Ancient Egypt Flashcards
Map of Egypt and Nubia -Nubia is on the border of Sudan and Egypt. The Nile runs through both and their are cataracts - small rock islands- that stop navigation. All main sites are located next to the river.
Red land is inhospitable, arid desert while Black land is the fertile flood plains where there is healthy agriculture surplus due to the black lands- this allowed monument production
Flooding at Dahshur, late 19th century - Inundation of villages as settlements were so close to the river. Settlements were built on top of eachother as they had to be built on high ground. This is good for stratigraphy but bad for excavation as modern settlements are also here
Turin King List - lists all kings up until 1300 AD but it is not well preserved so led to floating chronology
. • Egyptian hieratic papyrus
- date from the reign of Pharaoh Ramesses II (Middle Kingdom)
- most extensive list available of kings compiled by the Egyptians,
Sethy I King-List - shows the order of kinds, but not dates or lengths of reigns. 2 centuries have been edited out so it can fit on the wall.
- list of the names of seventy-six kings of Ancient Egypt,
- found on a wall of the Temple of Seti I at Abydos, Egypt.
Cairo Museum: Narmer palette. In 3000BC Egypt was united into a single country. It is thought by some to depict the unification of Upper and Lower Egyptunder the king Narmer. Contains some of the earliest hieroglyphic inscriptions ever found. “the first historical document in the world”.
Abydos: Umm el-Qaab (Djer) - the earliest tomb of the kings. There is a large open area so offerings can be made. Kings usually ruled in the North and were buried in the South. 1st and 2nd dynasty kings buried here. 32nd -29 century BC.
First pyramid built at Saqqara: Step Pyramid built as a burial for a king. Burials moved up from the south to Giza and Saqqara. Step pyramid of Djoser, sometimes referred to as the Step Tomb. Built during the Third Dynasty 27th century BC
Pyramids of Giza - 2500BC. Queens are buried for the first time.
Aswan: Elephantine, Southern Egypt - one of the earliest settlements. Known as the gateway to Nubia - it was very rich as the gold mines were in Nubia. Nubian gold was the key to Egyptian power. Dates back to predynastic period.
Cairo Museum: from Asyut. The kingdom began to collapse around 2200 BC, probably due to the famine caused by the inundation of crop fields. A prince took a model army to his grave, showing he was worried about discontent.
Beni Hassan - Temples of local administrators in the Middle Kingdom, where Nubia was first colonised. Economies further south were dominated by Egypt through a monopoly of trade.
Also a cemetery site. While there are some Old Kingdom burials at the site, it was primarily used during the Middle Kingdom, spanning the 21st to 17th centuries BCE (Middle Bronze Age).[2]
Cairo Museum: Seqenenre Taa - The mummified head of a king, killed by 7 wounds to the head from a Palestian axe during war. 16th century BC.
Kamose stela - written evidence of wards of independence - Egypt repels Nubia and Palestine 1600-1500 BC.
Ahmose I was a pharaoh of ancient Egypt and the founder of the Eighteenth dynasty. He has a large international reputation and was the builder of the last pyramids ever. His reign is usually dated to the mid-16th century BC.
Thutmose III, depicted here in Karnak. His influence extended up to the Levant, into Lebanon, and into the south. All of Nubia was now an Egyptian province. the sixth Pharaoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty. During the first twenty-two years of Thutmose’s reign he was co-regent with his stepmother and aunt, Hatshepsut, who was named the pharaoh. 1479 BC to 1425 BC.
The Valley of the Kings - secret burial tombs. they are small, not super structures like previous monuments. Used for a period of nearly 500 years from the 16th to 11th century BC
Theban Necropolis - private individuals and nobles were buried here. There were also temples to worship the dead. It was used for ritual burials for much of Pharaonic times, especially in the New Kingdom of Egypt.
Gebel Barkal - holy mountain of Nubia which was worshiped in temples. Around 1450 BCE, the Egyptian Pharaoh Thutmose III extended his empire to that region and considered Gebel Barkal its southern limit.
Amenhotep III & Amun - Amenhotep bought in religious reform during an interlude in 1350 BC. 100s of gods were abolished in favour of a single sun god. Amen in particular was erased from reliefs. This was short lived however.
Arkenarten, husband of Nerefiti and father of Tutankhamun. Introduced an abstract art style, but this ended when he died. Pharaoh of the Eighteenth dynasty of Egypt who ruled for 17 years and died perhaps in 1336 BC
He is especially noted for abandoning traditional Egyptian polytheism and introducing worship centered on the Aten. Aten is the disk of the sun in ancient Egyptian mythology, and originally an aspect of the god Ra.
Tell el-Amarna- capital city, abandoned after 20 years in 1350 BC
Tutankhamun, famous tomb unearthed in Giza. Egyptian pharaoh of the 18th dynasty (ruled ca. 1332–1323 BC) during the period of Egyptian history known as the New Kingdom. Son of Akhenaten. The 1922 discovery by Howard Carter and George Herbert, of Tutankhamun’s nearly intact tomb received worldwide press coverage. It sparked a renewed public interest in ancient Egypt, for which Tutankhamun’s mask, now in Cairo Museum, remains the popular symbol.
Abu Simbel - 19th dynasty - 1300 BC. Huge temples built by Rameses II in Nubia.
Medinet Habu: temple of Ramesses III. Ramese stopped an invasion in 1200BC, as there were major people movements from the Aegean.
Medinet Habu: Sea Peoples - depicting the major people movement from the Aegean into Egypt in 1200BC.
Alexander the Great. Nominal king of Egypt from 332–323 BC. Ptolemy was a Macedonian general under Alexander the Great, who became ruler of Egypt (323–283 BC) and founder of the Ptolemaic Kingdom and dynasty. - Cleopatra was the last of Ptolemy I’s line.
Persian soldier - 525 BC there was a persian invasion. Brief revival of kingdom due to Persian infighting. Nektanebo II was the last native pharoah.
Ptolemy VIII, Cleopatra II & III- Ptolemaic dynasty started with Ptolemy I Soter’s accession after the death ofAlexander the Great in 323 BC and which ended with the death of Cleopatra VII and the Roman conquest in 30 BC. Cleopatra VII (69-30 BC) was the last descendent of Ptolemy I, and had a son by Casear, Caesarion. became intangled with the Romans and lost the empire to Octavian. Committed suicide with Mark Anthony.
Alexandria - A roman city built in Egypt. Alexandria was founded around a small Ancient Egyptian town c. 331 BC by Alexander the Great.
Philae symbol - Christianity meant the end of Pharoah culture and the old religion. Temples turned into churches. Christianity spread across Egypt in the third and fourth centuries AD.
Mosque of Amr - Arab invasion removes the Roman Christian influence and Islam reigns. Muslim Conquest 639–642 AD.
Memphis - the earliest capital of Egypt. the city was founded by the pharaoh Menes.Capital of Egypt during the Old Kingdom. Founded Earlier than 31st century BC, Abandoned 7th century AD
Montjuhotep II: Deir el-Bahari. Reunified the kingdom into the Middle Kingdom in 2000 BC. There were more resources so memorial temples were built. Pyramids start being built again, such as the Lahun brick pyramid - but they’re shitty.
Buhen fortress - an example of the fortresses built on cataracts in the Nile to keep hold of the Egyptian monopoly on Southern trade. This was destroyed in the 1960s by the construction of the Aswan dam, which flooded all land south of it and destroyed many mud brick buildings such as this one. Buhen is known for its large fortress, probably constructed during the rule of Senusret III in around 1860 BC (12th dynasty).
Senwosret III - 1800 BC - the pharoah and a key figure in building the Nubian fortresses - regarded as a god.
Sobekneferu - the first female pharoah - she was known as a king as there was no word for queen that meant ruler and not ruler’s wife. 1807–1802 BC
Kerma ware - Second intermediate period - the kingdom falls apart again, and Nubia, now known as Kerma, becomes a separate entity. 2500 and 1500 BC.
Tell el-Daba (Avaris) - A palestian strong hold. It’s position led to war between the Egyptians and Palestinians as they were entering Egyptian territory. Avaris was occupied by the Asiatics from the end of the 12th through the 13th dynasty (early second millennium BC).
Semna, in Nubia. The heart of the Nubian town was built around the holy mountain of Gebel Barka, where there were temples. 1965-1920 BCE.
Abu Simbel temple relief: Battle of Qadesh - this tablet depicts warfare in Syria and Palestine. Took place between the forces of the Egyptian Empire under Ramesses II and the Hittite Empire under Muwatalli II but ended with a peace treaty. Both sides would claim they won. 1274 BC.
Deir el-Medina - gave information on the private life of Egyptians. An ancient Egyptian village which was home to the artisans who worked on the tombs in the Valley of the Kings during the 18th to 20th dynasties of the New Kingdom period (ca. 1550–1080 BC). They left behind paperwork to show how the tombs were built, and letters to show their social lives.
Tanis, Nubia. Syria and Palestine lost but Egypt still breaks up and enters a third intermediate period. No evidence form before 1039-991 BC, 21st Dynasty. Tanis was one of many capitals, and work was still done here. Some revivals were still made until the El-Hiba invasion of Palestine. Served as a parallel religious center to Thebes in the Third Intermediate Period.
Brief reunification comes from Nubia, from Gebel Barkal. They march North, 7th/8th century BC, and reclaim egypt. The Temple of Amun was the seat of the empire.
Nuri pyramids- the last pyramids ever built. Built in Nubia for kings. They were shit. Taharqa, a legitimate ruler and Pharaoh of Egypt, built his pyramid at Nuri. c. 664 BC.
Assyrian genius - The revival is crushed by an invasion from the East. There are then internal problems and a brief Egyptian revival during the 6th and 7th century BC in which Sais is the capital.
• Amenhotep IV, who changed his name to Akhenaten (1353– 1336 BC) - latter half of the Eighteenth Dynasty • ‘Akhenaten the Heretic’
