Altes Museum! Pt. 1...

Yea, alright, here are some pics from when I went to the Altes Museum! Yay! They have Egyptian and Late Greek Antiquities. Erm, I have too many pictures from all of this, so I'm just going to put up the Egyptian pictures first. haha.

Ah, the Lust Garten! Quite pretty...it is obviously a favorite spot to sit and chill on a nice summer evening, bring some food and beer and/or wine, have a lovely time...yep.

Yea! Egypt! Get ready for it!!!!

Ah, beautiful piece of Egyptian art. I mean, pharaoh respect. See the stiffness in his posture while it still looks like the man? This rigidity was necessary to show in Egyptian leadership: the more important and higher up the social ladder a person was, the more rigid they appeared in the art. Unmoving, firm, certain, rigid: everything a leader should be, and is so depicted by remaining trapped in his stone block, keeping him one with the earth and so in contact with the gods. Also, you can't really see it from my picture, but the right foot is almost ALWAYS slightly forward, showing his dominance. The skirt thingy is super rigid, keeping almost perfectly align with the original stone block he was carved out of. His hands are also glued rigidly to his sides.

Oh man, it's Queen Hatshepsut!!! One of the few women pharaohs of Egypt...

Hieroglyphs! Yay! Ah, and atop it all, the winged sun disk; the symbol of royalty and divinity, usually associated with the pharaoh and the gods. It also appears on LMLK (lemelekh - "king's property") seals on jar handles...of which we found this summer!!! woop woop!!!! Gezer's mentioned on that wiki page. I think that's awesome...booyah!

Alright, I find this piece very interesting. Alright, the Greeks first learned art and sculpture from the Egyptians, so the beginnings of Greek sculpture look very much like Egyptian (I'll show you some examples in my next update). But the Greeks didn't see the world as having to be firm and rigid and in control; they saw movement and freedom from the stone medium. Then when Egypt began losing control in the Mediterranean and Greece started gaining it, Egyptian art began transforming into the Greeks' original interpretation. Whoa, sorry, I think that sentence was confusing. I hope you understood a bit. Anywho, here's an example of GREEK influence on EGYPTIAN art. haha. Ah, do you see the right foot slightly forward? And that he's still connected to his stone block in between his feet? And one hand rigidly at his side and the other held up in a kind of prayer? This man was probably a very important priest of some sort, I'm thinking. But then again...I'm no expert, this is my purely novice interpretation...

AHA! See? This is called Kuros (Greek for "youth"). I don't understand why this was put in with the Egyptian exhibit, but this was the beginnings of Greek sculpture, as borrowed from the Egyptians. The feet are together, so the Greeks didn't take that part for this specific piece, but see how he's very straight up and down with his arms pinned to his sides? Yep, Egyptian ideals. HOWEVER, there is no sign left of his stone block. The Greek ideal: freedom.

Ah, this piece is very interesting. It was a new kind of way of sculpting for the Egyptians called block sculpting. This man is Senenmut! I believe Senenmut was a scribe, but had some kind of favor or was her secret lover or something with Queen Hatshepsut. Her daughter Neferure is actually sitting in Senenmut's lap, I guess it shows his favor from the Queen Pharaoh. Oh, interesting unnecessary little piece of information on the Egyptian language: nefer means "beautiful" or something like that...so you know, Nefertiti, the most beautiful Egyptian Queen in it's entire history...or something. haha. Yea...you'll hear a bit more about some things in the Egyptian language...in case you were unawares before, language is like my favorite thing every, so you'll always hear something about interesting language trivia from me. Just a warning: I'm a total nerd. But most of you knew that already...and you still love me! Yay!

Aw man, why did I not take a picture of this guy's name plate in the museum? Now I can't remember who this guy is! His wife is always depicted as black because she was from Ethiopia, which was most definitely considered part of Egypt and it's people were considered Egyptians...during most of Egypt's ancient history. Nuts...well, now you guys know my secret. I'm actually not as smart as you thought. But anyways, here's a nice example of Egyptian wall painting anyways!

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH! IT'S HATHOR!!! WOOOOO!!!! She was a goddess...in fact, I do believe she's the one who wanted to destroy man kind with a giant flood (*AHEM* DESTROY HUMAN KIND WITH A GIANT FLOOD...this story is found in nearly every single civilization, and ESPECIALLY in the Middle Eastern ones), but Re (her father) decided he didn't want her to do this after all and tricked her into drinking fields and fields of beer, and she became SO DRUNK that she couldn't kill them. haha. I love Egyptians. Such a good story...

Aha! The sun disk (top left), Horus/Ra/Amun-Ra, depending on which time period you're looking at! Represents the aforementioned god(s) and for the pharaoh, a sign of his right to reign, since he was, after all, partially a god himself. I think it also has a representation for life. AND to the top right, you will notice a partial disk with many little ankh symbols around it. The ankh looks like a cross with a loop and represents eternal life (so this may be from a tomb...) and also is usually shown with pharaohs.

Ooooh, this is Queen Tiy! Erm...I don't really remember much about her, but I remember seeing this exact sculpture in both my Art History and Ancient Near East classes. So...that means she's important. lol. So, here's a link to another website if you feel like learning about her ----> Queen Tiy!

Alright, and now we move on to my most favoritest time period on all of Egypt: The Amarna Period!!!! Ooooooooh maaaaaaaaaan, I love this time!!!! Alright, the first link I provided for this time is just super brief and talks about the kings. But THIS link really gets into why this is my favorite time period: The dramatic change in theology and art and the mysteries surrounding all of it!!!! Also, you can read the much-too-short-for-my-liking blurb written in the museum, of which I took a picture:

Does not give this time period justice. First off, Akhenaten goes crazy and has all the gods wiped out except the sun god Aten. He creates a kind of monotheism that isn't really monotheism and is hotly debated. I'll spare you details. THEN, he radicalizes the art form! Instead of depicting the pharaoh as rigid and firm and perfectly godly beautiful, he makes everything more, well, not necessarily realistic...but hermaphroditic. People are given curves instead of straight, sharp lines; abnormalities of the people are shown. Here, I'll explain more in the following photos.

See? It almost looks funny. The guy on the right is Akhenaten himself: big ears, large lips, slim neck, bulbous chin. Not sure who the other guy is, but he's much more rounded, too.

Here's the head of one of the princesses. See how the back of the head has this enormous...abnormal...bump-thing? This may be just the new artistic ideals, or it could be representational. All the heads of the royal family are shaped like this, so it could indicate the severe inbreeding of the royal family...

Ah, there's the man again. See? He still has the large nose, ears, lips, and chin... And the woman on the left with hieroglyphs is all wavy, see? Not rigid...

King Akhenaten with his beautiful wife, Nefertiti...

THIS could be argued as one of the most famous pieces of art from the Amarna Period! And is my personal favorite. This is extremely different from all the rest of Egyptian art anywhere. You see the obvious curvy style and hermaphroditic shape of the bodies (not to mention that little bit of a beer belly Akhenaten seems to have put on...tsk tsk). And look as his arms, they're so skinny and not very strong-looking. Not good when one's trying to show off against other kings... AND the children have that funny bulbous head again. But another thing odd about this is, that this is a depiction of the royal family, all together, and proportionally shown. Normally, the pharaoh is the largest figure (seeing as he's the most important...); then his wives are shown, also in size of which one's most important; then the children might be shown. But they are never ever ever depicted in such an intimate setting. One child sits in Nefertiti's lap, holding her hand; while the other sits up near her shoulder and touches her face. Akhenaten himself holds one of his daughters and is actually kissing her. Then for the theological implications: The sun disk of Aten sits above the family, showering down rays of life and favor, with little hands that actually touch them. It's very strange indeed. I love it.

BOO! Oh yea, I totally surprised you all with this one! Ok ok, this might be the most famous piece of art from all the Amarna Period....to non-archaeologists. The beautiful head of Nefertiti! Missing left eye and all!!! Her graceful swan-like neck, the perfect full lips, almond-shaped eyes, high cheek bones, perfectly formed chin. Yep. The ideal woman. Thanks a lot, Egypt. Not even Aphrodite can live up to this one.

Oh! And what have we here? The kind with a CRUTCH? He's actually shown as being WEAK AND SICKLY? No way...

Nefertiti in full form... oh, wait wait...what is this? A bit left over from the old period? Right foot slightly forward, arms at the sides...

Ok ok, I'm done, that's all of the Amarna Period I have for you all. I know, I know, you're all thinking, "Oh thank GOD!" ...or should you say ATEN! hahahaha. Ok, sorry, geek joke... *ahem*

Yea, there's Hathor again...

Ooooh, various Egyptian finds of daily life! Actually...probably from tombs because there is really very very little that has been found about daily life in Egypt...really only the government and religion. But that's what you get when the only things that are found (or searched for) are the gold-filled tombs... Let's see, we've got some pots, which contained foods and water and wine and milk for the afterlife; little people figurines making some more bread and such for the person in the afterlife - just in case he doesn't have enough! Oh! He's even given a cow! Mmmm...more milk! Oh, and knives and such for when the cow stops giving him milk or if he runs out of meat... Hey! There's also a plow way back there! This person was given everything to be self-sufficient in the afterlife! How kind of himself...since he planned out his own tomb...

Yea! Hieroglyphs and some pictures! Everything was drawn on registers, the different levels going top to bottom. That's how the story was told.

Make up pallets! ...and a perfume jug shaped like a fish...alright, whatever floats your boat.

Ow, ok, those horn-shaped thingers are Egyptian pillows. Erm...headrests. When you went to bed, your head went there. Yea...not sure how they were able to sleep like that but... AND THERE'S BES!!! Silly-looking, fat, bearded dwarf god of childbirth, song and dance, and humor!

Yea! Pottery! I need to learn more about pottery because to me, this looks like Cypriot ware... Erm, but upon further research on the internet, it seems I am dead wrong. *ahem* ok. Yea, I need to learn more about pottery...but see that silly looking bird? Yep, we've found some stuff like that Gezer...oh yea.

Haha! Pelicans! Alright, this shows one of the problems with the ancient Egyptian art form of putting things on registers. This is all one scene, don't think it's 3 different ones. They're gathering up pelicans and fishing AND they're showing the fish (and platypi? huh? Alright, maybe otters or beavers...?) and slugs and eels that they're fishing for. One scene, 3 registers.

SCARAB SEALS! Woop woop! We've got some of these at Gezer, too! But they're not gold...

Here's these have images that are closer to what we have at Gezer... This means Gezer had Egyptian influence, but anyone who knows they're Old Testament would know that King Solomon was given the city of Gezer as part of a dowry for marrying and Egyptian princess. Besides, everyone knows that the Egyptians were rulers of a HUGE chunk of the Mediterranean and Near Eastern part of the world.

SINUHE!!! YEA! Woop! Alright, I'm getting really lazy and hungry now, so you're only getting this in the form of a link for it's story and history...The Story of Sinuhe...

Sweeeeeet, here's the story!!! In it's original form!!! OMG!!!!

GOLDEN SHOOOOOES!! Omg, shoes...

Haha, I found this very amusing. It's the death masks of a bunch of mummies, but I thought it looked like that Andy Warhol painting....wait...that's not Andy Warhol. I don't know who did it, but it's the one where there are four panels and each one's a different color but with the exact same picture...anyway, that's the only reason why I took this picture...

COOOOOOOOOOOPPPPPPPPTTTTTTTTTTTTTTIIIIIIIIIIIIICCCCCCCCCCC! This is in Coptic. Erm...Egyptian Greek. AHAHHAHAHA! It's sooooo difficult to read these manuscripts...I need to get better at this...

GREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This is Greek.

OMG AND MORE GREEEEEEEEEK!!!!! Only this one's on a piece of stone!

I thought this was super cool because it was a sketch made on the mummy wrappings! How cool is that?!

Oh, apparently for the priest Hor...I don't know who that was...

More mummies!! These are children. :( A bit sad but childhood death was very common in those times. You can also see...DUN DUN DUN - the Greek influence!!!! Instead of the death masks from the interesting picture I showed you above, these have Greek portraits wrapped up with the mummy.

Yea! Look at that king go! Smiting his enemies!!!! Ooooh, he wears the crown of Upper (erm, techincally south) Egypt. Ok, so, there's Upper and Lower Egypt, but it's oriented to the Nile river...which flows NORTH. So, Upper Egypt is actually in the south and Lower Egypt is in the north. Very confusing, but that's how it goes.

Lovely cat worship...

Yea...I don't know who this god/goddess is. Egypt isn't my favorite civilization...so I don't remember or know everything about it...and it's religion....

But now I am SUPER tired and hungry and, oh crap! I forgot to go to the supermarket! Oh wait, no I didn't...it's not open on Sundays. Alright, I'm eating out tonight! Erm...oh man, it's kinda late. Hope something's open. I need to get to bed early tonight, though, because first thing tomorrow, I'm going to the PERGAMON MUSEUM to see it's BABYLONIAN EXHIBIT! Ooooooh yeeeeeaaaa!!!!!! I'm sooo excited! THAT is my favorite civilization. No wait, the Assyrians, wait, Ur...or Ugarit! ARGH! I don't know...they all blend together anyway because they all wanted to copy each other. Anywho's, I'm super excited. It's the only museum not free on Thursdays because of this special exhibit and the last time I tried to get in, it was a three hour wait. So I checked it out online and I saw that I could BOOK my tickets online! AAAAH! So I bought my 6euro ticket for tomorrow morning as soon as it opens! woop woop! And that's what I'm doing before class tomorrow!

I'm quite excited also because I muchly prefer doing these museum things by myself. I get all excited in my head and now I get to share them with people online, so I also think about and plan out how I want to show them to you guys and group them up in different ways so it makes it easier for explaining. Whoa, I'm a total nerd. I've said too much already.

Oh man, and then we're going to a house party after class. Poo, guess tomorrow is a coffee binge day. haha. TIME FOR FOODS!