Egypt from Narmer to Cleopatra: Comprehensive Study Notes

  • Geographic Context: Egypt is an African civilization located in the northeast corner of the continent of Africa. It is situated in close geographic proximity to Mesopotamia, the region discussed in previous studies.

  • Timeline and Scope: Ancient Egypt is defined as an ancient world empire that existed for approximately three thousand years, from roughly 3000 to 30 BCE.

    • Unification (3000 BCE): Prior to this date, Egypt consisted of an un-unified cluster of independent city-states located in Upper and Lower Egypt. These were unified into a single nation around 3000 BCE.

    • Conquest (30 BCE): The nation of ancient Egypt existed until it was conquered by Rome.

    • Modern Comparison: The United States, by comparison, is currently only two hundred forty-five years old. The instructor notes the extreme difficulty for any nation to survive and maintain stability for three thousand years, a feat achieved by very few civilizations.

  • The Nile River: Ancient Egypt would not have existed without the Nile. Like other ancient civilizations, the Egyptians were strategic in locating themselves near a great body of water for survival and prosperity.

  • The Afterlife and Material Culture: The ancient Egyptians were devout believers in a literal concept of the afterlife.

    • Material Culture: This refers to the products and objects created by a civilization. Almost everything the Egyptians produced was intended for the afterlife.

    • Tombs as Evidence: Most of the artifacts studied in art history come from tombs, making them the primary source of evidence for ancient Egyptian culture.

  • Key Value: Permanence: Because of the focus on eternity, "permanence" became the central value of ancient Egyptian art. Art was designed to last forever to reflect the eternal nature of the afterlife.

Periods of Ancient Egyptian History

Historians divide the three thousand year history of Egypt into five distinct periods:

  1. Predynastic Period: The earliest era, establishing sophisticated cultures and patterns.

  2. Old Kingdom: Famous for the construction of the Great Pyramids.

  3. Middle Kingdom: This period is noted but not covered in depth in this syllabus.

  4. New Kingdom: Considered the "modern era" of the ancient world; characterized by mortuary temples and the Amarna Age.

  5. Late Kingdom: The final era, ending with the Roman conquest; this period is not covered in depth in this syllabus.

Artistic Stability and Longevity

  • Consistency over Time: A defining characteristic of ancient Egyptian art is that it does not change significantly over three thousand years. Art from the very beginning of the civilization looks almost identical to art from the end.

  • Cultural Reflection: Art reflects the society that makes it. In the United States, art has changed drastically between seventeen seventy-six and twenty twenty-one because American culture has changed. Conversely, the lack of change in Egyptian art reflects the exceptional stability and longevity of Egyptian culture and tradition.

Multilingualism and the Rosetta Stone

  • Importance of Writing: Our extensive knowledge of ancient Egypt is due to their use of writing. Ancient Egyptians were multilingual, speaking and writing multiple languages.

  • The Rosetta Stone: This famous object is the key to our modern understanding of ancient Egypt. It features a Royal and religious decree inscribed in three different scripts:

    1. Hieroglyphs: (Top section) The ancient Egyptian formal writing system.

    2. Demotic: (Middle section) A common Egyptian script.

    3. Greek: (Bottom section) The language known to linguists that allowed them to translate the other two.

  • Historical Timeline of the Stone:

    • 30 BCE: Roman conquest led to the eventual death of the hieroglyphic script.

    • 1800s: Napoleon invaded Egypt with two armies: one to conquer and one to "pillage" (steal) artifacts. The French stole the Rosetta Stone.

    • Battle of Waterloo: The British defeated the French and took the Rosetta Stone as spoils of war ("finders keepers").

    • Current Location: The stone currently resides in the British Museum. Egypt has requested the repatriation (return) of the stone, but the British Museum has refused.

  • Egyptology: The "discovery" and translation of the Rosetta Stone, along with the discovery of King Tut’s tomb, fueled intense Western interest in the field of Egyptology.

Religious Beliefs and the Afterlife

  • The Book of the Dead: Rather than being a book of "dark magic" (as depicted in Hollywood films like the Brendan Fraser Mummy movie), it is actually a prayer book containing instructions and prayers to help the deceased reach the afterlife.

  • The Last Judgment of Hu-Neffer: This is a famous illustration from the Book of the Dead depicting the deceased person, Hu-Neffer.

    • The Weighing Ceremony: Anubis, the jackal-headed god of embalming, leads Hu-Neffer to a scale where his heart is weighed against a feather.

      • The Negative Confession: While his heart is weighed, Hu-Neffer must recite an oath (similar to the Ten Commandments) stating he has not committed sins like deceiving others or adultery.

      • Osiris: If the heart is lighter than the feather, the deceased is led to Osiris, the god of the underworld and giver of eternal life. Osiris is typically depicted with a blue or green "deathly" face.

  • The Myth of Osiris and Isis:

    1. Osiris was killed and dismembered by his jealous brother, who threw the pieces into the Nile.

    2. His wife, Isis, collected the pieces from the river and reassembled them like a puzzle.

    3. She wrapped him in white linen (creating the first mummy) and used prayers and incantations to bring him back to life.

    4. Osiris conquered death, becoming the giver of eternal life.

    5. The instructor poses a "feminist interpretation" question: If Isis was the one who performed the magic to bring him back, why isn’t she the god of the underworld and the giver of eternal life?

Stylistic Conventions: Conceptual Representation

  • Definition: Also called "composite view," conceptual representation is an artistic convention where parts of a figure are shown in profile (from the side) while other parts (like the torso or eye) are shown frontally (from the front).

  • Optical vs. Conceptual: This style is not "optically accurate" or "naturalistic" because humans do not naturally stand this way. It is termed "conceptual" because it comes from the mind’s understanding of the body rather than the way the eye actually sees it.

Architectural Evolution and Engineering

  • Engineering Innovations: The instructor emphasizes that Egyptians should be credited for their tremendous engineering skills, not attributed to "aliens."

  • Predynastic Architecture:

    • Palette of Narmer: An exception to the tomb rule; it is a commemorative work of art celebrating the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt.

    • Mastabas: Rectangular burial tombs with sloping sides that were common funerary monuments even in the earliest days of the nation.

  • Old Kingdom: The Great Pyramids:

    • These are religious buildings saturated with symbolism. They are symbols of the sun god, who was vital to this African agricultural civilization.

    • The Workforce: Contrary to popular belief, current evidence (employment records, pay records for food, and workers' compensation for the injured) suggests the pyramids were built by paid, skilled, seasonal workers, not slaves. While ancient Egypt did use slave labor extensively in other areas, the pyramids were primarily the work of skilled craftsmen.

    • Ka Statues: Statues made to house the "Ka" (soul) in the afterlife.

  • New Kingdom: Mortuary Temples:

    • The Egyptian pharaohs realized that pyramids were expensive, labor-intensive, and failed to protect their wealth from tomb robbers.

    • Pharaohs like Hatshepsut and Ramses shifted to building mortuary temples for public ritual and burying their actual bodies in unmarked graves in the Valley of the Kings.

Exceptional Eras and Figures

  • Hatshepsut: A significant female pharaoh of the New Kingdom.

  • The Amarna Age: A paradoxical era in Egyptian history. For a very short time, the culture and art changed drastically, acting as an "anomaly" or a "bizarro world" compared to the standard three thousand years of consistency.

  • King Tutankhamun (King Tut): Famous not because he was a particularly important or powerful pharaoh, but because his tomb was found intact and provided a wealth of information to the modern world.

Critical Analysis of Art History Resources

  • Textbook Bias: The instructor notes that textbooks often devote significantly more space to Greek art (fifty-nine pages) than Egyptian art (twenty-six to twenty-seven pages), despite Egypt lasting three thousand years compared to Greece’s roughly five hundred to six hundred years. This suggests an incomplete historical picture in standard western texts.

  • Egyptian Art in Texas: For local study, significant collections of ancient Egyptian art are located in:

    • Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (MFAH)

    • San Antonio Museum of Art (SAMA)

    • Dallas Museum of Art (DMA)

    • Kimbell Art Museum (Fort Worth)