Notes on 5 Elements of Ancient Egypt

5 Elements:

1. Geography
2. Daily Life
3. Pharaohs
4. Goddesses and Gods
5. Pyramids

• Geography:
• Egyptian life  centered around Nile River (S-N and into Mediterranean)
• Water was for drinking, irrigation, bathing, and transportation
• Every July it floods and every October it leaves rich soil
• Delta is a broad, marshy triangular area of fertile silt
• Managing river required technological breakthroughs in irrigation
• Pyramids:
• Great Sphinx of Giza-
• Built in 2555-2532 BC
• 4546yrs. old
• Recumbent lion with a human's head
• Oldest monumental statue in the world
• Been attacked, someone shot the nose off
• Daily Life:
• Order- Pharaoh, government officials (Nobles and priests), soldiers and scribes, merchants, artisans, farmers, and slaves and servant
• Slaves/servants: helped the wealthy with household and child raising duties
• Farmers: raised wheat, barley, lentils, onions-benefitted from irrigation of the Nile
• Artisans: would carve statues and reliefs showing military battles and scenes of afterlife
• Merchants: barter system was used and might accept bags of grain for payment, but later coinage came about
• Scribes: kept records told stories, wrote poetry, described anatomy and medical treatments
• They wrote in hieroglyphs and hieratic  
• Soldiers: used wooden weapons (bow, arrows, and spears) with bronze tips and might ride chariots
• Upper class: known as the "white kilt class"- priests, physicians and engineers
• Pharaohs: political and religious leader of the Egyptian people, holding the titles, 'Lord of the Two Lands' and 'High Priest of Every Temple.'
• As 'Lord of the Two Lands' the Pharaoh was the ruler of the Upper and Lower Egypt
• Hatshepsut was a women who served a Pharaoh
• Cleopatra VII served as pharaoh but much later (51-30)BC