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the Narmer Palette (31st century BC)

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one of the oldest and most important artifacts from Ancient Egypt

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thought by some to depict the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt under the king Narmer, which is the founding of the unified Egyptian kingdom under one pharaoh

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a stone palette

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on the pallete, Narmer is wearing the crown of Upper Egypt about to hit a prisoner with a club

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demonstrates the power of the pharaoh based on force

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Narmer is larger than anyone else in the depiction

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on the back side

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Narmer is wearing the crown of lower Egypt

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in a procession

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again, the pharaoh is larger than the other people in the depiction

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Statue of Ramses II at Luxor

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a New Kingdom pharaoh

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whereas Narmer was an Old Kingdom pharaoh

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Ramses II (1279-1213 BCE)

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over a thousand years after Pharaoh Narmer

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led an enormous building campaign

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many temples and statues of himself across Egypt

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half of the surviving temples in Egypt date from the time of Ramses

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apparently had many dozens of children

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a pharaoh was a kind of super-human, father-god figure

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statues are much larger than life-size

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represented in similar ways to Narmer

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wearing a crown which symbolizes upper and lower Egypt joined

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has beard which represents his status as pharaoh

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pharaohs are often represented still, often seated, which suggests repose and tranquility

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suggested that they don't need to move, that they are so powerful they can just sit

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led many military campaigns

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south against the Nubians into modern-day Sudan

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north against Hittites into modern-day Syria

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we aren't sure how well he did in these battles

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the representations of them are all apparently commissioned by Ramses or other Egyptians to suggest what a great leader he was

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clearly he did a good enough job to keep Egypt from being invaded by either the Nubians or the Hittites

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it may be that he just fought them to a standstill and everyone went home

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a few cases where Pharaohs are represented differently

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Queen Hatshepsut (1507–1458 BC)

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a member of the Egyptian royal family

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the daughter of Thutmose I

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the wife of his son Thutmose II, so she married her brother

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mother of Tutmose III

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the way the family structure of the dynasty was set up was that it was based on inbreeding within the family and incest

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the belief that the pharaoh's family was so sacred that members could only marry members of that family

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this makes good symbolic sense but very bad genetic sense

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resulted in many difficulties for the pharaohs over time

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Tutmose III became pharaoh at the age of one

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she was made the regent to rule over the kingdom

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instead of simply be the queen mother who was in charge until her son grew up

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she actually took over as pharaoh

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this was something that was not usually done in Ancient Egypt by women in the royal household

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some statues of her represent her as a women, but other shoe her as a pharaoh where she is represented as being male

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she was probably seen as taking on masculine identity

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she becomes symbolically the father of the country

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the Temple of Hatshepsut

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survives to this day

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one of the best surviving temples from that period

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clearly she wasn't any kind of second-class pharaoh of that period

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Bust of Nefertiti

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the wife of Pharaoh Nakanatan

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her bust was sculpted in 1345 BCE

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one of the most stunning works of art from ancient Egypt

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Neues Museum in Berlin

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the Egyptians want it back

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the Germans want to keep it

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painted on limestone

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realistic and life-like

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details

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wrinkled on her eyelids and neck

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represented as a human woman not a god

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wife of Akhenaten

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the most unique and distinctive pharaoh of all

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tried to completely transform Egyptian religion

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the only real god as the sun-god Aten

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made Aten into part of his name

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Egyptians followed this for a little while

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this fell apart pretty quickly after he died

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one of the first cases of anywhere in the world of monotheism

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most societies were polytheistic

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before the Jewish religion and certainly before Christianity or Islam

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had unorthodox religious beliefs but also allowed unorthodox styles of art

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Bust of Nefertiti

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much more realistic than other pharaonic art before and after Akhenaten

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art work: Akhenaten, Nefertiti, and their Children

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an ordinary family

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a kind of an emotional, laid-back picture with a certain sentimentality about it

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much more informal representation in Egyptian history

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Tutankhamen

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Akhenaten's son

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Nefertiti was not his mother since Akhenaten had many wives

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we don't know who Tutankhamen's mother was

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but Tutankhamen's mother was one of Akhenaten's sisters

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came to throne of age 9

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lived to age 19

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death was probably caused by broken leg

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probably also had malaria

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throughout his life also had trouble walking because he had birth defects being from an incestuous union in a family that had been incestuous before that

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not known for anything he did as pharaoh

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is known because his tomb was the only one found in the modern age without anything having been taken from it

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his tomb was opened in 1923 by Howard Carter

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they found all of the regalia, all of the tomb artifacts, and all of the gold and jewels and treasures

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this find is important because Tutankhamen didn't rule for very long