Collected good answers from real exams (version 1.1). All of these are verbatim from
exams, with occassional red additions or corrections from me. In almost all cases there
were additional correct things that could have been said, but we gave full credit for
getting the basics completely right plus a combination of more secondary correct things.
There were very few version 1.1 exams, so these are not all full credit answers. But they
are all quite good.
This exam was the hardest version, and so I added 6 points to everyone’s score to bring
the curve in line with the overall exam curve.
Slide 1: Djoser’s Step Pyramid, 3rd Dynasty, Saqqara. Djoser was the 1st king of 3rd
Dynasty. 1st pyramid, although the step pyramid construction is not indicative of what
comes later/the later pyramid construction. It is 6 steps, 60m high. Originally 1 mastaba
then built it up. Parallels agriculture: seed is covered w/ dirt and buried so can grow like
king is covered w/ mastaba so can be reborn into the afterlife. 1st stone monument. Sed
festival tood place here, so had function while he was alive.
Slide 2: No one completely nailed this: it is tomb 100 from Hierakonpolis, Naqada II
period. The first decorated tomb we have. Unique in size for the period, and because of
themes of painting (which relate to later royal iconography in some cases) we usually call
this guy a ruler. Smiting scene (small). Major part of scene is boats, clearly a ritual
scene related to typical Naqada II pottery decoration. Naqada II in general characterized
by increasing social differentiation as seen in tombs.
Slide 3: Rosetta stoen from the Ptolemaic period, it is a royal decree written in
hierglyphic, greek and demoitc and was sent to Britain after Norden (Nelson) stopped
Napoleon’s takeover. It’s granite and allowed Champollion to unlock the key to egyptian
hieroglyphs by uncovering the language was not purely phnetic.
Slide 4: Statue of Khasekhem seated with his feet atop of people he is conquering.
Found at Abydos. (Hierakonpolis) Khasekehmwy was said to have conquered much of
northern Egypt, and have built expansively throughout his reign. He ruled in the 2nd
Dynasty and was buried at Abydos with the first Dynasty rulers. He is seated wearting
the crown of upper Egypt. Became Khasekehm-wy after being named king. (probably
after reuniting Egypt? Wacky serekh) 5 point answer
Slide 5: These are images of tombs of the 4th Dynasty workers found at Giza. People
buried here most likely were responsible for building the pyramids at Giza and serving
them. On the left is a more mastaba style tomb with niches that were made of mudbrick,
and the right is a “beehive” style tomb which was rare. The tombs held men whose
bodies showed signs of wear indicating they were workers, along with women and
children.
Slide 6: Statue of Khafre from the 4th Dynasty, seated in sema tawy position on top of the
binding of papyrus (Upper Egypt) and lily (Lower Egypt). (other way around!) Khafre’s
pyramid was located at Giza and was the 2nd largest next to Khufu’s. In this statue he
wears the nemes headdress of the king, and embodies the unification and control over all
Egypt. Found at giza.
Slide 7: Burial chamber of king Unis Menere (right the first time!) of the 6th Dynasty
located at Saqqara. This chamber is unique because it is decorated with pyramid texts,
hierglyphics that describe the rituals and events that connect the deceased king to his
afterlife with the gods. Further dsicusses priests roles in taking care of the deceased king.
Gives us insight to daily funtions of a pyramid. 5 point answer
Slide 8: Statue includes father, biggest most dominant figure, his wife to the right, and
his child to the left. You can tell it’s a child because of the shaved head on one side and
braided hair on the other. These became more common in the 5th Dynasty. Made from
stone. (Not quite a full answer – need to mention come from tomb contexts and what
function private statues serve in the Old Kingdom.)
Slide 9: This is a relief found at the 5th century (Dynasty but I’ve got you) pyramid of
Sahure at Abusir. The temple itself seems to be quite a few steps down in scale and
architecture from its predecessors at Giza, however, the reilefs are exquisite. This relief
shows prisoners bonded together. In the relief each prisoner is different.
Slide 10: 6th Dynasty thought to be from Aswan. This is a stone carved statue of Pepi II
and his mother. It is believed his mother ruled as Queen Regent while he was too young.
The statue has two view poitns that allow each “subject” to be seen straight on. Although
his size indicates he is a child, he is not depicted as a child, but rather as an adult king.
Both mother and son wear the traditional uraeus head piece of the snake to “bite’
enemies.
Serdab: A serdab is a hidden chamber in tombs. In Egyptian tombs, there will be a room
in which will be completely closed and contained, exept one small window. Through the
window one can see the head of a sculpture of the deceased, always looking forward.
This statue is in the grave and serdab for two reasons. Firstly, it is there to receive and
collect sacrificial offerings. Secondly, it embodies the soul of the dead individual. It is
important because it shows how spiritual Egyptians were, for they truly believed a statue
could embody a human being.
Abydos is an important burial city in southern Egypt. At Um el-Qaab, which means the
mother of pots, there is a cemetery. In Naqada I the cemetery was for everybody. In
Naqada II it was only for elites and in Naqada III it was for kings, such as Narmer and
Ka. IN the north there were funerary enclosures for the kings. Famous tombs in Um alQa’ab are U-j, the first king type person, Ka and Narmer (the first kings of Dynasty 0).
Abydos remained the burial spot of the kings until the 2nd Dynasty. Ist Dynasty kings
had subsidiary graves with sacrifices of people and lions.
Snefru: Was the 1st king of the 4th Dynasty. Known for creating the 1st “traditional”
pyramid at Meidum. This pyramid initially was supposed to be a step pyramid but
changed during the building process. He had 2 more pyramids built in his reign, the Bent
Pyramid at Dashur (built on sand hence the “bent”) and finally the Red Pyramid which
was much more conservative with a flatter slpe. Snefru’s grandson Heminu was the main
architect of Khufu’s Great Pyramid. Domination and sacrifice were common themes in
decoration of Snefru’s pyramids (not in his pyramids, which were undecorated, but
correct that we have seen images in class of Snefru smiting and it’s otherwise a great
answer so I’m not taking anything off) Some famous mastabas were of Snefru’s wife and
Itet and Nefermaat, where the first types of “daily-life” scene decorations were.
Harkhuf was a high official during the 6th Dynasty and was, like Weni, eventually made
“governor” of Upper Egypt. He is known for military expeditions into Nubia and farther
south. His tomb at Aswan shows a picture (relief) of him walking out of the tomb on one
side. Al letter from the boy king, Pepi II, is on another side of Harkhuf’s tomb. Pepi II
tells Harkhuf in the letter how excited he is about the dancing pygmy that Harkhuf is
bringing. All of these things indicate how important Harkhuf was to the king. It also is
salient of the emergence of provinces in Egypt that the king needed a governor.
Sun temple – they were built at Abusir. 6 are listed in the Abusir papyri but only two
have been located. From the 5th Dynasty. It was interesting sun temples were built
because the kings at this time had temples already dedicated to the main god. Indeed,
shift to perhaps a new god. Those temples were open and had depictions of the 3
seasons, innundation, growing and cultivation. (Just shy of perfect – whose do we have?
What form do they take? Vagueness about Heliopolis in the middle.)
Daily Life Scene: Starting in the 3rd/4th Dynasties, mastabas contained scenes of daily
life depicted in the tomb walls. These scenes were there to enable the deceased
individual to continue on in the afterlife living just as they had in their first life. The
scenes depicted agriculture and food, making sure the deceased had food to eat in the
afteflife. The artwork had scenes of rebirth, (metaphorical references to them rather than
direct scenes) allowing the decased to be reborn. In addition to daily life scenes on the
walls, individuals were often buried with slave figurines, allowing the individuals to
contain slaves in the afterlife. This is significant for it showed how much the Egyptians
believed in the afteflife, and also how significant and important they viewed lavishly
burying the deceased bodies with goods and artwork.