Global 2.2 Egyptian Civilization

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Global I Table of Contents


 * Egyptian gods
 * Amon-Re was the sun god, and Egypt's chief god
 * Osiris and Isis were husband and wife. Isis put her husband's body back together after Set shopped him up and scattered him across Egypt. After he was reassembled, they presided over the underworld. Osiris was also the god of the Nile, and Isis was the goddess of childbirth.
 * Set was the animal-headed god of desert, darkness, and chaos. Brother of Osiris who dismembered him out of jealousy.
 * In order to give a soul the use of its body in the afterlife, Egyptians developed skills in mummification, preservation of the dead. Bodies had their internal organs carefully removed then the body was dried and wrapped in cloth. The Jackal-headed god Anubis was the Egyptian god of the process of mummification.
 * Egyptians believed that the afterlife was very much like life on earth so they buried their dead with all the things they would need for eternity.
 * Pharaohs were typically buried along with great riches in the Valley of the Kings. Because this sort of practice was common knowledge among the people, grave robbers were very prevalent.
 * Egypt had their own social hierarchy which included the Pharaoh at the top, with the vizier in second, followed by priests, nobles, merchants, and artisans, and finally farmers and slaves.
 * With the rise of the New Kingdom the power of the merchants and "middle class" grew greatly.
 * Women in Egypt had many freedoms that were unusual in the ancient world from being able to inherit land to obtaining a divorce.
 * Hieroglyphs were the Egyptian form of pictographs.
 * Eventually Egyptian scribes developed Demotic, a simpler form of writing for everyday use. They learned to make a paper like writing material from a plant that grows along the banks of the Nile called papyrus.
 * With the decline of the New Kingdom the ability to read hieroglyphs disappeared. In the early 1800's a French scholar (Jean Champollion) deciphered a stone that had the same information on it in hieroglyphs, Demotic, and Greek. This is today known as the Rosetta Stone.
 * The Egyptian people made vast strides in medicine, astronomy, mathematics, and the arts during the prosperous New Kingdom.
 * Medicine
 * Learned to do advanced surgery
 * Removed brain tumors
 * Mended/amputated broken limbs
 * Learned to do a lot about the human body because of mummification
 * Developed medicines that are still used today
 * Learned to diagnose illnesses
 * Astronomy
 * Mapped constellations
 * Charted movements of the planets
 * Developed a calendar with 12 months in it
 * This calendar is the basis for our modern calendar
 * Mathematics
 * Developed Geometry to help survey land
 * Designed and engineered the pyramids
 * Literature and the Arts
 * The Tale of Sinule
 * Wall paintings in tombs
 * Carvings on temples
 * Carved statues
 * Built beautiful temples and tombs