Egypt was the most conservative nation in the ancient world. Change was not welcome and divine order (maat) had to be maintained. This fear of change permeated the art of ancient Egypt. Before the painters in the Valley of the Kings created those beautiful figures, a grid was laid out on the walls so the proportions would be just like they had been for centuries. There was no word for ‘creativity’ or for ‘artist’ in the ancient Egyptian language. There were ‘carvers’, ‘painters’, but not artists. These were craftsmen, replicating what had been done in the past. If you needed a new statue of a god for the temple, you took out the old one and had it copied. Egyptian art is almost never signed. It was not viewed as a creative act. We attribute the iconic bust of Nefertiti to the sculptor Thutmose, not because he signed it, but because it was found in his studio, and we think it was his studio based on the flimsiest of evidence – a horse blinker found there with ‘Thutmose’ written on it.
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INSIDE THE STEP PYRAMID OF DJOSER
Sean McLachlan explores the recently reopened interior of this iconic Third Dynasty Saqqara monument.
PER MESUT: for younger readers
She Who Loves Silence
Highlights of the Manchester Museum 29: An Offering by Queen Tiye for her Husband
Campbell Price describes an offering table with a touching significance.
Highlights Of The Manchester Museum 28: Busts Of Jesse And Marianne Haworth
Campbell Price describes the significance of two statue busts on display in the Museum.
TAKABUTI, the Belfast Mummy
Rosalie David and Eileen Murphy explain how scientific examination of the ‘Belfast Mummy’ is revealing much new information about her life and times.
Lost Golden City
An Egyptian Mission searching for the mortuary temple of Tutankhamun has discovered a settlement – “The Dazzling of Aten” – described as the largest city ever found in Egypt (see above). Finds bearing the cartouches of Amenhotep III (see opposite, top) date the settlement to his reign, c. 1390-1352 BC – making it about 3400 years old.
Jerusalem's Survival, Sennacharib's Departure and the Kushite Role in 701 BCE: An Examination of Henry Aubin's Rescue of Jerusalem
BOOK REVIEWS
Golden Mummies of Egypt: Interpreting Identities from the Graeco-Roman Period by Campbell Price
BOOK REVIEWS
Old And New Kingdom Discoveries At Saqqara
An Egyptian team working on a Sixth Dynasty pyramid complex near the Teti pyramid at Saqqara has made a series of important discoveries.
Map Of Egypt
What’s in a name? It is easy for us to forget that the names we associate with the pyramids – such as the Meidum Pyramid, the Bent Pyramid or the Black Pyramid – would have been meaningless to their builders.
