This week we will have two principal discussants, as we outlined in class. This week they are Emily and Müge. Emily and Müge will do the general readings, having taken note of the topics that will be presented, and will formulate a set of questions designed to get discussion going.
In general this week's topics are fairly hard - I have had trouble finding in-depth English sources for 5/6th Dynasty royal material as a whole. I have tried to pick topics that are not too huge (the pyramid of Sahure!) but are still compelling. Because I am finding only a handful of sources specifically about these things, I am expecting that a larger portion of presentations will involve original observations and analysis than in the past. Also feel free to suggest different topics if something grabs you or you find sources that will make a topic more doable than you think these are.
Userkaf head in greywacke
Pyramid complex of Khentkawes
Verner Abusir III, on reserve
Reliefs from Userkaf's pyramid complex - Mike
Smith, The Art and Architecture of Ancient Egypt - This is the textbook we are using for class. I just has a very brief blurb about the pyramid, but is helpful for the picture and pyramid plan it shows.
Verner, Pyramids - This book offered a good brief background of Userkaf's pyramid complex. It did not focus on the reliefs at all, but it did give an overview of the mortuary temple and described where the main scenes would have been located
Labrousse, A Les complexes funéraires d'Ouserkaf et de Néferhétepès / Audran Labrousse et Jean-Philippe Lauer - These two books (one with text, one with plates) would be extremely helpful but they're in French...and I don't know French. I mostly used them to look through the images to gain an understanding of the types of reliefs in Userkaf's complex
Sharawi and Harpur in JEA 1988
Lepre, The Egyptian Pyramids - This book is entirely unhelpful - it tries to give an overview of the pyramids and what kind of archaeological records are available for each, but it is mostly disorganized and repetitive.
Harpur, Decoration in Egyptian Tombs - This book is organized based on type of scene rather than chronologically or by site, which can be confusing. That being said, it does a good job of explaining when a type of scene first appears (which happens to be fairly often when dealing with Userkaf) and to what extent the scene is copied later on.
Sahure and a Nome God at the Met - Oliver
MET - The catalog just discusses the basic facts and theories about the statue, not to say it isn't helpful of course, but hardly a very in depth source.
(only peripherally helpful but an interesting point about a niggling issue with Egyptian sculpture): Fischer, Henry G. "An Elusive Shape within the Fisted Hands of Egyptian Statues." Metropolitan Museum Journal, Vol. 10 (1975). --Fischer discusses the peg-like shape commonly found in Egyptian statuary. He completely, and persuasively, dismisses the theories that the pegs represent either negative space or represent a larger object. He proposes instead that the rounded form of the peg represents a bolt of cloth, arguing that the shape resembles a 3-dimensional version of the hieroglyph.
Sahure is the subject of a new exhibit: http://www.artdaily.com/index.asp?int_new=38807&int_sec=2 sadly I don't think we have the catalog yet, which is too bad because it would be really useful for this material --The website mentions the statue, and Sahure's pyramid complex at length, in its description of the show. The catalog, if you can find it, surely says more.
Dieter Arnold, "Royal Cult Complexes of the Old and Middle Kingdom," from "Temples of Ancient Egypt," edited by Schafer, 1997 - Arnold discusses the Sahure complex at length, unfortunately he doesn't say anything about the statue of Sahure.
Miroslav Verner, "Forgotten Pharaohs, Lost Pyramids, Abusir" 1994 - Again there is no mention of the Sahure statue despite lengthy discussion of the Sahure complex. An easy read though, and a good source for general information on the Abusir cemetery.
Niuserre Suckled by lion goddess - Peter
MET
Room of the Seasons in Niuserre's sun temple (this is a big one, but the general readings cover the basics on sun temples so you shouldn't have to give the overall background) - Kathryn
Edel, Elmar. Zu den Inschriften auf den Jahreszeitenreliefs der "Weltkammer" aus dem Sonnenheiligtum des Niuserre. Gottingen 1961-3.
Multi-volume work focussed on the inscriptions in very early and difficult to understand Egyptian that go with the reliefs. Very useful for shedding light on the significance of some of the more obscure scenes. Osirian and sun motifs seem to be prevalent.
Kaiser, Werner. 'Die kleine Hebseddarstellung im Sonnenheiligtum des Neuserre' in Festschrift Ricke
Author tries to reconstruct the 'small' (as opposed to the 'big') heb sed representation which originally covered the walls of one of the rooms in Niuserre's sun temple. Not the room of the seasons, but I think the heb sed themes of rejuvenation and cyclical time fit in well with the decoration in the room of the seasons. Suggests that the smaller size and slightly different scenes not connected to lack of space for the larger sequence but could represent an older, simpler version of the festival. The concentration on founding activities and Upper and Lower Egypt suggests to the author that the heb sed, being ancient, could perhaps be connected to the reunification of the country.
von Bissing, Friedrich. 'La chambre des trois saisons du sanctuaire solaire du roi Rathoures (Ve dynastie) a Abousir', Annales du Service des Antiquites de l'Egypte 53 (1956), 319-338.
Detailed description of reliefs in Room of Seasons, with some good clear line drawings. A little out of date since Edel's work on the inscriptions has helped to make sense of a lot of the scenes von Bissing has trouble with.
Edel and Wenig 1974. Die Jahreszeitenreliefs aus dem Sonnenheiligtum des Konigs Ne-User-Re. Berlin.
Beautiful folio publication of the reliefs of the sun temple. Not much commentary.
Verner, M. 'The Fifth Dynasty's mysterious sun temples', KMT 14/1 (2003).
Good brief overview of the sun temples as a phenomenon, and brings in the Neferirkare papyri evidence well.
Krejci and Magdolen “Research into Fifth Dynasty Sun Temples” in The Old Kingdom Art and Archaeology
Useful literature survey on sun temples, but be warned, just about everything they quote is in German
Unas causeway reliefs - Oren
C. Reader "On Pyramid Causeways" in JEA 2004 --This article examines the possible religious/symbolic/environmental reasons behind the development of pyramid causeways. I found it interesting, but it is a very broad treatment and, in terms of art and architecture of specific causeways, is only marginally useful.
Pepi kneeling presenting nw jars from the Brooklyn Museum - JULIA
Aldred, Cyril. “Some Royal Portraits of the Middle Kingdom in Ancient Egypt” in Metropolitan Museum Journal Vol. 3, (1970), pp. 27-50
Good specific art-historical discussion of piece, especially in relation to later forms, etc.
Most of the article, though, does focus on Middle Kingdom pieces.
Aldred, Cyril. Old Kingdom Art
General Discussion of pieces. Good introduction to emplace piece within historical context.
Brooklyn Museum website
Excellent source for specifics of statue - size, images, etc.
Russmann, Edna. "A Second Style in Egyptian Art of the Old Kingdom." Mitteilungen des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts, Abteilung Kairo 51 (1995).
Piece is mentioned specifically - author addresses stylistic elements common to statues of the Sixth Dynasty with this statue as an example of this style. Good discussion of artistic tradition of the late Old Kingdom in general that uses unique examples not seen in most other general art books (i.e. Smith)
Smith Art and Architecture of Ancient Egypt
Good for seeing what other statues are popping up at this time, especially what else Pepi I has been producing.
Wolf, W. Die Kunst Agyptens: Gestalt und Geschichte, Stuttgart (1957) p186-187 (from Russmann footnotes)
We don’t have this book at our library, but from Russmann’s notes it seems that this source would be invaluable for someone looking doing a diachronic study of style.
Sphinx of Merenre
in Edinburgh, this is a very odd, small piece
Copper statue of Pepi (and Merenre?) this is not an easy one since the main source I know of is German and I know more references for technical things than art historical things, but it is an absolutely amazing piece (two, really) so I hope someone picks it
Eckmann and Shafik “Leben dem Horus Pepi”: Restaurierung und technologische Untersuchung der Metallskulpturen des Pharao Pepi I. aus Hierakonpolis
and this is a technical article on the statues:
p23_Heinz.pdf
Pepi II on his mother’s lap (Brooklyn Museum)-Amanda
Brooklyn Museum website: www.brooklynmuseum.org- The Brooklyn Museum has all of their collections online now complete with descriptions so this was especially useful for images and information for my presentation
Robins, Gay. The Art of Ancient Egypt. Revised Edition. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1997-This source was most useful in the detailed description of the material used, the iconography, the height and coloring of the statuette, much of the discussion of Pepi II's royal regalia and Ankhnesmeryre's vulture crown and appearance came from this text.
Egypt World of the Pharaohs.edited by Regine Schulz and Matthias Seidel. Köln : Könemann, c1998-This also provided me with a wealth of information on the specific details of the statuette as well as relevant comparanda (i.e. Horus and Isis and depictions of the king as a child), the inscriptions found on the statue as well as the significance of Ankhnesmeryre's clothing is also discussed in great depth here.
Egyptian Archaeology. edited by Willeke Wendrich. Chichester, U.K ; Malden, MA : Wiley Blackwell, 2010.-The most useful part of this text was that it provided some background on the reign/co-regency of Pepi II and his mother Ankhnesmeryre II, there wasn't the wealth of detail contained in the other texts but it was great for providing context for my presentation
Egyptian Art in the Age of the Pyramids. New York : Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1999-This source was instrumental in discussing some of the possible provenances of the statuette, as its currently unknown whether it came from Saqqara, Elephantine or elsewhere, also some interpretations of the statuette are provided here as well (as Horus and Isis, as a depiction of their co-regency, or representing the vulnerability of the king and his need for Ankhnesmeryre's protection in his younger years. Also, some background information on A.'s life and her pyramid is featured in this text.
Arnold, Dorothea. When the Pyramids were built: Egyptian art of the Old Kingdom. New York : Metropolitan Museum of Art : Rizzoli, c1999-This discussed some of the artistic techniques that went into this statuette, the separate attachment of a now-lost vulture head (stone or metal possibly) and the use of free space to suggest lightness and fragility to the sculpture.
Smith, William Stevenson. The art and architecture of ancient Egypt. Revised Edition. New York : Penguin Books, 1981.-This didn't feature too much information on the statuette itself, only a brief paragraph discussing this and Pepi I's depictions, but it was interesting to learn that this is one of the only 3-d representations of the king (the other being the statue of him squatting as a child) known to us from the 6th dynasty.
