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Mahda Foroughi
Reference List
• Assmann, J. (2001). The Search for God in
Ancient Egypt. Translated by Lorton, D.
• Assmann, J. (2002). The Mind of Egypt: History
and Meaning in the Time of the Pharaohs.
Translated by Jenkins, A.
• Assmann, J. (2008). Of God and Gods: Egypt,
Israel, and the Rise of Monotheism.
• Durant, W.J. (1991). Our Oriental Heritage,
translated by : Aram,A.. Tehran: Amoozesh-e
Enghelab-e Eslami.
• Gardner, H. (1991). Art Through the ages.
Translated by: Faramarzi, M.T. Tehran: Agah &
Negah.
• Holland, G. S. (2009). Gods in the Desert:
Religions of the Ancient Near East.
• Hornung, E. (1982). Conceptions of God in
AncientEgypt: The One and the Many. Translated
by Baines,J.
•Marie,R & Hagen,R. (1999). L’egypte. Taschen
publisher.
• Watts, E, B. (1998). Art of Ancient Egypt: A
Resource for Educators. Metropolitan Museum
of Art.
• Wilkinson, R. H. (2003). The Complete Gods
and Goddesses of Ancient Egypt.
• Wilson, J. A. (1964). Egypt. In The Intellectual
Adventure of Ancient Man: An Essay on
Speculative Thought in the Ancient Near East.
• Zarei, M.A. (1991). Getting to Know world
architecture. Ashnaei ba Memari Jahan. Tehran:
Fanavaran,
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How ancient Egyptians’ worldview emerges
in their painting and architecture
So far we have discussed two kinds of
worldviews in ancient Egypt. Now we
discuss how such views have influenced
their architecture and paintings. Because
they believed that afterlife is for eternity and
greater than the life. The tombs were the most
important buildings for them and believed
that those buildings should stay forever, so
they made those far from the Nile River. Also,
they made these tombs with best materializing
examples meaning best materials and in the
biggest size, which leads to a formal and huge
architecture of this land. But the building that
they made for this mortal world is located near
Nile River out of low-durable materials and
from worldly view are not that great. Ancient
Egyptians’ worldview to the events is shown
in paintings in different ways, for example,
painting people working of this world in
tombs, a Figture of judging people after death
by weighting their heart, and embodiment of
gods in natural events with worldly actions.
Painting food and jewelry in tombs shows their
belief in eternal life after death. In diagram 1
you can see a summary of above discussion.
Conclusion
According to the studies, ancient Egyptians’
world view has two conclusions that affect
their architecture and painting:
1. Their worldly view to life and afterlife.
They saw every event in the world with a
worldly approach.
2. The superiority of the world after death
to this world is immortality. As mentioned
before, they saw this world’s life as a way of
getting to perfection and immortality.
The worldly view of ancient Egyptian people
can be deducted from a concept of time,
death, and religion in their point of view. In
their point of view, afterlife, as it is Figtured
in paintings of tombs, is a resumption of
this world’s life and every similar activity in
this world is continued there. Even life after
death’s judgments is done using measuring
the heart and comparing it with a weight of
a feather. They believed that there is a direct
connection between the goodness of a person
with the weight of her heart and their spiritual
judgment is a worldly judgment. Also, they
had a god for every natural event, that was
in charge of creating this event and gave each
god a worldly figure that had a specific and
worldly effect in their lives. Their belief that
the afterlife is greater and eternal can be seen
in their view of time, death, and religion. For
example, Djet that belongs to the afterlife is a
still and eternal time but Neheh that belongs
to life is moving time. They believed that with
living in the Neheh time they become complete
so that they can move to the afterlife and be
eternal in Djet time. You can see this belief
in religion, for example, Osiris, god of the
afterlife, is a complete and eternal god. Based
on the second belief, tombs that are the most
important buildings in ancient Egypt should be
eternal. Also based on their first belief tombs
should have the best worldly appearance. For
this reason, these buildings were massive and
glorious, built with best and high-durable
materials, and are far from Nile River, and
palaces and cities, which were mortal, were
built low-quality low-durable materials and
were near the Nile River. painting of people
working like this world in tombs, a Figture of
judging people after death by weighting their
heart, and embodiment of gods in natural
events with worldly actions. Painting food and
jewelry in tombs shows their belief in eternal
life after death.
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1 Investigations of ancient Egyptians’worldview and how it relates to their architecture and painting
Mahda Foroughi
library research to understand the worldview
of the people of this land. Then, with the help of
these data and studying of their architectures
and paintings, we analyze the relationship
between the architecture of ancient Egyptian
and the worldview of the people of this land.
Discussion
This section discusses the architecture and
painting in ancient Egypt and the connection
between previous sections’ data about ancient
Egyptians’ world view and their paintings and
architecture.
Ancient Egypt Architecture
Architecture in ancient Egypt can be
categorized into 3 eras:
• Old Kingdom Architecture from 2686 B.C.
to 2181 B.C.
• Medieval Kingdom Architecture from 2181
B.C. to 1650 B.C.
• New Kingdom Architecture from 1650 B.C.
to 1069 B.C.
Pyramids, rocky tombs, and glorious temples
are the most outstanding architecture works
in the old, middle, and new era, respectively.
Rocks and bricks were mostly used materials in
ancient Egypt. Houses and palaces were made
of low-durable materials like brick and clay
while tombs and temples were made of highdurable materials like Limestone, Granite,
and Sandstone. Cities were closer to the Nile
River than tombs and temples and were in way
of Nile’s annual floods. For these two reasons
other than few examples, there is nothing left
of them. The tombs and temples in Egypt
do not have complex architectures but are
massive and glorious. This can be seen in all
of these 3 eras. For example, Khufu pyramid
in Egypt has a base of 227 meters, a vertex
of 217 meters, and height of 138 meters, and
it fills up 5 hectares. Sphinx statue in Giza is
also unique in terms of size in ancient times.
As this paper mentioned before, architecture
works in ancient Egypt has 4 traits:
1. Tombs and temples gigantic size in ancient
Egypt and using high-durable rocky materials
show their builders had motives and reasons
to build those for eternity.
2.Tombs and temples were built with highdurable rocky materials, while normally sized
palaces were built with low-durable materials.
3.Tombs and temples were built far from the
Nile River to avoid Nile’s annual floods.
4.Egypt architecture is focused on the mass,
but form, not space creation.
Painting in ancient Egypt
Due to painting’s importance as a prominent
decorative element in ancient Egyptian
architecture, this section discusses painting
art in ancient Egypt. Most of the paintings in
the ancient Egypt were on the walls of tombs
and temples, which shows importance and
holiness of painting for ancient Egyptians.
Also, keep in mind that limited people went
to these places at specific times, so these
paintings not only were for decoration but
also were gods’ and myths’ embodiments. We
can categorize paintings in ancient Egypt in 2
groups:
1. Paintings reflecting people’s daily life.
2. Paintings reflecting gods and myth.
The first group contains real elements and the
readers won’t find any trace of symbolic art
in it. But the second group has a lot of unreal
elements in it, for example, you can see in
image 1 there are creatures that are the mixture
of human and animals with unrealistic colors.
Most of the elements in these paintings have
colors and shape of animals with symbolic
meanings. The most common paintings in the
first group are paintings of the people’s daily
life on the walls of the tomb. These paintings
show that they believed that afterlife is the
resumption of this life. Symbolic Figtures of
gods show that they believed that gods have
control in both of life and afterlife worlds.
Although you can see changes in paintings
of these 3 eras, these 2 group stayed the
same. The most prominent difference in
artworks in these eras is a god’s appearance
or disappearance based on the time that the
tomb was built.
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tended to visualize all natural events
especially regular ones. Because, on the one
hand, the reason for the order of nature and
its forces was mysterious for them, and on
the other hand, their lives depended on these
forces, and they did not have the power to
control them. Thus, by visualizing natural
forces as numerous gods, these forces became
more understandable to them. For example,
the arrival of the annual floods was a sign of
Hapy’s coming. They assumed that Hapy pours
water into the Nile with a jug from above?
(Durant, 1991: 166). By worshiping these gods
and taking religious celebrations for them,
they in some way communicated with these
forces of nature and felt more secure.
Ancient Egyptian worldview
This paper extracted two common points
from ancient Egyptians view in the concepts
of time, death, and religion. The first point is
their materialistic look to this world and the
world after death. Their interpretation of all
phenomena and events in the world has been
materialistic.
The second point is the superiority of the
world of after death to this world because of
its immortality.
Methodology
In this qualitative study, first of all, we gather
information on the concepts of time, death
and religion in ancient Egypt with the help of
Table 1. The summary of discussion and their results. Source : Author.
Review of the Dimensions of Ancient Egyptian Worldview
Worldview
Dimensions
continuity of the material life of this world in the underground world
judgment of the deaths (spiritual) happened as a material one
immotalitiy of the life of arter death
death
The embodiment of God with material acts for all the regular natural
phenomena of the world
naming Osiris the eternel perfect god
riligion
Incarnate the Sun motion with the Neheh for the world on Earth and the
stability of death with the djet for the underground world
consideration of the cyclic time of Neheh in this world and the immortal time of
Djet in the underground world
Trying to achieve perfection at the time of the Neheh to move to eternal time of
Djet
time
The weight of the human's heart (material agent) used as their good and evil
criterion (spiritual)
The materialistic look of ancient Egyptians to all the phenomena and events of
the world
The superiority of the world of after death to this world because of its immortality
architecture
locating the tombs far from the Nile (preventing their destruction due to annual floods)
The image of theeveryday life on the walls of the sanctuaries Imagination
(
of material life for the world of after death)
Making the monuments (The most important spaces) in the most magnificent form and with the best materials (The best material expression)
Fractional dimensions of the monument and the superiority of the volume and structure of the architecture on the spatialization (indicates material importance)
painting
the pictures of every day life of ancient Egyotians on the monument's walls
the pictures of the judgment day in the underground world with weighting the person's heart (Spiritual judgment with material means)
the pictures which depict the phenomena of nature as gods with material actions
pictures of foods and jewelries in the cemetery
68 Investigations of ancient Egyptians’worldview and how it relates to their architecture and painting
Mahda Foroughi
Fig. 2. the Figture of daily life of the ancient Egyptians. Source: Marie & Hagen, 1999: 171
The concept of religion
The Ancient Egyptian were very naturalistic
like the people of other ancient civilizations.
They considered gods for every systematic
force in nature such as the sun, the Nile, the
air, the soil and other natural forces that had
an effect on their lives. The forces that have
regular cycle were considered sacred and
divine (Assmann, 200). In the eyes of the
ancient Egyptian, nothing can be happened
accidentally and without the intervention of
these natural forces. Therefore, events like
the sunset, which is natural and ordinary for
modern humans, is considered to be a birthday
party for the ancient Egyptian. They believed
that if the gods leave the world completely,
the fundamental structures of the world would
collapse into Chaos, and everything that
related to this structure would be destroyed
(Assmann, 2001). Jan (Assmann, 2002) calls
this a “cosmotheism”, the notion that the
universe is at the center of it and concludes
the consensus of many gods (Assmann, 2008).
Ancient Egyptian made legends of the gods
from Regular events of the world, including
Earth-moving around the sun, the rotation of
the day and night, and the annual flood of the
Nile River. From their point of view, the whole
world was not considered as a single entity, but
as varied actions and interactions of numerous
gods. So the gods play a role in the events
depending on their power (Assmann, 2001).
Although the ancient Egyptian worshiped
many gods throughout all the historical
periods, during the reign of Akhenatenhe, he
tried to unite the Egyptians to worship one
god. He changed his name from Amnaphise 4,
which marked the power of the god of Ammon,
to Akhenaten and converted to the worship
of the only God, Athens (Wilkinson, 2003).
Under his command, the temples of all gods,
except the God of Athens, were destroyed.
Despite all the efforts of Akhenaten, after
his death, the ancient Egyptian continued to
worship many gods, and this indicates the
institutionalization of such thinking in the
ancient Egyptian (Assmann, 2002); (Fig.3)
According to this study, ancient Egyptian
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Djet
In contrast to Neheh which has an eternal
movement, there is no motion in Djet. Ancient
Egyptians believed that they should live in the
Neheh time to become complete and perfect
so that they can move to the afterlife and
be eternal in Djet time. The death and the
afterlife are the most apparent manifestation
of Djet. Osiris, the god of the underground
world, was named immortal perfect god
(Wilkinson, 2003). Neheh is the time for the
world with Ra’s reign and Djet is the time for
the underground world with Osiris’s reign.
It should be noticed that Djet is the time for
who have been completed in the past time
during the cyclic periods of Neheh. So, Djet
is not a linear time nor something which has
been passed. The ancient Egyptian belief of
Djet is apparent from their funeral and burial
ceremonies. For example, the purpose of
building the pyramids and mummifying were
to make them immortal for the period of Djet.
The interview of Neheh and Djet.
Ra goes to the underground world at night and
becomes one with Osiris. At the same time,
Djet and Neheh overlap. Ra, who is dead at
night, refreshes in the Djet period to reborn
in the other day and become immortal like
Osiris (Assmann, 2001). The time-centric
cosmology of ancient Egyptian contains Djet
and Neheh (Assmann, 2002: 73). Also, Ra and
Osiris are depended to each other like Djet
and Neheh.
The concept of death
Ancient Egyptians believed that despite the
underground world, this world is mortal.
Osiris is the main god of the underground
world who judges people after their death
(Assmann: 2009, 2002: 47). In (Fig.1), the
gods weight a person’s heart to judge them.
If his heart is lighter than a feather, he would
be immortal in the underground world.
The life of after death was reflected in the
continuity of the life of this world. For this
reason, they painted the daily life on the
tombs’ walls (Fig.2).
It seems that everything is materialistic for
ancient Egyptian. Therefore, the difference
between life and afterlife is the circular time
of Neheh in contrast to the immortal time of
Djet.
Fig.1. the judgment of people after their death in the underground world. Source: httpwww.crystalinks.comegyptart.
html.
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1 Investigations of ancient Egyptians’worldview and how it relates to their architecture and painting
Mahda Foroughi
Introduction
Ancient Egypt was one of the irst large human
civilization and it was in the northeast of Africa
and located at the heart of the trade route between
the African and Mediterranean countries. This
land is a waterside near the Nile River, which is
encircled by the desert from the west and east
and there is the Mediterranean Sea and the Nile
River respectively at the north and south of this
country. Herudet believes that ancient Egyptians
are the most religious people in ancient time
(Zarei, 2009: 36). Also in comparison to other
ancient civilizations, the life of after death is
more important for them (Watts & Girsh, 1998:
27). In general, the ancient Egyptians believed
that living in this world is to achieve prosperity
in the afterlife and their arts were based on
this attitude towards life (Gardner, 1991: 72).
Historical architecture of ancient Egypt had
three periods which consist of the architecture
of old kingdom (2150-2649 B.C), the architecture
of medieval kingdom(1640-2030 B.C) and
architecture of new kingdom(1069-1650 B.C).
Pyramids, rocky monuments, and magniicent
temples, are the most prominent architectural
works of the ancient, middle and new periods
of ancient Egypt, respectively. The Tombs and
temples have huge dimensions and made from
durable materials in contrast with their ordinary
and royal houses which made in mud and brick
which nothing has been remained from them
now. In addition, their Tombs and temples are
located far from their city and the Nile River.
This process can be seen in all historical periods
of ancient Egyptian architecture.
The paper’s goal is to ind the relationship
between the architecture of ancient Egyptian
and The worldview of the people of this land.
In this qualitative study, irst of all, we gather
information on the concepts of time, death
and religion in ancient Egypt with the help of
library research to understand the worldview of
the people of this land. Then, with the help of
these data and studying their architectures and
paintings, we analyze the relationship between
the architecture of ancient Egyptian and the
worldview of the people of this land.
With this backdrop, I address the following
questions in this paper:
• What is the relation between ancient Egyptian’s
world view and their architecture and painting?
• Which points in ancient Egyptian’s world view
affect architecture and painting of them?
Literature review
According to lack of information in Persian
about architecture and world view of ancient
Egyptians, we use English sources most
of which were written by Assmann. He
is a professor at Heidelberg University in
Germany. This part of the paper studies
ancient Egyptians’ perspective of time, death,
and religion. In addition, it searches the main
common points in them.
The concept of time
The concept of time in ancient Egypt is very
different from the modern concept of time.
Ancient Egyptian considered two kinds of
time called Neheh and Djet. There are no
equivalents for these words in English or
Persian. In the following section of the paper,
each of the concepts are discussed in detail.
Neheh
Neheh is a cyclic time which comes from
regular natural events such as the earth’s
circular motion around the sun. Ancient
Egyptian considered the sun as the god,
Ra, who travels around the sky in his boat
and dies and goes to the underground world
at night to reborn at the other day (Wilson,
1946). Ancient Egyptians believed that there
is another eternal life for every death person,
gods and objects like the sun and they saw the
death as a moment from a huge process.
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Investigations of Ancient Egyptians
Worldview and how it Relates to
Their Architecture and Painting
Mahda foroughi
Master of Landscape Architecture, University of Tehran, Iran.
mahda_foroughi@yahoo.com
Abstract
Ancient Egypt is one of the irst large human civilizations from which lots of archaeological
relics and paintings have remained. The architectural designs of the ancient Egyptian
have several special features. The most highlighted ones are their tombs and temples
which have huge dimensions and made from durable materials, while their ordinary and
royal houses which made in mud and brick which nothing has been remained from them
now. In addition, their tombs and temples are located far from their city and the Nile
River. This process can be seen in all historical periods of ancient Egyptian architecture.
The paper’s goal is to ind the relationship between the architecture of ancient Egyptian
and the worldview of the people of this land. In this qualitative study, irst of all, we
gathered information on the concepts of time, death and religion in ancient Egypt with
the help of library research to understand the worldview of the people of this land. Then,
with the help of these data and studying their architectures and paintings, we analyzed the
relationship between the architecture of ancient Egyptian and the worldview of the people
of this land. Our indings showed that paintings of ancient Egypt and its architectures
relected the worldview of the people of this land, which contains their materialistic vision
of this world and the world of after life and also Excellence and immortality of the after
life’s world than this world.
Keywords
Egypt; Tombs, Worldview, Life of after death.