Ancient Egyptians and Their Neighbors: An Activity Guide
Time Line Scholars disagree about many dates especially early ones Wherever you see the symbol it means about before a date this is a date disputed by scholars Time periods can go by different names as well Egypt was a single unified kingdom and most schol ars agree on names for the major Egyptian time peri ods like Old Kingdom and New Kingdom But Mesopotamia was a land of many city states and gov ernments that came and went and some scholars like to list all of them You may see Ur III period on some time lines or Isin Larsa Some scholars split Mesopotamia into two regions giving separate time lines for Assyria and Babylonia others combine them as in this one Nubian time lines also differ For example during the Kerma Kingdom other people lived in Nubia who weren't part of that kingdom and some books give them separate names No time line could give all the information about every period in history or we'd never get beyond a single year This time line reflects the way we discuss ancient cultures in this book It's a good starting point for readers who are just getting to know the Egyptians Mesopotamians Nubians and
a A Roo step 19some 1630 Middle Kingdom A Mysos rule Egap 1980 First intermediate Period Early Dynastik period 267 2130 Old Kingdom Period Rod Rise of their lon 1600 defeat 23so 2000 Akkadian and Neo Sumerian Period moon 1 sps Old Babylonian Period Early Dynastik Period 2000 jo20 Egypt dominates parts of Nubia 2900 2300A Group period ie Lower Nubia 2300 1560 C Group period in Lower Nubia Earty Nubian cultures 560 Karma Kingdom period Hinties defeat 1950 17so Assyrian Babylon Trading Colony Period indicates approximately 1750 1450 oid Hittite Kingdom Tos Is OLE A 17s Battle of Qade flin Syria A to Ayala pedes Eypt 52s Pers scorguer Egypt A 404 Egypt drives out IL iss o70 Nene King 1070664 Third Inter Prmediate Period To fund prone 21 Assyrian readers he Do Alexander the Great and Persian Empire Red Assyria dominates Babylon so Assyria invades Egypt S86 533 Babylonian captivity of Jews 599 Persians defeat Babylon 612 539 Babylonian Empire isonio00 Middle Babylonian perio 59 310 Persian Empire 100 12 Assyrian Empire 33o Hellenistic Period 4 65 apatentings Egypt 900 270Napaan Kingdom 270 Meroietik Kingdom 12s taste or Oatest in Syria 12oo mite Empire destroyed some 1200 Hinrite Empire
Introduction ow did the ancient Egyptians live Have you ever wondered In this book you'll learn about life among the Egyptians and their neighbors thou sands of years ago You'll learn to build a model Egyptian step pyramid follow an ancient Mesopotamian recipe dis covered on a clay tablet dress like a Nubian king or queen complete with robe royal shawl earrings and headdress build a model of the oldest known machine for drawing water create a Hittite pendant to wear and much more This book will show you what life was like for Egyp tians and their neighbors people from other cultures who lived nearby The Mesopotamians meh so po TAY me ans Nubians Hittites Syrians Libyans and the peo ple of Ebla Elam Susa and Mari all lived in nearby lands at some point during the time of the ancient Egyptians This book is about the ancient Egyptians and three of their neighbors the Mesopotamians Nubians and Hit tites The ancient Egyptian civilization lasted a remarkably long time more than 3 000 years During this time cul tures arose prospered and died out in neighboring lands and new cultures arose to replace them For example at different times different cultures resided in the land we now call Israel At some point in Egypt s past the Canaanites ka NA nites the Hebrews the Phoenicians foe NEE shuns the Philistines FILL i stines and oth ers called parts of the land of Israel home The Mesopotamians lived in western Asia between the famous Tigris TIE griss and Euphrates you FRAY teez rivers in a country now called Iraq i RACK The Mesopotamians included the Sumerians Babylonians bah bih LOE nee ans Assyrians a SEE ree ans and countless less well known groups Mesopotamia was
powerfully influential Its customs affect us even today You practice Mesopotamian math whenever you tell time Ever wonder why we have 60 minutes in an hour It's because the Mesopotamians counted in 60s They were also the first people to invent writing This book will teach you how to make a model ziggurat ZIG goo rat a towering staircase for the gods like those the Mesopotamians built The Bible story of the Tower of Babel was probably about a Mesopotamian ziggurat The Nubians were people who lived south of Egypt in Africa They traded extensively with Egypt sending gold spices and ostrich eggs in ships traveling north on the Nile They built pyramids modeled on the Egyptians and in later years invented their own alphabet Their language or languages remain a mystery only a few words of one language are understood today Several Egyptian pharaohs were Nubians Nubia though far less powerful than Egypt succeeded in ruling Egypt for 70 years Ancient Egyptians and Their Neighbors will teach you about the first Nubian king to rule Egypt a man named Piye pi YAY who loved horses and built the first pyramid in Nubia You will learn to cook a dish with millet a grain grown in Nubia and make a model Nubian house from clay You also will read about the fierce lion god Apede mak who was worshipped by the Nubians in later years The Hittites lived north of Egypt in the land we now call Turkey or Anatolia Once one of the most powerful cultures in the region they were forgotten for thousands of years until archaeologists began to uncover their ruins and scholars discovered that the mysterious Hittite lan guage was actually a relative of ours You already know one word in Hittite What comes from the sky in the form of rain What flows in rivers in Anatolia and the United States The Hittites called it watar The Hittite kingdom lasted about 500 years Fierce fighters the Hittites conquered vast territories You can read about their religion here they claimed to have a thousand gods and pretend you are a servant lost in their Great Temple And you can copy an ancient sentence in actual Hittite writing
