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EGYPT . Land of the Pharaohs. The Nile – The Source of Life. Nomadic peoples settled near the banks of the Nile River in Africa. Like the Tigris and Euphrates, the Nile flooded and left the flooded farm lands covered with rich silt.
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EGYPT Land of the Pharaohs
The Nile – The Source of Life • Nomadic peoples settled near the banks of the Nile River in Africa. • Like the Tigris and Euphrates, the Nile flooded and left the flooded farm lands covered with rich silt.
The people of the Nile River valley developed a system of writing by 3000 B.C.E. – HIEROGLYPHICS • The Egyptians learned how to make a form of paper from the papyrus plant.
The ability to read the hieroglyphics of the Egyptians was lost after the fall of Rome in the early centuries C.E. • It was not until the 1820s when French linguist Jean Francois CHAMPOLLION used the ROSETTA STONE to decipher Egyptian hieroglyphics.
Early Egyptian city states developed along the Nile. • The region was divided into: • Upper Egypt • Lower Egypt – near the Nile DELTA
These city-states were unified by the king – PHARAOH – Menes ca. 3200 B.C.E. • Upper and Lower Egypt became one kingdom.
ca. 2650 B.C.E – 2180 B.C.E. • Ancient Egyptian history is divided into: • Old Kingdom – the land was ruled by the pharaohs who were thought to be gods on earth. Royal families – DYNASTY – ruled from generation to generation.
ca. 2040 B.C.E. – 1760 B.C.E. • The Middle Kingdom • This period saw the dramatic growth of Egyptian culture, art and architecture. • Literature also flourished • The Middle Kingdom ended when nobles, priests, and invaders fought for power.
Ancient Egyptian Society and Culture • The Nile was the source of all life in Egypt. • Water from the Nile was diverted into irrigation ditches for farming • Wheat • Barley • Flax
Surplus grain was sold throughout the Mediterranean Sea and into Africa and Asia • Egypt grew well known, rich and powerful
Egypt prospered in large part because of its: • advanced education • Bureaucracy • Literacy
Egyptian Religion - Ra • Man with hawk head and headdress with a sun disk • Ra was the sun god. He was the most important god of the ancient Egyptians. The ancient Egyptians believed that Ra was swallowed every night by the sky goddess Nut, and was reborn every morning.
Osiris • A mummified man wearing a white cone-like headdress with feathers • Osiris was the god of the dead, and ruler of the underworld. Osiris was the brother/husband of Isis, and the brother of Nepthys and Seth. He was also the father of Horus. • As well as being a god of the dead, Osiris was a god of resurrection and fertility. In fact, the ancient Egyptians believed that Osiris gave them the gift of barley, one of their most important crops.
Seth • Man with the head of a 'Seth animal' (unidentifiable) • Seth was the god of chaos. Seth represented everything that threatened harmony in Egypt. • He was the brother of Osiris and Isis, as well as the brother/husband of Nepthys. He murdered his brother Osiris, then battled with his nephew Horus to be the ruler of the living. • At certain times in the history of ancient Egypt, Seth was associated with royalty.
Isis • Woman with headdress in the shape of a throne • A pair of cow horns with a sun disk • Isis was a protective goddess. She used powerful magic spells to help people in need. Isis was the wife of Osiris and the mother of Horus. • Since each pharaoh was considered the 'living Horus', Isis was very important.
Anubis • Man with a jackal head • A jackal • Anubis was the god of embalming and the dead. Since jackals were often seen in cemeteries, the ancient Egyptians believed that Anubis watched over the dead. • Anubis was the god who helped to embalm Osiris after he was killed by Seth. Thus, Anubis was the god who watched over the process of mummifying people when they died. • Priests often wore a mask of Anubis during mummification ceremonies.
Horus • The ancient Egyptians had many different beliefs about the god Horus. One of the most common beliefs was that Horus was the son of Isis and Osiris. • After Osiris was murdered by his brother Seth, Horus fought with Seth for the throne of Egypt. • In this battle, Horus lost one of his eyes. The eye was restored to him and it became a symbol of protection for the ancient Egyptians. After this battle, Horus was chosen to be the ruler of the world of the living.
The Invasion of the Hyksos • A Semitic people known as the Hyksos moved into the Nile Delta ca. 1700 B.C.E. • The Hyksos brought with them knowledge of bronze weapons and the horse drawn chariot. • By 1650 B.C.E. the Hyksos had overthrown the Egyptian pharaoh and established themselves as pharaohs over Egypt.
The Hyksos never were able to rule all of Egypt • The Middle Egypt was ruled by Egyptians who paid TRIBUTE to the Hyksos • Upper Egypt was controlled by the people of Nubia – who often fought the Hyksos • Eventually, the Egyptians under the leadership of pharaoh AHMOSE rose up and expelled the Hyksos ca. 1570 B.C.E.
The New Kingdom • With the Hyksos gone – the Egyptians rebuilt their kingdom and sought to expand their power beyond the Nile River Valley. • The period of the New Kingdom saw pharonic Egypt at its zenith.
Hatshepsut – the Female Pharaoh • When the pharaoh THUTMOSE II died – his sister and wife HATSHEPSUT assumed power because the heir – Thuthmose III was too young. • Hatshepsut expanded the power and trade of Egypt. • After her death, Thuthmose III tried to erase her name from history – denying her an after-life.
Akhenaton – Religious Revolution and Upheaval • Ca. 1380 B.C.E. – the new pharaoh AMENHOTEP IV changed Egyptian religion. • He stated that there was only one god – the sun god – ATON • He even changed his name to AKHENATON – “pleasing to Aton”
The rule of the pharaohs and the strength of Egyptian society and culture was the complex Egyptian religion. • When Akhenaton overthrew the gods and their priests – Egypt was in chaos.
Akhenaton’s successor – the boy king Tutankhaten restored the old religion and the power of the priests. • He renamed himself - TUTANKHAMEN
Over time, the New Kingdom came under attack • The Hittites – Indo-Europeans from Asia Minor • The Hittites were masters of iron – tools and weapons
“Sea Peoples” attacked the Nile Delta and ruined Egyptian sea trade. • Libyans from the west also attacked – weakening the power of the pharaohs.
The Nubian Dynasty • The people of Nubia – the Kingdom of Kush – began to take more and more control of southern Egypt. • By 730 B.C.E – the Nubian Dynasty took control of all of Egypt. • By 671 B.C.E, however, even the Nubians were defeated by new invaders – retreating to Kush.
Egypt was ruined by invaders and internal weakness. • ca. 500 B.C.E. the Persians took control of the Nile River Valley • ca. 323 B.C.E – the young Greek king – Alexander the Great – conquered Egypt and made it part of his vast empire.
Kush-Axum • The Aksumites were a people formed from the mix of Kushitic speaking people in Ethiopia and Semitic speaking people in southern Arabia who settled the territory across the Red Sea around 500 BC. The Aksumites lived in the Ethiopian highlands near the Red Sea, and so enjoyed a strategic position in the trade routes between Yemen (in the south of the Arabian peninsula) and the cities of Nubia. They spoke a strongly Semitic language and wrote in Semitic characters; Ethiopia, in fact, has one of the longest continuous literate traditions in Africa. We know very little about the early Axumite kingdom. Roman and Greek sources indicate that an Axumite kingdom was thriving in the first century AD; the city of Adulis is frequently mentioned because it had become one of the most important port cities in Africa. .
Aksum lay dead in the path of the growing commercial trade routes between Africa, Arabia, and India. As a result, it became fabulously wealthy and its major cities, Adulis, Aksum, and Matara, became three of the most important cosmopolitan centers in the ancient world. Although they were off the beaten path as far as European history is concerned, they were just as cosmopolitan and culturally important in that they served as a crossroads to a variety of cultures: Egyptian, Sudanic, Arabic, Middle Eastern, and Indian. Perhaps an indication of this cosmopolitan character can be found in the fact that the major Aksumite cities had Jewish, Nubian, Christian, and even Buddhist minorities. In the second century AD, Aksum acquired tribute states on the Arabian Peninsula across the Red Sea, conquered northern Ethiopia, and then finally conquered Kush. The downfall of the Nubian powers led to the meteoric rise of Aksumite imperial power. The Aksumites controlled one of the most important trade routes in the world and occupied one of the most fertile regions in the world. The Aksumite religion was actually derived from Arabic religion. It was a polytheistic religion which believed that the gods controlled the natural forces of the universe. However, in the fourth century, Ezana, who was a folllower of Axumite religion, converted to Christianity under the tutelage of a Syrian bishop named Frumentius. Ezana declared Axum to be a Christian state , thus making it the first Christian state in the history of the world, and began actively converting the population to Christianity.
Ethiopian Christianity was slightly different from its Greek origins. Under the influence of Egyptian Christians, the Axumites believed that Christ had a single rather than a double nature (man and god): this is called Monophysite (mono=single, physis=nature) Christianity and was considered heretical in the European churches. In the fifth century AD, the Axumites replaced Greek in the liturgy and began using their own native language, Ge'ez. Finally, because of their Semitic origins, the Ethiopians believed that they were descendants of the Hebrews, who were also Semitic. They traced their origins all the way back to David. So the Ethiopians, unlike other Christians, really saw themselves as inheriting the covenants that Yahweh entered into with his chosen people (as a side note, the Ethiopic Church claims to have the Ark of the Covenant which is the chest in which the Decalogue was kept by the Hebrews).
Axum remained a strong empire and trading power until the rise of Islam in the seventh century AD. However, because the Axumites had sheltered Muhammed's first followers, the Muslims never attempted to overthrow Axum as they spread across the face of Africa. Even though Axum no longer served as a center or hub of international trade, it nonetheless enjoyed good relations with all of its Muslim neighbors. Two Christian states north of Axum, Maqurra and Alwa, survived until the thirteenth century when they were finally forced by Muslim migration to become Islamic. Axum, however, remained untouched by the Islamic movements across Africa. Because of this, the Ethiopic (or Abyssinian) Church has lasted until the present day. It is still a Monophysite church and its scriptures and liturgy are still in Ge'ez.
African Christianity • Copts – term given to Egyptian Christians – Coptic Church • By the 3rd centuiry C.E. – Coptic Christians made up a majority of Egyptians. • The Church at Alexandria was the oldest in Africa and one of the churches of the PENTARCHY.
Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church • The church in Ethiopia has many similarities to Judaism – food prohibitions, separation of the sexes in church, Saturday Sabbath, and removal of shoes in church – similar to Muslims.
