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Egypt Study Questions
January 1, 2013
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Egypt
Study Guide Questions
Define the following terms:
necropoliscity of the dead
demonitic writing"popular, public", Late Egyptian simplified system of writing;
Distinguished from hieratic
"reserve" head-
"reserve Heads- (duplicate, or spare)
of a prince of the family of Khufu
Attention only given to carving of headunion of formal and realistic
Reserve heads were placed outside of the burial chamber- purpose not understood
clerestoryThe fenestrated part of a building that rises above the roofs of other parts
fresco seccoplaster dries before painting
leads itself to slow meticulous work
hypostyle hallA hall with a roof supported by columns; applied to the colonnaded hall of the Egyptian
pylon temple
obeliskA tall slender four-sided pillar, gradually tapering as it rises having the top in the form of a
pyramid. The shaft in the Egyptian obelisks is a single stone often having on it
inscriptions or hieroglyphics and erected in honor of distinguished persons or their
achievements
canon of proportionpylonThe Monumental entrance of an Egyptian temple
ben-ben Heliopolis was the seat of the powerful cult of Re, the sun god, whose fetish was
the pyramidal stone the ben- ben.
By the 4th dyn, the pharaohs considered themselves the sons of Re and his
incarnation on earth. Easy step to from the belief that the spirit and power of Re
resided in the pyramidal Ben-ben to belief that their divine spirits and bodies
would be similarly preserved within pyramidal tombs
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Egypt Study Questions
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hieroglyphic writing Picture writing
Pictures or symbols represent a word , or syllable, or sound used in by ancient Egyptians
or others instead of alphabetic letters.
caryatid A female figure that functions as a supporting column
"Book of the Dead"
Ritual of the cult of Osiris is recorded in collections of spells, prayers, formulas, and
counsels that compose the so called "Book of the Dead"
atlantes-
(atlantid)A male figure that functions a as a supporting column
Identify the following:
Flinders Petrie
introduced new excavating techniques, laying ground work for the development of
sounder methods for validating knowledge of Egyptian civilization
Jean Francois Champolliona linguist who deduced that the hieroglyphics were not simply pictographs but the signs of
a once spoken language, vestiges of which survived in Coptic, the later language of
Christian Egypt
This discovery made Champollion an important figure in the new science of Archaeology
and the special sub-branch of Egyptology
Menes
(Probably Narmer) The king that first united upper and lower Egypt
Imhotep- Imhotep- architect = first known artist of recorded history
greatest achievement was to translate the impermanent building types of both Upper and
Lower Egypt into stone and combine them with two funerary traditions in a single
compound, thereby consolidating and giving visual permanence to the idea of a
unified Egypt
IMHOTEP =,
king's grandvizer, man of legendary powers Priest, scribe, physician, architect, in
Greek times was assoc with Aesculapius the patron god of physicians
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Egypt Study Questions
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Khafre (Chephren)4th dynasty
great pyramid of Khafre at Gizeh
Great Sphinx
serve as a silent guardian of his tomb
The lion figure with a human head, possibly that of Khafre, again shows us the
conjunction of a powerful beast w/ the attributes of absolute kingship as we have
seen in the hawk and bull of the Palette of Narmer
HyksosThe "Shepherd Kings"
Migrant Semitic Asiatics from the Syrian and Mesopotamian uplands
their invasion finalized the deterioration of the Middle Kingdom
Brought to Egypt the horse
Improved weaponry and techniques of war
Helped Egypt to stay in the mainstream of the bronze age
HatshepsutMost majestic of royal mortuary temples was the Temple of Queen Hatshepsut at Deir elBahri
Became queen when there were no legitimate male heirs
New Kingdom
Rameses IIRock cut temple
Pharaoh during New Kingdom
Last great warrior- pharaoh
AkhenatonNefertitiAtonAmen- Re Amarna styleTutankhamenOsirisIsis-
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3.
Briefly describe the role played by the Nile in the development of
Egyptian civilization.
Nile = world's longest river
Originates deep in Africa and flows north to the Mediterranean. The annual floods
deposit(ed) rich soil from the African hill thousands of miles away. The width of the
narrow valley is at most 12 miles across in the widest parts, the areas that the Nile flows
thorough may not get any rainfall in a decade yet crops grew luxuriantly in the fertilizing
silt.
Game was bountiful in ancient times
The Nile was a god and was a symbol of life.
In ancient times the valley was wider and it was a grassy park land with many grazing
animals
Amphibious animals swarmed in the marshes and were hunted through tall forests of
papyrus and rushes.
The fertility of Egypt was proverbial, and at the end of its dynastic history, when Egypt had
become the a province of the Roman empire, it was the granary of the Mediterranean
world.
Egyptians built dams to control the floods, ad used them to divert water into the fields
The communal effort of the construction of dams provided the basis for the growth of an
Egyptian civilization
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Egypt Study Questions
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4.
What was the importance of the Rosetta Stone?
Discovered in 1799- by an expedition of Napoleon Boneparte
Key to deciphering Egyptian hieroglyphic writing.
Has inscriptions in three sections:
1)
Greek (easily read)
2)
Demotic (late Egyptian)
3)
formal hieroglyphic.
It was expected that all three inscriptions were the same and since Greek was easily read
that al could be deciphered
Two decades later Jean Francois Champollion deduced that the hieroglyphics were not
simply pictographs but the signs of a once spoken language, vestiges of which survived
in Coptic, the later language of Christian Egypt
This discovery made Champollion an important figure in the new science of Archaeology
and the special sub-branch of Egyptology
5.
How did the belief in the life of the ka and its needs influence Egyptian
art.
According to Herodotus, E. "religious to excess", and his concern for immortality
amounted to near obsession; his overall preoccupation in this life was to ensure his
safety and happiness in the next To this preoccupation we owe the major monuments of
e. history.
Was NO Sharp distinction between body and soul
From birth one was inhabited by another self
Ka - other self - after the death of the fleshy body - could inhabit corpse and live on if
body intact ( explains developed art of embalming
E. hoped and expected that the images and inventory of life, set up and collected within
the protecting of tomb, would insure immortality.
Food and drink also had to be provided
Wall paintings for the use and delectation of the ka recorded with great animation and
detail the recurring round of human activities- a cycle of works and days that changed
with the calendar and the seasons
Only one tomb remained intact Tutankhamen- 18th dyn- discovered in 1924
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Egypt Study Questions
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6.
The Palette of Narmer (fig. 3-2), which was created about 3000 BC, is
extremely important in Egyptian history and art for several reasons.
Politically , it documents
the unification of the two Egypts into one kingdom and the beginning of the dynastic age.
culturally, it records two important facts -a. about religionb. about writing -
Illustrates several stages in the development of Egyptian
writing age. Pictographs take on phonetic values, as the names of the
respective individuals, including that of the all- victorious king, have been written
in true hieroglyphs, making this the earliest labeled work of historical art extant.
Artistically, it embodies conventions that will dominate Egyptian official
art to the end of the New Kingdom, namely
a.
King seen in a perspective that combines the profile views of the head, legs,
b.
c.
7.
arms with the front views of eye and shoulders..
The horizontal bands that separate the bands also serve as ground that supports
the figure., a mode of representation that would persist in hundreds of acres of
Egyptian wall paintings and reliefs.
Stories in registers, Palette of Narmer the surface is divided into a number of
bands, and the pictorial elements are inserted into their organized setting in a
neat and orderly way
Describe the function and basic structure of a mastaba.
Standard tomb shape during the Old kingdom
Mastaba = Arabic for "bench" was a rectangular brick or stone structure with battered
(sloping) sides erected over a subterranean tomb chamber that was connected with the
outside by a shaft, which provided the ka with access to the tomb
The form prob was developed from mounds of earth or stone that had covered earlier
tombs
Originally housed single burials, during latter Old Kingdom they were used for multiple
family burialsand became more complex
Central, underground chamber, was surrounded by storage rooms and compartments
(number and size increased with time until they occupied much more than the chamber
itself
Built into the superstructure or sometimes attached to the outside of its eastern facade,
was the funerary chapel, which contained a statue of the deceased in a small concealed
chamber called the serdab)
The interior walls of the chapel and the ancillary rooms were decorated with colored relief
carvings and with wall paintings of scenes from daily life intended magically to provide the
deceased with food and entertainment
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Egypt Study Questions
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Mastabas - rectangular brick or stone structure. w/ sloping sides erected over
underground tomb connected to outside by shaft
8.
Who was Re and what relationship was he supposed to have had to the
Egyptian pharaohs?
Heliopolis was the seat of the powerful cult of Re, the sun god, whose fetish was the
pyramidal stone the ben- ben.
By the 4th dyn, the pharaohs considered themselves the sons of Re and his incarnation
on earth. Easy step to from the belief that the spirit and power of Re resided in the
pyramidal ben-ben to belief that their divine spirits and bodies would be similarly
preserved within pyramidal tombs
9.
In what way do the pyramids of Gizeh differ from King Zoser's pyramid
at Saqqara?
Zoser's - possibly Egypt's. oldest stone building, the 1st monumental royal tomb, not a
temple
Dual function -- protect mummified king, symbolize his godlike power
GIZEH
The pyramid did not evolve out of necessity, kings could have gone on indefinitely piling
mastabas one on top of another, to make their weighty tombs
Heliopolis was the seat of the powerful cult of Re, the sun god, whose fetish was the
pyramidal stone the ben- ben.
By the 4th dyn, the pharaohs considered themselves the sons of Re and his incarnation
on earth. Easy step to from the belief that the spirit and power of Re resided in the
pyramidal ben-ben to belief that their divine spirits and bodies would be similarly
preserved within pyramidal tombs
10.
Describe the post- and- lintel construction system.
built using post- and- lintel system in which horizontal beams or lintels rest on upright
supports, or posts.
These posts and lintels were huge, smooth, polished, rectangular, red-granite monoliths,
devoid of decoration
The Egyptian knew the arch and vault and had used them occasionally in predynastic
tombs, but they rarely used them after 3000 BC the beginning of the Dynastic period
Egyptian architects preferred the post-and-lintel system if used with massive shapes,
perhaps better than any other architectural style expressed the changeless and the
eternal
11.
What does the hawk symbolize in the statue of Khafre (fig. 3-15)?
The protecting wings of the hawk, the symbol of the sun shelters his head and indicates
his status as son of Re.
List four stylistic characteristics of this statue.?
a..
Pose is frontal, rigid , and bisymmetrical
b.
compactness and solidity with few projecting parts
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Egypt Study Questions
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c.
d.
12.
ideal proportion designated as appropriate for the repres of imposing majesty
was accepted and applied quite independently of optical fact
nm
The pyramid tombs so popular in the Old Kingdom were replaced by
Rock cut
tombs in the Middle Kingdom.
The three basic units of Egyptian architecture seen in these tombs are:
a. portico or vestibule
b. columned hall
c. sacred chamber
13.
What did the Hyksos introduce to Egypt that revolutionized warfare?
Brought to Egypt the horse
Improved weaponry and techniques of war
Helped Egypt to stay in the mainstream of the bronze age
14.
List four major features of a typical pylon temple.
a.
simple massive pylon facade
b.
bilaterally symmetrical along a single axis, that runs from an approaching
c.
d.
avenue through a colonnaded court
and hypostyle hall
into a dimly lighted sanctuary
15.
List two types of capitals used at Karnak.
a.
bud shaped
b.
bell shaped (campaniform
16.
In what century did Akhenaton proclaim the monotheistic religion of
Aton and move his capital to Tell el-Amarna?
14th century BC
17.
What was the major effect of the new Amarna style on figural
representation?
departures from traditional formality of repres of exalted persons
18.
What three new features can be seen in the painted relief of King
Smenkhkare and Meritaten (fig. 3-40)
a.
freer expression of what is observed, details of costume
b.
elongated and bulging head of Meritaten and prominent bellies
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c.
Proportions no longer depend on rank
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Egypt Study Questions
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19.
Although Rameses II lived after Akhenaton, the pillar statues that were
carved for the interior of his temple (fig. 3-27) ignore many of the stylistic
features developed by the Amarna artists. Compare the figures from the
Temple of Rameses II with the pillar statue of Akhenaton (Fig 3-38); note
particularly the differences in the proportions of the figures.
Akhenaton
Rameses II
What political factors might account for these differences?
20.
The authors speculate that the freedom of the Amarna style may have
been stimulated by artists from
Crete
21.
Which stylistic features used in the decoration of the chest reproduced in
fig. 3-43 suggest that the chest could not have been created during the Old
or Middle Kingdoms?
fluid, curvilinear forms
dynamic compositions with emphasis on movement and action
no more ground lines
Discussion Questions
1.
Discuss the use of convention and realism in Egyptian relief carving and
painting. What types of subjects generally were treated more
conventionally? Why? (Note particularly G3-18, G3-19, G3-23, G3-35, G337, and G3-40)
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Egypt Study Questions
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2.
Compare the portrait of Sesostris III (G3-24) with those of Khafre (G3-15)
and of Queen Nefertiti (G3-39). What differences do you see, and how
might these differences reflect changed social conditions?
3.
Compare the Egyptian Pyramid of Zoser (G3-6) with the Ziggurat at Ur
(G2-13 and G2-14). In what ways are they similar? How do they differ?
What was the function of each?
4.
What do the Great Pyramids of Gizeh (G3-10-to G-12) and the palace of
Persepolis (G2-39 and G2-41) say about the major concerns of the men and
the societies that commissioned them?
5.
Compare the rock cut tombs of Beni Hasan (G3-20 to G3-22) with the
mountain temples of Hathepsut (G3-25) and Rameses II (G3-26 and 3-27).
In what ways are they similar? How do they differ? In what ways do all
these tombs relate to temples such as the Temple of Amen-Re at Karnak
(G3-30 and G3-31)?
6.
Compare the way the Egyptians depicted animals (G3-19, G3-23, and G335) with the way animals were depicted by the artists of ancient
Mesopotamia (G2-18, G2-19, G2-21, G2-33, G2-34, and 2-35) and those of
Paleolithic Europe (G1-1 to G1-8, G1-10, and G1-11). Which artists seem to
portray them most naturally? What part does abstract pattern play in
each? Which figures do you like best? Why?
7.
After examining Egyptian works of art that were created during a span of
more than two millennia would you classify the overall outlook of the
Egyptians as optimistic or pessimistic? Why?
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