Art of Ancient Egypt

Hieroglyphic writing

Picture writing; words and ideas rendered in the form of pictorial symbols

canopic jar

Special jars used to store the major organs of a body before embalming, found in ancient Egyptian culture

pharaoh

The common title of the kings of Ancient Egyptian dynasties until the Graeco-Roman conquest. The title originates in the Egyptian term literally "great house", describing the royal palace. Historically, however, the term only started being used as a title for the king during the New Kingdom, specifically during the middle of the eighteenth dynasty, after the reign of Hatshepsut

Aten

The disk of the sun in ancient Egyptian mythology, and originally an aspect of Ra. This god is the focus of the monolatristic, henotheistic, or monotheistic religion of Atenism established by Amenhotep IV, who later took the name Akhenaten in worship and recognition of this god. In his poem "Great Hymn to the Aten", Akhenaten praises this god as the creator, and giver of life. The worship of this god was eradicated by Horemheb

Osiris

An Egyptian god, usually identified as the god of the afterlife, the underworld, life, the dead, and resurrection. He was classically depicted as a green-skinned man with a pharaoh's beard, partially mummy-wrapped at the legs, wearing a distinctive crown with two large ostrich feathers at either side, and holding a symbolic crook and flail

Tutankhamun

An Egyptian pharaoh of the 18th dynasty (ruled ca. 1332 BC - 1323 BC in the conventional chronology), during the period of Egyptian history known as the New Kingdom.

step pyramid

An architectural structure that uses flat platforms, or steps, receding from the ground up, to achieve a completed shape similar to a geometric pyramid. These are structures which characterized several cultures throughout history, in several locations throughout the world. These pyramids typically are large and made of several layers of stone. The term refers to pyramids of similar design that emerged separately from one another, as there are no firmly established connections between the different civilizations that built them

memory image

An image that relies on the generic shapes and relationships that readily spring to mind at the mention of an object

Hathor

Ancient Egyptian goddess who personified the principles of joy, feminine love, and motherhood. She was one of the most important and popular deities throughout the history of Ancient Egypt. She was worshiped by Royalty and common people alike in whose tombs she is depicted as "Mistress of the West" welcoming the dead into the next life. In other roles she was a goddess of music, dance, foreign lands and fertility who helped women in childbirth, as well as the patron goddess of miners

Ramses II

Born c. 1303 BC; died July or August 1213 BC; reigned 1279-1213 BC, also known as Ramesses the Great, was the third pharaoh of the Nineteenth Dynasty of Egypt. He is often regarded as the greatest, most celebrated, and most powerful pharaoh of the Egyptian Empire. His successors and later Egyptians called him the "Great Ancestor". He led several military expeditions into the Levant, reasserting Egyptian control over Canaan. He also led expeditions to the south, into Nubia, commemorated in inscriptions at Beit el-Wali and Gerf Hussein.

Akhenaten

Meaning "Effective for Aten", known before the fifth year of his reign as Amenhotep IV (sometimes given its Greek form, Amenophis IV, and meaning Amun is Satisfied), was a pharaoh of the Eighteenth dynasty of Egypt who ruled for 17 years and died perhaps in 1336 BC or 1334 BC. He is especially noted for abandoning traditional Egyptian polytheism and introducing worship centered on the Aten, which is sometimes described as monotheistic or henotheistic

serdab

In Egyptian tombs, the small room in which the ka statue was placed

mastaba

Meaning "house for eternity" or "eternal house", is a type of ancient Egyptian tomb in the form of a flat-roofed, rectangular structure with outward sloping sides, constructed out of mud-bricks (from the Nile River) or stone. They mark the burial sites of many eminent Egyptians during Egypt's Early Dynastic Period and Old Kingdom. During the Old Kingdom, kings began to be buried in pyramids instead of these, although non-royal use of these continued for more than a thousand years

Hatshepsut

Meaning Foremost of Noble Ladies; 1508-1458 BC was the fifth pharaoh of the Eighteenth dynasty of Ancient Egypt. She came to the throne of Egypt in 1478 BC. Officially, she ruled jointly with Thutmose III who had ascended to the throne as a child one year earlier. She was the chief wife of Thutmose II, Thutmose III's father. She is generally regarded by Egyptologists as one of the most successful pharaohs, reigning longer than any other woman of an indigenous Egyptian dynasty. She is also known as "the first great woman in history of whom we are informed."

Horus

is one of the oldest and most significant deities in ancient Egyptian religion, who was worshipped from at least the late Predynastic period through to Greco-Roman times. He was most often depicted as a falcon, most likely a lanner or peregrine, or as a man with a falcon head.The earliest recorded form is the patron deity of Nekhen in Upper Egypt, who is the first known national god, specifically related to the king who in time came to be regarded as a manifestation of Horus in life and Osiris in death. He was the god of the sun, war, protection, vengeance, and sky

Nefertiti

ca. 1370 BC - ca. 1330 BC, was the Great Royal Wife of Akhenaten, an Egyptian Pharaoh. She and her husband were known for a religious revolution, in which they worshiped one god only, Aten, or the sun disc. They were responsible for the creation of a whole new religion which changed the ways of religion within Egypt. With her husband, she reigned at what was arguably the wealthiest period of Ancient Egyptian history. Some scholars believe that she ruled briefly as Neferneferuaten after her husband's death and before the accession of Tutankhamun, although this identification is a matter of ongoing debate

sarcophagus

A stone coffin. Often rectangular and decorated with relief sculpture

cartouche

A frame for a hieroglyphic inscription formed by a rope design surrounding an oval space. Used to signify a sacred or honored name. Also: in architecture, a decorative device or plaque, usually with a plain center used for inscriptions or epitaphs

necropolis

A large cemetery or burial area; literally a "city of the dead"

hypostyle hall

A large interior room characterized by many closely spaced columns that support its roof

ankh

A looped cross signifying life, used by ancient Egyptians

palette

a thin board that artists use to hold and mix paints before putting them on the picture surface, or a range of colors, esp. those typically used by an artist

encaustic

A painting medium using pigments mixed with hot wax

Amun

He was a local deity of Thebes. He was attested since the Old Kingdom together with his spouse Amaunet. With the 11th dynasty (c. 21st century BC), he rose to the position of patron deity of Thebes by replacing Monthu. King of the gods and god of the wind

Shabits

Model servants that were placed in the tombs of the deceased in ancient Egypt. They had to obey the god of Osiris

Nefertari

One of the Great Royal Wives (or principal wives) of Ramesses the Great. Her name means 'Beautiful Companion' and Meritmut means 'Beloved of [the Goddess] Mut'. She is one of the best known Egyptian queens, next to Cleopatra, Nefertiti and Hatshepsut. Her lavishly decorated tomb, QV66, is the largest and most spectacular in the Valley of the Queens. Ramesses also constructed a temple for her at Abu Simbel next to his colossal monument here.

Ka

Or spirit, of the person after death. The ancient Egyptians believed this (or life-force), along with the physical body, the name, the ba (personality or soul), and the šwt (shadow), made up the five aspects of a person.

sunken relief

Relief: A three-dimensional image or design whose flat background surface is carved away to a certain depth, setting off the figure. When the image is carved below the original surface of the background, which is not cut away

Amarna style

The Ancient Egyptian art style is a style which was adopted in the Amarna Period (i.e. during and just after the reign of Akhenaten in the late Eighteenth Dynasty), and is noticeably different from more conventional Egyptian art styles. Characterized by a sense of movement and activity in images, with figures having raised heads, many figures overlapping and many scenes busy and crowded. Also, the human body is portrayed differently in this art style than Egyptian art on the whole. For instance, many depictions of Akhenaten's body give him distinctly feminine qualities, such as large hips, prominent breasts, and a larger stomach and thighs. This is a divergence from the earlier Egyptian art which shows men with perfectly chiseled bodies. Faces on reliefs are still shown exclusively in profile

Maat

The ancient Egyptian concept of truth, balance, order, law, morality, and justice. She was also personified as a goddess regulating the stars, seasons, and the actions of both mortals and the deities, who set the order of the universe from chaos at the moment of creation. Her ideological counterpart was Isfet

Ra

The ancient Egyptian solar deity. By the Fifth Dynasty (2494 to 2345 BC) he had become a major god in ancient Egyptian religion, identified primarily with the midday sun

nemes headdress

The royal headdress of Egypt. It is the striped headcloth worn by pharaohs in ancient Egypt. It covered the whole crown and back of the head and nape of the neck (sometimes also extending a little way down the back) and had two large flaps which hung down behind the ears and in front of both shoulders

hieratic scale

The use of different sizes for powerful or holy figures and for ordinary people to indicate relative importance. The larger the figure, the great the importance

pylon

The wide entrance gateway of an Egyptian temple, characterized by its sloping walls

Wall of the Crow

There is a massive, ancient stone wall that stands a few hundreds yards south of the Sphinx. But because it lay partially buried and overshadowed by the larger, more famous Great Pyramid, Sphinx, and other pyramids, tourists have hardly noticed it. It is 200 meters (656 feet) long, ten meters (32.8 feet) high, and ten meters thick at the base. The Wall is the northwest border of a tract of low desert. We suspected that it dated to the Old Kingdom 4th Dynasty (2575-2465 BC), like the Giza Pyramids and the Sphinx, but we do not know why the Egyptians built it. Evidence suggests that they never completed the mammoth undertaking. They never dressed the masonry to produce a finished face to the structure, as was their standard practice with pyramids, tombs, and temple walls. We can now say for certain that it was built as part of our 4th Dynasty (2551-2472 BC) complex and the archaeology has led us to form some ideas as to its function