EGYPTIAN CIVILIZATION

For almost 30 centuries—from its unification around 3100 B.C. to its conquest by Alexander the Great in 332 B.C.—ancient Egypt was the preeminent civilization in the Mediterranean world.
Overview
 Egyptian civilization developed along the Nile River in large part because the river’s
annual flooding ensured reliable, rich soil for growing crops.
 The Egyptians kept written records using a writing system known as hieroglyphics.
Some writing was preserved on stone or clay, and some was preserved on papyrus, a
paper-like product made from reed fiber. Papyrus is very fragile, but due to the hot
and dry climate of Egypt, a few papyrus documents have survived.
 Arts and Architecture

 Ancient arts and architectures of Egypt were built of stone.

 As soon as a pharaoh was named, his tomb was being built. The quality of the tomb
depended on the time that a pharaoh ruled. The longer their reign, the fancier their
tomb.
 The art of Egypt reflects every aspect of their lives. Drawings of everyday life,, models of
people and animals, glass figures and containers, jewelry made form gold and semi-
precious stones.
 The drawings show the kind of work the civilians did daily. Their art is very bright using
blue, red, orange and white to make pictures that tell the life of individuals.
 Sculptures were important in Egypt. They were made for kings, queens scribes, animals,
and gods and goddesses.
 They also did pottery which was made of ceramic and clay and were glazed with minerals
used to make beads, pendants and etc.
WRITINGS

 The ancient Egyptian believed that it was important to record and communicate
information about religion and government so they invented writing scripts that could do
that job.
 The most famous kind of writing is called Hieroglyphics.
 The writings were used to preserve beliefs, history, and ideas in temples and tomb walls
on papyrus scrolls. 
SOCIAL CLASSES AND PUBLIC WORKS

 Ancient Egyptians had a complex social hierarchy that divided each family into social classes that they
were given by birth .
 One could not raise their social status by hard work and dedication in this civilization.
 The public works was the works done for the pharaoh.
 Farmers did public work when the weather didn't permit farming. Jobs such as digging canals, building
temples, building palaces, building monuments, building tombs for fallen pharaohs and building
pyramids.
 ART
 A lot of what we know about the Ancient Egyptians comes from their art. From
the many pieces of art they created we can learn things like what they looked
like, what kind of clothes they wore, what jobs they worked, and what they
considered important. 
 The civilization of Ancient Egypt ruled the land of the Nile for over 3000 years.
Surprisingly enough, their art changed little during that time. The original style
of art was first used in 3000 B.C. and the most respected artists continued to
copy these styles for the next 3000 years.
 Much of the artwork created by the Ancient Egyptians had to do with their
religion. They would fill the tombs of the Pharaohs with paintings and
sculptures.
 Much of this artwork was there to help the Pharaohs in the afterlife. Temples
were another popular place for art. The temples often held large statues of
their gods as well as many paintings on the walls.
 Egyptian Sculpture

 The Egyptians are famous for their giant works of sculptures. Some examples of this include the Great Sphinx
of Giza and the statues of Ramses II at the Abu Simbel temples

 Although they are famous for their giant statues, the Egyptians also carved smaller, more ornate sculptures.
They used various materials including alabaster, ivory, limestone, basalt, wood gilded with gold, and
sometimes even solid gold.
 Above is the funerary mask of a pharaoh named Tutankhamen. The expression on his face is the same used
to convey the look of all the pharaohs throughout the history of Egypt.
 The coloring of the collar is made with semiprecious stones and the stripes on the headdress are made with
blue glass. The rest of the mask is made from twenty-four pounds of solid gold!
 Egyptian Painting and Tomb Walls

 In Ancient Egypt the tomb walls of the rich and powerful were often filled with paintings. These paintings
were there to help the person in the afterlife. They often depicted the person buried passing into the
afterlife. They would show scenes of this person happy in the afterlife.

 They mostly used the colors blue, black, red, green, and gold in their paintings.
 A lot of Egyptian art depicted the pharaohs. This was often in a religious sense as the pharaohs were
considered gods.
 Many of the paintings of Ancient Egypt survived for so many thousands of years because of the extremely dry
climate of the area.
 Small carved models were sometimes included inside tombs. These included slaves, animals, boats, and
buildings that the person may need in the afterlife.
 Origin of costumes and textiles

Anthropologists think that there might be two reasons to adopt clothing:

 animal skins and vegetation were adapted as protection from weather conditions.
 As magic, decoration, cult or prestige, and then later found to be practical as means of protection.

 One of the first simpler clothes was tunic which was first made from two pieces of
rectangular animal hide laced together

 The best example of a complete set of prehistoric clothes is that found on Ötzi the
Iceman found in the Alps in 1991, which is 5300 years old

 First material used for clothing that was not leather but
textile was probably felt.
 felt is made by rolling, beating, and pressing animal hair or
flocks of wool into a compact mass of even consistency
and is older than the art of spinning and weaving.
 In China, the discovery and consequent development of
sericulture and spin silk methods got initiated at 2640 BC
 in Egypt the art of spinning linen and weaving developed
in 3400 BC.
 Ancient Greek Clothing

 The garments they wore were made for function, and they were made simply.
 A single piece of fabric could be styled and restyled, to fit a particular occasion or a fashion.
 with Greek summers being brutally hot, the less fabric to deal with, the better.
 used spun in the home heavy wool material, or linen fabric that was imported
 fabric were folded around the body, and pinned together at the side seams and shoulders, as well as
being belted
 bright colors and would have been decorated with ornate patterns.
 tunic chiton was usually worn for horseback riding, work, or exercise.
 A peplos (or peplum) was a type of tunic worn by women.
 made from a heavier wool material, A peplos was worn as a full-
length garment, because a proper Greek woman revealed nothing. 

 In colder weather, Greeks wore a cloak over their tunics for warmth,
known as a himation. This garment was usually made of wool, and was
fashioned from a rectangular piece of cloth that was draped over the
person.
 Ancient Roman Clothing

 Roman clothes were made of wool, spun into cloth by the women of the family.
 Later on the richer people had slaves to do this work for them.
 linen, cotton or silk was imported from other parts of the Empire.
The Toga
 made out of wool and were very large. The material was not sewn or pinned but was
draped around the body and over one arm.
 expensive because of the large amount of material needed
 all citizens wore togas for public events, were even told which color of toga they had to
wear.
The Tunic
 standard dress for all men from slaves to the nobles. belted at the waist or under a toga.
  For those that could afford it tunics could be made of linen or even silk
The Stola
 Stola was something that Roman ladies saw as the “real” dress.
 long dress-like garments, usually with short sleeves
 fastened by the girdle high above the waist.
 sign of a respectable married woman, and it was a privilege to
wear it
The Palla
 Long shawl which any Roman woman would wear while she
went outside. 
 wrapped around a woman’s shoulders and her body, often in a
rather elaborate manner by her servants
 more folds of cloth she had, the wealthier she was

Woman wearing a tunic, and the other one in a stola