1.
Akhenaten
–
Akhenaten known before the fifth year of his reign as Amenhotep IV, was an Ancient Egyptian pharaoh of the 18th Dynasty who ruled for 17 years and died perhaps in 1336 BC or 1334 BC. An early inscription likens the Aten to the sun as compared to stars, Akhenaten tried to bring about a departure from traditional religion, yet in the end it would not be accepted. After his death, his monuments were dismantled and hidden, his statues were terminated and he was all but lost from history until the discovery during the 19th century of the site of Akhetaten, the city he built and designed for the worship of Aten, at Amarna. DNA analysis has determined that the man buried in KV55 is the father of King Tutankhamun, the future Akhenaten was a younger son of Amenhotep III and Chief Queen Tiye. The eldest son Crown Prince Thutmose was recognized as the heir of Amenhotep III but he died relatively young, there is much controversy around whether Amenhotep IV succeeded to the throne on the death of his father Amenhotep III or whether there was a coregency. Other literature by Donald Redford, William Murnane, Alan Gardiner, in February 2014, the Egyptian Ministry for Antiquities announced what it called conclusive evidence that Akhenaten shared power with his father for at least 8 years. The evidence came from the found in the Luxor tomb of Vizier Amenhotep-Huy. A team of Spanish archeologists have been working at this tomb, Amenhotep IV was crowned in Thebes and there he started a building program. He decorated the entrance to the precincts of the temple of Amun-Re with scenes of his worshiping Re-Harakhti. He soon decreed the construction of a dedicated to the Aten in Eastern Karnak. This Temple of Amenhotep IV was called the Gempaaten, the Gempaaten consisted of a series of buildings, including a palace and a structure called the Hwt Benben which was dedicated to Queen Nefertiti. Other Aten temples constructed at Karnak during this time include the Rud-menu, during this time he did not repress the worship of Amun, and the High Priest of Amun was still active in the fourth year of his reign. The king appears as Amenhotep IV in the tombs of some of the nobles in Thebes, Kheruef, Ramose, in the tomb of Ramose, Amenhotep IV appears on the west wall in the traditional style, seated on a throne with Ramose appearing before the king. On the other side of the doorway, Amenhotep IV and Nefertiti are shown in the window of appearance with the Aten depicted as the sun disc. In the Theban tomb of Parennefer, Amenhotep IV and Nefertiti are seated on a throne with the sun disk depicted over the king, among the latter-known documents referring to Amenhotep IV are two copies of a letter from the Steward Of Memphis Apy to the pharaoh. The documents were found in Gurob and are dated to regnal year 5, third month of the Growing Season, on day 13, Month 8, in the fifth year of his reign, the king arrived at the site of the new city Akhetaten. A month before that Amenhotep IV had officially changed his name to Akhenaten, Amenhotep IV changed most of his 5 fold titulary in year 5 of his reign. The only name he kept was his prenomen or throne name of Neferkheperure, some recent debate has focused on the extent to which Akhenaten forced his religious reforms on his people
Akhenaten
–
Statue of Akhenaten in the early
Amarna style.
Akhenaten
–
Relief representing Amenhotep IV before he changed his name to Akhenaten,
Neues Museum, Berlin
Akhenaten
–
Bronze plate with the titulary of Amenhotep IV before he changed his name to Akhenaten,
British Museum.
Akhenaten
–
Pharaoh Akhenaten (center) and his family worshiping the
Aten, with characteristic rays seen emanating from the solar disk.
2.
Meritaten
–
Her name means She who is beloved of Aten, Aten being the sun-god her father worshipped, Meritaten also may have served as pharaoh in her own right under the name, Ankhkheperure Neferneferuaten. Meritaten was the first of six born to Pharaoh Akhenaten and his Great Royal Wife. Her sisters are Meketaten, Ankhesenpaaten, Neferneferuaten Tasherit, Neferneferure and she was married to Pharaoh Smenkhare. Inscriptions mention a princess named Meritaten Tasherit, who may be the daughter of Meritaten. Inscriptions from Ashmunein suggest that Meritaten-tasherit is the daughter of Meritaten, the scene dates to the reign of Akhenaten, and this means the father of the young princess could be Akhenaten himself. If so, this means Akhenaten took his own daughters as a wife, another princess named Ankhesenpaaten Tasherit had been suggested as an additional daughter of Meritaten, but it is more likely that she is a daughter of Ankhesenpaaten. She was born early in her fathers reign most likely in Thebes, the royal family lived in Thebes, and the royal palace may have been part of the Temple Complex of Akhenaten at Karnak. The exact use of the buildings in Karnak is not known, Meritaten is depicted beside her mother Nefertiti in reliefs carved into the Hut-Benben. The Hut-Benben was an associated with Nefertiti, who is the main officiant in the scenes. Meritaten appears behind her mother shaking a sistrum and her younger sisters Meketaten and Ankhesenpaaten also appear in some of the scenes but not as often as Meritaten. In year 5 of her father Akhenatens reign, Meritaten appears on the boundary stelae designating the boundaries of the new capital, during Akhenatens reign, she was the most frequently depicted and mentioned of the six daughters. Her figure appears on paintings in temples, tombs, and private chapels and she is shown not only on the pictures showing the family life of the pharaoh, which were typical of the Amarna Period, but on official ceremonies too. The two structures most associated with Meritaten at Amarna are the North Palace and the Maru-Aten, the Maru-Aten was located to the south of the city limits of Amarna. The structure consisted of two enclosures containing pools or lakes and pavilions set in an area planted with trees, an artificial island contained a pillared construction which held a painted pavement showing scenes from nature. Meritatens name seems to replace that of another lady in several places, among them in the Northern Palace. Meritaten is mentioned in letters, by the name Mayati. She is mentioned in a letter from Abimilki of Tyre, the reference is usually thought to date to the period when Meritatens position at court became more important during the latter part of the reign of Akhenaten. It is possible, however, that the letter refers to the birth of Meritaten, Meritaten appears as a Great Royal Wife in the tomb of Meryre II in Amarna
Meritaten
–
A daughter of King Akhenaten and Queen Nefertiti, perhaps the young Meritaten, later a queen - collection of the
Louvre, Paris
Meritaten
–
Amarna Princess - Museum in Berlin
Meritaten
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Smenkhare and Meritaten shown in the tomb of
Meryre II
Meritaten
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Inscription mentioning
Akhenaten,
Neferneferuaten and Meritaten. Form the tomb of
Tutankhamen
3.
Amarna
–
The name for the city employed by the ancient Egyptians is written as Akhetaten in English transliteration. Akhetaten means Horizon of the Aten, the city of Deir Mawas lies directly west across from the site of Amarna. Amarna, on the east side, includes several villages, chief of which are el-Till in the north. The area was occupied during later Roman and early Christian times. The name Amarna comes from the Beni Amran tribe that lived in the region, the ancient Egyptian name was Akhetaten. It may be that the Royal Wadis resemblance to the hieroglyph for horizon showed that this was the place to found the city, the city was built as the new capital of the Pharaoh Akhenaten, dedicated to his new religion of worship to the Aten. Construction started in or around Year 5 of his reign and was completed by Year 9. To speed up construction of the city most of the buildings were constructed out of mud-brick, the most important buildings were faced with local stone. Once it was abandoned it remained uninhabited until Roman settlement began along the edge of the Nile, however, due to the unique circumstances of its creation and abandonment, it is questionable how representative of ancient Egyptian cities it actually is. The entire city was encircled with a total of 14 boundary stelae detailing Akhenatens conditions for the establishment of new capital city of Egypt. The earliest dated stele from Akhenatens new city is known to be Boundary stele K which is dated to Year 5, IV Peret and it preserves an account of Akhenatens foundation of this city. Located on the east bank of the Nile, the ruins of the city are laid out north to south along a Royal Road. The Royal residences are generally to the north, in what is known as the North City, with an administration and religious area. If one approached the city of Amarna from the north by river the first buildings past the boundary stele would be the North Riverside Palace. This building ran all the way up to the waterfront and was likely the residence of the Royal Family. Located within the North City area is the Northern Palace, the residence of the Royal Family. Between this and the city, the Northern Suburb was initially a prosperous area with large houses. Most of the important ceremonial and administrative buildings were located in the central city, located behind the Royal Residence was the Bureau of Correspondence of Pharaoh, where the Amarna Letters were found
Amarna
–
Small Temple of the
Aten at Akhetaten
Amarna
–
Royal Wadi
Amarna
–
Akhenaten seal ring in blue faience.
Walters Art Museum
Amarna
–
Statues to the left of Boundary stela U in el-Amarna
4.
Egyptian language
–
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
Egyptian language
–
Seal impression from the tomb of
Seth-Peribsen, containing the oldest known complete sentence in Egyptian
Egyptian language
–
Ebers Papyrus detailing treatment of
asthma
Egyptian language
–
3rd-century Coptic inscription
5.
Egyptian mythology
–
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
Egyptian mythology
–
Nun, the embodiment of the primordial waters, lifts the
barque of the sun god
Ra into the sky at the moment of creation.
Egyptian mythology
–
The sky depicted as a cow goddess supported by other deities. This image combines several coexisting visions of the sky: as a roof, as the surface of a sea, as a cow, and as a goddess in human form.
Egyptian mythology
–
Temple decoration at
Dendera, depicting the goddesses Isis and
Nephthys watching over the corpse of their brother
Osiris
Egyptian mythology
–
The air god Shu, assisted by other gods, holds up Nut, the sky, as Geb, the earth, lies beneath.
6.
Religion
–
Religions have sacred histories and narratives, which may be preserved in sacred scriptures, and symbols and holy places, that aim mostly to give a meaning to life. Religions may contain symbolic stories, which are said by followers to be true, that have the side purpose of explaining the origin of life. Traditionally, faith, in addition to reason, has considered a source of religious beliefs. There are an estimated 10,000 distinct religions worldwide, about 84% of the worlds population is affiliated with one of the five largest religions, namely Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism or forms of folk religion. With the onset of the modernisation of and the revolution in the western world. The religiously unaffiliated demographic include those who do not identify with any religion, atheists. While the religiously unaffiliated have grown globally, many of the religiously unaffiliated still have various religious beliefs, about 16% of the worlds population is religiously unaffiliated. The study of religion encompasses a variety of academic disciplines, including theology, comparative religion. Theories of religion offer various explanations for the origins and workings of religion, Religion is derived from the Latin religiō, the ultimate origins of which are obscure. One possible interpretation traced to Cicero, connects lego read, i. e. re with lego in the sense of choose, go over again or consider carefully. The medieval usage alternates with order in designating bonded communities like those of monastic orders, we hear of the religion of the Golden Fleece, of a knight of the religion of Avys. In the ancient and medieval world, the etymological Latin root religio was understood as a virtue of worship, never as doctrine, practice. In the Quran, the Arabic word din is often translated as religion in modern translations and it was in the 19th century that the terms Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism, and Confucianism first emerged. Max Müller characterized many other cultures around the world, including Egypt, Persia, what is called ancient religion today, they would have only called law. Some languages have words that can be translated as religion, but they may use them in a different way. For example, the Sanskrit word dharma, sometimes translated as religion, throughout classical South Asia, the study of law consisted of concepts such as penance through piety and ceremonial as well as practical traditions. Medieval Japan at first had a union between imperial law and universal or Buddha law, but these later became independent sources of power. There is no equivalent of religion in Hebrew, and Judaism does not distinguish clearly between religious, national, racial, or ethnic identities
Religion
–
Urarina shaman, Peru, 1988
Religion
Religion
–
The
Yazılıkaya sanctuary in
Turkey, with the twelve gods of the underworld
Religion
–
Confucianism,
Taoism, and
Buddhism are one, a painting in the litang style portraying three men laughing by a river stream, 12th century,
Song dynasty
7.
Atenism
–
Atenism, or the Amarna heresy, refers to the religious changes associated with the eighteenth dynasty Pharaoh Amenhotep IV, better known under his adopted name, Akhenaten. Aten, the god of Atenism, first appears in texts dating to the 12th dynasty, during the Middle Kingdom, Aten as the sun disk. was merely one aspect of the sun god Re. It was a relatively obscure sun god, without the Atenist period, during the reign of Thutmosis IV, it was identified as a distinct solar god, and his son Amenhotep III established and promoted a separate cult for the Aten. There is no evidence that Amenhotep III neglected the other gods or attempted to promote the Aten as an exclusive deity. Amenhotep initially introduced Atenism in the year of his reign, raising Aten to the status of supreme god. To emphasise the change, Atens name was written in the form normally reserved for Pharaohs. The religious reformation appears to coincide with the proclamation of a Sed festival, traditionally held in the thirtieth year of the Pharaohs reign, it possibly was a festival in honour of Amenhotep III. Some Egyptologists think that he had a coregency with Amenhotep IV of 2-12 years, the fifth year is believed to mark the beginning of Amenhotep IVs construction of a new capital, Akhetaten, at the site known today as Amarna. Evidence appears on three of the boundary stelae used to mark the boundaries of new capital. Then, Amenhotep IV officially changed his name to Akhenaten as evidence of his new worship, the date given for the event has been estimated to fall around January 2 of that year. In the seventh year of his reign, the capital was moved from Thebes to Akhetaten, in shifting his court from the traditional ceremonial centres, he was signalling a dramatic transformation in the focus of religious and political power. The move separated the Pharaoh and his court from the influence of the priesthood and from the centres of worship. Taken in conjunction with his change, it is possible that the move to Amarna was also meant as a signal of Akhenatens symbolic death and rebirth. It may also have coincided with the death of his father, key features of Atenism included a ban on idols and other images of the Aten, with the exception of a rayed solar disc in which the rays appear to represent the unseen spirit of Aten. Aten was addressed by Akhenaten in prayers, such as the Great Hymn to the Aten, Atens name is also written differently after the ninth year of the Pharaohs rule to emphasise the radicalism of the new regime. Aten, instead of being written with the symbol of a solar disc. The details of Atenist theology are still unclear and he simply refrained from worshiping any but Aten. It is known that Atenism did not attribute divinity only to Aten, Akhenaten continued the cult of the Pharaoh, proclaiming himself the son of Aten and encouraging the Egyptian people to worship him
Atenism
–
Pharaoh
Akhenaten and his family adoring the Aten
Atenism
–
Pharaohs
8.
Great Hymn to the Aten
–
The Great Hymn to the Aten is the longest form of one of a number of hymn-poems written to the creator god Aten. It is attributed to King Akhenaten, who radically changed traditional forms of Egyptian religion replacing them with Atenism, egyptologist Toby Wilkinson said that It has been called one of the most significant and splendid pieces of poetry to survive from the pre-Homeric world. Egyptologist John Darnell asserts that the hymn was sung, various courtiers rock tombs at Amarna have similar prayers or hymns to the deity Aten or to the Aten and Akhenaten jointly. One of these, found in almost identical form in five tombs, is known as The Short Hymn to the Aten, the long version discussed in this article was found in the tomb of the courtier Ay. The 18th dynasty Pharaoh Akhenaten forbade the worship of other gods, finally, Akhenaten issued a royal decree that the name Aten was no longer to be depicted by the hieroglyph of a solar disc emanating rays but instead had to be spelled out phonetically. Akhenatons religious reforms have been described by scholars as quasi-monotheistic. From the middle of the text, How manifold it is and they are hidden from the face. O sole god, like there is no other. Thou didst create the world according to thy desire, Whilst thou wert alone, All men, cattle, and wild beasts, Whatever is on earth, going upon feet, And what is on high, flying with its wings. The countries of Syria and Nubia, the land of Egypt, Thou settest every man in his place, Thou suppliest their necessities, Everyone has his food, and his time of life is reckoned. Their tongues are separate in speech, And their natures as well, Their skins are distinguished, earth come from your hand as you made them. When you have dawned they live, when you set they die, You yourself are lifetime, one lives by you. All eyes are on beauty until you set, All labor ceases when you rest in the west, When you rise you stir for the King, Every leg is on the move since you founded the earth. You rouse them for your son who came from your body, analyses of the poem are divided between those considering it as a work of literature, and those considering its political and socio-religious intentions. James Henry Breasted considered Akhenaten to be the first monotheist and scientist in history, how much Akhenaten understood, we cannot say, but he certainly bounded forward in his views and symbolism to a position which we cannot logically improve upon at the present day. Not a rag of superstition or of falsity can be found clinging to this new worship evolved out of the old Aton of Heliopolis, miriam Lichtheim describes the hymn as a beautiful statement of the doctrine of the One God. In 1913 Henry Hall contended that the pharaoh was the first example of the scientific mind, in his book Reflections on the Psalms, C. S. Lewis compared the Hymn to the Psalms of the Judaeo-Christian canon, as did Breasted. A specific literary interdependence is not probable, egyptologist Dominic Montserrat discusses the terminology used to describe these texts, describing them as formal poems or royal eulogies
Great Hymn to the Aten
–
Pharaoh
Akhenaten and his family adoring the Aten.
Great Hymn to the Aten
–
Drawing of the inscription of the hymn text (1908 publication).
9.
Book of the Dead
–
The Book of the Dead is an ancient Egyptian funerary text, used from the beginning of the New Kingdom to around 50 BCE. The original Egyptian name for the text, transliterated rw nw prt m hrw is translated as Book of Coming Forth by Day, another translation would be Book of Emerging Forth into the Light. The Book of the Dead was part of a tradition of texts which includes the earlier Pyramid Texts and Coffin Texts. Some of the spells included were drawn from older works. Other spells were composed later in Egyptian history, dating to the Third Intermediate Period, a number of the spells which made up the Book continued to be inscribed on tomb walls and sarcophagi, as had always been the spells from which they originated. The Book of the Dead was placed in the coffin or burial chamber of the deceased, there was no single or canonical Book of the Dead. The surviving papyri contain a selection of religious and magical texts. Some people seem to have commissioned their own copies of the Book of the Dead, the Book of the Dead developed from a tradition of funerary manuscripts dating back to the Egyptian Old Kingdom. The first funerary texts were the Pyramid Texts, first used in the Pyramid of King Unas of the 5th dynasty and these texts were written on the walls of the burial chambers within pyramids, and were exclusively for the use of the Pharaoh. Towards the end of the Old Kingdom, the Pyramid Texts ceased to be a royal privilege. In the Middle Kingdom, a new funerary text emerged, the Coffin Texts, the Coffin Texts used a newer version of the language, new spells, and included illustrations for the first time. The Coffin Texts were most commonly written on the surfaces of coffins. The Book of the Dead first developed in Thebes towards the beginning of the Second Intermediate Period, by the 17th dynasty, the Book of the Dead had become widespread not only for members of the royal family, but courtiers and other officials as well. At this stage, the spells were typically inscribed on linen shrouds wrapped around the dead, the New Kingdom saw the Book of the Dead develop and spread further. The famous Spell 125, the Weighing of the Heart, is first known from the reign of Hatshepsut and Thutmose III, from this period onward the Book of the Dead was typically written on a papyrus scroll, and the text illustrated with vignettes. During the 19th dynasty in particular, the vignettes tended to be lavish, in the Third Intermediate Period, the Book of the Dead started to appear in hieratic script, as well as in the traditional hieroglyphics. The hieratic scrolls were a version, lacking illustration apart from a single vignette at the beginning. At the same time, many burials used additional funerary texts, during the 25th and 26th dynasties, the Book of the Dead was updated, revised and standardised
Book of the Dead
Book of the Dead
–
Part of the
Pyramid Texts, a precursor of the Book of the Dead, inscribed on the tomb of
Teti
Book of the Dead
–
The mystical Spell 17, from the
Papyrus of Ani. The vignette at the top illustrates, from left to right, the god
Heh as a representation of the Sea; a gateway to the realm of Osiris; the
Eye of Horus; the celestial cow
Mehet-Weret; and a human head rising from a coffin, guarded by the four Sons of Horus.
Book of the Dead
–
Two 'gate spells'. On the top register, Ani and his wife face the 'seven gates of the House of Osiris'. Below, they encounter ten of the 21 'mysterious portals of the House of Osiris in the Field of Reeds'. All are guarded by unpleasant protectors.
10.
Horemheb
–
Horemheb was the last pharaoh of the 18th Dynasty of Egypt. He ruled from either 1319 BC to late 1292 BC, or 1306 to late 1292 BC although he was not related to the royal family and is believed to have been of common birth. Before he became pharaoh, Horemheb was the commander in chief of the army under the reigns of Tutankhamun, after his accession to the throne, he reformed the Egyptian state and it was under his reign that official action against the preceding Amarna rulers began. Due to this, he is considered the man who restabilized his country after the troublesome, Horemheb demolished monuments of Akhenaten, reusing their remains in his own building projects, and usurped monuments of Tutankhamun and Ay. Horemheb presumably remained childless since he appointed his vizier Paramesse as his successor and his parentage is unknown but he is believed to have been a commoner. According to the French Egyptologist Nicolas Grimal, Horemheb does not appear to be the person as Paatenemheb who was the commander-in-chief of Akhenatens army. Grimal notes that Horemhebs political career first began under Tutankhamun where he is depicted at this side in his own tomb chapel at Memphis. In the earliest known stage of his life, Horemheb served as the spokesman for foreign affairs. This resulted in a visit by the Prince of Miam to Tutankhamuns court. Horemheb quickly rose to prominence under Tutankhamun, becoming commander-in-chief of the army, when used alone, the Egyptologist Alan Gardiner has shown that the iry-pat title contains features of ancient descent and lawful inheritance which is identical to the designation for a Crown Prince. This means that Horemheb was the openly recognised heir to Tutankhamuns throne and not Ay, no objects belonging to Horemheb were found in Tutankhamuns tomb, whereas items donated by other high-ranking officials such as Maya and Nakhtmin were found in tomb KV62 by Egyptologists. Further, Tutankhamuns queen, Ankhesenamun, refused to marry Horemheb, a commoner, having pushed Horemhebs claims aside, Ay proceeded to nominate the aforementioned Nakhtmin, who was possibly Ays son or adopted son, to succeed him rather than Horemheb. However, he spared Tutankhamuns tomb from vandalism presumably because it was Tutankhamun who had promoted his rise to power and chosen him to be his heir. Horemheb also usurped and enlarged Ays mortuary temple at Medinet Habu for his own use, Horemheb appointed judges and regional tribunes. Reintroduced local religious authorities and divided legal power between Upper Egypt and Lower Egypt between the Viziers of Thebes and Memphis respectively and these deeds are recorded in a stela which the king erected at the foot of his Tenth Pylon at Karnak. Occasionally called The Great Edict of Horemheb, it is a copy of the text of the kings decree to re-establish order to the Two Lands. The stelas creation and prominent location emphasizes the importance which Horemheb placed upon domestic reform. Horemheb was a builder who erected numerous temples and buildings throughout Egypt during his reign
Horemheb
–
Detail of a statue of Horemheb, at the
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna
Horemheb
–
A statue of Horemheb as a scribe
Horemheb
–
Relief from Horemheb's tomb. Receiving 'gold of honour' collars.
Horemheb
–
Horemheb with Amun at the
Museo Egizio
11.
The Story of Sinuhe
–
The Story of Sinuhe is considered one of the finest works of Ancient Egyptian literature. It is a set in the aftermath of the death of Pharaoh Amenemhat I, founder of the 12th dynasty of Egypt. It is likely that it was composed shortly after this date, albeit the earliest extant manuscript is from the reign of Amenemhat III. Sinuhe is considered to be a written in verse and it may also have been performed. The great popularity of the work is witnessed by the surviving fragments. There are a number of telling the Story of Sinuhe. A limestone Ostracon in the Egyptian Museum is over a yard long and it tells the beginning of the Story of Sinuhe, and is inscribed in Hieratic. The story dates from the XII dynasty, and the fragment was found in the tomb of Sennutem, Sinuhe is an official who accompanies prince Senwosret I to Libya. He overhears a conversation connected with the death of King Amenemhet I and as a result flees to Upper Retjenu and he becomes the son-in-law of Chief Ammunenshi and in time his sons grow to become chiefs in their own right. Sinuhe fights rebellious tribes on behalf of Ammunenshi and he then receives an invitation from King Senwosret I of Egypt to return, which he accepts in highly moving terms. Living out the rest of his life in royal favour he is laid to rest in the necropolis in a beautiful tomb. The story of Sinuhe has spawned a great deal of literature which explores the themes contained in the work from many perspectives, the scope and variety of this material has been likened to the analysis of Hamlet and other notable works of literature. Scholars debate the reason why Sinuhe flees Egypt, with the majority ascribing panic over a perceived threat, the tale is full of symbolic allusions. Sinuhes name is seen as providing an important link in understanding the story, the sycamore is an ancient Egyptian Tree of Life, associated with Hathor, who features throughout the work. Sinuhe comes under the orbit of divine powers, in the form of the King, from whom he first tries to run away, and that of the Queen. On fleeing Egypt, Sinuhe crosses a waterway associated with the Goddess Maat, unable to escape the orbit of Gods power and mercy, Sinuhe exclaims, Whether I am in the Residence, or whether I am in this place, it is you who cover this horizon. Parallels have been made with the narrative of Joseph. In what is seen as divine providence, Sinuhe the Egyptian flees to Syro-Canaan and becomes a member of the elite, acquires a wife and family
The Story of Sinuhe
–
A raised-relief depiction of
Amenemhat I accompanied by deities; the death of Amenemhat I is reported by his son
Senusret I in the Story of Sinuhe.
12.
Amenhotep III
–
Amenhotep III, also known as Amenhotep the Magnificent, was the ninth pharaoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty. According to different authors, he ruled Egypt from June 1386 to 1349 BC, or from June 1388 BC to December 1351 BC/1350 BC, Amenhotep III was Thutmoses son by a minor wife, Mutemwiya. His reign was a period of unprecedented prosperity and artistic splendour, when he died in the 38th or 39th year of his reign, his son initially ruled as Amenhotep IV, but then changed his own royal name to Akhenaten. The son of the future Thutmose IV and a minor wife Mutemwiya and he was a member of the Thutmosid family that had ruled Egypt for almost 150 years since the reign of Thutmose I. Amenhotep III was the father of two sons with his Great Royal Wife Tiye and their first son, Crown Prince Thutmose, predeceased his father and their second son, Amenhotep IV, later known as Akhenaten, ultimately succeeded Amenhotep III to the throne. Amenhotep III also may have been the father of a third child—called Smenkhkare, Amenhotep III and Tiye may also have had four daughters, Sitamun, Henuttaneb, Isis or Iset, and Nebetah. They appear frequently on statues and reliefs during the reign of their father, Nebetah is attested only once in the known historical records on a colossal limestone group of statues from Medinet Habu. Amenhotep III elevated two of his four daughters—Sitamun and Isis—to the office of royal wife during the last decade of his reign. Evidence that Sitamun already was promoted to office by Year 30 of his reign, is known from jar-label inscriptions uncovered from the royal palace at Malkata. The goddess Hathor herself was related to Ra as first the mother and later wife, hence, Amenhotep IIIs marriage to his two daughters should not be considered unlikely based on contemporary views of marriage. Amenhotep III is known to have married several women, Gilukhepa. Tadukhepa, the daughter of his ally Tushratta of Mitanni, Around Year 36 of his reign, a daughter of Kurigalzu, king of Babylon. A daughter of Kadashman-Enlil, king of Babylon, a daughter of Tarhundaradu, ruler of Arzawa. A daughter of the ruler of Ammia, Amenhotep III has the distinction of having the most surviving statues of any Egyptian pharaoh, with over 250 of his statues having been discovered and identified. Since these statues span his life, they provide a series of portraits covering the entire length of his reign. Their lengthy inscribed texts extol the accomplishments of the pharaoh, for instance,123 of these commemorative scarabs record the large number of lions that Amenhotep III killed with his own arrows from his first regnal year up to his tenth year. Similarly, five other state that the foreign princess who would become a wife to him, Gilukhepa. She was the first of many such princesses who would enter the pharaohs household, another eleven scarabs record the excavation of an artificial lake he had built for his Great Royal Wife, Queen Tiye, in his eleventh regnal year, Regnal Year 11 under the Majesty of
Amenhotep III
–
Colossal statue of Amenhotep III
Amenhotep III
–
Vase in the Louvre with the names Amenohotep III and Tiye written in the
cartouches on the left, (and Tiye's on the right).
Amenhotep III
–
Queen Tiye, whose husband, Amenhotep III, may have been depicted to her right in this broken statue
Amenhotep III
–
One of the many commemorative scarabs of Amenhotep III. This scarab belongs to a class called the "marriage scarabs," which affirm the divine power of the king and the legitimacy of his wife, Tiye.
Walters Art Museum,
Baltimore.
13.
Ra-Horakhty
–
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
Ra-Horakhty
–
Figure of Ra-Horakhty, 3rd century BC
Ra-Horakhty
–
In one of his many forms, Ra, god of the sun, has the head of a falcon and the sun-disk resting on his head.
Ra-Horakhty
–
Ra on the
Solar boat.
Ra-Horakhty
–
Ra and
Amun, from the tomb of
Ramses IV.
14.
Stelae
–
A stele is a stone or wooden slab, generally taller than it is wide, erected in ancient Western culture as a monument. Grave steles were often used for funerary or commemorative purposes, Stelae as slabs of stone would also be used as ancient Greek and Roman government notices or as boundary markers to mark borders or property lines. The surface of the stele usually has text, ornamentation, or both, the ornamentation may be inscribed, carved in relief, or painted. Traditional Western gravestones may technically be considered the equivalent of ancient stelae. The most famous example of an inscribed stela leading to increased understanding is the Rosetta Stone, an informative stele of Tiglath-Pileser III is preserved in the British Museum. Two steles built into the walls of a church are major documents relating to the Etruscan language, unfinished standing stones, set up without inscriptions from Libya in North Africa to Scotland were monuments of pre-literate Megalithic cultures in the Late Stone Age. The Pictish stones of Scotland, often carved, date from between the 6th and 9th centuries. An obelisk is a kind of stele. The Insular high crosses of Ireland and Britain are specialized steles, totem poles of North and South America that are made out of stone may also be considered a specialized type of stele. Gravestones, typically with inscribed name and often with inscribed epitaph, are among the most common types of stele seen in Western culture. Most recently, in the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe in Berlin, the memorial is meant to be read not only as the field, but also as an erasure of data that refer to memory of the Holocaust. Steles have been the medium of stone inscription in China since the Tang dynasty. Chinese steles are generally rectangular stone tablets upon which Chinese characters are carved intaglio with a funerary, commemorative and they can commemorate talented writers and officials, inscribe poems, portraits, or maps, and frequently contain the calligraphy of famous historical figures. During the Han dynasty, tomb inscriptions containing biographical information on deceased people began to be written on stone tablets rather than wooden ones, erecting steles at tombs or temples eventually became a widespread social and religious phenomenon. Emperors found it necessary to promulgate laws, regulating the use of funerary steles by the population, Steles are found at nearly every significant mountain and historical site in China. The First Emperor made five tours of his domain in the 3rd century BC and had Li Si make seven stone inscriptions commemorating and praising his work, of which fragments of two survive. One of the most famous mountain steles is the 13 m high stele at Mount Tai with the calligraphy of Emperor Xuanzong of Tang commemorating his imperial sacrifices there in 725. A number of stone monuments have preserved the origin and history of Chinas minority religious communities
Stelae
–
Stele N from
Copán,
Honduras, depicting King K'ac Yipyaj Chan K'awiil ("Smoke Shell"), as drawn by
Frederick Catherwood in 1839
Stelae
–
The
funerary stele of Thrasea and Euandria, c. 365 BC
Stelae
–
Chinese ink rubbings of the 1489 (left) and 1512 (right) steles left by the
Kaifeng Jews.
Stelae
–
Grave Stela of Nehemes-Ra-tawy, ca. 760-656 B.C.E.,37.588E,
Brooklyn Museum
15.
Akhetaten
–
The name for the city employed by the ancient Egyptians is written as Akhetaten in English transliteration. Akhetaten means Horizon of the Aten, the city of Deir Mawas lies directly west across from the site of Amarna. Amarna, on the east side, includes several villages, chief of which are el-Till in the north. The area was occupied during later Roman and early Christian times. The name Amarna comes from the Beni Amran tribe that lived in the region, the ancient Egyptian name was Akhetaten. It may be that the Royal Wadis resemblance to the hieroglyph for horizon showed that this was the place to found the city, the city was built as the new capital of the Pharaoh Akhenaten, dedicated to his new religion of worship to the Aten. Construction started in or around Year 5 of his reign and was completed by Year 9. To speed up construction of the city most of the buildings were constructed out of mud-brick, the most important buildings were faced with local stone. Once it was abandoned it remained uninhabited until Roman settlement began along the edge of the Nile, however, due to the unique circumstances of its creation and abandonment, it is questionable how representative of ancient Egyptian cities it actually is. The entire city was encircled with a total of 14 boundary stelae detailing Akhenatens conditions for the establishment of new capital city of Egypt. The earliest dated stele from Akhenatens new city is known to be Boundary stele K which is dated to Year 5, IV Peret and it preserves an account of Akhenatens foundation of this city. Located on the east bank of the Nile, the ruins of the city are laid out north to south along a Royal Road. The Royal residences are generally to the north, in what is known as the North City, with an administration and religious area. If one approached the city of Amarna from the north by river the first buildings past the boundary stele would be the North Riverside Palace. This building ran all the way up to the waterfront and was likely the residence of the Royal Family. Located within the North City area is the Northern Palace, the residence of the Royal Family. Between this and the city, the Northern Suburb was initially a prosperous area with large houses. Most of the important ceremonial and administrative buildings were located in the central city, located behind the Royal Residence was the Bureau of Correspondence of Pharaoh, where the Amarna Letters were found
Akhetaten
–
Small Temple of the
Aten at Akhetaten
Akhetaten
–
Royal Wadi
Akhetaten
–
Akhenaten seal ring in blue faience.
Walters Art Museum
Akhetaten
–
Statues to the left of Boundary stela U in el-Amarna
16.
Cartouche
–
In Egyptian hieroglyphs, a cartouche /kɑːrˈtuːʃ/ is an oval with a horizontal line at one end, indicating that the text enclosed is a royal name. They came into use during the beginning of the Fourth Dynasty under Pharaoh Sneferu, while the cartouche is usually vertical with a horizontal line, it is sometimes horizontal if it makes the name fit better, with a vertical line on the left. The Ancient Egyptian word for it was shenu, and it was essentially an expanded shen ring, in Demotic, the cartouche was reduced to a pair of brackets and a vertical line. Of the five royal titularies it was the prenomen, the name, and the Son of Ra titulary, the so-called nomen name given at birth. At times amulets were given the form of a cartouche displaying the name of a king, such items are often important to archaeologists for dating the tomb and its contents. Cartouches were formerly worn by Pharaohs. The oval surrounding their name was meant to them from evil spirits in life. The cartouche has become a symbol representing good luck and protection from evil, egyptians believed that one who had their name recorded somewhere would not disappear after death. A cartouche attached to a coffin satisfied this requirement, there were periods in Egyptian history when people refrained from inscribing these amulets with a name, for fear they might fall into somebodys hands conferring power over the bearer of the name. In the Rosetta Stone, the hieroglyph is used for the word name. For the cartouche cut in half, the half-cartouche hieroglyph, Gardiners sign listed no, v11, is used in the Egyptian language for words meaning, to cut, to divide, to separate. It was the use of cartouches on the Rosetta Stone that was the biggest clue allowing Jean-François Champollion to decipher hieroglyphics, cartouche Serekh, a predecessor to the cartouche Shen ring General Budge. The Rosetta Stone, E. A. Wallis Budge, c, archived from the original on June 15,2011
Cartouche
–
Ancient Egyptian cartouche of
Thutmose III,
Karnak, Egypt.
17.
Pharaoh
–
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
Pharaoh
–
Den
Pharaoh
–
Narmer Palette
Pharaoh
–
Nomen and prenomen of
Ramesses III
Pharaoh
–
Royal titulary
18.
Amun
–
Amun was a major Ancient Egyptian deity. He was attested since the Old Kingdom together with his wife Amaunet, with the 11th dynasty, he rose to the position of patron deity of Thebes by replacing Monthu. After the rebellion of Thebes against the Hyksos and with the rule of Ahmose I, Amun acquired national importance, expressed in his fusion with the Sun god, Ra, Amun-Ra retained chief importance in the Egyptian pantheon throughout the New Kingdom. Amun-Ra in this period held the position of transcendental, self-created creator deity par excellence, he was the champion of the poor or troubled and his position as King of Gods developed to the point of virtual monotheism where other gods became manifestations of him. With Osiris, Amun-Ra is the most widely recorded of the Egyptian gods, as the chief deity of the Egyptian Empire, Amun-Ra also came to be worshipped outside of Egypt, according to the testimony of ancient Greek historiographers in Libya and Nubia. As Zeus Ammon he came to be identified with Zeus in Greece, Amun and Amaunet are mentioned in the Old Egyptian Pyramid Texts. The name Amun meant something like the one or invisible. Amun rose to the position of tutelary deity of Thebes after the end of the First Intermediate Period, as the patron of Thebes, his spouse was Mut. In Thebes, Amun as father, Mut as mother and the Moon god Khonsu formed a family or Theban Triad. The history of Amun as the god of Thebes begins in the 20th century BC. The city of Thebes does not appear to have been of great significance before the 11th dynasty, major construction work in the Precinct of Amun-Re took place during the 18th dynasty when Thebes became the capital of the unified ancient Egypt. Construction of the Hypostyle Hall may have begun during the 18th dynasty, though most building was undertaken under Seti I. Merenptah commemorated his victories over the Sea Peoples on the walls of the Cachette Court and this Great Inscription shows the kings campaigns and eventual return with booty and prisoners. Next to this inscription is the Victory Stela, which is largely a copy of the more famous Israel Stela found in the complex of Merenptah on the west bank of the Nile in Thebes. Merenptahs son Seti II added 2 small obelisks in front of the Second Pylon, and this was constructed of sandstone, with a chapel to Amun flanked by those of Mut and Khonsu. The last major change to the Precinct of Amun-Res layout was the addition of the first pylon, the local patron deity of Thebes, Amun, therefore became nationally important. The pharaohs of that new dynasty attributed all their enterprises to Amun. The victory accomplished by pharaohs who worshipped Amun against the rulers, brought him to be seen as a champion of the less fortunate
Amun
–
Amon-Ra (l'esprit des quatre elements, lame du monde matérial),N372.2.,
Brooklyn Museum
Amun
–
Bas-relief depicting Amun as
pharaoh
Amun
–
Amun-Min as Amun-Ra ka-Mut-ef from the temple at Deir el Medina.
Amun
–
The
sarcophagus of a priestess of Amon-Ra, c. 1000 BC –
Smithsonian 's
National Museum of Natural History
19.
Monotheism
–
Monotheism has been defined as the belief in the existence of only one god that created the world, is all-powerful and interferes in the world. Another, more broad definition of monotheism, is the belief in one god, a distinction may be made between exclusive monotheism, and both inclusive monotheism and pluriform monotheism which, while recognising various distinct gods, postulate some underlying unity. There are also monotheistic parody religions, such as Pastafarianism, the word monotheism comes from the Greek μόνος meaning single and θεός meaning god. The English term was first used by Henry More, according to Jewish, Christian and Islamic tradition, monotheism was the original religion of humanity. Scholars of religion largely abandoned that view in the 19th century in favour of a progression from animism via polytheism to monotheism. Austrian anthropologist Wilhelm Schmidt had postulated an Urmonotheismus, original or primitive monotheism in the 1910s and it was objected that Judaism, Christianity, and Islam had grown up in opposition to polytheism as had Greek philosophical monotheism. Some writers believe that the concept of monotheism sees a gradual development out of notions of henotheism and monolatrism, quasi-monotheistic claims of the existence of a universal deity date to the Late Bronze Age, with Akhenatens Great Hymn to the Aten. A possible inclination towards monotheism emerged during the Vedic period in Iron-Age South Asia, the Rigveda exhibits notions of monism of the Brahman, in particular, in the comparatively late tenth book, dated to the early Iron Age, e. g. in the Nasadiya sukta. While all adherents of the Abrahamic religions consider themselves to be monotheists, Judaism does not consider Christianity to be monotheistic, Judaism is one of the oldest monotheistic religions in the world. God in Judaism is strictly monotheistic, a one, indivisible. The Babylonian Talmud references other, foreign gods as non-existent entities to whom humans mistakenly ascribe reality, One of the best-known statements of Rabbinical Judaism on monotheism is the Second of Maimonides 13 Principles of faith, God, the Cause of all, is one. This does not mean one as in one of a pair, nor one like a species, nor one as in an object that is made up of many elements, rather, God is a unity unlike any other possible unity. Judaism and Islam reject the Christian idea of monotheism, Judaism uses the term shituf to refer to the worship of God in a manner which Judaism does not deem to be monotheistic. During the 8th century BCE, the worship of YHWH in Israel was in competition with other cults. Some scholars hypothesize that Judaism was originally a form of monolatrism or henotheism, in this hypothesis both the Kingdom of Israel and the Kingdom of Judah had YHWH as their state god, while also acknowledging the existence of other gods. Shema Yisrael are the first two words of a section of the Torah, and is the title of a prayer that serves as a centerpiece of the morning and evening Jewish prayer services. Observant Jews consider the Shema to be the most important part of the service in Judaism. It is traditional for Jews to say the Shema as their last words, despite at least one earlier local synod rejecting the claim of Arius, this Christological issue was to be one of the items addressed at the First Council of Nicaea
Monotheism
–
Bahá'í House of Worship,
Langenhain, Germany
Monotheism
Monotheism
–
Krishna displays his
Vishvarupa (universal form) to
Arjuna on the battlefield of Kurukshetra.
Monotheism
–
A Sikh temple, known as Nanaksar
Gurudwara, in
Alberta, Canada.
20.
Shu (Egyptian deity)
–
Shu was one of the primordial Egyptian gods, a personification of air, one of the Ennead of Heliopolis. In some myths, Shu was the son of Atum and Iusaaset, in other versions, Shu and his sister Tefnut were created by Atum alone, via parthenogenesis. With Tefnut, Shu was the father of Nut and Geb and grandfather of Osiris, Isis, Set and his great-grandsons are Horus and Anubis. As the air, Shu was considered to be cooling, and thus calming, influence, due to the association with air, calm, and thus Maat, Shu was portrayed in art as wearing an ostrich feather. Shu was seen with one and four feathers. The ostrich feather was symbolic of lightness and emptiness, fog and clouds were also Shus elements and they were often called his bones. Because of his position between the sky and earth, he was known as the wind. In a much later myth, representing a terrible weather disaster at the end of the Old Kingdom, it was said that Tefnut and Shu once argued, and Tefnut left Egypt for Nubia. It was said that Shu quickly decided that he missed her, thoth, disguised, eventually succeeded in convincing her to return. The Greeks associated Shu with Atlas, the primordial Titan who held up the celestial spheres, according to the Heliopolitan cosmology, Shu and Tefnut, the first pair of cosmic elements, created the sky goddess, Nut, and the earth god, Geb. Shu separated Nut from Geb as they were in the act of love, creating duality in the manifest world, above and below, light and dark, good and evil. Prior to their separation, however, Nut had given birth to the gods Isis, Osiris, Nephthys, the Egyptians believed that if Shu did not hold Nut and Geb apart there would be no way for physically-manifest life to exist. Shu is mostly represented as a man, only in his function as a fighter and defender as the sun god does he sometimes receive a lions head. He carries an ankh, the symbol of life
Shu (Egyptian deity)
–
Shu is shown holding the sky above his head.
Shu (Egyptian deity)
–
The ancient Egyptian god Shu is represented as a human with feathers on his head, as he is associated with light and air. This feather serves as the hieroglyphic sign for his name. Shu could also be represented as a lion, or with a more elaborate feathered headdress.
21.
Henotheism
–
Henotheism is the worship of a single god while not denying the existence or possible existence of other deities. Friedrich Schelling coined the word, and Friedrich Welcker used it to depict primordial monotheism among ancient Greeks, Friedrich Schelling coined the term henotheism, from heis which literally means single, one. The term refers to a form of theism focused on a single god, related terms are monolatrism and kathenotheism. The latter term is an extension of henotheism, from καθ ἕνα θεόν — one god at a time, Henotheism refers to a pluralistic theology wherein different deities are viewed to be of a unitary, equivalent divine essence. Another term related to henotheism is equitheism, referring to the belief that all gods are equal, further, the term henotheism does not exclude monism, nondualism or dualism. Various scholars prefer the term monolatry to henotheism, to discuss religions where a god is central. According to Christoph Elsas, henotheism in modern usage connotes a syncretic stage in the development of religions in late antiquity. A henotheist may worship a god from a pantheon of deities at a given time, depending on his or her choice, while accepting other deities. Henotheism and inclusive monotheism are terms that refer to a position between unlimited polytheism and exclusive monotheism. Ahura Mazda is the god, but Zoroastrianism does not deny other deities. Ahura Mazda has yazatas some of which include Anahita, Sraosha, Mithra, Rashnu, Richard Foltz has put forth evidence that Iranians of Pre-Islamic era worshiped all these figures, especially Mithra and Anahita. Prods Oktor Skjærvø states Zoroastrianism is henotheistic, and a dualistic and polytheistic religion, but with one supreme god, who is the father of the ordered cosmos. Other scholars state that this is unclear, because historic texts present a picture, ranging from Zoroastrianisms belief in one god. Henotheism was the used by scholars such as Max Muller to describe the theology of Vedic religion. The Vedic era conceptualization of the divine or the One, states Jeaneane Fowler, is more abstract than a monotheistic God, it is the Reality behind and of the phenomenal universe. The Vedic hymns treat it as limitless, indescribable, absolute principle, an example of the questioning of the concept of God, in addition to henotheistic hymns found therein, are in later portions of the Rigveda, such as the Nasadiya Sukta. Hinduism calls the metaphysical absolute concept as Brahman, incorporating within it the transcendent and immanent reality, different schools of thought interpret Brahman as either personal, impersonal or transpersonal. Ishwar Chandra Sharma describes it as Absolute Reality, beyond all dualities of existence and non-existence, light and darkness, while Greek and Roman religion began as polytheism, during the Classical period, under the influence of philosophy, differing conceptions emerged
Henotheism
–
Plato –
Kant –
Nietzsche
22.
Tutankhamun
–
Tutankhamun was an Egyptian pharaoh of the 18th dynasty, during the period of Egyptian history known as the New Kingdom or sometimes the New Empire Period. He has, since his discovery, been referred to as King Tut. His original name, Tutankhaten, means Living Image of Aten, in hieroglyphs, the name Tutankhamun was typically written Amen-tut-ankh, because of a scribal custom that placed a divine name at the beginning of a phrase to show appropriate reverence. The 1922 discovery by Howard Carter and Lord Carnarvon of Tutankhamuns nearly intact tomb received worldwide press coverage and it sparked a renewed public interest in ancient Egypt, for which Tutankhamuns mask, now in the Egyptian Museum, remains the popular symbol. Exhibits of artifacts from his tomb have toured the world, in February 2010, the results of DNA tests confirmed that he was the son of Akhenaten. His mother was Akhenatens sister and wife, whose name is unknown, the mysterious deaths of a few of those who excavated Tutankhamuns tomb has been popularly attributed to the curse of the pharaohs. Tutankhamun was the son of Akhenaten and one of Akhenatens sisters, as a prince, he was known as Tutankhaten. He ascended to the throne in 1333 BC, at the age of nine or ten and his wet nurse was a woman called Maia, known from her tomb at Saqqara. His teacher was most likely Sennedjem, when he became king, he married his half-sister, Ankhesenpaaten, who later changed her name to Ankhesenamun. They had two daughters, both stillborn, computed tomography studies released in 2011 revealed that one daughter died at 5–6 months of pregnancy and the other at 9 months of pregnancy. No evidence was found in either mummy of congenital anomalies or an apparent cause of death, given his age, the king probably had very powerful advisers, presumably including General Horemheb and Grand Vizier Ay. Horemheb records that the king appointed him lord of the land as hereditary prince to maintain law and he also noted his ability to calm the young king when his temper flared. In his third year, under the influence of his advisors. He ended the worship of the god Aten and restored the god Amun to supremacy, the ban on the cult of Amun was lifted and traditional privileges were restored to its priesthood. The capital was moved back to Thebes and the city of Akhetaten abandoned and this is when he changed his name to Tutankhamun, Living image of Amun, reinforcing the restoration of Amun. As part of his restoration, the king initiated building projects, in particular at Karnak in Thebes, many monuments were erected, and an inscription on his tomb door declares the king had spent his life in fashioning the images of the gods. The traditional festivals were now celebrated again, including those related to the Apis Bull, Horemakhet and his restoration stela says, The temples of the gods and goddesses. Their shrines were deserted and overgrown and their sanctuaries were as non-existent and their courts were used as roads
Tutankhamun
–
Mask of
Tutankhamun's mummy, the popular icon for ancient Egypt at
The Egyptian Museum.
Tutankhamun
–
Stripped of all its jewels, the mummy of Tutankhamun remains in the
Valley of the Kings in his
KV62 chamber
Tutankhamun
–
Bust of Tutankhamun found in his tomb, 1922
Tutankhamun
–
Wooden bust of the boy king, found in his tomb
23.
Nile river
–
The Nile is a major north-flowing river in northeastern Africa. It is generally regarded as the longest river in the world, in particular, the Nile is the primary water source of Egypt and Sudan. The Nile has two tributaries, the White Nile and Blue Nile. The White Nile is considered to be the headwaters and primary stream of the Nile itself, the Blue Nile, however, is the source of most of the water and silt. The White Nile is longer and rises in the Great Lakes region of central Africa and it flows north through Tanzania, Lake Victoria, Uganda and South Sudan. The Blue Nile begins at Lake Tana in Ethiopia and flows into Sudan from the southeast, the two rivers meet just north of the Sudanese capital of Khartoum. The northern section of the river flows north almost entirely through the Sudanese desert to Egypt, then ends in a large delta, Egyptian civilization and Sudanese kingdoms have depended on the river since ancient times. Most of the population and cities of Egypt lie along those parts of the Nile valley north of Aswan, in the ancient Egyptian language, the Nile is called Ḥpī or Iteru, meaning river. In Coptic, the words piaro or phiaro meaning the river come from the ancient name. The English name Nile and the Arabic names en-Nîl and an-Nîl both derive from the Latin Nilus and the Ancient Greek Νεῖλος, beyond that, however, the etymology is disputed. One possible etymology derives it from a Semitic Nahal, meaning river, the standard English names White Nile and Blue Nile, to refer to the rivers source, derive from Arabic names formerly applied only to the Sudanese stretches which meet at Khartoum. Above Khartoum, the Nile is also known as the White Nile, at Khartoum the river is joined by the Blue Nile. The White Nile starts in equatorial East Africa, and the Blue Nile begins in Ethiopia, both branches are on the western flanks of the East African Rift. The drainage basin of the Nile covers 3,254,555 square kilometers, the source of the Nile is sometimes considered to be Lake Victoria, but the lake has feeder rivers of considerable size. It is either the Ruvyironza, which emerges in Bururi Province, Burundi, or the Nyabarongo, the two feeder rivers meet near Rusumo Falls on the Rwanda-Tanzania border. Gish Abay is reportedly the place where the water of the first drops of the Blue Nile develop. The Nile leaves Lake Nyanza at Ripon Falls near Jinja, Uganda and it flows north for some 130 kilometers, to Lake Kyoga. For the remaining part it flows westerly through the Murchison Falls until it reaches the very northern shores of Lake Albert where it forms a significant river delta
Nile river
–
The river in Uganda
Nile river
–
The Nile at
Dendera, as seen from the
SPOT satellite
Nile river
–
The Nile near
Beni Suef
Nile river
–
Composite satellite image of the White Nile.
24.
Thebes, Egypt
–
Thebes, known to the ancient Egyptians as Waset, was an ancient Egyptian city located east of the Nile about 800 kilometers south of the Mediterranean. Its ruins lie within the modern Egyptian city of Luxor, Thebes was the main city of the fourth Upper Egyptian nome. It was close to Nubia and the desert, with their valuable mineral resources. It was a center and the wealthiest city of ancient Egypt at its heyday. The Ancient Egyptians originally knew Thebes as Wose or Wase A was was the scepter of the pharaohs, a staff with an animals head. Thebes is the Latinized form of the Greek Thebai, the form of the Demotic Egyptian Ta-pe. This was the name not for the city itself but for the Karnak temple complex on the northern east bank of the city. As early as Homers Iliad, the Greeks distinguished the Egyptian Thebes as Thebes of the Hundred Gates, as opposed to the Thebes of the Seven Gates in Boeotia, from the end of the New Kingdom, Thebes was known in Egyptian as Niwt-Imn, the City of Amun. Amun was the chief of the Theban Triad of gods whose other members were Mut and this name appears in the Bible as the Nōʼ ʼĀmôn of the Book of Nahum and probably also as the No mentioned in Ezekiel and Jeremiah. In the interpretatio graeca, Amun was seen as a form of Zeus, the name was therefore translated into Greek as Diospolis, the City of Zeus. To distinguish it from the other cities by this name. The Greek names came into use after the conquest of Egypt by Alexander the Great. Thebes was located along the banks of the Nile River in the part of Upper Egypt about 800 km from the Delta. It was built largely on the plains of the Nile Valley which follows a great bend of the Nile. As a natural consequence, the city was laid in a northeast-southwest axis parallel to the river channel. Thebes had an area of 93 km2 which included parts of the Theban Hills in the west that culminates at the sacred 420-meter al-Qurn, in the east lies the mountainous Eastern Desert with its wadis draining into the valley. Significant of these wadis is Wadi Hammamat near Thebes and it was used as an overland trade route going to the Red Sea coast. In the fourth Upper Egyptian nome, Thebes was found to have neighboring towns such as Per-Hathor, Madu, Djerty, Iuny, Sumenu, according to George Modelski, Thebes had about 40,000 inhabitants in 2000 BC
Thebes, Egypt
–
Egypt - Temple of Seti, east entrance, Thebes. Brooklyn Museum Archives, Goodyear Archival Collection
Thebes, Egypt
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Luxor Temple
Thebes, Egypt
–
The Theban Necropolis
25.
Heliopolis (Ancient Egypt)
–
Heliopolis was a major city of ancient Egypt. It was the capital of the 13th or Heliopolite Nome of Lower Egypt and it is now located in Ayn Shams, a northeastern suburb of Cairo. Heliopolis was one of the oldest cities of ancient Egypt, occupied since the Predynastic Period and it greatly expanded under the Old and Middle Kingdoms but is today mostly destroyed, its temples and other buildings having been scavenged for the construction of medieval Cairo. Most information about the ancient city comes from surviving records, the major surviving remnant of Heliopolis is the obelisk of the Temple of Ra-Atum erected by Senusret I of Dynasty XII. It still stands in its position, now within Al-Masalla in Al-Matariyyah. The 21 m high red granite obelisk weighs 120 tons, Heliopolis is the latinized form of the Ptolemaic Greek name Hēlioúpolis, meaning City of the Sun. Helios, the personified and deified form of the sun, was identified by the Greeks with the native Egyptian gods Ra and Atum and its native name was I͗wnw, whose exact pronunciation is uncertain because ancient Egyptian recorded only consonantal values. Its traditional Egyptological transcription is Iunu but it appears in biblical Hebrew as Ôn and Āwen, variant transcriptions include Awnu and Annu. The city also appears in the Old Kingdom Pyramid Texts as the House of Ra, in ancient Egypt, Heliopolis was a regional center from predynastic times. It was principally notable as the center of the sun god Atum. The primary temple of the city was known as the Great House or House of Atum and its priests maintained that Atum or Ra was the first being, rising self-created from the primeval waters. A decline in the importance of Ras cult during Dynasty V led to the development of the Ennead, the high priests of Ra are not as well documented as those of other deities, although the high priests of Dynasty VI have been discovered and excavated. During the Amarna Period of Dynasty XVIII, Pharaoh Akhenaten introduced a kind of worship of Aten. As part of his projects, he built a Heliopolitan temple named Elevating Aten. The cult of the Mnevis bull, another embodiment of the Sun, had its altar here as well and their personal formal burial ground was situated north of the city. The store-city Pithom is mentioned once in the Hebrew Bible, and according to one theory, ptolemy II had Manetho, the chief priest of Heliopolis, collect his history of the ancient kings of Egypt from its archives. By the 1st century BC, in fact, Strabo found the deserted. In Roman Egypt, Heliopolis belonged to the province Augustamnica, causing it to appear as Heliopolis in Augustamnica when it needed to be distinguished from Baalbek and its population probably contained a considerable Arabian element
Heliopolis (Ancient Egypt)
–
The Al-Masalla
obelisk, the largest surviving monument from Heliopolis
Heliopolis (Ancient Egypt)
–
Model of a Votive Temple Gateway at Heliopolis,
Brooklyn Museum
26.
Ankh
–
The ankh, also known as crux ansata is an ancient Egyptian hieroglyphic ideograph with the meaning life. The Egyptian gods are often portrayed carrying it by its loop, or bearing one in each hand, the ankh appears in hand or in proximity of almost every deity in the Egyptian pantheon. The ankh symbol was so prevalent that it has found in digs as far as Mesopotamia and Persia. The symbol became popular in New Age mysticism in the 1960s, unicode has two characters encoding the symbol, U+2625 ☥ in the Miscellaneous Symbols block and U+132F9
Ankh
–
Merenptah offering an ankh,
djed, and
was to
Ptah
Ankh
–
The ankh, during the reign of
Hatshepsut (1508–1458 BC), from the
Royal Ontario Museum
Ankh
–
Crux ansata in
Codex Glazier
27.
Egyptian hieroglyphs
–
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
Egyptian hieroglyphs
–
A section of the
Papyrus of Ani showing cursive hieroglyphs.
Egyptian hieroglyphs
–
Hieroglyphs on a funerary stela in
Manchester Museum
Egyptian hieroglyphs
–
The
Rosetta Stone in the
British Museum
Egyptian hieroglyphs
–
Hieroglyphs typical of the Graeco-Roman period
_(Mus%C3%A9e_du_Caire)_(2076972086).jpg)
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Works related to Great Hymn to Aten at Wikisource
Media related to Aten at Wikimedia Commons
