Collected excellent answers from real exams (version 1.3). 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. (For instance, you could not possibly say everything
about Abydos that we covered in class and in the books.)
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:
This is Niuserre’s Sun Temple at Abusir more specifically Abu Ghurob, but that’s
really part of Abusir
5th Dynasty
made of stone
in the background the Abusir pyramids can be seen
set-up like a pyramid except the central building is a ben-ben (small obelisk), valley
temple
chamber of seasons
only in 5th dynasty were sun temples made (6 kings had them) shows growing
importance of Ra
altar for offerings
shows each king wanted own connection to Ra, since each king built own sun temple
instead of reusing though since we only have 2 on the ground this is less certain;
certainly they renamed them and considered them new foundations in some sense
Slide 3:
These are stone servant statuettes illustrated making bread, found in the tombs of
5th dynastic era
They show negative space which is new in Egyptian art at the time
Made out of stone
Still maintain the frontal position
Meant for the tomb owner to take with them into the afterlife
Assures tomb owner has what they need in the afterlife
Slide 4:
Green along the Nile River indicates that the river suppports vegetation and life
along its banks
Lots of green in the north Delta region
Water from the Nile comes from three main branches, west to east in order: White
Nile, Blue Nile, Atbara (last two “moody adolescents” of rivers that cause most of the
flooding)
“the gift of the Nile” – inundation brought silt from Ethiopian mountains which
fertilized soil
Nile is the center of Egyptian life!
Flows south to North, winds fo north to south, so going either direction on the Nile
is easy
Egypt’s borders are very much geographically determined, which is why Egypt is
politically unified for much of its history
Slide 5:
2nd Dynasty statue of priest Hetepdjef, made of stone
back of statue has inscription of serekhs of 3 kings in the 2nd dynasty
(Hetepsekhemwy, Raneb and Ninetjer) which is how we know order of succession
from beginning-middle of 2nd dynasty (the statue itself is probably early 3rd Dynasty,
but its historical significance is for the period mentioned)
found at Saqqara, where these kings are buried
not idealistic representation of a person
Slide 6:
Tomb of Ti
5th Dynasty
Saqqara
Stone
Daily life scene found in the private tomb of Ti
These scenes are a testament to the rebirth of daily life in the afterlife
Scale shows importance – biggest person is tomb owner
Not an accurate depiction of daily life, but rather what is needed to benefit the tomb
owner in the afterlife
Women is subordinate
Slide 7:
Naqada I
Figurines of stone (ivory but I’m not sure I said that in class)
Inlaid eyes (lapis lazuli from Afghanistan – trade!)
Predynastic period
Sexuality of images represets rebirth
Site: Naqada
Buried with dead – indicates belief in afterlife
Time before elite distinguished in tombs, no kings
Slide 8:
Relief of Snefru with mace
Wadi Maghiri (Maghara)
4th Dynasty
This relief from Wadi Maghiri in Sinai, at a location where rock was quarried by the
Egyptians. It indicates Snefru’s international movement on expeditions and his
power as a king – all kings were depicted as conquerers, and here we wee Snefru
with a mace dominating an enemy. His serekh with his Horus name is on the right
of the image.
Slide 9:
This was found in Den’s tomb from the 1st Dynasty in Abydos/Umm el-Qaab. There
was an explosion in writing during this time, so this is a tag that was tied to
something and had a list of offerings to the king written on it. Den’s name is written
on a serekh and there is a sed festival scene in the top right. This may be an ivory
tag. (It’s Ebony but ivory is a good guess given that we’ve seen other ivory tags from
early.)
Slide 10:
This image is a stone statue of 6th dynast king Pepi I offering nu pots to god. This is
HUGE! This is clearly a king we have the nemes headdress along with uraeus. He’s
in a subordinate position – offering things. Previously kings only accepted gifts. In
the 6th Dynasty kings built chapels all over in provinces and actually worshipped
there themselves. This statue likely came fro ma province but was bought on the art
market and not properly excavated so we can’t be sure of its location.
Mastaba
Mastabas were where important people who were not the king were buried. Many
times these people would still be part of the royal family like a son or something
who was not in direct line to the throne. These people often carried many titles:
scribe, overseer, etc they were not royal instead private (even though those terms
overlap a bit) and were very important in the royal court. Even though it was not
where the king was buried it was still for the king/the king was important in them.
In the 1st dynasty mastabas were niched on all sides. Starting in the 2nd dynasty
there were only 2 niches (one for the man on the south side and one for the wife on
the north) both niches were on the east side facing the land of the living. Inside the
niches there would be statues and reliefs. They were places to receive continual
offerings, bring the deceased bread and beer. The reliefs depicted daily life scenes
that were important for the afterlife and also served as an insurance policy. In the
5th Dynasty the mastaba form became almost unrecognizable and was very
irregular. It also was not near the king the person served.
Harkhuf
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.
Abydos
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 al-Qa’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.
Pyramid Town
These refer to towns where people lived and maintained the temples of pyramid
complexes (like how people donated to Menkaure for c 300 years) as well as to
towns constructed during the construction of the pyramids. Workers lived nearby,
except seasonal farmers who only came during flood season, and towns held
barracks for short term workers, galleries, bakeries, grain silos, and even
cemeteries. Grain was like $$, the bakeries were industrial bakeries for a work force
and also had beer. Many women under 30 buried here, childbirth still more
dangerous than pyramid building.
Nabta Playa
Settlement form Sahara Neolithic
No agriculture, but had somewhat sedentary population
Huts arranged in regular pattern
Stone circles found nearby w/ cattle burials inside some circles – evidence of
ceremony to ritual
Had cattle and ceramics
One of the Predynastic (not a word we actually use until the later Neolithic Nile
Valley cultures)populations that later began to develop into what becomes the Old
Kingdom of Egypt
Napoleonic expedition started in 1798 with his main goal being to blockade the
straight of Hormuz and screw England. It is important to egyptology because
Napoleon brought 160 savants with him that documented and drew monuments
and other things about ancient egypt. They even wrote the “Description of Egypt”, a
scientific analysis of the country from ancient times to modern times. Also led to
finding of Rosetta stone, which let Champollion find out how to translate
hieroglyhics. (text was in demotic, greek and heiroglyphs)