Chronicle of the Pharaohs

Chronicle of the Pharaohs 
The reign by reign record of the rulers and Dynasties of ancient Egypt

Peter A. Clayton
(2006)


Scorpion and Narmer
(page 17-19)

Narmer Palette

front and back of the Narmer Palette

The front of the palette:

This side of the tablet has the main feature as a carving of Narmer smiting a prisoner. He is holding the prisoner by his hair, this symbolism became popular throughout Ancient Egypt.
It is shown that the god Horus is on the Kings side as he is holding an enemy and waiting for the King.


The back of the palette:

" The king walks behind a procession of four standard-bearers towards two vertical rows of decapitated captives, five in each row, above whom there is a schematic boat with a cabin amidships and an apparent falcon standard on board as a totem. " (page 18)

The Central panel has been interpreted as Mesopotamian art in Egpyt, two Serpopards; four legged creatures, with long necks that in this image are entwined to form "the cosmic scoop".

The bottom panel shows a bull (titled later as 'Strong Bull of Horus') attacking a fortified town with a fallen enemy beneath his feet.


Khafre
(page 51-55)

Diorite Statue of Khafre
(page 52-54)

This is a large statue of Khafre that was found inside his temple, made of diorite, a hard stone, it shows him seated with the Falcon form of Horus behind his headdress. The positioning of Horus then shows that he is protecting the King.

The artist is unknown.


The Great Sphinx
(page 55)

Was carved from limestone left over from quarrying blocks for the pyramid of Khufu. The crouched half lion with the human head represents Re-Harakhte (the sun god)

The face is thought to be representing Khafre and this is "the oldest large scale royal portrait"

For the last four and a half millennia is has been buried under sand, although a stele at the Sphinx's chest records that prince Tuthmosis IV cleared away the sand.


Pepi I to Pepi II
(page 65-67)

Green slate kneeling statue of Pepi I. In his hands he is offering food or wine to a god, this statue is an early example of what became a popular genre of statues that was popular with royals.



Tuthmosis III
(page 108-111)

Statue of him kneeling and holding offerings of wine or water to the gods.


Tutankhamun
(page 128-135)

gold death mask

This mask covered the head of the mummy within the coffin.

Gilded wooden statue of Isis

This is one of four goddesses that "guarded the canopic shrine and chest of Tutankhamun with their outstretched arms".  (page 129)

inlaid panel of his throne

"The king is seated whilst his wife, Ankhesenpaaten (it carries the Armans form of their names) adjusts his Broad Collar. " (page 129)

This is the the full chair
(chair not shown in the book)

wall decoration from the burial chamber

Provisions for the Kings tomb were available beforehand however it is thought the death of the King was unplanned as the embalming has been done poorly and the chamber was not fully prepared and decorated. The decorations that have been done are all in the burial chamber and would have been done within 70 days after the death.

Inner coffin

This golden coffin holds the mummified body of the King, found inside two other coffins, the other coffins both wooden with an overlay of gold.

Middle coffin

It is thought that this coffin was not made for the King as the facial features are very different to the others.

Anubis Jackal

"Anubis Jackal guards the open doorway from the burial chamber into the Treasury in Tutankhamun's tomb." (page 134)

The background shows a gilded wood shrine.


Ramesses II
(page 146-155)

Temple at Abu Simbel

two of the four figures on the entrance of the temple

When first discovered it was unknown if the figures were seated or standing because of the amount of sand surrounding the figures.

It has been built so exactly that the rising sun on 22nd of February and October the rising sun lights three of the four gods carved inside the mountain  It is thought that the fourth god does not get lit because he is the god Ptah, the god of the Underworld.


Ramesses XI
(page 170-171)

ushabti of Ramesses XI

" Found in the debris of his unused tomb" (page 170)

Herihor to Psunennes II
(page 174-181)

Blue faience royal ushabti's :

Ushabti of
Princess Nesitanebashru

Ushabti of
Queen Henuttawy

Ushabti of
Pinedjem

Psusennes' gold face mask

(page 180)

Gold Mask of Psusennes'

" certainly the finest of several found at Tanis, although it does not compare with the earlier one of Tutankhamun. " (page 180)

His tomb was found intact.

" A large red carved granite sarcophagus enclosed a black granite anthropoid coffin, which in turn held a silver inner coffin. Over the face of the mummy lay a gold mask, but the mummy had been substantially destroyed by the poor conditions. " (pages 180-181)

Piankhi to Tanutamun
(page 190-193)

Mentuemhet, Prince of Thebes
(page 193 - sidebox)

Grey granite statue of Mentuemhet

This statue has his name and title on his belt, it is one of few great officials whose statues have survived.

Amyrtaeus to Darius III

(page 201-205)

Nectanebo II

This statue shows Nectanebo II sheltered by the god Horus in the form of the Falcon.

1970's to present

Don McCulin 

He is most famous for his war photography however he has also documented Bradford and what was happening socially and economically. He has said that he has just wandering when he reached bradford and because the people were warm and more welcoming than in other places he stopped wandering and rediscovered him self after the wars that he had seen.

“So much of my war reporting had involved watching national identities take shape that I began to ask myself who I was. What were the English and what did they represent? What for that matter did I represent? ” (McCullin, 1990).

Martin Parr

He was an innovative and fresh documentary photographer who used colour to document the English seasides and the people who visited them. Before Parr the only time colour had been used is in family snapshots and he revolutionised photography. 

He not only used colour but used black and white photography while he was showing us the inside of churches and the people while they are praying and singing hymns. I think he was used black and white because of his influence and mentor Tony Ray-Jones and also because I think colour could have been a distraction from letting the viewer see what the subject is doing as the colours could have been overwhelming.

1950-60's

Advertisements in this time became more creative, showing witty slogans and logos as well as information about the product. Advertisements were much more sexist and racist than those seen today as the segregation was still happening and this behaviour was seen as normal. 

Vehicle advertisements 

Companies (such as Chevrolet) sold their cars by focusing on the grand size of the vehicle and showing the car with passengers who were enjoying the ride, many of the backgrounds show wide open rural landscapes and nearly all of these were created by illustrations as advert designers did not feel that photography could convey the same message.

The exception to this rule is Volkswagen who's selling point is the benefits of having such a small car that they have created. The advertisements differed from the typical in every way: they showed their product small in the frame, there was no background detail as it is all a plain white studio style background, and the images were a photograph not an illustration. Their selling point was "think small" which was a complete opposite of what the message was in other brands, one theory is that the slogan of this advert was reassuring to some Americans that they could be themselves and did not to change with the time. 

Coca Cola

The segregation in America meant that there was often only white people portrayed in the advertisement, coca cola was an exception to this rule as their adverts featured jazz player Raymond Loewry. Either the creators of the advertisement or the manager of the company did not believe in segregation or they realised the potential target market in advertising specifically to different races.  

Sexualism

Advertisements had more creative freedom than modern adverts are allowed to show, many advertisements in the 50-60's are obviously over sexual.

Second world war and the 1950's

Margaret Bourke-White

She photographed during many wars across the world, but she is most well known for her photographs that were taken inside the concentration camp in Germany as the American troops liberated the prisoners. Her photographs appeared in Life magazine in may 1945. 

Strikingly powerful and moving images they show the atrocieties that the prisoners have suffered though and the reaction of German civilians who lived local to the camp. 

Bourke-White shows the terrified faces of prisoners lined up behind the barbed wire that is fencing them in, the simple inclusion of the wire creates negative connotations of being trapped behind it and unable to escape.

Alfred Eisenstaedt 

Peace at last : V-J day, times square,August 14, 1945

New York, Penn Station. 1944

This photograph captures a moment between a couple who are saying goodbye, many images taken during the war show this same moment but different couples, in many of which the soldiers did not return home. 

In the background of the image there are also other woman who have gathered to say goodbye to their loved ones, the way the background has been filled creates a connotation that the whole station is filled with goodbyes and loved ones, it is an image many of the people could relate too as they were also watching their loved ones depart for war.

Bernard Hoffma

A woman readjusting her goggles before she starts working, this image shows a different side to the war; women became workers because the men had been sent to war. 

During the war the factories and farmlands still needed people to work on them so the women were filling these roles. Before this women had had gender specific jobs such as shop work or tailoring or had become stay at home wives and mothers. 

Egyptian Paintings

Egyptian Paintings

Illustrated and described by Nina M. Davies

Penguin Books . London


This book looks at the paintings in the ancient Egyptian world, their meaning and placements and the conventions of a typical painting.



Meaning of the paintings and their place on the tomb walls

The paintings on the tomb wall all conveyed the owner of the tomb, in each he was enjoying an activity that he had done on the Earthly plane and he would continue to enjoy in the afterlife. Activities included farming, fishing, dancing, feasting.

Not just the royal family got their own tombs as many people working under the king received their own tomb, in these tombs is where we see the daily lives of the people.

In the new Kingdom the layout of the tombs became more arranged as not all tomb paintings were showing the daily activities there was also plenty of space for the funerary rites.



Conventions followed by the ancient Egyptian artists

A full face is drawn yet only the shoulders are frontal and the rest of the body is shown from the side.

"Perspective is ignored except in a few rare instances"

Strict rules were followed and handed down through generations, these rules included the scaling of the people in the paintings - the greater the importance of the person the larger size they were shown.



Methods of lighting and decorating the tomb

The true method of how the caves were lit well enough to be able to decorate still remains a mystery because the lamps that have been recovered from the time do not provide sufficient lighting.
Modern methods include using mirrors to bounce light around the tombs, however this was not possible in Ancient Egypt. Furthermore many tombs were deep underground or in the sides of rock faces where no light would have reached naturally.

"The colours, which have not a great range, were undoubtedly mixed in quantity and then carried down to the dark recesses and applied to the forms which convention decreed must be of such and such a tint "

As well as the walls the ceilings were also painted, these were such as geometrical patterns separated by bands.
Later the addition of motifs were common and these included birds, butterflies and flowers for example.


Many of the plates in this book show the people in their tomb paintings, however the one that caught my eye was of the detailing in the birds, it is fascinating that such detail was captured even with the tools and colours they had available.

Geese of Medum 
Medum, Tomb of Itet; now in the Cairo Museum (c.2700 B.C.)

Although today the larger fowling picture has been destroyed this scene still remains.
The red-breasted goose is no longer found in Egypt however the other geese are still very common.

" And can serve as an example of the height of achievement reached by Egyptian artists at so early a date. "

The piece of the painting shows an almost symmetrical representation of the geese along the muddy banks of the water.