Ancient Egypt
History · Key Stage 2 · The School
The gift of the Nile
The Nile flooded at about the same time every year. It left black, rich soil on the banks. The Egyptians called their country Kemet, which means 'the black land'. Because the flood came at about the same time each year, they could plan when to plant. They could feed a large population. During the flood, farmers could not plant. Many were put to work on building instead.
The afterlife
Egyptians believed a person needed their body kept safe in order to live on. That is why they developed MUMMIFICATION, which could take up to seventy days. Many tombs were stocked with food, tools and small models of servants. The pyramids are tombs. They were built by workers who were well fed. People long claimed enslaved people built them, but the evidence is against that. The workers' own villages and bakeries have been excavated. Experts differ on whether the workers were paid or owed their work. Mark Lehner thinks they owed service, as almost everyone in Egypt did.
Reading the writing
Nobody could read hieroglyphs for about 1,400 years. Then the Rosetta Stone was found in 1799. It carried the same order written three times: in hieroglyphs, in demotic and in Greek. Scholars could already read Greek. Champollion used that to crack the system in 1822. One stone with three scripts reopened more than three thousand years of Egyptian voices.
Egyptians also had a moon calendar. Their everyday one had 12 months of 30 days, plus 5 extra days. That makes 365 days. A true year is about a quarter of a day longer. This calendar had no leap day. So it lost one day every four years. The bright star Sirius came back to the dawn sky around when the Nile flood began. Imagine New Year's Day fell on that very morning. After 4 years, the star and New Year's Day were one day apart. After 120 years, 120 divided by 4 is 30, so they were a whole month apart. To come all the way round, the calendar must slip 365 days. Each day takes 4 years, and 365 times 4 is 1,460. So they would meet again only after about 1,460 years. In between, the calendar's flood season only sometimes matched the real flood.