Caves to Cathedrals

The section in Gardners’ on Predynastic and Early Dynastic Egyptian art has six figures, but two of those have multiple parts. I found that the sequence of works in Gardners’ worked well. Nevertheless, I would suggest the following improvements on the accompanying figures.

Figure 1: Plan of Hierakonpolis with Tomb 100 and the Temple of Narmer, the findspot of the Palette of Narmer, highlighted

Figure 2: Photograph of Tomb 100 in situ

Figure 3: Watercolor copy of Tomb 100 juxtaposed with a photograph of Tomb 100 in its current condition in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo

Figure 4: Palette of Narmer

Figure 5: Plan of Temple of Djoser

Figure 6: View of the Serdab relative to Stepped Pyramid

Figure 7: Seated Statue of Djoser from the Serdab

I consider Figure 3-4 – the section, plan, and restored view of a generic mastaba – out of place in this section. Also, the restored view of the mortuary precinct in Figure 3-6 adds little to actual views, and I would eliminate it. Finally, the view of the facade of the north palace certainly offers a less interesting view than that of the serdab.

Following the discussion of the status of the Palette of Narmer as either an historical or political document, the Palermo Stone clarifies the definition of a historical document and also nicely transitions to the reign of Djoser as a relatively near contemporary source for the dates of his reign. But, be forewarned, this would take some additional research.

The mortuary precinct of Djoser offers an opportunity to develop the students’ spatial awareness through the interrelating of the plan of the precinct, the restored view, and the two viewpoints offered by Gardners’ (one less than the previous edition). Most simply, students should learn to locate images on plans when Gardners’ provides the plans. Students should learn not just to pass over them, but to stop and examine them in a meaningful way. Finding the stepped pyramid and the facade of the north palace on the plan of the precinct only begins this learning process. A clickable plan at the UPenn website would move this process yet further along.

In my view, Gardners’ omits the most interesting feature of the mortuary precinct of Djoser, namely the serdab at the base of the north face of the stepped pyramid and the seated statue of Djoser originally found within, but now in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. (Flickr, by the way, offers a wealth of photos of the mortuary precinct). This statue permits a discussion of burial context and the function of images.

The Narmer Palette comes from Hierakonpolis, the location of Tomb 100. You may find an abundance of on-line material for the Palette of Narmer, but a print article by Whitney Davis on “Narrativity and the Narmer Palette” in Narrative and Event in Ancient Art (Cambridge Studies in New Art History and Criticism) proves the most useful and reliable.

This object offers a great opportunity for  the observation of fascinating detail and lends itself easily to a discussion of meaning.  One may easily explore answers to the following questions: how was the palette originally intended to be viewed?  what type of document is it – historical or political?  and what is the relationship between image and text?

To appreciate the meaning of the format, the most illuminating resource may be the Corpus of Egyptian Predynastic Palettes.  An examination of the Macehead of Narmer at the Ashmoleon Museum provides additional historical and physical context, if time permits additional research (here in a line drawing).

First and foremost, Gardner’s does not publish a photo of the actual wall painting, but only a watercolor copy.  Second, Gardner’s crops it.  The website of Francesco Raffaele has a large image of the complete watercolor, as well as a helpful linedrawing.

Two JSTOR-available articles, both from the Journal of Egyptian Archaeology, greatly aid preparation for the teaching of Tomb 100 at Hierakonpolis:  first, an article from 1962 with a plan of the tomb; second, an article from 1973 with photos of the painting in situ. An official Hierakonpolis website may also offer some useful information.  The British website, Digital Egypt for Universities, has a good plan with the location of the mural marked.  And Archaeology.com hosts an Interactive Dig.

I also found an image of the mural as you can see it today in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, but I cannot trace its source.  I post it, but if anyone knows its source, please let me know, so that I may properly link to it!

Following the Neolithic – and the Bronze and Stone Age prehistoric material that I would have appended to it – I turned to Egypt. I deviated from the standard placement of the Ancient Near East at the beginning of the trajectory of the Western artistic tradition because of a strict adherence to chronology – quite simply, the bulk of the Sumerian material dates later than the earliest Egyptian material.