Name _____________________________________________ Period ______________________ Directions: As you read pages 65 to 86, answer each question critically.
Egypt: The Gift of the Nile
Why is Egypt called the “Gift of the Nile?”
What does the Nile provide naturally?
What months did the Nile flood? How was it different than the floods in Mesopotamia? What did the floods provide?
What natural barriers provided protection for Egypt in the: East and West?
In the South?
In the North?
How many years of recorded history exist in Egypt?
What were the kings called during the New Kingdom?
Explain why Upper and Lower Egypt were named those names?
By 3,600 BCE, what lined the Nile every 20 miles and what was the village economies based on?
What suggested and when did new levels of social stratification take place?
The Written Record
When did writing begin in Egypt and what was their writing based on?
What were the two shorthand transcriptions of hieroglyphs called?
What did the scribes write on?
In Egypt, what was writing first used for? Over the next 1000 years, what did it grow into?
Who wrote a kings list and when did he write it Unification and the Rule of the Kings
What three things suggest that Egyptian national life and history began with the unification of the kingdom about the year 3100 BCE?
What 4 groups amalgamated into a common national stock? What does “common national stock” mean? How do we know this?
Who is recognized for first uniting the upper and lower Nile into a single kingdom?
What were all of the responsibilities of the god-kings of Egypt?
When was the early Dynastic period and what were the characteristics of this period?
The Gods, the Unification of Egypt, and the Afterlife
Who are the three most important gods and how is this significant to the unification of Egypt?
What did Osiris represent? What did Seth represent?
What did Seth do to Osiris? What did Isis do in response to this? What was the outcome and how were Seth and Horus seen?
What did the Kings believe if they lived a proper ordered life?
What did the belief in the afterlife inspire?
First believed for kings only, what was the afterworld later seen as?
Cities of the Dead Describe mastabas.
Who was the first female to have gained power for herself? How many times and to whom was she married?
What was adjacent to the tombs?
The Growth of Cities
How was Egypt unlike Mesopotamia?
What was the village economies based on?
Gradually what happened to these small villages along the Nile?
Name two functions selected settlements hosted?
From 3800 BCE to 3500 BCE, how much did the population of Hierakonpolis grow?
What did these changes accomplish?
What was shaduf irrigation?
What three things built the city?
From 1150-1196 BCE, how much did the population grow?
What other types of cities completed the urban network?
Monumental Architecture of the Old Kingdom: Pyramids and Fortresses Who was Imhotep and why was he significant?
Within 50 years, what did Egypt’s architects build?
What were they show about Egypt at this time? (three things)
The Disintegration of the Old Kingdom
What did the nomarchs do that contributed to the weakening of the empire? (two things)
What is this period known as and how long did it last?
The Rise and Fall of the Middle Kingdom
Who reunited the kingdom and what was one result?
What are two reasons why the Middle Kingdom ended?
What rose and lasted from 1550 BCE to 1050 BCE?
Akhetaten, Capital City of King Akhenaten
How did Akhetaten challenge the order of ancient Egypt?
Why did he change his name?
Where did he move the capital to?
Who was his wife and how many children did they have?
How did the sanctuaries differ under Akhetaten?
After he died, how did society change?
The Indus Valley Civilization and its Mysteries The Roots of the Indus Valley Civilization
What did Harrapa and Mohenjo-Daro have in common?
How old are the oldest artifacts from this area?
What do scholars agree on when it comes to the development of Harappa and Mesopotamia?
Why is our understanding limited of this area?
The Design and Construction of Well-Planned Cities Who did they trade with?
What do all of these products suggest?
Carefully Planned Cities
In each city, what laid to the north and to the south?
Describe the lower city.
What does the Mohenjo-Daro city plan suggest?
Questions of Interpretation
According to the interpretations of the Indus Valley, what do the artifacts stress?
Legacies of the Harappan Civilization
What are the four legacies of the Harappa that stand out?
The Cities of the Nile and the Indus: What Difference do they Make?
What have we learned about Mesopotamia, the Nile and Indus Valley civilizations?
Review Questions
What is the evidence that scholars use to argue that the Indus valley civilization was less class distinctive than the civilization of the Nile valley and Mesopotamia?