History begins with the invention of writing around 5,000 years ago or maybe even more.There is alot of missing and incomplete and ignored writings that could lead us to what is"prehistoric"and what is "historic".What i am going to list is some of the findings and more popular writings and artworks of the ancient egyptians.I will begin with what is called the" old kingdom" the egyptian style and palette of King Narmer.
THE OLD KINGDOM:
Egyptian civilization has often been called the most rigid and conservative civilization ever.many think of it as not changing for over 10,000 years.I like to think of it as enduring and a constant style to be identified with.The history of Egypt is divided into dynasties of rulers.The first dynasty,beginning after 3,000 b.c.The dates of the earlier rulers are to difficult to change into a time period to identify with our calanders since the onset of christianity.The transition from prehistory to the first dynasty is known as the PREDYNASTIC PERIOD.The old kingdom forms the first major division after that, ending around 2155
with the overthrow of the 6th dynastY B.C.
tThroughout all of the dynasties the major influence has always been of the Pharoah(king)who was also considered a god.Of these vast public works nothing remains today,and little has survived of ancient egypt and palaces.Our knowledge focuses on the findings in tombs.The egyptian tomb was a kind of life insurance and a celebrated passage into the "next life"for pharoes and other high ranking officials.Much care was taken to ensure the "ka"or spirit was well equipt for this journey,and in a sense they have succeded into a sort of afterlife,given,it is basically a life of being studied and looked at in museums.Not what they were thinking of i am sure,but one never knows where the spirit is.
An early stage of egyptian funerary customs can be seen in the fragmented wall paintings from Hierakonpolis.Although it is primative in character,the human and animal figures become signs almost as if they were on the verge of turning into hieroglyphs.Remember this tomb is from 3200 b.c the predynastic period.The egyptians were just beggining to work with bronze tools.The country we can assume was in the hands of local sovereigns and tribal chiefs.The wall paintings depict a fight scene between black-bodied men and white -bodied men,they probably reflected war scense of raids and battles between tribes and kingdoms,upper and lower egypt.The struggle finally ended when upper egypt conquered lower egypt.
When the two areas where combined the king was NARMER.The palette of king NARMER from hierakonpolis depicts his victory.The NARMER palette can be considered the oldest historic work of art we know. |
