First let's define the "Dynastic" periods. The three well known periods of Egyptian
history are the Old, Middle, and New Kingdoms. During the Predynastic period
Egypt was divided into Upper and Lower Egypt (Upper Egypt being the southern
half and Lower Egypt being the northern). The beginning of the dynastic period
was marked by the unification of these two Egypts, supposedly by King Narmer.
The
palette of King Narmer depicts Narmer uniting them. This is dated at
appoximately 2920 B.C. (remember, that
all of these dates are
approximate and they are B.C. unless indicated otherwise). That is when most
people recognize the beginning of the Dynastic periods. Remember that there is
still Egyptian art before it's known recorded history. Also, try searching for
pictures of these artworks on the internet so you can study them by yourself. Here
is a small "timeline" of how we divide the different periods of Egyptian History:
Predynastic<--2920-->Early Dynastic
Early Dynastic (Dynasties I-III)|||2575|||Old Kingdom
Old Kingdom (Dynasties IV-VIII)|||2040|||Middle Kingdom
Middle Kingdom (Dynasties XI-XIV)|||1550|||New Kingdom
New Kingdom (Dynasties XVII-XX)|||712|||Late Period
Late Period (Dynasties XXV-XXXI)|||332|||Greek (Ptolemaic)
Greek (Ptolemaic)|||30|||Roman
Pre-Dynastic to Early Dynastic,
Palette of King Narmer, from
Hierakonpolis, stone (slate), 3,000-2920 B.C. Depicts The unification of Egypt by
King Narmer and signifies the beginning of the Dynastic period.
Old Kingdom,
Panel of Hesire, wood, 2650 B.C. The
ka
image of a high official.
Old Kingdom,
Stepped Pyramid of King Djoser (Zoser),
(Imhotep, architect; 3rd dynasty), stone, 2630-2611 B.C. An older pyramid, based
on several mastabas stacked on top of eatch other; each one smaller than the
next. Before the smooth-sided pyramid was devised.
Old Kingdom,
King Djoser (Zoser), stone, 2681-2662 B.C. A
sculpture and
ka image of the king who the previous artwork (the
pyramid) was built for.
Old Kingdom,
The Pyramids of Khufu, Khafre, and Menkaure
(aka The Great Pyramids at
Gizeh), (Greek names: Mycerinus, Chefren, and
Cheops), 4th dynasty, stone, 2551-2490 B.C. Three, old kingdom pyramids, all
smooth-sided. And with the innovation of a tomb located inside the actually
pyramid structure.
Old Kingdom,
The Great Sphinx, sandstone, 2594-2520 B.C.
Originally suspected to be a statue
dedicated to Khafre but it was later
questioned because of it's current condition and position. It was later reconfirmed
that it is a statue of King Khafre's head on a lion's body.
Old Kingdom,
Khafre (Chefren), stone (diorite), 2594-2520
B.C. A
ka image of the King Khafre. He is shown in a regal position
perfectly representing the noble king's Ma'at.
Old Kingdom,
Menkaure (Mycerinus) and Queen
Khamerernebty, stone, 2490-2472 B.C. A statue of king Menkaure (who's
pyramid is the third and smallest of the
Great Pyramids at Gizeh)
justifying his position as pharaoh as his wife (and sister) had the true birthright to
be pharaoh.
Old Kingdom,
Ka-Aper, wood, 2450-2350 B.C. A wooden
sculpture of a fairly rich, yet moderately
unimportant Egyptian person who had a
realistic sculpture of him done rather than an
elaborate beautiful one as the kings
had. This was acceptable among the non-officials.
Old Kingdom,
Seated Scribe, painted limestone, 2450-2350
B.C. This is a more realistic limestone sculpture of one of the king's scribes.
Scribes were treated very poorly
verbally by the
king, but they were still
noticabely
rich.
Old Kingdom,
Ti Watching a Hippopotamus Hunt, painted
limestone, 2450-2350 B.C. (Mastaba of Ti, Saqqara)
Middle Kingdom,
Nubian Soldiers, (tomb of Mesehti), painted
limestone, 2450-2350. These were sculptures of Nubian Mercenary Soldiers hired,
literally, tp give the king a
powerful image and fight only if they really needed to.
The king was in a very
weakened state. Remember that each period had a decline
and literal fall until someone picked it up again.
New Kingdom,
Mortuary Temple of Hatshepsut, (18th dynasty),
stone, 1473-1458 B.C. The queen who declared herself would most likely not want
to draw attention to herself, but queen
Hatshepsut built herself an elaborate
temple in the Valley of Kings.
New Kingdom,
Ka Statue of Hatshepsut, stone, 1473-1458 B.C.
Queen Hatshepsut not only built herself a
temple like a man but she also dressed
as Osiris (the god that kings were supposed to merge with) in this sculpture. She
is offering in the same ways as a king.
New Kingdom,
Fowling Scene, wall painting from the tomb of
Nebamun (?), Thebes, fresco secco (dry fresco), 1400-1350 B.C. This shows
Egyptians catching birds on the river using a
mongoose to
hunt. This shows a
lot about how Egyptians hunted. It also has
accurate drawings of birds on it, so
we know what kind of birds lived around the
NIle at that time.
New Kingdom,
Musicians and
Dancers, wall painting from the tomb of
Nebamun (?),
Thebes, fresco secco (dry fresco), 1400-1350 B.C.
New Kingdom,
Akhenaton (Amenhotep IV), sandstone, 1355 B.C.
This is a bust of Akhenaton closely showing deformities in his
face.
New Kingdom,
Relief sculpture of Akhenaton (Amenhotep IV),
painted limestone, 1355 B.C. This is gives a profile view of Akhenaton and you can
really notice his full lips.
New Kingdom,
Akhenaton (Amenhotep IV), sandstone, 1355
B.C. This is a small but full sculpture of the king Akhenaton. This is slightly less
detailed as the bust but now shows the full
deformities of his body. They were
not necessarily disgusting deformities, but they really made him look like a
woman.
New Kingdom,
Akhenaton and His Family, stone, 1355 B.C.
This wall sculpture shows the king, his wife, and his six daughters in a playful
moment which was previously highly frowned upon in
royalty. But obviously,
Akhenaton thought they should just keep it real.
New Kingdom,
Akhenaton and Nefertiti Make Offerings to
Aton, stone, 1355 B.C. This shows Akhenaton and his wife giving offerings
to their one and only god Aton and in return, he blesses them and their kingdom,
Akhenaton being the one and only god on earth.
New Kingdom,
The Daughters of Akhenaton, fragment of wall
painting, fresco secco, 1355 B.C. This shows Akhenaton's daughters in a "modern"
radical realistic position as one strokes the others face.
New Kingdom,
Sarcophagus (from the tomb of Tutankhamen), gilded
wood inlaid with paste glass and semi-precious stones, 1323 B.C. This is an
impressive Sarcophagus that
Howard Carter found in his excavation of
Tutankhamen's tomb. There are three actual
coffins, one inside of the other, like
those creepy
russian dolls.
New Kingdom,
Funerary Mask (from the tomb of Tutankhamen), gold,
enamel, and
semi-precious stones, 1323 B.C. This is a funeral mask for king
Tutankhamen that shows him at his oldest age of 18. We know it was made after
his death because his false beard is
braided and that means that it was madea
fter he died.
New Kingdom,
Flexible Bead Bracelet (from the tomb of Tutankhamen),
gold, carnelian,
faience,
glass beads, 1323 B.C.
New Kingdom,
Pectoral (with
Solar and
Lunar Symbols--from the
tomb of King Tutankhamen),
gold,
carnelian,
lapis lazuli,
alabaster/
calcite,
obsidian,
turquoise,
glass, 1323 B.C. This elaborate jewelry in King
Tutankhamen's tomb uses two things to represent the
sun and the
moon. The
two that represent the moon are the silver sphere at the top and the
horns around
it. Silver is the color representing the moon in it's sphere shape and the horns
represent Hathor the
Celestial Cow goddess. The sun is represented by the dung
beetle and the golden color of the beetle. The dung beetle represents the sun for
two reasons. The first is that the dung beetle rolls dung into a sphere which the
Egyptians saw as a representation of the sun. Also,
dung beetles are born in balls
of dung with no parent present. That's because their
mother laid her
eggs there.
To the egyptians it looked like the beetles created themselves out of nothing. This
is how
Amen created himself and he later becae a sun god. That's how they
linked the two. The sun is a golden color, so they chose a gold
beetle to
represent the sun.
New Kingdom, Throne (from the Tomb of King
Tutankhamen), wood
covered with gold and inlaid with faience, paste glass, semi-precious stones, and
silver, 1323 B.C. This
throne has
heraldic effects on it. It has lion heads on each
arm and the legs of the chair are lion's legs. This is the classic form of two
animals of the same species flanking a person or high creature.
New Kingdom,
Temple of Ramses II, stone, 1290-1224 B.C. This
is the lavish temple that Ramses II (the
Pharaoh involved with Moses and the
enslavement of the jews) built to himself as he
declared himself a full-god before
death. It has four large
statues of himself in the front,
dwarfing the surrounding
sculptures of gods.
New Kingdom,
Interior of Temple of Ramses II, painted stone,
1290-1224 B.C Large
pillars fill this temple because the stone above it were so
heavy. The pillars literally
crowd the temple and make it difficult for anyone to
walk around in it. Then again, nobody was really
meant to walk around in there.
New Kingdom, Wall Painting from the Tomb of
Ipy,
fresco secco, 1200
B.C.
New Kingdom,
Anubis, God of the Dead, painted
limestone, 1000 B.C.
Anubis was the Jackal-headed god of death. To me, he looks extremely
intimidating. The fact that he was a jackal was
humorous to me, considering that
most cultures make the
jackal out to be a
trickster. I never thought of the god
of death as a trickster.
New Kingdom,
Last Judgement of Hu Nefer, painted papyrus,
1290-1280 B.C.
Please note that the
Greek and
Roman Periods of domain were listed as their
own periods but the
Assyrians and the
Persians also took over Egypt at one
time.
Instead of writing a
bunch of nodes about each work that I could not sufficiently
describe, I have this list of the most
famous ones, that you could probably find
pictures of.