Pharaohs and Pyramids

The Pharaoh of ancient Egypt was all powerful and was worshipped like a God and was intimately connected to the gods and goddesses. Egyptians relied on a saying called maat which was balance of the universe which applied to their government. These Pharaohs had many wives, and all routes to financial and social success were though the palace. Very different from many other early settlements, women could inherit money and land. Also they could divorce their husbands thought only a tiny few wielded real political power. The gods the Egyptians refer to usually were portrayed with animal heads or bodies. The Egyptians believed in an afterlife and mummified bodies to preserve them for this afterlife. They believed all souls would need to be justified at the point of death and either be sent to an after-world paradise, or the jaws of a monster. The earliest Egyptian writing was formed around 3100 BC and they were small pictures known as hieroglyphs. These hieroglyphs represented religious words, parts of words, and most commonly adorned temples. Next was Hieratic script which was a shorthand developed by scribes and priests and they were usually written with ink on papyrus which was made from mash Nile reeds. These papyrus could be rolled just like in the movies. Egyptian astronomers created a calendar with 12 months and 365 days to make better sense of the seasonal cycles of the Nile River floods. Egyptians had excellent knowledge of human anatomy and doctors wrote extensively on health issues and created cures for a number of common ailments. Wooden sailboats were constructed to increase transport ability on the Nile River. The pyramids were absolutely massive almost like tombs stones and were originally covered with marble but that was later stripped off during the Muslim conquest. Stone sculptures and interior painting depicted humans and gods in a series of regulated poses. We will learn more about the drawing and pyramids tomorrow.