Western Civ Blog 7

Today in class we discussed what the kids who were absent last week have to do to catch up. We finished reading about Pyramids on the Nile. We read about the life of Egyptians. They had social classes with kings, queens and royalty at the top, wealthy land owners, government officials, priests, and army commanders below them, merchants and artisans below them, peasant farmers and laborers next, and finally slaves. However, they could move their way up by marriage or success in jobs. Women were treated similar to men and weren't treated unequally like in Sumer. Being able to read and write was required for high positions and was very rare. Then I read about religious beliefs and cultural beliefs. Egyptians were polytheistic and believed in many gods such as Re the sun god, Osiris the god of the dead, and Isis, goddess representing the ideal mother and wife. Egyptians believed in an afterlife, where their hearts would be weighed by Anubis and had to be as light as a feather or the devourer of souls would appear and eat it. They prepared many things for people to have in the afterlife. For example people were mummified and put into tombs or pyramids surrounded by things that they could use in their next life, such as riches, food, organs, etc. After I fi used reading this, I worked on work from another class.