Ancient Egypt - The rise of Flashcards
Why was Ancient Egypt a different place?
They were able to easily centralize power.
Why was Egypt able to easily centralize power?
The Nile river and the geography
How did the Nile affect Egypt politically? Economically?
The Nile allowed Egypt to send troops up and down the river freely. Allowing them to militarize and provided fertile land that allowed for the abundance of crops. Thus, the government was able to easily tax farmers.
How did Egypt obtain their wealth?
Agricultural and trade taxation
How did Egypt’s geography affect Ancient Egypt?
The red lands made Egypt patriotic in the sense that they thought they were the center of the universe. They were a group apart from others and that brought the idea of membership in an elite group.
Compare and contrast Upper Egypt and Lower Egypt
Lower Egypt was richer, known for their merchants while upper Egypt was more mountainous and known for their warriors. Both however, were farmers.
What happened during the Archaic period of Egypt?
The unification period where King Narmer, a warrior from upper Egypt unified the two lands.
What artifact displayed the unification of Egypt?
The Narmer Palette
What were Pharaohs?
The mother and father of Egypt, the very essence of Egypt. God, the embodiment of centralization.
Compare the Pharaohs and the Lugals
The Lugal’s were able to speak to the Gods whereas Pharaohs were Gods themselves
What are hieroglyphics and how did the paper used affect centralization?
Picture writing. They used papyrus which allowed them to collect much more information and roll them up to store. Governments are information collectors.
What are the two things that governments need
Information and taxes
What is the Pharaohs property?
Egypt, slaves, people
What was the society like in Old kingdom Egypt?
It was a hierarchy going peasants, merchants, military, priesthood, and Pharaoh. There were no labor slaves during this time just house slaves.
The pharaoh was in control of what two things
Taxes and long-distance trade
What did Ancient Egypt have to collect taxes
Bureaucracy to control taxation, military, and Nomarchs which were the Pharaoh’s family. They were rulers of provinces and collected taxes to send to the central government.
How did Nomarchs affect the Egyptian government?
When the kingdom was weakening they kept the taxes to themselves and ruled their own provinces. They became nobility.
What did the Pharaohs use the taxes for?
They used them to bolster the God-like nature of the Pharaoh’s by building. They build pyramids in which every son wanted a bigger one than his fathers.
Who created the first pyramid?
The prime minister Imhotep created step pyramids which were Mastaba’s stacked on top of each other. (Mastaba is a religious building)
What does pyramids tell us about ancient Egyptian society?
It tells us that ancient Egyptian society was a hierarchy. That pharaohs did not marry lower class so there was a long line of incest.
How was technology in the Old kingdom of Egypt?
Not advanced at all, they lacked the wheel. But they moved pyramid stones with olive oil and tree logs.
Who built the pyramids?
Peasants who were happy to do so because it makes the pharaoh greater, Egypt greater and therefore you greater.
What caused the end of the old kingdom?
The desire to build bigger pyramids than their fathers, the Pharaoh doubled the tax of agriculture. A prolonged drought in which the farmers could not pay taxes.
What were the affects of the fall of the old kingdom?
The priesthood demoted the Pharaohs (power vacuum), Nomarchs became nobility, The rise of Nubia, Egypt returns to upper and lower Egypt.
What was the rise of Nubia
Nubia formerly dominated by the old kingdom Egypt broke free from the weakening kingdom and mined their own gold and silver. They started monotheism which moved north to Egypt and will have a tremendous impact on the Hebrews.
What did the Nile river bring?
Predictable and beneficial flooding that brought silt.
How was flooding predictable?
When a star lined up with the constellation Pleides.