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Somewhere around 1375 years before the birth of Christ, an Egyptian pharaoh publicly changed his name. That change signalled a return to long-standing tradition, a hallmark of Egyptian culture that flourished for more than three thousand years peacefully in the rich Nile River valley. The king had been called Tutankhaton. The last portion of his name, aton, was the name for the sun-god, which, in the years before the king's reign, had achieved preeminence among the competing deities in Egyptian religious tradition. The king changed his name to the one by which he is known today, TUTANKHAMEN or, more popularly, King Tut, and ended the brief experiment in monotheism in favor of the older religion with its promise of an afterlife.
And what an afterlife the pharaoh would have! Embalmed in order to endure the elements of disintegration, richly attired to attest to his fabulous earthly wealth, magnificently housed to remind all on-lookers of the towering greatness of the entombed human, the pharaoh lived on in perpetual association with the stone structures that rose portentously out of the hot, barren sands of the desert so close to the life-giving, greening Nile. And the solemn bearing of these great structures reminds people today of the human hope for immortality and the way an entire culture fashioned a collective immortality in astonishing stone. Here was a culture that would persist, just as its pharaohs would live on in their silent palaces.
More interesting, perhaps, is the collective underwriting of the Pyramids. No fewer than 70,000 workers would have been needed to lug limestone blocks from desert miles away to the building sites. Yet there is little evidence that the pharaohs had to coerce their subjects to leave their fields and families in order to build a monument whose completion any single worker would certainly never see. In this way, the pharaohs showed that they knew their people: all people apparently willingly participated in the pageant of immortality-made-real. With no hope of a berth for themselves in the tomb, the workers nonetheless must have taken comfort from knowing that their king, their earthly representative, would live on for them in perpetuity. The common Egyptian became immortal by proxy.
The Egyptian culture was reflected in worship. Much of our knowledge about ancient Egyptian culture is based on elaborate worship rituals related to death and the afterlife. Egyptians were devoted to their gods and to their pharaohs who were gods on earth, as demonstrated by their willingness to build the pyramids for the safe passage of their leaders into the afterlife.
Understanding the development of Egyptian society and their theological system requires a basic knowledge of the geography of the area. The Nile River Valley and Nile Delta, circa 4000-5000 BCE, was comprised of about 12,000 square miles of arable land. The villages and towns of ancient Egypt were found up and down the length of the Nile with most of the population living below the First Cataract (located approximately at present day Aswan). The Egyptians were accomplished farmers. They knew the Nile would flood each year and bring new life and abundant grain. The Nile's flooding was predictable and left rich new deposits of silt for new crops, making irrigation easy to plan. A basin irrigation system allowed the flood waters to flow gently into each field, cleansing and renewing the earth each year. The virtual isolation of the Nile Valley allowed Egyptian civilization to develop unthreatened by its neighbors. The Mediterranean Sea lay to the north, vast deserts were found to the east and west, and dense jungle lay to the south. An invader would have to be quite determined to brave the elements that protected the Nile Valley civilization.
Since Egyptian civilization was a product, in many ways, of the natural forces that surrounded its people, the people looked to nature to explain the unexplainable. Egyptian gods were depicted as wise, caring, predictable, and forgiving, just as the Nile was predictable and life sustaining. The creation myth of the ancient Egyptians began with a vast waste of water called Nu, similar to the creation story in Genesis where the Spirit of God "hovered over the waters." Nu gave birth to the sun god, who was called Kheyera at dawn, Ra at noon, and Tum at dusk. Just as the Greek god Zeus was greater than his father Chronos, Ra became greater than Nu. Ra created his wife Tefnut, who made the rain. Together, they created Seb, God of the Earth, and Nat, the Goddess of the Sky. Seb and Nat were the parents of Osiris, Isis, Set and Nepthys.
Ra is given credit for creating the heavens and earth and all creatures. According to Egyptian legend, Ra had only to think and a creature would take form. Ra is also said to have created man from his eye, and Ra became the first king on earth. The idea that the god Ra was the first king is the seed for the belief that a Pharaoh was both King and god.
After Ra gave up his kingship to ride across the sky, Osiris became king with Isis as his queen. Osiris is credited with teaching men to be civilized and to farm, and for teaching mankind to worship the gods and to build temples. Isis was also a wise and good ruler who taught men how to raise grain. Several legends about the death of Osiris exist. All of them credit his brother Set with his death. In one legend, Set cut up Osiris' body and cast it in the Nile, and Isis shed so many tears that the Nile came over its banks. The flooding of the Nile each spring was caused by the tears of Isis as she sought the body of Osiris. (The waters rose in June and receded in October each year).
In another legend, Ra ordered Thoth and Hourus to find the body of Osiris and bind it in bandages. Isis then breathed life into the mummied form of Osiris, and Ra sent him to be the Judge of the Dead. This legend laid the foundation for the art of mummification of the dead. The Egyptians had a reverence for most things in nature. Many animals were sacred, including the cat, the bull, the fish, the jackal, the ram, the boar, the frog and the lion. The serpent figures prominently in many Egyptian myths. The serpent even had the power to poison the great Ra. Because of its great power, the serpent became a symbol of the Pharaohs themselves. Virtually every god and goddess was associated with one or more animals and in some instances might appear in the form of their chosen animal-familiar. A person might lose his own life if he killed a sacred animal.
The history of Egypt is typically divided into four periods:
Pre-dynastic Egypt (6000-3000 BCE),
The Old Kingdom (2700-2200 BCE),
The Middle Kingdom ( 2050-1786 BCE),
The New Kingdom (1560-1087 BCE),
The pyramids were built during the Old Kingdom Period. The Egyptians had been preserving the remains of their dead long before the building of the great pyramids. They believed that a person's soul (Ka) could live after the death of the body. However, the Ka needed a place to be, so the body was preserved and supplied with the possessions it would need on its journey to the "land of shadows." The mummified body was even provided with food and drink for its journey. In some parts of Egypt, mourners did not leave real food but used magic to feed the spirit by simply naming the foods.
The great pyramids were raised to protect the souls of the Pharaohs from their enemies. Farmers would build the pyramids while the Nile was flooding. Work on the pyramids was owed to the god-pharaoh. Tools used to build the pyramid were simple: wooden mallets, stone drills, chisels, flint knives, wooden rulers, plumb lines, and ramps. It is amazing to consider that these huge monuments (Cheop's Pyramid, 137 meters; and Zoser's Pyramid, 60 meters high) were built before widespread use of the wheel. The pyramids were huge complexes that contained not only the sarcophagi of the kings, but pits for the funerary barge, temples, and many false chambers to confuse would-be thieves. Pharaohs would be buried in the tombs as would other members of the royal family. All the belongings the pharaoh might need would be buried with him: food, clothing, tools, furniture, jewelry, even slaves.
The dead had to be given instructions concerning the proper prayers, attitudes, etc. to deliver at the various stages of their journey. The temple priests were the only ones who knew how to instruct the dead for their journey. Instructions were written on the inside of the coffin and in the tomb so the dead soul would not forget what it should do. Later the instructions were written on scrolls of paper. Some of these instructions have been collected in the Book of the Dead. Here, we find the Ka trying to gain entrance into the company of the gods by reciting his virtues:
Homage to thee, O great God, Lord of Maati! I have come unto thee, O my Lord, and I have brought myself hither that I may behold thy beauties. I know thee, I know thy name, I know the names of the forty-two Gods who live with thee in the Hall of Maati...I have not committed sins against men. I have not opposed my family and kinfolk. I have not acted fraudently in the Seat of Truth. I have not known men who were of no account. I have not defrauded the humble man of his property. I have not done what the gods abominate. I have not vilified a slave to his master. I have not inflicted pain. I have not caused anyone to go hungry. I have not made any man to weep. I have not committed murder....I have not encroached on the fields (of others). I have not added to the weights of the scales...I have not driven the cattle away from their pastures. I have not snared the geese in the goose-pens of the gods. I have not caught fish with bait made of the bodies of the same kind of fish. I have not stopped water when it should flow...I am pure, I am pure. I am pure...
This is a negative confession; ie, the Ka recites what it has not done rather than what it has done. By reading the excerpt above, a student of this culture could argue that the ancient Egyptians believed they had a responsibility to their gods, to their fellow men, and to nature. The soul was led before the seat of Osiris, who sat as the Judge of the Dead. He weighed the heart of the dead person on his balance. Maat, the goddess of truth and justice, balanced the scale. If the heart of the deceased weighed true, he went to his eternal reward wandering the shadow land that was the double of the Nile Delta. No famine or sorrows bothered him in this blessed afterlife. If his heart weighed too heavy, he would be thrown to the animal gods who tear him to shreds.
The hieroglyphs left by the priests of ancient Egypt were meant to provide the dead with a guide to the afterlife, to instruct the Ka what it should do in every test as it navigated the after world. Those same hieroglyphs have done much more. They have provided us with an amazing record of a culture that existed thousands of years ago and some insight into the minds of the people who lived in that culture. Through those ancient writings we have come to know how the ancient Egyptians worshiped, how they viewed their leaders, how they thought they should relate to one another, and how they viewed their role in this life and the next one.
Pre-dynastic Egypt (6000-3000 BCE),
The Old Kingdom (2700-2200 BCE),
The Middle Kingdom ( 2050-1786 BCE),
The New Kingdom (1560-1087 BCE),
The pyramids were built during the Old Kingdom Period. The Egyptians had been preserving the remains of their dead long before the building of the great pyramids. They believed that a person's soul (Ka) could live after the death of the body. However, the Ka needed a place to be, so the body was preserved and supplied with the possessions it would need on its journey to the "land of shadows." The mummified body was even provided with food and drink for its journey. In some parts of Egypt, mourners did not leave real food but used magic to feed the spirit by simply naming the foods.
PRE-DYNASTIC EGYPT
(6000- 3000 BCE)
(6000- 3000 BCE)
RECONSTRUCTED PREDYNASTIC BURIAL - A body, found in a curled position and wrapped in reeds, was buried in a pit in the Egyptian desert more than 5000 years ago. After interment the tomb was heaped high with sand, which was kept in place by piling stones around it. The hot, dry sand, which completely enveloped the body, dehydrated and preserved it. Around the body were grouped clay jars containing food and drink and a slate palette with grinding stone, used to pulverize mineral pigments for cosmetics. All were intended for use in the next life. This "mummy," created by naturally occurring environmental conditions, predates Egyptian embalming practices of the pharaonic period by hundreds of years.
During this period in ancient Egypt, the Archaic period, Narmer unites Egypt. Hieroglyphic writing develops.
The 365 day calendar is introduced.
THE OLD KINGDOM
(2700-2200 BCE)
(2700-2200 BCE)
King Djoser founds the third dynasty in Egypt thereby issuing the period of the Old Kingdom, which lasts until 2200. He also builds the Step Pyramid of Djoser, the first known pyramid in Egypt. During the Old Kingdom, the power of the pharoah is absolute
Pharoah Khufu builds the Great Pyramid of Cheops.
The first intermediate period begins with the collapse of the Old Kingdom, mostly because of crop failure combined with low revenue due to the pyramid building projects. It ends in 2050.
THE MIDDLE KINGDOM
(2050-1786 BCE)
(2050-1786 BCE)
The period of the Middle Kingdom begins with its capital at Thebes. It ends in 1786. Around this time, an early political treatise, The Plea of the Eloquent Peasant, is written, calling for a benevolent ruler. The Egyptians domesticate the cat for the purpose of catching snakes. Around this time, advances in astronomy enable the Egyptians to predict the annual flooding of the Nile. The Twelfth Dynasty, Egypt's "golden" age, begins. It ends with the Middle Kingdom in 1786. During this period, power is somewhat distributed through the social classes. Religion shifts from a wealth-based system to one based on proper conduct. Queen Soreknofru is one of the rulers during this dynasty.
Sesostris III is renowned for his military campaigns in Nubia. His reign also introduced a new style of portraiture. The king's features are strikingly individual, characterized by deep-set eyes with heavy eyelids, prominent cheek-bones, a wide mouth that turns down at the corners, and huge ears. His expression is sullen and morose. Yet the realism does not extend to the royal physique, which remains ideally youthful and heroic. The king sits on a low-backed throne and wears traditional regalia: nemes-headdress, uraeus, and shendyt-kilt with tail. In his right hand he holds a handkerchief. Inscribed on his belt is his throne name, Khakaura, and on the front of the throne, his Horus name, Divine of Transformations, and birth name.
Sebekneferu was the daughter of Amenemhat III. The last ruler of Dynasty 12, she was one of only five women in ancient Egypt to rule as king in her own right. Kingship in ancient Egypt was a male role, and in Egyptian art, ruling queens were typically represented as male pharaohs. Sebekneferu was the exception and appears as female in all her statues. Of the five known statues of Sebekneferu, all are now without heads. Her costume combines female dress with kingly attire. Over a high-waisted shift with shoulder straps, the typical female dress, she wears a wraparound kilt with starched triangular front panel, beaded belt, and apron, similar to those worn by Amenemhat III. These elements of royal attire are complemented by the nemes-headdress, whose lappets drape over her shoulders. On the belt buckle, the title preceding her name reads "daughter of Ra" in compliance with her sex.
The second intermediate period begins due to internal dissention between the nobility and the pharaoh. It lasts until 1560.
1780 BCE - Sebek em hat, a Leader of Priests. In contrast to the Seated Man, the subject of the standing statue of Sebek em hat can be identified as a leader of a group of priests in the temple of a deified king at Heliopolis.
The Hyksos occupy Egypt from Syria and Palestine and introduce the horse and chariot into Egypt. Their position is strengthened by the internal problems in the Egyptian state.
A revolution against the Hyksos begins in Upper (southern) Egypt and spreads throughout the country.
Sebekneferu was the daughter of Amenemhat III. The last ruler of Dynasty 12, she was one of only five women in ancient Egypt to rule as king in her own right. Kingship in ancient Egypt was a male role, and in Egyptian art, ruling queens were typically represented as male pharaohs. Sebekneferu was the exception and appears as female in all her statues. Of the five known statues of Sebekneferu, all are now without heads. Her costume combines female dress with kingly attire. Over a high-waisted shift with shoulder straps, the typical female dress, she wears a wraparound kilt with starched triangular front panel, beaded belt, and apron, similar to those worn by Amenemhat III. These elements of royal attire are complemented by the nemes-headdress, whose lappets drape over her shoulders. On the belt buckle, the title preceding her name reads "daughter of Ra" in compliance with her sex.
The second intermediate period begins due to internal dissention between the nobility and the pharaoh. It lasts until 1560.
1780 BCE - Sebek em hat, a Leader of Priests. In contrast to the Seated Man, the subject of the standing statue of Sebek em hat can be identified as a leader of a group of priests in the temple of a deified king at Heliopolis.
The Hyksos occupy Egypt from Syria and Palestine and introduce the horse and chariot into Egypt. Their position is strengthened by the internal problems in the Egyptian state.
A revolution against the Hyksos begins in Upper (southern) Egypt and spreads throughout the country.
THE NEW KINGDOM
(1560-1087 BCE)
(1560-1087 BCE)
The period of the New Kingdom begins when Ahmose defeats the Hyksos and establishes the XVIII Dynasty. The New Kingom ends around 1087. Unlike earlier periods, this period is imperialistic enabled by new modes of warfare introduced into Egypt by the Hyksos. Queen Hatshepsut is one of the rulers of the XVIII Dynasty. The Papyrus of Ani (The Egyptian Book of the Dead)
Because Tuthmosis III came to the throne as a child, his stepmother Hatshepsut ruled on his behalf, first as regent, later as king beside him. When she died after 22 years of co-rule, Tuthmosis immediately embarked on a series of annual campaigns in western Asia that established his reputation as the greatest military leader in Egyptian history. On a painted temple relief, Tuthmosis III wears the atef-crown, which elaborately combines a tall central element resembling the White Crown with two ostrich plumes; the long, curling horns of a ram; sun disk; and uraeus. In back is a falcon with outstretched wings. The falcon was a favorite motif of Tuthmosis III and is often associated with his image. At the upper right are the two cartouches identifying the ruler by his throne name, Menkheperra, and birth name.
The reign of Tuthmosis IV marks a turning point in the history of Dynasty 18. Ending the military campaigns that characterized the reigns of his predecessors, Tuthmosis IV made treaties with the neighboring rulers that ushered in an era of peace and political stability lasting through the reign of his son Amenhotep III. Reflecting the change from a wartime to a peacetime economy, a new sweetness pervades the royal visage. The king has large slanted almond-shaped eyes, high cheek-bones, tapering jawbone, and wide smiling mouth. The pursed upper lip suggests an overbite, a family trait that also appears in the portraits of his son.
Amenhotep IV (Akhenaton), concerned about abuses in the Osiris cult of Egypt, poses a new monotheistic religion, perhaps the first, dedicated to the worship of the sun. He moves the capital of Egypt from Thebes to El-Amarna. The new religion does not last long; the cult of Akhenaton is abolished under the reign of his successor, Pharaoh Tutankhamen ("King Tut"), who moves the capital back to Thebes and returns to the old religion. Akhenaton's beautiful wife, Nefertiti, achieves her own position in world history. Amenhotep IV is usually shown seated comfortably on his cushioned throne. Akhenaten wears the nemes-headdress and holds a crook and flail, conventional attributes of kingship. The dreamy expression, heavy-lidded eyes, and full, sensuous mouth, are characteristic of all of this pharaoh's portraits, as are the pierced shaped navel.
Tutankhamen is best known for his tomb treasures, but he also left many fine temple statues that attest to his devotion to the god Amen, whose worship he restored. Even so, he received little thanks for his piety, for later rulers continued to associate him with the heretic Akhenaten. This statue, probably from Karnak, was intentionally mutilated in ancient times. Originally, it showed the king standing between the god's legs, facing him and presenting to him a platter of offerings in return for the god's protection. All that remains of Tutankhamen are his heels and one hand. Fortunately, the king's youthful features are faithfully mirrored in the face of the god. The two tall plumes that once surmounted the god's crown have fallen victim to time. The king's names on the back pillar, however, were deliberately hacked in antiquity. Oriental Institute archaeologists working at Thebes excavated this statue of King Tutankhamun. It had been usurped by succeeding kings and now bears the name of Horemheb. Tutankhamun wears the double crown and the royal nemes headcloth of the pharaohs; a protective cobra goddess (uraeus serpent) rears above his forehead. In his hands the king grasps scroll-like objects thought to be containers for the documents by which the gods affirmed the monarch's right to divine rule. The sword at his waist has a falcon's head, symbol of the god Horus, who was believed to be manifested by the living pharaoh. The small feet at the king's left side were part of a statue of his wife, Ankhesenpaamun, whose figure was more nearly life-sized. The facial features of the statues strongly resemble other representations of Tutankhamun from his famous tomb, which was discovered relatively intact in the Valley of the Kings.
Rameses II ("the Great") rules Egypt. Ramesses II, also known as Ramesses the Great, left monuments at practically every site in Egypt. This painted relief probably decorated one of the many temples built during his unusually long reign. In one scene, the king originally faced a god who extended the hieroglyphic signs for life (ankh) and dominion (was) to his nose. The carving in sunk relief is exceptionally fine for Ramesses, who is better known for quantity than for quality, and preserves much of its original paint. The king wears the Blue Crown, which would have extended to a bulbous summit. Although the ancient Egyptians are best known for their stone monuments, they also used mud bricks extensively for building. This brick, which bears the cartouche of Ramses II, was found within the walls of his great mortuary temple, the Ramesseum, along with many reused bricks stamped with the names of his predecessors. The bricks were made from river mud and straw, shaped in wooden molds and left to dry in the sun; the cartouche or other inscription was stamped on the brick while it was still damp and soft. The ancient Egyptian word for brick was "debet," a word that has come into our modern vocabulary through the Spanish as "adobe," meaning sun-dried brick. 1300 BCE - Nebwenenef, High priest of Amun, can be dated rather precisely to the first fifteen years in the reign of Ramses II (1290-24 BC) because it is recorded in the priest's tomb that he was identified by an oracle of the god Amun and installed in that high office in the first year of his king's rule. The bust of Nebwenenef is different from the standing figure of Sebek em hat in scale, quality of workmanship, and detail, but not in the way they both adhere to the canonical rules of Egyptian art.
Under the direction of Moses, the Israelites leave Egypt and head for the "promised land." Rameses III defeats the Sea People. Rameses is pharaoh until 1151. He is the last great pharaoh to rule in Egypt. In 1175 he builds his temple palace at Medinet Habu. Shawabty of Ramesses IV. Shawabtys or funerary figurines were placed in tombs to act as substitutes for the deceased if called upon to labor in the fields in the afterlife. Even kings and queens, who never did such work, felt it necessary to equip their burials with these small mummiform statuettes. Nothing distinguishes a royal shawabty from a private one except the king's names enclosed in cartouches and occasionally a royal headdress. Ramesses IV, An ambitious ruler, prayed for twice the lifetime of Ramesses II, but died after only seven years on the throne. Like any laborer, the king carries in his crossed hands two hoes for digging the ground, and on the front is the traditional shawabty spell from The Book of the Dead, inscribed in the king's name: O shawabty, allotted to me, if I [Ramesses] be summoned ... to do any work which has to be done in the realm of the dead ... you shall detail yourself for me on every occasion of making arable the fields, of flooding the banks or of conveying sand from east to west "Here I am," you shall say.
Because Tuthmosis III came to the throne as a child, his stepmother Hatshepsut ruled on his behalf, first as regent, later as king beside him. When she died after 22 years of co-rule, Tuthmosis immediately embarked on a series of annual campaigns in western Asia that established his reputation as the greatest military leader in Egyptian history. On a painted temple relief, Tuthmosis III wears the atef-crown, which elaborately combines a tall central element resembling the White Crown with two ostrich plumes; the long, curling horns of a ram; sun disk; and uraeus. In back is a falcon with outstretched wings. The falcon was a favorite motif of Tuthmosis III and is often associated with his image. At the upper right are the two cartouches identifying the ruler by his throne name, Menkheperra, and birth name.
The reign of Tuthmosis IV marks a turning point in the history of Dynasty 18. Ending the military campaigns that characterized the reigns of his predecessors, Tuthmosis IV made treaties with the neighboring rulers that ushered in an era of peace and political stability lasting through the reign of his son Amenhotep III. Reflecting the change from a wartime to a peacetime economy, a new sweetness pervades the royal visage. The king has large slanted almond-shaped eyes, high cheek-bones, tapering jawbone, and wide smiling mouth. The pursed upper lip suggests an overbite, a family trait that also appears in the portraits of his son.
Amenhotep IV (Akhenaton), concerned about abuses in the Osiris cult of Egypt, poses a new monotheistic religion, perhaps the first, dedicated to the worship of the sun. He moves the capital of Egypt from Thebes to El-Amarna. The new religion does not last long; the cult of Akhenaton is abolished under the reign of his successor, Pharaoh Tutankhamen ("King Tut"), who moves the capital back to Thebes and returns to the old religion. Akhenaton's beautiful wife, Nefertiti, achieves her own position in world history. Amenhotep IV is usually shown seated comfortably on his cushioned throne. Akhenaten wears the nemes-headdress and holds a crook and flail, conventional attributes of kingship. The dreamy expression, heavy-lidded eyes, and full, sensuous mouth, are characteristic of all of this pharaoh's portraits, as are the pierced shaped navel.
Tutankhamen is best known for his tomb treasures, but he also left many fine temple statues that attest to his devotion to the god Amen, whose worship he restored. Even so, he received little thanks for his piety, for later rulers continued to associate him with the heretic Akhenaten. This statue, probably from Karnak, was intentionally mutilated in ancient times. Originally, it showed the king standing between the god's legs, facing him and presenting to him a platter of offerings in return for the god's protection. All that remains of Tutankhamen are his heels and one hand. Fortunately, the king's youthful features are faithfully mirrored in the face of the god. The two tall plumes that once surmounted the god's crown have fallen victim to time. The king's names on the back pillar, however, were deliberately hacked in antiquity. Oriental Institute archaeologists working at Thebes excavated this statue of King Tutankhamun. It had been usurped by succeeding kings and now bears the name of Horemheb. Tutankhamun wears the double crown and the royal nemes headcloth of the pharaohs; a protective cobra goddess (uraeus serpent) rears above his forehead. In his hands the king grasps scroll-like objects thought to be containers for the documents by which the gods affirmed the monarch's right to divine rule. The sword at his waist has a falcon's head, symbol of the god Horus, who was believed to be manifested by the living pharaoh. The small feet at the king's left side were part of a statue of his wife, Ankhesenpaamun, whose figure was more nearly life-sized. The facial features of the statues strongly resemble other representations of Tutankhamun from his famous tomb, which was discovered relatively intact in the Valley of the Kings.
Rameses II ("the Great") rules Egypt. Ramesses II, also known as Ramesses the Great, left monuments at practically every site in Egypt. This painted relief probably decorated one of the many temples built during his unusually long reign. In one scene, the king originally faced a god who extended the hieroglyphic signs for life (ankh) and dominion (was) to his nose. The carving in sunk relief is exceptionally fine for Ramesses, who is better known for quantity than for quality, and preserves much of its original paint. The king wears the Blue Crown, which would have extended to a bulbous summit. Although the ancient Egyptians are best known for their stone monuments, they also used mud bricks extensively for building. This brick, which bears the cartouche of Ramses II, was found within the walls of his great mortuary temple, the Ramesseum, along with many reused bricks stamped with the names of his predecessors. The bricks were made from river mud and straw, shaped in wooden molds and left to dry in the sun; the cartouche or other inscription was stamped on the brick while it was still damp and soft. The ancient Egyptian word for brick was "debet," a word that has come into our modern vocabulary through the Spanish as "adobe," meaning sun-dried brick. 1300 BCE - Nebwenenef, High priest of Amun, can be dated rather precisely to the first fifteen years in the reign of Ramses II (1290-24 BC) because it is recorded in the priest's tomb that he was identified by an oracle of the god Amun and installed in that high office in the first year of his king's rule. The bust of Nebwenenef is different from the standing figure of Sebek em hat in scale, quality of workmanship, and detail, but not in the way they both adhere to the canonical rules of Egyptian art.
Under the direction of Moses, the Israelites leave Egypt and head for the "promised land." Rameses III defeats the Sea People. Rameses is pharaoh until 1151. He is the last great pharaoh to rule in Egypt. In 1175 he builds his temple palace at Medinet Habu. Shawabty of Ramesses IV. Shawabtys or funerary figurines were placed in tombs to act as substitutes for the deceased if called upon to labor in the fields in the afterlife. Even kings and queens, who never did such work, felt it necessary to equip their burials with these small mummiform statuettes. Nothing distinguishes a royal shawabty from a private one except the king's names enclosed in cartouches and occasionally a royal headdress. Ramesses IV, An ambitious ruler, prayed for twice the lifetime of Ramesses II, but died after only seven years on the throne. Like any laborer, the king carries in his crossed hands two hoes for digging the ground, and on the front is the traditional shawabty spell from The Book of the Dead, inscribed in the king's name: O shawabty, allotted to me, if I [Ramesses] be summoned ... to do any work which has to be done in the realm of the dead ... you shall detail yourself for me on every occasion of making arable the fields, of flooding the banks or of conveying sand from east to west "Here I am," you shall say.