Class on 2/25

• Pharaoh was all powerful, worshiped as a god and intimately connected to the other major Egyptian gods and goddesses. Egyptians relied on a harmony and balance of the universe, which they called “maat”. Pharaohs had multiple wives, and all routes to financial and social success were through the palace. Women could inherit money and land and divorce their husbands, though only a tiny few ever wielded real political power. Gods were often portrayed with animal heads or bodies. Egyptians believed in an afterlife and mummified bodies to preserve them for this post-death journey. All souls would need to justify themselves at the point of death and be either sent to an after-world paradise, or the jaws of a monster. Earliest Egyptian writing formed c. 3100 B.C. and were small pictures known as hieroglyphs. Hieroglyphs represented religious words, or parts of words, and most commonly adorned temples. Hieratic script was a shorthand developed by scribes and priests. Hieratic script was usually written in ink on papyrus, which was made from mashed Nile reeds. Papyrus, the precursor to paper, was stored in scrolls and these scrolls were the books of ancient EgyptEgyptian astronomers created a calendar with 12 months and 365 days to make better sense of the seasonal cycles. Due to their excellent knowledge of human anatomy, Egyptian doctors wrote extensively on health issues and created potions and cures for a number of common ailments. Wooden sailboats were constructed to increase transport ability on the Nile. The pyramids were massive stone tombs, originally covered in marble but the marble was later stripped off during the Muslim conquestStone sculptures and interior painting depicted humans and gods in a series of regulated poses, often in profile and without perspective, but were highly effective