ancient egypt/nubia Flashcards

1
Q

what river flowed through the center of ancient egypt?

A

the nile

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2
Q

were the pyramids located north or south of the mediterranean sea?

A

south

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3
Q

how long is the nile river?

A

4,160 miles (the worlds longest or 2nd largest river)

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4
Q

which direction does it flow?

A

south to north (begins in a mountainous region and flows downhill to the mediterranean sea)

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5
Q

who names it egypt?

A

the greeks

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6
Q

what was the land orginally called near the nile?

A

kemet after the black soil

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7
Q

when does the nile flood and why is it important?

A

in the springtime, depositing fertile silt (good for farming)

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8
Q

what is the flooding of the nile sometimes called?

A

“gift of the nile”

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9
Q

what shape does the nile go into before emptying into the mediterranean sea?

A

a triangular area of marshland which is formed by silt deposits

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10
Q

what diverted water from the nile to lands nearby (to grow more and better crops)

A

irrigation channels

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11
Q

what desert that was on both sides of the nile reduced the amount people interacted with each other?

A

the sahara desert

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12
Q

what are the rapids in the nile sometimes called?

A

cataracts

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13
Q

when was the old kingdom (pyramid age)?

A

2660-2180 BCE

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14
Q

when was the middle kingdom (rebellion and foreign invasions)?

A

2040/80-1640 BCE

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15
Q

when was the new kingdom (empire and wealth)?

A

1570-1075 BCE

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16
Q

what was the old kingdoms government like?

A
  • strong central authority
  • paraoh
  • controlled all aspects of life
  • theocracy (government where rule is based on religious authority)
  • vizier (chief minister)
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17
Q

what was the rulers of egypt called?

A

pharaohs (a monarch), believed to be a god, had absolute power

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18
Q

who is the vizier?

A
  • chief minister
  • supervised day to day life
  • head of large bureacracy
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19
Q

what were some of the old kingdom’s achievements?

A
  • first pyramids were step pyramids
  • pyramids at giza (tombs of the pharaoh for eternity, pharaohs started building when they took the throne)
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20
Q

what were the pyramids like?

A
  • inside the pyramid was a burial chamber
  • outside were two temples
  • there were millions of blocks of stone, mostly limestone, and some granite blocks that would make up the pyramids
  • pyramids would normally take around 20-25 years to build
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21
Q

how were pyramids built?

A
  • probably got stone from the nile and brought it downstream
  • theories of using stone blocks along lubricated runway or ramp might have been sufficient
  • ramps and levers were probably used to lift the stones
  • built by 20,000-35,000 people who would need to be fed, housed and provided other amenities to keep them healthy
  • probably had a permanent crew of specialized workmen (reaped rewards in the afterlife)
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22
Q

what is the great sphinx?

A
  • body of a crouching lion and head of the pharaoh khafra
  • carved out of natural limestone
  • at one time was colored and had a beard
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23
Q

why did the old kingdom decline?

A
  • crop failures (lack of rain)
  • famine
  • cost of the pyramids (taxes, labor and human lives)
  • power struggles
  • pharaoh power declines
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24
Q

what was life like in egypt?

A
  • people were not locked into social classes
  • had to be able to read and write to reach the highest levels of the social structure (had jobs like commander in the army, treasurer, priest, or pharaoh’s advisor)
  • women held many of the same rights as men (could divorce husbands, took 1/3 of their wealth)
25
Q

what was writing like?

A
  • first wrote in the simple pictographs that evolved into hieroglyphics
  • hieroglyphics - “sacred carving”
  • picture represented an idea or thing
  • later on, pictures becoem sounds and symbols called demotic
  • mostly wrote on papyrus paper, made from reeds from the nile
  • the meaning of hieroglyphics was lost until the rossetta stone
26
Q

the rossetta stone

A
  • discovered by napoleon soldiers in 1799
  • same text written in 3 different kinds of writing
  • not deciphered until 1822 by jean-francois champollion (he matched the greek to the demotic then the demotic to the hieroglyphics)
27
Q

what were some of the scientific developments?

A
  • developed a 12 month, 365 day calendar (only 6 hours off of the solar calendar)
  • system of numbers (used for taxes)
  • geometry
  • medicine (surgery, set broken bones and checking pulse)
28
Q

what were some of their religious beliefs?

A
  • polytheistic (worshipped over 2000 gods and goddesses)
  • most gods had a human body and animal head with human qualities
  • built temples to honor their gods
29
Q

what were their beliefs in the afterlife?

A
  • belief in the afterlife - follow the book of the dead
  • egyptians believed that the dead needed their bodies in the afterlife
  • to ensure everlasting life, egyptians had to (honor the gods, mummify the dead so that the body did not decay, and provided equipment in tombs for use in the afterlife)
30
Q

what was mummification?

A
  • clean the body inside and out
  • remove the organs and intestines
  • remove the brain, usually through the nose with an iron hook
  • place the liver, lungs, stomach and intestines in canopic jars (jars were placed in the tombs or in the body cavity, each jar had a protector god)
31
Q

what did they do to the brain in mummification?

A

they did not believe the brain was useful so it was usually just thrown away!

32
Q

what did they use to dry out the body almost completely?

A

a kind of salt called called natron

33
Q

what would they use to wrap the body in?

A

linen (would sometimes take hundreds of yards to keep the body dried)

34
Q

how long could the mummification process take?

A

70 days

35
Q

what was the coffin called that the body of the mummy placed into?

A

sarcophagus

36
Q

what happened to their favorite pet when the were mummified?

A

the pet was often sacrificed and mummified too

37
Q

what were mummies buried with?

A

mummies were buried with hundred of items including; anything that a person would need when living, weapons, food, clothing and their servants
*toy-like objects were also found in tombs (were believed to show what the person did for a job)

38
Q

what was the middle kingdom government like?

A
  • strong pharaohs regained control during the middle kingdom
  • capitol moved to thebes
39
Q

what were some middle kingdom accomplishments?

A
  • occupied nubia (to the south)
  • traders had more contact
40
Q

what caused the middle kingdom to decline?

A
  • 1640 BCE, the hyksos invaded and conquered egypt’s delta region
  • hyksos had a secret weapon (the horse drawn war chariot along with bronze weapons)
  • even though the hyksos dominated, they were admired and impressed with egyptian culture leading them to adopt many egyptian customs
41
Q

how did egypt make a comeback?

A
  • several rulers helped get rid of the hyksos
    *queen ahhotep took over after the death of her husband (killed in battle)
    pharaoh kamose and ahmose (both died in battle, the sons of queen ahhotep)
    **
    the comeback lead to the beginning of the new kingdom
42
Q

what was the new kingdom’s government like?

A
  • strong pharaohs
  • era of empire building
  • egypt built an impressive army with archers, chariots, soldiers and weapons
  • glorious time for egypt
43
Q

who was hatshepsut and why was she important?

A

in 1472 BC, she takes over as pharaoh (not queen) for her young stepson, thutmose III
- encouraged trade, not just waging war like most pharaohs
- builds obelisks
- might of been killed by her own stepson

44
Q

what was thutmose III like?

A
  • warlike ruler
  • invasions: palestine, syria, nubia
  • brought wealth and new ideas to egypt
  • erases hatshepsut from records (his stepmother)
  • EMPIRE!
45
Q

who was ramses II?

A
  • “the great”
  • first to use diplomacy in confrontation (made a treaty with the hittites of syria after the battle of kadesh)
  • ruled for 67 years and lived to the age of 99 (had 200+ wives and 100 kids!)
  • one of the great builder pharaohs
  • may have been the pharaoh at the time of moses
46
Q

why did egypt start to decline after the death of ramses II?

A
  • weak, self-absorbed leaders
  • beginning in 945 BCE, egypt was invaded and taken over by many different groups (libyans, nubian, assyrians, persians, greeks, romans)
47
Q

who were the libyans?

A
  • they crossed the sahara desert and conquered egypt (940-730 BCE)
  • followed egyptian way of life
  • piankhi, a kushite king, ousts libyans in 751 BCE and controls egypt
48
Q

what was nubia?

A
  • a rich and powerful african region
    *gold, ivory copper, frankincense and ebony
  • on the nile (south of egypt)
  • when egypt declined, nubia became a regional power
  • pyramids tombs house nubian rulers and royals (egyptian influence)
    *cultural diffusion also included: temples, pyramids, statues and hieroglyphic writing
  • nubia was an important trade link between sub-saharan africa and the rest of the world
  • kush was a kingdom in nubia
    *kushite princes learn egyptian language, custons and gods (sees themselves as the keepers of egyptian values as egypt declines)
  • conquer egypt
  • remove the libyans
49
Q

who was piankhi?

A
  • nubian kushite king
  • conquered the libyans in 751 BCE
  • began egypt’s 25th dynasty until the assyrians conquer the nubians in 671 BCE
50
Q

what was meroë?

A
  • the kushite nubians are pushed south by the assyrians and settle in meroë, near the red sea
  • trade with africa, arabia, india
  • live well and prosper until circa 350 CE when conquered by axum
51
Q

where there social classes in egypt?

A

yes (pharaohs at the top and workers at the bottom)

52
Q

what was used as makeup in egypt?

A

coal

53
Q

what were made for the gods?

A

temples

54
Q

who was the greek historian who wrote about the pyramids 500 years before the birth of crist?

A

herodotus

55
Q

who was the king who united lower and upper egypt and how is this unification of the two kingsoms reflected in the statues?

A
  1. narmer
  2. the crowns between the upper and lower egypt were different until the to regions combined which combined the crowns also
56
Q

who were the 3 smaller pyramids at giza built for?

A

for the 3 queens of the pharaoh

57
Q

what two rooms were placed under the larger pyramid built at giza?

A

the tomb and storage room

58
Q

how did the egyptians prevent grave robbers of khufo’s tomb?

A

there were many fake passages distracting to the real way to get to the tomb

59
Q

whose tomb was discovered intact by howard carter in 1923? what did they find?

A

king tut’s tomb was found with loads of treasure (enough to fill a whole room in the egyptian museum)