Lexile 530L: Ancient Egypt A ncient Egypt was an important civilization in history. Ancient Egyptian civilization lasted nearly three thousand years. It was a powerful civilization and it is interesting to study. Egyptian Government & Economy Houghton Mifflin Harcourt/HIP A monarch ruled ancient Egypt. This means that one person from a ruling family was in charge of the government. In ancient Egypt, the monarch was called the pharaoh. The pharaoh ruled Egypt s land, resources, and military. Many ancient Egyptians depended on farming. People used grain like money. Workers were paid with grain. Grain was used to trade for other goods and services. Some people used coins to pay for items. Ancient Egypt s economy depended on the Nile River. The Nile flooded often. People predicted its floods. Egyptians were good at predicting the Nile s floods. When they could predict floods, they could control floods. Egyptians used floods to help water crops. Ancient Egypt used the Nile River to water crops. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt/HIP Egyptian Art & Culture The pharoah was an ancient Egyptian monarch like a king. Ancient Egyptians loved hygiene. They took baths. They shaved their bodies. They washed with soap. They wore makeup and perfumes. They wore beautiful clothes. They also made incredible buildings. Ancient Egyptians made pyramids. Pharaohs ordered slaves to build pyramids. The pyramids held tombs where Pharaohs and their families Lexile 530L: Ancient Egypt PAGE 1
would be buried when they died. Egyptians thought that tombs would be their homes in the afterlife. Pharaohs buried in tombs were made into mummies. You may have seen a mummy in a museum or on television. Ancient Egyptians took several steps to mummify a dead body. First, all internal organs were taken out, except the heart. Egyptians believed the heart was the center of thought and feeling. They believed bodies needed the heart in the afterlife. Then they washed the body. Next, bodies were wrapped in cloth. After that, the wrapped bodies were coated with resin, a sticky substance that keeps out water. Then the mummy was put in a coffin. Finally, the coffin was sealed in a stone tomb. The climate in Egypt is dry, so mummies were preserved for thousands of years. out of stone, wood, or clay. Much of ancient Egyptian art was funeral art. Funeral art is buried with someone who dies. Ancient Egyptians believed they could take things they were buried with and use those things in the afterlife. Ancient Egypt also had its own writing. The writing was not made of letters. It was made of pictures and symbols. Ancient Egyptian writing is called hieroglyphs. It is one of the oldest languages. Ancient Egyptians wrote on cloth paper. This paper is papyrus. They painted hieroglyphs on stone. They carved hieroglyphs into stone. Writing was an important part of ancient Egypt. Stone sculptures Art was another big part of ancient Egyptian culture. Ancient Egyptians made sculptures Bilderbuch/Design Pics/Corbis/HIP Hieroglyphs show pictures as writing. Many people are interested in ancient Egypt. People are interested in Egyptian art and in its tombs and mummies. People are interested in the pyramids. You can still see much of Ancient Egyptian artifacts today. You can see its art in museums. Tourists from around the world otrada/fotolia/hip Lexile 530L: Ancient Egypt PAGE 2
visit Egypt. They come to see the Pyramids of Giza. Although ancient Egypt occurred thousands of years ago, parts of it are still with us today. Glossary civilization a society that is well organized and developed hieroglyphs writing made with pictures, not letters hygiene things you do to keep people and things clean to look beautiful or prevent sickness sculptures art made by shaping stone, wood, metal, or other material Lexile 530L: Ancient Egypt PAGE 3
Ancient Greece For more than 2500 years, Ancient Greece has been an important civilization. Its ideas, art, and thinking have changed the way people live today. Greek Ideas and Thinkers Ancient Greece was run by democracy in many places, including Athens. A democracy is a government ruled by the people. If you were a male citizen older than 20 years old, you could take part in the government and vote on laws. Trading for Food Ancient Greece did not have good soil for growing crops. Its economy was based on trade. Ancient Greeks made crafts and traded for other items. People made pottery, tools, and weapons. Ancient Greece did grow some crops. People grew olives which were used to make olive oil. People grew grapes which were made into wine. Buildings made by ancient Greeks. Ancient Greece is known for its philosophers wise people who love learning. Greek thinkers thought it was important to think clearly and use reason. Greek thinkers knew it was important to ask questions and to find answers. Some famous Greek thinkers include Plato, Socrates, and Aristotle. Corbis/HIP Olive oil was valuable in ancient Greece. Greeks traded oil and wine to other countries in the Middle East and Africa. In return, Greeks got other food like meat, cheese, and wheat. Angel Simon/Shutterstock/HIP Lexile 550L: Ancient Greece PAGE 1
Greek Writing and Storytelling Writing was important to ancient Greece. People loved to write poems. They loved to write plays and to tell stories. Some stories help to say why things in the world happen. These stories are called myths. Below are some famous myths. Heracles Heracles was a famous Greek hero. You might know him by his Roman name, Hercules. Heracles was very strong. He went on many adventures called the Labors of Heracles. In his adventures, Heracles captured a boar and a bull. He fought a lion and a nine-headed reptile called a hydra. Heracles adventures made him one of the most famous mythical heroes. Achilles Achilles was another Greek hero. He was a great warrior. He led Greeks into battle against the people known as Trojans. Trojans lived in Troy. Troy was a city in the country we now call Turkey. Achilles was a hero who got angry easily. He was very dangerous when he got mad. He beat Hector, Troy s best fighter. Near the end of the Trojan War, Achilles died. An enemy fighter shot an arrow in his heel. We call that part of our heels the Achilles heel. The term Achilles heel is also a saying to describe someone s weakness. Odysseus Hercules fighting the hydra. Shotfile/Alamy/HIP A third hero of Greek myth is Odysseus. Odysseus was a great fighter, but he was not as powerful as Achilles. He traveled to Troy with Achilles to fight the Trojans. After Achilles died, Odysseus had an idea. He asked soldiers to build a giant wooden horse. Then, the horse was brought to the gates of Troy. The Trojans thought that all the Greeks went home. The Trojans thought that the horse was a gift. The Trojans opened the gates. They let the wooden horse into their city. The horse was not a gift. It was a trap. As the Trojans slept, Greek warriors snuck out the giant horse. They snuck out a secret door. Greek warriors took the Trojans by surprise. Lexile 550L: Ancient Greece PAGE 2
Odysseus had many adventures at sea. He met a Cyclops, a monster with one eye. He also met the Sirens monsters with beautiful voices that would hurt people if they got too close. Finally, Odysseus came home. Have you heard the saying going on an odyssey? An odyssey is a journey that starts at home and ends at home, just like Odysseus trip. Glossary An artistic drawing of the Trojan Horse. Odysseus plan worked. The Greeks won the war. Odysseus sailed a ship home after the war. He had been away from home for 20 years. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt/HIP economy the business of buying, selling, and making things in a society government the group of people who run a country, state, or city myth an old story about gods, brave heroes, magic creatures, or the beginning of the world odyssey a long series of wonderings and adventures that start and end at home Lexile 550L: Ancient Greece PAGE 3
Cell Phones A Phone That Does It All Cell phones are telephones. They let you call people. You can call people from almost anywhere in the world. Cell phones are more than telephones. They are also digital media players. You can listen to music on a cell phone. You can also play games on it. You can watch video a cell phone. Some cell phones let you go on the internet. Early Cell Phones Most people did not have cell phones 25 years ago. They cost too much. They were too big. The first cell phone was made in 1956. It weighed nearly 90 pounds. That s the weight of a large dog. This first cell phone could make calls without wires. But the phone was too heavy to move. Cell phones became smaller in the 1980s. They became mobile. They became lighter. You could easily carry them with you. You could hold these phones in your hand. They were still quite big about the size of a shoe. In the 1990s, cell phones changed again. They became digital. They could hold more information. They could work faster. You could type notes to people. People call these notes text messages. Cell Phones Today and in the Future Today, more than half of American families own cell phones. Many of today s cell phones can do more than older cell phones could. Photodisc/Getty Images/HIP Lexile 400L: Cell Phones PAGE 1
Today s cell phones are much lighter, smaller, and can do more things. One popular part of today s cell phones is the application, or app. People put apps on their phones. An app is software that lets you Shutterstock/HIP play games. Some apps give you directions. Others give shopping tips. What will cell phones be like in the future? Will they work even faster? Will we wear them on our wrists? On our eyeglasses? Will we be able to use them everywhere in the world? One thing is sure: cell phones are here to stay. Glossary application software installed by a cell phone user. Applications can include games or other helpful programs. digital technology that helps devices work faster, store more information, and copy easily. mobile easily movable from place to place. Lexile 400L: Cell Phones PAGE 2
Civilizations & Culture Humans have been around a long time. Scientists think humans have been around for 200,000 years. Humans that are like us have been around for about 50,000 years. For thousands of years, humans hunted for food. They gathered other food they could find. This way of living is called hunting and gathering. Hunters and gatherers lived in small groups and they moved from place to place. About 12,000 years ago, humans made big changes in the way they lived. They grew crops for food. Crops stay in the ground in one place. As a result, people did not have to travel as much. People then created towns and cities. They created civilizations. Civilizations are groups of people who live together over a period of time. What else makes a civilization? Government A government is the way a civilization is run. Some governments are ruled by a monarch a king or queen. Some are run by a small group of people. In some places, people vote for others to run the government. A monarchy is a government ruled by one person. Economy The economy of a civilization is important. An economy is how things are made, bought, sold, and traded. In some places people trade for things they want. For example, people might Shutterstock/HIP Lexile 460L: Civilizations & Culture PAGE 1
trade cattle for grain. Other economies use money. People use coins and paper as money. People use money to pay for goods and services. wrote on paper. Reading and writing help a civilization s government and economy run well. Culture Literacy Civilizations also have writing. Some civilizations have carved writing into stone. Sometimes people wrote on cloth. Other people M. Freeman/PhotoLink/Photodisc/Getty Images/HIP D. Hurst/Alamy/HIP Civilizations have their own culture. Culture is the way people live and what they believe. In some cultures, the mother is the head of a family. In other cultures, the father is the head of the family. Some cultures make many songs. Others make theater. In some cultures, religion is important. A religion is what a group of people believes about life. Crops made a big difference on the way people live. Crops let people stay in one place and let people to worry less about food. Crops freed people to do other things. In some ways, growing crops helped create civilizations in the world. Lexile 460L: Civilizations & Culture PAGE 2