Ancient Egypt | Early Civilizations | World History | Khan Academy

Summary

This video script offers an insightful overview of ancient Egypt, focusing on its geography, the Nile River's importance to agriculture and civilization, and the historical timeline from the unification under Narmer or Menes to the peak of the New Kingdom. It highlights the significance of the Nile's annual flooding for fertility, the construction of iconic pyramids, the deciphering of hieroglyphics with the Rosetta Stone, and notable pharaohs like Akhenaton's shift towards monotheism and Ramses II's military prowess. The script also touches on the decline and foreign rule before Egypt's incorporation into larger empires.

Takeaways

• 🌍 The Nile River is central to both ancient and modern Egypt, flowing from eastern mid-Africa to the Mediterranean Sea.
• 📈 The Nile's annual flooding made the surrounding soil fertile, leading to the emergence of agriculture and the development of complex societies.
• 🏙️ Ancient Egyptian civilization is believed to have started around 3,100 BCE with the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt under a single ruler, such as Narmer or Menes.
• 🏛️ The Old Kingdom is known for the construction of the pyramids, which are iconic symbols of ancient Egypt and were built as tombs for the pharaohs.
• 📜 The Rosetta Stone's discovery in 1799 allowed historians to decipher Egyptian hieroglyphics, providing a deeper understanding of the civilization.
• 👑 Pharaohs, the rulers of ancient Egypt, were considered divine and their reigns were marked by significant developments in technology, military, and culture.
• 🔄 The civilization experienced periods of unity and fragmentation, with the Old, Middle, and New Kingdoms being the most prominent eras.
• 🌞 Akhenaton, originally Amenhotep IV, introduced a form of monotheism by worshipping the sun god Aten, a significant shift from the traditional polytheistic beliefs.
• 👶 King Tutankhamen, a child pharaoh, gained fame due to the well-preserved state of his tomb, offering valuable insights into the period.
• 🤴 Ramses II, a prominent pharaoh of the New Kingdom, is known for his military campaigns and the Battle of Kadesh, one of the earliest recorded chariot battles.
• 📉 The decline of the New Kingdom led to foreign rule, including the Persians and later the Greeks under the Ptolemaic dynasty, with Cleopatra being one of the last rulers before Egypt became part of the Roman Empire.

Q & A

What is the geographical region that ancient Egypt corresponds to today?

Ancient Egypt corresponds to the modern-day state of Egypt in northeast Africa.

Why is the Nile River significant in the history of Egypt?

The Nile River is significant because it provided a source of fresh water, made the surrounding soil fertile for agriculture, and was the basis for the calendar and seasons of ancient Egypt.

What is the reason behind the naming of a river delta?

A river delta is named so because its branching pattern resembles the shape of the Greek letter delta, especially when seen from satellite images.

How does the term 'Upper Nile' relate to the geographical location of the river?

The 'Upper Nile' is actually south of the 'Lower Nile' because it flows from higher elevations to lower ones, making the southern parts upriver.

When is the earliest evidence of human settlement along the Nile River Valley?

Human settlement along the Nile River Valley is believed to date back as far as 6,000 BCE or even earlier.

What is the approximate time frame for the beginning of ancient Egyptian civilization?

The beginning of ancient Egyptian civilization is formally considered to be around 3,100 to 3,150 BCE, when upper and lower Egypt were first united under a king.

How many kingdoms is the ancient Egyptian civilization divided into?

The ancient Egyptian civilization is divided into three main periods: the Old Kingdom, the Middle Kingdom, and the New Kingdom.

What is the significance of the Rosetta Stone in understanding ancient Egypt?

The Rosetta Stone is significant because it provided a way to decipher Egyptian hieroglyphics by having the same text written in three different languages, including Greek.

Why are the pyramids of the Old Kingdom particularly famous?

The pyramids of the Old Kingdom are famous because they are iconic symbols of ancient Egypt and represent the architectural and engineering achievements of the time.

What was unique about the religious beliefs of Akhenaton, and how did it differ from the norm?

Akhenaton was unique in his religious beliefs because he abandoned the traditional polytheistic religion of Egypt and attempted to establish monotheism, worshipping the sun disc Aten.

Who was Ramses the Second, and why is he notable in the history of ancient Egypt?

Ramses the Second was a pharaoh during the New Kingdom, notable for his long reign and the Battle of Kadesh, which is one of the earliest battles with recorded military tactics and formations.

Outlines

00:00

🌍 Geography and Significance of the Nile River in Ancient Egypt

This paragraph introduces the geographical setting of ancient Egypt, highlighting the Nile River's central role in the region's development. The Nile is described as one of the world's great rivers, comparable in length to the Amazon, and originating from tributaries that flow northward to the Mediterranean Sea. The Nile's delta, shaped like the Greek letter delta, is where the river meets the sea. The Upper Nile, situated south of the Lower Nile, is characterized by higher elevations and is the source of the river's flow. The importance of the Nile is underscored by its contribution to agriculture, which supported early human settlements around 6,000 BCE and enabled the rise of complex societies and the first great civilizations. The Nile's annual flooding was crucial for soil fertility, and its cycles dictated the ancient Egyptian calendar, dividing the year into seasons of inundation, growth, and harvest. The paragraph also notes the beginning of the ancient Egyptian civilization around 3,100 BCE with the unification of upper and lower Egypt under a single king, marking the start of a long-lasting empire.

05:00

🏺 The Old Kingdom and the Wonders of Ancient Egyptian Civilization

The second paragraph delves into the Old Kingdom, known for the construction of the pyramids, which are iconic symbols of ancient Egypt. The Great Pyramid of Giza and the Sphinx were built during this era under the reign of Pharaohs Sneferu and Khufu in the 26th century BCE. The construction methods remain a mystery, with current theories suggesting that it was peasant labor during the agricultural off-season rather than slaves. The paragraph also discusses the importance of deciphering Egyptian hieroglyphs, facilitated by the discovery of the Rosetta Stone in 1799, which allowed historians to translate the ancient texts. This breakthrough provided insights into the stratified society and the lives of the nobility. The Old Kingdom is part of a broader timeline that includes the Middle Kingdom, New Kingdom, and intermediate periods marked by fragmentation and foreign rule.

10:03

👑 The Evolution of Egyptian Monarchy and the Rise of Monotheism

This paragraph explores the evolution of Egyptian monarchy, starting with the term 'pharaoh,' which gained prominence in the New Kingdom. It discusses the Old Kingdom's legacy, particularly the pyramids, and then transitions to the New Kingdom, which represents the peak of Egyptian civilization in terms of technology and military power. Notable pharaohs include Akhenaton, who attempted to shift Egypt from polytheism to monotheism by worshiping the sun disc, Aten, and granting significant power to his wife, Nefertiti. The paragraph also mentions King Tutankhamen, known for his well-preserved tomb and status as a child pharaoh, and Ramses the Second, famous for his military campaigns and the Battle of Kadesh against the Hittites. The narrative concludes with the eventual decline of the New Kingdom and the fragmentation of Egypt, leading to foreign rule by the Kushites, Assyrians, Persians, and eventually the Greeks under the Ptolemaic dynasty, marked by the reign of Cleopatra.

Keywords

💡Nile River

The Nile River is a central geographical feature in both ancient and modern Egypt, serving as a vital source of water and fertility for the region. It is one of the longest rivers in the world, with its delta reaching the Mediterranean Sea. The Nile's annual flooding was essential for agriculture, leading to the emergence of one of the earliest civilizations. In the script, the Nile River is highlighted as the lifeblood of ancient Egypt, shaping its society, economy, and even its calendar.

💡Delta

A delta is a landform that forms from the deposition of sediment carried by a river as the flow leaves its mouth and enters slower-moving or stagnant water. The term originates from the resemblance of the shape to the Greek letter delta. In the script, the Nile Delta is mentioned as the region where the river branches out before reaching the sea, creating fertile land that was crucial for the development of agriculture and human settlement in ancient Egypt.

💡Upper Nile

The Upper Nile refers to the southern part of the Nile River system, which is upstream and at a higher elevation than the Lower Nile. The script explains that the Upper Nile is significant because it flows from higher elevations to lower ones, contributing to the natural flow of the river and the fertility of the land, which was essential for the rise of ancient Egyptian civilization.

💡Agriculture

Agriculture is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock for food, fiber, and other products. The Nile Valley's fertile soil, enriched by the annual floods, was ideal for agriculture. The script emphasizes that the development of agriculture in the Nile Valley allowed for higher population densities, leading to the specialization of labor and the emergence of complex societies, which is a key aspect of the video's theme on the origins of civilization.

💡Pharaoh

A pharaoh was the title of the ancient Egyptian rulers, who held absolute power over the land and its people. The term, though not used until the New Kingdom, is used in the script to refer to the Egyptian kings throughout the video. Pharaohs played a central role in ancient Egyptian civilization, overseeing the construction of monumental structures like the pyramids and maintaining the religious and social order.

💡Pyramids

Pyramids are massive structures built as tombs for pharaohs in ancient Egypt, with the most famous being the Great Pyramid of Giza. The script discusses the construction of the pyramids during the Old Kingdom, highlighting the engineering marvel and the labor involved, which is believed to have been provided by peasants during the agricultural off-season rather than slaves.

💡Hieroglyphics

Hieroglyphics is a system of writing using pictorial symbols, which was used in ancient Egypt. The script mentions the importance of hieroglyphics in understanding ancient Egyptian civilization, as they provide a window into the society's beliefs, practices, and history. The deciphering of hieroglyphics, aided by the Rosetta Stone, allowed historians to piece together the narrative of ancient Egypt.

💡Rosetta Stone

The Rosetta Stone is a granodiorite stele inscribed with a decree issued in 196 BC on behalf of King Ptolemy V. The script describes its significance in the study of ancient Egypt, as it provided the key to deciphering Egyptian hieroglyphs by presenting the same text in three scripts: hieroglyphic, demotic, and ancient Greek. This discovery was instrumental in unlocking the secrets of ancient Egyptian civilization.

💡Akhenaton

Akhenaton, originally Amenhotep IV, was a pharaoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt who is known for his religious reforms, promoting the worship of a single god, Aten, over the traditional pantheon. The script discusses Akhenaton's shift to monotheism, which was a significant departure from the polytheistic beliefs of ancient Egypt and represents a unique moment in the religious history of the civilization.

💡Ramses the Second

Ramses II, also known as Ramesses the Great, was a pharaoh of the Nineteenth Dynasty of Egypt, known for his military campaigns, including the Battle of Kadesh. The script highlights Ramses II as a symbol of the peak of ancient Egyptian military power and as a ruler who left a lasting legacy through his monumental constructions and military tactics.

💡Cleopatra

Cleopatra VII Philopator was the last active ruler of the Ptolemaic Kingdom of Egypt, a Hellenistic kingdom that was a client state of the Roman Republic. The script mentions Cleopatra as a significant historical figure who ruled Egypt and had relationships with Julius Caesar and Mark Antony. Her reign marked the end of an era before Egypt became part of the Roman Empire.

Highlights

Ancient Egypt's geography closely resembles modern-day Egypt, with the Nile River as a central feature.

The Nile River is one of the world's longest rivers, with its delta visible from satellite images.

The Nile's northward flow designates the southern parts as the Upper Nile, contrary to typical upriver-downriver designations.

The Nile's annual flooding made the surrounding soil fertile, leading to early agricultural development.

Human settlements along the Nile River Valley date back to around 6,000 BCE.

Agriculture in the Nile Valley allowed for higher population densities and the development of complex societies.

The Nile's importance to ancient Egyptians is reflected in their calendar, which was based on the river's cycles.

Around 3,100 BCE, the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt marked the beginning of the ancient Egyptian civilization.

Ancient Egyptian civilization is divided into three kingdoms: Old, Middle, and New Kingdom, with intermediate periods of fragmentation.

The Old Kingdom is known for the construction of the pyramids, a testament to the civilization's architectural prowess.

The Rosetta Stone's discovery in 1799 allowed historians to decipher Egyptian hieroglyphics.

Akhenaton's shift to monotheistic worship of Aten represents one of the earliest attempts at monotheism in ancient Egypt.

King Tutankhamen's tomb, discovered in good condition, offers significant insights into ancient Egyptian culture.

Ramses II, known for the Battle of Kadesh, represents the peak of ancient Egypt's military power.

The decline of the New Kingdom led to periods of fragmentation and foreign rule, including by the Persians and Greeks.

Cleopatra, of Greek descent, was the last pharaoh of ancient Egypt before its incorporation into the Roman Empire.

Ancient Egyptian civilization's legacy includes iconic cities like Thebes and Memphis, and significant cultural contributions.

Transcripts

- [Narrator] In this video, we are going to give ourselves

an overview of ancient Egypt,

which corresponds geographically pretty closely

to the modern day state of Egypt in northeast Africa.

Now the central feature in both ancient Egypt

and in modern Egypt is the Nile River

that you see in blue right over here.

And the Nile River is one of the great rivers of the world.

It rivals the Amazon River as the longest river

and it sources the tributaries of the Nile Rover

start even south of this picture

and the water flows northward

and eventually its delta reaches the Mediterranean Sea.

The delta, which is where a river opens into the sea,

is called a delta because, as you can see, these rivers,

you can even see it from

the satellite pictures right over here,

they start branching up a bunch

and you have this upside down triangular region,

which looks a little bit like

an upside down Greek letter delta,

so that's why river delta is called that.

And this one just happens to be upside down.

If it was flowing the other way,

it would be a right-side-up delta.

So the Nile River, it flows from, you could say,

eastern mid-Africa up into the Mediterranean Sea

and because it has this northward flow,

the southern parts of the river are upriver

and they are actually called the Upper Nile.

So, Upper.

The Upper Nile is actually south of the Lower Nile,

of the Lower Nile.

And once again, that's because the Upper Nile is up river,

it's also flowing from higher elevations

to lower elevations.

So as you go south, you get to higher and higher elevations.

Now, the reason why the river is so important,

we studied this multiple times,

rivers are a source of fresh water,

when they flood they make the surrounding soil fertile,

they're suitable for agriculture,

and the Nile Valley is one of the first places

that we see agriculture emerging

during the neolithic period.

In fact, human settlement we believe

was along this Nile River Valley

as far as 6,000 BCE or 8,000 years ago,

and it might have been there even further back in time.

And because you have that agriculture,

it allowed for higher population densities,

which allowed for more specialization of labor

and more complex societies.

It's not a coincidence that some of the first,

that one of the first great civilizations emerged here.

Now, the story of the Nile River, or of Egypt,

and actually they are tied very closely,

even though Egypt is considered a lot of this region,

most of the human population, this is true even today,

is right along the river, around that fertile soil,

where the agriculture actually occurs.

In fact, this was so important to the ancient Egyptians

that their whole calendar, their seasons,

were based on what the Nile River was doing.

They had a season called the inundation,

or the flooding of the river, which makes the soil fertile.

They had a season of growth,

which is now talking about the growth of the crops

and they had a season of harvest.

And so you had people in this valley for thousands of years,

but when we talk about ancient Egypt,

we formally talk about it as a civilization

around 3,100, 3,150 BCE.

And this is where we get to our timeline right over here.

So we're talking about right around there on our timeline

and the reason why this is considered

the beginning of the ancient Egyptian civilization

is this is when we believe

that upper and lower Egypt were first united

under the king and there's different names used,

Narmer sometimes or Menes.

I'm going to mispronounce things

every now and then and I'm probably doing it here as well.

And so he was the king that unified upper and lower Egypt

into an empire and the empire, as we will see,

which lasted thousands of years,

every one of these spaces is a hundred years.

We're gonna go over huge time span,

but the ancient Egyptian civilization is roughly divided

into three kingdoms.

You have the old kingdom, which went from about,

right from about the 27th century BCE

up to about the 17th century BCE.

You have the middle kingdom and you have the new kingdom.

And once again, this is spanning right over here

over a thousand years of history.

And in between those, you have these intermediate periods

where the kingdom or the empire

was a little bit more fragmented.

You have in some of these intermediate periods,

you have some foreign rule.

But just to get a sense of some of what happened

over this thousands of years,

and I'm kind of laughing in my head

because it's hard to cover over two, 3,000 years,

in the course of just a few minutes,

but this will give you a sense of what ancient Egyptian

civilization was all about.

Now the kings are referred to as pharaohs

but as we'll see that term pharaoh is not really used

until we get to the new kingdom.

But I will refer to the kings as pharaohs

throughout this video,

just to say, hey these are the Egyptian kings.

And the old kingdom is probably most known today

in our popular culture for what we most associate

with ancient Egypt and that is the pyramids.

And here, right over here are the pyramids,

there's the Great Pyramid of Giza,

which is near modern-day Cairo today.

This is the Sphinx and they were built in that old period

under the Pharaohs Sneferu and Khufu, right over here

in the 26th century BCE.

And we are still trying to get a better understanding

of how this was done.

We actually now don't believe

that it was done by slave labor,

but instead it was done during, you could say,

the off season by the peasants as a form of taxation.

Okay, you're done planting or harvesting your crops?

Well now that you have some time,

and this shows actually the importance of agriculture

for freeing people up, so to speak,

why don't you help the pharaohs built these massive tombs,

which I've seen various estimates

that it might have taken some place between

10 and 100,000 people several decades to build each.

But these are even today,

these were built over 4,500 years ago,

are some of the most iconic symbols

that humanity has ever created.

And the reason why we know so much about ancient Egypt

is that we have been able to decipher their writing.

It's a symbolic, they have these pictographs,

these hieroglyphics, I'm sure you've heard

of the word before,

and for a while we had no idea what they said.

We would see these encryptions in these tombs

and we had a sense that, okay these tombs,

especially things like the pyramids

would be for these great kings,

we could tell that it was a stratified society,

that nobility had better tombs than others,

but we didn't really have a good sense of what was going on

until we discovered this, which is the Rosetta Stone,

which was discovered in 1799.

The reason why this is so valuable

is it has the same text

written in three different languages.

It has it written in the hieroglyphs

of the ancient Egyptians,

and it has it written in a later script used in Egypt,

called demotic Egyptian, and most importantly,

it has it also written in Greek.

And so historians were able to say,

okay, we can now start to decipher what these symbols mean

because we have a translation of them

and that's why it's one of the first civilizations

where we're able to put the picture together.

And hieroglyphics are one of the first forms of writing.

But let's now go on in our journey

through thousands of years of ancient Egyptian civilization.

Between the old kingdom and the middle kingdom,

you have the first intermediate period

and then you have the middle kingdom

and then you have the Hyksos,

which are Semitic people,

Semitic referring to their language

being of the same family as Semitic languages like Arabic,

or Hebrew, or Aramaic.

But then you have the new kingdom,

and the new kingdom is considered to be the peak

of ancient Egypt.

It's really the height of their technology,

it's the height of their military capability.

And there are several pharaohs that are worthy of note

in the new kingdom.

The first is, he was born Amenhotep

or he was originally known as Amenhotep the Fourth

and then he eventually names himself Akhenaton

and Akhenaton means effective for Aton,

Aton being a significant Egyptian god.

And the reason why he changed his name is he decides

that, okay we have, the Egyptians have this huge

pantheon of gods.

Here is just the sum of them right over here,

this is the god Osiris, often associated with the afterlife

or transition, regeneration, resurrection.

You have the god Amun here and his first name Amenhotep,

it means Amun is satisfied.

What is considered kind of the equivalent of Zeus,

you have the god here Horace,

once again a very significant god

at different times in Egypt,

but what was interesting about Amenhotep the Fourth

or Akhenaton, whichever name you want to use,

is he decided, no, no, no, I don't like this pantheon,

this polytheistic religion that we have,

I wanna worship one god,

and the god that he decides to worship

is really the, you could consider it the sun god,

or the sun disc, and its representation looks

something like this and it was referred to as Aten

and so he changes his name to Akhenaton

and he actually starts to try to get rid of evidence

of these other gods or to make them a lot less important.

And so the reason why that's notable

is this is viewed as perhaps

one of the first attempts at monotheism,

at least within this ancient Egyptian civilization.

He's also noted for giving a lot of power to his wife,

to the queen, Nefertiti,

who some people say was second in command,

or even co-ruled alongside him.

Now he was also famous because after his death,

eventually, his son, King Tut, Tutankhamen, comes to power.

And the reason why King Tut, as he's often known,

although it's Tutankhamen, is known is because

we were able to find his tombs in relatively good order

and so he's become a popular part of the imagination.

And he's known as a child pharaoh.

He comes to power when he's very young,

he dies at 18 and so it's kind of an interesting story.

Now, most prominent amongst all of the pharaohs

across Egyptian history,

and this is also in the new kingdom,

comes a little bit after Tutankhamen,

is Ramses the Second.

And Ramses the Second, who emerges here in the 13th century,

and he rules for most of the 13th century BCE,

he represents really the peak of Egypt, ancient Egypt,

as a military power.

He's famous for the Battle at Kaddish,

which is the earliest battle where we actually know

what the tactics and the formations were

and it was with the also significant Hittite Empire

in 1274 BCE, this is an image drawn much, much later,

of the Battle of Kaddish.

The battle, we now believe,

might have been a bit of a stalemate,

Ramses the Second wasn't able to capture Kaddish,

but has told us a lot about military tactics

and strategy and formation of that time.

Historians today think it might have been the largest

chariot battle maybe ever.

So this was a significant thing that happened.

Now, eventually the new kingdom does collapse,

as we get to the end of the second millennium,

and then over the next several hundreds of years,

we're talking about a very long period of time,

it gets fragmented, you have several rulers,

you have the Kushites rule from the Upper Nile,

the Kushites were in this area right over here.

They rule for a brief period.

The Assyrians, that's a Mesopotamian civilization,

they rule for a small period of time,

and then eventually and we talk about this in some detail

in other videos, you have the Persians take over,

you have Cambyses, Osiris the Great's son,

he's able to rule over, he's able to conquer Egypt

and Egypt becomes part of the Achaemenid Empire for a while

until the conquering of Alexander the Great.

And after Alexander the Great dies,

one of his generals and his dynasty takes over,

Ptolemaic Egypt and now it's being ruled by foreigners,

well it's been ruled by foreigners for a while now,

but now it's by the Greeks

and the famous Cleopatra,

who's considered a pharaoh of Egypt,

she's actually Greek by blood,

she's actually the one that seduced you could say

Julius Cesar and Marc Antony

and after Cleopatra's death, more and more,

actually eventually it becomes part of Rome.

So as you can see we covered this enormous large

time period in history,

one of the most significant civilizations in all of history,

one of the most famous poems about civilizations

and rulers, about Ramses the Second, the poem Ozymandias

was named after him.

You have some of the great cities of the ancient world,

Thebes, which was the capital

during parts of the new kingdom and the middle kingdom,

you have Memphis, which was one of the,

some people say founded by Menes

and the capital of the old kingdom.

These were all happening in ancient Egypt.