MYCD

= welcome to MYCD!!! =

= Ancient Egypt =

Introduction:
Ancient Egypt was an ancient civilization of Northeastern Africa, concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in what is now the modern country of Egypt. Egyptian civilization coalesced around 3150 BC with the political unification of Upper and Lower Egypt under the first pharaoh. The history of ancient Egypt occurred in a series of stable Kingdoms, separated by Intermediate Periods: the Old Kingdom, the Middle Kingdom and the New Kingdom. Egypt was conquered by a succession of foreign powers (including Persian rule) in this Late Period. In the aftermath of Alexander the Great's death, one of his generals, Ptolemy Soter, established himself as the new ruler of Egypt. This Ptolemaic Dynasty ruled Egypt until 30 BC, when it fell to the Roman Empire and became a Roman province.

The success of ancient Egyptian civilization came partly from its ability to adapt to the conditions of the Nile River Valley. The predictable flooding and controlled irrigation of the fertile valley produced crops, which fueled social development and culture. With resources to spare, the administration sponsored mineral exploitation of the valley and surrounding desert regions, the early development of an independent writing system, trade with surrounding regions, and a military intended to defeat foreign enemies. Motivating and organizing these activities was a bureaucracy of elite scribes, religious leaders, and administrators under the control of a Pharaoh.

The many achievements of the ancient Egyptians include the quarrying, surveying and construction techniques that facilitated the building of monumental pyramids, temples, and obelisks; a system of mathematics, a practical and effective system of medicine, irrigation systems and agricultural production techniques, the first known ships, Egyptian faience and glass technology, new forms of literature, and the earliest known peace treaty. Egypt left a lasting legacy. Its art and architecture were widely copied, and its antiquities carried off to far corners of the world. Its monumental ruins have inspired the imaginations of travellers and writers for centuries. A new-found respect for antiquities and excavations in the early modern period led to the scientific investigation of Egyptian civilization and a greater appreciation of its cultural legacy.(information from wikipeidia)

=
A lot of people in Egypt were slaves. Some of them came originally from Egypt - often children sold into slavery by poor families. Others were sold from other countries into slavery in Egypt. A lot of people from Meroe and Kush, south of Egypt, were slaves in Egypt, and a lot of people from Libya. =====

The most famous story about Egyptian slaves is the one in the Bible about how the Jews were slaves in Egypt, about 1400-1200 BC. Because the Egyptians had just conquered Israel at this time, probably many Jews were enslaved about this time. Then when the Egyptian New Kingdom collapsed, they stopped being able to enslave the Jews.

Most slaves in Egypt probably worked as house servants, or as skilled dancers, musicians, accountants, scribes, or that sort of thing, as Joseph did in the Bible.

Egyptian food...
Because Egypt was very dry, and relied mostly on the Nile River to water the crops,so people in Egypt could only grow certain kinds of food. Mainly farmers grew wheat and barley. The Egyptians made the wheat into bread and into soup and porridge, and they also fermented barley to make beer. In fact, some people think the real reason that the Egyptians first began growing grain was to make beer. This is an Egyptian model of beer jars, which the Egyptians made to put in your grave when you died so you would have beer in the next world.

Egyptian goverment...
The Pharaoh owned all of Egypt, and everything in it: all the land, all the tools, all the animals, and all the people. He or she could tell anybody what to do, and they would have to do it. The Egyptian government was a monarchy.Ofcourse the Pharaoh could not always be telling everybody what to do.So the Pharaohs chose people to represent them, and assigned the people to big estates all over Egypt. These rich men and women ran the estates, and on them they could tell everybody what to do. But even the rich people were supposed to do whatever the Pharaohs said to do, and they had to send the Pharaohs some of the food that was grown on that land. Some, at least, of these estate-holders were priests, holding the estate for the gods, but these religious estates were run in the same way, and they also had to pay some food to the Pharaohs.

When the Pharaohs were weaker, especially in the First and Second Intermediate Periods, sometimes they could not make the rich people do what they wanted them to. Often the Pharaoh had to compromise with the rich people. But at least in theory, the rich people had to do whatever the Pharaoh said, and ordinary people had to do whatever the rich people said.

Who were the farmers in Ancient Egypt?
The pharaoh got the rich peasants to do the farm work on the rich lands.Most villagers were farmers. Farmers lived in towns too, along with craftworkers, traders and other workers and their families.

What crops did the Egyptian Farmers grow?
Egyptians grew crops such as wheat, barley, vegetables, figs, melons, pomegranates and vines. They also grew flax which was made into linen. The most important crop was grain. The ancient Egyptians used grain to make bread, porridge and beer. Grain was the first crop they grew afterflooding season. Once the grain was harvested, they grew vegetables such as onions, leeks, cabbages, beans, cucumbers and lettuce.

Where did the farmers grow their crops?
The Egyptians grew their crops along the banks of the River Nile on the rich black soil, or kemet which was left behind after the yearly floods. The fertile soil was ideal to grow healthy crops.

pyramid...
Like the Sumerians at the same time, the Egyptians around 3000-2500  begin_of_the_skype_highlighting  3000-2500  end_of_the_skype_highlighting  BC devoted a lot of energy to building big buildings. The Pyramids are one of the most impressive monuments of the ancient world, and we can still visit them today.

The Pharaohs, the rulers of Egypt, built the pyramids as tombs for themselves. The Pharaohs built all the pyramids during the Old Kingdom, so that the greatest remains of Ancient Egypt are also some of the earliest to have been built!

The first Pharaohs built simpler tombs, called mastabas. These mastabas were square buildings with a room inside for the coffin and the mummy and some things to take with Pharoahs to the afterlife.

Hieroglyphs
Hieroglyphs means "sacred drawings" in Greek, and that's pretty much what hieroglyphs are. The Egyptians used them to write to record all the things happened to any body, around 3000 BC, down to about 300 AD. Between about 3000 BC and 300 BC, the Egyptians used hieroglyphics for all different kinds of writing. But after the Greeks conquered Egypt under Alexander the Great, people began to use the Greek alphabet to write the Egyptian language. Then hieroglyphs were only used for religious things, things that were too holy for the ordinary Greek alphabet, which is why they are called "sacred-drawings."

Hieroglyphs are basically drawings of familiar objects, simplified to make them easier to draw. At first people just drew a dog or a house or a sheep; for example some early writing is just a picture of a sheep with five lines by it to mean "five sheep." Then people began to combine pictures, so that a picture of a sheep means the sound "sh"and can be combined with a picture of an owl "hoot" to mean the word "shoot," for example.

papyrus
Papyrus is a kind of paper that the Ancient Egypt used for writing.When the Egyptians began to write, about 3000 BC, they wrote from the beginning in ink, on papyrus. Papyrus is a plant that grows wild all over the Nile river valley.It was made from a kind of reed called cyperus papyrus.Papyrus is very common in Egypt.

Papyrus plants grow 2-3m (5–9 ft) tall. They were first used in Ancient Egypt, but they were also used throughout the Mediterranean region. The Egyptians also used the papyrus plants to make boats, mattresses, mats, rope, sandals, and baskets.