hey there everyone it's mr lane here to introduce you to the art from ancient egypt this will be part one of our lecture in which we'll focus on the male rulers and then part two will be a continuation where we will discuss some of the female rulers take good notes and let's begin ancient egypt key ideas interesting fact at one point egypt was the most powerful and richest civilization in the world temples are built as tombs for pharaohs and their families the afterlife is very important they preserve the body through a process called mummification because they believe that the soul would live on forever the pyramid of kufa at giza is the largest egyptian pyramid men and women wore makeup to protect themselves from the sun the egyptians also believed in more than two thousand deities here's a list of key terms that you will learn about throughout the lecture these are all of the artworks we will study ancient egypt is a big part of our popular culture including movies like the mummy that was made in 1999 here's a trailer that you can watch on the left is a photograph of the nile and on the right you can see a map that also shows the nile the term nile for the egyptians meant the land of black earth it's a reference to the rich soil that was deposited by the annual floods of the river for the egyptians the nile was the essence of nature's living forces the sole reason for the existence of one of the ancient world's great civilizations upper egypt as you can see on the map it's comprised of the southern upstream part of the nile valley has grassland for hunting and major finds come from here lower egypt you can see at the top of the map in the green section the northern egypt soil of the nile delta islands was good for agriculture you will see references to the lotus and papyrus flowers throughout ancient egypt art the lotus plant was symbolic for upper egypt and the papyrus plant was symbolic for lower egypt this 19th century print shows the levels to which the annual nile floods could rise the sculptures are the famous colossae of menon and stood at the gate of a now destroyed temple located in the thievin necropolis in luxor upper egypt we will start here in the pre-dynastic and early dynastic periods 3500 to 2575 bce a dynasty is defined as a sequence of rulers from the same family stock or group the prehistoric beginnings of egyptian civilization predate writing and are consequently obscure nevertheless tantalizing remains of tombs paintings pottery and other artifacts attest to the existence of a sophisticated culture in the banks of the nile around 3 500 bce our first artwork palette of king narmer from hieroglyphs egypt pre-dynastic around 3000 to 2920 bce made from slate the size two feet one inch high the pre-dynastic period ended with the unification of upper and lower egypt some of the earliest historical artworks are preserved from this era the event depicted on the palette is still debated but we believe it to be a record of the unification of the two kingdoms the object here of a palette was used to prepare eye makeup and as mentioned earlier that makeup was applied on the eyes to protect them against the glare of the sun pay attention to the way the figures are depicted on this palette because it's going to be a representation of how the figures will be characterized throughout egyptian art for three thousand years at the top of this side of the palette we see the head of goddesses two heads the hieroglyph between the two heads give narmer's name the king is wearing the crown of upper egypt accompanied by officials the falcon you see with the human head is horus the king's protector the falcon has a captive thing with head and papyrus plant in his mouth that stands for the land of lower egypt below are two fallen enemies the two long neck felines that you see on the front here form a circle which would have held the makeup cats were considered to be a sacred animal by the ancient egyptians it's thought that most families kept a cat as a pet which they believed would bring the household good luck the next of the cats are interconnected which may be a reference to egyptian's unification the upper section you see the king who wears the red crown of lower egypt right below the goddess head on the left top left the king's superior rank is shown by him towering over men and his enemies as you can see he's taller than everyone else his strength is represented by the bull knocking down a rebellious city which you can see at the bottom of the pallet the very bottom it's important to show the king as supreme the state policy also established the pharaoh as a divine ruler here is a detailed explanation of what's happening within each section for you to read over most ancient egyptian pyramids were built as tombs for pharaohs who were the rulers of ancient egypt as well as their families to date over 130 pyramids have been discovered in egypt here are just a few examples of what has been found in egyptian tombs early funerary architectural forms from the old kingdom the evolution of funerary structures from the mastaba to the steep pyramid to the pyramid is shown in the images below remember also that most architecture was dedicated to ensuring safety and happiness in the afterlife the mysterious ben benstone the ben ben stone is an object that is found in the mythology of ancient egypt the bin bin stone is also an architectural form and is the name given to the tip of an obelisk or the capstone placed on top of a pyramid a mastaba is a rectangular brick or stone structure with sloping sides erected underground the concept of a car which is like a life source or soul the egyptians believe that a person was accompanied by a cow which on death of the body could inhabit the corpse and live on forever for the call to live securely the egyptians pursued the process of mummification the main features of the mastaba was the chapel with the false door as you can see here on the map where the car will join the world of the living and partake in offerings the mustava also had rooms to house a portrait statue and you would also see scenes of daily life decorated on the walls imhotep stepped pyramid in mortuary precinct of joshua sakara egypt third dynasty around 26 2630-2611 bce imhotep was the pharaoh's chancellor and high priest of the sun god also he was the first artist whose name is recorded a precinct if you're not familiar is an area within the walls or perceived boundaries of a particular building or place sakara is the ancient necropolis city of the dead this is one of the oldest stone structures in egypt this monument began as a large mastaba it was around 200 feet high and consists of a series of mustabas a diminishing size stacked like mesopotamian ziggurats this one is a tomb and again the function was to protect the mummified king and symbolize his god-like power this was also the centerpiece of a funerary complex with a mortuary temple other buildings and courtyards underneath the pyramids we would find rooms and galleries now we move into the old kingdom 2575-2134 bce the old kingdom is the first of the three great periods of egyptian history called the old middle and new kingdoms respectively great pyramids aerial view of the fourth dynasty pyramids looking north giza egypt these were known as one of the seventh wonders of the world we see three pyramids here that were built in 75 years the tomb of pharaoh's khufu khafre and mankari khufu's pyramid is the oldest and largest of the three the height was 481 feet the base length was 756 feet and it was estimated to contain 2.3 million blocks of stone each block said to weigh about 2.5 tons the estimated time to complete the pyramids was 23 years and keep in mind the average life span at the time was 35. there were several pieces millions of pieces of limestone blocks that were used barges were used to transport the blocks across the nile river log rollers temporary brick ramps wooden sledges were also used to haul the stone though some popular versions of history held that the pyramids were built by slaves or foreigners in forced labor forced into labor skeletons excavated from the area show that the workers were probably four thousand native egyptian agricultural laborers who worked on the pyramids during the time of a year when the nile river flooded much of the land nearby here are some examples of seven wonders of the world heliopolis was one of the most ancient egyptian cities in the seat of worship of the sun god the shape of the pyramids was influenced by that city whose emblem was a pyramidal stone here's a model of the pyramid complex pyramids were symbols of the sun the sun's rays were perceived as the ramp the pharaoh used to ascend to heaven it's also where the egyptian kings are reborn in the afterlife the four sides are oriented towards the cardinal points of the compass everything that would have been found on the complex can be seen here if you are interested in learning more about the pyramids watch the video secret of the pyramids great sphinx with pyramid of coffrey in the background giza egypt fourth dynasty around 2520 to 2494 bce made from sandstone and 65 feet high this was the largest colossal statue in the ancient near east and one of the world's largest monuments the sphinx is a line with a human head associated with the sun god it measures around 240 feet long and 66 feet high it's also a spiritual guardian this is a widely accepted theory about the great sphinx that suggests the statue was erected for the pharaoh coffer it's also unclear if in what regard egyptians held the great sphinx during the old kingdom as there are a few texts that discuss the statue the sphinx was actually buried in sand up to its shoulders until the early 1800s today the sphinx is continuing to deteriorate thanks to wind humidity and pollution restoration efforts have been ongoing since the mid nineteen hundreds coffered enthroned from giza egypt fourth dynasty ca 2520-2494 bce made from diorite five feet six inches high since statues were intended to last eternally they were made of hard substances like granite and diorite statues of the dead were set up to provide a dwelling place for the car in case the mummy disintegrated this statue was part of a series of statues for the pharaoh's valley temple near the sphinx diorite was a very hard stone that was brought 400 miles down the nile on the throne here there are two stylized lion bodies between the thrones legs are the lotus and papyrus plants that are symbolic of the united egypt the falcon god horus we also mentioned earlier extends his protective wings above the pharaoh's head lastly the pharaoh will wears the royal false beard and also the headdress with cobra of kingship on front here's a close-up of the falcon god horus on the back of the pharaoh's head and also you can see the symbolic lotus and papyrus plant they represented the unified egypt here's mankari and his wife from giza egypt fourth dynasty from around to 2472 bce it was made from gray whack which was a type of sandstone canon is a word that refers to proportions broadly canon is defined as the ideal standard by which other things are measured in art history this means the canon is defined by bodies of works that are of indisputable quality within a culture or have passed on ambiguous tests of value that deemed the works worthy for study egyptian egyptians considered ideal proportions appropriate for representing their god-kings the purpose of this statue and the canon and its use here is again to last for eternity the style can be described as frontal rigid and it has bilateral symmetry all the movement is suppressed with the notion of time to show eternal stillness the subtractive method accounts for the block-like look the canon was not a perfect formula because in order for it to be seen as realistic or natural body parts had to be distorted for instance the leg of coffray is a little bit longer his left leg is a little bit longer than his right leg car statues particularly those representing royalty often show the facial and anatomical features of the deceased in a perfected manner many surviving statues served as kha figures and performed an important function in the egyptians elaborate funerary practices seated scribe from saqqara egypt fourth dynasty from 2500 bce painted limestone one foot nine inches high the ancient egyptians placed huge significance on the written word they believed that committing speech to writing made the words real and true a belief shared by all egyptians literate or not although he occupied a position of honor in a largely illiterate society and performed a variety of official duties the scribe was not as exalted a figure in the egyptian hierarchy as the king whose divinity made him superhuman the sculpture portrayed this seated scribe with clear signs of aging he is an intelligent and alert individual with a personality and sympathy seldom achieved at this early date it is telling that the sculptor reproduced describes sagging chest and muscles and protruding belly these signs of age would have been disrespectful and wholly inappropriate in the depiction of an egyptian god-king or members of his family next comes the middle kingdom from 2040 to 1640 bce we're not going to look at any art pieces from this kingdom but here the egyptian sculptures introduce a new more emotional kind of royal portrait we will conclude our lecture by looking at two more examples of art from the new kingdom that was around 1550 to 1070 bce mummy art here's a head of ramses ii from the egyptian museum in cairo the egyptians perfected the science of embalming which was done to provide a durable and receptable place for the deceased spirit like the car as we mentioned earlier in 1881 40 dead king's bodies were discovered including that of ramses ii whose dry skin teeth and hair were still intact he was a three thousand year old monarch here's the judgment of hunifer detail of an illustrated book of the dead from the tomb of honnifer thebes egypt 19th dynasty around 1290 to 1275 bce and is from a painted papyrus scroll honifer was a royal scribe and steward of the father of ramses ii haunted for a scroll is a collection of spells and prayers needed to secure a happy afterlife illustrated scrolls somewhere 70 feet long contain these texts which were essential items in the tombs of well-to-do egyptians these texts have multiple authors and each version has its own variation these texts serve as a guide for the dead to use on their journey to the afterlife the narrative is generally divided into four main sections we have the deceased who enters the underworld and remains the physical abilities of the living regains the physical abilities of the living the deceased is resurrected and joins the sun god to rise as the sun does each day the deceased then travels across the sky before judgment in the underworld by a panel of gods and finally assuming the soul hasn't been destroyed the deceased will join the gods the gods of cyrus associated with resurrection in rey was associated with the sun star starring the book of the dead 42 additional gods appear to judge and test the newly departed this is the last image we will look at from the book of the dead finally let's extend our sympathy to those impacted from egypt's arab spring hundreds of thousands have died and millions have lost their homes freedom justice and human dignity egyptians took these three central concerns to the streets of their first protest rally on january 25th 2011. the following weeks were marked by further protest against the political and social conditions people had faced during the 30-year rule of president hasn't mubarak peaceful activists critics of the government and many others remain in jail torture and other ill treatment is rife hundreds have been sentenced to death in tens of thousands put behind bars for protesting or for their alleged links to the political opposition thanks for watching everyone tough times never last but people do robert h scroller