made of stone or wood and used for various purposes), and
maces (ceremonial staff s). Th ese objects, oft en used as votive
off erings (gift s made for the gods), played an important role
in religious rituals, and their possession helped defi ne the sta-
tus of a person in the social order.
Many of these kinds of items have been found in and
around the temple at Hierakonpolis. In fact, this temple and
its environs have been a treasure trove for archaeologists and
art historians. A partial list of “fi rsts” and “onlys” from this
temple includes such large structures as the fi rst tomb cut
into stone, from about 3100 b.c.e.; the earliest painted tomb,
depicting a funeral procession; the earliest preserved royal
palace, from about 2900 b.c.e.; and Egypt’s earliest temple,
dating to about 3400 b.c.e. Notable statuary includes the old-
est life-size statue of a human; the earliest large-scale metal
statuary, including a life-size statue of the Sixth Dynasty
(2323–2150 b.c.e.) king, Pepi I, and his son; and the oldest
known stone statue of a named person, King Khasekhemwy
of the Second Dynasty (2770–2649 b.c.e.). Th e fi rst mum-
mies, from about 3600 b.c.e., also come from this temple, as
do Egypt’s earliest masks, made of pottery; the oldest-known
cult image, a golden hawk head of the god Horus; and the
largest fl int knives made in Egypt, along with huge bowls,
maces, and other items. Th ere are a number of other inter-
esting items, including the earliest surviving house in Egypt,
from about 3600 b.c.e.; the fi rst preserved beard; Egypt’s ear-
liest beer brewery; and the fi rst evidence of hair extensions
and henna hair dye.
PAINTING
Most of the painting that survives from ancient Egypt is
found on pottery and stonework. Paintings have been found
on relief stonework, but many paintings have also been
found on fl at stone. Unfi nished paintings have given art his-
torians clues about how painters worked. Evidence suggests
that skilled draft smen marked out the areas to be painted
by making sketches with red paint and then making correc-
tions with black paint. In the Middle Kingdom (2140–1640
b.c.e.) painters began to use a system of grid lines to plan out
the composition—in representing humans, the canon of hu-
man proportion referred to earlier. Th ese grids would then
aid the painter in maintaining proportions as the painting
was sketched in. Sometimes the lines were etched in using a
straight edge, but oft en they appear to have been done with
red chalk lines made with a string that was stretched tightly
and then snapped against the surface (in the same way that
modern builders “snap lines” on the fl oor when marking out
the interior walls of a house under construction).
Once the plan of the composition was in place, artists
made a sketch using fi ne brushes, similar to the brushes used
for writing. Brushes were made with reeds cut at an angle and
split to produce bristles. To apply the paint, more substan-
tial brushes were made with fi brous wood. A typical brush
was made of twigs that were tied together; the ends were then
pounded to break the fi bers into bristles.
Pigments were made from local minerals that could be
found in the deserts surrounding the Nile River valley. White
paint was made with gypsum (calcium sulfate), “whiting”
(calcium carbonate), or huntite, a chalky white compound
of calcium and magnesium. Soot and charcoal were used to
produce black, and iron oxide (rust) produced a range of yel-
lows and browns. Various other minerals, including realgar
(a rsenic su l fi de), orpiment (arsenic trisulfi de), jarosite (potas-
sium sulfate and iron sulfate), azurite (copper carbonate), and
malachite (also copper carbonate), were mixed to produce
other colors, including blues, greens, reds, and yellows. Many
of these compounds are unstable in light, and the colors have
faded over the centuries.
Most surviving painting can be found on the walls of
tombs and temples built at the behest of royalty, though simi-
lar work was increasingly part of private tombs and houses
beginning in the Eighteenth Dynasty (1550–1307 b.c.e.). Th e
Egyptians believed that painted scenes in tombs would help
ensure the continuity of life. In temples they believed paint-
ings preserved the memory of the accomplishments of the
pharaohs and, by depicting rituals, would serve as a visual
record that would ensure that important rituals were later
performed. While many examples of fi ne rel ief pa i nt i ng cou ld
be cited , a r t h istor ia ns oft en point to the painting found in the
tomb of Mentuhotep II (r. 2061–1991) at Dayr al-Bahri and to
the carvings found in the shrine to Sesostris I (r. 1971–1926)
in Karnak as particularly superior examples.
One feature of ancient Egyptian painting that strikes
modern viewers is the lack of three dimensions. Most later
painting, beginning in Renaissance Europe, creates the illu-
sion of a third dimension, depth, by arranging the elements
of the composition and altering their size so that some are
in the viewer’s foreground and others in the background and
objects themselves have a sense of depth. Egyptian paint-
ers, in contrast, remained happy with fl at, two-dimensional
paintings and drawings. Further, more modern painting cre-
ates the sense that the objects are viewed from a single per-
spective. An Egyptian painting, in contrast, employs multiple
perspectives.
Modern viewers, too, are oft en struck by a kind of odd-
ity in the way human fi gures are represented in Egyptian
painting. Rather than giving the fi gures naturalistic poses,
the paintings seem almost to be made of a collection of
parts. Th us, for example, the head might be in profi le, but
with a full “frontal” view of an eye. Th e shoulders may then
be rendered frontally, but the legs and buttocks may again
be in full profi le.
No discussion of painting would be complete without
mentioning the illumination of papyrus manuscripts. Papy-
rus is a form of paper made from the reeds of papyrus plants.
Beginning in about the Eighteenth Dynasty, artists started
to include small drawings and paintings on offi cial and reli-
gious documents. Among the best examples of this type of
work are the illuminations of the Book of the Dead by a scribe
named Ani in the Nineteenth Dynasty (about 1250 b.c.e.).94 art: Egypt