1.
Pharaoh
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The word pharaoh ultimately derive from the Egyptian compound pr-ˤ3 great house, written with the two biliteral hieroglyphs pr house and ˤ3 column, here meaning great or high. It was used only in larger phrases such as smr pr-ˤ3 Courtier of the High House, with specific reference to the buildings of the court or palace. From the twelfth dynasty onward, the word appears in a wish formula Great House, may it live, prosper, and be in health, but again only with reference to the royal palace and not the person. During the reign of Thutmose III in the New Kingdom, after the rule of the Hyksos during the Second Intermediate Period. During the eighteenth dynasty the title pharaoh was employed as a designation of the ruler. From the nineteenth dynasty onward pr-ˤ3 on its own was used as regularly as hm. f, the term, therefore, evolved from a word specifically referring to a building to a respectful designation for the ruler, particularly by the twenty-second dynasty and twenty-third dynasty. For instance, the first dated appearance of the pharaoh being attached to a rulers name occurs in Year 17 of Siamun on a fragment from the Karnak Priestly Annals. Here, an induction of an individual to the Amun priesthood is dated specifically to the reign of Pharaoh Siamun and this new practice was continued under his successor Psusennes II and the twenty-second dynasty kings. Shoshenq I was the successor of Siamun. Meanwhile, the old custom of referring to the sovereign simply as pr-ˤ3 continued in traditional Egyptian narratives, by this time, the Late Egyptian word is reconstructed to have been pronounced *par-ʕoʔ whence Herodotus derived the name of one of the Egyptian kings, Φερων. In the Bible, the title also occurs as פרעה, from that, Septuagint φαραώ pharaō and then Late Latin pharaō, both -n stem nouns. The Quran likewise spells it فرعون firawn with n, interestingly, the Arabic combines the original pharyngeal ayin sound from Egyptian, along with the -n ending from Greek. English at first spelt it Pharao, but the King James Bible revived Pharaoh with h from the Hebrew, meanwhile in Egypt itself, *par-ʕoʔ evolved into Sahidic Coptic ⲡⲣ̅ⲣⲟ prro and then rro. Scepters and staves were a sign of authority in ancient Egypt. One of the earliest royal scepters was discovered in the tomb of Khasekhemwy in Abydos, kings were also known to carry a staff, and Pharaoh Anedjib is shown on stone vessels carrying a so-called mks-staff. The scepter with the longest history seems to be the heqa-scepter, the earliest examples of this piece of regalia dates to pre-dynastic times. A scepter was found in a tomb at Abydos that dates to the late Naqada period, another scepter associated with the king is the was-scepter. This is a long staff mounted with an animal head, the earliest known depictions of the was-scepter date to the first dynasty
2.
Egyptian chronology
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The majority of Egyptologists agree on the outline and many details of the chronology of Ancient Egypt. Scholarly consensus on the outline of the conventional chronology current in Egyptology has not fluctuated much over the last 100 years. For the Old Kingdom, consensus fluctuates by as much as a few centuries and this is illustrated by comparing the chronology as given by two Egyptologists, the first writing in 1906, the second in 2000. The disparities between the two sets of result from additional discoveries and refined understanding of the still very incomplete source evidence. For example, Breasted adds a ruler in the Twentieth dynasty that further research showed did not exist, following Manetho, Breasted also believed all the dynasties were sequential, whereas it is now known that several existed at the same time. These revisions have resulted in a lowering of the chronology by up to 400 years at the beginning of Dynasty I. The backbone of Egyptian chronology are the years as recorded in Ancient Egyptian king lists. In addition, some Egyptian dynasties may have overlapped, with different pharaohs ruling in different regions at the same time, not knowing whether monarchies were simultaneous or sequential results in widely differing chronological interpretations. However, further research has shown that these censuses were taken in consecutive years. The sed festival was celebrated on the thirtieth anniversary of the Pharaohs ascension. However, once again, this may not be the practice in all cases. In the early days of Egyptology, the compilation of regnal periods may also have been hampered due to bias on the part of the Egyptologists. This was most pervasive before the mid 19th century, when Manethos figures were recognized as conflicting with biblical chronology based on Old Testament references to Egypt, in the 20th century, such biblical bias has mostly been confined to alternative chronologies outside of scholarly mainstream. A useful way to work around these gaps in knowledge is to find chronological synchronisms, over the past decades, a number of these have been found, although they are of varying degrees of usefulness and reliability. While this does not fix a person or event to a specific year, another example are blocks from the Old Kingdom bearing the names of several kings, which were reused in the construction of Middle Kingdom pyramid-temples at Lisht in the structures of Amenemhat I. The poor documentation of these finds in the Serapeum also compounds the difficulties in using these records. The best known of these is the Sothic cycle, and careful study of this led Richard A. Parker to argue that the dates of the Twelfth dynasty could be fixed with absolute precision. More recent research has eroded this confidence, questioning many of the assumptions used with the Sothic Cycle and this is useful especially for the Early Dynastic period, where Egyptological consensus has only been possible within a range of about three or four centuries
3.
Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt
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The eighteenth dynasty of ancient Egypt is the best known ancient Egyptian dynasty. It boasts several of Egypts most famous pharaohs, including Tutankhamun, the dynasty is also known as the Thutmosid Dynasty for the four pharaohs named Thutmosis. Famous pharaohs of Dynasty XVIII include Hatshepsut, longest-reigning woman-pharaoh of a dynasty, and Akhenaten. Dynasty XVIII is the first of the three dynasties of the Egyptian New Kingdom, the period in which ancient Egypt reached the peak of its power, radiocarbon dating suggests that Dynasty XVIII may have started a few years earlier than the conventional date of 1550 BC. The radiocarbon date range for its beginning is 1570–1544 BC, the point of which is 1557 BC. The pharaohs of Dynasty XVIII ruled for two hundred and fifty years. The dates and names in the table are taken from Dodson and Hilton, many of the pharaohs were buried in the Valley of the Kings in Thebes. More information can be found on the Theban Mapping Project website, several diplomatic marriages are known for the New Kingdom. These daughters of kings are often only mentioned in cuneiform texts and are not known from other sources. The marriages were likely a way to confirm good relations between these states, Dynasty XVIII was founded by Ahmose I, the brother or son of Kamose, the last ruler of the Dynasty XVII. Ahmose finished the campaign to expel the Hyksos rulers and his reign is seen as the end of the Second Intermediate Period and the start of the New Kingdom. Ahmose was succeeded by his son, Amenhotep I, whose reign was relatively uneventful, Amenhotep I probably left no male heir and the next pharaoh, Thutmose I, seems to have been related to the royal family through marriage. During his reign the borders of Egypts empire reached their greatest expanse, extending in the north to Carchemish on the Euphrates, Thutmose I was succeeded by Thutmose II and his queen, Hatshepsut. Thutmose III who later became known as the greatest military pharaoh ever and he had a second co-regency in his old age with his son Amenhotep II. Amenhotep II was succeeded by Thutmose IV, who in his turn was followed by his son Amenhotep III, the reign of Amenhotep III is seen as a high point in this dynasty. Amenhotep III undertook large scale building programmes, the extent of which can only be compared with those of the much longer reign of Ramesses II during Dynasty XIX. Amenhotep III may have shared the throne for up to twelve years with his son Amenhotep IV, there is much debate about this proposed co-regency. Some experts believe there was a lengthy co-regency, while others prefer to see a short one, there are also many experts who believe no such co-regency existed at all
4.
Thutmose IV
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Thutmose IV was the 8th Pharaoh of the 18th dynasty of Egypt, who ruled in approximately the 14th century BC. His prenomen or royal name, Menkheperure, means Established in forms is Re, Thutmose IV was born to Amenhotep II and Tiaa but was not actually the crown prince and Amenhotep IIs chosen successor to the throne. Some scholars speculate that Thutmose ousted his brother in order to usurp power. Thutmoses most celebrated accomplishment was the restoration of the Sphinx at Giza and subsequent commission of the Dream Stele. According to Thutmoses account on the Dream Stele, while the prince was out on a hunting trip, he stopped to rest under the head of the Sphinx. He soon fell asleep and had a dream in which the Sphinx told him if he cleared away the sand. Little is known about his brief ten-year rule and he suppressed a minor uprising in Nubia in his 8th year around 1393 BC and was referred to in a stela as the Conqueror of Syria, but little else has been pieced together about his military exploits. Thutmose IVs rule is significant because he established relations with Mitanni. Thutmoses grandfather Thutmose III almost certainly acceded the throne in either 1504 or 1479 and his successor Amenhotep II, Thutmose IVs father, took the throne and ruled for at least 26 years but has been assigned up to 35 years in some chronological reconstructions. The currently preferred reconstruction, after analyzing all this evidence, usually comes to a date around 1401 BC or 1400 BC for the beginning of Thutmose IVs reign. The length of his reign is not as clear as one would wish and he is usually given about nine or ten years of reign. Manetho credits him a reign of 9 years and 8 months, however, Manethos other figures for the 18th dynasty are frequently assigned to the wrong kings or simply incorrect, so monumental evidence is also used to determine his reign length. Of all of Thutmose IVs dated monuments, three date to his first regnal year, one to his fourth, possibly one to his fifth, one to his sixth, two to his seventh, and one to his eighth. Two possible other dated objects, one dated to a Year 19 and another year 20, have suggested as belonging to him. The reading of the king in these dates are accepted as referring to the prenomen of Thutmose III—Menkheperre—and not Menkhepere Thutmose IV himself. Due to the absence of higher dates for Thutmose IV after his Year 8 Konosso stela, there were once chronological reconstructions which gave him a reign as long as 34–35 years. Today, however, most scholars ascribe him a 10-year reign from 1401 to 1391 BC, like most of the Thutmoside kings, he built on a grand scale. Thutmose IV completed the eastern obelisk first started by Thutmose III, Thutmose IV called it the tekhen waty or unique obelisk
5.
Akhenaten
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Akhenaten known before the fifth year of his reign as Amenhotep IV, was an Ancient Egyptian pharaoh of the 18th Dynasty who ruled for 17 years and died perhaps in 1336 BC or 1334 BC. An early inscription likens the Aten to the sun as compared to stars, Akhenaten tried to bring about a departure from traditional religion, yet in the end it would not be accepted. After his death, his monuments were dismantled and hidden, his statues were terminated and he was all but lost from history until the discovery during the 19th century of the site of Akhetaten, the city he built and designed for the worship of Aten, at Amarna. DNA analysis has determined that the man buried in KV55 is the father of King Tutankhamun, the future Akhenaten was a younger son of Amenhotep III and Chief Queen Tiye. The eldest son Crown Prince Thutmose was recognized as the heir of Amenhotep III but he died relatively young, there is much controversy around whether Amenhotep IV succeeded to the throne on the death of his father Amenhotep III or whether there was a coregency. Other literature by Donald Redford, William Murnane, Alan Gardiner, in February 2014, the Egyptian Ministry for Antiquities announced what it called conclusive evidence that Akhenaten shared power with his father for at least 8 years. The evidence came from the found in the Luxor tomb of Vizier Amenhotep-Huy. A team of Spanish archeologists have been working at this tomb, Amenhotep IV was crowned in Thebes and there he started a building program. He decorated the entrance to the precincts of the temple of Amun-Re with scenes of his worshiping Re-Harakhti. He soon decreed the construction of a dedicated to the Aten in Eastern Karnak. This Temple of Amenhotep IV was called the Gempaaten, the Gempaaten consisted of a series of buildings, including a palace and a structure called the Hwt Benben which was dedicated to Queen Nefertiti. Other Aten temples constructed at Karnak during this time include the Rud-menu, during this time he did not repress the worship of Amun, and the High Priest of Amun was still active in the fourth year of his reign. The king appears as Amenhotep IV in the tombs of some of the nobles in Thebes, Kheruef, Ramose, in the tomb of Ramose, Amenhotep IV appears on the west wall in the traditional style, seated on a throne with Ramose appearing before the king. On the other side of the doorway, Amenhotep IV and Nefertiti are shown in the window of appearance with the Aten depicted as the sun disc. In the Theban tomb of Parennefer, Amenhotep IV and Nefertiti are seated on a throne with the sun disk depicted over the king, among the latter-known documents referring to Amenhotep IV are two copies of a letter from the Steward Of Memphis Apy to the pharaoh. The documents were found in Gurob and are dated to regnal year 5, third month of the Growing Season, on day 13, Month 8, in the fifth year of his reign, the king arrived at the site of the new city Akhetaten. A month before that Amenhotep IV had officially changed his name to Akhenaten, Amenhotep IV changed most of his 5 fold titulary in year 5 of his reign. The only name he kept was his prenomen or throne name of Neferkheperure, some recent debate has focused on the extent to which Akhenaten forced his religious reforms on his people
6.
Ancient Egyptian royal titulary
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The royal titulary or royal protocol of an Egyptian pharaoh is the standard naming convention taken by the kings of Ancient Egypt. It symbolises worldly power and holy might and also acts as a sort of mission statement for the reign of a monarch. The full titulary, consisting of five names, did not come into standard usage until the Middle Kingdom, the Horus name is the oldest form of the pharaohs name, originating in the Predynastic Period. Many of the oldest-known Egyptian pharaohs were known only by this title, the Horus name was usually written in a serekh, a representation of a palace façade. The name of the pharaoh was written in hieroglyphs inside this representation of a palace, typically an image of the falcon God Horus was perched on top of or beside it. At least one Egyptian ruler, the 2nd dynasty Seth-Peribsen, used an image of the god Seth instead of Horus and he was succeeded by Khasekhemwy, who placed the symbols of both Seth and Horus above his name. Thereafter, the image of Horus always appeared alongside the name of the pharaoh, by the time of the New Kingdom the Horus name was often written without the enclosing serekh. The name is first definitively used by the First Dynasty pharaoh Semerkhet and this particular name was not typically framed by a cartouche or serekh, but always begins with the hieroglyphs of a vulture and cobra resting upon two baskets, the dual noun nebty. Also known as the Golden Horus Name, this form of the name typically featured the image of a Horus falcon perched above or beside the hieroglyph for gold. The meaning of this title has been disputed. One belief is that it represents the triumph of Horus over his uncle Seth, Gold also was strongly associated in the ancient Egyptian mind with eternity, so this may have been intended to convey the pharaohs eternal Horus name. Similar to the Nebty name, this particular name typically was not framed by a cartouche or serekh, the pharaohs throne name, the first of the two names written inside a cartouche, and usually accompanied the title nsw-bity. The term nsw-bity It has been suggested that the Berber term for strong man, the epithet neb tawy, Lord of the Two Lands, referring to valley and delta regions of Egypt, often occurs as well. This was the name given at birth and it was first introduced to the set of royal titles in the Fourth Dynasty and emphasizes the kings role as a representative of the solar god Ra. For women who became pharaoh, the title was interpreted as daughter also. Modern historians typically refer to the ancient kings of Egypt by this name, Middle Egyptian, An Introduction to the Language and Culture of Hieroglyphs. The Complete Royal Families of Ancient Egypt, Cairo, London, and New York, The American University in Cairo Press and Thames and Hudson. The Great Name, Ancient Egyptian Royal Titulary, Egyptian Grammar, Being an Introduction to the Study of Hieroglyphs
7.
Tiye
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Tiye was the daughter of Yuya and Tjuyu. She became the Great Royal Wife of the Egyptian pharaoh Amenhotep III and she was the mother of Akhenaten and grandmother of Tutankhamun. Her mummy was identified as The Elder Lady found in the tomb of Amenhotep II in 2010. Tiyes father, Yuya, was a non-royal, wealthy landowner from the Upper Egyptian town of Akhmin, Tiyes mother, Thuya, was involved in many religious cults, as her different titles attested, which suggests that she was a member of the royal family. Some suggest that the strong political and unconventional religious views might have been due not just to a strong character. Tiye also had a brother, Anen, who was Second Prophet of Amun, other Egyptologists speculated that Ay, a successor of Tutankhamun as pharaoh after the latters death, also might have been descended from Tiye. Tiye was married to Amenhotep III by the year of his reign. He had been born of a wife of his father. He appears to have been crowned while still a child, perhaps between the ages of six to twelve. They had at least seven, possibly children, 1) Sitamun- The eldest daughter. 2) Isis- Also elevated to the position of Great Royal Wife, 3) Henuttaneb- Not known to have been elevated to Queenship, though her name does appear in a Cartouche at least once. 4) Nebetah- Sometimes thought to have been renamed Baketaten during her brothers reign, 5) Crown Prince Thutmose- Crown Prince and High Priest of Ptah, pre-deceasing his father. 6) Amenhotep IV/Akhenaten- Succeeded his father as pharaoh, husband of Queen Nefertiti, father of Ankhesenamun, Sometimes identified with the mummy from KV55, and therefore Tutankhamuns father. 8) The Younger Lady from KV35- A daughter of Amenhotep III and Tiye, mother of Tutankhamun, presumably one of the already-known daughters of Amenhotep III and Tiye. 9) Baketaten- Sometimes thought to be Queen Tiyes daughter, usually based on a stelae with Baketaten seated next to Tiye at dinner with Akhenaten and Nefertiti. Her husband devoted a number of shrines to her and constructed a dedicated to her in Sedeinga in Nubia where she was worshipped as a form of the goddess Hathor-Tefnut. He also had a lake built for her in his Year 12. As the American Egyptologists David OConnor and Eric Cline note, Tiye wielded a great deal of power during both her husband’s and son’s reigns, Amenhotep III became a fine sportsman, a lover of outdoor life, and a great statesman
8.
Tadukhipa
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Tadukhipa, in the Hurrian language Tadu-Hepa, was the daughter of Tushratta, king of Mitanni and his queen Juni, and niece of Artashumara. Tadukhipas aunt Gilukhipa had married Pharaoh Amenhotep III in his 10th regnal year, Tadukhipa was to marry Amenhotep III more than two decades later. Relatively little is known about this princess of Mitanni and she is believed to have been born around Year 21 of the reign of Egyptian Pharaoh Amenhotep III. Fifteen years later, Tushratta married his daughter to his ally Amenhotep III to cement their two states alliances in Year 36 of Amenhotep IIIs reign, Tadukhipa is referenced in seven of Tushrattas thirteen Amarna letters, of about 1350-1340 BC. Tushratta requested that his daughter would become a queen consort, even though that position was held by Queen Tiye, in return, Amenhotep III never sent the golden statues he offered and, after his death, Tushratta sent some missives complaining about the lack of reciprocity. Amenhotep III died shortly after Tadukhipa arrived in Egypt and she married his son. Some scholars tentatively identify Tadukhipa with Kiya, a queen of Akhenaten and it has been suggested that the story of Kiya may be the source for the New Kingdom story called the Tale of Two Brothers. This fable tells the story of how the pharaoh fell in love with a foreign woman after smelling her hair. If Tadukhipa was later known as Kiya, then she would have lived at Amarna where she had her own sunshade and was depicted with the pharaoh and at least one daughter. Others such as Petrie, Drioton and Vandier have suggested that Tadukhipa was given a new name after becoming the consort of Akhenaten and is to be identified the famous queen Nefertiti and this theory suggests that Nefertitis name the beautiful one has come refers to Nefertitis foreign origin as Tadukhipa. Seele, Meyer and others have pointed out that Tey, wife of Ay, held the title of nurse to Nefertiti, a mature princess arriving in Egypt would not need a nurse
9.
Sitamun
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Sitamun was an Ancient Egyptian princess and queen consort during the 18th dynasty. Sitamun is considered to be the eldest daughter of Pharaoh Amenhotep III and she was later married to her father around Year 30 of Amenhotep IIIs reign. Sitamun is very well attested, most notably in the tomb of Yuya and Thuya where three finely made chairs were discovered, as these chairs were used, and are of progressively larger size, it is assumed they belonged to Sitamun as she was growing up. They were then placed in her grandparents tomb in the tradition of placing objects which had meaning in the persons life. She is also depicted on the stele of her nurse Nebetkabeny, almost nothing is known of her life beyond being the oldest daughter of a powerful queen. In the last decade of her fathers reign, she was promoted to the status of Great Royal Wife. Sitamuns elevation to her role as Great Royal Wife of her father and she maintained her own rooms in the Malkata palace complex, and Amenhotep, son of Hapu was appointed as the steward of her properties here. She is attested on a Karnak statue of Amenhotep, son of Hapu where she is mentioned as the kings Great Royal Wife and she also appears on a relief from Amenhotep IIIs mortuary temple, found by William Matthew Flinders Petrie. Sitamun is among a handful of figures that appear near the end of the reign of Amenhotep III and this was an era of Egyptian history in which women assumed far more prominent and powerful roles with Amenhotep IIIs wife Tiye, Sitamuns mother, being a particular example. Prior to Tiyes reign, no previous queen ever figured so prominently in her husbands lifetime, one possibility is that she was married to an heir who never assumed the throne. Another possibility is that she died prematurely or went into seclusion after her brother Akhenaten became king and she was an aunt of Tutankhamun. She vanishes at the end of Amenhotep IIIs reign and is not mentioned during Akhenatens reign, a separate chamber was carved for her in Amenhotep IIIs tomb in the Valley of the Kings, but there is no evidence that she was ever buried there. Schäfers Amarna in Religion und Kunst, Leipzig 1931, E. Riefstahl Thebes in the Time of Amenhotep III, NY1964
10.
Thutmose (prince)
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Thutmose was the eldest son of pharaoh Amenhotep III and Queen Tiye, who lived during the Eighteenth dynasty of Egypt. Prince Thutmose served as a priest of Ptah in ancient Memphis and his full royal titles are given in the sarcophagus of his pet cat, Crown Prince, Overseer of the Priests of Upper and Lower Egypt, High Priest of Ptah in Memphis and Sm-priest. A small schist statuette of the prince as a miller is in the Louvre Museum while a recumbent mummiform schist figure is in Berlin, Prince Thutmose is best remembered for the limestone sarcophagus of his cat, Ta-miu, now in the Cairo Museum. The cat sarcophagus of Prince Thutmose conclusively establishes that he was indeed the eldest son of Amenhotep III, Thutmose is also attested by a total of 7 pairs of calcite and pottery vases in the Louvre. Prince Thutmose disappears from the records and appears to have died some time during the third decade of Amenhotep IIIs kingship. In his place, his younger brother Amenhotep IV, better known as Akhenaten, in his 1939 book Moses and Monotheism Sigmund Freud presented the idea that Crown Prince Thutmoses younger brother Akhenaten was associated with the Biblical character Moses. The idea was more recently reconsidered by Egyptologist Jan Assmann in Moses the Egyptian
11.
Henuttaneb
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Henuttaneb was one of the daughters of Ancient Egyptian Pharaoh Amenhotep III of the 18th dynasty and his Great Royal Wife, Queen Tiye. She was a sister of Pharaoh Akhenaten and she also had several more siblings - one other brother and several sisters. Henuttanebs name means Lady of All Lands and was frequently used as a title for queens. She was the daughter of her parents. Henuttaneb is shown on a statue from Medinet Habu. She also appears in the temple at Soleb and on a carnelian plaque and her name appears on three faience fragments. It is unclear whether Henuttaneb was elevated to the rank of queen like Sitamun and she is nowhere mentioned as Kings Wife, but on the aforementioned carnelian plaque her name is enclosed in a cartouche, a privilege which only kings and their wives were entitled to. After the death of her father she is not mentioned again
12.
Smenkhkare
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Ankhkheperure Smenkhkare Djeser Kheperu was a short-lived pharaoh in the late 18th dynasty. His names translate as Living are the Forms of Re and Vigorous is the Soul of Re – Holy of Forms and his reign was during the Amarna Period, a time when Akhenaten sought to impose new religious views. He is to be distinguished from his predecessor, the female ruler Ankhkheperure Neferneferuaten. Unlike Neferneferuaten, Smenkhkare did not use epithets in his name or cartouche. Very little is known of Smenkhkare for certain because later kings, beginning with Horemheb, for the complete historiography regarding the names, see Neferneferuaten Smenkhkare was known as far back as 1845 from the tomb of Meryre II. There he and Meritaten, bearing the title Great Royal Wife, are shown rewarding the tombs owner, the names of the king have since been cut out but had been recorded by Lepsius circa 1850. Later, a different set of names emerged using the throne name. This led to a deal of confusion since throne names tended to be unique. For the better part of a century, the repetition of names was taken to mean that Smenkhare changed his name to Neferneferuaten at some point. Indeed, Petrie makes exactly that distinction in his notes of 1894. By the 1970s, feminine traces in some versions of the name, among them, that Nefertiti was masquerading as Smenkhkare before changing her name again to Neferneferuaten. When considered with various stela depicting Akhenaten with another king in familiar, if not intimate poses, in 1978, it was proposed that there were 2 individuals using the same name, a male king Smenkhkare and a female Neferneferuaten. Ten years later, James Allen pointed out the name Ankhkheperure nearly always included an epithet referring to Akhenaten such as desired of Wa en Re when coupled with Neferneferuaten. Smenkhkare, as son in law, might be desired of Akhenaten, by the start of the 21st Century, a fair degree of consensus emerged that Neferneferuaten was a female king and Smenkhkare a separate male king, particularly among specialists of the period. Almost as important, when presented with just the name Ankhkheperure, aside from the Meryre tomb depiction already mentioned there are several pieces of evidence which establish Smenkhkare as king. A calcite globular vase from the tomb of Tutankhamun bears the double cartouche of Akhenaten alongside the full double cartouche of Smenkhkare. This is the object to carry both names side by side. A single wine docket, Year 1, wine of the house of Smenkhkare, line drawings of a block depicting the nearly complete names of King Smenkhkare and Meritaten as Great Royal Wife were recorded before the block was lost
13.
The Younger Lady
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The Younger Lady is the informal name given to a mummy discovered in the Egyptian Valley of the Kings, in tomb KV35 by archeologist Victor Loret in 1898. Through recent DNA tests this mummy has been identified as the mother of the Pharaoh Tutankhamun, the mummy also has been given the designation KV35YL and 61072, and currently resides in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. Early speculation was that this mummy was the remains of Queen Nefertiti, which remains plausible, all were found together, lying naked side-by-side and unidentified in a small antechamber of the tomb. All three mummies had been damaged by ancient tomb robbers. There has been speculation as to the identity of the Younger Lady mummy. Upon finding the mummy, Victor Loret initially had believed it be that of a man as the mummys head had been shaved. A closer inspection later made by Dr. Grafton Elliot Smith confirmed that the mummy was that of a female, recently, autosomal and mitochondrial DNA testing have shown conclusively that the mummy is that of a female and, that she was the mother of Tutankhamun. The results also show that she was a full-sister to her husband, the mummy from KV55, and that they were both the children of Amenhotep III and Queen Tiye. There is also a theory that the lady is Meritaten, daughter of Akhenaten and Nefertiti. The theory goes that Meritaten married Smenkhare, believed to be her uncle, the theory holds weight as inbreeding makes it harder to distinguish the generations, but there is one problem with this theory. Meritaten must be a descendant of Queen Tiye, or her mother Thuya. Nefertitis lineage is nowhere specified, and if Meritaten is the younger lady and it has been suggested that, indeed, the Younger Lady is Nefertiti, as incest was not uncommon. This would mean that Akhenaten did marry his own sister and that he, furthermore, Nefertiti, who may have survived her husband, may be identical with Smenkhare and may have adopted this name if she took over the reign after Akhenatens death. All this is not proven, but should be mentioned as a plausible scenario. Grafton Elliot Smith provided a description of the mummy in his survey of the ancient royal mummies at the beginning of the twentieth century. He found the mummy to be 1.58 m in height and he also noted the major damage done by ancient tomb robbers, who smashed the anterior wall of the mummys chest, and had torn the right arm off just below the shoulder. Smith presumed that she was a member of the royal family
14.
Beketaten
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Beketaten was an Ancient Egyptian princess of the 18th dynasty. Beketaten is considered to be the youngest daughter of Pharaoh Amenhotep III and his Great Royal Wife Tiye and her name means Handmaid of Aten. Beketaten is mainly known from the tomb of Huya, the steward of Queen Tiye in Amarna, Beketaten is shown with Queen Tiye in two separate banquet scenes. Queen Tiye is shown seated opposite Pharaoh Akhenaten and Queen Nefertiti, in one scene Beketaten is shown seated on a small chair next to her mother Tiye, and in the other banquet scene Beketaten is shown standing next to Tiye. On the east wall of Huyas tomb Akhenaten is shown leading his mother Tiye to a temple and they are accompanied by the Beketaten as they enter the temple. The lintel on the North Wall shows a depiction of the two royal families, on the right side Amenhotep III is shown seated opposite Queen Tiye who is accompanied by the princess Beketaten. Three female attendants are shown behind Tiye, Beketatens only known title is Kings Daughter of his Body. It is likely that she died young since she is not mentioned in the records after Queen Tiyes death. Some scholars have speculated that Nebetah, Amenhotep IIIs youngest daughter, was identical with Beketaten, however, no evidence proves that they are the same person. According to one theory Beketaten was in fact a daughter of Akhenaten and she may be identical with the princess who is shown with Kiya, whose name ends in -aten but whose full name was lost. After Kiyas demise her depictions were re-carved to show Meritaten and Ankhesenpaaten with their daughters Meritaten Tasherit and this theory is partially based on the fact that Beketaten was never named kings sister in the scenes from Amarna, but only kings bodily daughter. She never appears alongside the daughters of Nefertiti, leading to the conjecture that she must be the daughter of Akhenaten by another wife who may be Kiya, after the death of her mother, Beketaten may have been raised by her grandmother Tiye. A wine docket mentioning Beketaten dates to year 13 and it has proposed that she inherited Kiyas estates after her death. Beketaten is the character in a series of five historical novels written by Max Overton. The novels follow the life of Beketaten from early childhood through to the end of her life in the reign of Ramses the Great, the five books cover her life during the reigns of Akhenaten, Smenkhkare, Tutankhamen, Ay, and Horemheb. A sixth novel in the series is set in 1960s Egypt, Beketaten is featured as a secondary character in Mika Waltaris novel The Egyptian, going under the name Baketaton. In the novel, she is wed to Horemheb, Egypts warlord though of common blood, that has desired her since youth
15.
Mutemwiya
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Mutemwiya was a minor wife of Thutmose IV, a pharaoh of Egypt, in the Eighteenth Dynasty and the mother of Pharaoh Amenhotep III. Mutemwiyas name means Mut in the divine bark, Mutemwiya is not attested during the reign of her husband Thutmose IV. She would have been overshadowed at court by first queen Nefertari, Mutemwiya is only shown on the monuments of her son Amenhotep III. While she occasionally was identified by researchers as a daughter of King Artatama I of Mitanni, no evidence proves that she is the same person. There seemed to be evidence that she was not a daughter of Artatama, cyril Aldred has suggested that Mutemwiya be a sister of Yuya. He argues that since Mutemwiya was present during the years of her sons reign. However, this theory is supported by texts or archaeological finds. The titles kings mother and gods mother amount to the same thing since the god in question was the reigning king, all of these titles, including that of Great Royal Wife, were used only after her husbands death, during her sons reign. At the time of Amenhotep III’s accession to the throne she gained prominence as the new pharaohs mother, Mutemwiya is shown in the Luxor temple, in scenes depicting the divine birth of her son Amenhotep III. The scenes resemble scenes of the birth of Hatshepsut in Deir el-Bahari. Hatshepsut had used the story to reinforce her claims to the throne. Amenhotep was the son of a ruling Pharaoh and it seems that the scene is used to stress the semi-divine nature of Amenhotep III. In a key scene Mutemwiya is shown seated on a bed receiving the god Amun who had taken the form of her husband Thutmosis IV and they are in the presence of the goddesses Selket and Neith. The scenes show Amenhotep III to be the result of the union of his mother with the god Amun himself, a pregnant queen Mutemwiya as later shown being led to the birthing room by Isis and Khnum. A partial granite statue representing Mutemwiya was found in Karnak and it now is in the collection of the British Museum, the statue takes the form of a rebus showing the goddess Mut seated in a barque, thereby forming her name. Mutemwiya is named in the inscription on the side of the barque, along with her daughter-in-law, Tiye, she also is shown on the Colossi of Memnon erected by Amenhotep III. The date of Mutemwiyas death is unknown, but she is believed to have survived long into her sons reign
16.
WV22
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Tomb WV22, in the Western arm of the Valley of the Kings, was used as the resting place of one of the rulers of Egypts New Kingdom, Amenhotep III. The tomb is unique in that it has two burial chambers for the pharaohs wives Tiye and Sitamen. The tombs layout and decoration follow the tombs of the kings predecessors Amenhotep II and it was officially discovered by Prosper Jollois and Édouard de Villiers du Terrage, engineers with Napoleons expedition to Egypt in August 1799, but had probably been open for some time before that. Subsequently someone removed images of the head in several places. The tomb was cleared by Howard Carter in the early twentieth century. Since 1989, a Japanese team from Waseda University led by Sakuji Yoshimura, the sarcophagus is missing from the tomb. The Complete Valley of the Kings,1996, Thames and Hudson, London Siliotti, guide to the Valley of the Kings and to the Theban Necropolises and Temples,1996, A. A. Gaddis, Cairo Theban Mapping Project, WV22 - Includes detailed maps of most of the tombs
17.
Malkata
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Malkata, meaning the place where things are picked up in Arabic, is the site of an Ancient Egyptian palace complex built during the New Kingdom, by the 18th Dynasty Pharaoh Amenhotep III. It is located on the West Bank of the Nile at Thebes, Upper Egypt, the site also included a temple dedicated to Amenhotep IIIs Great Royal Wife, Tiy, and honors Sobek, the crocodile deity. The palace was built in the 14th century BC and its ancient name was Per-Hay, originally, the palace was known as the Palace of the Dazzling Aten. Built mostly out of mud-brick, it was Amenhoteps residence throughout most the part of his reign. Construction began around year 11 of his reign and continued until the king moved there permanently around his year 29, once completed, it was the largest royal residence in Egypt. To the east of the palace a large lake was dug. The palace area was connected to the Nile through a system of canals, the palace contained many audience halls, central halls, courtyards, villas, smaller palace complexes for the royal family, and apartments for officials. The harbor and canal connected the palace with the Nile, allowing easy travel across the river to the city of Thebes, there is little evidence of this lake today and little but the foundations of the palace itself remain. The royal apartment featured a bedroom, a room, a private audience chamber, and a harem. The palace had a courtyard, and across from the pharaohs rooms were apartments for his daughters. His Great Royal Wife, Tiye, had her own palace complex diagonally across from the pharaohs. The palace grounds contained gardens and a large pleasure lake, remains exist of a temple of Amun to the north of the palace, within the complex. A desert altar on the outskirts of the ruins has been excavated also, remains of a temple to the goddess Isis lies south of the main palace complex. Malqata was managed by an army of servants and staff. Remains of kitchens near the chamber have been found, as well as servant quarters. The palace resembled a city, with officials in charge of different sections, such as the gardens. Fragments of plastered wall paintings have given archaeologists a glimpse of how the palace was decorated, various paintings of the goddess Nekhbet made up the ceiling of the royal bedchamber. The walls were decorated with scenes of wildlife - flowers, reeds, ornate wooden columns painted to resemble lilies supported the ceilings
18.
Mortuary Temple of Amenhotep III
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The Mortuary Temple of Amenhotep III, also known as Kom el-Hettân, was built by the main architect Amenhotep, son of Habu, for the Pharaoh Amenhotep III during the 18th Dynasty in the New Kingdom. The mortuary temple is located on the Western bank of the Nile river, during its time, the Mortuary Temple of Amenhotep III was the largest funerary complex in Thebes that was built. Currently, only parts of the mortuary temple’s layout remains, as well as the Colossi of Memnon, because the mortuary temple was built relatively close to the river, the annual flooding caused the site to decay at a more rapid rate over time. The Colossi of Memnon and Amenhotep III Temple Project have helped conserve the site as well as possible. Dr. Hourig Sourouzian was the main excavator in the early 2000s, Laurent Bavay examined the pottery found at the site from the 1999-2002 excavation seasons. The Hypostyle Hall was cleared by Myriam Seco Alvarez, the temple faced to the East, which is most likely due to the sun rising in the East, since Amenhotep III revered the sun god Amun-Re. The Sun court is divided into the North and South halves, the North side had statues made of brown quartzite from Lower Egypt, while the South side had red granite from Aswan in Upper Egypt. Some of the pottery examined by Laurent Bavay were ring-based cups, beer jars, and wine amphorae, some stelae were found at the entrance of the Sun Court, which may have described the pharaoh’s building accomplishments. There are hundreds of freestanding statues, sphinxes, and massive stelae throughout the mortuary temple, some of these include, numerous statues of Sekhmet, animals, Egyptian gods, and Amenhotep III as a god. Dr. Betsy Brian suggests that Amenhotep III may have organized the animal and Sekhmet statues into maps of the heavens, therefore bringing the heavens to Earth. Some Sekhmet statues are standing, some are sitting, while some are holding a scepter on left hand. Why are there hundreds of Sekhmet statues, also, she played an important role in the royal jubilee in order to “protect the sun-king against the enemies of the sun”. Having building materials from both Upper and Lower Egypt was a way Amenhotep III established sema-tawy of both lands, Amenhotep III wanted to be revered as a god on Earth, not just in the afterlife once he is dead. He builds this enormous mortuary temple to leave a legacy that he was a god who ruled on Earth. They hope to form a museum, and to eventually bring awareness of the importance of on-site conservation. Colossal quartzite statue of Amenhotep III Found at the Mortuary Temple Medinet Habu Colossi of Memnon, 2) Kozloff and Bryan, Egypt’s Dazzling Sun, Amenhotep III and his World. 3) Sourouzian, Hourig, Rainer Stadelmann, Myriam Seco Alvarez, Josef Dorner, Nairy Hampikian, the temple of Amenhotep III at Thebes, excavations and conservation at Kom el-Hettân. Fourth report on the sixth, seventh and eighth season in 2004,2004 -2005 and 2006, mitteilungen des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts, Abteilung Kairo 63, 247-335
19.
Colossi of Memnon
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The Colossi of Memnon are two massive stone statues of the Pharaoh Amenhotep III, who reigned in Egypt during Dynasty XVIII. For the past 3,400 years, they have stood in the Theban Necropolis, Memnon was a hero of the Trojan War, a King of Ethiopia who led his armies from Africa into Asia Minor to help defend the beleaguered city but was ultimately slain by Achilles. Memnon was said to be the son of Eos, the goddess of dawn and he was associated with the colossi because of the reported cry at dawn of the northern statue, which became known as the Colossus of Memnon. Eventually, the entire Theban Necropolis became generally referred to as the Memnonium making him Ruler of the west as in the case of the god Osiris who was called chief of the west. The twin statues depict Amenhotep III in a position, his hands resting on his knees. Two shorter figures are carved into the front throne alongside his legs, the side panels depict the Nile god Hapy. The statues are made from blocks of sandstone which was quarried at el-Gabal el-Ahmar. The blocks used by later Roman engineers to reconstruct the northern colossus may have come from Edfu, including the stone platforms on which they stand – themselves about 4 m – the colossi reach a towering 18 m in height and weigh an estimated 720 tons each. The two figures are about 15 m apart, both statues are quite damaged, with the features above the waist virtually unrecognizable. The southern statue is a piece of stone, but the northern figure has a large extensive crack in the lower half. These upper levels consist of a different type of sandstone, and are the result of a later reconstruction attempt and it is believed that originally the two statues were identical to each other, although inscriptions and minor art may have varied. In its day, this complex was the largest and most opulent in Egypt. With the exception of the Colossi, however, very little remains today of Amenhoteps temple, in 27 BCE, a large earthquake reportedly shattered the northern colossus, collapsing it from the waist up and cracking the lower half. Following its rupture, the lower half of this statue was then reputed to sing on various occasions – always within an hour or two of sunrise, usually right at dawn. The sound was most often reported in February or March, the description varied, Strabo said it sounded like a blow, Pausanias compared it to the string of a lyre breaking, but it also was described as the striking of brass or whistling. Other ancient sources include Pliny, Pausanias, Tacitus, Philostratus, in addition, the base of the statue is inscribed with about 90 surviving inscriptions of contemporary tourists reporting whether they had heard the sound or not. The last recorded mention of the sound dates from 196. Various explanations have been offered for the phenomenon, these are of two types, natural or man-made, if natural, the sound was probably caused by rising temperatures and the evaporation of dew inside the porous rock
20.
Hellenization
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In modern times, Hellenization has been associated with the adoption of modern Greek culture and the ethnic and cultural homogenization of Greece. Other tribes that underwent varying degrees of Hellenization included Thracians, Dardanians, Paeonians and Illyrians south of the Jireček Line, Hellenization during the Hellenistic period, however, had its limitations. For example, areas of southern Syria that were affected by Greek culture mostly entailed Seleucid urban centers where Greek was commonly spoken, the countryside, on the other hand, was largely unaffected since most of its inhabitants spoke Syriac and continued to maintain their native traditions. Moreover, Hellenization did not necessarily involve assimilation of ethnic groups since Hellenistic Greeks in regions such as Asia Minor were conscious of their ancestral lineages. Hellenization can also refer to the medieval Byzantine Empire and Constantines founding of Constantinople, moreover, it can refer to the primacy of Greek culture and the Greek language after the reign of Emperor Heraclius in the 7th century AD. Hellenization during the period of Ottoman imperial rule entailed the higher status which Greek culture, in 1909, a commission appointed by the Greek government reported that one third of the villages of Greece should have their names changed, often because of their non-Greek origin. In other instances, names were changed from a name of Greek origin to the ancient Greek toponym. Some village names were formed from a Greek root word with a foreign suffix, the majority of the name changes took place in areas populated by ethnic Greeks, where a strata of foreign, or divergent, toponyms had accumulated over the centuries. However, in parts of northern Greece the population was not Greek-speaking. The process of the change of toponyms in modern Greece has been described as a process of Hellenization and this led to the diminution of the community of Corfiot Italians, resident in Corfu since the Middle Ages, by the 1940s there were only four hundred Corfiot Italians left. The twentieth century witnessed a debate over the extent of Hellenization in the Levant. Rudolf Bultmann thus argued that Christianity arose almost completely within those Hellenistic confines, in his Introduction to the 1964 book Meditations, the Anglican priest Maxwell Staniforth discussed the profound influence of Stoic philosophy on Christianity. In particular, Again in the doctrine of the Trinity, the conception of Father, Word
21.
Amun
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Amun was a major Ancient Egyptian deity. He was attested since the Old Kingdom together with his wife Amaunet, with the 11th dynasty, he rose to the position of patron deity of Thebes by replacing Monthu. After the rebellion of Thebes against the Hyksos and with the rule of Ahmose I, Amun acquired national importance, expressed in his fusion with the Sun god, Ra, Amun-Ra retained chief importance in the Egyptian pantheon throughout the New Kingdom. Amun-Ra in this period held the position of transcendental, self-created creator deity par excellence, he was the champion of the poor or troubled and his position as King of Gods developed to the point of virtual monotheism where other gods became manifestations of him. With Osiris, Amun-Ra is the most widely recorded of the Egyptian gods, as the chief deity of the Egyptian Empire, Amun-Ra also came to be worshipped outside of Egypt, according to the testimony of ancient Greek historiographers in Libya and Nubia. As Zeus Ammon he came to be identified with Zeus in Greece, Amun and Amaunet are mentioned in the Old Egyptian Pyramid Texts. The name Amun meant something like the one or invisible. Amun rose to the position of tutelary deity of Thebes after the end of the First Intermediate Period, as the patron of Thebes, his spouse was Mut. In Thebes, Amun as father, Mut as mother and the Moon god Khonsu formed a family or Theban Triad. The history of Amun as the god of Thebes begins in the 20th century BC. The city of Thebes does not appear to have been of great significance before the 11th dynasty, major construction work in the Precinct of Amun-Re took place during the 18th dynasty when Thebes became the capital of the unified ancient Egypt. Construction of the Hypostyle Hall may have begun during the 18th dynasty, though most building was undertaken under Seti I. Merenptah commemorated his victories over the Sea Peoples on the walls of the Cachette Court and this Great Inscription shows the kings campaigns and eventual return with booty and prisoners. Next to this inscription is the Victory Stela, which is largely a copy of the more famous Israel Stela found in the complex of Merenptah on the west bank of the Nile in Thebes. Merenptahs son Seti II added 2 small obelisks in front of the Second Pylon, and this was constructed of sandstone, with a chapel to Amun flanked by those of Mut and Khonsu. The last major change to the Precinct of Amun-Res layout was the addition of the first pylon, the local patron deity of Thebes, Amun, therefore became nationally important. The pharaohs of that new dynasty attributed all their enterprises to Amun. The victory accomplished by pharaohs who worshipped Amun against the rulers, brought him to be seen as a champion of the less fortunate
22.
Egypt
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Egypt, officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia by a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. Egypt is a Mediterranean country bordered by the Gaza Strip and Israel to the northeast, the Gulf of Aqaba to the east, the Red Sea to the east and south, Sudan to the south, and Libya to the west. Across the Gulf of Aqaba lies Jordan, and across from the Sinai Peninsula lies Saudi Arabia, although Jordan and it is the worlds only contiguous Afrasian nation. Egypt has among the longest histories of any country, emerging as one of the worlds first nation states in the tenth millennium BC. Considered a cradle of civilisation, Ancient Egypt experienced some of the earliest developments of writing, agriculture, urbanisation, organised religion and central government. One of the earliest centres of Christianity, Egypt was Islamised in the century and remains a predominantly Muslim country. With over 92 million inhabitants, Egypt is the most populous country in North Africa and the Arab world, the third-most populous in Africa, and the fifteenth-most populous in the world. The great majority of its people live near the banks of the Nile River, an area of about 40,000 square kilometres, the large regions of the Sahara desert, which constitute most of Egypts territory, are sparsely inhabited. About half of Egypts residents live in areas, with most spread across the densely populated centres of greater Cairo, Alexandria. Modern Egypt is considered to be a regional and middle power, with significant cultural, political, and military influence in North Africa, the Middle East and the Muslim world. Egypts economy is one of the largest and most diversified in the Middle East, Egypt is a member of the United Nations, Non-Aligned Movement, Arab League, African Union, and Organisation of Islamic Cooperation. Miṣr is the Classical Quranic Arabic and modern name of Egypt. The name is of Semitic origin, directly cognate with other Semitic words for Egypt such as the Hebrew מִצְרַיִם, the oldest attestation of this name for Egypt is the Akkadian
23.
Cartouche
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In Egyptian hieroglyphs, a cartouche /kɑːrˈtuːʃ/ is an oval with a horizontal line at one end, indicating that the text enclosed is a royal name. They came into use during the beginning of the Fourth Dynasty under Pharaoh Sneferu, while the cartouche is usually vertical with a horizontal line, it is sometimes horizontal if it makes the name fit better, with a vertical line on the left. The Ancient Egyptian word for it was shenu, and it was essentially an expanded shen ring, in Demotic, the cartouche was reduced to a pair of brackets and a vertical line. Of the five royal titularies it was the prenomen, the name, and the Son of Ra titulary, the so-called nomen name given at birth. At times amulets were given the form of a cartouche displaying the name of a king, such items are often important to archaeologists for dating the tomb and its contents. Cartouches were formerly worn by Pharaohs. The oval surrounding their name was meant to them from evil spirits in life. The cartouche has become a symbol representing good luck and protection from evil, egyptians believed that one who had their name recorded somewhere would not disappear after death. A cartouche attached to a coffin satisfied this requirement, there were periods in Egyptian history when people refrained from inscribing these amulets with a name, for fear they might fall into somebodys hands conferring power over the bearer of the name. In the Rosetta Stone, the hieroglyph is used for the word name. For the cartouche cut in half, the half-cartouche hieroglyph, Gardiners sign listed no, v11, is used in the Egyptian language for words meaning, to cut, to divide, to separate. It was the use of cartouches on the Rosetta Stone that was the biggest clue allowing Jean-François Champollion to decipher hieroglyphics, cartouche Serekh, a predecessor to the cartouche Shen ring General Budge. The Rosetta Stone, E. A. Wallis Budge, c, archived from the original on June 15,2011
24.
Amenhotep II
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Amenhotep II was the seventh Pharaoh of the 18th dynasty of Egypt. His reign is dated from 1427 to 1401 BC. Amenhotep II was born to Thutmose III and a wife of the king. However, between Years 24 and 35 of Thutmose III, both queen Satiah and prince Amenemhat died, which prompted the pharaoh to marry the non-royal Merytre-Hatshepsut and she would bear Thutmose III a number of children including the future Amenhotep II. Amenhotep II was born and raised in Memphis in the north, instead of in Thebes, while a prince, he oversaw deliveries of wood sent to the dockyard of Peru-nūfe in Memphis, and was made the Setem, the high priest over Lower Egypt. Amenhotep has left several inscriptions touting his athletic skills while he was a leader of the army before his crowning, Amenhotep was no less athletic than his powerful father. He claims to have been able to shoot an arrow through a target one palm thick. Accordingly, some skepticism concerning the truth of his claims has been expressed among Egyptologists, Amenhotep acceded to the throne on the first day of the fourth month of Akhet, but his father died on the thirtieth day of the third month of Peret. If an Egyptian crown prince was proclaimed king but did not take the throne on the day after his fathers death, a coregency with Thutmose III and Amenhotep II is believed to have lasted for two years and four months. After becoming pharaoh, Amenhotep married a woman of uncertain parentage named Tiaa, as many as ten sons and one daughter have been attributed to him. Amenhoteps most important son was Thutmose IV, who succeeded him, however, Princes Amenhotep, Webensenu, Amenemopet, and Nedjem are all clearly attested, and Amenemhat, Khaemwaset, and Aakheperure as well as a daughter, Iaret, are also possible children. 10056, which dates to sometime after Amenhotep IIs tenth year, refers to a kings son and this Amenhotep might also be attested in a stele from Amenhotep IIs temple at Giza, however the steles name has been defaced so that positive identification is impossible. Stele B may belong to another son, Webensenu, webensenus name is otherwise attested on a statue of Amenhoteps chief architect, Minmose, and his canopic jars and a funerary statue have been found in Amenhotep IIs tomb. Another Giza stele, stele C, records the name of a Prince Amenemopet, the same statue with the name Webensenu on it is also inscribed with the name of prince Nedjem, who is otherwise unattested. There are other references to kings sons from this period who may or may not be sons of Amenhotep II, two graffiti from Sahel mention a kings son and stable master named Khaemwaset, but specifically which king is his father is unknown. A figure with the name Amenemhet is recorded behind a prince Amenhotep in Theban tomb 64,10056, Amenemhat would also be Amenhotep IIs son. Additionally, a prince Aakheperure is mentioned in a Konosso graffito alongside a prince Amenhotep,10056, Aakheperure would also have been Amenhotep IIs son. In addition to sons, Amenhotep II may have had a daughter named Iaret, two more sons had been attributed to Amenhotep II in the past, however, they have since been proven to be of other parentage
25.
Thutmose I
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Thutmose I was the third pharaoh of the 18th dynasty of Egypt. He received the throne after the death of the previous king, during his reign, he campaigned deep into the Levant and Nubia, pushing the borders of Egypt farther than ever before. He also built temples in Egypt, and a tomb for himself in the Valley of the Kings. He was succeeded by his son Thutmose II, who in turn was succeeded by Thutmose IIs sister and it has been speculated Thutmoses father was Amenhotep I. His mother, Senseneb, was of non-royal parentage and may have been a wife or concubine. Assuming she was related to Amenhotep, it could be thought that she was married to Thutmose in order to guarantee succession, however, this is known not to be the case for two reasons. Firstly, Amenhoteps alabaster bark built at Karnak associates Amenhoteps name with Thutmoses name well before Amenhoteps death, secondly, Thutmoses first-born son with Ahmose, Amenmose, was apparently born long before Thutmoses coronation. Thutmose had another son, Wadjmose, and two daughters, Hatshepsut and Nefrubity, by Ahmose, Wadjmose died before his father, and Nefrubity died as an infant. Thutmose had one son by another wife, Mutnofret and this son succeeded him as Thutmose II, whom Thutmose I married to his daughter, Hatshepsut. It was later recorded by Hatshepsut that Thutmose willed the kingship to both Thutmose II and Hatshepsut, however, this is considered to be propaganda by Hatshepsuts supporters to legitimise her claim to the throne when she later assumed power. A heliacal rising of Sothis was recorded in the reign of Thutmoses predecessor, Amenhotep I, the year of Amenhoteps death and Thutmoses subsequent coronation can be accordingly derived, and is dated to 1506 BC by most modern scholars. However, if the observation were made at either Heliopolis or Memphis, as a minority of scholars promote, manetho records that Thutmose Is reign lasted 12 Years and 9 Months as a certain Mephres in his Epitome. This data is supported by two dated inscriptions from Years 8 and 9 of his reign bearing his cartouche found inscribed on a block in Karnak. According to the autobiography of Ahmose, son of Ebana, Thutmose traveled up the Nile and fought in the battle. Upon victory, he had the Nubian kings body hung from the prow of his ship and this helped integrate Nubia into the Egyptian empire. His Majesty commanded to dig this canal after he found it stopped up with no, Year 3, first month of the third season. His Majesty sailed this canal in victory and in the power of his return from overthrowing the wretched Kush and this indicates that he already fought a campaign in Syria, hence, his Syrian campaign may be placed at the beginning of his second regnal year. This second campaign was the farthest north any Egyptian ruler had ever campaigned, although it has not been found in modern times, he apparently set up a stele when he crossed the Euphrates River
26.
Great Royal Wife
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Great Royal Wife, or alternatively Chief Kings Wife, is the term that was used to refer to the principal wife of the pharaoh of Ancient Egypt. The former is also, in the form of the simplification Great Wife, while most Ancient Egyptians were monogamous, the pharaoh would have had other, lesser wives and concubines in addition to the Great Royal Wife. This arrangement would allow the pharaoh to enter into marriages with the daughters of allies. In the past the order of succession in Ancient Egypt was thought to pass through the royal women and this theory, referred to as the Heiress Theory, has been rejected ever since the 1980s and is now not accepted by Egyptologists. The throne likely just passed to the eldest living son of the pharaoh, examples include Iset, the mother of Thutmose III, Tiaa, the mother of Thutmose IV and Mutemwia, the mother of Amenhotep III. Meretseger, the wife of Senusret III, is the earliest queen whose name appears with this title. However, she is attested in the New Kingdom so the title might be an anachronism. Perhaps the first holder of its title was Nubkhaes of the Second Intermediate Period, a special place in the history of great royal wives was taken by Hatshepsut. She was Great Royal Wife to her half-brother Thutmose II, during this time Hatshepsut also became a Gods Wife of Amun. After the death of her husband, she became regent because of the minority of her stepson, the male heir. While he was very young, however, Hatshepsut was crowned as pharaoh. When she became pharaoh, she designated her daughter, Neferure and her daughter may have been the great royal wife of Thutmose III but there is no clear evidence for this proposed marriage. Elsewhere, in Kush and other states of ancient Africa. The practice of creating great wives has continued to the present day, in addition to the said queen of the Zulus, contemporary holders of the title include the numerous bearers of the Iyaafin chieftaincy of Yorubaland and the future Ndlovukati of Swaziland. List of consorts of the Muhammad Ali Dynasty, for the modern queens and sultanas of Egypt Gods Wife of Amun Divine Adoratrice of Amun Interregnum queen
27.
Hathor
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Hathor is an Ancient Egyptian goddess who personified the principles of joy, feminine love, and motherhood. She was one of the most important and popular throughout the history of Ancient Egypt. Hathor was worshipped by royalty and common people alike, in tomb paintings, she is often depicted as Mistress of the West, welcoming the dead into the next life. In other roles, she was a goddess of music, dance, foreign lands and she was believed to assist women in childbirth. She was also believed to be the goddess of miners. Hathor is commonly depicted as a cow goddess with horns in which is set a sun disk with Uraeus, twin feathers are also sometimes shown in later periods as well as a menat necklace. The Ancient Egyptians viewed reality as multi-layered in which deities who merge for various reasons, while retaining divergent attributes and myths, were not seen as contradictory but complementary. In a complicated relationship Hathor is at times the mother, daughter and wife of Ra and, like Isis, is at times described as the mother of Horus, the cult of Osiris promised eternal life to those deemed morally worthy. Originally the justified dead, male or female, became an Osiris but by early Roman times females became identified with Hathor, the Ancient Greeks sometimes identified Hathor with the goddess Aphrodite. Hathor is ambiguously depicted until the fourth dynasty, in the historical era Hathor is shown using the imagery of a cow deity. At times they are regarded as one and the goddess, though likely having separate origins. The evidence pointing to the deity being Hathor in particular is based on a passage from the Pyramid texts which states that the Kings apron comes from Hathor, from the Old Kingdom she was also called Lady of the Sycamore in her capacity as a tree deity. Hathor had a relationship with Ra. At times she is the eye of Ra and considered his daughter and she absorbed this role from another cow goddess Mehet-Weret who was the mother of Ra in a creation myth and carried him between her horns. As a mother she gave birth to Ra each morning on the eastern horizon, the Milky Way was seen as a waterway in the heavens, sailed upon by both the sun deity and the moon, leading the ancient Egyptians to describe it as The Nile in the Sky. Hathor also was favoured as a protector in desert regions, as Serabit el-Khadim was where turquoise was mined, Hathors titles included Lady of Turquoise, Mistress of Turquoise, and Lady of Turquoise Country. Hathors identity as a cow, perhaps depicted as such on the Narmer Palette, meant that she identified with another ancient cow-goddess of fertility. The assimilation of Bat, who was associated with the sistrum, in this later form, Hathors cult became centred in Dendera in Upper Egypt and it was led by priestesses and priests who also were dancers, singers and other entertainers
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Ra
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Ra or Re is the ancient Egyptian sun god. By the Fifth Dynasty in the 25th and 24th centuries BC, he had become a god in ancient Egyptian religion. In later Egyptian dynastic times, Ra was merged with the god Horus and he was believed to rule in all parts of the created world, the sky, the earth, and the underworld. He was associated with the falcon or hawk, when in the New Kingdom the god Amun rose to prominence he was fused with Ra as Amun-Ra. During the Amarna Period, Akhenaten suppressed the cult of Ra in favor of another deity, the Aten, the deified solar disc. The cult of the Mnevis bull, an embodiment of Ra, had its center in Heliopolis, all forms of life were believed to have been created by Ra, who called each of them into existence by speaking their secret names. Alternatively man was created from Ras tears and sweat, hence the Egyptians call themselves the Cattle of Ra, in the myth of the Celestial Cow it is recounted how mankind plotted against Ra and how he sent his eye as the goddess Sekhmet to punish them. When she became bloodthirsty she was pacified by drinking beer mixed with red dye, to the Egyptians, the sun represented light, warmth, and growth. This made the sun deity very important, as the sun was seen as the ruler of all that he created, the sun disk was either seen as the body or eye of Ra. Ra was the father of Shu and Tefnut, whom he created, Shu was the god of the wind, and Tefnut was the goddess of the rain. Sekhmet was the Eye of Ra and was created by the fire in Ras eye, Ra was thought to travel on the Atet, two solar barks called the Mandjet or morning boat and the Mesektet or evening boat. These boats took him on his journey through the sky and the Duat, while Ra was on the Mesektet, he was in his ram-headed form. When Ra traveled in his sun boat, he was accompanied by other deities including Sia and Hu. Sometimes, members of the Ennead helped him on his journey, including Set, who overcame the serpent Apophis, and Mehen, when Ra was in the underworld, he would visit all of his various forms. Apophis, the god of chaos, was a serpent who attempted to stop the sun boats journey every night by consuming it or by stopping it in its tracks with a hypnotic stare. During the evening, the Egyptians believed that Ra set as Atum or in the form of a ram, the night boat would carry him through the underworld and back towards the east in preparation for his rebirth. When Ra was in the underworld, he merged with Osiris, the god of the dead, Ra was worshipped as the Creator god among some ancient Egyptians, specifically followers of his cult at Heliopolis. It was believed that Ra wept, and from his tears came man and these cult-followers believed that Ra was self-created, while followers of Ptah believed that Ra was created by Ptah
29.
Ancient Egyptian deities
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Ancient Egyptian deities are the gods and goddesses worshipped in ancient Egypt. The beliefs and rituals surrounding these gods formed the core of ancient Egyptian religion, the gods complex characteristics were expressed in myths and in intricate relationships between deities, family ties, loose groups and hierarchies, and combinations of separate gods into one. Deities diverse appearances in art—as animals, humans, objects, and combinations of different forms—also alluded, through symbolism, to their essential features. In different eras, various gods were said to hold the highest position in society, including the solar deity Ra, the mysterious god Amun. The highest deity was usually credited with the creation of the world, some scholars have argued, based in part on Egyptian writings, that the Egyptians came to recognize a single divine power that lay behind all things and was present in all the other deities. Gods were assumed to be present throughout the world, capable of influencing natural events, people interacted with them in temples and unofficial shrines, for personal reasons as well as for larger goals of state rites. Egyptians prayed for help, used rituals to compel deities to act. Humans relations with their gods were a part of Egyptian society. The beings in ancient Egyptian tradition who might be labeled as deities are difficult to count, Egyptian texts list the names of many deities whose nature is unknown and make vague, indirect references to other gods who are not even named. The Egyptologist James P. Allen estimates that more than 1,400 deities are named in Egyptian texts, the Egyptian languages terms for these beings were nṯr, god, and its feminine form nṯrt, goddess. Scholars have tried to discern the nature of the gods by proposing etymologies for these words, but none of these suggestions has gained acceptance. The hieroglyphs that were used as ideograms and determinatives in writing these words show some of the traits that the Egyptians connected with divinity, the most common of these signs is a flag flying from a pole. Similar objects were placed at the entrances of temples, representing the presence of a deity, other such hieroglyphs include a falcon, reminiscent of several early gods who were depicted as falcons, and a seated male or female deity. The feminine form could also be written with an egg as determinative, connecting goddesses with creation and birth, or with a cobra, the Egyptians distinguished nṯrw, gods, from rmṯ, people, but the meanings of the Egyptian and the English terms do not match perfectly. The term nṯr may have applied to any being that was in some way outside the sphere of everyday life, Egyptian religious art also depicts places, objects, and concepts in human form. These personified ideas range from deities that were important in myth and ritual to obscure beings, only mentioned once or twice, confronting these blurred distinctions between gods and other beings, scholars have proposed various definitions of a deity. One widely accepted definition, suggested by Jan Assmann, says that a deity has a cult, is involved in some aspect of the universe, according to a different definition, by Dimitri Meeks, nṯr applied to any being that was the focus of ritual. From this perspective, gods included the king, who was called a god after his coronation rites, and deceased souls, likewise, the preeminence of the great gods was maintained by the ritual devotion that was performed for them across Egypt
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Ancient Egyptian religion
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Ancient Egyptian religion was a complex system of polytheistic beliefs and rituals which were an integral part of ancient Egyptian society. It centered on the Egyptians interaction with many deities who were believed to be present in, and in control of, rituals such as prayers and offerings were efforts to provide for the gods and gain their favor. Formal religious practice centered on the pharaoh, the king of Egypt and he acted as the intermediary between his people and the gods and was obligated to sustain the gods through rituals and offerings so that they could maintain order in the universe. The state dedicated enormous resources to Egyptian rituals and to the construction of the temples, individuals could interact with the gods for their own purposes, appealing for their help through prayer or compelling them to act through magic. These practices were distinct from, but closely linked with, the formal rituals, the popular religious tradition grew more prominent in the course of Egyptian history as the status of the Pharaoh declined. Another important aspect was the belief in the afterlife and funerary practices, the Egyptians made great efforts to ensure the survival of their souls after death, providing tombs, grave goods, and offerings to preserve the bodies and spirits of the deceased. The religion had its roots in Egypts prehistory and lasted for more than 3,000 years, the details of religious belief changed over time as the importance of particular gods rose and declined, and their intricate relationships shifted. At various times, certain gods became preeminent over the others, including the sun god Ra, the creator god Amun, for a brief period, in the theology promulgated by the Pharaoh Akhenaten, a single god, the Aten, replaced the traditional pantheon. Ancient Egyptian religion and mythology left behind many writings and monuments, along with significant influences on ancient, the beliefs and rituals now referred to as ancient Egyptian religion were integral within every aspect of Egyptian culture. Their language possessed no single term corresponding to the modern European concept of religion, the characteristics of the gods who populated the divine realm were inextricably linked to the Egyptians understanding of the properties of the world in which they lived. The Egyptians believed that the phenomena of nature were divine forces in and these deified forces included the elements, animal characteristics, or abstract forces. The Egyptians believed in a pantheon of gods, which were involved in all aspects of nature and their religious practices were efforts to sustain and placate these phenomena and turn them to human advantage. This polytheistic system was complex, as some deities were believed to exist in many different manifestations. Conversely, many forces, such as the sun, were associated with multiple deities. The diverse pantheon ranged from gods with vital roles in the universe to minor deities or demons with very limited or localized functions. It could include gods adopted from foreign cultures, and sometimes humans, deceased Pharaohs were believed to be divine, and occasionally, distinguished commoners such as Imhotep also became deified. The depictions of the gods in art were not meant as representations of how the gods might appear if they were visible. Instead, these depictions gave recognizable forms to the deities by using symbolic imagery to indicate each gods role in nature
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Mitanni
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Mitanni, also called Hanigalbat in Assyrian or Naharin in Egyptian texts, was a Hurrian-speaking state in northern Syria and southeast Anatolia from ca.1500 BC–1300 BC. Mitanni came to be a regional power after the Hittite destruction of Amorite Babylon, at the beginning of its history, Mitannis major rival was Egypt under the Thutmosids. However, with the ascent of the Hittite empire, Mitanni, the Mitanni dynasty ruled over the northern Euphrates-Tigris region between c.1475 and c.1275 BC. Eventually, Mitanni succumbed to Hittite and later Assyrian attacks, and was reduced to the status of a province of the Middle Assyrian Empire. While the Mitanni kings were Indo-Iranians, they used the language of the people which was at that time a non Indo-Iranian language. Their sphere of influence is shown in Hurrian place names, personal names and the spread through Syria, the Mitanni controlled trade routes down the Khabur to Mari and up the Euphrates from there to Charchamesh. For a time also controlled the Assyrian territories of the upper Tigris and its headwaters at Nineveh, Arbil, Assur. To the east, they had relations with the Kassites. The land of Mitanni in northern Syria extended from the Taurus mountains to its west and as far east as Nuzi, in the south, it extended from Aleppo across to Mari on the Euphrates in the east. Its centre was in the Khabur River valley, with two capitals, Taite and Washshukanni called Taidu and Ushshukana respectively in Assyrian sources, the whole area allows agriculture without artificial irrigation, cattle, sheep and goats were raised. It is very similar to Assyria in climate, and was settled by both indigenous Hurrian and Amoritic-speaking populations, the Mitanni kingdom was referred to as the Maryannu, Nahrin or Mitanni by the Egyptians, the Hurri by the Hittites, and the Hanigalbat by the Assyrians. The different names seem to have referred to the kingdom and were used interchangeably. Hittite annals mention a people called Hurri, located in northeastern Syria, a Hittite fragment, probably from the time of Mursili I, mentions a King of the Hurri. The Assyro-Akkadian version of the text renders Hurri as Hanigalbat, Tushratta, who styles himself king of Mitanni in his Akkadian Amarna letters, refers to his kingdom as Hanigalbat. Egyptian sources call Mitanni nhrn, which is pronounced as Naharin/Naharina from the Assyro-Akkadian word for river. The name Mitanni is first found in the memoirs of the Syrian wars of the astronomer and clockmaker Amenemhet. The ethnicity of the people of Mitanni is difficult to ascertain, a treatise on the training of chariot horses by Kikkuli contains a number of Indo-Aryan glosses. Kammenhuber suggested that this vocabulary was derived from the still undivided Indo-Iranian language, the common peoples language, the Hurrian language, is neither Indo-European nor Semitic
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Kurigalzu I
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The autobiography of Kurigalzu is one of the inscriptions which record that he was the son of Kadašman-Ḫarbe. Galzu, whose possible native pronunciation was gal-du or gal-šu, was the name by which the Kassites called themselves, the later king is, however, better known for his military campaign against the Assyrians than any building work he may have undertaken. It is now thought, however, that it was he who was the Kurigalzu who conquered Susa and was instrumental in the ascendancy of the Igehalkid dynasty over Elam. When Ḫur-batila, possibly the successor of Tepti Ahar to the throne of Elam, began raiding the Babylonian Empire, Kurigalzu launched a campaign which resulted in the abject defeat and capture of Ḫur-batila, who appears in no other inscriptions. He went on to conquer the lands of Susiana and Elam, recorded in the Chronicle P out of sequence. This took his army to the Elamite capital, the city of Susa and it is thought that he may have installed as his vassal, Ige-Halki, the founder of the new dynasty. The tablet was recovered from Elam during Kurigalzu’s campaign and discovered in a cache of votive inscriptions at Nippur, apparently, he married his sister to the Elamite king Paḫir-iššan, the son of Ige-Halki, and a daughter to his successor, Ḫumban-numena. This may have been Mishim-ruh, who is cited in royal inscriptions, the princess went on to bear Untash-Napirisha, the next king who was destined to marry Burna-Buriaš’ daughter. The author of the letter is thought to be Shutruk-Nahhunte, ca, Kurigalzu’s construction efforts are attested to at no less than eleven Babylonian cities. It was positioned to protect an important trade route led east across the Iranian plateau to Afghanistan. The 170-foot-high ziggurat of Enlil can still be seen on the outskirts of Baghdad, with its reinforcing layers of reed matting and bitumen. Rawlinson first identified the site in 1861 from the brick inscriptions, excavated in 1942–45 by Seton Lloyd and Taha Baqir, the city covered 225 hectares and included the Egal-kišarra, or “Palace of the Whole World”, a vast palatial and administrative complex. The Ekurigibara of Enlil was a temple in Nippur and he “caused Anu the father of the great gods to dwell in his exalted sanctuary”, which is suggested to be referring to the restoration of the Anu cult. The extent to which it preserves tradition from the events of the reign of Kurigalzu cannot as yet be determined. He rewarded an individual with this title in a dedicatory cone known as the Enlil-bānī land grant kudurru, the precise meaning of this title and the identity of the Kurigalzu, I or II, are uncertain
33.
Babylon
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Babylon was a major city of ancient Mesopotamia in the fertile plain between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. The city was built upon the Euphrates and divided in parts along its left and right banks. Babylon was originally a small Semitic Akkadian city dating from the period of the Akkadian Empire c.2300 BC, the town attained independence as part of a small city-state with the rise of the First Amorite Babylonian Dynasty in 1894 BC. Babylon grew and South Mesopotamia came to be known as Babylonia, the empire quickly dissolved after Hammurabis death and Babylon spent long periods under Assyrian, Kassite and Elamite domination. After being destroyed and then rebuilt by the Assyrians, Babylon became the capital of the Neo-Babylonian Empire from 609 to 539 BC, the Hanging Gardens of Babylon was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. After the fall of the Neo-Babylonian Empire, the city came under the rule of the Achaemenid, Seleucid, Parthian, Roman, and Sassanid empires. It has been estimated that Babylon was the largest city in the world from c.1770 to 1670 BC and it was perhaps the first city to reach a population above 200,000. Estimates for the extent of its area range from 890 to 900 hectares. The remains of the city are in present-day Hillah, Babil Governorate, Iraq, about 85 kilometres south of Baghdad, comprising a large tell of broken mud-brick buildings, the English Babylon comes from Greek Babylṓn, a transliteration of the Akkadian Babili. The Babylonian name in the early 2nd millennium BC had been Babilli or Babilla, by the 1st millennium BC, it had changed to Babili under the influence of the folk etymology which traced it to bāb-ili. The Gate of God or Gate of El being from the Aramaic Hebrew Bab for Gate and El for God and this being similar to the Hebrew word for confusion Balal. In the Bible, the name appears as Babel, interpreted in the Hebrew Scriptures Book of Genesis to mean confusion, the modern English verb, to babble, or to speak meaningless words, is popularly thought to derive from this name, but there is no direct connection. The remains of the city are in present-day Hillah, Babil Governorate, Iraq, about 85 kilometers south of Baghdad, comprising a large tell of broken mud-brick buildings and debris. The site at Babylon consists of a number of mounds covering an area of about 2 by 1 kilometer, oriented north to south, along the Euphrates to the west. Originally, the river roughly bisected the city, but the course of the river has since shifted so that most of the remains of the western part of the city are now inundated. Some portions of the city wall to the west of the river also remain, remains of the city include, Kasr—also called Palace or Castle, it is the location of the Neo-Babylonian ziggurat Etemenanki and lies in the center of the site. Amran Ibn Ali—the highest of the mounds at 25 meters, to the south and it is the site of Esagila, a temple of Marduk which also contained shrines to Ea and Nabu. Homera—a reddish colored mound on the west side, most of the Hellenistic remains are here
34.
Kadashman-Enlil I
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Kadašman-Enlil I, typically rendered mka-dáš-man-dEN. LÍL in contemporary inscriptions, was a Kassite King of Babylon from ca.1374 BC to 1360 BC, perhaps the 18th of the dynasty. He is known to have been a contemporary of Amenhotep III of Egypt and this places Kadašman-Enlil securely to the first half of the 14th century BC by most standard chronologies. In EA2 he declares “my daughters are available. ”In EA3, disarmingly, however, he invites his “brother”- to his own inauguration. ‘Now I am going to have an opening for the palace. Come yourself to eat and drink with me, I shall not do as you did. In EA5, Amenhotep writes to detail the long list of gifts that will be provided in exchange for Kadašman-Enlil’s daughter, difficulties are encountered distinguishing between inscriptions belonging to Kadašman-Enlil I and his descendent Kadašman-Enlil II, who ruled around one hundred years later. Another one refers to the 1st year of Burra-Buriaš and the 15th of the preceding king, presumed to be Kadašman-Enlil
35.
Arzawa
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Arzawa in the second half of the 2nd millennium BC was the name of a region and a political entity in Western Anatolia. The core of Arzawa is believed to have located along the Kestros River, with its capital at Apasa. It was the state of the Assuwa league, which also included parts of western Anatolia. Arzawa was the neighbour and rival of the Middle and New Hittite Kingdoms. On the other hand, it was in contact with the Ahhiyawa of the Hittite texts. Moreover, Achaeans and Arzawa formed a coalition against the Hittites, according to Hittite sources, the capital of the Kingdom of Arzawa was Apasa, corresponding with later Greek Ephesus. The languages spoken in Arzawa during the Bronze Age and early Iron Age cannot be determined due to the paucity of indigenous written sources. The zenith of the kingdom was during the 15th and 14th centuries BC, the Hittites were then weakened, and Arzawa was an ally of Egypt. According to Hittite records, in c.1320 BC Arzawa joined an alliance together with the region of Millawanta under the king of Ahhijawa. As a response of this initiative, the Hittite kings Suppiluliuma I, the king of Arzawa managed to escape to Mycenaean controlled territory. Arzawa was then split by the Hittites into vassal kingdoms and these were called, Kingdom of Mira, Hapalla, Seha river land. Seha river is now believed to be the present-day Gediz River, also, Mursilis son Muwatalli added Wilusa as a vassal. In 1998, J. David Hawkins succeeded in reading the Karabel relief inscription, located at the Karabel pass and this has provided evidence that the kingdom of Mira was actually south of the Seha river land, thus locating the latter along the Gediz River. These kingdoms, usually termed simply as lands in Hittite registers, there has been evidence from a British expedition in 1954 to Beycesultan in inner western Anatolia which suggests that the local king had central heating in his home. Nothing more was heard from this invention until Gaius Sergius Orata reinvented it in Ancient Rome around 80 BC, kupanta-Kurunta c. 1440s BC Madduwatta of Zippasla c. 1420s BC Tarhundaradu c. 1370s BC Anzapahhadu c
36.
Commemorative scarabs of Amenhotep III
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During the reign of the ancient Egyptian pharaoh Amenhotep III hundreds of so-called memorial scarabs were issued to commemorate the deeds of the pharaoh. Such scarabs were found in archaeological sites of the Near East. Over two hundred of them are known to exist in museums and collections around the world, most of the scarabs are made of steatite painted blue or green. Their length varies between 4.7 and 11 cm, their width between 7 and 8.9 cm, most of them are pierced for threading. The scarab beetle was a symbol of the sun god Khepri, and glazed materials were called tjehenet in Egyptian, so the shining scarabs refer to the king, the dazzling Sun himself. Lion hunt The lion hunt scarabs emphasise the strength and bravery by recording that Amenhotep killed over a hundred lions during the first ten years of his reign. These have the shortest inscription, their length is 7,7 cm. The lion hunt scarabs vary the most in size, the smallest scarab is 4,7 cm long, marriage The so-called marriage scarabs actually refer not to the marriage itself, and neither do they mention a marriage date. Tiyes importance is shown by defining the boundaries of the empire in terms of her, the length of the inscription on these scarabs is 9-10 lines, the scarabs average length is 8,5 cm. Lake The lake scarabs commemorate the construction of a lake for Queen Tiye in the 11th regnal year. On these, the name and titles of the pharaoh are followed by those of Tiye, the lake was 3700×700 cubits large, and the royal couple was rowed on the lake in the royal barge Aten-tjehen. The name of the boat means Shining Sun-disc, this is the first appearance of this name later becomes an epithet of the king himself. The lake scarabs vary the most in their texts, but the differences dont affect the meaning of the text itself, the text is 11 lines long, the average length of these scarabs is 8,4 cm. On the first day he slayed 56 bulls, four days later he killed 40 of them, the bulls had been previously surrounded with a ditch. Hunt was not only a favourite pastime for the pharaohs, it symbolized the rulers strength and his victory over the forces of chaos. These scarabs also list the titles of the king and mention Tiye, the bull hunt scarabs have both the greatest length and the longest text. The only scarab which doesnt have its back carved in the shape of a beetle is among these scarabs and this one has two longitudinal holes for suspension. Gilukhepa The Gilukhepa scarabs commemorate the arrival of Princess Gilukhepa, daughter of Shuttarna II of Mitanni into the harem in the 10th regnal year
37.
Ugarit
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Ugarit was an ancient port city, the ruins of which are located at what is now called Ras Shamra, a headland in northern Syria. The polity was at its height from c.1450 BC until 1200 BC, Ras Shamra lies on the Mediterranean coast, some 11 kilometres north of Latakia, near modern Burj al-Qasab. Neolithic Ugarit was important enough to be fortified with an early on, perhaps by 6000 BC. Ugarit was important perhaps because it was both a port and at the entrance of the trade route to the Euphrates and Tigris lands. The city reached its heyday between 1800 and 1200 BC, when it ruled a trade-based coastal kingdom, trading with Egypt, Cyprus, the Aegean, Syria, the Hittites, and much of the eastern Mediterranean. The first written evidence mentioning the city comes from the city of Ebla. Ugarit passed into the sphere of influence of Egypt, which influenced its art. Evidence of the earliest Ugaritic contact with Egypt comes from a carnelian bead identified with the Middle Kingdom pharaoh Senusret I, a stela and a statuette from the Egyptian pharaohs Senusret III and Amenemhet III have also been found. However, it is unclear at what time these monuments were brought to Ugarit, amarna letters from Ugarit c.1350 BC record one letter each from Ammittamru I, Niqmaddu II, and his queen. From the 16th to the 13th century BC, Ugarit remained in contact with Egypt. In the second millennium BC, Ugarits population was Amorite, the kingdom of Ugarit may have controlled about 2,000 km2 on average. During some of its history it would have been in close proximity to, the last Bronze Age king of Ugarit, Ammurapi, was a contemporary of the Hittite king Suppiluliuma II. The exact dates of his reign are unknown, however, a letter by the king is preserved, in which Ammurapi stresses the seriousness of the crisis faced by many Near Eastern states from invasion by the advancing Sea Peoples. Does not my father know that all my troops and chariots are in the Land of Hatti, thus, the country is abandoned to itself. May my father know it, the seven ships of the enemy that came here inflicted much damage upon us, however, no help arrived, and the city was burned to the ground at the end of the Bronze Age. Ugarit also contained many caches of cuneiform tablets, actual libraries that contained a wealth of information, the destruction levels of the ruin contained Late Helladic IIIB pottery ware, but no LH IIIC. Therefore, the date of the destruction of Ugarit is important for the dating of the LH IIIC phase in mainland Greece. Since an Egyptian sword bearing the name of pharaoh Merneptah was found in the levels,1190 BC was taken as the date for the beginning of the LH IIIC
38.
Soleb
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Soleb is an ancient town in Nubia, todays Sudan. The site is located north of the cataract of the Nile. It was discovered and described by Karl Richard Lepsius in 1844, Soleb is also the location of a vast necropolis with small tomb chapels decorated with pyramids. The earliest royal tombs date to the 18th dynasty, whereas some belong to the Ramesside, during the Amarna Period, several pharaohs attended to Soleb, such as Amenhotep III, Akhenaten, Tutankhamun, and Ay. A large temple made of sandstone was founded here by Amenhotep III and it is the southern-most temple currently known to have been built by this pharaoh. The temple was consecrated to the deity Amun Re and to the pharaoh depicted deified with ram-horns, the architect may have been Amenhotep, son of Hapu. At Sedeinga, a temple was built by Amenhotep III to Queen Tiye as a manifestation of the Eye of Ra. The so-called Prudhoe Lions originally stood as guardian figures at this temple inscribed with the name of Amenhotep III and they depict a lioness, as symbols of Sekhmet, a major deity who protected the pharaohs. During the reign of Akhenaten, he initially is shown worshiping his father, but later, he re-dedicates the temple to Aten. During the reign of Tutankhamen, the reforms of his father were reversed and re-dedicated the temple to Amen-Ra. He also inscribed his name on the Prudhoe Lions, during the reign of Ay, he also inscribed his name on the Prudhoe Lions. David OConnor, Eric H. Cline, Amenhotep III, Perspectives on His Reign, University of Michigan Press, October 2001, ISBN 978-0-472-08833-1 Joann Fletcher, Chronicle of a Pharaoh, The Intimate Life of Amenhotep III, Oxford University Press, USA, November 2000. ISBN 978-0-19-521660-8 The Art and Archaeology of Ancient Nubia by Peter Lacovara
39.
Akhmim
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Akhmim is a city in the Sohag Governorate of Upper Egypt. Referred to by the ancient Greeks as Khemmis, Chemmis and Panopolis, Akhmim was known in Ancient Egypt as Ipu, Apu or Khent-min. It was the capital of the nome of Upper Egypt. The city is a suggested hometown for Yuya, the official of Tuthmosis IV, the ithyphallic Min was worshipped here as the strong Horus. Min was especially a god of the routes on the east of Egypt. Herodotus perhaps confused Coptos with Chemmis, in the Christian Coptic era, Akhmim was known as Khmin or Shmin. Monasteries abounded in this region from an early date. Shenouda the Archimandrite was a monk at Athribis near Akhmim, some years earlier Nestorius, the exiled ex-patriarch of Constantinople, had died at an old age in the neighborhood of Akhmim. Nonnus, the Greek poet, was born at Panopolis at the end of the 4th century, the bishopric of Panopolis, a suffragan of Antinoë in Thebais Prima, is included in the Catholic Churchs list of titular sees. Among the bishops of Panopolis, Le Quien mentions Arius, friend of Saint Pachomius who had built three convents in the city, Sabinus, and Menas, in the 13th century AD, a very imposing temple still stood in Akhmim. Today, little of its past glory remains, nothing is left of the town, the temples were almost completely dismantled, and their material reused in the later Middle Ages. The extensive cemeteries of ancient Akhmim are yet to be fully explored, the destroyed corner of a Greco-Roman period temple with colossal statues of Ramesses II and Meritamen were discovered in 1981. Köppen-Geiger climate classification system classifies its climate as hot desert, Akhmim is the largest town on the east side of the Nile in Upper Egypt. In 1907, the population of the city was 23,795, Akhmim has several mosques and two Coptic churches. The Monastery of the Martyrs is located about 6 km northeast of the city, Akhmim maintains a weekly market, and manufactures cotton goods, notably the blue shirts and check shawls with silk fringes worn by the poorer classes of Egypt. Outside the walls are the scanty ruins of two ancient temples, on the west bank of the Nile opposite of Akhmim, there is railway communication with Cairo and Aswan. Archived from the original on 27 March 2008, more about Akmims Martyrs - Saint Takla Haymanout Church, Egypt
40.
Walters Art Museum
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The Walters Art Museum, located in Mount Vernon-Belvedere, Baltimore, Maryland, is a public art museum founded and opened in 1934. It holds collections established during the mid-19th Century, located across the back alley, a block south of the Walters mansion on West Monument Street/Mount Vernon Place, on the northwest corner of North Charles Street at West Centre Street. The following year, The Walters reopened its original building after a dramatic three-year physical renovation and replacement of internal utilities. The Archimedes Palimpsest was on loan to the Walters Art Museum from a collector for conservation. This was one of the largest and most comprehensive such releases made by any museum, the Walters collection of ancient art includes examples from Egypt, Nubia, Greece, Rome, Etruria and the Near East. In 1911, Henry Walters purchased almost 100 gold artifacts from the Chiriqui region of western Panama in Central America, the museum owns the oldest surviving Chinese wood-and-lacquer image of the Buddha. It is exhibited in a gallery dedicated solely to this work, the Museum holds one of the largest and finest collections of Thai bronze, scrolls, and banner paintings in the world. Islamic art in all media is represented at the Walters, the Walters Museum owns an array of Islamic manuscripts. Walters Art Museum, MS W.613 contains five Mughal miniatures from a very important Khamsa of Nizami made for the Emperor Akbar, Henry Walters assembled a collection of art produced during the Middle Ages in all the major artistic media of the period. This forms the basis of the Walters medieval collection, for which the Museum is best known internationally. Considered one of the best collections of art in the United States, the Museums holdings include examples of metalwork, sculpture, stained glass, textiles, icons. Sculpted heads from the royal Abbey of St. Denis are rare surviving examples of sculptures that are directly connected with the origins of Gothic art in 12th Century France. An ivory casket covered with scenes of jousting knights is one of about a dozen such objects to survive in the world, many of these works are on display in the Museums galleries. Works in the collection are the subject of active research by the curatorial and conservation departments of the museum. The collection of European Renaissance and Baroque art features holdings of paintings, sculpture, furniture, ceramics, metal work, arms, the museum has one of ten surviving examples of the Sèvres pot-pourri vase in the shape of a ship from the 1750s and 1760s. William and Henry Walters collected works by late 19th Century French academic masters, Henry Walters was particularly interested in the courtly arts of 18th Century France. The museum’s collection of Sèvres porcelain includes a number of pieces that were made for members of the Royal Bourbon Court at Versailles Palace outside of Paris. Portrait miniatures and the examples of works, especially snuffboxes and watches, are displayed in the Treasury, along with some exceptional 19th-
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Baltimore
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Baltimore is the largest city in the U. S. state of Maryland, and the 29th-most populous city in the country. It was established by the Constitution of Maryland and is not part of any county, thus, it is the largest independent city in the United States, with a population of 621,849 as of 2015. As of 2010, the population of the Baltimore Metropolitan Area was 2.7 million, founded in 1729, Baltimore is the second largest seaport in the Mid-Atlantic. Baltimores Inner Harbor was once the leading port of entry for immigrants to the United States. With hundreds of identified districts, Baltimore has been dubbed a city of neighborhoods, in the War of 1812, Francis Scott Key wrote The Star-Spangled Banner, later the American national anthem, in Baltimore. More than 65,000 properties, or roughly one in three buildings in the city, are listed on the National Register, more than any city in the nation. The city has 289 properties listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the historical records of the government of Baltimore are located at the Baltimore City Archives. The city is named after Cecil Calvert, second Lord Baltimore, of the Irish House of Lords, Baltimore Manor was the name of the estate in County Longford on which the Calvert family lived in Ireland. Baltimore is an anglicization of the Irish name Baile an Tí Mhóir, in 1608, Captain John Smith traveled 210 miles from Jamestown to the uppermost Chesapeake Bay, leading the first European expedition to the Patapsco River. The name Patapsco is derived from pota-psk-ut, which translates to backwater or tide covered with froth in Algonquian dialect, a quarter century after John Smiths voyage, English colonists began to settle in Maryland. The area constituting the modern City of Baltimore and its area was first settled by David Jones in 1661. He claimed the area today as Harbor East on the east bank of the Jones Falls stream. In the early 1600s, the immediate Baltimore vicinity was populated, if at all. The Baltimore area had been inhabited by Native Americans since at least the 10th millennium BC, one Paleo-Indian site and several Archaic period and Woodland period archaeological sites have been identified in Baltimore, including four from the Late Woodland period. During the Late Woodland period, the culture that is called the Potomac Creek complex resided in the area from Baltimore to the Rappahannock River in Virginia. It was located on the Bush River on land that in 1773 became part of Harford County, in 1674, the General Assembly passed An Act for erecting a Court-house and Prison in each County within this Province. The site of the house and jail for Baltimore County was evidently Old Baltimore near the Bush River. In 1683, the General Assembly passed An Act for Advancement of Trade to establish towns, ports, one of the towns established by the act in Baltimore County was on Bush River, on Town Land, near the Court-House
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Regent
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A regent is a person appointed to administer a state because the monarch is a minor, is absent or is incapacitated. The rule of a regent or regents is called a regency, a regent or regency council may be formed ad hoc or in accordance with a constitutional rule. Regent is sometimes a formal title, if the formally appointed regent is unavailable or cannot serve on a temporary basis, a Regent ad interim may be appointed to fill the gap. In a monarchy, a regent usually governs due to one of these reasons and this was the case in the Kingdom of Finland and the Kingdom of Hungary, where the royal line was considered extinct in the aftermath of World War I. In Iceland, the regent represented the King of Denmark as sovereign of Iceland until the country became a republic in 1944, in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, kings were elective, which often led to a fairly long interregnum. In the interim, it was the Roman Catholic Primate who served as the regent, in the small republic of San Marino, the two Captains Regent, or Capitani Reggenti, are elected semi-annually as joint heads of state and of government. Famous regency periods include that of the Prince Regent, later George IV of the United Kingdom, giving rise to terms such as Regency era. Strictly this period lasted from 1811 to 1820, when his father George III was insane, as of 1 December 2016, Liechtenstein is the only country with an active regency. The term regent may refer to lower than the ruler of a country. The term may be used in the governance of organisations, typically as an equivalent of director, some university managers in North America are called regents and a management board for a college or university may be titled the Board of Regents. The term regent is used for members of governing bodies of institutions such as the national banks of France. This type of group portrait was popular in Dutch Golden Age painting during the 17th century, in the Dutch East Indies, a regent was a native prince allowed to rule de facto colonized state as a regentschap. Consequently, in the state of Indonesia, the term regent is used in English to mean a bupati. Again in Belgium and France, Regent is the title of a teacher in a lower secondary school. In the Philippines, specifically, the University of Santo Tomas, the Father Regent and they also form the Council of Regents that serves as the highest administrative council of the university. In the Society of Jesus, a regent is a training to be a Jesuit. A regent in the Jesuits is often assigned to teach in a school or some other academic institution as part of the formation toward final vows, list of regents Viceroy, an individual who, in a colony or province, exercised the power of a monarch on his behalf
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Assyria
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Assyria was a major Mesopotamian East Semitic-speaking kingdom and empire of the ancient Near East and the Levant. Centered on the Tigris in Upper Mesopotamia, the Assyrians came to rule powerful empires at several times. Assyria is named after its capital, the ancient city of Aššur. In the 25th and 24th centuries BC, Assyrian kings were pastoral leaders, Assyria can also refer to the geographic region or heartland where Assyria, its empires and the Assyrian people were centered. The indigenous modern Eastern Aramaic-speaking Assyrian Christian ethnic minority in northern Iraq, north east Syria, southeast Turkey, in prehistoric times, the region that was to become known as Assyria was home to a Neanderthal culture such as has been found at the Shanidar Cave. The earliest Neolithic sites in Assyria were the Jarmo culture c.7100 BC and Tell Hassuna, during the 3rd millennium BC, a very intimate cultural symbiosis developed between the Sumerians and the Akkadians throughout Mesopotamia, which included widespread bilingualism. The influence of Sumerian on Akkadian, and vice versa, is evident in all areas, from lexical borrowing on a scale, to syntactic, morphological. This has prompted scholars to refer to Sumerian and Akkadian in the third millennium BC as a sprachbund and it is highly likely that the city was named in honour of its patron Assyrian god with the same name. The city of Aššur, together with a number of other Assyrian cities, however it is likely that they were initially Sumerian-dominated administrative centres. In the late 26th century BC, Eannatum of Lagash, then the dominant Sumerian ruler in Mesopotamia, similarly, in c. the early 25th century BC, Lugal-Anne-Mundu the king of the Sumerian state of Adab lists Subartu as paying tribute to him. Of the early history of the kingdom of Assyria, little is known, in the Assyrian King List, the earliest king recorded was Tudiya. According to Georges Roux he would have lived in the mid 25th century BC, Tudiya was succeeded on the list by Adamu, the first known reference to the Semitic name Adam and then a further thirteen rulers. The earliest kings, such as Tudiya, who are recorded as kings who lived in tents, were independent semi-nomadic pastoralist rulers and these kings at some point became fully urbanised and founded the city state of Ashur in the mid 21st century BC. During the Akkadian Empire, the Assyrians, like all the Mesopotamian Semites, became subject to the dynasty of the city state of Akkad, the Akkadian Empire founded by Sargon the Great claimed to encompass the surrounding four quarters. Assyrian rulers were subject to Sargon and his successors, and the city of Ashur became an administrative center of the Empire. On those tablets, Assyrian traders in Burushanda implored the help of their ruler, Sargon the Great, the name Hatti itself even appears in later accounts of his grandson, Naram-Sin, campaigning in Anatolia. Assyrian and Akkadian traders spread the use of writing in the form of the Mesopotamian cuneiform script to Asia Minor, the Akkadian Empire was destroyed by economic decline and internal civil war, followed by attacks from barbarian Gutian people in 2154 BC. The rulers of Assyria during the period between c.2154 BC and 2112 BC once again fully independent, as the Gutians are only known to have administered southern Mesopotamia
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