The Land of Egypt: The Gift of the Nile

1. The fundamental geographical feature of Egypt, ancient and present, is the Nile River.
1. About 100 miles from the Mediterranean the river divides into channels to form a triangle delta. Nearly the entire population of the region lives along side the green ribbon along side the Nile.
2. Ancient Egyptians called the fertile area around the Nile “Black Land,” because of the wet, black soil. The inhospitable land around it, the “Red Land” (Sahara)
3. The river was the main means of travel and communication. Most important cities were located upstream. The southern part of the country was called “Upper Egypt” and the northern delta “Lower Egypt.”
2. The hot climate with plenty of sunshine was favorable for agriculture, but in south delta there is practically no rainfall. Agriculture was almost entirely reliant on river water.
1. Through out Egyptian history, irrigation channels were dug throughout
1. Each September, Rivers over flowed the banks. The Nile flooded at exactly the right time for grain agriculture. When the water recited, it left behind salt and mineral rich soil.
2. The height of the river was crucial to the prosperity of the country. “Nialometers,” stone staircases with incised units of measure, were placed along the river’s edge to gauge the flood surge.
1. When the flood was too high, dikes protecting inhabited areas were washed out and much damage resulted.
3. Egypt was well endowed with natural resources:
1. Egyptians used reeds that grew near the river to make sails, ropes, and a kind of paper.
2. Hunters persuade the wild animals and birds that abounded in the marshes.
3. Fishermen lowered their nets into the waters.
4. Building stone could be quarried and floated downstream from a number of locations. Clay for mud bricks  and pottery could be found almost anywhere.
5. Copper and turquoise deposits in the Sinai dessert to the east and gold from Nubia to the south were in reach.
4. Farming villages appeared in Egypt as early as 5500 B.C.E. as inhabitants of the Nile Valley borrowed and adapted knowledge of how to domesticate various species of plants and animals.
5. However, Egypt became a focal point of early societies mostly due to the fact that the sahara dried up.

Divine Kinship

1. Increasing population produced more complex political organization including a form of local kinship.
1. The pivotal event was the conquest of these smaller units and the unification of all Egypt by Menes, a ruler from the south.
1. Although historians question weather this bitch up in here was real or mythical. Later kings were depicted with two crowns, thusly ruling over both Upper and Lower Egypt.
2. The central figure in the Egyptian state was the king (often known by the term pharoh). It was est. that the king was a god come to earth. Placed on earth by the gods to maintain ma’at, the divinity authorized order of the universe.

Administration and Communication

1. Various cities served as the royal cities at different times. Memphis held the central position during the Old Kingdom. Thebes cam to prominence during much of the Middle and New Kingdoms
2. The need for detailed records of the resources of the country led to to creation of a complex bureaucracy.
1. An extensive administration apparatus began at the village level and progressed to the districts into which the country was divided and, finally, to the central govt.:
1. Bureaucrats in the central administration kept track of land, labor, products, and people, extracting as taxes a subsidize the palace, bureaucracy, and army, to help and maintain temples,and to raise great monuments celebrating the ruler’s rain.
2. The hallmark of the administrative class was literacy. Hieroglyphics kept track of shit.
3. By 2500 BCE, a cursive script in which the original pictorial nature of the symbol was less apparent had been developed for administrators and copiests. 
1. They used ink and papyrus. The stems of the papyrus were laid out in a grid and then pounded until the moist fibers merged to form a piece of writing material.
2. Their writing literature included:  tales of adventure, magic, love, manuals of instruction
4.  Throughout Egyptian history, there was a tension between the centralized power of monarchy and the decentralized forces of the bureaucracy.
5. Egypt has been called a land of villages rather than true cities.
1. During Old and Middle Kingdoms, Egypt was very isolationist in its foreign policy.  Technically, all foreigners were regarded as enemies.
2. In all periods, the Egyptians had particular interest in goods that came from the south (gold, turquoise, ivory, etc)

The People of Egypt

1.  The population of ancient Egypt is estimated at 1-1.5 million.
2.   Social stratification clearly existed -- some possessed more status and wealth than others. 
1. In contrast to Mesopotamia, no formal class structure emerged.  At the top were kings and high ranking officials; at the bottom were peasants -- the vast majority of the population.  Peasants lived in rural villages -- their lives centered around tasks of agriculture.
1.  Villagers shared animals, implements, and storage facilities, and helped one another during harvests etc.  They also prayed and feasted together during festivals and celebrations.
2.  Villagers were required to contribute labor to state projects.  If taxation/compulsory service was burdensome, little recourse was available other than fleeing into the desert.
2.  Tomb painting of the elite sometimes depicted the life of common folks.  Obesity indicated wealth; baldness and deformity members of the working class.
3. Slavery existed on a limited scale; condemned criminals, prisoners of war, and debtors; it formed a small proportion of economy.
4.  We have little information about the lives of women in Ancient Egypt other than those of the upper class. 
1. Women were clearly subordinate (inferior) to men in Egypt. Women did engage
2. in domestic activities but the elite women were expected to stay indoors.
3. Legal documents show that Egyptian women could inherit, own property, and will their property:
1.  Marriage -- usually monogamous -- was not confirmed by a legal or religious ceremony; instead it was just about a decision of the man and woman to establish a household.
4. Sometimes, Queens and Queen Mothers played important political roles in Court.

Belief and Knowledge

1.  The religion was rooted in the landscape of the Nile and a vision of a cosmic order.  Their environment had lots of recurrent cycles and periodic renewal -- predictable flooding; clear skies almost every day, etc., and this sense of cycle and renewal was expressed in their cosmology.
1. Story of Osiris: Osiris was slain by brother Seth. Isis (Osiris’ wife/sister) found his body remnants and her son Horus took revenge on Seth. Osiris was restored to life and named king of the Underworld. The story gave people hope that there was life in a new world after death. Egyptians felt it was important to refurbish and restore temples since religion was such a large part of their lives.
2. Gods were diverse in origin and nature Deities were given both human and animal forms. Local gods and great gods were sometimes merged to form hybrids.
2. Afterlife: extensive preparations were made for the afterlife, ensuring optimal comfort once they arrive. The Egyptian Book of the Dead was written for the deceased spirits and contained rituals and spells to protect them on the trip. Egyptians obsessed over perfecting mummification of bodies.

The Indus Valley Civilization
Natural Environment:

1. The Indus River: there are many weather issues each year that cause the river to overflow. This overflow problem allows farmers in the region to only plant two crops each year.
1. The Hakra River provided a second area for suitable cultivation. Several adjacent regions shared cultural attributes with the core
2. Northeast- Punjab is where 5 rivers converge to form the Indus. This area has a good deal of rainfall but is less prone to flooding. Settlements of this region spread up to North India.
3. South- Indus empties into the Arabian Sea.

Material Culture

1. The two great cities of the Indus Valley civilization are referred to as Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro. Excavation of these two cities is nearly impossible.
1. Identity, origin, and fate of the people of Indus society are in dispute People used to think that the people who made up the civilization were related to the Dravidian languages (the descendants were later pushed into India by Indo-European settlers).
2. Now the theory is that settled agriculture in this area dates back to 5000 B.C.E.
1. However, it is likely that continuity with earlier cultures is more likely than a sudden movie of new people into the valley.
2. The second largest city (Harappa) housed over 35,000 people. The other city was much larger. Both were protected by tall and thick brick walls.
1. They each had a strong central authority.
2. Harappa may have served as the gateway for natural resources of the northwest (i.e. copper, tin and precious stones). Most people lived in smaller settlements and not in the two major cities.

Technology and trade

1. Trade was dominant over the power of the central government and the southern settlements were dominant in trade, not the cities.
1. People of this society were very good with the technology of irrigation. They were also very good with pottery. The smiths of this civilization were adept to working with multiple types of metal.
2. We know little about the political, social, economic and religious Much of what we think we know about their civilization is just speculation and in order to find out more about their structure, additional archeological evidence is necessary.

Transformation of the Indus Valley Civilization

1. Indus Valley cities abandoned, 1900 BC
2. “Systems failure” Indus Valley civilization is believed to have suffered system failure (economical, social, and political). It could have also been due to harsh natural disasters as well as less severe ones.
3. Hakra River dried up and left salt in the soil making it almost impossible to cultivate for crops. Erosion also played a part.

Conclusion

1. No accident that these civilizations were in river valleys.
1.  Although these civilizations were very dependent on the river water, they spent much time, energy, and resources on the construction/maintenance of canals, dams, and dikes.
2. Mesopotamia environment affected attitude and religion The unpredictability of the Tigris-Euphrates River created the need for Mesopotamians to try and appease their insufferable gods in order to survive their “perverse world.”
3. The predictability of the Egyptian environment encouraged trust in Gods