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IMAGES of POWER: PREDYNASTIC and OLD KINGDOM EGYPT: FOCUS (Stepped Pyramid of King Djoser and the Pyramids at Gizeh)

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IMAGES of POWER: PREDYNASTIC and OLD KINGDOM EGYPT: FOCUS (Stepped Pyramid of King Djoser and the Pyramids at Gizeh) IMAGES OF POWER: PREDYNASTIC and OLD KINGDOM EGYPT: FOCUS (Stepped Pyramid of King Djoser and the Pyramids at Gizeh) TITLE or DESIGNATION: Stepped Pyramid of King Djoser ARCHITECT: Imhotep CULTURE or ART HISTORICAL PERIOD: Early Dynastic Egyptian DATE: c. 2675- 2625 B.C.E. LOCATION: Saqqara, Egypt ONLINE ASSIGNMENT: https://www.khanacademy.org/h umanities/ancient-art- civilizations/egypt- art/predynastic-old- kingdom/a/old-kingdom-the- great-pyramids-of-giza ONLINE ASSIGNMENT: https://www.khanacademy.org/h umanities/ancient-art- civilizations/egypt- art/predynastic-old- kingdom/a/old-kingdom- pyramid-of-khufu TITLE or DESIGNATION: Pyramid of Khufu at Gizeh CULTURE or ART HISTORICAL PERIOD: Old Kingdom Egyptian DATE: c. 2560–2540 B.C.E. LOCATION: Gizeh, Egypt ONLINE ASSIGNMENT: https://www.khanacadem y.org/humanities/ancient -art-civilizations/egypt- art/predynastic-old- kingdom/a/old-kingdom- pyramid-of-khafre-and- the-great-sphinx TITLE or DESIGNATION: Pyramid of Khafre at Gizeh CULTURE or ART HISTORICAL PERIOD: Old Kingdom Egyptian DATE: c. 2520-2494 B.C.E. LOCATION: Gizeh, Egypt TITLE or DESIGNATION: Great Sphinx at Gizeh CULTURE or ART HISTORICAL PERIOD: Old Kingdom Egyptian DATE: c. 2520-2494 B.C.E. MEDIUM: Sandstone IMAGES OF POWER: PREDYNASTIC and OLD KINGDOM EGYPT: SELECTED TEXT (Stepped Pyramid of King Djoser and the Pyramids at Gizeh) PYRAMIDS AT SAQQARA and GIZEH Online Links: Pyramid of Djoser - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Sed festival - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Mastaba - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Ancient Egyptian burial customs - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Djoser - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Imhotep - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Video Images of Saqqara - Discovering Egypt PYRAMIDS AT SAQQARA and GIZEH Online Links: Ancient Egyptian Monuments: Step Pyramid of Djoser's, Saqqara Smarthistory - The Great Pyramids of Giza Stepped Pyramid of Djoser - National Geographic EGYPTIAN KINGDOMS Pre- and Early Dynastic Period (6000 - 2686 BCE) Old Kingdom (2686– 2134 BCE) Middle Kingdom (2030 - 1640 BCE) New Kingdom (16th-11th centuries BCE) Osiris is not only a merciful judge of the dead in the afterlife, but also the underworld agency that granted all life. Through the hope of new life after death Osiris began to be associated with the cycles observed in nature. He wears the Atef crown and carries a crook and a flail. He is both the husband and brother of Isis and the father of Horus. Horus was born to the goddess Isis after she retrieved all the dismembered body parts of her murdered husband Osiris. She used her magical powers to resurrect Osiris and to fashion a gold phallus to conceive her son. Once Isis knew she was pregnant with Horus, she fled to the Nile Delta marshlands to hide from her brother Seth who jealously killed Osiris and who she knew would want to kill their son. Imhotep. The Stepped Pyramid of King Djoser (Zoser), c. 2675-2625 BCE, Saqqara For his tomb complex at Saqqara, King Djoser (Dynasty 3, ruled c. 2681-2662 BCE) commissioned the earliest known monumental architecture in Egypt. The designer of the complex was a man called Imhotep. It appears that he first planned Djoser’s tomb as a single-story mastaba, then later decided to enlarge upon the concept. In the end, what he produced was a stepped pyramid consisting of six mastabalike elements of decreasing size placed on top of each other. Although his final structure resembles the ziggurats of Mesopotamia, it differs in both its planned concept and its purpose of protecting a tomb. Djoser’s imposing structure was originally faced with a veneer of limestone. A mastaba is an Old Kingdom Egyptian tomb The shape of the pyramid was a solar reference, perhaps intended as a solidified version of the rays of the sun. Texts talk about the sun’s rays as a ramp the pharaoh mounts to climb to the sky—the earliest pyramids, such as the Step Pyramid of Djoser at Saqqara—were actually designed as a staircase. The pyramid was also clearly connected to the sacred ben-ben stone, an icon of the primeval mound that was considered the place of initial creation. The pyramid was considered a place of regeneration for the deceased ruler. Imhotep, the architect of the Stepped Pyramid of King Djoser, claimed to be founder of medicine, the papyrus scroll, and the first to use columns in architecture. In the form of his ka statue, Djoser was able to observe these devotions through two peepholes bored through the wall between the serdab and the funerary chapel. To the east of the pyramid were sham buildings- simple masonry shells filled with debris- representing chapels, palaces with courtyards, and other structures. They were provided so that the dead king could continue to observe the sed rituals that had ensured his long reign. His spirit could await the start of the ceremonies in a pavilion near the entrance to the complex in its southeast corner. The running trials of the sed festival took place in a long outdoor courtyard within the complex. After proving himself, the king’s spirit proceeded first to the South Palace then to the North Palace, to be symbolically crowned once again as king of Egypt’s Two Lands. Statue of King Djoser from the Third Dynasty, limestone This serdab is located at the Mortuary Complex of Djoser at Saqqara, c. 2680 BCE (on the northeast corner of the pyramid by the entrance to the mortuary temple; original location of Djoser’s cult statue) The heb-sed festival (an important ritual completed by Egyptian kings, typically after 30 years on the throne) to renew their powers. The courtyards are symbolic of Upper and Lower Egypt, indicated by engaged columns with papyrus and lotus capitals. Mastabas tended to be grouped together in a necropolis- literally, a “city of the dead” – at the edge of the desert on the west bank of the Nile, for the land of the dead was believed to be in the direction of the setting sun. Two of the most extensive of these early necropolises are at Saqqara and Giza, just outside modern Cairo. The engaged columns spaced along the exterior walls of the North Palace, for example, resemble stalks of papyrus. Stylized papyrus blossoms serve as their capitals. These columns may have been patterned after the bundled papyrus stalks early Egyptian builders used to reinforce mud walls and symbolized Lower Egypt. By contrast, the architectural decorations of the South Palace featured plants symbolic of Upper Egypt, the flowering sedge and the lotus. Top Left: Ba bird from the Valley of the Kings, tomb of Tutankhamun, c. 1325 BCE Bottom left: Scarab pendant from the Valley of the Kings, tomb of Tutankhamun, c. 1325 BCE Egyptian gylphs symbolizing (left to right) life (the ankh), stability (the djed pillar), beauty, joy, and protection Canopic jars were used by Egyptians in the mummification process. The heads represented the four sons of Horus. They are: • Duamutef, the jackal-headed god whose jar contained the stomach (representing the east) • Qebehsenuef, the falcon-headed god whose jar contained the intestines (representing the west) • Hapi, the baboon-headed god whose jar contained the lungs (representing the north) • Inseti, the human-headed god whose jar contained the liver (representing the south) Preserving the deceased’s body by mummification was only the first requirement for immortality in ancient Egypt. Food and drink also had to be provided, as did clothing, utensils, and furniture. Nothing that had been enjoyed on earth was to be lacking. The Egyptians also placed statuettes called ushabtis (answerers) in the tomb. These figurines performed any labor required of the deceased in the afterlife, answering whenever his or her name was called. Pyramid of Khufu at Gizeh, c. 2560–2540 BCE The largest of the three pyramids is that of Khufu’s. As with Djoser’s Stepped Pyramid, the four sides of each of the Great Pyramids are oriented to the cardinal points of the compass. But the funerary temples associated with the three Gizeh pyramids are not placed on the north side, facing the stars of the northern sky, as was Djoser’s temple. The temples sit on the east side, facing the rising sun and underscoring their connection with Re. At Gizeh, across the Nile from modern Cairo, stand the three Great Pyramids, the oldest of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. They testify to the wealth and pretensions of the Fourth Dynasty pharaohs Khufu (r. 2551-2528 BCE), Khafre (r. 2520-2494 BCE) and Menkaure (r. 2490-2472 BCE). The new tomb shape probably reflects the influence of Heliopolis, the seat of the powerful cult of Re, whose emblem was a pyramidal stone, the ben-ben. The Great Pyramids are symbols of the sun, where Egyptian kings were reborn in the afterlife, just as the sun is reborn each day at dawn. We know that the plateau of Giza, renowned for its three Great Pyramids, was chosen for its ability to withstand the burden imposed by the mass of the construction and for its proximity to the high waters of the inundation. Less than a thousand yards separated the construction site from the harbor area where the blocks coming from the quarry at Tura were unloaded. Moreover, not all the stones had to be brought from elsewhere; the immediate environs of Giza furnished the majority of the blocks needed for the masonry of the interior. Once the king had made up his mind, it was necessary to plan the construction work: the number of stone blocks needed and where they would be extracted, the requisitioning of the work force, and the location of villages for the workmen near the site.
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