1.
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
2.
Egyptian hieroglyphs
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Egyptian hieroglyphs were the formal writing system used in Ancient Egypt. It combined logographic, syllabic and alphabetic elements, with a total of some 1,000 distinct characters, cursive hieroglyphs were used for religious literature on papyrus and wood. The later hieratic and demotic Egyptian scripts are derived from hieroglyphic writing, the writing system continued to be used throughout the Late Period, as well as the Persian and Ptolemaic periods. Late survivals of hieroglyphic use are found well into the Roman period, with the closing of pagan temples in the 5th century, knowledge of hieroglyphic writing was lost, and the script remained undeciphered throughout the medieval and early modern period. The decipherment of hieroglyphs would only be solved in the 1820s by Jean-François Champollion, the word hieroglyph comes from the Greek adjective ἱερογλυφικός, a compound of ἱερός and γλύφω, supposedly a calque of an Egyptian phrase mdw·w-nṯr gods words. The glyphs themselves were called τὰ ἱερογλυφικὰ γράμματα the sacred engraved letters, the word hieroglyph has become a noun in English, standing for an individual hieroglyphic character. As used in the sentence, the word hieroglyphic is an adjective. Hieroglyphs emerged from the artistic traditions of Egypt. For example, symbols on Gerzean pottery from c.4000 BC have been argued to resemble hieroglyphic writing, proto-hieroglyphic symbol systems develop in the second half of the 4th millennium BC, such as the clay labels of a Predynastic ruler called Scorpion I recovered at Abydos in 1998. The first full sentence written in hieroglyphs so far discovered was found on a seal found in the tomb of Seth-Peribsen at Umm el-Qaab. There are around 800 hieroglyphs dating back to the Old Kingdom, Middle Kingdom, by the Greco-Roman period, there are more than 5,000. However, given the lack of evidence, no definitive determination has been made as to the origin of hieroglyphics in ancient Egypt. Since the 1990s, and discoveries such as the Abydos glyphs, as writing developed and became more widespread among the Egyptian people, simplified glyph forms developed, resulting in the hieratic and demotic scripts. These variants were more suited than hieroglyphs for use on papyrus. Hieroglyphic writing was not, however, eclipsed, but existed alongside the other forms, especially in monumental, the Rosetta Stone contains three parallel scripts – hieroglyphic, demotic, and Greek. Hieroglyphs continued to be used under Persian rule, and after Alexander the Greats conquest of Egypt, during the ensuing Ptolemaic and Roman periods. It appears that the quality of comments from Greek and Roman writers about hieroglyphs came about, at least in part. Some believed that hieroglyphs may have functioned as a way to distinguish true Egyptians from some of the foreign conquerors, another reason may be the refusal to tackle a foreign culture on its own terms, which characterized Greco-Roman approaches to Egyptian culture generally
3.
Asyut
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The modern city is located at 27°11′00″N 31°10′00″E, while the ancient city is located at 27°10′00″N 31°08′00″E. The name of the city is derived from early Egyptian Zawty adopted into the Coptic as Syowt ⲥⲓⲟⲟⲩⲧ, in Graeco-Roman Egypt, it was called Lycopolis or Lykopolis, Lycon, or Lyco. Ancient Asyut was the capital of the Thirteenth Nome of Upper Egypt around 3100 BC and it was located on the western bank of the Nile. The two most prominent gods of Ancient Egyptian Asyut were Anubis and Wepwawet, both funerary deities, during the First Intermediate Period, the rulers of Zawty were supporters of the Herakleopolitan kings, of whose domain the Nome formed the southern limits. The conflict between this Nome and the southern Nomes under the rule of the Eleventh dynasty ended with the victory of Thebes, osiris was worshipped under the symbol of a wolf at Lycopolis. According to a myth, he had come from the shades as a wolf to aid Isis, other Ancient Egyptian monuments discovered in Asyut include, the Asyut necropolis, tombs which date to dynasties Nine, Ten and Twelve, and the Ramessid tombs of Siese and Amenhotep. In Graeco-Roman times, there was a dialect of Coptic spoken in Asyut, known as Lycopolitan. Lesser-used names for this dialect are Sub-Akhmimic and Assiutic, a large Byzantine Treasure was discovered near the city in the early twentieth century and is now dispersed amongst a number of museums in the West. The hoard is composed of some of the most elaborate jewellery to survive from late antiquity, Asyut was the end of 40 Day Road that connected the city to Darfur through the Selima and Kharga Oases. The history of the road, known by local herders as Darb al-Arbain and it was used as a pathway for great caravans of up to 12,000 camels at its peak in the 14th century. Today, the city of Asyut has almost 400,000 inhabitants and it is the Egyptian city with one of the highest Coptic Christian concentration of approximately 50%. It is also home to the University of Assiut, one of the largest universities in Egypt, to the Assiut Barrage, the city is one of the only cities in the world that still makes silver appliqué-work shawls and is home to a large textile industry. The city also produces pottery, inlaid woodwork, and rugs. The Virgin Mary is reported to have appeared in Asyut on 17 August 2000 and this apparition is recognized as an official Marian apparition by the Coptic Orthodox Church and remembered in the Deir el-Muharraq, Monastery of the Virgin Mary. Aysut is next to the Aysut Dam across the Nile river in the port of Al-Hamra. The dam was built in 1902 and a plant was added in the 1980s. Its episcopal see is the cathedral of the Mother of Divine Love, suffragan Eparchs of Assiut Alexandros Scandar Youhanna Nueir, Friars Minor, previously Auxiliary Eparch of Luqsor of the Copts & Titular Bishop of Phatanus Kyrillos Kamal William Samaan, O. F. M. Köppen-Geiger climate classification system classifies its climate as hot desert and it is the driest city of Egypt
4.
Imiut fetish
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The Imiut fetish is a religious object that has been documented throughout the history of Ancient Egypt. It was a stuffed, headless animal skin, often of a feline or bull and this fetish was tied by the tail to a pole, terminating in a lotus bud and inserted into a stand. The item was present in ancient Egyptian funerary rites from at least the earliest dynasties, although its origin and purpose is unknown, the imiut fetish dates as far back as the First Dynasty. In very early Egyptian mythology, the deity Imiut may have been a god of the Duat or underworld, an early example found in 1914 by an expedition of the Metropolitan Museum of Art near the pyramid of Senusret I was placed in a shrine. Since it was connected to the god Anubis, it is sometimes called the Anubis fetish. One idea is that it came to symbolise Anubis as an embalmer, although this is unlikely to be the original understanding, as Anubis was originally a god of the dead, rather than just embalming
5.
Crook and flail
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The crook and flail are symbols used in Ancient Egyptian society. They were originally the attributes of the deity Osiris that became insignia of pharaonic authority, the shepherds crook stood for kingship and the flail for the fertility of the land. The earliest known example of a crook is from the Gerzeh culture. By late Predynastic times, the crook was already an established symbol of rule. The flail initially remained separate, being depicted alone on some earliest representations of royal ceremonial, approximately by the time of the Second Dynasty the crook and flail became paired. The only extant pharaonic examples of both the crook and flail come from the tomb of Tutankhamun and their staffs are made of heavy bronze covered with alternating stripes of blue glass, obsidian, and gold, while the flails beads are made of gilded wood. Traditionally crossed over the chest when held, they represented the ruler as a shepherd whose beneficence is formidably tempered with might. Still another interpretation, by E. A. Wallis Budge, is that the flail is what was used to thresh grain, sekhem scepter Was scepter Pharaoh-seated, with flail & red crown
6.
Anput
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Anput is a goddess in ancient Egyptian religion. Her name is also rendered Input, Inpewt and Yineput and her name is written in hieroglyphs as inpwt. Her name is the version of the name of her husband. She was the goddess of funerals and mummification, the mother of Kebechet and she was depicted as a woman wearing a standard topped by a jackal, or as a large black dog or jackal. Probably the most notable example is that of the triad of Menkaure, Hathor and she was occasionally depicted as a woman with the head of a jackal, but this is very rare. Anput is a counterpart of the god Anubis. She is also a goddess of the nome of Upper Egypt
7.
Kebechet
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In Egyptian mythology, Kebechet is a goddess, a deification of embalming liquid. Kebechet is a daughter of Anubis and his wife Anput, in the Pyramid Texts, Kebechet is referred to as a serpent who refreshes and purifies the pharaoh. Kebechet was thought to give water to the spirits of the dead while they waited for the process to be complete. She was probably related to mummification where she would fortify the body against corruption, so it would stay fresh for reanimation by the deceaseds ka
8.
Nepthys
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Nephthys or Nebthet or Neber-Het was a goddess in ancient Egyptian religion. A member of the Great Ennead of Heliopolis in Egyptian mythology, she was a daughter of Nut, Nephthys was typically paired with her sister Isis in funerary rites because of their role as protectors of the mummy and the god Osiris and as the sister-wife of Set. Nephthys is the Greek form of an epithet and this is a pervasive error repeated in many commentaries concerning this deity. Her name means specifically, Lady of the Enclosure which associates her with the role of priestess. Along with her sister Isis, Nephthys represented the temple pylon or trapezoidal tower gateway entrance to the temple which also displayed the flagstaff and this entrance way symbolised the horizon or akhet. At the time of the Fifth Dynasty Pyramid Texts, Nephthys appears as a goddess of the Heliopolitan Ennead and she is the sister of Isis and companion of the war-like deity, Set. As sister of Isis and especially Osiris, Nephthys is a goddess who symbolizes the death experience. Nephthys was known in some ancient Egyptian temple theologies and cosmologies as the Useful Goddess or the Excellent Goddess and these late Ancient Egyptian temple texts describe a goddess who represented divine assistance and protective guardianship. Nephthys is regarded as the mother of the funerary-deity Anubis in some myths, alternatively Anubis appears as the son of Bastet or Isis. As the primary nursing mother of the incarnate Pharaonic-god, Horus, though other goddesses could assume this role, Nephthys was most usually portrayed in this function. In contrast Nephthys is sometimes featured as a ferocious and dangerous divinity. Nephthys was typically paired with her sister Isis in funerary rites because of their role as protectors of the mummy and the god Osiris and as the sister-wife of Set. Less well understood than her sister Isis, Nephthys was no less important in Egyptian Religion as confirmed by the work of E. Hornung, along with the work of noted scholars. Ascend and descend, descend with Nephthys, sink into darkness with the Night-bark, ascend and descend, ascend with Isis, rise with the Day-bark. Pyramid Text Utterance 222 line 210, in the funerary role, Nephthys often was depicted as a kite, or as a woman with falcon wings, usually outstretched as a symbol of protection. Nephthyss association with the kite or the Egyptian hawk evidently reminded the ancients of the lamentations usually offered for the dead by wailing women, in this capacity, it is easy to see how Nephthys could be associated with death and putrefaction in the Pyramid Texts. Nephthys was clearly viewed as a force of heavenly transition, i. e. the Pharaoh becomes strong for his journey to the afterlife through the intervention of Isis. The same divine power could be applied later to all of the dead and it should here be noted that Nephthys was not necessarily viewed as the polar opposite of Isis, but rather as a different reflection of the same reality, eternal life in transition
9.
Set (deity)
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Set /sɛt/ or Seth is a god of the desert, storms, disorder, violence, and foreigners in ancient Egyptian religion. In Ancient Greek, the name is given as Sēth. Set is not, however, a god to be ignored or avoided, he has a role where he is employed by Ra on his solar boat to repel Apep. Set had a role as a reconciled combatant. He was lord of the red land where he was the balance to Horus role as lord of the black land, in Egyptian mythology, Set is portrayed as the usurper who killed and mutilated his own brother Osiris. Osiris wife Isis reassembled Osiris corpse and resurrected him long enough to conceive his son, Horus sought revenge upon Set, and the myths describe their conflicts. This Osiris myth is a prominent theme in Egyptian mythology, Sets siblings are Osiris, Isis, and Nephthys. He married Nephthys and fathered Anubis, and in some accounts he had relationships with the foreign goddesses Anat, some early Egyptologists proposed that it was a stylised representation of the giraffe, owing to the large flat-topped horns which correspond to a giraffes ossicones. The Egyptians themselves, however, made a distinction between the giraffe and the Set animal, during the Late Period, Set is depicted as a donkey or as having a donkeys head. The earliest representations of what might be the Set animal comes from a dating to the Naqada I phase of the Predynastic Period. If these are ruled out, then the earliest Set animal appears on a head of the King Scorpion. The head and the tail of the Set animal are clearly present. In the mythology of Heliopolis, Set was born of the sky goddess Nut, Sets sister and wife was Nephthys. Nut and Geb also produced two children who became husband and wife, the divine Osiris and Isis, whose son was Horus. The Chester Beatty Papyrus No.1 contains the known as The Contendings of Horus. Classical authors also recorded the story, notably Plutarchs De Iside et Osiride and these myths generally portray Osiris as a wise lord, king, and bringer of civilization, happily married to his sister, Isis. Set was envious of his brother, and he killed and dismembered Osiris, Isis reassembled Osiris corpse and embalmed him. As the archetypal mummy, Osiris reigned over the afterworld as a king among deserving spirits of the dead, Osiris son Horus was conceived by Isis with Osiris corpse
10.
Osiris
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Osiris was an Egyptian god, usually identified as the god of the afterlife, the underworld, and the dead, but more appropriately as the god of transition, resurrection, and regeneration. He was also associated with the epithet Khenti-Amentiu, meaning Foremost of the Westerners, as ruler of the dead, Osiris was also sometimes called king of the living, ancient Egyptians considered the blessed dead the living ones. Osiris was considered the brother of Isis, Set, Nephthys, and Horus the Elder and he was described as the Lord of love, He Who is Permanently Benign and Youthful and the Lord of Silence. The Kings of Egypt were associated with Osiris in death – as Osiris rose from the dead they would, in union with him, inherit eternal life through a process of imitative magic. By the New Kingdom all people, not just pharaohs, were believed to be associated with Osiris at death, Osiris was widely worshipped as Lord of the Dead until the suppression of the Egyptian religion during the rise of Christianity in the Roman Empire. Osiris is a Latin transliteration of the Ancient Greek Ὄσιρις IPA, in Egyptian hieroglyphs the name is appears as wsjr or jsjrt. Since hieroglyphic writing lacks vowels, Egyptologists have vocalized the name in various ways as Asar, Yasar, Aser, Asaru, Ausar, Ausir, Wesir, Usir, several proposals have been made for the etymology and meaning of the original name wsjr. John Gwyn Griffiths proposed a derivation from wsr signifying the powerful, moreover, one of the oldest attestations of the god Osiris appears in the mastaba of the deceased Netjer-wser. David Lorton proposed that Wsjr is composed by the morphemes set-jret signifying ritual activity, wolfhart Westendorf proposed an etymology from Waset-jret she who bears the eye. He also carries the crook and flail, the crook is thought to represent Osiris as a shepherd god. The symbolism of the flail is more uncertain with shepherds whip, fly-whisk and he was commonly depicted as a pharaoh with a complexion of either green or black in mummiform. The Pyramid Texts describe early conceptions of an afterlife in terms of travelling with the sun god amongst the stars. Amongst these mortuary texts, at the beginning of the 4th dynasty, is found, An offering the king gives, by the end of the 5th dynasty, the formula in all tombs becomes An offering the king gives and Osiris. Osiris is the father of the god Horus, whose conception is described in the Osiris myth. The myth described Osiris as having been killed by his brother Set, Isis joined the fragmented pieces of Osiris, but the only body part missing was the phallus. Isis fashioned a golden phallus, and briefly brought Osiris back to life by use of a spell that she learned from her father and this spell gave her time to become pregnant by Osiris before he again died. Isis later gave birth to Horus, as such, since Horus was born after Osiris resurrection, Horus became thought of as a representation of new beginnings and the vanquisher of the evil Set. Ptah-Seker thus gradually became identified with Osiris, the two becoming Ptah-Seker-Osiris, Osiris soul, or rather his Ba, was occasionally worshipped in its own right, almost as if it were a distinct god, especially in the Delta city of Mendes
11.
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
12.
Ancient Greek
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Ancient Greek includes the forms of Greek used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around the 9th century BC to the 6th century AD. It is often divided into the Archaic period, Classical period. It is antedated in the second millennium BC by Mycenaean Greek, the language of the Hellenistic phase is known as Koine. Koine is regarded as a historical stage of its own, although in its earliest form it closely resembled Attic Greek. Prior to the Koine period, Greek of the classic and earlier periods included several regional dialects, Ancient Greek was the language of Homer and of fifth-century Athenian historians, playwrights, and philosophers. It has contributed many words to English vocabulary and has been a subject of study in educational institutions of the Western world since the Renaissance. This article primarily contains information about the Epic and Classical phases of the language, Ancient Greek was a pluricentric language, divided into many dialects. The main dialect groups are Attic and Ionic, Aeolic, Arcadocypriot, some dialects are found in standardized literary forms used in literature, while others are attested only in inscriptions. There are also several historical forms, homeric Greek is a literary form of Archaic Greek used in the epic poems, the Iliad and Odyssey, and in later poems by other authors. Homeric Greek had significant differences in grammar and pronunciation from Classical Attic, the origins, early form and development of the Hellenic language family are not well understood because of a lack of contemporaneous evidence. Several theories exist about what Hellenic dialect groups may have existed between the divergence of early Greek-like speech from the common Proto-Indo-European language and the Classical period and they have the same general outline, but differ in some of the detail. The invasion would not be Dorian unless the invaders had some relationship to the historical Dorians. The invasion is known to have displaced population to the later Attic-Ionic regions, the Greeks of this period believed there were three major divisions of all Greek people—Dorians, Aeolians, and Ionians, each with their own defining and distinctive dialects. Often non-west is called East Greek, Arcadocypriot apparently descended more closely from the Mycenaean Greek of the Bronze Age. Boeotian had come under a strong Northwest Greek influence, and can in some respects be considered a transitional dialect, thessalian likewise had come under Northwest Greek influence, though to a lesser degree. Most of the dialect sub-groups listed above had further subdivisions, generally equivalent to a city-state and its surrounding territory, Doric notably had several intermediate divisions as well, into Island Doric, Southern Peloponnesus Doric, and Northern Peloponnesus Doric. The Lesbian dialect was Aeolic Greek and this dialect slowly replaced most of the older dialects, although Doric dialect has survived in the Tsakonian language, which is spoken in the region of modern Sparta. Doric has also passed down its aorist terminations into most verbs of Demotic Greek, by about the 6th century AD, the Koine had slowly metamorphosized into Medieval Greek
13.
Egyptian language
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The language spoken in ancient Egypt was a branch of the Afroasiatic language family. The earliest known complete sentence in the Egyptian language has been dated to about 2690 BCE, making it one of the oldest recorded languages known. Egyptian was spoken until the seventeenth century in the form of Coptic. The national language of modern Egypt is Egyptian Arabic, which gradually replaced Coptic as the language of life in the centuries after the Muslim conquest of Egypt. Coptic is still used as the language of the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria. It has several hundred fluent speakers today, the Egyptian language belongs to the Afroasiatic language family. Of the other Afroasiatic branches, Egyptian shows its greatest affinities with Semitic, in Egyptian, the Proto-Afroasiatic voiced consonants */d z ð/ developed into pharyngeal ⟨ꜥ⟩ /ʕ/, e. g. Eg. Afroasiatic */l/ merged with Egyptian ⟨n⟩, ⟨r⟩, ⟨ꜣ⟩, and ⟨j⟩ in the dialect on which the language was based. Original */k g ḳ/ palatalize to ⟨ṯ j ḏ⟩ in some environments and are preserved as ⟨k g q⟩ in others, Egyptian has many biradical and perhaps monoradical roots, in contrast to the Semitic preference for triradical roots. Egyptian probably is more archaic in this regard, whereas Semitic likely underwent later regularizations converting roots into the triradical pattern, scholars group the Egyptian language into six major chronological divisions, Archaic Egyptian language Old Egyptian language Middle Egyptian language, characterizing Middle Kingdom. Demotic Coptic The earliest Egyptian glyphs date back to around 3300 BC and these early texts are generally lumped together under the general term Archaic Egyptian. They record names, titles and labels, but a few of them show morphological and syntactic features familiar from later, more complete, Old Egyptian is dated from the oldest known complete sentence, found in the tomb of Seth-Peribsen and dated to around 2690 BCE. It reads, dmḏ. n. f t3wj n z3. f nswt-bjt pr-jb. snj He has united the Two Lands for his son, extensive texts appear from about 2600 BCE. Demotic first appears about 650 BCE and survived as a written language until the fifth century CE and it probably survived in the Egyptian countryside as a spoken language for several centuries after that. Bohairic Coptic is still used by the Coptic Churches, Old, Middle, and Late Egyptian were all written using hieroglyphs and hieratic. Demotic was written using a script derived from hieratic, its appearance is similar to modern Arabic script and is also written from right to left. Coptic is written using the Coptic alphabet, a form of the Greek alphabet with a number of symbols borrowed from Demotic for sounds that did not occur in ancient Greek. Arabic became the language of Egypts political administration soon after the early Muslim conquests in the seventh century, today, Coptic survives as the sacred language of the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria and the Coptic Catholic Church
14.
Mummy
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Some authorities restrict the use of the term to bodies deliberately embalmed with chemicals, but the use of the word to cover accidentally desiccated bodies goes back to at least 1615 CE. Mummies of humans and other animals have found on every continent. Over one million animal mummies have been found in Egypt, many of which are cats, in addition to the well-known mummies of ancient Egypt, deliberate mummification was a feature of several ancient cultures in areas of America and Asia with very dry climates. The Spirit Cave mummies of Fallon, Nevada in North America were accurately dated at more than 9,400 years old. Before this discovery, the oldest known deliberate mummy was a child, one of the Chinchorro mummies found in the Camarones Valley, Chile, which dates around 5050 BCE. The oldest known naturally mummified corpse is a severed head dated as 6,000 years old. These substances were defined as mummia, the OED defines a mummy as the body of a human being or animal embalmed as a preparation for burial, citing sources from 1615 CE onward. However, Chambers Cyclopædia and the Victorian zoologist Francis Trevelyan Buckland define a mummy as follows, also applied to the frozen carcase of an animal imbedded in prehistoric snow. Wasps of the genus Aleiodes are known as mummy wasps because they wrap their prey as mummies. While interest in the study of mummies dates as far back as Ptolemaic Greece, prior to this, many rediscovered mummies were sold as curiosities or for use in pseudoscientific novelties such as mummia. The first modern scientific examinations of mummies began in 1901, conducted by professors at the English-language Government School of Medicine in Cairo, Egypt. The first X-ray of a mummy came in 1903, when professors Grafton Elliot Smith, British chemist Alfred Lucas applied chemical analyses to Egyptian mummies during this same period, which returned many results about the types of substances used in embalming. Lucas also made significant contributions to the analysis of Tutankhamun in 1922, pathological study of mummies saw varying levels of popularity throughout the 20th century. In 1992, the First World Congress on Mummy Studies was held in Puerto de la Cruz on Tenerife in the Canary Islands, more than 300 scientists attended the Congress to share nearly 100 years of collected data on mummies. This was not possible prior to the Congress due to the unique, in more recent years, CT scanning has become an invaluable tool in the study of mummification by allowing researchers to digitally unwrap mummies without risking damage to the body. The level of detail in such scans is so intricate that small linens used in areas such as the nostrils can be digitally reconstructed in 3-D. Such modelling has been utilized to perform autopsies on mummies to determine cause of death and lifestyle. Mummies are typically divided into one of two categories, anthropogenic or spontaneous
15.
Afterlife
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The afterlife is the concept of a realm, or the realm itself, in which an essential part of an individuals identity or consciousness continues to exist after the death of the body. Belief in an afterlife, which may be naturalistic or supernatural, is in contrast to the belief in oblivion after death, in this latter view, such rebirths and deaths may take place over and over again continuously until the individual gains entry to a spiritual realm or Otherworld. Major views on the afterlife derive from religion, esotericism and metaphysics, in metaphysical models, theists generally believe some type of afterlife awaits people when they die. Members of some generally non-theistic religions, tend to believe in an afterlife, the Sadducees were an ancient Jewish sect that generally believed that there was a God but no afterlife. Reincarnation refers to a concept found among Hindus, Buddhists, Jains, Sikhs, Rosicrucians, Theosophists, Spiritists. Reincarnation is also a belief described in Kabbalistic Judaism as gilgul neshamot and this succession leads toward an eventual liberation. One consequence of reincarnationist beliefs is that our current lives are both afterlife and a beforelife, according to those beliefs events in our current life are consequences of actions taken in previous lives, or Karma. In most denominations, heaven is a condition of reward for the righteous to go after they die, traditionally defined as eternal union with God. In contrast to heaven, hell is a condition of punishment and torment for the wicked, traditionally defined as eternal separation from God and confinement with other sinful souls and fallen angels. So they are seen as existing in a state of natural. In other Christian denominations it has described as an intermediate place or state of confinement in oblivion. The notion of purgatory is associated particularly with the Catholic Church, the tradition of the church, by reference to certain texts of scripture, speaks of a cleansing fire although it is not always called purgatory. Anglicans of the Anglo-Catholic tradition generally also hold to the belief, traditional African religions are diverse in their beliefs in an afterlife. For each soul remains distinct and each represents a new soul. In some societies like the Mende, multiple beliefs coexist, the Mende believe that people die twice, once during the process of joining the secret society, and again during biological death after which they become ancestors. However, some Mende also believe that people are created by God they live ten consecutive lives. One cross-cultural theme is that the ancestors are part of the world of the living, interacting with it regularly, the afterlife played an important role in Ancient Egyptian religion, and its belief system is one of the earliest known in recorded history. When the body died, parts of its known as ka
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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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Canis
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Canis is a genus of canids containing multiple extant species, such as wolves, dogs and coyotes. Species of this genus are distinguished by their moderate to large size, their massive, well-developed skulls and dentition, long legs, the generic name Canis means dog in Latin. The term canine comes from the form, caninus, from which the term canine tooth is also derived. The canine family has prominent canine teeth, used for killing their prey, the word canis is cognate to the Greek word kūon, which means dog, as well as English hound. Immature males or females are referred to as puppies, a group of puppies from the same gestation period is referred to as a litter. The genus Canis was published in the 10th edition of Systema Naturae and included the dog-like carnivores, all species within the Canis genus are phylogenetically closely related with 78 chromosomes and can potentially interbreed. The fossil record shows that Feliforms and Caniforms emerged within the super-family Carnivoramorpha 43 million YBP, the caniforms included the fox-like Leptocyon genus whose various species existed from 34 million YBP before branching 11.9 million YBP into vulpes and canini. The jackal-sized Eucyon existed in North America from 10 million YBP, in North America it gave rise to early Canis which first appeared in the Miocene in south-western USA and Mexico. By 5 million YBP the larger Canis lepophagus appeared in the same region, the position of the canids would change with the arrival of Canis to become a dominant predator across the Holarctic. The wolf-sized C. chihilensis appeared in northern China in the Mid-Pliocene around 4-3 million YBP and this was followed by an explosion of Canis evolution across Eurasia in the Early Pleistocene around 1.8 million YBP in what is commonly referred to as the Wolf event. It is associated with the formation of the Mammoth steppe and continental glaciation, Canis spread to Europe in the forms of C. arnensis, C. eutruscus, and C. falconeri. See further, Evolution of the canids Wolves, dogs, and dingoes are subspecies of Canis lupus. The original referent of the English word wolf, the Eurasian wolf, is called C. l. lupus to distinguish it from other subspecies, such as the Indian wolf. Some experts have suggested some subspecies of C. lupus be considered Canis species distinct from C. lupus and these include Central Asias Himalayan wolf, and the Indian wolf, as well as the North Americas red wolf and eastern wolf. The dingo, from Australasia, and the dog are also considered subspecies of C. lupus. One of these, the dire wolf, has gained fame from the thousands of specimens found and displayed at the Rancho La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles. Canis species that are too small to attract the word wolf are called coyotes in the Americas, while North America has only one small-sized species, the coyote, it has become very widespread, moving into areas once occupied by wolves. Mitochondrial genome sequences indicated the Ethiopian wolf diverged from the wolf/coyote lineage slightly prior to that
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Cynocephaly
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The characteristic of cynocephaly, /saɪnoʊˈsɛfəli/ having the head of a dog—or of a jackal—is a widely attested mythical phenomenon existing in many different forms and contexts. The word cynocephaly is taken from the Greek word κῠνοκέφᾰλοι kynokephaloi, from kyno– meaning dog, the same dog root is found in the name Cynomorpha for a sub-group of the family Cercopithecidae, which contains many species of macaques and baboons. Cynocephaly was familiar to the Ancient Greeks from representations of the Egyptian gods, Duamutef, Wepwawet, the Greek word dog-head also identified a sacred Egyptian baboon with the face of a dog. Reports of dog-headed races can also be traced back to Greek antiquity, in the fifth century BC, the Greek physician Ctesias wrote a detailed report on the existence of cynocephali in India, known as Indica. Herodotus reports claims by ancient Libyans that such creatures inhabit the east of their lands, as well as headless men, the best estimate for the place where the battle between the Argonauts and the Cynocephali took place is modern day North Serbia, or South Hungary. The cynocephali offered such an image of the magic and brutality deemed characteristic of bizarre people of distant places that they kept returning in medieval literature. Cynocephali also figure in medieval Christian world-views, a legend that placed St. Andrew and St. Bartholomew among the Parthians presented the case of Abominable, the citizen of the city of cannibals. Whose face was like unto that of a dog, after receiving baptism, however, he was released from his doggish aspect. In the Eastern Orthodox Church, certain icons covertly identify Saint Christopher with the head of a dog, to the unit of soldiers, according to the hagiographic narrative, was assigned the name numerus Marmaritarum or Unit of the Marmaritae, which suggests an otherwise-unidentified Marmaritae. He was reported to be of size, with the head of a dog instead of a man. This Byzantine depiction of St. Christopher as dog-headed resulted from their misinterpretation of the Latin term Cananeus to read canineus, that is, canine. The German bishop and poet Walter of Speyer portrayed St. Christopher as a giant of a species in the land of the Chananeans who ate human flesh. Eventually, Christopher met the Christ child, regretted his former behavior and he, too, was rewarded with a human appearance, whereupon he devoted his life to Christian service and became an athlete of God, one of the soldier-saints. There are some rare icons that depict this martyr with the head of a dog, such images may carry echoes of the Egyptian dog-headed god, Anubis, and Christopher pictured with a dogs head is not generally supported by the Orthodox Church. Paul the Deacon mentions cynocephali in his Historia gentis Langobardorum, They pretend that they have in their camps Cynocephali and they spread the rumor among the enemy that these men wage war obstinately, drink human blood and quaff their own gore if they cannot reach the foe. The ninth-century Frankish theologian Ratramnus wrote a letter, the Epistola de Cynocephalis, if human, a Christians duty would be to preach the Gospels to them. If animals, and thus without souls, such would be pointless, quoting St. Jerome, Thomas of Cantimpré corroborated the existence of Cynocephali in his Liber de Monstruosis Hominibus Orientis, xiv. The Nowell Codex, perhaps more known as the manuscript containing the Anglo-Saxon epic Beowulf
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Canidae
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The biological family Canidae /ˈkænᵻdiː/ is a lineage of carnivorans that includes domestic dogs, wolves, foxes, jackals, dingoes, and many other extant and extinct dog-like mammals. A member of family is called a canid. The cat-like feliforms and dog-like caniforms emerged within the Carnivoramorpha 43 million years before present, the caniforms included the fox-like Leptocyon genus whose various species existed from 34 million years before present before branching 11.9 million YBP into Vulpini and Canini. Canids are found on all continents except Antarctica, having arrived independently or accompanied human beings over extended periods of time, canids vary in size from the 2-m-long gray wolf to the 24-cm-long fennec fox. The body forms of canids are similar, typically having long muzzles, upright ears, teeth adapted for cracking bones and slicing flesh, long legs and they are mostly social animals, living together in family units or small groups and behaving cooperatively. Typically, only the dominant pair in a group breeds, canids communicate by scent signals and by vocalizations. One canid, the dog, long ago entered into a partnership with humans. In the history of the carnivores, the family Canidae is represented by the two extinct subfamilies designated as Hesperocyoninae and Borophaginae, and the extant subfamily Caninae and this subfamily includes all living canids and their most recent fossil relatives. The fox-like canids, which include the kit fox, red fox, Cape fox, Arctic fox, the South American canids, including the bush dog, hoary fox, crab-eating fox and maned wolf. Various monotypic taxa, including the bat-eared fox, gray fox, DNA analysis shows that the first three form monophyletic clades. The wolf-like canids and the South American canids together form the tribe Canini, molecular data imply a North American origin of living Canidae some ten million years ago and an African origin of wolf-like canines, with the jackals being the most basal of this group. The South American clade is rooted by the wolf and bush dog. The grey fox and island fox are basal to the other clades, the cladogram below is based on the phylogeny of Lindblad-Toh et al, modified to incorporate recent findings on Canis and Vulpes species. The Canidae today includes a group of some 34 species ranging in size from the maned wolf with its long limbs to the short-legged bush dog. Modern canids inhabit forests, tundra, savannahs and deserts throughout tropical, in some species, genetic divergence has been suppressed by the high level of gene flow between different populations and where the species have hybridized, large hybrid zones exist. Carnivorans evolved from miacoids about 55 million years ago during the late Paleocene, some five million years later, the carnivorans split into two main divisions, caniforms and feliforms. By 40 Mya, the first member of the dog family proper had arisen, called Prohesperocyon wilsoni, its fossilized remains have been found in what is now the southwestern part of Texas. The chief features which identify it as a canid include the loss of the third molar
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African golden wolf
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The African golden wolf, also known as the golden wolf, African wolf or thoa, is a canid native to north and northeastern Africa. It is a canid, and is common in plains and steppe areas. In the Atlas Mountains, the species has been sighted in elevations as high as 1,800 metres and it is primarily a predator, targeting invertebrates and mammals as large as gazelle fawns, though larger animals are sometimes taken. Other foodstuffs include animal carcasses, human refuse, and fruit, the African wolf is a monogamous and territorial animal, whose social structure includes yearling offspring remaining with the family to assist in raising their parents younger pups. It was previously classified as an African variant of the Eurasian golden jackal and it is nonetheless still close enough to the golden jackal to produce hybrid offspring, as indicated through genetic tests on jackals in Israel and a 19th-century captive crossbreeding experiment. The African wolf is a canid, with both sexes weighing 7–15 kg, and standing 40 cm in height. It has a long snout and ears, while the tail is comparatively short. Fur colour varies individually, seasonally and geographically, though the typical colouration is yellowish to grey, with slightly reddish limbs and black speckling on the tail. The throat, abdomen and facial markings are white. Females bear two to four pairs of teats, although superficially similar to the Eurasian golden jackal, the African golden wolf has a more pointed muzzle and sharper, more robust teeth. The ears are longer in the African wolf, and the skull has a more elevated forehead, aristotle wrote of wolves living in Egypt, mentioning that they were smaller than the Greek kind. The binomial name he chose for it was derived from the Arcadian Anthus family described by Pliny the Elder in his Natural History, whose members would draw lots to become werewolves. Eduard Rüppell proposed that the animal was the ancestor of Egyptian sighthounds, an attempt was also made in 1821 to hybridise the two species in captivity, resulting in the birth of five pups, three of which died before weaning. English biologist St. George Jackson Mivart emphasised the differences between the African wolf and the jackal in his writings. It is a question whether the Common Jackal of North Africa should or should not be regarded as of the same species. Certainly the differences of coloration which exist between these forms is not nearly so great as those which are to be found to occur between the different local varieties of C. lupus, to keep the North-African and Indian Jackals distinct. The reasons why we prefer to keep them provisionally distinct is that though the difference between the two forms is slight as regards coloration, yet it appears to be a constant one. Out of seventeen skins of the Indian form, we have found one which is wanting in the main characteristic as to difference of hue
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Embalming
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Embalming is the art and science of preserving human remains by treating them to forestall decomposition. The intention is to keep them suitable for display at a funeral, for religious reasons, or for medical. The three goals of embalming are sanitization, presentation, and preservation, Embalming has a very long and cross-cultural history, with many cultures giving the embalming processes a greater religious meaning. Embalming preserves the human body intact, whereas taxidermy is the recreation of a form often using only the creatures skin mounted on an anatomical form. The Chinchorro culture in the Atacama desert of present-day Chile and Peru are among the earliest cultures known to have performed artificial mummification as early as 5000-6000 BC, perhaps the ancient culture that had developed embalming to the greatest extent was Egypt. As early as the First Dynasty, specialized priests were in charge of embalming and they did so by removing organs, ridding the body of moisture, and covering the body with natron. The Ancient Egyptians believed that preservation of the mummy empowered the soul after death, other cultures known to have used embalming techniques in antiquity include the Meroites, Guanches, Peruvians, Jivaro Indians, Aztecs, Toltecs, Mayans, and Tibetan and southern Nigerian tribes. In China, artificially preserved remains have been recovered from the period of the Han dynasty, the examples being that of Xin Zhui. While these remains have been well preserved, the embalming fluids and methods used are unknown. In Europe the knowledge and practice of preservation had spread from these ancient cultures becoming widely spread by about 500 AD. Early methods used are documented by contemporary physicians such as Peter Forestus, the first attempts to inject the vascular system were made by Alessandro Giliani of Persiceto, who died in 1326. Various attempts and procedures have been reported by Leonardo da Vinci, Jacobus Berengar, Bartholomeo Eustachius, Reinier de Graaf, Jan Swammerdam, in the United States, the Civil War era sparked an interest in embalming and it became very common across the nation. The modern method of embalming involves the injection of various chemical solutions into the network of the cadaver to prevent decomposition. William Harvey, the 17th century English physician who was the first to detail the system of blood circulation, the Scottish surgeon William Hunter was the first to apply these methods to the art of embalming as part of mortuary practice. He wrote a widely read report on the methods for arterial. His brother, John Hunter, applied these methods and advertised his services to the general public from the mid-18th century. One of his more notorious customers was the dentist Martin Van Butchell, when his wife Mary died on January 14,1775, he decided to have her embalmed and turn her into an attraction in order to draw more customers. Hunter injected the body with preservatives and color additives that gave a glow to the cheeks, replaced her eyes with glass eyes
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Middle Kingdom of Egypt
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Some scholars also include the Thirteenth Dynasty of Egypt wholly into this period as well, in which case the Middle Kingdom would finish c. 1650, while others only include it until Merneferre Ay c.1700 BC, during the Middle Kingdom period, Osiris became the most important deity in popular religion. The period comprises two phases, the 11th Dynasty, which ruled from Thebes and the 12th Dynasty onwards which was centered on el-Lisht, after the collapse of the Old Kingdom, Egypt entered a period of weak Pharaonic power and decentralization called the First Intermediate Period. Towards the end of period, two rival dynasties, known in Egyptology as the Tenth and Eleventh, fought for power over the entire country. The Theban 11th Dynasty only ruled southern Egypt from the first cataract to the Tenth Nome of Upper Egypt, to the north, Lower Egypt was ruled by the rival 10th Dynasty from Herakleopolis. The struggle was to be concluded by Mentuhotep II, who ascended the Theban throne in 2055 B. C, during Mentuhotep IIs fourteenth regnal year, he took advantage of a revolt in the Thinite Nome to launch an attack on Herakleopolis, which met little resistance. After toppling the last rulers of the 10th Dynasty, Mentuhotep began consolidating his power over all Egypt, for this reason, Mentuhotep II is regarded as the founder of the Middle Kingdom. Mentuhotep II commanded military campaigns south as far as the Second Cataract in Nubia and he also restored Egyptian hegemony over the Sinai region, which had been lost to Egypt since the end of the Old Kingdom. He also sent the first expedition to Punt during the Middle Kingdom, by means of ships constructed at the end of Wadi Hammamat, Mentuhotep III was succeeded by Mentuhotep IV, whose name significantly is omitted from all ancient Egyptian king lists. The Turin Papyrus claims that after Mentuhotep III came seven kingless years, despite this absence, his reign is attested from a few inscriptions in Wadi Hammamat that record expeditions to the Red Sea coast and to quarry stone for the royal monuments. The leader of expedition was his vizier Amenemhat, who is widely assumed to be the future pharaoh Amenemhet I. Mentuhotep IVs absence from the king lists has prompted the theory that Amenemhet I usurped his throne, while there are no contemporary accounts of this struggle, certain circumstantial evidence may point to the existence of a civil war at the end of the 11th dynasty. Inscriptions left by one Nehry, the Haty-a of Hermopolis, suggest that he was attacked at a place called Shedyet-sha by the forces of the reigning king, but his forces prevailed. Khnumhotep I, an official under Amenemhet I, claims to have participated in a flotilla of 20 ships to pacify Upper Egypt, donald Redford has suggested these events should be interpreted as evidence of open war between two dynastic claimants. What is certain is that, however he came to power, from the 12th dynasty onwards, pharaohs often kept well-trained standing armies, which included Nubian contingents. These formed the basis of larger forces which were raised for defence against invasion, however, the Middle Kingdom was basically defensive in its military strategy, with fortifications built at the First Cataract of the Nile, in the Delta and across the Sinai Isthmus. Early in his reign, Amenemhet I was compelled to campaign in the Delta region, in addition, he strengthened defenses between Egypt and Asia, building the Walls of the Ruler in the East Delta region. Perhaps in response to this perpetual unrest, Amenemhat I built a new capital for Egypt in the north, known as Amenemhet Itj Tawy, or Amenemhet, the location of this capital is unknown, but is presumably near the citys necropolis, the present-day el-Lisht
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Underworld
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The underworld or netherworld is an otherworld thought to be deep underground or beneath the surface of the world in most religions and mythologies. Typically it is a place where the souls of the departed go, chthonic is the technical adjective for things of the underworld. This list includes underworlds in mythology, with links to corresponding articles. This list includes rulers or guardians of the underworld in various mythologies, otherworld World Tree — A tree that connects the heavens, the earth, and the underworld in a number of spiritual belief systems
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Psychopomp
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Psychopomps are creatures, spirits, angels, or deities in many religions whose responsibility is to escort newly deceased souls from Earth to the afterlife. Their role is not to judge the deceased, but simply to provide safe passage, when seen as birds, they are often seen in huge masses, waiting outside the home of the dying. Classical examples of a psychopomp are the ancient Egyptian god Anubis, the Greek ferryman Charon and deities Hermes and Hecate, the Roman god Mercury, the form of Shiva as Tarakeshwara in Hinduism performs a similar role, although leading the soul to moksha rather than an afterlife. In many beliefs, a spirit being taken to the underworld is violently ripped from its body. In the Persian tradition, Daena, the Zoroastrian Self-guide, appears as a young maiden to those who deserve to cross the Chinvat Bridge or a hideous old hag to those who don’t. In Judaism and Islam, Azrael plays the role of the angel of death who carries the soul up to the heavens, in Jungian psychology, the psychopomp is a mediator between the unconscious and conscious realms. It is symbolically personified in dreams as a man or woman. In many cultures, the shaman also fulfills the role of the psychopomp and this may include not only accompanying the soul of the dead, but also to help at birth, to introduce the newborn childs soul to the world. This also accounts for the title of midwife to the dying, or End of Life Doula. In Filipino culture, dead relations function as psychopomps, when the dying call out to specific dead persons, the spirits of the latter are supposedly visible to the former. The spirits, who wait at the foot of the deathbed, fetch the soul soon after death. Geoffrey Dennis, Abraham, Elijah, Lailah, Sandalphon, Encyclopedia of Jewish Myth, Magic, eliade, Mircea, Shamanism,1964, Chapters 6 and 7, Magical Cures, the Shaman as Psychopomp
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Weighing scale
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Weighing scales are devices to measure weight or calculate mass. Scales and balances are used in commerce, as many products are sold. Very accurate balances, called analytical balances, are used in fields such as chemistry. Although records dating to the 1700s refer to spring scales for measuring weight, the earliest design for such a device dates to 1770 and credits Richard Salter, an early scale-maker. Postal workers could work quickly with spring scales than balance scales because they could be read instantaneously. By the 1940s various electronic devices were being attached to these designs to make more accurate. A spring scale measures weight by reporting the distance that a spring deflects under a load and this contrasts to a balance, which compares the torque on the arm due to a sample weight to the torque on the arm due to a standard reference weight using a horizontal lever. Spring scales measure force, which is the force of constraint acting on an object. They are usually calibrated so that measured force translates to mass at earths gravity, the object to be weighed can be simply hung from the spring or set on a pivot and bearing platform. In a spring scale, the spring either stretches or compresses, by Hookes law, every spring has a proportionality constant that relates how hard it is pulled to how far it stretches. Rack and pinion mechanisms are used to convert the linear spring motion to a dial reading. With proper manufacturing and setup, however, spring scales can be rated as legal for commerce, to remove the temperature error, a commerce-legal spring scale must either have temperature-compensated springs or be used at a fairly constant temperature. To eliminate the effect of gravity variations, a spring scale must be calibrated where it is used. It is also common in high-capacity applications such as crane scales to use force to sense weight. The test force is applied to a piston or diaphragm and transmitted through hydraulic lines to an indicator based on a Bourdon tube or electronic sensor. A digital bathroom scale is a type of electronic weighing machine, the digital bathroom scale is a smart scale which has many functions like smartphone integration, cloud storage, fitness tracking, etc. In electronic versions of spring scales, the deflection of a beam supporting the weight is measured using a strain gauge. The capacity of such devices is only limited by the resistance of the beam to deflection and these scales are used in the modern bakery, grocery, delicatessen, seafood, meat, produce and other perishable goods departments
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Egyptian mythology
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Egyptian mythology is the collection of myths from ancient Egypt, which describe the actions of the Egyptian gods as a means of understanding the world. The beliefs that these myths express are an important part of ancient Egyptian religion, Myths appear frequently in Egyptian writings and art, particularly in short stories and in religious material such as hymns, ritual texts, funerary texts, and temple decoration. These sources rarely contain an account of a myth and often describe only brief fragments. Inspired by the cycles of nature, the Egyptians saw time in the present as a series of recurring patterns, Myths are set in these earliest times, and myth sets the pattern for the cycles of the present. Present events repeat the events of myth, and in doing so renew maat, events from the present that might be regarded as myths include Ras daily journey through the world and its otherworldly counterpart, the Duat. The details of these sacred events differ greatly from one text to another, Egyptian myths are primarily metaphorical, translating the essence and behavior of deities into terms that humans can understand. Each variant of a myth represents a different symbolic perspective, enriching the Egyptians understanding of the gods and it inspired or influenced many religious rituals and provided the ideological basis for kingship. Scenes and symbols from myth appeared in art in tombs, temples, in literature, myths or elements of them were used in stories that range from humor to allegory, demonstrating that the Egyptians adapted mythology to serve a wide variety of purposes. The development of Egyptian myth is difficult to trace, Egyptologists must make educated guesses about its earliest phases, based on written sources that appeared much later. One obvious influence on myth is the Egyptians natural surroundings, thus the Egyptians saw water and the sun as symbols of life and thought of time as a series of natural cycles. This orderly pattern was at constant risk of disruption, unusually low floods resulted in famine, the hospitable Nile valley was surrounded by harsh desert, populated by peoples the Egyptians regarded as uncivilized enemies of order. For these reasons, the Egyptians saw their land as an place of stability, or maat. These themes—order, chaos, and renewal—appear repeatedly in Egyptian religious thought, another possible source for mythology is ritual. Many rituals make reference to myths and are based directly on them. But it is difficult to determine whether a cultures myths developed before rituals or vice versa, questions about this relationship between myth and ritual have spawned much discussion among Egyptologists and scholars of comparative religion in general. In ancient Egypt, the earliest evidence of religious practices predates written myths, rituals early in Egyptian history included only a few motifs from myth. For these reasons, some scholars have argued that, in Egypt, but because the early evidence is so sparse, the question may never be resolved for certain. In private rituals, which are often called magical, the myth, many of the myth-like stories that appear in the rituals texts are not found in other sources
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Wepwawet
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In late Egyptian mythology, Wepwawet was originally a war deity, whose cult centre was Asyut in Upper Egypt. His name means opener of the ways and he is depicted as a wolf standing at the prow of a solar-boat. Some interpret that Wepwawet was seen as a scout, going out to clear routes for the army to proceed forward, one inscription from the Sinai states that Wepwawet opens the way to king Sekhemkhets victory. Likewise, Wepwawet was said to accompany the pharaoh on hunts, over time, the connection to war, and thus to death, led to Wepwawet also being seen as one who opened the ways to, and through, Duat, for the spirits of the dead. Through this, and the similarity of the jackal to the wolf, Wepwawet became associated with Anubis, seen as a jackal, he also was said to be Sets son. Consequently, Wepwawet often is confused with Anubis and this deity appears in the Temple of Seti I at Abydos. In later Egyptian art, Wepwawet was depicted as a wolf or a jackal, even when considered a jackal, Wepwawet usually was shown with grey, or white fur, reflecting his lupine origins. He was depicted dressed as a soldier, as well as carrying other military equipment—a mace, consequently, Wepwawet, who had hitherto been the standard of Upper Egypt alone, formed an integral part of royal rituals, symbolizing the unification of Egypt. In later pyramid texts, Wepwawet is called Ra who has gone up from the horizon, in the later Egyptian funerary context, Wepwawet assists at the Opening of the mouth ceremony and guides the deceased into the netherworld. It is native to Egypt, Libya, and Ethiopia, though its post-Pleistocene range once encompassed the Palestine region and its closest relatives are the Abyssinian wolf, also known as the red wolf and the king jackal, and the Indian wolf. The dogs of ancient Egypt were likely domesticated subspecies of one or more of these enigmatic species, media related to Wepwawet at Wikimedia Commons
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Old Kingdom of Egypt
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The term itself was coined by eighteenth-century historians and the distinction between the Old Kingdom and the Early Dynastic Period is not one which would have been recognized by Ancient Egyptians. The Old Kingdom is most commonly regarded as the period from the Third Dynasty through to the Sixth Dynasty, many Egyptologists also include the Memphite Seventh and Eighth Dynasties in the Old Kingdom as a continuation of the administration centralized at Memphis. During the Old Kingdom, the king of Egypt became a god who ruled absolutely and could demand the services. Under King Djoser, the first king of the Third Dynasty of the Old Kingdom, the capital of Egypt was moved to Memphis. A new era of building was initiated at Saqqara under his reign, King Djosers architect, Imhotep is credited with the development of building with stone and with the conception of the new architectural form—the Step Pyramid. Indeed, the Old Kingdom is perhaps best known for the number of pyramids constructed at this time as burial places for Egypts kings. For this reason, the Old Kingdom is frequently referred to as the Age of the Pyramids, the first king of the Old Kingdom was Djoser of the third dynasty, who ordered the construction of a pyramid in Memphis necropolis, Saqqara. An important person during the reign of Djoser was his vizier and it was in this era that formerly independent ancient Egyptian states became known as nomes, under the rule of the king. The former rulers were forced to assume the role of governors or otherwise work in tax collection, Egyptians in this era worshipped their king as a god, believing that he ensured the annual flooding of the Nile that was necessary for their crops. Egyptian views on the nature of time during this period held that the worked in cycles. They also perceived themselves as a specially selected people, the Old Kingdom and its royal power reached a zenith under the Fourth Dynasty, which began with Sneferu. Using more stones than any king, he built three pyramids, a now collapsed pyramid in Meidum, the Bent Pyramid at Dahshur. However, the development of the pyramid style of building was reached not at Saqqara. Sneferu was succeeded by his son, Khufu who built the Great Pyramid of Giza, after Khufus death, his sons Djedefra and Khafra may have quarrelled. The latter built the pyramid and the Sphinx in Giza. Recent reexamination of evidence has led Egyptologist Vassil Dobrev to propose that the Sphinx had been built by Djedefra as a monument to his father Khufu, alternatively, the Sphinx has been proposed to be the work of Khafra and Khufu himself. There were military expeditions into Canaan and Nubia, with Egyptian influence reaching up the Nile into what is today the Sudan, the later kings of the Fourth Dynasty were king Menkaure, who built the smallest pyramid in Giza, Shepseskaf and, perhaps, Djedefptah. The Fifth Dynasty began with Userkaf and was marked by the importance of the cult of sun god Ra
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Hotep
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Hotep is an Egyptian word that roughly translates as to be at peace. It is regularly found in the names of ancient Egyptian figures such as Hotepsekhemwy, Hotep is the Egyptological pronunciation of Egyptian ḥtp, which was pronounced differently over time. Hotep is rendered in hieroglyphs as an altar/offering table, the phrase m ḥtp has been translated to mean literally at peace or living the life in balance. Hotep is an avatar available in Active Worlds, Hotep is a commonly used greeting in Afrocentric circles. Hotep is one of the advisors to Pharaoh in the epic film The Prince of Egypt. Nyarlathotep is a deity or a demon in stories by H. P, a term with negative connotation used to describe African American men by various other groups. Radical 113 - A similar glyph in Chinese List of hieroglyphs/R Faulkner, to put to rest disputes, and settle the complaints of petitioners be peaceful, calm, make peace. The Precepts of Ptah-Hotep, c.2200 BCE The writings of Ptah Hotep
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Akkadian
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Akkadian is an extinct East Semitic language that was spoken in ancient Mesopotamia. The earliest attested Semitic language, it used the writing system, which was originally used to write the unrelated Ancient Sumerian. The language was named after the city of Akkad, a centre of Mesopotamian civilization during the Akkadian Empire. The mutual influence between Sumerian and Akkadian had led scholars to describe the languages as a sprachbund, Akkadian proper names were first attested in Sumerian texts from around the mid 3rd-millennium BC. From the second half of the third millennium BC, texts written in Akkadian begin to appear. By the second millennium BC, two variant forms of the language were in use in Assyria and Babylonia, known as Assyrian and Babylonian respectively, for centuries, Akkadian was the native language in Mesopotamian nations such as Assyria and Babylonia. However, it began to decline during the Neo-Assyrian Empire around the 8th century BC, by the Hellenistic period, the language was largely confined to scholars and priests working in temples in Assyria and Babylonia. The last known Akkadian cuneiform document dates from the 1st century AD, Akkadian belongs with the other Semitic languages in the Near Eastern branch of the Afroasiatic languages, a family native to East Africa, which then spread to West, Northwest and Northeast Africa. Within the Near Eastern Semitic languages, Akkadian forms an East Semitic subgroup and this novel word order is due to the influence of the Sumerian substratum, which has an SOV order. Additionally Akkadian is the only Semitic language to use the prepositions ina and ana, other Semitic languages like Arabic and Aramaic have the prepositions bi/bə and li/lə. The origin of the Akkadian spatial prepositions is unknown, in contrast to most other Semitic languages, Akkadian has only one non-sibilant fricative, ḫ. Akkadian lost both the glottal and pharyngeal fricatives, which are characteristic of the other Semitic languages, until the Old Babylonian period, the Akkadian sibilants were exclusively affricated. Old Akkadian is preserved on clay tablets dating back to c.2500 BC and it was written using cuneiform, a script adopted from the Sumerians using wedge-shaped symbols pressed in wet clay. As employed by Akkadian scribes, the cuneiform script could represent either Sumerian logograms, Sumerian syllables, Akkadian syllables. For this reason, the sign AN can on the one hand be a logogram for the word ilum, additionally, this sign was used as a determinative for divine names. Another peculiarity of Akkadian cuneiform is that many signs do not have a phonetic value. Certain signs, such as AḪ, do not distinguish between the different vowel qualities, nor is there any coordination in the other direction, the syllable -ša-, for example, is rendered by the sign ŠA, but also by the sign NĪĜ. Both of these are used for the same syllable in the same text
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Amarna letters
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The letters were found in Upper Egypt at Amarna, the modern name for the ancient Egyptian capital of Akhetaten, founded by pharaoh Akhenaten during the Eighteenth dynasty of Egypt. The Amarna letters are unusual in Egyptological research, because they are written in Akkadian cuneiform. The written correspondence spans a period of at most thirty years, the Amarna letters are of great significance for biblical studies as well as Semitic linguistics, since they shed light on the culture and language of the Canaanite peoples in pre-biblical times. These Canaanisms provide valuable insights into the proto-stage of those languages several centuries prior to their first actual manifestation and they had originally been stored in an ancient building that archaeologists have since called the Bureau of Correspondence of Pharaoh. Once the location where they were found was determined, the ruins were explored for more, the first archaeologist who successfully recovered more tablets was Flinders Petrie, who in 1891 and 1892 uncovered 21 fragments. Émile Chassinat, then director of the French Institute for Oriental Archaeology in Cairo, since Knudtzons edition, some 24 more tablets, or fragments, have been found, either in Egypt, or identified in the collections of various museums. The initial group of letters recovered by local Egyptians have been scattered among museums in Germany, England, Egypt, France, Russia, the archive contains a wealth of information about cultures, kingdoms, events and individuals in a period from which few written sources survive. It includes correspondence from Akhenatens reign, as well as his predecessor Amenhotep IIIs reign, the tablets consist of over 300 diplomatic letters, the remainder comprise miscellaneous literary and educational materials. These tablets shed light on Egyptian relations with Babylonia, Assyria, Syria, Canaan, and Alashiya as well as relations with the Mitanni. The letters have been important in establishing both the history and the chronology of the period, letters from the Babylonian king, Kadashman-Enlil I, anchor the timeframe of Akhenatens reign to the mid-14th century BC. Specifically, the letters include requests for help in the north against Hittite invaders. Note, Many assignments are tentative, spellings vary widely, william L. The Amarna archive, it is now generally agreed, spans at most about thirty years, perhaps only fifteen or so. Moran notes that scholars believe one tablet, EA16. However, this speculation appears improbable because the Amarna archives were closed by Year 2 of Tutankhamun, a small number of the Amarna letters are in the class of poetry. EA153, entitled, Ships on hold, from Abimilku of Tyre is a short, lines 6-8, and 9-11 are parallel phrases, each ending with. before the troops of the king, my lord. -. Both sentences are identical, and repetitive, with only the subject statement changing, the entire corpus of Amarna letters has many standard phrases. It also has some phrases, and quotations used only once, some are parables, A bird in a cage —Rib-Hadda subcorpus of letters. A brick may move from under its partner, still I will not move from under the feet of the king, my lord. —Used in letters EA266,292, EA292 by Adda-danu of Gazru
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Fourth Dynasty of Egypt
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The Fourth Dynasty of ancient Egypt is characterized as a golden age of the Old Kingdom. Dynasty IV lasted from c. 2613 to 2494 BC and it was a time of peace and prosperity as well as one during which trade with other countries is documented. Dynasties III, IV, V and VI are often combined under the title the Old Kingdom. The capital at time was Memphis. The Fourth Dynasty heralded the height of the pyramid-building age, the relative peace of the Third Dynasty allowed the Dynasty IV rulers the leisure to explore more artistic and cultural pursuits. Sneferu’s building experiments led to the evolution from the mastaba styled step pyramids to the smooth sided “true” pyramids, no other period in Egypt’s history equaled Dynasty IV’s architectural accomplishments. Each of the rulers of this dynasty commissioned at least one pyramid to serve as a tomb or cenotaph, the pharaohs of the Fourth Dynasty ruled for approximately 120 years, from c. 2613 to 2494 BC. The names in the table are taken from Dodson and Hilton and he also constructed a number of smaller step pyramids, making him the most prolific pyramid builder of the era. It is said that Sneferu had more stone and brick moved than any other pharaoh, sneferus chief wife was Hetepheres I, his half-sister and the mother of his son Khufu. His other two wives bore him more children, a well-liked ruler, Sneferu bolstered the power of the ruling family line by giving official titles and positions to relatives. He maintained control over the nobility by keeping a tight rein on lands and he conducted military excursions into Sinai, Nubia, Libya, and began trade arrangements with Lebanon for the acquisition of cedar. Surviving from this era are the records of Egyptian contact with her neighbors. They are recorded on the Palermo stone, information carved on the stone pre-dates and antedates this dynasty. Objects dating to the reign of Khafre have been found farther away, at Ebla. Khufu is the ruler who is known in Greek as Χέοψ = Cheops and his son is Khafre and his grandson is Menkaure. All of these rulers achieved lasting fame in the construction of their pyramids at Giza. In fact, recent excavations outside the Wall of the Crow by Dr. Mark Lehner have uncovered a city which seems to have housed, fed. Some records indicate that each household was responsible for providing a worker for civic projects, civic duties were not necessarily building projects, there were duties for the temples, libraries, and festivals as well, and both men and women filled some of the positions
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Early Dynastic Period (Egypt)
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The Archaic or Early Dynastic Period of Egypt is the era immediately following the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt c.3100 BC. It is generally taken to include the First and Second Dynasties, lasting from the end of the Naqada III archaeological period until about 2686 BC, with the First Dynasty, the capital moved from Thinis to Memphis with a unified Egypt ruled by an Egyptian god-king. Abydos remained the holy land in the south. The hallmarks of ancient Egyptian civilization, such as art, architecture and many aspects of religion, before the unification of Egypt, the land was settled with autonomous villages. With the early dynasties, and for much of Egypts history thereafter, the pharaohs established a national administration and appointed royal governors. The buildings of the government were typically open-air temples constructed of wood or sandstone. The earliest Egyptian hieroglyphs appear just before this period, though little is known of the language they represent. By about 3600 BC, neolithic Egyptian societies along the Nile had based their culture on the raising of crops, shortly after 3600 BC Egyptian society began to grow and advance rapidly toward refined civilization. A new and distinctive pottery, which was related to the pottery in the Southern Levant, extensive use of copper became common during this time. The Mesopotamian process of sun-dried bricks, and architectural building principles—including the use of the arch, concurrent with these cultural advances, a process of unification of the societies and towns of the upper Nile River, or Upper Egypt, occurred. At the same time the societies of the Nile Delta, or Lower Egypt also underwent a unification process, warfare between Upper and Lower Egypt occurred often. During his reign in Upper Egypt, King Narmer defeated his enemies on the Delta, in mythology, the unification of Egypt is portrayed as the falcon-god, called Horus and identified with Lower Egypt, as conquering and subduing the god Set, who was identified with Upper Egypt. Divine kingship, which would persist in Egypt for the next three millennia, was established as the basis of Egypts government. The unification of societies along the Nile has also linked to the drying of the Sahara. Funeral practices for the peasants would have been the same as in predynastic times, thus, the Egyptians began construction of the mastabas which became models for the later Old Kingdom constructions such as the Step pyramid. Cereal agriculture and centralization contributed to the success of the state for the next 800 years and this would last for many centuries. It was also during this period that the Egyptian writing system was further developed, initially Egyptian writing had been composed primarily of a few symbols denoting amounts of various substances. By the end of the 3rd dynasty it had expanded to include more than 200 symbols
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Hor-Aha
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Hor-Aha is considered the second pharaoh of the First Dynasty of Egypt by some egyptologists, others consider him the first one and corresponding to Menes. He lived around the 31st century BC and is thought to have had a long reign, the Greek historian Manethos record Aegyptiaca lists his Greek name as Athothis, or Athotís. The different titular elements of a name were often used in isolation, for brevitys sake, although the choice varied according to circumstance. Mainstream Egyptological consensus follows the findings of Petrie in reconciling the two records and connects Hor-Aha with the nebty-name Ity, the same process has led to the identification of the historical Menes with Narmer evidenced in the archaeological record as the predecessor of Hor-Aha. There has been controversy about Hor-Aha. Some believe him to be the individual as the legendary Menes. Others claim he was the son of Narmer, the pharaoh who unified Egypt, Narmer and Menes may have been one pharaoh, referred to with more than one name. Regardless, considerable evidence from the period points to Narmer as the pharaoh who first unified Egypt and to Hor-Aha as his son. Seal impressions discovered by G. Dreyer in the Umm el-Qaab from Merneith and his predecessor Narmer had united Upper Egypt and Lower Egypt into a single kingdom. Hor-Aha probably ascended the throne in the late 32nd or early 31st century, Hor-Aha seems to have conducted many religious activities. A visit to a shrine of the goddess Neith is recorded on tablets from his reign. The sanctuary of Neith he visited was located in the north-east of the Nile Delta at Sais, furthermore, the first known representation of the sacred Henu-bark of the god Seker was found engraved on a year tablet dating from his reign. Vessel inscriptions, labels and sealings from the graves of Hor-Aha and he arranged for her burial in a magnificent mastaba excavated by Jacques de Morgan. Queen Neithhotep is plausibly Ahas mother The selection of the cemetery of Naqada as the place of Neithhotep is a strong indication that she came from this province. This, in turn, supports the view that Narmer married a member of the ancient royal line of Naqada to strengthen the domination of the Thinite kings over the region. However, in January 2016, an inscription has demonstrated that Neithhotep was actually a queen regent early during the reign of Djer. Therefore, the evidence above only proves that Neithhotep did live during the reign of Hor-Aha. Most importantly, the oldest mastaba at the North Saqqara necropolis of Memphis dates to his reign, the mastaba belongs to an elite member of the administration who may have been a relative of Hor-Aha, as was customary at the time
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Djer
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Djer is considered the third pharaoh of the First Dynasty of ancient Egypt in current Egyptology. He lived around the mid-thirty-first century BC and reigned for c.40 years, a mummified forearm of Djer or his wife was discovered by Flinders Petrie, but was discarded by Emile Brugsch. The Abydos King List lists the third pharaoh as Iti, the Turin Canon lists a damaged name, beginning with It. Wilkinson notes that years 1-10 of Djers reign are preserved in register II of the Palermo Stone, Djers reign was preceded by a regency controlled by Neithhotep, possibly his mother or grandmother. An ivory tablet from Abydos mentions that Djer visited Buto and Sais in the Nile Delta, one of his regnal years on the Cairo Stone was named Year of smiting the land of Setjet, which often is speculated to be Sinai or beyond. Manetho claimed that Athothes, who is identified as Djer, had written a treatise on anatomy that still existed in his own day. Djer was a son of the pharaoh Hor-Aha and his wife Khenthap, Djer fathered Merneith, wife of Djet and mother of Den. These women are thought to be the wives of Djer and include, Nakhtneith, buried in Abydos, Herneith, possibly a wife of Djer. Seshemetka, buried in Abydos next to the king and she was said to be a wife of Den in Dodson and Hilton. Penebui, her name and title were found on a label from Saqqara. Bsu, known from a label in Saqqara and several stone vessels, similarly to his father Hor-Aha, Djer was buried in Umm el-Qaab at Abydos. Djers tomb is tomb O of Petrie and his tomb contains the remains of 318 retainers who were buried with him. Several objects were found in and around the tomb of Djer, A stela of Djer, labels mentioning the name of a palace and the name of Meritneith. Fragments of two inscribed with the name of Queen Neithhotep. Bracelets of a Queen were found in the wall of the tomb, in the subsidiary tombs excavators found, Stelae of several individuals Ivory objects with the name of Neithhotep. Manetho indicates that the First Dynasty ruled from Memphis – and indeed Herneith, one of Djers wives, was buried nearby at Saqqara
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Prehistoric Egypt
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This Predynastic era is traditionally equivalent to the final part of the Neolithic period beginning c.6000 BC and corresponds to the Naqada III period. The Predynastic period is divided into cultural periods, each named after the place where a certain type of Egyptian settlement was first discovered. The Late Paleolithic in Egypt started around 30,000 BC, the Nazlet Khater skeleton was found in 1980 and dated in 1982 from nine samples ranging between 35,100 and 30,360 years. This specimen is the only complete human skeleton from the earliest Late Stone Age in Africa. Excavation of the Nile has exposed early stone tools, the earliest of these lithic industries were located within the 100-foot terrace, and were Chellean, primitive Acheulean and an Egyptian form of the Clactonian. Within the 50-foot terrace was developed Acheulean, originally reported as Early Mousterian but since changed to Levalloisean, other implements were located in the 30-foot terrace. The 15- and 10-foot terraces saw a more developed version of the Levalloisean, finally, tools of the Egyptian Sebilian technology and an Egyptian version of the Aterian technology were also located. Some of the oldest known buildings were discovered in Egypt by archaeologist Waldemar Chmielewski along the border near Wadi Halfa. They were mobile structures—easily disassembled, moved, and reassembled—providing hunter-gatherers with semi-permanent habitation, Aterian tool-making reached Egypt c.40,000 BC. The Khormusan industry in Egypt began between 40,000 and 30,000 BC, khormusans developed advanced tools not only from stone but also from animal bones and hematite. They also developed small arrow heads resembling those of Native Americans, the end of the Khormusan industry came around 16,000 B. C. with the appearance of other cultures in the region, including the Gemaian. The Halfan culture flourished along the Nile Valley of Egypt and Nubia between 18,000 and 15,000 BC, though one Halfan site dates to before 24,000 BC, people survived on a diet of large herd animals and the Khormusan tradition of fishing. Greater concentrations of artifacts indicate that they were not bound to seasonal wandering and they are viewed as the parent culture of the Ibero-Maurusian industry, which spread across the Sahara and into Spain. The Halfan culture was derived in turn from the Khormusan, which depended on specialized hunting, fishing, the primary material remains of this culture are stone tools, flakes, and a multitude of rock paintings. Qadan peoples developed sickles and grinding stones to aid in the collecting and processing of plant foods prior to consumption. However, there are no indications of the use of these tools after around 10,000 BC, in Egypt, analyses of pollen found at archaeological sites indicate that the Sebilian culture were gathering wheat and barley. It has been hypothesized that the sedentary lifestyle used by farmers led to increased warfare, continued expansion of the desert forced the early ancestors of the Egyptians to settle around the Nile more permanently and adopt a more sedentary lifestyle. The period from 9000 to 6000 BC has left little in the way of archaeological evidence
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Pyramid Texts
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The Pyramid Texts are a collection of ancient Egyptian religious texts from the time of the Old Kingdom. Written in Old Egyptian, the texts were carved on the walls. The oldest of the texts have been dated to between ca, unlike the later Coffin Texts and Book of the Dead, the pyramid texts were reserved only for the pharaoh and were not illustrated. The spells delineate all of the ways the pharaoh could travel, including the use of ramps, stairs, ladders, the spells could also be used to call the gods to help, even threatening them if they did not comply. The texts were first discovered in 1881 by Gaston Maspero, and translations were made by Kurt Heinrich Sethe, Louis Speleers, Raymond O. Faulkner, Samuel A. B. The oldest version consists of 228 spells and comes from the Pyramid of Unas, Pyramid Texts were also discovered on fragments of wood within in the tomb of queen Meretites II. Kurt Sethes first edition of the texts contained 714 distinct spells. No single collection uses all recorded spells, after death, the king must first rise from his tomb. Take your head, collect your bones, Gather your limbs, take your bread that rots not, your beer that sours not, Stand at the gates that bar the common people. The gatekeeper comes out to you, he grasps your hand, Takes you into heaven and he rejoices at your coming, gives you his hands, Kisses you, caresses you, Sets you before the spirits, the imperishable stars. The texts then describe several ways for the pharaoh to reach the heavens, in utterance 304 the king says, Hail, daughter of Anubis, above the hatches of heaven, Comrade of Thoth, above the ladders rails, Open Unass path, let Unas pass. If the boatman refuses to him, the king has other plans, If you fail to ferry Unas, He will leap and sit on the wing of Thoth. Apart from the burial of Unas, only the Pyramid of Teti displays the Cannibal Hymn, a god who lives on his fathers, who feeds on his mothers. Unas is the bull of heaven Who rages in his heart, Who lives on the being of every god, Who eats their entrails When they come, the cannibal hymn later reappeared in the Coffin Texts as Spell 573. It was dropped by the time the Book of the Dead was being copied, in the first scene of Philip Glasss opera Akhnaten, the phrase Open are the double doors of the horizon is a quotation from the Pyramid Texts. More specifically, it seems to come from Utterance 220, the American death metal band Nile made a song, Unas Slayer of the Gods which contains many references to the Pyramid Texts, including the Cannibal Hymn. In the 2001 action-adventure movie, The Mummy Returns, when Imhotep gets a jar full of dust and blows it, he part of the Utterance 373. In neuer deutscher Uebersetzung, vollständig bearbeitet und herausgegeben von Wolfgang Kosack Christoph Brunner, Berlin 2012, a New Concordance of the Pyramid Texts
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Ancient Egyptian funerary practices
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The ancient Egyptians had an elaborate set of funerary practices that they believed were necessary to ensure their immortality after death. These rituals and protocols included mummifying the body, casting of magic spells, the burial process used by the ancient Egyptians evolved throughout time as old customs were discarded and new ones adopted, but several important elements of the process persisted. Although specific details changed over time, the preparation of the body, the rituals involved. Though no writing survives from Predynastic Egypt, scholars believe the importance of the physical body and this would explain why people of that time did not follow the common practice of cremation, but rather buried the dead. Some also believe they may have feared the bodies would rise again if mistreated after death, early bodies were buried in simple, shallow oval pits, with a few burial goods. Sometimes multiple people and animals were placed in the same grave, over time, graves became more complex, with the body placed in a wicker basket, then later in wooden or terracotta coffins. The latest tombs Egyptians made were sarcophaguses and these graves contained burial goods like jewelry, food, games and sharpened splint. This demonstrates that this ancient period had a sense of the afterlife and this may be because admission required that the deceased must be able to serve a purpose there. The pharaoh was allowed in because of his role in life, human sacrifices found in early royal tombs reinforce this view. These people were meant to serve the pharaoh during his eternal life. Eventually, figurines and wall paintings begin to replace human victims, some of these figurines may have been created to resemble certain people, so they could follow the pharaoh after their lives ended. Note that not only the classes had to rely on the pharaoh’s favor. They believed that when he died, the became a type of god. This belief existed from the period through the Old Kingdom. In the First Intermediate Period, however, the importance of the pharaoh declined, funerary texts, previously restricted to royal use, became more widely available. The first farmers in Egypt are known from the villages of Omari, the people of these villages buried their dead in a simple, round graves with one pot. The body was neither treated nor arranged in a way as would be the case later in the historical period. Without any written evidence, there is little to provide information about contemporary beliefs concerning the afterlife except for the inclusion of a single pot in the grave
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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
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Egypt (Roman province)
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The province encompassed most of modern-day Egypt except for the Sinai Peninsula. Aegyptus was bordered by the provinces of Creta et Cyrenaica to the West, the province came to serve as a major producer of grain for the empire and had a highly developed urban economy. Aegyptus was by far the wealthiest Eastern Roman province, in Alexandria, its capital, it possessed the largest port, and the second largest city, of the Roman Empire. As a province, Egypt was ruled by a uniquely styled Augustal prefect, the prefect was a man of equestrian rank and was appointed by the Emperor. The second prefect, Aelius Gallus, made an expedition to conquer Arabia Petraea. The Red Sea coast of Aegyptus was not brought under Roman control until the reign of Claudius, the third prefect, Gaius Petronius, cleared the neglected canals for irrigation, stimulating a revival of agriculture. Petronius even led a campaign into present-day central Sudan against the Kingdom of Kush at Meroe, failing to acquire permanent gains, in 22 BC he razed the city of Napata to the ground and retreated to the north. From the reign of Nero onward, Aegyptus enjoyed an era of prosperity which lasted a century, under Trajan a Jewish revolt occurred, resulting in the suppression of the Jews of Alexandria and the loss of all their privileges, although they soon returned. Hadrian, who twice visited Aegyptus, founded Antinoöpolis in memory of his drowned lover Antinous, from his reign onward buildings in the Greco-Roman style were erected throughout the country. Under Antoninus Pius oppressive taxation led to a revolt in 139, of the native Egyptians and this Bucolic War, led by one Isidorus, caused great damage to the economy and marked the beginning of Egypts economic decline. Avidius Cassius, who led the Roman forces in the war, declared emperor in 175. On the approach of Marcus Aurelius, Cassius was deposed and killed, a similar revolt broke out in 193, when Pescennius Niger was proclaimed emperor on the death of Pertinax. The Emperor Septimius Severus gave a constitution to Alexandria and the capitals in 202. There was a series of revolts, both military and civilian, through the 3rd century, under Decius, in 250, the Christians again suffered from persecution, but their religion continued to spread. This warrior queen claimed that Egypt was a home of hers through a familial tie to Cleopatra VII. She was well educated and familiar with the culture of Egypt, its religion, two generals based in Aegyptus, Probus and Domitius Domitianus, led successful revolts and made themselves emperors. Diocletian captured Alexandria from Domitius in 298 and reorganised the whole province and his edict of 303 against the Christians began a new era of persecution. This was the last serious attempt to stem the growth of Christianity in Egypt
41.
Coffin Texts
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The Coffin Texts are a collection of ancient Egyptian funerary spells written on coffins beginning in the First Intermediate Period. Ordinary Egyptians who could afford a coffin had access to these funerary spells, as the modern name of this collection of some 1,185 spells implies, they were mostly inscribed on Middle Kingdom coffins. They were also written on tomb walls, stelae, canopic chests, papyri. Due to the limited writing surfaces of some of these objects, in contrast to the Pyramid Texts which focus on the celestial realm, the coffin texts emphasize the subterranean elements of the afterlife ruled by the deity Osiris, in a place called the Duat. An Osirian afterlife is offered to everyone, and the deceased is even referred to as the Osiris- and this subterranean realm is described as being filled with threatening beings, traps, and snares with which the deceased must contend. The spells in the Coffin Texts allow the deceased to protect themselves against these dangers, a new theme recorded in the coffin texts is the notion that all people will be judged by Osiris and his council according to their deeds in life. The texts allude to the use of a balance, which became the moment of judgment in the later Book of the Dead. The texts address common fears of the living, such as having to do manual labor and they combine ritual actions intended as protection, expressions of aspiration for a blessed existence after death and of the transformations and transmigrations of the ba and akh and so on. In addition there are descriptions of the land of the dead, its landscape and these include the Sekhet Hotep, the paths of Rostau and the abode of Osiris. Coffin text 1130 is a speech by the sun god Ra, I repeat to you the good deeds which my own heart did for me from within the serpent-coil, in order to silence strife. I made the four winds, that man might breathe in his time. I made the great inundation, that the humble might benefit by it like the great, I made every man like his fellow, and I did not command that they do wrong. It is their hearts which disobey what I have said, I have created the gods from my sweat, and the people from the tears of my eye. Coffin text 1031 is spoken by the deceased, who says, I shall sail rightly in my bark, I am not afraid in my limbs, for Hu and Hike overthrow for me that evil being. I shall see light-land, I shall dwell in it, make way for me, that I may see Nun and Amun. For I am that Akh who passes by the guards, I am equipped and effective in opening his portal. As for any person who knows this spell, he will be like Re in the eastern sky and he will go down to the circle of fire, without the flame touching him ever. This collection, called the Book of Two Ways, was the first example of an Ancient Egyptian map of the underworld
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Bastet
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Bastet was a goddess in ancient Egyptian religion, worshiped as early as the 2nd Dynasty. As Bast, she was the goddess of warfare in Lower Egypt and her name is also translated as Baast, Ubaste, and Baset. In Greek mythology, she is known as Ailuros. The uniting Egyptian cultures had deities that shared similar roles and usually the same imagery, in Upper Egypt, Sekhmet was the parallel warrior lioness deity. Often similar deities merged into one with the unification, but that did not occur with these deities having such strong roots in their cultures, instead, these goddesses began to diverge. During the 22nd Dynasty, Bast had transformed from a lioness deity into a major protector deity represented as a cat. Bastet, the associated with this later identity, is the name commonly used by scholars today to refer to this deity. Bastet, the form of the name which is most commonly adopted by Egyptologists today because of its use in later dynasties, is a modern convention offering one possible reconstruction, in early Egyptian, her name appears to have been bꜣstt. In Egyptian writing, the second t marks a feminine ending, but was not usually pronounced, by the first millennium, then, bꜣstt would have been something like *Ubaste in Egyptian speech, later becoming Coptic Oubaste. During later dynasties, the deity remained, but was assigned a role in the pantheon by bearing the name Bastet. This happened after Thebes became the capital of Ancient Egypt during the 18th Dynasty, diminishing her status, they began referring to the deity with the added suffix, as Bastet, and their use of the new name was well-documented, becoming very familiar to researchers. By the 22nd Dynasty the transition had occurred in all regions, what the name of the goddess means remains uncertain. One recent suggestion by Stephen Quirke explains it as meaning She of the ointment jar and this ties in with the observation that her name was written with the hieroglyph for ointment jar and that she was associated with protective ointments, among other things. The name of the known as alabaster might, through Greek. Bastet was originally a warrior goddess of the sun throughout most of ancient Egyptian history. Greeks occupying ancient Egypt toward the end of its civilization changed her into a goddess of the moon, as protector of Lower Egypt, she was seen as defender of the pharaoh, and consequently of the later chief male deity, Ra. Along with the lioness goddesses, she would occasionally be depicted as the embodiment of the Eye of Ra. She has been depicted as fighting the evil snake named Apep, images of Bastet were often created from alabaster
