Gift of the Nile: Gardens and Culture

Why were gardens important in Ancient Egypt?

Statuette of the Gardener Merer, Buhen, tomb K8, Dynasty 12-13 (1840-1640 b.c.), Diorite, h. 28 cm., Coxe Expedition, 1909-10

Theme: Daily Life

Goal: To understand and illustrate how gardens in Ancient Egypt were

consistent with the concept of ma’at (harmony, balance, order)

Grade Levels: 6-8

Curriculum Areas: Art, Communication, and Social Studies (History and Geography)

Materials:

Statuette of the gardener Merer

Wall map of Egypt showing the Nile River (see p. ii)

Reading on "Ma’at" and "Gardens" from The Dictionary of Ancient Egypt

Art Materials:

Graph paper, overlay paper, colored pencils, pencil, tagboard for mounting overlay

paper

The Gardener Merer

Poised, one foot forward to move calmly into eternity is the Gardener Merer. His capable hands and attentive ears celebrate his role as a faithful servant. His face is a mask of composure. Merer’s implacable expression and perfectly symmetrical body are physical embodiments of the ancient Egyptian principle by which he lived his life, ma’at—order, balance, harmony.

Inscriptions at the base of this statue state that the Gardener Merer attained high status in his life as the able overseer of the gardens of the Lady Nefru, a Middle Kingdom noblewoman.

The gardens of the ancient Egyptians were cool, shady havens of order. Symmetrical, precisely planned, filled with fragrant flowering bushes and trees, gardens celebrated the harmonious lives of the Egyptians. At the heart of each garden was a pool of  still water. As the Nile continually refreshed and sustained the kingdom, so did the garden nourish the family and the home.

Objective 1

The student will be able to generate ideas about the significance of the Nile River to daily life in ancient Egypt.

Procedure

What Teacher Does

What Students Do
Ask questions on the geography of Egypt using a map of Egypt. Focus on the Nile River, pointing out that it looks like a lotus blossom with the Nile feeding the blossom from the south as it blooms into the delta at the north. Ask questions that generate responses that Egypt is a land where the Nile River has created a fertile strip across the desert. Ask questions that lead students to understanding the significance of a river in a desert. Students will analyze the geography of Egypt and reflect on the importance of the Nile River to the ancient Egyptians.

 

Assessment Strategies:

Objective   2

Students will be able to look at the statuette of the gardener Merer and respond to the work of art based on their observations.

Procedure

What Teacher Does

What Students Do
Show an image of the gardener Merer.

Then initiate discussion by asking the following questions:

What physical features do you notice about this figure?

Is it a male or female? Why do you think so?

(continued next page)

 Students analyze the figure of the gardener Merer.

What Teacher Does

What Students Do
(continued from last page)

How would you describe the size and shape of the body?

What do you notice about the general demeanor of the person?

What expression does he have?

Are the hands prominent or recessed?

What do you notice about the placement of the feet?

What is this person wearing? Is he ornately dressed?

Do you think this person was important? Why do you think so, or not?

Can you see any clues to the identity of this person?

Describe the surface of the statuette. How would it feel to touch?

What do you notice about the proportions of the statuette?

Now that we’ve looked at the figure’s attributes, his big ears and hands, his symmetry, the seriousness or peacefulness of his expression, what would you guess Merer did for a living? Why do you think so?

If you knew he was a gardener, why would you think a statuette would be made of him?

Why might a gardener by important in ancient Egypt?

  

Assessment Strategies

Objective   3

The teacher will explain the principle of ma’at (see attached reading), and students will apply their observations of the figure to their understanding of the concept.

Procedure

What Teacher Does

What Students Do
Read aloud or summarize the reading on the principle of ma’at.) In small groups, students will discuss and generate a list of the attributes of the sculpture that express the concept of ma’at.
Write student lists on overhead or board. Students groups share their lists with the full class.

Assessment Strategies

Objective   4

Students will design an ancient Egyptian garden using appropriate vegetation and illustrating the concept of ma’at—a garden reflecting harmony, balance, and order.

Procedure

What Teacher Does

What Students Do
In ancient Egypt, the concept of ma’at was made manifest in the secure, cyclical nature of the environment. Unlike neighbors in Asia and the rest of Africa, Egypt did not depend on rain. The Nile rose with remarkable certainty, inundating the land and allowing for cultivation and abundant gardens. Hand out reading (see Supplemental Materials) on Egyptian gardens. Ask students to summarize the elements of an ancient Egyptian garden. Students will read one-page handout on Egyptian gardens and summarize the elements of a traditional Egyptian garden.
Ask students to write their lists of elements on the board. Students share their lists with the class by writing the elements on the board.
Ask students to select elements from the lists that illustrate the Egyptian principle of ma’at. Students circle elements of traditional Egyptian gardens that illustrate the principle of ma’at.

 

What Teacher Does

What Students Do
Distribute graph paper and plain paper (to be placed on top of graph paper) and have each student design a contemporary garden that incorporates the elements of an ancient Egyptian garden: water, water plants, ornamental fruit and shade trees, flowers among trees. In addition, each student’s garden must illustrate the principles of ma’at in its layout and design. Students will design a contemporary garden (with plants and trees they know) that incorporates the elements of ancient Egyptian gardens and illustrates the principles of ma’at.

Assessment Strategies

Extension Activities

Research Project

Gift of the Nile: Gardening.

Using traditional research methods (note taking, writing and revising drafts, citing sources) students will produce reports on the role of gardens in ancient Egyptian daily life. Student learning will be assessed through student/teacher conferences, participation in group discussions on the theme, the improvement of successive drafts, use of standard research formats, and (optional) oral presentation (using Power Point, if available).

Supplemental Materials

Gardens

From Ian and Paul Nicholson, The Dictionary of Ancient Egypt

  • In an essentially arid land such as Egypt, the cultivated strip of the Nile valley represents an area of fertile green fields and watery irrigation channels. This same lush vegetation, often accompanied by a pool, was a highly desirable asset for houses and temples too. Secular gardens were mainly cultivated from vegetables and were set close to the river or canal, but by the New Kingdom (1550-1069 b.c.) they had developed into more luxurious areas, often of a semiformal place and sometimes surrounded by high walls.

    Attached to temples there were often garden plots for the cultivation of specific kinds of vegetables; the growing of "cos lettuces" (sacred to Min) is

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    frequently portrayed in reliefs and paintings. Similar small plots, made up of squares of earth divided by walls of mud, are known from the "workmen’s village" at El-Amarna, where vegetables may have been grown for use in the rituals performed at the chapels there. Ornamental trees were sometimes planted in pits in front of temples, such as that of Hatshepsut (1473-1458 b.c.) at Deir el-Bahri, where pits for two trees were found, unlike the whole grove of sycamore and tamarisk which stood in front of the 11th Dynasty temple of Nebhepetra Mentuhotep II (2055-2004 b.c.)

    The houses of the wealthy often had large and elaborate gardens centered on a pool, which in the New Kingdom was sometimes T-shaped. Pools of this shape are known also from Hatshepsut’s temple at Deir el-Bahri, and the shape may therefore have had religious connotations. Such pools were stocked with ornamental fish and served as havens for waterfowl. Flowers, such as white and blue lotuses (a kind of water lily), grew in some of these pools, and papyrus is attested in the pools at Deir el-Bahri.

    The provision of shade was an important element of the Egyptian garden, and from the paintings in the Theban tomb chapel of Kenamun (TT93) it is known that wooden columns were sometimes used to support a pergola arrangement of vines. As well as providing shade arbours, trees were used as a source of fruit, such as dates, figs, and dompalm nuts. Grapes might be used for the production of raisins or even homemade wine. The sacred persea tree was grown in both religious and secular gardens. Nineteen species of tree were represented in the garden of Ineni, architect to Thutmose I (1504-1402 b.c.), and among the most popular species were the pink-flowered tamarisk, the acacia, and the willow.

    Cornflowers, mandrakes, poppies, daisies, and other small flowers were grown among the trees and, like the lotus flowers and some of the tree foliage, could be used in the making of garlands for banquets or other occasions. The pomegranate, introduced in the New Kingdom, became a popular shrub, and its flowers added to the color of the garden. The overall effect would be one of cool shade, heavy with the fragrance of the flowers and trees; gardens are therefore one of the most frequent settings of Egyptian romantic tales.

    Unfortunately, given the aridity of the Egyptian climate, gardens required constant attention, not the least irrigation, and representations such as that from the tomb of Ipuy (TT217) show a Shaduf in use. The gardeners employed by temples and wealthy households had several responsibilities, including the watering and weeding of plants, as well as the artificial propagation of date palms, a process that evidently required considerable skill.

    (Source: G. Good and P. Lacovara, The garden, Egypt’s golden age, ed. E. Brovarski, S. K. Doll and R. E. Freed (Boston 1982), 37-9; J. C. Hugonot, Le jardin dans l’Egypte ancienne (Frankfurt, 1989); Wilkinson, Gardens in ancient Egypt: their location and symbolism (London, 1990))

    From Ian and Paul Nicholson, The Dictionary of Ancient Egypt

    Ma’at

  • The goddess Ma’at personified truth, justice, and the essential harmony of the universe. She was usually portrayed as a seated woman wearing an ostrich feather, although she could sometimes be represented simply by the feather itself or by the plinth on which she sat (probably a symbol of the primeval mound), which is also sometimes shown beneath the throne of Osiris in judgement scenes. On a cosmic scale, Ma’at also represented the divine order of the universe as originally brought into being at the moment of creation. It was the power of Ma’at that was believed to regulate the seasons, the movement of the stars, and the relations between men and gods. The concept was therefore central both to the Egyptians’ ideas about the universe and to their code of ethics.

    Although the figure of Ma’at is widely represented in the temples of other deities, only a few temples dedicated to the goddess herself have survived, including a small structure in the precinct of Montu at Karnak. Her cult is attested from the Old Kingdom (2686-2181 b.c.) onwards and by the 18th Dynasty (1550-1295 b.c.) she was being described as the "daughter of Ra," which was no doubt an expression of the fact that the pharaohs were considered to rule through her authority. The image of Ma’at was the supreme offering given by the king to the gods, and many rulers held the epithet ‘beloved of Ma’at.’ Even Akhenaten (1352-1336 b.c.), whose devotion to the cult of the Aten was later reviled as the antithesis of Ma’at, is described in the Theban tomb of the vizier Ramose (TT55) as ‘living by Ma’at.’

    Since the goddess effectively embodied the concept of justice, it is not surprising to find that the vizier, who controlled the law courts of Egypt, held the title ‘priest of Ma’at,’ and it has been suggested that a gold chain incorporating a figure of the goddess may have served as the badge of office of a legal official. Ma’at was also present at the judgement of the dead, when the heart of the deceased was weighed against her feather or an image of the goddess, and sometimes her image surmounts the balance itself. The place in which the judgement took place was known as the "hall of the two truths" (ma’aty).

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    (Source: R. Anthes, Die Maat des Echnaton von Amarna (Baltimore, 1952)

    V. A. Tobin, Ma’at and Šikn: some comparative considerations of Egyptian and Greek thought, JARCE, 24 (1987), 113-21

    J. Assmann, Ma’at: Gerechtigkeit und Unsterblichkeit im alten Ägypten (Munich, 199)

    E. Teeter, The presentation of Maat: the iconography and theology of an ancient Egyptian offering ritual (Chicago, 1990)

    E. Hornung, Idea into image, trans. E. Bredeck (New York, 1992), 131-46)

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