1.
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
2.
Eternity
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Eternity in common parlance is either an infinite or an indeterminately long period of time. In classical philosophy, however, eternity is defined as what exists outside time while sempiternity is the concept that corresponds to the definition of eternity. Eternity is an important concept in many religions, where the God or the gods are said to endure eternally. Some, such as Aristotle, would say the same about the cosmos in regard to both past and future eternal duration, and like the eternal Platonic forms, immutability was considered essential. Aristotle argued that the cosmos has no beginning, in Aristotles metaphysics, eternity is the unmoved mover, understood as the gradient of total synergy. Boethius defined eternity as simultaneously full and perfect possession of interminable life, eternity is often symbolized by the image of a snake swallowing its own tail, known as the Ouroboros. The circle is commonly used as a symbol for eternity, as is the mathematical symbol of infinity. Http, //www. iep. utm. edu/g/god-time. htm Entry in the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy on the relationship between God and Time
3.
Ogdoad (Egyptian)
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In Egyptian mythology, the Ogdoad were eight primordial deities worshipped in Hermopolis during the Old Kingdom period. Budge compares the concept to a group of four pairs of primeval gods mentioned in the Babylonian Enûma Eliš, texts of the Late Period describe them as having the heads of frogs and serpents, and they are often depicted in this way in reliefs of the Greco-Roman period. The eight deities were arranged in four pairs, as follows. The names of Nu and Nut are written with the determiners for sky and water, but from the context of a number of passages in which Ḥeḥu is mentioned, Brugsch also suggested that he may be a personification of the atmosphere between heaven and earth. The fourth pair appears with varying names, sometimes the name Qerḥ is replaced by Ni, Nenu, Nut, or Amun, the common meaning of qerḥ is night, but the determinative also suggests the principle of inactivity or repose. There is no way to attribute four functions to the four pairs of gods. Ennead Butler, Edward P. Hermopolitan Ogdoad
4.
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
5.
Ancient Egyptian creation myths
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Ancient Egyptian creation myths are the ancient Egyptian accounts of the creation of the world. The Pyramid Texts, tomb wall decorations and writings, dating back to the Old Kingdom have given us most of our information regarding early Egyptian creation myths and these myths also form the earliest religious compilations in the world. The ancient Egyptians had many gods and associated legends. Thus the world or more specifically Egypt was created in diverse ways according to different parts of the country. In all of these myths, the world was said to have emerged from an infinite, lifeless sea when the sun rose for the first time, in a distant period known as zp tpj, the first occasion. While these differing cosmogonies competed to some extent, in ways they were complementary. The different creation myths have some elements in common and they all held that the world had arisen out of the lifeless waters of chaos, called Nu. They also included a pyramid-shaped mound, called the benben, which was the first thing to emerge from the waters, the imagery of the pyramidal mound derived from the highest mounds of earth emerging as the river receded. The sun was also associated with creation, and it was said to have first risen from the mound, as the general sun-god Ra or as the god Khepri. Another common element of Egyptian cosmogonies is the figure of the cosmic egg. One variant of the cosmic egg version teaches that the sun god, as power, emerged from the primeval mound. The different creation accounts were each associated with the cult of a god in one of the major cities of Egypt, Hermopolis, Heliopolis, Memphis. To some degree these myths represent competing theologies, but they represent different aspects of the process of creation. The creation myth promulgated in the city of Hermopolis focused on the nature of the universe before the creation of the world, the inherent qualities of the primeval waters were represented by a set of eight gods, called the Ogdoad. The primeval waters were part of the creation process, therefore. According to the myth, the eight gods were divided into male and female groups. They were symbolically depicted as aquatic creatures because they dwelt within the water, the males were represented as frogs, and these two groups eventually converged, resulting in a great upheaval, which produced the pyramidal mound. From it emerged the sun, which rose into the sky to light the world, in Heliopolis, the creation was attributed to Atum, a deity closely associated with Ra, who was said to have existed in the waters of Nu as an inert potential being
6.
Frog
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A frog is any member of a diverse and largely carnivorous group of short-bodied, tailless amphibians composing the order Anura. The oldest fossil proto-frog appeared in the early Triassic of Madagascar, Frogs are widely distributed, ranging from the tropics to subarctic regions, but the greatest concentration of species diversity is in tropical rainforests. There are approximately 4,800 recorded species, accounting for over 85% of extant amphibian species and they are also one of the five most diverse vertebrate orders. The body plan of a frog is generally characterized by a stout body, protruding eyes, cleft tongue, limbs folded underneath. Besides living in water and on dry land, the adults of some species are adapted for living underground or in trees. The skin of the frog is glandular, with secretions ranging from distasteful to toxic, Frogs skins vary in colour from well-camouflaged dappled brown, grey and green to vivid patterns of bright red or yellow and black to advertise toxicity and warn off predators. Frogs typically lay their eggs in water, the eggs hatch into aquatic larvae called tadpoles that have tails and internal gills. They have highly specialized rasping mouth parts suitable for herbivorous, omnivorous or planktivorous diets, the life cycle is completed when they metamorphose into adults. A few species deposit eggs on land or bypass the tadpole stage, adult frogs generally have a carnivorous diet consisting of small invertebrates, but omnivorous species exist and a few feed on fruit. Frogs are extremely efficient at converting what they eat into body mass and they are an important food source for predators and part of the food web dynamics of many of the worlds ecosystems. The skin is semi-permeable, making them susceptible to dehydration, so they live in moist places or have special adaptations to deal with dry habitats. Frogs are valued as food by humans and also have many roles in literature, symbolism. Frog populations have declined significantly since the 1950s, more than one third of species are considered to be threatened with extinction and over one hundred and twenty are believed to have become extinct since the 1980s. The number of malformations among frogs is on the rise and a fungal disease. Conservation biologists are working to understand the causes of these problems, the name frog derives from Old English frogga, abbreviated to frox, forsc, and frosc, probably deriving from Proto-Indo-European preu = to jump. About 88% of amphibian species are classified in the order Anura and these include around 4,810 species in 33 families, of which the Leptodactylidae, Hylidae and Ranidae are the richest in species. The use of the common frog and toad has no taxonomic justification. From a classification perspective, all members of the order Anura are frogs, there are numerous exceptions to this rule
7.
Snake
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Snakes are elongated, legless, carnivorous reptiles of the suborder Serpentes that can be distinguished from legless lizards by their lack of eyelids and external ears. Like all squamates, snakes are ectothermic, amniote vertebrates covered in overlapping scales, many species of snakes have skulls with several more joints than their lizard ancestors, enabling them to swallow prey much larger than their heads with their highly mobile jaws. To accommodate their bodies, snakes paired organs appear one in front of the other instead of side by side. Some species retain a pelvic girdle with a pair of claws on either side of the cloaca. Additionally, sea snakes are widespread throughout the Indian and Pacific Oceans, more than 20 families are currently recognized, comprising about 500 genera and about 3,400 species. They range in size from the tiny,10.4 cm -long thread snake to the reticulated python of 6.95 meters in length, the fossil species Titanoboa cerrejonensis was 12.8 meters long. Snakes are thought to have evolved from either burrowing or aquatic lizards, perhaps during the Jurassic period, the diversity of modern snakes appeared during the Paleocene period. The oldest preserved descriptions of snakes can be found in the Brooklyn Papyrus, most species are nonvenomous and those that have venom use it primarily to kill and subdue prey rather than for self-defense. Some possess venom potent enough to cause injury or death to humans. Nonvenomous snakes either swallow prey alive or kill by constriction, the word ousted adder, as adder went on to narrow in meaning, though in Old English næddre was the general word for snake. The other term, serpent, is from French, ultimately from Indo-European *serp-, the fossil record of snakes is relatively poor because snake skeletons are typically small and fragile making fossilization uncommon. Fossils readily identifiable as snakes first appear in the record during the Cretaceous period. The earliest known snake fossils come from the marine simoliophiids. Based on comparative anatomy, there is consensus that snakes descended from lizards, pythons and boas—primitive groups among modern snakes—have vestigial hind limbs, tiny, clawed digits known as anal spurs, which are used to grasp during mating. The families Leptotyphlopidae and Typhlopidae also possess remnants of the pelvic girdle, front limbs are nonexistent in all known snakes. This is caused by the evolution of Hox genes, controlling limb morphogenesis, the axial skeleton of the snakes’ common ancestor, like most other tetrapods, had regional specializations consisting of cervical, thoracic, lumbar, sacral, and caudal vertebrae. Early in snake evolution, the Hox gene expression in the axial skeleton responsible for the development of the thorax became dominant, as a result, the vertebrae anterior to the hindlimb buds all have the same thoracic-like identity. In other words, most of a skeleton is an extremely extended thorax
8.
Palm branch
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The palm branch is a symbol of victory, triumph, peace and eternal life originating in the ancient Near East and Mediterranean world. The palm was sacred in Mesopotamian religions, and in ancient Egypt represented immortality, in Judaism, a closed frond of the date palm is part of the festival of Sukkot. A palm branch was awarded to athletes in ancient Greece. In Christianity, the branch is associated particularly with Palm Sunday. It was adopted into Christian iconography to represent the victory of martyrs, since a victory signals an end to a conflict or competition, the palm developed into a symbol of peace, a meaning it can have in Islam, where it is often associated with Paradise. The palm appears on several flags or seals representing countries or other places, in Assyrian religion, the palm is one of the trees identified as the Sacred Tree connecting heaven, represented by the crown of the tree, and earth, the base of the trunk. Reliefs from the 9th century BC show winged genii holding palm fronds in the presence of the Sacred Tree and it is associated with the goddess Ishtar and is found on the Ishtar Gate. In ancient Mesopotamia, the palm may have represented fertility in humans. The Mesopotamian goddess Inanna, who had a part in the marriage ritual, was believed to make the dates abundant. Palm stems represented long life to the Ancient Egyptians, and the god Huh was often holding a palm stem in one or both hands. The palm was carried in Egyptian funeral processions to represent eternal life, the Kingdom of Nri used the omu, a tender palm frond, to sacralize and restrain. The palm was a symbol of Phoenicia and appeared on Punic coins, in ancient Greek, the word for palm, phoinix, was thought to be related to the ethnonym. In Archaic Greece, the tree was a sacred sign of Apollo. The palm thus became an icon of the Delian League, in recognition of the alliance, Cimon of Athens erected a bronze statue of a palm tree at Delphi as part of a victory monument commemorating the Battle of the Eurymedon. In addition to representing the victorious League, the palm was a visual pun on the defeated Phoenician fleet. From 400 BC onward, a branch was awarded to the victor in athletic contests. The palm became so associated with victory in ancient Roman culture that the Latin word palma could be used as a metonym for victory. A lawyer who won his case in the forum would decorate his front door with palm leaves, the toga palmata was a toga ornamented with a palm motif, it was worn to celebrate a military triumph only by those who had a previous triumph
9.
Arecaceae
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The Arecaceae are a botanical family of perennial climbers, shrubs, acaules and trees commonly known as palm trees. They are flowering plants, a family in the monocot order Arecales, currently 181 genera with around 2600 species are known, most of them restricted to tropical, subtropical, and warm temperate climates. Most palms are distinguished by their large, compound, evergreen leaves, known as fronds, however, palms exhibit an enormous diversity in physical characteristics and inhabit nearly every type of habitat within their range, from rainforests to deserts. Palms are among the best known and most extensively cultivated plant families and they have been important to humans throughout much of history. Many common products and foods are derived from palms, and palms are widely used in landscaping, making them one of the most economically important plants. In many historical cultures, palms were symbols for such ideas as victory, peace, for inhabitants of cooler climates today, palms symbolize the tropics and vacations. Whether as shrubs, trees, or vines, palms have two methods of growth, solitary or clustered, the common representation is that of a solitary shoot ending in a crown of leaves. This monopodial character may be exhibited by prostrate, trunkless, some common palms restricted to solitary growth include Washingtonia and Roystonea. Palms may instead grow in sparse though dense clusters, the trunk develops an axillary bud at a leaf node, usually near the base, from which a new shoot emerges. The new shoot, in turn, produces an axillary bud, exclusively sympodial genera include many of the rattans, Guihaia, and Rhapis. Several palm genera have both solitary and clustering members, Palms which are usually solitary may grow in clusters, and vice versa. These aberrations suggest the habit operates on a single gene, Palms have large, evergreen leaves that are either palmately or pinnately compound and spirally arranged at the top of the stem. The leaves have a sheath at the base that usually splits open on one side at maturity. The inflorescence is a spadix or spike surrounded by one or more bracts or spathes that become woody at maturity, the flowers are generally small and white, radially symmetric, and can be either uni- or bisexual. The sepals and petals usually number three each, and may be distinct or joined at the base, the stamens generally number six, with filaments that may be separate, attached to each other, or attached to the pistil at the base. The fruit is usually a single-seeded drupe but some genera may contain two or more seeds in each fruit, like all monocots, palms do not have the ability to increase the width of a stem via the same kind of vascular cambium found in non-monocot woody plants. This explains the shape of the trunk that is often seen in palms. The Arecaceae are notable among monocots for their height and for the size of their seeds, leaves, Ceroxylon quindiuense, Colombias national tree, is the tallest monocot in the world, reaching up to 60 m tall
10.
Shen ring
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A shen ring is a circle with a line at a tangent to it, which was represented in hieroglyphs as a stylised loop of a rope. The word shen itself means, in ancient Egyptian, encircle, while the shen ring represented eternal protection, in its elongated form the shen ring became the cartouche which enclosed and protected a royal name. The Shen ring is most often carried by the falcon god Horus. It was used as early as the dynasty where it can be seen in the reliefs from Djosers Step Pyramid complex. The symbol could be stretched to contain other objects, which were understood as being eternally protected by the shen ring. When it contained the name of the pharaoh the symbol became the cartouche, the word shen itself means, in Egyptian, encircle. The Shen ring is the shenu, the Goddess Heqet, is often seated on a shenu. For Eternity, the renpit, papyrus stalk is usually based on top of a Shen ring, the Shen ring is often attached to various types of staffs, the staff of authority, or power, symbolizing the Eternal authority of that power. The Goddess Isis, and the Goddess Nekhbet are often shown kneeling, the Hawk, and the Vulture have the shenu in their talons, wings outstretched, over the scene portrayed. The Horus with Outstretched Wings, shenus in its talons, is an example from the Louvre of a Pectoral Brooch, possibly for royalty
11.
Infinity
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Infinity is an abstract concept describing something without any bound or larger than any number. In mathematics, infinity is treated as a number but it is not the same sort of number as natural or real numbers. Georg Cantor formalized many ideas related to infinity and infinite sets during the late 19th, in the theory he developed, there are infinite sets of different sizes. For example, the set of integers is countably infinite, while the set of real numbers is uncountable. Ancient cultures had various ideas about the nature of infinity, the ancient Indians and Greeks did not define infinity in precise formalism as does modern mathematics, and instead approached infinity as a philosophical concept. The earliest recorded idea of infinity comes from Anaximander, a pre-Socratic Greek philosopher who lived in Miletus and he used the word apeiron which means infinite or limitless. However, the earliest attestable accounts of mathematical infinity come from Zeno of Elea, aristotle called him the inventor of the dialectic. He is best known for his paradoxes, described by Bertrand Russell as immeasurably subtle, however, recent readings of the Archimedes Palimpsest have found that Archimedes had an understanding about actual infinite quantities. The Jain mathematical text Surya Prajnapti classifies all numbers into three sets, enumerable, innumerable, and infinite, on both physical and ontological grounds, a distinction was made between asaṃkhyāta and ananta, between rigidly bounded and loosely bounded infinities. European mathematicians started using numbers in a systematic fashion in the 17th century. John Wallis first used the notation ∞ for such a number, euler used the notation i for an infinite number, and exploited it by applying the binomial formula to the i th power, and infinite products of i factors. In 1699 Isaac Newton wrote about equations with an number of terms in his work De analysi per aequationes numero terminorum infinitas. The infinity symbol ∞ is a symbol representing the concept of infinity. The symbol is encoded in Unicode at U+221E ∞ infinity and in LaTeX as \infty and it was introduced in 1655 by John Wallis, and, since its introduction, has also been used outside mathematics in modern mysticism and literary symbology. Leibniz, one of the co-inventors of infinitesimal calculus, speculated widely about infinite numbers, in real analysis, the symbol ∞, called infinity, is used to denote an unbounded limit. X → ∞ means that x grows without bound, and x → − ∞ means the value of x is decreasing without bound. ∑ i =0 ∞ f = ∞ means that the sum of the series diverges in the specific sense that the partial sums grow without bound. Infinity can be used not only to define a limit but as a value in the real number system
12.
1,000,000
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One million or one thousand thousand is the natural number following 999,999 and preceding 1,000,001. The word is derived from the early Italian millione, from mille, thousand and it is commonly abbreviated as m or M, further MM, mm, or mn in financial contexts. In scientific notation, it is written as 1×106 or 106, physical quantities can also be expressed using the SI prefix mega, when dealing with SI units, for example,1 megawatt equals 1,000,000 watts. The meaning of the word million is common to the scale and long scale numbering systems, unlike the larger numbers. Information, Not counting spaces, the text printed on 136 pages of an Encyclopædia Britannica, length, There are one million millimeters in a kilometer, and roughly a million sixteenths of an inch in a mile. A typical car tire might rotate a million times in a 1, 200-mile trip, fingers, If the width of a human finger is 2.2 cm, then a million fingers lined up would cover a distance of 22 km. If a person walks at a speed of 4 km/h, it would take approximately five. A city lot 70 by 100 feet is about a million square inches, volume, The cube root of one million is only one hundred, so a million objects or cubic units is contained in a cube only a hundred objects or linear units on a side. A million grains of salt or granulated sugar occupies only about 64 ml. One million cubic inches would be the volume of a room only 8 1⁄3 feet long by 8 1⁄3 feet wide by 8 1⁄3 feet high. Mass, A million cubic millimeters of water would have a volume of one litre, a million millilitres or cubic centimetres of water has a mass of a million grams or one tonne. Weight, A million 80-milligram honey bees would weigh the same as an 80 kg person, landscape, A pyramidal hill 600 feet wide at the base and 100 feet high would weigh about a million tons. Computer, A display resolution of 1,280 by 800 pixels contains 1,024,000 pixels, money, A USD bill of any denomination weighs 1 gram. There are 454 grams in a pound, one million $1 bills would weigh 2,204.62 pounds, or just over 1 ton. Time, A million seconds is 11.57 days, in Indian English and Pakistani English, it is also expressed as 10 lakh or 10 Lac. Lakh is derived from laksh for 100,000 in Sanskrit
13.
Ancient Egyptian mathematics
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Ancient Egyptian mathematics is the mathematics that was developed and used in Ancient Egypt c.3000 to c.300 BC. Written evidence of the use of mathematics dates back to at least 3000 BC with the ivory labels found in Tomb U-j at Abydos and these labels appear to have been used as tags for grave goods and some are inscribed with numbers. Further evidence of the use of the base 10 number system can be found on the Narmer Macehead which depicts offerings of 400,000 oxen,1,422,000 goats and 120,000 prisoners. The evidence of the use of mathematics in the Old Kingdom is scarce, the lines in the diagram are spaced at a distance of one cubit and show the use of that unit of measurement. The earliest true mathematical documents date to the 12th dynasty, the Rhind Mathematical Papyrus which dates to the Second Intermediate Period is said to be based on an older mathematical text from the 12th dynasty. The Moscow Mathematical Papyrus and Rhind Mathematical Papyrus are so-called mathematical problem texts and they consist of a collection of problems with solutions. These texts may have been written by a teacher or a student engaged in solving typical mathematics problems, an interesting feature of Ancient Egyptian mathematics is the use of unit fractions. Scribes used tables to help work with these fractions. The Egyptian Mathematical Leather Roll for instance is a table of unit fractions which are expressed as sums of unit fractions. The Rhind Mathematical Papyrus and some of the other texts contain 2 n tables and these tables allowed the scribes to rewrite any fraction of the form 1 n as a sum of unit fractions. During the New Kingdom mathematical problems are mentioned in the literary Papyrus Anastasi I, in the workers village of Deir el-Medina several ostraca have been found that record volumes of dirt removed while quarrying the tombs. Our understanding of ancient Egyptian mathematics is impeded by the paucity of available sources. The Reisner Papyrus dates to the early Twelfth dynasty of Egypt and was found in Nag el-Deir, the Rhind Mathematical Papyrus dates from the Second Intermediate Period, but its author, Ahmes, identifies it as a copy of a now lost Middle Kingdom papyrus. The RMP is the largest mathematical text, from the New Kingdom we have a handful of mathematical texts and inscription related to computations, The Papyrus Anastasi I is a literary text from the New Kingdom. It is written as a written by a scribe named Hori. A segment of the letter describes several mathematical problems, ostracon Senmut 153 is a text written in hieratic. Ostracon Turin 57170 is a written in hieratic. Ostraca from Deir el-Medina contain computations, ostracon IFAO1206 for instance shows the calculations of volumes, presumably related to the quarrying of a tomb
14.
Hermopolis
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Hermopolis was a major city in antiquity, located near the boundary between Lower and Upper Egypt. A provincial capital since the Old Kingdom period, Hermopolis developed into a city of Roman Egypt. It was abandoned after the Muslim invasion and its remains are located near the modern Egyptian town of El Ashmunein in Al Minya governorate. Khemenu, the Ancient Egyptian name of the city, means eight-town, after the Ogdoad, the name survived into Coptic as Ϣⲙⲟⲩⲛⲉⲓⲛ, from which the modern name, El Ashmunein, is derived. Thoth was associated in the way with the Semitic Eshmun. Inscriptions at the call the god The Lord of Eshmun. The city was the capital of the Hare nome in the Heptanomis, Hermopolis stood on the borders of Upper and Lower Egypt, and, for many ages, the Thebaïd or upper country extended much further to the north than in more recent periods. As the border town, Hermopolis was a place of resort and opulence. A little to south of the city was the castle of Hermopolis, the principal deities worshipped at Hermopolis were Typhôn and Thoth. Typhon was represented by a hippopotamus, on which sat a hawk fighting with a serpent, Thoth, whom the Ancient Greeks associated with Hermes because they were both gods of magic and writing, was represented by the Ibis. A surviving Oxyrhynchus Papyrus of the 3rd century AD indicates that buildings with seven stories existed in the town. The collection of Arabic papyri in the John Rylands Library, Manchester, contains many documents referring to Hermopolis, the city is still a titular diocese in the Roman Catholic Church, and in the Coptic Orthodox Church. The Ibis-headed god, was, with his accompanying emblems, the Ibis and the Cynocephalus or ape and his designation in inscriptions was The Lord of Eshmoon. The portico, the remnant of the temple, consists of a double row of pillars. The architraves are formed of five stones, each passes from the centre of one pillar to that of the next, the intercolumnation of the centre pillars is wider than that of the others, and the stone over the centre is twenty-five feet and six inches long. These columns were painted yellow, red, and blue in alternate bands, there is also a peculiarity in the pillars of the Hermopolitan portico peculiar to themselves, or, at least, discovered only again in the temple of Gournou. Instead of being formed of large masses placed horizontally above each other, they are composed of irregular pieces, the widest part of the intercolumnation is 17 feet, the other pillars are 13 feet apart. Currently there is a small museum in which stand two massive statues of Thoth as a baboon worshipping the sun, and a few carved blocks of masonry
15.
Nu (mythology)
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Nu, feminine Nut, is the deification of the primordial watery abyss in the Hermopolitan Ogdoad cosmogony of ancient Egyptian religion. The name is paralleled with nen inactivity in a play of words in, I raised them up out of the watery mass. The name has also been compared Coptic noun abyss, deep, Nut is also the name of the sky goddess of the Ennead of Heliopolis. The Ancient Egyptians envisaged the oceanic abyss of the Nun as surrounding a bubble in which the sphere of life is encapsulated, in Ancient Egyptian creation accounts the original mound of land comes forth from the waters of the Nun. The Nun is the source of all that appears in a world, encompassing all aspects of divine. In the Ennead cosmogony Nun is perceived as transcendent at the point of creation alongside Atum the creator god, beginning with the Middle Kingdom Nun is described as the Father of the Gods and he is depicted on temple walls throughout the rest of Ancient Egyptian religious history. The Ogdoad includes along with Naunet and Nun, Amaunet and Amun, Hauhet and Heh, like the other Ogdoad deities, Nu did not have temples or any center of worship. Even so, Nu was sometimes represented by a lake, or, as at Abydos. In the 12th Hour of the Book of Gates Nu is depicted with upraised arms holding a solar bark, the boat is occupied by eight deities, with the scarab deity Khepri standing in the middle surrounded by the seven other deities. During the late period when Egypt became occupied, the aspect of the Nun became the dominant perception. Abzu Benben stone E. A. Wallis Budge, The Gods of the Egyptians, Or, Studies in Egyptian Mythology, vol
16.
Amun
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Amun was a major Ancient Egyptian deity. He was attested since the Old Kingdom together with his wife Amaunet, with the 11th dynasty, he rose to the position of patron deity of Thebes by replacing Monthu. After the rebellion of Thebes against the Hyksos and with the rule of Ahmose I, Amun acquired national importance, expressed in his fusion with the Sun god, Ra, Amun-Ra retained chief importance in the Egyptian pantheon throughout the New Kingdom. Amun-Ra in this period held the position of transcendental, self-created creator deity par excellence, he was the champion of the poor or troubled and his position as King of Gods developed to the point of virtual monotheism where other gods became manifestations of him. With Osiris, Amun-Ra is the most widely recorded of the Egyptian gods, as the chief deity of the Egyptian Empire, Amun-Ra also came to be worshipped outside of Egypt, according to the testimony of ancient Greek historiographers in Libya and Nubia. As Zeus Ammon he came to be identified with Zeus in Greece, Amun and Amaunet are mentioned in the Old Egyptian Pyramid Texts. The name Amun meant something like the one or invisible. Amun rose to the position of tutelary deity of Thebes after the end of the First Intermediate Period, as the patron of Thebes, his spouse was Mut. In Thebes, Amun as father, Mut as mother and the Moon god Khonsu formed a family or Theban Triad. The history of Amun as the god of Thebes begins in the 20th century BC. The city of Thebes does not appear to have been of great significance before the 11th dynasty, major construction work in the Precinct of Amun-Re took place during the 18th dynasty when Thebes became the capital of the unified ancient Egypt. Construction of the Hypostyle Hall may have begun during the 18th dynasty, though most building was undertaken under Seti I. Merenptah commemorated his victories over the Sea Peoples on the walls of the Cachette Court and this Great Inscription shows the kings campaigns and eventual return with booty and prisoners. Next to this inscription is the Victory Stela, which is largely a copy of the more famous Israel Stela found in the complex of Merenptah on the west bank of the Nile in Thebes. Merenptahs son Seti II added 2 small obelisks in front of the Second Pylon, and this was constructed of sandstone, with a chapel to Amun flanked by those of Mut and Khonsu. The last major change to the Precinct of Amun-Res layout was the addition of the first pylon, the local patron deity of Thebes, Amun, therefore became nationally important. The pharaohs of that new dynasty attributed all their enterprises to Amun. The victory accomplished by pharaohs who worshipped Amun against the rulers, brought him to be seen as a champion of the less fortunate
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Amunet
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Amunet was a primordial goddess in Ancient Egyptian religion. She is a member of the Ogdoad and the consort of Amun and her name, meaning the female hidden one, was simply the feminine form of Amuns own name. It is possible that she was never an independent deity, as the first mention of either of them is in a pair, at Karnak, Amuns cult center, priests were dedicated to Amunets service. The goddess also played a part in ceremonies such as the Sed festival. Amunet was depicted as a woman wearing the Red Crown and carrying a staff of papyrus, in late texts from Karnak she was syncretized with Neith, although she remained a distinct deity as late as the Ptolemaic period. In the TV series Penny Dreadful, the character of Vanessa Ives is implied to be an incarnation of Amunet, in the TV series Stargate SG-1, Amaunet is a recurring Goauld character and consort of Apophis. Amunet will appear portrayed by Sofia Boutella in a fictionalized characterization, the film will serve as the first official installment in the Universal Monsters Cinematic Universe
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Kek (mythology)
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Kek is the deification of the concept of primordial darkness in the Ancient Egyptian Ogdoad cosmogony. As a concept, Kek was viewed as androgynous, his form being known as Keket. Kek and Keket in some aspects also represent night and day, and were called raiser up of the light, the name is written as kk or kkwy with a variant of the sky hieroglyph in ligature with the staff associated with the word for darkness kkw. In the oldest representations, Kekui is given the head of a serpent, and Kekuit the head of either a frog or a cat. In one scene, they are identified with Ka and Kait, in this scene, Ka-Kekui has the head of a frog surmounted by a beetle and Kait-Kekuit has the head of a serpent surmounted by a disk. In the Greco-Roman period, Keks male form was depicted as a man. In relation to the 2016 United States presidential election, individuals associated with message boards, such as 4chan. This resulted in a resurgence of interest of the ancient deity, some members of 4chan jokingly attribute the victory of Donald J. Trump in the 2016 United States presidential election to meme magic. Kek and Kauket, Deities of Darkness, Obscurity and Night
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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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Ancient Egypt
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Ancient Egypt was a civilization of ancient Northeastern Africa, concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in what is now the modern country of Egypt. It is one of six civilizations to arise independently, Egyptian civilization followed prehistoric Egypt and coalesced around 3150 BC with the political unification of Upper and Lower Egypt under the first pharaoh Narmer. In the aftermath of Alexander the Greats death, one of his generals, Ptolemy Soter and this Greek Ptolemaic Kingdom ruled Egypt until 30 BC, when, under Cleopatra, it fell to the Roman Empire and became a Roman province. The success of ancient Egyptian civilization came partly from its ability to adapt to the conditions of the Nile River valley for agriculture, the predictable flooding and controlled irrigation of the fertile valley produced surplus crops, which supported a more dense population, and social development and culture. Its art and architecture were widely copied, and its antiquities carried off to far corners of the world and its monumental ruins have inspired the imaginations of travelers and writers for centuries. The Nile has been the lifeline of its region for much of human history, nomadic modern human hunter-gatherers began living in the Nile valley through the end of the Middle Pleistocene some 120,000 years ago. By the late Paleolithic period, the climate of Northern Africa became increasingly hot and dry. In Predynastic and Early Dynastic times, the Egyptian climate was less arid than it is today. Large regions of Egypt were covered in treed savanna and traversed by herds of grazing ungulates, foliage and fauna were far more prolific in all environs and the Nile region supported large populations of waterfowl. Hunting would have been common for Egyptians, and this is also the period when many animals were first domesticated. The largest of these cultures in upper Egypt was the Badari, which probably originated in the Western Desert, it was known for its high quality ceramics, stone tools. The Badari was followed by the Amratian and Gerzeh cultures, which brought a number of technological improvements, as early as the Naqada I Period, predynastic Egyptians imported obsidian from Ethiopia, used to shape blades and other objects from flakes. In Naqada II times, early evidence exists of contact with the Near East, particularly Canaan, establishing a power center at Hierakonpolis, and later at Abydos, Naqada III leaders expanded their control of Egypt northwards along the Nile. They also traded with Nubia to the south, the oases of the desert to the west. Royal Nubian burials at Qustul produced artifacts bearing the oldest-known examples of Egyptian dynastic symbols, such as the crown of Egypt. They also developed a ceramic glaze known as faience, which was used well into the Roman Period to decorate cups, amulets, and figurines. During the last predynastic phase, the Naqada culture began using written symbols that eventually were developed into a system of hieroglyphs for writing the ancient Egyptian language. The Early Dynastic Period was approximately contemporary to the early Sumerian-Akkadian civilisation of Mesopotamia, the third-century BC Egyptian priest Manetho grouped the long line of pharaohs from Menes to his own time into 30 dynasties, a system still used today
