MetPublications

As a result of The Metropolitan Museum of Art's renewed excavations in Lisht, the Egyptian Department published The Pyramid of Senwosret I by Dieter Arnold in 1988, followed in 1990 by The Control Notes and Team Marks by Felix Arnold. The first volume examined the main pyramid and its related mortuary installations, while this third volume, The Pyramid Complex of Senwosret I by Dieter Arnold, discusses the monuments and objects found within the outer enclosure wall of the royal pyramid, mainly the nine subsidiary pyramids and other tombs belonging to members of the royal family and their households. Although the pyramids and their surrounding installations are much destroyed and the burials pillaged, it has been possible to reconstruct, to some degree, the architecture from these ruins. Such a reconstruction is particularly important, as no other pyramid enclosures of the Middle Kingdom, and very few of the Old Kingdom, have ever been so thoroughly excavated and published. The results of this enterprise provide an important contribution to our understanding of the structure and development of the royal funerary complexes of the Middle Kingdom. As with the other volumes on the Museum's excavations, this publications provides complete information and archaeological context for a number of important objects from Lisht that were given to the Museum as a result of the division of finds, and are now displayed in the Egyptian Galleries of the Metropolitan Museum. Also significant is the discovery of timbers from one or more ancient ships, described in the appendix. When these vessels were no longer thought to be seaworthy, they were disassembled and their timbers embedded in roads used during the construction of the pyramid complex. Future publications on Lisht South will discuss the reliefs associated with the funerary complex of Senwosret I, private tombs that surrounded the pyramid complex, and texts associated with these tombs.

The exploration of the Middle Kingdom cemeteries at El-Lisht, twenty miles south of Cairo, began in 1882, with the opening of the entrances to the pyramids of Amenenmhat I and Senwosret I. From 1906 to 1934 and again from 1984 to 1991 the Egyptian Expedition of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, worked intensively at the Lisht site. In the present volume Dieter Arnold describes and documents the architecture and wall decoration of tombs built for courtiers and officials around the two royal pyramids at Lisht. Ancient tomb robbers and quarrymen had almost totally denuded the Middle Kingdom buildings, but excavation and careful study of remaining foundations, architectural elements, and fragments of relief decoration have enabled the author and his team to reconstruct to a fair degree the form and appearance of these masterpieces of ancient Egyptian architecture. The textual portion ends with an appendix written by James P. Allen, professor of Egyptology at Brown University, that reviews an important biographical inscription from one of the tombs. This amply illustrated volume, which also publishes for the first time one of the most highly artistic painted sarcophagi of the Middle Kingdom, is the twenty-eighth in the series documenting the Museum's fieldwork in Egypt. It provides the architectural background for innumerable sculptures and small objects excavated in the tombs at El-Lisht that are now part of the collections of the Egyptian Museum, Cairo, and of The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

The Middle Kingdom (ca. 2030–1650 B.C.) was a transformational period in ancient Egypt, during which older artistic conventions, cultural principles, religious beliefs, and political systems were revived and reimagined. Ancient Egypt Transformed presents a comprehensive picture of the art of the Middle Kingdom, arguably the least known of Egypt’s three kingdoms and yet one that saw the creation of powerful, compelling works rendered with great subtlety and sensitivity. The book brings together nearly 300 diverse works— including sculpture, relief decoration, stelae, jewelry, coffins, funerary objects, and personal possessions from the world’s leading collections of Egyptian art. Essays on architecture, statuary, tomb and temple relief decoration, and stele explore how Middle Kingdom artists adapted forms and iconography of the Old Kingdom, using existing conventions to create strikingly original works. Twelve lavishly illustrated chapters, each with a scholarly essay and entries on related objects, begin with discussions of the distinctive art that arose in the south during the early Middle Kingdom, the artistic developments that followed the return to Egypt’s traditional capital in the north, and the renewed construction of pyramid complexes. Thematic chapters devoted to the pharaoh, royal women, the court, and the vital role of family explore art created for different strata of Egyptian society, while others provide insight into Egypt’s expanding relations with foreign lands and the themes of Middle Kingdom literature. The era’s religious beliefs and practices, such as the pilgrimage to Abydos, are revealed through magnificent objects created for tombs, chapels, and temples. Finally, the book discusses Middle Kingdom archaeological sites, including excavations undertaken by the Metropolitan Museum over a number of decades. Written by an international team of respected Egyptologists and Middle Kingdom specialists, the text provides recent scholarship and fresh insights, making the book an authoritative resource.