{"id":376,"date":"2024-07-16T17:20:54","date_gmt":"2024-07-16T17:20:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ccconline.org\/ppschum1021earlycivilizations\/chapter\/3-4-egypt-new-kingdom\/"},"modified":"2025-03-17T17:27:53","modified_gmt":"2025-03-17T17:27:53","slug":"3-4-egypt-new-kingdom","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ccconline.org\/ppschum1021earlycivilizations\/chapter\/3-4-egypt-new-kingdom\/","title":{"raw":"3.4 Egypt-New Kingdom","rendered":"3.4 Egypt-New Kingdom"},"content":{"raw":"
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The New Kingdom <\/strong>of reunified Egypt that began in 1530 BCE saw an era of Egyptian imperialism, changes in the burial practices of pharaohs, and the emergence of a brief period of state-sponsored monotheism under the Pharaoh Akhenaten. In 1530 BCE, the pharaoh who became known as Ahmose the Liberator (Ahmose I) defeated the Hyksos and continued sweeping up along the Eastern Mediterranean. By 1500 BCE, the Egyptian army had also pushed into Nubia southward to the fourth cataract of the Nile River. As pharaohs following Ahmose I continued Egypt\u2019s expansion, the Imperial Egyptian army ran successful campaigns in Palestine and Syria, along the Eastern Mediterranean. The adoption of the Hyksos\u2019 chariot and metal technologies contributed to the Egyptian ability to strengthen its military.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"639\"]\"Image 3.22<\/strong> Tombs in the Valley of the Kings, Egypt.1<\/a><\/sup>[\/caption]\r\n

During the New Kingdom, pharaohs and Egyptian elites used the Valley of Kings, <\/strong>see image 3.22, located across the Nile River from Thebes, as their preferred burial site. They desired tombs that were hidden away and safe from thieves looking for treasure. Therefore, instead of pyramids, they favored huge stone tombs built into the mountains of the Valley of the Kings. Nearly all of the burials in the Valley of the Kings were raided, so the fears of the pharaohs were well founded.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"628\"]\"Carved 3.33<\/strong> Hypostyle Hall, Karnak Temple Complex, Luxor.2<\/a><\/sup>[\/caption]\r\n

During the Middle and New Kingdoms many of the rulers also built massive temples which were used to worship them in their new roles as gods after their death. The temples were not the same, but many of them have similar characteristics. They had a large gateway, which was called a pylon and a hypostyle hall which was a forest of huge columns to hold up large stone slabs which formed the roof. This post and lintel system created a dark mysterious space that was used by the priests as a place of worship apart from the view of the lower-class citizens.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"800\"]\"Front 3.34<\/strong> Temple of Hatshepsut, Deir-el-Bahri, western Thebes.3<\/a>[\/caption]\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"\" align=\"alignleft\" width=\"241\"]\"This 3.35<\/strong> Column with image of Hatshepsut.4<\/a>[\/caption]\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"240\"]\"A 3.36<\/strong> Sculpture of Queen Hatshepsut, kneeling.5<\/a><\/sup>[\/caption]\r\n

Hatshepsut, circa 1479-1457 BCE, was the daughter of Thutmose I, granddaughter of Ahmose the Liberator, and married her half-brother Thutmose II. When her husband died, she ruled as regent for her young son. But when he came of age, she refused to relinquish control. The priests crowned her pharaoh and she ruled for twenty years. Over the years artists depicted her with fewer and fewer feminine characteristics, and she dressed in the familiar royal ceremonial clothing befitting a pharaoh. When she was removed from power by her son, many of the images of her reign were destroyed. She altered her name with a masculine ending, was addressed as \u201cHis Majesty\u201d and was depicted in the clothing of a king with the pharaonic beard, and the royal sheldyt kilt.<\/p>\r\n

Throughout dynastic Egypt, much continuity existed in religious beliefs, causing scholars to characterize Egyptian society as conservative, meaning that Egyptians shied away from change. In general, Egyptian religious beliefs emphasized unity and harmony. Throughout the dynastic period, Egyptians thought that the soul contained distinct parts. They believed that one part, the ka, <\/em>was a person\u2019s life force and that it separated from the body after death. The Egyptians carried out their elaborate preservation of mummies and made small tomb statues to house their ka<\/em> after death. The ba<\/em>,<\/em> another part of the soul, was the unique character of the individual, which could move between the worlds of the living and the dead. They believed that after death, if rituals were carried out correctly, their ka and ba would reunite to reanimate their akh,<\/em> or spirit.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1102\"]\"An 3.37<\/strong> Judgment of Hunefer, Hunefer\u2019s Book of the Dead, detail.6<\/a><\/sup>[\/caption]\r\n

If they observed the proper rituals and successfully passed through Final Judgment (where they recited the 42 \u201cNegative Confessions\u201d and the god Osiris weighed their hearts against a feather), Egyptians believed that their resurrected spirit, their akh<\/em>, would enter the afterlife. In the afterlife, Egyptians expected to find a place with blue skies, agreeable weather, and familiar objects and people. They also expected to complete many of the everyday tasks, such as farming, and enjoy many of the same recognizable pastimes. Through the centuries, the Egyptians conceptualized the afterlife as a comfortable mirror image of life. One change that occurred over time was the \u201cdemocratization of the afterlife.\u201d As time progressed through the Middle Kingdom and into the New Kingdom, more and more people aspired to an afterlife. No longer was an afterlife seen as possible for only the pharaoh and the elite of society. Instead, just about all sectors of society expected access, as evident in the increased of funeral texts, like the Book of the Dead. People of varying means would slip papyrus with spells of prayers from the Book of the Dead (or a similar text) into coffins and burial chambers. They intended these spells to help their deceased loved ones make it safely through the underworld into the pleasant afterlife.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"\" align=\"alignleft\" width=\"339\"]\"A 3.38<\/strong> Panel with adoration scene of Aten. Pharaoh Akhenaten with his wife and children making offerings to Aten.7<\/a><\/sup>[\/caption]\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"379\"]\"A 3.39<\/strong> Akhenaten, Nefertiti, and three daughters beneath the Aten, Amarna, 18th dynasty, ca. 1345 BCE, Pergamum Museum, Berlin.8<\/a><\/sup>[\/caption]\r\n\r\nEgyptian art and culture remained stable and unchanging for thousands of years. Drastic change can only be seen in one 25-year period of Egyptian history. We call it the Amarna period. In the 14th century B.C.E. Amenophis IV introduced ideas which modified the religious beliefs that had guided Egyptian philosophy and shaped its institutions since its earliest pharaohs. He was a heretic, and tried to replace the many traditional gods of Egypt with a single Supreme Being, Aton. He changed his name from Amenophis to Akhenaten, (\"it pleases Aton\") and moved the capital of Egypt from Thebes to Tell-el- Amarna, from which the Amarna Period takes its name.<\/span>\r\n

Why did Akhenaten introduce these radical changes? Akhenaten was probably trying to break up the power and influence of the long-established priests of Amon-Ra with his reforms. When he took the throne, the priests owned 1\/3 or the arable land and controlled 1\/5 of the workforce. The Temple of Amen controlled 81,000 slaves and servants, 421,000 head of cattle, 691,000 acres of agricultural land, 83 ships, 46 shipyards, and 63 cities. This wealth was a challenge to the power of the pharaoh. Akhenaten moved to take control of these resources and limit the power of the temple priests. He shut down the temples of the old gods, removed representations of those gods from his city, and even removed the plural word \u201cgods\u201d in favor of his monotheistic references to Amon-Ra. Additionally, by taking on the role of the son of Aten and regulating entry into the afterlife, Akhenaten certainly attempted to reformulate beliefs to emphasize his own importance.<\/p>\r\n

Although Akhenaten's religious revolution was a failure; his artistic revolution was much more successful. The Amarna period witnessed the most dramatic changes Egyptian art had ever seen, and its influence lingered long after its rulers had been consigned to oblivion by the outraged public. Some say that Akhenaten was directly responsible for the new artistic style. His chief sculptor, a man named Bak, claims that he was taught sculpting by the king himself, in a surviving inscription at Aswan.<\/p>\r\n\r\n

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The art of the Amarna period breaks radically with Egyptian tradition in its depictions of royalty. These are some of the most important characteristics of the art of this time:<\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/header>\r\n

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