egyptian

Sophy Lee Egyptian History

Reading Notes

Herodotus, Diodorus, Strabo, and Plutarch were historians who visited Egypt.

Conservation, restoration, reconstruction

George Andrew Reisner best known for precise work at Giza. Taught staff well. Like Petrie, recorded pottery. Pottery can tell us about trade, economy, diet, agriculture, culture, technology, chronology.

Art historical phase typology phase contextual phase.

The Nile. Aswan dam. Three seasons: inundation, growth, summer. Barley. King owned all land. Divided into estates.

Quarries Stone tools. Metal chisels at the end. Stone ramps to move the stones from the quarries to sites.

Cartouche: name rings; reflect the fourth and fifth names of king.

Son of Re: king’s title from the fourth dynasty on.

Bull’s tail, falcon, lion animals that symbolize the king.

Shendyt kilt: kilt worn by the king.

White crown of upper Egypt, Red Crow of lower Egypt, Double crown of the unified land, Blue crown (khepresh, or war helmet)

Crook and flail signify the king’s power.

Maat: fundamental concept of Egyptian world view. Signifies correct structure of life and world. Social solidarity and the responsible governing of the land. Sun God created the king to realize maat and destroy Isfet, or chaos and injustice. The king is bound to maat, not above it. King is transitory person in this role in a line of successors and he knows this. The king’s death means the possible destruction of the world.

Sed: ceremony after 30 years of rule and every 3 years for the king to show his death/rebirth.

Kingship began in 3200BC, shown by the tombs of Hierakonpolis and Abydos and the original Palermo stone, which dates kings down to the Fifth Dynasty. Since the old kingdom, the king has been seen as human. But he can perform his duties so ideally presumably as to be almost equal to a god.

Mentuhotep II Founder of the Middle Kingdom

Ahmose Founder of the New Kingdom


Dynasty 0: Started out with chiefs, burial in different sites, then a two-tiered social system, controlled on a supra-kin basis, but this was just microstates and protokingdoms. Abydos and Hierakonpolis competed for about 150 years until the start of Dynasty 1. North Egypt had this too, as is shown by the increase in funerary sites which show the stratification of society. Horus falcon recorded on a stylized palace façade with the king’s name inscribed on it. Narmer was the last king of Dynasty 0, the father of Menes, and by him the final unification of the country was achieved. Multiple regional kings competing with each other in this time started associating them with the falcon god Horus—one ideological development. Other ideological development was the idea of Egypt vs. non Egypt people, which arose more during unification.

Narmer palette depicts unification. Structure. Stiffly emblematic. On one side, it shows the king standing, striking down an enemy. A falcon holds an oval of land on a leash; the land, personified by the addition of a human head, is identified by the papyrus reeds growing from it. These scenes have always been thought to depict the conquest of an area in Lower Egypt, and a label from the time of Narmer recently found in Abydos, identifying a year by the "smiting" of a land identified by papyrus reeds, confirms this interpretation. Although it is impossible to give even an approximate account of the historical events this palette records, it may be regarded as referring to the final stage in the political unification of the country. Clearcut, rigid construction. The whole concept of the representation also shifts from procedure to structure: from violence and war as deeds and events in themselves to the political order they have imposed. Consequently the picture of the king striking down his enemies represents not just a single moment and a single event, but the state's claim to dominion in general and its monopoly of power.

King Menes is the Horus Aha, or “warrior,” whose tomb is in the necropolis of the First Dynasty kings in Abydos. He was not the unifier but rather the heir to the unified country. His tomb has three large chambers instead of the customary two tombs side by side. Shows the uniquely first dynasty custom of burying royalty side by side. Conventionally thought that he was from the south, was the first king of Egpyt, conquered the north and founded the capital Memphis, and thus unified the country. Before that, Egypt was divided into two kingdoms.

Unification of the two lands: customary for every king to do. Also ritual conquest of enemies from all four corners of the earth. Ritual destruction of clay figurines. It was his way of asserting the superiority of the Nile Valley inhabitants.

King Djer – there is one rectangular burial chamber in a big pit in the sand. King buried here. Maybe sand roofing. Structures for sacrifice maybe.

Access to tombs during this time were left free to the southwest.

Mastaba tombs Large rectangular buildings decorated with a complex niche pattern on the outside. Found in Saqqara and between Tarkhan & Abu Roash. Only one example is in Upper Egypt. Appeared during the rule of King Aha. Function similar to Early Dynasty buildings and architecturally stems from the Near East’s niche architecture. Inside, the burial chambers were


dug out of the desert ground and roofed with timber and covered with a tumulus, then by the superstructure. First Dynasty saw the introduction of a stairway, giving access to the burial chamber and allowing construction to be finished before the funeral. We don’t know whether they are the real tombs of First Dynasty kings or false tombs. The shape of the burial chamber and the covered tumulus above its roof makes it linked to the royal tombs at Abydos. Subordinate tombs too. Boats first start appearing in these First Dyansty great niche tombs.

Followers of Horus: linked with a countrywide count (census) for tax purposes. Coutning periods remembered within each king’s reign. There was not a nation-wide administrative system at the time.

Elephantine: had a fortress; Egypt’s southernmost border town; it’s an island settlement at Aswan by the first cataract.

Thinite period refers to the First and Second dynasties.

Old Kingdom: Third to Sixth dynasties. The age of the pyramids. No external threats. But it was wary of the Nubian and south Palestinian princes.

Letters to the dead started to appear in the Old Kingdom. People had problems so they wrote it on small clay dishes and put a delicacy on top.

The First Dynasty emerged 3100 years ago, led to the collapse of Nubia and made the Nubians nomadic. It lasted about 175 years. Then Dynasty 2.

150 years later, the Old Kingdom Began.

Second Dynasty – the first three kings were buried in Saqqara. May have split in the second half of the dynasty. These kings were from the upper classes of Memphis and were not the revival of an unbroken local Thinite tradition.

Hetepsekhemui was the first king. He founded a royal cemetery there south of later Djoser’s pyramid complex and therefore south of the necropolis with the great niche tombs of the First Dynasty. There wasn’t enough space in the necropolis. New design: long storage galleries branch off from a long central corridor which is entered via a ramp from the north and leads past stone slab barriers to the king’s chamber. It was to provide room for a lot of grave goods like furniture, tableware, and provisions, etc for the deceased—a complete household. This idea faded in the Third Dynasty. Superstructure would’ve been a huge mastaba, ornamented with niches. Name stela of the king’d successor, like at the royal tombs of Abydos.

Nynetjer, Peribsen, Khasekhemui were all Second Dynasty kings. Peribsen and Khasekhemui built their tombs at Abydos. Put them in the royal cemetery of the First Dynasty and laid out huge walled ritual precincts (valley precints/forts) to emphasize a direct link with the old tradition of Abydos. Storage areas like the gallery tombs in Saqqara but built out of brick


instead of cut out of stone like in Saqqara. Peribsen was honored by a funerary cult in Saqqara; his reign at the latest was when the two parts of Egypt started fighting. His votive offerings in his Hierakonpolis temple are large stone vases describing the year as battle, defeat of lower Egypt and the symbol for the unification of upper and lower Egypt. The impetus for the creation of a unified Egypt would almost always come from Upper Egypt but lower Egypt had the upper hand structurally. Egypt originated in the Thinite dynasties but Memphis influenced the development of that state.

Third dynasty is when private tomb statues became tradition. Found in the ancient capital of Memphis, especially Saqqara and Giza. They were to serve as an alter ego for the deceased, not necessarily to be seen. Food and drink were placed in front of the false door in the tomb chapel and incese was burned. Then the deceased entered the statue to consume the offerings through the statue. So the statue could have the name and individualized features. The Opening of the Mouth Ritual was a reviving ritual performed on the statue by the priest. They were often put into a room called a serdah, which means a cave or subterranean chamber. Mastabas were created for only a single generation so we see in a serdah either single statues of the deceased or he and his wife. Children are represented with their parents at a small scale. Pseudo groups are statues where the same person is represented two or three times.

The standing figure: men show a striding posture with weight on back leg. Women show a striding posture or legs together. Arms at the sides loosely. Wooden statues have the long staff.

The seated statue: Men sit cross-legged on a mat or on the ground. If he has an open papyrus role on his lap he is a reader and if he has a reed in his hand he is a scribe. Was the most common artifact from the Third Dynasty on, followed by the standing figures and then squatting figures.

King Djoser was the first king of the Third Dynasty. He combined the ideas in the Upper Egyptian royal tombs of Abydos and those in the lower Egyptian royal cemetery. Anubis the mortuary god protected the tomb. The superstructure was a three tiered step mastaba that was oriented east-west to enclose the great ceremonial courts to the south and the north between the high buildings. The serdab was a small chapel leaning against the north side of the pyramid. TheDjoser complex is not merely a model of the royal palace, as was previouslyassumed, but a representation in stone of Egypt in the afterlife.The south and north tombs are symbols for the royal cemetery ofAbydos as well as of the Lower Egyptian palace. They are the religiouscenters of the royal cult. The south court that they enclose and thechapels of the small ceremonial court in the eastern section representthe land of Egypt and its shrines, the world of the living, which is thesetting for the eternal cult ceremonies of the king. The north courtsymbolizes the wealthy marshes of the Delta, standing metaphoricallyfor the offering place ofthe northern heaven; the western area with theelongated niche tomb symbolizes the "holy realm," the world of thedead. This stone image of Egypt in the afterlife is surrounded by a tall


enclosure wall, which protects it from the chaos of the unorderedworld. This wall has as many as 15 gateways, yet only one functions asan entrance. Through its precise orientation to the north, following thecourse of the Nile, the complex is linked to the axis of the world, whosepole is the pyramid with the royal tomb, the palace of eternity.

Turin Royal Papyrus: starts with the 19th dynasty; list of kings with their dates; the name of Djoser is emphasized. He was thought of as the initiator of monumental stone architecture. Role he shared with son and chief architect, Imhotep. Each king had to construct his own tomb precinct and his own pyramid as a palace for the next world, and as a representation of the eternal Egypt of the afterlife. Written in the New Kingdom. Talks about a break in the 5 th and 6th

dynasties because of a change in family.

Monumental architecture the first was the Step pyramid.

After Djoser, none of his successors completed his own tomb. They reduced the number of courts and they tried to make higher step pyramids.

Huni was the last king of the third dynasty. He built a series of small step pyramids from Elephantine to Ethribis in the Delta. These weren’t tombs but rather royal monuments as if they were towers for his palaces.

Tomb chapels started to be adorned in the end of the Third and beginning of the Fourth dynasties.

Fourth Dynasty: the first nonroyal tombs in stone instead of mubrick. The tomb still had about the same structure though, part above ground and part below ground. On the walls, the time sequence is that the earlier event is at the top and the later one is in a lower register.

Reserve heads were replacement heads and were life sized heads found mainly in Fourth Dynasty tombs. More than 30, mostly from Giza. Made as individual heads and not fragments of statues. Placed at the bottom of a deep shaft leading into the burial chamber. Placed in niches in the wall that sealed the burial chamber off from the shaft. Most date from the time of Cheops and Chephren. Represents maybe the fear of losing one’s head in the afterlife, substitutes for the tomb statue, or to preserve the look of the dead even when the mummy decayed, so the soul could identify the body. They were not cult statues so they were not used so that the dead could receive offerings.

Bust of Ankhaef is unusual in its realism.

King Snefru: Conqueror of Foreign Lands; fourth dynasty. Egyptian campaigns in the south – Lower Nubia. Large pyramid schemes. Campaigns in Nubia and Libya. Built first two pyramids as step pyramids in Meidum. He modernized the pyramid at the end of his long reign. Still has mortuary temple (false) and the south tomb, reminiscent of the third dynasty. The tomb chamber


is no longer sunk deep into the subterranean shaft but lies raised above the rock on in the body of the pyramid. The entrance is on the north side from now on and remains here throughout the Old Kingdom. The king would go through the tomb corridor leading up from deep underground to ascend to Re in the northern sky.

Bent pyramid. South Dahshur, was originally supposed to be 150 m tall but the ground underneath started giving away so they tried to save the building with a thick facing layer and reducing the angle of the slope.

So Snefru started trying to build a third pyramid. The Red Pyramid at north Dahshur had a flatter slope. Built in layers idea was rejected in favor of horizontal courses of stone. The chambers are only just below ground and reached by an exit in the north wall nearly 30m above ground. He was buried here.

Re: the sun god, so the pharaoh starting in dynasty four got power from this god and his divinity rested in his role as king. Also, because of the reliance on the sun king, we started having east-west oriented pyramids, and square instead of rectangle. We thus see the start of the long causeway, which leads from the east, the land of the living, to the pyramid tomb, ending at the mortuary temple that lies to the east of the pyramid. The entrance gate to the causeway developed into a valley temple, cult center of the pyramid town; the goddess Hathor and the king were worshipped as deities.

Cheops was the son of Snefru and identified very closely with Re. His successors called themselves the son of Re. He wanted an even more ambitious tomb. He built his pyramid to the east of Giza on a solid rock foundation. He had the most powerful ever claims of divine kingship. He was probably king for 30 years. It’s because of the training of the managers, architects, and workers engaged in projects that lasted 50 years. We think about 20,000, or 1% of the population was involved in building the pyramids at any given time.

The design of the pyramids ws determined by religious ceremonies and the needs of the cult—nothing else.

Great Sphinx is the biggest sculpture ever made by man. Part lion and part man. Power of a wild animal and intelligence of a human ruler. We think Cheops built it, for several reasons. After Snefru in Dahshur, it was Cheops in Giza whose designsand achievements are ultimately the finest. His pyramids, his temple,and even his statues, as surviving fragments show, are at once innovativeand supreme achievements. He is the great originator, the sun god;his sons follow him. He is therefore the most obvious candidate to bethe inventor of the form of the Sphinx. The layout of the entire plateauargues for this interpretation. The causeway ofChephren takes accountin its slanting course of something earlier, something important thatalready stood there; from the situation as it stands this can only havebeen the Sphinx. Stylistic considerations also point indisputedly towardCheops. The overall form of the Sphinx's face is broad, almost square.On the other hand the features of Chephren were long, noticeably

After Snefru in Dahshur, it was Cheops in Giza whose designsand achievements are ultimately the finest. His pyramids, his temple,


and even his statues, as surviving fragments show, are at once innovativeand supreme achievements. He is the great originator, the sun god;his sons follow him. He is therefore the most obvious candidate to bethe inventor of the form of the Sphinx. The layout of the entire plateauargues for this interpretation. The causeway ofChephren takes accountin its slanting course of something earlier, something important thatalready stood there; from the situation as it stands this can only havebeen the Sphinx. Stylistic considerations also point indisputedly towardCheops. The overall form of the Sphinx's face is broad, almost square.On the other hand the features of Chephren were long, noticeably

Djedefre was the son and successor of Cheops. He built a small pyramid but at a very commanding position at Abu Roash, north of Giza, so that it dominates the landscape.

Chephren was the brother of Djedefre and his pyramid was supposed to be as high as his father’s. Very simple chambers but he had a lavish pyramid temple and valley temple.

Mycerinus is Chephren’s son. There are a lot of rooms that are comparable only with the Pyramid of Cheops.

Portcullis: stone plugs released from above in the entrance corridors.

Pharaoh Izezi went even farther south.

Oasis Road was the route that could be traveled by donkey.

Fifth dynasty: focus shifted from pyramid to mortuary temple. The pyramids were at Abusir and Saqqara. They were considerably smaller. But the mortuary temples got bigger. The temples absorbed the entire east side of the pyramid. Shrines were built to the sun god next to royal mortuary complexes in Abusir. These new shrines stopped being built at the end of the Fifth Dynasty, showing an increasing interest in the cult of Osiris and the concept of afterlife in the underworld. Movement away from royal and toward a professional bureaucracy.

Menkaure and the story about the priest who tripped. Shows the beginning of event based biographies rather than idealized biographies.

Pyramid Texts: comprehensive collection of spells against dangers in the afterlife to provide the deceased king with magical tools needed to navigate transition to afterlife. Appeared in Saqqara. Spells and talks about the ideology of the king. Carved onto the walls of the royal tomb chambers. Provide the earliest detailed information about Egyptian religious beliefs.

Sixth dynasty: Pyramids and temples of kings Teti, Pepi I and Pepi II are technically perfect. Decline of the Old Kingdom started with the disintegration of the central administration during the loooooong reign of Pepi II. His mortuary complex was built and the country lay idle for decades. The provincial governor started to rule without royal command and became independent. So the central administration lost the resources of the provinces.

Pepi II: Thebes became the administrative center of the south


Middle Kingdom: Democratization of funerary beliefs took place in the Middle Kingdom. Private burials’ walls were reserved for scenes taken from everyday life and from offering rituals. These coffin texts were combined with pictures of food and implements.

New Kingdom: Over 190 mortuary spells so Egyptians put them on papyrus rolls. Book of the Dead contained these spells. These spells were recited at burial and at festivals for the dead.


ID Notes

William Matthews Flinders Petrie – 19th century. Detailed excavations. Unlike his contemporaries, also dug up broken pieces and mud brick hovels/minor cemeteries. Started noting the context of his finds; archaeology just as informative as hieroglyphs; first trained staff to excavate. Contemporaries didn’t follow his methods but his students did. Used stratigraphy. Developed system of tracking chronology of tombs by looking at changes in their pottery. Father of Modern Archaeology. Like his contemporaries, he had a deterministic view of the world. Believed that the Pyramids must have been built by a group from the Near East.


Badarian blacktop predynasty


Amratian predynasty

Gerzean predynasty


Gerzean predynasty


Twodog palette predynasty


Gebel el arak predynasty

Hierakonpolis predynasty


Narmer palette predynasty


Abydos djet stela Dynasty 1


Hierakon Khasekhemui Dynasty 2


Djoser step pyramid Dynasty 3


Djoser serdab statue Dynasty 3


Djoser hebsed dynasty 3


Djoser tiles dynasty 3


Saqqara hesyre Dynasty 3


Metjen Saqqara Dynasty 4


Medum Snefru pyramid Dynasty 4

Medum nefermaat dynasty 4


Medum atet dynasty 4

Rahotep nofret Dynasty 4


Dahshur bent pyramid dynasty 4

Dahshur red pyramid dynasty 4


Giza hetephere dynasty 4


Abydos Khufu Dynasty 4


Giza Khufu boat Dynasty 4


Giza Hemiunu Dynasty 4


Giza Wepemnefret Dynasty 4

Giza Khafre pyramid dynasty 4


Giza Khafre Dynasty 4


Giza Ankhaef Dynasty 4


Nefer Reserve Head


Giza Menkaure Dynasty 4


Abusir Ptahshepses Dynasty 5


Unis pyramid texts Dynasty 5


Mereruka niche dynasty 6

Merenre hierakon Dynasty 6


Aswan Qubbet Elhawa Dynasty 6

Reisner

egyptian

Documents

king of dynasty

king menes

rule of king

king djer

names of king

king standing

king of egpyt

dynasty kings