7.16

Standard 7.15 ........................................................................................................................................................................................ Standard 7.17>

media type="custom" key="29526219" align="right" =Summarize important achievements of Egyptian civilization.=

//Focus Question: What are the greatest achievements of Egyptian civilization?//

 * Topics on the Page **
 * A Multicultural Society **
 * A. the agricultural system **
 * B. the invention of a calendar **
 * ** Middle Eastern Calendars **
 * C. monumental architecture and art such as the Pyramids and Sphinx at Giza **
 * **See special page on Who Built the Pyramids**
 * D. hieroglyphic writing **
 * ** The Rosetta Stone **
 * ** A Hieroglyphic Typewriter **
 * E. the invention of papyrus **
 * F. the status of women **

Click here for a timeline of ancient Egypt featuring major events, dynasties, and people.

See Egypt's Golden Empire, an interactive website from PBS, for background on Egypt's New Kingdom period.

See also AP World History Key Concept 2.1

Multicultural Ancient Egypt Not a Homogenous Ancient Egypt, a brief description about the many people within the Egyptian population and how studies have shown their society was more multicultural and diverse than previously thought.
 * Ancient Egypt included Africans, Semitic Peoples, Arabians, and later Greeks and Romans
 * The idea that Ancient Egypt was homogenous is due to the fact that different groups were integrated into the overall society
 * Ancient Egyptians depicted the varying cultures and skin tones in their art forms as well

a. Agricultural system
Ø Egyptians formatted tools to aid with agriculture including plows, sickles, hoes, forks, scoops, baskets, shadoof, skiffs, and sieves.

Ø Invented the sail (3500 BCE) and wine cellars (3100 BCE).

Ø Fayum Irrigation: First man-made water reservoir (1900 BCE).

Ø Sickles: wood that was sharpened to cut grains.

Ø Shaduf: mechanical irrigation tool; brought water to and from canals; consisted of a lever with one weighted end to assist in lifting a bucket.

Ø Skiffs: made of papyrus; used for traveling the Nile and fishing.

Ø Created irrigation to get water to reach lands which were not adjacent to the Nile.

Ø Catch basins: collected excess water during floods and stored it for later use.

Ø The growing seasons were dependent on the flooding of the.

Ø Egyptians grew emmer, barley, wheat, flax, and papyrus.

More on irrigation:
 * In order to keep the system in order, every Egyptian had to move about thirty cubic meters of soil in about ten days every year.
 * In 16th century BCE, this job was done in an easier fashion when the //shadouf//, a heay earthen bucket, came into use.

World History For Us All Lesson on Farming and Emergence of Complex Societies: explains how domestication of animals and plants worked in ancient Egypt. It explains the Egyptians went from being a hunter-gatherer society to a farming society.

A good explanation of Ancient Egyptian agriculture.

b. Invention of a calendar
ØThe original calendar had twelve months in three seasons with four months each. However, this would give some years thirteen new moons. Ø Floods started in June and ended in October. Ø Sirius (a star) appeared within a few weeks of these occurrences - defined exact length of the earth’s trip around the sun. Ø 70 days is also the length of the mummification process. Ø The calendar was short by ¼ day every year, which added up, so Augustus introduced the “leap year” in 30 BCE.
 * A new calendar was where there were three seasons with thirty-four day months split into three “decades. Since this was only 360 days, they gave the five children of Nut, one of the oldest deities, each a day.
 * Harvest time started in February and ended with a new flood in June. The shaduf, an irrigation device.
 * After Sirius disappeared, the first new moon appeared after 70 days, marking the start of the new calendar year. One moon month was 29 ½ days.
 * When Egypt was taken over by the Macedonians and, eventually, by the Romans, the Egyptian calendar months translated into the Macedonian and Roman calendars.

The History of Our Calendar is chronicled here for reference and comparison to the Egyptian Calendar system.


 * For more, see Middle Eastern Calendars**


 * The Mayan Calendar System, from the Smithsonian**



c. Monumental architecture and art such as the Pyramids and Sphinx at Giza
See Who Built the Pyramids for the latest research and findings

The Sphinx: Ø The Sphinx at Giza is a half lion and half human statue built in 3rd millennium BCE Ø It is among the largest single-stone statues on earth, carved from limestone bedrock Ø It faces due east Ø “Riddle of the Sphinx”: no one knows for sure who built it, when, or what it was really modeled after Click here for an interactive view of the Sphinx.


 * The Pyramids:**


 * See Special Page on Who Built the Pyramids**
 * Pyramids were built to house dead pharaohs and queens
 * 80 pyramids still stand today, while 3 of the largest and best preserved are found at Giza
 * The first pyramid was designed by Imhotep for pharaoh Djoser in the 27th century BCE
 * Imhotep's biography demonstrates how Egyptians were sometimes deified by future generations
 * The most well-known pyramid is the “Great Pyramid” was built for pharaoh Khufu
 * The second best-known is the pyramid built for Khufu’s son, pharaoh Khafra
 * The sphinx guards Khafra’s pyramid
 * The final largest was built for pharaoh Menkaure
 * Pyramids were shaped the way they were so the dead could climb up to heaven and the sloping sides represented the rays of the sun

Pyramids held multiple purposes as seen in this clip from National Geographic details further the importance of these enormous structures and their religious significance.

The pyramid of Mark Antony and Cleopatra VII remains unknown somewhere near Alexandria, Egypt.

View works of art depicting Egyptian royalty here and here. View an example of Egyptian sculpture here.


 * See how the pyramids would have looked when they were first built.
 * View a multimedia presentation on the excavation of royal tombs and some artifacts found in them.



d. Hieroglyphics

 * Believed writing was created by the gods and called it the “the words of God” ("mdwt ntr").
 * The term hieroglyphic comes from the Greek word hieros (sacred) & glypho (inscriptions).
 * Dates back to 3400 BCE.
 * Hieroglyphic script was used mostly on tombs and temple walls
 * Hieratic script was used in everyday writing

Modern scholars were not able to extensively decipher Egyptian hieroglyphics until the discovery of the Rosetta Stone in the 18th century. The Stone bore inscriptions in hieroglyphs, demotic script (also Egyptian in origin), and ancient Greek.
 * The Rosetta Stone **
 * View a high-resolution image of the Rosetta Stone here.

The Rosetta Stone: The Key To Translating Hieroglyphic Writing, from Kahn Academy
 * [[image:Screen Shot 2017-02-24 at 12.30.24 PM.png]]A great lesson/activity can be structured around writing in Hieroglyphics and using the Egyptian alphabet found** Here
 * This site details the four categories hieroglyphics fall under and their significance in the ancient culture
 * The page is also optimized with an app for Windows, Apple, Android, and Blackberry devices for a technology oriented activity

**Link to the Hieroglyphic Typewriter for a simplified alphabet that may be used to translate student names or to write a secret message as a class activity**


 * Link to Egyptian Hieroglyphic Free Online Translator**


 * This is a great classroom activity for students to translate hieroglyphics. It includes a helpful explanation of the origin of hieroglyphs.
 * Another great activity to help students understand communication and compare Egyptian Hieroglyphics to what we use today. Hieroglyphics and Communication.

e. Invention of papyrus
Ø after developing a way to write, they needed something to write on- this is where the word "paper" comes from. Ø harvested a triangular reed found in lower Egypt that was light-weight, strong and durable that dates back to 4000 BCE. Ø it was naturally occurring, but after finding a utilitarian purpose for it, it was cultivated on farms. Ø papyrus plant was used for paper, food, medicine, perfume, making baskets, ropes, boats, sandals, boxes, mats, baskets, window shades, dolls, amulets, utensils, tables, and chairs. Ø standard size was 47 cm long & 22 cm wide. Ø it was used as a political symbol: the unity of Upper and Lower Egypt is represented by a bouquet of papyrus bound with a lotus.

Click here for a look at the Rhind Mathematical Papyrus, the most famous math papyrus to have survived, from the BBC website, A History of the World.

How papyrus was made. Multimedia from YouTube For a brief video on how papyrus is made from Vimeo, click here

[[image:resourcesforhistoryteachers/Female_Rose.png]]f. Status of Women

 * Women's Legal Rights in Ancient Egypt from the University of Chicago Library. Women's legal status was identical to men in that society.


 * See also, The Status of Women in Egyptian Society from the Cornell University Library.


 * Women had considerable rights and status in Egyptian society and greater equality with men than in many other societies in the past.]]

Click here for an online exhibit, "Women and Gender in Ancient Egypt " from the Kelsey Museum of Archaeology.

"From Warrior Women to Female Pharaohs, " a website from the BBC provides a more extensive look at women's roles in ancient Egypt.

"Egypt's Golden Empire, Women in Power" a PBS website that explores the roles of powerful women in the New Kingdom.

Click here for more information on Queen Nefertiti. See also lesson plan from PBS, "The Queens of Ancient Egypt" that focuses on Nefertiti, Tiy, and Nefertari.

For more, see Influential Women in World History on this wiki.

Women and Gender in Ancient Egypt from the Kelsey Museum of Archaeology at the University of Michigan.

See "The Representation of Women in Egyptian Funerary Art," from Wesleyan University.

See "Reversal of Gender in Ancient Egyptian Mythology: Discovering the Secrets of Androgyny," an essay from Oglethorpe University about how ancient Egyptian views of gender and sexuality differed from our own.

Middle School Trade book resources to accompany the study of Ancient Egypt Ancient Egypt and Common Core: A Booklist for Middle Grades
 * [[image:book.png width="79" height="50"]]Book Recommendations:**

A resource book for projects and activities for Ancient Egypt: //Museum Series: Ancient Egypt// by Diane Sylvester. The Learning Works, 2006. ISBN-13: 978-0-88160-386-6