Ancient Egypt

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Trade + Contact,After life + Architecture.

Trade and contact

Back in Ancient Egypt, trade started in the predynastic Period. Ancient Egypt started trading with upper and lower Egypt and then started to traded with other countries around the world .For most of Ancient Egypt they traded with the barter system which had no cash.

Ancient Egypt mainly traded grains and crops as they had very fertile soil as the river nile would flood over every year which made the soil very good for growing crops and grain.

They traded many things including wood, grains and crops , metals, minerals, jewellery, craft, textiles, paper, dried fruit and fish. They had many resourceful things in Egypt but also had to do a lot of trade.

The countries that they did trade with are Yemen, Eritrea, Southern Sudan and Somalia. It was mainly countries that were located along the nile river, this made it easy to trade as they could send boats to trade the items.

HOW DID TRADE BENEFIT TO ANCIENT EGYPT AS A SUCCESFUL CIVILISATION

Trading benefited us because it helped us get resources that they couldn’t grow or make in Ancient Egypt. The resources traded with them from other countries were often necessities that were used everyday.

Beliefs and afterlife-

It affected their lives because they weren't as afraid as we are, they didn’t care about dying you would just go to another possibly better place after you die, the word death wasn’t as scary to them as it is to us. It wasn’t all good for them because they believed in the afterlife, for example if the pharaoh died his wife would be killed as well to be in the tomb with him. If you died you would be mummified and taken to the afterlife and if you had a hunting dog the hunting dog will be killed as well so you can have him/her in the afterlife. So, the belief of the afterlife affected their life because it made the ancient Egyptians good people because of what they believed, and they made their life around the afterlife. They changed and did a lot of thing to get into the afterlife, so they change their life to get into the afterlife which caused and effect on their life and the way that acted in their life.

The procedure into the afterlife was very interesting as there were so many challenges the individual had to face and how their life was impacted by this. Before being mummified and organising ceremonies the people of Egypt had to complete good deeds otherwise their heart would not be light enough, this contributes to why Egypt was such a successful civilization because the crime rate was very low. in order for them to do this they would praise their gods and not cheat on their loved ones and always do things without being asked. This is when the mummification took place, it took around 40-70 days to finalise. the priests would remove every organ except for the heart, a sign of intelligence and wisdom, the body is filled with a salt called natron and rapped in resin-soaked linen. the body is wrapped with charms for protection and then it is time for their spirit to face the duat (underworld). the person has to face monsters and lakes of fire. if they survive hat then they head to the hall of mat the goddess of truth and justice, they are judged by 42 assessor gods that must be convinced that they have lived a religious life. now it's the moment of truth where the person has to weigh their heart, it is weighed against a feather, if the heart is heavier it means they have not done good deeds and the heat is eaten by amet and they will be locked up forever. although if your heart does weigh to the feather Ra the sun god takes them to Osiris who gives them final approval to go the afterlife. if you make it to the afterlife you are needed by your deceased parents and it is a place of no sadness, pain or anger.

Architecture

How the pyramids were built

Were first made at least 4,500 years ago

They moved the bricks to each spot by people dragging it up a ramp

As the bricks got higher the ramp grew

Each brick weighed about 2.5 to 15 tons with about 2.3 million bricks and where made mainly out of limestone

Archaeologists have found out in the last 2 decades that it is easier to move bricks that weight with water below it

Once they were made they were polished and casing stone would be put on top

Each pyramid was built to last eternity.

What are the building programs used for

The building programs were a big role in the Egyptian life

The pharaohs would order the builders to make a building for them so that everybody knew that the pharaohs were the most important people

The building programs were funnily enough actually made to place the dead bodies of the pharaohs when they died

They dead bodies would be placed in the tombs and pyramids so that they knew that when they die, no one would steal the precious bodies of the pharaohs

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