Selected from the collections of Egyptian, Near Eastern, Aegean, Greek, Etruscan, and Roman art at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, the thirty-six objects featured in this book represent the richness and variety of ancient art and provide a wonderful introduction to the museum's collection. Each chapter presents an overview of a culture, followed by detailed commentaries about individual objects, each illustrated by photographs. "Ancient Art...points the general art museumgoer in the right direction and points out things that otherwise might be overlooked." -- Richmond Times-Dispatch, December 13, 1998 Each color illstration is accompanied by a page of descriptive text that examines every object in detail and in art historical context. The thirty-six works featured are from the collection of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. A fine introduction to ancient art with superb photography. Margaret Ellen Mayo is the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts' Curator of Ancient Art and author of The Art of South Italy: Vases from Magna Graecia. Ancient Egypt, one of the world's oldest civilizations, owed its existence to the world's longest river. Originating in the mountains of central Africa, the Nile flows northward some 4,000 miles to the Mediterranean Sea. Each year for thousands of years--before the Aswan High Dam was built in 1970--the Nile used to flood its banks, bringing water and nutrients to a narrow strip of land on either side. Vast stretches of the North African desert and mountain ranges lay beyond the river, naturally protecting those who lived along its shores from outsiders. Secure in their livelihood, the inhabitants of the Nile Valley developed a distinct and complex society more than five thousand years ago, and their history continued virtually unbroken for more than three thousand years. With the unification of the kingdoms of Upper and Lower Egypt under King Menes around 2920 B.C., the Egyptians began to develop a highly structured society complete with taxes, organized religion, and sophisticated systems of mathematics and writing. The Egyptian historian Manetho, writing in Greek during the early third century B.C., measured the immense length of Egyptian history in thirty dynasties (families of rulers). Modern historians have further designated the great eras of Egyptian history as the Old, Middle, and the New Kingdoms, which were separated by periods of political disunity. Our access to the civilization of ancient Egypt is mainly through the histories written by ancient Greeks and Romans (who were as far removed in time from the beginnings of Egypt as we are from classical Greece), and from the discoveries of modern archaeology. Many of our words for things Egyptian are not Egyptian but Greek: "pyramid" comes from a Greek word for "cake," and "hieroglyph" ! is actually Greek for "sacred carving." The ancient Egyptians' concepts of life and death affected every aspect of their culture. The goal of life was to live in harmony with the gods, and they believed that death was not an ending but the gateway to eternal life. The Egyptians believed in many major and minor deities, each influencing a particluar aspect of human life. They considered their king the representative of the gods, and thus the necessary link between the gods and ordinary people. To ensure harmony between gods and humans into eternity, the Egyptians built huge temple complexes and put them under the control of powerful priesthoods. They also engraved thousand of prayers and recorded the deeds of their kings on the walls of temples. Members of the privileged classes, who could afford tombs, furnished them with necessities for the next life. Although most of our information about Egypt comes to us from these tombs, the message we receive from the ancient Egyptians is not about death, but about life and ho! w it was lived, about power and splendor, joy and beauty. Before Kings Ruled Egypt From the earliest times, the Egyptians were master stone carvers. Stone Jar Egyptian Predynastic Period, 4000-3100 B.C. Stone; height 7 1/16 inches (18 cm) Throughout Egypt's long history, artisans made vessels of stone as well as metal and fired clay. Among the most beautiful are those carved from extremely hard stone during the Predynastic Period, before Upper and Lower Egypt were united under one king, and before written records. The invention of the hand drill about this time meant that stone carvers could work more quickly than before, and it allowed them to produce a clarity of form and a crispness of detail not possible with other tools. Yet even with the use of a drill, the process of carving a vessel out of solid stone was expensive and time-consuming. A rise in the quantity of stone vessels dating from the Predynastic period suggests that there was a growing upper class that could afford such luxuries (especially for their tombs), as well as an increase in the number of specialized craftsmen capable of producing them. This jar with, with