White Plains Middle School



Egypt: The Power of the Nile

E. Napp

Objective: To identify and explain the impact of the Nile River on the rise ancient Egyptian civilization as well as to describe several characteristics of Egyptian civilization

Do Now: List two benefits of living near a river.

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Questions:

• In what continent is Egypt located?

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• When did agricultural settlements begin in Egypt? _____________________________________________________________________

• Who was the ruler of ancient Egypt? _____________________________________________________________________

• Explain the meaning of the term: Divine Ruler _____________________________________________________________________

• List two rights of Egyptian women. _____________________________________________________________________

• Define polytheism. _____________________________________________________________________

• Why did the Egyptians mummify bodies? _____________________________________________________________________

• Critical Thinking Question: Why is Egyptian civilization considered the gift of the Nile? _____________________________________________________________________

• Critical Thinking Question: How did the desert benefit the Egyptians? _____________________________________________________________________

• Critical Thinking Question: Why was the Nile River Valley a good location for the Neolithic Revolution? _______________________________________________________________________

Daily life in ancient Egypt revolved around the Nile and the fertile land along its banks. The yearly flooding of the Nile enriched the soil and brought good harvests and wealth to the land. Most ancient Egyptians worked as field hands, farmers, craftsmen and scribes (people who copied manuscripts – could read and write). A small group of people were nobles. Together, these different groups of people made up the population of ancient Egypt.

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Look at the table below: Compare and contrast the rich and the poor in ancient Egypt

|A Nobleman’s Family |A Farmer’s Family |

| One bright morning in ancient Egypt, a nobleman woke up in a bed | One bright morning in ancient Egypt, a farmer woke up in a bed |

|covered in fine linen sheets. He opened his eyes and looked around |covered in a coarse linen sheet that had been woven by his wife. He |

|his bedroom. He saw the cabinet where his clothes were kept, his |opened his eyes and looked around his bedroom. He saw the shelf where|

|wife's cosmetic box, and a lamp for lighting the room in the evening. |his clothes were kept and a basket. The farmer got out of bed and |

|His thoughts were disturbed by the servant who entered the room. The |washed and shaved. Then, he dressed in a kilt made of coarse linen |

|servant helped him to wash and shave. Then, the nobleman dressed in |and sandals made of reeds. The farmer's wife was already awake. She |

|a kilt made of fine linen and sandals made of leather. Meanwhile, the |had washed and dressed in the early morning light. Then she had gone |

|nobleman's wife got up. She washed and dressed with the help of |into the next room to wake the children and begin her daily chores. |

|another servant. The nobleman's wife wore a dress made of fine linen |She wore a dress made of coarse linen. Around her neck was an amulet |

|and jewelry made of glass. She applied some kohl to her eyelids and |of the goddess Tawaret on a piece of papyrus string. The farmer, his |

|went downstairs. She applied some kohl to her eyelids and went |wife and their children sat down to a small meal of bread and fruit. |

|downstairs. The nobleman and his wife had a small meal of bread and |They sat on a bench and ate on reed mats. Then, the farmer got up |

|fruit. They sat on cushions and ate from a low table. |and went to work in the fields near his house. |

~Adapted from ancientegypt.co.uk

Create a list of differences between a nobleman’s family and farmer’s family:

• ________________________________________________________________________

• ________________________________________________________________________

• ________________________________________________________________________

Learn to Write Your Name in Hieroglyphics:

The ancient Egyptians believed that it was important to record and communicate information about religion and government. Thus, they invented written scripts that could be used to record this information.

The most famous of all ancient Egyptian scripts is hieroglyphic. However, throughout three thousand years of ancient Egyptian civilization, at least three other scripts were used for different purposes. Using these scripts, scribes were able to preserve the beliefs, history and ideas of ancient Egypt in temple and tomb walls and on papyrus scrolls. Hieroglyphic is a Greek word for “sacred carvings”.

Write Your Name in Hieroglyphics:

Write your name here ______________________________________

Now rewrite your name phonetically ______________________________________ (think about how you would write it for someone who never heard it before so they could pronounce it correctly e.g. Phyllicia = Filisha, Shirley = Sherly, Stephen = Steven

Cross out any duplicate or silent letters _________________________________________

Since these are redundant (e.g. Knute = nute, Jeffry = Jefry, Bill = Bil)

Eliminate any unneeded vowel sounds ___________________________________________

In Ancient Egypt, vowels were only used when they were vital to pronunciation. If your name is still recognizable without a specific vowel sound, then you don’t need it! E.g. Ernie = Erny, Steven = Stevn, David = Davd

Now, use the symbols in the chart below for your remaining letters and write the symbols for your letters vertically in the “cartouche” space next to the chart:

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[pic]A Belief in Life after Death: [pic]

Death in Ancient Egypt was a journey into eternity rather than an ending. The Ancient Egyptians believed the body contained three souls, ‘ka’, ‘ba’ and ‘akh’ which would be reunited in the next world if the physical body remained intact. The dead could only fully appreciate eternity, it was thought, if they remained corporally complete.

The earliest ancient Egyptians buried their dead in small pits in the desert. The heat and dryness of the sand dehydrated the bodies quickly, creating lifelike and natural 'mummies'. Later, the ancient Egyptians began burying their dead in coffins to protect them from wild animals in the desert. However, they realized that bodies placed in coffins decayed when they were not exposed to the hot, dry sand of the desert.

Over many centuries, the ancient Egyptians developed a method of preserving bodies so they would remain lifelike. The process included embalming the bodies and wrapping them in strips of linen. Today we call this process mummification.

| During the process of mummification, it was important to remove the internal organs because they are the first part of the body to |

|decompose. The liver, lungs, stomach and intestines were washed and packed in natron (salt substance) which dried them out. The heart was |

|not taken out of the body because it was the centre of intelligence and feeling and the man needed it in the afterlife. And of course, a |

|long hook was used to smash the brain and pull it out through the nose. |

The ancient Egyptians built pyramids as tombs for the pharaohs and their queens. The pharaohs were buried in pyramids of many different shapes and sizes from before the beginning of the Old Kingdom to the end of the Middle Kingdom.

Complete the Crossword Puzzle:

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Facts:

• Surrounded by desert, Egypt (located in Africa) depended for its survival on the Nile’s waters

• Agricultural settlements began in 3100 B.C.E.

• The Egyptians developed a centralized society

• The monarch or pharaoh was considered a living incarnation of the sun god

• The pharaoh was a divine ruler

• The Egyptians built cities

• Egyptian women had some rights such as the right to divorce and own property

• The Egyptians believed in many gods (polytheism)

• The Egyptians believed in life after death

• Belief in life after death gave rise to mummification or preserving the body after death

With the rise of civilization came the rise of the class system or the hierarchy. Before the Neolithic Revolution, hunters and gatherers lived in societies with great equality. But with civilization came different classes: the rich and the poor, the powerful and the powerless.

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