Ancient Egypt

1
Ancient Egypt

• HST 121 Western Civilization to 1500

2
Outline

• Geography
• Kingship
• Egyptian religion
• Artistic conventions

3
The Nile

• Identity
• KMT (Black Land)
• Agricultural bounty
• Flood patterns

4
Floodplain profile
5
The Nile

• Identity
• KMT (Black Land)
• Agricultural bounty
• Flood patterns
• Agricultural bounty
• breadbasket of Antiquity
• Political unity
• Ease of transportation
• Ca. 3200, Upper and Lower Egypt united under one
  dynasty
• Menes/Narmer

6
Egyptian kingship

• Per-aa
• Pharaoh
• Great House
• Semi-divine
• god in creation
• Living Horus
• Responsible for human society to the gods
• Maat

7
Egyptian religion

• Egyptian religion
• Pantheon
• Isis and Osiris
• Egyptian conception of the soul
• Ba and ka souls
• Egyptian mortuary customs
• Mummification
• Daily life

8
Artistic conventions

• Mortuary art as a primary source
• Their usefulness
• Their limitations
• The earliest conventions
• How they changed
• Akhenaten
• What he tried to do
• How realistic was representational art of the
  Amarna period?