Make-Up Day

   Today in class, Mr. Schick said we get to have a "make-up day" since so many people have been absent due to sickness. We finished reading and taking notes on pages 35-43 in the textbook on ancient Egypt. Here are just a few of the notes I took as I finished reading:

• The pyramids show that Old Kingdom dynasties had developed the economic strength/technological means to support massive public projects, as well as the leadership and government organization to carry them out
• Egyptians believed in an afterlife and that they would be judged for their deeds
• A wealthy or middle-class woman could own/trade property, propose marriage, or seek divorce (if she granted a divorce, she would be entitled to one-third of the couple's property)
• Simple pictographs were the earliest form of writing in Egypt, but scribes quickly developed more flexible writing system- hieroglyphics (meaning "sacred carving)
• A better writing surface than stone/clay = papyrus reeds, which grew in marshy delta
• Egyptian inventions: (1) A calendar to help them keep track of the time between floods and to plan their planting season (using star Sirius/ solar year) (2) A system of written numbers for counting, adding, and subtracting- helped access and collect taxes (scribes used early form of geometry) (3) Egyptian medicine was famous in ancient world. They could check heart rate with a pulse. They invented treatments for wounds/fevers, and did surgery in some cases
• Power of pharaohs declined about 2180 B.C- end of Old Kingdom. Middle Kingdom (2040-1640 B.C.) - improved trade & transport by digging canal from Nile to Red Sea
• 1640 B.C.-group from area of Palestine moved across Isthmus of Suez in Egypt (these people were Hyksos) Hyksos ruled much of Egypt from 1630-1523 B.C.
• (later on comes New Kingdom)