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sphinx statues 2008-02-11 16:20:00 The Great Sphinx is believed to be the most immense stone sculpture in the round ever made by man. However, it must be noted that the Sphinx is not an isolated monument and that it must be examined in the context of its surroundings. Specifically, like many of Egypt's monuments, it is a complex which consists not only of the great statue itself, but also of its old temple, a New Kingdom temple and some other small structures. It is also closely related to Khafre's Valley Temple, which itself had four colossal sphinx statues each more than 26 feet long. The material of the Sphinx is the limestone bedrock of what geologists call the Muqqatam Formation, which originated fifty million years ago from sediments deposited at the bottom of sea waters that engulfed northeast Africa during the Mid
The Great Sphinx 2008-02-11 16:15:00 The Great
Sphinx is to the northeast of Khafre's (Chephren) Valley Temple. Where it sits was once a quarry. We believe that Khafre's workers shaped the stone into the lion and gave it their king's face over 4,500 years ago. Khafre's name was also mentioned on the Dream Stele, which sits between the paws of the great beast. However, no one is completely certain that it is in fact the face of Khafre, though indeed that is the preponderance of thought. Recently, however, it has been argued that Khufu, builder of the Great Pyramid, may have also had the Great Sphinx built. marketing
Magic vands-3 2008-02-11 16:13:00 During the New Kingdom, representations of the mighty griffin become considerably more numerous. As an artistic emblem for the display of royal power, as with the sphinx, the king sometimes assumed the appearance of a huge terrifying griffin, and is rendered trampling underfoot the traditional enemies of the country. The form of this beast also gradually underwent a change, becoming more gracile, appearing like a sleek canine, and the head and bill come to resemble those of a large vulture or an eagle, rather than a falcon. Beginning in the late New Kingdom, griffins can be seen on magical statues and stelae pulling at breakneck speed the chariot of the youthful god Shed, who shoots his unerring arrows at an assortment of typhonic creatures, thereby helping to bring safety to their owners Read more:Magic
Magic vands-2 2008-02-11 16:12:00 When placed in burials, these devices apparently could also offer similar protection to their deceased owners. In addition to the now familiar cast of imaginary beasts we have been introduced to, new monstrous characters make their appearance on these wands. Among the most important, is the lion-man, which later becomes the grotesque dwarf-god Bes, but who, at the same time, is a bit comical looking, and was routinely represented full- faced. Then there is the hippopotamus that stands upright on its hind legs with a long Nile crocodile fused to her back, both dangerous denizens of Nile waters, which later develops into the goddess Taweret. Both Bes and Taweret become extremely popular in the New Kingdom as magical protectors of the home and family. Their images routinely appear on object Read more:Magic
Magic vands-1 2008-02-11 16:09:00 Certainly one of the richest sources for the fraternization of the real and fabled in Egyptian iconography derives from a sizable group of objects usually called ‘magic wands’ or ‘magic knives’ also of Middle Kingdom date. Fashioned of strips cut from the curved tusk (tooth) of a hippopotamus, they are about 15 or 16 inches in length, and when carefully made, can display a bestiary of apotropaic creatures, both benevolent and malignant, and a variety of potent symbols engraved upon them. They are also frequently accompanied by short texts invoking ‘protection’. These figures could be magically summoned by reciting certain spells and were utilized to ensure the safety of the nursery or a pregnant woman’s bedroom from harm, especially the venomous bites of snakes and the sting Read more:Magic
Symbols of unification -4 2008-02-11 16:03:00 Perhaps stranger still, again at Beni Hasan, is a garishly painted female griffin with closed wings, wearing a collar and held on a leash in the dynasty XI tomb of Khety (BH 17). Since this griffin appears nearby the tombowner, it was undoubtedly intended to be regarded as a weird pet of Khety’s. The distinguished British Egyptologist, Norman de Garis Davies, who spent some time working in these tombs during the early 1930’s, plausibly suggested that it might, in fact, be a domestic dog, disguised to liken it with this ferocious mythical beast, or that the artist may have intended it to be some sort of a joke. A number of other griffins are also discernable in the decorative program of the Middle Kingdom rock-cut tombchapels at the nearby site of Deir el-Bersha. In one instance, this l
Symbols of unification -3 2008-02-11 16:01:00 A highly important group of mythical monsters is discernible in a wall-painting in the dynasty XI tomb of the nomarch Baket III (BH 15) at Beni Hasan in Middle Egypt. This grand tomb-chapel is also well-known for its carefully observed collection of birds and bats. In an extensive composition illustrating the tomb-owners’ huntsmen with bow and arrow in the desert, there appears a file of four fancied animals, intermixed with the naturally occurring fauna. Although these curiosities do not appear to be the subject of the chase, the artist has still labelled each of them with their names, as he did with most of the game. These include the dog-like animal of the god Seth, whose zoological identity cannot be ascertained, which has been depicted with its characteristic erect, arrow-like tail
Symbols of unification -2 2008-02-11 15:56:00 Up to this point, the mythical monsters we have examined were not of Egyptian origin, but were unmistakably borrowings from Mesopotamian iconography. Precisely how these were transmitted to Egypt remains a question to be satisfactorily answered, whether it was through direct or second hand means. With the rise of the Old Kingdom, fabulous beasts all but vanished from the Egyptian artistic repertoire, to be reborn in far greater numbers and varieties during the Middle Kingdom. Only a relative handful of exceptions to the above are known. First, was the appearance of a griffin exhibited in the wild on a fragment from the encyclopaedic natural history scenes of the ‘Chamber of the Seasons’ in the dynasty V solar temple of Niuserre at Abu Ghurab. Secondly, the griffin became assimilated as
Symbols of unification -1 2008-02-11 15:51:00 The central section of the relief decoration on a side of the justly famous ‘Narmer Palette’, also discovered at Hierakonpolis, and now in the Egyptian Museum, Cairo, is composed of a pair of serpopards with extremely long necks which are intertwined, and whose heads are turned to confront each other. Their necks also form the circular area where the prized eye-paint, malachite or galena, would have been prepared, if this were an actual functional palette. These fictitious marvels are being restrained on leashes by two male handlers. According to several leading scholars who specialize in the study of the first Egyptians, this motif is likely to symbolize the early unification of Upper and Lower Egypt. As such, it might be a forerunner of when, at a later date, the two emblematic plan
Griffins and serpopards -2 2008-02-11 15:49:00 Amid this jumbled mixture of wild beasts, one can readily recognize three serpopards, serpentnecked felines, and a winged griffin, which has the head of a falcon (?) and a body of a lion. These hybrid creatures are engaged in attacking their prey, while two of the serpopards, encircling the raised rim of the grinding area, appear to be licking (the flowing blood?) from the body of a dead antelope before devouring it, which lies directly below an ostrich. In addition, notice the enigmatic figure of a walking jackal playing a flute or, possibly, a huntsman wearing a jackal’s head and tail. He may be involved in some sort of ritual hunting magic. While the significance of the imagery present on this élite object has been the subject of considerably diverse and clever interpretations by Eg
Griffins and serpopards -1 2008-02-11 15:46:00 In the present state of our knowledge, monsters made their Egyptian début on a select number of monumental or votive slate cosmetic palettes, a gold-handled flint knife and few carved ivory objects, all with low relief decoration on them, which date from about Naqada III (or dynasty 0), approximately 5000 years ago. Among the first and finest of these fascinating objects is the so-called ‘Two Dog Palette’, found at Hierakonpolis (Kom el-Ahmar) in Upper Egypt, and is now housed in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. Carved on either side of this shield-shaped palette is a mêlée of true and strange desert dwelling animals, which are in the midst of intense conflict, and is bordered by two large heraldic cape hunting dogs. marketing
Incongruous elements -2 2008-02-11 15:42:00 These hot, chaotic lands were peopled by hostile outsiders and home to menacing animals, lions, leopards, snakes, scorpions and so on, but even more frightening, they were the haunt of spirits and monsters. While the latter were obviously never actually seen, the stories and idle chatter of brave desert travellers, among others, who swore that they had caught fleeting glimpses of them out in the wilderness at dusk or had come across their puzzling tracks, was likely to have made monsters fertile ground for exciting talk (the stuff of myths) among the average Egyptian. Also, they might even have known their respective names and supernatural powers. They consequently became real enough in the Egyptian mind, and yet another good reason to dread entering the blazing deserts. In some ways, they Read more:elements
Incongruous elements -1 2008-02-11 15:40:00 The dynasty IV Great Sphinx at Giza is, without doubt, the most conspicuous example, capturing Khephren in godly leonine form, protecting the approach to his pyramid. Abit more complex, but along the same lines of blending of human and beast, is a frightening sphinx with the long tail of a Nile crocodile, such as the colossal statue of one still in situ at Amenhotep III’s mortuary temple at Thebes (Kom el-Hetan), dating from dynasty XVIII. Here, in this article, we will use the term monster as a purely fancied beast, one that never actually walked the face of the earth, but lived exclusively in the imagination, and subsequent artistic creativity, of humankind. They were typically illustrated compounded of various incongruous elements
of animal types, the result being not infrequently a v
Monsters in Ancient Egyptian Art 2008-02-11 15:37:00 This is an overview of one of the most peculiar natural history conceptions of the ancient Egyptian
s: the belief in monsters. Mythical marvels first emerge in iconography during predynastic times and can be documented down through the Graeco-Roman Period and beyond. For the residents of the Nile Valley, these extraordinary oddities were judged to be just as real as any other regular living wildlife species, if only more mysterious and dangerous. In fact, these unnatural creations are occasionally executed in art, mingling right along with the standard desert game animals in hunting scenes, especially in the Middle Kingdom tomb-chapels. Lest we should forget, Western made maps of Africa, as recently as just four or five centuries ago, represented the immense interior of the continent as inh Read more:Ancient
temple of Karnak 2008-02-11 15:34:00 In a corner of the temple enclosure lie the blocks of buildings dismantled by various pharaohs to make room for their additions to the main temple. The blocks were used as foundations and infill for later buildings and have been recovered during reconstruction and conservation work at the site. It has even been possible to reconstruct several of the buildings, including the oldest structure of all at Karnak the White Chapel of Senuseret 1 of the Middle Kingdom. Amongst the number of blocks recovered from a number of dismantled buildings, were a large number dating to the reigns of Queen Hatshepsut and Thutmose III. The red quartzite and black granite blocks come from a barque shrine, the building of which started around four years before Hatshepsufs death in 1483 B.C. Her nephew and
pyramids 2008-02-11 15:24:00 The royal tombs have the form of pyramids with a square base, and are the equivalent in stone or brick of the tumulus of heaped earth which was piled over the body of the warrior chief in prehistoric times . The same ideas prevailed as to the souls of kings as about those of private men; the plan of the pyramid consists, therefore, of three parts, like the mastaba,--the chapel, the passage, and the sepulchral vault. marketing
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