Through the Eras

Architecture and Designconditions made it impossible for him to build as his father,grandfather, and great-grandfather had done. Perhapssome combination of religious and political forceswas the cause, but without any corroborating evidencefrom texts, it is impossible to correctly interpret theking’s actions. This lack of evidence points toward thefragility of some interpretations of Old Kingdom historybased solely on architecture.INTERPRETATION WITH TEXTS. Scholars were notwholly without texts, however. Written evidence andsurviving decoration on the walls of a building addgreatly to the reliability of interpretations of Egyptianbuildings. In general Egyptologists accept that the decorationof a room in a temple or the inscriptions on thewalls describe or explain the function of a room. Thusrelief sculptures on the walls of a room that depict theking performing a series of ritual actions can reliably beinterpreted as an illustration of what occurred in theroom. The spells of the Pyramid Texts inscribed on thewalls of late Fifth- and Sixth-dynasty pyramids arethought to have been recited on that spot. The existenceof additional contemporary texts written on papyrus orlimestone chips called ostraca adds even more to our generalknowledge. The evidence used to interpret the useof buildings increases considerably for the New Kingdomcompared to the earlier periods. For example, acomparison of written descriptions of the king’s positionin the world dating to the New Kingdom with the decorationof palaces, also built in the New Kingdom, showshow the same ideas had expression in two different mediums.THE FUNCTIONS OF BUILDINGS. Earlier scholarsof Egyptology could be overly influenced by their ownpreconceptions when they assigned functions to ancientbuildings. This tendency was especially true in the nineteenthand early twentieth centuries when archaeologiststried to understand the buildings they had excavatedwithout any corroborating evidence from texts. Earlyscholars concluded, for example, that buildings withhigh, paneled surrounding walls that date to the PredynasticPeriod (4400–3100 B.C.E.) were forts, eventhough they had no comparative material or extensivetextual evidence to support such a theory. New interpretations,based on expanded comparative material,suggest that they were actually part of the kings’ burials.The term “mortuary temples,” used to describe the sectionof pyramid complexes built in the Old and MiddleKingdoms (2675–1630 B.C.E.), stems from the false suppositionthat their sole function concerned the burialrites of the king, which reflected a modern Western focuson the funeral ceremony and burial. Scholars nowunderstand these buildings as being important to thekings’ continued life in the next world as the center ofan eternal cult to honor the deceased king. These buildingsare now called pyramid temples, describing theirproximity to the pyramid rather than a definite function.THE DEVELOPMENT OF EGYPTIAN TECHNOL-OGY. In the 2,000-year history of Western interest inancient Egypt, often the occult, the supernatural, andeven the extraterrestrial have been proposed as explanationsfor certain phenomena. Nowhere is this moreevident than in the interpretation of architecture. Manyof these non-scientific explanations of ancient Egyptianaccomplishments center on the construction of thepyramids. Many of these interpreters look only at thethree pyramids at Giza built by kings Khufu, Khafre,and Menkaure between 2585 and 2510 B.C.E. Theenormous size and astounding precision with whichthese buildings were constructed not only arouse a senseof wonder, but have also suggested to many that thesimple technology available to the Egyptians would nothave sufficed to produce these buildings. A careful considerationof pyramid building from its origins in thetime of King Djoser (2675–2654 B.C.E.) to the end ofroyal pyramid building at the close of the Middle Kingdomabout 1630 B.C.E., shows a natural progressionand even a learning curve. The earliest buildings containedmistakes. Subsequent buildings were sturdier becauseof innovations made in response to previousmistakes. Some innovations failed and were not repeatedin later buildings. At the same time, the Egyptianslearned to move increasingly heavier loads as theirtechnology improved from the Old Kingdom to theNew Kingdom. It is even possible to chart the progressin this one field of endeavor that is often ascribed inpopular literature to knowledge obtained from spacealiens. A study of the technological aspects of Egyptianbuilding reveals much about their approach toproblem solving.TOPICSin Architecture and DesignEARLIEST TEMPLES AND TOMBSFIRST STRUCTURES. The earliest temples andtombs built in Egypt are in Abydos in Middle Egypt.Egyptologists have been aware of these structures sincethe late 1890s. In the roughly 100 years that Egyptol-6 Arts and Humanities Through the Eras: Ancient Egypt (2675 B.C.E.–332 B.C.E.)