by Thutmose III ?
• Thutmose III became pharaoh after her death
▫ Tried to destroy all records of her reign
 Damaged temple & tomb restored by archaelogists

43. A Reforming Pharaoh
• A New Belief
▫ Akhenaton became pharaoh
 Worshiped sun god Aton
 Closed temples of other gods & promoted worship of
one god (1st time in Egyptian history)
 Priests who served other gods lost power; feared
actions angered the old gods
 New way of thinking affected art
 Small steps towards realism began to appear

44. • Reform Ends
▫ New religion did not last long
 3 years after Akhenaton death relative Tutankhamen
became pharaoh
 Tut relied on advisors to help him rule
▫ Convinced him to reject new religion & worship old gods

45. A• Powerful throne in 1279 B.C.
Ramses II took Pharaoh
▫ Reigned for 66 years
• Empire Builder
▫ Ramses the Great wanted to make Egypt powerful through war
 Territory extended into African kingdom of Nubia & to eastern
rim of Mediterranean Sea where empire bordered the empire of
the Hittites
▫ Egyptian & Hittites were enemies
 Ramses led army into battle against Hittites
 No one won but Ramses claimed victory
 Negotiated 1st known peace treaty
▫ Ramses built city of Pi-Ramses
▫ At Abu Simbel he built 4 66 foot statues of himself to guard his
temple
 Wanted statues to appear god like in statues
▫ Ramses was over 90 years old at end of his reign
 66 years of rule made Egypt’s gov’t stable & brought peace

46. Egypt’s Decline
• Egypt never the same after Ramses died
• Gov’t became weak
• Foreign rulers took over
• Persians conquered Egypt in 525 B.C.
• Alexander the Great took over in 332 B.C.
▫ Began 300 years of Greek rule

47. Nubia & the Kush Civilization
• When central power broke down at end of New
Kingdom separate ruling groups came to
dominate Lower & Upper Egypt
▫ Where not able to exert control in Nubia
 A Nubian kingdom called Kush came to power

48. Cultural Relations Between Egypt &
Kush
• Cultural exchanges took place during the times
when Egypt controlled Nubia
▫ Art influenced by Egyptian rule
▫ Young Kushite nobles learned Egyptian language
in Egypt
 Adopted customs & clothing styles
 Brought back royal rituals & hieroglyphic writing
system
 Egyptian pyramids also copied in Kush

49. Kush Rises to Power
• Kushite worshiped Amun
▫ Power struggle took place in western delta &
threatened Upper Egypt
▫ Rules of Thebes, center of Amun worship, invited
Kushite king Piye to defend them
 Piye sailed up the Nile to Thebes where he was
declared pharaoh
 Continued into Lower Egypt defeating enemies along
the way
▫ After long war he ruled all of Egypt

50. Political and Commercial Relations
with Egypt
• Piye united Egypt & Kush
• Nubia est. own dynasty
▫ Piye rule marked beginning of 25th Dynasty
 Did not live in Egypt, lived in Kush capital city of
Napata
• Napata
▫ Located at head of a road to move goods by one of
Nile’s cataracts
 Led to trade along the Nile
 Became for the spread of Egyptian goods and
culture & other Kush trading partners

51. The Decline of Kush
• 704 B.C.
▫ Kushite Egyptain forces battled Assyrians in
Palestine
 Supported ruler there who resisted Assyrian rule
▫ Assyrians iron weapons better than Kush copper
weapons
 Assyrians won
▫ Sides fought off and on for years
• 671 B.C.
▫ Assyrians invaded & conquered Egypt
 Ended Kushite rule in Egypt