A View of Egypt by Satellite
The Nile
 Longest in world
 South to North
 Delta
Mediterranean
 Seasonal flooding
 Fertile valley 
agriculture by 5000
BCE
 Sahara  west; Red
Sea  east
The Fertile Nile Valley
•Natural barriers
•Nile and deserts
•Few foreign
incursions unlike
Mesopotamia
•Floods every fall from rains in Central
Africa
•Prosperity /food surplus
•Unifying factor
•Transportation / communication
•Orderly and cyclical view of
universe (unlike Mesopotamia)
The Annual Flooding of the
Nile
Nile Irrigation-the Shaduf
Ancient Egyptian History
Periods
Time Frame
Nile Culture Begins
Archaic
Old Kingdom
Middle Kingdom
New Kingdom
3900 B. C. E.
3100 – 2650 B. C. E.
2650 – 2134 B. C. E.
2040 – 1640 B. C. E.
1550 – 1070 B. C. E.
Late Period
Greek Ptolemaic
Era
Roman Period
750 – 332 B. C. E.
332 – 30 B. C. E.
30 B. C. E. – 395 C. E.
Menes:
c. 3050 B. C. E. ?
Unifier of Upper & Lower
Egypt
Egyptian Social Hierarchy
Bureaucracy
God-Kings
 30 yr renewal ritual
 Absolute power therefore





no need for written code
like Hammurabi’s
Return to Ra @ death
Built temples to ensure
cont’d goodwill of gods
Provide priests for upkeep
Balance, order (goes back
to Nile)
Upright souls believed
their spirits would live
eternally)
Egyptian Nobility
Egyptian Priestly Class
Egyptian Scribe
Ancient Egyptian Housing
Middle Class
Homes
Peasant
Homes
Scenes of Ancient Egyptian
Daily Life
Making Ancient Egyptian
Beer
Making Ancient Egyptian
Wine
An Egyptian Woman’s “MustHaves”
Mirror
Perfume
Wigs
Daily Life
 Married young; arranged by parents
 Monogamous
 Additional wives if first is barren
 Divorces occurred; women compensated
 Husband: head of house
 Wife: well respected; educated children
 Women's’ rights”
 Controlled own property and inheritance
 Operate businesses, few involved in politics
 Priestesses, 4 became pharaohs
Papyrus  Paper
Hieratic Scroll
Piece
Papyrus Plant
Egyptian Math & Draftsmanship
1
10 100 1000 10,000 100,000 1,000,000
What number is
this?
Champollion & the Rosetta
Stone
Hieroglyphic
“Cartouche”
Hieroglyphics “Alphabet”
24 “letters” + 700 phonetic symbols
Egyptian Creation Myth
The Goddess Nut
Creation Myths
 Sun god Ra (Ra-Atum)
 Waters of chaos
 Created gods of wetness and
dryness (Tefnut/Shu)
  male Geb (earth)  female
Nut (sky)  2 sons
(Osiris/Seth) 2 females
(Isis/Nephthys)
 Isis/Osiris king of Egypt
 Seth kills Osiris takes throne
 I/N patch Osiris up (Anubis)
conceives son (Horus)
 Horus def. Seth & becomes
king of earth
 Osiris  king of underworld
 Humans from tears of Ra’s eye
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=tcxgzMwcqN8&safety_mode=t
rue&persist_safety_mode=1
Egyptian Gods & Goddesses:
“The Sacred ‘Trinity’”
Osiris
Isis
Horus
Iconography
 Hathor (cow/love-
fertitlty)
 Thoth (ibis/writing-
sci-law)
 Maat (feather/truth-
order-justice)
 Anubis
(jackal/embalmcemetery)
 Bastet (cat/daughter
of Ra)
Conventions
 Customary way to represent people




and world
Accepted by both artist and patrons
Images based on memory
Characteristic viewpoints
Formulas & proportions
Preparations for the
Underworld
ANUBIS weighs the
dead person’s heart
against a feather.
Priests protected
your KA, or soulspirit
The Mummification Process
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-MQ5dL9cQX0&safety_mode=true&persist_safety_mode=1
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Linen
Sawdust
Lichen
Beeswax
Resin
6. Natron
7. Onion
8. Nile Mud
9. Linen Pads
10. Frankinsense
Preparation for
the Afterlife
Egyptian Mummies
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ReCxCL64p9k&safety_mode=true&persist_safety_mode=1
Seti I
1291-1278 B. C. E.
Queen Tiye,
wife of
Amenhotep II
1210-1200 B. C. E.
Ramses II
1279-1212 B. C. E.
Funerary Architecture
 Ka (life spirit lives after
death)
 Sculpted likenesses
work!
 Comfy home for
departed king’s ka so he
continues to ensure
well-being if Egypt
 Safety in moving from
one world to next 
(preservation)
 Mastaba (flat topped one
story bldgs / slanted
walls above burial
chamber)
 Serdab: small sealed
room for ka statue &
chapel for mourning
 vertical shaft to burial
chamber w/sarcophagus
 Necropolis: city of dead
on edge of desert
 Saqqara and Giza
Djoser & Saqqara
Djoser & Saqqara




3rd Dynasty
Djoser 3650-2631
Imhotep 1st architect
Mastaba  step pyramid
(like ziggurat)
 Intentions:
 Stairway to Ra
 Protecting tomb
 Adjacent funerary
temple for rituals
Old Kingdom c.2575 – 2150 BCE
 Giza (3)
 4th dynasty
 Khufu (25512528)

13acres, 481’,
 Khafre (2520-
2494)
 Menkaure
(2490-2472)
 Site follows east-
west
 Causeway to
valley temple
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K5GPpVCtH5A&safety_mode=true&persist_safety_mode=1
Lions-throne’s legs, lotus(upper,
papyrus (lower), short pleated kilt,
linen headress w/cobra (Ra), false
beard (royalty),
4th dynasty, c. 2520-2494, anorthosite
gneiss (from Nubia, changes color), 5’6
1/8” tall
Horus
 Menkaure and a




Queen
(Khamerernebty?)
4th dynasty (24902472)
Queen’s symbolic
embrace
King: athletic,
young, nude to
waist, kilt,
headcloth,
Balanced pose (one
foot forward)
 Queen smaller
steps
Journey to the Underworld
The dead travel
on the “Solar
Bark.”
A boat for the
journey is
provided for a
dead pharaoh in
his tomb.
Egyptian Book of the Dead
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JnO3XsDFHe8&safety_mode=true&persist_safety_mode=1
The Final Judgement
Anubis
Horus
Osiris
Shabtis: The Pharaoh’s
Servants
in the Afterlife
Stepped Pyramid at
Saqqara
“Bent” Pyramid of King
Sneferu
Giza Pyramid Complex
Plan of the Great Pyramid
of Khufu
Hatshepsut
 1st female ruler(r. 1473-1458)
 Daughter of Queen Ahmose
and the god Amun (really
Thutmose I)
 Married half brother who
became Thutmose II
 Became regent for his son
w/concubine
 Claimed throne herself…
declared king by priests of
Amun
 Wore many male trappings
 Known for trade expeditions
to “Land of Punt”
 Died of bone cancer
 Mummy found and
identified by missing tooth
Deir el-Bahri
 Funerary temple (created
by her lover)
 Not intended for tomb, was
supposed to go to Valley
 Characteristics
 Raised causeway
w/sphinxes from Nile
 Shrines to Anubis/Hathor
 Open garden spaces
(myrrh trees) pools
 Hypostyle halls
Akhenaten
 Amenhotep IV (r. 1353-1336)
 New religion to honor single





supreme sun god Aten (disk)
(polytheistic)
Moved capital from Thebes
to Amarna
Son of Aten
Presided over worship as
divine priest
Altars in courtyards to
receive sun
Portrayed in informal
situations
Akhenaten
 16’
 In front of






Karnak
Soft, swelling
Boneless
Androgenous
Elongated
features
Flail (protection)
Shepherd's crook
(absolute
sovereignty)
Akhenaten and His Family
painted limestone relief (sunken)
Tell el-Amarna
Nefertiti
Painted limestone
20” (Tell el-Armana)
The Valley of the Kings
Archaeologist, Howard Carter
(1922)
Entrance to King “Tut’s” Tomb
King Tutankhamon’s Death
Mask
1336-1327 B. C.
E.
Treasures From Tut’s Tomb
King Tutankhamon
King Tutankhamun’s Tomb
Ramses II
 c. 1279-1213
 Nefertari (main wife)
 Aggressive expansion
 Treaties w/ Hittites
 Married Hittite princess
 Many wives, 90+ kids
 Monuments at
 Karnak, Luxor, Abu Simbel
 Abu-Simbel
 2 lrg temples (not funerary
mnmts)
 Actually buried in Valley
 Many paintings (Nef’s temp)





Outline and rich color
More hues to depict
dimensionality
Darker skin tones
Focus on eyes and lips
Hieroglyphs to design
Abu Simbel
65’
Family
and
Nefertari
RA
Luxor
The Valley of the Queens
1473-1458 B. C.
E.
Temple of Queen
Hatshepsut
Ankhenaton: First
Monotheist?
1352-1336 B. C. E.
The Ankh – The “Cross” of
Life
Queen
Nefertiti