Rich agricultural soil produced by the annual flooding, the easy of travel and communication, the constant water supply generated a magical self-confidence and unique cultural purity.
1) Detail the importance of the Nile River to the Egypt
The long river provided a natural system for unity; the annual , regular inundation gave the people a very optimistic outlook; a cheerful confidence in humanity, in the permanence and stability of things. (in comparison to the pessimistic mesopotamians)
2) How and why did the Egyptian view of life differ from the Mesopotamian outlook?
kingship, symbols, myths, gods, cults and totems, national ideology
3. What lay at the heart of Egyptian civilization?
notes the first time when the pattern for a stable society was handed down. the pattern needed kingship, law, religion and ritual to be maintained. The universe was thought of as static; progress, changes, new questions, new answers were not needed.
4. What was the significance of the temple in this civilization? What was necessary for a stable civilization? How did the Egyptians view the universe?
farming, metal working, irrigation, pottery, stone-working, monumental architecture, burials, trade.
5. According to Wood, what were the mainstays of Egyptian civilization?
Centralized power, royal rituals, the cult of the dead
6. What are the key themes of Egyptian history?
Building the pyramids was a tremendous socializing force, uniting people from all over the Nile region in a single civic project. A source of validation of their power by creating great public symbol.
7. Explain the role of the pyramid and the legitimation of authority in this civilization
A long dry period (2200-2100 BCE) which led to 50 years of famine; the monarchy was overthrown and the country split in two.
8.What brought about the collapse of the Old Kingdom?
It was a provider state: providing a basic standard of living to all of its people. In return, enormous surpluses could be spent by the rulers on tombs, temples and palaces. It was shown Through the great buildings where the state expressed its ideologies of power, consisting of ma'at.
9. What kind of state or society existed in the Middle Kingdom? How was it shown?
The Egyptians adapted to a form of rule which was essentially political. The development of the professional institutions- army, civil service, ministries, priesthood led to a lessening of the power of the pharaoh.
10. What changes occurred in the New Kingdom?
The king was no longer divine; no longer the repository of righteousness, truth and justice, or the ally of the gods.
11. Detail the greatest change in thinking in the first millennium B.C.
culture could acquire a "rootedness" (continuity!) though their climate and geography. Egyptian pharaohs had political power for three thousand years.
12. Explain what Ibn Khaldun, the Islamic historian, meant when he called Egypt the best example of the "habit of civilization."
Egyptians believed that the universe was above everything else an ordered, predictable, and rational place. in the moral sphere, purity was rewarded and sin was punished. the universe was in perfect balance. For the city-state, they believed The pharaoh was the upholder of the universal order. As long as the pharaoh and the people honored the gods and obeyed the law set down for them, Maat would be in balance and all would be well.
13. How did they conceive of the universe and the civil state?