Egypt


 * Egypt **
 * Chapter 3 **

Around the time that the Mesopotamians were settling the Tigris and Euphrates River Valleys, people were also settling the Nile River Valley in Africa. Egyptian art and culture developed quite independently of any other culture on earth, because it was so isolated. The deserts of both sides of the valley provide a formidable barrier to anyone wishing to enter the country. Because it was so isolated, Egyptian culture remained virtually unchanged for 2,500 years.

Like other ancient societies, there was very little separation between art, religion, government and everyday life in Egyptian culture. They were a polytheistic society, meaning that they worshipped gods, including the pharaoh. He ruled the government and was considered a living god or god-king. ** Hieroglyphs ** Did you ever wonder how birds and men walking sideways could be part of a real language? It is difficult to think of these pictures as letters, grammar, and sentences. But don't be fooled; Egyptian hieroglyphs represent a well-developed, written and spoken language that is every bit as complex as English. It has all kinds of grammatical features such as nouns, verbs, and prepositions. And just think, they are also beautiful! The basic Egyptian alphabet of twenty-five letters has two kinds of hieroglyphic signs: those you read and pronounce (sound-signs, or phonograms, such as the letter m), and those you look at for the picture value (sense-signs, or ideograms). Many words in Egyptian use both types of signs, first "spelling" out the word with sound-signs, and then adding a pictorial sense-sign to help clarify the meaning. So, to write the word "man" in Egyptian, you would spell out the hieroglyphic equivalents for "m" + "a" + "n" and then add a picture of a man at the end of the word: From here it gets a little trickier. While a basic alphabet exists in Egyptian of only about twenty-five letters, it is possible to write these letters in many different ways, making for literally thousands of hieroglyphic signs. In English the letter "b" always means just that one letter; but in Egyptian some signs stand for a single letter ( b), other signs stand for two letters ( ba), and still others stand for three ( nfr, pronounced nefer as in Nefertiti). Who brought this dead language back to life and figured all this out? In 1799, one of Napoleon's soldiers in Egypt found a stela, or inscribed stone. This is the famous Rosetta Stone, now in the British Museum, London. On it the same text was written in three different languages: Greek and two different kinds of Egyptian. By comparing the Egyptian hieroglyphic signs in the oval rings, or cartouches, with their Greek counterparts, a brilliant French scholar named Champollion was able to crack the hieroglyphic code in 1822.

Ancient Egyptian writings survived more than three thousand years. The earliest hieroglyphic inscriptions are from around 3000 B.C. The last known text is from 394 A.D. Egyptian hieroglyphs are far more flexible than English in some ways. For instance, you can write in any of three different directions: left to right, right to left, or even up to down. (The only one you won't find is down to up.) How do you know at which end to start reading? Just look "into the faces" of the hieroglyphic signs (such as the birds). For writing correspondence, accounts, lists, and other texts about daily life, ancient scribes used a cursive script. This form of hieroglyphs, called hieratic, always goes from right to left or up to down. Try comparing the differences between your own print and script handwriting to those between hieroglyphs and hieratic. Languages also change and grow over generations; compare modern English with the language of Shakespeare.

The artist who carved the three-dimensional statue on the right could show the human figure from all angles -- front, back, and sides. But representing a figure on a flat surface, as in the wall relief at the left, is a more complicated problem. Look at the statue from different angles to see which view the Egyptian artist used for each part of the body in the relief.
 * What makes it look Egyptian? **

Legs in profile demonstrated movement. A head in profile outlined the features clearly.

The most important feature of Egyptian life was preparation for the afterlife. This image below depicts judgment scenes from the Book of the Dead.
 * The After Life **

Pyramids, temples, tombs, the burials of kings, nobles and the common people, all express the unique Ancient Egyptian idea of death. Ancient Egyptians marked their passage into the hereafter perhaps more so than any other ancient society. For them, death was not simply the end, but was just one of the transformations in life's natural cycle. Egyptians often likened death to rebirth and found comfort in the notion that it was a necessary preliminary to the afterlife.
 * The "ka", the "ba" the "akh" and the body embalmed **

Man was regarded as a complex being that could exist both before and after death in different manifestations, known as kheperu. The physical body was one of these modes of existence, as were also the heart, the shadow and the name, which embodied a person's distinct identity.

Over the centuries the Egyptians evolved several different concepts of human survival after death. These ideas were first formulated to ensure safe passage for the dead king into the hereafter, but over time people of lower status were able to share in the same destiny. Common to all of the concepts was the idea that resurrection was achieved through integrating the deceased into the natural processes of the cosmos. **// The Egyptians believed that a person's essence or soul was composed of several elements that at the point of death would become separate entities: //** The "ka" was considered to be the essential ingredient or dimension that differentiated a living person from a dead one. Difficult to directly translate, possibly one of the most concise interpretations is "life force" or "sustenance". The "ka" is represented in hieroglyphs by a pair of arms pointing upwards. Each individual's "ka" would come into existence at the moment of birth, subsequently serving as their "double" and sometimes depicted in funerary art as a slightly smaller figure behind the living being. Sometimes the creator god Khnum was shown modelling the "ka" on a potter's wheel, at the same time that he was forming the bodies of humanity. Although every individual would eventually die, their "ka" would continue to live on after their death, and as such it would require exactly the same sort of sustenance as the living person would have enjoyed during their life. The "ka" would be provided with genuine food offerings, or representations depicted upon the walls of tombs. While not physically eating the food offerings, the "ka" was thought to absorb their life preserving force. After death, the "ka" would be "at rest" whilst the body was prepared and transformed into a mummy. The ka then needed to be reactivated so that the spiritual transformation of rebirth could take place. The deceased could then travel to join their "ka", and the link to the land of living through their tomb would then be established. It would be the person's "ba" that would make this symbolic journey.
 * During life, the body was known as "khet" or "iru" meaning form or appearance. ||
 * At the time of death the corpse was known as "khat". ||
 * When the corpse was transformed into a mummy, it was known as "sah". Mummification was considered the transfiguration of the corpse into a new body which was "filled with magic". ||
 * The "ka" **

The "ba" is considered to be an individual's distinctive manifestation, similar to our concept of personality in that it comprised of all the non physical attributes which make each human unique. It was necessary for the deceased to journey from their tomb to rejoin their "ka" if they were to be transformed into an "akh". As the physical body could not do this, it was the job of the individual's "ba" to do so. In order for the physical bodies of the deceased to survive the afterlife, they had to be reunited with their "ba" every night. The "ba" was associated with the stork, which had the same phonetic value as the word ba, and consequently the "ba" is often seen depicted as a bird with a human head and arms. Closely linked to the physical body, the "ba" was considered to have the same physical needs as the living body. These needs included earthly pleasures such as food and drink and even copulation! The journey of the "ba" was still only a part of the final transformation of the deceased. Another journey followed, to the sky, sunlight and stars, and it was in these celestial realms that the deceased hoped to reach higher status, second only to a god, and resurrection as an "akh".
 * The "ba" **

The "akh" is the fully resurrected and glorified form of the deceased in the Afterlife. Often translated as "spirit" or "spirit form", the "akh" is represented in hieroglyphs by the symbol of the crested ibis. A fully fledged "akh" comes close to our concept of a ghost or spirit, as it was believed that the "akh" could reach beyond the limits of the tomb to have both positive and negative effects on the realm of earthly life. As a member of the starry sky, known as the "akh-akh", the deceased is now free to roam on and over the earth. After the successful union of the "ba" with its "ka", the "akh" was considered enduring and unchanged for eternity. The principal purpose of ancient Egyptian funerary literature was to help the deceased pass through the dangers of the Underworld and be reborn into new life. The "Book of the Dead" refers to the funerary texts which the Ancient Egyptians called **//"the spell for coming forth by day"//**. This title refers to the belief that the deceased took a whole night, as did Re with his solar barque, to travel through the realms of the dead. The all-conquering spirit of the deceased would then emerge triumphant with the morning sun. To the Ancient Egyptians, the heart was of the utmost importance, considered to be the seat of intelligence and emotion, and so consequently no less than four spells in the Book of the Dead were concerned with preventing the unauthorized removal of this organ, or ensuring its quick return. To find out whether the deceased was worthy to enter the Field of Reeds, the heart would have to be weighed on a balance. If the heart balanced on the scale, then the lucky owner could expect to enjoy the afterlife. Chapter 125 shows one of the best known vignettes in the Book of the Dead ** Questions ** 2. What makes a work look Egyptian? List 4 characteristics. 3. Who was the first to translate hieroglyphics? 4. How was this accomplished? 5. What did the Egyptians use to write correspondence? 6. Why did they do it like this? 7. Compare the Roman and the Egyptian processions. How are they different? 8. What are the different parts of the Egyptian soul? What are their functions? 9. Describe the journey through the Egyptian afterlife. (i.e. What happens? Who are the major players? How many parts does the soul have? What happens to you if you don’t pass judgment? What happens if you do?)
 * And finally an "Akh" **
 * // The ka, the ba, the akh, the name and the sh adow were the five principal elements which the Ancient Egyptians considered necessary to make up a complete personality. //**
 * The Book of The Dead **
 * 1) What were the main influences on Egyptian art?