Today we started learning about ancient Egypt. Here are my notes:
- Upper Egypt was a 500 mile long strip of fertile land along the Nile.
- Lower Egypt was the wide land of the Nile delta, emptying into the Mediterranean Sea
- The Nile was the major provider of life for the Egyptians and was much revered in lore and writing
- Around 3100 BC the two lands were united under a single king or Pharaoh (Narmer AKA Menes)
- Nile flows from south to north
- Biggest river in the world
- Pharaoh was all powerful, worshipped like a god, and intimately connected to the other major Egyptian gods and goddesses
- Egyptians relied on a harmony and balance of the universe which they called "maat" (personified by the goddess Maat: ideological opposite of goddess isfet)
- Pharaohs had multiple wives, and all routes to financial and social success were through the palace.
- Women could inherit money and land and divorce their husbands, though and only a tiny few wielded real political power
- THEOCRACY
- Gods were often portrayed with heads or bodies
- Egyptians believed in an afterlife (ka), and they mummified bodies to preserve them for this post death journey
- All souls would need to justify themselves at the point of death and either be sent to an after world paradise or the jaws of a monster
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