Ancient Egypt

The ancient world notes

·      Before civilisation images and sculptures were created the sculptures were mainly of humans and the paintings were usually animals.

·      Is this when people were beginning to document every day life?

·      Paintings were used as a form of film or entertainment they used the flicker of a fire to make the images look like they were moving.

·      No one knows the truth about why the paintings are there.

What was the first civilisation and was it actually civilised?

·      First civilisation emerged around 3500bce

·      Egypt first civilised community.

·      Tartaria tablet 5500 bce used as a form of language? Forst development of pictures with meaning.

·      Samarian writing- symbol writing.

Ancient Egypt

·      The size of the people in their illustrations showed importance the bigger the more important.

·      The images were very stylised showing all of the most important parts of the body in one image (face profile body front on.)

·      Tomb paintings showed wealth. The paintings documented everyday life showing servants and families.

·      The paintings made your ‘after life’ better they thought it would make your afterlife be the same as normal life.

·      Important documentation of Egyptian life.

·      The idea of size showing importance is still used.

The book of the dead and hieroglyphs

·      The book of the dead c1350 bce each tomb had one  that showed the journey from life through the underworld to your afterlife.

·      The book contained spells, codes, chants and tests to help you get to afterlife.

·      The weighing of the heart- Heavy heart = bad things, you wont go to a good afterlife.

·      Light heart = you will have a good afterlife.

·      Hieroglyphs- processed pictoral symbols represent values and sounds.

·      Demotic = hieroglyphs that were made more simple for the people.

·      Rosetta stone big block of carved text in 3 different languages ancient Greek, hieroglyphs and demotic hieroglyphs. It took many years to complete.

Ancient China

·      They invented ink, silk and tea.

·      They created their own alphabet different from anywhere else in the world.

·      1100Bc they created porcelain

·      c.105 Ad they created paper

·      9^th century they created printing and paper money.

Research further examples of Ancient Egyptian visual communication- especially relating to spiritual or religious beliefs and how they were expressed.

The ancient Egyptian civilisation began around 3100 bce. The Egyptians were based along the river Nile the reason that this civilisation lasted so long was because of how fertile the land was along the banks of the river. The fertile land enabled the people to grow healthy crops to sustain healthy lives. This is the reason why their civilisation lasted for over 3,000 years[1].

The Egyptians created most of their art for tombs which implies that this art was never intended to be looked at[2]. Therefore it wasn’t a recreational thing to create art; it had a deeper meaning to it. A lot of the art was created for religious and spiritual reasons. An example of this is the "Book of the Dead" (figure 1). There was lots of these books made for lost of peoples tombs. They were basically full of spells, chants and illustrations that is thought to guide the deceased through a series of tasks and challenges eventually leading to a better afterlife. 

'Hundreds have been found found in the tombs; they were placed in a casket ornamented with a statue of Osiris, introduced into the sarcophagus, or even hidden in the bandages of the mummy. The "Book of the Dead" is a striking illustration of the ancient Egyptian conception of after-life.' [3]

Figure 1, Illustration typically found in the book of the dead

The art that was created for tombs, temples and scrolls was also created for religious purposes and was often representative of everyday life in ancient Egypt. It was like a form of visual documentation. Although their drawings show what happened in real life their representations of life are far from realistic. People didn’t have a general sense of drawing perspective till later centuries so the Egyptians tried to depict all of the most important parts of a human in one drawing. For example they would draw the body and the head represented in profile (side on) and the limbs and shoulders and eyes shown straight on. The size of the figure was very important as size represented how much power the person had.Their images of people also came across very stylised and cartoon like  (figure 2.)

'Western artists have paid attention to this optical illusion, which we call perspective, modifying volumes according to their distance. The most distant objects appear smaller, and in an elevated position, in relation to closer objects. but for thousands of years pharaonic art adopted a diametrically opposed point of view. By neglecting the evidence of their senses and any optical illusions, the Egyptian artists attempted to represent objects and beings not only as they were (not as they saw them), but also with their most characteristic qualities.[4]'

Figure 2, The Papyrus of Ani, http://www.ancient-egypt.org/index.html

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[1] ‘Explore / World Cultures Ancient Egypt’ http://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/cultures/africa/ancient_egypt.aspx, (November 03,2013)

[2] Dr. Amy Calvert ,‘Egyptian art’ https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/art-history/art-history-400-c-e--ancient-cultures-1/ancient-egypt/a/egyptian-art (November 04,2013)

[3]R Boulanger, 'Egyptian drawing' in Egyptian painting and the ancient east, Heron books, London, 1966, p154.

[4] R Boulanger, 'Egyptian drawing' in Egyptian painting and the ancient east, Heron books, London, 1966, p19.