Egypt under the Pharaohs

EGYPT UNDER THE PHARAOHS

Nearly 2,500 years ago, the Greek historian Herodotus wrote, “Concerning Egypt itself I shall extend my remarks to a great length, because there is no country that possesses so many wonders, nor any that has such a number of works that defy description.” The backbone of Egypt is:

• the Nile River
• annual floods supports all life there.
• Defined the cultures that developed along its banks.

The Nile

• Originates deep in Africa
• world’s longest river
• flows through areas that may not receive a single drop of rainfall in more then 10 years.
• Crops thrive from the rich soil around the Nile.

In the time of the pharaohs

• the land bordering the Nile was made of marshes and tiny islands.
• The Egyptians hunted the animals that lived in the marshes.

Until the late 18th century

• People thought the Egyptian writing and sculptures were of the occult
• Could only be unlocked by those who knew magic.
• Knew something of Egypt’s history from the Old Testament
• Greco-Roman authors.

Predynastic and Early Dynastic Periods, ca. 3500– 2575 BCE

The unification of Upper and Lower Egypt into a single kingdom occurred around 3000– 2920 BCE.The event was commemorated on the earliest preserved work of narrative art, the palette of King Narmer, which also established the basic principles of Egyptian representational art for 3,000 years.Imhotep, the first artist in history whose name is known, established the tradition of monumental stone architecture in Egypt in the funerary complex and Stepped Pyramid he built for King Djoser (r. 2630– 2611 BCE) at Saqqara.

Old Kingdom, ca. 2575– 2134 BCE 

The Old Kingdom was the first golden age of Egyptian art and architecture, the time when three pharaohs of the Fourth Dynasty erected the Great Pyramids at Gizeh, the oldest of the Seven Wonders of the ancient world. The pyramids were emblems of the sun on whose rays the pharaohs ascended to the heavens after their death.Old Kingdom sculptors created seated and standing statuary types in which all movement was suppressed in order to express the eternal nature of pharaonic kingship. These types would dominate Egyptian art for 2,000 years.

Middle Kingdom, ca. 2040– 1640 BCE

After an intermediate period of civil war, Mentuhotep II (r. 2050– 1998 BCE) reestablished central rule and founded the Middle Kingdom.The major artistic innovation of this period was the rock- cut tomb in which both the facade and interior chambers were hewn out of the living rock. The fluted columns in Middle Kingdom tombs closely resemble the columns later used in Greek temples.

New Kingdom, ca. 1550– 1070 BCE

During the New Kingdom, Egypt extended its borders to the Euphrates River in the east and deep into Nubia in the south.The most significant architectural innovation of this period was the axially planned pylon temple incorporating an immense gateway, columnar courtyards, and a hypostyle hall with clerestory windows.Powerful pharaohs such as Hatshepsut ( r. 1473– 1458 BCE) and Ramses II (r. 1290– 1224 BCE) erected gigantic temples in honor of their patron gods and, after their deaths, for their own worship.

Akhenaton (r. 1353– 1335 BCE) abandoned the traditional Egyptian religion in favor of Aton, the sun disk, and initiated a short- lived artistic revolution in which undulating curves and anecdotal content replaced the cubic forms and impassive stillness of earlier Egyptian art.

First Millenium BCE

After the demise of the New Kingdom, Egypt’s power in the ancient world declined and it came under the control of foreigners, such as the Kushite kings of Nubia and, after 332 BCE, Alexander the Great and his Greek successors. In 30 BCE, Egypt became a province of the Roman Empire.

The traditional forms of Egyptian art and architecture lived on even under foreign rule—for example, in the pylon temple erected at Edfu in honor of Horus.

Rosetta Stone

• Created in 196 BC
• Discovered by the French in 1799 at Rosetta
• harbor on the Mediterranean coast in Egypt
• Translated in 1822.

In 1799

• Napoleon Bonaparte
• on a military expedition to Egypt
• took with him a small troop of scholars, linguists, antiquarians, and artists.

The Stone is 45.04 in. high, 28.5 in. wide, 10.9 in. thick.

Weighs 1,676 pounds

Language was a mystery until the Rosetta Stone was discovered.

• Stone contained the same text in three different languages; Greek, and two types of hieroglyphics.
• Scholars knew Greek
• Were able to use it to understand Egyptian writing.

The Rosetta Stone is a stele written with the same passage of writing in two Egyptian language scripts (hieroglyphic and demotic) and in Greek.

The text of the Rosetta Stone is a statement from Ptolemy V

• Describes the repeal of taxes and instructions to build statues in temples.

This was the key to deciphering Egyptian hieroglyphic writing.

PALETTE OF KING NARMEREarliest preserved historical reliefsNarmer

• Largest figure
• Defeats an enemy on one side
• On the other side, he’s looking at a beheaded enemy.
• Image and name appear on both sides.
• Records the unification of the two kingdoms.
• It’s believed this unification occurred over several centuries

Used to prepare eye makeup.

• Egyptians used makeup to protect their eyes from the glare of the sun.

At the top of each side of the palette

• two heads of a cow with a woman’s face
• identified as the goddess Hathor, sometimes as the sky goddess Bat.

Between the two heads

• Hieroglyph giving Narmer’s name (catfish = nar; chisel = mer) within a frame representing the royal palace
• This is the earliest labeled work of historical art.

On the back of the palette

• the king, wearing the high, white, bowling-pin–shaped crown of Upper Egypt
• Behind him is an official who carries his sandals
• King is slaying an enemy.

Above and to the right

• Falcon with human arms is Horus, the king’s protector.
• The falcon god takes captive a man-headed hieroglyph with a papyrus plant growing from it
• Stands for the land of Lower Egypt.

Below the king are two fallen enemies.

On the front of the palette

• the long necks of two cats form a circular depression
• would have held eye makeup.

In the top register

• King Narmer, wearing the red crown of Lower Egypt
• looks at the beheaded bodies of the enemy.

Lowest band

• King’s strength is symbolized in the by a bull knocking down a city
• walls of the city are seen in an “aerial view.”

Narmer

• profile views of his head, legs, and arms
• front views of his eye and torso

The Narmer Palette

The monuments the Egyptians created were dedicated to safety and happiness in the next life. Early Egyptian tombs were called mastabas

• Arabic for “bench”
• rectangular brick or stone structure
• sloping sides built over an underground burial chamber.
• Extra rooms to house a portrait statue and offerings to the dead.
• Scenes of daily life were painted on the walls.

Mastabas originally held single burials

• later held multiple families.

Had a burial chamber itself and also a chapel

• The chapel had a false door
• Through the door the ka could join the world of the living
• Could eat the meals placed on the offering table.
• Some mastabas also had a small room with a statue of the dead.

IMHOTEP AND DJOSER

IMHOTEP

• builder for King Djoser (r. 2630– 2611 BCE) of the Third Dynasty.
• served also as the pharaoh’s chancellor and high priest of the sun god.
• Egyptians thought of Imhotep as a god after he died
• Exaggerated his achievements
• His name is the first recorded name of an artist in history.

Built before 2600 BCE

• one of the oldest stone structures in Egypt.
• Begun as a large mastaba
• each of its faces oriented N, E, S and W
• was enlarged at least twice before taking on its final shape.

Djoser’s pyramid is a tomb

• Ziggurats on the other hand were temples
• Built to protect the mummified king and his possessions
• Symbolized his absolute and godlike power.

Beneath the pyramid

• Network of several hundred underground rooms and galleries cut out of the rock.
• The large underground rooms resembled a palace.
• This was to be Djoser’s new home in the afterlife.

 

The earliest known stone columns are in Djoser’s funeral area.

North Palace face

• columns are engaged (attached) to the walls
• The columns end in capitals (“heads”) that take the form of the papyrus blossoms of Lower Egypt.

Djoser’s funerary temple

• one of many buildings arranged around several courts.
• Most of the others were fake structures with stone walls around piles of rubble, sand, or gravel.
• The stone carvings are meant to look like plants.

The Egyptian practice of mummification endured for thousands of years, even under Greek and Roman rule.The care with which the Egyptians laid the dead to rest in the Bahariya cemetery varied markedly with the social position and wealth of the deceased. The bodies of the poorer members of the community were carelessly wrapped in linen and have almost com-pletely decayed. The 60 most elaborate mummies, probably those of successful merchants and their families, have gilded stucco masks. Some also have gilded chest plates with reliefs depicting Egyptian deities, including Thoth holding Maat’s feather. Others have painted decoration, and some have eyes of white marble with black obsidian irises and copper eye-lashes. The excavators believe the cemetery was still in use as late as the fourth or fifth century CE.Preserving the deceased’s body by mummification was only the first requirement for immortality in ancient Egypt. Food and drink also had to be provided, as did clothing, utensils, and furniture. Nothing that had been enjoyed on earth was to be lacking.Statuettes called ushabtis (answerers) also were placed in the tomb. These figurines performed any labor required of the deceased in the afterlife, answering whenever his or her name was called.Beginning in the third millennium BCE, the Egyptians also set up statues of the dead in their tombs. The statues were meant to guarantee the permanence of the person’s identity by providing substitute dwelling places for the ka in case the mummy disintegrated. Wall paintings and reliefs recorded the recurring round of human activities. The Egyptians hoped and expected that the images and inven-tory of life, collected within the protective stone walls of the tomb, would ensure immortality.

Mummification and Immortality

The Egyptians did not make the sharp distinction between body and soul that is basic to many religions.

Rather, they believed that from birth a person was accompanied by a kind of other self, the ka (life force), which, on the death of the body, could inhabit the corpse and live on.

For the ka to live securely, however, the body had to remain as nearly intact as possible.

To ensure that it did, the Egyptians developed the technique of embalming (mummification) to a high art.

The first step in the 70-day process was the surgical removal of the lungs, liver, stomach, and intestines through an incision in the left flank.

The Egyptians thought these organs were most subject to decay.

The organs were individually wrapped and placed in four containers known as canopic jars for eventual deposit in the burial chamber with the corpse.

The brain was extracted through the nostrils and discarded.

The Egyptians did not attach any special significance to the brain. But they left in place the heart, necessary for life and regarded as the seat of intelligence.

Next, the body was treated for 40 days with natron, a naturally occurring salt compound that dehydrated the body.

Then the corpse was filled with resin-soaked linens, and the embalming incision was closed and covered with a representation of the wedjat eye of Horus, a powerful amulet (a device to ward off evil and promote rebirth).

Finally, the body was treated with lotions and resins and then wrapped tightly with hundreds of yards of linen bandages to maintain its shape.

The Egyptians often placed other amulets within the bandages or on the corpse. The most important were heart scarabs ( gems in the shape of beetles).

Spells written on them ensured that the heart would be returned to its owner if it were ever lost.

A scroll copy of the Book of the Dead frequently was placed between the legs of the de-ceased.

It contained some 200 spells intended to protect the mummy and the ka in the afterlife. The mummies of the wealthy had their faces covered with funerary masks.

THE OLD KINGDOM

• First of the three periods of Egyptian history
• Called the Old, Middle, and New Kingdoms.
• Began with the first pharaoh of the Fourth Dynasty, Sneferu (r. 2575– 2551 BCE).
• Ended with the end of the Eighth Dynasty around 2134 BCE.

GREAT PYRAMIDS, GIZEH 

• The three pyramids of Gizeh were built over 75 years
• Were used as the tombs of the Fourth Dynasty pharaohs
• Khufu (r. 2551– 2528 BCE)
• Khafre ( r. 2520– 2494 BCE)
• Menkaure ( r. 2490– 2472 BCE).

Evolution of the mastaba.

• Symbols of the sun.
• Pyramids took the shape of the ben-ben, the emblem of the sun, Re.
• Text inscribed on the burial chamber walls refer to the sun’s rays as the ramp the pharaoh uses to go up to the heavens.

Djoser’s Pyramid  may also have been built as a giant stairway.

• The pyramids were a place where the pharaohs were reborn into the afterlife
• Corners line up with the compass
• The funerary temples sit on the east side
• Face the rising sun.

Mastered building with stone masonry

• Were able to motivate, direct, house, and feed a huge workforce.

First step was to dig stone.

• Teams of workers had to cut rock into large blocks of equal size
• used stone or copper chisels
• wooden mallets and wedges.

After workers liberated the stones, the rough blocks had to be transported to the building site and dressed (shaped to the exact dimensions required, with smooth faces for a perfect fit).

Small blocks could be carried on a man’s shoulders or on the back of a donkey, but the massive blocks used to construct the Great Pyramids were moved using wooden rollers and sleds.

The artisans dressed the blocks by chiseling and pounding the surfaces and, in the last stage, by rubbing and grinding the surfaces with fine polishing stones.

To set the blocks in place, workers erected great rubble ramps against the core of the pyramid.

Their size and slope were adjusted as work progressed and the tomb grew in height.

Scholars debate whether the Egyptians used simple linear ramps inclined at a right angle to one face of the pyramid or zigzag or spiral ramps akin to staircases.

Linear ramps would have had the advantage of simplicity and would have left three sides of the pyramid unobstructed.

But zigzag ramps placed against one side of the structure or spiral ramps winding around the pyramid would have greatly reduced the slope of the incline and would have made the dragging of the blocks easier.

The Egyptians used ropes, pulleys, and levers both to lift and to lower the stones, guiding each block into its designated place.

Finally, the pyramid received a casing of white limestone blocks, cut so precisely that the eye could scarcely detect the joints.

The reflection of sunlight on the facing would have been dazzling, underscoring the pyramid’s solar symbolism.

Of the three Fourth Dynasty pyramids at Gizeh, the tomb of Khufu is the oldest and largest.

Except for the galleries and burial chamber, it is an almost solid mass of lime-stone masonry.

Some dimensions will suggest the immensity of the Gizeh pyramids: At the base, the length of one side of Khufu’s tomb is approximately 775 feet, and its area is some 13 acres.

Its present height is about 450 feet (originally 480 feet).

The structure contains roughly 2.3 million blocks of stone, each weighing an average of 2.5 tons.

Some of the stones at the base weigh about 15 tons.

Napoleon’s scholars calculated that the blocks in the three Great Pyramids were sufficient to build a wall 1 foot wide and 10 feet high around France.

The Great Pyramids were not isolated tombs

The complex included

• the pyramid itself with the pharaoh’s burial chamber;
• the mortuary temple next to the pyramid on the east side,
• where offerings were made to the dead king
• ceremonies performed
• cloth, food, and ceremonial vessels stored

Had a raised road with a roof leading to the mortuary temple

GREAT SPHINX

• Carved out of the stone quarry
• Largest statue in the Near East.
• Associated with the sun god
• Joins the body of a lion with the head of a pharaoh.

Originally had a beard and uraeus headdress.

• Representation of a sacred serpent
• Emblem of supreme power

Combination of human intelligence with the strength of a lion.

Panoramic flyover of the Pyramids at Giza (Fast internet recommended)

When viewing these sculptures, ply special attention to how realistic the figures are and the figure’s posture.  These Kings and Queens were considered both mortal and immortal gods.  Being that they were viewed as gods, they had no blemishes and perfect bodies.  They believed that their ka, their spirit, would inhabit these bodies in the afterlife.  Think about it, if you could pick the body you’d have in the afterlife…you’d want one as perfect as possible.  Another feature to note, the more realistic the figure, the lower they were in terms of social status.  Scribes and workers were depicted with flaws, bellies, scars etc to show that they were not gods.

Sculpture 

• Many sculptures have been found because they were seen as homes for the ka.
• Egyptian sculptors used wood, clay, and other materials for those that were not royal or noble
• The main material for funeral statues was stone.

KHAFRE ENTHRONED

• Depicts Khafre as a divine ruler with a perfect body.
• The pose is ridged
• Made from diorite
• Very hard dark stone
• Brought from over 400 miles away
• Shipped on the Nile river.

Khafre

• wears a kilt
• sits upright
• on a throne made of two stylized lions’ bodies.
• Lotus and papyrus plants between the throne’s legs.
• symbolic of the unified Egypt

The falcon-god Horus uses his wings to protect the pharaoh’s head.

• Has the royal false beard fastened to his chin
• Wears the royal linen nemes headdress with the uraeus cobra of kingship on the front.
• The headdress covers his forehead and falls in folds over his shoulders.
• Has a muscular, flawless body and a perfect face.

MENKAURE AND KHAMERERNEBTY (Ka-MAIR-air-neb-tee)

• Double portrait of Menkaure and his wife
• conventional posture used for statues designed as homes for the ka.
• Their position means the man and woman are married.
• Hands are clenched into fists with the thumbs forward.
• Left leg is slightly advanced
• Hips are straight

Khamerernebty stands in a similar position.

• Her right arm wraps around the king’s waist
• Left hand gently rests on his left arm.

Show no signs of affection or emotion.

SEATED SCRIBE

• People who were not kings or queens were portrayed realistically
• showed age and flaws.
• Most Egyptian statues were painted.
• Color makes the man appear lifelike.
• The scribe sits directly on the ground
• Sagging chest muscles and a protruding belly.

The less important a person is, the more realistic and relaxed their portraits are. 

TOMB OF TI, SAQQARAA

• a successful hunt was a metaphor for triumph over evil.
• Hunters are spearing hippopotami.
• Ti’s size reflects his high rank.

In Old Kingdom tombs

• Images of the dead appear in relief sculpture and in mural painting
• sometimes alone and sometimes in a story.

Images of agriculture and hunting fill Ti’s tomb.

• These activities were associated with the provisioning of the ka in the hereafter.

On one wall, Ti, his men, and his boats move slowly through the marshes, hunting hippopotami and birds in a dense growth of towering papyrus.

• The sculptor delineated the reedy stems of the plants with repeated fine grooves that fan out gracefully at the top into a commotion of frightened birds and stalking foxes.
• Water is crowded with hippopotami and fish.

Artists first drew a grid on the wall.

• Placed body parts at specific points on the grid.
• The height of a figure was a fixed number of squares
• The head, shoulders, waist, knees, and other parts of the body had a predetermined size.

On another wall of Ti’s mastaba

• Two registers goats walking on seeds
• Cows cross a canal in the Nile.
• The crossing of the Nile was a metaphor for the dead’s passage from this life to the afterlife
• Conventional and unconventional poses (look at the figure in the bottom right)
• Ti is not in this scene.
• A youth carries a calf on his back.
• The calf looks back at his mother, who looks up at him.

THE MIDDLE KINGDOM

• About 2150 BCE
• Egyptians challenged the pharaohs’ power
• For more than 100 years, the people were at war.

In 2040 BCE

• The pharaoh of Upper Egypt, Mentuhotep II (r. 2050– 1998 BCE), united Egypt under the rule of a single king
• Established the Middle Kingdom (11th to 14th Dynasties).

SENUSRET III (r. 1878– 1859 BCE)

• One of Mentuhotep II’s successors
• Fought four brutal military campaigns in Nubia.

Most Middle Kingdom sculptors used the conventions established during the Old Kingdom

• there were some innovations.

The portraits of Senusret III

• Unprecedented realism.
• The king’s expression reflects the dominant mood of the time
• Contrasts with the faces of Old Kingdom pharaohs.

Egyptian armies devastated the land and poisoned the wells

• Senusret III never fully achieved secure control over the Nubians.
• In Egypt he sought to establish a more powerful central government.

Strong mouth

• Drooping lines around the nose and eyes
• Shadows around the brows

Architecture

• Senusret III’s tomb is a mud-brick pyramid, but their were also many rock-cut tombs.
• Became popular during the Middle Kingdom
• Mostly replaced the mastaba as the standard Egyptian tomb.

BENI HASAN

Some of the best-preserved Middle Kingdom tombs are at Beni Hasan. (check out the map above)

Tomb of Amenemhet

• Hollowed out of the cliffs
• Often have a shallow porch with columns
• leads into a columned hall and burial chamber.
• The column shafts are fluted similar to later Greek columns
• The Greeks would later copy these columns for their own

It’s thought that this idea for fluted columns came about when Egyptians were cutting the bark off wood with an axe with a rounded tip.

Artists decorated the tomb walls with paintings and painted reliefs

Placed statues of the dead in niches.

The columns in the hall serve no supporting function

• Part of the rock.
• Note the broken column in the rear suspended from the ceiling like a stalactite.

THE NEW KINGDOM

• The Middle Kingdom disintegrated
• Power passed to the Hyksos, or shepherd kings
• Came to Egypt from Syria and Mesopotamia.

Brought with them a new and influential culture

• Also brought horses
• Innovations in weapons and war techniques
• They shared their inventions, which would later be used against them by the native Egyptians around 1600– 1550 BCE.

Ahmose I (r. 1550– 1525 BCE),

• Conquerored the Hyksos
• First king of the 18th Dynasty
• Beginnings of the New Kingdom.
• Egypt extended its borders by conquest from the Euphrates River in the east deep into Nubia to the south.

A new capital

• Thebes, in Upper Egypt
• became a great metropolis with palaces, tombs, and temples along both banks of the Nile.

Architecture

• Most impressive monuments of the New Kingdom are its temples
• Often built to honor pharaohs and queens as well as gods.
• Provided the rulers with a place for worshiping their patron gods
• Served as temples in their own honor after their death.

TEMPLE OF HATSHEPSUT

• Honored the female pharaoh Hatshepsut
• One of the most remarkable women of the ancient world.
• The first great female monarch whose name is recorded.
• Painted reliefs tell of her divine birth and achievements.

Some have attributed the temple to SENMUT

• Hatshepsut’s chancellor and possible lover
• HIs name is written in two inscriptions as royal architect.

Temple

• Has three terraces connected by ramps on the central axis. (different from ziggurats)
• Matches its surroundings

The pillars

• Are either rectangular or chamfered (beveled, or flattened at the edges) into 16 sides
• Well proportioned and spaced evenly.

The terraces

• were not the barren places like they are now
• Had gardens with frankincense trees and rare plants.

The reliefs

• Show great deeds
• Hatshepsut’s coronation (crowning of a servant) and divine birth.
• Was said to be the daughter of the god Amen-Re
• Sanctuary was on the temple’s top level.

In 1479 BCE

• Thutmose II died.
• His principal wife (and half sister), Queen Hatshepsut, had not given birth to any sons who survived,
• Title of king went to Thutmose III, son of Thutmose II by one of his minor wives.
• Hatshepsut was named guardian for the boy-king.

Within a few years the queen proclaimed herself pharaoh

• Insisted that her father Thutmose I had chosen her as his successor.

One of the reliefs in Hatshepsut’s funerary building shows Thutmose I crowning his daughter as king in the presence of the Egyptian gods.

• Hatshepsut bragged about making the “Two Lands to labor with bowed back” for her
• For 20 years she ruled what was the most powerful and prosperous empire in the world.

Hatshepsut commissioned numerous building projects

• Sculptors made many portraits of the female pharaoh.

Thutmose III would eventually order Hatshepsut’s portraits destroyed.

• No one is really sure why

In the surviving portraits

• Hatshepsut wears the costume of the male pharaohs
• Royal headdress and kilt
• In some cases even a false ceremonial beard.
• Many inscriptions refer to Hatshepsut as “His Majesty”!

In other statues

• Hatshepsut has delicate features
• Slender body and breasts, making her look like a woman.

HATSHEPSUT’S PORTRAITS

• As many as 200 statues in the round depicting Hatshepsut
• On the lowest terrace, on either side of the walkway, Hatshepsut appeared as a sphinx.
• On the top level, sculptors made the female pharaoh standing or seated or in the form of a mummy.
• At least eight huge kneeling statues in red granite lined the way to the entrance of the Amen-Re sanctuary.

This piece was smashed and thrown in a dump

• Has been reassembled.

Hatshepsut holds a round offering jar in each hand

• Takes part in a ritual in honor of the sun god.
• A king kneeled only before a god, never a mortal.
• Wears the royal male nemes headdress and the pharaoh’s ceremonial beard.
• Anatomically is a male.
• The male imagery is consistent with the queen’s belief she was king
• Many inscriptions address her as a man.

Hatshepsut

TEMPLE OF RAMSES II

• A dam was being built nearby, and the temples original location is where they needed to build the reservoir
• In 1968, engineers moved the Nubian temple nearly 700 feet to save it.

The pharaoh, proud of his many campaigns to restore the empire,

• Had four sculptures of himself cut from stone on the front of his mortuary temple in Nubia.
• The portraits are 65 feet tall, even though the pharaoh is seated.

Ramses was Egypt’s last great warrior pharaoh

• Ruled for over 60 years
• Life expectancy was only 40 years.

Inside Ramses II’s mortuary temple are 32-foot-tall figures of the pharaoh in dressed as Osiris

• Made to be part of the pillars.
• The distance from the front to the back wall is 206 feet.
• The pillars don’t actually support the walls, they are just decoration.
• Resemble the columns in the tombs at Beni Hasan.

These statue-columns appear throughout the history of art.

• male (atlantid)
• female (caryatid)

FAMILY OF RAMSES

• Ramses had many wives and numerous sons.
• Honored the most important members of his family with monuments of their own.

For his wife

• North of his own temple
• Ramses ordered the construction of a grand temple for his principal wife, Nefertari.
• Created four sculptures of the king and two of the queen
• Placed on the front of the temple

For his sons

• Constructed a huge underground tomb complex in the Valley of the Kings at Thebes.
• The tomb was looted within 50 years of its construction
• Discovered in 1987
• Have yet to find the royal burial chambers
• May still have important artifacts.

Ramses II

TEMPLE OF AMEN-RE, KARNAK

• Contains an artificial lake
• associated with the Egyptian creation story

Buildings built to honor one or more of the gods

• Different from the temples honoring pharaohs and queens.
• Kings often added to them until they were incredibly large.

Temple of Amen-Re

• Largely the work of the 18th Dynasty pharaohs
• Thutmose I and III and Hatshepsut
• Ramses II and others also contributed sections.
• Chapels were added to the complex as late as the 26th Dynasty.

Dynasties were the life of one king or a bloodline

The New Kingdom temples all had similar plans.

• Pylon temple
• Name come from the simple and massive gate-ways, or pylons, with sloping walls)
• bilateral symmetry
• Walkway through a colonnaded court (court with columns) and hall into a dimly lit sanctuary.
• Only the pharaohs and the priests could enter the sanctuary.
• A chosen few were allowed into the columned hall.
• Most people were allowed only as far as the open court
• A high wall shut off the site from the outside world.

Amen-Re temple

• Hypostyle hall is a roof supported by columns
• The tallest are 66 feet high and have capitals that are 22 feet in diameter.
• The columns support a roof of stone slabs carried on lintels.

The two central rows of columns are taller than the rest.

• Raising the roof’s center section created a clerestory (raised section of roof)
• Allowed light come in through windows.
• Stone grilles on the windows would have blocked much of the light
• Any type of lighting had to be planned with the building
• The columns have bell-shaped capitals resembling lotus or papyrus.

Used no cement

• Everything was precisely cut
• Columns are covered with painted relief sculptures.
• The sculptors chiseled deep outlines into the stone
• Weren’t like regular reliefs that would have been carved out.
• This would have made a the columns look wavy.
• The columns were meant to tell stories

SENMUT AND NEFRURA

• Believed that the ka could find an eternal home in the stone image of the dead
• The features of the King have been very simplified
• Hatshepsut’s chancellor holds the queen’s daughter in his lap and wraps his cloak around her.

In the statue of Senmut and Princess Nefrura

• Concentrates attention on the heads
• Treats the two bodies as a single block
• Covered with inscriptions.

Was meant to enhance Senmut’s position through his association with the princess

• He was her tutor and therefore with Hatshepsut herself.

TOMB OF NEBAMUN

• Some of the best-preserved mural paintings of the New Kingdom come from the Theban tomb of Nebamun
• Official title was “scribe and counter of grain.”

Nebamun’s wife and daughter — depicted smaller than the dead King— go with him on his hunt for birds.

• The painter depicted Nebamun standing in his boat, flushing birds from a papyrus swamp.
• The text beneath his left arm says that Nebamun is enjoying recreation in his eternal afterlife.
• In his right hand, he holds three birds he has caught.
• A wild cat, standing on a papyrus stem just in front of him
• Has caught two birds in its claws
• Holding another in its teeth.

Nebamun’s wife and daughter hold the lotuses they have gathered.

The painting technique is fresco secco (dry fresco)

• artists let the plaster dry before painting on it.
• Permitted slower and more meticulous work

Buon Fresco (was not invented until much later)

• painting on wet plaster
• had to be completed before the plaster dried.

Fresco secco

• not as durable as true fresco painting
• colors do not fuse with the wall surface.

Another fresco fragment from Nebamun’s tomb

• Shows four noblewomen watching and participating in a musical and dance
• two almost nude dancing girls perform at a banquet.

When Nebamun was buried

• His family would have eaten a ceremonial meal at the tomb.
• They would have returned one day each year to have a commemorative banquet for the living to commune with the dead.
• This fresco represents one of these funerary feasts
• Wine jars at the right.

New Kingdom artists did not always use the old standards for creating figures. 

• Painter carefully illustrated the dancers’ overlapping figures
• their facing are in opposite directions
• Their bodies overlap each other

The painter still used the composite view for his family.

• Of the four seated women
• The artist represented the two at the left conventionally
• The other two face the observer
• This front pose was almost never used

They clap and beat time to the dance

• one of them plays a reed.

The painter took careful note of the soles of their feet

• Suggested the movement of the women’s heads by their hair.

The family is obviously very wealthy

• good food and drink
• musicians, dancers, and leisure time to hunt and fish.

Hunting scenes reminded Egyptians of Horus, the son of Osiris

• Osiris hunted down his father’s murderer, Seth, the god of disorder.
• Good hunts were metaphors for beating death and disorder.

Music and dance were sacred to Hathor

• Aided the dead in their passage to the other world.
• The almost nude women at the banquet are a reference to fertility, rebirth, and regeneration.

Akhenaton and the Amarna Period 

• Nebamun was buried in his tomb at Thebes
• Revolution occurs in Egyptian society and religion.

In the mid-14th century BCE

• Pharaoh Amenhotep IV, later known as Akhenaton (r. 1353– 1335 BCE)
• Abandoned the worship of most of the Egyptian gods
• Favored one god, Aton (switch from polytheism to monotheism)
• Identified with the sun disk
• Declared to be the universal and only god.

Akhenaton started a religious revolution

• His art is also a deliberate reaction against tradition.
• The sculptures of himself were androgynous
• May be an attempt to portray the pharaoh as Aton, the sexless sun disk.

Akhenaton erased out the name of Amen from all writings

• Even removed his own name and that of his father, Amenhotep III.
• He emptied the great temples, made the priests mad
• Moved his capital downriver from Thebes to a site he named Akhetaton (after his new god),
• Built his own city and shrines.
• Now called Amarna.

The pharaoh claimed to be both the son and only prophet of Aton.

• Only though him could god make revelations.

The gods were usually represented as animal or human forms

• Akhenaton’s god is represented as the sun disk emitting rays.

Akhenaton’s religious revolution did not last long

• The pharaohs who came after Akhenaton abandoned all of these changes
• reestablished the cult and priesthood of Amen
• restored the temples and the inscriptions.
• His new city was eventually abandoned.

During the Akhenaton reign, there were profound changes.

• Large statue of Akhenaton
• Was pushed over and buried after his death
• Keeps the standard front pose of pharaoh portraits.
• Has an effeminate body,
• Curving hips, narrow waits, skinny arms, belly hangs over
• long face with large lips
• heavy eyes
• Very different from what has come before

NEFERTITI AND TIYE

• Nefertiti was the Great Royal Wife (or chief consort/wife) of the Egyptian Pharaoh Amenhotep IV (later Akhenaten).
• her name means “ The Beautiful One Has Come”
• Painted limestone bust of Akhenaton’s queen, Nefertiti
• Akhenaton’s influential wife
• Portrayed here as beautiful

The unfinished portrait was found in Thutmose’s workshop.

• Left eye socket is missing the eyeball.

Mother-in-law and probable stepmother of the Pharaoh Tutankhamun.

• One of her daughters married Tutankhamen.
• Nefertiti may have also ruled in her own right

Queen Tiye

• Mother of Akhenaton
• Portrait of old age.
• Was not of royal birth
• Tiye was the daughter of a high-ranking official
• Became the chief wife of Amenhotep III.

Carved of dark yew wood

• found at Ghurab with other objects connected with the funeral of Amenhotep III.
• Was probably reworked to get rid of any Akhenaton’s religious changes
• That is when the head acquired the wig of plaster and linen with small blue beads.

Eyes are inlaid with alabaster and ebony

• Lips are painted red
• Earrings (one is hidden by the wig) are made from gold and lapis lazuli.
• The wig covers a silver headdress.
• A gold band is on her forehead.

Letters survive that show Akhenaten asked his mother for advice

FAMILY PORTRAITURE

• Intimate look at the royal family in a domestic setting.
• Akhenaton, Nefertiti, and three of their daughters sit in the life-giving rays of Aton, the sun disk.

Akhenaton lifts one of his daughters in order to kiss her.

• Another daughter sits on Nefertiti’s lap and points toward her father
• The youngest daughter reaches out to touch a pendant on her mother’s crown.
• This was not the norm in Egyptian art

These are not baby aliens.  The tradition at this time all the way until the Renaissance was not to use children as models, but to use adults.  In the end, you have what look like tiny man babies.

The most famous figure of the Post-Amarna period is Tutankhamen (r. 1333– 1323 BCE)

• Was probably Akhenaton’s son by a minor wife.
• Tutankhamen ruled for 10 years and died at age 18.
• Some people thought that he was assassinated
• The body was examined in 2005 and murder was ruled out.
• Tutankhamen was a very minor figure in Egyptian history

He’s known today only because of a find in 1922

• Howard Carter, a British archaeologist, discovered the boy-king’s tomb
• Was filled with treasures, sculpture, furniture, and jewelry.

TOMB OF TUTANKHAMEN

• The major item that Carter found in Tutankhamen’s tomb is the body of the pharaoh himself.
• His mummy was encased in three nested coffins.
• The innermost one, made of gold, shows the pharaoh as Osiris.
• Made of beaten gold (500lbs of it)
• inlaid with semiprecious stones such as lapis lazuli, turquoise, and carnelian.
• portrait mask, covered the king’s face, is also made of gold with inlaid semi-precious stones.

Tut appeared to be a much beloved pharaoh

• Brought back the multi-theistic religion used before Akhenaton.
• Uses the traditional ideal proportions.

Tutankhamen is shown here conquering Asian enemies.

• Seems chaotic when compared to earlier Egyptian works.
• Tutankhamen was considered too young to fight
• His position as king required that he be shown as a conqueror.

The lid shows the king as a successful hunter chasing animals in the desert

• The side panel shows him as a great warrior.
• The pharaoh, shown larger than all other figures on the chest, draws his bow against a group of Asian enemies
• They fall in confusion in front of him.

Behind him are three sets of smaller war chariots

• Serve to magnify the king’s power.

Book of the Dead

• Modern name of an ancient Egyptian funerary text
• Used from the beginning of the New Kingdom (around 1550 BC) to around 50 BC.

The original Egyptian name for the text is translated as “Book of Coming Forth by Day”.

• Another translation reads “Book of emerging forth into the Light”.

Consists of a number of magic spells

• intended to assist a dead person’s journey through the underworld and into the afterlife.

SCROLL OF HU-NEFER

Tutankhamen’s mummy case shows the boy-king as Osiris, god of the dead and king of the Underworld, as well as giver of eternal life.

The Book of the Dead contained spells and prayers.

At the left

• Anubis, with the jackal-head
• god of embalming
• leads Hu-Nefer into the hall of judgment.

At the right 

• Hu-Nefer’s heart is being weight against Maat’s feather (protectress of truth and right)
• This happened before the dead could be brought before Osiris

A hybrid crocodile-hippopotamus-lion monster, Ammit

• Devourer of the sinful, awaits the decision of the scales.
• If the weighing had been unfavorable to the dead, the monster would have eaten his heart.

The ibis-headed god Thoth takes notes.

Above

• The gods of Egypt are arranged as witnesses
• Hu-Nefer kneels in before them.

The scales weighed in his favor

• Brought by Osiris’s son, the falcon-headed Horus, into the presence of the green-faced Osiris
• His sisters Isis and Nephthys wait to receive eternal life.

FIRST MILLENNIUM BCE 

• During the first millennium BCE, Egypt lost the power it once had.
• The empire dwindled away
• Foreign powers invaded, occupied, and ruled the land
• Was taken over by Alexander the Great 
• Eventually taken over by the emperors of Rome. 

Kingdom of Kush 

• part of present-day Sudan
• gold-rich neighbor south of Egypt
• One of the first to invade and take control of Egypt

Called Nubia by the Romans

• This was the Egyptian word for “gold,”
• Kush is mentioned in Egyptian texts as early as the Old Kingdom.

During the New Kingdom, the pharaohs colonized Nubia

• controlled the major trade route between Egypt and lower Africa.
• In the eighth century BCE, the Nubians conquered Egypt
• Ruled the land of the Nile as the 25th Dynasty.

Around 680 BCE

• Kushite pharaoh Taharqo (r. 690– 664 BCE)
• constructed a temple at Kawa and placed a portrait of himself in it.
• The sculptor portrayed Taharqo as a sphinx
• The king’s name is inscribed on his chest.

TEMPLE OF HORUS, EDFU

• This temple is more than a thousand years later than the one at Karnak
• Uses the same basic architectural scheme.
• Built during the third, second, and first centuries BCE
• After Alexander the Great’s conquest of Egypt.

Once held flags in the channels

• The reliefs depict Horus and Hathor watching King Ptolemy XIII (r. 51– 47 BCE) killing tiny enemies.