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Lebanon, southern Palestine and Syria. The southern walls of Ramesses II have hieroglyphic texts which actually record details of the Hittite king and Ramesses II signing a peace treaty in the twenty-first year of Ramesses reign. This is the first evidence found for a formal diplomatic agreement and is certainly historical.

The Transverse Hall lies beyond the rear wall of the Hypostyle Hall. The wall is mostly ruined. With the Transverse Hall is a partially reconstructed Third Pylon of Amenhotep (Amenophis) III. The Transverse Hall has remains of the earliest sections of the Karnak complex that are still in existence.

Leaving the hypostyle hall through the third pylon you come to a narrow court where there once stood several obelisks. One of the obelisks was erected by Tuthmosis I (1504 - 1492 BC) who was the father of Hatshepsut. This obelisk stands 70 feet (21.3m) tall and weighs about 143 tons. During the centuries between Tuthmosis I and Ramesses VI, the kings of the time did more than their share of destroying and dismantling. This obelisk was never touched. The original inscription was left in its place. However, two kings did add their inscription on either side of the original. Beyond this obelisk is the only remaining Obelisk of Hatshepsut (1473-1458 BC). It is 97 feet (29.6m) high and weighs approximately 320 tons. Besides the Lateran obelisk in Rome, this is the tallest standing obelisk. The one in Rome is 101 feet (30.7m) high. Hatshepsut was a woman who dared to challenge the tradition of male kingship. She died from undisclosed causes after imposing her will for a time. After her death, her name and memory suffered attempted systematic obliteration. The inscription on the obelisk says, "O ye people who see this monument in years to come and speak of that which I have made, beware lest you say, 'I know not why it was done'. I did it because I wished to make a gift for my father Amun, and to gild them with electrum."

Tuthmosis III (1479-1425 BC) was Hatshepsut's successor. When he came to power, he built a high wall around her obelisk. This wall hid the lower two-thirds but left the upper towering above. It has been thought that this was an easier and cheaper way of destroying her memory than actually tearing it down and removing it. If Tuthmosis III had really wanted to destroy the obelisk, he would have certainly torn it down and removed it. Perhaps that was another reason for his building the wall. The top of the obelisk was visible for 50 miles (80 km). The pink granite for the obelisk was quarried at Aswan, which is several hundred miles south of Karnak. The stone was moved several miles over to the river and shipped down to Thebes. The setting of the stone is shown on reliefs as the pharaoh raising it with a single rope tied to its upper extremity. This is most probably symbolic, but may have been done this way with several hundreds of people pulling together. To the south of the standing obelisk is its companion which has fallen. It was also made of a single block of granite but is broken now.

The Sixth Pylon, which was built by Tuthmosis III, leads into a Hall of Records in which the king recorded his tributes. Very little remains of this archive beyond two

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granite pillars. Just beyond these pillars lies the Holy of Holies or sanctuary. Originally it was the oldest part of the temple. The present sanctuary was built by the brother of Alexander the Great, Philip Arrhidaeus (323-316 BC) who was the King of Macedonia. The present sanctuary was built on the site of the earlier sanctuary built by Tuthmosis III. The present sanctuary contains blocks from the Tuthmosis sanctuary and still contain Tuthmosis' inscriptions. The sanctuary is built in two sections.

The Karnak Temples are open from 6:30 am until 5:30 pm in winter and from 6 am to 6 pm during summer. Admission is LE 65 for foreigners, LE 35 for foreign students. Visiting the open-air museum, to the left of the second pylon, costs an extra LE 10. The museum contains a collection of statuary that was found throughout the temple complex. The ticket has to be purchased at the main Karnak ticket kiosk. Karnak takes at least a half of a day just to walk around its many precincts and years to come to know it well. There is also a Sound and Light Show at Karnak. The show starts with a historical introduction covering the birth of the great city of Thebes and erection of the Karnak temple. The show also narrates the glorious achievements of some great Pharaohs. The Spectators listen to a magnificent and poetic description of the artistic treasures and great legacy which the Karnak temple encloses.

Grand Festivals in Ancient Egypt

From extant data we can reconstruct a cultic calendar for the major deities of Egypt, such as Amun at Thebes, Hathor of Dendera, Horus of Edfu and others. Frequently, inscribed on the walls of such temples are detailed lists of feasts, all presented in a systematic manner. Such festival calendars were also copied and kept in the scrolls of the temple archives. From these, we can often determine whether a feast took place within the civil calendar or according to the moon.

However, festival calendars tend to list the details of these celebrations, such as their date, the deity honored and perhaps a sentence concerning the involvement of a specific priest in a rather terse fashion. There in fact existed comprehensive records connected to such celebrations, but ordinarily we possess only a fraction of these original texts today. Fortunately, the walls of the the Greco-Roman temples at Dendera, Edfu, Esna, Kom Ombo and Philae provide additional information not included in the festival calendars, which allow us to reconstruct the events in greater detail. Furthermore, papyri scrolls and fragmentary biographical texts reveal intriguing and often hidden details such as processions, morning, noon and evening ablutions of the deity; chants; and speeches.

There was also the endowments required for the performance of these feasts. From the Old Kingdom onward, festival calendars also contained explicit references to the offerings that were required by the deities associated with these events.

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Particularly for major events, the economic support of the king was required. Much of our knowledge about this function of festivals is found at Medinet Habu, which presents remarkable details, such as the exact number of bread loaves, cakes, beer containers, meat, fowl, incense, cultic charcoal and such, which is listed beside each event. Even the amount of grain that went into making a certain type of loaf, or a specific type of beer can be determined by a specific integer that refers tot he cooking or brewing that was undertaken. This is called the "cooking ratio".

Frequently in the introduction of segments of the temple calendars, or placed next to the respective religious celebrations, are details of the provenance of such offerings, together with the amount of grain that went into producing a certain number of beer jugs or loaves of bread. In conjunction with the cooking ratio, we can therefore determine the exact amount of grain that was needed for these festivals. Hence, we can add up the total amount of grain that was needed for the subsistence of a cult, at least for the major ceremonies.

From this data, scholars have been able to determine quantitatively how wealthy a specific major temple was and approximately how many priests were necessary for the preservation of the .

Most of the festivals that we know of from ancient Egypt are cultic, rather than civil. There were probably plenty of civil celebrations, but our sources are mostly religious. For example we know that an annual celebration was established by Ramesses III to honor his victory over the Libyans (Meshwesh), who had unsuccessfully invaded Egypt, and another secular occasion was the coronation of kings, the date of which was frequently included in religious calendars. Since Sothis had no specific cult, the heliacal Rising of Sothis (the star Sirius) might be considered a secular celebration. This event was recognized as being very important because the reappearance of Sothis after a period of seventy days' invisibility originally marked the emergence of the New Year and later was thought of as the ideal rebirth of the land.

Most of the festivals took place were fixed within the civil calendar. They either took place on a specific date, or were spread out through a number of days. Such festivals are typically called "annual festivals" by scholars.

Although festivals were a very important part of the lives of the ancient people throughout Upper and Lower Egypt (many nomes or districts had their own local festivals), there were a few festivals that were known throughout the land.

The Festival of Opet

Centered in Thebes, this boisterous festival, known as the Beautiful Feast of the Opet, held in the second civil month and was set according to a lunar calendar. It was perhaps not as old a celebration as some of the other feasts, though during the New Kingdom particularly, the celebration of Opet was predominate. Its duration of twenty-seven days in the 20th Dynasty shows how significant the celebration became. However, we know virtually nothing about the celebration prior to the 18th Dynasty and the rise of Thebes.

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Theban citizens and their guests from afar celebrated the fruitful link between their pharaoh and the almighty god, Amun, who in the New Kingdom became a state god. During the celebration it was thought that the might and power of Amun were ritually bequeathed to his living son, the king. Therefore, the celebration belonged to the official royal ideology of the state and, not surprisingly, witnessed the personal involvement of the pharaoh.

Because of the flooding, work was temporarily suspended in fields. The people joined in a dramatic procession honoring Amun that began at the Temple of Amun in Karnak and ended at Luxor Temple one and a half miles away at the south end of the city.

At Karnak, the people watched the high priests disappear in the temple. Inside, the priests bathed the image of the god and dressed him in colorful linen and adorned him with jewelry from the temple treasury including magnificent necklaces, bracelets, scepters, amulets and trinkets of gold or silver encrusted with lapis lazuli, enamel, glass and semi-precious gems. The priests then enclosed the god in a shrine and then placed the shrine on top of a ceremonial barque or boat, often supported by poles for carrying.

When the priests emerged from the temple, they carried the barque on their shoulders throughout the pillared halls and courtyards of Karnak. Then they moved into the crowded streets where people elbowed each other to catch a glimpse of the sacred vessel. Many a small Egyptian child was lucky to be placed on his or her parents shoulder to be able to see.

In Hatshepsuts time, the complete journey was accomplished on foot, while stopping at different resting stations. Later, the boat was carried to the Nile and then towed upriver to Luxor Temple by high government officials who vied for the enviable honor.

The pharaoh himself was there to greet Amun and escort him to Luxor Temple. The people heard the steady beat of soldiers drums and watched as men from Nubia danced to songs of devotion sung by the priests.

After reaching Luxor, the pharaoh and priests left the crowd behind and maneuvered the boat into the dark recesses of the temple. Incense filled the air. There was a ceremony communing with another holy image of Amun, Amun-Min, who inseminated the earth, according to the ancient beliefs of creation, and brought about plentiful harvests.

Now the pharaoh emerged from the sanctuary. The citizens greeted him wildly and praised his accomplishments; any wrongs he had committed were automatically forgiven. "He was once more the embodiment of divine strength and generosity, the source of bounty and well-being for Egypt."

During the Festival of Opet, Thebans could ask the god questions (oracles) that could be answered by a simple yes or no. A man might ask if his brother in another town was in good health, If the barge dipped forward, the answer was yes; if it backed away, the reply was no. Commoners were also allowed to put questions to a god in his temple. For these exceptional times, the fortunate citizens who were allowed into the temple were escorted to special audience rooms. The priests

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would convey the answers either through a concealed window high up in the wall or from inside a hollow statue.

More than anything, the ancient Egyptian population enjoyed the generosity of the gods during these festivals. During one Opet festival in the 12th century BC, it is recorded that temple officials distributed 11,341 loaves of bread and 385 jars of beer to the citizens.

The Festival of Choiak or Sokar

The festival of Choiak or Sokar rivaled that of Opet during the New Kingdom, but was a much older celebration. It was celebrated in the fourth month of the Egyptian civil calendar, lasting for six days during the interval of days 25 through 30, though by the Late Period, the festival grew to be much longer. Its importance is derived from its connection with the ancient importance of the god of the underworld, Osiris, and his link with the archaic powers of Memphis.

This festival is known from the Old Kingdom and it grew in importance due to the establishment of Egypt's capital at Memphis during the dawn of Egyptian history. We find it first mentioned in private feast lists of the Old Kingdom. However, it is also clear that the deity, Sokar predates the unification of Egypt and thus, Egyptian history itself.

The Sokar festival was indeed a somber celebration, completing the first season. The last days of the feast were in fact observed with no small amount of agony and sadness. This part of the festival soon came to be associated with Osiris, who was considered to be dead by the central date of the Sokar feast (day 26).

The Rebirth Celebration of Nehebkau

After the Festival of Sokar, it is not surprising that day one of month five had its own New Year's day of rebirth, occurring just five days after the death of Osiris. The intervening days were left for the eventual rebirth of the god and later connected to the rebirth of the king as the living Horus. Hence, the celebration of Nehebkau paralleled the New Year of the first day of month one, and evidently almost the same rituals and performances took place on both occasions.

The Festival of the Fertility god Min

This festival also opened a new season and was carried out in the ninth civil month, although its date was set according to the moon. It is perhaps not surprising that this fertility ritual is also known from Egypt's most distant past, though most of what we know of the festival is from sources that date from the New Kingdom onward.

In this celebration, the king cut the first sheaf of grain, which symbolically supported his role as life-sustainer of his people. It should be noted that this festival, associated with Min, was clearly one of fecundity and the virility of rebirth, and therefore the third festival of the year focusing on birth, with the agricultural aspect predominating.

The Beautiful Feast of the Valley

Another annual event for Egyptians to look forward to was again centered in Thebes, allowed the living to commune with their loved ones in the afterworld. It was held in the tenth civil month. Though the celebration can be traced back to the Middle Kingdom, it became important during the New Kingdom.

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goddess Sechat-Hor, who had fed Horus (the king) with her holy milkthe drink of immortality. After that the nobles would come before the king and offer their services and rededicate their devotion to him.

What followed next was the most famous and important ritual to show the kings continued potency, according to La Civilisation de LEgypte Pharonique: the king would run around the field (or within the Sed courtyard) while carrying several ritual articles in his handsthe imyt-pera list of possessions that basically gave the king the right to possess Egypt.

In the course of the festival, priests led the king into two pavilions where he received the crowns of Upper and Lower Egypt, symbolically renewing the crowning ceremony. In later times the king shot four arrows into the four directions to frighten off evil powers and to enforce the right of Egypt to rule over the world.

We can imagine that this most significant festival was accompanied by the usual feasts including lavish food, drink, music and dance. For now matter how serious the meaning or the nature of the festival, the ancient Egyptians knew how to celebrate with gusto.

К разделу III

Искусство античного мира

The art of the ancient world

Ancient art

Ancient art refers to the many types of art produced by the advanced cultures of ancient societies with some form of writing, such as those of ancient China, India, Mesopotamia, Persia, Israel, Egypt, Greece and Rome. The art of pre-literate societies is normally referred to as Prehistoric art and is not covered here. Although some Pre-Columbian cultures developed writing during the centuries before the arrival of Europeans, on grounds of dating these are covered at PreColumbian art, and articles such as Maya art and Aztec art. Olmec art is mentioned below.

Mediterranean and Near East Egyptian papyrus

Due to the highly religious nature of ancient Egyptian civilization, many of the great works of ancient Egypt depict gods, goddesses, and Pharaohs, who were also considered divine. Ancient Egyptian art is characterized by the idea of order. Clear and simple lines combined with simple shapes and flat areas of color helped to create a sense of order and balance in the art of ancient Egypt. Ancient Egyptian artists used vertical and horizontal reference lines to maintain the correct proportions in their work. Political and religious, as well as artistic, order was also maintained in Egyptian art. To clearly define the social hierarchy of a situation, figures were drawn to sizes that were based not on their distance from the painter's

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perspective but on relative importance. For instance, the Pharaoh would be drawn as the largest figure in a painting no matter where he was situated, and a greater God would be drawn larger than a lesser god.

Symbolism also played an important role in establishing a sense of order. Symbolism, ranging from the Pharaoh's regalia (symbolizing his power to maintain order) to the individual symbols of Egyptian gods and goddesses, was omnipresent in Egyptian art. Animals were usually also highly symbolic figures in Egyptian art. Color, as well, had extended meaning— Blue and green represented the Nile and life; yellow stood for the sun god; and red represented power and vitality. The colors in Egyptian artifacts have survived extremely well over the centuries because of Egypt's dry climate.

Despite the stilted form caused by a lack of perspective, ancient Egyptian art is often highly realistic. Ancient Egyptian artists often show a sophisticated knowledge of anatomy and a close attention to detail, especially in their renderings of animals. During the 18th Dynasty of Egypt a Pharaoh by the name of Akhenaton took the throne and abolished the traditional polytheism. He formed a monotheistic religion based on the worship of Aten, a sun god. Artistic change followed political upheaval. A new style of art was introduced that was more naturalistic than the stylized frieze favored in Egyptian art for the previous 1700 years. After Akhenaton's death, however, Egyptian artists reverted to their old styles.

Faience that was produced in ancient Egyptian antiquity as early as 3500 BC was in fact superior to the tin-glazed earthenware of the European 15th century.[1] Ancient Egyptian faience was not made of clay but instead actually of a ceramic composed primarily of quartz.

Mesopotamia

Art of Mesopotamia

Mesopotamia (from the Greek Μεσοποταμία "[land] between the rivers", in Syriac called pronounced "Beth Nahrain", "Land of rivers", rendered in Arabic as نيدفارلا دلاب bilād al-rāfidayn) is a toponym for the area of the Tigris-Euphrates river system, largely corresponding to modern-day Iraq, as well as some parts of northeastern Syria, southeastern Turkey, and southwestern Iran. Mesopotamia is often considered the "cradle of civilization." Within its boundaries, some of the most ancient civilizations known first developed writing and agriculture. Many civilizations flourished there, leaving behind a rich legacy of ancient art.

Widely considered to be the cradle of civilization, Bronze Age Mesopotamia included Sumer and the Akkadian, Babylonian and Assyrian empires. In the Iron Age, it was ruled by the Neo-Assyrian and Neo-Babylonian empires. The indigenous Sumerians and Akkadians (including Assyrians & Babylonians) dominated Mesopotamia from the beginning of written history (c. 3100 BC) to the fall of Babylon in 539 BC, when it was conquered by the Achaemenid Empire. It fell to Alexander the Great in 332 BC and after his death it became part of the Greek Seleucid Empire.

Around 150 BC, Mesopotamia was under the control of the Parthians. Mesopotamia became a battleground between the Romans and Parthians, with

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parts of Mesopotamia (particularly Assyria) coming under periodic Roman control. In 226 AD, it fell to the Sassanid Persians, and remained under Persian rule until the 7th-century Arab Islamic conquest of the Sassanid Empire. A number of primarily Christian native Mesopotamian states existed between the 1st century BC and 3rd century AD, including Adiabene, Oshroene and Hatra. EtymologyThe regional toponym Mesopotamia (from the root words "meso" < μέσος = middle and "potamia" < ποταμός = river, literally "between rivers") was coined in the

Hellenistic period to refer to a broad geographical area without definite boundaries, and was probably used by the Seleucids. The term biritum/birit narim corresponded to a similar geographical concept and was coined during the Aramaicization of the region, in the 10th century BC.

It is widely accepted, however, that early Mesopotamian societies simply referred to the entire alluvium by the Sumerian term kalam ("land"). More recently, terms like "Greater Mesopotamia" or "Syro-Mesopotamia" have been adopted to refer to wider geographies corresponding to the Near East or Middle East. These later euphemisms are Eurocentric terms attributed to the region in the midst of various 19th century Western encroachments.

Sumerian

Archaeological evidence attests to their existence during the 5th millennium BC. The Sumerians decorated their pottery with cedar oil paints. The Sumerians also developed jewelry.

One of the most remarkable artifacts remaining from the Sumerian civilization is known as the Standard of Ur. Dated to approximately 2500 B.C., the Standard is a wooden box inlaid with shells and lapis lazuli. It depicts, on one side, soldiers presenting their king with prisoners and, on the other side, peasants presenting him with gifts—stunning evidence that attests to the vibrancy of art in this ancient culture. Sumer had made many great advances; for example, there is the wheel, which had made transportation easier for the Sumerians. The arch was the greatest architectural achievement of Sumer. The ziggurats were pyramid-shaped temples the Sumerian architects built. They believed that the gods lived at the tops of the temples. The kings would declare that the gods had sent them to rule, and the Sumerians would happily follow the king's laws. The king had many important jobs like leading the army and looking after irrigation, with which Sumerians could control rivers. The rulers would have battles over land, and life went on for the Sumerians.

Babylon

The conquest of Sumer and Akkad by Babylon marks a turning point in the artistic as well as political history of the region.

The Babylonians took advantage of the abundance of clay in Mesopotamia to create bricks. The use of brick led to the early development of the pilaster and column, as well as of frescoes and enameled tiles. The walls were brilliantly coloured, and sometimes plated with bronze or gold as well as with tiles. Painted terra-cotta cones were also embedded in the plaster.

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The sean were also great metal-workers, creating functional and beautiful tools with copper. It is possible that Babylonia was the original home of copperworking, which spread westward with the civilization to which it belonged. In addition, the want of stone in Babylonia made every pebble precious and led to a high perfection in the art of gem-cutting. The arts of Babylon also included tapestries, and Babylonian civilization was from an early date famous for its embroideries and rugs.

Assyria

Art and architecture of Assyria

Like all other kingdoms, the Babylonian kingdom did not last forever. When Babylon fell into decline it was eventually conquered by Assyria, one of its former colonies, Assyria inherited its arts as well as its empire.

At first, Assyrian architects and artists copied Babylonian styles and materials, but as time went by, however, the later Assyrians began to shake themselves free of Babylonian influences. The walls of the Assyrian palaces were lined with slabs of stone instead of brick, and were colored instead of painted as in Chaldea. In place of the bas relief we have sculpted figures, the earliest examples being the statues from Girsu which are realistic but somewhat clumsy.

No remarkable specimens of metallurgic art from early Assyria have been found, but at a later epoch great excellence was attained in the manufacture of such jewellery as ear-rings and bracelets of gold. Copper was also worked with skill.

The forms of Assyrian pottery were graceful; the porcelain, like the glass discovered in the palaces of Nineveh, was derived from Egyptian originals. Transparent glass seems to have been first introduced in the reign of Sargon II. Stone as well as clay and glass were employed in the manufacture of vases. Vases of hard stone have been disinterred at Tello similar to those of the early dynastic period of Egypt.

Ashurbanipal had promoted art and culture and had a vast library of cuneiform tablets at Nineveh.

The Minoan Civilization

Minoan pottery

The greatest civilization of the Bronze Age was that of the Minoans, a mercantilist people who built a trading empire from their homeland of Crete and from other Aegean islands. Minoan civilization was known for its beautiful ceramics, but also for its frescos, landscapes, and stone carvings. In the early Minoan period, ceramics were characterized by spirals, triangles, curved lines, crosses, and fishbone motifs. In the middle Minoan period, naturalistic designs such as fish, squid, birds, and lilies were common. In the late Minoan period, flowers and animals were still the most characteristic, but variability had increased. The 'palace style' of the region around Knossos is characterized by strong geometric simplification of naturalistic shapes and by monochromatic painting. The Palace at Knossos was decorated with frescoes that showed aspects of daily life, including

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