Thematic Unit The Mysteries of Ancient Egypt Have you ever wondered what is meant by the term "ancient Egypt" or "ancient civilization"? Ancient civilization refers to cultures, countries, empires, governments, rulers and people that flourished centuries before today. In this unit, we will discover ancient times as far back as 5000 B.C. (Before Christ or Before Current era) and take you on a journey into Ancient Egypt with many diverse lessons on culture, history, geography, legends, and art. Ancient Egypt was one of the first civilized cultures in the world, and it thrived for more than 2,000 years. Ancient Egyptians made an invaluable contribution to civilization by creating the first form of mathematics, and by introducing writing, paper, government, and our 365-day calendar. Skilled architects, doctors, sculptors, artists, priests, and educators built one of the greatest cities in the ancient world. Egyptian Religion Religion was an integral part of the ancient Egyptians' lives. It was a major influence on ancient Egypt's art, architecture, and language. About 5,000 years ago, during the Archaic period, when all of Egypt was unified, a formal religion developed. The people of Egypt worshiped many gods or goddesses, (also called deities). Deities took the form of humans, animals or a combination of both-human bodies with animal heads-that made them easy to identify. The people in each Egyptian city worshiped their own special gods. However, Amon-Re, the sun god, was the chief deity for all of ancient Egypt. Other gods and goddesses include: Rennutet who gave good harvests; Isis who represented the dedicated mother and wife; Isis' husband Osiris who also ruled over farming and the underworld; Horus who represented the heavens; Ptah who created Memphis; and Thoth, the god of healing, wisdom and writing in Hermopolis. The List of Mythological Deities by Richard Deurer is a wonderful Web site that has a wealth of information on each god and goddess.
Ancient Egyptian gods and goddesses were worshiped in temples. Many temples were built and dedicated to a certain deity or a dead king. Inside these specific temples was a statue that represented the deity or the king, and brilliant paintings decorating the columns and walls. The largest temple was built in honor of Amon-Re, the Sun god. The Amon-Re temple had more than 130 columns that stood about 80 feet high. Still today it is ranked as the largest columned temple ever built. The reigning king of ancient Egypt was considered the chief priest and participated in temple rituals during festivals and certain holidays. The other local priests washed, dressed and made offerings to the statue each day. Since common people could not enter the temples, the priests offered prayers from other individuals to the statues. The Egyptian people took the construction of tombs and the caring for the gods very seriously. It was believed that people could enjoy an eternal life after death but to do so they needed to live a good and moral life. Because of this, the daily activities of ancient Egyptians related to their religious beliefs. A good example would be the construction of temples and the preparation of tombs that included appropriate furnishings, drawings, personal items, texts containing prayers, hymns, spells and other information to guide their souls after death. Some wealthy Egyptians even included statues of servants to care for them in the afterlife. After death, each Egyptian was preserved through mummification. Mummification is the process of embalming and drying the corpse so that it will not decay. An embalmer would remove the internal organs, place different ointments on the body, dry the corpse with different salts and then tightly wrap the body with linen. When the mummification process was complete, the body would be placed in a coffin and would then be taken into the tomb. Sometimes spiritual texts were written on the linen wrappings or on the inside walls of the coffin or on papyrus, a thin writing material made from the stems of the papyrus plant. Architecture The Egyptian pyramids are one of the principal achievements of the ancient Egyptians. These enormous structures still impress us today, continually reminding us of the amazing architectural and engineering skills of those times. Ancient Egypt's pyramids are the oldest and largest stone structures in the world. Egyptians began building pyramids about 4,500 years ago for royal tombs and for worship. It is believed that the Egyptians built more than 90 pyramids. The ruins of 35 of those pyramids are still standing along the Nile River.
The Saqqara, a step pyramid, was the first pyramid ever built. It was built during the third dynasty of the Old Kingdom for King Djoser. It has six levels that decrease in size as it ascends to more than 200 feet. The largest and most amazing pyramid is the Great Pyramid, built for King Khufu and located in the modern city of Giza. The Great Pyramid is more than 450 feet high with a base of about 13 acres. It is believed that the Great Pyramid was built using about 2 million limestone blocks, weighing about 2 tons apiece. King Khufu's pyramid is the oldest pyramid still standing today and is considered one of the Seven Wonders of the World. During the Old Kingdom, pyramids were built of large stone brick. During the Middle Kingdom, pyramids were built using mud bricks, which is why the pyramids of the Old Kingdom have outlasted all other pyramids. All pyramids built throughout Egypt were aligned with the cardinal directions, meaning the sides faced north, south, east and west. The entryway to the pyramid faced north and was perfectly centered. In all royal pyramids the kings' burial chamber was always directly centered under the point of the pyramid. In addition to the kings' burial chamber were other chambers used for storage. Objects from burial rituals and personal belongings for use in the afterlife were kept in the storage chambers. Sometimes valuables were also kept in storage chambers; unfortunately throughout the centuries, many of the pyramids have been robbed of their treasures. The pyramids for the kings were built within a complex of other temples for worship, smaller pyramids for favorite queens and other royal family members, and additional smaller pyramids that housed statues of gods or goddesses. The queens' pyramids were slightly smaller than the kings' pyramids, however they both had the same outer and inner layout. Since the pharaoh (king) had many wives, the pyramid for the queens housed all of the pharaoh's principal wives. Although most often temples were used to worship the king, sometimes there were smaller temples near the queens' temples for worship as well. Hieroglyphs Hieroglyphs were the writing system that the ancient Egyptians used to write religious texts, prayers, magical texts, and texts that related to life after death. There are about 800 different Egyptian glyphs, with some glyphs dating as far back as 3,000 B.C. (5,000 years ago). Egyptians had two types of glyphs: phonograms and ideograms. Phonogram glyphs represented the sounds of the Egyptian alphabet. Ideograms represented objects. To understand the importance of the phrase or sentence, Egyptian readers needed to be able to differentiate between the two. Egyptian glyphs were difficult to create, learn, memorize, read and write, so only a few professionals, royal-ty, city officials and priests used glyphs. Although hieroglyphs were created to use for religious purposes, Egyptian glyphs were also used for legal documentation, to record historical events, and to document
calculations, such as in medicine. Egyptians wrote left to right, top to bottom, in long patterns. Sometimes glyphs were used to decorate jewelry, homes, and extravagant items made from wood and pottery. Art Religion had a major influence on the art of ancient Egypt. Most of the artwork was produced for tombs and commun-ication for important messages. Egyptian tombs were covered with two-dimension-al artwork on walls and on papyri that represented their daily life and pictorial guides for the afterlife. Since all the pictures represented the Egyptians afterlife and they believed the art forms would come to life, all works of art were pleasant, bright, imaginative and appealing. People were painted as being young and attractive and in settings where they would like to be throughout their afterlife. Oftentimes sculptures created from wood, ivory, bronze, gold and turquoise were placed in the tombs. Many of the tombs included small figured cats, which the Egyptians considered sacred and that would protect their grains from mice in the afterlife. The Sciences: Calendars, Mathematics and Medicine Around 1,000 B.C., Egyptians put into use a calendar based on astronomy and geography. They observed the movements of the sun and stars and recorded their observations. Through their observations and documentation Egyptians noticed that the flood of the Nile, which they depended on for survival, would occur soon after the star Sirius appeared. Through the tracking of the sun and moon and the day and night skies, Egyptians divided the day into two parts, 12 hours for day and 12 hours for night. They also noticed that there were 3 seasons lasting 4 months each, which comprised the 12 months of the year. The months were divided into 3 10-day weeks, which made a month last 30 days. When the Egyptians put all of their information together, they determined that a year equaled 360 days. Interestingly, the Egyptians added 5 holidays representing several gods' birthdays to the 360 days, making their yearly calendar total 365 days. In ancient Egyptian times there was no concept of leap year, so every 4 years the Egyptian calendar fell behind one day. Scholars and Egyptologists-researchers that study ancient Egypt-have been able to date events throughout Egypt and other parts of the world from the ingenious calendar that the Egyptians created! Egyptian mathematics was based on a system of counting by tens. By using the base 10 system, they could measure areas, volumes, distances, lengths and weights. Their mathematical system had no zeros and geometry was used to determine boundaries of land and areas of the pyramids they built or were planning to build. Egyptians also
had advanced textbooks with challenging arithmetic, geometry, fractions, and word problems. Egyptians had a very keen understanding of mathematics that enabled them to build the incredible pyramids and structures that still amaze us today! Ancient Egyptians were also the first physicians of the world. They scientifically studied the human body, the human brain, and knew that the pulse was connected to the heart. Doctors already specialized in specific areas like pharmaceutical remedies, dental procedures, internal medicine, optometry, surgery and veterinary medicine. They also had general doctors that re-set broken bones, cared for wounds and treated common illnesses. The medical physicians recorded their discoveries on papyri, and these are the earliest known medical texts. Ancient Egyptian Land and River Egypt lies within northeastern Africa and southwestern Asia. In ancient times Egypt was considered to be divided into two types of land; the desert, called Deshret, meaning red land, and the farming land along the Nile River, called the black land. The desert provided protection to Egypt against military attacks from neighboring countries. The Nile River provided the main transportation for the people of Egypt. It is about 600 miles long and flows from central Africa through the Egyptian desert out to the Mediterranean Sea. Each year from July to September, during the rainy season, the Nile River would overflow and leave a vast amount of rich soil on both sides of the riverbank. In September, when the water level decreased, the farmers would plow and plant in the rich soil left behind. The crops produced from the Nile's rich soil represented ancient Egypt's main source of economy. Egyptian Work and Life The majority of the Egyptian people were farmers or farm laborers. Much of the economy was produced by crops of wheat and barley, ancient Egypt's main crops, and also by crops of lettuce, beans, onions, figs, dates, grapes (to make wine), melons, cucumbers, and flax (used to manufacture linen). There were also stock farmers that supplied cattle, goats, ducks, geese, donkeys and bees for honey, which would be sold or bartered to the upper class ancient Egyptians. Since Egypt was a dry country, with very little rainfall, the farmers would channel water from the Nile River by building canals from the river to the fields. The rest of the ancient Egyptian income came from mining and manufacturing. Crafters and skilled professionals manufactured clothing, pottery, tools, weapons, furniture, jewelry, perfume and papyrus paper. Egypt was rich in minerals like limestone, sandstone, granite, gold, copper, tin, and precious gems such as turquoise and amethysts. Miners mined these minerals to use in the construction of temples and pyramids, and for bartering (trading) with other countries.
Trade and Transportation Since Egyptians did not have a money system, they bartered their goods or services for other goods or services. Most of the people of ancient Egypt traveled the land by foot and the river by boat. The elite were carried around on chairs. It wasn't until 1600 B.C. that the wealthy Egyptians traveled by horse-led chariots. The Egyptian people traveled by boat to neighboring countries to trade their supplies for silver, iron, horses and ivory. Egyptian Family Structure Family and religion were extremely important in ancient Egypt. Strong family values are represented in drawings, paintings, written text and in statues. The statue representation of a family shows the father, considered the head of the family, as the largest person. The mother was generally a little smaller than the father. The mother and father statues were often seen close together or holding hands. The children statues were much smaller and were often placed to the side of the mother. Most Egyptian fathers worked outside of the home on their farms, as doctors, lawyers, priests or government workers. Women generally worked in the home. They did household chores like cooking, sewing and cleaning and sometimes, depending on economic status, worked out in their fields. Women of higher economic status who had servants were expected to manage their servants including setting the servants' schedules. Women were very important in the ancient Egyptian culture. They had as many rights as men. Ancient Egyptian women could own and inherit land, buy and sell goods, make a will, and file lawsuits. The children of ancient Egypt played with dolls, tops, stuffed leather balls and board games that often included dice. They also played with and cared for pets, including cats, dogs, monkeys, and birds. The Egyptian children who attended school were of high economic status-they attended scribe schools operated by the king's palace, government departments, and temples. The children learned to make written records for each of these institutions. The main subjects they studied were reading, literature, geography, mathematics, and writing. The children of lower economic status followed in their father's or mother's footsteps. Most of the boys learned farming, carpentry, pottery making or trading. The mothers trained their daughters to cook, sew and do other household chores. Egyptian children were expected to take care of their parents in the parents' old age. They were expected to give their parents proper burials and appropriate offerings. It was extremely important that the children and immediate families keep in contact with their deceased family members. They sought assistance from deceased family members to solve problems and to give advice. They composed texts to the deceased and placed the texts in a book form that was called "Letter to the Dead" or "Book of the Dead."