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Chapter 3: Ancient Egypt
Ancient Egypt - an introduction
Introduction to Ancient Egypt
This chapter begins with basic information about Ancient Egypt and then has 6 sections covering each chronological period in greater detail. Start with the general information to understand the “big picture”. This will help you with your assignments.
Chapter contents:
Introduction to Ancient Egypt – chronology, religious beliefs and gods, materials and techniques in the arts, social organization, etc.
This brief glimpse at the world of ancient Egypt is just a springboard for gaining an understanding of this compelling and complex culture. Few civilizations have enjoyed the longevity and global cultural reach of ancient Egypt. Their distinct visual expressions, writing system, and imposing monuments are instantly recognizable by viewers all around the world even today—put simply, their branding was on point.
Pyramid of Khafre, Egypt (photo: MusikAnimal, CC BY-SA 3.0)
Despite portraying significant stability over a vast period of time, their civilization was not as static as it may appear at first glance, particularly if viewed through our modern eyes and cultural perspectives. Instead, the culture was dynamic even as it revolved around a stable core of imagery and concepts. The ancient Egyptians adjusted to new experiences, constantly adding to their complex beliefs about the divine and terrestrial realms, and how they interact. This flexibility, wrapped around a base of consistency, was part of the reason ancient Egypt survived for millennia and continues to fascinate.
Step Pyramid of Djoser at Saqqara
The Natural World of Egypt
View of the Nile River, Egypt (photo: Badics, CC BY-SA 3.0)
With the blazing sun above, flanked by vast seas of shifting sand, and fed by the life-giving Nile River (which hid frightening creatures beneath its dark waters), the natural world of Egypt was inherently beautiful but also potentially deadly. Outside the lush river valley, there was little protection from the ever-dominant sun, whose intensity was both feared and revered. The deserts were home not only to many dangerous creatures, but the sands themselves were also unpredictable and constantly shifting. The clear night skies dazzled with millions of stars, some of which seemed to move of their own accord while others rose and fell at trackable intervals. The Nile, with its annual floods, brought fertility and renewal to the land, but could also overflow and wreak havoc on the villages that lined its banks. Careful observers of their environment, the Egyptians perceived divine forces in these phenomena and many of their deities, such as the powerful sun god Ra, were connected with elements from the natural world.
Hieroglyphs, detail from the White Chapel, Karnak (photo: Dr. Amy Calvert)
The perception of divine powers existing in the natural world was particularly true in connection with the animals that inhabited the region. There was an array of creatures that the Egyptians would have observed or interacted with on a regular basis and they feature heavily in the culture. One of the most distinctive visual attributes of Egyptian imagery is the myriad deities that were portrayed in hybrid form, with a human body and animal head. In addition, a wide range of birds, fishes, mammals, reptiles, and other creatures appear prominently in the hieroglyphic script—there are dozens of different birds alone.
The Nile was packed with numerous types of fish, which were recorded in great detail in fishing scenes that became a fixture in non-royal tombs. Most relief and painting throughout Egypt’s history was created for divine or mortuary settings and they were primarily intended to be functional. Many tomb scenes included the life-giving Nile and all it’s abundance with the goal of making that bounty available for the deceased in the afterlife. In addition to the array of fish, the river also teemed with far more dangerous animals, like crocodiles and hippopotami. Protective spells and magical gestures were used from early on to aid the Egyptians in avoiding those watery perils as they went about their daily lives.
Hunefer (center) flanked by two deities: the ibis-headed Thoth (left) and the falcon-headed Horus (right), from Hunefer’s Judgement in the presence of Osiris, Book of the Dead of Hunefer, 19th Dynasty, New Kingdom, c. 1275 B.C.E., papyrus, Thebes, Egypt (British Museum)
The desert, likewise, was full of potentially dangerous creatures. Lions, leopards, jackals, cobras, and scorpions were all revered for their attributes and feared for their ferocity. Soaring above were birds of prey, like falcons who were sharp-eyed hunters, and massive vultures that consumed decaying flesh and fed it to their young. Scarab beetles also seemingly brought new life from decay and the sacred ibis with their curved beaks found sustenance hidden in the muddy banks of the Nile. All of these creatures (and many others) became closely associated with different deities very early in Egyptian history. The Egyptians did not worship animals; instead, certain animals were revered because it was believed that they were related to particular gods and thus served as earthly manifestations of those deities.
Model scene of workers ploughing a field, Middle Kingdom, late Dynasty 11, 2010–1961 B.C.E., wood, 54 cm (MFA Boston)
Even domesticated animals, such as cows, bulls, rams, and geese, became associated with deities and were viewed as vitally important. Cattle were probably the first animals to be domesticated in Egypt and domesticated cattle, donkeys, and rams appear along with wild animals on Predynastic and Early Dynastic votive objects, showing massive herds that were controlled by early rulers, demonstrating their wealth and prestige. Pastoral scenes of animal husbandry appear in numerous private tomb chapels and wooden models, providing detailed evidence of their daily practices. Herdsmen appear caring for their animals in depictions that include milking, calving, protecting the cattle as they cross the river, feeding, herding, and many other aspects of their day-to-day care.
Already in the Predynastic period the king was linked with the virile wild bull, an association that continues throughout Egyptian history—one of the primary items of royal regalia was a bull tail, which appears on a huge number of pharaonic images. An early connection between the king and lions is also apparent. One scene on a Predynastic ceremonial palette (The Battlefield Palette), shows the triumphant king as a massive lion devouring his defeated foes. First Dynasty kings appear to have kept lion cubs as pets.
The Great Sphinx (photo: superblinkymac, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
In addition, lions (among other animals) were associated with the burials of some early rulers. One of the most iconic images from ancient Egypt is the massive Great Sphinx at Giza, which was sculpted from the living rock of the plateau. This fused form, with the body of a lion and the head of the king, became a common visual expression of royal power.
Historical Setting
While many of the religious and cultural characteristics of ancient Egypt were evident from very early on and continued all the way through the Roman era (contributing to overall cultural stability), sweeping conceptual developments and adoptions of external elements are also evident. Throughout ancient Egypt’s long history, periods of unified control were interspersed with moments of instability where parts of the country were controlled by different authorities. These repeated waves of political and cultural development create a decidedly complex history that spans thousands of years.
View of the South Court after leaving the entrance colonnade, Stepped Pyramid complex, Saqqara, Egypt (photo: Dr. Amy Calvert)
Egypt’s impact on other cultures was undeniably immense. From the earliest periods of Predynastic Egypt, there is evidence of trade connections that extended as far east as the Indus Valley. These trade routes passed through the Near East, resulting in an early exchange of motifs and ideas between the civilizations of Mesopotamia and Egypt. The New Kingdom brought even more active connections with Western Asia, including robust commercial and diplomatic relationships as well as a mutual exchange of imagery and concepts with cultures like the Assyrians and the Hittites. Lively interactions with the south contributed to dynamic cultures, such as the Kushites, who ruled Egypt during the 25th Dynasty and whose monuments displayed an innovative blend of local Nubian and pharaonic imagery.
Pyramids of Meroe, Northern Cemetery, Archaeological Sites of the Island of Meroe (Sudan) (photo: UNESCO, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO)
Rulers and the elite from Meroe, in modern Sudan, were buried in pyramid tombs for many centuries—with more than 200 having been identified, that country actually contains more pyramids within its borders than Egypt does. Egypt also provided some of the building blocks for the Aegean, Greek, and Roman cultures and, through them, influenced many aspects of Western tradition.
Today, Egyptian imagery, concepts, and perspectives are found everywhere; when you know what to look for, you will see them in architectural forms, on money, and in our day-to-day lives. Many cosmetic surgeons, for example, use the silhouette of Queen Nefertiti (whose name means “the beautiful one has come”) in their advertisements.
Longevity
Ancient Egyptian civilization lasted for more than 3,000 years and showed a stunning level of continuity. That is more than 15 times the age of the United States, and consider how often our culture shifts; as recently as 2003, there was no Facebook, Twitter, or YouTube.
While today we consider the Greco-Roman period to be in the distant past, it should be noted that Cleopatra VII’s reign is closer to our own time than it was to that of the construction of the pyramids of Giza. It took humans nearly 4,000 years to build something—anything—taller than the Great Pyramid. Contrast that span to modern times; we get excited when a record lasts longer than a decade.
Left: Palette of Narmer, c. 3000–2920 B.C.E. (photo: Nicolas Perrault III); right: Ramses III smiting at Medinet Habu, 1160 B.C.E. (photo: Terry Feuerborn, CC BY-NC 2.0)
Consistency and stability
Egypt’s stability is in stark contrast to the Ancient Near East of the same period, which endured an overlapping series of cultures and upheavals with amazing regularity. The earliest royal monuments, such as the Narmer Palette carved around 3100 B.C.E., display identical royal costumes and poses as those seen on later rulers, even Ptolemaic kings and Roman emperors on their temples more than three millennia later.
This consistency and stability is closely linked with one of the central foundational concepts in the way ancient Egyptians saw the world around them. In their view, creation occurred when order triumphed over chaos and harnessed that amorphous power to bring the land of Egypt into existence. The perfect cosmic balance that resulted created the consistent cycles they saw in their natural world, such as the daily rising and setting of the sun and the Nile’s annual inundation. This divine order was known as ma’at—embodying truth, righteousness, justice, and cosmic law—and was eventually personified as a goddess. There was a perpetual struggle between ma’at and the chaos, known as isfet. From early in Egypt’s history, a primary role of the pharaoh was to be the champion of ma’at and preserve that cosmic order to help protect Egypt from the isfet that surrounded them. The ongoing preservation of ma’at was seen as fundamentally important and the drive to maintain that perfect cosmic balance permeated the culture on multiple levels.
A vast amount of Egyptian imagery, especially royal imagery that was governed by decorum (a sense of what was ‘appropriate’), remained extraordinarily consistent throughout its history. This is why, especially to the untrained eye, their art appears extremely static—and in terms of symbols, gestures, and the way the body is rendered, it was. It was intentional, as the consistency was the whole point. The Egyptians were well aware of their consistency, which they viewed as stability, divine balance, and clear evidence of ma’at and the correctness of their culture.
New Kingdom graffiti inside Step Pyramid complex (photo: Dr. Amy Calvert) New Kingdom graffiti inside Step Pyramid complex (photo: Dr. Amy Calvert) New Kingdom graffiti inside Step Pyramid complex (photo: Dr. Amy Calvert)
This consistency was also closely related to a fundamental belief that depictions had an impact beyond the image itself—tomb scenes of the deceased receiving food or temple scenes of the king performing perfect rituals for the gods were functionally causing those things to occur in the divine realm. If the image of the bread loaf was omitted from the deceased’s table, they had no bread in the afterlife; if the king was depicted with the incorrect ritual implement, the ritual was incorrect and could have dire consequences. This belief led to active resistance to change in codified depictions.
The earliest recorded “tourist graffiti” on the planet came from a visitor from the time of Ramses II, who left their appreciative mark at the already 1300-year-old site of the Step Pyramid at Saqqara, the earliest of the massive royal stone monuments. They were understandably impressed by the works of their ancestors and wrote of their desire to continue that ancient legacy.
Egypt is a land of duality and cycles, both in topography and culture. The geography is almost entirely rugged, barren desert, except for an explosion of green that straddles either side of the Nile as it flows the length of the country. The river emerges from far to the south, deep in Africa, and empties into the Mediterranean sea in the north after spreading from a single channel into a fan-shaped system, known as a delta, in its northernmost section. The river valley is flanked by imposing cliffs of limestone and sandstone, with deposits of other, harder stones like granite and granodiorite being found in the area of Aswan to the south.
One of the reasons for the overall stability of Egyptian culture was that it was largely isolated by virtue of its geography. With high cliffs and expansive deserts bordering the east and west, the sea at the north, and a series of huge rapids in the Nile to the south (known as cataracts), the stretch of the river valley that gave rise to dynastic Egypt was quite closed off from the outside. Egypt was undoubtedly the “gift of the Nile,” as the Greek historian Herodotus famously wrote. The influence of this river on Egyptian culture and development cannot be overstated without its presence, the civilization would have been entirely different. The Nile provided not only a constant source of life-giving water, but created the fertile lands that fed the growth of this unique (and uniquely resilient) culture.
View from the Nile River looking towards the Valley of Kings, showing the sharp delineation between the lush fertile land and the barren desert. (photo: Norman Walsh, CC BY-NC 2.0)
Each year, fed by melting snow in the far-off headlands deep in Africa, the Nile overflowed its banks in an annual flood that covered the ground with rich, black silt and produced incredibly fertile fields. The Egyptians referred to this area as Kemet, the “Black Lands,” and contrasted this dense, dark soil against the Deshret, the “Red Lands” of the sterile desert; the line between these zones was (and in most cases still is) a literal line. The visual effect is stark, appearing almost artificial in its precision.
Time—cyclical and linear
The annual inundation of the Nile was also a reliable and measurable cycle that helped form their concept of the passage of time. In fact, the calendar we use today in the west is derived from one developed by the ancient Egyptians. They divided the year into 3 seasons: akhet (“inundation”), peret (“growing/emergence”), and shemw (“harvest”); each season was divided into four 30-day months.
Although this annual cycle, paired with the daily solar cycle that is so evident in the desert, led to a powerful drive to see the universe in terms of cyclical time, this idea existed simultaneously with the reality of linear time. These two concepts—the cyclical and the linear—came to be associated with two of their primary deities: Osiris, the eternal lord of the dead, and Ra, the sun god who was reborn with each dawn.
The pharaoh—not just a king
Bronze figure of Isis nursing Horus, c. 4th century–3rd century B.C.E., bronze, 23.6 cm high, Egypt (British Museum) Bronze figure of Isis nursing Horus, c. 4th century–3rd century B.C.E., bronze, 23.6 cm high, Egypt (British Museum) Bronze figure of Isis nursing Horus, c. 4th century–3rd century B.C.E., bronze, 23.6 cm high, Egypt (British Museum)
Rulers in Egypt were complex intermediaries that straddled the terrestrial and divine realms. They were, obviously, living humans, but upon accession to the throne, they also embodied the eternal office of kingship itself. The ka, or spirit, of kingship was often depicted as a separate entity standing behind the human ruler. This divine aspect of the office of kingship was what gave authority to the individual person who was the king. The living king was associated with the god Horus, the powerful, virile falcon-headed god who was believed to bestow the throne to the first human king.
Horus’s immensely important father, Osiris, was the lord of the underworld. One of the original divine rulers of Egypt, this deity embodied the promise of regeneration. Cruelly murdered by his brother Seth, the god of the chaotic desert, Osiris was revived through the potent magic of his wife Isis. Through her knowledge and skill, Osiris was able to sire the miraculous Horus, who avenged his father and threw his criminal uncle off the throne to take his rightful place.
Osiris became ruler of the realm of the dead, the eternal source of regeneration in the afterlife. Deceased kings were identified with this god, creating a cycle where the dead king fused with the divine ruler of the dead, and his successor “defeated” death to take his place on the throne as Horus.
The development of ancient Egypt
The civilization of ancient Egypt obviously did not spring fully formed from the Nile mud; although the massive pyramids at Giza may appear to the uninitiated to have appeared out of nowhere, they were founded on thousands of years of cultural and technological development and experimentation. “Dynastic” Egypt—sometimes referred to as “Pharaonic” (after “pharaoh”, the Greek title of the Egyptian kings derived from the Egyptian title per aA, “Great House,” which was used from the New Kingdom on)—which was the time when the country was largely unified under a single ruler, begins around 3000 B.C.E.
Trace the evolution of tomb architecture in Egypt.
What is meant by the term “canon of proportions”? What was the Egyptian canon?
What explains the extraordinary continuity of Egyptian artistic styles? How can the Amarna Period be explained? What brought it about? What changes do you see stylistically?
Ancient Egyptian chronology and historical framework
Period
Dates
Predynastic
c. 5000–3000 B.C.E.
Early Dynastic
c. 3000–2686 B.C.E.
Old Kingdom (the ‘pyramid age’)
c. 2686–2150 B.C.E.
First Intermediate Period
c. 2150–2030 B.C.E.
Middle Kingdom
c. 2030–1640 B.C.E.
Second Intermediate Period (Northern Delta region ruled by Asiatics)
c. 1640–1540 B.C.E.
New Kingdom
c. 1550–1070 B.C.E.
Third Intermediate Period
c. 1070–713 B.C.E.
Late Period (a series of rulers from foreign dynasties, including Nubian, Libyan, and Persian rulers)
The period before this, lasting from about 5,000 B.C.E. until the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt under one ruler, is referred to as Predynastic by modern scholars. Prior to this were thriving Paleolithic and Neolithic groups, stretching back hundreds of thousands of years, descended from northward migrating homo erectus who settled along the Nile Valley. During the Predynastic period, ceramics, figurines, mace heads, and other artifacts such as slate palettes used for grinding pigments, begin to appear, as does imagery that will become iconic during the Pharaonic era and we can see the first hints of what is to come.
Dynasties, periods, and reigns
It is important to recognize that the dynastic divisions modern scholars use were not used by the ancients themselves. These divisions were created in the first chronological history of Egypt, written by an Egyptian priest named Manetho in the 3rd century B.C.E. Each of the 30 dynasties included a series of rulers usually related by family connections or the location of their seat of power. Egyptian history is also divided into larger chunks, known as “kingdoms” and “periods,” to distinguish times of strength and unity (kingdoms) from those of change, foreign rule, or disunity (periods).
Like many other ancient cultures, the Egyptians themselves referred to their history in relation to the ruler of the time. Years were recorded as the regnal dates of the ruling king, so that with each new reign, the numbers began anew. The usual dating format included the day of the month and season, along with the regnal year of the king—for example, “day 4 of the second month of the season peret in the third year of Khafre.” This ancient practice creates challenges for modern historians, making it difficult to determine exact dating for many events and reigns; this is the reason that different resource books on ancient Egypt may provide slightly different dates for the same object. Generally, dates are provided here as “circa,” (c.) or approximate, for this reason.
Evolution of Egyptian prehistoric pottery styles, from Naqada I to Naqada II and Naqada III (Adapted from Diospolis Parva: the cemeteries of Abadiyeh and Hu, 1898–99)
Determining chronology
We do have some absolute dates based on recorded astronomical observations, such as the rising of the star Sirius, that have greatly aided the pursuit of a reliable chronology. However, these set points are few and far between. Much of the chronology modern scholars use is built around those anchored, calendrical and astronomical events. This is combined with relative dating methods based on the sequence of recognized changes in artifact characteristics over time (especially ceramics) and scientific dating methods, such as radiocarbon dating and thermoluminescence, that can be applied to organic materials but offer a date range, rather than a date.
Palermo Stone, thought to have been created at the end of the 5th Dynasty (c. 2470 BCE) from p. 526 of Abhandlungen der Königlich Preussischen Akademie der Wissenschaften aus dem Jahre… (Berlin: Verlag der Königlichen Preussischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1901)
Manetho’s sources for his history are largely unknown. However, they would certainly have included annals, “day-books,” and ‘king-lists.’ These were records of the events that occurred during each king’s reign; unfortunately, few examples survive.
One of the most important surviving sources for the Early Dynastic and Old Kingdom eras is a basalt stela fragment inscribed on both sides with royal annals stretching from the 5th Dynasty back to the mythical rulers of the Predynastic period. Known as the Palermo Stone, this slab was discovered in 1866 and records major cult ceremonies, building projects, details of Nile inundations, taxation reports, and warfare events.
A King List with the names of 76 rulers from ancient Egypt. Detail of the King List, 19th Dynasty c. 1279 B.C.E., from the Temple of Seti I, Abydos, Egypt (photo: Olaf Tausch, CC BY 3.0)
King-lists were also inscribed on the walls of some temples—one of the best-known being from the temple of Seti I at Abydos—and were written on papyri, although only one such example survives (the so-called Turin Canon from the thirteenth century B.C.E.).
The Turin king list, or the Royal Canon of Turin, 1275–1200 B.C.E., papyrus (Egyptian Museum in Turin, Italy ; photo: Pharoah.se, CC BY)
This valuable, but fragmentary, document records the list of kings and the length of their reigns stretching from the Second Intermediate Period back to the earliest kings from the 1st Dynasty. These lists were not necessarily focused on recording “history.” Instead, they were a form of ancestor worship, where the current ruler celebrated the consistency of kingship and presented their predecessors as a combination of the general, eternal concept of divine kingship and the individual, human ruler who held power at that specific moment.
When we think of the language of ancient Egypt, the first thing that springs to mind is hieroglyphs carved on temple and tomb walls, the expression of a monolithic and unchangeable culture. Yet this could not be further from the truth. The civilization of ancient Egypt was much more dynamic and open to innovation than we normally give it credit for, and so was its linguistic complexity. Ancient Egyptian has one of the longest histories of written attestation of all world languages. First recorded around 3200 B.C., it gradually disappeared in the Middle Ages under the pressure of Arabic—a language that is not linguistically related to ancient Egyptian and is today Egypt’s national language.
When we think of the changes that occurred in the English language between the time of Shakespeare and today, over a period of just four centuries, it is easy to imagine what dramatic transformations ancient Egyptian underwent over its own history, spanning four millennia.
About the Ancient Egyptian language
Scholars divide the ancient Egyptian language into five historical phases:
Old Egyptian—attested in the third millennium B.C.
Middle Egyptian—originating in the first half of the second millennium B.C., it later remained in use as the classical phase of the Egyptian language for most official, ritual, and literary texts
Late Egyptian—in use in the second half of the second millennium and the first half of the first millennium B.C.
Demotic—attested from the seventh century B.C. to fifth century A.D.
Coptic—documented from approximately the second century A.D. to the tenth century A.D., though it still remains in use as the liturgical language of the Egyptian Coptic Church
Ancient Egyptian could also be written in a variety of different scripts, which include:
Hieroglyphs—mostly used to write Old and Middle Egyptian texts
Coptic—the Greek alphabet with the addition of a few letters for noting sounds that are specific to Egyptian (employed for Coptic—again, using the same word for both the language and the writing)
This all makes for a rather complex linguistic landscape, especially when we consider that, in the latter phases of ancient Egyptian history, several of the aforementioned language phases and scripts were in use at the same time. Nor was Egypt unaccustomed to foreign languages. In the exhibition Beyond the Nile: Egypt and the Classical World, the visitor had the opportunity to observe a number of written artifacts illustrating the outcome of language contact between Egypt and peoples from the Aegean and Roman world.
Intellectual and linguistic exchange
The so-called London Medical Papyrus is a manuscript dating from Egypt’s Eighteenth Dynasty, about 1400 to 1300 B.C. It contains a collection of remedies—consisting of both medical recipes and magical spells—for the treatment of various conditions, including swelling, skin diseases, eye ailments, bleeding, and burns. The text is written in hieratic (script) and composed in Middle Egyptian (language) but, remarkably, a number of healing spells in the section concerned with dermatology are not in Egyptian. As the papyrus itself points out, they are in fact in djed en khastyw, that is, “foreign language,” here transliterated in hieratic. One of the foreign languages used in this section of the text is that of Keftw, the ancient Egyptian name for the island of Crete.
Throughout human history, societies ancient and modern have been fascinated with the culture of faraway lands—often perceived as a “secret knowledge.” The ancient Egyptians were no exception, and it is thus not surprising that they should have chosen a foreign language as a special linguistic vehicle for magical incantations. The presence of Cretan, the language of the Minoan civilization, in this papyrus shows that the links between pharaonic Egypt and the Aegean area in pre-Hellenic times went much further than trade or the visual arts would suggest (as witnessed in the Minoan-style frescoes of Avaris, in the Egyptian Delta), and that they also included intellectual and linguistic exchanges.
Moving eight centuries forward, to Egypt’s Late Period and its Twenty-sixth Dynasty (664–525 B.C.), the presence of an increasing number of people from the Aegean world in Egypt, and especially in its Delta and in the area of the ancient capital of Memphis, was then a fait accompli. Arriving mainly for commercial and military reasons (many served as mercenaries in the Egyptian army), these communities included both Greek and non-Hellenic peoples, such as the Carians, from southwest modern-day Turkey.
The funerary stela here pictured records the burial of a Carian woman named Píabrm, pictured in the bottom register, lying on a funerary bed. Yet the making of her stela, and especially the reliefs in the other registers, reveals how these Carian immigrants adapted themselves to the customs and beliefs of their new country while also retaining their own traditions and language.
The top and middle registers sport deities from the Egyptian pantheon such as Osiris, Thoth, and the Apis Bull (a sacred bull worshipped in Saqqara, the same site where this stela was unearthed), while the scene at the bottom is remarkably un-Egyptian, showing the deceased Píabrm on a Grecian-style bier and the people around her performing Carian ceremonies. Note the second mourner from the left, who is lifting a knife to her forehead—a Carian mourning ritual of self-harm attested also in other sources.
When it comes to language, the stela is wholly Carian: the text carved on it, recording the name and other information about the deceased, is not written in Egyptian hieroglyphs—as one would perhaps expect on a funerary stela from Egypt showing Egyptian deities—but in the deceased’s original language and writing, the Carian alphabet.
A multicultural Egypt
It was finally with the conquest of the country by Alexander the Great in the year 332 B.C. and with the subsequent Ptolemaic Period (ending with the Roman conquest in 30 B.C.) that Egypt became a proper multicultural and multilingual country at all levels of society and in virtually all corners of the country. A new line of rulers took over the throne of Egypt—the Ptolemies—and, as these rulers originated from Greece, Greek became one of Egypt’s official languages, alongside Egypt’s old indigenous languages and scripts.
No better artefact on display in the exhibition at the Getty could exemplify this than the stela of Kallimachos. This granite stela was originally set up in the temple of Amun at Karnak in the year 39 B.C. during the reign of the last Ptolemaic ruler, queen Cleopatra VII. It contains a decree issued by the local priests to honor a general named Kallimachos, who is praised in the text as a powerful local benefactor.
Already at first sight, one notices some irregularities in this stela: this is due to the fact that the priests of Karnak were clearly working on a budget and had to reuse an earlier monument from the Pharaonic Period. Most of its original hieroglyphic text and scene were erased. Only the images of the winged sun-disc and of the two gods (Amun-Re and Montu) with related hieroglyphic captions were preserved in the center. The Ptolemaic sculptors then added two new images to the sides, those of the ruler Cleopatra and of her heir Caesarion (her son by Julius Caesar), along with the hieroglyphic captions identifying them.
The lower two thirds of the stela were covered with the decree itself written in “both Greek and native letters,” as the stela itself proclaims—that is, presented bilingually, in both Demotic and Greek, so as to cater to both possible audiences. Hieroglyphs (to write Middle Egyptian), Demotic, and Greek are all present side-by-side on this one monument, reflecting on stone the composite identity and the cultural traditions of Hellenistic Egypt.
Hieroglyphs exported to Rome
Egypt was not the only laboratory for such interactions and experimentations in the multilingual world of the Hellenistic and Roman Mediterranean. Artifacts inscribed in Egyptian also made their way to the four corners of the Roman Empire, and none are more remarkable than Egyptian obelisks. The obelisk of Benevento is paradigmatic in this respect. It was erected in the year 88 or 89 A.D. in the southern Italian city of Benevento to celebrate the Emperor Domitian and the Egyptian goddess Isis, whose local temple it decorated, along with a twin obelisk. Even more remarkable than the obelisk per se are the inscriptions on its four sides, which must have been commissioned to a member of the Egyptian priesthood well-versed in the ancient language (Middle Egyptian) and script (hieroglyphs) of his native culture.
Detail of the Benevento obelisk showing the text “Isis the great, lady of Benevento” inscribed in Egyptian hieroglyphs. Obelisk (detail, pre-conservation view), A.D. 88/89, Roman. Granite, 351.5 cm high. Collection: Benevento, Museo del Sannio, inv. 1916. Featured in the exhibition Beyond the Nile: Egypt and the Classical World
Despite its traditional and archaic form and language, the obelisk is still fully relevant to the place and time in which it was erected. The royal cartouches, which traditionally surround the pharaoh’s name, bear the name of Domitian transliterated into hieroglyphs. And even the ancient Egyptian goddess Isis is connected with the Italian city where the obelisk stood, as she is celebrated in the hieroglyphic text as “Isis the great, lady of Benevento.”
A city of which the ancient Egyptians would never have heard thus received a rendering of its name in the most sacred and ancient language and script of ancient Egypt. This would have probably bemused the Latin-speaking inhabitants of Benevento themselves, had they been able to read the inscription—perhaps not much unlike the experience of modern residents of New York, when they see the name of their city rendered into Latin, in scholarly publications or Roman Catholic Church texts, as Novum Eboracum.
Ancient Egyptian religious beliefs created a fascinating foundation for their unique society.
Death Mask from innermost coffin, Tutankhamun’s tomb, New Kingdom, 18th Dynasty, c. 1323 B.C.E., gold with inlay of enamel and semiprecious stones (Egyptian Museum, Cairo, photo: Mark Fischer, CC BY-SA 2.0)
When most people think of ancient Egypt, the images that arise are usually pyramids, temples, tombs, and treasure. While daily life in Egypt left little trace archaeologically, tombs and temples are generally well preserved and provide a useful lens for understanding this complex civilization. As dazzling as many ancient Egyptian artifacts, images, and spaces are, and as aesthetically-pleasing as they may be, it is important to remember that most were not produced for a human audience. Instead, these are expressions of the primary driver in Egyptian culture—religion.
Ancient Egyptian religious beliefs created the foundation for their unique, largely theocratic, society. Despite being surrounded in layers of mystery, these beliefs shaped and directed the culture at almost every imaginable level. There were nearly 1,500 deities known by name, and they were believed to not only be responsible for creation but also involved in every aspect of the continued existence of the functioning cosmos. A closer examination of these deities reveals a sophisticated web of connections that only got richer as the centuries passed.
This chapter aims to provide a very basic introduction and general overview of the religious life of the ancient Egyptians. Inextricably linked with their daily lives as well as their afterlives, religious beliefs formed the primary framework around which everything else in this fascinating and long-lived culture grew.
Creation myths and form(s) of the gods in ancient Egypt
Lord of Chaos, the god Seth was associated with a distinctive and unidentified animal with squared-off ears and an elongated, down-curved snout, Karnak, Egypt (Open Air Museum, Karnak; photo: Dr. Amy Calvert)
Ourobos (detail), a shrine from the tomb of Tutankhamun, 18th dynasty, New Kingdom of Egypt (Egyptian Museum, Cairo; photo: Djehouty, CC BY-SA 4.0)
Similarly, the concept of time in ancient Egypt was rather fluid; it was believed to move at different rates for certain beings and regions of the cosmos and was viewed as simultaneously linear and cyclical. Obviously, individual Egyptians experienced linear time—living their lives from birth to death—but they were also intimate with cyclical time, as evidenced in nature by the solar cycles, annual floods, and repeating astronomical patterns. They believed that an ongoing cycle of decay, death, and rebirth was what provided for the eternal consistency of the stable universe and allowed it to flourish. Fittingly, the ouroboros—the image of a snake eating its own tail and potent symbol of regeneration—originated in Egypt.
The prehistoric peoples of the Nile region, like many other early populations, revered powers of the natural world, both animate and inanimate. While some deities, like the sun god Ra, were linked with inanimate natural phenomena, most of the first clear examples of divinities were connected to animals. Falcon gods and cattle goddesses were among the earliest and may well have developed in the context of Neolithic cattle herding.
The enigmatic scenes on this monumental macehead have been much debated. They could represent the king’s heb-sed festival, divine rituals, or a royal wedding, among other possibilities. In this view, there are divine standards being carried in the top register, while the lower register shows cattle, goats, and a kneeling human with numbers under them indicating how many were captured or being presented. Narmer Macehead, Early Dynastic Period, c. 31st century B.C.E., found in Hierakonopolis (Ashmolean Museum, Oxford)
Already in the Early Dynastic period (c. 3100–2686 B.C.E.), there is significant evidence for the existence of many deities that were represented in human, animal, or hybrid forms (usually with human bodies and animal heads). Cult objects (statues of gods) in their local shrines shown being revered by the king were depicted on objects found in royal tombs of this period and may record actual visits by the ruler to different parts of the country to engage with those deities. The dedication of such cult images and participation in their rituals by the king was one of the most essential royal duties. Around 3000 B.C.E. when Egypt was unified under a single ruler, these disparate local deities appear to have been organized into a pantheon with relationships created between them, and these connections may have sparked various mythic stories.
The Turin king list, or the Royal Canon of Turin, papyrus
There are great challenges in the study of Egyptian mythology, not the least of which are the large gaps in our knowledge due to the whims of preservation. Our most cohesive records are texts from the later periods, which often record detailed stories that present seemingly contradictory accounts. For example, there were diverse and complementary creation myths and cosmogonies (stories about the origins of the universe) that overlap to present different aspects of their understanding of how the world and the gods came into being. In the view of the ancient Egyptians, there were seven stages to the mythical timeline of the world:
the chaos that existed pre-creation,
the emergence of the creator deity,
the creation (by various means) of the world and the differentiation of beings,
the reign of the sun god,
direct rule by other deities,
rule by human kings, and
a return to the chaos of the primeval waters.
At different times and in various locations, a variety of deities were identified with the creator god who emerged from the primordial waters to initiate and differentiate the cosmos. These included Ra, Atum, Khnum, Ptah, Hathor, and Isis. These myriad versions of the process of creation were connected to and promoted by cult centers, that emphasized the role of their patron deity in the process.
The three major variations of the Egyptian creation story are commonly referred to today by the cult locations where these variations were most heavily promoted: Hermopolis (Khemnu), Heliopolis (Iunu), and Memphis (Ineb-hedj).
While they differ in the details and focus on the primacy of their own local deities, all these creation systems are also quite similar in their approach, where a chaotic, amorphous watery mass of potentiality was brought under control through the establishment of ma’at and given form through the will of a creator. Many variations on these themes appeared that fit into the basic frameworks—the emerging sun god was sometimes visualized as a falcon, a scarab beetle, or a child (among other manifestations)—but all materialized from a mound and/or primeval waters. An understanding of these overlapping creation myths, and a recognition of the fact that they existed simultaneously with no apparent conflict, hints at the complexity of the mythological world of ancient Egypt.
Egyptian mythology and religious beliefs evolved and morphed over time. There was no official “holy book,” nor was there an “authorized version” of the stories gathered together into a single text. Instead, the study of Egyptian religious beliefs requires piecing together visual and written sources into a lived experience. This evidence is also surprisingly fragmentary. For instance, for many periods and regions we lack surviving temples (chief sources for ritual representations and texts) and domestic settings (rich sources of shrines and evidence of day-to-day religious practices).
One of the earliest types of religious texts to appear were topographical lists. These provided a list of deities and their cult places, with their functions and attributes indicated via epithets. Some of these epithets, such as Horus’s “protector of his father,” suggest that certain myths were already developed even though we have no written record of them from this early period. There was certainly a tradition of oral transmission that was already old by the time the Great Pyramid was built.
With more than 1,500 named deities, it is far beyond our scope here to discuss more than a fraction of them. Instead, below is a brief discussion of a few selected deities of various types to serve as a basic introduction to the Egyptian pantheon.
Ra / Amun-Ra
Arguably the most important deity in Egypt was the sun god Ra. He merged with other solar deities at an early date and assimilated them as aspects of himself—he was the emergent Khepri at dawn, Ra-Horakhti as the midday sun, and the weary Atum at the end of the day. Ra was a universal deity, who acted in the celestial, terrestrial, and netherworld realms, and was often presented as the supreme creator who emerged from the primordial waters at the beginning of time. As creator of the world, Ra was also the archetypal ruler of the cosmos; myths tell of how he reigned over the earth until he became weary of the task and departed for the heavens, leaving living kings, known by the title ‘Son of Ra,’ to rule in his stead.
Ra-Horakhti, Amun, the deified king, Ma’at, and Andjeti in the tomb of Ramses V/VI (KV9)
When the god Amun rose in prominence in the New Kingdom, the two were fused to create the all-powerful Amun-Ra. His daily journey through the sky was fraught with dangers and he was accompanied in his sky boat by various deities who helped him on his path. In the Pyramid Texts, the king was said to join the entourage on the solar barque upon his ascension. His solar barque traveled the netherworld at night, passing through many challenges and merging with Osiris in the depths of the netherworld before emerging reborn at dawn.
As befitting a deity with so many aspects, Ra could be presented in many different forms, often simply as a sun disc wrapped with a protective cobra, but also in hybrid form as a male with a falcon, ram, or scarab head crowned by a sun disc. He was also manifested as various animals and could be represented as a ram, heron, serpent, bull, scarab beetle, lion, or cat (among other creatures, depending on the context). Iconographic devices, such as rows of discs and yellow bands displayed at the tops of walls or on ceilings, defined the symbolic path of the sun in temples and tombs. Solar symbols were integrated into many architectural forms as well; pyramids and obelisks were among the most prominent, but more subtle solar iconography was woven into nearly every Egyptian context.
Hathor
Hathor at the Memorial Temple of Ramses III at Medinet Habu (Dynasty 20)
Hathor originated in the Predynastic period. She appears in the Pyramid Texts and later religious literature and holds a prominent place in the pantheon. Her name was written as Hwt-Hor, or “Mansion of Horus.” A sky goddess, Hathor was sometimes depicted in bovine form. Her main cult center was at Dendera, where a massive temple from the Ptolemaic period still stands, but she was worshiped in many locations throughout Egypt. She was connected to Ra as a strong, protective force, serving as an “Eye of Ra.” This role, which could be filled by several powerful goddesses, represented the dangerous aspects of the sun’s heat and helped to protect him. Sometimes, she was referred to as Ra’s consort who accompanied him on his daily journey through the sky. Called the “Golden One,” she usually wears a crown of a sun disk flanked with upright horns.
Also connected with sexuality, fertility, and motherhood, Hathor was the “beautiful one” who assisted women in all these realms. Most often represented in anthropomorphic form and wearing a red or turquoise dress, she was the mistress of the West who opened the gates of the underworld for the newly deceased and aided their transition. She was also presented as a hybrid figure with a human body and cow or composite head.
Horus
Horus in the tomb of a son of Ramses III in the Valley of the Queens (QV44)
This falcon god was among the oldest known—Predynastic rulers were called ‘Followers of Horus’ in later texts and he appears on early ceremonial objects like the Narmer Palette. His complex nature is evident from the various aspects and roles he played in myth. Called ‘Lord of the Sky,’ Horus was viewed as a celestial falcon; these birds were highly revered for their sharp-eyed capabilities. This aspect was probably the earliest form in which he was worshiped, such as at the site of Hierakonpolis. Connected to this was his role as a solar deity and he was called Horakhty or “Horus of the two horizons’ as god of the rising and setting sun. Horus came to be worshiped as the son of Osiris and Isis, although the origins of this connection are obscure. In both falcon form and as the divine son of Osiris and Isis, Horus was strongly associated with kingship—kings were often referred to as a “living Horus.”
From the Early Dynastic period, the king’s name was written in a rectilinear form, known as a serekh, which was topped with a falcon. His role as guardian of kingship is beautifully demonstrated in the famous statue of an enthroned Khafre with the Horus falcon wrapped protectively around the back of his head.
Diorite statue of King Khafre (Chephren), 4th Dynasty, Old Kingdom, Giza, Egypt (photo: kairoinfo4u, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)
As son of Osiris and Isis, Horus was heir to the mythical throne of Egypt and in pharaonic ideology the living king became associated with the falcon god while his deceased predecessor became Osiris, Lord of the Underworld. Horus was depicted in several forms: zoomorphically as a falcon, anthropomorphically as an adult or child god, and, most commonly, as a hybrid of a falcon-headed male wearing the Double Crown, signifying his rule over a united Egypt.
Osiris
Osiris in the tomb of a son of Ramses III in the Valley of the Queens (QV44)
One of the most important of all Egyptian deities, Osiris was prominent in pharaonic ideology and also popular in religion. He probably originated as a fertility god and was associated with the Nile inundations that rejuvenated the land. Viewed as a ruler of Egypt in the most ancient period, stories tell of his chaotic brother Seth slaying and dismembering him, scattering those pieces throughout the land. His powerful consort, Isis, gathered those pieces together and created the first mummy. Through her formidable magic, she revivified him and conceived their miraculous son, Horus. Horus avenged his father and Osiris became the King of the Underworld, providing a model for the desired resurrection that was the goal of every Egyptian.
In royal ideology, the deceased king was associated with Osiris while his living heir was viewed as the new Horus on the throne. Dwelling in the depths of the netherworld, Osiris served an essential role in the daily rejuvenation of the sun god Ra; he was even viewed as a counterpart of Ra for the dead, bringing them renewed life. Usually represented anthropomorphically as a shrouded wrapped mummy, often with green or black skin to suggest fertility, and grasping icons of kingship—the crook and flail.
He is often shown wearing a special crown called an Atef, which looks like a White Crown flanked by feathers. He is connected with the djed pillar from an early date; this hieroglyph came to be viewed as the stable backbone of the god. He served as the judge of the dead, sitting enthroned and viewing the weighing of the heart that awaited each deceased Egyptian. Eventually, the dead of all classes were referred to as an “Osiris.”
Isis
Isis in the tomb of a son of Ramses III in the Valley of the Queens (QV55)
Almost always shown in anthropomorphic form, Isis was an extremely important goddess in Egypt and beyond. Sister-wife of Osiris, she appears more than 80 times in the Pyramid Texts assisting the deceased. She and her sister Nephthys were associated with kites (a scavenging bird of prey that has a shrill cry); they were portrayed as the archetypal mourners of the deceased. The primary protector of Horus, literally hundreds of thousands of statues were produced showing her holding the infant Horus on her lap.
Isis was the symbolic mother of the king and she may have originated as a personification of the power of the throne—her name is written with the sign for “throne’”and she is often crowned with this emblem. Like several other powerful goddesses, Isis could serve as an “Eye of Ra.” She was ‘Great of magic’ and her abilities in this realm are often emphasized. In addition to using her powerful magic to revivify Osiris and enact the conception of Horus, another story relays how she used her magic to heal Horus from a scorpion sting. She was often invoked in spells of protection and healing. One fascinating myth tells of how she used magic to learn the secret name of Ra, gaining dominance over him by that knowledge. On her head, Isis usually wears either the throne hieroglyph or a sun disc and horns. Sometimes she has wings, especially when her arms are outstretched to protect the figure of Osiris. A protective amulet associated with Isis, called a tyet, was used by the living and also often placed in mummy wrappings.
Her famous temple on the island of Philae was the last functioning Egyptian temple and her worship there continued until the 6th century C.E. Isis’s influence outside of Egypt (such as in ancient Rome) was substantial. She was connected with other goddesses, such as Astarte and Aphrodite, and had temples at Byblos, Athens, and Rome. Her cult was one of the “mystery religions” practiced throughout the Greco-Roman world; evidence of her veneration has been discovered as far away as England.
Ma’at
This goddess personified the concepts of justice, truth, and cosmic order and is generally represented in anthropomorphic form wearing a tall feather on her head. She existed from as early as the Old Kingdom and appears in the Pyramid Texts. She was associated with Ra and also Osiris, who was called ‘lord of ma’at,’ and was generally identified as the consort of Thoth. Ma’at’s connection to the king was vital — the ruler gained legitimacy through their capabilities in maintaining cosmic balance and they were often called ‘beloved of Ma’at.’
Ma’at being offered by the king to Amun-Ra, King of the Gods, in the tomb of Ramses V/VI (KV9)
Many images show the king presenting a small figure of Ma’at to other gods, especially Amun, Ra, and Ptah, as an affirmation of the ruler’s ability to maintain order and also as sustenance for the gods similar to food offerings; some texts explicitly state that the gods ‘live on Ma’at.’ She also represented judgment and the feather of Ma’at was placed opposite the heart of the deceased on the scales at their final judgment. If the heart was heavier than the feather, the deceased was truly damned; if the heart was lighter than the feather of truth, the blessed dead could enter an idealized afterlife in the Field of Reeds.
Amun
Amun wearing his two-feather crown on the White Chapel of Senusret I at Karnak
Amun was first mentioned in the Pyramid Texts along with his consort, Amunet, and the pair were also part of the Ogdoad representing the element of “hiddenness.” He became the primary local god of the Theban region during the 11th Dynasty, with a series of kings who took the name Amenemhat (Amun is pre-eminent), and eventually rose to the supreme position in the pantheon during the New Kingdom, having been merged with the sun god as Amun-Ra. His early shrine at Karnak expanded greatly over time and became the largest religious complex on the planet. He was associated with the goddess Mut and the moon god Khonsu was worshiped as their son. Although grouped as the Theban Triad, each had their own sacred spaces within the Karnak complex.
Not only part of the Ogdoad, Amun was also represented as a primary creator god and his Karnak temple was said to house the “mound of the beginning,” where he brought the world into being. He was associated with the sun as Amun-Ra and was also viewed as a powerful fertility god. In this aspect, he was called ‘Amun-Min kamutef’ (literally “bull of his mother,” suggesting he begot himself with the sky cow goddess) and was depicted in ithyphallic form in many ritual scenes at Karnak and Luxor temples. Amun was first called “king of the gods” on the White Chapel of Senusret I at Karnak and this title became commonly applied to him. In later periods, he was associated with the Greek god Zeus. Regularly depicted in anthropomorphic form with blue skin, he was shown wearing a short kilt, bull tail, and a crown with a flat-topped base and a pair of tall feathers. He was also shown in hybrid form with a human body and the head of a ram with curved horns.
Mut
Mut in the Memorial Temple of Ramses III at Medinet Habu (Dynasty 20)
Although her origins are unclear and the first certain mention of her doesn’t occur until the end of the Middle Kingdom, Mut became the great mother goddess and queen of the gods from the New Kingdom onwards. She replaced Amunet, Amun’s original consort from the Ogdoad, and became his chief wife. Her name was written as a vulture, the word mwt which meant “mother,” and she was usually identified with the living queen as mother of the king.
The vulture headdress commonly worn by Egyptian queens is a reference to Mut. Atop her vulture headdress, Mut is often shown in anthropomorphic form wearing the Double Crown of Upper and Lower Egypt and holding a papyrus topped staff. She was also closely connected with the lioness, especially in her fierce aspect as a protective “Eye of Ra,” and was sometimes portrayed with a leonine head. She had a connection with violent justice as well; a fearsome punishment of fire in the “Brazier of Mut” awaited any rebels or traitors to the throne. Generally, her influence was focused on the world of the living and she played little role in the afterlife; there is evidence for a great deal of personal veneration of this “Great Mother” by the population.
Seth
Originally a desert deity, Seth represented chaotic and destructive forces. Sometimes paired with the falcon god Horus, he appears on Predynastic objects and also figures prominently in the Pyramid Texts. By the Middle Kingdom, he had assumed a position on the front of the solar boat to help repel the chaos serpent Apophis that threatened the sun god’s daily journey. Seth was depicted as an enigmatic long nosed canid with squared ears and an upright forked tail or as a hybrid of a human body with the head of this animal. His title ‘Red One’ linked him to the desert lands as did his wild temperament; in general, he was linked with violence, conflict, and rebellion. Seth stood in opposition to his brother Osiris, who represented the fertile ‘Black Land’ of the Nile valley. According to myth, Seth murdered his brother and tore his body into pieces. Later, he struggled in a series of conflicts with Horus, the son of Osiris and Isis, engaging in vicious acts including tearing out Horus’s eye. Eventually, Horus triumphed over his uncle and claimed the throne. Seth’s fearsome character came to be associated with storms, sickness, disease, crime, foreign invasion, and other evils in the world.
Seth is seen on this loose block housed in the Open Air Museum at Karnak Temple
Anubis
An early, important funerary deity, Anubis was connected with burial and afterlife—he is mentioned dozens of times in the Pyramid Texts in this capacity. He fulfilled this role for all deceased Egyptians, presiding over mummification and protecting burials. He was placated in the hope that he would control the scavenging desert dogs who had the habit of digging up shallow graves and scattering the bodies; a horrific fate for any Egyptian.
Anubis in the tomb of a son of Ramses III in the Valley of the Queens (QV44)
Usually depicted as a black canid or a human with a jackal head, his black coloration was symbolic of regeneration. Anubis was called ‘Foremost of the Westerners’ (i.e. those in the land of the dead) and ‘Lord of the Sacred Land’ signifying his supremacy over the desert cemeteries. Often depicted attending the mummy in its tomb (a role that may have been played in the terrestrial realm by human priests wearing jackal masks, several of which survive), he was called ‘Master of Secrets’ due to his connection with embalming. One of his main functions was to lead the deceased before Osiris and perform the Weighing of the Heart at their final judgment.
Ptah
One of the oldest gods, attested as early as the First Dynasty. His primary cultic location was Memphis, which was the administrative seat for most of Egypt’s history.
Ptah and Sakhmet at the Temple of Seti I at Abydos
Generally represented in anthropomorphic or mummiform wearing a blue cap crown, his consort was the fierce lion-headed goddess Sakhmet. The god of craftsmen, Ptah was a chthonic creator being, sometimes called “the sculptor of the earth.” He is usually shown as mummiform, connecting him with funerary and afterlife realms, often standing on a small base in the form of the hieroglyph for ma’at, or “truth.” Ptah was venerated as far south as Nubia and his image is one of four sculpted at the rear of the temple of Ramses II at Abu Simbel along with the deified king, Amun-Ra, and Ra-Horakhti. This temple was designed so that twice a year the rays of the rising sun penetrated deep into the temple and illuminated this group statue. However, while the sun lights up the other three images, the creator god Ptah stays forever in darkness.
Sakhmet
A fierce leonine goddess, Sakhmet had two distinct sides to her personality—she could either be destructive and dangerous or aggressively protective. She was the quintessential ‘Eye of Ra’ who protected her father, the sun god, from his enemies. Sakhmet was also his preferred instrument of destruction. One myth tells of a time when Ra became tired of humans plotting against him and he sent his ferocious daughter to punish them; she became so blood-thirsty and enamored with her task that she nearly brought about the complete destruction of humanity before the other gods were able to reign her in (by getting her drunk with red-dyed beer she mistook for pool of blood). Sakhmet was said to breathe fire at her enemies and she became the primary protector of the king, especially in battle. However, her breath was also capable of bringing pestilence—Sakhmet had to be propitiated and a special ritual known as ‘appeasing Sakhmet’ was performed to combat epidemics. If she was appeased, she could bring healing instead of plague. Amenhotep III commissioned hundreds of black granite statues of the goddess to be set up in temples around Thebes in an apparent attempt to keep her happy. Usually regarded as the consort of Ptah and worshiped primarily at Memphis, she also had temples in many other areas. Sakhmet was usually represented in hybrid form as a woman in a red dress with the head of a lioness (see the image directly above) wearing a long wig and sun disc atop her head.
Neith
An ancient goddess, Neith appears to have been one of the most important prehistoric deities and her worship extended to the very end of Egypt’s history. Her mythology is complex.
Neith and Isis in the tomb of a son of Ramses III in the Valley of the Queens (QV44)
She was a warrior goddess, associated with hunting, weapons, and warfare—one of her earliest emblems includes a pair of crossed arrows atop a pole—and she served as an ‘Eye of Ra.’ Much later, she was connected with the Greek goddess Athena. She also had a creator aspect and was part of the primeval waters; some texts even describe her as creating Ra and humankind calling her ‘the eldest, mother of the gods.’ As such, she was also seen as an archetypal mother figure and was said to support women in childbirth. Her connections to Lower Egypt are evident by the regular representations of her as an anthropomorphic female wearing the Red Crown. Her other common identifying headgear was the distinctive symbol that was used for her name. A funerary deity who protected the deceased, she was also believed to be the inventor of weaving and provider of mummy bandages and shrouds.
Nut
Nut being presented with wine by Ramses III at his Memorial Temple at Medinet Habu
Personification of the sky, Nut was a member of the Ennead and daughter of Shu and Tefnut. She was the mother of heavenly bodies, who swallowed the sun each night and birthed the disc again each morning. In this cosmic view, the sun god traveled through her body each night and the stars were similarly absorbed during the day. She may have been specifically associated with the Milky Way, stretched across the heavens. Given the perceived solar journey, it is not surprising that Nut became closely connected with the concept of rebirth. From early in Egypt’s history, she also served this function for the deceased and is mentioned nearly 100 times in the Pyramid Texts as an agent of resurrection.
She was often portrayed frontally and outstretched on the interior lids of coffins and sarcophagi to aid in this process. Nut is generally shown in anthropomorphic form, sometimes with a water pot on her head, but could also be represented as a sky cow, with her four hooves being the cardinal points and the stars and sun god sailing across her belly. In anthropomorphic form, she is often shown nude and in profile in relief, with her body arched over the earth god Geb and her body full of stars. Some of the most magnificent representations of her appear on the ceiling of the burial chamber of the tomb of Ramses VI in the Valley of the Kings where a pair of colossal images were painted back to back. These represent the day and night sky and show the sun disc making its journey through her body to emerge at dawn.
Seshat
Seshat follows behind the king and records millions of years for his reign. Memorial Temple of Ramses III at Medinet Habu
The goddess of writing, accounting, and notation, the “female scribe” (as her name is translated) was patroness of temple libraries. Beginning from the 2nd Dynasty, Seshat was responsible for establishing the ground plan in the foundation of sacred structures and was called the “mistress of builders.” She also kept records of the booty and tribute taken by the throne as well as being responsible for tracking the king’s regnal years and jubilee festivals, which she inscribed on palm ribs and the leaves of a sacred tree.
She was shown in anthropomorphic form as a woman wearing a leopard skin dress and an enigmatic symbol on her head that resembles a seven pointed star topped by a crescent shape.
Thoth
Thoth with his ibis-head on the White Chapel of Senusret I at Karnak
Originally a moon god, Thoth came to be associated with knowledge and was said to have invented writing. Shrewd and skilled, he became connected with scribes and scholars. He kept records for the gods, acting as their scribe, and also served as the patron for all areas of written knowledge. Many temple scenes show him recording the events that are depicted or tallying the offerings being presented. In the afterlife, he stood next to the scales that weighed the heart of the deceased and recorded the verdict.
Widely venerated, Thoth was worshiped in many areas of Egypt and the many thousands of votive ibis mummies discovered in these cult locations illustrate his popular appeal. Viewed as truthful and straightforward, Thoth was usually represented in hybrid form with a male body and head of an ibis. He could also be depicted in animal form as an ibis and also as a baboon, sometimes crowned with a lunar disc and crescent. Mentioned frequently in the Pyramid Texts, often in association with Ra, Thoth was sometimes referred to as the ‘night sun’ in juxtaposition with the solar deity. Through his knowledge and magical abilities, he was said to have healed the eye of Horus after Seth plucked it out. He often acted as an intercessor and messenger between the gods; in later times, he was associated with the Greek god Hermes.
Nekhbet
Nekhbet and Wadjet in fused form on a lintel at Karnak Temple
This vulture goddess was the tutelary deity of Upper Egypt. She and the cobra goddess Wadjet, who was connected with Lower Egypt, were the Two Ladies — together, they represented the united Egypt. Nekhbet was usually depicted wearing the White Crown of Upper Egypt and she was considered a mother of the king. Almost always represented as a vulture with her wings outstretched, she often frames the shen sign of eternity between her wings or grasped in her talons.
Wadjet
Connected with the delta region of Lower Egypt from the earliest times, the cobra goddess Wadjet (‘the Green One’) was paired with the vulture Nekhbet to signify the Two Lands. She was closely linked with the king as a fierce protector — ‘Mistress of Fear,’ she was the ubiquitous cobra perched on the king’s brow who spat fire at his enemies. She also protected the gods; even during the Amarna period when many other deities were avoided, she was shown as a protective element on the sun disc itself. Almost always depicted as an upright cobra, Wadjet was sometimes fused iconographically with Nekhbet as a vulture with a cobra head.
Bes
Cosmetic jar in the form of Bes, Late Period (The Metropolitan Museum of Art)
This complex and enigmatic figure may really represent a series of supernatural beings that were eventually merged. Although little is known about his origins, Bes became one of the most popular and widespread of Egyptian deities. By the New Kingdom, he was accepted by all classes of society as a fiercely apotropaic being who was especially connected with the protection of pregnant women, women in childbirth, and young children. He was often represented alongside the goddess Taweret in this role.
His appearance is unique and seems to have originated in the form of a dwarf wearing a lion skin or as a lion standing upright on its rear paws. He is usually portrayed frontally, even in relief, as a squat figure with short legs, a tail, and an enlarged head with a lion mane and a projecting, lolling tongue. He often wears a plumed headdress. Regularly depicted in amuletic form or carved on cosmetic items, musical instruments, apotropaic wands, headrests, and beds, his fierce protective image also appeared painted in rooms of royal palaces and even on the king’s chariots. Bes was widely venerated in household shrines and his popularity spread well beyond Egypt, appearing in Cyprus and Assyria.
Taweret
The “Great female one,” Taweret appeared as early as the Old Kingdom. She is usually represented as a hippopotamus standing upright with a swollen, pregnant belly and pendulous breasts and the paws of a lion. Often, her mouth is open in a wide grimace, emphasizing her protective function and she usually wears a long wig with a flat modius crown, feathers, or a sun disc with horns.
Protector of pregnant women, her primary attributes are the ankh, symbol of life, and the sa, emblem of protection, which were usually oversized and placed at her sides with her paws resting on the top. One of the most popular household deities and commonly revered in household shrines, Taweret seems to have had no formal temple cult. She was often paired with Bes and also appears on headrests, cosmetic items, apotropaic wands, and amulets.
Tawaret is included in an astronomical ceiling in the tomb of Ramses V_VI (KV9)
Hapy
Hapy fecundity figure carrrying the bounty of the land. Temple of Ramses II at Abydos (Dynasty 19)
The personification of the river Nile, particularly related to the annual inundation and the fertility it brought. A manifestation of divine order, Hapy was referred to as a creator god that helped maintain cosmic balance. This deity was the ‘Lord of the fishes and fowl,’ with many riverine forces being portrayed as their attendants. Usually depicted androgynously or as a male with a swollen belly and pendulous breasts, Hapy displayed a clump of papyrus and lotus clusters on their head.
Often represented with blue or green skin, sometimes with wavy water signs carved into the flesh. Hapy is shown on colossal statues of the king as twinned figures tying together the heraldic plants of Upper and Lower Egypt around the sema hieroglyph representing ‘union.’ Rows of Hapy figures often appear in temple relief bringing the bounty of the land as offerings.
View of sphinxes, the first pylon, and the central east-west aisle of Temple of Amon-Re, Karnak in Luxor, Egypt (photo: Mark Fox, CC: BY-NC 2.0)
Interactions with deities at their cult spaces (shrines) began very early in Egypt’s history. From the Predynastic period, the ancient Egyptians established shrines (made initially from reeds and mud) at sacred sites where the gods were believed to dwell. With the founding of the state, subsidized cults developed and the earliest kings of the unified Egypt traveled through the land, visiting cult sites and establishing their relationship with the gods. Over time, these simple structures eventually evolved into massive stone complexes.
These shrines were not merely places of worship—their primary function was to house the gods and serve as miniature models of the perfected cosmos. They provided an interface between the terrestrial and celestial realms. These structures, and the rituals that took place within them, functioned to preserve the proper cosmic order.
Model of the Precinct of Amon-Re, Karnak (photo: Rémih, CC: BY-SA 3.0)
Temple architecture was explicitly designed to express this idea of the cosmos made manifest. This included temenos walls that separated the everyday world from the sacred space inside, pylon gateways shaped like the hieroglyph for “horizon,” an axial processional way that mirrored the path of the sun, and the dark, small, hidden space of the inner sanctuary that represented the mound of creation.
Column scene of Ramesses II burning incense and pouring libation, in the Hypostyle Hall, Karnak, Thebes
Carved on the walls were scenes depicting ritual actions being performed before the gods; in nearly all cases, the king was shown as chief officiant. These reliefs assisted in the perpetual enactment of the necessary rituals that kept the gods provisioned and ensured the perpetuation of the cosmos. By keeping the gods satisfied and serviced through the daily rituals that tended to their basic needs, they in turn were willing and able to sustain the functioning of the universe.
While in theory the king and the deities were the sole participants in the daily ritual cycle, in reality this function would have been served by priests. Priests acted as the king’s surrogates within the temples and performed the required daily cult activities. While in earlier periods temple service was performed as one of the rotational duties expected of local officials along with their more secular tasks, by the New Kingdom temple activities were undertaken by a professional, often hereditary, priesthood.
Cult Image of the God Ptah, c. 945–600 B.C.E., Third Intermediate Period–early Dynasty 26, lapis lazuli, height of figure 5.2 cm (The Metropolitan Museum of Art)
The focal point of the daily rituals was a cult image of the deity that was kept in the inner sanctuary of the temple. Often crafted from precious materials like gold, silver, and lapis lazuli, very few of these cult images have been preserved (they are small, so easily transportable). They were not viewed as gods themselves, but instead provided a ritually perfected place to house their spirits or manifestations. The daily rituals indicate that these cult images of the deity were treated almost as though they were alive. Rituals included washing the statues, anointing them, clothing them, adorning them with jewelry, censing them, and providing offerings of food and drink before returning them to their shrines again.
Go to the New Kingdom section of this book to read about the Temple of Amun-Re and the Hypostyle Hall at Karnak
Kings Hatshepsut (front) and Thutmosis III (rear) perform rituals before the divine bark of Amun during a festival procession. Red Chapel of Hatshepsut, Dynasty 18, Karnak Open Air Museum (photo: Dr. Amy Calvert)
Most people primarily interacted with the official cults during public festivals and processions that served to rejuvenate the gods. These festivals included removing the cult image from its shrine, often placing it on a special boat-shaped palanquin (known as a bark), and processing it along proscribed routes to visit other deities in their temples or to certain sacred locations. These public processions permitted the general population, which was denied access to the temple proper, to “interact” with their gods.
The general population could also gain access to the temple gods via special shrines placed outside the temple walls (often at the rear of the structure, lined up with the inner sanctuary) and at the feet of the colossal statues that stood at the front entrance and served as mediators.
Palette of King Narmer, c. 3000–2920 B.C.E., Predynastic Egypt, greywacke (slate), from Hierakonpolis, 2′ 1″ high (Egyptian Museum, Cairo)
While the vast majority of the population played no role in temple rituals, they could engage with formal religious spaces by presenting votive offerings as an expression of piety and dedication. Wealthy individuals donated statues of themselves presenting offerings to be placed in the temple. Other votive objects included stelae, statuettes, food offerings, mold-made faience amulets, and mummified sacred animals. Vast numbers of such votive objects were donated in temples over the millennia.
Many of these objects survive because after a period of time votive offerings would begin to fill the temple space, which then needed to be cleared out to make room for new offerings. Having been dedicated to the gods, these objects could not simply be discarded; instead, large collections were ritually buried on the temple grounds. Several examples of these ritual pits have been discovered and excavated. Referred to as caches, they preserved many exquisite statues as well as some of the most important ceremonial objects to have survived from antiquity—including the extraordinary Narmer Palette.
The wider concept of personal piety seems to have emerged during the First Intermediate Period (c. 2150–2030 B.C.E.). This practice permitted more direct divine access for common people via small local shrines, developing alongside the state temples, where prayers could be offered and votive objects dedicated. Many Egyptians also venerated personal deities in household shrines. Houses excavated in the New Kingdom village of Deir el-Medina provide numerous examples of such shrines, with niches where images of deceased relatives and household deities like Bes and Taweret were venerated. These deities were believed to have the ability to ward off evil and also appear in the form of wearable amulets intended to serve the same function.
Mummy of Herakleides, 120–140 C.E., Romano-Egyptian, human and bird remains; linen, pigment, beeswax, gold, and wood, 175.3 x 44 x 33 cm (Getty Villa, Los Angeles; photo: Steven Zucker, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)
Little evokes ancient Egypt more quickly for more people than mummies. Over the millennia, scores of them have been unearthed and these complex echoes from the past have been handled in very different ways during that time. Often viewed more as artifacts and curios rather than as human remains, they were ground to powder for use in medicinal concoctions for many centuries (and, later, oil paints!), sometimes burned unceremoniously as fuel, and unwrapped with great fanfare at fashionable parties in the Victorian era. Today, mummies are treated with far greater respect and have provided deep insights and a vast amount of information about these ancient people, but their display and presentation remains a controversial topic.
The earliest burials known from Egypt were simple pits scooped out of the desert sand. These contained the bodies of the deceased, usually curled on their side in a fetal position, and often included objects of daily life such as pots, beads, tools, and other small items. Dated prior to the time of unification (well before 3000 B.C.E.), early cemeteries were located along the edge of the desert near settlements, the desert west of the Nile was already considered the land of the dead. Over time, the continued existence of the body on earth came to be viewed as essential for a successful afterlife. The physical corpse (or an inscribed image, or even one’s written name) served as a conduit with earth that allowed sustenance from offerings and magical spells included in the tomb or inscribed on its walls to flow to the deceased in the netherworld. Given the importance placed on the body, it is not surprising that the art of mummification developed to such an exceptional degree. There was a huge range of experimentation that occurred over Egypt’s long history of mummification, some techniques being far more successful than others.
Mummification
Sadly, no step-by-step guide to mummification has yet been discovered. Some 3rd–1st century B.C.E. papyri record wrapping instructions, amulet placement, and some spells, but the most detailed textual description of the process comes from the 5th-century B.C.E. Greek historian Herodotus in Book II of his Histories. He describes three different types of embalming, varying in expense, complexity, and quality of result.
Canopic Jar with a Lid in the Shape of a Royal Woman’s Head, c. 1352–1336 B.C.E., reign of Akhenaten, Dynasty 18, New Kingdom, Amarna Period Egypt, Upper Egypt; Thebes, Valley of the Kings, Tomb KV 55, Davis/Ayrton 1907 (The Metropolitan Museum of Art)
Death Mask from innermost coffin, Tutankhamun’s tomb, New Kingdom, 18th Dynasty, c. 1323 B.C.E., gold with inlay of enamel and semiprecious stones (Egyptian Museum, Cairo, photo: Mark Fischer, CC BY-SA 2.0)
In its full-fledged incarnation, the high-quality process of mummification took around 70 days and entailed:
Removing the viscera (liver, lungs, intestines, and stomach) through an incision in the left side; these organs were mummified separately and placed in four canopic jars. The heart, considered the seat of intelligence, was usually left inside the body.
The mysterious brain, a wet organ that encouraged putrification (which was anathema to the mummification process), was removed through the nostrils using a long metal hook and discarded.
The body was washed with palm wine, dried, and then covered with natron (netjry, in ancient Egyptian, which translates to “divine salt”). This powdery salt, derived from an oasis near the delta called the Wadi Natrun, desiccated the body over a period of up to 40 days.
Once dried out, the body was uncovered, ritually cleaned, and then anointed with fragrant oils and a thick coating of resin.
Then the body was wrapped with many layers of linen strips—a process that could take more than two weeks. Between the layers, various amulets were placed in specific locations with the hopes that they would aid the deceased in their netherworld journey. In royal burials, precious jewelry and regalia were included in these layers; the intact mummy of Tutankhamun included more than 150 objects wrapped in his linen. When the wrapping was complete, the bandages were thoroughly soaked with liquified resin.
To maintain the identity of the body, a mask could be placed on the mummy’s head. In later periods, a portrait was painted on a wood panel and inserted into the bandages. The mummy was then encased in a coffin, usually covered with amuletic scenes and texts that identified the deceased and provided them with the magical spells needed to safely traverse the dangerous netherworld.
Mummy with a portrait of Herakleides, 120–140 C.E., Romano-Egyptian, human and bird remains, linen, pigment, beeswax, and wood (The Getty Villa; photo: Steven Zucker, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)
The mid-range method omitted steps, such as the incision and manual removal of the viscera, while the least expensive option entailed the body simply be washed, dried in natron, and then wrapped.
Mask likely to be worn by a male priest playing the part of Anubis in a temple during mummification or burial ritual. Probably buried with the priest who had worn it in life. Anubis mask, 8–4 B.C.E., cartonnage, coarse linen, mud plaster mixed with straw, probably excavated in Thebes, Egypt, 24 x 36 cm (Harrogate Museums and Arts)
Archeological evidence has provided a great deal of additional information about this complex process beyond what was written in antiquity. For instance, although there are no texts referring to the practice, numerous discoveries of caches of carefully buried used embalming materials have given valuable insight into the techniques used. Not much is known about the ancient embalmers, except that wrapping was typically performed by a special class of priests, one of whom seems to have been masked and performed as the god Anubis.
Mourners in the funerary procession of Ramose, Tomb of the Vizier Ramose (TT 55), Western Thebes, Dynasty 18. Note the white sandals and other grave goods being carried by figures around the mourners (photo: Dr. Amy Calvert)
Funerary rites
Once the mummy was prepared, it was retrieved from the embalmers by the family. The mummy was placed in its prepared coffin and taken in procession to the tomb along with all the items destined to join the deceased in the afterlife. Included in this mournful group would be friends and family, along with priests to perform the funerary rituals and (if the deceased was wealthy) professional mourners who wailed and tore their clothing in anguish. Expressive tomb paintings of funerary processions show these figures with disheveled hair and tears streaming down their faces as they accompany the deceased on their final terrestrial journey.
The last stage before burial was a special ceremony performed by the heir and a priest wearing a panther skin wrapped around their torso. This “Opening of the Mouth” ritual was considered essential as it allowed the deceased to fully engage in the afterlife. The ceremony involved touching the organs related to the senses—eyes, ears, nose, and mouth—with special instruments, such as an adze (a woodworking tool) and a double-forked knife called a pesesh-kef. It is fascinating to note that these instruments were related to those used during childbirth, like the pesesh-kef that was also used to cut the umbilical cord. These ritual actions allowed the mummy’s senses to become magically useful again and permitted the deceased to be a fully functional being and an effective akh in the afterlife.
Once all the necessary rites had been completed, there was a funerary feast held in front of the tomb with the mummy, often draped in flower garlands, as guest of honor. Then, the mummy—along with its offerings and grave goods—was placed into the burial chamber and sealed away. This final act initiated the deceased’s passage into the netherworld, providing spells, guides, protective amulets, and tools in their tombs to aid them along that dangerous journey. Their eventual goal was to reach the idealized Field of Reeds (the Egyptian version of heaven) and enjoy an eternity in that place of perfection, sustained for all time through their terrestrial link to the tomb reliefs, grave goods, and ongoing offerings provided.
Although the living went back to their lives when they left the funeral, the deceased was far from forgotten. Regular festival occasions included visits to the tomb by family, sometimes with memorial picnics taking place in the area before the chapel, and gifts and offerings were left. Once a deceased Egyptian was perceived to have successfully navigated the dangerous pathways of the netherworld and achieved their place in the Field of Reeds, their living relatives and descendants would sometimes approach with petitions or requests for guidance. Often referred to as “Letters to the Dead,” these written requests for otherworldly intervention in the affairs of the living were usually written on small clay bowls filled with a food offering to entice the deceased spirit to help bring about the desired result.
For the ancient Egyptians, the dead were never truly forgotten. Even by speaking the name of an individual, the living helped guarantee eternal existence of that being in the afterlife.
Scroll down to read about Private Tombs, Portals to the Afterlife and Mortuary Texts
Art in Ancient Egypt – function and terminology
Beautifully preserved life-size painted limestone funerary sculptures of Prince Rahotep and his wife Nofret. Note the lifelike eyes of inlaid rock crystal (Meidum, Old Kingdom) (Egyptian Museum, Cairo; photo: Panegyrics of Granovetter, CC BY-SA 2.0)
Ancient Egyptian art must be viewed from the standpoint of the ancient Egyptians to understand it. The somewhat static, usually formal, strangely abstract, and often blocky nature of much Egyptian imagery has, at times, led to unfavorable comparisons with later, and much more “naturalistic,” Greek or Renaissance art. However, the art of the Egyptians served a vastly different purpose than that of these later cultures.
Art not meant to be seen
While today we marvel at the glittering treasures from the tomb of Tutankhamun, the sublime reliefs in New Kingdom tombs, and the serene beauty of Old Kingdom statuary, it is imperative to remember that the majority of these works were never intended to be seen—that was simply not their purpose.
Painted sunk relief of the king being embraced by a goddess. Tomb of Amenherkhepshef (QV 55) (New Kingdom, Ramesside) (photo: Dr. Amy Calvert)
The function of Egyptian art
These images, whether statues or reliefs, were designed to benefit a divine or deceased recipient. Statuary provided a place for the recipient to manifest and receive the benefit of ritual action. Most statues show a formal frontality, meaning they are arranged straight ahead, because they were designed to face the ritual being performed before them. Many statues were also originally placed in recessed niches or other architectural settings—contexts that would make frontality their expected and natural mode.
Statuary, whether divine, royal, or elite, provided a kind of conduit for the spirit (or ka) of that being to interact with the terrestrial realm. Divine cult statues (few of which survive) were the subject of daily rituals of clothing, anointing, and perfuming with incense and were carried in processions for special festivals so that the people could “see” them—they were almost all entirely shrouded from view, but their “presence” would have been felt.
Royal and elite statuary served as intermediaries between the people and the gods. Family chapels with the statuary of a deceased forefather could serve as a sort of “family temple.” There were festivals in honor of the dead, where the family would come and eat in the chapel, offering food for the Afterlife, flowers (symbols of rebirth), and incense (the scent of which was considered divine). Preserved letters let us know that the deceased was actively petitioned for their assistance, both in this world and the next.
What we see in museums
Generally, the works we see on display in museums were products of royal or elite workshops; these pieces fit best with our modern aesthetic and ideas of beauty. Most museum basements, however, are packed with hundreds (even thousands!) of other objects made for people of lower status—small statuary, amulets, coffins, and stelae (similar to modern tombstones) that are completely recognizable, but rarely displayed. These pieces generally show less quality in the workmanship; sometimes being oddly proportioned or poorly executed, they are less often considered “art” in the modern sense. However, these objects served the exact same function of providing benefit to their owners, and to the same degree of effectiveness, as those made for the elite.
Hard stone group statue of Ramses II with Osiris, Isis, and Horus (New Kingdom). (Egyptian Museum, Cairo; photo: Dr. Amy Calvert)
Modes of representation for three-dimensional art
Three-dimensional representations, while being quite formal, also aimed to reproduce the real-world—statuary of gods, royalty, and the elite was designed to convey an idealized version of that individual. Some aspects of ‘naturalism’ were dictated by the material. Stone statuary was quite closed, with arms held close to the sides, limited positions, a strong back pillar that provided support, and with the fill spaces left between limbs.
Model scene of workers ploughing a field, Middle Kingdom, late Dynasty 11, 2010–1961 B.C.E., painted wood, 54 cm (MFA Boston)
Wood and metal statuary, in contrast, was more expressive—arms could be extended and hold separate objects, spaces between the limbs were opened to create a more realistic appearance, and more positions were possible. Stone, wood, and metal statuary of elite figures, however, all served the same functions and retained the same type of formalization and frontality. Only statuettes of lower-status people displayed a wide range of possible actions, and these pieces were often focused on the actions which benefited the elite owner, not the people involved.
Detail of Hunefer’s Book of the Dead showing an upper and lower register. Hunefer’s Judgement in the presence of Osiris, Book of the Dead, 19th Dynasty, New Kingdom, c. 1275 B.C.E., papyrus, Thebes, Egypt (British Museum; photo: Steven Zucker; CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)
Modes of representation for two-dimensional art
Two-dimensional art was quite different in the way the world was represented. Egyptian artists embraced two-dimensionality and attempted to provide the most representational aspects of each element in the scenes rather than attempting to create vistas that replicated the real world.
Each object or element in a scene was rendered from its most recognizable angle, and these were then grouped together to create the whole. This is why images of people show their face, waist, and limbs in profile, but eye and shoulders frontally. These scenes are complex composite images that provide complete information about the various elements, rather than ones designed from a single viewpoint, which would not be as comprehensive in the data they conveyed.
Registers
Scenes were ordered in parallel lines, known as registers. These registers separate the scene as well as provide ground lines for the figures. Scenes without registers are unusual and were generally only used to specifically evoke chaos; battle and hunting scenes will often show the prey or foreign armies without groundlines. Registers were also used to convey information about the scenes—the higher up in the scene, the higher the status; overlapping figures imply that the ones underneath are further away, as are those elements that are higher within the register.
Chaotic fighting scene on a painted box from the tomb of Tutankhamen (New Kingdom). (Egyptian Museum, Cairo; photo: Dr. Amy Calvert)
Hierarchy of scale
Difference in scale was the most commonly used method for conveying hierarchy—the larger the scale of the figure, the more important they were. Kings were often shown at the same scale as deities, but both are shown larger than the elite and far larger than the average Egyptian.
Text and image
Text accompanied almost all images. In statuary, identifying text will appear on the back pillar or base, and relief usually has captions or longer texts that complete and elaborate on the scenes. Hieroglyphs were often rendered as tiny works of art in themselves, even though these small pictures do not always stand for what they depict; many are instead phonetic sounds. Some, however, are logographic, meaning they stand for an object or concept.
Highly detailed raised relief hieroglyphs on the White Chapel of Senusret I at Karnak (Middle Kingdom). (photo: Dr. Amy Calvert
The lines blur between text and image in many cases. For instance, the name of a figure in the text on a statue will regularly omit the determinative (an unspoken sign at the end of a word that aids identification—for example, verbs of motion are followed by a pair of walking legs, names of men end with the image of a man, names of gods with the image of a seated god, etc.) at the end of the name. In these instances, the representation itself serves this function.
Egyptian artists used a wide array of materials, both local and imported, from very early in their history. For instance, already in the Predynastic period, we find figurines carved from lapis lazuli—a lustrous blue stone that originates in what is now Afghanistan and indicates the early presence of robust trade routes.
Group of stones collected in Egypt showing the range of colors and textures available to the ancient artists.
Stone
Menkaure (Mycerinus) and Khamerernebty(?), graywacke, c. 2490-2472 B.C.E. (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston)
Harder stones include quartzite, diorite, granite, and basalt. Carving on softer stones was done using copper chisels and stone tools; hard stone required tools of yet harder stone, copper alloys, and the use of abrasive sand to shape them. Polishing was achieved with a smooth rubbing stone and abrasive sands with a fine grit.
Painted statuary
Most statuary was painted; even stones selected for the symbolism of their color were often painted. For instance, the exemplary statues of Menkare, builder of the smallest of the three major pyramids at Giza, were executed in dark schist (also called greywacke). This smooth black stone is connected with Osiris, resurrected god of the dead who was often shown with black or green skin referring to the fertile silt and lush vegetation of the Nile valley.
These images preserve traces of red paint on the king’s skin indicating that, when completed and placed in his memorial temple near his pyramid, they would have appeared lifelike in coloration. With time, the paint would have flaked away, revealing the black stone underneath and explicitly linking the deceased king with the Lord of the Underworld.
Wood
Ceremonial gilded wooden shield from the tomb of Tutakhamun. Egyptian Museum, Cairo (New Kingdom) (photo: Dr. Amy Calvert)
Egyptian artists also used a variety of woods in their work, including the native acacia, tamarisk, and sycamore fig as well as fir, cedar, and other conifers imported from Syria. Artisans excelled at puzzling together small, irregular pieces of wood and pegged them into place to create statuary, coffins, boxes, and furniture.
Metals
They also executed pieces in various metals, including copper, copper alloys (such as bronze), gold, and silver. Cult statues of gods were made in gold and silver—materials identified by myth as their skin and bones—and were often quite small. Very few metal statues survive because they were often melted down and the material reused, although preserved examples from the Old and Middle Kingdoms demonstrate that they were skilled not only in sheet metal forming, but also practiced complex casting.
Tutankhamun’s lunar pectoral in the Egyptian Museum, Cairo (New Kingdom) (photo: Dr. Amy Calvert)
Jewelry work was quite sophisticated even in the Old Kingdom, as demonstrated by some highly creative pieces depicted in tomb scenes. A cache of royal jewelry from the tombs of Middle Kingdom princesses displays extremely high levels of skill in terms of design as well as precisely cut stone inlays, repoussé, and cloisonnéMany objects, especially small amulets and inlays, were made from a manufactured material known as Egyptian faience. This quartz-based medium could be easily shaped, molded, and mass produced. The glaze coating could be almost any color, depending on the minerals used in the composition, although turquoise blue is the most common.
Relief sculpture
Relief was usually carved before being painted. The two primary classes of relief are raised relief (where the figures stand up out from the surface) and sunk relief (where the figures are cut into and below the surface). The surface would be smoothed with a layer of plaster and then painted. If the surface was not carved before painting, several layers of mud plaster would be applied to create a flat plane.
Painted raised relief in the Temple of Seti I at Abydos (New Kingdom)
The drawing surface would be delineated using gridded guidelines, snapped onto the wall using string coated in red pigment dust (very much like chalk lines used by modern carpenters). This grid helped the artists properly proportion the figures and lay out the scenes. Scene elements were drafted out using red paint, corrections noted in black paint, and then the painting was executed one color at a time. Even on carved relief, many elements in a scene would be executed only in paint and not cut into the surface.
Iron oxide nodules, source of a range of red pigments, Thebes
Pigments
Most pigments in Egypt were derived from native minerals. White was often made from gypsum, black from carbon, reds and yellows from iron oxides, blue and green from azurite and malachite, and bright yellow (representing gold) from orpiment. These minerals were ground and then mixed with a plant or animal based glue to make a medium able to attach to the walls. They could be applied as a single plane, but were also layered to create subtle effects and additional colors, such as pink or grey.
Early Dynastic royal tombs, Abydos, Egypt (photo: Dr. Amy Calvert)
The ancient Egyptian desire to craft an ideal afterlife led to a later (incorrect) perception that they were obsessed with death. Far from it! Instead, in equipping their tombs as thoroughly as possible, each Egyptian was focused on preparing for their ongoing existence in the next life. From early in its history, Egyptian tombs generally had two primary elements:
an accessible, above-ground chapel or shrine where visitors could come perform rituals and leave offerings and
a hidden, sealed, subterranean chamber containing the mummy, daily life items, food, and other grave goods, as well as texts and spells designed to aid the deceased on their journey through the netherworld.
There was significant innovation and change over time in the contents of these burial assemblages, but the need to preserve the body and provide for daily needs in the afterlife remained essential.
Private tombs
Predynastic (c. 5000–3000 B.C.E.) and Early Dynastic periods (c. 3000–2686 B.C.E.)
The earliest burials (up through the late Predynastic Period) consisted of a simple shallow pit with the body, surrounded by pots, tools, and other daily life items, being placed directly in contact with the dry sand and covered over. This practice often resulted in natural mummies, where the arid environment has desiccated and preserved the bodies, sometimes in surprisingly excellent condition.
Tomb 100, mural painting showing people engaging in a variety of activities along the Nile River (watercolor copy), c. 3200 B.C.E., predynastic period, Hierakonpolis, Egypt (in F. W. Green and James E. Quibell, Hierakonpolis (Band 2) (London, 1902)
Map of part of ancient Egypt, with Abydos and Saqqara in boxes (map: Jeff Dahl, CC BY-SA 4.0
The first properly constructed tombs, commonly brick-lined pits with plastered walls, appeared in Egypt shortly before the time of political unification (around 3100 B.C.E.). This basic type developed into a more complex subterranean structure by the First and Second Dynasty royal burials at Abydos, likely intended to evoke a palace for the afterlife.
While kings were buried in the south during this early period, many nobles were instead buried at Saqqara in the north near the newly established national capital of Memphis. Their large tombs included an impressive rectangular superstructure with niched walls atop a burial chamber dug into the bedrock and roofed with wood. The superstructures included multiple chambers that would have been filled with funerary goods.
Mastaba tombs around Great Pyramid, Dynasty 4, Giza, Egypt (photo: Dr. Amy Calvert)
Old Kingdom c. 2686–2150 B.C.E.
Drawing of Vizier Ptah-Wash’s mastaba, from Vesiren Ptah-wash’ sjæledør og hans sørgelige skæbne by Elin Rand Nielsen, vol. I: Nationalmuseets arbejdsmark (Nationalmuseet : Poul Kristensens Forlag, 1993; CC0)
Once the royal burials moved north to Saqqara starting in Dynasty Three, elites tended to be buried in large cemeteries that surrounded the tombs of their kings. In the Old Kingdom, these private tombs took the form of a bench-shaped mastaba (a flat, rectangular tomb form) that sat atop the burial chamber. Interment was achieved via a shaft from the top of the mastaba that was then filled in, making it inaccessible. Access was instead provided via a cut into the side of the mastaba that led to a stone-lined chapel that housed statues of the deceased sealed within the walls and included a stela known as a false door, which was believed to act as a portal, for the spirit to use, between the realms of the living and the dead. Walls were usually covered with lively, idealized scenes of daily life, representations of the deceased’s achievements, and vignettes of the venerated dead seated before overflowing tables of food. These chapels were for mortuary cult practices, encouraging the performance of rituals and the leaving of offerings intended to benefit the deceased.
First Intermediate Period (c. 2150–2030 B.C.E.) and Middle Kingdom (c. 2030–1640 B.C.E.)
During the First Intermediate Period and Middle Kingdom, the rock-cut chapels of some elite tombs depict scenes of the deceased presiding over religious festivals and venerating cult objects—types of activity that would not have been permitted in private tombs of the Old Kingdom.
Model scene of workers ploughing a field, Middle Kingdom, 2010–1961 B.C.E., wood, 54 cm (MFA Boston)
‘Daily life’ scenes continue to appear as well, both on the walls and in the form of wooden models.
Coffins from elite burials were often extensively painted with texts and scenes intended to aid the deceased in the afterlife. This collection of funerary literature is now referred to as the Coffin Texts.
New Kingdom (c. 1550–1070 B.C.E.) and Third Intermediate Period (c. 1070–713 B.C.E.)
Elite tombs in the New Kingdom continued to include elaborately decorated rock-cut chapels for the family to visit and offer ongoing sustenance for the dead; there were even special cyclical festivals focused on these visits. Chapels were often beautifully decorated with painted scenes related to important events from the life of the deceased and ritual scenes designed to provide for them in the afterlife. Some preserved scenes included lively and vibrant representations of their life on earth.
Private tombs, Dynasty 26, Asasif, Thebes (photo: Dr. Amy Calvert)
Thebes remained the primary cemetery for New Kingdom elites until the Twentieth Dynasty when the capital moved to the north-east part of the Delta. Tombs constructed in the north were quite different, being placed within or near temple precincts and incorporating brick-vaulted chambers. Further changes in burial practices are apparent in the Third Intermediate Period, particularly a more intense focus on the mummy and its coffin and increase of family or group crypts.
Late Period (c. 713–332 B.C.E.)
After the reunification of the Twenty-fifth Dynasty and through the Twenty-sixth, monumental private tombs reappeared briefly again both at Thebes and in the north. Some of the most massive rock-cut tombs ever discovered in Egypt are private tombs constructed at Thebes during the Twenty-sixth Dynasty. At Saqqara, burials were placed at the bottom of immense shafts dug into the bedrock that would have been completely filled with sand and rubble to seal the sepulcher; a number of these survived intact into the modern era.
Ptolemaic Period (c. 332–30 B.C.E.) and Roman Period (c. 30 B.C.E.–395 C.E.)
Anthropomorphic Anubis, burial chamber of the main tomb, Kom el-Shoqafa, Alexandria, Egypt (photo: Marjorie Susan Venit)
During the Ptolemaic Period, group burials continued and (not surprisingly) there was a marked increase in Hellenistic elements in the iconography given the Macedonian origins of the ruling family in this era. Simultaneously, understanding of the traditional Egyptian funerary imagery begins to erode and a fascinating blend of representational styles develops. Particularly in Alexandria, the blurring of the divide between indigenous Egyptian traditions and Hellenistic cultural approaches creates something of a hybrid between the two.
We see more rounded bodies in relief depictions and Greek-style dress and hairstyle on the mummy portraits of this period. Even old Egyptian deities like Anubis appear with a Hellenistic-style body and Roman armor in the 2nd century Alexandrian catacombs of Kom El Shoqafa.
Mummy of Herakleides, 120–140 C.E., Romano-Egyptian, human and bird remains, linen, pigment, beeswax, and wood (The Getty Villa)
This is even more apparent in the Roman era, with astonishingly individual portrait panels being placed over the face of the mummy. These startling, often elaborately-wrapped mummies appear to have then been kept on view in the family home or a public repository to receive offerings. After a period of time (presumably to make more room for the more recent dead), they were gathered, stacked atop each other, and interred in mass burial pits.
Figurines in a ransacked tomb chamber next to the coffin (right), Tomb of Djehutynakht (Barsha), Dynasty 12, from Museum of Fine Arts, Boston expedition in 1915.
Provisioning the Dead
From the earliest times, even simple burials included not only the body of the deceased but also items intended for use in the afterlife. Royal and non-royal burials were full of objects of all types—furniture, tools, personal care implements (like razors and stone palettes used to grind mineral makeup), foodstuffs, and clothing.
For example, an ivory label from the tomb of king Den has a ritual scene on one side and a simple depiction of sandals on the other, indicating the grave good they were originally attached to.
Meketre (TT 280, MMA 1101), serdab, MMA excavations, 1920, 112 x 17 cm (The Metropolitan Museum of Art) offering bearer, c. 1981–1975 B.C.E. (dynasty 12), Middle Kingdom, wood, gesso, paint, from Egypt, Upper Egypt, Thebes, Southern Asasif, Tomb of Meketre (TT 280, MMA 1101), serdab, MMA excavations, 1920, 112 x 17 cm (The Metropolitan Museum of Art)
The ideal vision of the existence beyond that was the goal of all deceased Egyptians—a perfected, effortless version of the life they experienced when among the living. Scores of ‘support staff’ were often evident in the form of scenes of daily life that covered the walls or wooden models that provided produce and sustenance for the deceased. Many models and scenes show the preparation of various foodstuffs and other goods desired in the afterlife, or were shown bringing offerings. A particularly beautiful example of one of these offering models is a statue of an offering bearer from the Tomb of Meketre.
Beginning in the First Intermediate Period, the deceased was also accompanied by small figures that were intended to perform work on their behalf in the afterlife. Referred to as ushabtis, eventually there could be hundreds of these ‘afterlife workers’ provided to perform a wide range of tasks, along with images of overseers to manage them.
Ushabti for Neferibresaneith, about 570–526 B.C., Egyptian. Green faience, 7 3/16 × 2 1/16 in. The J. Paul Getty Museum, 2016.2. Digital image courtesy of Getty’s Open Content Program
Well-equipped tomb often included a wide range of daily life items, including actual foodstuffs (like dried fruits, grain, honey, jars of beer or wine, and prepared meats), furniture (such as beds, chairs, and footstools), clothing (from headcloths to sandals, and everything between), games, and personal items (mirrors, cosmetics, perfumes, etc.).
In addition, tools particular to one’s profession would be included—officials were interred with scribal palettes, complete with reed pens and pots of ink, while soldiers had swords, chariots, and other weapons. The tomb was ideally provisioned not only to provide all the comforts of home for the deceased in the afterlife, but also to symbolically support their transition to an effective akh. For instance, cosmetic jars were often shaped in the form of a lotus flower, an emblem of regeneration that served a symbolic function in the tomb context in addition to the practical role as a container.
The best possible afterlife
The continued existence of the properly housed and well-provisioned body on earth was clearly considered important for an ideal afterlife from very early in Egypt’s history. Even before the initial political unification, the deceased were provided with the goods needed to support their next life. Burial practices developed over the millennia, shifting and evolving to accommodate changes while maintaining the underlying fundamental requirements: an identifiable, preserved body and a safe place for the mummy (and its provisions) to call home. This terrestrial anchor provided a conduit that allowed the deceased in the afterlife to benefit from those grave goods, foodstuffs, ritual actions, offerings, models, texts, spells and scenes and enjoy an eternal, perfected afterlife in the Field of Reeds. Given this belief, it’s not surprising that Egyptians invested as much as possible in provisioning their tombs and setting themselves up for the best afterlife they could afford.
Egyptian Social Organization—from the Pharaoh to the farmer
by DR. AMY CALVERT
Seti I kneels before the god Amun and receives emblems of kingship conveying his authority to rule. In his left hand the king grasps a rekhyt bird, which represents the general population that is being brought under the king’s control. This elegant scene is packed with symbols of stability, life, and eternal rejuvenation, all directed at the king. Temple of Seti I at Abydos, Dynasty 19.
A hierarchy
Ancient Egyptian society was a strictly divided hierarchy. The king, chosen by the gods to rule, was at the top with layers underneath—including officials like the vizier, scribes, overseers, and regional governors (called “nomarchs”), priests, the military, and the general population of artists, tradespeople, craftspeople, agricultural workers, laborers, and enslaved people.
This hierarchical society flourished for much of ancient Egypt’s very long history largely because of the central cultural principle of ma’at—the cosmic force of order and balance that Egyptians believed governed their world. The economy was centrally organized, with a fixed wage and state distribution system. Through this process, the properly functioning state (proof of the king being in accord with ma’at) provided for the populace. The king officially owned all the land and the state received goods and services through taxation. Taxes were levied, collected, and recorded by the offices of the vizier and placed in centralized storehouses. These goods were then redistributed back to the people.
One side of the Palette of King Narmer, c. 3000–2920 B.C.E., Predynastic Egypt, greywacke (slate), from Hierakonpolis, 2′ 1″ high (Egyptian Museum, Cairo)
Pharaoh—Top of the Food Chain
Many aspects of royal ideology and iconography were visible from the earliest monuments and continued to be used for thousands of years. The Narmer Palette for example, includes the iconic smiting pose, elements of regalia like crowns, weapons, and the ceremonial beard, and a blending of divine and terrestrial elements in the same scene in support of the king’s efforts.
The ruler’s role as the champion of ma’at was paramount, as was the expectation that a ruler would protect Egypt from its enemies and administer the vast resources of the Two Lands to the benefit of the people. As time passed, the ruler had additional expectations, including being a good shepherd and protector and, in the militaristic period of the New Kingdom, to display great skill in battle and physical prowess.
Statue of King Khafre (Chephren), detail, 4th Dynasty, Old Kingdom, diorite, Giza, Egypt (photo: kairoinfo4u, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)
Kings in ancient Egypt were living humans, but they also embodied the eternal office of kingship itself. The ka, or spirit, of kingship was often depicted as a separate entity standing behind the human ruler, and it was this divine aspect of the office that gave authority to the individual person who was the king. The living ruler was viewed as the embodiment of the god Horus, the powerful, falcon-headed god who was believed to have bestowed the throne to the first human king, Menes. Once they died, the ruler became connected with Osiris, the eternal Lord of the Underworld, and their successor rose as the new Horus.
The ka of Senusret I stands behind the king and wears Senusret’s Horus-name in its serekh on his head, with the ka hieroglyph (a pair of upright arms) wrapped around the base. The ka holds an oversized ma’at feather and the standard of divine kingship (White Chapel, Karnak Temple)
Over time, the royal title developed so that each individual king had five names that emphasized different aspects of kingship and highlighted the king’s relationships with the gods.
Horus name of Ramses VI in his tomb in the Valley of the Kings, Tomb of Ramses V/VI
Horus-name
The earliest of the five names to appear was the Horus-name (also known as the ka-name). This name identified the king as the earthly embodiment of Horus, the patron god of kingship, and was enclosed in a serekh (a paneled rectangular form that likely represents a stylized palace gateway) topped with the Horus falcon.
Detail from the White Chapel of Senusret I, Karnak, Dynasty 12
The Two Ladies-name (nebty)
This name demonstrated that the Two Lands were unified under the king’s rule. This name was topped by the goddesses Nekhbet and Wadjet, usually represented in the title as a vulture and a cobra wearing the crowns of Upper and Lower Egypt, the White and Red crown, respectively.
Detail from the White Chapel of Senusret I, Karnak, Dynasty 12
Golden Horus-name
The title of the Golden Horus-name was written as a falcon seated atop the hieroglyph for gold; the meaning of this name is unclear but likely indicates a wish for the king to be an “eternal Horus.”
Detail from the White Chapel of Senusret I, Karnak, Dynasty 12
nesu-bjt-name Often referred to as the prenomen, the nesu-bjt-name is titled by hieroglyphs of a sedge and bee. Often translated as “King of Upper and Lower Egypt,” it seems instead to be closer in meaning to a merging of the eternal aspect of divine kingship (nesu) with the ephemeral human ruler holding power at that moment in time (bit).
Detail on a loose block in the Open Air Museum at Karnak, Dynasty 12
The birth name or nomen
This was the only one of the five that was given to a king at their birth; the rest being given when they took the crown. The nomen is the Son of Ra-name, titled by a goose and sun disc —the hieroglyphs that spell out “son of Ra.”
Both the nomen and prenomen were enclosed in the elongated cartouche (an oval shape). This device, which may signify the infinite expanse of the king’s realm, clearly distinguished royal names from surrounding text.
Detail of an elaborately patterned niched facade, known as a serekh, from the White Chapel of Senusret I, Karnak, Dynasty 12
Old Kingdom: First Dynasty through the First Intermediate Period
From the First Dynasty onwards, kings were known by the Horus-name. They served as political, religious, and military leaders. The ruler was expected to be the powerful champion of ma’at and capable of wielding that divine strength to protect Egypt from her foes.
Detail of Statue of Khasekhemwy, Old Kingdom, Second Dynasty (Ashmolean Museum, Oxford University)
Statue of King Khasekhem with images showing crushed enemies on the top of base along with the number of dead recorded along the front by danderson4 on sketchfab
The earliest sculptures of a specific ruler anywhere in the world may be two images of the Second Dynasty king Khasekhemwy wearing the White Crown and crushing chaotic enemies under his feet (one is pictured above) as an agent of ma’at. By the Fourth Dynasty, the king was viewed as the “Son of Ra,” acting as a deputy of the sun god on earth.
King Menkaura (Mycerinus) and queen (Old Kingdom), 2490–2472 B.C.E. (Menkaura Valley Temple, Giza), greywacke, 142.2 x 57.1 x 55.2 cm (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston)
Kings of the Old Kingdom were viewed almost as divine; statuary of this time shows them with perfected bodies and serene faces (like Menkaura and his queen) that seemed focused on the world beyond. Toward the end of the Sixth Dynasty, several factors (including low Nile inundations that may suggest famine and apparent disorganization), led to the loss of centralized control and the end of the Old Kingdom. Simultaneously, the prominence of local governors (nomarchs) began to increase in their individual regions and rise in importance. They became increasingly independent from the king and central administration, leading to a politically fractured period we call the First Intermediate Period.
Middle Kingdom through Second Intermediate Period
After the disunity of the First Intermediate Period, we see the democratization of previously royal prerogatives (such as the assumption of royal titles, regalia, and mortuary practices by local nomarchs), and the role of the pharaoh shifted. Kings of the Middle Kingdom focused more attention on being responsible protectors of Egypt, rather than on their divinity. Statues of the pharaohs from this time convey the heaviness of the crown and the role of kingship, the weight of their responsibilities evident on the face. The ears of these figures are also distinctly oversized—the better, it is believed, to hear the pleas of their people.
Face of Senwosret III (Middle Kingdom), c. 1878–1840 B.C.E., red quartzite, 16.5 × 12.6 × 11.4 cm (The Metropolitan Museum of Art)
During the Second Intermediate Period, peoples from western Asia took control of the Nile delta region. During this disjointed period, there was an Egyptian pharaoh ruling the south from Thebes and a Hyksos king ruling the north from a city called Avaris. Military conflicts between the two groups extended for generations and were fierce; one of the royal Egyptian mummies from this period shows severe injuries that indicate a violent death on the battlefield. Eventually, the pharaoh Ahmose was able to drive the occupiers out of the delta, re-unify the country under his rule, and establish the New Kingdom.
New Kingdom
After successfully regaining their country, New Kingdom rulers placed extra emphasis on military capabilities and were expected to be skilled in battle as the supreme commander of the armies. Perhaps in response to being invaded and occupied, the kings of the Eighteenth Dynasty led numerous military campaigns and expanded the borders of Egypt north all the way to the Euphrates river, and south deep into Nubia. Even after the borders were stabilized, this role of the king as Egypt’s protector was paramount, as evidenced by the huge numbers of triumphant battle scenes that appear on temple walls.
Temple of Queen Hatshepsut, Dayr al-Baḥrī, Egypt, c. 1470 B.C.E. (photo: Nuță Lucian, CC BY 2.0)
Female rulers
Female rulers, although rare, controlled the country at several points in Egypt’s history. One of the most famous of these was the powerful Hatshepsut, who reigned for around 20 years during the New Kingdom. A prolific builder, Hatshepsut’s magnificent terraced mortuary temple cut into the cliffs in west Thebes remains one of the most stunning structures from the ancient world.
Large Kneeling Statue of Hatshepsut, c. 1479–1458 B.C.E., Dynasty 18, New Kingdom (Deir el-Bahri, Upper Egypt), granite, 261.5 x 80 x 137 cm (The Metropolitan Museum of Art)
Many of Hatshepsut’s images show her as a masculine ruler, with her feminine characteristics deemphasized and wearing all the same royal regalia as male kings. Texts on these images, however, clearly identify her properly as female. As always before the gods, it was her capabilities as a good king that was of the greatest import; her gender was not an issue.
Even rulers of non-Egyptian origin, including the much later Roman emperors who appear in temple relief carvings, presented themselves with the traditional iconography and regalia that clearly identified them as an Egyptian pharaoh. This practice linked them with the long line of kings that came before them and helped legitimize their rule to the illiterate populace. Rulers from Kerma, whose own culture displayed a fascinating blend of Nubian and Egyptian imagery, emphasized Egyptian deities in their monuments. These Kushite kings ruled Egypt for around 75 years. They were especially devoted to the god Amun, who had a well-established and important cult in their homeland.
King List, from the Temple of Seti I, Abydos, Egypt (photo: Olaf Tausch, CC BY 3.0)
King Lists
Kings recorded the names of their predecessors in vast “king-lists” on the walls of their temples and depicted themselves making offerings to the rulers who came before them—one of the best known examples is in the temple of Seti I at Abydos. These lists were often condensed, with some rulers (such as the contentious and disruptive Akhenaten and his successor, Tutankhamun) and even entire dynasties omitted from the record; they are not truly history, rather they are a form of ancestor worship, a celebration of the consistency of kingship of which the current ruler was a part.
Ancient Egyptian society has been portrayed as a pyramid, with the king at the very top and the population layered beneath them. Egypt was a theocratic monarchy, where the king ruled by the command of the gods and served as intermediary between the people and the divine. He was maintainer of ma’at, chief officiant in all ritual actions before the gods, military commander and protector of Egypt, living Horus, and provider for the people. If he fulfilled all his required roles to the satisfaction of the gods, then the land flourished and the people prospered. In general, the society was divided into those who administered (the officials) and those who were administered (the masses of the population). Given that there was no “church and state” separation, the temples were also part of the administration, lending divine oversight to state activities. All large-scale ventures, whether quarrying expeditions, building projects, or the maintenance of workshops of artisans, were controlled by the state.
Social Organization
Ancient Egyptian society was a theocratic monarchy with a strict hierarchical structure. The most important individual in the society was the king (pharaoh). Below the king were administrative officials, such as the vizier, overseers, scores of scribes, and regional governors (called “nomarchs”) who handled local resource management. There were also priests dedicated to the divine and royal cults, ranks of the military, and the general population of artists, tradespeople, craftspeople, agricultural workers, laborers, and slaves.
The Egyptians believed their world was governed by ma’at, a divine force of cosmic balance, which is what provided stability. The centrally-organized storehouse economy and state-run distribution system supplied the people with a fixed wage based on their labor type and skill level. In general, there was little social mobility or free choice of career; instead, sons followed their fathers in their professions.
Granary official Nikare with his family (his wife, Khuennub, kneels at his left and a daughter, Khuennebti stands at his right), c. 2420–2389 B.C.E. or later, limestone and paint, 57 x 22.5 x 32.5 cm (The Metropolitan Museum of Art)
Administration—viziers, officials, and overseers
Egyptian bureaucracy was hierarchical, with the pharaoh at the top and layers of administrators beneath them that governed on the king’s behalf. This group of elites were among the very small portion of the population that was literate. The top official below the king was known in Egyptian as tjaty; this individual is now referred to as the vizier (Arabic for “high official”) and was much like a modern prime minister. During the Old and Middle Kingdoms there was one vizier for the whole country, but during the New Kingdom this position was split into a vizier of Upper Egypt and another for Lower Egypt (from the beginning of its history, Egypt was viewed as being two lands: Upper Egypt in the south, and Lower Egypt in the north), while a third, the Viceroy of Kush, oversaw the valuable lands of Nubia south of the First Cataract.
These high-ranking figures functioned as the king’s representatives and directed the administration of the country. Below them were the local officials and provincial governors who performed a range of responsibilities—most importantly the collection of taxes, oversight of local granaries and storehouses, and drafting of labor for state projects. They were accountable to the vizier for any failures. Civil justice was meted out by councils of local officials and high-ranking priests. The vizier served as the chair of the “Great Council,” which oversaw cases that affected the state, such as property disputes that could impact taxation and serious crimes like murder. Local councils oversaw social claims such as theft, adultery, and wife-beating—both men and women had the right to seek redress in court.
The ibis-headed god Thoth, patron of scribes, stands behind a prince and grasps a scribal palette in his hand. Temple of Ramses II at Abydos, Dynasty 19.
Scribes and priests—holders of secret knowledge
The scribal class was part of the administration and they were high-ranking professionals. These individuals could understand and write hieroglyphs, which the ancient Egyptians called medu netjer or “words of the gods.” The word for scribe was written hieroglyphically as a scribal palette with ink recesses and an attached stylus.
Seated Scribe, c. 2500 B.C.E., c. 4th Dynasty, Old Kingdom, painted limestone with rock crystal, magnesite, and copper/arsenic inlay for the eyes and wood for the nipples (Louvre)
Seated Scribe, c. 2500 B.C.E., c. 4th Dynasty, Old Kingdom, painted limestone with rock crystal, magnesite, and copper/arsenic inlay for the eyes and wood for the nipples
Scribes served an essential function in society and were often portrayed as serene, confident, and self-assured in their elevated position. They were trained in special schools associated with the court and certain temples, with students focused on copying existing texts. Training seems to have been based on memorizing entire sections of text rather than individual signs. The Egyptian language developed over time and was not only written in the fully pictorial hieroglyphic script, but also in other forms of the language. Although the hieroglyphic script is entirely made up of images, it was not pictographic writing. Instead, these signs stood for sounds or groups of sounds that were clustered together to form words. Scrolls of papyrus were the usual surface for formal texts, although many informal texts were jotted down on sherds of pottery or flakes of stone known as ostraca. Ink was applied using a reed stylus; black for the primary writing and red for headings and corrections.
Scribal training was required to become an official, a physician, or a priest. As most diseases were thought to have come as a punishment from the gods or divine lesson, there was little distinction between priests and physicians and in some sects, like that of the goddess Serket, all the priests were also doctors. Priests needed to be able to read and write in order to perform their duties; many of the rituals had long incantations that had to be read. It is interesting to note that no separate priestly class existed until the New Kingdom. Prior to this time, priestly duties were performed by civil officials who served for a period of months and then returned to their regular, secular tasks.
New Kingdom priests were trained as scribes and then submitted to a series of ritual purifications and annointings along with vows of purity and obedience. There were strict requirements for purity, including shaved heads and regular washings, as well as proscriptions from certain foods and activities while in the service of the gods.
Several different types of priests are known from early times. For instance, there were lector priests, who wore a diagonal sash across their chest and recited the formulas that accompanied cult rituals, while sem priests wore leopard skins and were associated with funerary rites and the essential Opening of the Mouth ritual.
At the numerous divine and royal temples throughout the country, the administrations included overseers and inspectors of the priests who were responsible for the organization and management of the daily operations of each temple. At the top of the hierarchy was the high priest who was referred to as the hem-netjer-tepy or “first servant of god.” This position was frequently appointed by the king but over time it became more hereditary. Priestesses are known from the Old Kingdom onwards, with many elite females holding the title of hemet-netjer, “(female) servant of god.” Usually, women served female deities although some seem to have served as priestesses of Thoth and Ptah.
Map of Egypt during the New Kingdom, c. 1450 B.C.E. (CC BY-SA 3.0)
We know little about the military until the New Kingdom and there was apparently no standing army until at least the Middle Kingdom. Prior to this, if troops were needed they were conscripted, armed—with hide-covered shields, clubs, battle-axes, daggers, simple bows and arrows, slings, and lances—and placed under the command of a local official who was their superior in civil life. After the Old Kingdom, mercenaries and professional soldiers appeared and a permanent fighting force developed. In addition to forts in the eastern desert and along trade routes, Middle Kingdom rulers established a series of riverine forts in Nubia that were well-manned and used to establish control of the valuable resources in the region, especially gold.
Troop of Nubian archers, from the Tomb of Prince Mesehti, Middle Kingdom, 11th Dynasty, c. 2000 B.C.E. (Egyptian Museum, Cairo) Military—shield of Egypt
Models from the Middle Kingdom tomb of Mesehti show 2 units of armed soldiers (40 Egyptian foot soldiers and 40 Nubian archers) preserving their costumes and weapons. During the New Kingdom, the military machine massively expanded. Major military campaigns were carried out throughout this period and supported a mass of professional troops. The New Kingdom was founded on generations of battle, with the need to drive the Hyksos out of the Nile delta. The Egyptian military embraced the weapons that had been introduced by the Hyksos, including the scimitar, horse-drawn chariot, and composite bow, and made them their own. New Kingdom kings greatly expanded the borders of their influence. A rare gateway to social mobility, prowess in battle and military capabilities could elevate the status of even the lowest-born soldier to that of a distinguished veteran.
Artisans and Craftspeople—Creators of Beauty and Function
Below the scribal layer were semi- or non-literate skilled artisans and craftspeople who produced the goods required by the elite. Although for most of Egypt’s history, we know little about individual craftspeople, surviving examples show that some were honored with statues and private tombs—one early, 3rd Dynasty example being a ship-builder and smith named Akhwa who was identified as a “Royal Acquaintance.”
View of the village at Deir el Medina, Thebes, New Kingdom
The special village of Deir el-Medina on the west bank at Thebes provides a unique view into the daily lives of this class during the New Kingdom. For many generations, the artisans who dug out and decorated the royal tombs of the Valley of the Kings lived with their families in this isolated village on the edge of the desert. Due to their professions, a significant portion of the population of this village could read and write and excavations have revealed tens of thousands of ostraca (texts were jotted down on sherds of pottery or flakes of stone).
Limestone flake (ostraca) with an enigmatic drawing of a cat herding geese. Deir el Medina, Ramesside Period, Egyptian Museum Cairo
Basically the “post-its” of the ancient world, there were used for all sorts of lists, letters, simple notes, and creative drawings and provide an intimate look at their day-to-day interactions. One of the most fascinating events recorded was a worker’s strike that occurred at Deir el Medina in around 1150 B.C.E. A state shortfall had resulted in a delay of the worker’s wages and the royal artisans stopped working until the matter was addressed. The vizier himself came to the village to assure them assistance was coming, but when that fell through they struck again and even took control of the royal mortuary temples. Eventually, their demands were met and they returned to work, having successfully won the first recorded labor strike in history.
Agricultural workers and laborers—producers of the bounty
The largest portion of Egypt’s population were the illiterate masses who worked the land as independent farmers or agricultural laborers. This strata generated the crops, produced the foodstuffs, and raised the animals that supplied the populace and elite classes with the bounty of the land. This is also the group that provided much of the paid labor force for state building projects, such as the pyramids. During the annual flooding of the Nile, when it became impossible to work in the fields, these laborers were conscripted to go work on the king’s state-funded projects instead. Much less is directly recorded by this class, as they did not have the resources to commission monuments nor the knowledge to write texts. We do have some information about their lives and work through the viewpoint of the elite, although these representations depict them in terms of their service to and supporting the nobles rather than in their own right.
Appearing during the First Intermediate Period and Middle Kingdom, models made of wood were placed in the burial chamber to furnish provisions for the deceased. Functioning much like the painted scenes of these activities that had appeared in Old Kingdom tombs, these models symbolically provided for the tomb owner’s needs in the afterlife. Model scene of workers ploughing a field, Middle Kingdom, late Dynasty 11 – early Dynasty, 2010–1961 B.C., wood, 54 cm (MFA Boston)
Images of these classes in private tombs, whether in relief or in statuary, tend to show great freedom in the way they are rendered in pose, action, and realism. They are depicted in a wide range of activities—such as gathering fish from the Nile, herding cattle, weaving cloth, making bricks, hewing wood, grinding grain, baking bread, and brewing beer—which were intended to provide benefit for the deceased in the afterlife. It was their actions performed on behalf of the deceased, rather than the figure itself, that was considered important. Regardless of the level to which they are recorded, it is clear that this group—responsible for maintaining agricultural production—was the backbone of Egyptian society.
Slaves—through capture and debt
Given that the Egyptian population was not “free” in the modern sense (in general, they could not move freely around the country or change their professions) the idea of “servitude” was viewed quite differently. Tied to the land, the vast majority of the population were considered “possessions”of the king, temple estates, or high-ranking officials, somewhat like serfs in the feudal society of medieval Europe. These peasants worked the land and paid tribute to their masters as a form of social insurance; in times of drought the landowner would open their storehouses and granaries to provide for their people. Through this administrative structure, subjects were provided with a sense of security that fostered stability and growth.
In Egypt, as elsewhere, the oldest and primary cause of slavery was capture in battle. Conquered soldiers and their communities were taken as a royal resource. Those captives who weren’t retained by the royal administration would be distributed to various towns, quarries, and temples to augment their labor forces. They were also dispersed to victorious soldiers as war booty and to deserving individuals as awards of merit. While individuals could be endowed by the king with up to 19 captives, temples could receive unlimited numbers—some texts refer to bequests of thousands of people. Native and non-native servants intermingled. For native Egyptians, the main pathway to enter the state of slavery was an inability to pay off debt; in many of these cases, the creditor not only took the debtor as a slave, but their families as well. Criminal activities could also result in a life of servitude, often for the convicted and their families both.
Model of a brewery, first Intermediate Period or Middle Kingdom2040–1991 B.C.E., painted wood, 28.5 x 32.5 x 53.5 cm (MFA Boston)
Slaves could be employed in domestic activities, such as cooking, brewing, cleaning, or caring for children, or in manual labor, such as farming, making bricks, gardening, or tending the animals. They were sometimes trained in particular crafts as skilled labor, which increased their value, or could be taught to read and write. Some slaves even rose to management positions on their master’s estates. Slaves could be handed down along with other property as part of an inheritance. In general, it appears that slaves assimilated quickly into the local population; they were not viewed as a separate social group. Their legal situation was not always clear, but they were capable of owning land, negotiating transactions, and had the right to private property.
Seti I kneels before the god Amun and receives emblems of kingship conveying his authority to rule. In his left hand the king grasps a rekhyt bird, which represents the general population that is being brought under the king’s control. This elegant scene is packed with symbols of stability, life, and eternal rejuvenation, all directed at the king. Temple of Seti I at Abydos. Dynasty 19.
Ensuring order
Ancient Egyptian society hinged on the king, who ruled by the command of the gods and served as intermediary between the people and the divine. If the king lived in ma’atand fulfilled all his required roles to the satisfaction of the gods, then the land flourished and the people prospered. The ruler and officials who administered the country had clear directives regarding maintaining proper societal function and a specific responsibility to provide for the needs of the entire population. The Egyptians seem to have largely embraced and supported this hierarchy, falling in line with ma’at. Every occupation—whether scribe, potter, soldier, weaver, doctor, or farmer—was believed to play an equally important role in the smooth functioning of society.
Standing at the cusp of one of the longest-lived and most influential cultures that ever existed, the people living in the Nile valley during the fifth and fourth millennia B.C.E. laid the foundation for everything to come. During this era, powerful townships developed unique local cult practices and ruling organizations. The Two Lands (Upper and Lower Egypt) became united around 3000 B.C.E. under a single king, Narmer (or Menes), who ruled as the first king of Upper and Lower Egypt. Already in this early period, many of the distinct characteristics of Egyptian culture, including kingship ideology, writing system, social structure, religious beliefs, and modes of artistic representation were introduced and codified.
Predynastic Period (c. 5000–3000 B.C.E.)
This period saw the rise of several powerful towns, especially Abydos, Naqada, and Nekhen (commonly called Hierakonpolis) and a possible unified southern kingdom. Hieroglyphic writing emerged, probably for administrative and ritual purposes to support the rulers of these southern towns. The earliest known texts were short labels and captions, but the writing system developed rapidly and helped frame the dynamic civilization that emerged along the Nile.
The ivory handle includes a thumb rest for a right-handed user. Carved rows of minuscule animals—including elephants, lions, a giraffe, and sheep—cover both surfaces of the handle. Ritual knife, c. 3300–3100 B.C.E., Pre-dynastic period, flint, elephant ivory, excavated Abu Zaidan, Egypt (Brooklyn Museum)
Copper tools and fine flint blades demonstrate the technological level of the period. Some of these flint blades sport handles with imagery that is decidedly Near Eastern in origin; these and other indications like the existence of objects crafted of lapis lazuli (a material from Afghanistan) point to active trade between Egypt and western Asia at this time.
Limestone statue of a lion from the Temple of Min at Coptos, Egypt, Late Predynastic.Currently in the collections of the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford University, England (AN1894.105B) by danderson4 on Sketchfab
The craft of sculpture exploded with large-scale figures carved in stone, such as those excavated at Koptos. By the end of this era, burials sometimes included small coffins of basketwork or clay.
The unification of north and south under a single ruler occurred c. 3000 B.C.E. Over the next couple of centuries, disparate townships and local cultures were bound together under the control of the single king, and a dynamic stratified society evolved. The second king to rule the newly unified Egypt introduced the important ritualized census called the “Followers of Horus.” In this annual or bi-annual event, the king and his court would tour the different regions of the country, called nomes, taking count of assets like cattle, grain, and goods. These counts would then be used to determine taxation required from each region, with proceeds being gathered to central storehouses for later distribution. These regular visits reinforced the king’s power throughout the country.
A complex pantheon of deities was already evident at this time. Local worship of Ra, Horus, Ptah, and Seth and many cult shrines were first established in this era. Items excavated from royal tombs included small labels, originally attached to grave goods, with scenes showing the king performing ritual actions for a variety of deities and may record actual visits to divine shrines associated with local cults. On the ivory label of king Den above, the ruler is shown smiting his restrained enemy before a cult object at the far right. The king’s name is clearly written in front of his face, surrounded by a falcon-surmounted rectangular form known as a serekh. He wears a prototype royal headdress with an upright cobra (called a uraeus) at his brow. The opposite side of this label is inscribed with a pair of sandals, indicating the type of grave item that it was originally attached to.
Narmer Macehead, Early Dynastic Period, c. 31st century B.C.E., found in Hierakonopolis (Ashmolean Museum, Oxford)
Other artifacts from this period include massive ceremonial mace heads, palettes, and stelae carved with scenes that commemorate important events.
Palette of King Narmer, c. 3000–2920 B.C.E., Predynastic Egypt, greywacke (slate), from Hierakonpolis, 2′ 1″ high (Egyptian Museum, Cairo)
A number of these votive objects, such as the Narmer palette, were discovered together in a cache excavated in the temple precinct at Hierakonpolis. There seems to be an intentional blending of actual, historical events and ritual elements in the decoration of these objects, an early indication of the tendency in ancient Egypt to blur the lines between the physical and spiritual worlds.
The goddesses Nekhbet and Wadjet (referred to as the Two Ladies), representing Upper and Lower Egypt respectively begin to appear prominently on ritual objects, as do both the White Crown of the south and the Red Crown of the north—all symbols of the Two Lands that would be used for millennia to come.
Many artistic conventions were established during this period, as was much of the royal iconography that expressed the ideology of kingship. This includes specific poses, items of clothing and regalia, and image associations, such as the smiting pose, the wearing of various crowns, and the use of bull imagery as an analogy for the king, all of which are visible on the Narmer Palette.
With the First Dynasty, focus turned from south to north and the city of Memphis was selected as the capital of the united Egypt. This move also shifted the royal cemeteries from Abydos north to the site of Saqqara. Towards the end of this era, there is a change in focus from the king honoring the gods in their local shrines to a system where the deities came together to sanctify the king and aid his journey in the afterlife.
Map of Ancient Egypt (modified) (original image: Jeff Dahl, CC BY-SA 3.0)
Light-colored pots like this one, made of marl clay mined from desert wadis and painted with red ochre pigment, are known as Decorated ware. They are characteristic of later Predynastic times (c. 3500–3200 B.C.E.). The most intriguing are those painted with boats and human figures. This pot comes from the tomb of a young woman, at el-Amra in Middle Egypt, but pots showing boats have been found throughout Egypt and into Nubia. The boats are always strikingly similar, with a curved hull, a large number of oars, and two cabins in the center. Attached to one of the cabins (usually the right-side one) is a pole bearing an emblem, which may be the symbol of a god or a place.
A boat is drawn on each side of this pot. Above them are stylized human figures: a dancing woman with her hands raised over her head, and two men holding clappers or casinets. The woman is perhaps a goddess or priestess, and the scenes on this pot can be understood as episodes in a ritual or ceremony. On one side, the woman is called forth from the boat by the playing of one man, while the other man helps to raise her up. On the other side, both men beat out the tune, as she dances for them, conferring her blessings on them. The feathers worn in the hair of one man represents victory.
The full meaning of these scenes is still debated. Decorated ware is found mainly in graves, so the paintings may depicts the funeral procession. However because similar scenes are also known from desert rock art, the rituals may more broadly be associated with fertility and rebirth of the both humans and the land. Such concerns were important throughout Egyptian history. The ostriches, known for their large eggs, and the small bushes, also shown on the pot reinforce the message of fertility and rebirth.
The lack of variation in style, shape, and motifs of decorated pottery suggests that these vessels were manufactured at a limited number of workshops; close scrutiny has even identified the work of individual artists. The artist who painted this pot probably made at least two others found in cemeteries up to 60 km away. The development of a trade and transport system to distribute pottery was one of the critical steps towards the formation of Dynastic civilization.
Cite this page as: The British Museum, “Decorated jar, predynastic,” in Smarthistory, May 25, 2021, accessed September 8, 2023, https://smarthistory.org/decorated-jar-predynastic/.
This ivory plaque is a label. The sandals incised on the back indicate that it was originally attached to a pair belonging to Den, the fifth king of the First Dynasty.
In the First Dynasty, such labels were often attached to oil jars and usually decorated with representations of important events that marked a particular year in a king’s reign as a way of recording the date of production. This example shows Den about to bring his mace down on the head of a fallen enemy. The king’s name is written in front of his face in a rectangular frame surmounted by the falcon god Horus, the patron deity of kingship. The hieroglyphs on the right-hand side tell us the name of this important event: ‘the first occasion of smiting the East’. The long hair and pointed beard of the enemy are typical of the way Ancient Egyptians depicted foreigners from the east. The gravel-spotted desert, rising to a hill on the right, places the action in a foreign land.
One of the main duties of every king was to protect Egypt’s borders from foreign invasions. For this task, King Den has enlisted the help of the gods. The tall pole bearing the symbol of the jackal god Wepwawet, ‘the opener of the ways’, shows this support. On the king’s forehead, is a rearing cobra or ‘uraeus’, signifying the protection of the powerful goddess Wadjet. Worn for the first time by Den, the uraeus will become a significant part of the royal crowns of kings and queens.
The king smiting his enemies is one of the longest-lived subjects in Egyptian art and became a standard image for royal propaganda. This does not mean that every king undertook a military campaign. For Den we know that this label records an historical event since an identical scene has recently been discovered carved into a rock face in the Sinai Peninsula. The real purpose of Den’s expedition to Sinai was probably to acquire copper and turquoise from the mines located there. Whether this scene reflects the actual use of physical violence to obtain these materials or is only symbolic remains unknown.
Cite this page as: The British Museum, “King Den’s sandal label,” in Smarthistory, August 2, 2016, accessed September 8, 2023, https://smarthistory.org/king-den-sandal-label/
Palette of King Narmer
by DR. AMY CALVERT
Palette of King Narmer, from Hierakonpolis, Egypt, Predynastic, c. 3000–2920 B.C.E., slate, 2′ 1″ high (Egyptian Museum, Cairo)
Vitally important, but difficult to interpret
Some artifacts are of such vital importance to our understanding of ancient cultures that they are truly unique and utterly irreplaceable. The gold mask of Tutankhamun was allowed to leave Egypt for display overseas; the Narmer Palette, on the other hand, is so valuable that it has never been permitted to leave the country.
Discovered among a group of sacred implements ritually buried in a deposit within an early temple of the falcon god Horus at the site of Hierakonpolis (a capital of Egypt during the Predynastic period), this large ceremonial object is one of the most important artifacts from the dawn of Egyptian civilization. The beautifully carved palette, 63.5 cm (more than 2 feet) in height and made of smooth greyish-green siltstone, is decorated on both faces with detailed low relief. These scenes show a king, identified by name as Narmer, and a series of ambiguous scenes that have been difficult to interpret and have resulted in a number of theories regarding their meaning.
The high quality of the workmanship, its original function as a ritual item dedicated to a god, and the complexity of the imagery clearly indicate that this was a significant object, but a satisfactory interpretation of the scenes has been elusive.
What was the palette used for?
The object itself is a monumental version of a type of daily use item commonly found in the Predynastic period—palettes were generally flat, minimally decorated stone objects used for grinding and mixing minerals for cosmetics. Dark eyeliner was an essential aspect of life in the sun-drenched region; like the dark streaks placed under the eyes of modern athletes, black cosmetic lines around the eyes served to reduce glare. Basic cosmetic palettes were among the typical grave goods found during this early era.
In addition to these simple, purely functional, palettes however, there were also a number of larger, far more elaborate palettes created in this period. These objects still served the function of being a ground for grinding and mixing cosmetics, but they were also carefully carved with relief sculpture. Many of the earlier palettes display animals—some real, some fantastic—while later examples, like the Narmer Palette, focus on human actions. Research suggests that these decorated palettes were used in temple ceremonies, perhaps to grind or mix makeup to be ritually applied to the image of the god. Later temple rituals included elaborate daily ceremonies involving the anointing and dressing of divine images; these palettes likely indicate an early incarnation of this process.
A ceremonial object, ritually buried
The Narmer Palette was discovered in 1898 by James Quibell and Frederick Green. It was found with a collection of other objects that had been used for ceremonial purposes and then ritually buried within the temple at Hierakonpolis.
Two Dogs Palette, Hierakonpolis, Egypt c. 3100 B.C.E. (Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford)
Temple caches of this type are not uncommon. There was a great deal of focus on ritual and votive objects (offerings to the gods) in temples. Every ruler, elite individual, and anyone else who could afford it donated items to the temple to show their piety and increase their connection to the deity. After a period of time, the temple would be full of these objects and space needed to be made for new votive donations. However, since they had been dedicated to a temple and sanctified, the old items that needed to be cleared out could not simply be thrown away or sold. Instead, the general practice was to bury them in a pit dug under the temple floor. Often, these caches include objects from a range of dates and a mix of types, from royal statuary to furniture.
The “Main Deposit” at Hierakonpolis, where the Narmer Palette was discovered, contained many hundreds of objects, including a number of large relief-covered ceremonial mace-heads, ivory statuettes, carved knife handles, figurines of scorpions and other animals, stone vessels, and a second elaborately decorated palette (now in the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford) known as the Two Dogs Palette.
Conventions that remain the same for thousands of years
There are several reasons the Narmer Palette is considered to be of such importance. First, it is one of very few such palettes discovered in a controlled excavation, which means that we know it is authentic. Second, there are a number of formal and iconographic characteristics appearing on the Narmer Palette that remain conventional in Egyptian two-dimensional art for the following three millennia. These include the way the figures are represented, the scenes being organized in regular horizontal zones known as registers, and the use of hierarchical scale to indicate relative importance of the individuals. In addition, much of the regalia worn by the king, such as the crowns, kilts, royal beard, and bull tail, as well as other visual elements, including the pose Narmer takes on one of the faces where he grasps an enemy by the hair and prepares to smash his skull with a mace, continue to be utilized from this time all the way through the Roman era more than 3000 years later.
What we see on the palette
The king is represented twice in human form, once on each face, followed by his sandal-bearer. He may also be represented as a powerful bull, destroying a walled city with his massive horns, in a mode that again becomes conventional—pharaoh is regularly referred to as “Strong Bull” in later texts.
In addition to the primary scenes, the palette includes a pair of fantastic creatures, known as serpopards—leopards with long, snaky necks—who are collared and controlled by a pair of attendants. Their necks entwine and define the recess where the makeup preparation took place. The lowest register on both sides include images of dead foes, while both uppermost registers display hybrid human-bull heads and the name of the king. The frontal bull heads are connected to a sky goddess known as Bat and are related to heaven and the horizon. The name of the king, written hieroglyphically as a catfish and a chisel, is contained within a squared element that represents a palace facade.
Possible interpretation: unification of Upper and Lower Egypt
As mentioned above, there have been a number of theories related to the scenes carved on this palette. Some have interpreted the battle scenes as a historical narrative record of the initial unification of Egypt under one ruler, supported by the general timing (as this is the period of the unification) and the fact that Narmer sports the crown connected to Upper Egypt on one face of the palette and the crown of Lower Egypt on the other—this is the first preserved example where both crowns are used by the same ruler. Other theories suggest that, rather than an actual historical representation, these scenes were purely ceremonial and related to the concept of unification in general.
Detail, Palette of King Narmer, from Hierakonpolis, Egypt, Predynastic, c. 3000–2920 B.C.E., slate, 2′ 1″ high (Egyptian Museum, Cairo)
Another interpretation: the sun and the king
More recent research on the decorative program has connected the imagery to the careful balance of order and chaos (known as ma’at and isfet) that was a fundamental element of the Egyptian idea of the cosmos. It may also be related to the daily journey of the sun god that became a central aspect in the Egyptian religion in the subsequent centuries.
Detail, Palette of King Narmer, from Hierakonpolis, Egypt, Predynastic, c. 3000–2920 B.C.E., slate, 2′ 1″ high (Egyptian Museum, Cairo)
The scene showing Narmer wearing the Lower Egyptian Red Crown* (with its distinctive curl) depicts him processing towards the decapitated bodies of his foes. The two rows of prone bodies are placed below an image of a high-prowed boat preparing to pass through an open gate. This may be an early reference to the journey of the sun god in his boat. In later texts, the Red Crown is connected with bloody battles fought by the sun god just before the rosy-fingered dawn on his daily journey and this scene may well be related to this. It is interesting to note that the foes are shown as not only executed, but rendered completely impotent—their castrated penises have been placed atop their severed heads.
On the other face, Narmer wears the Upper Egyptian White Crown* (which looks rather like a bowling pin) as he grasps an inert foe by the hair and prepares to crush his skull with a mace. The White Crown is related to the dazzling brilliance of the full midday sun at its zenith as well as the luminous nocturnal light of the stars and moon. By wearing both crowns, Narmer may not only be ceremonially expressing his dominance over the unified Egypt, but also the early importance of the solar cycle and the king’s role in this daily process.
This fascinating object is an incredible example of early Egyptian art. The imagery preserved on this palette provides a peek ahead to the richness of both the visual aspects and religious concepts that develop in the ensuing periods. It is a vitally important artifact of extreme significance for our understanding of the development of Egyptian culture on multiple levels.
*The Red Crown of Lower Egypt and the White Crown of Upper Egypt were the earliest crowns worn by the king and are closely connected with the unification of the country that sparks full-blown Egyptian civilization. The earliest representation of them being worn by the same ruler is on the Narmer Palette, signifying that the king was ruling over both areas of the country. Soon after the unification, the fifth ruler of the First Dynasty is shown wearing the two crowns simultaneously, combined into one. This crown, often referred to as the Double Crown, remains a primary crown worn by pharaoh throughout Egyptian history. The separate Red and White crowns, however, continue to be worn as well and retain their geographic connections. There are a number of Egyptian words used for these crowns (nine for the White and 11 for the Red), but the most common—deshret and hedjet—refer to the colors red and white, respectively. It is from these identifying terms that we take their modern name. Early texts make it clear that these crowns were believed to be imbued with divine power and were personified as goddesses.
Old Kingdom and First Intermediate Period, an introduction
by DR. AMY CALVERT
Step Pyramid, viewed from the south, Stepped Pyramid complex, 3rd Dynasty, Saqqara, Egypt (photo: Dr. Amy Calvert)
Viewed as a golden age by later Egyptians, the Old Kingdom was a period of great confidence, stability, organization, and administrative control. Exemplified by the soaring pyramids and royal representations that project a remarkable level of poise and serenity, this period demonstrates the stability and wealth that resulted from the success of the storehouse-based economic system. The kings devoted huge resources to provisioning their mortuary cults via state run building projects. Power was delegated to elite overseers who administered these massive endeavors, earning royal ‘endowments’ for their own afterlife in the process. Labor, both highly-skilled and untrained, was derived from the native population (mostly during the flooding season, when fields could not be worked) and there is archeological evidence that they were fairly compensated.
Old Kingdom (c. 2649–2150 B.C.E.)
Often considered to begin with the Third Dynasty and Netjerikhet (Djoser), whose famous Step Pyramid complex initiated the massive stone royal mortuary monuments that characterize the Old Kingdom period. The role of the king became closely connected with the deities Horus and Ra making the pharaoh responsible for the maintenance of divine order (ma’at). The first Fourth Dynasty king, Snefru, was the greatest of the pyramid builders and constructed 3 massive pyramids that demonstrate the development of the smooth-sided form. The astonishing level of architectural and engineering skills belonging to the craftspeople during this time are still clearly evident, as are their useful, but sometimes less-successful, experiments along the way.
The second pyramid after Djoser’s. Meidum pyramid, built for Snefru, 3rd Dynasty (photo: Kurohito, CC BY-SA 3.0)
Giza plateau (photo: Ikiwaner CC BY-SA 2.0)
Snefru’s successor was Khufu, who used the lessons of his predecessor to build the Great Pyramid at Giza. The other two main pyramids at Giza were built by his successors Khafre and Menkaure. During this era of monumental pyramid complexes, focus on the local shrines was reduced and received less royal support. The administrative seat continued at Memphis throughout this period. Fifth Dynasty kings built smaller pyramids, some with burial chambers inscribed with texts that are among the earliest religious writings known. These Pyramid Texts, as they are now known, are also the oldest of the collections of funerary literature from Egypt. Several of these rulers constructed marvelous temples dedicated to the sun god Ra, whose cult was on the rise throughout the Old Kingdom.
Map of nomes of ancient Upper Egypt (image: Jeff Dahl, CC0)
Elites who served the kings of this period were honored with beautifully decorated tombs located in cemeteries surrounding the royal monuments. The process of mummification was largely developed by this point and bodies were usually interred in rectangular coffins of wood. Near the end of the Sixth Dynasty, sections of the Pyramid Texts, previously reserved for royalty, began to appear in the tombs of important non-royal individuals—an apparent symptom of the breakdown of centralized control that led to the end of the Old Kingdom.
This breakdown was likely caused by a number of factors, possibly including famine. One major factor may have been the unusually long reign of Pepy II in Dynasty 6. Having reigned from early childhood until his 90s, Pepy outlived several of his expected heirs, possibly causing succession issues upon the king’s death. This same period saw the power of regional governors, called nomarchs, increase. These elite positions had become hereditary over time, coalescing into generational control over localities. As their importance grew, these nomarchs became increasingly more independent from the king. The simultaneous rise of numerous nomarchs resulted in conflict between neighboring provinces and exacerbated the disintegration of centralized control that occurred at the end of the Old Kingdom.
Map of Ancient Egypt (modified) (original image: Jeff Dahl, CC BY-SA 3.0)
Cite this page as: Dr. Amy Calvert, “Old Kingdom and First Intermediate Period, an introduction,” in Smarthistory, February 4, 2022, accessed September 8, 2023, https://smarthistory.org/old-kingdom-first-intermediate-period-introduction/.
Step Pyramid complex at Saqqara
by DR. AMY CALVERT
Stepped Pyramid complex, Saqqara, Old Kingdom, 3rd Dynasty, c. 2675–2625 B.C.E. (photo: Dr. Amy Calvert)
Pyramid building in ancient Egypt had its “big bang” at Saqqara in the 3rd Dynasty with a genius named Imhotep, who served as chancellor to king Netjeryknet, better known as Djoser. Djoser not only placed his mortuary complex (which was intended for the king’s ka (spirit) to use in the afterlife) at the site of Saqqara—a different location from his predecessors—but the complex he developed with Imhotep would impact all royal memorial monuments made after his. While the complex had many innovations, among the most important are that it was the first mortuary structure in stone, the first stepped pyramid instead of a single mastaba (a flat, rectangular tomb form), and the first to combine both mortuary and ritual buildings, and to pair functional buildings with dummy ones that couldn’t actually be used.
Djoser’s complex has numerous features, and this essay introduces some of the most important ones as it walks readers through the site. They include the:
enclosure wall and entrance to the complex
entry colonnade
south court
T-temple
Heb Sed Court
North and South Houses
Step Pyramid
Serdab and temple to the ka
King’s burial chamber
subterranean chambers
South Tomb
You can read more about these structures in: https://smarthistory.org/step-pyramid-complex-saqqara/
Royal enclosure of King Khasekhemwy (known as the Shunet el Zebib), end 2nd Dynasty c. 2650 B.C.E., Abydos, Egypt (photo: Dr. Amy Calvert)
The move to Saqqara
Map of part of ancient Egypt, with Abydos and Saqqara in boxes (map: Jeff Dahl, CC BY-SA 4.0)
Djoser’s royal predecessors had created large memorial complexes at the ancient site of Abydos, further to the south. These consisted of a huge, rectangular mud brick enclosure with towering walls decorated with an elaborate pattern of rectangular recesses and a subterranean tomb about 3.2 km to the southwest, towards an opening in the high desert cliffs that was believed to be the entrance to the Netherworld.
Left: Walls of the enclosure of King Khasekhemwy showing niched pattern; right: Early Dynastic royal tombs at Abydos with opening in the cliffs in background, Abydos, Egypt (photos: Dr. Amy Calvert)
Djoser chose instead to place his mortuary complex at the site of Saqqara, where the burials of some earlier local rulers and elite already existed. These earlier burials at Saqqara included elaborate niched facades and subterranean chambers that may have served as models or inspiration. However, the architectural importance of Djoser’s complex cannot be overstated—there were multiple innovations that had a significant impact on all royal memorial monuments that followed.
Plan of Djoser’s Stepped Pyramid complex, Saqqara, Egypt, Old Kingdom, 3rd Dynasty, c. 2675–2625 B.C.E. (plan: Franck Monnier, CC BY-SA 3.0)
For Djoser’s complex, a rectangular section of desert was delineated by boundary stela, a massive trench, and a wall containing an area of 37 acres. Inside this substantial enclosure was a series of structures, courtyards, underground tunnels, and chapels in addition to the stepped pyramid that visually dominates the space. Although built of stone, many of the forms and architectural elements within this complex—from the design of the enclosure walls to the shapes of the columns—were based on and often directly mimic structures built from perishable materials. The Step Pyramid complex is a striking example of the transitory made permanent on a massive scale because of the shift from mud brick and other perishable materials to stone.
There is evidence that some structures were partially buried almost immediately upon their completion. This type of ritual burial was also known from Abydos and perhaps signifies the hidden aspect of life after death where successive layers of each building concealed earlier ones and eventually led to the emergence of new life. The ideal cycle of eternal renewal in Ancient Egyptian conception required burial as part of the process. By burying these ritual structures, the Egyptians believed that they (and their associated rejuvenating rituals) became available for the use of the deceased king in the afterlife and remained conceptually accessible to him forever in that realm. At Djoser’s complex, the shift to building entirely with stone shows a desire to provide an even better guarantee of eternal availability.
General view from exterior showing the entrance, Stepped Pyramid complex, Saqqara, Old Kingdom, 3rd Dynasty, c. 2675–2625 B.C.E. (photo: Dr. Amy Calvert)
Innovations
For the first time, the material used was not mud brick, but instead carefully cut stone. Domestic structures for the living and even palaces for the kings had been, and would continue to be, constructed of organic, more temporary materials like reeds, mudbrick, and wood; however, from this point on, royal memorial constructions (like temples and tombs) would be made of stone.
The combination of both mortuary and ritual structures in the same complex was another of Djoser and Imhotep’s innovations—previously at Abydos, the king’s tomb and the royal enclosures used for enacting rituals related to that ruler were physically separated by an expanse of open desert.
Dummy chapel in Heb Sed Court, Stepped Pyramid complex, Saqqara, Egypt (photo: Dr. Amy Calvert)
There is also a mix within the Step Pyramid enclosure of functional and “dummy” buildings. The functional structures were probably used in the conduct of actual rituals during the king’s lifetime and funerary rites after his death. “Dummy” buildings are as they sound—solid structures behind a façade—that were apparently intended for the ka’s use in the afterlife.
Djoser and his ground-breaking complex were honored thousands of years after his death. His chancellor and the architectural mastermind behind the complex, Imhotep (“He who comes in peace”), was also memorialized for the magnificent monument he designed for his ruler. Imhotep was highly respected for his wisdom and was later deified, which was very rare for non-royal individuals. Even thousands of years after his death, Imhotep was still revered. In the 3rd century B.C.E. a priest named Manetho wrote one of the earliest histories of Egypt. In it, he specifically credits Imhotep with the invention of building in stone. His reputation as a wise man and healer eventually led the Greeks to associate him with Asclepius, the god of medicine, and his worship continued.
Portion of enclosure wall (only partially reconstructed today) showing recesses, originally 10.5 meters tall and 1,645 meters in length, Stepped Pyramid complex, Saqqara, Egypt, Old Kingdom, 3rd Dynasty, c. 2675–2625 B.C.E. (photo: Dr. Amy Calvert)
Enclosure wall and entrance to the complex
The entire complex was surrounded by a massive wall, built of fine white limestone blocks (see the plan above). The monumental circuit was decorated with niches and recesses that mimic the façade of a palace, much like the earlier mudbrick enclosures from Abydos and elite tombs at Saqqara. A fascinating detail is that these 1,680 recessed rectangular panels were carved into the stone after the wall was constructed rather than being shaped as the blocks were laid. Though we are not sure of its significance, the elaborate niched pattern was considered essential and worth the immense amount of physical effort this must have required.
Entrance gate at the southeast corner, Stepped Pyramid complex, Saqqara, Egypt, Old Kingdom, 3rd Dynasty, c. 2675–2625 B.C.E. (photo: Carole Raddato, CC BY-SA 2.0)
A series of dummy gates is carved into the enclosure wall at irregular intervals; just one gate includes an actual entrance. This single opening to the ritual enclosure—a passage only 1 meter wide and 5 meters long—enhances and highlights the privacy of this space, which was intended for the king’s ka (his spirit) to use in the afterlife. The entrance corridor leads to a small court that has representations of wooden doors carved in stone as if they were always open so that the king’s ka to come and go. There was almost certainly also a wooden door that actually could be closed and sealed when the complex was functioning.
Looking out of the entrance gate, Saqqara (photo: Sailko, CC BY 3.0)
Entrance and the entry colonnade (in orange), Stepped Pyramid complex, Saqqara, Egypt, Old Kingdom, 3rd Dynasty, c. 2675–2625 B.C.E. (image: Franck MONNIER Bakha, CC BY-SA 1.0)
Left: entry colonnade with columns 6 meters in height; right: stone log-beam ceiling in the colonnade, with columns that look like bundled reeds. Stepped Pyramid complex, Saqqara, Egypt, Old Kingdom, 3rd Dynasty, c. 2675–2625 B.C.E. (photos: Dr. Amy Calvert)
Entry Colonnade
The entrance corridor and small court lead to a second, slightly wider, passageway that opens into an elegant colonnaded court with two rows of twenty engaged columns flanking the walkway (see the plan above). These were carved to look like bundled reeds and may have been painted green. While in earlier phases of the complex this court was open to the sky, later it was closed in with a roof, carved of stone but shaped like log-beams and originally painted red in an imitation of wood, and a clerestory was added to bring light into the space.
The specific ritual purpose of this space is debated, but the unusual engagement of the columns—connected to the side walls by masonry projections—created deep niches that likely served a cultic function and may have originally held statuary. The end of this colonnade opens into a rectangular hall that includes four similar, if slightly shorter, attached columns. Again, the portal includes the representation of a wooden door rendered in stone with extreme detail and sensitivity.
Passageway through enclosure wall, only 1 m in width, Stepped Pyramid complex, Saqqara, Egypt (photo: Dr. Amy Calvert)
Given that the only actual entrance through the stone enclosure wall is a mere 1 meter wide and not near to the stepped pyramid (under which Djoser was buried), the funeral procession that occurred after Djoser’s death almost certainly entered via a temporary ramp that went over the wall at a point closer to the pyramid—evidence of such a ramp still exists.
View of the South Court (approximately 180 meters x 100 meters) after leaving the entrance colonnade, Stepped Pyramid complex, Saqqara, Egypt (photo: Dr. Amy Calvert)
Heb Sed Court
Location of the Heb Sed Court in orange, Stepped Pyramid complex, Saqqara, Egypt (Monnier Franck, CC BY 2.5)
Beside the T-Temple is a space known as the Heb Sed Court. The heb-sedwas an important and ancient royal ritual that was performed to rejuvenate the king and reaffirm the pharaoh’s right to rule. This court was the symbolic realm of the ka; the actual heb-sedritual may not have even been performed within Djoser’s lifetime in this location. The primary intent instead was to provide a place for the king’s ka to perform the rituals that would allow him to continually regenerate in the afterlife.
Hieroglyph for heb-sed, showing the dual thrones on a platform enclosed by a kiosk, from the White Chapel, Middle Kingdom (photo: Dr. Amy Calvert)
At one end of the Heb Sed court was a platform with two staircases, which was the focus of the space. This platform was so central to the ritual that its form became the hieroglyph for “Sed Festival.” The double-dias would have originally presented a pair of statues of Djoser enthroned as Lord of the Two Lands, wearing the White and Red Crowns of Upper and Lower Egypt.
Chapels of the Heb Sed Court, Stepped Pyramid complex, Saqqara, Egypt (photo: Dr. Amy Calvert)
The Heb Sed court was lined on two sides by dummy chapels dedicated to the deities of Upper and Lower Egypt. The prototypes for these stone chapels were light, wood-framed structures (they also appear as hieroglyphs). Each chapel was fronted by a baffle wall and had one small room that served as a sanctuary and likely held a statue. Otherwise, they are solid stone structures, with carved details that mimic doors, hinges, and pivots.
The shrines on the east side of the Heb Sed court are the typical shape of those from Lower Egypt, while most of those on the west have the distinctive shape of the shrines of Upper Egypt. All the shrines in this court are in actuality stylized renderings of ancient architectural forms that had been used for local sacred shrines along the Nile since the earliest times. Their presence is a clear indication of the desire to maintain these traditional architectural forms while they also function as icons to represent the extent of the Two Lands and the king’s ability to unite them.
South House Stepped Pyramid complex, Saqqara, Egypt (photo: Berthold Werner, CC BY 3.0)
The Step Pyramid
In its final form, the Step Pyramid was easily visible for some distance over the top of the enclosure wall and would have loomed large over the landscape (see the plan above). It was built in several stages, beginning as a traditional flat, rectangular tomb form typical for elite burials, called a mastaba (Arabic for “bench,” because of their shape). This original core, constructed of packed rubble covered over with finished, smooth limestone, was 63 x 63 meters and approximately 8 meters high.
Stepped Pyramid in the complex, Saqqara, Egypt (photo: Dr. Amy Calvert)
The subsequent stages covered that mastaba by piling rough, inward-leaning stones on top and then encased that core in finely cut limestone to create a pyramid with 4 steps. The last major stage increased the pyramid’s height to 6 steps and its final height of nearly 60 meters. Approximately 330,400 cubic meters total of stone, clay, and other material was used in the construction of this immense monument.
Cut out plan of the Stepped Pyramid complex, with the 11 shafts (32 meters deep) and interconnected galleries (30 meters in length) indicated, Saqqara, Egypt (image: Franck MONNIER Bakha, CC BY-SA 1.0)
It has been suggested that the multiple building stages of the Step Pyramid were planned from the beginning. If so, the subsequent “burial” of the completed mastaba may have served a symbolic function as a reference to the buried, underworld aspect of existence after death.
A series of 11 shafts were carved on one side of the pyramid during the second stage of construction. These lead down to long interconnected galleries, that were apparently used as a tomb complex for royal family members. Of note is that radiocarbon dating of some of the bones indicates that at least one female buried here dates to several generations before Djoser’s time.
This older burial may be related to a massive cache of nearly 40,000 carved stone vessels that was discovered in these galleries (not pictured here). These vessels, made of various materials such as slate, diorite, and calcite, were also a variety of shapes. Unfortunately, the ceilings of the chambers had collapsed so many were broken to pieces, but those that remain intact show great creativity and skill in execution. Some of the vessels are inscribed with the names of different First and Second Dynasty kings (including Narmer). Some Egyptologists believe Djoser retrieved these vessels from earlier royal tombs that had been damaged and buried them in his own complex for safekeeping; others believe the vessels came from temple storehouses—exactly how and why they were gathered and deposited here remains unclear. These shafts were covered over during the next phase of construction and sealed off.
Serdab on north side of the Step Pyramid, Stepped Pyramid complex, Saqqara, Egypt (photo: Dr. Amy Calvert)
Serdab and temple to the ka
On another side of the pyramid was a “serdab” (Arabic for “cellar”) (see the plan above). This small, sealed chamber of finished limestone abutted the casing of the pyramid itself.
Left: eye holes (photo: Dennis Jarvis, CC BY-SA 2.0); right: lifesize statue of Djoser (replica); the original statue was removed to the Egyptian Museum in Cairo (and subsequently to the G.E.M.), and the copy now sits in its place (photo: Alberto-g-rovi, CC BY 3.0), Stepped Pyramid complex, Saqqara, Egypt
Beautifully preserved life-size painted limestone funerary sculptures of Prince Rahotep and his wife Nofret. Note the lifelike eyes of inlaid rock crystal (Old Kingdom) (photo: Dr. Amy Calvert)
Within the chamber sat a life-size statue of the king carved in limestone and painted. Although inaccessible in the sealed chamber, this image of the king engaged with the outside world via two eye holes that allowed it to “see” out. Visitors could present food offerings and incense at a small altar before the holes, providing substance to the ka of the king to benefit him in the afterlife.
The king is depicted wearing the tightly-wrapped white cloak associated with the heb-sed ritual and a long wig covered by an early version of the nemes, the striped royal headcloth. He also sports a long false beard and one of the earliest mustaches ever depicted in sculpture. The eyes of the figure were originally inlaid, probably with painted rock crystal (like those of Rahotep and Nofret) and would have been surprisingly lifelike.
Also on this side of the pyramid was a cult temple for the king’s ka. This temple included two symmetrical interior courtyards. Access to the underground chambers was permitted via a sloping descending passageway that was found in the western court.
Descending passage to subterranean chambers under the Step Pyramid, Stepped Pyramid complex, Saqqara, Egypt (photo: Dr. Amy Calvert)
King’s Burial Chamber
Burial vault, view of the roof of the chamber with the plug in place, Stepped Pyramid complex, Saqqara, Egypt (photo: Leon petrosyan, CC BY-SA 4.0)
Under the center of the pyramid is the Central Shaft, a square passageway that is 7 meters on each side and 28 meters deep. At the bottom was a burial chamber carved of Aswan granite, a very hard stone that was both difficult to cut and had to be brought from the quarries in southern Egypt roughly 860 km away. Originally, the burial chamber had a ceiling lined with limestone and inscribed with five-pointed stars. This is the first preserved example of a ceiling type that became widely used for burial chambers from this point forward. These star-lined ceilings conceptually create a burial chamber roof that is “open” to the night sky even when buried within a mountain of stone.
The final burial chamber was carved of granite and had a cylindrical opening in the roof. This opening was blocked with a massive granite plug weighing 3.5 tons that was lowered into place using ropes. Once the king’s body was interred and the plug set into place, the descending corridor was filled with rubble and sealed off.
Although hidden away and completely inaccessible, the king’s burial chamber lying at the center of the pyramid served as the core of the entire complex and was the ultimate focus of all ritual actions in the enclosure. Through the ongoing rejuvenating festival represented by the Heb Sed court, the interactions between the living and the king’s ka in the structures around the pyramid, and the eternally occurring actions that were depicted in relief panels found in the Subterranean Chambers and South Tomb (discussed below), Djoser was symbolically set up for an eternity of renewal in an ideal afterlife. The whole memorial complex was designed for this primary function.
Subterranean Chambers
In addition to the king’s burial chamber, a labyrinth of tunnels totaling nearly 5.5 km in length was quarried out beneath the pyramid. There is a central corridor and two parallel ones that extend 365 meters. These are joined by a complicated tangle of underground galleries, shafts, and tunnels. The corridors connect a series of subterranean galleries—nearly 400 rooms in total!—including those that held the family burials and the cache of finely carved vessels of calcite and hard stone mentioned above.
Blue-green faience tiles, Blue Chamber, Stepped Pyramid complex, Saqqara, Egypt (photo: Orell Witthuhn, CC BY-SA 4.0)
One suite of rooms was designed as a palace for the king’s ka to enjoy in the afterlife. The decoration of the walls is intended to look like a real structure and includes carved windows and doors. Called the Blue Chamber, this space is covered in thousands of molded blue-green faience tiles (no fewer than 36,000 were discovered in the complex) arranged and set in panels to mimic a building technique using reed matting that is known as wattle-and-daub. The blue-green color was not only brilliant but held regenerative symbolism connected to life-giving primeval waters. The color was also a visual allusion to the idyllic and symbolically potent “Field of Reeds.” This space was mentioned in later royal mortuary texts along with the earth and sky as domains the king was to receive in the afterlife.
Niche with panel showing Djoser walking towards the shrine of Horus of Behedet (modern Edfu), Stepped Pyramid complex, Saqqara, Egypt (photo: Juan R. Lazaro, CC BY 2.0)
Interspersed with these dazzling blue sections, on one wall were 3 large relief panels carved in limestone showing the king engaged in ritual actions. Some of these panels, like their parallels under the South Tomb, depict the king performing in the ritual race around the boundary stones that would have taken place in the South Court. These reliefs were never intended to be seen by the living but instead provided a form of perpetual communication between the king and the gods, where he continuously performs perfect rituals designed to renew him, Egypt, and the cosmos itself.
Frieze of uraei on the South Tomb, Stepped Pyramid complex, Saqqara, Egypt (photo: Dr. Amy Calvert)
Stepped Pyramid complex, Saqqara, Egypt (photo: Dr. Amy Calvert)
The door to new ideas
Djoser and Imhotep opened the door to new ideas. The Step Pyramid complex at Saqqara is a vital crux that represents both the culmination of royal funerary architectural development of the 1st to 2nd Dynasties and the spark of Egypt’s glorious Age of the Pyramids that would follow. Experiments in pyramid building continued during the next several reigns, reaching its pinnacle with the Great Pyramid of Khufu.
Cite this page as: Dr. Amy Calvert, “Step Pyramid complex at Saqqara,” in Smarthistory, October 25, 2021, accessed September 8, 2023, https://smarthistory.org/step-pyramid-complex-saqqara/.
The Great Pyramids at Giza, Egypt (photo: KennyOMG, CC BY-SA 4.0)
One of the Seven Wonders of the ancient world
The last remaining of the Seven Wonders of the ancient world, the great pyramids of Giza, are perhaps the most famous and discussed structures in history. These massive monuments were unsurpassed in height for thousands of years after their construction and continue to amaze and enthrall us with their overwhelming mass and seemingly impossible perfection. Their exacting orientation and mind-boggling construction has elicited many theories about their origins, including unsupported suggestions that they had extra-terrestrial impetus. However, by examining the several hundred years prior to their emergence on the Giza plateau, it becomes clear that these incredible structures were the result of many experiments, some more successful than others, and represent an apogee in line with the development of the royal mortuary complex.
Pyramid of Khafre (photo: MusikAnimal, CC BY-SA 3.0)
The causeway of the Khafre (Chephren) pyramid complex, taken from the entrance of the Khafre Valley Temple (photo: Hannah Pethen, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
Three pyramids, three rulers
The three primary pyramids on the Giza plateau were built over the span of three generations by the rulers Khufu, Khafre, and Menkaure. Each pyramid was part of a royal mortuary complex that also included a temple at its base and a long stone causeway (some nearly 1 kilometer in length) leading east from the plateau to a valley temple on the edge of the floodplain.
Other (smaller) pyramids, and small tombs
In addition to these major structures, several smaller pyramids belonging to queens are arranged as satellites. A large cemetery of smaller tombs, known as mastabas (Arabic for ‘bench’ in reference to their shape—flat-roofed, rectangular, with sloping sides), fills the area to the east and west of the pyramid of Khufu. These were arranged in a grid-like pattern and constructed for prominent members of the court. Being buried near the pharaoh was a great honor and helped ensure a prized place in the Afterlife.
Map of Giza pyramid complex (map by: MesserWoland, CC BY-SA 3.0)
A reference to the sun
The shape of the pyramid was a solar reference, perhaps intended as a solidified version of the rays of the sun. Texts talk about the sun’s rays as a ramp the pharaoh mounts to climb to the sky—the earliest pyramids, such as the Step Pyramid of Djoser at Saqqara—were actually designed as a staircase. The pyramid was also clearly connected to the sacred ben-ben stone, an icon of the primeval mound that was considered the place of initial creation. The pyramid was viewed as a place of regeneration for the deceased ruler.
View up the side of Khufu’s pyramid showing scale of the core blocks (Photo: Dr. Amy Calvert)
Construction
Many questions remain about the construction of these massive monuments, and theories abound as to the actual methods used. The workforce needed to build these structures is also still much discussed. Discovery of a town for workers to the south of the plateau has offered some answers. It is likely that there was a permanent group of skilled craftsmen and builders who were supplemented by seasonal crews of approximately 2000 conscripted peasants. These crews were divided into gangs of 200 men, with each group further divided into teams of 20. Experiments indicate that these groups of 20 men could haul the 2.5 ton blocks from quarry to pyramid in about 20 minutes, their path eased by a lubricated surface of wet silt. An estimated 340 stones could be moved daily from quarry to construction site, particularly when one considers that many of the blocks (such as those in the upper courses) were considerably smaller.
Backstory
We are used to seeing the pyramids at Giza in alluring photographs, where they appear as massive and remote monuments rising up from an open, barren desert. Visitors might be surprised to find, then, that there is a golf course and resort only a few hundred feet from the Great Pyramid, and that the burgeoning suburbs of Giza (part of the greater metropolitan area of Cairo) have expanded right up to the foot of the Sphinx. This urban encroachment and the problems that come with it—such as pollution, waste, illegal activities, and auto traffic—are now the biggest threats to these invaluable examples of global cultural heritage.
The pyramids were inscribed into the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1979, and since 1990, the organization has sponsored over a dozen missions to evaluate their status. It has supported the restoration of the Sphinx, as well as measures to curb the impact of tourism and manage the growth of the neighboring village. Still, threats to the site continue: air pollution from waste incineration contributes to the degradation of the stones, and the massive illegal quarrying of sand on the neighboring plateau has created holes large enough to be seen on Google Earth. Egypt’s 2011 uprisings and their chaotic political and economic aftermath also negatively impacted tourism, one of the country’s most important industries, and the number of visitors is only now beginning to rise once more.
UNESCO has continually monitored these issues, but its biggest task with regard to Giza has been to advocate for the rerouting of a highway that was originally slated to cut through the desert between the pyramids and the necropolis of Saqqara to the south. The government eventually agreed to build the highway north of the pyramids. However, as the Cairo metropolitan area (the largest in Africa, with a population of over 20 million) continues to expand, planners are now proposing a multilane tunnel to be constructed underneath the Giza Plateau. UNESCO and ICOMOS are calling for in-depth studies of the project’s potential impact, as well as an overall site management plan for the Giza pyramids that would include ways to halt the continued impact of illegal dumping and quarrying.
As massive as they are, the pyramids at Giza are not immutable. With the rapid growth of Cairo, they will need sufficient attention and protection if they are to remain intact as key touchstones of ancient history.
Cite this page as: Dr. Amy Calvert, “The Great Pyramids of Giza,” in Smarthistory, August 8, 2015, accessed September 8, 2023, https://smarthistory.org/the-great-pyramids-of-giza/.
Pyramid of Khufu
by DR. AMY CALVERT
Pyramid of Khufu, c. 2551–2528 B.C.E. (photo: Hungarian Snow, CC BY-SA 2.0)
Size
The Great Pyramid, the largest of the three main pyramids at Giza, was built by Khufu and rises to a height of 146 meters (481 feet). Humans constructed nothing taller than the Great Pyramid until 1221 C.E., when the steeple of Old St. Paul’s Cathedral was built in London and, at 149 meters (489 feet), surpassed it—at least until the steeple collapsed less than 350 years later.
It’s not just the height that is impressive, but also the precision with which the Great Pyramid was designed and executed. With a base length of more than 230 meters (750 feet) per side, the greatest difference in length among the four sides of the pyramid is a mere 4.4 cm (1 ¾ inches) and the base is level within 2.1 cm (less than an inch). This is an astonishing accomplishment that would be a challenge to replicate today even with modern equipment.
Detail of core blocks of Khufu’s pyramid, c. 2551-2528 B.C.E. (photo: Vincent Brown, CC BY 2.0)
Construction: inner core stones, and outer casing stones
The pyramid contains an estimated 2,300,000 blocks, some of which are upwards of 50 tons. Like the pyramids built by his predecessor Snefru and those that followed on the Giza plateau, Khufu’s pyramid is constructed of inner, rough-hewn, locally quarried core stones (which is all that we see today) and angled, outer casing blocks laid in even horizontal courses with spaces filled with gypsum plaster.
The fine outer casing stones, which have long since been removed, were laid with great precision. These blocks of white Tura limestone would have given the pyramid a smooth surface and been quite bright and reflective. At the very top of the pyramid would have sat a capstone, known as a pyramidion, that may have been covered in gold. This dazzling point, shining in the intense sunlight, would have been visible for a great distance.
Interior
The interior chambers and passageways of Khufu’s pyramid are unique and include a number of enigmatic features. There is an unfinished subterranean chamber whose function is mysterious as well as a number of so-called ‘air shafts’ that radiate out from the upper chambers.
Entrance, Pyramid of Khufu, c. 2551–2528 B.C.E. (photo: Olaf Tausch, CC BY 3.0)
These have been explored using small robots, but a series of blocking stones have obscured the passages. When entering the pyramid, one has to crawl up a cramped ascending chamber that opens suddenly into a stunning space known as the Grand Gallery. This corbelled passage soars to a height of 8.74 meters (26 feet) and leads up to the King’s Chamber, which is constructed entirely from red granite brought from the southern quarries at Aswan.
Diagram of the interior of the Pyramid of Khufu
Above the King’s Chamber are five stress-relieving chambers of massive granite blocks topped with immense cantilevered slabs forming a pent roof to distribute the weight of the mountain of masonry above it. The king’s sarcophagus, also carved from red granite, sits empty at the exact central axis of the pyramid. This burial chamber was sealed with a series of massive granite blocks and the entrance to the shaft filled with limestone in an effort to obscure the opening.
Boats for the afterlife
Khufu’s mortuary complex also included seven large boat pits. Five of these are located to the east of the pyramid and were a sort of model; these brick-lined boat shaped elements were probably intended for use in the Afterlife to transport the king to stellar destinations. Boat burials of this type had a long history in royal mortuary contexts—a fleet of 14 such pits, with actual wooden boats averaging 18-19 meters (60 feet) in length encased inside, were discovered at a Dynasty 1 mortuary enclosure in Abydos, cemetery of Egypt’s earliest kings. Often, however, as with Khufu, the pits were simply boat shaped models rather than containing actual boats.
Reconstructed funerary boat of Khufu (Photo: Dr. Amy Calvert)
In addition to his boat pits, however, on the south side of the pyramid Khufu had two massive, rectangular stone-lined pits that contained completely disassembled boats. One of these has been removed and reconstructed. This cedar boat measures 43.3 meters (142 feet) in length and was constructed of 1,224 separate pieces stitched together with ropes. These boats appear to have been used for the the last earthly voyage of the king—his funerary procession—before being dismantled and interred.
Pyramid of Khafre, c. 2520–2494 B.C.E. (photo: Francisco Anzola, CC BY 2.0)
Size and appearance
The second great pyramid of Giza was built by Khufu’s second son Khafre. At the very top, a section of outer casing stones like those that would have originally covered all three of the Great Pyramids still survives. Although this monument appears larger than that of his father, it is actually slightly smaller but was constructed 10 meters (33 feet) higher on the plateau.
Interior
The interior is much simpler than that of Khufu’s pyramid, with a single burial chamber, one small subsidiary chamber, and two passageways. The mortuary temple at the pyramid base was more complex than that of Khufu and was filled with statuary of the king—over 52 life-size or larger images originally filled the structure.
Khafre, Egyptian Museum, Cairo
Valley temple
Khafre’s valley temple, located at the east end of the causeway leading from the pyramid base, is beautifully preserved. It was constructed of megalithic blocks sheathed with granite and floors of polished white calcite. During excavation, a magnificent just over life size statue of the king carved of an extremely hard stone known as gneiss was discovered buried under the floor of the Valley Temple. This sculpture shows the king seated on a lion throne that has on its sides a symbol of the two heraldic plants of Upper and Lower Egypt, the papyrus and lotus, bound around a hieroglyph for “stability.” This important emblem, known as a sema-tawy (“binding the Two Lands”), represents the king’s primary duty—to “bind” the country under the authority of a single ruler. The king is supported in his task by the Horus falcon that wraps protectively around the back of his nemes headdress. Statue bases and other fragments indicate that this was one of about 23 such images of the pharaoh that were originally located in this temple.
Pillars in Valley Temple of Khafre (photo: Dr. Amy Calvert)
The Great Sphinx
Right next to the causeway leading from Khafre’s valley temple to the mortuary temple sits the first truly colossal sculpture in Egyptian history: the Great Sphinx. This close physical association (along with other evidence) indicates that this massive depiction of a recumbent lion with the head of a king was carved for Khafre.
The Great Sphinx (photo: superblinkymac, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
The Sphinx is carved from the bedrock of the Giza plateau, and it appears that the core blocks used to construct the king’s valley temple were quarried from the layers of stone that run along the upper sides of this massive image.
Khafre
The lion was a royal symbol as well as being connected with the sun as a symbol of the horizon; the fusion of this powerful animal with the head of the pharaoh was an icon that survived and was often used throughout Egyptian history. The king’s head is on a smaller scale than the body. This appears to have been due to a defect in the stone; a weakness recognized by the sculptors who compensated by elongating the body.
Directly in front of the Sphinx is a separate temple dedicated to the worship of its cult, but very little is known about it since there are no Old Kingdom texts that refer to the Sphinx or its temple. The temple is similar to Khafre’s mortuary temple and has granite pillars forming a colonnade around a central courtyard. However, it is unique in that it has two sanctuaries—one on the east and one on the west—likely connected to the rising and setting sun.
Pyramid of Menkaure (photo: future15pic, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
The third of the major pyramids at Giza belongs to Menkaure. This is the smallest of the three, rising to a height of 65 meters (213 feet), but the complex preserved some of the most stunning examples of sculpture to survive from all of Egyptian history.
Pyramid of Menkaure, chamber with niches (photo: Jon Bodsworth, by permission)
King Menkaure (Mycerinus) and Queen, 2490–2472 B.C.E., greywacke, 142.2 x 57.1 x 55.2 cm (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, photo: Steven Zucker, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)
Menkaure’s pyramid chambers are more complicated than those of Khafre and include a chamber carved with decorative panels and another chamber with six large niches. The burial chamber is lined with massive granite blocks. His black stone sarcophagus, also carved with niched panels, was discovered inside, but was lost at sea in 1838 as it was being transported to England.
Within Menkaure’s mortuary and valley temples, neither of which were completed before his death, excavation revealed a series of statues of the king. The stunning diad of the king with a queen (now in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston), as well as a number of triads showing the king being embraced by various deities, were discovered in the valley temple and were originally set up surrounding the open court.
This temple was still an active place of cult late in the Old Kingdom and was almost entirely rebuilt at the end of the 6th dynasty after it was heavily damaged by a flood.
King Menkaure (Mycerinus) and queen, 2490–2472 B.C.E., greywacke, 142.2 x 57.1 x 55.2 cm (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, photo: Steven Zucker, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)
Serene ethereal beauty, raw royal power, and evidence of artistic virtuosity have rarely been simultaneously captured as well as in this breathtaking, nearly life-size statue of the pharaoh Menkaure and a queen from c. 2490–2472 B.C.E. Smooth as silk, the meticulously finished surface of the dark stone captures the physical ideals of the time and creates a sense of eternity and immortality even today.
Undoubtedly, the most iconic structures from Ancient Egypt are the massive and enigmatic Great Pyramids that stand on a natural stone shelf, now known as the Giza plateau, on the south-western edge of modern Cairo. The three primary pyramids at Giza were constructed during the height of a period known as the Old Kingdom and served as burial places, memorials, and places of worship for a series of deceased rulers—the largest belonging to King Khufu, the middle to his son Khafre, and the smallest of the three to his son Menkaure.
Giza plateau (photo: Ikiwaner, CC BY-SA 2.0)
Head and torso (detail), Khafre enthroned, from Giza, Egypt, c. 2520–2494 B.C.E., diorite. 5’ 6 inches high (Egyptian Museum, Cairo)
Pyramids are not stand-alone structures. Those at Giza formed only a part of a much larger complex that included a temple at the base of the pyramid itself, long causeways and corridors, small subsidiary pyramids, and a second temple (known as a valley temple) some distance from the pyramid. These Valley Temples were used to perpetuate the cult of the deceased king and were active places of worship for hundreds of years (sometimes much longer) after the king’s death. Images of the king were placed in these temples to serve as a focus for worship—several such images have been found in these contexts, including the magnificent enthroned statue of Khafre with the Horus falcon wrapped around his headdress.
On January 10, 1910, excavators under the direction of George Reisner, head of the joint Harvard University-Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Expedition to Egypt, uncovered an astonishing collection of statuary in the Valley Temple connected to the Pyramid of Menkaure. Menkaure’s pyramid had been explored in the 1830’s (using dynamite, no less). His carved granite sarcophagus was removed (and subsequently lost at sea), and while the Pyramid Temple at its base was in only mediocre condition; the Valley Temple was—happily—basically ignored.
George Reisner and Enno Littmann at Harvard Camp, looking E toward Khufu and Khafre pyramids, 1935, photo by Albert Morton Lythgoe (Giza archives)
Reisner had been excavating on the Giza plateau for several years at this point; his team had already explored the elite cemetery to the west of the Great Pyramid of Khufu before turning their attention to the Menkaure complex, most particularly the barely-touched Valley Temple.
Four greywacke triads, Menkaure valley temple, S magazines, corridor III 4, photo: 1908 (The Giza Archives). View one of the triads in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
Menkaure flanked by Hathor (left) and nome goddess (Egyptian Museum, Cairo)
In the southwest corner of the structure, the team discovered a magnificent cache of statuary carved in a smooth-grained dark stone called greywacke or schist. There were a number of triad statues—each showing 3 figures; the king, the fundamentally important goddess Hathor, and the personification of a nome (a geographic designation, similar to the modern idea of a region, district, or county). Hathor was worshipped in the pyramid temple complexes along with the supreme sun god Re and the god Horus, who was represented by the living king. The goddess’s name is actually ‘Hwt-hor’, which means “The House of Horus”, and she was connected to the wife of the living king and the mother of the future king. Hathor was also a fierce protector who guarded her father Re; as an “Eye of Re” (the title assigned to a group of dangerous goddesses), she could embody the intense heat of the sun and use that blazing fire to destroy his enemies.
There were 4 complete triads, one incomplete, and at least one other in a fragmentary condition. The precise meaning of these triads is uncertain. Reisner believed that there was one for each ancient Egyptian nome, meaning there would have originally been more than thirty of them. More recent scholarship, however, suggests that there were originally 8 triads, each connected with a major site associated with the cult of Hathor. Hathor’s prominence in the triads (she actually takes the central position in one of the images) and her singular importance to kingship lends weight to this theory.
In addition to the triads, Reisner’s team also revealed the extraordinary dyad statue of Menkaure and a queen that is breathtakingly singular.
Heads and torsos (detail), King Menkaure (Mycerinus) and queen, 2490–2472 B.C.E., greywacke, 142.2 x 57.1 x 55.2 cm (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, photo: Steven Zucker, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)
The two figures stand side-by-side on a simple, squared base and are supported by a shared back pillar. They both face to the front, although Menkaure’s head is noticeably turned to his right—this image was likely originally positioned within an architectural niche, making it appear as though they were emerging from the structure.
The broad-shouldered, youthful body of the king is covered only with a traditional short pleated kilt, known as a shendjet, and his head sports the primary pharaonic insignia of the iconic striped nemes headdress and an artificial royal beard. In his clenched fists, held straight down at his sides, Menkaure grasps ritual cloth rolls. His body is straight, strong, and eternally youthful with no signs of age. His facial features are remarkably individualized with prominent eyes, a fleshy nose, rounded cheeks, and full mouth with protruding lower lip.
Heads (detail), King Menkaure (Mycerinus) and queen, 2490–2472 B.C.E., greywacke, 142.2 x 57.1 x 55.2 cm (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, photo: Steven Zucker, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)
Menkaure’s queen provides the perfect female counterpart to his youthful masculine virility. Sensuously modeled with a beautifully proportioned body emphasized by a clinging garment, she articulates ideal mature feminine beauty. There is a sense of the individual in both faces. Neither Menkaure nor his queen are depicted in the purely idealized manner that was the norm for royal images. Instead, through the overlay of royal formality we see the depiction of a living person filling the role of pharaoh and the personal features of a particular individual in the representation of his queen.
King Menkaure (Mycerinus) and queen, 2490–2472 B.C.E., greywacke, 142.2 x 57.1 x 55.2 cm (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, photo: Steven Zucker, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)
Menkaure and his queen stride forward with their left feet—this is entirely expected for the king, as males in Egyptian sculpture almost always do so, but it is unusual for the female since they are generally depicted with feet together. They both look beyond the present and into timeless eternity, their otherworldly visage displaying no human emotion whatsoever.
The dyad was never finished—the area around the lower legs has not received a final polish, and there is no inscription. However, despite this incomplete state, the image was erected in the temple and was brightly painted; there are traces of red around the king’s ears and mouth and yellow on the queen’s face. The presence of paint atop the smooth, dark greywacke on a statue of the deceased king that was originally erected in his memorial temple courtyard brings an interesting suggestion—that the paint may have been intended to wear away through exposure and, over time, reveal the immortal, black-fleshed “Osiris” Menkaure (for more information on the symbolic associations of Egyptian materials, see Materials and techniques in ancient Egyptian art).
Unusual for a pharaoh’s image, the king has no protective cobra (known as a uraeus) perched on his brow. This notable absence has led to the suggestion that both the king’s nemes and the queen’s wig were originally covered in a sheath of precious metal and that the ubiquitous cobra would have been part of that addition.
Based on comparison with other images, there is no doubt that this sculpture shows Menkaure, but the identity of the queen is a different matter. She is clearly a royal female. She stands at nearly equal height with the king and, of the two of them, she is the one who is entirely frontal. In fact, it may be that this dyad is focused on the queen as its central figure rather than Menkaure. The prominence of the royal female—at equal height and frontal—in addition to the protective gesture she extends has suggested that, rather than one of Menkaure’s wives, this is actually his queen-mother. The function of the sculpture in any case was to ensure rebirth for the king in the Afterlife.
Seated cross-legged, with rolls of belly fat, this painted statue differs from the ideal statues of pharaohs.
Seated Scribe, c. 2500 B.C.E., c. 4th Dynasty, Old Kingdom, painted limestone with rock crystal, magnesite, and copper/arsenic inlay for the eyes and wood for the nipples, found in Saqqara URL: https://youtu.be/IKkcop-dlUY
Source: Dr. Beth Harris and Dr. Steven Zucker, “The Seated Scribe,” in Smarthistory, November 25, 2015, accessed September 5, 2024, https://smarthistory.org/seated-scribe/.
Tjeti must have been both important and wealthy to have commissioned this statue. While wooden tomb statues are usually carved in a manner that is almost crude, the sculptor of this example has carefully modeled the muscles on the torso and legs, and paid close attention to the detail of the face. Fine wood was scarce and expensive in Egypt so the statue was not carved from a single block. Instead, the arms were made separately and pegged onto the body which in turn was set into a separate base. The figure was once fully painted, and the eyes are inlaid with white limestone and obsidian set in copper frames.
Tjeti is shown in the classic pose of a standing official, holding a staff (not original) and a scepter (now lost). However, he is naked, a way of portraying tomb owners which only occurred during the second half of the Old Kingdom (2613–2160 B.C.E.). Clothing was an important indicator of status and profession and so to be depicted naked normally reflects a low status. Tjeti’s names and titles inscribed on the base show that he held a high administrative rank so it is possible that his nakedness might symbolize youth through rebirth. This may have been a short-lived fashion for statues of very high officials.
Egyptian sculpture is often thought to consist only of massive and regal statues of the kings of Egypt. However, there exist also more intimate images, so-called ‘private’ sculptures, made to be placed in the tombs of non-royal officials. The earliest date to the Third Dynasty (about 2686–2613 B.C.E.).
In this statue a ship-builder named Ankhwa is shown holding an adze, a woodworking tool indicative of his trade. An inscription carved on the figure’s kilt gives his name and titles. One of these titles ranks Ankhwa as a royal acquaintance. The quality of Ankhwa’s statue reflects this status and this statue was probably made in a royal workshop.
The style of private sculptures closely follows the conventions set by royal sculpture. It was static, frontally posed, and with idealized features. Before the Fourth Dynasty (about 2613–2494 B.C.E.), sculpture ‘in the round’ is rare, but this example from Third Dynasty is outstanding. The style is typical of this date: the slightly squat figure, the protruding face, and the curve of the back more pronounced than in ‘classic’ later Egyptian sculpture, although these features are partly the result of the hard granite chosen for the statue.
Cite this page as: The British Museum, “Statue of seated man, Ankhwa,” in Smarthistory, August 2, 2016, accessed September 8, 2023, https://smarthistory.org/statue-ankhwa/.
FIRST INTERMEDIATE PERIOD (c. 2150–2030 B.C.E.)
During this period of disunity, kings continued to rule from Memphis as Dynasties 7 and 8, but they did not control the entire country and there is evidence of civil wars. Other areas were ruled by provincial governors, with one powerful family group ruling from Herakleopolis and another further south at Thebes. These elite figures had close ties with their local shrines and temples, probably serving as priests among their other roles. One Theban nomarch, Intef II, began an assault against the north that continued for several subsequent generations until Nebheptra Mentuhotep II, eventually defeated the Herakleopolitan kings and reunified the country. Despite the political turmoil, there were innovations; Coffin Texts began to appear in tombs and mummy masks made of cartonnage (akin to papier-mâché) started to be produced.
The breakdown of centralized control that characterized the First Intermediate Period brought a new sense of uncertainty to Egyptian culture, which had been so stable for centuries. The overlapping internal struggles between regional rulers in the north and south eventually ended with the Theban nomarchs defeating the rulers at Herakleopolis and bringing all of Egypt under a single king again.
The dynamic reunification of the Two Lands in ancient Egypt, in the period we call the Middle Kingdom, created new requirements for the king. No longer an aloof divine representative of the gods on earth, the king in the Middle Kingdom was expected to be more available to the people. This period also saw increased interactions with the outside world, the re-establishment of connections with Syria to the north and the establishment of forts reaching south deep into Nubia. Rich in literature (often of great knowledge and wit), this era also produced exquisite works of art. The cult of Osiris grew as did the number of Egyptians who could equip themselves for the afterlife, what we might recognize as a “middle class.”
Map of Ancient Egypt (modified) (original image: Jeff Dahl, CC BY-SA 3.0)
Introduction to the Middle Kingdom and Second Intermediate Period
The breakdown of centralized control that characterized the First Intermediate Period brought a new sense of uncertainty to Egyptian culture, which had been so stable for centuries. The overlapping internal struggles between regional rulers in the north and south eventually ended with the Theban nomarchs defeating the rulers at Herakleopolis and bringing all of Egypt under a single king again.
The dynamic reunification of the Two Lands in ancient Egypt, in the period we call the Middle Kingdom, created new requirements for the king. No longer an aloof divine representative of the gods on earth, the king in the Middle Kingdom was expected to be more available to the people. This period also saw increased interactions with the outside world, the re-establishment of connections with Syria to the north and the establishment of forts reaching south deep into Nubia. Rich in literature (often of great knowledge and wit), this era also produced exquisite works of art. The cult of Osiris grew as did the number of Egyptians who could equip themselves for the afterlife, what we might recognize as a “middle class.”
Map of Ancient Egypt (modified) (original image: Jeff Dahl, CC BY-SA 3.0)
During the Middle Kingdom (Dynasty 11–13), many of the principles of Egyptian culture that had emerged at its outset and been codified during the Old Kingdom were adjusted and redefined. These included significant shifts in religious practices, afterlife beliefs, and the ideology of kingship.
Mortuary complex of Mentuhotep (with the later mortuary complex of Hatshepsut beside it), Deir El Bahari, Egypt (photo: Steve F-E-Cameron, CC BY-SA 3.0)
Nebhepetra Mentuhotep II re-unified Egypt and established the Middle Kingdom, which is often considered the classical period for Egypt’s politics, literature, and art. Although he ruled the unified country from the city of Memphis, as the pharaohs of the Old Kingdom had done, he built his innovative mortuary complex on the west side of the Nile at Thebes. He and his successors devoted considerable attention to the Theban region, adding to the already-established shrine of the local god Amun and building the initial core for the temple at Karnak (which would subsequently be added to by nearly every following ruler for millennia). There is evidence for vastly expanded royal patronage of divine temples all over Egypt during the Middle Kingdom. This campaign not only re-solidified the connections between the king and the gods, but was also a way to stress the king’s presence at key regional centers.
Twelfth Dynasty rulers focused their attention on restoring the glories of the Old Kingdom while accommodating the beliefs, innovations in style, and architectural forms that were introduced or developed at Thebes. These kings constructed a new royal residence in the Fayum region southwest of Memphis and were buried nearby in pyramids with elaborate temples. Unfortunately, due to the construction methods used and later stone mining, none survive in good condition. Unlike the solid limestone Old Kingdom pyramids, Middle Kingdom monuments of this type were built with a core of mud brick. After the outer casing stone was removed for reuse during the ancient and medieval eras, the brick cores were exposed, and have long since eroded.
During the middle of the Twelfth Dynasty, a fascinating shift in the way pharaoh was portrayed occurred. In texts of the period, the role of the “Good Shepherd” becomes emphasized and, around the same time, the weight of royal responsibilities becomes evident in representations of the king. This dramatic shift in style is most clearly seen in the facial features of images of Senwosret II, Senwosret III, and Amenemhat III. Looking at these heavy faces, with their creased brows and drooping mouths, it is clear that profound changes had occurred.
Model of a brewery, first Intermediate Period or Middle Kingdom, 2040–1991 B.C.E., painted wood, 28.5 x 32.5 x 53.5 cm (MFA Boston)
Elite necropolises carved into cliff sides along the Nile preserve non-royal aspects of the mortuary cult in this time. Much of the iconography in the tomb scenes is similar to late Old Kingdom, but new scenes also appear, including the representations of deities, especially the god Osiris. Models with figures in lively poses performing daily activities, like brewing, baking, and slaughtering cattle, were found in tombs of this era. Also during this period servant figures known as shabtis, which were designed to work for the deceased in the afterlife, began to appear. Private monuments dedicated to Osiris become prevalent and indicate a democratization of access to the divine, allowing more people the opportunity to interact with the gods.
Rectangular chest, cylinder seal, ingot, amulet, pendant, beetle, pearl, Treasure of Tod, dated to the reign of Noubkaoure Amenemhat II, materials: bronze, Egyptian alabaster, copper alloy, amethyst, silver, Egyptian blue, carnelian, rock crystal, copper, siliceous earthenware, jasper, lapis lazuli, mica, mother-of-pearl, obsidian, gold, bone, lead, flint, turquoise, glass, found under the temple of Montu at Tod (Louvre)
Rulers during the Middle Kingdom expanded control to the south into Nubia, building a series of mudbrick forts along the river as far south as Semna (below the Second Cataract) in order to better control the mines of gold and other valuable materials in the region, such as ebony, ostrich feathers, leopard skins, ivory, exotic animals, incense and a variety of hard stones. They also re-established trade routes to far-off Syrian cities for luxury goods such as cedar, wine, silver, and oil. There is evidence for robust trade interactions with other cultures as well: Minoan pottery sherds suggest trade with Crete and Asiatic artifacts, like large numbers of weights found in urban settings and the stunning assemblage of treasure discovered in four bronze chests under the temple of Montu at Tod, indicates connections beyond Syria-Palestine.
Pectoral and Necklace of Sithathoryunet with the Name of Senwosret II, Middle Kingdom, Dynasty 12, reign of Senwosret II, c. 1887–1878 B.C.E., Egypt, Fayum Entrance Area, el-Lahun (Illahun, Kahun; Ptolemais Hormos), Tomb of Sithathoryunet (BSA Tomb 8), EES 1914, Gold, carnelian, feldspar, garnet, turquoise, lapis lazuli
This was a period of wealth and prosperity—a rich body of literature was produced, relief carvings of sublime beauty were created, bronze metalworking appears, and some of the most exceptional jewelry from the ancient world was crafted during this time. Several sets of highly-symbolic jewelry were discovered in the tombs of royal women. Imagery in the jewelry, statuary, and other depictions of royal women during this period show a strong connection between them and the goddess Hathor. Both the mother and wife of Horus in various myths, Hathor was also described as the mother, wife, or daughter of the sun god Ra—both male deities that the king was closely linked with. Royal women seem to have been viewed as mortal representatives of Hathor, serving a vital function in regeneration.
Head of a female sphinx, c. 1876–1842 B.C.E., Dynasty 12, Middle Kingdom, chlorite, 38.9 x 33.3 x 35.4 cm (Brooklyn Museum)
Female sphinxes appeared during the Middle Kingdom, emphasizing a new connection between royal women in the fiercely protective role of the sun god’s daughter, the Eye of Ra. Although in general these developments in identity didn’t necessarily indicate significant changes in political status for royal women, it is interesting that the last king of the Twelfth Dynasty was the first known sole female ruler of Egypt, Nefrusobek.
By the Thirteenth Dynasty, centralized royal authority was again on the decline and control over Lower Egypt became more challenging. The ruling city of Lisht was abandoned and the kings reestablished the royal court and administrative seat in the southern city of Thebes. It would be nearly 150 years before a king would rule again over the united Two Lands.
Reconstructed Minoan fresco showing bull-leaping from Avaris, Egypt. Now Archaeological Museum Iraklion, Crete, Greece (photo: Martin Dürrschnabel, CC-BY-SA-2.5)
This piece of jewelry is a pendant in the form of a winged scarab. It is made of electrum (a naturally occurring alloy of gold and silver) inlaid with carnelian, green feldspar, and lapis lazuli. Two small tubes on the underside of the object were used to suspend it.
The central ornament forms the throne name of the Middle Kingdom King Senwosret II: Kha-kheper-Ra. The word kha is represented by the hill at the bottom, and the sign kheper in the middle is figured by a scarab. Ra is depicted at the top by a sun disc between the two front legs of the beetle. All royal names have a meaning, and Kha-kheper-Ra can be translated as “The form of Ra is rising.”
The beetle lays its eggs in a ball of dung and pushes it around. The Egyptians used this as an image and metaphor for the passage of the sun across the sky. The young scarab beetles hatch out of the ball of dung which symbolized the concept of new life and rebirth through the sun. Either side of the kha hieroglyph is a papyrus flower, another symbol of rebirth.
Senwosret II was the fourth ruler of the Twelfth Dynasty. We have only a few buildings and inscriptions from his reign but we do know the location of his tomb. Senwosret II built a pyramid at Lahun in the Fayum, south of modern Cairo. Unlike the Old Kingdom pyramids built in stone, the memorial monument of Senusret II and his Middle Kingdom contemporaries were made out of mud bricks with a stone core.
“You have to imagine that nobody really saw this except the princess.”
Pectoral and Necklace of Sithathoryunet with the Name of Senwosret II, Middle Kingdom, Dynasty 12, reign of Senwosret II, c. 1887–1878 B.C.E., Egypt, Fayum Entrance Area, el-Lahun (Illahun, Kahun; Ptolemais Hormos), Tomb of Sithathoryunet (BSA Tomb 8), EES 1914, Gold, carnelian, feldspar, garnet, turquoise, lapis lazuli
This life-size statue of Senwosret III (1874–1855 B.C.E.) is one of three very similar statues in the British Museum collections excavated from the site of the funerary temple of King Nebhhepetre Mentuhotep II (2055–2004 B.C.E.), a predecessor of Senwosret. Senwosret restored and endowed this temple, which was the site of an important local annual festival. It is likely that the statues were dedicated out of respect for the earlier king and the festival.
The statues, which show Senwosret in the attitude of prayer, standing with his hands flat on the front of his kilt, are the earliest examples of this devotional pose. In contrast with his youthful, muscular torso, the king’s face is depicted with expressive furrows and lines. His large ears may symbolize the ruler’s readiness to listen. This new style of representation, so different from the idealized portrayals of royalty in other periods, is characteristic of this reign.
Contemporary poetry spoke of how the heaviest burden, that of rulership, lay on the king, and this powerfully modeled portrait seems to reflect that. The expressiveness of the portrait is royal rather than personal. One Egyptologist, T.G.H James, has described it as a “portrait of responsible kingship.”
Statue of an Offering Bearer, Tomb of Meketre
by THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART
“They’ve captured her in a moment in time.”
Statue of an Offering Bearer, c. 1981–1975 B.C.E., early reign of Amenemhat I, Dynasty 12, Middle Kingdom Egypt, Upper Egypt; Thebes, Southern Asasif, Tomb of Meketre (TT 280, MMA 1101), serdab, MMA 1920, wood, gesso, paint. Video from The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Standing Hippopotamus, ca. 1961–1878 B.C.E., Egypt, Middle Kingdom, faience, 7 7/8″ x 2 15/16″ x 4 7/16″ / 20 cm x 7.5 cm x 11.2 cm (The Metropolitan Museum of Art). Video from The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Cite this page as: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, “Standing Hippopotamus,” in Smarthistory, December 21, 2015, accessed September 8, 2023, https://smarthistory.org/standing-hippopotamus/.
Ancient Thebes with its Necropolis
by UNESCO and TBS
From temples on the east bank of the Nile to the Valley of the Kings, Thebes was a wonder of Egyptian Civilization.
Video from UNESCO/TBS
Thebes, the city of the god Amon, was the capital of Egypt during the period of the Middle and New Kingdoms. With the temples and palaces at Karnak and Luxor, and the necropolises of the Valley of the Kings and the Valley of the Queens, Thebes is a striking testimony to Egyptian civilization at its height.
The unfinished decoration of this stela is particularly interesting: the lower part is still covered with the grid used for ensuring that the proportions of the figures were correct.
Some figures have been partially cut, but the last two remain as extremely fine drawing in black ink. The figures show increasing levels of completion from left to right. Userwer, as sculptor, may have worked on his own monument, but it is also possible that it was being cut by his apprentices. It seems likely that Userwer died before the stela could be finished.
The stela contains a supplication to those who see it to make offerings. The upper of the two scenes shows (left) Userwer and his wife Satdepetnetjer seated before offerings. Beside them is Satameni, another wife of Userwer. It is likely that Userwer married one after the other’s death, rather than being married to both at the same time. Userwer’s parents are shown to the right, and his children below. It is not certain where this stela came from, although, like many others, it might have been set up at Abydos near the cult centre of Osiris, the god of the dead.
During the seventeenth century B.C.E., a group who originated in Western Asia and had blended into the local population of the delta region took control of the north of the country. Their kings were referred to as the hekau khasut, otherwise known as the Hyksos. These “rulers of foreign lands” established their own capital at Avaris and ruled the north, even calling themselves “Sons of Ra.” Archeological evidence shows that the community of Avaris had many decidedly non-Egyptian characteristics. Differences in house layouts, pottery types, weapons and tools, and burials being integrated into the settlement, as was common in western Asia, instead of separated (as was usual for the Egyptians), all point to a largely Syrio-Palestine population.
New words entered the Egyptian vocabulary during this period, as did Near Eastern deities, like Anat, and weapons including the scimitar and horse-drawn chariot. The international nature of the site is also evident in the startlingly Minoan-style murals of bull jumping, although these may date slightly later. Egyptian pharaohs still ruled from the south at Thebes, and there was a series of conflicts and battles for control. Textual evidence indicates that the king at Avaris was corresponding with the Nubian king of Kush at Kerma via the Western Oasis route in an effort to ally against the Egyptians at Thebes; their messengers were intercepted and communications cut off by the pharaoh Kamose who recorded his campaigns against them in stelae erected at Karnak temple. Eventually, Ahmose was successful in driving the Hyksos king out of the delta and re-unifying the land under a single ruler.
Born in battle, the New Kingdom was initiated by the Theban king Ahmose who brought the Egyptian armies north against the Hyksos kings at Avaris and drove them out of the Nile delta.
The early Eighteenth Dynasty (the first dynasty of the New Kingdom) was characterized by military campaigns that continually pushed the borders of Egypt into Asia Minor and Nubia. Later kings of this dynasty relied more heavily on diplomatic relationships, achieving a position of power and cultural dynamism in the Mediterranean world due to their successes in foreign policy.
Western jamb of the south portal at the palace of Merenptah at Memphis showing the king in the iconic ‘smiting’ pose, controlling enemies of Egypt. Dynasty 19 (Penn E-13575-C)
After the Eighteenth Dynasty experienced a unique and disruptive era of significant religious and political alteration (known as the Amarna Period), the early Nineteenth Dynasty kings reasserted traditional social and cultural beliefs. These rulers emphasized their strategic and physical prowess on the battlefield. Scenes of successful battles, showing the king at the head of his armies triumphing over the chaotic enemy, appear prominently on temple walls as proof of the ruler’s abilities. Later in the New Kingdom, repeated incursions from outside forces (such as the Libyans and the migratory Sea Peoples), weakened the country, eventually leading to a fracturing of centralized control and the Third Intermediate Period.
View of sphinxes, the first pylon, and the central east-west aisle of Temple of Amon-Ra, Karnak in Luxor, Egypt (photo: Mark Fox, CC: BY-NC 2.0)
New Kingdom (c. 1550–1070 B.C.E.)
Spanning more than 500 years and encompassing Dynasties 18–20, the New Kingdom is often considered to be the peak of ancient Egyptian culture. The early Eighteenth Dynasty rulers were warrior kings who carried out numerous military campaigns to expand their borders and areas of control, both to the north and the south. These incursions were primarily intended to create a buffer around the Egyptian homeland, exploit valuable resources, and gain control of trade routes.
Eager to reestablish a centralized authority after the chaos of the Second Intermediate Period, the royal court moved back to Memphis, the ancient seat of power from the golden age of the great pyramids. Thebes, however, remained the religious capital. The local god Amun was merged with the sun god Ra and became Amun-Ra—King of the Gods. Amun’s shrine at Karnak developed into the largest temple complex in the country.
Valley of the Kings, Egypt (photo: Troels Myrup, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
A new royal burial site, now known as the Valley of the Kings, was initiated in the hills on the west side of the Nile from Thebes; the first royal tomb cut into the cliffs was for Thutmosis I. Kings dug deep subterranean tombs into the limestone Valley and paired those hidden tombs with grand memorial temples, constructed closer to the Nile edge of cultivation, that served to maintain the king’s cult after death.
Temple of Queen Hatshepsut, Dayr al-Baḥrī, Egypt, c. 1470 B.C.E.
One of the most stunning structures from the ancient world is one of these memorial temples, which stands against the dramatic cliffs at Deir el Bahri just opposite the Valley of the Kings. This terraced temple was built by Hatshepsut, the powerful female ruler who controlled Egypt for roughly 20 years at the height of the Eighteenth Dynasty. She built her memorial monument directly adjacent to the memorial temple of Nebhepetre Mentuhotep II, founder of the Middle Kingdom, clearly identifying her righteous rule as a continuation of those who came before.
Portrait Head of Queen Tiye with a Crown of Two Feathers, c. 1355 B.C.E., Amarna Period, Dynasty 18, New Kingdom, Egypt, yew wood, lapis lazuli, silver, gold, faience, 22.5 cm high (Neues Museum, Berlin)
After ongoing military campaigns under Thutmosis III led to Egypt’s furthest borders, later kings sought more diplomatic solutions in their relations with other powers in the Near East. These included diplomatic marriages, such as that between Thutmosis IV and the daughter of Mitannian ruler Artatama, and greatly reduced expansionist tendencies. This led to an era of wealth and relative peace under Thutmosis IV’s successor, Amenhotep III. This king focused on developing the religious landscape—enlarging numerous existing chapels and founding several new temples, including the magnificent Luxor Temple. He commissioned an incredible number of divine statues to emphasize his connections to the gods, and authorized some images that gave himself and his chief wife, Tiye, divine attributes.
House Altar depicting Akhenaten, Nefertiti and Three of their Daughters, limestone, New Kingdom, Amarna period, 18th dynasty, c.1350 BCE (Ägyptisches Museum/Neues Museum, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin)
Their son was Amenhotep IV, who changed his name early in his reign to Akhenaten. Akhenaten and his chief wife, Nefertiti, were dedicated to the cult of the Aten, a specific form of the sun god that manifested as a disc. Akhenaten made the radical choice to move the capital to a brand new location at Akhet-Aten (modern Amarna) and centralized control, both secular and religious, in himself as the sole representative of the Aten on earth. In general, this significant break with tradition was not well-received and it did not last.
Akhenaten’s young successor and son Tutankhamun (better known as King Tut), moved the religious capital back to Thebes, re-establishing Amun-Ra as the chief national deity. Akhenaten’s reign was viewed as a time of chaos by later kings; the king list at Seti I’s temple in Abydos jumps from Amenhotep III directly to Horemhab, completely skipping over the contentious reigns of Akhenaten and his immediate successors, Tutankhamun and Ay.
Ramses II ruled for 67 years. Here he is shown slaying an enemy while he tramples on an other in the battle of Kadesh in 1274 B.C.E., inside Abu Simbel, Egypt (photo: Aoineko, CC BY-SA 3.0)
Early Nineteenth Dynasty kings resumed military campaigns and re-established Egyptian authority over parts of the Near East. One of the best-known kings from Egypt was Rameses II. He ruled for sixty-seven years, fought great battles with the Hittites, and constructed a huge number of monuments throughout the country. Triumphant battle scenes adorn many of these temples, many depicting the battle of Kadesh despite the fact that he didn’t actually conquer the Hittites—the conflict was instead settled by negotiation and diplomatic agreements.
Later kings of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Dynasties faced successive waves of invasions by foreign powers, such as the Libyans and the enigmatic migratory group known as the Sea Peoples. These conflicts were an obvious strain and led to the reduction of the king’s reach and sphere of influence. By the end of the Twentieth Dynasty, the pharaoh ruling from Memphis had little apparent control over a powerful family in Thebes whose members served as high priests at Karnak and who endowed themselves with royal titles.
Temple of Amun-Re and the Hypostyle Hall, Karnak
by DR. ELIZABETH CUMMINS
View of sphinxes, the first pylon, and the central east-west aisle of Temple of Amon-Re, Karnak in Luxor, Egypt (photo: Mark Fox, CC: BY-NC 2.0)
The massive temple complex of Karnak was the principal religious center of the god Amun-Re in Thebes during the New Kingdom (which lasted from 1550 until 1070 B.C.E.). The complex remains one of the largest religious complexes in the world. However, Karnak was not just one temple dedicated to one god—it held not only the main precinct to the god Amun-Re—but also the precincts of the gods Mut and Montu. Compared to other temple compounds that survive from ancient Egypt, Karnak is in a poor state of preservation but it still gives scholars a wealth of information about Egyptian religion and art.
Google Earth view of Karnak
“The Most Select of Places”
The site was first developed during the Middle Kingdom (2055–1650 B.C.E.) and was initially modest in scale but as new importance was placed on the city of Thebes, subsequent pharaohs began to place their own mark on Karnak. The main precinct alone would eventually have as many as twenty temples and chapels. [1] Karnak was known in ancient times as “The Most Select of Places” (Ipet-isut) and was not only the location of the cult image of Amun and a place for the god to dwell on earth but also a working estate for the priestly community who lived on site. Additional buildings included a sacred lake, kitchens, and workshops for the production of religious accoutrements.
Model of the Precinct of Amon-Re, Karnak (photo: Rémih, CC: BY-SA 3.0)
“Tent pole” columns, Festival Temple of Thutmose III, c. 1479–25 B.C.E., sandstone, mud brick, paint, Karnak, at Luxor, Egypt (photo: Dennis Jarvis, CC: BY-SA 2.0)
The main temple of Amun-Re had two axes—one that went north/south and the other that extended east/west. The southern axis continued towards the temple of Luxor and was connected by an avenue of ram-headed sphinxes.
While the sanctuary was plundered for stone in ancient times, there are still a number of unique architectural features within this vast complex. For example, the tallest obelisk in Egypt stood at Karnak and was dedicated by the female pharaoh Hatshepsut who ruled Egypt during the New Kingdom. Made of one piece of red granite, it originally had a matching obelisk that was removed by the Roman emperor Constantine and re-erected in Rome. Another unusual feature was the Festival Temple of Thutmose III, which had columns that represented tent poles, a feature this pharaoh was no doubt familiar with from his many war campaigns.
Hypostyle hall
One of the greatest architectural marvels of Karnak is the hypostyle hall (a space with a roof supported by columns) built during the Ramesside period. The hall has 134 massive sandstone columns with the center twelve columns standing at 69 feet. Like most of the temple decoration, the hall would have been brightly painted and some of this paint still exists on the upper portions of the columns and ceiling today. With the center of the hall taller than the spaces on either side, the Egyptians allowed for clerestory lighting (a section of wall that allowed light and air into the otherwise dark space below). In fact, the earliest evidence for clerestory lighting comes from Egypt. Not many ancient Egyptians would have had access to this hall, since the further one went into the temple, the more restricted access became.
Hypostyle Hall, c. 1250 B.C.E. (hall), 18th and 19th Dynasties, New Kingdom, sandstone and mud brick, Karnak, at Luxor, Egypt
Temple as cosmos
Conceptually, temples in Egypt were connected to the idea of zep tepi, or “the first time,” the beginnings of the creation of the world. The temple was a reflection of this time, when the mound of creation emerged from the primeval waters. The pylons, or gateways in the temple represent the horizon, and as one moves further into the temple, the floor rises until it reaches the sanctuary of the god, giving the impression of a rising mound, like that during creation. The temple roof represented the sky and was often decorated with stars and birds. The columns were designed with lotus, papyrus, and palm plants in order to reflect the marsh-like environment of creation. The outer areas of Karnak, which was located near the Nile River, would flood during the annual inundation—an intentional effect by the ancient designers no doubt, in order to enhance the temple’s symbolism. [2]
Plan of the Temple of Amon-Re, Karnak
Notes:
[1] R. Wilkinson, The Complete Temples of Ancient Egypt (New York: Thames & Hudson, 2000), p. 154.
Cite this page as: Dr. Elizabeth Cummins, “Temple of Amun-Re and the Hypostyle Hall, Karnak,” in Smarthistory, November 27, 2015, accessed September 8, 2023, https://smarthistory.org/temple-of-amun-re-and-the-hypostyle-hall-karnak/.
Mortuary Temple and Large Kneeling Statue of Hatshepsut
by DR. BETH HARRIS and DR. STEVEN ZUCKER
Mortuary Temple and Large Kneeling Statue of Hatshepsut, c. 1479-58 B.C.E., New Kingdom, Egypt
Source: Dr. Beth Harris and Dr. Steven Zucker, “Mortuary Temple and Large Kneeling Statue of Hatshepsut,” in Smarthistory, August 9, 2015, accessed November 10, 2024, https://smarthistory.org/hatshepsut/.
The British Museum contains 11 fragments of wall painting, which are some of the most famous images of Egyptian art. The fragments come from the now lost tomb-chapel of Nebamun, an ancient Egyptian scribe or the “scribe and grain accountant in the granary of divine offerings,” in the Temple of Amun at Karnak. Nebamun died c. 1350 BCE, a generation or so before Tutankhamun. His name is damaged but he was almost certainly called Nebamun.
“Antiquity’s equivalent to Michelangelo”
The tomb-paintings were discovered by the local agent Henry Salt in Thebes and acquired by the Museum in the 1820s. The location of the tomb from which they came is still not known with any certainty, but it is thought to be in the northern part of the necropolis in the area known as Dra Abu el-Naga. Stylistically, the magnificent wall paintings can be dated to either the final years of the reign of Amenhotep III (1390–1352 BCE) or the early years of his successor. The fragments were constantly on display until the late 1990s. Since then, the fragile wall-paintings have been meticulously conserved, securing their condition for at least the next fifty years.
The project has provided numerous new insights into the superb technique of the painters. Their exuberant compositions, astonishing depictions of animal life and unparalleled handling of textures have caused one art historian to call them “antiquity’s equivalent to Michelangelo.” New research and scholarship have enabled new connections to be made between the fragments, allowing scholars to gain a better understanding of their original locations in the tomb. They will now be re-displayed together for the first time in a setting designed to recreate their original aesthetic impact and to evoke their original position in a small intimate chapel.
The paintings show scenes of daily life and include images of banquets, agriculture, animal husbandry, hunting and scenes of offerings. The quality of the drawing and composition is outstanding, and the superbly detailed treatment of the animals makes these some of the finest paintings to survive from ancient Egypt.
A place of commemoration
Nebamun’s tomb-chapel was a place for people to come and commemorate Nebamun and his wife after his death with prayers and offerings. Nebamun himself was buried somewhere beneath the floor of the innermost room of the tomb-chapel in a hidden burial chamber.The beautiful paintings, which decorated the wall, not only showed how Nebamun wanted his life to be remembered but what he wanted in his life after death.
Building a tomb-chapel was expensive and would have only been done by the wealthy. The majority of ancient Egyptians would have been buried in cemeteries.
How the tomb-chapel was built and used
Nebamun’s tomb-chapel was cut into the desert hills opposite the city of Thebes (modern Luxor and Karnak). Workmen would have cut the tomb out of the rock using flint tools and copper-alloy chisels. The walls and ceilings of the tomb were then covered in a layer of mud plaster, followed by a layer of white plaster. This provided a smooth surface for painting.
The tomb-chapel was painted by a team of artists. They first sketched out the designs and figures before painting the final pattern. Sometimes the sketches can still be seen, showing how the artists changed their minds. The artists used black, white, red, yellow, blue and green paints.
The tomb-chapel probably contained three sections: an outer chamber, an inner chamber and an underground burial chamber, which was sealed once Nebamun and his wife had been buried. Outside the tomb-chapel a courtyard was cut into the hillside. The walls of the chapel facade were decorated with rows of pottery cones stamped with the names and titles of the owner.
The fragments from the wall painting in the tomb-chapel of Nebamun are keenly observed vignettes of Nebamun and his family enjoying both work and play. Some concern the provision of the funerary cult that was celebrated in the tomb-chapel, some show scenes of Nebamun’s life as an elite official, and others show him and his family enjoying life for all eternity, as in the famous scene of the family hunting in the marshes. Together they decorated the small tomb-chapel with vibrant and engaging images of an elite lifestyle that Nebamun hoped would continue in the afterlife.
Nebamun is shown hunting birds from a small boat in the marshes of the Nile with his wife Hatshepsut and their young daughter. Such scenes had already been traditional parts of tomb-chapel decoration for hundreds of years and show the dead tomb-owner “enjoying himself and seeing beauty,” as the hieroglyphic caption here says.
This is more than a simple image of recreation. Fertile marshes were seen as a place of rebirth and eroticism. Hunting animals could represent Nebamun’s triumph over the forces of nature as he was reborn. The huge striding figure of Nebamun dominates the scene, forever happy and forever young, surrounded by the rich and varied life of the marsh.
There was originally another half of the scene which showed Nebamun spearing fish. This half of the wall is lost, apart from two old photographs of small fragments of Nebamun and his young son. The painters have captured the scaly and shiny quality of the fish.
A tawny cat catches birds among the papyrus stems. Cats were family pets, but in artistic depictions like this they could also represent the Sun-god hunting the enemies of light and order. His unusual gilded eye hints at the religious meanings of this scene.
The artists have filled every space with lively details. The marsh is full of lotus flowers and Plain Tiger butterflies. They are freely and delicately painted, suggesting the pattern and texture of their wings.
Nebamun’s garden in the afterlife is not unlike the earthly gardens of wealthy Egyptians. The pool is full of birds and fish, and surrounded by borders of flowers and shady rows of trees. The fruit trees include sycamore-figs, date-palms and dom-palms—the dates are shown with different degrees of ripeness.
On the right side of the pool a goddess leans out of a tree and offers fruit and drinks to Nebamun (now lost). The artists accidentally painted her skin red at first but then repainted it yellow, the correct color for a goddess’ skin. On the left, a sycamore-fig tree speaks and greets Nebamun as the owner of the garden; its words are recorded in the hieroglyphs.
Here the pool is shown from above, with three rows of trees arranged around its edges. The waves of the pool were painted with a darker blue pigment; much of this has been lost, like the green on the trees and bushes.
Nebamun was the accountant in charge of grain at the great Temple of Amun at Karnak. This scene from his tomb-chapel shows officials inspecting fields. A farmer checks the boundary marker of the field.
Nearby, two chariots for the party of officials wait under the shade of a sycamore-fig tree. Other smaller fragments from this wall are now in the Egyptian Museum in Berlin, Germany and show the grain being harvested and processed.
The old farmer is shown balding, badly shaven, poorly dressed, and with a protruding navel. He is taking an oath saying: “As the Great God who is in the sky endures, the boundary-stone is exact!”
“The Chief of the Measurers of the Granary,” (mostly lost) holds a rope decorated with the head of Amun’s sacred ram for measuring the god’s fields. After Nebamun died, the rope’s head was hacked out, but later, perhaps in Tutankhamun’s reign, someone clumsily restored it with mud-plaster and redrew it.
This fragment is part of a wall showing Nebamun inspecting flocks of geese and herds of cattle. Hieroglyphs describe the scene and record what the farmers say as they squabble in the queue. The alternating colors and patterns of cattle create a superb sense of animal movement.
The herdsman is telling the farmer in front of him in the queue:
Come on! Get away! Don’t speak in the presence of the praised one! He detests people talking …. Pass on in quiet and in order … He knows all affairs, does the scribe and counter of grain of [Amun], Neb[amun].
The name of the god Amun has been hacked out in this caption where it appears in Nebamun’s name and title. Shortly after Nebamun died, King Akhenaten (1352–1336 B.C.E.) had Amun’s name erased from monuments as part of his religious reforms.
This scene is part of a wall showing Nebamun inspecting flocks of geese and herds of cattle. He watches as farmers drive the animals towards him; his scribes (secretaries) write down the number of animals for his records. Hieroglyphs describe the scene and record what the farmers say as they squabble in the queue.
This scribe holds a palette (pen-box) under his arm and presents a roll of papyrus to Nebamun. He is well dressed and has small rolls of fat on his stomach, indicating his superior position in life. Beside him are chests for his records and a bag containing his writing equipment.
Farmers bow down and make gestures of respect towards Nebamun. The man behind them holds a stick and tells them: “Sit down and don’t speak!” The farmers’ geese are painted as a huge and lively gaggle, some pecking the ground and some flapping their wings.
An entire wall of the tomb-chapel showed a feast in honor of Nebamun. Naked serving-girls and servants wait on his friends and relatives. Married guests sit in pairs on fine chairs, while the young women turn and talk to each other. This erotic scene of relaxation and wealth is something for Nebamun to enjoy for all eternity. The richly-dressed guests are entertained by dancers and musicians, who sit on the ground playing and clapping. The words of their song in honor of Nebamun are written above them:
The earth-god has caused
his beauty to grow in every body…
the channels are filled with water anew,
and the land is flooded with love of him.
Some of the musicians look out of the paintings, showing their faces frontally. This is very unusual in Egyptian art, and gives a sense of liveliness to these lower-class women, who are less formally drawn than the wealthy guests. The young dancers are sinuously drawn and are naked apart from their jewelry.
A rack of large wine jars is decorated with grapes, vines and garlands of flowers. Many of the guests also wear garlands and smell lotus flowers. All the guests wear elaborate linen clothes. The artists have painted the cloth as if it were transparent, to show that it is very fine. These elegant sensual dresses fall in loose folds around the guests’ bodies.
Men and women’s skins are painted in different colors: the men are tanned and the women are paler. In one place the artists altered the drawing of these wooden stools and corrected their first sketch with white paint.
A procession of simply-dressed servants bring offerings of food to Nebamun, including sheaves of grain and animals from the desert. Tomb-chapels were built so that people could come and make offerings in memory of the dead, and this a common scene on their walls. The border at the bottom shows that this scene was the lowest one on this wall.
One servant holds two desert hares by their ears. The animals have wonderfully textured fur and long whiskers. The superb draughtsmanship and composition make this standard scene very fresh and lively.
The artists have even varied the servants’ simple clothes. The folds of each kilt are different. With one of these kilts, the artist changed his mind and painted a different set of folds over his first version, which is visible through the white paint.
The wall paintings from Nebamun’s tomb-chapel depict an idealized vision of daily ancient Egyptian life. Much less is known about the lives of the majority of society. The study of human remains in poor cemeteries is often the only way to learn about the short lives of most ancient Egyptians. Many of the objects that remain belonged to the wealthy and survived only because they were buried in tombs. They provide a glimpse of these elite people’s lavish lifestyles.
Glass vessels seem to have been primarily functional rather than ritual objects; their main use was as containers for cosmetics or precious oils. However, in this case the fish design might hint at some further meaning, complementing its beauty as an elite personal item.
The fish represented is a Nile tilapia fish, which hatches and shelters her young in her mouth. The emergence of live offspring from the tilapia’s mouth caused it to be used as a symbol of rebirth and regeneration; it was frequently worn as an amulet.
This is the most complete and spectacular example of several surviving fish-shaped glass vessels made around this period. It was found under the floor in a house at Tell el-Amarna, where it may have been buried by its owner.
Glass vessels from the New Kingdom (1550-1070 B.C.E.) are highly colorful objects, and glass was often used as a more versatile and less expensive substitute for semiprecious stones. This fish was made by trailing molten glass over a core made of a clay mixture. Next, colored rods of glass were wrapped around the body and dragged with a tool to create a fish-scale pattern. The body was then smoothed, the eyes and fins added and the core scraped out.
Cats may have been kept as pets as early as the fourth millennium B.C.E. Two wild species of cat lived in Egypt: the jungle cat and the African wild cat. By the late first millennium B.C.E. cats were bred on an industrial scale for use in the cult of the cat goddess Bastet.
From the Twelfth Dynasty, cats are shown in tomb decoration, seated beneath the chair of the deceased, or accompanying him on a hunt in the marshes. There is a fine example of the latter type of scene in the tomb of Nebamun, showing a ginger cat catching birds in its mouth and with all four paws at the same time. Such hunting scenes may also represent the struggle between civilized humans and the forces of chaos, shown as wild fowl.
The cat had a similar role on the divine plane. In the funerary text called the Litany of Re, the sun god appears as a cat and battles the snake Apep. This serpent, a manifestation of the forces of chaos, attacked the solar boat as it passed through the night sky. The god overcame Apep by cutting him in two with a knife, allowing the sun to continue its journey to be reborn at dawn.
Large Kneeling Statue of Hatshepsut, c. 1479–1458 B.C.E., Dynasty 18, New Kingdom (Deir el-Bahri, Upper Egypt), granite, 261.5 x 80 x 137 cm (The Metropolitan Museum of Art; photo: Steven Zucker, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)
The posture of the king kneeling and holding two pots in offering to a deity first appears in the reign of Hatshepsut (about 1450 B.C.E.). It then becomes a common pose during the New Kingdom (about 1550–1070 B.C.E.), and there are several such statues in the British Museum.
In this example, the king’s name, Thutmose IV, is written on his belt, although not in a cartouche. He wears the nemes head-dress and a conventional short royal kilt.
Very few metal statues survive that date from before the Late Period (661–332 B.C.E.), though the Egyptians did have the technology to make large copper statues as early as the Old Kingdom (about 2613–2160 B.C.E.), if not before. Perhaps the scarcity of metals meant that such statues were usually melted down and the material re-used. Egypt’s increased wealth during the New Kingdom may be a reason why more examples survive from then than from earlier periods.
The eyelids and the cosmetic eyeline extending from the outside corner of the statuette’s eyes are inlays of an alloy known in Ancient Egyptian as hesmen kem. This was intended to react with the air into a black color and it imitates the effect of eye paint. The eyeball and its brown iris are a glass inlay.
House Altar depicting Akhenaten, Nefertiti and Three of their Daughters
by DR. STEVEN ZUCKER and DR. BETH HARRIS
House Altar depicting Akhenaten, Nefertiti and Three of their Daughters, limestone, New Kingdom, Amarna period, 18th dynasty, c.1350 BCE (Ägyptisches Museum/Neues Museum, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin)
Portrait Head of Queen Tiye with a Crown of Two Feathers, c. 1355 B.C.E., Amarna Period, Dynasty 18, New Kingdom, Egypt, yew wood, lapis lazuli, silver, gold, faience, 22.5 cm high (Egyptian Museum and Papyrus Collection at the Neues Museum, Berlin) URL https://youtu.be/j55j1NZoAKk
Found in an artist’s studio, this stunning bust exemplifies a change in style, and may have been an early prototype.
Thutmose, Model Bust of Queen Nefertiti, c. 1340 BCE, limestone and plaster, New Kingdom, 18th dynasty, Amarna Period (Egyptian Museum and Papyrus Collection/Neues Museum, Berlin) URL: https://youtu.be/cZuYdIRAIAs
Backstory
In 2009, the refurbished Neues Museum in Berlin celebrated its reopening, with the bust of Nefertiti prominently displayed as one of its main attractions. The celebration coincided with one of the Egyptian government’s repeated pleas for the official return of the bust to Egypt. The museum has staunchly refused to give up the sculpture, asserting that the bust was acquired legally by the German archaeologist Ludwig Borchardt in 1912. Borchardt had excavated it along with several other objects from the studio of the ancient Egyptian sculptor Thutmose, and had brought his finds to Germany as part of an agreement with the Egyptian Antiquities Service. While there is no proof that Borchardt’s dealings were explicitly illegal, as early as 1925, the Egyptian government began to take issue with Germany’s possession of valuable antiquities. They began imposing sanctions, and the bust has been the source of tension between the two nations ever since.
This controversy relates to a general growing public awareness about the provenance—and politics—of antiquities held in European and American museums. In 2016, Nora al-Badri and Jan Nikolai Nelles, two artists from Germany, made a bold statement about these issues by staging an event they called “NefertitiHack.” They secretly mapped the sculpture using a consumer-grade 3-D scanning device, and then released the data openly under a Creative Commons license. The artists’ intention was “to inspire a critical reassessment of today’s conditions and to overcome the colonial notion of possession in Germany,” according to their website.
Many groups have advocated for using digitally-produced replicas either as stand-ins for objects that are returned to their places of origin, or vice versa—as ways of offering highly accurate replicas in place of the originals. The sharing of data between institutions and groups who lay claim to objects has also been suggested as a way to ease tensions over restitution. Nelles and al-Badri’s project is a critical statement about the growing questions around repatriation and public access to objects via 3-D models and other data, as the Neues Museum does not allow photography or publicly share its own 3-D model of the bust.
Nora al-Badri, one of the artists behind NefertitiHack, stated:
“The head of Nefertiti represents all the other millions of stolen and looted artifacts all over the world currently happening, for example, in Syria, Iraq, and in Egypt…Archaeological artifacts as a cultural memory originate for the most part from the Global South; however, a vast number of important objects can be found in Western museums and private collections. We should face the fact that the colonial structures continue to exist today and still produce their inherent symbolic struggles.”
Over a century after it was excavated, the bust of Nefertiti remains a flashpoint for institutions and the public, driving us to consider the ways in which objects and their data are acquired, displayed, and shared.
Backstory by Dr. Naraelle Hohensee
Additional resources:
Image of Nefertiti, photo: Philip Pikart (CC BY-SA 3.0)
Tutankhamun’s tomb (innermost coffin and death mask)
by DR. ELIZABETH CUMMINS
Harry Burton, Howard Carter with Innermost Coffin of Tutankhamun, 1922 (Tutankhamun Archive, Griffith Institute, University of Oxford)
Nearly lost to history
Tutankhamun was only the age of nine when he became king of Egypt during the 18th dynasty of the New Kingdom (c. 1332–1323 B.C.E.). His story would have been lost to history if it were not for the discovery of his tomb in 1922 by the archaeologist Howard Carter in the Valley of the Kings. His nearly intact tomb held a wealth of objects that give us unique insights into this period of ancient Egyptian history.
New Kingdom of the Egyptian Empire, c. 1500 B.C.E.
Tutankhamun ruled after the Amarna age, when the pharaoh Akhenaten, Tutankhamun’s probable father, turned the religious attention of the kingdom to the worship of the god Aten, the sun disc. Akhenaten moved his capital city to the site of Akhetaten (also known as Amarna), in Middle Egypt—far from the previous pharaoh’s capital. After Akhenaten’s death and the rule of a short-lived pharaoh, Smenkhkare, Tutankhamen shifted the focus of the country’s worship back to the god Amun and returned the religious center back to Thebes.
Tutankhamun married his half-sister, Ankhesenamun, but they did not produce an heir. This left the line of succession unclear. Tutankhamun died at the young age of eighteen, leading many scholars to speculate on the manner of his death—chariot accident, murder by blow to the head, and even a hippopotamus attack! The answer is still unclear. Tutankhamun’s much-older advisor (and possible step-grandfather), Ay, married the widowed Ankhesenamun and became pharaoh.
Valley of the Kings, Egypt (photo: Troels Myrup, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
The tomb
During the early twentieth century, Howard Carter, a British Egyptologist, excavated for many years in the Valley of the Kings—a royal burial ground located on the west bank of the ancient city of Thebes. He was running out of money to support his archaeological digs when he asked for funding for one more season from his financial backer, the fifth Earl of Carnarvon. Lord Carnarvon granted him one more year—and what a year it was!
George Edward Stanhope Molyneux Herbert, Fifth Earl of Carnarvon, with Howard Carter during his initial visit to the tomb, 1922, 7 5/8 x 9 5/8 inches (National Portrait Gallery, London; photo: Keystone Press Agency Ltd.)
At the beginning of November 1922, Carter came upon the first of twelve steps of the entrance that led to the tomb of Tutankhamun. He quickly recovered the steps and sent a telegram to Carnarvon in England so they could open the tomb together. Carnarvon departed for Egypt immediately and on November 26, 1922, they made a hole in the entrance of the antechamber in order to look in. Carter states:
At first I could see nothing, the hot air escaping from the chamber causing the candle flame to flicker, but presently, as my eyes grew accustomed to the lights, details of the room within emerged slowly from the mist, strange animals, statues, and gold—everywhere the glint of gold.[1]
Harry Burton, View of tomb interior, 1922 (Tutankhamun Archive, Griffith Institute, University of Oxford)
The task of cataloging the finds was an immense undertaking for the team. Carter spent a decade systematically recording the finds and having them photographed.
Howard Carter, Drawing of Tutankhamun’s tomb (Tutankhamun Archive, Griffith Institute, University of Oxford)
The innermost coffin
Tutankhamun’s sarcophagus (a box-like stone container) held not one but three coffins in which to hold the body of the king. The outer two coffins were crafted in wood and covered in gold along with many semiprecious stones, such as lapis lazuli and turquoise.
Tutankhamun’s tomb, innermost coffin, New Kingdom, 18th Dynasty, c. 1323 B.C.E., gold with inlay of enamel and semiprecious stones (Egyptian Museum, Cairo)
The inner coffin, however, was made of solid gold. When Howard Carter first came upon this coffin, it was not the shiny golden image we see in the Egyptian Museum today. In his excavation notes, Carter states, it was
covered with a thick black pitch-like layer which extended from the hands down to the ankles (top image). This was obviously an anointing liquid which had been poured over the coffin during the burial ceremony and in great quantity (some two buckets full).[2]
Egyptian crook and flail (by: Jeff Dahl, CC BY-SA 4.0)
The image of the pharaoh is that of a god. The gods were thought to have skin of gold, bones of silver, and hair of lapis lazuli—so the king is shown here in his divine form in the afterlife. He holds the crook and flail, symbols of the king’s right to rule. The goddesses Nekhbet (vulture) and Wadjet (cobra), inlaid with semiprecious stones, stretch their wings across his torso. Beneath these goddesses are two more—Isis and Nephthys—etched into the gold lid.
Death Mask from innermost coffin, Tutankhamun’s tomb, New Kingdom, 18th Dynasty, c. 1323 B.C.E., gold with inlay of enamel and semiprecious stones (Egyptian Museum, Cairo) (photo: Roland Unger, CC BY-SA 3.0)
The death mask of Tutankhamun
The death mask is considered one of the masterpieces of Egyptian art. It originally rested directly on the shoulders of the mummy inside the innermost gold coffin. It is constructed of two sheets of gold that were hammered together and weighs 22.5 pounds (10.23 kg). Tutankhamen is depicted wearing the striped nemes headdress (the striped head-cloth typically worn by pharaohs in ancient Egypt) with the goddesses Nekhbet and Wadjet depicted again protecting his brow. He also wears a false beard that further connects him to the image of a god as with the inner coffin. He wears a broad collar, which ends in terminals shaped as falcon heads. The back of the mask is covered with Spell 151b from the Book of the Dead, which the Egyptians used as a road map for the afterlife. This particular spell protects the various limbs of Tutankhamun as he moves into the underworld.
Notes:
[1] Howard Carter and A. C. Mace, The Tomb of Tut-ankh-amen, volume 1 (New York: Cooper Square Publishers, 1933) pp. 95–96.
[2] Nicholas Reeves, The Complete Tutankhamun (London: Thames and Hudson, 1990), pp. 108–09.
At only 6 years old, Tutankhamun is crowned pharaoh by the god Amun-Ra.
Head of Tutankhamun, c. 1336–1327 B.C.E., New Kingdom, Amarna Period, indurated limestone, 6 3/4″ x 6 5/16″ x 9 5/16″ / 17.2 cm x 16 cm x 23.6 cm (The Metropolitan Museum of Art). Video from The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Hunefer’s Judgement in the presence of Osiris, Book of the Dead of Hunefer, c. 1275 B.C.E. (19th Dynasty, New Kingdom, Thebes, Egypt), papyrus (The British Museum). Speakers: Dr. Beth Harris and Dr. Steven Zucker
Erratum: near the end of the video we say that Nephthys and Anubis are siblings; this is not correct.
Hunefer and his wife Nasha lived during the Nineteenth Dynasty, in around 1310 B.C.E. He was a “Royal Scribe” and “Scribe of Divine Offerings.” He was also “Overseer of Royal Cattle,” and the steward of King Sety I. These titles indicate that he held prominent administrative offices and would have been close to the king. The location of his tomb is not known, but he may have been buried at Memphis.
Hunefer’s high status is reflected in the fine quality of his Book of the Dead, which was specially produced for him. This, and a Ptah-Sokar-Osiris figure, inside which the papyrus was found, are the only objects which can be ascribed to Hunefer. The papyrus of Hunefer is characterized by its good state of preservation and the large, and clear vignettes (illustrations) are beautifully drawn and painted. The vignette illustrating the “Opening of the Mouth” ritual is one of the most famous pieces of papyrus in The British Museum collection, and gives a great deal of information about this part of the funeral.
The centerpiece of the upper scene is the mummy of Hunefer, shown supported by the god Anubis (or a priest wearing a jackal mask). Hunefer’s wife and daughter mourn, and three priests perform rituals. The two priests with white sashes are carrying out the Opening of the Mouth ritual. The white building at the right is a representation of the tomb, complete with portal doorway and small pyramid. Both these features can be seen in real tombs of this date from Thebes. To the left of the tomb is a picture of the stela which would have stood to one side of the tomb entrance. Following the normal conventions of Egyptian art, it is shown much larger than normal size, in order that its content (the deceased worshipping Osiris, together with a standard offering formula) is absolutely legible.
At the right of the lower scene is a table bearing the various implements needed for the Opening of the Mouth ritual. At the left is shown a ritual, where the foreleg of a calf, cut off while the animal is alive, is offered. The animal was then sacrificed. The calf is shown together with its mother, who might be interpreted as showing signs of distress.
The scene reads from left to right. To the left, Anubis brings Hunefer into the judgement area. Anubis is also shown supervising the judgement scales. Hunefer’s heart, represented as a pot, is being weighed against a feather, the symbol of Maat, the established order of things, in this context meaning ‘what is right’. The ancient Egyptians believed that the heart was the seat of the emotions, the intellect and the character, and thus represented the good or bad aspects of a person’s life. If the heart did not balance with the feather, then the dead person was condemned to non-existence, and consumption by the ferocious “devourer,” the strange beast shown here which is part-crocodile, part-lion, and part-hippopotamus.
However, as a papyrus devoted to ensuring Hunefer’s continued existence in the Afterlife is not likely to depict this outcome, he is shown to the right, brought into the presence of Osiris by his son Horus, having become “true of voice” or “justified.” This was a standard epithet applied to dead individuals in their texts. Osiris is shown seated under a canopy, with his sisters Isis and Nephthys. At the top, Hunefer is shown adoring a row of deities who supervise the judgement.
Sebekhotep was a senior treasury official of the reign of Thutmose IV (about 1400–1390 B.C.E.). One of his responsibilities was to deal with foreign gifts brought to the king.
This fragment was a small part of a scene that showed Sebekhotep receiving the produce of the Near East and Africa on behalf of Thutmose IV. The wheels of a chariot are visible at the bottom left-hand corner of this fragment. They are followed by two horses, a man carrying a tray of (silver?) items, and a man or woman in a long elaborate robe holding a child.
This fragment was a small part of a scene that showed Sebekhotep receiving the produce of the Near East and of Africa on behalf of Thutmose IV. Three men (probably Nubians) carry luxury items characteristic of their country: gold rings, jasper, ebony logs, giraffe tails, a leopard skin, a live baboon and a monkey. The variation of the color of the men’s skin may represent their different skin types, though it could have been done for aesthetic reasons, to make the individual figures stand out more.
This fragment was part of a scene that showed Sebekhotep receiving the produce of the Near East and Africa on behalf of Thutmose IV. At the left, three men (probably Nubians) pay homage to Sebekhotep as representative of the king. They are followed by three more men carrying plates of gold with interlinked rings of gold over their arms. Gold was one of the most important products of Nubia. This is the usual way that gold is represented in Egyptian tomb paintings; the idealized image is emphasized by the fact that no one man could possibly carry the mass of gold shown here! The variation in color of the men’s skin may represent their different skin types, though it could have been done for aesthetic reasons, to make the individual figures stand out more.
This fragment was part of a scene that showed Sebekhotep receiving the produce of the Near East and Africa on behalf of Thutmose IV. Two pairs of two men (probably Syrians) pay homage to Sebekhotep as the kings’ representative. Others carry vessels. Some of these items are most elaborate; made of gold inlaid with semi-precious stones. One man leads a small girl by the hand, while another carries an elephant tusk.
Scenes showing the manufacture of valuable items, such as jewelry, on the walls of his tomb helped to indicate Sebekhotep’s importance. These two registers show different stages and products of the jeweler’s craft, in particular the broad collars so characteristic of festive scenes in tomb paintings. The men in the upper part of this painting are probably stringing beads, while one man in the lower part of the register is making them into the large collar shown on his lap.
Such scenes would have been placed in Sebekhotep’s tomb to illustrate his importance as an official, and to represent his relationship with the king; Sebekhotep enjoyed the privileges of office in death as in life.
Canopic Jar with a Lid in the Shape of a Royal Woman’s Head
by THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART
“It seems to me that aesthetically this goes well beyond meeting the need of surviving into the afterlife.”
Canopic Jar with a Lid in the Shape of a Royal Woman’s Head, c. 1352–1336 B.C.E., reign of Akhenaten, Dynasty 18, New Kingdom, Amarna Period Egypt, Upper Egypt; Thebes, Valley of the Kings, Tomb KV 55, Davis/Ayrton 1907 (The Metropolitan Museum of Art). Video by the Metropolitan Museum of Art. URL: https://youtu.be/BT2Mfmmjm4E?si=bqb8p3zDgcqYLdpm
Canopic Jar with a Lid in the Shape of a Royal Woman’s Head, c. 1352–1336 B.C.E., reign of Akhenaten, Dynasty 18, New Kingdom, Amarna Period Egypt, Upper Egypt; Thebes, Valley of the Kings, Tomb KV 55, Davis/Ayrton 1907 (The Metropolitan Museum of Art)
Cite this page as: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, “Canopic Jar with a Lid in the Shape of a Royal Woman’s Head,” in Smarthistory, March 5, 2021, accessed September 10, 2023, https://smarthistory.org/canopic-jar-female-head/.
Third Intermediate Period (c. 1070–713 B.C.E.)
Outer Coffin of the Singer of Amun-Re, Henettawy, c. 1000–945 B.C.E., late Dynasty 21, Third Intermediate Period, wood, gesso, paint, varnish, from Egypt, Upper Egypt, Thebes, Deir el-Bahri, Tomb of Henettawy F , 203 cm long (The Metropolitan Museum of Art)
Statue of Karomama, bronze, 53 cm (Louvre)
This era was characterized by a distinct split between north and south. During the Twenty-first Dynasty, the kings ruled from the delta while the south was controlled by the high priests of Amun at Thebes. These ruling families were related and often intermarried, helping to maintain a sense of continuity.
Many social and religious customs changed, including the royal mortuary practices. The Twenty-first Dynasty kings at Tanis in the delta initiated a completely new form of royal burial where the burial chamber and chapel were contained within a temple precinct, in the courtyard of the god’s temple, a design that remained in use for royal burials until the Ptolemaic period. Several of these tombs were discovered intact with silver coffins, incredible jewelry, and marvelous vessels. The elaborately decorated private tombs of the New Kingdom became less common. Focus was shifted to remarkable painted coffins, papyri, and wooden stelae that presented most of the required imagery for the ritual provisioning for the afterlife.
Highly skilled metalworking during this time is evidenced in small-scale metal sculptures of divine, royal, and private individuals. These were often exquisitely finished with multiple metals inlaid into the surface in delicate patterns. One of the most beautiful examples is that of Karomama, a queen and Divine Adoratrice of Amun. This elegant statue (53 cm in height) was hollow-cast in bronze and intricately inlaid with gold, silver, and copper to create the elaborate patterns of her costume.
During the Twenty-second Dynasty, a Libyan chieftain who had risen through the ranks became king in the north. He also placed several members of his family in top positions in the Amun priesthood at Karnak in an effort to exercise control over the south. However, later in the dynasty this practice led to a civil war between the regions. Subsequent rulers further complicated royal control when an offshoot of the Libyan royal family founded a rival dynasty that was favored by the Thebans. This period of political instability encouraged local governors to exercise their own authority, further exacerbating the situation.
Map of Kush and Ancient Egypt, showing the Nile up to the fifth cataract, and major cities and sites of the ancient Egyptian Dynastic period (c. 3150–30 B.C.) (map: Jeff Dahl, CC Y-SA 4.0)
At this same time, to the south in Nubia, the kingdom of Kush was again on the rise. They pushed their borders north to Thebes, establishing themselves as kings of Egypt and founding the Twenty-fifth Dynasty, bringing the disjointed Third Intermediate Period to a close.
View of the North Cemetery at Meroe (Sudan) showing several of the steep-sided pyramid tombs with their pylon-fronted chapels. Forty-one such royal tombs, belonging to both kings and queens, were constructed here between around 300 B.C.E. and 350 C.E. (photo: UNESCO)
After the cultural height and military might of the New Kingdom, the fractured Third Intermediate Period led to a loss of control over areas that had been Egyptian territories. Since power vacuums never last, there was an immediate rise in the Kushite culture to the south, which reestablished old cultural centers along major trade routes and utilized the Egyptian temple structures in Nubia to help legitimize their rule as kings of Egypt. Even though Egypt was largely unified for most of Dynasties 25, 26 and 28–30, the era referred to as the Late Period (c. 713–332 B.C.E.) was volatile and endured successive invasions and occupations by the Assyrians and the Persians.
Eventually, Egypt was conquered by Alexander the Great of Macedon in 332 B.C.E. Alexander built his new capital at Alexandria on the Mediterranean Sea. The subsequent Ptolemaic Period saw a huge increase in settlers of Greek and Mediterranean origins, especially in the delta. Hellenistic influence was particularly strong at court and in elite circles, with Greek versions of local gods (like Serapis, who was derived from Osiris) holding sway. For the majority of the country, however, Egyptian traditions and art were largely unaffected. The Ptolemies presented themselves as pharaohs and were shown performing traditional cult rituals in the many massive temples constructed during this period.
When the Ptolemaic ruler Cleopatra VII was defeated by Octavian in 30 B.C.E., Egypt became a Roman province. Roman emperors continued to build Egyptian-style temples, with themselves depicted on the walls performing the same rituals as the kings that came before them. Egyptian-style temple constructions undertaken by Rome stopped during the second century C.E., as Rome’s own political instability rippled through the empire. Egyptian temples were ordered closed by the Byzantine emperor and the last known hieroglyphic inscription (at Philae) was carved in 394 C.E.
Late period, c. 700 B.C.E.
Late Period (c. 713–332 B.C.E.)
The kings of Egypt of the Twenty-fifth Dynasty came from Kush, a culture that had combined Nubian and Egyptian elements to create something unique. The chief religious site in Kush, the mountain of Gebel Barkal, sported temples of Amun-Ra and Hathor and royal inscriptions, such as on the victory stela of King Piye, are packed with references to Egyptian deities. While they established control as far north as Memphis, they focused more of their attention in the south. At Karnak, the powerful priestess known as the God’s Wife of Amun rose even further in eminence; these figures served as royal surrogates in Thebes for kings who ruled from another location. This role was often filled by princesses of Dynasties 25 and 26.
In the seventh century B.C.E., the Assyrians invaded Egypt down to Thebes and pushed the Nubian kings back to Kush. The Assyrians looted sacred sites, including the temples at Heliopolis and Karnak, stealing massive amounts of treasure. However, given the military needs of their empire elsewhere, they did not have the manpower to leave a large force in Egypt. Instead, they appointed Egyptian governors to collect their tribute. As soon as the Assyrians were otherwise occupied, a family from Sais in the delta region took over and ruled an independent Egypt as the Twenty-sixth Dynasty.
The Twenty-sixth Dynasty kings established themselves down to the southern border at Elephantine and north into Palestine. They increased their contacts with other Mediterranean powers, including treaties with Lydia, connections at Delphi, and actions on Cyprus. A significant Greek trading colony was founded at Naukratis and garrisons of Greek mercenaries helped protect the temples at Memphis.
The next few centuries saw an invasion and period of rule by the Persians, a subsequent brief period of Egyptian rule, followed by a second, more destructive, Persian invasion. In 332 B.C.E., the Persians were pushed out by Alexander the Great of Macedon. He was crowned king in the temple of Ptah at Memphis, declared himself a living god, and founded the city of Alexandria on the coast of the Mediterranean. After his death, Alexander’s generals divided his empire, with Egypt coming under the control of the Greek general, Ptolemy. This family would rule Egypt for the next 300 years.
Temple of Edfu, 237–57 BCE, Ptolemaic Period, sandstone, Edfu, Egypt (photo: Marc Ryckaert, CC BY-SA 4.0)
Ptolemaic (c. 332–30 B.C.E.) and Roman (c. 30 B.C.E.–395 C.E.)
During the Ptolemaic period, the country was ruled from the newly-established city of Alexandria. The structure of the government and administrative organization was aligned in accordance with Greek practices. Almost all important government posts were given to Greek settlers rather than native Egyptians. Although the Ptolemaic era was decidedly multi-cultural and multilingual, with significant Greek influence evident in many arenas, the ruling family readily identified themselves with Egyptian deities and encouraged the populace to view them as such. Many were crowned in the temple of Ptah at Memphis and they supported ancient religious cults. They also undertook a massive temple rebuilding program to help legitimize their rule. These temples were traditional Egyptian in style, both architecturally and in their decoration, although Greek flourishes are often discernible in the carving and there was a massive increase in the number of hieroglyphic signs used. Ptolemaic rulers had themselves depicted in relief performing the same duties before the divine as their native predecessors had been doing for millennia.
Ptolemaic kings were prolific builders and they constructed huge temples at Edfu, Esna, Dedera, Kom Ombo, and Philae, among others. Beyond the religious realm, King Ptolemy II founded the famous Library of Alexandria, which at its height contained around 700,000 scrolls. This king also completed the dazzling Pharos lighthouse; one of the Seven Wonders of the ancient world.
In 196 B.C.E. King Ptolemy V Epipanes issued a decree to establish his divine cult. This was carved onto a slab of granodiorite and was probably originally erected in a temple. Three versions of the same decree were engraved on the slab; two being in ancient Egyptian and one in Greek. Much later, the slab was removed and used as building material in a fort near Rosetta in the delta, where it was discovered by Napoleon’s expedition in 1799. Being a bilingual document with well-known Greek as one of the languages, the discovery of the Rosetta stone immediately began the race to translate the ancient Egyptian language.
Bust of Cleopatra VII Thea Philopator, c. 40–30 B.C.E., marble (Altes Museum, Berlin; photo: José Luiz Bernardes Ribeiro, CC BY-SA 4.0)
The last of the Ptolemaic rulers was Cleopatra VII, who allied herself first with Julius Caesar and then with Mark Anthony in an attempt to keep Egypt from being absorbed into the Roman Empire. In the end, she was unsuccessful and in 30 B.C.E. Egypt succumbed to the forces of Octavian, who subsequently became the first Roman emperor, Augustus. This was the end of Egypt’s independence and it became a Roman province.
Left: The Temple of Dendur, completed by 10 B.C.E., Roman Period; right: detail: vignette on the interior south wall of the porch showing Augustus (left) burning incense in front of the deified figures of Pedesi and Pihor. Both: Egypt, Nubia, Dendur, West bank of the Nile River, 50 miles South of Aswan, Aeolian sandstone, Temple proper: H. 6.40 m (21 ft.); W. 6.40 m (21 ft.); L. 12.50 m (41 ft.) (The Metropolitan Museum of Art)
Map of Lower Egypt (adapted from Jeff Dahl, CC BY-SA 3.0)
During the Roman period, Egypt was treated as a bread-basket and source of rich resources. Grain, papyrus, hard stones, statues, obelisks, and treasure of all kinds were removed to Rome and other locations in the empire.
Alexandria was a nexus of Greek culture and a major hub for trade routes into the desert and to the East. Several Roman emperors, including Augustus, Trajan, and Hadrian, constructed cult temples in Egypt and had themselves depicted in the same poses and ritual actions as the kings who ruled before them to help establish their legitimacy. There was a clear interest in the ancient wisdom of this mysterious and enigmatic land—Egypt was renowned throughout the empire as the realm of priest-magicians.
Mummy of Herakleides, 120–140 C.E., Romano-Egyptian, human and bird remains, linen, pigment, beeswax, and wood, created in Egypt (The Getty Villa; photo: Steven Zucker, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)
Along the Nile, funerary beliefs remained largely unchanged though more focus was placed on the external embellishment of the body. Modern styles were added to the painted coffins and images that represented the deceased, with Greco-Roman hairstyles, jewelry, and dress appearing. Sensitive and haunting portraits of the dead, painted on wooden panels using encaustic (a luminescent wax-based paint that can be built up in many layers that creates a dazzling sense of depth) began to be inserted into the bandages over the face of the often elaborately wrapped body. Startling in their realism, they represent the culmination of the ancient Egyptian desire to ensure that the body was preserved and immediately identifiable.
The classic Egyptian language and hieroglyphs were only used for temple and ritual contexts by this point, however, Coptic emerged as a new written form of the Egyptian language and proliferated.
As political challenges arose during the second century C.E., less attention was directed at the provinces. Economic changes included an increase in the prominence of urban centers. In 392 C.E. Egyptian temples were ordered closed by the Christian emperor of Byzantium and the last known hieroglyphic inscription (at Philae) was carved in 394 C.E.
In the fourth century C.E. pharaonic culture slowly came to an end as Christianity became the dominant religion in the Empire. Christianity arrived in Egypt early in the first century C.E., anchored in the flourishing Jewish community in Alexandria. Said to have been martyred in Alexandria in 66 C.E., Saint Mark was referred to as the first bishop of the city, which became a leading intellectual center of the Christian Church. Because it was protected by Nubian tribes who honored the goddess Isis, the last operating cult temple in Egypt was that of Isis at Philae on Egypt’s southern border. It closed in the sixth century C.E. From this point on, no one was left who could read the ancient texts and knowledge of the gods, their myths, and the written history of Egypt itself slipped into shadow until hieroglyphs were deciphered again in the 1800s using what is now known as the Rosetta Stone.
Despite the fact that pharaonic Egypt came to an end in the late imperial Roman period, Egypt’s influence continues. For instance, Egyptian monuments, such as obelisks, sphinxes, and other statues that were erected in Rome and elsewhere created a legacy of wonder that helped spark the Italian Renaissance and persists even today. Ancient authors consistently refer to Egypt as an influential ancestor and a source for aspects of Greek and Roman culture, a concept that likely impacted many artists and scholars over the centuries. It may be surprising to learn that mummification was practiced in Egypt as late as the seventh century C.E., even among Christians, and many ancient Egyptian traditions and rituals live on still today in Coptic Christianity and local Islamic practices. Revivals of Egyptian style in architecture, design, jewelry, furniture, and dress have accompanied every major discovery since Napoleon’s expeditions of 1798, especially the spectacular discovery of the tomb of King Tutankhamun in 1922. Egypt’s draw is undeniable and its mysteries eternal; the more you learn about Egypt, the more you realize how much you really don’t know . . . and the rabbit hole never ends.
A portrait shows what an individual would have looked like. Ancient Egyptians did not make much use of portraits; inscriptions containing the name and titles of an individual were used for identification purposes instead. Portraits were, however, important in Roman art. They were placed in tombs as a memorial of family members.
This type of portrait appeared in Egypt in the first century C.E., and remained popular for around 200 years. Egyptian mummy portraits were placed on the outside of the cartonnage coffin over the head of the individual or were carefully wrapped into the mummy bandages. They were painted on a wooden board at a roughly lifelike scale. It is possible to date some mummies on the basis of the hairstyles, jewelry and clothes worn in the portrait, and to identify members of a family by their physical similarities.
Most mummy portraits that have survived have unfortunately become separated from the mummies to which they were attached. Because of this we rarely know the identities of the subjects.
The subject of this portrait, painted in encaustic on limewood, appears to be a man in his fifties or sixties of strikingly Roman appearance. He is dressed in a tunic with a violet stripe, or clavus, and a thick folded mantle. The hair is brushed forward and cropped in the style of court portraits of the Trajanic period (98-117 C.E.). Pink has been used to highlight his nose and lips, and dark brown to indicate shading and the contours of the face. The portrait gives the impression of age, authority and austerity. These characteristics were very important in Rome, and are here represented in a very Roman manner.
The accuracy of these portraits has often been questioned. Techniques employed by doctors to plan delicate facial surgery have been used to compare the actual appearance of several mummies with their portraits. These techniques have helped prove that the portrait did indeed show the person as they appeared during life. Of course, there was still some element of artistic license; for example, the mummy of Artimedorus appeared to be much more heavily built than he seemed in his portrait.
This portrait is painted in encaustic on limewood. The woman is dressed in a mauve tunic, and a mantle of a darker shade. She wears gold ball earrings and a gold necklace with a pendant crescent and circular terminals. The hair is plaited into a bun at the back of the crown, with snail curls around the brow and at the sides of the head. Her hairstyle, costume and jewelry indicate that she died some time during the reign of the Roman emperor Nero (54-68 C.E.). It has been said that the athletic quality of this portrait is more appropriate to that of a man.
A conversation with Dr. Beth Harris and Dr. Steven Zucker in front of the Rosetta Stone, Egypt, Ptolemaic Period, 196 B.C.E., granodiorite, 112.3 x 28.4 x 75.7 cm (The British Museum)
Cite this page as: Dr. Steven Zucker and Dr. Beth Harris, “Decoding the Rosetta Stone,” in Smarthistory, June 28, 2020, accessed September 10, 2023, https://smarthistory.org/decoding-the-rosetta-stone/. URL: https://youtu.be/13UbufpgBuQ
The Rosetta Stone
by THE BRITISH MUSEUM
The Rosetta Stone, 196 B.C.E., Ptolemaic Period, 112.3 x 75.7 x 28.4 cm, Egypt (British Museum, London) (photo: Steven Zucker, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0). The Rosetta Stone was discovered in Egypt, at Fort St Julien in el-Rashid, known as Rosetta.
The key to translating hieroglyphics
A reconstruction of the stela of which the Rosetta Stone was originally a part (A. Parrot, CC BY-SA 4.0)
The Rosetta Stone is one of the most important objects in the British Museum as it holds the key to understanding Egyptian hieroglyphs—a script made up of small pictures that was used originally in ancient Egypt for religious texts. Hieroglyphic writing died out in Egypt in the fourth century C.E.. Over time the knowledge of how to read hieroglyphs was lost, until the discovery of the Rosetta Stone in 1799 and its subsequent decipherment.
The Stone is a tablet of black rock called granodiorite. It is part of a larger inscribed stone that would have stood some 2 meters high. The top part of the stone has broken off at an angle—in line with a band of pink granite whose crystalline structure glints a little in the light. The back of the Rosetta stone is rough, where it has been hewn into shape, but the front face is smooth and crammed with text, inscribed in three different scripts. These form three distinct bands of writing.
The Rosetta Stone (detail), 196 B.C.E., Ptolemaic Period, 112.3 x 75.7 x 28.4 cm, Egypt (British Museum, London) (photo: Steven Zucker, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)
The Rosetta Stone, 196 B.C.E., Ptolemaic Period, 112.3 x 75.7 x 28.4 cm, Egypt (British Museum, London) (photo: Steven Zucker, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0). Part of grey and pink granodiorite stela bearing priestly decree concerning Ptolemy V in three blocks of text: Hieroglyphic (14 lines), Demotic (32 lines) and Greek (53 lines).
Three translations of the same decree
The inscriptions are three translations of the same decree, passed by a council of priests, that affirms the royal cult of the thirteen-year-old Ptolemy V on the first anniversary of his coronation. The decree is inscribed on the stone three times, in hieroglyphic (suitable for a priestly decree), demotic (the native script used for daily purposes), and Greek (the language of the administration). The importance of this to Egyptology is immense. In the early years of the nineteenth century, scholars were able to use the Greek inscription on this stone as the key to deciphering the others.
Opposition to the Ptolemies
In previous years the family of the Ptolemies had lost control of certain parts of the country. It had taken their armies some time to put down opposition in the Delta, and parts of southern Upper Egypt, particularly Thebes, were not yet back under the government’s control.
Before the Ptolemaic era (that is before about 332 B.C.E.), decrees in hieroglyphs such as this were usually set up by the king. It shows how much things had changed from Pharaonic times that the priests, the only people who had kept the knowledge of writing hieroglyphs, were now issuing such decrees. The list of good deeds done by the king for the temples hints at the way in which the support of the priests was ensured.
The end of hieroglyphics
Soon after the end of the fourth century C.E., when hieroglyphs had gone out of use, the knowledge of how to read and write them disappeared. In the early years of the nineteenth century, some 1400 years later, scholars were able to use the Greek inscription on this stone as the key to decipher them.
The discovery
Thomas Young, an English physicist, was the first to show that some of the hieroglyphs on the Rosetta Stone wrote the sounds of a royal name, that of Ptolemy. The French scholar Jean-François Champollion then realized that hieroglyphs recorded the sound of the Egyptian language and laid the foundations of our knowledge of ancient Egyptian language and culture.
Soldiers in Napoleon’s army discovered the Rosetta Stone in 1799 while digging the foundations of an addition to a fort near the town of el-Rashid (Rosetta). On Napoleon’s defeat, the stone became the property of the British under the terms of the Treaty of Alexandria (1801) along with other antiquities that the French had found.
The Rosetta Stone has been exhibited in the British Museum since 1802, with only one break. Towards the end of the First World War, in 1917, when the Museum was concerned about heavy bombing in London, they moved it to safety along with other, portable, ‘important’ objects. The Rosetta Stone spent the next two years in a station on the Postal Tube Railway 50 feet below the ground at Holborn.
The Rosetta Stone (detail with Greek), 196 B.C.E., Ptolemaic Period, 112.3 x 75.7 x 28.4 cm, Egypt (British Museum, London) (photo: Steven Zucker, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0).
Analyzing the Rosetta Stone
When the Rosetta Stone was discovered in 1799, the carved characters that covered its surface were quickly copied. Printer’s ink was applied to the Stone and white paper was laid over it. When the paper was removed, it revealed an exact copy of the text—but in reverse. Since then, many copies or “facsimiles” have been made using a variety of materials. Inevitably, the surface of the Stone accumulated many layers of material left over from these activities, despite attempts to remove any residue. Once on display, the grease from many thousands of human hands eager to touch the Stone added to the problem.
An opportunity for investigation and cleaning the Rosetta Stone arose when this famous object was made the centerpiece of the Cracking Codes exhibition at The British Museum in 1999. When work commenced to remove all but the original, ancient material, the stone was black with white lettering. As treatment progressed, the different substances uncovered were analyzed. Grease from human handling, a coating of carnauba wax from the early 1800s and printer’s ink from 1799 were cleaned away using cotton wool swabs and liniment of soap, white spirit, acetone and purified water. Finally, white paint in the text, applied in 1981, which had been left in place until now as a protective coating, was removed with cotton swabs and purified water. A small square at the bottom left corner of the face of the Stone was left untouched to show the darkened wax and the white infill.
Left: Detail of the right side of the Rosetta Stone; Right: Detail of the Rosetta Stone with Demotic script. The Rosetta Stone, 196 B.C.E., Ptolemaic Period, 112.3 x 75.7 x 28.4 cm, Egypt (British Museum, London) (photo: Steven Zucker, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0).
The Stone has a dark grey-pinkish tone with a pink streak running through it. Today you can see traces of a reddish brown in the text. This material was analyzed and found to be a clear mineral known as hydroxyapatite; the color may be due to iron traces. The mineral may have been applied deliberately, but there is no proof of this. This substance is not known by experts to have been used as a pigment, nor to have been used as a base for painting (a ground) in ancient Egypt.
Translation of the demotic text
[Year 9, Xandikos day 4], which is equivalent to the Egyptian month, second month of Peret, day 18, of the King “The Youth who has appeared as King in the place of his Father,” the Lord of the Uraei “Whose might is great, who has established Egypt, causing it to prosper, whose heart is beneficial before the gods…”
An ancient Egyptian temple plus the Roman Emperor Augustus—all on Fifth Avenue in New York City!
The Temple of Dendur, completed by 10 B.C.E. (Roman Period, Egypt), Aeolian sandstone (The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York). Speakers: Dr. Elizabeth Macaulay and Dr. Beth Harris URL: https://youtu.be/Vm5VfSm1t_s. Source: Dr. Elizabeth Macaulay and Dr. Beth Harris, “The Temple of Dendur,” in Smarthistory, February 1, 2024, accessed November 10, 2024, https://smarthistory.org/temple-of-dendur/.
Mummy of Herakleides
Getty conversations
by DR. SARA E. COLE and DR. STEVEN ZUCKER
During ancient Egypt’s last dynasty, a massive cultural exchange occurred between Greeks and Egyptians.
A conversation with Dr. Sara E. Cole, Antiquities Department, Getty Museum and Dr. Steven Zucker, Executive Director, Smarthistory, in front of Mummy of Herakleides, 120–140 C.E., Romano-Egyptian. Human and bird remains; linen, pigment, beeswax, gold, and wood, 175.3 x 44 x 33 cm. Getty Villa, Los Angeles. URL: https://youtu.be/uqTNkxtkK2U
During ancient Egypt’s last dynasty, a massive cultural exchange occurred between Greeks and Egyptians, then reflected in art and cultural practices. Learn how this Greco-Egyptian legacy influenced portrayals of the dead, such as for Herakleides.
Getty has joined forces with Smarthistory to bring you an in-depth look at select works within our collection, whether you’re looking to learn more at home or want to make art more accessible in your classroom. This six-part video series illuminates art history concepts through fun, unscripted conversations between art historians, curators, archaeologists, and artists, committed to a fresh take on the history of visual arts.
The first settlers in northern Sudan date back 300,000 years. It is home to the oldest sub-Saharan African kingdom, the kingdom of Kush (about 2500–1500 B.C.E.). This culture produced some of the most beautiful pottery in the Nile valley, including Kerma beakers.
Map of Kush and Ancient Egypt, showing the Nile up to the fifth cataract, and major cities and sites of the ancient Egyptian Dynastic period (c. 3150–30 B.C.E.) (map: Jeff Dahl, CC Y-SA 4.0)
Sudan was coveted for its rich natural resources particularly gold, ebony and ivory. Several objects in the British Museum collection are made of these materials. Ancient Egyptians were attracted southward seeking these resources during the Old Kingdom (about 2686–2181 B.C.E.), which often led to conflict as Egyptian and Sudanese rulers sought to control trade.
Kush was the most powerful state in the Nile valley around 1700 B.C.E. Conflict between Egypt and Kush followed, culminating in the conquest of Kush by Thutmose I (1504–1492 B.C.E.). In the west and south, Neolithic cultures remained as both areas were beyond the reach of the Egyptian rulers.
Kushite heartland and Kushite Empire of the 25th dynasty circa 700 B.C.E. (map: Lommes, CC BY-SA 4.0)
Egypt withdrew in the eleventh century B.C. E. and the Sudanese kings grew powerful. They invaded Egypt and ruled as Pharaohs (about 747–656 B.C.E.). At its greatest, their empire united the Nile valley from Khartoum to the Mediterranean. King Taharqo’s sphinx remains a testament to Kushite power and authority.
The Kushites were expelled from Egypt by the Assyrians, but their kingdom flourished in Sudan for another thousand years. Their monuments and art display a rich combination of Pharaonic, Greco-Roman and indigenous African traditions which may be seen in the chapel relief of Queen Shanakdhakete and aegis of Isis in the Museum collection.
The cultures of Kerma flourished between about 2500 and 1500 B.C.E. Their most distinctive products were ceramics. The potters were able to produce incredibly fine vessels by hand, without using a wheel. The pot shown here belongs to the so-called ‘Classic Kerma’ phase, from around 1750 to around 1550 B.C.E. Classic Kerma pottery is characterized by a black top and a rich red-brown base, separated by an irregular purple-grey band. The black tops and interiors are usually extremely fine and have a distinctive metallic lustrous appearance.
Kerma remained independent during Egypt’s initial forays into Sudan. This situation changed after 1500 BC, when the Egyptians defeated the Kushites and began to administer the area via their representative, the ‘Viceroy of Kush’, based at Kerma.
The handmade pottery produced by C-Group craftsmen is highly distinctive. Although some forms are comparable to Egyptian types of the same period, others are quite different. These show a strong African influence.
This cup has features characteristic of the African-influenced group known as ‘polished incised ware’. The cup has a round bottom and is bowl-shaped, though it is small enough to be considered a cup. Vessels of this shape were probably designed to hold food and drink. The African influence is shown most clearly in the cup’s decoration. The exterior is incised with diamonds filled in with cross hatching, perhaps derived from designs used in basket work. Other motifs include herringbone patterns and other geometric shapes of smooth and incised areas.
The incised decoration was applied to the pot before the clay was dry. The vessel was fired to leave a black or sometimes a red finish, which was highly polished. Finally, white pigment was rubbed into the incisions to make the pattern stand out. The remains of the white pigment can be seen in some areas on this cup, but most is now lost.
This beautiful vase was found in a plundered part of the cemetery at Sesebi in southern Nubia. It is an excellent example of the use of faience in a color other than blue. Decoration has been added to the cream body in blue and black, in the form of two friezes of lotus petals at the base and neck, with lotus buds hanging down; the vase itself is in the shape of a lotus bud.
From around 1560 until 1070 B.C.E. the Egyptians took possession of all Nubian lands as far as the Fourth Cataract of the Nile. The newly won land was divided into two territories: Wawat in the north and Kush in the south. Resources were intensively exploited by the Egyptian empire. Many native inhabitants were recruited into Egyptian armies or employed as laborers on Egyptian civil and religious estates.
New towns and temples were built during the period of Egyptian domination, including Sesebi, founded during Akhenaten’s reign (1352–1336 B.C.E.). Many Nubians embraced the language, religion and forms of aesthetic expression of their overlords. This vase shows strong Egyptian influence in shape and style; to ancient Egyptians the lotus was symbolic of rebirth and new life.
A powerful Kushite dynasty emerges
The Egyptians withdrew from Sudan around 1070 B.C.E. and by the ninth century a second powerful Kushite dynasty had emerged there. Taking advantage of instability and political disunity in Egypt, the Kushite king Kashta extended his control to Thebes in Egypt by the mid-eighth century B.C.E. His successor Piankhi (Piye) achieved complete control of the Egyptian Nile valley by around 716 B.C.E. He and his three successors, Shabaqo, Taharqo and Tamwetamani, were acknowledged as the legitimate sovereigns of Egypt, forming the Twenty-fifth Dynasty. Their capital was the important religious centre of Napata, near the Fourth Cataract of the Nile.
Kushite control of Egypt ended when Assyrian forces invaded between 674 and 663 B.C.E., but Kush remained a major power in Sudan for over a thousand years. After 300 BC, the Kushite rulers were buried at Meroe in a fertile grassland region northeast of Khartoum. Meroe became the centre of a flourishing economy and developed commercial links with the Mediterranean world. Art and architecture displayed Egyptian influence, but archaeology also points to a growth of local traditions. A strong local element was apparent in religion, with Nubian deities such as the lion-headed Apedemak appearing alongside the Egyptian Amun, Osiris and Isis. The Kushite dynasty ended around 350 C.E.
The term aegis is used in Egyptology to describe a broad collar surmounted by the head of a deity, in this case a goddess, possibly Isis. Representations in temples show that these objects decorated the sacred boats in which deities were carried in procession during festivals. An aegis was mounted at the prow and another at the stern. The head of the deity identified the occupant of the boat and it is likely that this example came from a sacred boat of Isis.
The eyes and eyebrows of the goddess were originally inlaid. The large eyes, further emphasized by the inlay, are typical of later Kushite art. The rectangular hole in her forehead once held the uraeus, which identified her as a goddess. The surviving part of her head-dress consists of a vulture—the wing feathers can be seen below her ears. The vulture head-dress was originally worn by the goddess Mut, consort of Amun of Thebes, but became common for all goddesses. The rest of the head-dress for this aegis was cast separately and is now lost, but would have consisted of a sun disc and cow’s horns. The piece bears a cartouche of the Kushite ruler Arnekhamani (reigned about 235–218 B.C.E.), the builder of the Lion Temple at Musawwarat es-Sufra.
The early Kushite kings were buried on beds placed on stone platforms in the tombs under their pyramids. These structures were based on the pyramids of Egyptian private tombs of the New Kingdom (about 1550–1070 B.C.E.), but the style of burial was entirely Kushite. King Taharqo (690–664 B.C.E.) introduced more Egyptian elements to the burial, such as mummification, coffins and sarcophagi of Egyptian origin, as well as the provision of shabti figures such as this. These figures were in the style of the Middle and New Kingdoms, the era that the Kushites considered the height of Egyptian culture. The use of stone and the rugged features of these large shabtis are characteristic of early examples.
During period of Kushite control of Egypt, the kings resided mainly at Memphis, and Kushite princesses were appointed to the religious office of ‘God’s Wife of Amun’. The Twenty-fifth Dynasty rulers—Piankhi, Shabaqo, Taharqo and Tamwetamani—brought much-needed stability to Egypt, which had been divided into small areas and governed by local dynasts. Art, architecture and religious learning were revived and Taharqo in particular was an active builder, constructing a number of temples in both Egypt and Nubia. However, it was during Taharqo’s reign that Assyrian invasions forced the Kushites out of Egypt. Control was regained by his successor Tamwetamani (664-656 B.C.E.) but quickly lost again.
One of the longest known monumental texts in Meroitic
This stela is one of a pair found at Hamadab a few kilometers south of Meroe in Sudan, the capital of the ancient Kingdom of Kush. They stood either side of the main doorway into a temple.
At the top of the stela are the remains of a relief panel depicting the Kushite rulers Queen Amanirenas and Prince Akinidad. On the left they are shown facing a god, probably Amun, whilst on the right they are facing a goddess, probably Mut. Below this is a frieze depicting bound prisoners.
An inscription in Meroitic cursive script is carved on the lower part of the stela. Meroitic was the indigenous language of the Kingdom of Kush. It is one of the few ancient languages yet to be deciphered. The alphabet consisted of 15 consonants, four vowels and four syllabic characters but the meaning of the words is not known.
In this inscription, the names of Amanirenas and Akinidad are recognizable. It is thought that Amanirenas was the Kushite ruler during the Kushite conflicts against the Romans in the late first century B.C.E. This inscription may commemorate a Kushite raid on Roman Egypt in 24 B.C.E.
A number of Roman imperial statues were taken during this raid, possibly including a bronze head of Augustus which was found in Meroë and is now held in the Museum’s collection.
Pylon of the Nubian Lion Temple at Naga, Sudan, c. 1–20 C.E. (photo: TrackHD, CC BY 3.0)
Two 36-foot-high figures stand tall, their muscular arms raised with weapons in hand, each gripping the hair of bound enemy prisoners. The prisoners kneel in submission before the standing figures, perpetually awaiting the impending blows. Lions, smaller in scale, but equally vicious, dwell between the legs of the standing figures and attack the kneeling victims. A falcon and a vulture soar above the two standing figures, witnessing and approving of the scenes below. Who are these warrior-like individuals and why are they shown in the midst of this violent action? Why was this image made? Who would have seen this image and what would it have meant to those viewers?
Print showing details of the pylon of the Lion Temple at Naga, Sudan, from Ricahrd Lepsius, Aethiopen. Naga [Naqa]. Tempel a. Vorderseite des Pylons., (Berlin: Nicolaische Buchhandlung, 1849–56) (The New York Public Library)
On the left side of this relief is King Natakamani and on the right is his wife, Queen Amanitore, both rulers of the ancient kingdom of Nubia, also known as Kush. Nubia lay south of Egypt and shared much in common with ancient Egyptian art and culture yet was also distinctive and unique in many ways. For example, the Nubians, or Kushites, adopted a variety of Egyptian gods but also worshiped their own distinctive deities or blended the two together.
Kushite visual conventions of royalty and power were similar to those used in Egypt, but specifically conformed to Kushite gender norms. This image of a Nubian royal couple comes from a pylon of a temple, called the Lion Temple, commissioned by King Natakamani and Queen Amanitore in the royal city of Naga in the 1st century C.E., and dedicated to the lion-headed god, Apedemak.
Three depictions of Apedemak. Left: as a lion-headed human; center: as a fierce lion between the legs of the king; and right: as a lion-headed cobra, Pylon of the Nubian Lion Temple at Naga, Sudan, c. 1–20 C.E. (photo: Stuart Tyson Smith, CC BY-SA 4.0)
Apedemak was an exclusively Nubian deity and a god of war, often depicted carrying a bow and leading bound prisoners. He was typically represented as a lion-headed human, but also appears as a fierce lion (as seen on the pylon mauling prisoners at the feet of Natakamani and Amanitore) or as a lion-headed cobra. All three forms of Apedemak are depicted on the Lion Temple.
Several other temples remain scattered around the Lion Temple in Naga today. Archaeological evidence (modest offerings found in a small shrine between the Lion Temple and other religious shrines) suggests that it was a place where the broader public came to worship. The rich red tones of the Nubian sandstone lend the monument an air of elegance today, but as with Egyptian monuments, the entire temple would have been brightly painted. One can imagine the colorful temple as a vibrant backdrop to religious festivals in Naga that included throngs of people—farmers, herders, merchants, officials, and priests.
Founded around 250 B.C.E., Naga was an ancient city and royal residence located south of the Kushite capital at Meroë. This important religious, economic, and political center was placed at the foot of a mountain about 30 miles from the Nile in an area of grasslands fed by seasonal rain, a rich region for both pastoralism and farming. It was also a trade destination for caravans headed east, most likely to Ethiopia and the Red Sea.
King Natakamani (left) and on Queen Amanitore (right) in the act of smiting, details from the Pylon of the Nubian Lion Temple at Naga, Sudan, c. 1–20 C.E. (photo: Stuart Tyson Smith, CC BY-SA 4.0)
The Royal Couple that Smites Together, Rules Together
One side of the Palette of King Narmer, c. 3000–2920 B.C.E., Predynastic Egypt, greywacke (slate), from Hierakonpolis, 2′ 1″ high (Egyptian Museum, Cairo)
The scene on the pylon of the Lion Temple in Naga projects an image of husband and wife reigning as equals, a common feature of Nubian governance and distinct from Egyptian practices. Nubian queens could, and often did, rule independently as Candaces. Only a handful of Egyptian queens wielded this kind of authority, including Hatshepsut who was a Egyptian female ruler who completely assumed pharaonic power and was male-presenting in certain contexts to legitimate her rule. This was not an issue in Nubia, where queens could be female-presenting and still wield the same authority as kings.
On the Lion Temple’s pylon, the pose with one arm raised holding a weapon and the other clutching the hair of enemies (known as smiting) symbolizes the royal couple’s role in defeating chaos and restoring order to the universe. The same basic motif also appears in royal Egyptian works, including the Narmer palette, which predates the Lion Temple by three thousand years. However, unlike in Egyptian art, here the Nubian king and queen participate as equal forces in restoring order to the cosmos. Representations of the smiting motif on Egyptian pylons inevitably have symmetrical images on either side, but only of male kings.
An offering scene from the Aton temple behind Karnak, Egypt showing Queen Nefertiti diminutive and walking next to the Pharaoh Akhenaten, c. 1350 B.C.E. (Luxor Museum, Egypt; photo: Stuart Tyson Smith, CC BY-SA 4.0)
Additionally, images of Egyptian royalty reinforced male dominance through representations in temples and on stelae by placing queens behind the king and on a smaller scale with a focus on their supporting role in rituals. [1] This can be seen in a stela depicting the Egyptian pharaoh Akhenaten and his wife, Nefertiti, performing religious offerings. While Queen Nefertiti does sometimes act on her own in ritual scenes, more commonly in public contexts like this she is depicted behind and smaller than her husband. We see this in an offering scene from an Egyptian temple dedicated to the god Aton.
Pylon of the Nubian Lion Temple at Naga, Sudan, c. 1–20 C.E. (photo: Stuart Tyson Smith, CC BY-SA 4.0)
Queen Amanitore wearing a Kushite cap, detail of Pylon of the Nubian Lion Temple at Naga, Sudan, c. 1–20 C.E. (photo: Stuart Tyson Smith, CC BY-SA 4.0)
Returning to the Lion Temple, King Natakamani and Queen Amanitore face each other, standing at the same height, each actively slaying their enemies. The Egyptian gods Horus (shown as a falcon), and Nekhbet (shown as a vulture), both associated with royalty, hover protectively over the couple while Apedemak the lion god accompanies both rulers. Further signifiers of equality between husband and wife include the use of a Kushite cap crown for both the king and queen, double lion-headed uraei on their foreheads (the lions again refer to Apedemak), as well as distinctively Kushite jewelry, feathered garments, and weapons for each ruler. While portrayed as an equal to her husband, the queen retains a distinctly female body with wider hips and breasts, in contrast to the Egyptian ruler Hatshepsut who sometimes was represented as male to fully assume royal power.
King Natakamani and Queen Amanitore face and worship the lion-headed form of Apedemak and other male gods from the southern side of the Lion Temple, Naga, Sudan, c. 1–20 C.E. (photo: Stuart Tyson Smith, CC BY-SA 4.0)
Images of the Nubian king and queen continue around the exterior of the Lion Temple and maintain the distinctively Kushite balance of feminine and masculine royal power throughout the decorative program. On the southern side for example, the king, queen, and their son, the Crown Prince Arikankharer, worship before a mix of Egyptian and Nubian male deities, including Apedemak, Horus, and Amun-Re.
Queen Amanitore, King Natakamani, and their heir face and worship Isis and other goddesses from the northern side (detail) of the Lion Temple, Naga, Sudan, c. 1–20 C.E. (photo: Karla Kroeper/Naga Project)
On the northern side, the king, queen, and their heir stand before another group of Egyptian and Nubian goddesses, including Isis (Horus’s mother), Mut (Amun’s consort), and the cow goddess Hathor.
Queen Amanitore (left) and King Natakamani (right) flanking the three-headed, four-armed rendering of Apedemak (center) from the back of the Lion Temple, Naga, Sudan, c. 1–20 C.E. (photo: Stuart Tyson Smith, CC BY-SA 4.0)
The back of the temple also reinforces the message of equality between the king and queen in the eyes of the gods. Here the queen (to the south—our left) and king (to the north—our right) are balanced between a unique three-headed, four-armed Apedemak, who faces the king, queen, and viewer. Showing Apedemak with three heads is likely a clever Nubian innovation designed to balance the figures of king and queen equally between the god and the worshiping public.
Jointly commissioned by the king and queen, the Lion Temple’s exterior imagery illustrates the tradition of gender equality in Kushite rule. Together, the royal couple also commissioned other buildings in Naga as well as throughout the Kushite kingdom, including a palace and pyramids for themselves. Together these construction projects served to reinforce and legitimize their authority as rulers and mirrored practices of Egyptian pharaohs to the north.
Egypt and Nubia in Scholarship Today
As an analysis of the Lion Temple in Naga demonstrates, Nubia and Egypt had a long history of interaction through trade, religion, and a shared visual language. However, war also brought these two ancient African societies into direct contact. In 1500 B.C.E., Egypt conquered all of Nubia through the fourth cataract of the Nile, but by 747 B.C.E. Nubian kings ruled as Pharaohs of Egypt’s 25th Dynasty. These Kushite kings are commonly referred to as the “Black Pharaohs” in both scholarly and popular publications, though this suggests that the ancient Egyptians were neither Black nor African themselves. Despite direct connections and commonalities, why has Nubia received considerably less scholarly and public attention?
Traditionally, Nubia has been classified as African and its people Black, while ancient Egypt has long been separated from its African context and its people not thought of as Black. This construct consciously or unconsciously draws on racist ideas developed through early American Egyptology and anthropology, particularly in the 1854 book Types of Mankind, which established the basis for “scientific” racism in the United States. The authors, including a pro-slavery advocate, realized that their hierarchical racial classification placing Black people as inherently inferior could not stand if Egypt and Nubia were both acknowledged as Black African civilizations, so they and later scholars went to great lengths to separate Egypt from Africa and from Nubia, a legacy that sadly lives on today.
However, as the Lion Temple in Naga clearly displays, ancient Nubia and Egypt were intricately connected religiously, politically, economically, and artistically. The history and culture of one cannot be separated from the other. In analyzing the images of royal power present on the pylon of the Lion Temple in Naga, we see how Nubian rulers asserted their own specific customs of royal gender equality while utilizing visual conventions of power common to the entire Nile River region.
Notes:
[1] In a rare exception, Queen Nefertiti does appear in a smiting scene on a booth in the representation of a ceremonial barge dedicated to her.
Pyramids of Sudan
by UNESCO
The Kingdom of Kush: Gebel Barkal (Jebel Barkal) and the sites of the Napatan Region (Kurru, Nuri, Sanam, and Zuma)
These five archaeological sites, stretching over more than 60 km in the Nile valley, are testimony to the Napatan (900 to 270 B.C.E.) and Meroitic (270 B.C.E. to 350 C.E.) cultures, of the second kingdom of Kush. Tombs, with and without pyramids, temples, living complexes and palaces, are to be found on the site. Since Antiquity, the hill of Gebel Barkal has been strongly associated with religious traditions and folklore. The largest temples are still considered by the local people as sacred places.
Drawing of the upper part of the victory stele of pharaoh Piye. The lunette on the top depicts Piye being tributed by various Lower Egypt rulers, and the text describes his successful invasion of Egypt. Original stele in granite, found at Jebel Barkal and datable to the reign of Piye, 25th dynasty, now in the Cairo Museum.
Who was king Piye?
Piye, also called Piankhy (747–716 B.C.E.) and Kushite ruler of the Napatan period, laid the foundations for the Twenty-fifth Dynasty of Egypt (747–656 B.C.E.). He seized control of Upper Egypt within the first decade of his reign, and his sister Amenirdis I was adopted by Shepenwepet I as the next God’s Wife of Amun, thus acquiring Theban territories previously controlled by Osorkon III. In 728 B.C.E., when Tefnakht, the prince of Sais, created an alliance of Delta rulers to counter the growing Nubian threat, Piye swept northwards and defeated the northern coalition. His successful campaign is described on his Victory stela.
Pyramid K.1, 4th century B.C.E., at El-Kurru, south of Jebel Barkal, North Sudan (photo: Betramz, CC BY 3.0)
In 716 B.C.E. Piye died after a reign of over thirty years. He was buried in an Egyptian style pyramid tomb at El-Kurru, accompanied by a number of horses, which were greatly prized by the Nubians of the Napatan period. Piye was succeeded by his brother Shabako (716–702 B.C.E.) who re-conquered Egypt and took full pharaonic titles, establishing himself as the ruler of the Twenty-fifth Dynasty of all Egypt.
Vast quantities of linen were used in the daily rituals of Egyptian temples. Some of this linen was donated, often inscribed with the name of the donor. This piece of high quality linen was donated by the Kushite king Piye to a temple of Amun-Re, possibly at Karnak. A column of inscription, close to the fringed edge of the cloth, gives the king’s titles and a year date, presumably the year of king Piye’s reign.
The year date is fragmentary. Two symbols for the number ’10’ survive, indicating that the date must be higher than Year 20. The most likely reading of the group is ‘Year 30’, but ‘Year 40’ has also been proposed. In either case, this is the highest known year of reign for this king.
The relatively good condition of the cloth suggests that it found its way into a tomb. Food offerings in temples were returned to the priests once the gods had magically taken what they wanted. The same was the case for other items used in everyday cult activities. When linen cloths became too old to use, they could be given to priests for their burials, although some might have been given directly to favored officials by the king.
This hinge is of massive proportions, and probably belonged to one of the many monumental doorways of a Theban temple. Although there are extensive remains of the stone parts of these structures, little remains of the door and doorway furniture and fittings, which were often taken down and reused.
The hinge is inscribed with the names of Amenirdis I and Shepenwepet II, both of whom successively held the office of God’s Wife of Amun. Amenirdis was the sister of King Piye, who was the first major ruler in Egypt of the Kushite Dynasty (referred to as the Twenty-fifth Dynasty). He installed his sister in this important religious office in order to maintain control of the southern region of Egypt, administered from Thebes. The holder of the office was celibate, and the successor was adopted by the current holder. Amenirdis adopted Piye’s daughter, her own niece, Shepenwepet II.
The names of the women appear in cartouches because they were considered to be the spouses of the god, and also because they were members of the Kushite royal family. The name of Piye, in the central cartouche, has been deliberately erased. This was probably done during the Twenty-sixth Dynasty when native Egyptian rule was restored.
King Taharqa introduced more Egyptian elements to burial
Egypt was brought partially under Kushite domination by Piye (reigned about 747–716 B.C.E.). On his commemorative stela he claims that he was acting with the blessing of the god Amun to restore order to the country. At the time, Egypt was politically divided into small areas, governed by local dynasts who often styled themselves as kings.
It was the ambition of Piye and his successors to restore Egypt to greatness. Unfortunately, their intervention in political affairs in Palestine brought Egypt to the attention of the Assyrian empire. King Taharqa (690-664 BC) eventually lost Egypt to the Assyrians. The country was regained only briefly by his successor Tanutamun (664–656 B.C.E.).
The early Kushite kings were buried on beds placed on stone platforms within their pyramids. These structures were based on the pyramidia of Egyptian private tombs of the New Kingdom (about 1550–1070 B.C.E.), but the burials were entirely Kushite. Taharqa introduced more Egyptian elements to the burial, such as mummification, coffins and sarcophagi of Egyptian origin, as well as the provision of shabti figures. These figures were in the style of the Middle and New Kingdoms, the era that the Kushites considered as the height of Egyptian culture. The use of stone, an obsolete early shabti-formula and the rugged features of these large shabti are characteristic of early examples.
This head once formed part of a statue of the Roman emperor Augustus (27 B.C.E.–14 C.E.). He appears larger than life, with perfect proportions based upon Classical Greek notions of the ideal human form. His calm distant gaze, emphasized with inset eyes of glass and stone, give him an air of quiet, assured strength. This statue, like many others throughout the Empire, was a continuous reminder of the all-embracing power of Rome and its emperor. It was found at Meroe, buried in front of the steps of a Kushite temple, possibly dedicated to Victory.
Trade with the Mediterranean markets was important to the Kushite economy at this time and was mostly conducted in northern Nubia. In 29 B.C.E. the first Roman prefect of Egypt conquered this area and a Kushite-Roman war followed. It seems likely that, because of its symbolic importance, the head was cut from the statue by Kushites during a raid on the Roman frontier. It was then placed in front of the steps of the temple so as to be permanently below the feet of its captors.
The Kushites subsequently re-established trade relations with Roman Egypt. From the mid-second century C.E., their main commercial rival was the kingdom of Axum in the highlands of Ethiopia. When Roman trade with Nubia declined and the Romans began using the Axumite port of Adulis on the Red Sea, the resulting loss of revenue undermined Meroe’s economy and contributed to its eventual decline around 350.
Ancient Sudan: The Meroitic Period (about 300 B.C.E.–350 C.E.)
The Meroitic period, the later phase of rule by the Kushite kings, is named after the royal burial ground at Meroe. In the third century B.C.E. the royal cemetery was moved there from Napata, though Meroe had long been one of the major centers of the Kushite state. This move broadly coincided with the arrival of Greek culture in Egypt, following the country’s conquest by Alexander the Great. The resulting Greco-Egyptian culture rapidly influenced the Kingdom of Kush giving its later phases a distinctive character. This was in contrast to the preceding Napatan period, which was influenced by the Pharaonic culture. The Kushite kingdom prospered, its rulers and the elite deriving wealth from control of the trade routes along the Nile valley from Central Africa to Ptolemaic and Roman Egypt.
Throughout the Meroitic period Egyptian elements introduced into Kushite royal burial practices under the early Napatan kings were retained and reinterpreted. The sculpture and architecture of the period shows much influence from the Greek and the Greco-Roman world. The fine pottery decorated with geometric forms and floral and animal motifs shows a similar influence. Monumental inscriptions were traditionally written in the hieroglyphic script but, from the second century BC onwards, the use of the native language of the Kushite Kingdom, Meroitic, became common. Although some words in Meroitic can be translated, its meaning remains largely unknown to us.
The royal cemetery at Meroe has given the name ‘Meroitic’ to the later stages of rule by the Kushite kings. The Meroitic script has been deciphered, but the language is still not fully understood. This wall comes from one of the small steep-sided pyramids with chapels in which the rulers were buried. It was probably that of Queen Shanakdakhete, the first female ruler. She appears here enthroned with a prince, and protected by a winged Isis. In front of her are rows of offering bearers and also scenes of rituals including the judgement of the queen before Osiris. Although the reliefs are in a style that looks Egyptian, they have their own, independently developed, characteristics.
The term ‘Kush’ or ‘Kushite’ was used long before the eighth century B.C.E. to refer to Nubian ruling powers. But it is particularly used to describe the cultures whose first major contact with Egypt began with the Twenty-fifth Dynasty, and whose Nubian kings put an end to the fragmented state of Egypt by 715 B.C.E. However, Kushite rule did not last long in Egypt. In the face of Assyrian attack, the last Kushite kings, Taharqa and Tanutamun, fled to Nubia. There they and their descendants were dominant until the fourth century C.E., and were buried at el-Kurru, Nuri, Gebel Barkal, and Meroe.
The Egyptians believed that a person’s essence or soul was composed of several elements. These became separated at death. The ba was one of the elements of the spirit, which encompassed the personality and emotions. It stayed close to the body of the deceased and was eventually reunited with other elements, to live eternally in the Afterlife.
In Egyptian art, the ba is chiefly represented on funerary papyri. These representations were intended to enable the deceased’s entry into the Afterlife. In a funerary context, the ba in its form of a human-headed bird was retained in the Meroitic period. However, the style, the material used, and the location of representations was entirely different from earlier depictions. A stone statue like this one would have been placed outside the tomb chapel of a wealthy individual, in this case a woman.
The reduction of the body to its essential details perhaps reflects a continental African influence. This example shows the ba in a female human form, wearing a long dress, but with wings instead of arms. The emphasis on the eyes is typical of later Meroitic sculpture, but the Egyptian origins of the statue can be seen in their almond shape and heavy outline.
Meroitic offering tables tend to be roughly square in shape, with a central depression for holding liquids. Some examples, such as this, bear representations of the food which would be placed on the table, while others have figured decoration. Around the outside is an inscription which names of the owner and gives his parentage.
The Meroitic language is written in two scripts, one derived from hieroglyphs and the other a more cursive form, as here. Although the sound-values of the signs are known, insufficient material for comparison, especially bilingual inscriptions or related languages that are understood, has been found to enable the language to be analyzed or translated properly. Thus names can mostly be read, but the longer inscriptions largely defy interpretation.
Meroitic graves often included fragile bowls, jars and cups. The fine quality of the manufacture and decoration of these vessels suggests that they were the prized possessions of the deceased, who wanted to continue to enjoy them in the Afterlife.
Although the vessels themselves were of local manufacture, the designs were often inspired by the artistic traditions of other countries, such as Egypt and the Mediterranean world. Symbols such as the ankh were borrowed from Egypt, as were the lotus and papyrus plants. Although still recognizable, the Meroitic artists interpreted them in their own way, often producing a geometric pattern, which would be unfamiliar to their Egyptian counterparts.
Other motifs, such as animals like frogs, snakes and fantastic beasts, were drawn from the Mediterranean world. The origin of the boat design on this cup is less clear. The tall prow and stern of the vessel, and the stick figure inside is reminiscent of the decoration of Egyptian pots in the Predynastic period, three thousand years earlier. The resemblance ends here though, and is purely coincidental.
Fineware bowls, cups and jars were often placed in Meroitic graves, to be used by the deceased in the Afterlife. Like the fragile fineware vessels, this amphora is covered in a red slip upon which the painted decoration is applied in bands, using a basic palette of black, red and white. A picture of the vessel itself appears on the neck of the amphora.
The decorative motifs are derived from those of Ptolemaic and early Roman Egypt, from about the third to the first century B.C.E. The combination of geometric, floral and animal motifs is typical of pottery of this period. It shows the influence of the Mediterranean world, which was becoming ever more pronounced as Egypt came under the domination of the Greeks, and then the Romans. The running vine leaves continued to be a popular motif into the Coptic period, appearing on pottery until the Arab conquest in the seventh century C.E.
Animal motifs were common in the art of the Mediterranean world. The ducks at the base of this vessel could have been observed from local wildlife. They could also be derived from Egyptian art, in which they were frequently depicted, or copied from hieroglyphic symbols.
![Print showing details of the pylon of the Lion Temple at Naga, Sudan, from Ricahrd Lepsius, Aethiopen. Naga [Naqa]. Tempel a. Vorderseite des Pylons., (Berlin: Nicolaische Buchhandlung, 1849–56) (The New York Public Library)](https://smarthistory.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Possible-Reference-Image-Pylon.jpeg)
