Time in the Art of Ancient Egypt: From Ideological Concept to Visual Construct

KronoScope ◽  
2003 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 51-82
Author(s):  
Patricia Bochi

AbstractThe pervasiveness and immutability of time forced the ancient Egyptians to deal with its impact on everyday life in various ways. Yet, so far most studies have focused on the written expression of the concern for time, thus overlooking other areas of cognition equally capable of accounting for the ancient Egyptians' attempt at addressing the issue. Thus, the present study focuses on the way in which the ancient Egyptians conceptualized and visually represented the phenomenon of time. After examining the image-making process, the study analyzes the socio-cultural implications of such visual approach within the context of ancient Egyptian society.

Author(s):  
Seung-Hyun Lee

From being a simple communication technology to a key social tool, the mobile phone has become such an important aspect of people's everyday life. Mobile phones have altered the way people live, communicate, interact, and connect with others. Mobile phones are also transforming how people access and use information and media. Given the rapid pervasiveness of mobile phones in society across the world, it is important to explore how mobile phones have affected the way people communicate and interact with others, access the information, and use media, and their daily lifestyle. This article aims to explore the social and cultural implications that have come with the ubiquity, unprecedented connectivity, and advances of mobile phones. This article also focuses on the discussion about people's dependence on, attachment and addiction to mobile phones, social problems that mobile phones generate, and how people value mobile phone use.


Author(s):  
Annette Imhausen

Approximately a dozen mathematical papyri have survived from ancient Egypt. Based on their script (but also their stage of the Egyptian language) they fall into two groups—hieratic and demotic texts. These papyri constitute our primary source material to learn about ancient Egyptian mathematics. Because of the procedural style that they were written in, it is assumed that they were used in teaching junior scribes the mathematical techniques they would need for their job; however, the procedural format may also have constituted the way of collecting mathematical knowledge at the time. It is only if this format is taken into account in the (modern) analysis of Egyptian mathematical texts that their sophistication becomes visible, and a deeper understanding of Egyptian mathematics beyond rudimentary similarities to modern equivalents can therefore be achieved.


2021 ◽  
Vol 31 (2) ◽  
pp. 33-65
Author(s):  
Ọbádélé Kambon ◽  
Lwanga Songsore ◽  
Yaw Mankatah Asare

In this paper, we endeavor to restore Mꜣꜥt ‘Maat’ as truth to her rightful place by challenging erroneous and demonstrably incorrect notions as they appear in Ataa Ayi Kwei Armah’s Wat Nt Shemsw: The Way of Companions. By cross-referencing Ataa Armah’s vague allusions to “ancient Egyptian” mythology with actual textual documentation from Kmt ‘Black Nation/Land of Blacks’ (so-called “ancient Egypt”), we will interrogate the assertions made about the myths of the kmt(yw) ‘Black people’. We find that where Ataa Armah’s statements are at odds with the texts of Kmt ‘Black Nation/Land of Blacks,’ it is necessary to bring this information to light so that the readers can learn the actual content of these myths for themselves. In conclusion, we find that to truly understand Kmt ‘Black Nation/Land of Blacks,’ Afrikan champions interested in restoring the truth of Mꜣꜥt ‘Maat’ must let the Ancestors speak without Eurasian interpreters or interpretations.


2019 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nico Van Blerk

The aim of this paper is to indicate the importance of religion in ancient Egypt and to indicate that this was the foundation for ancient Egyptian law. In order to understand ancient Egyptian law, it is important to understand the role of religion as background to its development. Religion played an important role in the ancient Egyptians’ understanding of their world, specifically the belief in maat. Religion, and specifically maat, influenced everything they did. Their whole life and the way they operated as a society was based on the principles of maat, since living in accordance with maat would ensure eternal life, life after death. It was essentially maat which made law necessary in ancient Egypt.


Author(s):  
Florian Ebeling

The history of reception of ancient Egypt deals with the perceptions and images of ancient Egypt in the West that emerged without direct access to ancient Egyptian sources, especially without proper knowledge of the hieroglyphs. It deals with texts, images and art as part of the history of ideas and with material culture as well. It is not about the question of whether these images and concepts correspond to the historical realities in ancient Egypt, but about the question of the way in which ancient Egypt was referred to, and about the relevance of this concept in the history of the West.


Author(s):  
Oskar Kaelin

The ancient Egyptians were surrounded by various manifestations of their many gods. Though their gods usually lived in heaven or in the netherworlds, they were permanently represented on earth by monuments, statues, symbols, animals, and plants, as well as by social concepts. The Egyptians described their gods by various names and images, always aware that in the end their true personalities and characters remained elusive. The ancient Egyptian universe comprised heaven, earth, and netherworld, all part of creation and surrounded by eternal darkness. Though separate areas, they were permeable for the gods and the dead. The universe ran smoothly as long as there was respect and cooperation between them and the living. This formed an ideological, social, and economic cohesion. The gods were powerful but benevolent, and approachable in many ways. The divine king was the hub between the world of the gods and the human sphere. He was the main entity responsible for organizing the supply and welfare of the humans, and for keeping order. During official festivals, the living, the gods, and the dead celebrated together, but there were also a number of more personal ways to approach deities. The various sites of interaction between gods and men formed a vast network connecting all the players: the gods were responsible for creation and abundance, the kings and elites were primarily responsible for ensuring that the system ran according to Maat (“Order”), and the people were responsible for living and working throughout the country. The system of ancient Egyptian gods structured Egyptian ideas, policies, and everyday life from the end of the 4th millennium bce to the rise of Christianity and beyond. The ancient Egyptians’ beliefs were polytheistic, acknowledging the existence of thousands of gods and endless deceased humans. At times, the ancient Egyptians appeared to be henotheistic and would exalt a deity in his or her uniqueness. Moreover, with Akhenaten, they were the first to experiment with monotheism, though that did not last much longer than a decade. The ideas and images created for the Egyptian gods and religion had an impact on many contemporaneous cultures, as well as on later religions.


2018 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 20-37
Author(s):  
Liis Jõhvik

Abstract Initially produced in 1968 as a three-part TV miniseries, and restored and re-edited in 2008 as a feature-length film, Dark Windows (Pimedad aknad, Tõnis Kask, Estonia) explores interpersonal relations and everyday life in September 1944, during the last days of Estonia’s occupation by Nazi Germany. The story focuses on two young women and the struggles they face in making moral choices and falling in love with righteous men. The one who slips up and falls in love with a Nazi is condemned and made to feel responsible for the national decay. This article explores how the category of gender becomes a marker in the way the film reconstructs and reconstitutes the images of ‘us’ and ‘them’. The article also discusses the re-appropriation process and analyses how re-editing relates to remembering of not only the filmmaking process and the wartime occupation, but also the Estonian women and how the ones who ‘slipped up’ are later reintegrated into the national narrative. Ultimately, the article seeks to understand how this film from the Soviet era is remembered as it becomes a part of Estonian national filmography.


Author(s):  
Tamás A. Bács

Repetition or the practice of copying preeminently structured artistic activity in ancient Egypt. Besides its role in training, as a technique of learning to practice an art, and also serving documentary purposes in creating record copies, it served as a conscious artistic strategy in the act of representation. Different modes of the practice coexisted, such as replication or the effort to reproduce perfect replicas, differential reproduction that encouraged variation as well as emulation and could result in transformation, and finally eclectic imitation that characterized “archaism.” What were deemed as appropriate to serve as models for imitation in ancient Egyptian visual culture at any moment depended not only on the particular aesthetic and historical contexts but also on their accessibility, be it physical or archival.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Gregory D. Clemenson ◽  
Antonella Maselli ◽  
Alexander J. Fiannaca ◽  
Amos Miller ◽  
Mar Gonzalez-Franco

AbstractGPS navigation is commonplace in everyday life. While it has the capacity to make our lives easier, it is often used to automate functions that were once exclusively performed by our brain. Staying mentally active is key to healthy brain aging. Therefore, is GPS navigation causing more harm than good? Here we demonstrate that traditional turn-by-turn navigation promotes passive spatial navigation and ultimately, poor spatial learning of the surrounding environment. We propose an alternative form of GPS navigation based on sensory augmentation, that has the potential to fundamentally alter the way we navigate with GPS. By implementing a 3D spatial audio system similar to an auditory compass, users are directed towards their destination without explicit directions. Rather than being led passively through verbal directions, users are encouraged to take an active role in their own spatial navigation, leading to more accurate cognitive maps of space. Technology will always play a significant role in everyday life; however, it is important that we actively engage with the world around us. By simply rethinking the way we interact with GPS navigation, we can engage users in their own spatial navigation, leading to a better spatial understanding of the explored environment.


Arts ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 40
Author(s):  
Azza Ezzat

It has been said that the ancient Egyptians were raised to tolerate all kinds of toil and hardship; they nevertheless also liked to amuse themselves with comic relief in their everyday life. For example, ancient Egyptian drawing can be quite accurate and at times even spirited. What scholars have described as caricatures are as informative and artistic as supposed serious works of art. Ancient Egyptians have left countless images representing religious, political, economic, and/or social aspects of their life. Scenes in Egyptian tombs could be imitated on ostraca (potsherds) that portray animals as characters performing what would normally be human roles, behaviors, or occupations. These scenes reveal the artists’ sense of comedy and humor and demonstrate their freedom of thought and expression to reproduce such lighthearted imitations of religious or funeral scenes. This paper will focus on a selection of drawings on ostraca as well as three papyri that show animals—often dressed in human garb and posing with human gestures—performing parodies of human pursuits (such as scribes, servants, musicians, dancers, leaders, and herdsmen).


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