Unit ONE: Prehistoric through Aegean - PBworksaparttalk.pbworks.com/w/file/fetch/45801211/mcunit_1_pt... · Web viewAfter the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt c. 3000 BC, the

Unit ONE: Ancient Near East STUDY GUIDE

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A The ancient Sumerians1. “The Sumerians created one of the most important of all ancient civilizations. They invented the wheel, mathematical numbers, multiplication tables, and instrumental music (along with the lyre or harp). They are also credited with developing the earliest known script (in the form of wedge-shaped lines) known as cuneiform” (Durant, Oriental Heritage 131). “Each city, as long as it could, maintained a jealous independence, and indulged itself in a private king. It called him patesi, or priest-king, indicating by the very word that government was bound up with religion… The despot lived in a Renaissance atmosphere of violence and fear; at any moment he might be dispatched by the same methods that had secured him the throne” (126). “The oldest inscriptions are on stone, and date apparently as far back as 3600 BC. Towards 3200 BC the clay tablet appears, and from that time on the Sumerians seem to have delighted in the great discovery” (131).“Here, for the first known time on a large scale, appear some of the sins of civilization: slavery, despotism, ecclesiasticism, and imperialistic war” (134). “The priest-king led the army, regulated the supply and distribution of food, and provided political and religious leadership” (Fiero, First Civilizations 41-42).

2. “Mesopotamia (in modern Iraq) was the center of ancient Near Eastern civilization. Its name is derived from the Greek mesos (middle) and potamus (river). Mesopotamia is literally the ‘land between the rivers’ – the Tigris and the Euphrates. The Mesopotamian climate was harsh, and its inhabitants learned irrigation to make the land fertile” (Adams, Art Across Time 50). The government of ancient Sumer was a theocracy. Judges and priests were for the most part the same. Gods in the temple were provided with food, revenue, and wives. Originally it seems that the gods preferred human flesh; one liturgical tablet tells us that “the lamb is the substitute for humanity; he hath given up a lamb for his life” (Durant, Oriental Heritage 128). Schools were attached to most of the temples wherein the clergy instructed both boys and girls in writing and arithmetic. Women exercised equal rights with her husbands over their children in Sumerian society. In times of crisis, however, the male was lord and master (129).

C White Temple and Ziggurat at Uruk, c. 3200-3000 BCEuse of mud brick/ desire for monumental architecture/ celestial orientation/ cella

1. “The ziggurat, derived from an Assyrian word meaning ‘raised up’ or ‘high,’ is a uniquely Mesopotamian architectural form. Mesopotamians believed that each city was under the protection of a god or gods to whom the city’s inhabitants owed service, and they built imitation mountains, or ziggurats, as platforms for those gods” (Adams, Art Across Time 54). “Ziggurats functioned symbolically… as lofty bridges between the earth and heavens – a meeting place for humans and their gods. They were given names such as ‘House of the Mountain’ and ‘Bond between Heaven and Earth,’ and temples were known as waiting rooms’ because the priests and priestesses waited there for the gods and goddesses to reveal themselves” (Stokstad, Art History 66).

2. “The role of the temple as the center of both spiritual and physical life can be seen in the layout of Sumerian cities. The houses were clustered about a sacred area that was a vast architectural

complex containing not only shrines but workshops, storehouses, and scribes’ quarters as well. In their midst, on a raised platform, stood the temple of their local god. Perhaps reflecting the Sumerians’ origin in the mountains to the north, these platforms soon reached the height of true mountains” (Janson 63). The main room atop the White Temple at Warka (or Uruk), or cella, “where sacrifices were made before the statue of the god, is a narrow hall that runs the length of the temple and is flanked by smaller chambers. Its main entrance is on the southwest side, rather than on the side facing the stairs or on one of the narrow sides of the temple as one might expect. To understand why this is the case, we must view the ziggurat and temple as a whole. The entire complex is planned in such a way that the worshiper, starting at the bottom of the stairs on the east side, is forced to go around as many corners as possible before reaching the cella. In other words, the path is a sort of angular spiral. This ‘bent-axis approach’ is a basic feature of Mesopotamian religious architecture, in contrast to the straight, single axis of Egyptian temples” (63).

B Gilgamesh1. “The Epic of Gilgamesh is the oldest surviving epic poem and is preserved on cuneiform tablets from the second millennium BC. It recounts Gilgamesh’s search for immortality as he undertakes perilous journeys through forests and the underworld, encounters gods, and struggles with moral conflict” (Adams, Art Across Time 56). “Gilgamesh finally attains immortality as the builder of Uruk’s walls. He establishes urban civilization and lays the foundations of historical progress” (56).

2. “Gilgamesh, the hero of Mesopotamian epic myth and the forerunner of many dragon-slayers like St. George, overcomes the monster Humbaba and the Bull of Heaven” (Hall 176). “The Epic of Gilgamesh was recited orally for centuries before it was recorded at Sumer in the late third millennium. As literature, it precedes the Hebrew Bible and all the other major writings of antiquity. Its hero is a semi-historical figure who probably ruled the ancient Sumerian city of Uruk around 2800 BCE” (Fiero, First Civilizations 39). When Gilgamesh “spurns the affections of the Queen of Heaven, Ishtar (a fertility goddess not unlike the Egyptian Isis), he is punished with the loss of his dearest companion, Enkidu. Despairing over Enkidu’s death, Gilgamesh undertakes a long and hazardous quest in search of everlasting life. He meets Utnapishtim, a mortal whom the gods have rewarded with eternal life for having saved humankind from a devastating flood. Utnapishtim helps Gilgamesh locate the plant that miraculously restores youth. But ultimately a serpent snatches the plant, and Gilgamesh is left with the haunting vision of death as ‘a house of dust’ and a place of inescapable sadness” (38). “The anxious sense of human vulnerability that pervades the Book of Job recalls the Epic of Gilgamesh. Indeed, the two works bear comparison. Both heroes, Job and Gilgamesh, are tested by superhuman forces, and both come to realize that misfortune and suffering are typical of the human condition. Gilgamesh seeks but fails to secure personal immorality; Job solicits God’s promise of heavenly reward but fails to secure assistance that once dead, he might return to life… The notion of life after death (so prominent in Egyptian religious thought) is as elusive a concept in Hebraic literature as it is in Mesopotamian myth” (54).


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D Statuettes from the Temple of Abu at Eshnunna (Tell Asmar), c. 2700-2600 BCE, gypsumstylization of physical types/ hypnotic gaze

1. “Marble statues dated to about 2900-2600 BCE from ruins of a temple at Eshnunna (modern Tell Asmar, Iraq) reveal a somewhat humbler aspect of Mesopotamian religious art. These votive figures- statues made as an act of worship to the gods- depict individuals. They represent an early example of an ancient Near Eastern religious practice- the setting up of simple, small statues of individual worshipers in a shrine before the larger, more elaborate image of a god” (Stokstad, Art History 69).

2. “Cuneiform texts reveal the importance of fixing on a god with an attentive gaze, hence the wide-open eyes. These standins are at perpetual attention, making eye contact and chanting their donors’ praises through eternity” (70). “The eyes are shells and the pupils are inlaid with black limestone” (Adams, Art Across Time 57).“The largest male statue has no attributes of divinity and is thought to represent an important or wealthy person dedicating himself to the god Abu. All the statues probably represent worshippers of varying status whose sizes were determined by the amount of money their donors paid for them. As such, these figures are rendered with so-called hierarchical proportions, a convention equating size with status” (57). “It is not known whether these figures were originally a unified group, but most hold a cup, and some hold a flower or branch” (57).

3. “The larger figures may be priests, and the smaller figures, laypersons. Rigid and attentive, they stand as if in perpetual prayer. Their enlarged eyes, inlaid with shell and black limestone convey the impression of dread and awe, visual testimony to the sense of human apprehension in the face of divine power. These images to not share the buoyant confidence of the Egyptians; rather, they convey the insecurities of a people whose vulnerability was an ever-present fact of life” (Fiero, Lost Civilizations 46).

E Lyre from Sumerian Royal Cemetery (Ur, Iraq), c. 2600 BCE

1. This “elegant lyre soundbox from Ur indicates not only the presence of music and musical instruments, but also the superb craftsmanship of early Sumerian artists” (Adams, Art Across Time 58).

2. “The scorpion-man, who appears in the bottom scene on the front of the box, may be one of the fearsome guardians of the sun described in the Epic of Gilgamesh. In addition to hybrid forms combining animals with other animals and animals with humans, ancient Near Eastern art is populated by animals- such as the goat holding a cup and walking upright- who act like humans. These figures could represent either mythological

creatures or people dressed as animals” (59).

3. Found in the Royal Cemetery at Ur, “this lyre was meant to accompany liturgical chants, its sounds associated with those of the divine bull and its sound box providing a glimpse of the underworld banquet” (Aruz 107). “In the second register a canine animal, probably a hyena in the role of a butcher, stands on his rear legs. In his human heads he carries a table piled with animals parts, and he wears a dagger stuck in his belt” (106). “Gilgamesh is depicted standing between two human-headed bulls, while some of the epic’s fantastic characters, such as the Man-Scorpion, appear in the registers below. The Great Harp itself may have been used to accompany the chanting of this epic” (Fiero, First Civilizations 39). “Described as two-thirds god and one-third man, Gilgamesh is blessed by the gods with beauty and courage” (39).

White Temple and Ziggurat at Uruk, c. 3200-3000 BCE (CONTINUED)

3. “Ziggurats were impressive not because of size alone but also because their exterior surfaces were decorated with elaborate patterns of colored clay mosaics and reliefs. The gods would have been pleased with all this handiwork, it was said, because they abhorred laziness in their people” (Stokstad, Art History 66). “A stairway leads to the top but does not end in front of any of the temple doorways, necessitating two or three angular changes in direction. This ‘bent-axis’ approach is the standard arrangement for Sumerian temples, a striking contrast to the linear approach the Egyptians preferred for their temples and tombs” (Kleiner, Mamiya, and Tansey 19). “There were two large temple complexes at Uruk, the first independent Sumerian city-state. One complex was dedicated to Inanna, the goddess of fertility, and the other probably to the sky god Anu, another major deity. The Anu Ziggurat was built up in stages over the centuries until it ultimately rose to a height of about 40 feet” (Stokstad, Art History 66).

4. “It is possible to posit that …in Sumer much of life was focused on the temples of the gods. Individual deities owned their own cities and territories. For example, Inanna, a complex goddess of many aspects including both love and war, owned Uruk; Nanna, the moon god, possessed Ur; and Ningirsu, a fertility god as well as a warrior god, retained Lagash” (Aruz 22). The best known ziggurat “was at Babylon (7th-6th cents. BC), the biblical Tower of Babel, which was some 300 ft high and had seven stages… At the top was the shrine of the local deity, where a sacred marriage was performed annually. The tower is represented on neo-Babylonian seals” (Hall 97). 5. “Unlike the Egyptian pyramid, which functioned as a tomb, the ziggurat served as a shrine and temple. Hence, it formed the spiritual center of the city-state. Striking similarities exist between the ziggurats of Mesopotamia and the stepped platform pyramids of ancient Mexico, built somewhat later. Erected atop rubble mounds much like the Mesopotamian ziggurat, the temples of Meso-America functioned as solar observatories, religious sanctuaries, and gravesites. Whether or not any historical link exists between these Mesopotamian and the structurally similar Native American monuments remains among the many mysteries of ancient history” (Fiero, First Civilizations 45).


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F Standard of Ur (Ur), c. 2700 BCEcontrast between war and peace/ use of registers to depict a narrative/ discoveries from royal Sumerian graves/ depiction of human figures/ lapis lazuli

1. The excavator of the Royal Cemetery at Ur, Leonard Woolley, thought that this object “was originally mounted on a pole and considered it a kind of military standard- hence its nickname” (Kleiner, Mamiya, and Tansey 24). The box is “inlaid with mosaic scenes from shell, red limestone and lapis lazuli, set in bitumen. On one side can be seen peace and prosperity, with a procession of men bringing animals, fish and other goods. At the top the king banquets among his friends, entertained by a singer and a man with a lyre. On the other side a Sumerian army, with chariots (the earliest known representation of wheeled vehicles) and infantry, charges the enemy. The prisoners are then brought before the king” (Caygill 342).

2. In the uppermost register of the ‘war side,’ soldiers “present bound captives (who have been stripped naked to degrade them) to a kinglike figure, who has stepped out of his chariot” (Kleiner, Mamiya, and Tansey 24). “The city of Ur lay in southern Mesopotamia, close to the ancient shoreline of the Gulf… Below the simple graves of the common people lay the elite of Ur, buried with magnificent treasures. Among the richest tombs was that of Pu-abi, her name recorded on a fine cylinder seal of lapis lazuli. She lay on a wooden bier, a gold cup near her hand, the upper part of her body entirely hidden by multi-coloured beads. Over her crushed skull she wore an elaborate headdress. Buried with her were 25 attendants… It was surmised that the attendants had voluntarily taken poison and been buried while unconscious or dead” (Caygill 341).

3. “The side depicting ‘war’ records the conquest itself in fascinating detail, including costume elements and a row of chariots pulled by wild asses known as onagers, with a driver and spearman in each chariot. The ‘peace’ side shows officials celebrating as animals are brought in for the feast, while on the bottom register onagers and other booty are being brought back. The triangular end panels also had animal scenes. The figures have the same squat proportions and rounded forms as the statues from Tell Asmar” (Janson 66). “Although the precise function of this object is unknown, the Standard of Ur provides a mirror of class divisions in Mesopotamia of the third millennium BCE” (Fiero, First Civilizations 42).

G Victory Stele of Naram-Sin (from Susa, Iran), 2254-2218 BCE, pink sandstoneuse of a stele to commemorate a victory/ Sargon of Akkad and Naram Sin/ hierarchical proportion/ organization of figures/ incorporating landscape

1. “The word “Sin” is the Akkadian name for the Mesopotamian mood-god. He is the son of Enlil and father of Utu (Shamash) and Inanna (Ishtar). When represented in human form, he is crowned with a crescent mood. His oldest temple and its adjoining ziggurat was built at Ur in the 23rd century” (Hall 204). “Sargon, who reigned from c. 2340 to 2305 BC, was a king of Akkad and founder of the Akkadian empire. He was the son of a gardener whose identity was unknown even to Sargon. According to tradition, he was chosen by the god Enlil to assume the kingship” (Wren 1: 7). “Sargon I’s grandson, Naram-Sin, recorded his victory over a mountain people, the Lullubians, in a commemorative stele- an upright stone marker. This form of record-keeping used inscriptions and/or relief images to commemorate important events. When the Epic of Gilgamesh says that the hero ‘cut his works into a stone tablet’, the author was probably referring to a stele. Today when we speak of ‘making one’s mark,’ we mean essentially the same thing as the Mesopotamians when they made marks in stone ‘markers’ that were intended to last” (Adams, Art Across Time 60).

2. “The stele of Naram-Sin is a good example of so-called Machtkunst (German for ‘power art’), for it proclaims the military, political, and religious authority of Naram-Sin” (60). “The focus of the composition is Naram-Sin, who appears as god-hero-king, his divinity signaled by his horned helmet, his heroic magnificence suggested by the perfection of his body, and his role as gallant king and warrior intimated by his stance with one foot slightly raised, crushing the broken bodies of the defeated enemy. Because Naram-Sin was now considered both god and king, it was no longer necessary to separate the terrestrial and divine worlds and relegated them to different sides of the stele… Now one landscape representation fuses both worlds and even included the

great gods, emblazoned as star symbols situated at the top of the stele above the mountain peak. The text- unfortunately fragmentary- situates the battle, and the peculiarities of dress and hairstyle visually identify the mountaineers to the initiated viewers” (Aruz 195-196).“Despite his many victories abroad, Naram-Sin ended his reign in disgrace. According to tradition, Naram-Sin sacked the time-hallowed sanctuary of the god Enlil at Nippur. Akkad fell in an act of divine retribution for this sacrilege. Soon afterward, the Akkadian kingdom began to shrink in size and influence. A three-year period of anarchy ensued” (Wren 1: 7-8). “In a sharp break with visual tradition, the sculptors replaced the horizontal registers with wavy ground lines…As in most art from the Near East, [Naram Sin’s] greater size in relationship to his soldiers is an indication of his greater importance” (Stokstad, Art History 74). “The great King Sargon is a man of myth. In his legend, which he recorded himself, there are themes which are familiar from Judeo-Christian tradition: born without a father to a chaste priestess, the later ruler was abandoned in a rush basket on the river, like Moses.


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I Seated Statue of Gudea from Lagash Neo-Sumerian c. 2100 BCEthe ensi Gudea/ image of piety for the god Ningirsu/ use of diorite

1. “After flourishing for about a century, the Akkadian dynasty was defeated by the Guti, mountain people from the northeast who ruled Mesopotamia for roughly sixty yeas. Only one city-state, Lagash, managed to hold out, and it prospered. When the Sumerians overthrew the Guti, there was a revival of Sumerian culture in the newly united southern city-states, a period referred to as Neo-Sumerian. Gudea, the ruler of Lagash during the period of Guti dominance, initiated an extensive construction program which included several temples” (Adams, Art Across Time 61).

2. “The temple plan resting on the lap of the seated Gudea identifies his role as an architectural patron. His gesture of prayer establishes his relation with the gods and their divine patronage as revealed in his dream” (62). “In the dream, Gudea saw the radiant, joyful image of the god Ningirsu wearing a crown and flanked by lions… Ningirsu told Gudea to build his house; but Gudea did not understand until a second god, Nindub, appeared with the plan of a temple on a lapis lazuli tablet” (61). “Ensi, the official title of Gudea that was given after the enumeration of offerings, reveals that the gods in the pantheon had conferred on him rulership along with the qualities necessary to rule” (Aruz 427). “The text engraved on the statue affirms that exaltation of diorite as a noble material, more precious even than

metals or precious stones… The connotation is that diorite is more durable than the other materials and is thus more worthy of representing the sovereign and perpetuating his memory” (427).

H Head of an Akkadian ruler (Ninevah, Iraq), c. 2250-2200 BCE, copperbalance of naturalism and stylization/ introduction of cast sculpture/ Akkadian concept of imperial power

1. When first found, this work “was thought to represent Sargon… The head epitomizes physical ideals of Akkadian kingship, stressing as it does by means of the beard and elaborate hairstyle the heroic, masculine importance of hair. It displays the perfect blend of varied patterns of beard and hair that set off the lips, nose, and eyes of the ruler, a combination that imbues the king with a real sense of serene, yet powerful and all-knowing majesty” (Aruz 194).

2. “It is possible that the head was symbolically mutilated to destroy its power, for the ears appear to have been deliberately removed, as have the inlays that would have filled the eye sockets” (Stokstad, Art History 74). The eyes were “probably made of shell or ivory with lapis lazuli pupils” (Aruz 194).

J Stele with law code of Hammurabi (Susa, Iran), c. 1780 BCE, basaltuse of law to establish a central government (talion law)/ god (Shamash) and ruler linked

1. “Hammurabi (c. 1817-1750 BCE) was approximately twenty-five years old when he became ruler of Babylon. During the first thirty years of his reign, Hammurabi waged a series of successful military campaigns against neighboring tribes” (Wren 1: 9). The Code of Hammurabi was issued at the end of the king’s reign (9-10). “The relief sculpture at the top shows the king standing before the supreme judge, the sun god Shamash. The figures were executed in smooth, rounded forms with a minimum of linear surface detail. Shamash wears the four-tiered, horned headdress that marks him as a god and a robe that bares one shoulder and ends in a stiff, flounced skirt. Rays of the sun rise from behind his shoulders, and in his right hand he holds a measuring rod and a rope ring, symbols of justice and power. Hammurabi faces Shamash confidently, his hand raised in a gesture of greeting. Any suggestion of familiarity in the lack of distance is offset by the formality of the pose. The smaller, earthly law enforcer remains standing in the presence of the much larger divine judge, seated on his ziggurat throne” (Stokstad, Art History 76).

2. “The Code of Haummurabi divided Babylonian subjects into three classes: the upper class, the commoners, and the slaves. Punishments, which were severe, were distinguished by class and were determined according to the principle of ‘an eye for an eye’ ” (10). “Though the stated purpose of

Hammurabi’s laws was to protect the weak from the strong, they also maintained traditional class distinctions: the lower classes were more severely punished for crimes committed against the upper classes than vice versa. There was no intent to create social equality in the protection of the weak, or in the expressed concern for orphans and widows, but rather to maintain the continuity and stability of society” (Adams, Art Across Time 64).

3. “Three types of punishment stand out in the Law Code of Hammurabi. The Talion Law- the equivalent of the biblical ‘eye for an eye’- operated in the provision calling for the death of a builder whose house collapsed and killed the owner. In some cases, the punishment fit the crime; for example, if a surgical patient died, the doctor’s hand was cut off. Perhaps the most illogical punished was the ordeal, in which the guilt or innocence of an alleged adulteress depended on whether she sank or floated when thrown into water” (64). “Most of the 300 or so entries…deal with commercial and property matters. Only sixty-eight relate to domestic problems, and a mere twenty deal with physical assault. Punishments depended on the gender and social standing of the offender”


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Stele with law code of Hammurabi (Susa, Iran), c. 1780 BCE, basalt (CONTINUED)

4. “Before Hammurabi there is no known equivalent attempt to organize a legal system and to put it down in writing… The stele also throws light upon the lawmaker himself. In a poetic prologue, it praises Hammurabi’s reign from his ascent to the throne under divine protection; after that it comments on the defeated towns whose prosperity and temple cult Hammurabi secured after they had been conquered” (Bartz and Konig 69).

5. Hammurabi “sent out envoys to collect the local statues and had them consolidated into a single body of law. Hammurabi’s Code- a collection of 282 clauses engraved on an 8-foot-high stele- is our most valuable index to life in ancient Mesopotamia. The Code is not the first example of recorded law among the Babylonian kings; it is, however, the most extensive and comprehensive set of laws to survive from ancient times. Although Hammurabi’s Code addressed primarily secular matters, it bore the force of divine decree. The fact is indicated in the prologue to the Code, where Hammurabi claims descent from the gods. It is also manifested visually in the low-relief carving at the top of the stele: Here, in a scene that calls to mind the story of the biblical Moses on Mount Sinai, Hammurabi is pictured receiving the law (symbolized by a staff) from the sun god Shamash. Wearing a conical crown topped with the bull’s horns, and discharging flames from his shoulders, the god sits enthroned atop a sacred mountain, symbolized by triangular markings beneath his feet” (Fiero, First Civilizations 43).

6. “Written law represented a significant advance in the development of human rights in that it protected the individual from the capricious decisions of monarchs. Unwritten law was subject to the hazards of memory and the eccentricities of the powerful. Written law, on the other hand, permitted a more impersonal (if more objective and impartial) kind of justice than did oral law. It replaced the flexibility of the spoken word with the rigidity of the written word. It did not usually recognize exceptions and was not easily or quickly changed. Ultimately, recorded law shifted the burden of judgment from the individual ruler to the legal establishment. Although written law necessarily restricted individual freedom, it safe-guarded the basic values of the community” (43-44).

7. “Hammurabi’s Code covers a broad spectrum of moral, social, and commercial obligations. Its civil and criminal statues specify penalties for murder, theft, incest, adultery, kidnapping, assault and battery, and many other crimes. More important for our understanding of ancient culture, it is a storehouse of information concerning the nature of class divisions, family relations, and human rights. The Code informs us, for instance, on matters of inheritance, professional obligations, and the individual’s responsibilities to the community. It also documents the fact that under Babylonian law, individuals were not regarded as equals. Human worth was defined in terms of a person’s wealth and status in society. Violence committed by one free person upon another was punished reciprocally, but the same violence committed upon a lower-class individual drew considerably lighter punishment, and penalties were reduced even further if the victim was a slave. Similarly, a principle of ‘pay according to status’ was applied in punishing thieves: The upper-class thief was more heavily penalized or fined than the lower-class one. A thief who could not pay at all fell into slavery or was put to death” (44). “In Babylonian society, women were considered intellectually and physically inferior to men and- much like slaves- were regarded as the personal property of the male head of the household. A woman went from her father’s house to that of her husband” (44).

K Lion Gate (Boghazkoy, Turkey), c.1400 BCE, limestoneHittites in Anatolia/ use of heavy stone instead of brick/ Kadesh Treaty1. “The Hittites were an Anatolian people whose capital city, Hattusas, was located in modern Boghazkoy, in central Turkey. Like the Mesopotamians, they kept records in cuneiform on clay tablets, which were stored on shelves, systematically catalogued and labeled as in a modern library. These archives, comprising thousands of tablets, are the first known records in an Indo-European language… The Hittites cremated their dead and buried the ashes and bones in urns, so that they left little tomb art. There is, however, much evidence of monumental palaces, temples, cities, and massive fortified walls decorated with reliefs. The predominance of fortifications and citadels (urban fortresses) attest to the need for protection from invading armies as well as to the military power of the Hittites themselves” (Adams, Art Across Time 65).

2. The Treaty of Kadesh “constitutes the world’s earliest surviving peace treaty, agreed between the Egyptians and the Hittites in 1269 BC. Among its many clauses are provisions for the return of political refugees” (Inman 63).

3. At Hattushash, “the blocks of stone used to frame doorways were decorated in high relief with a variety of guardian figures, some 7-foot-tall, half-human- half-animal creatures, others naturalistically rendered animals like the lions shown here. These sculpted figures were part of the architecture itself,

not added to it separately. The boulders-becoming creatures on the so-called Lion Gate harmonize with the colossal scale of this construction. Despite extreme weathering, the lions have endured over the millennia and still convey a sense of vigor and permanence” (Stokstad, Art History 83-84).

L Assyrian Kings

1. “Under Assurnasirpal II (reigned 883-859 BC), Assyria became a formidable military force. His records are filled with boastful claims detailing his cruelty. He says that he dyed the mountains red, like wool cloth, with the blood of his slaughtered enemies. From the heads of his decapitated enemies he erected a pillar, and he covered the city walls with their skins” (Adams, Art Across Time 66).

2. “The first imperial king, Tiglath-Pileser I (reigned c. 1114-1076 BC), recorded his intent to conquer the world and claimed that the god Ashur had commanded him to do so” (66).

3. “The last powerful king of Assyria, Assurbanipal (reigned 668-633 BC), combined cruelty with culture. He established a great library, consisting of thousands of tablets recording the scientific, historical, literary, religious, and commercial pursuits of his time” (66).


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M Assyrian Lamassu from the Citadel of Sargon II (Khorsabad, Iraq) c. 720 BCEreputation of the Assyrians/ royal citadel of Sargon II/ lamassu/ sculptor’s viewpoints

1. “In c. 900 BCE, Assyria was no more than a small kingdom about seventy-five miles square. Centuries of constant warfare had shaped Assyrians into skilled, hardened warriors. During the ninth century, directed by an intense sense of divine protections by Assur, the most important Assyrian god, and leg by a succession of vigorous warlords, Assyria began expanding its territories” (Wren 1: 12). The reign of Sargon II (?-705 BCE) was marked by almost constant warfare. Sargon beat down the Chaldeans in Babylonia… (and) he exiled the leaders of… Israel (12).

2. In order to reach the throne room of the royal citadel, “visitors had to pass through an entrance guarded by monumental limestone figures called Lamassu. Twice as tall as the Hittite lions guarding the gateway at Hattusas, the Lamassu were divine genii combining animal and human features, in this case the body and legs of a bull with a human head. The hair, beard, and eyebrows are stylized. The figure wears the cylindrical, three-horned crown of divinity. As is typical of ancient Near Eastern art, this figure combines naturalism- the suggestion of bone and muscle under the skin- with surface stylization- the zones of patterned texture scattered across the body” (Adams, Art Across Time 69).

3. “The wings draw the eye of the viewer to the side of the Lamassu, a transition unified by the ‘re-use’ of the forelegs in the side view, which essentially creates a ‘fifth leg.’ This striking visual device enhance the architectural function of an entrance, which is to mark a point of access: the Lamassu appears to confront approaching visitors and simultaneously seems to stride past them. By narrowing the space through which visitors must pass, the figure builds up tension as one approaches the king” (69). “Bearing the facial features of the monarch, these colossi united the physical attributes of the bull (virility), the lions (physical strength), and the eagle (predatory agility). The winged, human-headed bulls from the citadel at Khorsabad were power-symbols designed to inspire awe and fear among those who passed beneath their impassive gaze” (Fiero, First Civilizations

N Assyrian reliefs from the palace of Ashurbanipal (Ninevah, Iraq) c. 650 BCEdepiction of a wild beast/ bas relief carving/ demonstration of the king’s power1. As in Egypt, Assyrian lion hunts “were more like ritual combats than actual hunts: the animals were released from cages into a square formed by troops with shields. (At a much earlier time, lion hunting had been an important duty of Mesopotamian rulers as the ‘shepherds’ of the communal flocks.) Here the Assyrian sculptor rises to his greatest heights” (Janson 73). “The wounded animal seems to embody all the dramatic emotion that we miss in the pictorial accounts of war” (73).

2. “In the mid-seventh century BC in what is now Iraq lions were particularly common; Assyrian records claim that ‘the hills resound with their roaring and the wild animals tremble’”

(Caygill 186). These sculptures “record a vanished species; the Mesopotamian lion survived in the nineteenth century AD but is now extinct” (187).

3. “The sculptures, which were originally painted, are largely from various rooms in King Ashurbanipal’s (668-627 BC) North Palace at Nineveh” (186). “Hunting lions was… the symbol of the king’s care for his country” (186). “The king dispatches lion with spear, sword and

O Nebuchadnezzar II of the Neo-Babylonian Empire

1. “At the end of the seventh century BCE, the Medes from western Iran and the Scythians from the frigid regions of modern Russia and Ukraine invaded the northern and eastern parts of Assyria. Meanwhile, under a new royal dynasty, the Babylonians reasserted themselves. This Neo-Babylonian kingdom began attacking Assyrian cities in 615 BCE, an allied army of Medes and Neo-Babylonians captured Nineveh. When the dust settled, Assyria was no more. The Medes controlled a swath of land below the Black and Caspian seas, and the Neo-Babylonians controlled a region that stretched from modern Turkey to northern Arabia and from Mesopotamia to the Mediterranean Sea. The most famous Neo-Babylonian ruler was Nebuchadnezzar II” (Stokstad, Art History 81).

2. “Nebuchadnezzar II (?-562 BCE) was the son and successor of Nabopolassar, the founder of the Neo-Babylonian empire. The greatest king of this dynasty, Nebuchadnezzar pursued a policy of military expansion, which took Babylonian armies into Syria and Palestine and extended the Babylonian empire to the Egyptian border. His conquest of Jerusalem and Judea are described in the Old Testament in the Book of Jeremiah” (Wren 1: 15).

3. “Using the wealth of his empire, which he collected through taxes and tribute, the king financed a series of ambitious projects and transformed Babylon into one of the wonders of the ancient world. He strengthened the old city walls and built new defensive fortifications. He enlarged the old palace… (and) he constructed terraced gardens, which legend referred to as the Hanging Gardens of Babylon. In addition, Nebuchadnezzar completed a five-storied ziggurat, which rose approximately 300 feet high and which some scholars have connected with the Tower of Babel described in the Old Testament in the Book of Genesis” (15).

4. “In the Old Testament in the Book of Daniel, Nebuchadnezzar is described as being punished for his arrogance by suffering from a strange form of madness in which he imagined himself to be a beast. For an interval of four, or perhaps seven, years, Nebuchadnezzar supposedly shunned the splendid city which he had created and led the life of a wild animal” (15).


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P Ishtar Gate (Babylon, Iraq), c. 575 BCENeo-Babylonian Period/ King Nebuchadnezzar/ Ishtar and Tammuz/ bulls, lions, and the muşuşu/ the “hanging gardens”

1. “Among the many architectural monuments Nebuchadnezzar commissioned for his capital city was a ziggurat dedicated to the god Marduk, which is thought to have been the Tower of Babel referred to in the Bible. Another was the Ishtar Gate, one of eight gateways with rounded arches that spanned a processional route through the city. The gate was named in honor of the Akkadian goddess of love, fertility, and war. It was faced (covered on the surface) with glazed bricks. Set off against a deep blue background are rows of bulls and dragons molded in relief” (Adams, Art Across Time 71). “The main gate was decorated with the figures of dragons, the emblem of the god Marduk, in smoothed brick, and bulls, associated with the Adad, the god of storms, on enameled bricks” (Bourbon 195). The lions depicted on the gate are emblems of Ishtar, goddess of war (195).

2. “Glazing is a technique for adding a durable, water-resistant finish to clay objects. Glazes can be clear, white, or colored and are typically made from ground mineral pigments mixed with water. The minerals become vitreous (glass-like) and fuse with the clay bodies of the objects when fired at high temperatures in kilns” (Adams, Art Across Time 71). The consort of Ishtar was Tammuz. Their sacred marriage was performed

at the New Year Festival between the king and a priestess of Ishtar. (Tammuz was a shepherd who eventually became associated with the Greek Adonis.) (Hall 190). “An avenue used for processions… passed beneath the gate of Ishtar, followed the double wall that protected the palace and led into the heart of the city, where it connected the Heragila, a word meaning ‘the high-roofed temple’ or temple of Marduk to the new year temple outside the city walls where celebrations marking the beginning of the year and lasting 12 days took place each spring” (Bourbon 195). “The round arch, as used in the Ishtar Gate, is semicircular and stronger than a horizontal lintel. This is because a round arch carries the thrust of the weight onto the two vertical supports rather than having all the stress rest on the horizontal” (Adams, Art Across Time 71). Babylon is a name which actually means “The Gate of God” (Bourbon

Q Royal Audience Hall (apadana) at Persepolis of Darius I (Iran), c. 500 BCEDarius III and Alexander the Great/ elevation of platform/ apadana with bull capitals/loose groupings of buildings/ satrapies

1. By 480 BCE, the Persians ruled what was then the largest known empire in history. It even included Egypt. They divided this empire into satrapies, or provinces. Each of these was ruled by a governor, or satrap, who was directly responsible to the king (Durant, Our Oriental Heritage 362-3). “In 518 BCE, Darius I (ruled 421-486 BCE), the greatest of the Achaemenid dynasty of ancient Persia (now Iran), began to build a capital at Parsa, or Persepolis, as the Greeks called it…. As we know from inscriptions and accounting records construction there continued for more than two hundred years. In 330 BCE, the armies of Alexander the Great defeated the Persian army and burned Persepolis, although according to Greek historians, the destruction of the city was accidental” (Govignon 66).

2. Persepolis was built and maintained solely for the celebration of the great feast of the Spring equinox. During this feast, the king held court there and received homages and offerings from the high Persian nobility… At the close of the festival, the court returned to the empire’s primary capital at Susa, and Persepolis was deserted until the next spring” (66). “The Persians followed the religious teachings of Zoroaster (c. 628-551 BC), who taught that the world’s two central forces were light and dark: Ahuramazda was light and Ahriman, similar to the Christian concept of evil, was dark. There were no Achaemenid temples, since

religious rituals were held outdoors, where fires burned on altars. The most elaborate Achaemenid architectural works were therefore palaces, of which the best example is at Persepolis” (Adams, Art Across Time 73). “According to Zoroaster, a Last Judgment would consign the wicked to everlasting darkness, while the good would live eternally in an abode of luxury and light- the Persian pairidaeza, from which the English word “paradise” derives. Zoroastrianism came to influence the moral teachings of three great world religions: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam” (Fiero, First Civilizations 56).

3. “The Apadana, built by Darius and completed by Xerxes, was a square hall with 36 columns, three columned porticoes, a series of other rooms on the south side and four corner towers” (Caygill 248). “On a huge terrace cut into the natural rock were a whole series of palaces, columned halls and storerooms, reached by monumental stairways. The stone survives but the rest of the architecture, constructed from mudbrick and wood, has gone. The stairways were carved with reliefs showing the Persian king receiving tribute (248). “Construction was spread out over nearly sixty years, and Darius lived to see the erection of only a treasury, the Apadana (audience hall), and a very small palace for himself. The Apadana, set above the rest of the complex on a second terrace, had open porches on three sides and a square hall large enough to hold several thousand people” (Stokstad, Art History 86-87). “Although they were all executed with a distinctly Persian flavor, the columns reflect design ideas from Mede, Egyptian, and possibly Greek sources. They stood atop bell-shaped bases (foundations) decorated with leaves…. The capitals, the top sections of the columns on which ceiling beams rested, were lavishly decorated with a combination of palm fronds, papyrus flowers, other plant forms, double vertical scrolls, and the heads and forequarters of kneeling creatures placed back to back” (87).

Unit ONE: Egyptian STUDY GUIDE

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A Egyptian Timeline

1. “From approximately 3000 BC, Egypt was ruled by pharaohs, or kings, whose control of the land and its people was virtually absolute. Egyptian monumental art on a vast scale begins with pharaonic rule, originating when King Menes united Upper and Lower Egypt. Much of our knowledge of Egyptian chronology comes from ancient king lists, the most comprehensive of which was compiled in the fourth century BC by a priest, Manetho” (Adams, Art Across Time 77).

2. “His list begins with the legendary reign of the gods, followed by that of the human kings from Menes to Alexander the Great. He divided Egyptian history into thirty dynasties, or royal families (a thirty-first was added later)” (77). “Modern scholars have divided Egyptian history into Predynastic and Early Dynastic periods, followed by Old, Middle, and New Kingdoms, and the Late Dynastic period. These were punctuated by so-called ‘intermediate periods’ of anarchy or central political decline, as well as by periods of foreign domination” (78). “One problem with Manetho’s list has been to identify the sequence of the names. Since Egypt had no absolute system of dating (such as BC/AD), each pharaoh treated the first year of his reign as year one. However, with the help of other king lists, inscriptions naming more than one king, references to astronomical observations which can be precisely dated, and correlations with evidence from outside Egypt, nineteenth- and twentieth-century

B Egyptian Religion

1. “Besides the myths about the creation of the world, which are the source of many symbols in Egyptian art, there are those that tell of the genealogy of the gods, their rivalries and battles. They are distant echoes of real struggles for power between tribal leaders in pre-dynastic times, and generated their won symbolic imagery. Osiris was an early god of fertility and also ruler of the Underworld… He was a former king of Egypt who brought the knowledge of agriculture and wine-making to its people. He was the oldest child of the earth- and sky-gods, Geb and Nut, and the brother of Isis, Seth, Nephthys and Thoth. Isis was both his sister and wife and their son was Horus” (Hall 196).

2. “There are varying accounts of different dates that tell how Osiris was murdered by his brother, the usurper, Seth, who threw his body into the Nile, later dismembered it and scattered the remains throughout the Nile Valley. (This may be an aetiological myth seeking to explain the many cult centers that claimed to possess a relic of the god.) The grieving Isis collected her husband’s remains and, having reassembled them, was successfully inseminated by him and conceived Horus. She is depicted in the form of a kite hovering over the mummified, yet ithyphallic, Osiris. Together with Horus who, like Hamlet, sought revenge for his uncle’s murder of his father, they succeeded in bringing Seth before a tribunal of the gods. Osiris was thereafter king of the Underworld” (196). “From predynastic times, the king of Egypt was, during his lifetime, regarded as a god and was identified with Horus… The successor to the throne, a new Horus, as thus, aptly a divine son of a divine father. Osiris is first represented in the 5 th Dynasty. His body is encased in a mummy’s wrappings, his hands free, holding the royal insignia, the crook and flail. He usually wears the Atef crown. In the Book of the Dead he presides, enthroned, in the Hall of Judgment. As a god of vegetation Osiris, in funerary art, was symbolized by corn. The grains, trodden underfoot by goats or pigs, denoted Seth’s victory; corn sprouting from the supine body of Osiris symbolized his resurrection” (196).

3. “Archaeological evidence suggests that prehistoric Egyptian religion consisted of local gods or cults that were confined to a particular district, or nome. After the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt c. 3000 BC, the importance of these local deities increased or diminished with the military or political fortunes of their districts. For example, the sky god Horus, usually represented as a falcon, was originally a local god who later achieved national status” (Adams, Art Across Time 77). “For the ancient Egyptians, kingship was a divine state. As in Mesopotamia, kings mediated between their people and the gods. In Egypt, however, the kings themselves were considered gods. They ruled according the principle of maat, divinely established order (personified by Maat, the goddess of truth and orderly conduct). From the Third Dynasty, the compound god Amon-Ra, in the guise of the reigning pharaoh, was believed to impregnate the queen with a son who would be heir to the throne” (79). “The strength of the belief that each pharaoh united and so re-created the kingdom is also the kingdom is also shown in the Egyptian calendar. Unlike Christians and Moslems, they had no founders of religion whose birth or death determined the year zero. The Egyptians reset it with every king and started dated from their accession to the throne, fro instance, day three in the 2nd month of the Nile inundation, in the 10th year of government of King X” (Hagen and Hagen, Egypt 42).

4. “At night, Re travels through the kingdom of the dead. Here, planets row the divine barque over the primeval waters Nun, which flow through the underworld. When the barque approaches it becomes light, the dead awake and cheer him, for the sun heralds regeneration and rebirth for them even more strongly than the fertility-god Osiris The ‘tired’ Osiris represents yesterday, but Re is the morrow. All hope to climb into his barque and to ascend with him out of the underworld participating in the journey across the sky. But before that the divine crew must overcome a series of dangers on the journey through the underworld, for Re’s enemy Apophis, a giant dragon-like snake, will try time and time again to capsize their boat, in order to annihilate the gods. This is described in the ‘Books of the Underworld’ in pictures and writing. It is all in vain however, the magic of the gods gathered in the boat proves to be more powerful and Re appears victorious every morning on the eastern horizon, greeted with cheers by baboons. During the nightly struggle with Apophis, his crew of gods stand by Re, with the ibis-headed god of wisdom and the world, Thoth, acting as his herald” (175).

C The Nile River

1. “The Nile was central to ancient Egyptian religious life, and it was addressed as a god by the Egyptian people. In the Egyptian cosmos, the river was the physical and symbolic meeting place of heaven and earth. The elongated river valley, which was the center of the Egyptian world, was in the Egyptian mind likened to a man lying prone on whose back the activities of the day-to-day world took place. The sky was conceived as a sea upon which the sun sailed westward in a bark during the day… The river was regarded as the major arena of divine and human interaction” (Wren 1: 20).

2. “The annual floods deposited a residue of nutrient-rich soil over the fields and made the land fertile. To the Egyptians, therefore, these inundations signified the joy of the gods and their beneficence to humankind. Drought resulted in famine and starvation and was regarded as a sign of the gods’ displeasure” (20).


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D The Palette of King Narmer, c. 3100-3000 BCE, slateunification of Lower and Upper Egypt/ hierarchical proportion/ Horus (a human-armed falcon), Seth, Osiris, and Isis/other representations of the king/ Hathor/ ceremonial use of a utilitarian object

1. “The links between divine and earthly power noted in earlier civilizations reappear in an important Egyptian ritual object, the Palette of Narmer… On both sides, the palette is decorated in low relief. The large scene… is depicted according to certain conventions that lasted for over two thousand years in Egypt. For example King Narmer (thought to be Menes, the first pharaoh) is the biggest figure- his size and central position denote his importance. His composite pose, in which head and legs are rendered in profile view with eye and upper torso in frontal view, is an Egyptian convention. This is a conceptual, rather than a naturalistic, approach to the human figure, for the body parts are arranged as they are understood, and not as they are seen in nature. The entire body is flat, as is the kilt, with certain details such as the knee caps rendered as stylizations, rather than as underlying organic structure” (Adams, Art Across Time 79). “At the top center of each side of the palette is a rectangle known as a serekh. A serekh contained a king’s name in hieroglyphs (pictures symbolizing words that were the earliest Egyptian writing system. On either side of the serekh, frontal heads of the cow goddess Hathor indicate that she guards the king’s palace.” (80) Hathor “was regarded as the divine mother of the pharaoh whom, as a cow, she suckles… She was also goddess of love, music and dancing” (Hall 187).

2. On the front of the palette, “two felines, roped by bearded men, occupy the central register. Their elongated necks frame an indented circle similar to those that held liquid for mixing eye makeup on smaller palettes. This one, however, was found as a dedication in a temple, and is larger than those used in everyday life. Although derived from such palettes, the Palette of Narmer was most likely a ceremonial, rather than a practical, object. It is not certain what the felines, called serpopards, signify, but their intertwined necks could refer to Narmer’s unification of Egypt” (Adams, Art Across Time 80). “Palettes, flat stones with a circular depression on one side, were common utensils of the time. They were used for mixing eye paint. Men and women both painted their eyelids to help prevent infections in the eyes and perhaps to reduce the glare of the sun, much as football players today blacken their cheekbones before a game. The Palette of Narmer has the same form as these common objects but is much larger. It and other large palettes decorated with animals, birds, and occasionally human figures probably had a ceremonial function. King Narmer appears as the main character in the various scenes on the palette. They may commemorate a specific battle, or they may simply make use of established images of conquest to proclaim Narmer as the great unifier” (Stokstad, Art History 96). “Interestingly, the kneeling man that Narmer holds by the hair and prepares to strike with his heavy mace would be very close to the king’s height if he were standing. His size suggests that he may represent Narmer’s counterpart, the conquered ruler of Lower Egypt. Narmer himself wears the White Crown of Upper Egypt, and from his waistband hangs a ceremonial bull’s tail signifying strength. He is barefoot, suggesting that this is not an illustration of an actual military encounter but rather a symbolic representation of a hero’s preordained victory. An attendant standing being Narmer holds his sandals. Above Narmer’s kneeling foe, the god Horus, in the form of a hawk with a human hand, hold a rope tied around the neck of a man’s head next to a few stylized stalks of papyrus, a plant that grew in profusion along the lower Nile. This combination of symbols again makes it clear that Lower Egypt has been tamed. In the bottom register, below Narmer’s feet, two of his enemies appear to be running away, or perhaps they are sprawled on the ground just as they fell when they were killed” (96).

3. “On the other side of the palette, Narmer is shown in the top register wearing the Red Crown of Lower Egypt, making it clear that he now rules both lands. Here his name- the fish and chisel- appears not only in the rectangle at the top but also next to his head. With his sandal bearer again in attendance, he marches behind his minister of state and four men carrying the standards that may symbolize different regions of the country. Before them, under the watchful eye of the hawk Horus, is a gory depiction of the enemy dead. The decapitated bodies of Lower Egyptian warriors have been placed in two neat rows, their heads between their feet” (96-97). “In the bottom register, a bull menaces a fallen foe outside the walls of a fortress. The bull, an animal known for its great strength and virility, is probably meant to symbolize the king. The images carved on the palette are strong and direct, and although scholars disagree about some of their specific meanings, their overall message is simple and clear: a king named Narmer rules over the unified land of Egypt with a strong hand. Narmer’s palette is particularly important because of the way it uses pictographs and symbols, showing much about the development of writing in Egypt. Moreover, it provides very early examples of the quite unusual way Egyptian artists solved the problem of depicting the human form in two-dimensional art such as relief sculpture and painting” (97).

4. “Many of the figures on the palette are shown in poses that would be impossible to assume in real life. By Narmer’s time, Egyptian artists, using the ‘memory image’, had arrived at a unique way of drawing the human figure. The Egyptians’ aim was to represent each part of the body from the most characteristic angle. Heads are shown in profile, to best capture the subject’s identifying features. Eyes, however, are most expressive when seen from the front, so artists rendered the eyes in these profile heads in frontal view. As for the rest of the body, they treated the shoulders as though from the front, but at the waist they twisted the figure drastically to be able to show hips, legs, and feet in profile. If both hands were required in front of a figure, artists routinely lengthened the arm reaching across the body rather than turn the body sideways. Unless the degree of action demanded otherwise, they placed one foot in front of the other on the groundline, showing both from the inside, with high-arched insteps and a single big toe. This artistic tradition, or convention, was followed especially in the depiction of royalty and other dignitaries, and it


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E Mummification and the Afterlife

1. “By c. 3000 BC, the Egyptians had invented a seventy-two-day process of embalming corpses. According to Herodotos, writing in the fifth century BC, the first step was the removal of the internal organs, except for the heart, which was believed to be the seat of understanding and was therefore left intact. The body was then packed in dray natron (a natural compound of sodium carbonate and sodium bicarbonate found in Egypt), which dehydrated the cadaver and dissolved its body fats. Then the corpse was washed, treated with oils and ointments, and bandaged with as many as twenty layers of linen in a way that conformed to its original shape. The substances applied to its skin caused the body to turn black; later travelers took this to mean that the body had been preserved with pitch, for which the Arabic term is mumiya- hence the English terms ‘mummy’ and ‘mummification’” (Adams, Art Across Time 83). “Ornaments placed on the body or inside the wrappings included amulets (charms against evil or injury), scarabs (a representation of a scarab beetle used as a protective device and symbol of the soul) wedjats (Eye of Horus) and djeds (pillars symbolizing stability)” (83).

2. “No less important than preservation of the body was the preservation of the organs which had been removed. These were embalmed and placed in four so-called canopic jars, but the brain was discarded as useless. Each jar held a particular organ and was under the protection of one of the Horus’s four sons. Each son had a characteristic head (man, ape, jackal, and falcon). Until c. 1300 BC the jars had human-headed stoppers, but later they were carved in the form of the head of the relevant protective deity” (83). “For the ancient Egyptians, death was not the end of life but the transition to a similar existence on another plane. To ensure a fortuitous afterlife, the deceased had to be physically preserved along with earthly possessions and other reminders of daily activities… But, in the case the body of the deceased did not last, an image could serve as a substitute. The dead person’s ka, or soul, was believed able to enter the surrogate before journeying to the next world” (81).

3. “The ka was only one aspect of the Egyptian triple concept of the spirit. In its aspect as a ‘double,’ the ka was viewed as the life force that continued after death and permitted the deceased to eat and drink offerings provided by relatives and priests. The akh was more detached from the body than the ka and resided in the heavens as the spiritual transformation of the dead person. The third aspect of the spirit, the ba, was literally in touch with the deceased, and its mobility in

F Imhotep. The Stepped Pyramid of King Djoser (Zoser), c. 2675-2625 BCE, Saqqarathe ka and the ba/ mummification and canopic jars/ scarabs and other amulets/ mastaba and serdab/ necropolis/ stepped pyramid/first known instance of using columns in recorded history- Imhotep/ sed rituals and the priesthood

1. “For his tomb complex at Saqqara, King Djoser (Dynasty 3, ruled c. 2681-2662 BCE) commissioned the earliest known monumental architecture in Egypt. The designer of the complex was a man called Imhotep. His name appears inscribed on the pedestal of Djoser’s ka statue in the serdab of the funerary temple to the north of the tomb. His is thus the first architect in history known by name. Born into a prominent family, Imhotep was highly educated and served as one of Djoser’s chief advisers on affairs of state. It appears that he first planned Djoser’s tomb as a single-story mastaba, then later decided to enlarge

upon the concept. In the end, what he produced was a stepped pyramid consisting of six mastabalike elements of decreasing size placed on top of each other. Although his final structure resembles the ziggurats of Mesopotamia, it differs in both its planned concept and its purpose of protecting a tomb. Djoser’s imposing structure was originally faced with a veneer of limestone. From its top a 92-foot shaft descended to a granite-lined burial vault. The adjacent funerary temple, where priests performed their final rituals before placing the king’s mummified body in its tomb, was also used for continuing worship of the dead king. In the form of his ka statue, Djoser was able to observe these devotions through two peepholes bored through the wall between the serdab and the funerary chapel. To the east of the pyramid were sham buildings- simple masonry shells filled with debris- representing chapels, palaces with courtyards, and other structures. They were provided so that the dead king could continue to observe the sed rituals that had ensured his long reign. His spirit could await the start of the ceremonies in a pavilion near the entrance to the complex in its southeast corner. The running trials of the sed festival took place in a long outdoor courtyard within the complex. After proving himself, the king’s spirit proceeded first to the South Palace then to the North Palace, to be symbolically crowned once again as king of Egypt’s Two Lands” (Stokstad, Art History 99, 101).

2. “Mastabas were customarily constructed of mud brick, but toward the end of Dynasty 3 and more incorporated cut stone… In its simplest form, the mastaba contained a serdab, a small, sealed room housing the ka statue of the deceased, and a chapel designed to receive mourning relatives with their offerings” (99). “The kings of Dynasties 3 and 4 were the first to devote huge sums to the design, construction, and decoration of more extensive aboveground funerary complexes. These structures tended to be grouped together in a necropolis- literally, a city of the dead- at the edge of the desert on the west bank of the Nile” (99).

3. “Situated on a level terrace, this huge commemorative complex… was designed as a sort of miniature replica of the king’s earthly realm. Its enclosing wall, fitted out with fourteen gates, only one of which was actually functional, represented the realm’s boundaries. Inside rose the tomb structure proper, a funerary temple, and other buildings and courtyards for the king’s use in the hereafter” (100). “Imhotep’s architecture employs the most elemental structural techniques and the purest of geometric forms. Although most of the stone wall surfaces were left plain, in some places he made effective use of the columns. Some of these are plain except for fluting, others take the form of stylized plants. The engaged columns spaced along


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G The Great Pyramids at Gizeh, 2600=2475 BCEben-ben /Khufu, Khafre, and Menkaure/ Re/ celestial orientation

1. “Of the eighty-odd pyramids known to exist, the three outstanding examples were built by, and for, three Old Kingdom pharaohs of the Fourth dynasty: the pyramid of Khufu (the largest, known as the Great Pyramid); the pyramid of his son Khafre, 22 feet shorter and 15 percent smaller in volume; and the pyramid of Khare’s son Menkaure, only 10

percent of the size of Khufu’s. All three are near Cairo at Giza, on the west bank of the Nile, facing the direction of sunset (symbolizing death), as was customary… Across the river to the northeast was Helioplolis, the center of the cult associated with the sun god Ra” (Adams, Art Across the Time 86).

2. “Although the Giza monuments have been surrounded by desert since antiquity, recent archaeological excavations suggest that the site was once a river harbor. Each of the pyramids was connected by a causeway (or elevated road) to its own valley temple at the edge of the original flood plain of the Nile. Upon the death of the king, his body was transported across the Nile by boat to the valley temple. It was then carried along the causeway to its own funerary temple, where it was presented with offerings of food and drink, and the Opening of the Mouth ceremony was performed” (86). “Constructing a pyramid was a formidable undertaking. A huge labor force had to be assembled, housed, and fed. Most of the cut stone blocks used in building the Giza complex- each weighing an average of two and a half tons- were quarried either on the site or nearby” (Stokstad, Art History 104). 3. “Finally, the pyramid was surfaced with a casing of pearly white limestone, cut so precisely that the eye could scarcely detect the joints. A few casing stones can still be seen in cap that covers the Pyramid of Khafre” (Kleiner, Mamiya, and Tansey 52). The ancient Egyptians “carefully oriented the pyramids to the points of the compass and may have incorporated other symbolic astronomical calculations as well. These immense monuments reflect not only the desire of a trio of kings to attain immortality but also the strength of the Egyptians’ belief that a deceased ruler continued to affect the well-being of the state and his people from beyond the grave” (Stokstad, Art History 104).

4. In Khufu’s temple, “the burial chamber is near the center of the structure rather than below ground, as in the Step Pyramid of Djoser. This placement was a vain attempt to safeguard the chamber from robbers. According to a recent theory, the three pyramids are arranged in the same formation as the stars in the constellation Orion, which was identified with the god Osiris. The mythical founder of Egypt, Osiris was associated first with the Nile and later with the underworld as the god of fertility, death, and resurrection” (Janson 47). “One of the so-called ‘air-shafts’ in the king’s chamber of the Pyramid of Khufu pointed to the polar stars in the north, which are always visible; in ancient times the other lined up with Orion when it was visible in the southern sky after an absence of some two months. The shaft thus served as a kind of ‘escape hatch’ that allowed the pharaoh to take his place as a star in the cosmos. Another hidden shaft in the queen’s chamber was aligned with the star of Isis (Sirius). It seems to have been used in the ritual of fertilization and rebirth described in the Egyptian Book of the Dead” (47-48). “Clustered about the three great pyramids are several smaller ones and a large number of mastabas for members of the royal family and high

H The Great Sphinx (Gizeh), c. 2575-2525 BCE, sandstoneimage of absolute kingship/ eternal guardian (tutelary)/ association of the nose with the life force

1. “As was the custom, Khafre commissioned various stone portraits of himself to perpetuate his memory for all time… The Great Sphinx, a colossal monument some 65 feet tall standing just behind the valley

temple, combines his head with the long body of a crouching lion” (Stokstad, Art History 104). “Lions were particularly appropriate as guardians because they were thought to be watchful and to sleep with their eyes open. They were also associated with the sun as the eye of heaven… It also faces the rising sun, which reinforces its association with the pharaoh. Surrounding the sphinx’s head is the trapezoidal pharaonic headcloth (the nemes headcloth) that fills up the naturally open space above the shoulders and enhances the sculpture’s monumentality” (Adams, Art Across Time 88).

2. “Hollow sections inside the statue have been detected but are as yet still uninvestigated” (Hagen and Hagen, Egypt 36). “Several times over the past millennia sand has practically buried the giant sculpture, leaving only the head sticking out. And at least twice during the time of the pharaohs it was dug out on divine instruction. The gods delivered their instructions through princes, who were assured of pharaoh status if they uncovered the Sphinx” (36). “The oldest sphinxes are Egyptian” (Hall 47). They represent “superhuman power” (47). “The sphinx is first seen in the Near East on Assyrian cylinder seals” (47).

Imhotep. The Stepped Pyramid of King Djoser (Zoser), c. 2675-2625 BCE, Saqqara (CONTINUED)

4. “Stylized papyrus blossoms serve as their capitals. These columns may have been patterned after the bundled papyrus stalks early Egyptian builders used to reinforce mud walls and symbolized Lower Egypt. By contrast, the architectural decorations of the South Palace featured plants symbolic of Upper Egypt, the flowering sedge and the lotus” (101-2).

5. The base of Djoser’s pyramid “is right-angled but not completely square, as the later pyramids were” (Hagen and Hagen, Egypt 26). “The funerary complex of King Djoser, the founder of the Third Dynasty, was also planned as a mastaba, but it was the first to be built of stone and raised in a step-like structure. Its final height was 60 meters. The result was a stepped pyramid, on an almost square ground plan. The Step Pyramid was surrounded by various cult buildings and the complex as a whole was encompassed by a 10-meter high wall. It was then the biggest funerary complex ever to have been built” (29). “Imhotep was still revered right up to the New Kingdom, being regarded as the son of the god Ptah, the lord of all builders” (29).


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I Khafre (Gizeh), c. 2575-2525 BCE, dioritepermanence of material/ intertwined lotus and papyrus/ Old Kingdom kilt/ canon of ideal proportions/ “block-like” characteristics/ subtractive method of carving

1. “An over-lifesized diorite statue of Khafre illustrates the conventional representation of a seated pharaoh… The sculptor began with a rectangular block of stone to which the planes of the figure still conform” (Adams, Art Across Time 88). “The standing lions carved on Khafre’s throne are the king’s guardians, and images of regal power in their own right. Horus, who protects the back of Khafre’s head, was the son of Isis, a mother goddess called the ‘Pharaoh’s throne.’ Both gods reinforce Khafre’s divine right of kingship. The association of a ruler and his throne is reflected in modern usage when we refer to the ‘seat of power’” (89). “The pharaoh was often equated with Horus as the son of Osiris and Isis” (Janson 49).

2. “As was the custom, Khafre commissioned various stone portraits of himself to perpetuate his memory for all time. In his roughly lifesize ka statue, discovered inside his valley temple, he was portrayed as an enthroned king…. Khafre sits erect on a simple but elegant throne. Horus perches on the back of the throne, protectively enfolding the king’s head with his wings. Lions- symbols of regal authority- form the throne’s sides, and the intertwined lotus and papyrus plants beneath the seat symbolize the king’s power over Upper and Lower Egypt. Khafre wears the traditional royal costume: a short kilt, a linen headdress with uraeus, the cobra symbol of Ra, and a false beard symbolic of royalty. Viewed from the front, the vertical lines of the legs, torso, and upper arms convey a strong sense of dignity, calm, and above all permanence. The statue was carved in diorite, a stone chosen for its great durability, and the figure’s compactness- the arms pressed tight to the body, and the body firmly anchored in the block- ensured that the image would provide an alternative home for the king’s ka for eternity” (Stokstad, Art History 104).

“When carving such a statue, Egyptian sculptors approached each face of the block as though they were simply carving a relief. In one the figure would be seen straight on from the front, in the others from the side or the back. Carving deeper and deeper, they finally ended up with a three-dimensional figure, and all that remained was to refine its forms and work up its surface details” (104). “Here the ‘cubic’ view of the human form appears in full force. After marking the effaces of the block with a grid, the sculptor drew the front, top, and side views of the statue, then worked inward until these views met. This approach encouraged the development of the systematic proportions used in representing the pharaoh. In fact, the canon of forms can be readily deduced, so standardized did it become, though it varied somewhat over time. The grid system and carving techniques used in Egyptian sculpture were not very different from those of the pyramids at Giza. The result is a figure almost overwhelming in its firmness and immobility. Truly it is a fitting vessel for the spirit! The body, at once powerful yet idealized, is completely impersonal. Only the face suggests some individual traits” (Janson 49). “Statues made for use in Old Kingdom tombs underwent a magical ritual on completion which imbued them with the spirit of the dead person represented” (Lucie-Smith, Art and Civilization 36).

J Seated scribe (Saqqara), c.2450-2350 BCE, painted limestoneuse of increased realism in subordinate figures/ accounts by Herodotus

1. “Egyptian scribes began training in childhood. Theirs was a strenuously guarded profession, its skills generally passed down from father to son. Some girls learned to read and write, and although careers as scribes seem generally to have been closed to them, there is a Middle Kingdom word for female scribe. Would-be scribes were required to learn not only reading and writing but also arithmetic, algebra, religion, and law. The studies were demanding, but the rewards

were great. An observation found in an exercise tablet, probably copied from a book of instruction, offers encouragement: ‘Become a scribe so that your limbs remain smooth and your hands soft, and you can wear white and walk like a man of standing whom [even] courtiers will greet.’ A high-ranking scribe with a reputation as a great scholar could hope to be appointed to one of several ‘houses of life,’ where lay and priestly scribes copied, complied, studied, and repaired valuable sacred and scientific texts. Completed texts were placed in related institutions called ‘houses of books,’ some of the earliest known libraries” (Stokstad, Art History 107).

2. “The inset blue eyes, which have lent the man a lively expression over so many thousands of years, are made of copper, rock crystal, and magnesite” (Bartz and Konig 124). “The ‘scribe’ has only recently been dated as originating from the time of the pyramids, after people had for a long time placed him in the 5th dynasty and the rise of government officials within the Old Kingdom at that time. This statue is the most impressive of the many figures from Ancient Egypt who bring home just what an outstanding ability a knowledge of writing was in this early culture… This scribe determined how people were portrayed in Ancient Egypt for generations” (124). The scribe’s statue is “not a true portrait. Rather, it is a composite of conventional types. In fact, the face’s sunken cheeks are difficult to reconcile with the flabby body. Nonetheless, these realistic touches were unthinkable in a pharaonic statue” (Kleiner, Mamiya, and Tansey 56).

3. “The name of the sitter (in whose tomb at Saqqara the statue was found) is unknown, but we must not think of him as a secretary waiting to take dictation. Rather, he was a high court official, a ‘master of sacred- and secret- letters’. The solid, incisive treatment of form bespeaks the dignity of his station, which at first seems to have been restricted to the sons of pharaohs. Our example stands out for the vividly alert expression of the face and for the individual handling of the torso, which records the somewhat flabby body of a man past middle age” (Janson 50).


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L Relief of Hesire (Saqqara), c. 2675-2625 BCE, woodhieroglyphics and the Rosetta Stone/ Jean-Francois Champollion/ conceptual vs. optical approach/ twisting perspective and the use of a grid

1. “Canons of proportion are commonly accepted guidelines for depicting the ideal human figure by specifying the relationships of the parts of the body to one another and to the whole. They vary from culture to culture and have evolved over time. The canons followed by Egyptian artists changed only slightly from the Old to the New Kingdom, a reflection of the unusual stability of ancient Egypt” (Adams, Art Across Time 89). “The surface for the relief or painting is divided into a grid of squares, each equivalent to the width of the figure’s fist. The distance from the hairline to the ground is eighteen fists, from the base of the nose to the shoulder one fist, and from the fingers of a clenched fist to the elbow 4 1/2 fists. The length of a foot (heel to toe) is 3 1/2 fists”

(89). “Note the characteristic way of depicting the human body: the shoulders and the one visible eye are frontal; the head, arms, and legs are shown in profile, while the waist is nearly in profile but is turned sufficiently to show the navel. One purpose of this system was to arrive at a conventional, instantly recognizable image. The persistence of such canons contributed to the continuity of Egyptian style over a two-thousand-year period” (89).

2. “The beauty of the style we saw in the Narmer palette did not develop fully until about five centuries later, during the Third Dynasty, and especially under the reign of King Djoser, its greatest figure. From the Tomb of Hesy-ra, one of Djoser’s high officials, comes the masterly wooden relief showing the deceased with the emblems of his rank, including writing materials, since the position of scribe was highly honored. The view of the figure matches that of Narmer on the palette, but the proportions are far more balanced and harmonious. The carving of the physical details shows keen observation as well as great delicacy of touch” (Janson 45). “The name and title of a person was considered to be as much a part of the individual as their soul and shadow. They could not be missing from any representation in the tomb or temple” (Hagen and Hagen, Egypt 100). The hieroglyphics above this relief identify the figure as “Hesyra” and “Head of the Royal Scribes” (100). “The name was regarded as part of the personality- without it there was no individuality and no magical revival. For the Egyptians, the entire universe was full of magic forces and naturally this played a major part in creating works of art. When craftsmen were working, they recited magic formulae, which- together with their expert skills- were passed down from father to son” (100).

K Egyptian Hieroglyphics and the Rosetta Stone1. “By around 3100 BC the Egyptians were using a form of picture-writing known as hieroglyphic (from the Greek hieros, or ‘sacred,’ and glypho, ‘I carve’)… This method of writing was slow, so for everyday purposes the Egyptians developed a faster system, an abridged form of hieroglyphic called hieratic” (Adams, Art Across Time 82). “In the seventh century BC a simpler form of writing known as demotic (because it was used by the ordinary people, demos in Greek) became the standard for all but religious texts. These three systems- hieroglyphic, hieratic, and demotic – remained in use until the Christian era when they were replaced by Coptic, which was composed of Greek letters and supplemented by seven demotic signs. From the fifth century AD to 1822, reading ancient Egyptian scripts was a lost art” (82).

2. “In 1799, soldiers of Napoleon’s French Expeditionary Force, working on fortifications at the village of Rashid (called Rosetta by Europeans) in the Western Delta, discovered a slab of black basalt- the Rosetta Stone- built into an old wall. The importance of the Rosetta Stone lay in its three separate inscriptions, each a version of the same text in a different script and two languages- hieroglyphics, demotic, and Greek. The Greek version was soon translated and found to be a decree passed by a council of Egyptian priests in honor of the first anniversary of the coronation of the pharaoh Ptolemy V Epiphanes (205-180 BCE)” (82). “Primary credit for the decipherment of the Rosetta Stone goes to Jean-Francois Champollion (1790-1832), a young French scholar who realized that hieroglyphs could be divided into two categories: ideograms, which recorded an idea pictorially, and phonograms, which denoted sounds representing one or more consonants (The Egyptian script had no vowels), independent of their meaning. Some hieroglyphs could be either ideograms or phonograms, depending on their context… Once the Egyptian text on the Rosetta Stone was deciphered, the meaning of thousands of preserved Egyptian texts became available for study” (82).

3. “Hieroglyphs are pictorial signs of two types: signs that represent sounds, like the letters of the alphabet, or parts of words and signs that represent objects and ideas. The oldest surviving hieroglyphic texts date to c. 3200 BC. The signs are incised or painted on ivory labels and pottery vessels, imprinted on jars with cylinder seals or carved on ceremonial palettes. They record names, especially those of the kings, which were written in a serekh (rectangular panel with niched section). The motif of niched walls and the use of cylinder seals derive from Meospotamia, where it is thought the idea of writing originated. The hieroglyphic script had a religious significance and was designed for lasting inscriptions on wood, ivory and particularly on stone. Hieroglyphic texts are usually read from the direction towards which the animal or human figures are looking. Hieroglyphs were in use until the end of the fourth century AD. The last known hieroglyphic inscription, on the island of Philae, dates to 394 AD” (Caygill 116).

4. “In addition to hieroglyphs the Egyptians employed two other scripts, both descended from hieroglyphs, called by the Greeks hieratic (priestly writing) and demotic (people’s writing). In contrast to hieroglyphs, which could be written in either direction, hieratic and demotic were always written from right to left, usually in ink on papyrus, potsherd or limestone flake with a rush brush. Hieratic at first differed from hieroglyphs only because it was written with a rush brush instead of a pointed tool. Sporadic examples on stone are known from the first three dynasties. The oldest texts on papyrus still in existence are administrative documents of c. 2500 BC. By the Eleventh Dynasty hieratic had developed into a much more distinctive and cursive script and texts were usually written in vertical columns. During the Twelfth Dynasty scribes began to write texts in horizontal lines, a practice which encouraged hieratic to become


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M Rock cut Tombs (Beni Hasan), c. 2000-1900 BCEconstant threats to power/ greater focus of interior of tombs/ sarcophagi/ fluted columns and a portico

1. “Tomb art reveals much about domestic life in the Middle Kingdom. Wall paintings, reliefs, and even small models of houses and farm buildings complete with figurines of workers and animals reproduce everyday scenes on the estates of the deceased. Many of these models survive because they were made of inexpensive materials of no interest to early grave robbers” (Stokstad, Art History 109).“During Dynasties 11 and 12, members of the nobility and high-level officials frequently commissioned rock-cut tombs- burial places hollowed out of the faces of cliffs- such as those in the necropolis at Beni Hasan on the east bank of the Nile. The various chambers of such tombs and their ornamental columns, lintels, false doors, and niches were all carved out of solid rock. Each one was therefore like a single, complex piece of sculpture, attesting to the great skill of their designers and carvers. A typical Beni Hasan tomb included an entrance portico, a main hall, and a small burial chamber set back in its farthest recesses. The hall might be quite large, with slightly vaulted ceilings and rows of freestanding papyrus-style columns” (110-111). “The walls of rock-cut tombs were commonly ornamented with painted scenes. Relief decorations were rare. Among the best-preserved paintings at Beni Hasan are those in the Dynasty 12 tomb of the local lord of life on his farms” (111).

2. “Monumental architecture continued in the Middle Kingdom, though much of it was destroyed by the New Kingdom pharaohs for use in their own colossal building projects. Besides pharaohs’ pyramids, a new form of tomb was introduced. This was rock-cut architecture, in which the sides of cliffs were excavated to create artificial cave-chambers. Rock-cut tombs became popular with aristocrats and high-level bureaucrats in the Eleventh and Twelfth Dynasties, and then, in the New Kingdom, with the rulers themselves” (Adams, Art Across Time 92). N The Ankh and the Djed Pillar

1. The ankh, the Egyptian hierogylph for life, was “possibly originally a representation of a sandal strip. As a symbol it denotes eternal life and when held to the nose of a dead pharaoh ensures his everlasting existence. It is held by many deities, in particular, Atum, the sun-god of Heliopolis, and (when seated) Sekhmet, the lion-headed war-goddess of Memphis” (Hall 1).

2. “The origin of the Egyptian djed pillar is uncertain but may have been connected with prehistoric harvest rites. In funerary painting at Saqqara they support the heavens, marking the limits of the pharaoh’s earthly realm beneath. In the New Kingdom the djed became a symbol of Osiris. It was used in his rites and was called his ‘backbone.’ The columns of the Egyptian temple represent papyrus, lotus, and palm, which support the vault of heaven, which is painted with stars and sacred birds” (Hall 77).

O Senmut. Mortuary Temple of Queen Hatshepsut (Deir-el Bahri), c. 1473-1458 BCEinvasion of the Hyksos/ Senmut/ Queen Hatshepsut/ mortuary temple’s relationship to its backdrop/ colonnades/ Thutmose III

1. “After the instability of the Second Intermediate Period, during which the so-called Hyksos invasion occurred, Egypt once again recovered its political equilibrium. The pharaohs of the New Kingdom re-established control of the entire country and reasserted their power” (Adams, Art Across Time 95). Thutmose I (reigned c. 1504-1492 BCE) was the first Egyptian pharaoh buried in a rock-cut tomb carved out of a cliff face in the Valley of the Kings, which is across the Nile from Luxor and Karnak” (97). “The Eighteenth Dynasty is also notable for its female pharaoh, Hatshepsut (reigned c. 1479-1458 BCE). She was the wife and half-sister of Thutmose I’s son, Thutmose II. When Thutmose II died, his son by a minor queen, Thutmose III, was under age. Around 1479 BCE Hatshepsut became regent for her stepson/nephew, but exerted her right to succeed her father and was crowned King of Egypt in 1473 BCE. Although female rulers of Egypt were not unprecedented, Hatshepsut’s assumption of specifically male aspects of her office- such as the title of king- was a departure from tradition. Despite her successor’s attempts to obliterate her monuments, many of them survive to document her productive reign” (97).

2. “The main architectural innovation of Hatshepsut’s reign was the terraced mortuary temple at Deir el-Bahri. The primary function of the Egyptian mortuary temple, which was usually constructed from a pylon plan, was twofold: first, to worship the king’s patron deity during his lifetime, and, second, to worship the king himself after his death. The function of the Deir el-Bahri complex as a mortuary temple for both Hatshepsut and her father reinforced her image as her successor. At the same time, the major deities Amon, Hathor, and Anubis were worshiped in shrines within the temple complex. On the exterior, terraces with rectangular supports and polygonal columns impressively with the vast rocky site” (98). “Hatshepsut’s architect Senenmut was the main artistic force behind the temple and its decoration. His special status is reflected in the fact that his tomb, which was never completed, was begun inside the royal religious complex, and its unfinished ceiling was decorated with texts usually reserved for a pharaoh’s burial. Senenmut’s contribution to the artistic renewal under Hatshepsut is evident in a series of characteristic self-portraits. These show him kneeling in prayer to Amon and were located in the temple behind doors to the chapels and niches for statues. When the doors were opened during religious rites, the figures of Senemut became visible” (98-99).


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Senmut. Mortuary Temple of Queen Hatshepsut (Deir-el Bahri), c. 1473-1458 BCE (CONTINUED)

3. “The structure was not intended to be her tomb; Hatshepsut was to be buried, like other New Kingdom rulers, in a necropolis known as the Valley of the Kings, about half a mile to the northwest. Her funerary temple was magnificently positioned against high cliffs and oriented toward the Great Temple of Amun at Karnak, some miles away on the east bank on the Nile. The complex follows an axial plan- that is, all of its separate elements are symmetrically arranged along a dominant center line. An elevated causeway lined with sphinxes once ran from a valley temple on the Nile, since destroyed, to the first level of the complex, a huge open space before a long row of columns, or colonnade. From there, the visitor ascended a long, straight ramp flanked by pools of water to the second level. At the ends of the columned porticos on this level were shrines to Anubis and Hathor. Relief scenes and inscriptions in the south portico relate that Hatshepsut sent a fleet of ships to Punt, an exotic, half-legendary kingdom probably located on the Red Sea or the Gulf of Aden, to bring back rare myrrh trees for the temple’s terraces” (Stokstad, Art History 117-8). “The

uppermost level consisted of another colonnade fronted by colossal royal statues, and behind this a large hypostyle hall with chapels to Hatshepsut, her father, and the gods Amun and RaHorakhty- the power of the sun at dawn and dusk. Centered in the hall’s back wall was the entrance to the temple’s innermost sanctuary. This small chamber was cut deep into the cliff in the manner of Middle Kingdom rock-cut tombs” (118). “At the end of Hatshepsut’s reign, Thutmose III, then in his late twenties, finally assumed sole power (c. 1458 BCE). He demolished the images and cartouches of Hatshepsut and emphasized his own role as the successor of his father, Hatshepsut’s brother/spouse Thutmose II. Whereas Hatshepsut’s reign had been notable for diplomatic missions, Thutmose III became a great conqueror, gaining control of Nubia and invading the Near East” (Adams, Art Across Time 99).

4. “Hatshepsut reigned like a man- ‘twenty-one years and nine months’, noted the Egyptian historian Manetho, and we can take his calculation as correct. If Hatshepsut had been born male, the power would have been handed to her on a plate, because she was a princess, the only ‘legitimate’ daughter of Tuthmosis I, second pharaoh of the 18 th Dynasty, and his ‘Great Royal Wife’. However, women in Egypt were excluded from the succession to the throne and Hatshepsut was married, as was the custom to her half-brother, a son of the king and a concubine, who then ascended the throne as Tuthmosis II. After his early death, his eight-year-old son, again by a concubine, was named successor. Hatshepsut herself had only borne him a daughter, Neferura. Hatshepsut should have taken over as regent for this half-nephew, but instead of staying in the background,, like other female Egyptian regents, and ceding power when he came of age, she pushed him aside. In 1490 BC, in the seventh year of Tuthmosis III’s nominal reign, she proclaimed herself ruler. Pharaoh Hatshepsut proclaimed: ‘I myself am a God. That which happens, is meant. Nothing I say is erroneous’. Her coup d’etat was supported by important administrative officials at court, who were engaged in a power struggle against the military. The army had achieved great influence under Hatshepsut’s father, through their victory over the Hyksos, the enemy occupying northern Egypt. The military wanted the fight to go on, favoring a policy of conquest; the officials on the other hand pleaded to stay within the traditional borders. Hatshepsut sided with the officials and demanded that the destroyed country be rebuilt. When, after Hatshepsut had ruled alone for about twenty years, another enemy, the Mitanni people, threatened Egypt, Tuthmosis III, who had been pushed aside (but not assassinated), made himself head of the army, demanding sole power. The queen disappeared, possibly killed. Her tomb in the Valley of the Kings remained empty, and her mummy was never found. Her successor obliterated the name of Hatshepsut from stelae and temple walls, defaced her features, and destroyed or renamed the statues. He did not do this because he hated Hatshepsut, but because in Egypt a female pharaoh did not fit in with the ‘natural’ world order” (Hagen and Hagen, Egypt 122-123).

5. “From the moment she seized power, Hatshepsut had herself depicted in an emphatically masculine form, with a naked male upper torso, short kilt and royal beard. However, all the statues show female features, a tapering face, slightly full lips, and almond-shaped eyes. The attractive face of the ruler served as a model for the sculptors of the kingdom, most statues of the epoch looking like her. The queen influenced formative style, just as Akhenaten did later, and used art as a means of power to emphasize her calm to the throne and her legitimacy. A succession of (unfortunately badly preserved) reliefs demonstrates how Amun himself came to resemble Hatshepsut’s mother, the Great Royal Wife, bearing her features. The queen could be distinguished from the god only by his fragrance of incense, which soon pervaded her body too. Sexual relations were discreetly hinted at with both of them sitting next to each other on a bed. Further reliefs celebrate the ruler’s great deeds: manufacturing, transporting and setting up two obelisks at Karnak (one is still standing, the other lying there) or a reconnaissance and trade expedition, which in the eighth year ventured to far-away Punt, because Amun longed for his favorite fragrance from the far-off country. This was a land on the African shore of the Red Sea, perhaps in present-day Eritrea. From there, incense trees were brought in tubs, kept damp on the way and probably planted in front of the temples of Deir el-Bahari” (124). “Today we can see the queen’s importance and power of all in her ‘House of a Million Years’. This mortuary temple of Deir el-Bahari in western Thebes is dedicated to the gods Amun, Hathor and Anubis. In a wide rock basin facing east, surrounded by an impressive sand and stone desert, it stands, half set into the mountain. The central axis of Hatshepsut’s temple is aligned with the temple of Amun at Karnak, an ideal straight line leading through the mountain directly to her tomb in the Valley of the Kings. But above all it stands as an immense demonstration of Hatshepsut’s own might. With the triumphal avenue of sphinxes- imitated by many successors- the temple made an ideal setting for the ceremonies of a female ruler stressing her legitimacy. Almost immediately after her takeover, Hatshepsut began building. Her master builder was called Senenmut, and he left many hidden traces of himself in the temples: portraits, statues and inscriptions with his name. Senenmut was an efficient overseer, devoted to the queen and probably her lover. As a special sign of favor, he was given permission to have a secret tomb built under the temple of Deir el-Bahari. But for a thousand years fate separated the servant from his mistress, their names were removed, their facial features chiseled out, and they were not to be able to see, hear, smell, breathe, or speak, even in death. For more than three centuries this ’damnatio memoriae’, condemning to oblivion, remained in effect. Not until our century did Egyptologists re-discover


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P Temple of Ramses II (Abu Simbel), c. 1290-1224 BCEfigures of king outside the temple/ figures of king inside the temple (atlantids) and sunken reliefs/ façade/ corridor axis

1. “At the time of Ramesses II (ruled c. 1279-1212 BCE), whom some believe to be the ‘pharaoh’ of the biblical story of Moses and the Exodus, Egypt was a might empire. Ramesses was a bold military commander and an effective political strategist. In about 1263 BCE he secured a peace agreement with the Hittites, a rival power centered in Anatolia that had tried to expand its borders to the west and south at the Egyptians’ expense. He reaffirmed that agreement a little over a decade later by marrying a Hittite princess” (Stokstad, Art History 118). “In the course of his long and prosperous reign, Ramesses II initiated building projects on a scale rivaling the Old Kingdom pyramids at Giza. The most awe-inspiring of his many architectural monuments is found at Abu Simbel in Nubia, Egypt’s southernmost region. There Ramesses ordered the construction of two temples, a large one to himself and a smaller one to his chief wife, Nefertari” (118). “Like Hatshepsut’s funerary temple at Deir el-Bahri, the monumental grandeur of the king’s temple communicates to the viewer a sense of unlimited majesty. It was carved out of the

face of a cliff in the manner of a rock-cut tomb but far surpasses earlier temples created in this way. Its dominant feature is a row of four colossal seated statues of the king, each more than 65 feet tall. Large figures of Nefertari and other family members stand next to his feet, but they seem mere dolls by comparison, since they do not even reach the height of the king’s giant stone knees” (118).

2. “The interior of the temple stretches back some 160 feet and was oriented in such a way that on the most important day of the Egyptian calendar the first rays of the rising sun shot through its entire depth to illuminate a row of four statues- the king and the gods Amun, Ptah, and Ra-Horakhty- placed against the back wall. The front of the smaller nearby temple to Nefetari is adorned with six statues 33 feet tall, two of the queen wearing headdress of Hathor, and four of her husband” (118-9). “These two temples are no longer in their original location. That site was inundated as the result of the construction of the Aswan High Dam in the 1960s. An international campaign to salvage these monuments raised large sums of money, and astute engineers found a way to move the temples to a spot some 215 feet higher and 690 feet farther back from the river. The façade sculpture and the inner temple walls were cut into blocks and reassembled against artificial cliffs” (118). A famous “bas-relief showing Ramses II in his war chariot during the battle of Qadesh is on one of the walls of the portico. The bow and the arms of pharaoh, shown as he fires at his Hittite enemies, appear to be doubled, as if the artist had second thoughts and covered his first version with a layer of plaster, now lost” (Bourbon 135). “The portico … is 60 feet long and decorated with eight Osiric pillars, about 30 feet high, showing Ramses II in the form of Osiris” (134).

3. “There are various inscriptions on the surrounding rock, including one that tells the story of the marriage of Ramses II with a Hittite princess. Above the main entrance to the temple is an image of Ra-Harakhti, sculpted in strong high-relief. The god is shown walking, from the front, with his arms by his sides. His right hand is resting on a scepter-user, his left on an image of Maat, the goddess of justice. The presence of these two elements leads to a secondary interpretation of the entire composition that, interpreted as a rebus, makes it meaning to be ‘Powerful in justice is Ra.’ The fact that the sculpture can be interpreted as an effigy of Ra or as the name of Ramses II is extremely significant, and forms part of the attempt at self-glorification which is a constant feature of this ruler’s reign, and finds its most complete manifestation here at Abu Simbel. On either side of the image of Ra-Harakhti are two other figures of Ramses II in an attitude of adoration. The entire composition can therefore be interpreted as a scene in which the sovereign pays homage to Ra –Harakhti and, at the same time, honors his own name. The Greater Temple is designed in such a way that all the major divisions of the classical Egyptian sanctuary are incorporated within a structure completely dug out from the rock. For instance, the first hall is decorated like the courtyard of a temple by means of the pillars supporting imposing figures of the ruler, in a standing position with his arms folded over his chest” (137-139).

4. “The temple was designed so that on 21 October, the anniversary of Ramesses’ coronation as pharaoh of Egypt, and again on 21 February, Ramesses’ birthday, the rays of the rising sun would penetrate the whole length of the temple and light up the streets of Ramesses and the god Amun carved into the back wall of the innermost chamber” (Jessop 11). “The temples of ancient Egypt were houses for the gods, who were represented as statues. Gods were believed to have the same needs as humans, and it was the duty of the temple priests to serve these needs. Every morning the priests would wash, dress and offer food to the small image to the temple god… No crowd of worshippers gathered here; only temple priests at this outpost. In fact, there is no evidence that Ramesses himself ever visited Abu Simbel” (Jessop 12).

5. Ramessess “was a master of self-portrayal, of propaganda, not only through buildings, but also in texts. An example: In the famous battle of Kadesh (south of Beirut) he walked into a trap set by the king of the Hittites, his army was beaten and he himself only just escaped death or dishonorable imprisonment. However, on the temple walls at Luxor, the near-catastrophe is made into an act of heroism: ‘his majesty slaughtered the armed forces of the Hittites in their entirety, their great rulers and all their brothers… their infantry and chariot troops fell prostrate, one on top of the other. His majesty killed them… and they lay stretched out in front of their horses. But his majesty was alone, nobody accompanied him…’ Contrary to all tradition, the war report contains a reprimand. It is addressed to any commander who had given the king false information about the enemy, and presumably served to disempower officers who were anti-peace. For peace was the king’s aim. His predecessors had extended Egypt’s sphere of influence again, so that it now stretched from the Turkish border far past Nubia. Ramesses wanted to secure the borders, then live in peace having reduced military expenditure. During his reign Egypt flourished for one last time. By glorifying himself with the buildings he commissioned, internal order was also maintained- the king was omnipresent” (Hagen and Hagen, Egypt 50). “To leave a record of his


35

Q Temple at Luxor, c. 1290-1224 BCEpylon/ hypostyle hall and clerestory windows

1. “As durable and impressive as the tombs, Egyptian temples provided another way of establishing the worshiper’s relationship with the gods. The first known Egyptian temples in the Neolithic period were in the form of huts preceded by a forecourt. From the time of Menes at the beginning of the dynastic period, a courtyard, hallway, and inner sanctuary were added. The columned hallway, called a hypostyle (from the Greek hupo, meaning ‘under,’ and stulos, ‘pillar’),… was constructed in the post-and-lintel system of elevation and had two rows of tall central columns flanked by rows of shorter columns on either side” (Adams, Art Across Time 95). “The standard Egyptian temple, called a pylon temple after the two massive sloping towers (pylons) flanking the entrance, was designed symmetrically along a single axis” (95). As worshipers moved from the bright outdoors towards the dark inner sanctuary, they were confronted by “two rows of gods in animal form facing each other. At the end of the row were two obelisks (tall, tapering, four-sided pillars ending in a pointed tip called a pyramidion) and two colossal statues of pharaohs” (96). “The obelisks were derived from the sacred benben-stone worshiped as a manifestation of Amon at Heliopolis. At dawn, the rays of the rising sun caught the benben-stone before anything else, and the stone was thus believed to be the god’s dwelling place. The obelisks flanking the pylon entrance were arranged in relation to the positions of the sun and moon and, like the pyramids, were probably capped in gold” (96).

2. “From the courtyard, the worshiper entered the hypostyle hall, its massive columns casting shadows and creating an awe-inspiring atmosphere. The upper, or clerestory, windows let in small amounts of light that enhanced the effect of the shadows. Most people never entered the temples, but watched from the outside the processions for which the temples were planned. The elite were allowed to enter the courtyards, while the priests carried the images of the gods in

and out of the innermost sanctuaries in boat-shaped shrines called barks. The transitional quality of this architecture is carefully designed to evoke a feeling of a mysterious enclosure, a space implicitly inhabited by pharaohs and gods” (96). “The New Kingdom temple of Amon-Mut-Khonsu at Luxor is dedicated to a triad of gods. This triad was worshiped at the New Kingdom capital city of Thebes and its importance steadily increased. The plan of the temple shows that the hut and courtyard of the Neolithic era had developed by this date into a much more elaborate structure. At the far end of the sanctuary- the ‘holy of holies’- a small central room with four columns shown at the far left of the plan. Many pharaohs contributed to the construction of this temple, each adding to its complexity. Later, Alexander the Great and the Romans made further additions” (96).

3. “Ancient Egyptian temples were considered microcosm of the universe, and as such they contained both earthly and celestial symbolism. Column designs were derived from the vegetation of Egypt and represented the earth. In the temple of Amon-Mut-Khonsu, for example, the original ceiling was painted blue and decorated with birds and stars

denoting its symbolic role as the heavenly realm” (96). French philosopher and Egyptologist R. A. Schwaller de Lubicz (1887-1961) “spent decades of his life at the site of the Temple of Luxor, primarily because he considered it the apex of Egyptian symbolism… The Egyptians assigned body parts to the twelve signs of the zodiac, and the proportions of their architecture reverberated with the human figure. Schwaller de Lubicz related the plan of the Temple of Luxor to a human figure. He believed that astrology was the determining factor in the construction of Egyptian temples. Schwaller de Lubicz related the organs of the body, the parts of the temple and the phases of history, and considered the whole of Egyptian civilization as a dance through four millennia. He regarded Luxor a perfect example of the symbolic in Egypt, a vast stone monument which expresses the totality of their wisdom” (Mann 108-109).

4. “The great anomaly of Luxor is the divergence of axes of the sequence of buildings. The shifts in axis at Luxor reflect the changing angle of the Pole Star throughout the hundreds of years of its construction. As each section of the temple was designed and built, the axis shifted, requiring a new alignment so that the rising sun would shine through the wonderful halls of pillars to the shrine within. What is revolutionary about Schwaller de Lubicz’s ideas about the axis shift is that he assumes that the Egyptians knew the entire form of the building before it was built, and acknowledged that they would have to adjust it according to the earth’s astronomical movements. As they certainly knew about the mechanics and mathematics of the precession, they would have known beforehand and integrated such knowledge into their masterpiece” (109-110). “The sacred district at Luxor was already the site of splendid temple complex by the thirteenth century BCE. Ramesses II further enlarged the complex with the addition of a pylon and a peristyle court, or open courtyard ringed with columns and covered walkways” (Stokstad, Art History 116). “The gods of Egypt did not live in far-away heaven, but here on Earth in mighty temples” (Hagen and Hagen, Egypt 190). “When the gods accepted them, and entered the inner sanctum of the temple to unite with their statue of gold or silver, then happiness, order and prosperity were ensured. For this reason the country was covered with ‘houses to the gods’, giant complexes which, with their might white-washed double towers, stood much higher than any other buildings. Flag fluttered high above them on masts ‘reaching to the stars’. A high wall surrounded the entire sacred part of the temple, which also included a grain store, priests’ apartments, a library and a scribes’ school, but these utilitarian buildings were made of mud and have long since disappeared. On both sides of the gate were pylons, massive wide towers


36

R Senmut with Princess Nefrua (Thebes, Egypt), c. 1470-1460 BCE, graniteblock statue

1. “Extremely popular during the Middle and New Kingdoms were block statues. In these works the idea that the ka could find an eternal home in the cubic stone image of the deceased was expressed in an even more radical simplification of form than was common in Old Kingdom statuary” (Kleiner, Mamiya, and Tansey 66-67).

2. Seen here, “Hatshepsut’s chancellor holds the pharaoh’s daughter by Thutmose II in his ‘lap’ and envelops the girl in his cloak. The streamlined design concentrates attention on the heads and treats the two bodies as a single cubic block, given over to inscriptions… The frequent depiction of Senmut with Nefrua was meant to enhance Senmut’s statue through his association with the princess (he was her tutor) and, by implication, with Hatshepsut herself. Toward the end of her reign, however, Hatshepsut believed that Snemut had become too powerful, and she had him removed” (67). “Senenmut is shown here with Hatshepsut’s only daughter. We only know the year of his death from the date recorded on the wine jugs in his tomb. For thousands of years the powerful man and his queen disappeared from the memory of the people” (Hagen and Hagen, Egypt 124).

S Fowling scene from the tomb of Nebamun (Thebes, Egypt), c.1400-1350 BCE, fresco on dry plasterconcept of the afterlife/ figures in proportion to rank/ function of the boat in Egyptian life/ naturalistic depiction of birds/ dry fresco technique/ flat, linear style

1. “Most Egyptian wall paintings were frescoes, painted using the fresco secco, or dry fresco, technique. Pigments were mixed with water and applied to a dry plaster wall. As a result, the paintings were less durable than those made using the later buon fresco, or true fresco, technique. In buon fresco, pigments are applied to wet plaster with which they bond as it dries, preventing the flaking to which fresco secco is prone. Egyptians also used water-based paint on papyrus and on sculptures” (Adams, Art Across Time 99). “A New Kingdom fresco secco from the tomb of Nebamun shows him enjoying a favorite sport, bird-hunting. He is accompanied by his wife and daughter and surrounded by animals and landscape. Following the conventional Egyptian pose, his

head and legs are in profile, and his torso and eye are frontal. He also wears a trapezoidal kilt. Nebamun’s wife and daughter are small and curvilinear by comparison, continuing the Old Kingdom tradition of increasing naturalism for decreasing rank. Paintings of this period, were slightly more naturalistic than during the Old Kingdom. Note that Nebamun’s wife is rendered with brown skin rather than with the conventional lighter skin of Egyptian women in art… The birds turn more freely in space than the human figures, and on the fish there is evidence of shading, which conveys a sense of volume” (99-100).

2. “Family life was heavily determined by the profession of the father, whose role was to provide for the family. Marriage was a private matter, arranged by the future husband and the father of the bride and sealed with a marriage contract…. Most marriages involved men and women from the same social class. Only in the upper class might a man have several wives…Adultery was frowned upon. An adulterous affair between a man and a married woman could result in drastic punishment- the mutilation of nose or ears, castration, or banishment (which was considered equivalent to death). Marriage, however, only attained its full status after the arrival of children… Children also served as guarantors of the future path into the afterlife, because the familial bonds continued after death and attending to them was one of the family’s central duties” (Scholz 60). “The ancient Egyptians prized their cosmetics. Oil derived from both imported and domestic plants and organs, and not normally mixed with alcohol (as is common practice today), were the main ingredients of their perfumes. Their effect and the endurance of the odors intermingled with ideas of life, love, and prosperity- as opposed to the stench of evil or of menace or, in short, of downfall. Pleasing scents were an intrinsic part of cult rituals and medicinal treatment. Countless tomb illustrations show women with incense cones mixed with fat in their hair” (83-84).

3. “In many religions a boat has two symbolic functions. It is the vehicle of the sun-god and also carries the soul of the deceased to the afterlife… Egyptian solar deities traveled by day across the celestial ocean in a barque which returned to the east at night through the Underworld. It bore the dead to the afterlife and so model boats were usually buried with them, especially in tombs of the Middle Kingdom” (Hall 57). “Hunting scenes reminded Egyptians of Horus, the son of Osiris, hunting down his father’s murderer, thus assuring a happy existence for Nebamun” (Kleiner, Mamiya, and Tansey 68).

4. This is the “best-known painting of the series: Nebamun, his wife and daughter in a papyrus boat hunting in the marshes. The painting is teeming with incident and detail. Nebamun, dressed in a brief kilt and an elaborate collar, wields a throwing stick and grasps three decoy herons. In the papyrus thicket panic has overtaken the roosting birds but iridescent fish swim placidly in the water. Delicate butterflies flutter in the air. A ginger cat seizes birds with its teeth and claws. Other scenes from the tomb show Nebamun’s garden pool, geese and cattle being brought for inspection, crops being assessed for tax purposes and men bringing produce from the fields” (Caygill 225). “Hunting in the papyrus thicket in female company was probably a metaphor for an erotic relationship” (Hagen and Hagen, Egypt 140).

Documents

Unit ONE: Prehistoric through Aegean - PBworksaparttalk.pbworks.com/w/file/fetch/45801211/mcunit_1_pt... · Web viewAfter the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt c. 3000 BC, the