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Performance in Ancient Egypt
The Greeks believed they invented theater, but according to a certain interpretation of ancient records, it is said that the ancient Egyptians, although without constructing special venues,had all kinds of performances which relate to theater. Their performances included religious performances, musical performances, dancing performances, funerary performances, plays and satires. However, there are no enough sources to be considered theatrical. The oldest is said to be a papyrus called the Ramesseum dramatic papyrus, dated to about 2600 BCE, and it is said to contain a description of a festival play on its stela.

Religious performances: The Ramesseum dramatic papyrus contained drawings of actors representing different gods. A text found in temple Edfu describes the religious dramatic performances, during the new kingdom, of the Horus festival. Hathor’s statue was being carried from her temple at Denderah for the festivities at Edfu. The text also explained the process of directing for a grandiose play. A lot of performers joined in that play including supernumeraries, props, and backdrops. A king or a priest used to kill a living hippopotamus on stage, when either performed the role of Horus. The play ended with a final scene of a hippopotamus cake being carved out and eaten. Other religious plays conveyed messages like morality for example Isis and the seven scorpions.

Musical performances: Music in the ancient Egyptian times was a sort of entertainment by both royalty and common people. Many texts and drawings bring to us the beautiful musical sense that the ancient Egyptians used to have. Unlike the ancient Greeks, ancient Egyptians couldn’t provide a system for notating music. Music in the ancient Egyptian times was learned by rote or passed down to generations by oral practice. Unluckily for us, the way they passed their music didn’t have to be documented, so we don’t have any documented references of music to study. The texts left to us in temples show the different instruments they used and the different roles of each musician. A drawing, for example, shows a harpist taking directions from some sort of a conductor called the chironomist. The chironomist’s job was to give hand signals of the notation.

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Manniche, Lise. Music and Musicians in Ancient Egypt. London, England: British Museum, 1991. Print.

"The Music & Dance of Ancient Egypt." The Music & Dance of Ancient Egypt. Web. May 2012. .