Farming in the Nile floodplain

The Nile floodplain

Felucca
boats
A mural of Narmer or Menes
conquering Lower Egypt (c.a.
3100 B.C.)
The new pharaoh established
their capital at the strategic
site of Memphis, just south of
the delta, and over the next
several centuries
consolidated their rule.
Probably no other dynasty in
history has been so
successful in creating an
effective yet apparently
timeless form of government.
For thousands of years
Egyptian pharaohs were able
to convey to their subjects a
sense of permanence and
eternity while constantly
adjusting the system to meet
new needs. (Nagle, 23)
Ma’at (or Maat) was the god of
order, justice and truth. A woman
wearing a crown surmounted by a
huge ostrich feather. Her totem
symbol is a stone platform or
foundation, representing the stable
base on which order is built. Maat
was the personification of the
fundamental order of the universe,
without which all of creation would
perish. The primary duty of the
pharaoh was to uphold this order
by maintaining the law and
administering justice. To reflect
this, many pharaohs took the title
"Beloved of Maat," emphasizing
their focus on justice and truth.
“The course of the stars, the
sequence of day and night, and the
passage of all things from life to
death were part of this universal,
unchanging ma’at.” (Nagle, 25)
Osiris, in Egyptian mythology, ruler of the
realm of the dead. As king of Egypt, Osiris
taught his people law, agriculture, religion,
and other blessings of civilization. He was
murdered by his brother Seth. His his sister
and wife, Isis, buried his scattered remains.
Each burial place was thereafter regarded as
holy. Osiris lived on in the underworld as the
ruler of the dead, but he was also regarded as
the source of renewed life.
The Encarta® Desk Encyclopedia Copyright © & ℗ 1998 Microsoft Corporation.
Seth (or Set) was the Seth was the God of the
desert, storm and violence, which are all
enemies of the fertile, properous, narrow
valley of the Nile. He was the brother of
Osiris. Seth had killed Osiris by tricking him
into a coffin, which he threw into the Nile. Isis
When Osiris' wife Isis heard about this, she
started searching desperately for her
husband's body, to bury it properly. She asked
everyone she met and finally some children
told her where it was. Isis mourned for her
dead husband. Then she hid the body, while
she went back to look after her son Horus, still
a baby. Seth was terrified that Isis might be
able to bring Osiris back from the dead, since
she was a great magician. So Seth found Seth (or Set)
where she had hidden the body and cut it into
pieces, which he scattered up and down the
Nile. Now Isis had to find all the scattered
pieces of Osiris. Whenever she found a piece,
she buried it there and built a shrine. This
means that there are lots of places in Egypt
where Osiris was buried! Osiris himself
became the King of the Dead, and all
Egyptians hoped they would join him after
death.
Horus, the son of Osiris, was the god of balance and harmony,
assigned to maintain the ma’at of Egypt. His function was to ensure
the continuing existence and activity of the gods on earth by means of
religious acts and to maintain the natural order such as the flow of the
Nile an the fertility of the soil. He did not rule by the consent of the
governed but by the decision of the gods. (Nagle, 25)
The first pyramid built was the
graded one of Zoser, which
exists even today, in Sakkarah,
the necropolis of Menphis. Built
in the year 2650 BC by the
architect Imhotep, initially it
was supposed to be a mastaba
but later floors were added until
they reached six. It is the oldest
monumental work in stone
known to man that exists. Its
exterior walls, of white
limestone, measures 545
metres from North to South and
227 metres from East to West.
The wall has 14 doors, 13 of
them false. Its height is 66
metres. In its interior, lies the
sepulchral chamber of the
Pharaoh Sneferu with cladding
of pink granite and sealed with
a block of stone of three tons
weight.
The Pyramid of Meydum The Bent
Pyramid

The Great Pyramids of Giza

The burial of the king, as well as his passage from this world to
the next, was not simply a private affair of importance only to
the royal family and its retinue but an event of national
significance. The ritual cycle by which the living pharaoh, the
god Horus, became Osiris, Lord of the Underworld, guaranteed
the survival of Egypt itself. By expressing this act in
architectural form in the building of the pyramids, the kings of
the Old Kingdom stumbled on—or perhaps cunningly devised—a
method of unifying all Egyptians in a single religion of ancestor
worship in which the pyramids served as giant reliquaries.
(Nagle, 27-28)
Historian have divided Egyptian history into three major
periods: the Old Kingdom, the Middle Kingdom and the New
Kingdom. These were long periods of stability characterized by
strong monarchical authority, competent bureaucracy, freedom
from invasion, much construction of pyramids and temples, and
considerable intellectual and cultural development and activity.
These major periods were punctuated by ages of political chaos
known as the Intermediate Periods, which were characterized
by weak political structures and rivalry for leadership,
invasions, a decline in building activity, and a restructuring of
society.

Early Dynastic Period c.a. 3100-2700 B.C.

The Old Kingdom c.a. 2700-2200 B.C.
First Intermediate Period c.a. 2200-2050 B.C.
The Middle Kingdom c.a. 2050-1652 B.C.
Second Intermediate Period c.a. 1652-1567 B.C.
The New Kingdom c.a. 1567-1085 B.C.
Post-empire c.a. 1985-30 B.C.
For administrative purposes, Egypt was
divided up into provinces, or nomes. A
governor, or nomarch, was at the head of
each nome and was responsible to the
pharaoh. These governors tended to
amass large holding of land and power
within their nomes, creating a potential
rivalry with the pharaohs. Of special
importance to the administration of the
state was a vast bureaucracy of scribes
who kept records of everything. Armed
with the knowledge of writing and reading,
they were highly regarded and considered
themselves a superior class of men. Their
high standard of living reflected their
exalted status.

Seated Scribe, from

Saqqara. c.a. 2400 BC.
The End of the Old Kingdom
Relief showing men, women, and
children suffering from the
effects of severe famine

Professor Fekri Hassan examining

ancient hieroglyphs which tell of
appalling suffering. A third of the
population died and the most ordered
of empires was brought to chaos.
 PHARAOHS CROWNED WITH
SHEPHERD’S CROOK AND FLAIL

The Middle Kingdom (2050-1653 B.C.) was

characterized by a new concern of the pharaohs for
the people. In the Old Kingdom, the pharaoh had
been viewed as an inaccessible god-king. Now he
was portrayed as the shepherd of his people.
The Hyksos were the source of the new horse-drawn war-chariots
introduced to Egypt in the second half of the Hyksos rule. This invention,
never seen before in Egypt, was instrumental in the continued power of the
Hyksos in this region. The Hyksos utilized superior bronze weapons,
chariots, and composite bows to help them take control of Egypt, and by
about 1720 BC they had grown strong enough, at the expense of the Middle
Kingdom kings, to gain control of Avaris in the north eastern Delta. This
site eventually became the capital of the Hyksos kings, yet within 50 years
they had also managed to take control of the important Egyptian city of
Memphis.
Starting in 1567 B.C., the pharaoh Ahmose I eventually
managed to defeat and expel the Hyksos from Egypt, reuniting
Egypt and establishing the New Kingdom (c. 1567-1085 B.C.).
The New Kingdom was characterized by a new militaristic and
imperialistic path. A more professional army was developed.

Ahmose and his army driving out the Hyksos.

 Egyptian sculptors at work on
various statues. Drawing after a
painting in the tomb of Rekhmire,
c.a. 1475 BC.
Amenhotep IV (c. 1362-
1347 B.C.) introduced the
worship of Aton, god of the
sun disk, as the chief god
and pursued his worship
with enthusiasm.
Changing his own name to
Akhenaten (“It is well with
Aton”), the pharaoh closed
the temples of other gods
and especially endeavored
to lessen the power of
Amon-Re and his
priesthood at Thebes.
 Invasion of the “Sea Peoples” around 1200 B.C.
The days of Egyptian empire were ended, and the New Kingdom expired with
the end of the twentieth dynasty in 1085 B.C. For the next thousand years,
despite periodic revivals of strength, Egypt was dominated by Libyans, Nubians,
Persians, and Macedonians.

Egyptian
Drawings of Two
Different Tribes of
Sea People