I need some help with Art History here-Egyptian!!?

Question

I am having a midterm tomorrow and I have to state why these 5 pieces of art are significent. They are:

1. Palette of Narmer
2. Pyramids of Giza
3. Statue of Akhentan
4. Book of Dead
5. Menkaure and His Wife

Answer 1

only remaining of the 7 ancient wonders.The biggest pyramid was build by Pharaoh Cheops where he is bared The Great Pyramid of Khufu (Cheops) is one of the largest structures built by man even today, 4,500 years later. It is estimate that 2.3 million blocks averaging 2.5 tons a piece were used in the building the pyramid. Weight of the block ranged from 2 to 15 tons. The pyramid sits on 13.5 acres of land and is a height of 480 feet. The length of its sides are 756 feet. It is estimated to have taken 100,000 men over 25 years to build the pyramid.

Answer 2

1.The Narmer Palette, also known as the Great Hierakonpolis Palette or the Palette of Narmer, is a significant Egyptian archeological find, dating from about 3200 BC, containing some of the earliest hieroglyphic inscriptions ever found, and is thought to depict the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt under the pharaoh Narmer. Egyptologist Bob Brier has referred to the Narmer Palette as "the first historical document in the world": which is thought by some to tell the story of the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt.

The palette, which survived intact, was discovered by British archeologist James E. Quibell and Frederick W. Green in what they called the main deposit in the temple of Horus at Hierakonpolis in 1894. Also found at this dig were the Narmer Macehead and the Scorpion Macehead. Unfortunately the exact place and circumstances of these finds were not recorded very clearly by Quibell and Green. In fact, Green's report placed the palette in a different layer one or two yards away from the deposit, which is considered to be more accurate on the basis of the original excavation notes.[1] It has been suggested that these objects were royal donations made to the temple. [2] Hierakonpolis was the ancient capital of Upper Egypt during the pre-dynastic Naqada III phase of Egyptian history.

Palettes were typically used for grinding cosmetics, but this palette was too large and heavy to have been for personal use, and was likely a temple object. One theory put forward was that it was used to grind cosmetics to adorn the statues of the gods.

The Narmer Palette has been part of the permanent collection of the Egyptian Museum in Cairo.[3]

2. This Ancient Egyptian necropolis consists of pyramids. Pyramid of Khufu (also known as the Great Pyramid and the Pyramid of Cheops coordinates 29°58′31.3″N, 31°07′52.7″E), the somewhat smaller Pyramid of Khafre (or Chephren coordinates 29°58′42.6″N, 31°08′05.0″E), and the relatively modest-size Pyramid of Menkaure (or Mykerinus coordinates 29°58′19.8″N, 31°07′43.4″E), along with a number of smaller satellite edifices, known as "queens" pyramids, causeways and valley pyramids, and most noticeably the Great Sphinx. Associated with these royal monuments are the tombs of high officials and much later burials and monuments (from the New Kingdom onwards) associated with the reverence to those buried in the necropolis.


Giza pyramids, view from south in late nineteenth century. From left: Menkaura pyramid, Khafra pyramid, Great (Khufu) pyramid.Of the three, only Khafre's pyramid retains part of its original polished limestone casing, towards its apex. It is interesting to note that this pyramid appears larger than the adjacent Khufu pyramid by virtue of its more elevated location, and the steeper angle of inclination of its construction – it is, in fact, smaller in both height and volume.

The most active phase of construction here was in the 25th century BC.

The ancient remains of the Giza necropolis have attracted visitors and tourists since classical antiquity, when these Old Kingdom monuments were already over 2,000 years old. It was popularised in Hellenistic times when the Great Pyramid was listed by Antipater of Sidon as one of the Seven Wonders of the World. Today it is the only one of the ancient Wonders still in existence.

Due largely to nineteenth-century images, the pyramids of Giza are generally thought of by foreigners as lying in a remote, desert location, even though they are located in what is now part of the most populated city in Africa. Consequently, urban development reaches right up to the perimeter of the antiquities site, to the extent that in the 1990s a Pizza Hut and KFC restaurant opened across the road.

The ancient sites in the Memphis area, including those at Giza, together with those at Saqqara, Dahshur, Abu Ruwaysh, and Abusir, were collectively declared a World Heritage site in 1979


3.Akhenaten (original pronunciation ʔxnʔtn, vowels unknown; modern pronunciation axɛnatɛn), known as Amenhotep IV at the start of his reign, was a Pharaoh of the Eighteenth dynasty of Egypt, especially notable for single-handedly restructuring the Egyptian religion to monotheisticly worship the Aten. He was born to Amenhotep III and his Chief Queen Tiye and was his father's younger son. Akhenaten was not originally designated as the successor to the throne until the untimely death of his older brother, Thutmose. Amenhotep IV succeeded his father after Amenhotep III's death at the end of his 38-year reign, possibly after a co-regency lasting between either 1 to 2 or 12 years. Suggested dates for Akhenaten's reign (subject to the debates surrounding Egyptian chronology) are from 1353 BC-1336 BC or 1351 BC–1334 BC. Akhenaten's chief wife was Nefertiti, who has been made famous by her exquisitely painted bust in the Altes Museum of Berlin.

Other names:

Amenhotep (IV), (nomen, or birth name)
Amenophis (Greek variant of birth name)
Nefer-kheperu-Rê (praenomen, or throne name)
Naphu(`)rureya (Variant of throne name found in the Amarna letters) Alternative spellings of Akhenaten (the name taken on conversion to Atenism which means "He Who Works for Aten")
'Akhnaten, Akhenaton, Akhnaton, Ankhenaten, Ankhenaton, Ikhnaton. His name was previous transliterated as Khuenaten

4. Book of the Dead is the common name for ancient Egyptian funerary texts known as The Book of Coming [or Going] Forth By Day. The name "Book of the Dead" was the invention of the German Egyptologist Karl Richard Lepsius, who published a selection of the texts in 1842.


Sample of a Book of the Dead of the scribe Nebqed, around 1300 BC"Books" were nothing like a modern book – the text was initially carved on the exterior of the deceased person's sarcophagus, but was later written on papyrus now known as scrolls and buried inside the sarcophagus with the deceased, presumably so that it would be both portable and close at hand. Other texts often accompanied the primary texts including a hypocephalus (meaning 'under the head') which was a primer version of the full text.

Books of the Dead constituted a collection of spells, charms, passwords, numbers and magical formulae for the use of the deceased in the afterlife. This described many of the basic tenets of the Egyptian mythology. They were intended to guide the dead through the various trials that they would encounter before reaching the underworld. Knowledge of the appropriate spells was considered essential to achieving happiness after death. Spells or enchantments vary in distinctive ways between the texts of differing "mummies" or sarcophagi, depending on the prominence and other class factors of the deceased. There are over 190 chapters in some versions, and although they have common elements each is distinct for the particular mummy.

Books of the Dead were usually illustrated with pictures showing the tests to which the deceased would be subjected. The most important was the weighing of the heart of the dead person against Ma'at, or Truth (carried out by Anubis). The heart of the dead was weighed against a feather, and if the heart was not weighed down with sin (if it was lighter than the feather) he was allowed to go on. The god Thoth would record the results and the monster Ammit would wait nearby to eat the heart should it prove tasty and unworthy.

The earliest known versions date from the 16th century BC during the 18th Dynasty (ca. 1580 BC–1350 BC). It partly incorporated two previous collections of Egyptian religious literature, known as the Coffin Texts (ca. 2000 BC) and the Pyramid Texts (ca. 2600 BC-2300 BC), both of which were eventually superseded by the Book of the Dead.

The text was often individualized for the deceased person - so no two copies contain the same text - however, "book" versions containing similar features are generally categorized into four main divisions – the Heliopolitan version, which was edited by the priests of the college of Annu (used from the 5th to the 11th dynasty and on walls of tombs until about 200); the Theban version, which contained hieroglyphics only (20th to the 28th dynasty); a hieroglyphic and hieratic character version, closely related to the Theban version, which had no fixed order of chapters (used mainly in the 20th dynasty); and the Saite version which has strict order (used after the 26th dynasty).

The Book of the Dead for Scribe Ani, the Papyrus of Ani, was originally 78 ft (28 m), and was separated into thirty seven sheets at appropriate chapter and topical divisions.

5. Menkaura (or Men-Kau-Re; Mycerinus in Latin; Mykerinos in Greek) was a pharaoh of the Fourth dynasty of Egypt (ca. 2620 BC–2480 BC) who ordered the construction of the third and smallest of the Pyramids of Giza. His main queen was Khamerernebty II.

Some authors date his rule between 2532 BC–2504 BC or 28 years but the Turin King List data of 18 years for him is regarded as being closer to the truth since several of his statues were unfinished upon his death--suggesting a much shorter reign--while his pyramid is the smallest of all the 3 royal pyramids at Giza. His name means "Last long (Men) the vital forces (Kau) of Ra." He was the successor of Khafra (Chephren).

According to Herodotus, Menkaura was the son of Khufu (Greek Cheops), and alleviated the suffering his father's reign had caused the inhabitants of ancient Egypt. Herodotus adds that he suffered much misfortune: his only daughter died before him, whose corpse was interred in a wooden bull (which Herodotus claims survived to his lifetime); and that the oracle at Buto predicted he would only rule six years, but through his shrewdness, Menkaufra was able to rule a total of 12 years and foil the prophecy (Herodotus, Histories, 2.129-133). Other conflicting sources state that Menkaura was not the son of Khufu, but of Khafra, who in turn is the son of Khufu.