. Ancient Egypt. Egyptology. Abinr: iomh srffurut.'i. (lisDumlU'cl, ready for shipment to the United States. About 1909. Below: Portion ot tlie Etj^'ptitin Hall, in tlw Museuni'.^i or{<{inal huiltlin}^. injack.'ioit I' 1900. Since that time, luive been desi^i^pietl to instruct. rather than simph' entertain, please the inuseuin-i^oer's e\'e,and satisfi' his curiosit}'. the Old Kingdom concepts of kingship and divine order. The pred\'nastic alcove is a necessan' prelude to understanding the tombs of the Old Kingdom. The two Field Museum tombs are offering chape
. Ancient Egypt. Egyptology. Abinr: iomh srffurut.'i. (lisDumlU'cl, ready for shipment to the United States. About 1909. Below: Portion ot tlie Etj^'ptitin Hall, in tlw Museuni'.^i or{<{inal huiltlin}^. injack.'ioit I' 1900. Since that time, luive been desi^i^pietl to instruct. rather than simph' entertain, please the inuseuin-i^oer's e\'e,and satisfi' his curiosit}'. the Old Kingdom concepts of kingship and divine order. The pred\'nastic alcove is a necessan' prelude to understanding the tombs of the Old Kingdom. The two Field Museum tombs are offering chapels, not actual burial chambers. The reliefs are mainly of offering processions, with the good things of this life piled in abundance for the eternal happiness of the deceased. To facilitate the visitor's understanding of this ritual, the heiroghphic in- scriptions, both prayers and captions above the figures, are translated into English wherever possi- ble. In addition, objects dating to the Old Kingdom — manv actualh' identical with ones depicted on the walls of the tombs—have been placed in the tomb chapels of Netjer-user and Unis-ankh. Such tomb chapels, as an expression of the. de\elopnuiu oi the state in Old Kingdom Eg\pt, arc an official art resulting from a highly complex, stratified society. While these chapels and the roval pyramids are symbolic o( the height of power, thev also serve as a qualitative contrast to the basic cul- ture of EgN-j)!. This basic culture is embodied in the rural agricultural \ illage culture, which has con- tinued from ancient times almost to the present day. This agricultural setting, tied with the annual Hood oi the Nile, is the focus of one ol'the newh- organized cases adjoining the Old Kingdom tomb chapels. Aspects of this life along the Nile are de- picied in many tombs. Touchable plaster casts of two such reliefs from the tomb of Ptah-holep (also from Satjcjara and ' contemporar\' with Netjer-user) have been included in
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Keywords: ., bookauthorfiel, bookpublisherchicagofieldmuseumofnaturalhistory
