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Transcript
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 .