Harper's Song Of Antef

| |that it was from then, that is, if they know it was the past. |

They expressed a worldwide view of the Egyptians. First of all, they were symbols of the pharaoh's authority and divine status. It reflects hierarchical status. In the Egyptian society there were slaves, the commoners, the pharaohs. If you were to put them in order the top of the pyramid would the pharaohs below them the commoners, then slaves and so forth. The most important one would be on the top which is the pharaohs. Also, it was a testimony of the pharaoh's ability to marshal Egypt's resources. Their worldview was very religious too. Pyramids were used for tombs for pharaohs. The pyramids were a symbol of a gateway of the next life meaning that the people put to rest in a pyramid had somehow gained the opportunity at immortality. The things left inside the pyramid, such as vases and artwork, buried with the body were things that the Egyptians thought the pharaoh could bring with them to the afterlife. This brought another meaning to having a pyramid. It was used as a place to keep the pharaoh’s things for his second life. Also, pyramids were designed to have a temple which shows that the pharaohs were believed to be divine beings and they were to be worshiped after their

There were also tunnels leading to hundreds of rooms. This was not merely a tomb but also a place where King Djoser could live in the afterlife. The pyramid was built in the middle of a necropolis, which literally means, “city of the dead” in Greek. Surrounding the necropolis is a limestone wall to keep out everyone except a very select few. There were many other structures in the necropolis such as: Temples, courtyards, and pavilions. However, most of the buildings were filled with rubble or sand and were just for show. The building of pyramids kept all of the people in the surrounding cities busy and working. These kinds of structures were great for Egyptian economy.

Pyramid Description Before I get into explaining about Egypt's pyramids I would just like to explain how Egypt's society was structured like a pyramid,for example the top of the pyramid was made up of the Pharaohs and then the Viziers because back then they were believed to have the most importance and then in the middle section were the Nobles, Priests,Scribes,and the Soldiers although these people aren’t at the top they still were highly respected and had big impact on the Egypt we see today.At the bottom of this pyramid we have the craftsmen,farmers and the slaves.

The pyramids of Giza are perhaps even more well known than the Egyptian's hieroglyphics. These wondrous structures are thought to be based around the culture of the dead. A paragraph from Emmet John's The Pyramid Age describes these structures as such; “.. from the point of view of orthodox chronology, are the mastaba-tombs [pyramids] replaced. Similar to those used in Egypt.. they were a preferred type of funerary structure..” ( Emmet John 45). Mastaba's are flat roofed structures with sloping sides and are used as tombs within Ancient Egyptian. They were also the final resting place for most Egyptian people, and pyramids were used mainly for the wealthy or those that had some significance within the Egyptian culture. Pyramids are mastabas stacked onto one another, getting smaller as they reach the top. People have thought that the main reason for pyramids was simply

Looking at the Ancient Egyptian culture, when Egypt was still young, but rapidly growing, the belief in the afterlife was common knowledge and was unchallenged for many centuries. Due to the wealth that the king and queen displayed, the average citizen was not able to compare to them. The kings were buried with a great deal of material wealth, which was intended to help them in their journey into the afterlife. The wealth was represented in a variety of carvings and materials. From the most common cup to gold chariots, the material wealth leaves no doubt that the components are important to the understanding of the Ancient Egyptian culture that is shown in the tombs of Khufu, Khafre, and Menakure. These kings built pyramids to hold all of

The first pyramid was built by Imhotep for the king Djoser in 2630 BC–2611 BC. The first pyramid was built over an underground chamber but extended a six-layered step pyramid 62 meters in height. This soon continued through pharaohs used years past. Large block stone transported from the Nile river by skilled and paid wage workers. Generally, farmers helped build these pyramids during the flood season when crops were low.

Pyramids were a huge achievement for the Egyptians. These humongous square based structures took 20-30 years to build and was the final resting place for the pharaohs. They contained treasures meant for the pharaoh to take to the afterlife. Since, there were valuable treasures inside the pyramids, many tomb raiders came to steal, so the pyramids needed booby traps and false

Deep inside the pyramids lays the Pharaoh's burial chamber which would be filled with treasure and items for the Pharaoh to use in theafterlife. The walls were often covered with carvings and paintings. Near the Pharaoh's chamber would be other rooms where familymembers and servants were buried. There were often small rooms that acted as temples and larger rooms for storage. Narrowpassageways led to outside.Sometimes fake burial chambers or passages would be used to try and trick grave robbers. Because therewas such valuable treasure buried within the pyramid, grave robbers would try to break in and steal the treasure. Despite the Egyptian'sefforts, nearly all of the pyramids were robbed of their treasures by 1000 B.C.

     Paralleling the pyramids in Egypt were the ziggurats of Mesopotamia. Mesopotamia (meaning between two rivers, the Tigress and Euphrates) began making these structures around roughly 2000 BC. They were made of bricks that they produced on the building’s work site. There were sun-dried bricks to make up the solid inside of the ziggurat, and there were kiln fired bricks that made up the structures façade. These bricks were much smaller than the stones used in Egypt and also did not have to be brought from far away. Some of the ziggurats were built on top of older ones. Like Egyptian pyramids, the ziggurat was believed to be a kind of gateway between heaven and earth, but unlike the pyramids, the ziggurats where not tombs for kings. Rather they were believed to be the earthly homes of gods. Egyptians built their massive structures outside of major populated areas. But the ziggurats were in prominent areas. Cities had their own patron god or goddess (some places even had two ziggurats, one for a god of both sexes) and priests were the only ones allowed into these temples. They had the honor of catering to the needs of the gods and were powerful figures in their respective communities. Mesopotamians also built the Tower of Babel, which was supposed to have been built as bridge from earth to heaven. It was most likely located in Neo-Babylonia (home of the Hanging Gardens) and was also one of

The Egyptian’s belief in the afterlife was heavily focused on preparing for safe travel and a comfortable lifestyle in the afterlife for the ka, which was their term for the deceased's soul. The development of the pyramids was wholly impacted by the Egyptian’s belief in the afterlife because the pyramids were tombs for the pharaohs and built not only to provide for all the needs of the pharaoh in his afterlife, including food, servants, jewelry, money, but also to provide security of his preserved body to assure a successful rebirth. Because building these large and intricate tombs took many years to complete, work on his burial pyramid would start as soon as the pharaoh took the throne. Their belief in the afterlife dictated where the pyramids and cities were built. By observation, one can see that most pyramids were built along the west bank of the Nile, while cities were built around temples and they were commonly found on the east bank of the Nile. This is due to the fact that the Egyptians believed that the setting of the sun in the west signified death and that the rising of the sun in the east signified rebirth; thus, they built the pyramids on the west bank to allow their pharaoh to begin his quest from death in the west to rebirth in the east.

There are many types of different Egyptian pyramids, but the most common and world known ones are the Great Pyramids of Giza. These are known to be the most extravagant man-made structures in history that we know of today. The Giza pyramids were built in the fourth century, which was approximately 305 B.C. in the Ptolemaic period (“Egyptian Pyramids”). Although this took place over four thousand years ago, the pyramids are still intact today and many of them are used for touring and are still under observation for future discoveries. Their studies of the heavens had the main focus of predicting Nile River

This critical commentary is developed on the book Ravensong by Lee Maracle. This critical commentary will also incorporate pieces of Adrienne Rich’s “Notes Toward a Politics of Location” and Simone de Beauvoir’s “Introduction” from the coursepack. The similarity among the pieces is the creation of an ‘other’. A group that is different than one’s own and, therefore, is looked upon as lesser. In the critical commentary, I will compare the readings and analyze each. If I have a thought that is not pertaining to paper, I will add it as a footnote. In Ravensong, the Coastal Salish are the norm. “[They are] the subject; [They are] the absolute. [Mallardvillians are] the other” (de Beauvoir, 1952[2011], p. 6).

The limestone’s that were used to build the pyramids were taken from quarries along the Nile River. When the building was completed the Great Pyramid was surfaced using white casing stones that slanted and were flat at the top (Krystek, 2010). The smooth blocks were beautiful, extremely well polished and white. This came to be known as the Casing Stones (Krystek, 2010). These have since then been cut off by Arabs who use them to build mosques in Cairo. However, a few of them still remain. Before the Arabs begun to strip off the casing stones they were very beautiful to look at. The original pyramid with its white casing would operate like humongous mirrors that powerfully reflected light on the moon and be seen like a star on earth (gizapyramid.com, 2011).

The ancient Egyptian people were very religious. Their religion was very important to them; they worshiped their gods, and they glorified them. Their kings or pharaohs were also believed to be gods. The burial of their kings was a very important aspect for Egyptian life, and their belief in afterlife. This belief led to the construction of elaborate funerary architecture. These royal tomb structures were first known as mastabas,