The Old Kingdom

The artifacts discovered during the last two centuries of excavation in Egypt are scattered widely through Europe, the USA and other parts of the world. Impressive displays are in the Louvre, the British Museum, and the Metropolitan, Boston and Brooklyn Museums. Even when Turkey was the nominal sovereign over Egypt there were efforts to prevent the dispersal of these treasures. These efforts have been more successful since the late Nineteenth Century than before, so that an enormous amount of beautiful, valuable and informative material remains in Egypt. Much of it is in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, built in the first years of the twentieth century. Most of the display there is typical of museums of that time and earlier. The quality of the identification of the items varies greatly. In many parts of the museum the lighting is nearly non-existent, but the experience of viewing these amazing artistic achievements of two and more millenia ago is unequalled.

Egyptian history is far too great a subject to go into very deeply here, even if I were qualified to write about it. Before the 12th Century BCE, it is common to refer to seven periods. The Predynastic extends to around 3000 BCE. The Early Dynastic period is the first two dynasties, when writing became common and it is apparent that many of the religious traditions that prevailed for most of the following three millenia were established. The Old Kingdom is dynasties III to VI (or maybe VII). The First Intermediate period, when Egypt was disunited, includes dynasties VIII to X. The Middle Kingdom is dynasties XI and XII. The Second Intermediate period, during most of which Egypt was ruled by the foreign Hyksos, the shepherd kings from the east, ends with the dynasty XVI, when the New Kingdom was established. It is generally considered to have ended with dynasty XXII.

Between the New Kingdom and Greco-Roman times there was not much building of great structures that have lasted until now, but a lot happened (including a possible circumnavigation of Africa around 800BCE!). During the Greco-Roman period following Alexander, the construction of great temples, which imitated, often with great skill, the art and architecture of the New Kingdom, was revived.

In the museums, I found it beyond me to take pictures of the objects that appealed most and at the same time to take notes to identify them. I am personally most enthralled by the art of the Old and Middle Kingdoms, and so my choices reflect this prejudice. Separate pages show some of the Middle Kingdom> and Tutankhamen exhibits in the Egyptian Museum and the Luxor Museum.

The Old Kingdom

The Old Kingdom was the period in which the great stone pyramids of Meidum, Saqqara and Giza were built. It is dated as beginning around 2700-2575 BCE and ending around 2200-2150. At this time, sculptors usually made portraits of their subjects, reflecting, in my eyes, the personality of the men and women they portrayed. A few of these portraits provided the models which later artists imitated so faithfully that the works became extremely stylized and impersonal. I apologize for my lack of information about the great works of art shown below.

P4090113 480 X 640 143 KB	P4090114 277 X 369 58 KB	P4090115 390 X 519 109 KB	P4090117 339 X 453 66 KB
P4090118 312 X 416 59 KB	Nudes are not common in Egyptian art. Men and women are often portrayed with bare breasts. Male circumcision, as seen here and in a statue below, was adopted in predynastic times by the Egyptians.	Woman washing	Another View
Dwarf. Dwarves were apparently not discriminated against. Many, some in high government positions, are shown as scribes	Menkaure, the builder of the smallest of the three great pyramids at Giza, flanked by his wife and a goddess. The goddess looks like a twin to his wife.	Another view. Similar works are in other museaums, including Boston..	A Pharaoh of the Old Kingdom wearing the Red Crown of Lower Egypt
Another View	P4090131	P4090133	P4090135
A king wearing only the White Crown of Upper Egypt	Probably the same man wearing an unusual headdress. The common headdress in portraits of pharaoh is the combination of the crowns of Upper and Lower Egypt. Here the king is not wearing the "sailor hat" crown of Lower Egypt which often surrounds the White Crown.	Another Dwar
P4090144 480 X 640 121 KB	P4090147 480 X 640 137 KB	P4090151 480 X 640 132 KB	P4090163 480 X 640 124 KB
P4090167 395 X 526 75 KB	P4090168 258 X 341 42 KB	These great artists chose to portray children as small adults. This couple's son is between their legs.	P4090171 640 X 480 127 KB
Then and Now

Photographs by Gerry Foley using an Olymous C2020Z
Last Modified May 10, 2007

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