Unit 3 Guide: Ancient Egypt & Aegean
Key Questions (take notes from reading/class)
1. How does status/class influence style? (List some contemporary examples)
2. What does the afterlife look like for the ancient Egyptians? For a different
culture?
3. How does art mediate the human experience today and in ancient
Egypt?
ART & ARCHITECTURE FLASHCARD LIST
Old Kingdom
1. Palette of King Narmer, c. 3000 BCE
2. Imhotep, Stepped Pyramid & Mortuary Precint of Djoser, Saqqara, 2600 BCE
3. Ti Watching a Hippopotamus Hunt, 2500 BCE
4. Great Pyramids: Gizeh, Menkaure, Khafre, & Khufu, 2500 BCE
5. Menkaure & Khemerernebty from Gizeh
6. Seated Scribe
Middle Kingdom
1. Rock cut tombs, Beni Hasan, 1900 BCE
2. Head of Sensuret
New Kingdom
1. Semmut, Mortuary Temple of Hatshepsut, 1475 BCE
2. Akhenaten and His Family, Tell-el-Amarna, 1350 BCE, painted limestone
relief
3. Queen Tiy, boxwood, ebony, silver, gold, lapis, cloth, clay and wax
4. Great Temple of Amun at Karnak
5. Temples of Ramses II
6. Judgment before Osiris (Book of the Dead), painted papyrus 15” high
7. Fowling Scene, Nebamum’s Tomb (it is shown on guide below, not in book)
8. Sarcophagus of King Tut
9. Queen Nefertit, bust, painted
Goals for Ancient Egypt studies:

Appreciate the fact that ancient Egypt has a very long history
with long lasting artistic conventions or styles, and how
they reflected their cultural beliefs and social classes.

Grasp the basic divisions of Egyptian history into the PreDynastic, Old Kingdom, Middle Kingdom, and New Kingdom
periods and how portraiture & figurative art evolved.

Recognize & describe the fundamental artistic decisions
(formal analysis) of thousands of years of Egyptian art, and how
these changed during the Amarna period.

Explain the close relationship of ancient Egyptian art and
Egyptian religion, especially the Egyptian preoccupation with
death and beliefs about the afterlife.

Understand the role of the mastaba and the pyramids and
how sacred spaces were used in ancient Egyptian architecture.

Describe how iconography was used in the rich variety of
ancient Egyptian art.
Vocabulary/Terms to know (create concept map in binder):
1. Canon of proportions – width of fist basic measure, male 18 fists
high
2. Artistic conventions
3. Twisted perspective
4. Mastaba
5. Sarcophagus
6. Iconography
7. Papyrus
8. Egyptian pantheon Horus/Osiris/Isis
9. Hieroglyphics
10.
Scarab
Elements of Architecture: How to Read Building (sketch on
separate sheet in binder)

Colonnade

Engaged column

Hypostyle hall

Fenestration

Clerestory

Obelisks
Assignments & Activities:
1. Homework: Read Chapter 3 on Ancient Egypt and take notes in
your binder. Make your flashcards.
2. Complete architectural sketches for Elements of Architecture
(how to READ a building above)
3. Create vocabulary map for the 10 vocab words above.
4. Take home essay – Fab Five analysis on selected artwork from
Louvre Museum website (student choice) thematic trail (project)
5. Create a timeline of ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt (class time
will be given)
6. Hieroglyphic activity in class/Drawing Deities in class (class
participation)
Resources:
Textbook Chapter 3, Ancient Egypt
Louvre thematic website on Ancient Egypt
http://www.louvre.fr/llv/oeuvres/oeuvres_choisies.jsp?FOLDER%3C%
3Efolder_id=2534374302024476&CURRENT_LLV_DEP%3C%3Efolder_i
d=1408474395181077&CURRENT_LLV_DIV%3C%3Efolder_id=253437
4302024476&CONTENT%3C%3Ecnt_id=10134198673211727&bmLoca
le=en
Fowling Scene, Tomb of Nebamum, New Kingdom