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Miss Lynch 6 th Grade Social Studies Chapter 4 Lesson 2 in the World text Land of the Pharaohs Slide 2 The Big Picture Slide 3 Farming towns grew into small cities. These communities created rules to promote peace and fairness. These rules were created and enforced by the village leaders. Along the Nile River in Egypt, groups of villages joined together under the leadership of kings. Slide 4 Union of Two Crowns Egypt Joins Together Slide 5 Union of Two Crowns Along the Nile, farmers were producing surplus crops and developing new technology to make tools, pottery, and jewelry. This led to an increase in trade. Egyptians Join Together There was also terror and fear. Ruins of walls around early towns and paintings of bloody battle scenes that there were many wars between villages. To protect themselves, the people banded together into two separate kingdoms. Slide 6 Union of Two Crowns- Egyptians Join Together Towns in Upper Egypt (which were located in the south) supported a king who wore a white crown. Towns in Lower Egypt (which were located in the north) followed a king who wore a red crown. In 3100 BC, Menes (King of Upper Egypt) lead forces and they swept north into the Nile Delta. Here his army overthrew the king of Lower Egypt. To show his victory, he wore a double crown. This crown stood for the unification which is the joining of separate parts into one. Slide 7 Union of Two Crowns- Egyptians Join Together Menes became the 1 st pharaoh of Egypt. The word pharaoh means great palace which is where the rulers lived. It later became the name of all rulers of Egypt. Slide 8 Life in the Old Kingdom Government Under the Pharaohs Religion in Egypt Egypts Economy Slide 9 Life in the Old Kingdom At first, Egypts pharaoh did not greatly change the civilization that they ruled. Over time, though, the pharaoh became the center of the civilization. Government Under the Pharaohs After unification, the most powerful leaders were made area governors. They were in charge of collecting taxes and served as local judges. They also made sure that flood waters were shared among farmers through the use of canals and storage pools. The governors reported to the pharaohs headquarters in Memphis, Egypts capital. Memphis was located between Upper and Lower Egypt, near present-day Cairo. Slide 10 Life in the Old Kingdom- Religion in Egypt The pharaoh had great political and religious powers. Egyptians believed that the pharaoh was a child of their sun god, Ra. They believed that Ra gave life to Earth and that the pharaoh gave life to Egypt and its people. Egyptians worshipped both Ra and the pharaoh. Ra was the most important god to the Egyptians. They had more than one god and believed each one had a different role. Osiris was the god of the dead. He was important because the belief in afterlife was central to the religion of Egypt. Slide 11 Life in the Old Kingdom- Religion in Egypt Egyptians believed that after a person died, he or she would go to the Next World. They also believed that the dead could take food and objects to the Next World. This is why food and belongings were buried with the dead The Egyptians preserved the bodies of the dead royalty with a process called mummification. The bodies were dried and wrapped with strips of cloth. Slide 12 Life in the Old Kingdom- Egypts Economy Since the pharaoh was considered a god, all things in Egypt belonged to the pharaoh. This put the pharaoh at the center of the economy. The economy of a country is the way its people manage money and resources for the production of goods and services. Egypts economy was based on agriculture. Farmers produced a surplus of food which fed the whole country. The pharaoh collected a large part of every familys crops each year as taxes. The crops collected were used to feed the pharaohs family and servants. Slide 13 Life in the Old Kingdom- Egypts Economy The pharaoh also took taxes on everything else made in Egypt, such as leather goods, linen cloth and baskets. The pharaoh also taxed peoples time. During the flood season, Egyptians were called upon to build canals or buildings for the government. Craftworkers and artists depended on the pharaoh for jobs. Their job was to make things for the temples. Egyptians paid for things by: Trading things Government paid for supplies Slide 14 A System of Writing Life of a Scribe Writing on Paper A Key to a Lost Language Slide 15 A System of Writing A system of writing, hieroglyphics, was developed to allow the pharaohs government to keep track of all its business details. Government would report back to the pharaoh if people were not paying taxes. System of writing was developed sometime before unification. This system was called hieroglyphics and was made up of approx. 800 1000 pictures or symbols called hieroglyphs. Some hieroglyphics stood for objects and some stood for sounds, such as s Hieroglyphics are the reason we know so much about the lives of ancient Egyptians. Slide 16 A System of Writing- Life of a Scribe Pharaohs depended on written records to keep their government in order. The writers were called scribes. They traveled throughout Egypt to keep records of details great and small. They went out into the fields to record how much grain a farmer harvested. They also determined how much farmers would owe the government. Scribes also drafted letters and marriage contracts. Slide 17 A System of Writing- Life of a Scribe Writing was only taught to a few people which meant that scribes were highly respected. Only boys could become scribes and began their training at 10 years old. In school they chanted passages to improve their reading skills and spent hours writing out stories over and over. If their attention wandered, they ran the risk of being beaten. Junior scribes used broken pottery as their scrap paper. Slide 18 A System of Writing- Writing on Paper After the boys mastered a simple type of hieroglyphics, they were allowed to write on papyrus, which is a reed plant that grows along the Nile. Ancient Egyptians used these reeds to make papyrus, which is a type of paper. The English word paper comes from papyrus. They used sharpened reeds as pens. They dipped their pens in red or black ink. Two skills that a scribe had to have were: Good penmanship and good at math Slide 19 A System of Writing- A Key to a Lost Language By AD 400, hieroglyphics fell out of use and their meaning was lost. The ancient symbols that were found were a mystery to the people who found them. In 1799 a French soldier was digging in the town of Rosetta. There, he found a large, black, stone with writing on it. It contained a passage written three times, in hieroglyphics, Greek, and demotic. By comparing these languages, the mystery of the hieroglyphics was solved. Slide 20 Building the Pyramids Slide 21 The most challenging thing for the scribes to keep track of was the building of pyramids. These stone structures were built as tombs, or burial places for pharaohs. The Great Pyramid is the Old Kingdom's most spectacular monument. Its the biggest of all pyramids built in Egypts history. Pharaoh Khufu ordered its construction and was buried inside with his belongings that he would take into the afterlife. Slide 22 Building the Pyramids The project took 20 years and many people (100,000) were forced to help build it. A lot of taxes were used to feed and clothe the workers. The landscapes of the Nile River was changed too. Entire cliffs of stone were cut into blocks to build this monument. Slide 23 Why it Matters? Slide 24 Khufu was not the only pharaoh who demanded building projects. These projects caused the following things to happen: Took a toll on the economy. Angered people. Egypts unity started to break down. Local governments began resisting the orders of the pharaoh. Slide 25 Why it Matters? Leaders in Upper Egypt revolted and set up a new pharaoh. They created a new capital located in Thebes. This division in Egypt brought an end to the Old Kingdom. This breakdown led to a rise in greater civilization. The pharaohs learned from their mistakes and stopped building pyramids. Slide 26 Main Ideas Slide 27 Menes united the kingdoms of Upper and Lower Egypt to form the largest government in the world at that time. The pharaoh was central to Egypts government, economy, and religion. The writing system of Egypt, called hieroglyphics, provided a way for government workers to communicate over long distances. Ordinary people worked to build huge, government building projects like the Great Pyramid. This strained both Egypt's economy and its people.