Ruling over the kingdom was a pharaoh, who was not only a king but was also seen as a god. Provinces were ruled by monarchs better known as provincial governors. The Egyptians devised themselves into classes, upper class, middle class, and a lower class. The pharaoh and his family were at the top of the Egyptian class system. People could move from one class to another depending on their situations.
The legacy is the perception of himself that the pharaoh left behind in the wake of his death. However, when the façade is pulled back, an entirely different figure is shown; the real Tutankhamun. Upon entering the tomb, the northern wall can immediately be glimpsed. The mural covering the wall depicts three different scenes. In one scene, Tut is identified in the form of Osiris, the God of the afterlife.
However, the king was not always called a pharoah. This didn't start until the 18th dynasty in 1554 B.C. Before this, pharaoh just refered to the king's palace (“History of The Pharaohs of Ancient Egypt”). The people believed their king was not just merely a man, but that he was a god in human form (Wilson, 14). For this reason, they allowed him to have absolutecontrol over the land, government, economy, people, laws, etc.
The Amduat The Amduat also called the ‘The Book of the Secret Chamber’ is an ancient Egyptian funerary text that was used in the tombs of pharaohs or favored nobility. The Amduat’s literal meaning is “that which is in the afterworld”. The Amduat is an illustrated funerary text that was intended as a guidebook of sorts to the afterlife for pharaohs and was a long tradition in Egyptian burials. It was not until the 21st Dynasty that the text was used in tombs other than pharaohs or nobility. The Amduat’s textual, iconographic, and symbolic content are an intrinsic part of Egyptian art history.
They believed that every human being was composed of physical and spiritual parts or aspects. In addition to the body, each person had a shadow, a personality or soul, a life-force, and a name. They worshiped many gods inside of cult temples that were held by priests. These two cultures religions were very alike, but yet very different. The Egyptian pyramids, One of the great wonders of the world, these architectural wonders is one of the many things the Egyptian's are famous for.
Both Hatshepsut and Thutmosis III left numerous remains in Nubia: at Qasr Ibrim , Sai , Semna , Faras , Quban , and especially Buhen , where the queen built a temple for Horus of Buhen . The scenes on the walls of the temple originally included figures of both Hatshepsut and Thutmosis III , but he later replaced her name with his own and that of his father and grandfather . The Buhen Temple (now entirely moved to the Khartoum Museum) contains scenes of Hatshepsut's coronation and veneration of her father . Memphis may have received attention from Hatshepsut as a ruler . An alabaster jar fragment from the region of the Ptah Temple has been identified , but more significantly the colossal Egyptian alabaster sphinx that sits within the south wall of the Ramesside Temple precinct may have formed part of an earlier approach to the temple and was very likely accompanied by a second sphinx .
Sumerians produced The Epic of Gilgamesh describes the wanderings of Gilgamesh in search for eternal life. Egyptians produced The Book of the Dead which describes after death the soul becomes a part of the divine. Religion and authority and Egypt were closely related. In Mesopotamia each city state had different own god while in Egypt everyone followed the same thing. In Mesopotamia, they established patterns for civilization to take place.
world’s most famous pyramids are the three great pyramid tombs at Giza in Egypt. They were built around 589 to 2503 by the three fourth-dynasty kings: Khufu, Khafre and Menkaure. Ziggurats are much like Ancient Egyptian pyramids in the way they are built. They both have four sides which are meant to raise up towards the gods. However, unlike Egyptian pyramids, Ziggurats are not smooth on their exteriors.
The Giza pyramid weighs an astonishing weight of 5.9 million tons. I choose this subject because I found it to be amazing that mankind could build such a massive building without any modern machinery. In this paper I will be reviewing why and how the Giza pyramid was built. ‘What is known as fact is that The Great Pyramid was built by the pharaoh Khufu and it’s construction was supervised by his vizier Hemiunu, beginning in about the year 2580 B.C.’(ehow.com) It is believed that the Giza Pyramid was built as a burial tomb for the pharaoh Khufu The Giza pyramid is believed to have three burial chambers. The chambers are referred to as the King’s Chamber’ The Queens Chamber and the Unfinished Subterranean Chamber.
Votive Statue of Eannatum, Prince of Lagash My museum object is on Eannatum, the prince of Lagash, and I chose this particular piece because it was the most unique from all the other pieces. The votive statue is from the Early Dynastic II period, which lasted from, 2600 to 2340 B.C. The unique fact about this statue is that, on the back of the statue, there is a genuine inscription on his back, where the cuneiform script for ‘Eannatum, prince of Lagash, son of Akurgal has been carefully chipped out of the rock (Lin). The inscription has a pictographic base and on the statue if looking closely, you can see the prince’s name inscribed in the upper right shoulder. Eannatum means, “worthy of e-anna” and was given in respect to the planetary goddess, Inanna, who was basically the Venus of the Romans.