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Egypt 3
The New Kingdom began when Pharaoh Ahmose I of the XVII Dynasty overthrew the Hyksos, a
warrior people from Syria who wanted to rule Egypt. The ancient gods and goddesses had again
delivered their people from war and bondage, and an outpouring of thanks began. New temples
were built and older ones were restored as the Egypt began its second era of greatness in the
New Kingdom .(around 1550 B.C.)
The Temple at Luxor
A great temple was built
on the banks of the Nile at
Luxor, and dedicated to the
gods Amun, Mut (say moot),
and Khonsu.
Amun was the physical incarnation of the Sun. He took
the form of the
solar disc
and was seen as
he travelled across the sky each day.
Mut was his wife and Khonsu
was an associated diety.
The plan of their Temple
followed a straight line from
its pylon courtyard entrance all the way to the inner sanctum
where the cult statuewherewas
worshipped. Since the path of the sun across the sky was
a straight line, and the Nile river
flowed in a straight line across the desert, so itʼs not surprising that the Egyptians based much of
their art and architecture on the straight line: it was their view of the world.
On a high holy day, the pharoah and the royal
family, his high ranking court officials, the
priests and priestesses of the temple, and the
rest of his court and the common people would
approach the temple on foot. They would walk
in the order of their rank and status (Pharaoh
first, commoners last)
The procession would first walk down an
avenue of guardian sphinxes, and enter the
temple through the first pylon gate.
The massive high walls of the pylon courtyard cut off the outside world, and enveloped the
worshippers in a sacred space. As the royal retinue worked its way through each successive
courtyard of the temple, people would drop back according to rank and watch the rest
proceed. The walkway of the temple was elevated so that those left behind could still
participate as witnesses until the procession reached the hypostyle hall.
The hypostyle hall was a monumental covered courtyard. Its
roof was supported by columns of two different heights.
A major innovation the Egyptians brought to post and lintel
construction was the use of tall columns in the center of a roof,
and shorter columns on the sides to create a clerestory or a
window wall between the two heights that would admit light
into the interior space.
The Egyptians
made many types of
columns,which usually had
capitals ( decorative carved
tops) based on plant forms
like papyrus bundles or lotus
blossoms .
Beyond the hypostyle hall
there were more, smaller
passages and courtyards
beyond which fewer and
fewer individuals would continue. At last even the priests were left behind because only the
Pharoah, who was semi-divine, could enter the ʻholy of holiesʼ, the sacred place where
Amunʼs golden cult statue was enshrined.
Ramesses II, also called Ramesses the Great, was a prolific builder of temples and monuments. .
At Abu Simbel in far upper Egypt, above Aswan, close to the border with Sudan, in what was
then Nubia, he cut two monumental temples directly into the stone face of a cliff. One temple was
for himself and the other was for his favorite wife, Nefertari.
Ramessesʼ temple is
distinguished by the four seated
portraits of him that flank the
entrance. Each is 67ʼ tall. One
gigantic head, sheared away
in antiquity, lies broken on the
ground at the figureʼs feet.
Ramessesʼ ruined head inspired
the Romantic poet Shelly to
write: .
“half-sunk a shattered visage
lies, whose frown
and wrinkled lip
and sneer of cold command
tell that its sculptor well these passions read...
And on the pedestal, these words, appear:
My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings, Look on my Works, Ye mighty and despair!ʼ
IInside, two rows of standing
portraits face each other.
The avenue between them,
leads to the the inner sanctum
of the god. (It is that dark door
at the end) On October 20
and February 20 , the sun
penetrates all the way into
this sanctuary and illuminates
the sacred figures there.
When the Egyptian government decided to build
the Aswan High Dam to control flooding of the Nile,
Ramessesʼ temple at Abu Simbel was threatened. An
international consortium funded the moving of the temple
to higher ground. It was cut into blocks, each block was
numbered, moved, and the temple reconstructed on its
new site, along with Nefertariʼs temple as well.
Ramesses was known as the great builder because he had
more monuments constructed in his honor than any other
pharoah, and his portrait head was ubiquitous all over Egypt.
Ramessesʼ memorials to himself caused generations of the future
to imagine him as a symbol of tyrrany and egotism, but in fact he
was Egyptʼs last great pharoah.
Ramesses ruled for 67 years, he had several wives and
a few dozen children. After conquering Nubia, Palestine and
Syria, he ushered in a long period of peace and prosperity for his
people.
He lived to be 86, and when his mummy was examined he had
arthritis, a bad back, and his teeth were completely worn down
from use. But he still looks good for his age.
Ramesses was not the most unusual pharoah, though. That
distinction belongs to Amenhotep , the heretic King who
sponsored a new religion, a new capital, and new style of
art.
Time for a Change:
Since the earliest dynasties of the old kingdom, the principal god of the Egyptian pantheon had
been Amun-Ra, the god of the sun who had power over light and air.
The majority of Egyptian temples were dedicated to Amun. (Including the temple at Luxor)
The Priests and Priestesses of Amun were part of a privileged class, for they had an intimate
association with the highest of the Gods. In power and prestige, they were second to only to the
royal family.
Perhaps by the 18th dynasty they were too powerful, at least from the Pharaohʼs point of view.
Amenhotep III simply declared the old gods invalid. He closed the temples of Amun, turned out
the priestly class, and introduced a new diety named Aten . Aten did not have a human form
and he wa not associated with any animal. He was simply the sun disc itself.
Aten would not be the chief god of the Egyptian pantheon, Amenhotep insisted, he would be
the only god. (This version of monotheism predates Christianity by about 1300 years) Then
Amenhotep changed his name to Akenhaten, moved his capital to Tell-el Amarna, and went right
on with his heretical reform of Egyptian religion, art, and life.
Akhenaten s portraits have an unusual appearance,
with elongated
proportions and
curving lines
He is un-idealized, and his features
have been the subject of much debate.
Some medical scientists see his
elongated jaw and coarse features as
evidence that he was odd,and perhaps he suffered from some rare medical condition (one theory
proposed is pituitary gigantism or acromeglia) that might explain his behavior.
Amarna Style
To record a radical king a radical (for Egypt) new style of art appears:, it is a more relaxed and
naturalistic style, where characteristics of the individual were allowed even in royal portraits.
Notice also that his body is rounded and naturalistic, softer and more lifelike than traditional
representations of Pharaohs in the past
His wife, Nefertiti was the subject of the bestknown and best -loved works from the Amarna
period.
The flowing diagonal lines of her neck, jaw,
and crown are a dramatic departure from
the blockiness of the traditional square grid
used for sculpture.
This curving line is one of the main
characteristics of the Amarna style, and a
light playful mood in another, especially in
pharaonic portraits.
Akhenaten replaced the old image of a stiffly idealized
powerful pharoah with a new image: an ordinary family
man who just happens to be Pharaoh. At right he makes
offerings to his god, and below he and Nefertiti play with their
daughters under the protective sun disc.
Notice
that
Nefertitiʼs proportions are less symbolic, and
almost equal to his.
Akhenatenʼs reign lasted less than 20
years. After his death the old religion was
restored, his temples were destroyed,
and his name was removed from public
monuments. It seems the Egyptian people
did not share his enthusiasm for religious
reform.
Upon his death, Akhenatenʼs young son-in-law succeeded him: his name was
Tutankhamen. Due to his youth and short reign Egyptologists wondered whether he actually
ever existed, or was a mythical King. Ironically, he is now the most famous Pharoah of our time
because his is the only royal tomb ever discovered intact.
King Tut
In the 1920ʼs an expedition set out to search for the tomb of
the legendary king. English archaeologist Howard Carter had
staked out an area in the Valley of the Kings, ( the necropolis
opposite Luxor) and had searched for years with no results.
With just enough money left for one more dig, Carter had his
laborers removed sand and soil down to the desert bedrock.
There they discovered a stone sill cut into the desert floor,
and hieroglyphic seals that bore Tutankahmenʼs cartouche.
Walking past a guardian
figure of Anubis, they
found heaps of sculptures,
furniture, golden objects
and other grave goods.In
the burial chamber of
the King. There his
sarcophagus was guarded
by four golden statues of
the goddess Selket: one
at each corner.
The seal on the door of the tomb had been broken, indicating
that it had been entered, and
the expeditionʼs hopes sank.
When they entered the tomb
they found grave goods jumbled
in confusion, as if a robbery
attempt had been bungled.
Within the royal sarcophagus, they found the intact mummy of the 18 year-old king wearing a
solid gold funeral mask, which was enclosed in three successive body cases. The outer two were
gilded wood and the inner one was solid gold. (estimated to be a quarter ton of pure gold)
When the mummy was x-rayed, numerous amulets of gold and precious
stones were found to be tucked into his winding shroud for symbolic
protection.
The amount of gold was
staggering: its golden
statues of the king , golden
gods and goddesses, golden shrines
and gold furniture made the treasures of
Tutankhamen the richest hoard ever unearthed .
Its discovery created a sensation worldwide that continues to this day.
When one considers the short life and brief reign of King Tut, the question arises: if such a
young and obscure Pharoah was buried with such riches, what must the tomb treasures of
Ramesses and Cheops have been like?
The fact that some of the principal characters in the Tutankhamen drama died shortly after the
tombʼs discovery gave rise to rumors that a mysterious ancient curse was at work. This popular
misconception gave rise to several bad horror films and lots of jokes about mummies wreaking
vengeance on those who disturb their eternal rest.
What finally became of Egyptian civilization?
After the reign of Ramesses II, in the19th dynasty, around 1200 b.c.e., Egypt began a long slow
slide into subjection by foreign powers. The Persian king Darius conquered Egypt in 521 b.c., and
Alexander the Great did the same in 332 b. c.
In 51 b.c. Cleopatra VII ascended the throne. When the Romans came to conquer Egypt, Cleopatra
seduced and had a son by Julius Caesar. She intended him to grow up to rule both Rome and
Egypt, but Juliusʼs murder in the Senate prevented that. When the Roman general Antony came
to conquer Egypt, she lured him away from his duties in Rome to live with her in “pleasure and
indugence” (Baedeker) for the ten years.
Antony, in his absence was eventually declared an enemy of Rome and the Roman General
Octavian marched against him. Antony and Cleopatra were defeated by him at the battle of Actium,
and took their own lives.
Octavian returned to Rome triumphant and became Caesar Augustus (weʼll get to know him better
later on)
After the fall of Rome, in the 4th century a.d., Egypt became part of the Christian Byzantine Empire,
and in 640 a.d. it converted to Islam. It remains and Islamic country to this day.
Since then, Egypt has been conquered by the Ottoman Turks, invaded by Napoleon, and ruled by the
British. It has only been independent since 1952.
In the case of Egypt, geography was destiny. A great desert on each side of a single river flowing to
the sea created a unique culture, one that lasted for 4,000 years and produced monuments intended
to last for all eternity .