Egyptians used art to document their human experiences…What is one popular method used today to document our

human experiences?

Civilization is an exciting new development for the human race.

For nearly all of the last 100,000 years, humans have almost always worked and lived together in small tribal bands, staying on the move, hunting wild animals and gathering wild food.

Clumping together and Staying Put

Nomadic activities work well for keeping population numbers under control…Recently, however, no more than 10,000 years ago something radically different began to happen: Humans began to organize themselves in big numbers.

(Above picture of downtown Egypt as it looks today.)

The big change from tribes to traffic jams started in China, in the Indus Valley. It also happened in an area of the globe that

we now call the Near East.

Aerial photograph of what is left of the original ancient Egyptian cities (we call these architectural leftovers ruins )

A city started to form in Egypt

Here is a map of the world…

←Here you are. ← Here is Egypt

•A few of the tribes found themselves in a paradise like place. The waters of the Nile allowed things to grow. The desert and sea protected the tribes from outside invaders. It was an “island of plenty.”

•So the tribes did a history making thing…

•They stopped moving. In time they learned to plant seeds in the black soil of their river’s delta and wait for them to sprout.

•The Nile fed them. The desert protected them.

Egyptians used art to document their human experiences…

Egyptians used art to document their human experiences…

Egyptian, Throne Back Depicting Tutankhamen and Queen, New Kingdom, 18th Dyn., c. 1360 BCE, Cairo Museum, Egypt.

Characteristics of Egyptian Style Art

• flattened space- few details and little to no shading is used. There is not a concern with creating the illusion of form.

• Faces are almost always shown in profile (sideways).

• Feet are also usually in depicted in profile.

• The direction of the feet and face can give chronology to the picture. They can tell you if the figure was going toward or running away from the event.

• The figures are drawn to show off the heart, which was valued greatly in Egyptian culture.

• There is very little overlapping in the Egyptian’s artwork.

Characteristics of Egyptian Style Art

Walk like an Egyptian—stand up and try to walk like the Egyptian in this painting… Pay attention to how the face, legs & feet are oriented.

Be sure not to block the heart!

• Ankh is commonly known to mean life in Ancient Egyptian language.

• It symbolizes eternal life and also power.

• Sometimes it is used as an amulet to provide the wearer with protection from the evil forces of decay and degeneration.

• Egyptian Gods and Kings are often shown carrying the Ankh to distinguish them from mortals.

• As the Christian era eclipsed Egypt's pharaonic pagan religion, the sign was adapted by the Coptic church as their unique form of a cross, known as the crux ansata.

• Interesting blurb about Restored Church of God 

The goddess Isis giving life to Nefertari in the form of the ankh.

Lotus Flower

• A real Lotus Flower opens every morning and closes every night.

• The symbol is used to represent life, death, and rebirth.

Draw this beetle in your sketchbook/ notebook.

Scarab• It lays eggs in dung, which

the hatched beetle babies eat. • The Egyptians believed that

the scarab beetle represented their sun god, Ra.  Ra was the Egyptian god who rolled the sun across the sky and buried it each night.  

• It was used as an amulet to protect the mummy from harm.

• Scarab beetle amulets  portrayed the beetle's persistence in rolling a dung ball and the reemergence of the beetle from its hole in the ground. 

Try to answer without looking at your notes—1. What do each of these Egyptian symbols mean?

2. How did the meaning of the first and last symbol change? Why?3. How might the meaning of the symbols change if they were viewed by

someone who did not know about Egyptian culture?

The scarab is a visual metaphor for the sun rising and setting.4. Try to think of a natural phenomenon that you have seen that you do not understand. Describe it. 5. How might you visually symbolize this phenomenon? Illustrate this symbol in your sketchbook.

Eye of Horus• Was believed to have

protective and healing power. • Used as a medallion, placed

inside the wrappings of a mummy to protect it from sickness.

• The Masonic all seeing eye, the Eye of Providence symbol found on American money, and our modern Rx pharmaceutical symbol are all descended from the Eye of Horus.

Osiris• Egyptian God of the afterlife

and judge of the dead. • Osiris was killed by his

brother Seth, who shut his body in a chest and threw it into the Nile, where it washed up onto the shore and was trapped in a huge tree. The King Byblos turned it into a pillar in his palace.

• Isis, Osiris’s wife, (who had been searching for her husband) discovered the trunk and retrieved the body.

Osiris cont.• While Isis was away, Seth found the

body, and chopped it up into many pieces, and scattered them throughout Egypt.

• Isis and her sister, Nephthys, found the pieces and made wax models of them to give to priests to be worshipped.

• When they found all of his pieces, they were so sad they wailed loudly enough for Re, the father god, to have pity on them. He sent Anubis and Thoth to help. They mummified Osiris, and put his body in a lion headed pier. Isis changed into a kite and fanned breath into Osiris. The reassembled pieces, helped father a son.

• Osiris was not allowed to stay in the land of the living, and was sent to the underworld to serve as king, and to judge the souls of the dead.

The Egyptian sphinx is an ancient iconic mythical creature usually comprised of a recumbent lion – an animal with sacred solar associations – with a human head, usually that of a pharaoh.

Evolution of the pyramid

• When anyone thinks of Egypt they automatically think pyramids.

• Prior to the old kingdom kings or Pharohs were not entombed in pyramids, but instead laid to rest in Mastabas

• Mastabas- Were bench shaped Ancient Egyptian tombs.

Evolution of Pyramid Cont.• It wasn’t until the

beginning of the old kingdom that Pharohs began to be entombed in legit pyramids.

• Event then non royalty continued to use mastabas.

• Even after the use of pyramids, many still chose to be stored in a different way. Great Pyramids of Giza

Original Great Pyramid

• The 1st of the great pyramids, known simply as the great pyramid, is the largest of the three.

• This pyramid is the oldest of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient world.

• Constructed c.2560-2540

You will be creating a visual documentation of your family’s history & stories in the style of Egyptian art.

Homework—Ask and Listen. Ask your parents and your grandparents to tell you about your past. Maybe a story from their childhood, the story of how they met? A story of hardship? Of celebration? Of world events they have lived through? Have they always lived in Cleveland County? NC? United States?