I chose to research on the Statue of Ramesses II because this single statue which is placed in the British Museum is entitled to an entire Egyptian history, their culture, religious beliefs and ethnicity. It is beyond fascinating and overwhelming to discover something that was very influential and philosophical of a huge part of an ancient Egypt.
Statue of Ramesses II is one of ancient Egypt’s largely legendary and successful pharaohs. Neil MacGregor, Director of the British Museum, believes the achievements of Ramesses II as a leader who built tombstone everywhere in Egypt. MacGregor describes that Ramesses II was inspiring to many potential pharaohs and was respected as a God more than a thousand years. In the chapter, he portrays how the
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In Egypt during the early part of his kingship, Ramesses II had a battle with the territory in Africa and Western Asia. He was battling against the Hittites, the influential individuals of Asia Minor. The greatest clash of his life was fought in 1274 at Qadesh, which was addressed by Ramesses II. The enduring existence of his rule was distinguished by the construction of such monuments as the rock-hewn temple of Abû Simbel, and the mortuary temple at Thebes which is recognized as Ramesseum.
He was one of the greatest reigning royals in Egypt, ruling the earliest Kingdom for 66 years until he died in 1213 B.C. at about 90 years of age. Ramesses II was mummified which acquired 70 days to process and later his body was put into a temple. Ramesses II must have been a superior warrior as he went thus far into the Hittite territory in the following years. He also must have been an admirable king, since the kingdom was affluent and popular during his authority. However, some of his fame must have been the publicity. His name and the evidence of his achievements of battles were established ubiquitously in Egypt and Nubia. It is very understandable now that why his accomplishments and supremacy was appeared as a representation of how a king should be by the future
Whenever the topic of Ancient Egypt is breached, a few generic topics are instantly recalled: maybe it’s the pyramids, King Tut’s tomb, maybe even the Exodus? Before Egypt became the Egypt that most everyone knows of now, it was a wildly disjointed, disunited preamble to the great empire it became known for. King Narmer was the factor that ultimately changed that. Unifier of Egypt and founder of the First Dynasty, Narmer set into motion a series of events that ultimately shaped Egypt into the modern republic it is now. In this episode of ‘A History of the World in 101 Objects,’ we will delve into the history behind this legendary Stele, explore the ancient and current significance of such a production, and attempt to lift the veil on topics such as consolidating Menes with Narmer.
The Mummy Case of Paankhenamun has great significant in that it provides us with very fundamental evidence from ancient history. It does not only exhibit a complex form of art, but it also demonstrates the religious practices of ancient Egyptians in association with their beliefs in life after death, as well as their great fascination with immortality. It not only teaches us about the great science of mummification, but it also provides us all with the incredible opportunity to learn about the life of an ancient person.
The success of the king’s rule became based on the approval or rejection of the god Amun-Re. Thus, Amun was used as a platform for political propaganda, with pharaohs such as Hatshepsut and Thutmose III using the God to legitimise their claims to the throne, as evidenced for Thutmose III on the Temple of Tiraqa: ‘I have achieved this according to that which was ordained for me by my father, Amun-Re’. Concepts of the divine oracles and the divine birth of the king became a theme for pharaohs of the 19th dynasty, and afforded them heightened legitimacy. Hatshepsut’s divine birth scenes on her mortuary temple in Deir el Bahri depicts her claim to be the daughter of Amun, manipulating the public to believe in her divine birth. Additionally, Thutmose IV’s ‘dream stela” erected between the paws of the sphinx, which claimed that he had been granted the kingship because he had freed the monument according to instruction from gods. Some historians have dismissed these building projects, which consolidated the importance and authority of the state cult of Amun-Re as mere political propaganda. However, it is more the point that they reflect a significant change in the Egyptian political landscape, as it became dependent on and connected to the sustained pre-eminence of the cult of Amun-Re and the religious unity that eventuated. Therefore, the amun
Pyramids, gold, the Nile, hieroglyphics, gods and goddesses…no matter how much we know about it, we all see one of these things when we picture Egypt. However, this image is not complete without the Pharaoh. Not much in Egypt was. So to be considered “The Last Great Pharaoh of Egypt” is quite an honor, an honor that Ramesses III carries. A ruler in the time of the New Kingdom, he gave Egypt a few more years of glory before it’s decline.
Many art works such as statues are placed throughout the world in different settings. The most common setting for statues is found in funerary settings. The importance of statues in funerary settings is that they are use to project the power the person had before his death. The seated statue of Khafre enthroned from Gizeh, Egypt, illustrates the idealized pharaoh. Another sculpture is Kouros, from Anavysos, Greece that depicts the heroism of Kroisos dying in battle. The Kouros and Khafre are similar in the way that they both radiate power and serve the purpose of honoring the dead men, yet Khafre has a greater significance because it illustrates the pharaoh in a flawless form and the audience can tell that he was a great ruler by the perfect cut sculpture.
Themistocles contribution to the defence of Greece was more significant than any other Greek individual. To what extent do you agree?
Ramses III (reigned 1182-1151 BC), Egyptian king of the 20th dynasty, a great military leader who repeatedly saved the country from invasion. In the 5th year of his reign, Ramses defeated an attack by the Libyans from the west, and two years later he routed invaders known as the Sea Peoples. In his 11th year he again repelled an attempted attack by the Libyans. Ramses was also a builder of temples and palaces in the tradition of his 19th-dynasty predecessor, Ramses II. His victories are depicted on the walls of his mortuary temple at Medinet Habu, near Luxor. Egyptian records tell of a strike by workers at Ramses's burial site and a plot against the king near the end of his reign. Ramses III was the last of the great rulers and after his death there were centuries of weakness and foreign domination.
After his ascent to the throne, the kingdom prospered and the young Pharaoh poured his energies and national treasures into building temples and monuments honoring his father, Egypt's gods and himself. In Nubia he constructed six temples, two of which were carved out of a Cliffside at Abu Simbel, with their four colossal statues of the king, are the most magnificent and the best known. Engineers designed the temple so every year on February 22 and October 22 the earliest sunrays shine on the back wall of the innermost chamber and lights up the pharaoh's statue, and fitting, he sits with the three gods of the sun. In all of his monuments he had his name cartouche and texts engraved so deep that no successor would be able to remove it.
The Egyptians created Ramesses’ statue 1279-1212 B.C. using granodiorite. The statue is currently being exhibited at the Museum of Fine Arts Houston. Its dimensions withouts a base are 59 3/4 x 23 1/2 x 30 inches (seems bigger than life-size). One must look at the statue from various sides in order to see its entirety. Ramesses II, known also as Ramesses the Great, ruled Egypt for over sixty years. there are thousands of statues made in his honor to proclaim his power and divinity.
The statue of King Khafre Seated , from the fourth dynasty of the Old Kingdom, 2520 - 2492 BCE, was created by an unknown artist in the smooth permanence of graywacke stone. Although the statue is currently at the Metropolitan Museum of Art as number 56 in the Special Egyptian Exhibition, its true home is at the Egyptian Museum, in Cairo. The man being portrayed, King Khafre, ruled Egypt for approximately thirty years, during which he commissioned the single most recognizable monuments of Egypt, the a fore mentioned Pyramids at Giza and the Sphinx. These monuments of symmetry and solidity characterize the focus of popular architecture and sculpture from the Old Kingdom in Egypt.
The researcher learned that the Rosetta stone is one of the most important artifacts of the Egyptians. It was written in three ancient scripts and is located at the British museum in London.
In the Ptolemaic Period, Egyptians represented Osiris as the god of the dead and the judge of the underworld. Osiris was the brother of Nepthys and Seth. He, the father of Horus, was also the brother and the husband of Isis. His brother, Seth, was aggravated. Seth’s jealousy towards Osiris led him to murder his brother; however, Osiris was revived by his wife, Isis. In Legion of Honor, when I saw the sculpture, “Head of King as Osiris,” it reminded me of “Head of Senusret III,” since they are both statues of ancient Egyptian kings. However, the time periods, facial expressions, and details of the two sculptures were different. Therefore, I decided to compare the two sculptures for this essay.
the resting place of up to 50 sons of Ramesses II, perhaps the best known
Abu Simbel (cited in Clayton, 1994), is a colossal temple carved from sandstone rock at Abu Simbel which is far south in Nubia. At the entrance of Abu Simbel, there are four huge figures that are 18 metres high, of Ramesses II seated in pairs. This temple is an overwhelmingly grand monument and would have been an effective means of propaganda for Ramesses II, as many Egyptians would have viewed it. Furthermore, as the figures of Ramesses II in front of the temple were grand, many Egyptians would have likely viewed it often or came often to view it, as something this big may not have been present in Egypt. Further evidence of Ramesses II building large-scale monuments, which were used as effective propaganda, includes the Great Hypostyle Hall Karnak (cited in The Great Columns, n.d), which entail 134 sandstone columns in the form of papyrus stalks. These columns are all inscribed by Ramesses II, with royal cartouches and his other royal titles everywhere. Clearly, Ramesses II effectively utilised propaganda in monuments built by himself. Respected British archaeologist and writer, Peter A. Clayton (1994) suggests that, “No other pharaoh constructed so many temples or erected so many colossal statues and obelisks.” Hence, it can be determined that Ramesses II effectively utilised his own constructions in Egypt to implement propaganda and
...n 1163 B.C., Egypt entered a period of slow decline (Scarre 1997:116). Pharaohs became less powerful, and their prestige dwindled. Hungry soldiers were terrorizing the community, while tomb robbers were raiding the pyramids for resources that were very much needed. They had buried their pharaohs with food, goods and jewelry, all of which were needed to keep the civilization in tact. They had built too many pyramids, and there were setbacks in Asia which corrupted trade. People did not understand why the pharaohs could not fix the problems that were going on. They viewed them as gods and lost trust and faith. Egypt fell apart as these things culminated with loss of belief in the pharaohs.