ANCIENT EGYPT, ASIA MINOR, AND "CRETE 
stone implements did not definitely give way to copper 
ones until the Fourth Dynasty. This was the great pyra- 
mid age. The ancient Egyptians had come to believe 
their kings, originally glorified medicine men, to be gods— 
controllers of the weather, givers of harvests, and pro- 
tectors of the people—whose welfare, therefore, they con- 
sidered of first importance, both in life and after death. 
We miss the point entirely if we think of the pyramids 
merely as monuments to the pride and power of tyrannical 
rulers. They were meant to be eternal dwelling places 
provided for the spirits of the mighty dead, who in turn 
were expected to see to it that the security and prosperity 
of Egypt were assured. They were built, at enormous cost 
of time and effort, because the united feeling of the people 
demanded them as necessary to the common good. 
The same sort of thinking led to the development of 
early Egyptian sculpture. People believed that the spirit 
of the dead needed a body of some kind to live in, just as 
it had animated a body of flesh during life. Hence they 
took particular care to make the face of the stone image an 
accurate portrait, that the spirit might recognize it. 
At first the ancient Egyptians considered that only the 
spirits of the kings really mattered much, and they built 
for them alone such mighty works as the pyramids. But 
gradually the notion spread that the souls of other people 
might enjoy an after-life if properly cared for by their 
survivors. We can see this idea springing up first among 
the nobles, the landowners, and court officials; later on it 
becomes general. 
This steady widening of spiritual horizons led to the 
abandonment of such stupendous works as the pyramids 
and the gradual development of temples instead. But 
here, too, the genius of the Egyptians for the vast and the 
colossal asserted itself. In the ruins of Karnak and Luxor 
—the ancient Thebes—we have the greatest development 
of colonnaded architecture that the world has ever seen 
(Plate 78). 
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