[Writer's Name]

[Supervisor's Name]

[Subject]

[Date]

Egyptian Art

Introduction

Egypt's art went through many stages in its development, and continuing advancements in artistic and cultural designs are helping to elucidate key historical patterns. Ancient Egypt has never been completely lost to the world, and the concept of its rediscovery is largely through Western eyes[1]. It remained a popular place to visit during Roman times, with many items on the ancient itinerary remaining the same today, including the pyramid fields and the ancient capital city of Memphis. Numerous pilgrims visited St. Catherine's monastery, in South Sinai, during medieval and crusader times[2]. Many early Muslim scholars held ancient Egypt in high regard and wrote treatises on its language and architecture. Though largely incorrect, these papers give insights into the importance of ancient Egypt long after its hieroglyphic system of language went out of use.

Overview

The art and culture of Predynastic Egypt shows us the transition from the use of stone implements to that of copper and the gradual development of the latter[3]. Throughout Badarian and Amratian times the making of flint implements reached a stage of marvelous precision and skill, while copper, although known, appears only in small quantities which the craftsman was learning to utilize for practicable weapons and tools. With the Gerzean Period we begin to find the practical use of metal with all the possibilities of development in every craft which it implies, as well as the consequent decline of the flint industry. The influence of invention can be clearly seen in the rise and decline of other crafts. Thus the development of handmade pottery continues side by side[4] with a somewhat limited working of stone vessels until toward the end of the Predynastic Period when the invention of the stone borer made the manufacture of splendid stone vessels much more rapid and cheap. There is then a gradual deterioration in the forms and decoration of pottery until the invention of the potter's wheel toward the end of Dynasty II caused the potter's craft to regain its ascendancy.

The first villages seem to have been formed mainly of reed shelters with an oval-shaped ground plan. These were open at one end and must have resembled the light constructions set up in the fields at the present day to protect the peasant from the hot noon sun and from the wind at night when he is camping out away from his village at harvesting time[5]. In addition to these, the villager at Merimde sought additional protection for his sleeping place by hollowing out oval holes in the ground and banking them up with a rim of clods of patted mud. A pot sunk in the floor drained off any rain water that seeped in, while a hippopotamus bone served as a step down into the depression. Some kind of a matting roof must have covered this and in one case there was a cross pole to help support the layers of matting. Although the earliest huts of reed and wattle had a round or oval shape, by the ...