1. What do you think of Egypt?

2. The Nile Valley Chapter 2:ia Pre-dynastic Egypt
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“The Land of the Pharaohs.”

3. The Greek historian Herodotus once referred to Egypt as being “the Gift of the Nile.”
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4. [Image source: http://www.civilization.ca/civil/egypt/egcl02e.html]
Nomadic hunter-gatherers of northeastern Africa by settled by the Nile River as early as 5000 B.C.
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5. The green Nile Valley contrasted sharply with the surrounding deserts.
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6. Early Egyptians called their land Kemet, meaning “black land,” after the dark soil.
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7. The rich alluvial soil of the river and the delta provided good farm land for the people of Egypt.
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8. Early Egyptians took up farming and grew cereal crops such as wheat and barley.
The Nile also provided Neolithic farmers with ducks and geese in its marshlands and fish in its waters.

9. The Nile River also served as an important transportation route.
The Royal Boat belonged to King Tutankhamon and carried him during his trips up and down the Nile. In the minds of the Egyptians, travel and ships were so closely linked that the stars and the sun were believed to be moving across the celestial ocean in boats, so it appeared that every night the Sun God would make his perilous journey through the waters of the underworld. [

10. Egyptians harvested papyrus reeds to make paper, rope, baskets, etc.
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The Egyptians made their paper, called papyrus, from reed stems which had to be flattened, dried, and stuck together to make pages. They cut the stem of the plant vertically in thin slices. They laid the strips next to each other lengthwise and slightly overlapping to form the a layer. More slices were placed on top of them in the other direction to form another layer. A cloth was placed on top of the reeds and they pounded the sheet of reeds with a mallet. The pounding made the juices of the plant stick them together. The resulting sheet of papyrus was slightly sticky and was put out to dry in the sun. When it was dry, it was rubbed smooth with a stone or a piece of wood. To make long rolls of papyrus, the Egyptians glued the ends of the sheets or papyrus together with a paste made of flour and water. Egyptian "pens" were tin, sharp reeds, which they would dip in ink to write with.

11. Virtually everyone lived in the floodplain of the Nile River.
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12. Egyptian farmers were able to increase their crop yields by using the Nile River to irrigate their fields.
The principal secondary sources for the system of basin irrigation employed in Egypt are: K. Baer, "Land and Water in Ancient Egypt," a paper read at the 28th International Congress of Orientalists, Special Congress Seminars, A: Irrigation Civilizations. Canberra, 1971 (unpublished ms.; a copy is available in the Oriental Institute Research Archives) and W. Willcocks and J. I. Craig, Egyptian Irrigation, 3rd ed. (London: Spon, Ltd., 1913). Other important discussions are found in K. Butzer, Early Hydraulic Civilization in Ancient Egypt (Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press, 1976) and H. Kees, Ancient Egypt: A Cultural Topography (Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press, 1961). This brief synthesis is drawn from those studies. For additional bibliographical citations on the general topic of environment and land use in the Nile Valley.
The Egyptians categorized a variety of lands, depending upon whether they were high land or low land, they required artificial irrigation or no irrigation, whether the topsoil was fresh or not, etc. Most of the land in Egypt--from ancient times to relatively recently--was irrigated by means of BASIN IRRIGATION. Others were irrigated by different means (e.g., hauling water from wells, canals and the river). In the year 1820, Egyptian agriculture began a long and slow transition from the traditional methods of basin irrigation to the practice of perennial irrigation. With the completion of the Aswan High Dam (es-Sadd el-Aly)--in the 1960's, the entire country finally switched over to perennial irrigation. Beginning in 1889, William Willcocks published a series of monographs, as field research, detailing the traditional methods of basin irrigation in Egypt as they were still being applied during his lifetime. The typical conservatism of the Egyptian fellahin in agricultural matters, coupled with textual, artistic, and geomorphological evidence surviving from ancient Egypt, are a guarantee that the methods described for nineteenth century Egypt, are, for the most part, appropriate for understanding the practice of basin irrigation in ancient Egypt.
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13. Source: http://www.library.nwu.edu/class/history/B94/B94basin.html
Basin irrigation is characterized by a system of crop basins formed by an intersecting network of dikes and levees--all interconnected by a series of canals (see Figure 1). Basin irrigation is merely an adaptation of the natural rhythm of the Nile River, its seasonal changes and annual cycle of flooding and ebbing. Every year from July through October, the Nile River Valley underwent a gradual but massive flooding. This inundation resulted from seasonal rains in central East Africa and the Ethiopian Highlands, running off into the tributaries of the Nile River (i.e, the Blue and White Niles and the Atbara). Descending from Lake Tana in Ethiopia and Lake Victoria in Uganda, these flood waters eroded the river beds and banks, carrying that suspended mud and silt in the flood waters down to Egypt. There this silt was deposited across the valley floor. Thus, each year this process created a new topsoil always rich in nitrogen and organic nutrients. In the flood cycle, the level of the Nile began to rise at Elephantine in late June, while at Memphis in early July. Through late July and early August, the river rose rapidly. It ideally reached its high water mark in September. Thereafter, it began to drop before late October. It fell rapidly from November through early December, after which it decelerated its descent, decreasing slowly but steadily until reaching the low water mark in May or early June (at Memphis), after which the entire process started anew.
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14. In its simplest form, basin irrigation utilized old and abandoned natural river levees that ran parallel to the river along the valley floor (in a general north-south direction). These levees were supplemented by earthen embankments called LONGITUDINAL or LONG DIKES. These dikes and levees were intersected by a series of TRANSVERSE DIKES running west to east from the desert edge to the river levee. In the nineteenth century, the dikes ranged 3-4 meters in height and up to 6 meters in width at the top. This geometrical network of dikes enclosed rectangular areas of farmland which formed CROP BASINS (see Figure 2). In the nineteenth century, such basins could encompass as much as 50,000 acres of land or as little as 2,500 acres. The average size was 8,750 acres.
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15. FEEDER CANALS were dug from the river through the basins, often connecting them in series. The levels of the canal beds were dug halfway between the low water mark and the ground levels of the basins. The entrances to the FEEDER CANALS at the riverbank were blocked up through the early stages of the inundation. Reports from Nubia and the south, where the Nile crested sooner than in the north, would indicate when cresting could be expected further north. In mid-August, when the water had ideally risen to about 1 meter below the estimated high water mark, the FEEDER CANALS were cut open at the riverbank, allowing the inundation to fill the canals and start flooding the basins (see Figure 3).
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16. After the 40-days of filling, the FEEDER CANALS were closed again and blocked up. During this phase, the ground was saturated, and a thick layer of silt settled out of the water and on to the basin floors. Other basins, probably up along the desert edge, could be designated as reservoirs to hold water for irrigation of a later summer crop.
Two weeks later--sometime in October--and coinciding with the ebbing of the flood, DISCHARGE CANALS further north (running from the basins to the river) were cut open, permitting the water to drain out of the basins and back into the Nile. In the far south crop basins were dry enough for planting by mid-October, in the far north by late November. Usually, crops were sown merely by scattering seed in the basins. However, if the flooding was insufficient, the fields would be ploughed first. Due to the high moisture content of the new topsoil, the crops in the basins would require no further watering for the remainder of the season. Harvesting of this winter crop would occur in late March or April. Afterward, a second cropping, i.e., a summer crop, could be sown in the low lands of the valley or in low lying areas of the basins. These could also be irrigated with water gravity-fed from the upper basin- reservoirs that earlier were held in reserve.
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17. Luxor. Aerial photograph of farm plots enclosed by small mudbanks in a manner reminiscent of the large crop-basins of ancient times. The plots are encircled by irrigation ditches fed by a water pump at the river's edge.
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18. Cataracts, rapids and waterfalls, made it difficult to navigate more than 650 miles (1,040 Km) upstream.
Cataract n [L cataracta waterfall, portcullis, fr. Gk kataraktes, fr. katarassein to dash down, fr. kata- cata- + arassein to strike, dash] 2 b : WATERFALL; esp : a large one over a precipe c : steep rapids in a river

19. Over time, strong leaders united these villages into kingdoms, or monarchies, each under the unrestricted ruled of a powerful king.
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20. By 4000 B.C., ancient Egypt consisted of two large kingdoms . . .

21. Lower Egypt in the north, in the Nile Delta, and . . .
Map: the twenty nomes of Lower Egypt, representing an idealized compilation of the nomes through years of Egyptian history. This map--and the one following--are prepared from the studies of P. Montet, Geographie de l'Egypte ancienne, and A. Gardiner, Ancient Egyptian Onomastica. In Lower Egypt, the boundaries between the nomes cannot be deduced with any measure of certainty, since they were probably demarcated by the many branches of the Nile River which flowed through the Delta in antiquity but which are now lost.
The names of the nomes, as indicated in this map, represent this instructor's translations of the Egyptian names. They are, for the most part, the names as they are attested in the Old and Middle Kingdoms.
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22. Upper Egypt in the south, in the Nile River Valley.
Map: the twenty-two nomes of Upper Egypt, illustrating the boundaries theorized for them. In Egyptian religious texts and belief, the number of the nomes (called zepawt in Egyptian) was often ideally fixed at 42, i.e., 20 nomes of Lower Egypt and 22 nomes of Upper Egypt (42 was a number with cosmological significance, viz., the 42 gods of judgement, and hence it might signify the notion of divine totality or completion). However, the political reality in Egypt was very different. The number of nomes attested in the written records apparently fluctuates through Egyptian history. In certain periods, different nomes were joined together and consolidated, while new ones were formulated from older territories. Under the reforms of the Twelfth Dynasty, they ceased to exist entirely as practical governing units, being replaced by larger departments (called warets). Likewise, the boundaries between the nomes probably shifted frequently. Their exact locations in any given period are unknown. The boundary lines in this map represent general estimations from the study of diverse texts from the length of Egyptian history. These lines are not meant to indicate the exact size and area of each nome, but rather to identify its location and physical relationship to the nomes around it.
In Upper Egypt, where boundary lines cross the river, it may be assumed that the nome administered both sides of the river, unless another nome is identified there on the map.
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23. King Narmer (Menes) of Upper Egypt conquered Lower Egypt and unified the country circa 3000 B.C.
Narmer’s Palette (Interpretation)
behind the king is his sandal-bearer, a high dignitary, possibly his son, who is identified by a rosette, the divine or royal emblem
The king is in the act of striking a kneeling captive (defeated princes of the north)
above him Horus (Falcon) himself brings to the King 6000 captive from the Marshes (the representations are surmounted by two Hathor heads, which shows how ancient the worship of the goddess was in that form)
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24. The unification of Upper and Lower Egypt can be seen in the combination of the two crowns.
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25. Narmer (Menes) ruled the unified kingdom of Egypt from his new capital, Memphis, which he built on the border between the two kingdoms.
Memphis
Memphis
ancient capital of Egypt
located at the apex of the Nile delta, south of present-day Cairo
believed to have been founded in the early 4th millennium BC.
important during the Old Kingdom ( BC)
became the seat of the Persian satraps in 525 BC.
under the Ptolemies and under Rome it was the most important city after Alexandria
declined in the 7th century AD when the Arabs built the nearby city of Al Fustat (now Cairo)
archaeologists uncovered the temples of Ptah, Isis, and Ra, the Serapeum, two statues of Ramses II, and many dwellings
"Memphis (Egypt)," Microsoft(R) Encarta(R) 98 Encyclopedia. (c) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
Hypothetical political map of the Lower Nile Valley during the fourth millennium B.C. It illustrates the boundaries between Upper and Lower Egypt and the location of the presumed Kingdom of Nubia (inferred by Bruce Williams), which would have predated the two Egyptian kingdoms.
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26. King Narmer (Menes) established the first dynasty, or line of rulers from one family.
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27. [Image source: http://www. library. nwu. edu/class/history/B94/narmer

28. Tomorrow Make sure you have read all of section 1 in Chapter 2
Do map assignment the Nile Valley