ARTHIST 101D Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Egyptomania, Karl Richard Lepsius, Aswan
10 May 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
Lecture 3: Old Kingdom in Egypt
January 15, 2015
Centered on the Nile River (which is situated in the midst of desert)
3000 BC – communities, farming, domestic livestock, workshop practices
Annual flooding of Nile River until the damming of the river (near Assuan) by the Russians in the
1960s
o Created a huge lake
o Put Nubian communities and antiquities underwater
▪ Early Christian churches, mosques, and their artwork
o Water infiltration into stone (damaging)
o Diseases (including parasite that causes blindness)
o Use of chemical fertilizers
o Lack of mechanism to get rid of accumulation of silt that would have otherwise fertilized
soil
Napoleon’s expedition to Egypt 1
o Archaeologist measuring the partially buried Sphinx
o Description de l’Egypte pub. 1809
o Napoleon brought back Egyptian stuff
The Rosetta stone: Egyptian, Greek, and demotic (modern Greek)
o Jean-Francois Champolion (1822-24) was able to decipher the hieroglyphs
▪ Opened up a historical culture
Other important Egyptologists: Carl Richard Lepsius (German), John G. Wilkinson (English):
copied many tomb paintings in Thebes, Maxine du Camp (French): photographer
The Temple of Edfu before excavation
o David Roberts (1838)
o Sites were once covered with high levels of sand protected the artwork
Egyptomania: idea of Egypt greatly influences Western art
o Ex: Washington monument
Hierakonpolis
Wall painting from tomb 100; predynastic (earliest Egyptian period) 3500-3200 BCE
o Evocations of boats
o Figures that indicate mourning, fighting, animals
o Edging towards narrative in art
Palette of King Narmer (3000 BCE)
o Palette: ceremonial makeup tool
▪ Black paste would be located in the concavity
o Carved on two sides
o King Narmer holding his rival by the hair; conquering the Delta
o Hawk: God Horus holding papyrus rods
o Decapitated enemies
o Leopards with long necks: symbol of unification
o Size of figures signify ranking and importance of the person
o 3D space: subtle overlapping, but otherwise no sense of spatial depth (very 2D)
▪ Codification of human form profile view of head and legs + straight on view of
shoulders
o Tools: stone on stone
Wooden door of Hesire with relief (2650 BCE)
o A composite view of human figure on a narrow spatial plane
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