Dr. Thomason
Q: Where is ancient Egypt and how did civilization begin there?
A: Northeastern Africa, very close to Western Asia. Nile River flows south to north.
Q: How was agriculture practiced in Egypt?
A: River floods with a few levies for modification of flood basins. Canals unnecessary.
Q: Who were the Egyptians and what languages did they speak?
A: Ancient Egyptian, branch of Afro-Asiatic language groups. Distantly related to other north African languages and Semitic.
Q: What was their written script like and why did they "invent" it?
A: Polytheistic with a pantheon. Deities are composite: human bodies, some with animal heads. Worshipped throughout Egypt, with many different temples. Rituals involved the "care and feeding of the gods" carried out by temple personnel, as in Mesopotamia. Temples owned large tracts of land.
Q: What did they believed happened after you died in Ancient Egypt?
A: You journeyed through the underworld and were tested, and then you enjoyed your afterlife. If you were a king, you continued to be worshipped as a god. Mummification, pyramids and rock-cut tombs.
Q: What were their political structures like and what were the responsibilities of the rulers?
A: Mainly dynastic kingship. 30 dynasties identified officially, with
problems in this chronology. Egypt also had "Intermediate Periods" and
non-Egyptians in which several dynasties ruled at once. Kings are "stewards"
of the earth for the gods and also are divine (unlike Mesopotamia).
Q: What are the different periods of Egyptian history and how do historians divide them? Periodization based on dynastic changes and whether Egypt is unified.
A:
| Early Dynastic Period (Dynasties 1-2) | 3200-2700 B.C.E. (all dates are approximate) |
| Old Kingdom (Dynasties 3-6) | 2700-2300 B.C.E. Age of Pyramids |
| First Intermediate Period (Dyn. 7-11) | 2300-2000 B.C.E. |
| Middle Kingdom (Dyn. 12-13) | 2000-1700 B.C.E. |
| Second Intermediate Period (Dyn. 14-17) | 1700-1600 B.C.E. Hyksos and Nubians |
| New Kingdom (Dyn. 18-20) | 1600-1100 B.C.E. Tutankhamun |
| Ramessid Period (Dyn. 19-20) | 1300-1100 B.C.E. Ramesses II: "the Great" |
| Third Intermediate Period (Dyn. 21-25) | 1100-650 B.C.E. Assyrians invade |
| Nubians rule (Dyn. 25) | 730-650 B.C.E. |
| Saite Period (Dyn. 26) | 650-525 B.C.E. |
| Late Period (Dyn. 27-30) | 525-330 B.C.E. Persian rule |
| Hellenistic/Ptolemaic | 330-31 B.C. Alexander, Cleopatra VII |