Lecture 6, Ancient Egyptian

Question 1

Migration to the Nile River

Answer 1

• the sahara desert started to form over the course of thousands of years; this made theh enviroment hard to live
• so the people began migrating to the nile river
• the nile attracted the people because of the water
• there was alot of fertile soil along the nile

Question 2

human nautre syncapation

Answer 2

• The Nile River had a dry and flooding season.
• This cycle influenced the way people lived and how they farmed.
  It created syncopation between humans and nature.

Question 3

Beginning of Ancient Egyptian Society

Answer 3

• The first newcomers to Egypt benefitted from cattle and wealth.
• They created a class of servants and slaves from people who arrived later.
• They distinguished themselves as elites, by making their death equivalent to the “death of the gods who ruled the Nile”.
  The large labor power that elites had, is what assisted in the rapid development of agriculture and stone-architecture.

Question 4

Re-presentations of Egyptians

Answer 4

• Egyptians were fantastic re-presentationists.
  They often represented themselves, the agricultural revolution, and their daily lives.
• The reason behind their extensive documentation of daily life, is because they had to continue daily life realistically in the afterlife of the elites.

Question 5

Scale

Answer 5

• the bigger the scale of the statue, the important they are
• the diffrent sizes of scale represent hierarchy

Question 6

Iconography

Answer 6

are representations of everyday-life scenes both ritual and mythological that were carved or painted on the walls of egyption temples / tombs, as well as many images of pharohs and gods

Question 7

Daily life

Answer 7

The reason was that ‘daily life’ had to continue as real in the afterlife of the elites
The result was an astonishing realism and attention to detail

Question 8

Harvest scenes

Answer 8

Redrawn from the tomb of menna (ca. 1400-1352 BCE)

Question 9

Hieroglyph

Answer 9

• a type of written sript that uses signs to represent words, sounds, and concepts
• For instance, the sounds of chirping birds would be represented, and not birds themselves.

Question 10

Art of Ancient Egypt

Answer 10

• art in ancient egypt was not to be seen but to be secrtly stored in the tomb of the pharaoh
• they were also not to be perceived as sculptors but as living animated objects
• These statues were not made to be aesthetically pleasing.
  Instead, they were designed to benefit the souls of nobles/elites and to ensure a smooth transition into the afterlife.

Question 11

The Afterlife

Answer 11

• anicent egyptions believed that only the souls of the kings enjoy the afterlife
• the soul of the elites and nobles, continue to live in the tomb
• therefore, they had to cosnstatly provide food, drinks

Question 12

Ka

Answer 12

• ka is the soul of the deceased or life force
• they belived that when people would die their ka was relased to the world
• The ka was represented in hieroglyphs with upright disembodied arms [..]

Question 13

Shabtis

Answer 13

small statues found in ancient Egyption tombs

Question 14

Mastaba (ca. 2650 BCE):

Answer 14

• the matsaba is a solid box pre-pyramid, where the Ka statue would be placed in
• the actual burial chambers were underground
• there were severl false door to the matsaba; to protect and secure the burial
• The barrel chamber had food, goods, money, basically you take everything with you for the after life

Question 15

the matsaba as a house

Answer 15

• the layout of the matsaba represented the house of the noble/elites house
• the matsaba had a bathroom, living room, closet..etc
• Therefore, it was specifically designed to ensure the wellbeing of the deceased for all eternity.

Question 16

what was the matsaba made of?

Answer 16

• dressed stone
• colorful exterior
• flat roof

Question 17

egypt

Answer 17

Egypt was created as a consequence of the ecological stress of warning on surrounding region.

As the Sahara pastoral culture died out, people flooded into the nile region

The first newcomers benefitting from cattle and wealth created a class of servants and slaves out of the later arrivals at a scale unique in the world at the time.

The elites distinguished themselves by making THEIR death equal to the death of the gods, the same gods who ‘ruled’ the Nile.

Ma’at can mean ‘protecting god’
Egyptian kings wanted to be seen as ‘Preservers of God’

The vast labor power at their disposal allowed for rapid expansion of agriculture and for the development of labor-intensive stone architecture

They used to see death as a journey to eternal life

Mortuary complex as ceremonial site both for gods

Stone as permanet material; imitating reeds, woods and mud brick ( but enlarged to the scale of the divine )

Question 18

The Old Kingdom

Answer 18

• (2686 – 2160 BCE)
• matsaba
• dynastic elites
• Agro-pastoral villages and cities
• Pharaoh Djoser ca. 2600 BCE
• population of 1 million people

Question 19

Djoser

Answer 19

• (2600 BCE)
• djoser was the second kind in the 3rd dynasty
• he reunited Egypt
• he was one of the powerful kings

Question 20

Mortuary Complex of Djoser

Answer 20

• (2600 BCE)
• the king wanted his complex/tomb to be big and different
• he first had a matsaba built then he slowly kept expanding it until it look like a pyramid
• which he basically invented
• the statue of the king was kept in a serbab
• the complex had a lot of columns
  - The columns did not have a specific supporting function.
  
  • Through columns, they imitated local architecture using stone.
    Where the columns seem to be inspired by reeds, wood, and mud brick

Question 21

Faience

Answer 21

• is glass substance
• used inside of tombs as decorations

Question 22

Ka statute

Answer 22

• The primary purpose of mumification, funerary rituals, and tombs, were to reunite an elite/noble with their soul, and to ensure a smooth transformation into a prosperous afterlife.
• To encourage the soul to return to the body, the body would be preserved, and a statuette would be kept in the tomb.
• Some statuettes were placed in the tombs to perform work for the deceased in the afterlife.
  Images in tombs were used to guide souls into the afterlife.

Question 23

The Pyramids of Giza

Answer 23

• (2575 BCE)
• each stone was very heavy and massive; it shows how powerful the king was
• they had a massive presence in the landscape
• and it took a lot of labor

Question 24

Tomb of Mereruka, Ka Statue

Answer 24

• (2310 BCE)
• the Ka statue is an idealized representations; he was the most powerful
• its also considerd abstract in a way because his skirt is in a triangle shape
• one of his legs is font and the other one is back; as if he’s moving
• the statue is facing forward to see the ritual that will be performed to secure their place in the after life

Question 25

how were the observing rituals?

Answer 25

• The statue is placed inside a built-in space in the wall.
  
  • There would often be a door that covered the statue.
  • This door usually had a little hole carved into it, to allow the statue to observe the ritual without being seen.
  • Where it was not appropriate for the statues to be seen.