Figure 2.6 On this label of ebony wood, 8 by 5.5 cm, the upper right panel shows King Den during the sed‐festival. Wearing the double crown, he both sits in a booth and runs in an area delineated by six markers. The vertical text on the left side includes the king’s name and that of Hemaka, seal bearer of the king of Lower Egypt. The label mentions a kind of oil and a building processing it, and was originally attached to an oil container. British Museum. London. Source: The Trustees of the British Museum / Art Resource
Figure 2.7 Hieratic script was a rapid form of hieroglyphic initially used for documents of daily use. The papyrus fragment here, 35 by 19 cm, contains a letter between two fan‐bearers of the king and a fragmentary record of the cultivation of pharaonic lands in year 16 of Rameses III. As papyrus was expensive, the reverse was used later for an account. The papyrus probably comes from the Memphis region. Metropolitan Museum of Art, O.C.3569. Source: Museum Accession
Figure 2.8 In the first few centuries AD Coptic script was developed to write the last stage of the ancient Egyptian language, also called Coptic. The script was based on the Greek alphabet, with a number of letters added to it to render new sounds, and survives until today. Around 600 AD a weaver wrote the pottery ostracon (15 by 11 cm) shown here to request linen from a monastery. It was excavated in the Monastery of Epiphanius at Thebes. Metropolitan Museum of Art 14.1.157. Source: Rogers Fund 1914
Figure 3.1 Sneferu’s pyramid at Meidum represents one of the earliest attempts at constructing a real pyramid. It started out as a step pyramid with seven (later eight) stages to which a smooth outer casing was added. The latter started to collapse seemingly early on and is the source of the rubble surrounding the pyramid today. Photo: Marc Van De Mieroop
Figure 3.2 Plan of Giza plateau. While the great pyramids dominate with their enormous masses of stone, the entire Giza plateau is packed with the remains of subsidiary buildings to the burials and of tombs of queens and other members of the court. Today the area may seem abandoned (except for tourists), but in Old Kingdom times there was much activity due to the construction of new elements and the maintaining of royal funerary cults.
Figure 3.3 Abusir papyrus. British Museum, London, EA10735,10 H 20.5 cm. Source: The Trustees of the British Museum / Art Resource
Figure 3.4 This wooden panel, 115 cm high, is one of six found at Saqqara in the mastaba tomb of Hesira, an official of King Djoser. It depicts Hesira with the tools of a scribe hanging from his right shoulder. The hieroglyphs on top provide a list of his titles. Those in front of him list offerings. Egyptian Museum, Cairo, Egypt CG 1427. Source: Werner Forman / Art Resource
Figure 3.5 In the valley temple of King Menkaura’s pyramid at Giza were excavated four intact sculptures that represent the king with the goddess Hathor and a nome deity of Egypt (in this example the Hu nome of Upper Egypt). The works are carved from graywacke, a type of sandstone, and are about 1 m tall. Egyptian Museum, Cairo, Egypt JE 46499. Source: Werner Forman / Art Resource
Figure 3.6 This sculpture of Khafra, carved from diorite stone from the south of Egypt, was found in the king’s valley temple at Giza. It shows the god Horus in the shape of a falcon embracing the king’s head as a symbol of the intimate connection between the living king and that god. The complete statue, showing the king seated on a throne, is 168 cm high. Egyptian Museum, Cairo, Egypt JE 10062. Source: bpk Bildagentur / Art Resource
Figure 3.7 In the mortuary temple of Sahura at Abusir appear reliefs carved in limestone of the king’s military campaigns in Asia and Libya with images of the prisoners and other booty he collected there. This is a detail of some of the exotic animals he brought back from Syria, namely three bears. They are tethered to the ground and a jar stands between them. Aegyptisches Museum, Staatliche Museen, Berlin. Source: Erich Lessing / Art Resource
Figure 4.1 With the decentralization of power in the First Intermediate Period, provincial lords were able to construct monumental tombs throughout Egypt, following local customs with different architectural layouts. One such type was the so‐called saff tomb from the region of Thebes, which consists of a set of chambers carved in the rock with a large courtyard lined with door‐like openings in the back creating the impression of a pillared façade. These tombs were also popular among the early kings of the 11th dynasty.
Figure 4.2 The pyramid at Saqqara of the last ruler of the 5th dynasty, King Unas, is the earliest monument from which the funerary texts we call Pyramid Texts are known. These are spells that were carved into the walls of the burial chamber, intended to help the dead king to reach his proper place in the hereafter. Source: Werner Forman / Art Resource
Figure 4.3 Starting in First Intermediate Period, non‐royals had mortuary texts written out on their coffins to guide them to a paradise‐like destination with the god Osiris. These could include maps that indicated the dangers they would encounter on the journey there. This image shows part the Book of the Two Ways, painted onto the bottom of the 12th‐dynasty coffin of Gua, chief physician of Djehutihotep, great overlord of the Hare nome. Egyptian Museum, Cairo, Location: 39. Source: HIP / Art Resource
Figure 4.4 Because Pepy II became king as a young boy, his mother acted initially as his regent, and this 40‐cm‐high alabaster statue depicts their relationship at that time. Although he is a child sitting on his mother’s lap, Pepy is represented as an adult king with a royal headdress in miniature size. Brooklyn Museum 33.119. Source: Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund / Bridgeman Images
Figure 4.5 This very nicely carved hieroglyphic text, on limestone (the segment shown here measures 193 by 50 cm), was set up in honor of a man called Mereri who worked as priest during the 9th dynasty or somewhat later. He claims to have provided the people with food and clothing, and to have judged their court cases fairly. Source: Metropolitan Museum of Art Gift of Egypt Exploration Fund, 1898, 98.4.2a–c
Figure 4.6 This limestone stele, which measures 37 by 45 cm and is said to have been found in a village just south of Thebes, was made for a Nubian soldier called Nenu. Both the hieroglyphic text and some elements of his dress, like the wide leather sash, identify him as Nubian. His wife wears a fully Egyptian outfit, however. The somewhat awkward style of the representation is characteristic for the First Intermediate Period. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Emily Esther Sears Fund. Source: Bridgeman Images
Figure 4.7 With the creation of a new dynasty in Thebes, artists there started to produce very fine sculptures representing the kings in their roles as intermediaries with the gods. This limestone stele, which measures 44.5 by 46 cm, was probably set up on behalf of Wahankh Intef II in the courtyard of his tomb and shows him offering milk to the god Ra and beer to the goddess Hathor. The hieroglyphic text contains hymns to both gods. Metropolitan Museum of Art 13.182.3. Source: Rogers Fund 1913
Figure 5.1 This 46‐cm‐high statue carved from graywacke stone shows the head of King Amenemhat III wearing the white crown of Upper Egypt. The sculptor emphasized the contrast between the soft lines of the king’s facial features and the smooth surface of the high crown. The head’s nose and ears seem to have been ritually destroyed at an unknown later date. Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, Copenhagen. Source: Werner Forman / Art Resource
Figure 5.2 In the Middle Kingdom, provincial governors were able to pass their offices on to their sons and to commission tombs decorated with scenes that showed their activities in their official business. This image is a 19th‐century AD copy of a fresco painting from the tomb of governor Khnumhotep II at Beni Hasan, and the detail shows desert people bringing him gifts as if he conducted foreign policy on his own. Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, Austria. Source: Erich Lessing / Art Resource
Figure 5.3 Senusret I started the development of the Amun temple at Karnak in Thebes and erected the “white chapel,” a small limestone pavilion to celebrate his sed‐festival. The chapel was dismantled in the 18th dynasty and its stones reused for the construction of the 3rd