Exam 1 Flashcards
Black topped red ware
Pre-Dynastic Period: 4000-3200 BCE. Very common way of creating pottery that required the different colored parts of the pot to be oxidized for different times.
Ceramic Plate
Pre-Dynastic Period: 4000-3200 BCE. Used to grind green and black pigments to make eye paints, these were very common.
Mace heads
Pre-Dynastic Period: 4000-3200 BCE. These would be attached to handles and used as weapons.
Ripple flaked knife with ivory handle
Pre-Dynastic Period: 4000-3200 BCE. These were common, and were mostly used a status symbol rather than for doing any fighting or killing.
Bone tags
Pre-Dynastic Period: 4000-3200 BCE. These are some of the oldest examples of Ancient Egyptian writing that we have, and were mostly found at Abydos.
Palette with figurine decoration
Early Dynastic Period: 3200-2686 BCE. These were in the same style as the palettes used to grind pigments for makeup, but were mostly status symbols and not actually used for that.
Clay sealings
Early Dynastic Period: 3200-2686 BCE. Seals were used to mark anything royal, or relating to the king, in order to deter theft or tampering with an official item.
Stele
Early Dynastic Period: 3200-2686 BCE. Used as tombstones and placed outside of pyramids.
Serekh
Used to symbolize the king in the palace, the serekh would contain the king’s name atop the drawing of the royal facade, and would often be topped with a falcon symbolizing Horus, and linking the king with divinity
Royal facade
This would be used to mark anything of or relating to the king or the palace. Usually found outside of royal burial grounds.
Mastaba
Old Kingdom: 2686- 2181 BCE. A rectangular building that would be used as a burial chamber. The mastaba had burial grounds underneath, with rooms at ground level that would be used to hold offerings
Offering tables
Depicted frequently in art in burial chambers, offering tables were placed in order to make offerings to the gods.
Solar temple
Old Kingdom: 2686- 2181 BCE. A temple built to the Sun god, Ra. It was myth that some of the first kings of the Fifth Dynasty were the actual offspring of Ra.
Sphinx
Old Kingdom: 2686- 2181 BCE. The sphinx symbolized wisdom and cleverness. In mythology, the sphinx would ask a challenging riddle that, if not solved, would result in death.
Royal Statuary of Djoser
Old Kingdom: 2686- 2181 BCE. Wearing the royal nemes, and the square beard, this is clearly a king. The king is also barefoot, a connection to his divinity.
Nemes and uraeus
The nemes is a royal headdress, worn by a ruler. The uraeus is an upright cobra found on the front of the headdress, and a symbol of the goddess Wadjet.
False door
A door with lots of hieroglyphic writings that would serve as a way for the dead to pass through and make their offerings to the gods.
Elite iconography
Elites were often depicted wearing a kilt, a broad collar, and wielding a sekhem scepter.
Pyramid texts
These texts would often tell about the things that a ruler had done, and make it clear that crossing them either in life or in death was a bad idea. The imperishable stars were also there often….
Cartonnage mummy masks
First Intermediate Period: 2181-2060 BCE. In a similar method to papier-mâché, there would be layers of material that would be molded to the body
Saff Tomb
Old Kingdom: 2686- 2181 BCE. Tombs were cut into the side of a mountain and accompanied with a simple open-air court
Hypostyle hall
Middle Kingdom: 2060-1674 BCE. This was a large room with columns, and was mostly dark except for the center aisle which was lit through the sunroof.
Pyramidion
Middle Kingdom: 2060-1674 BCE. The capston or uppermost part of a pyramid or obelisk, these were made of granite during the middle kingdom.
Pyramids made of mud-brick
Middle Kingdom: 2060-1674 BCE. These pyramids had varying angles and heights, unlike the earlier standardized pyramid construction methods.
Alterations in wall drawings
Middle Kingdom: 2060-1674 BCE. These wall drawings were brighter colors, and they were deeper relief than the ones before them.
Depictions of foreigners
Middle Kingdom: 2060-1674 BCE. Foreigners were depicted wearing different clothes than Egyptians, and had different body types.
Grave models
Middle Kingdom: 2060-1674 BCE. These models were often of servants who were said to perform various tasks in the afterlife. This replaced human sacrifice, which was done to make sure the deceased would have the assistance he needed in his death.
Canopic jars with human heads
Middle Kingdom: 2060-1674 BCE. These jars were used to hold the stomach, liver, intestines and lungs. As the Egyptians thought that the heart was the seat of the soul, it was left inside the body and there was no jar for it.
Shawabti Figurines
Middle Kingdom: 2060-1674 BCE. These were similar to grave models, and would represent workers who accompany the deceased in the afterlife. These were made of stone, wood, and faience.
Rishi coffin
Second Intermediate Period: 1674-1549 BCE. These were funerary coffins that were decorated with feathers (“Rishi comes from the arabic word for feather). By this time, anthropoid coffins were no longer solely inner coffins and were laid on the back, becomes funerary customs had changed and the deceased were no longer laid to rest on their sides.
Kohl Jar
Second Intermediate Period: 1674-1549 BCE. Kohl jars were used to hold kohl, which refers to the ground pigment that would be used for eye makeup. These jars were typically made by being carved out of stones, and the opening was just wide enough for the insertion of a finger or a kohl stick.
Funerary Cones
New Kingdom: 1549-1069 BCE. Found in the Thebes necropolis, these were inscribed with the name of the deceased and a short prayer. They were placed in the entrance of a chapel or a tomb.
Kohl tube
New Kingdom: 1549-1069 BCE. Served the same function as a kohl jar.
Minoan Style Frescoes
New Kingdom: 1549-1069 BCE. Found at the site Tell el-Dab’a, these frescoes are of interest because they are of Minoan style, suggesting that there was Egypt was involved in cultural exchanges with eastern Mediterranean cultures. They depict bull grappling, bull jumping, and hunts.
Obelisk
New Kingdom: 1549-1069 BCE. Obelisks were an important religious item for the Egyptians and honored the sun god Ra. They were often placed in pairs at the entrances of temples
Armana Art
New Kingdom: 1549-1069 BCE. During the reign of Akhenaten. This was a radical departure from the art that preceded it. Figures were shown in profile on reliefs, and depicted in crowded scenes, and in motion.
Talatat Blocks
New Kingdom: 1549-1069 BCE. Also used to construct much of the temples of Akhenaten, these blocks came in a standardized size and made construction much easier for that reason.
Amduat
New Kingdom: 1549-1069 BCE. “That Which is in the Afterworld”
