- village communities in the Nile valley united to built large scale irrigation systems
> the control was taken by local elite that used collective labor to built temples and palaces
> elites began to use symbols of royal authority:
    - the crown (white in Upper Egypt, red in the Lower Egypt);
    - the mace

- Hierakonpolis: became one of the royal centers; also one of the first cities of the dead (NECROLOLIS) (city of the living/ city of the dead)
- the unification process came from the north:
Narmer (about 3200 B.C.) conquered Lower Egypt and unified the Nile valley
- unification: > double crown (red & white)
                     > a supreme god: the sun - RA
                     > two sections of the Hierakonpolis necrolpolis

- the early Egyptian state:
    - needed raw materials (copper - from the Sinai Peninsula) (1)
    - created a large bureaucracy divided by districts (NOMES, NOMARCHS)

Pharaohs: compared themselves with gods
                 - pharaoh - means Big House, initially designated the king's house

BUT: if Mesopotamian people concentrated their engineering skills on building temples (ziggurats); Egyptian people concentrated on building palaces and tombs (= places of the dead)

Pyramids ==> first built in Saqqara by Djoser
                ==> the three great pyramids: Khufu (Cheops), Kephren and Mykerinos

* the Sphinx: the earliest period of Egyptian history - represent pharaohs as lions to symbolize their strength;
- the one in GIZA represents pharaoh Kephren

15th century - Tuthmosis III
13th century - Ramses II
==>> great military leaders; led campaigns into Syria, Lebanon, Sudan, Turkey ==> the Egyptian empire ( capital: THEBES)

2. Egyptian society:

- the pharaoh: was considered the economic, social, and religious center of the state; dressed with symbols of the holy animals
                      son of sun god - RA
                      dynasties
- aristocracy - played an important role in bureaucracy
                    -  provided officials for the palace
                    -  gradually became independent           (nomarchs)

- priests  - great power ( highest priest belonged to the royal family)
               - considered servants of the gods

               - severe obligations and food prohibitions

- peasants - lived in well organized villages
                 - economic basis of the empire

- craftsmen - worked for the king's palaces and tombs
                   - had contracts with the state
                   - highly appreciated by pharaos (Ramses II's inscription)

- slaves - originally prisoners or indebtors
             - used for house labor or worked in gold mines

3. Religion:

- various animal gods (polytheistic religion):
    - jackal god (Anubis)
    - crocodile god (Sobek)
    - cow goddess (Hathor)
    - hawk god (Horus)
    - supreme god (Ra), also called AMON

- cult of the dead - mummification

- AMENHOTEP IV (18th Dyn.)
    > major religious reform: - turned from polytheism to monotheism
                                            - cult of Amon is replaced with cult of Aton, the Sun

- changed his name:
    AMENHOTEP -Amon is satisfied to AKHENATON - He who is serviceable to Aton
    - the king was very educated - wrote a poem for Aton

Real motivation:
- diminish the power of the priests ==> Akhenaton's religion did not last beyond his own lifetime
- supported by his wife - Nefertiti
- Akhenaton's young successor, Tutankathon abandoned the cult and changed his name in Tutankhamon (grave discovered in 1922)