Identifier: historyofartinan01perruoft Title: A history of art in ancient Egypt Year: 1883 (1880s) Authors: Perrot, Georges, 1832-1914 Chipiez, Charles, 1835-1901 Armstrong, Walter, Sir, 1850-1918 Subjects: Art -- Egypt History Egypt -- Antiquities Publisher: London : Chapman and Hall Contributing Library: Robarts - University of Toronto Digitizing Sponsor: MSN

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Text Appearing Before Image: Recolte dans rancienne Egypie, annmcElements chronologiqiie^ in Recneil de Tnivaiix j-elatifs a la Fhi/olo^ie el a V Archcologicegypiiennes ct assyrieunes, t. i. p. 149). A History of Art in Ancient Egypt. The first condition of civilization is a certain measure of securityfor life. Now, thanks to the beneficent action of the king- ofrivers, that condition was created sooner in Egypt than elsewhere.In the valley of the Nile man found himself able, for the firsttime, to calculate upon the forces of nature and to turn themto his certain profit. It is easy then to understand that Egyptsaw the birth of the most ancient of those civilizations whoseplastic arts we propose to study. Another favourable condition is to be found in the isolation ofthe country. The tribes who settled there in centuries so remotethat they are beyond tradition and even calculation, could livein peace, hidden as it were in a narrow valley and protectedon all sides, partly by deserts, partly by an impassable sea. It

Text Appearing After Image: Fig. 5.—The Bastinado:; Beni-Hassan. (ChampoIUon, pi. 390.) would perhaps be well to give some idea of the natural featuresof their country before commencing our study of their art. Theterms. Lower-, Middle-, and Upper-Egypt, the Delta, andEthiopia will continually recur in these pages, as also will thenames of Tanis and Sais, Memphis and Heliopolis, Abydosand Thebes, and of many other cities ; it is important thereforethat our readers should know exactly what is meant by each ofthese time-honoured designations ; it is necessary that they shouldat least be able to find upon the map those cities which by theirrespective periods of supremacy represent the successive epochsof Egyptian history. Egypt is that country which, stretching from north to south,occupies the north-east angle of Africa, or Libya as the ancients The Valley of the Nile and its Inhabitants. 7 called it. It is joined to Asia by the isthmus of Suez. It isbounded on the east by that isthmus and the Red Sea ; on thesout

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