Ancient Egyptian

Egypt is usually considered the first advanced civilization. Settling around the fertile land of the Nile River, the Egyptian culture prospered in the harsh climate of the desert.

The Egyptian culture is most known for their numerous Gods and Goddesses, their style of recording history (hierogylphics), and their immense focus on the afterlife.

The Egyptian culture began many centuries before 3000 BCE, however most history of the Egyptians began at this time because of the joining of Upper and Lower Egypt. This created the prosperous Egyptian civilization that everyone knows today.

Egyptians relied heavily on the inundation of the Nile. Every year, between July and November, the Nile flooded much of the land causing the land to be fertile enough to grow crops. Needless to say, several ceremonial rituals revolved around this event.

In 1822, Jean-Francois Champollion deciphered the hieroglyphic script with the help of the newly founded Rosetta Stone. The Rosetta Stone translated a decree from the reighn of Ptolemy V Epiphanes (204 - 180 BCE) with hieroglyphs, demotic (a late phase of Egyptian with its own script) and Greek.

PERIODS OF ART

OLD PERIOD of the EARLY BRONZE AGE

This period was marked by some of the most famous architectural advances, including the Giza Pyramids and the Great Sphinx. A governement formed with hierarchy. The lower classes paid taxes and/or were slaves forced to build these great monuments to their Gods and Pharoahs. Severe droughts and a class of social power struggle caused the decline of this age around 2200 BCE into the first of several lower periods in Egyptian history.

MIDDLE PERIOD of the MIDDLE BRONZE AGE

The middle period is marked by a resurgence in political and military power. The Pharoahs that made this period famous were Mentuhotep II, Amenemhat I, II & III. Daily life for all citizens were vastly improved because of the new belief that ALL people possessed a soul and could find a place amongst the Gods in the afterlife. Amenemhat III allowed Caananites into the Delta area to take on the labor for huge building projects. Unfortunately, excessive amounts of flooding from the Nile and the Caananites started to take over. The Middle Period declined around 1690 BCE.

NEW KINGDOM of the LATE BRONZE AGE

The New Kingdom was the most successful due to the strengthing of the Egyptian borders as well as peace treaties with the neighboring civilizations. The most powerful Pharaoh during this time was Hatshepsut. After her death, jealous future Pharaohs tried to force woman out of positions of power and evenutally threatened the overall success of the Egyptian culture.

After the death of Alexander the Great, Ptolemy Soter ruled Egypt until 30 BCE, when the Roman's defeated Cleopatra and took over Egypt.

EGYPTIAN BOOBY TRAPS

The Egyptians buried their dead with all of their earthly wealth. This was an easy target for looters. The egyptians took precautions for this. Their culture had superstitions built in that forbid the looting of the Gods, and they even entombed the family and slaves of the Pharaohs with them (alive or dead).

LABRINTHS

The pyramids were complex mazes with the important rooms so deep underground that very few know the route they had to take to find the interior rooms. The mazes included false rooms, dead ends and miles of mazes with limited oxygen that someone would probably die trying to get out of.

SNAKES

Not just a Tomb Raider myth, the Egyptians thought that snakes would scare off and protect their loved ones. In 1923, Howard Carter, and archaeologist opening King Tut's tomb had his canary eaten by a cobra that appeared out of the tomb.

PITS

Concealed pits, or holes covered over, could easily be the death of an unsure looter. Sometimes sharp objects would be found in the bottom of these.

POISONOUS POWDERS

Egyptians would cover the floors with hematite powder, which caused a slow and painful death if enough is inhaled. When Dr. Zahi Hawass, the Egyptian real-life Indiana Jones, entered the Bahariya Oasis tomb in 2001, his team found the sarcophagus booby trapped with 8 inches of the stuff, forcing them to abandon their expedition until they could come back with hazmat suits and respirators.

HEAD WIRES

Razor sharp thin wires have been found strung across pyramid halls at neck level. An unsuspecting person could easily have their neck sliced by one of these.

LEGEND OF THE MUMMY'S CURSE

Legend has it, if you take something from a Pharaohs afterlife offerings, you will mysteriously die. This legend has been one of the most effective anti-tomb-raider devices ever designed. And that legend got a huge boost when many members of Howard Carter’s 1923 King Tut expedition subsequently died from unusual causes.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Allen, Troy D. The Ancient Egyptian Family: Kinship and Social Structure. New York: Routledge, 2009. Print.

Málek, Jaromír. Egyptian Art. London [England: Phaidon Press, 1999. Print.

Schulz, Regine, Matthias Seidel, Betsy M. Bryan, and Christianne Henry. Egyptian Art. Baltimore: Walters Art Museum, 2009. Print.

Snape, S R. Ancient Egyptian Tombs: The Culture of Life and Death. Chichester, West Sussex: Wiley-Blackwell, 2011. Print.

Wenig, Steffen. The Woman in Egyptian Art. Leipzig: Edition Leipzig, 1969. Print.

Paintings of Women An example of painting found on the walls of tombs. This image shows two women, probably gods. The woman on the right is wearing a Kalisiris dress, egyptian collar, and fillet. The woman on the left is wearing a vulture headdress.	Tut Throne The Golden Throne of Tutankhamun back rest. Late 18th Dynasty (about 1333 - 1323 BC. E.) Wood, gold leaf, stained glass, enamel, semi-precious stones inlaid.	Tomb of Sennefer Tomb of Sennefer, Thèbes, XVIII dynasty, at the site of Pharoah Aménophis III. The inside of tombs were elaborately decorated and inlaid with semi precious jewels and stones. These were normally on inner tomb rooms that were protected by technically advanced booby traps.
Sphinx The Sphinx, Giza, Egypt; circa 1850. This photo is testament to the well crafted monuments erected by the Egyptians. There is not much difference in the condition of the Sphinx from 1850 to today.	Ring Ring from tomb of Tutankhamun; a shank composed of three bands, the central one set with lapis lazuli, all three are wrapped with gold wire below a motif of three flowers: an open papyrus flower set with green feldspar at the center and a bud of red carnelian on either side, a central lapis lazuli scarab wears a tiny atef crown of thin sheet gold, at the scarab's head is the divine lunar bark, at its feet the god Horus as a falcon crowned with a sun disk spreads its wings protectively.	Princess Satamun Throne Throne of Princess Satamun from the tomb of the great great grandparents of King Tut. This type of throne had a woven seat for comfort and appears to be made of wood that has gold leaf on top. This allows for easy mobility in case that it needed to be moved.
Akhenaton and Nefertiti Akhenaton and Nefertiti New Kingdom, Eighteenth Dynasty, after year 9 of the reign of Amenophis IV Akhenaton, between 1345 and 1337 BC. The folds of the robe and the loin skirt accentuate the sexual organs of the wearer. The woman's robe was probably thinly woven to reveal the natural beauty of her body. Nefertiti on the left is wearing what is now known as the Nefertiti headdress.	Egyptian Ornament The Grammar of Ornament, Owen Jones, 19th Century architect--An incredibley throrough, insightful review of different styles and principles of ornamentation. This shows the highly decorated capitals of Egyptian art. You can see these symbols later reflected in the Art Deco movement.	Fayum Portrait 1st century A.D. --- A Fayum portrait of a little girl from Hawara, Egypt. The mummy of the little girl was found with the mummy of Demos, who may have been the child's mother. Many of these beautifully life like shroud paintings can be found at the Met Museum of Art.
Ka-Aper Ka-Aper, Egyptian Museum, Cairo. 5th Dynasty; reign of Userkaf, 2513 – 2506 BC. This is the oldest known life-size wooden statue in ancient Egypt. Carved of sycamore wood, it was discovered at Sakkara in the mastaba tomb of Ka-aper which lies west of the pyramid of Userkaf. It represents a khry-heb (lector priest) named Ka-aper, who is depicted in a realistic style with a neat hair cut, a round face and full cheeks.	Mummy Egyptian mummy from The Louvre. The mummification process is highly skilled and performed by high class individuals. The afterlife was just as important, if not more important than their life on Earth. Great care was taken to do every step perfectly and an immense amount of wealth can be found buried with the dead.	Sakhmet Statue Of The Egyptian Goddess Sekhmet. A warrior goddess, Sekhmet also watched over childbirth and conferred blessings on children. The statue is located in The Metropolitan Museum Of Art, New York.
Lady in Waiting Lady in Waiting: detail of a limestone relief representing a festive gathering, in the tomb of the vizier Ramose at Thebes, New Kingdom, XVIIIth Dynasty, approx. 1400-1362 BCE	Anubis King Tut's art 3000 B.C. - EGYPT	Horus Protecting Nectanebo The God Horus Protecting King Nectanebo II, 360–343 B.C.E. by Thiago TH, Flat Crown is worn as well as nemes headress depicted on the king below with the shenti.
Akhenaten Akhenaten, Egypt's "heretic" Pharaoh. He began a new monotheistic religion centered around the Aten, a non-anthropomorphic sun god. He also moved the capitol to Amarna, ushering in a period of unusual innovation in Egyptian art and culture. After Akhenaten died, the religion collapsed, Amarna was abandoned, and the old Egyptian priesthood regained power. Subsequent archival records call Akhenaten "the enemy." The cobra on his klaft headdress is a uraeus.	Bastet Canopic Jar Egyptian Canopic Jar featuring Bastet. Canopic Jars carried the organs of the Pharaoh that is entombed in the pyramid. It is believed that the body should be empty of organs before entering the afterlife, but they need all every piece to be resurrected.	Carving and Hieroglyphs King Tut's art EGYPT 3000 B.C. This god is wearing a pschent headdress which combines the headdresses from lower and upper Egypt. You can also see an ankh in his right hand which represents life and eternity.
Hairstyles of Egypt This image shows some hairstyles and headdresses worn by Egyptians. The names written in are slightly different than covered in class. It is important to note that the Egyptians were very conscientious of hygiene. Everyone would have had very short or shaved heads and worn wigs and headdresses for ceremonial purposes.	Horus Horus, son of the Goddess Isis, conceived by penetrating herself with her husband/brother's penis after he was murdered by their brother Set, and his body parts scattered. Called the Savior God of Egypt, for restoring his father to life. Often depicted as a falcon. The Eye of Horus watches over mankind.	Wax Cones Those are cones of wax and perfume on their heads (the hair probably wigs). The wax would melt from their body heat over the course of the evening, releasing the fragrance over time.
Temple of Isis Painting Temple of Isis on the Island of Philae, Egypt 1838 David Roberts. This painting shows you how colorful the paintings were. The color in this painting is probably more faded than it would have been when it was first done.	Pectoral Tutankhamun pectoral with solar and lunar elements. Cloisonné with carnelian, lapis lazuli, calcite, obsidian and coloured glass. At its centre is a chalcedony scarab, which has falcon legs and talons. The pectoral was worn as a chest piece that decorated the pectoral muscles.	Bes Jars Milk was fed to sick Egyptian children from these Bes jars in hopes that the milk would be transformed into medicine. Photographed at the Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum in San Jose, California.
Lactating Isis Late Egyptian Art, Lactating Isis, 332 BC - 395 AD (cf images of Virgin Mary as Maria Lactans nourishing infant Jesus, the universal mother goddess). Women played a much stronger role in society during Egyptian time than in most of history. They were celebrated for their beautiful bodies as well as their ability to procreate.	Cat Mummies In Ancient Egypt, many animals were thought to be the embodiment of certain gods and goddesses; cats were believed to represent the goddess Bastet. Consequently, they were raised in and around temples devoted to Bastet. When they died, they were mummified and buried in huge cemeteries, often in large communal graves.	Cleopatra Fragment of a relief of Queen Cleopatra VII Thea Philopator (“Cleopatra the Father-Loving Goddess”) of Egypt, 1st Century BC. You can see really great detail of the texture and print of her kalisiris dress.
Egyptian Makeup Paint Box of Vizier Amenemope Egypt, Dynasty 18 (1540-1296 BC), reign of Amenhotep II c. 1427-1401 BC.	Hathor Goddess of Love Egyptian mother god Hathor (left), was the goddess of love in ancient Egypt. She was worshipped ca.2700 BCE–ca.400 CE in Upper Egypt, as well as in Thebes and Giza. She had both male and female priests	History of Egypt A General idea of major events in Egyptian history.
Bracelet Bracelet of Psusennes from King Tutankhamen Golden Treasures. The Scarab beetle is a recurring theme in art found in tombs because it represents death and the afterlife.	Bee Hieroglyphs Egyptian Hieroglyph: Bee. The bee was a royal symbol for Lower Egypt .	Animal Fur Ancient Egyptian wall painting that looks like animal skin similar to African tradition. Unsure if this is authentic due to the high attention placed on hygiene. An animal fur may be too unhygienic for actual wear.

Ancient Egyptian

Paintings of Women

An example of painting found on the walls of tombs. This image shows two women, probably gods. The woman on the right is wearing a Kalisiris dress, egyptian collar, and fillet. The woman on the left is wearing a vulture headdress.

Tut Throne

The Golden Throne of Tutankhamun back rest. Late 18th Dynasty (about 1333 - 1323 BC. E.) Wood, gold leaf, stained glass, enamel, semi-precious stones inlaid.

Tomb of Sennefer

Tomb of Sennefer, Thèbes, XVIII dynasty, at the site of Pharoah Aménophis III. The inside of tombs were elaborately decorated and inlaid with semi precious jewels and stones. These were normally on inner tomb rooms that were protected by technically advanced booby traps.

Sphinx

The Sphinx, Giza, Egypt; circa 1850. This photo is testament to the well crafted monuments erected by the Egyptians. There is not much difference in the condition of the Sphinx from 1850 to today.

Ring

Princess Satamun Throne

Throne of Princess Satamun from the tomb of the great great grandparents of King Tut. This type of throne had a woven seat for comfort and appears to be made of wood that has gold leaf on top. This allows for easy mobility in case that it needed to be moved.

Akhenaton and Nefertiti

Egyptian Ornament

The Grammar of Ornament, Owen Jones, 19th Century architect--An incredibley throrough, insightful review of different styles and principles of ornamentation. This shows the highly decorated capitals of Egyptian art. You can see these symbols later reflected in the Art Deco movement.

Fayum Portrait

1st century A.D. --- A Fayum portrait of a little girl from Hawara, Egypt. The mummy of the little girl was found with the mummy of Demos, who may have been the child's mother. Many of these beautifully life like shroud paintings can be found at the Met Museum of Art.

Ka-Aper

Mummy

Sakhmet

Statue Of The Egyptian Goddess Sekhmet. A warrior goddess, Sekhmet also watched over childbirth and conferred blessings on children. The statue is located in The Metropolitan Museum Of Art, New York.

Lady in Waiting

Lady in Waiting: detail of a limestone relief representing a festive gathering, in the tomb of the vizier Ramose at Thebes, New Kingdom, XVIIIth Dynasty, approx. 1400-1362 BCE

Anubis

King Tut's art 3000 B.C. - EGYPT

Horus Protecting Nectanebo

The God Horus Protecting King Nectanebo II, 360–343 B.C.E. by Thiago TH, Flat Crown is worn as well as nemes headress depicted on the king below with the shenti.

Akhenaten

Bastet Canopic Jar

Egyptian Canopic Jar featuring Bastet. Canopic Jars carried the organs of the Pharaoh that is entombed in the pyramid. It is believed that the body should be empty of organs before entering the afterlife, but they need all every piece to be resurrected.

Carving and Hieroglyphs

King Tut's art EGYPT 3000 B.C. This god is wearing a pschent headdress which combines the headdresses from lower and upper Egypt. You can also see an ankh in his right hand which represents life and eternity.

Hairstyles of Egypt

Horus

Wax Cones

Those are cones of wax and perfume on their heads (the hair probably wigs). The wax would melt from their body heat over the course of the evening, releasing the fragrance over time.

Temple of Isis Painting

Temple of Isis on the Island of Philae, Egypt 1838 David Roberts. This painting shows you how colorful the paintings were. The color in this painting is probably more faded than it would have been when it was first done.

Pectoral

Tutankhamun pectoral with solar and lunar elements. Cloisonné with carnelian, lapis lazuli, calcite, obsidian and coloured glass. At its centre is a chalcedony scarab, which has falcon legs and talons. The pectoral was worn as a chest piece that decorated the pectoral muscles.

Bes Jars

Milk was fed to sick Egyptian children from these Bes jars in hopes that the milk would be transformed into medicine. Photographed at the Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum in San Jose, California.

Lactating Isis

Cat Mummies

Cleopatra

Fragment of a relief of Queen Cleopatra VII Thea Philopator (“Cleopatra the Father-Loving Goddess”) of Egypt, 1st Century BC. You can see really great detail of the texture and print of her kalisiris dress.

Egyptian Makeup

Paint Box of Vizier Amenemope Egypt, Dynasty 18 (1540-1296 BC), reign of Amenhotep II c. 1427-1401 BC.

Hathor Goddess of Love

Egyptian mother god Hathor (left), was the goddess of love in ancient Egypt. She was worshipped ca.2700 BCE–ca.400 CE in Upper Egypt, as well as in Thebes and Giza. She had both male and female priests

History of Egypt

A General idea of major events in Egyptian history.

Bracelet

Bracelet of Psusennes from King Tutankhamen Golden Treasures. The Scarab beetle is a recurring theme in art found in tombs because it represents death and the afterlife.

Bee Hieroglyphs

Egyptian Hieroglyph: Bee. The bee was a royal symbol for Lower Egypt .

Animal Fur

Ancient Egyptian wall painting that looks like animal skin similar to African tradition. Unsure if this is authentic due to the high attention placed on hygiene. An animal fur may be too unhygienic for actual wear.