Art and History of Egypt [antikvár]

Before the Pharaohs In the Paleolithic era, before the explosion of Egyptian civilization, the Mediterranean Sea was cut into two great basins by a tongue of land that joined Tunisia and Italy, passing through the is- land of Malta. An immense ring of forests sur- rounded it on all sides and vast lagunas and forests were scattered in a chain over the area later to be identified with the Nile, reaching all the way to the sea. European and North African fauna lived side by side, and Alpine Mediterranean, Somalian and Berber races all intermingled in a sort of boundless Eden. Then between 10,000 and 8,000 B.C. some kind of cataclysm, which had long been brewing, radically changed the face of this part of the world. The bridge between Tunisia and Italy sank, leaving be- hind the Maltese islands, a few crumbs; in North- ern Africa the immense forests gradually dwindled, the endless lagoons disappeared and were replaced by deserts of rock and sand. As time passed the Nile gradually evolved into its present form, a gigantic serpent that began in the heart of Africa and wound its way, for thousands of kilometers along the Red Sea, until it found an outlet to the Mediterranean. Between 8,000 and 5,000 B.C. a neverending flow of peoples moved through Upper and Lower Egypt. They came from Asia, from the center of Africa and from the west, perhaps survivors of legendary Atlantis. But as the desert implacably closed in and the flood tide of the great river left behind muddy bogs where there had once been strips of inhabitable land, the land of the Nile be- came less and less hospitable. Then the 4th millen- nium witnessed the development of an extraordi- nary peoples, who mastered the art of regulating the muddy waters along kilometers of shores, of coordinating agricultural activities in an area that covered thousands of hectares, of creating villages and cities, the beginning of the most extensive or- ganized society that had ever existed. Analogous experiences, to be found only in Mesopotamia (Uruk, Ur, Lagash) pale by comparison. The only apparent explanation of their origins would seem to be in the lost continent of Atlantis, dreamed up by Plato three thousand years later. The Egyptians themselves affirm that their history began with the realm of Osiris, which had been preceded by three great divine kingdoms: the Realm of the Air Shu; the Realm of the Spirit Ra, the Realm of the Earth Geb. The eras preceding ours seem to be adumbrated in these realms and the era of Atlantis in that of Geb. Osiris, god-king and man, is remembered as a king of immense good- ness and wisdom, who reunited all the nomad tribes and taught them how to profit from the damage wreaked by the floods, how to keep the destruction of the desert at bay by irrigation and the tilling of the soil and, in particular, how to cul- tivate wheat for flour and bread, grapes for wine, and barley for beer. Osiris also initiated the nomads in the extraction and working of metals, and with wise Thoth taught them writing and art. After accomplishing his mission, he left his beloved companion and collaborator Isis on the throne, and departed for the east (Mesopotamia) to in- struct all the peoples. On his return, his brother Seth lured him into a trap and slew him, usurped the throne and scattered the limbs of the corpse throughout Egypt. Isis, overcome by grief, depart- ed in search of her beloved spouse, and through di- vine inspiration succeeded in finding his remains and recomposed them with the aid of the faithful Anubis. A miracle occurred thanks to the tears of the inconsolable wife, and Osiris was resuscitated and ascended to heaven after having left a son — Horus. Upon reaching manhood, Horus defeated the usurper after a long and uncertain struggle, and once more took up the task of his father, Osiris. The Great Sphinx, timeless and unique, testifies to this dawn, in which history and legend mingle with the images of Atlantis or the "planet Egypt". Although attributed to Khafre (ca. 2,550 B.C.), no technical or architectural element, or even any component of logical continuity, ties the Sphinx to the Great Pyramid and the monuments of that pharaoh. The representation of the body of a lion with a human head is the exact opposite of all their visions of the gods, with their human bodies and the head of an animal (lion in the primogenial cou- ple) and makes this colossal ideogram all the more mysterious: a monument raised by the ancient peo- ples to their first and great king — Osiris? a mile- stone on the path between life on earth and celestial life? The chosen people of six thousand years ago in- habited two great zones with contrasting features: Upper Egypt, flanking the Nile as it moved north- wards for hundreds of kilometers; and Lower Egypt, which spread out for about 150 kilometers along the countless canals of the Delta. Upper Egypt, the area that lay south of the Sphinx, had a narrow strip of land that gradually dwindled producing less and less. As the struggle for subsis- tence was intensified, the people turned their atten- tion to internal problems and shut themselves off from their surroundings in consortiums. Lower Egypt by contrast was a densely populated generous land in continuous contact with other peoples in any number of ways, favoring a con-