Reply To: The Gods of Ancient Egypt

[Lucas Warthen]

I think a large difference between artistic works of the Mesopotamian region and the Egyptian region is the depiction of social hierarchy. While both do display social rankings in similar ways, there is much less focus of it in the Egyptian pieces. Most of the Egyptian pieces show the king by himself and sometimes with his wife / family (seen in the ‘Menakaure and Queen’ piece, as well as the ‘Nebamun Hunting Birds in the Marshes’ piece). In the ones that aren’t a pharaoh / king with his family, there is a large emphasis on their connection with the gods which is seen on ‘The Palette of King Narmer,’ the Temple of Ramses II and many more. Aside from humanistic representations in art, there are also prominent images throughout many of the pieces – such as growing papyrus and the Nile full of life – mainly fish – seen in ‘Nebamun Hunting Birds in the Marshes,’ ‘Funerary Stele,’ ‘Ti Watching a Hippopotamus Hunt,’ and the collection of Predynastic Ceramics.