Marya Ahmed
Jennifer Tribble
Humanities 1301
June 30, 2014
Museum Extra Credit: Online Research Ancient artwork is rather stimulating to learn about. It causes you to think about the art and what its civilization must have been like. Egyptian art was particularly interesting due to how colorful Egyptian culture is. The Rosetta Stone, Sphinx of Taharqo, The Standard of Ur, Narmer’s Palette, and The bust of Nefertiti are all portrayals of Ancient Egyptian culture. The Rosetta Stone is and Ancient Egyptian artifact that includes text in Greek, hieroglyphics, and demotic Egyptian writing. It was created in 196 B.C. and is made out of granodiorite. The Rosetta Stone is fascinating due to its history. The writing in the stone is a statement that honors the rule of the Pharoah Ptolemy V and was presented on the first anniversary of his coronation. The stone was inscribed in three different scripts because of the fusion of Greek and Egyptian cultures. The first script was hieroglyphic which was used by the priests. Demotic Egyptian was the native tongue and used for every day purposes. Greek was the official language of the court. I also really liked this piece because the Greek inscription on the stone allowed scholars, for the first time, to begin to decipher hieroglyphics. The Sphinx of Taharqo is a statue of a sphinx (a half human, half lion entity) with the face of the Pharaoh Taharqo. He was a Sudanese man and one of the greatest leaders of the Kingdom of Kush in modern-day Sudan. The civilization of origin of the Sphinx of Taharqo is Ancient Egypt. The artwork was created in 680 B.C. and it is made out of granite. This piece of artwork is interesting due to the portrayal of the Pharaoh as a sphinx. It represents the vast power of the Egyptian king. Ancient civilizations feared and respected the lion. They associated the sphinx with death and rebirth, and believed them to be guardians. Egyptians also worshipped lion-headed goddesses. This all shows the importance of the sphinx in Ancient Egyptian culture. The Standard of Ur is a Sumerian artifact that depicts scenes of war and peace on each side of it. The civilization of the artifact is Ur. It was created in 2600 B.C. and it is made out of shell, limestone, lapis lazuli, and bitumen. This artwork is intriguing because it is from one of the world’s first cities, Ur, and also because no one really knows what it was used for. But the British Museum believes it is connected to royalty since it was buried in a royal grave and it depicts two contrasting scenes of a king of Ur. The Standard of Ur also shows, on one side, the captured prisoners that are being presented to the king by his soldiers. And on the other side, it shows the king enjoying a ceremonial banquet. It is also fascinating that it captures the balance of peace and war of cities back then. Narmer’s Palette is an Ancient Egyptian relic. It was created in the 31st century B.C. and is made out of