Diary Entry 3 - Art

Today in school we had art with Ms. Cleobey. We discussed the history of art in Ancient Egypt. We learnt that Ancient Egyptian art is five thousand years old. Expressed in paintings and sculptures, it was highly symbolic and fascinating - this art form revolves round the past and was intended to keep history alive. I think that its amazing that Art has been used to show the past, and teach us about our history!
There are many different art forms, Ancient Egyptian art forms are characterized by human beings and the nature, and, were intended to provide company to the deceased. Artists' endeavored to preserve everything of the present time as clearly and permanently as possible. Some art forms present an extraordinarily vivid representation of the time and the life, as the ancient Egyptian life was lived thousand of years before.

Egyptian art in all forms obeyed one law: the mode of representing man, nature and the environment remained almost the same for thousands of years and the most admired artists were those who replicated most admired styles of the past =]

I love to paint pictures of the nature, often after school i go to the nile and paint the environment around me.
My Mom is an artist and she tells me all about her painting and the history of painting, she told me that Ancient Egyptian paintings survived due to the extremely dry climate. The ancient Egyptians created paintings to make the afterlife of the deceased a pleasant place. Accordingly, beautiful paintings were created. The themes included journey through the afterworld. Some examples of such paintings are paintings of Osiris and Warriors.

Some tomb paintings show activities that the deceased were involved in when they were alive and wished to carry on doing for eternity.

The Tree of Life

On the Tree Of Life, the birds represent the various stages of human life. Starting in the lower right-hand corner and proceeding counter-clockwise:

The light gray bird symbolizes infancy.

The red bird symbolizes childhood.

The green bird symbolizes youth.

The blue bird symbolizes adulthood.

The orange bird symbolizes old age

In ancient Egypt, the direction east was considered the direction of life, because the sun rose in the east. West was considered the direction of death, of entering the underworld, because the sun set in the west. They believed that during the night, the sun traveled through the underworld to make its way back to the east so it could rise in the east again on the next day. On the tree of life, note that the birds representing the first four phases of life all face to the east, but the bird representing old age faces to the west, anticipating the approach of death.

Ancient Egyptian Art

Dairy Entry 2 - Food

Dear Diary,

Today we ran little on food supplies, due to the fact that the servants did not work fast enough. I mean we only eat two meals a day, one at morning and one at dusk, its not a lot. Most Egyptians but their food from the market but we don't have time so i servants make it for us. i geuss i feel sorry for them because we get to eat off gold and silver plates, while they have to eat out off clay dishes, and besides that the food on out plate is much better. A common meal for a peasant might be boiled or roasted beef, assorted vegetables, fruit (usually figs and grapes), a slice of bread, and beer. We get much more. Although bread is a everyday food of both the lower and the upper class. I love lentils and my favorite fruit are dates and apples.

Diary Entry 1 - Clothing

I am a wealthy girl living in Ancient Egypt, my parents gave dairy for my 14th birthday yesterday and i promised them i would write in it everyday. today i am going to be writing about the clothing in Ancient Egypt.

Clothing

I didn't start wearing clothes until i turned 13. This is because all children are not obligated to wear clothes until they reach puberty. All Egyptians were simple clothing made out of linen, which was made out of flax that is grown in the fields. People who came form my social class, the rich, were finely woven linen while the workers wear a stronger material. The male peasants wear loincloths which hang form their wasts down to their knees. Many times they wore no clothing. The upper class, rich men wear kilts or skirts and the women wear simple, tight-fitting dresses. In Egypt you are considered a man or a women when you are past the age of 12, so i wear a dress made out of fine linen. Some people wear sandals made form leather or reed. The rich women, like my mom wear shawls, flower headdresses and beaded collars. She, and all other upper class women love to decorated their clothes with costume jewelry.

More about Clothing

Games and entertainment

Ancient Egypt had games of all kinds. Some of the games were for fun and entertainment and the others for fitness. Samples of these games have been found in the drawings located in the tombs at Saqqara, and many others. These pyramids were built nearly 2600b.c.e and some of the games are still played today. As well as board games, pictures have also been found in tombs from the same period of time.

Children's Toys

The oldest toys ever found in Egypt, like little toy boats carved from wood, came from a child's tomb dating to the Predynastic Period. From the same period baked clay animals and rattles have been discovered.

Lovely toys were made by the ancient Egyptians from wood, bone, ivory, ceramics and stone. Many little children played with dolls of Nubians, toy animals, spinning tops and mechanical toys like crocodiles with moving jaws and Jumping Jacks. At el Lisht a toy was found it was made up of three carved ivory dancers. The figures were set in an ivory stand and by pulling the strings they span. Ancient Egyptian children played with many toys. One of the more popular ones was balls made of hollow painted clay and filled with many seeds. They played ball games standing, jumping high in the air, or even piggyback. These games were popular, especially with girls.
Paddle dolls were made out of wood, with twine threaded with clay beads for hair. They may have been for children, or they also may have been to accompany the deceased in the afterlife.

Fitness games

Some of ancient Egypt's games were for fitness. Hockey was played with long palm tree branches. The puck was made out of stuffed papyrus in-between two pieces of leather.
Some games were played with balls that were made of a leather skin filled with chaff, dry papyrus reeds tied tightly together, string or rags. Boys preferred team sports and throwing games, while girls generally went in for games which were less fiercely competitive.

Marble games are very ancient. A white and a black stone marble and three little stones forming an arch seem to have been used in one such game which may have been played like a sort of mini-skittles.

http://www.kingtutshop.com/freeinfo/Ancient-Egyptian-Games.htm