Amar's+Research+Notes

 __Ancient Egypt: The Old Kingdom __

__Climate and Geographic Factors: __


 * few rain storms (Badawy)
 * summer heat - particularly harsh (Badawy)
 * main body of water and closest to ancient Egyptians - Nile River (Badawy)
 * many choices on where to live decided on proximity to Nile (Badawy)
 * extremely hot weather – very little rain ( Carbill)
 * ancient Egypt located in desert (Maps)
 * few areas over 750m (Maps)

__Events and Leaders: __


 * Old Kingdom started 2686 BC, ended 2181 BC ( McGill)
 * spans 3rd - 6th dynasties ( McGill)
 * first ruler of the 3rd dynasty, Djoser, had first step pyramid built (McGill)
 * 3 most known pharaohs of 4th dynasty Khufu, Khafre, Menkaure ( McGill)
 * Khufu true first pyramid built, first of three great pyramids at Giza ( McGill)
 * Khafre built second pyramid, Menkaure built last ( McGill)
 * Khafre responsible for building Sphinx at Giza ( McGill)
 * 5th dynasty god Osiris very important ( McGill)

__Socio-Political Structure: __


 * king "good god" brought Upper/Lower Egypt together (Badawy)
 * king chief priest of Egypt’s temples - he was the connection between his people and the gods (Badawy)
 * king and his main queen’s son (king had lesser wives) would become king after his father (Badawy)
 * if king and main wife had daughter, not son, daughter would marry son of lesser wife and he would become king (Badawy)
 * vizier - king’s highest official: (Badawy)
 *  o   made sure king’s wishes were met (Badawy)
 *  o   handled king’s schedule (Badawy)
 *  o   judge for important criminal cases (Badawy)
 *  o   often chancellor (Badawy)
 * king (pharaoh) ruled whole life (Brier)
 * king lead men into battle (Brier)
 * viziers in charge of administrative stuff – e.g. collecting taxes (Brier)
 * strong central government established during Old Kingdom (Brier)



__Agriculture and Economy: __


 * dependent on Nile (Badawy)
 * easy to grow crops, graze animals on shores of Nile, though area pounded by summer’s sun without rain, because river's annual inundation deposited layer of moist, fertile silt (Badawy)
 * flood once a year (Badawy)
 * dikes built to protect community from floods (Badawy)
 * barley, emmer - two main grains produced, different types of wheat also produced (Badawy)
 * livestock domesticated included: cows, oxen, sheep (Badawy)
 * raised birds (Badawy)
 * bees for honey (Badawy)
 * gold, copper, other useful metals (Badawy)
 * traded to get what they didn’t have (Badawy)
 * import what they needed, export gold, linen, leather, grain, papyrus (a type of paper) (Badawy)
 * paid for services through food (David 137)



__Art, Literature, and Music __


 * Art (including Architecture):
 * houses, palaces, forts built of wood and mud bricks (Badawy)
 * all art related to religion (Badawy)
 * temples and tombs built of stone (intended to last life time) (Badawy)
 * settlements planned around where pyramids were built (Badawy)
 * mortuary temples b uilt for funerary ritual (Badawy)
 * pyramids - tombs for pharaohs, pharaoh worked whole life to have pyramid ready (Badawy)
 * design of pyramid included traps for robbers (Badawy)
 * statues built by ancient Egyptians - these works found in a pyramid and temples (Badawy)
 * kings and high officials represented in statues in striding posture, left foot forward, one arm holding tall staff; or shown seated, one arm on the knee other across the breast (Badawy)
 * paintings done within tombs, temples, told a story (Badawy)
 * in paintings heads and feet would be in a side view, the torso in a frontal view (Badawy)
 * many pharaohs built sun temples – honour, worship sun god, Ra (Ryan 117)




 * Literature:
 * hieroglyphics - pictures used to express words (Badawy)
 * many different types of literature (Badawy)
 * entertainment, political, wisdom literature (Badawy)
 * religious literature, with carvings, paintings on walls of tombs, temples - told stories (Badawy)
 * carvings, paintings tie into art of ancient Egyptians (Badawy)


 * Music:
 * music important in Egyptian life - found in pictures in temples, tombs (Music)
 * percussion, wind, stringed instruments (Music)
 * percussion instruments included hand-held drums, rattles, castanets, bells, sistrum - important rattle used in religious worship (Music)
 * wind instruments – flutes, trumpets (Music)
 * harps, lyres, lutes - some of stringed instruments (Music)
 * musicians part of all classes, those who performed at parties and festivals were part of the lower class and those connect to the royal family were part of a higher class (Music)

__Science and Mathematical Contributions: __
 * created arithmetic to count agricultural and industrial products (Badawy)
 * invented geometry to survey fields, reassess land after Nile inundation, calculate volumes for building (Badawy)
 * developed astronomical observation to structure calendar which helped with time keeping (Badawy)
 * specialists in medicine had the title of priest and they taught others about medicine (Badawy)
 * gold extracted by washing aluminum or ground quartz from veins in central hilly range between Nile and Red Sea (Badawy)
 * clear out site levelling everything before building anything (Badawy)
 * when building pyramids they moved rocks on sleds, pulled up to greater heights on ramps (Badawy)
 * inclines, levers, props used in building of pyramids (Badawy)

__The Rise of the Old Kingdom (Essay) __

__Work Cited List __