Arts and Humanities Through The Eras: Ancient Egypt (2675 b.c.e.-332 b.c.e.)

324 Pages·2004·13.1 MB·english

by  Edward Bleiberg

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A R T S & H U M A N I T I E S
T h r o u g h t h e E ra s
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A R T S & H U M A N I T I E S
T h r o u g h t h e E ra s
Ancient Egypt
2675–332 . .
B C E
Edward Bleiberg, Editor
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Arts and Humanities Through The Eras: Ancient Egypt (2675 B.C.E.–332 B.C.E.)
Edward Bleiberg
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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA
Arts and humanities through the eras.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-7876-5695-X (set hardcover : alk. paper) —
ISBN 0-7876-5696-8 (Renaissance Europe : alk. paper) —
ISBN 0-7876-5697-6 (Age of Baroque : alk. paper) —
ISBN 0-7876-5698-4 (Ancient Egypt : alk. paper) —
ISBN 0-7876-5699-2 (Ancient Greece : alk. paper) —
ISBN 0-7876-5700-X (Medieval Europe : alk. paper)
1. Arts—History. 2. Civilization—History.
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C O N T E N T S
ABOUT THE BOOK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix SIGNIFICANT PEOPLE
Amenhotep, Son of Hapu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
CONTRIBUTORS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xi
Hemiunu, Son of Nefermaat . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
Imhotep . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
ERA OVERVIEW . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xiii
Ineni. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
CHRONOLOGY OF Senenmut, Son of Ramose. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
WORLD EVENTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xvii Sety I . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
DOCUMENTARY SOURCES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
CHAPTER 1: ARCHITECTURE
AND DESIGN CHAPTER 2: DANCE
IMPORTANT EVENTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 IMPORTANT EVENTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
OVERVIEW . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 OVERVIEW . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
TOPICS IN ARCHITECTURE AND DESIGN TOPICS IN DANCE
Earliest Temples and Tombs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Preconceptions about Dance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
Pyramid Complexes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Dance in Visual Art . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
The North-South Pyramid Complex: Costumes and Fashion in Dance . . . . . . . . . . . 68
King Djoser’s Complex at Saqqara. . . . . . . . . 11 The Dancers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
The First True Pyramids. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Funeral Dances . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
Fourth-Dynasty Architecture and History. . . . . . 20 Muu-Dancers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
Architecture of the Fifth and Sixth The Iba-Dance and Heby-Dance . . . . . . . . . . . 79
Dynasties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 Cult Dances. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
Mastaba Tombs of the Old Kingdom. . . . . . . . 34
SIGNIFICANT PEOPLE
Domestic Architecture in the Old Kingdom. . . . . 36
Horihotep . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
Transition to the Middle Kingdom. . . . . . . . . . 37
Khnumhotep. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
The Pyramids of the Middle Kingdom . . . . . . . 39
Watetkhethor. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
Rock-Cut Tombs of the Middle Kingdom . . . . . 42
A Planned Town of the Middle Kingdom: DOCUMENTARY SOURCES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
Kahun . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
CHAPTER 3: FASHION
New Kingdom Temples. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Thebes and the Estate of Amun. . . . . . . . . . . . 49 IMPORTANT EVENTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
Egyptian Construction Technology. . . . . . . . . . 52 OVERVIEW . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
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Contents
TOPICS IN FASHION Erotic Music . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178
Cloth Production. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88 SIGNIFICANT PEOPLE
Clothing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
Amenemhab. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179
Hairstyles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
Iti. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179
Crowns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100 Neferhotep, Son of Henu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179
Jewelry and Amulets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
DOCUMENTARY SOURCES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180
SIGNIFICANT PEOPLE
Irer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109 CHAPTER 6: PHILOSOPHY
DOCUMENTARY SOURCES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110 IMPORTANT EVENTS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182
OVERVIEW. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184
CHAPTER 4: LITERATURE
TOPICS IN PHILOSOPHY
IMPORTANT EVENTS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112 Maat. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185
OVERVIEW. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114 Cosmogony: The Origin of the World . . . . . . 187
TOPICS IN LITERATURE Teaching Philosophy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190
Secret Knowledge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193
Egyptian Writing and Language. . . . . . . . . . . 115
Astrology. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198
Egyptian Writing Materials and
Alchemy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199
Publishing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
The Author . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121 SIGNIFICANT PEOPLE
The Idea of Genre in Middle Egyptian Ankhsheshonqi. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201
Literature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123 Any. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201
The Literature of Moral Values . . . . . . . . . . . 126 Hordjedef . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201
Pessimistic Literature. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128 Merykare. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202
Story of Sinuhe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
DOCUMENTARY SOURCES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202
Emergence of New Kingdom Literature. . . . . . 131
Demotic Literature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138 CHAPTER 7: RELIGION
The Egyptian Literary Canon. . . . . . . . . . . . . 141 IMPORTANT EVENTS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206
SIGNIFICANT PEOPLE OVERVIEW. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208
Khaemwase . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148
TOPICS IN RELIGION
Ptahhotep . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148
The Gods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 210
Wenamun . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
Egyptian Myths . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 214
DOCUMENTARY SOURCES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149 Myth of Osiris. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217
Myths of Horus, Seth, and Amun. . . . . . . . . . 218
CHAPTER 5: MUSIC
Theology. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 220
IMPORTANT EVENTS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152 Animals in Egyptian Religion. . . . . . . . . . . . . 221
OVERVIEW. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154 The King. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 224
Kingship Rituals. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225
TOPICS IN MUSIC
Temple Architecture and Symbolism. . . . . . . . 227
Musical Instruments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
Temple Ritual . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 230
Musical Notation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159
Temple Personnel. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 232
Work Songs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160
Personal Religion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233
Male and Female Musicians in the Old
Ethics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235
Kingdom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164
Magic in Egyptian Religion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237
A Musical Bureau in the Old Kingdom. . . . . . 165
Funerary Beliefs and Practices. . . . . . . . . . . . . 239
Banquet Music during the New Kingdom . . . . 166
The Egyptian Afterlife. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 244
The Office of Chantress . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168
The Social Status of Musicians. . . . . . . . . . . . 168 SIGNIFICANT PEOPLE
Akhenaten. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 247
Musical Deities. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170
Amenhotep, Son of Hapu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 248
Music During the Reigns of Akhenaten
Imhotep . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 248
and Nefertiti. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172
The Blind Solo Harpist and His Song. . . . . . . 174 DOCUMENTARY SOURCES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 249
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Contents
CHAPTER 8: THEATER Narmer Palette. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 274
Early Dynastic Period Art . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 276
IMPORTANT EVENTS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 252
The Old Kingdom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 280
OVERVIEW. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 253
The Middle Kingdom. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 289
TOPICS IN THEATER The New Kingdom. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 293
Defining Theater . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 253 Late Period . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 308
Spoken Drama. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 254
SIGNIFICANT PEOPLE
The Osirian Khoiak Festival Drama . . . . . . . . 260
Nefertiti . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 309
SIGNIFICANT PEOPLE Senenmut . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 309
Emhab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 261
DOCUMENTARY SOURCES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 310
DOCUMENTARY SOURCES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 262
GLOSSARY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 311
CHAPTER 9: VISUAL ARTS
IMPORTANT EVENTS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 264 FURTHER REFERENCES. . . . . . . . . . . . 315
OVERVIEW. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 266
MEDIA AND ONLINE SOURCES . . . . 321
TOPICS IN VISUAL ARTS
Interpreting Egyptian Art. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . 323
Grid Systems in Visual Art. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 271
Earliest Egyptian Art. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 272 INDEX. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 325
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A B O U T T H E B O O K
SEEING HISTORY FROM A DIFFERENT ANGLE. An Although treated in separate chapters, the connections
education in history involves more than facts concern- between these topics are highlighted both in the text and
ing the rise and fall of kings, the conquest of lands, and through the use of “See Also” references to give the reader
the major battles fought between nations. While these a broad perspective on the culture of the time period.
events are pivotal to the study of any time period, the Readers can learn about the impact of religion on liter-
cultural aspects are of equal value in understanding the ature; explore the close relationships between dance,
development of societies. Various forms of literature, music, and theater; and see parallel movements in ar-
the philosophical ideas developed, and even the type of chitecture and visual arts. The development of each of
clothes worn in a particular era provide important clues these fields is discussed within the context of important
about the values of a society, and when these arts and historical events so that the reader can see history from
humanities are studied in conjunction with political and a different angle. This angle is unique to this reference
historical events a more complete picture of that society work. Most history books about a particular time period
is revealed. This inter-disciplinary approach to studying only give a passing glance to the arts and humanities in
history is at the heart of the Arts and Humanities Through an effort to give the broadest historical treatment possi-
the Eras project. Patterned in its organization after the ble. Those reference books that do cover the arts and
successful American Decades, American Eras, and World humanities tend to cover only one of them, generally
Eras products, this reference work aims to expose the
across multiple time periods, making it difficult to draw
reader to an in-depth perspective on a particular era in
connections between disciplines and limiting the per-
history through the study of nine different arts and
spective of the discipline’s impact on a specific era. In
humanities topics:
Arts and Humanities Through the Eras each of the nine
• Architecture and Design disciplines is given substantial treatment in individual
chapters, and the focus on one era ensures that the analy-
• Dance
sis will be thorough.
• Fashion
AUDIENCEANDORGANIZATION.Arts and Human-
• Literature
ities Through the Eras is designed to meet the needs of
• Music
both the beginning and the advanced history student.
• Philosophy The material is written by subject experts and covers a
vast array of concepts and masterworks, yet these con-
• Religion
cepts are built “from the ground up” so that a reader
• Theater
with little or no background in history can follow them.
• Visual Arts Technical terms and other definitions appear both in the
ix
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About the Book
text and in the glossary, and the background of historical sites are subject to change and may become obsolete in
events is also provided. The organization of the volume the future.
facilitates learning at all levels by presenting information
PRIMARY DOCUMENTS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. In
in a variety of ways. Each chapter is organized accord-
an effort to provide the most in-depth perspective pos-
ing to the following structure:
sible, Arts and Humanities Through the Erasalso includes
• Chronology covering the important events in that numerous primary documents from the time period,
discipline during that era offering a first-hand account of the culture from the
people who lived in it. Letters, poems, essays, epitaphs,
• Brief overview of the development of that disci-
and songs are just some of the multitude of document
pline at the time
types included in this volume, all of which illuminate
• Topics that highlight the movements, schools of some aspect of the discipline being discussed. The text
thought, and masterworks that characterize the is further enhanced by 150 illustrations, maps, and line
discipline during that era drawings that bring a visual dimension to the learning
experience.
• Biographies of significant people in that discipline
• Documentary sources contemporary to the time CONTACT INFORMATION. The editors welcome
your comments and suggestions for enhancing and im-
period
proving Arts and Humanities Through the Eras. Please
This structure facilitates comparative analysis, both be- mail comments or suggestions to:
tween disciplines and also between volumes of Arts and
The Editor
Humanities Through the Eras, each of which covers a
different era. In addition, readers can access additional Arts and Humanities Through the Eras
research opportunities by looking at the “Further Refer- Thomson Gale
ences” and “Media and Online Sources” that appear at
27500 Drake Rd.
the back of the volume. While every effort was made to
Farmington Hills, MI 48331-3535
include only those online sources that are connected to
institutions such as museums and universities, the web- Phone: [phone]
x Arts and Humanities Through the Eras: Ancient Egypt (2675 B.C.E.–332 B.C.E.)
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C O N T R I B U TO R S
Edward Bleiberg, Editor,is associate curator in the Depart- Splendors of Ancient Egypt(DIA). He has published
ment of Egyptian Classical and Ancient Middle Eastern many scholarly and popular articles on Egyptian art
Art at the Brooklyn Museum. He earned the Ph.D. in and archaeology, especially on Egyptian painting and
Egyptology at the University of Toronto. He is the drawing. His excavation experience includes work at
author of The Official Gift in Ancient Egypt(1996) and the ancient city of Mendes in the Egyptian Nile Delta
Jewish Life in Ancient Egypt(2002), and an editor of The and at the Temple of the Goddess Mut, Karnak. He
Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Egypt. He has also written has been responsible for a number of exhibitions at the
scholarly articles on the ancient Egyptian economy. Detroit Institute of Arts and has also lectured on art
and archaeology throughout the United States and
William H. Peck, Advisor,was educated at Ohio State Canada.
University and Wayne State University. For many years
he was the curator of Ancient Art at the Detroit Institute Stephen E. Thompsonis the History Chair and Dean of
of Arts. He has taught Art History at the Cranbrook Students at the Donna Klein Jewish Academy in Boca
Academy of Art, the University of Michigan, and Wayne Raton, Florida. He earned his Ph.D. in Egyptology from
State University. He is currently teaching at the College Brown University. He is the author of A Lexicographic
for Creative Studies, Detroit. His books include Draw- and Iconographic Analysis of Anointing in Ancient Egypt
ings from Ancient Egypt(Thames and Hudson, 1978), (1991) and a collaborating editor on A Dictionary of
The Detroit Institute of Arts: A Brief History (DIA) and Late Egyptian(1982-present).
xi