Ancient Egypt Presentation
By: Preston Melvin Block 4
Section A: Cultural Expression
Fashion
Religion
Gods/Goddess: Ra The Sun God
Importance:
- Ra was the most Important Egyptian god
- It was said that Ra was the creator of the world
- Ra was most widely worshipped in Ancient Egypt
- Without Ra the sun would not exist
- Ra is said to be the king of the gods
Family Connections:
- Ra created multiple gods
- The gods he made were Hathor, Baset, and Sekhmet
- Ra had no direct family connections, for example he had no mother or father
- Ra was at one point in time was merged with the god Atum
- After Ra was merged with Atum he was remerged with the god Horus
Role/Responsibility/Story
- In Ra's story it is said that each day he flies through the skies on a solar barque and each night he would travel on it through the underworld
- The role or responsibility of Ra was to make the sun shine each day causing the crops to grow. That is why the Egyptians found him to be so important
- When the Egyptians built temples in honour of him they would not have a statue of him and the their would be no roof because the sunlight was his symbol
- Because Ra would travel through the underworld each night he was sometimes considered to also be a god of the underworld
- Ra gave Osiris the job to have control over the dead
Mummification
In Ancient Egypt the people believed that you needed an intact body to make a successful trip to the underworld. They believed that when you died that your soul left your body and in order for it to find your body again it needed this process to be done. That is how you made a successful trip to the underworld. This played a large role in Egyptian religion. At first only the Pharaohs were able to be mummified but as time passed everyone had the option for mummification. Although sometimes the poor could not afford the process of mummification.
Process:
1. The first thing they would do to the body is embalm it, the first step to embalming is to wash the body with water from the Nile River
2. The second step is to remove the organs from the body, wash them, and store them in jars with natron (which is a special type of salt) to dry them out
3. After this they would stuff the body with natron and cover it with natron to dry it out
4. Once the body has sat in natron drying out for forty days they would re-wash it to keep the body looking alive
5. Then they would stuff the body with plants and saw dust so it wouldn't de-form over time
6. The Embalming process is now complete and they will begin to wrap it, the first thing they do is wrap the head and neck with linen
7. They would continue to wrap the body, but while doing so they would place amulets between the linen and a priest would read spells to ward off evil spirits for the deceased person
8. They then finish wrapping the body and place a scrolls between the persons hands, they also paint a picture of Osiris on the wrapped body
9. Finally they wrap the entire body with one large piece of linen and put the body into it's sarcophagus where it will rest
10. At last the funeral is held for the family to say goodbye and the body is placed into its tomb
Section B: Cultural Expression
Social Organization Of Ancient Egypt
1. The Pharaoh
2. High Government Officials
3. Priests and Nobels
4. Soldiers and Scribes
5. Craftsmen and Merchants
6. Farmers and Unskilled Workers
7. Slaves
The Great Sphinx of Giza
Abu Simbel Temples
The Great Pyramids of Giza
Role Of The Pharaoh
- It was the pharaohs job to keep the law in order
- The pharaoh also had the job to maintain the kingdom
- The pharaoh had to keep the gods happy so the Nile would flood
- In Ancient Egypt the civilians looked up upon the pharaoh as their leader
Khufu
- Khufu ruled in the fourth dynasty
- The only picture of Khufu was a miniature figure of him found in 1993
- Khufu was born in 2589 BC and died in 2566 BC
- The fourth dynasty occurred in 2613 BC to 2498 BC
- The fame of Khufu lasted until the 26th dynasty because of his impact on Egypt
Importance:
- Khufu was so important because he was the pharaoh who built the pyramid of Egypt
- A Greek Historian named Herodotus describes Khufu and a cruel and wicked leader while others said he was very good natured and interested in the nature of human existence
- The final resting place of Khufu was never found
- Khufu was also well known because besides being the pharaoh of Egypt he also lead the military
- He is said to be one of the most important pharaohs of all time
Pyramids
- The pyramids were built as burial sites or "tombs" for the pharaohs and sometimes very high government officials
- Khufu was the builder of the largest pyramid of Egypt
- The reason that pharaohs used pyramids as tombs was so they could secure their chance to make it successfully to the underworld because the pyramids would protect their bodes from decay
- There was also three small pyramids for the queens to go when they were dead.
- The main role of the Egyptian pyramids were for religious purposes
Structures:
- The builders of the Egyptian pyramids used stone from nearby quarries and dragged it all the way across the desert
- Originally the pyramids were covered in white limestone that made the pyramid look flat but in 15 AD the limestone was removed from the pyramids to build the city of Cairo
- It only took the Egyptians twenty years to build the pyramids which was a very short amount of time for something that big using only ancient tools
- Originally the Egyptians also had an eight meter tall wall all the way around the great pyramid
- Originally the great pyramid was surrounded by several hundred Mastabas which were the tombs of the nobles, the reason they were there is because the nobles wanted to be close to their pharaoh in the afterlife
Great Pyramid of Giza
History:
- This particular pyramid was built in at a time when Egypt was still powerful
- The pyramid of Giza was completed around 2560 BC
- Many of the stone blocks that were used to build the pyramid have eroded greatly over time
- No one knows exactly how such a feat was completed, even by today
- The smaller pyramids surrounding this one are the pyramids for the Egyptian queens
Section C: Central Question
What Made The Ancient Egyptian Culture Unique?
Bibliography
1. Title of Site: Ancient Egypt Online
Title of Article: The Social Structure of Egypt
URL: www.ancient-egypt-online.com/ancient-egypt-social-structure.html
Author: N/A
Date Last Updated: N/A
Date Accessed: 5/13/2016
2. Title of Site: Guardians Egypt
Title of Article: Khufu
URL: www.guardians.net/egypt/khufu.net
Author: Andrew Bayuk
Date Last Updated: 2004
Date Accessed: 5/17/2016
3. Title of Site: Ancient Egypt
Title of Article: Ra
URL: http://www.ancientegypt.co.uk
Author: The British Museum
Date Last Updated: N/A
Date Accessed: 5/13/2016
4. Title of Site: Ancient Egyptian Facts
Title of Article: Egyptian God Ra Facts
URL: http://www.ancient-egyptian-facts.com (The full link is currently unavailable)
Author: N/A
Date Last Updated: N/A
Date Accessed: 5/17/2016
Books:
1. Title: Ancient Worlds (SS7 Textbook)
Author(s): Arnold Toutant
Place of Population: Oxford
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Year of Publication: 2000