Research Questions
Notes
Where Did You Find This Information? List Sources Used
GEOGRAPHY
What are the geographical characteristics of your civilization? (Location, geographical features such as water supply, desert, mountains, etc.)
Civilizations started on rivers because it was much easier to grow crops, Egypt was one of them.
Lived along the Nile River which flooded regularly and predictably so they could prepare to grow, the soil was fertile and crops were easy to grow.
The civilization was protected by mountains, seas and deserts from attacks, but there were few because the mountains were a deterrent for potential attackers.
The Nile is the longest river in the world
Egypt’s land was divided into two parts, “black land” and “red land”. Black land was very fertile land next to the banks of the Nile river. Egyptians used this and for growing crops. This was the only type of land farmers could use because of the small rich layer of silk that the Nile river left after it when it flooded annually.
TCI Lesson 7
History.com Staff. “Ancient Egypt.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 2009, www.history.com/topics/ancient-history/ancient-egypt.
“Ancient Egypt” by Geraldine Harris and Delia Pemberton (all the pages)
ARTISTIC AND LITERARY ACHIEVEMENTS
What were your civilization’s major achievements in art and literature?
First writing in Egypt started appearing around 3000 BCE which is a little later than Mesopotamia but is balanced with such high writing standards such as stories, autobiographies, biographies, religious writings, poems and even personal essays. Although, first writings weren’t so advanced, they appeared next to graves in forms of autobiographies and lists of presents to give to the person to have in his afterlife (go to religion). First ones were written in hieroglyphics, carvings on materials, which could represent any of the three types – phonograms (symbols representing sound), logograms (symbols representing words) and ideograms (symbols representing meaning or sense). This form of carving needed a lot of labor and work of the scripter, so there came another form of writing called hieratic. This was writing not carving with ink (which egyptians invented) on a piece of something or on a wall. This was p
History.com Staff. “Ancient Egypt.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 2009, www.history.com/topics/ancient-history/ancient-egypt.
TECHNOLOGICAL ACHIEVEMENTS
What were your civilization’s major technological achievements/ developments?
Ancient Egypt was also one of the first civilizations to start writing and keeping records of their lives but that wasn’t their most famous invention. The most famous and greatest was papyrus the ancestor of what we now call paper. They developed technology to take the crust of trees and use it as a material to draw and write on. Another very important advancement is medicine, egypt was ahead of it’s time they made medicine for their citizens and understood the basics of modern day medicine, they knew that a person would not be healed by the gods. Something else was ink, Egypt and China are known for inventing black ink and Egypt was even more skilled to create colored ink, which was so hued that it can still be visible today thousands of years later. Something else was the construction of pyramids. This is still a mystery today, scientists still don’t know how they got the rocks up there and what the purpose of the pyramids is, a lot of myths on that. Another thing they advanced was transportation, while Mesopotamia got the wheel they invented ships which later on flowed all over the Nile river.
http://www.ancient-egypt-online.com/ancient-egypt-technology.html
History.com Staff. “Ancient Egypt.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 2009, www.history.com/topics/ancient-history/ancient-egypt.
GOVERNMENT, LEADERSHIP, AND SOCIAL STRUCTURE
How did your civilization organize its government and leadership?
What did the social structure look like?
The idea of belief in afterlife affected how the civilization was run
The king was looked at like a god
The idea of a centralized government in egypt came right after it was formed when king Narmer unified the civilization. Over centuries the system changed. First the king was the main person with a vizier as a second helper, government officials, scribes and regional governors were also around, but the king was main, he was a god. Later on around 1722 – 1570 BCE police force came and the king started announcing laws and rules in his palace at the city capital. The form of government lasted with little modification when the country land was owned by Rome.
History.com Staff. “Ancient Egypt.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 2009, www.history.com/topics/ancient-history/ancient-egypt.
ECONOMY AND FOOD SUPPLY
How did your civilization develop a stable economy? (Think about food supply, trading, currency, etc.)
The main concept of Egypt’s economy was trading goods using the Nile river, which was very profitable and stable because as said before the Nile flows everywhere and they could get access to all these places and other civilizations next to the Nile. And that was important because trading with other civilizations was the native income of the civilization, they mostly traded materials such as gold, papyrus, linen, and grain for cedar wood, ebony, copper, iron, ivory, and lapis lazuli. This is also a core element of technology, ships.
The Nile river was a stable and predictable source of water and flooding, this made a relatively easy job for farmers to prepare their crops for growing because they knew when the water will come and when it will leave.
History.com Staff. “Ancient Egypt.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 2009, www.history.com/topics/ancient-history/ancient-egypt.
RELIGION AND BELIEF SYSTEM(S)
What were your civilization’s religious beliefs?
Believed in mini gods
Gods were tied to events like rain and thunder
Religion was really tied to the government
Gods in Egypt were very predictable they needed asking, this appeared because climate in egypt was nearly always the same.
Egyptians really believed in afterlife. They gave presents to the person after their death and death wasn’t a sad event it was actually a happy event where the person would go to live another life. Egyptian religion consisted of magic, mythology and afterlife. During their life they were supposed to understand harmony, where one’s actions not only affect his life but also others and the universe. The main god in ancient egypt was “Heka” the god of magic which still exists in many religions. Although some things have been changed to a more modern view the principles of their religion are still present in their culture today.
History.com Staff. “Ancient Egypt.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 2009, www.history.com/topics/ancient-history/ancient-egypt.