Ancient Egyptian Prisoner Statues

During the Old Kingdom, the ancient Egyptians constructed elaborately decorated mortuary monuments for their pharaohs. By the late Old Kingdom (ca. 2435-2153 BCE), these pyramid complexes began to contain a new and unique type of statue, the so-called prisoner statues. Despite being known to Egyptologists for decades, these statues of kneeling, bound foreign captives have been only partially documented, and questions surrounding their use, treatment, and exact meaning have remained unanswered. Ancient Egyptian Prisoner Statues-the first comprehensive analysis of the prisoner statues-addresses this gap, demonstrating that the Egyptians conceived of and used the prisoner statues differently over time as a response to contemporary social, cultural, and historical changes. In the process, the author contributes new data and interpretations on topics as diverse as the purpose and function of the pyramid complex, the ways in which the Egyptians understood and depicted ethnicity, and the agency of artists in ancient Egypt. Ultimately, this volume provides a fuller understanding of not only the prisoner statues but also the Egyptian late Old Kingdom as a whole.

Violence and Power in Ancient Egypt examines the use of Egyptian pictures of violence prior to the New Kingdom. Starting with the assertion that making and displaying such images served as a tactic of power, related to but separate from the actual practice of violence, the book explores the development and deployment of this imagery across different contexts. By comparatively utilizing violent images from a variety of other times and cultures, the book asks that we consider not only how Egyptian imagery was related to Egyptian violence, but also why people create pictures of violence and place them where they do, and how such images communicate what to whom. By cataloging and querying Egyptian imagery of violence from different periods and different contexts—royal tombs, divine temples, the landscape, portable objects, and private tombs—Violence and Power highlights the nuances of the relationship between aspects of royal ideology, art, and its audiences in the first half of pharaonic Egyptian history.

The extraordinary history of Ancient Egyptian civilization - from its earliest origins to the creation of its greatest monument - from specialist John Romer This exceptional book draws on a lifetime of research and thought to recreate the previously untold story of how a civilization which began with handfuls of semi-itinerant fishermen settled, spread and created a rich, vivid, strange civilization that had its first culmination in the pharaoh Khufu building the Great Pyramid. The book immerses the reader in the fascinating world of archaeological evidence, the process by which this long vanished world has gradually re-emerged and the rapidly changing interpretations which these breathtaking but entirely enigmatic remains have been subjected to. Whether he is writing about the smallest necklace bead or the most elaborate royal tomb, John Romer conveys to the reader a remarkable sense of how to understand a people so like ourselves and yet in so many ways eerily different. Reviews: 'Scholarly, passionate and exquisitely written ... a stunning, clear-sighted history of Ancient Egypt' James McConnachie, Sunday Times 'It is not easy to enliven prehistory while simultaneously respecting limited archaeological evidence and avoiding novelistic pitfalls. But Romer manages it ... After a long wait, we have an up-to-date, stimulating account of the birth of what may turn out to be the world's oldest civilization' Andrew Robinson, Nature 'His physical descriptions are superb ... a book to be read and thought about' John Ray, Financial Times 'Romer carries the reader along effortlessly on a lengthy, complex yet immensely satisfying journey' Joyce Tyldesley, BBC History About the author: John Romer has been working in Egypt since 1966 on archaeological digs in many key sites, including the Valley of the Kings and Karnak. He led the Brooklyn Museum expedition to excavate the tomb of Ramesses XI. He wrote and presented a number of television series, including The Seven Wonders of the World, Romer's Egypt, Ancient Lives and Testament. His major books include The Great Pyramid: Ancient Egypt Revisited and Valley of the Kings. He lives in Italy.

An illustrated history of over 3,000 years of Egyptian artwork arranged chronologically from the early dynastic period to the Ptolemaic period.

This companion provides the very latest accounts of the major and current aspects of Egyptology by leading scholars. Delivered in a highly readable style and extensively illustrated, it offers unprecedented breadth and depth of coverage, giving full scope to the discussion of this incredible civilization. Provides the very latest and, where relevant, well-illustrated accounts of the major aspects of Egypt?s ancient history and culture Covers a broad scope of topics including physical context, history, economic and social mechanisms, language, literature, and the visual arts Delivered in a highly readable style with students and scholars of both Egyptology and Graeco-Roman studies in mind Provides a chronological table at the start of each volume to help readers orient chapters within the wider historical context

The ancient Egyptians had very definite views about their neighbours, some positive, some negative. As one would expect, Egyptian perceptions of 'the other' were subject to change over time, especially in response to changing political, social and economic conditions. Thus, as Asiatics became a more familiar part of everyday life in Egypt, and their skills and goods became increasingly important, depictions of them took on more favourable aspects. The investigation by necessity involves a multi-disciplined approach which seeks to combine and synthesize data from a wider variety of sources than drawn upon in earlier studies. By the same token, the book addresses the interests of, and has appeal to, a broad spectrum of scholars and general readers.

This book reveals the Ancient Egyptian knowledge of harmonic proportion, sacred geometry, and number mysticism, as manifested in their texts, temples, tombs, art, hieroglyphs, ...etc., throughout their known history. It shows how the Egyptians designed their buildings to generate cosmic energy, and the mystical application of numbers in Egyptian works. The book explains in detail the harmonic proportion of about 20 Ancient Egyptian buildings throughout their recorded history. Everything that the Ancient Egyptians built/molded/sculptured was for the purpose of generating energies and/or to embody energies. And just like our electrical system that needs activation by turning a switch on, all Egyptian works also require/required activation by the right actions [sounds, gestures, etc.]. And while these 'stone' marvels appears static because they appears stationary, they are no different than [stationary] energy generating units—like our solar panels that absorb solar energy from the sun and convert it to energy supply for our earthly human needs. This book reveals the Ancient Egyptian knowledge of harmonic proportion, sacred geometry, and number mysticism, as manifested in their texts, temples, tombs, art, ...etc., throughout their known history. It shows how the Egyptians designed their buildings to generate cosmic energy, and the mystical application of numbers in Egyptian works. The book explains in detail the harmonic proportion of about 20 Ancient Egyptian buildings throughout their recorded history. It is the aim of this book to provide such an exposition, one which, while based on sound scholarship, will present the issues in language comprehensible to non specialist readers. Technical terms have been kept to a minimum. These are explained, as non technically as possible, in the glossary. This Expanded Edition of the book is divided into three parts containing a total of 13 chapters, as well as 10 appendices being A through I. Part I: Architectural Concepts—Function and From consists of five chapters—1 through 5: Chapter 1: The Architectural Canon will cover the deep rooted Egyptian beliefs of 'As above So below' and its application to Egyptian art and architecture, the existence and adherence to a divine building code, as well as utilizing design and construction plans prior to [as well as] during the construction stages, which extended over several centuries for large projects. Chapter 2: The Metaphysical Structure of The Universe will cover the realms of creation and its correspondence in Man, as the image of all creation. Chapter 3: Visitation Sites of The Lower Heavenly Court will cover the interactions between earthly livings and the lower realms of the metaphysical cosmic structure, the significance of landscape architecture in such interactions, and the major types of visitation buildings—both burial and non burial sites—to facilitate such interactions. Chapter 4: The Sealed Pharaohs' Tombs will cover the concept and role of the pharaohs which require their tombs to be sealed and inaccessible for further communications after their earthly existence, as well as samples of some pharaoniac tombs. Chapter 5: Egyptian Temples of The Divine Forces will cover the main function of Egyptian temples, being divine generation, the overall conceptual temple layout, the metaphysical funnel conduit design, the generative significance of jointing patterns, outer walls physical/metaphysical protection, and the organic foundation roots of the Egyptian temple. Part II: The Physical Manifestation of Metaphysical Concepts consists of five chapters—6 through 11: Chapter 6: Architectural Constituent Forms of Metaphysical Functions will cover the various architectural forms as manifestation of their corresponding functions [both physically and metaphysically] for "false doors", recessed wall panels, columns and pillars, capitals of columns, porticoes, peristyles, colonnade formations at four different locations, obelisks, statuary images of various roof forms (flat, gable, corbelled, arch & vaulted), stylistic architectural details (architrave, cornice, and torus) and stylistic ornamentation and decoration such as starry ceilings, floral, geometric, figurative, a combination of two or all three, guilloche (misnamed as the Tuscan border), chevron, and scroll pattern. Chapter 7: The Primary Geometrical Shapes/Forms will cover the principles and application of sacred geometry of Divine Architecture, the Egyptian sacred cord [tool], general layout of sample geometric shapes, the sacred circle as the archetype of Creation, squaring the circle, the primary triangles, and the combined square-triangles 3-D pyramids. Chapter 8: The Generative Square Root Rectangles—"Irrational numbers" will cover the generative root rectangles as the hypotenuse of right angle triangles, beginning with a square, and generating square roots of 2, 3 and 5; formation of cosmic solids; generation of the Golden Proportion from the root five rectangle; the construction of whirling square spirals; and example application of this form of dynamic design to four locations in Ancient Egyptian monuments. Chapter 9: The Arithmetic Generative Progression will cover the role of numbers as generators of orderly growth and progression, the Summation Series and the Golden Proportion, and the Cosmic Proportion of the Human Figure. Chapter 10: Combined—Arithmetic and Graphic Harmonic Design of Egyptian Buildings will cover combining both the arithmetic and graphic elements into a harmonic design of the parts and the whole of an Egyptian temple, that includes: active axes, significant points, the telescopic triangles, and the rectangular perimeters in both the horizontal and vertical planes. Chapter 11: Harmonic Analysis of Ancient Egyptian Works will cover several examples in Ancient Egypt from all eras and throughout Egypt that show the Egyptian applications of the design elements discussed in this book. Examples include temples, tombs, pyramids, shrines, capitals of columns, stelae, pylons and doorways. Part III: The Spirited Communications has two chapters—12 and 13: Chapter 12: The Animated Metaphysical Images on Walls will cover the metaphysical significance of walls' decoration as well as explanations of various depictions. Chapter 13: Human Activities will cover the roles of humans in activating, maintaining, participating in various rituals and festivities as well as deactivating the powers of the temple when temples and the whole Egypt is under siege. Appendices has ten appendices—A through J: Appendix A: General Plans of Sample Egyptian Temples covers layout plans of several Egyptian temples with a short description of each. Appendix B: Practical Mathematics in Ancient Egypt covers reference to the four most recognized Ancient Egyptian "mathematical" Papyri and the practical mathematical contents within such papyri. Appendix C: Fraction Mysticism covers the reasons that in Egypt, a fraction—any fraction—could only be a fraction of unity and Egyptian tables to deal with "complex' fractions which will be similar to modern Logarithmic Tables. Appendix D: Intentional "Irregularities" In Egyptian Works covers the religious reasons for what seems to be "irregularities" in the highly executed Egyptian works. Appendix E: Monument Appropriations Reconsidered covers clarification of what appears to be monument appropriation by one pharaoh of another. Appendix F: Sample Egyptian Sculpture Works covers a very short list of recognizable Egyptian sculptures. Appendix G: Concrete Blocks Various Types covers the advanced Egyptian knowledge of concrete mixes and application examples of such knowledge throughout Ancient Egypt. Appendix H: The Masonic Egyptian Roots covers the Egyptian roots of the widespread secret fraternal society called ‘Free and Accepted Masons’ (popularly known as Freemasonry). Appendix I: Egyptian Influence on Modern Architecture covers several examples worldwide of such influence. Appendix J: Types and Forms of Mortals' buildings will cover types and forms of residential, private, communal and public buildings as associated with its earthly existence' function, as well as highlighting that mortals of all classes—including pharaohs and priestly staff—resided in mud-brick houses.