Write Like An Egyptian!

• Ancient Egyptian Art and Culture: Old, Middle, New Kingdoms

• Ancient symbolic writing: Hieroglyphics

Ancient Egypt

Modern Day Egypt

Egyptian GodsRa

Osiris

Annubis

Horus

Eye of Horus

• What makes this limestone relief recognizable as Egyptian art?

• What are the unique characteristics of Egyptian art?

Purposes and Characteristics of Egyptian Art

• Mostly found in tombs• Direction and order• Communication with the present

and future (afterlife)• Idealization of Egyptian royalty• Expressionism - later kingdoms• To tell a story of this civilization• To show or predict what the

afterlife would be for the soul of the person embalmed…

Pallette of King Narmer,first Pharaoh of Egypt, smiting

his enemies and

The unification of Egypt

1st Dynasty - associated with

The god Horus

Sculpture - baking and brewing, wood carved - from a tomb

• 1900 BC, model showing people making bread and first stage of brewing - frequently put into tombs to show people engaged in making everyday items, grinding grain

Pyramids @ Giza - Khufu, Khephren, and Menkaure

King Tut

• King Tut’s gold mask Valley of the Kings, west bank at Thebes, 1327 BC

• Vulture & Cobra - significance

• Materials used and sophistication

Ankh

• Mirror Case from King Tut’s tomb what Egyptian symbol is this and what does it symbolize? Do you see more symbols within the design?….

Relief carvings in limestone• Seated

guests and processions of offering bearers in tomb of Vizier Ramose

• Old Kingdom painting/biased relief of a procession of attendants - from the wall of the tomb of Djehutihotep II. Procession is shown only to depict a group of people, “not to be regarded as a pecularly Egyptian penchant for walking in a line.”

Sculpture…

• Queen Hatshepsut, from her funerary temple @Dier el Bahri. She is kneeling, holding a vase with the symbol of stability - most likely kneeling to the god Amun..She was only the 3rd or 4th woman to on the Egyptian throne in the first 1500 years of Egyptian history…

Jewelry

• Pectoral necklace of Princess Mereret, from her tomb in Dashur. Pectorals conveyed messages concerning religion, kingship, and life after death.

• Middle kingdom

Jewelry - can you spot the symbols?Collar of Princess Khnumet, Middle Kingdom

• Foreign captives, from funerary temple of Ramesses III

• New Kingdom 1160 B.C.

• This is the depiction the Pharaoh chose to show the people he conquered.

Gaming Discs

• Old Kingdom• Hunting scene • Purpose not known

exactly - some kind of game?

• Luxury item

Mummification scene - burial chamber of a workman. Wall painting - Annubis is the

embalmer.

Horemeb in the company of the gods, valley of the kings,

Dynasty XVIII - New Kingdom

Prince Rahotep and his wife

Nofret, from their tomb at

Maidum

Painted limestone

Practically all Old Kingdom

statues were painted - colors

were black/grey white,

red/brown, green, blue, and

yellow - rarely any shading

or subtlety

Rahotep’s skin is darker

than his wife’s to show all of

the time men spend outside -

and women inside -

• Dagger of Princess Iti, daughter of Amen - from a tomb in Dahshur

• 1890 B.C. (Middle Kingdom)

Eye of Horus

• Symbol of the god Horus, the Eye is a symbol of protection from evil spirits. Found all over wall paintings, in jewelry used in burial chambers.

Nefertiti

• Hieroglyphics on the right side of this etching in sandstone - of Nefertiti and her daughter making an offering to Aten

• Nefertiti was the wife of Akhenaten - the ruler who established one deity over Egypt, the sun god Aten

• The Book of the Earth, from the tomb of Ramesses IV - Valley of the Kings

• Tombs of the New Kingdom, books of the afterlife

“alphabet of symbols”

Hieroglyphic writings…The Scribes were

men and women who learned to read and write hieroglyphs .

They kept records of the government and wrote letters for the pharaoh.

Papyrus - and writing tools…Papyrus is paper that

was used to write and paint on, over 5000 years old

It was made of a marsh plant called papyrus reed.

The Egyptians used pigment powder which was made from a plant and it makes paint or ink when it’s mixed up with a liquid.

Reeds were used for writing.

• Cartouche - Ramesses

• What is a cartouche?

• Note hieroglyphics and oblong border around the Pharaoh’s name. Magical rope is used to surround the name and protect it.

Rosetta Stone

Hieroglyphics : cracking the code• Hieroglyphics means ‘sacred carved writing’ Taken from Greek “hieros” meaning and

“glypho” meaning inscriptions. • Hieroglyphs are part of a system of picture writing called hieroglyphics. When picture

writing first began, the pictures represented the actual object they depicted. These were called pictograms. For example, a picture of a sun within a family scene signified that the sun was part of that scene. Later, pictures came to represent ideas, so that if you saw a sun in a scene, it might symbolize not only the sun, but also daytime, warmth, or light. These were known as ideograms.

• Finally, the pictures began to represent not only the appearance of an object and related ideas, but also the sound of a spoken word used to it describe it. Sun, then, might also mean son, or be part of the word Sunday. So each picture took on a unique sound that could be used to form thoughts and ideas.