Ancient Egypt Art
3100 BCE to 1500 CE
Egyptian paintings
• In ancient Egypt, art was closely linked to
religion. Egyptians believed when they died
they went to another world. In order for this
to happen the dead body had to be preserved
as a mummy. It was dried, wrapped in cloth
and put in a painted case.
A different view
• Egyptian painters showed
humans differently than
we do today. The head,
arms and legs were
shown from the side, and
eyes are seen from the
front.
• They are not very reallooking but all the things
thought important are
shown clearly for the
purpose of recording
them.
Tombs of the dead
• Tombs of dead people
were decorated with
paintings. These
showed the ways they
lived on earth and the
life they were expecting
in the next world.
• Important people were
always drawn larger
than their servants and
slaves.
Who’s “important”?
Hieroglyphs
• Egyptians wrote by in a
form of picture writing,
called hieroglyphs which
means “sacred writing”.
• Because they wrote in this
language, we know more
about Egyptian society than
most other ancient
cultures!
• They also had a decimal
system of numeration up to
a million!
• Hieroglyphs is a writing
system where characters
looked like images from
their everyday lives.
• Written in rows or columns
and can be read from left to
right or right to left.
• Hieroglyphs were called,
“the words of God” by the
Egyptians and were great
for decorating the walls of
temples, tombs of the dead
and cases of mummies.
Rows or columns
Alphabet
• What everyday objects
do you notice?
King Tut
• King Tutankhamun tomb
which is located in the
Valley of the Kings is by
far the best preserved
royal tomb ever
discovered.
• It was discovered in 1922
by Howard Carter. He
discovered this tomb
which was undisturbed
for over 3,000 years. It’s
discovery astonished the
world.
Walk Inside….
• http://www.youtube.co
m/watch?v=5HKVE5fw9
JY
Create your own mummy case
• Decorate a mummy case filled with Egyptian
style paintings (side view, eyes facing
forward).
• Include hieroglyphs
• Use the hieroglyphs sheet and mummy case
examples to help you
• The more decorated, the better the after life
