1. Ancient Egyptian Culture
Coach Parrish
OMS
Chapter 3, Section 4

2. Social Classes
Most of what is known about social classes, and other Egyptian history is from their artwork.
Egyptian society resembled a pyramid.
At the top was the pharaoh. Beneath him was a small upper class including priests, pharaoh’s court, and landholding nobles.
Below the upper class was the middle class of merchants and skilled workers.
At the bottom of the social pyramid was the lower class called peasants.

3. Social Class Pyramid

4. Slavery
Prisoners captured in wars were made into slaves. Slaves formed a separate social class that was never very large in number.
Slaves in Egypt could own personal items and inherit land from their masters. Occasionally they were also made free.

5. Lives of the Peasants
Most peasants worked the land of wealthy Egyptians. During the flood season, they worked on roads, temples, and buildings.
Once the flood season was over, they quickly worked the soil to prepare crops for planting.
The busiest season for the peasants was harvest season when men, women, and children went into the fields to pick the crops.

6. Women in Egypt
Women were viewed as living models of Isis, the goddess of motherhood.
Egyptian women had the same rights as men and held various jobs throughout the empire.

7. A New System of Writing
In ancient Egypt, they wrote using a system of pictures to stand for words called hieroglyphs.
Some symbols stood for words and other symbols stood for sounds. They began using hieroglyphs because of the empire’s growing wealth.

8. Writing Materials
At first, the Egyptians wrote on clay and stone like the Sumerians. Over time, they wanted to write on something more stable, so they chose papyrus.
Papyrus – early form of paper made from a reed found in the marshy areas of the Nile delta.
Papyrus was made by cutting the inner stalks into narrow strips, laying them side by side, wetting them and then letting them dry outside.

9. Papyrus Artwork

10. Unlocking a Mystery
Historians could not read ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics until 1799 AD. A soldier found a large stone later called the Rosetta Stone while digging a fort in the Nile delta.
The Rosetta Stone contained 3 languages on it, hieroglyphics, demotic (later Egyptian writing), and Greek letters. In 1820, a French scholar named Jean Francois Champollion cracked the code.

11. Jean-Francois Champollion

13. Egyptian Legacy
Astronomers – scientists who study the stars and other objects. Egyptians were astronomers in that they knew when the Nile would flood based on Sirius (dog star).
Because of mummification, ancient Egyptians knew a great deal about the body. They learned how to perform surgery on broken bones. They also used plants to create medicines.