The Nile River Valley Civilization

The ancient Egyptians beliefs a lot of the time revolved around gods. The Egyptians believed that gods controlled the universe, so keeping them happy was a big priority for them. If a god wasn't happy they could make the Nile river flood, cause famine and even death. The Egyptians also believed that humans could be gods, their leaders also called Pharaohs were believed to be gods in human form and were believed to posses the secrets of heaven and earth. Because they thought their leaders were gods they were trusted with many responsibilities.

Writing also had to do with religion. The Egyptians believed that the god Thoth created writing to make them wiser, but the god Re thought that this would make them more lazy and not rely on their memory as much. Hieroglyphics were called medu netje or "gods words". They had symbols for words, sounds, and another part that was placed at the end to clarify the meaning. Other forms of writing were created in egypt as well, priests and temple scribes wanted to simplify the process of writing so hieroglyphics began to change into the hieratic “priestly” script, it was written right to left. The Demotic script had no trace of pictures at all, the Egyptians called it sekh shat or "writing for documents” Demotic replaced hieratic as the most popular form of writing in Egypt, but hieratic was still used for important religious writings.

The Egyptians held education in high regard, but there were a limited number of schools.  They were attended by the wealthy, royalty, and were taught to be scribes or priests.  These schools were only attended by boys. Girls stayed home and learned from their mothers housekeeping, chores, and how to raise children.

The Nile river provided many things for the egyptians. Along the river were fruit trees, and many fish swam in the river. Every year for 6 months the river flooded, and when it receded rich, brown silt appeared. The silt was suitable for growing wheat, beans, barley, and cotton. The crops needed to be watered, so farmers dug man made canals in order to water their crops. Irrigation was an important invention because it made them able to water their crops from creeks and the river, and brought it across acres and acres of land. Reeds were found at the bottom of the river and were made into papyrus which was used as paper to write on. The egyptians had a process to flatten this material and make it able to write on. Crops were harvested and stored at the local level, a portions was collected by rulers, this was taxes. Today, citizens pay tax money to the government, but in ancient Egypt, people paid the government in crops. When they could advance more civilization intensified and the egyptians were able to expand and own more territory and become an even bigger empire with even more people.

Unlike most of the river valley civilizations women in ancient egypt had a lot more freedom than those in other regions. Often time, women ruled and had a lot of power in society. Often times men would put women in high positions to keep the young men safe and give them time to mature until it was time for them to step up, when the man took over the woman would step down. Women could own their own businesses, own and sell property, and serve as witnesses in court cases. They could escape marriages by divorcing and remarrying. The egyptian social hierarchy had gods and pharaohs at the top. All laws were enacted by a pharaoh. The pharaoh appointed a chief minister called a vizier as a supervisor, The vizier made sure that taxes were collected. Scribes had high roles in society because they could read and write, which was something you had to go to school for, and most wealthy and royalty were the only people who could do that. Depending on how high you were on the social hierarchy depended on how much freedom you had, if you were low on the social hierarchy you did not have a lot of freedom and often times a slave. You could not rule if you were low in the hierarchy because the egyptians wanted to keep the royal blood going. Pharaohs were buried in chambers within the pyramids along with everything they would need in the afterlife. Building a pyramid took around 20-40 years, building the Great Pyramid at Giza took 20 years and almost 100,00 men. Having a high social status was a way of gaining money and power. In order to keep that power you had to be higher on the social hierarchy and gain control over more people and things.

Once the egyptians found out how to sustain their crops, they farmed things like wheat and turned them into bread, barley into soup and beer, and cotton spun into clothing. Once specialization occurred and people had specific jobs, they could have food surpluses and advance into a larger civilization and gain more land. Most egyptians had a vegetarian based diet including chickpeas, lentils, and a grain called emmer. They made papyrus into paper, sandals, rope, toys, boxes, baskets, mats, window shades and even small fishing boats. One of the most important crops was called emmer. It was a grain  that was used in the production of bread, a daily part of the Egyptian diet. It was also used to make beer, a very popular drink in ancient egypt. Agriculture was mostly done by men, but women and children often owned small family gardens they would attend to. The ancient egyptians traded with other civilizations such as Mesopotamia, the Levant, India, Nubia, The land of punt (modern day Somalia), in exchange of goods from their lands. Instead of trading for money, the egyptians traded their crops n exchange for other goods, this was called bartering. Trading was critical in expanding and advancing as a civilization.