Marc Van De Mieroop

A History of Ancient Egypt


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gave each nome’s name, its chief town and patron deity, the distance from north to south, and a number of cattle. The chapel was reconstructed in modern times. Source: Erich Lessing / Art Resource

      Figure 5.4 The find of a collection of letters and accounts belonging to a private landowner gives us some insight on the activities on farms throughout Egyptian history. The letter shown here, written on papyrus in hieratic script, contains the landowner Heqanakht’s orders to his family members whom he left behind when going on a business trip. He is obsessed with details and seemingly responds to their earlier complaints with a statement that life is hard. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York 22.3.517. Source: Rogers Fund and Edward S. Harkness Gift, 1922

      Figure 5.5 This 18‐cm‐high wooden statuette is an execration figurine, that is, an object intended to control enemies through magical means. Their names were written on often very roughly shaped human figures in wood or clay, which had no arms or were tied up to make sure the owner of the object controlled them. Execration Texts, some of them quite long, could also appear on bowls that could be ritually smashed. Musée du Louvre, Paris. Source: RMN‐Grand Palais / Art Resource

      Figure 5.6 Middle Kingdom Egypt constructed multiple fortresses along the 2nd cataract, with moats and massive walls, and barracks, magazines, and other buildings laid out on a gridiron pattern in the interior. The image here is a 3‐D reconstruction of the 12th‐dynasty fort at Buhen, whose outer ramparts measured some 450 by 200 m. © 2010 Institute for the Visualization of History, Inc.

      Figure 6.1 This 55‐cm‐high limestone funerary stele was made for an official called Mentuhotep, whose image is painted on it. The offerings he receives include bread, a goose, and the leg, heart, and head of a bull. Alongside the small mummified figure between the man’s legs is the text “The Syrian woman Sat‐Hathor,” identifying his deceased wife as a Syrian woman who had an Egyptian name. Aegyptisches Museum und Papyrussammlung, Staatliche Museen, Berlin. Source: bpk Bildagentur / Art Resource

      Figure 6.2 Detail of the Rhind mathematical papyrus. British Museum, London EA10057. Source: Art Resource

      Figure 6.3 This 7.8‐cm‐high double vase onto which the images of lotus flowers was carved is a typical example of what archaeologists call Tell el‐Yahudiyya Ware. Pottery of this type was used extensively for trade throughout the eastern Mediterranean and is also found in Nubia. A small vessel of this type could have been used to ship scented oil. Metropolitan Museum of Art 23.3.39. Source: Rogers Fund 1923

      Figure 6.4 This 11‐cm‐high ceramic beaker is typical for the archaeological culture that we call Classical Kerma. Its decoration resulted from placing the vessel upside down in the ashes when firing the clay, which turned the upper part black because no oxygen reached it and the lower part red. Numerous examples of these were found in Nubian tombs as far south as the 4th cataract, but they were also exported to Egypt, perhaps to be placed into tombs of Nubians who had moved there. This example was excavated at Abydos. Metropolitan Museum of Art 20.2.45. Source: Rogers Fund 1920

      Figure 6.5 The rulers of Kerma during the Classical Kerma phase had themselves buried in monumental tumuli, that is, earthen mounds over a burial chamber. This is the plan of tomb K X, with a 90‐m diameter. It had subsidiary graves dug into it, and a corridor that contained the bodies of 332 human sacrificial victims, many of them women. There were also dogs, donkeys, and horses under the tumulus, while ox skulls lined part of the exterior. Source: Smithsonian Institution

      Figure 6.6 Since the Kerma state at the time of the Second Intermediate Period in Egypt did not use writing, we do not have access to the names of the kings of that state. One name is known, however, because the funerary stele of an Egyptian who remained at Buhen after Egypt’s control over the fortress ended acknowledges without hesitation that the soldier served the Nubian ruler Nedjeh. Sudan National Museum no 18

      Figure 7.2 The images painted on the walls of the tombs of government officials represent aspects of their activities while alive, and some show to us how foreigners came to Egypt to bring tribute. This image from the tomb of Rekhmira depicts men from the Aegean dressed in their local costume and bearing an elaborate metal vessel and a metal ingot in the shape of an ox hide. Metropolitan Museum of Art 31.6.42. Source: Rogers Fund 1931

      Figure 7.3 The reliefs carved on the walls of Hatshepsut’s mortuary temple at Deir el‐Bahri include an elaborate depiction of a voyage to the land of Punt, the source for products needed for the cult such as incense. Like a graphic novel, the gigantic relief, some 30 m long and 5 m high, shows how ships sailed to Punt and illustrates the exotic aspects of that distant land, including houses, flora, and fauna. This detail (38 by 45 cm) shows the prince of Punt, Perihu, and his wife Eti, who is depicted as being very different from the Egyptian ideal of women’s beauty. Their names are given in the inscription on a neighboring panel. Egyptian Museum, Cairo, JE 14276. Source: Erich Lessing / Art Resource

      Figure 7.4 This 213‐cm‐high limestone statue of Hatshepsut, which was originally painted, shows the queen with both male and female features. She wears only a kilt, rather than a dress that would cover her whole body, and the headdress is one of male rulers. But some of her physical features, including small breasts, are of a woman. Also, the inscription gives her female titles “the Perfect Goddess, Lady of the Two Lands,” and “Bodily Daughter of Ra.” Other statues of her show more masculine features and titles. Metropolitan Museum of Art 29.3.2. Source: Rogers Fund 1929

      Figure 7.5 Many years after the start of Thutmose III’s sole rule over Egypt, the decision was made to erase the memory of Queen Hatshepsut, who governed in his youth. The removal of her name and images was done systematically and often carefully so as not to damage surrounding figures. Here we see how the image and cartouches of Hatshepsut were cut out from a scene in the temple of Karnak that showed gods pouring the water of life over her. Photo: Marc Van De Mieroop

      Figure 7.6 Senenmut, represented here holding Hatshepsut’s daughter Nefrura, seems to have been the queen’s closest advisor and in return was given access to royal workshops to have statues made. This 53‐cm‐high diorite statue contains an inscription that praises his relationship to Hatshepsut, referred to in the masculine. The princess has the sidelock typical for a child and the royal uraeus. Not visible here is the unusual feature that her right arm embraces Senenmut. Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago, gift of Stanley Field and Ernest R. Graham 173800. Source: Erich Lessing / Art Resource

      Figure 7.8 The Amun temple at Karnak was the most important religious complex in Egypt starting in the New Kingdom and received the attention of kings into the Roman Period. It retained the basic layout of an Egyptian temple, that is, an enclosed inner sanctuary to hold the god’s