Today's Class

Today in class, we continued our studies on Ancient Egypt.  We looked over and took more notes on the Power Point of Egypt.  We learned a lot about the Egyptians and their way of life.  Upper Egypt is a 500 mile long strip of fertile land along the Nile River.  Lower Egypt was the wide land of the Nile Delta, emptying into the Mediterranean Sea.  Lower Egypt is actually above Upper Egypt and that is due to the elevation.  The Nile was the major provider of life for the Egyptians and was much revered in love and writing.  Around 3100 B.C. the two lands were united under a single king or "pharaoh." The pharaoh was all powerful.  Pharaohs had multiple wives.  Egyptians relied on a harmony and balance of the universe, called "maat."  Women could inherit land and money and divorce their husbands, though only a tiny few ever wielded real political power.  Earliest writings formed c. 3100 B.C., and were small pictures known as hieroglyphs.  Hieroglyphs represented religious words, or parts of words, and most commonly adorned temples.  Hieratic scripts was a shorthand developed by scribes and priests.  Hieratic script was usually written in ink on papyrus, which was made form mashed Nile reeds.  Papyrus, the precursor to paper, was stored in scrolls and these scrolls were the books of ancient Egypt.  Egyptian astronomers created a calendar with 12 months and 365 days to make better sense of the seasonal cycles.  Due to their excellent knowledge of human anatomy, Egyptian doctors were extensively on health issues and created potions and cures for a number of common ailments.  Wooden sailboats were constructed to increase transport ability on the Nile River. The pyramids were massive stone tombs, originally covered in marble but the marble was later stripped off during the muslim conquest.  Stone sculptures and interior painting depicted human and gods in a series of regulated poses, often in profile and without perspective, but were highly effective.