Ancient Egypt
The people of ancient Egypt emerged as one of the first Western civilisations. Sustained by the River Nile and protected by vast deserts, the Egyptians lived in comparative security, prosperity and peace for thousands of years. When such conditions exist, the civilisation and its arts usually flourish. To this day, many of the Egyptian artistic creations display the wealth, splendour and talent of this great civilisation.
Ancient Egypt has been called a land of temples and tombs, and for centuries people have been filled with wonder at the ingenuity of the Egyptians, whose impressive works have withstood the ravages of time so well. Had it not been for the long-lasting nature of their monuments and carved inscriptions in the form of hieroglyphics, much evidence of their activities would have vanished from all historical records. In about 3000 BC, Upper and Lower Egypt were united under the first pharaoh, and generally from that time until the invasion by Alexander the Great in 332 BC, Egypt prospered as a nation of skilful craftsmen and artists.
The Egyptians were an industrious, highly civilised and deeply religious people, who obediently accepted the supreme authority of their pharaohs. The people were content to serve and work for the state in return for a secure livelihood. They considered this earthly life to be a segment in a great cycle, at the end of which everything would be returned to its original form. The richer and more important the person, the more careful and elaborate would be his or her burial, and the stronger and safer the tomb in which they would be buried.
The burial of the dead in the ground was not considered sufficiently safe for kings, queens and court officials, so sunken, sealed tombs were ingeniously constructed to protect personal treasures, food and instructions for the safe conduct of the soul after death. The design of these tombs developed into the stepped pyramid, and finally into the square pyramid that we know today.
There are about 80 ancient pyramids in Egypt. The Great Pyramid at Gizeh, which King Cheops built as his tomb 5000 years ago, holds most interest. It stands with two other pyramids on a slight rise overlooking the River Nile. At the centre of the pyramid is the King's Chamber and leading down from there is a long narrow area known as the Grand Gallery. The pyramid covers 13 acres and contains 2,300,000 blocks of limestone, each weighing an average of 1.5 tons. Its pyramidal form has a perfectly square base with sides of 756 feet and a height of 481 feet. Situated directly below the King's Chamber is the Queen's Chamber and there are two air channels leading upwards from the centre of the pyramid to the outside.
Originally the exterior was covered in highly polished limestone slabs, all of which have been stolen over the years. It is estimated that a total of 100,000 men laboured for 20 years to build this gigantic structure, and although architecturally unimportant in design, it has aroused the curiosity of millions of people because of the uncanny accuracy of its measurements and proportions. It reveals the remarkable ingenuity and the great organising ability of the ancient Egyptians.
Near these pyramids stands the Great Sphinx, the origin and purpose of which constitute one of the world's most famous puzzles. Shaped from an outcrop of stone in the form of a human-headed lion, the face is possibly a portrait of King Khafra, the son of Cheops, who was buried in the second largest pyramid. The Sphinx is one of the biggest statues ever made.
The Egyptian people showed reverence towards natural objects such as the lotus flower, the scarab beetle, the falcon, the lion, the sun and the River Nile. All these subjects and many more were used symbolically and conventionally as motifs in low-relief carving and painting. It was the custom of the Egyptians to depict the various parts of the human figure, usually in the most characteristic positions. The head was shown in profile except for the eye, which was represented from the front, the shoulders and a portion of the arms were portrayed from the front, while the hips and legs were side views. Wall decoration showed little or no attempt to indicate depth or perspective, except by placing distant objects above near things. It was essentially two-dimensional, and relative size indicated the status of the person, so the pharaoh was the largest figure in the composition.
Egyptian art is characterised by a passion for permanence, a desire to impress by size, and a determination to make each item serve its function without much regard for the whole. It is obvious that art among these people reached a very high level and the strong influence of Egyptian art can be seen in the work of nearby civilisations.
The fortunate discovery and subsequent deciphering in 1822 of the Rosetta Stone, which showed the same laws inscribed both in Egyptian hieroglyphics and the Egyptian demotic, or popular version of their language, as well as the Greek language, eventually gave the key to the meaning of Egyptian inscriptions, and therefore the significance of much Egyptian art.
Desertification
A The world's great deserts were formed by natural processes interacting over long intervals of time. During most of these times, deserts have grown and shrunk independent of human activities. Paleodeserts, large sand seas now inactive because they are stabilized by vegetation, extend well beyond the present margins of core deserts, such as the Sahara. In some regions, deserts are separated sharply from surrounding, less arid areas by mountains and other contrasting landforms that reflect basic structural differences in the regional geology. In other areas, desert fringes form a gradual transition from a dry to a more humid environment, making it more difficult to define the desert border.
B These transition zones have very fragile, delicately balanced ecosystems. Desert fringes often are a mosaic of microclimates. Small hollows support vegetation that picks up heat from the hot winds and protects the land from the prevailing winds. After rainfall the vegetated areas are distinctly cooler than the surroundings. In these marginal areas, human activity may stress the ecosystem beyond its tolerance limit, resulting in degradation of the land. By pounding the soil with their hooves, livestock compact the substrate, increase the proportion of fine material, and reduce the percolation rate of the soil, thus encouraging erosion by wind and water. Grazing and the collection of firewood reduces or eliminates plants that help to bind the soil.
C This degradation of formerly productive land – desertification – is a complex process. It involves multiple causes, and it proceeds at varying rates in different climates. Desertification may intensify a general climatic trend toward greater aridity, or it may initiate a change in local climate.
D Desertification does not occur in linear, easily mappable patterns. Deserts advance erratically, forming patches on their borders. Areas far from natural deserts can degrade quickly to barren soil, rock, or sand through poor land management. The presence of a nearby desert has no direct relationship to desertification. Unfortunately, an area undergoing desertification is brought to public attention only after the process is well underway. Often little or no data are available to indicate the previous state of the ecosystem or the rate of degradation. Scientists still question whether desertification, as a process of global change, is permanent or how and when it can be halted or reversed.
E Desertification became well known in the 1930's when part of the Great Plains in the United States turned into the "Dust Bowl" as a result of drought and poor practices in farming, although the term itself was not used until almost 1950. During the dust bowl period, millions of people were forced to abandon their farms and livelihoods. Greatly improved methods of agriculture and land and water management in the Great Plains have prevented that disaster from recurring, but desertification presently affects millions of people in almost every continent. Increased population and livestock pressure on marginal lands has accelerated desertification. In some areas, nomads moving to less arid areas disrupt the local ecosystem and increase the rate of erosion of the land. Nomads are trying to escape the desert, but because of their land-use practices, they are bringing the desert with them.
F It is a misconception that droughts cause desertification. Droughts are common in arid and semiarid lands. Well-managed lands can recover from drought when the rains return. Continued land abuse during droughts, however, increases land degradation. By 1973, the drought that began in 1968 in the Sahel of West Africa and the land-use practices there had caused the deaths of more than 100,000 people and 12 million cattle, as well as the disruption of social organizations from villages to the national level.
G At the local level, individuals and governments can help to reclaim and protect their lands. In areas of sand dunes, covering the dunes with large boulders or petroleum will interrupt the wind regime near the face of the dunes and prevent the sand from moving. Sand fences are used throughout the Middle East and the United States, in the same way snow fences are used in the north. Placement of straw grids, each up to a square meter in area, will also decrease the surface wind velocity. Shrubs and trees planted within the grids are protected by the straw until they take root. In areas where some water is available for irrigation, shrubs planted on the lower one third of a dune's windward side will stabilize the dune. This vegetation decreases the wind velocity near the base of the dune and prevents much of the sand from moving.
H Oases and farmlands in windy regions can be protected by planting tree fences or grass belts. Sand that manages to pass through the grass belts can be caught in strips of trees planted as wind breaks 50 to 100 meters apart adjacent to the belts. Small plots of trees may also be scattered inside oases to stabilize the area. On a much larger scale, a "Green Wall", which will eventually stretch more than 5,700 kilometers in length, much longer than the famous Great Wall, is being planted in northeastern China to protect "sandy lands" –deserts believed to have been created by human activity.
I More efficient use of existing water resources and control of salinization are other effective tools for improving arid lands. New ways are being sought to use surface-water resources such as rain water harvesting or irrigating with seasonal runoff from adjacent highlands. Research on the reclamation of deserts also is focusing on discovering proper crop rotation to protect the fragile soil, on understanding how sand-fixing plants can be adapted to local environments, and on how grazing lands and water resources can be developed effectively without being overused.
Practical Learning in the Classroom
A teacher describes a case study involving middle school students and traditional earthen architecture
A The way we think about architecture in schools has come a long way. Once, studying architecture in the art class meant learning to appreciate great buildings art-history style, through slide presentations. In recent years, though, the American Institute of Architects has fostered the idea that the process of architectural design, not just the appreciation of architecture, is a beneficial aspect of the art curriculum (Sadler, 1989).
B The value of architectural design is that it is the concrete training ground for a broadly applicable creative process. Architectural training can help people design structures to meet needs. It can help farmers design crop rotations to meet needs. Furthermore, it provides hands-on experiences that reinforce learning in various other subjects, from math to social studies.
C In the ongoing dialogue about architecture in the middle school art curriculum, many believe students should actually build the structures they design in their courses. Although the technology and expertise required of modern architecture can prohibit students from actually realizing their designs, traditional architectural materials and methods remain quite accessible to the art classroom. Traditional architectural materials, such as earth, clay and straw, are cheap, easy to work with and readily available. Further, when students participate in the construction or preservation of a traditional earthen structure in their local community, they engage in a form of experiential learning and they are motivated to invest in the project. This is evident in a case study of an adobe* conservation project with middle school students in the town of Zuni, New Mexico, in the Southwestern United States.
D Traditional architecture reaches back to preindustrial America, when local resources and cultures produced structures in styles unique to each region. In New Mexico, examples of hand-built earthen structures still abound. The region has seen some decline in traditional architecture as industrialization has brought new building codes and materials; however, the traditional, non-industrial home, either preserved from earlier generations or newly built, remains in use. Traditional building materials and the land that supplies them are so accessible that handcrafting a house still remains feasible.
E Thus, with no technical expertise and little cost, middle school students can participate in the construction or preservation of a traditional earthen structure. During the project, a student will get to know the materials, understand the chemistry, solve problems, work with classmates, and exercise muscles. The student can apply knowledge of design principles and the creative process while participating in a cooperative effort. But most significantly, this type of project-based activity motivates students to invest intellectually and emotionally in the outcome.
F The town of Zuni, where I taught art, was surrounded by adobe construction, new and old. Behind our main high school building there was a one-room adobe structure which was once used for teaching. Now it served as a place where old furniture could be kept. I sent my class home with the oral history assignment to ask their family, friends and neighbors questions to find out about that building. From their research we compiled a sketchy history: it began as a kindergarten classroom; it later became an art classroom; now it was full of broken desks.
G The building's design kept it relatively warm in the winter, even without heating, due to its broad south face, and it stayed cool in the summer due to its spacious, ventilated attic and massive earthen walls. Because of this, my students agreed it was worth preserving and were enthusiastic about helping. Preservationist Shalie Gasper arrived in the fall to help with an assessment of the building's needs. She recommended replacing the stucco** that encased the original adobe walls with a traditional mud plaster. She showed us where to find local supplies of sand and clay soil for the plaster mix. We began work on the stucco removal in late fall. The next spring the students were ready to replaster. To teach the traditional skills, Gasper and other local specialists joined us. They gave my class three full mornings of intensive workshops on history and preservation as well as mud-plastering technique, and the building got a new coat of traditional mud plaster.
H Small design-and-build projects such as this can be seen through to the finish when working with earth in the art curriculum. A simple landscape feature such as a wall, entryway, or arch can draw students into important aspects of design that involve the structure's interaction with people, the surrounding landscape, and natural elements. The same project may provide an opportunity to focus on the chemistry of soil or the structural dynamics of construction. Design goals might guide students to involve traditional forms, consider formal aspects, or integrate math skills of measuring and estimating.
I During our traditional architecture unit, the students realized that something old and almost forgotten is valuable and worth preserving. Many others in the community and around the country share this renewal of interest in traditional earthen technologies. It is the connection to a cultural heritage that interests some; the quality of living within massive, natural walls that attracts others; or for others, the sustainability of the process and the minimal energy spent in construction. The value of adobe in general is becoming more and more known, but little has been said about its value in the art curriculum until now. This experiment in adobe conservation with middle school students convinced me that traditional architecture deserves a place in the regular curriculum.
*adobe: a mixture of mud and straw that is made into bricks and used for building
**stucco: fine plaster used for coating wall surfaces
