1.
Rishi coffin
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Rishi coffins are funerary coffins adorned with a feather design, which were used in Ancient Egypt. They are typical of the Egyptian Second Intermediate Period, circa 1650 to 1550 BC, the name comes from ريشة, Arabic for feather. During the Egyptian Old Kingdom and Middle Kingdom, coffins were rectangular, the first coffins in anthropoid shape only appear in the 12th Dynasty. These copied design mummies showing a head and the body without arms. The coffins were always in several sets with the coffin being rectangular. Perhaps already in the 13th Dynasty, these anthropoid coffins were decorated all over with a design and are no longer placed within an outer. These are the first rishi coffins, the earliest example mentioned in literature is the coffin of the scribe of the great enclosure Neferhotep, dating to the 13th Dynasty. However, this coffin was only described by the excavator and is now lost, the earliest secure known examples of rishi coffins belong to the kings of the 17th Dynasty, and were found in the 19th century at Thebes. From the 17th Dynasty are also many private rishi coffins. This type of coffin is still attested in the early New Kingdom, gianluca Miniaci, Rishi Coffins and the Funerary Culture of Second Intermediate Period Egypt, London 2011, ISBN 978-1-906137-24-3
2.
Pharaoh
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The word pharaoh ultimately derive from the Egyptian compound pr-ˤ3 great house, written with the two biliteral hieroglyphs pr house and ˤ3 column, here meaning great or high. It was used only in larger phrases such as smr pr-ˤ3 Courtier of the High House, with specific reference to the buildings of the court or palace. From the twelfth dynasty onward, the word appears in a wish formula Great House, may it live, prosper, and be in health, but again only with reference to the royal palace and not the person. During the reign of Thutmose III in the New Kingdom, after the rule of the Hyksos during the Second Intermediate Period. During the eighteenth dynasty the title pharaoh was employed as a designation of the ruler. From the nineteenth dynasty onward pr-ˤ3 on its own was used as regularly as hm. f, the term, therefore, evolved from a word specifically referring to a building to a respectful designation for the ruler, particularly by the twenty-second dynasty and twenty-third dynasty. For instance, the first dated appearance of the pharaoh being attached to a rulers name occurs in Year 17 of Siamun on a fragment from the Karnak Priestly Annals. Here, an induction of an individual to the Amun priesthood is dated specifically to the reign of Pharaoh Siamun and this new practice was continued under his successor Psusennes II and the twenty-second dynasty kings. Shoshenq I was the successor of Siamun. Meanwhile, the old custom of referring to the sovereign simply as pr-ˤ3 continued in traditional Egyptian narratives, by this time, the Late Egyptian word is reconstructed to have been pronounced *par-ʕoʔ whence Herodotus derived the name of one of the Egyptian kings, Φερων. In the Bible, the title also occurs as פרעה, from that, Septuagint φαραώ pharaō and then Late Latin pharaō, both -n stem nouns. The Quran likewise spells it فرعون firawn with n, interestingly, the Arabic combines the original pharyngeal ayin sound from Egyptian, along with the -n ending from Greek. English at first spelt it Pharao, but the King James Bible revived Pharaoh with h from the Hebrew, meanwhile in Egypt itself, *par-ʕoʔ evolved into Sahidic Coptic ⲡⲣ̅ⲣⲟ prro and then rro. Scepters and staves were a sign of authority in ancient Egypt. One of the earliest royal scepters was discovered in the tomb of Khasekhemwy in Abydos, kings were also known to carry a staff, and Pharaoh Anedjib is shown on stone vessels carrying a so-called mks-staff. The scepter with the longest history seems to be the heqa-scepter, the earliest examples of this piece of regalia dates to pre-dynastic times. A scepter was found in a tomb at Abydos that dates to the late Naqada period, another scepter associated with the king is the was-scepter. This is a long staff mounted with an animal head, the earliest known depictions of the was-scepter date to the first dynasty
3.
Egyptian chronology
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The majority of Egyptologists agree on the outline and many details of the chronology of Ancient Egypt. Scholarly consensus on the outline of the conventional chronology current in Egyptology has not fluctuated much over the last 100 years. For the Old Kingdom, consensus fluctuates by as much as a few centuries and this is illustrated by comparing the chronology as given by two Egyptologists, the first writing in 1906, the second in 2000. The disparities between the two sets of result from additional discoveries and refined understanding of the still very incomplete source evidence. For example, Breasted adds a ruler in the Twentieth dynasty that further research showed did not exist, following Manetho, Breasted also believed all the dynasties were sequential, whereas it is now known that several existed at the same time. These revisions have resulted in a lowering of the chronology by up to 400 years at the beginning of Dynasty I. The backbone of Egyptian chronology are the years as recorded in Ancient Egyptian king lists. In addition, some Egyptian dynasties may have overlapped, with different pharaohs ruling in different regions at the same time, not knowing whether monarchies were simultaneous or sequential results in widely differing chronological interpretations. However, further research has shown that these censuses were taken in consecutive years. The sed festival was celebrated on the thirtieth anniversary of the Pharaohs ascension. However, once again, this may not be the practice in all cases. In the early days of Egyptology, the compilation of regnal periods may also have been hampered due to bias on the part of the Egyptologists. This was most pervasive before the mid 19th century, when Manethos figures were recognized as conflicting with biblical chronology based on Old Testament references to Egypt, in the 20th century, such biblical bias has mostly been confined to alternative chronologies outside of scholarly mainstream. A useful way to work around these gaps in knowledge is to find chronological synchronisms, over the past decades, a number of these have been found, although they are of varying degrees of usefulness and reliability. While this does not fix a person or event to a specific year, another example are blocks from the Old Kingdom bearing the names of several kings, which were reused in the construction of Middle Kingdom pyramid-temples at Lisht in the structures of Amenemhat I. The poor documentation of these finds in the Serapeum also compounds the difficulties in using these records. The best known of these is the Sothic cycle, and careful study of this led Richard A. Parker to argue that the dates of the Twelfth dynasty could be fixed with absolute precision. More recent research has eroded this confidence, questioning many of the assumptions used with the Sothic Cycle and this is useful especially for the Early Dynastic period, where Egyptological consensus has only been possible within a range of about three or four centuries
4.
Sekhemre-Wepmaat Intef
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Sekhemre-Wepmaat Intef is sometimes referred to as Intef V, and sometimes as Intef VI. His nomen, Intef-aa, translates as His father brought him, the great or Intef and he ruled from Thebes, and was probably buried in a tomb in the necropolis. His rishi coffin, Louvre E3019, was discovered in the 19th century and found to preserve an inscription which reveals that this kings brother Nubkheperre Intef buried – and thus succeeded – him. While his own tomb has not been located, it was located in the area of Dra Abu el-Naga where the pyramid tomb of his brother Nubkheperre Intef was found in 2001. The pyramidion of the pyramid of Sekhemre-Wepmaat Intefs pyramid was found in Dra Abu el-Naga and it has a slope of 60 degrees and is inscribed with this kings names. The pyramidion is now in the British Museum
5.
Sekhemre-Heruhirmaat Intef
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Sekhemre-Heruhirmaat Intef is referred to as Intef VII in some literature, while others refer to him as Intef VIII. Sekhemre-Heruhirmaat Intef ruled from Thebes, and was buried in a tomb in the 17th Dynasty royal necropolis at Dra Abu el-Naga and his only clear attestation is his coffin — Louvre E3020 — now in France. His sarcophagus contained the nomen of this king as well as his prenomen, Sekhemre-Heruhirmaat. Little more is known concerning the reign of this king except that he was a successor of Nubkheperre Intef. This would also explain the modesty of Sekhemre-Heruhirmaat Intefs coffin, which lacked a royal uraeus and is similar to the clearly non-royal coffin of Kamose. Intef, hence, would not have had the time to create a proper royal coffin in his abbreviated reign
6.
Ancient Egyptian royal titulary
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The royal titulary or royal protocol of an Egyptian pharaoh is the standard naming convention taken by the kings of Ancient Egypt. It symbolises worldly power and holy might and also acts as a sort of mission statement for the reign of a monarch. The full titulary, consisting of five names, did not come into standard usage until the Middle Kingdom, the Horus name is the oldest form of the pharaohs name, originating in the Predynastic Period. Many of the oldest-known Egyptian pharaohs were known only by this title, the Horus name was usually written in a serekh, a representation of a palace façade. The name of the pharaoh was written in hieroglyphs inside this representation of a palace, typically an image of the falcon God Horus was perched on top of or beside it. At least one Egyptian ruler, the 2nd dynasty Seth-Peribsen, used an image of the god Seth instead of Horus and he was succeeded by Khasekhemwy, who placed the symbols of both Seth and Horus above his name. Thereafter, the image of Horus always appeared alongside the name of the pharaoh, by the time of the New Kingdom the Horus name was often written without the enclosing serekh. The name is first definitively used by the First Dynasty pharaoh Semerkhet and this particular name was not typically framed by a cartouche or serekh, but always begins with the hieroglyphs of a vulture and cobra resting upon two baskets, the dual noun nebty. Also known as the Golden Horus Name, this form of the name typically featured the image of a Horus falcon perched above or beside the hieroglyph for gold. The meaning of this title has been disputed. One belief is that it represents the triumph of Horus over his uncle Seth, Gold also was strongly associated in the ancient Egyptian mind with eternity, so this may have been intended to convey the pharaohs eternal Horus name. Similar to the Nebty name, this particular name typically was not framed by a cartouche or serekh, the pharaohs throne name, the first of the two names written inside a cartouche, and usually accompanied the title nsw-bity. The term nsw-bity It has been suggested that the Berber term for strong man, the epithet neb tawy, Lord of the Two Lands, referring to valley and delta regions of Egypt, often occurs as well. This was the name given at birth and it was first introduced to the set of royal titles in the Fourth Dynasty and emphasizes the kings role as a representative of the solar god Ra. For women who became pharaoh, the title was interpreted as daughter also. Modern historians typically refer to the ancient kings of Egypt by this name, Middle Egyptian, An Introduction to the Language and Culture of Hieroglyphs. The Complete Royal Families of Ancient Egypt, Cairo, London, and New York, The American University in Cairo Press and Thames and Hudson. The Great Name, Ancient Egyptian Royal Titulary, Egyptian Grammar, Being an Introduction to the Study of Hieroglyphs
7.
Sobekemsaf II
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Sobekemsaf II was an Egyptian king of the Seventeenth Dynasty of Egypt who reigned during the Second Intermediate Period, when Egypt was ruled by multiple kings. His throne name, Sekhemre Shedtawy, means Powerful is Re, Ryholt believed that Sekhemre Wadjkhaw Sobekemsaf intervened between the line of Intef kings and the accession of Senakhtenre—the first 17th Dynasty kings from the Ahmoside family line. This means that Sekhemre Wadjkhaw Sobekemsaf ruled on the throne before the Intef kings took power early in the 17th Dynasty—and that he would be Sobekemsaf I instead and the father of Sobekemsaf II. Sobekemsaf II would, therefore, be the son of Sobekemsaf I, the Abbott and Leopold-Amherst Papyruses, which are dated to Year 16 of Ramesses IX, state that this kings royal pyramid tomb was violated and destroyed by tomb robbers. The document ends with the conviction of the thieves—with a probable death sentence—and notes that a copy of the trial transcripts was dispatched to Ramesses IX in Lower Egypt. Amenpnufer himself would have been sentenced to death by impalement, a punishment which was reserved for the most heinous crimes in Ancient Egypt, kim Ryholt, The Political Situation in Egypt during the Second Intermediate Period c. 1800–1550 B. C, Museum Tuscalanum Press,1997. ISBN 87-7289-421-0,393 File 17/2 Leonard Cottrell, The Lost Pharaohs, Pan Books London and Sydney, 8th printing,1977
8.
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
9.
Second Intermediate Period
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The Second Intermediate Period marks a period when Ancient Egypt fell into disarray for a second time, between the end of the Middle Kingdom and the start of the New Kingdom. It is best known as the period when the Hyksos made their appearance in Egypt, the Twelfth Dynasty of Egypt came to an end at the end of the 19th century BC with the death of Queen Sobekneferu. Apparently she had no heirs, causing the twelfth dynasty to come to an end, and, with it. Retaining the seat of the dynasty, the thirteenth dynasty ruled from Itjtawy near Memphis and Lisht. The Thirteenth Dynasty is notable for the accession of the first formally recognised Semitic-speaking king, the Fifteenth Dynasty dates approximately from 1650 to 1550 BC. Known rulers of the Fifteenth Dynasty are as follows, Salitis Sakir-Har Khyan Apophis, 1550–1540 BC The Fifteenth Dynasty of Egypt was the first Hyksos dynasty, ruled from Avaris, without control of the entire land. The Hyksos preferred to stay in northern Egypt since they infiltrated from the north-east, the names and order of kings is uncertain. The Turin King list indicates that there were six Hyksos kings, the surviving traces on the X figure appears to give the figure 8 which suggests that the summation should be read as 6 kings ruling 108 years. Some scholars argue there were two Apophis kings named Apepi I and Apepi II, but this is due to the fact there are two known prenomens for this king, Awoserre and Aqenenre. However, the Danish Egyptologist Kim Ryholt maintains in his study of the Second Intermediate Period that these prenomens all refer to one man, Apepi and this is also supported by the fact that this king employed a third prenomen during his reign, Nebkhepeshre. Apepi likely employed several different prenomens throughout various periods of his reign and this scenario is not unprecedented, as later kings, including the famous Ramesses II and Seti II, are known to have used two different prenomens in their own reigns. The Sixteenth Dynasty ruled the Theban region in Upper Egypt for 70 years, of the two chief versions of Manethos Aegyptiaca, Dynasty XVI is described by the more reliable Africanus as shepherd kings, but by Eusebius as Theban. For this reason other scholars do not follow Ryholt and see only insufficient evidence for the interpretation of the Sixteenth Dynasty as Theban, the continuing war against Dynasty XV dominated the short-lived 16th dynasty. The armies of the 15th dynasty, winning town after town from their enemies, continually encroached on the 16th dynasty territory, eventually threatening. Famine, which had plagued Upper Egypt during the late 13th dynasty, from Ryholts reconstruction of the Turin canon,15 kings of the dynasty can now be named, five of whom appear in contemporary sources. While most likely based in Thebes itself, some may have been local rulers from other important Upper Egyptian towns, including Abydos, El Kab. By the reign of Nebiriau I, the controlled by the 16th dynasty extended at least as far north as Hu. Not listed in the Turin canon is Wepwawetemsaf, who left a stele at Abydos and was likely a local kinglet of the Abydos Dynasty, Ryholt gives the list of kings of the 16th dynasty as shown in the table below
10.
Hyksos
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The Hyksos were a people of mixed origins from Western Asia, who settled in the eastern Nile Delta, some time before 1650 BC. The arrival of the Hyksos led to the end of the Thirteenth Dynasty of Egypt, in the context of Ancient Egypt, the term Asiatic – which is often used of the Hyksos – may refer to any people native to areas east of Egypt. Immigration by Canaanite populations preceded the Hyksos, canaanites first appeared in Egypt towards the end of the 12th Dynasty c.1800 BC, and either around that time or c.1720 BC, established an independent realm in the eastern Nile Delta. The Canaanite rulers of the Delta, regrouped in the Fourteenth Dynasty, coexisted with the Egyptian Thirteenth Dynasty, the power of the 13th and 14th Dynasties progressively waned, perhaps due to famine and plague. In about 1650 BC, both dynasties were invaded by the Hyksos, who formed the Fifteenth Dynasty. The collapse of the Thirteenth Dynasty created a vacuum in the south, which may have led to the rise of the Sixteenth Dynasty, based in Thebes. The Hyksos eventually conquered both, albeit for only a time in the case of Thebes. From then on, the 17th Dynasty took control of Thebes and reigned for some time in peaceful coexistence with the Hyksos kings, eventually, Seqenenre Tao, Kamose and Ahmose waged war against the Hyksos and expelled Khamudi, their last king, from Egypt c.1550 BC. The Hyksos practiced horse burials, and their deity, their native storm god, Baal, became associated with the Egyptian storm and desert god. The Hyksos were a people of mixed Asiatic origin with mainly Semitic-speaking components, although some scholars have suggested that the Hyksos contained a Hurrian component, most other scholars have dismissed this possibility. The Hyksos brought several innovations to Egypt, as well as cultural infusions such as new musical instruments. The changes introduced include new techniques of working and pottery, new breeds of animals. In warfare, they introduced the horse and chariot, the bow, improved battle axes. Because of these advances, Hyksos rule became decisive for Egypt’s later empire in the Middle East. There are various hypotheses as to the Hyksos ethnic identity, most archaeologists describe the Hyksos as multi-ethnic, to include all of the peoples who occupied the Nile Delta. The origin of the term Hyksos derives from the Egyptian expression hekau khaswet, the German Egyptologist Wolfgang Helck once argued that the Hyksos were part of massive and widespread Hurrian and Indo-Aryan migrations into the Near East. According to Helck, the Hyksos were Hurrians and part of a Hurrian empire that, most scholars have rejected this theory, and Helck himself abandoned this hypothesis in a 1993 article. The Hyksos were likely Semites who came from the Eastern Mediterranean, khyans name has generally been interpreted as Amorite Hayanu which the Egyptian form represents perfectly, and this is in all likelihood the correct interpretation
11.
Thebes, Egypt
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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
12.
Auguste Mariette
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François Auguste Ferdinand Mariette was a French scholar, archaeologist and Egyptologist, and founder of the Egyptian Department of Antiquities. Meanwhile, his cousin Nestor LHote, the friend and fellow-traveller of Champollion, died, largely self-taught, he devoted himself to the study of hieroglyphics and Coptic. His 1847 analytic catalogue of the Egyptian Gallery of the Boulogne Museum got him an appointment at the Louvre Museum in 1849. The site initially looked a spectacle of desolation, thus, in 1851, he made his celebrated discovery of this avenue and eventually the subterranean tomb-temple complex of catacombs with their spectacular sarcophagi of the Apis bulls. Breaking through the rubble at the entrance on November 12, he entered the complex, finding thousands of statues, bronze tablets and other treasures. He also found the intact tomb of Prince Khaemweset, Ramesses IIs son. Accused of theft and destruction by rival diggers and by the Egyptian authorities, Mariette began to rebury his finds in the desert to keep them from these competitors. However, the French government and the Louvre set up an arrangement to divide the finds 50,50, so that upon his return to Paris 230 crates went to the Louvre, but an equal amount remained in Egypt. In 1860 alone, Mariette set up 35 new dig sites and his success was aided by the fact that no rivals were permitted to dig in Egypt, a fact that the British and Germans protested at as a sweetheart deal between Egypt and France. Nor were Mariettes relations with the Khedive always stable, the Khedive, like many potentates, assumed all discoveries ranked as treasure and that what went to the museum in Cairo went only at his pleasure. Even early on, in February 1859, Mariette dashed to Thebes to confiscate a boatload of antiquities from the tomb of Queen Ahhotep I that were to have been sent to the Khedive. In 1867, he returned to oversee the ancient Egyptian stand at the Exposition Universelle, in 1869, at the request of the Khedive, he wrote a brief plot for an opera. The following year this concept, worked into a scenario by Camille du Locle, was proposed to Giuseppe Verdi, for Aida, Mariette and Du Locle oversaw the scenery and costumes, which were inspired by the art of Ancient Egypt. The premiere of Aida was originally scheduled for February 1871, but was delayed until 24 December 1871, the opera met with great acclaim. Mariette was raised successively to the rank of bey and pasha, in 1878, his museum was ravaged by floods, which destroyed most of his notes and drawings. At this time, the English comprised the majority of Egyptologists in Egypt and he died in Cairo and was interred in a sarcophagus which is on display in the Garden of the Egyptian Museum, Cairo. The bust of other famous Egyptologists, including Charles Wycliffe Goodwin, have placed on a semi-circular memorial around the sarcophagus. Though not all his discoveries were published, the list of his publications is a long one
13.
Egyptian Museum
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The Museum of Egyptian Antiquities, known commonly as the Egyptian Museum or Museum of Cairo, in Cairo, Egypt, is home to an extensive collection of ancient Egyptian antiquities. It has 120,000 items, with an amount on display. The edifice is one of the largest museums in the region, as of February 2017, the museum is open to the public. The Egyptian Museum of Antiquities contains many important pieces of ancient Egyptian history and it houses the world’s largest collection of Pharaonic antiquities. The Egyptian government established the museum, built in 1835 near the Ezbekeyah Garden, in 1855 Archduke Maximilian of Austria was given all of the artifacts by the Egyptian government, these are now in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna. A new museum was established at Boulaq in 1858 in a former warehouse, the building lay on the bank of the Nile River, and in 1878 it suffered significant damage in a flood of the Nile River. In 1891, the collections were moved to a royal palace. They remained there until 1902 when they were moved, for the last time, during the Egyptian Revolution of 2011, the museum was broken into, and two mummies were destroyed. Several artifacts were shown to have been damaged. Since then 25 objects have been found and those that were restored were put on display in September 2013 in an exhibition entitled Damaged and Restored. There are two floors in the museum, the ground floor and the first floor. On the ground there is an extensive collection of papyrus. The numerous pieces of papyrus are generally small fragments, due to their decay over the past two millennia, several languages are found on these pieces, including Greek, Latin, Arabic, and ancient Egyptian. The coins found on floor are made of many different metals, including gold, silver. The coins are not only Egyptian, but also Greek, Roman and this has helped historians research the history of Ancient Egyptian trade. Also on the floor are artifacts from the New Kingdom. These artifacts are generally larger than items created in earlier centuries, two special rooms contain a number of mummies of kings and other royal family members of the New Kingdom. In the garden adjacent to the building of the museum a memorial to famous egyptologists of the world is located, the Murder of Tutankhamen, A True Story
14.
Edfu
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Edfu is an Egyptian city, located on the west bank of the Nile River between Esna and Aswan, with a population of approximately sixty thousand people. For the ancient history of the city, see below, Edfu is the site of the Ptolemaic Temple of Horus and an ancient settlement, Tell Edfu. About 5 km north of Edfu are remains of ancient pyramids, the town is known for the major Ptolemaic temple, built between 237 BC and 57 BC, into the reign of Cleopatra VII. Of all the remains in Egypt, the Temple of Horus at Edfu is the most completely preserved. Built from sandstone blocks, the huge Ptolemaic temple was constructed over the site of a smaller New Kingdom temple, oriented east to west, facing towards the river. The later structure faces north to south and leaves the remains of the older temple pylon to be seen on the east side of the first court. The remains of the ancient settlement of Edfu are situated about 50 m to the west of the Ptolemaic temple - to the left of the temple pylon. This settlement is known as Wetjeset-hor and the Latin name was Apollinopolis Magna, according to Notitia Dignitatum, part of Legio II Traiana Fortis was camped in Apollo superior, which was the Roman name for the town. Although unassuming and unglamorous to the tourists, Tell Edfu is a monument that contains evidence of more Egyptian history and is of more archaeological interest than the Ptolemaic temple. The remains of the settlement provides an insight into the development of Edfu as a town from the end of the Old Kingdom until the Byzantine period. The settlement at Edfu was the capital of the Second Upper Egypt nome, the oldest part of the town which can be dated to the late Old Kingdom lies on the eastern part of the tell, not far from the Ptolemaic temple. There is evidence that the town flourished during the First Intermediate Period when it expanded extensively to the west, interestingly, it is one of few settlements in southern Egypt that throve when it seems that the north, especially around the delta, was in economic decline. A central part of the site was explored by Henri Henne from the Institute for Egyptology in Lille in 1921 and 1922 and his team identified the remains of a small sanctuary from the Late or Ptolemaic period, possibly the Osiris chapel built by Psamtek I. Henne was followed by Octave Guéraud in 1928 then by Maurice Alliot in 1931 who each explored and excavated different aspects of the settlement remains, bruyère, J. Manteuffel and Kazimierz Michałowski, and three elaborate reports on the archaeology of Tell Edfu were published. Unfortunately, since no new detailed discoveries or thorough research has been completed at the tell except for recent work done by Barry Kemp. Since 2001, the Tell Edfu project has been directed by Nadine Moeller, the current work focuses on the eastern part of the site. Latter dates to the Second Intermediate Period, at least seven large round silos have been excavated here with a diameter between 5.5 and 6.5 meters which makes them the largest ones so far discovered within an ancient Egyptian urban centre. No larger remains dating earlier than the 5th Dynasty have been found at Edfu, the ancient cemetery comprised mastabas of the Old Kingdom as well as later tombs
15.
Egyptian temple
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Egyptian temples were built for the official worship of the gods and in commemoration of the pharaohs in ancient Egypt and regions under Egyptian control. Temples were seen as houses for the gods or kings to whom they were dedicated and these rituals were seen as necessary for the gods to continue to uphold maat, the divine order of the universe. Housing and caring for the gods were the obligations of pharaohs, nevertheless, a temple was an important religious site for all classes of Egyptians, who went there to pray, give offerings, and seek oracular guidance from the god dwelling within. The most important part of the temple was the sanctuary, which contained a cult image. These edifices are among the largest and most enduring examples of Egyptian architecture and their typical design consisted of a series of enclosed halls, open courts, and massive entrance pylons aligned along the path used for festival processions. Beyond the temple proper was a wall enclosing a wide variety of secondary buildings. A large temple also owned sizable tracts of land and employed thousands of laymen to supply its needs, temples were therefore key economic as well as religious centers. The priests who managed these powerful institutions wielded considerable influence, temple-building in Egypt continued despite the nations decline and ultimate loss of independence to the Roman Empire. With the coming of Christianity, however, Egyptian religion faced increasing persecution, for centuries, the ancient buildings suffered destruction and neglect. Dozens of temples survive today, and some have become world-famous tourist attractions that contribute significantly to the modern Egyptian economy, Egyptologists continue to study the surviving temples and the remains of destroyed ones, as they are invaluable sources of information about ancient Egyptian society. Ancient Egyptian temples were meant as places for the gods to reside on earth, indeed, the term the Egyptians most commonly used to describe the temple building, ḥwt-nṯr, means mansion of a god. A gods presence in the temple linked the human and divine realms and these rituals, it was believed, sustained the god and allowed it to continue to play its proper role in nature. They were therefore a key part of the maintenance of maat, maintaining maat was the entire purpose of Egyptian religion, and it was the purpose of a temple as well. Because he was credited with divine power himself, the pharaoh, as a king, was regarded as Egypts representative to the gods. Thus, it was theoretically his duty to perform the temple rites, the pharaoh was nevertheless obligated to maintain, provide for, and expand the temples throughout his realm. Although the pharaoh delegated his authority, the performance of rituals was still an official duty. The participation of the populace in most ceremonies was prohibited. Much of the lay religious activity in Egypt instead took place in private and community shrines, however, as the primary link between the human and divine realms, temples attracted considerable veneration from ordinary Egyptians
16.
Qift
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Qift is a small town in the Qena Governorate of Egypt about 43 km north of Luxor, on the east bank of the Nile. In ancient Egypt, Qift, known then as Gebtu, was an important center for administration, religion, from Qift and Qus, trading expeditions heading for the Red Sea and many mining expeditions into the Eastern Desert left the Nile Valley. Gebtu was at the starting-point of the two great routes leading to the coast of the Red Sea, the one toward the port Tââou. Gebtu was the most important religious center in the area and its principal male deity was Min, a sky-god whose symbol was a thunderbolt. He became a fertility deity, and also was regarded as the male deity of the desert region to the east. His cult rose to prominence in the Middle Kingdom, at that time, he became associated with Horus as the deity, Min-Horus. Later, he was fused with Amen in the deity Min-Amen-ka-Mut-ef, Gebtu, once politically important, especially under the eleventh dynasty, was overshadowed by Thebes. It recuperated its prominence under the Antonines, it was the camp of Legio III Cyrenaica. It rebelled, but soon was captured in 292 by Diocletian after a siege and almost destroyed. In the 6th century, Qift was renamed Justinianopolis, like other cities. Under the Muslim caliphs and the sultans, Qift remained one of the cities of Upper Egypt. In the 13th century, there still were numerous monasteries around the city, Qift was ruined in the 16th century by the Ottomans. Qift was the focus of an American archaeological project from 1987 to 1992, the undecorated northern temple of Min and Isis dates to the Ptolemaic period. Earlier structures on the date back to the Middle Kingdom. The temple was rebuilt during the Ptolemaic Period, the later work has been attributed to an official named Sennuu-shepsi on behalf of Ptolemy II Philadelphus. This northern temple has some additions by Ptolemy IV Philopator ruling from 221-205 BC. He was the son of Ptolemy III and Berenice II of Egypt and was the pharaoh of the Ptolemaic Egypt. More additions were added by Julio-Claudian emperors of Rome, Caligula, the second pylon still carries the dedication text of Nero, and the cartouche of Caligula appears on the north end of this structure
17.
Min (god)
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Min is an ancient Egyptian god whose cult originated in predynastic times. He was represented in different forms, but was often represented in male human form, shown with an erect penis which he holds in his left hand. As Khem or Min, he was the god of reproduction, as Khnum, he was the creator of all things, the maker of gods and men. His cult was strongest in Coptos and Akhmim, where in his honour great festivals were held celebrating his “coming forth” with a procession and presentation of offerings. His other associations include the desert and links to the god Horus. Flinders Petrie excavated two statues of Min at Qift which are now in the Ashmolean Museum and it is thought by some that they are pre-dynastic. Although not mentioned by name a reference to he whose arm is raised in the East in the Pyramid Texts is thought to refer to Min and his importance grew in the Middle Kingdom when he became even more closely linked with Horus as the deity Min-Horus. By the New Kingdom he was fused with Amun in the deity Min-Amun-kamutef. Mins shrine was crowned with a pair of bull horns, as the central deity of fertility and possibly orgiastic rites Min became identified by the Greeks with the god Pan. He also had connections with Nubia, however, his main centres of worship were Qift and Akhmim. In Egyptian art, Min was depicted as being covered in shrouds, wearing a crown with feathers, and often holding his penis erect in his left hand and a flail in his upward facing right hand. Around his forehead, Min wears a red ribbon that trails to the ground, even some war goddesses were depicted with the body of Min, and this also led to depictions, ostensibly of Min, with the head of a lioness. In the 19th century, there was an erroneous transcription of the Egyptian for Min as ḫm. Since Khem was worshipped most significantly in Akhmim, the identity of Khem was reinforced. However, Akhmim is a corruption of ḫm-mnw, meaning Shrine of Min. In Hymn to Min it is said, Min, Lord of the Processions, God of the High Plumes, Son of Osiris and Isis, mins wives were Iabet and Repyt. The God Min to the End of the Old Kingdom, ISBN9780856686788 Media related to Min at Wikimedia Commons Site on Min, with some pictures
18.
Horus
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Horus is one of the most significant ancient Egyptian deities. He was worshipped from at least the late prehistoric Egypt until the Ptolemaic Kingdom, different forms of Horus are recorded in history and these are treated as distinct gods by Egyptologists. He was most often depicted as a falcon, most likely a falcon or peregrine falcon. In another tradition Hathor is regarded as his mother and sometimes as his wife, Horus served many functions, most notably being a god of the sky, war and hunting. Horus is recorded in Egyptian hieroglyphs as ḥr. w Falcon, additional meanings are thought to have been the distant one or one who is above, over. As the language changed over time, it appeared in Coptic dialects variously as hoːɾ or ħoːɾ and was adopted into ancient Greek as Ὧρος Hōros and it also survives in Late Egyptian and Coptic theophoric names such as Har-si-ese Horus, Son of Isis. Nekheny may have been another falcon god worshipped at Nekhen, city of the falcon, Horus may be shown as a falcon on the Narmer Palette, dating from about the 31st century BC. In early Egypt, Horus was the brother of Isis, Osiris, Set, as different cults formed, he became the son of Isis and Osiris. Isis remained the sister of Osiris, Set and Nephthys, the Pyramid Texts describe the nature of the pharaoh in different characters as both Horus and Osiris. The pharaoh as Horus in life became the pharaoh as Osiris in death, New incarnations of Horus succeeded the deceased pharaoh on earth in the form of new pharaohs. The lineage of Horus, the product of unions between the children of Atum, may have been a means to explain and justify pharaonic power. The gods produced by Atum were all representative of cosmic and terrestrial forces in Egyptian life, the notion of Horus as the pharaoh seems to have been superseded by the concept of the pharaoh as the son of Ra during the Fifth Dynasty. Once Isis knew she was pregnant with Horus, she fled to the Nile Delta marshlands to hide from her brother Set, who jealously killed Osiris, there Isis bore a divine son, Horus. Since Horus was said to be the sky, he was considered to contain the sun. It became said that the sun was his eye and the moon his left, and that they traversed the sky when he. Later, the reason that the moon was not as bright as the sun was explained by a tale, known as the The Contendings of Horus and Seth. As Horus was the victor he became known as ḥr. w wr Horus the Great. In the struggle, Set had lost a testicle, explaining why the desert, Horus left eye had also been gouged out, then a new eye was created by part of Khonsu, the moon god, and was replaced
19.
Senakhtenre Ahmose
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Senakhtenre Ahmose was the seventh king of the Seventeenth dynasty of Egypt during the Second Intermediate Period. Senakhtenre reigned for a period over the Theban region in Upper Egypt at a time where the Hyksos 15th dynasty ruled Lower Egypt. Senakhtenre died c.1560 or 1558 BC at the latest and he may or may not have been the son of Nubkheperre Intef, the most prominent of the Intef kings. He was succeeded by his son, Seqenenre Tao, king Senakhtenre would also be the husband of Tetisheri who is called the great kings wife and the mother of my mother in a stela at Abydos by pharaoh Ahmose I. Senakhtenre was, therefore, the grandfather of Ahmose I, donald Redfords book mentions these 2 Theban tombs. The archaeological evidence prior to 2012 suggests that his reign was brief, however, in 2012, two important contemporary monuments of this king were uncovered at Karnak, a doorway found carved with his royal name as well as a fragmentary limestone lintel. From a reference in the Abbott Papyrus it was for a time believed that Senakhtenres nomen was Tao. Indeed, the papyrus mentions two kings with the name Tao, the second king Tao was identified with Senakhtenre because the first mention of a Tao refers to Seqenenre Tao for which the complete name is written. Consequently, the hypothesis that Senakhtenres nomen was Tao was dominant in egyptology until 2012 and was shared for example by Darrell Baker, for example, the egyptologist Claude Vandersleyen rejected this view as early as 1983. The doorjamb bears Senakhtenres full royal name and reveals his nomen to have been Ahmose and this is the same name as that of his grandson, Nebpehtyre Ahmose I, who founded the 18th dynasty by defeating the Hyksos and ousting them from Egypt. Inscriptions on the door indicate that it was following the orders of Senakhtenre himself. The door was subsequently re-used and discovered in the foundations of a building adjoining the temple of Ptah at Karnak. The inscription on the reused door proceeds to state that Senakhtenre made a monument for his father Amun-Re. from the white stone of Anu. Anu is the modern Tura, located near Cairo, which could mean that Senakhtenre imported the limestone from the then Hyksos controlled area of Tura in Lower Egypt. However, Biston-Moulin cautions that beautiful white stone of Anu was sometimes used as a term for stones which were actually taken from local quarries. Biston-Moulin writes in the summary of his article, Clayton, Peter, pharaonic King-Lists, Annals, and Day-Books, A Contribution to the Study of the Egyptian Sense of History. The Political Situation in Egypt during the Second Intermediate Period, copenhagen, Museum Tusculanum Press, Carsten Niebuhr Institute Publications
20.
Henry Salt (Egyptologist)
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Henry Salt was an English artist, traveller, collector of antiquities, diplomat, and Egyptologist. Salt, the son of a physician, was born in Lichfield on 14 June 1780 and he trained as a portrait painter, first in Lichfield and then in London under Joseph Farington and John Hoppner. In 1802 he was appointed secretary and draughtsman to George Annesley and they started on an eastern tour, traveling on the British East India Companys extra ship Minerva to India via the Cape Colony. Salt explored the Red Sea area, and in 1805 visited the Ethiopian highlands and he returned to England on 26 October 1806. Salts paintings from the trip were used to Valentias Voyages and Travels to India, the originals of all the drawings were kept by Valentia, as also the copper plates after Salts death. The format and style of the plates is similar to Thomas and William Daniells work, Salt returned to Ethiopia in 1809 on a government mission to explore trade and diplomatic links with the Tigrayan warlord Ras Wolde Selassie. He later returned and continued a friendship with the Ethiopian warlord Sabagadis, in 1815 Salt was appointed British consul-general in Cairo. But Salt was not easily discouraged and resorting to the methods as his rival. Thanks to his assistants, Salt was able to build up his important collection in just two years, Salt also managed to assemble a third collection, containing 1,083 objects. It was sold by auction, largely to the British Museum, in 1835, Salt was portrayed by Robert Portal in the 2005 BBC docudrama Egypt. Henry Salt, Artist, Traveller, Diplomat, Egyptologist
21.
Diadem
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A diadem is a type of crown, specifically an ornamental headband worn by monarchs and others as a badge of royalty. The word derives from the Greek διάδημα diádēma, band or fillet, from διαδέω diadéō, I bind round, such ribbons were also used to crown victorious athletes in important sports games in antiquity. It was later applied to a crown, generally in a circular or fillet shape. For example, the worn by Juliana was a diadem. The ancient Celts were believed to have used a thin, semioval gold plate called a mind as a diadem. Some of the earliest examples of types of crowns can be found in ancient Egypt, from the simple fabric type to the more elaborate metallic type. A diadem is also a jewelled ornament in the shape of a crown, worn by women. In some societies, it may be a wreath worn around the head, the ancient Persians wore a high and erect royal tiara encircled with a diadem. Hera, queen of the Greek gods, wore a crown called the diadem. By extension, diadem can be used generally for an emblem of power or dignity. The head regalia worn by Roman Emperors, from the time of Diocletian onwards, is described as a diadem in the original sources and it was this object that the Foederatus general Odoacer returned to Emperor Zeno after his expulsion of the usurper Romulus Augustus from Rome in 476 CE. Civic crown Tainia Fillet Tiara Diadem
22.
Rijksmuseum van Oudheden
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The Rijksmuseum van Oudheden is the national archaeological museum of the Netherlands. The Museum grew out of the collection of Leiden University and still closely co-operates with its Faculty of Archaeology. The museum calls itself the center for archaeology, and focuses on ancient Egypt, the ancient Near East, the classical world of Greece, Etruria and Rome. The collection of the Rijksmuseum van Oudheden began with an inheritance in 1743, after the death of Gerard van Papenbroek his collection was bequeathed to Leiden University. The bequest comprised about 150 antiquities and was published in 1746 by a professor of the university and it was put on public display, but poorly taken care of until half a century later it would finally get an official curator. Caspar Reuvens, the worlds first archaeology professor, along with his duties as a professor at the university came the care of the archaeological cabinet, then consisting mainly of the Papenbroek inheritance. Reuvens quickly added other collections from both within and outside Leiden to the universitys antiquities, Antiquities from the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam were transferred to Leiden with government support in 1825. Some pieces from the Thoms Collection were among the favorites of the director of the Amsterdam museum and it was agreed that these would not be moved to Leiden until after his directorship. These became part of the Leiden collection in 1844, in 1826 a collection of prehistorical materials arrived from the Museum of Natural History. The growth of the National Museum of Antiquities would prove to be depended much more upon foreign investments, despite the gathering of antiquities from various Dutch organizations, the really important additions to the museum would come from buying personal collections. Among the first of these was the first Rottiers Collection and it belonged to a retired Flemish colonel who had begun collecting during a stay in Athens. In 1820 this collection was offered to the government of the Low Countries, Reuvens was enthusiastic about the collection because it contained original Greek sculpture and Greek pottery, categories which lacked in the Leiden collection until then. Cautioning the ministry not to buy at any price, the Rottiers collection was sold for the sum of 12,000 guilders. In 1822 Rottiers sold a collection, of smaller importance. The best piece in this collection would later turn out to be a modern cast of a marble head, with both the first and the second Rottiers collections the origins would remain shady. In both cases it was hinted or outright claimed that Rottiers respectively his son had dug up at least part of the antiquities themselves, however, in both cases it would turn out that perhaps all of the collection was bought. Rottiers also repeatedly admitted to selling forgeries and misleading buyers, but told Reuvens that he would never do so to him, from 1824 to 1826 Rottiers made a journey through the Mediterranean, paid for by the ministry. This journey was Rottiers own idea, and the purpose of it was to buy antiquities, Reuvens, who was not very enthusiastic about this project, was asked to provide Rottiers with instructions
23.
German Archaeological Institute
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The German Archaeological Institute is an institution of research within the field of archaeology, and a scientific corporation, under the auspices of the federal Foreign Office of Germany. Eduard Gerhard was the founder of the institute, according to the homepage of DAI, there are offices in many other cities, currently including Madrid, Rome, Istanbul, Athens, Cairo, Damascus, Baghdad, Tehran and Sanaa. Hans-Joachim Gehrke was President of the Institute from March 2008 to April 2011, an important retired employee is Jutta Meischner. She retired after 35 years of service in the German Archeological Institute in 2000, during this time she continued her studies of late antique portraiture, which culminated in a brief monograph entitled Portraits of Late Antiquity. German Historical Institute German Archaeological Institute at Athens Projekt Dyabola Arachne
24.
International Standard Book Number
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The International Standard Book Number is a unique numeric commercial book identifier. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an e-book, a paperback and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, the method of assigning an ISBN is nation-based and varies from country to country, often depending on how large the publishing industry is within a country. The initial ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 based upon the 9-digit Standard Book Numbering created in 1966, the 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108. Occasionally, a book may appear without a printed ISBN if it is printed privately or the author does not follow the usual ISBN procedure, however, this can be rectified later. Another identifier, the International Standard Serial Number, identifies periodical publications such as magazines, the ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 in the United Kingdom by David Whitaker and in 1968 in the US by Emery Koltay. The 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108, the United Kingdom continued to use the 9-digit SBN code until 1974. The ISO on-line facility only refers back to 1978, an SBN may be converted to an ISBN by prefixing the digit 0. For example, the edition of Mr. J. G. Reeder Returns, published by Hodder in 1965, has SBN340013818 -340 indicating the publisher,01381 their serial number. This can be converted to ISBN 0-340-01381-8, the check digit does not need to be re-calculated, since 1 January 2007, ISBNs have contained 13 digits, a format that is compatible with Bookland European Article Number EAN-13s. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an ebook, a paperback, and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, a 13-digit ISBN can be separated into its parts, and when this is done it is customary to separate the parts with hyphens or spaces. Separating the parts of a 10-digit ISBN is also done with either hyphens or spaces, figuring out how to correctly separate a given ISBN number is complicated, because most of the parts do not use a fixed number of digits. ISBN issuance is country-specific, in that ISBNs are issued by the ISBN registration agency that is responsible for country or territory regardless of the publication language. Some ISBN registration agencies are based in national libraries or within ministries of culture, in other cases, the ISBN registration service is provided by organisations such as bibliographic data providers that are not government funded. In Canada, ISBNs are issued at no cost with the purpose of encouraging Canadian culture. In the United Kingdom, United States, and some countries, where the service is provided by non-government-funded organisations. Australia, ISBNs are issued by the library services agency Thorpe-Bowker
25.
Naqada III
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Naqada III is the last phase of the Naqada culture of ancient Egyptian prehistory, dating approximately from 3200 to 3000 BC. It is the period during which the process of state formation and they would more probably have been completely unrelated and very possibly in competition with each other. In this period, those names were inscribed in the form of serekhs on a variety of surfaces including pottery. The Protodynastic Period in ancient Egypt was characterised by a process of political unification. Furthermore, it is during this time that the Egyptian language was first recorded in hieroglyphs, there is also strong archaeological evidence of Egyptian settlements in southern Canaan during the Protodynastic Period, which are regarded as colonies or trading entrepôts. State formation began during this era and perhaps even earlier, various small city-states arose along the Nile. Centuries of conquest then reduced Upper Egypt to three states, Thinis, Naqada, and Nekhen. Sandwiched between Thinis and Nekhen, Naqada was the first to fall, nekhens relationship with Thinis is uncertain, but these two states may have merged peacefully, with the Thinite royal family ruling all of Egypt. The Thinite kings were buried at Abydos in the Umm el-Qaab cemetery, most Egyptologists consider Narmer to be both the last king of this period and the first king of the First Dynasty. Southern Canaan as an Egyptian Protodynastic Colony, the Emergence of the Egyptian State. The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt, Oxford and New York, Oxford University Press. The Prehistory of Egypt, From the First Egyptians to the First Pharaohs, the Oxford History of Ancient Egypt. Contacts Between Egypt and Syro-Palestine During the Protodynastic Period, biblical Archeologist, Perspectives on the Ancient World from Mesopotamia to the Mediterranean. Http, //www. touregypt. net/featurestories/hdyn00. htm Unification Theories, Digital Egypt, UK, UCL
26.
Double Falcon
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Double Falcon was a ruler of Lower Egypt from Naqada III. He may have reigned during the 32nd century BCE, the length of his reign is unknown. It was in 1910 that Egyptologist M. J. Clédat discovered the first evidence for Double Falcon, investigating the site, Clédat soon discovered four serekhs of Double Falcon. The next attestation of Double Falcon was discovered in 1912 during excavations by Hermann Junker on the site of Tura, the concentration of Double Falcons serekhs in Lower Egypt and the north-western Sinai indicates that his rule may have been limited to these regions. The serekh of Double Falcon is unique in its layout and composition, firstly, it is the only serekh topped by two Horus falcons, facing each other. Secondly, the serekh does not have a compartment, being filled by the vertical lines which usually represent the niched facade of a palace. The serekh also lacks the line that delimits the palace facade from the name of the ruler above. Finally, each falcon stands on its own peak, egyptologists M. J. Cledat, Günter Dreyer and Edwin van den Brink suspect that a deeper symbolism explains these peculiarities. The two falcons could represent Lower Egypt and the Sinai, as it seems that Double Falcon reigned over both regions. In contrast, van den Brink reads the name as Nebwy, the two lords, and sees a similarity with a much earlier palette on display in the Barbier-Mueller Museum of Geneva
27.
Upper Egypt
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Upper Egypt is the strip of land on both sides of the Nile that extends between Nubia and downriver to Lower Egypt. Upper Egypt is between the Cataracts of the Nile above modern-day Aswan, downriver to the area between Dahshur and El-Ayait, which is south of modern-day Cairo, the northern part of Upper Egypt, between Sohag and El-Ayait, is also known as Middle Egypt. In Arabic, inhabitants of Upper Egypt are known as Saidis, in ancient Egypt, Upper Egypt was known as tꜣ šmꜣw, literally the Land of Reeds or the Sedgeland It was divided into twenty-two districts called nomes. The first nome was roughly where modern-day Aswan is and the twenty-second was at modern Atfih just to the south of Cairo, the main city of prehistoric Upper Egypt was Nekhen, whose patron deity was the vulture goddess Nekhbet. By about 3600 BC, Neolithic Egyptian societies along the Nile had based their culture on the raising of crops, shortly after 3600 BC, Egyptian society began to grow and increase in complexity. A new and distinctive pottery, which was related to the Levantine ceramics, extensive use of copper became common during this time. The Mesopotamian process of sun-drying adobe and architectural principles—including the use of the arch, concurrent with these cultural advances, a process of unification of the societies and towns of the upper Nile River, or Upper Egypt, occurred. At the same time the societies of the Nile Delta, or Lower Egypt also underwent a unification process, warfare between Upper and Lower Egypt occurred often. During his reign in Upper Egypt, King Narmer defeated his enemies on the Delta, for most of pharaonic Egypts history, Thebes was the administrative center of Upper Egypt. After its devastation by the Assyrians, its importance declined, under the Ptolemies, Ptolemais Hermiou took over the role of Upper Egypts capital city. Upper Egypt was represented by the tall White Crown Hedjet, and its symbols were the flowering lotus, in the 11th century, large numbers of pastoralists, known as Hilalians, fled Upper Egypt and moved westward into Libya and as far as Tunis. It is believed that degraded grazing conditions in Upper Egypt, associated with the beginning of the Medieval Warm Period, were the cause of the migration. In the 20th-century Egypt, the title Prince of the Said was used by the apparent to the Egyptian throne. Although the Kingdom of Egypt was abolished after the Egyptian revolution of 1952, media related to Upper Egypt at Wikimedia Commons
28.
Iry-Hor
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Iry-Hor or Ro was a predynastic pharaoh of Upper Egypt during the 32nd century BC. Until recently, Iry-Hors existence was debated, with the Egyptologist Toby Wilkinson contesting the reading, however, continuing excavations at Abydos in the 1980s and 1990s and the discovery in 2012 of an inscription of Iry-Hor in the Sinai confirmed his existence. Iry-Hor is the earliest ruler of Egypt known by name and possibly the earliest historical person known by name, Iry-Hors name is written with the Horus falcon hieroglyph above a mouth hieroglyph. Given the archaic nature of the name, the translation proved difficult and, in the absence of better alternative, in the 1990s, Werner Kaiser and Günter Dreyer translate Iry-Hors name as Companion of Horus. Toby Wilkinson, who contested that Iry-Hor was a king, translated the signs as Property of the king. e, reading the bird above the mouth-sign as the swallow hieroglyph G36 rather than the Horus falcon. They translated the name as Spokesman or Chief and this was consequently accepted by von Beckerath and Iry-Hor is now the first entry in the latest edition of von Beckeraths Handbook of Egyptian Pharaohs. Until 2012, the name of Iry-Hor had not been found in or next to a serekh, Egyptologists Flinders Petrie, Laurel Bestock and Jochem Kahl nonetheless believed that he was indeed a real ruler. They pointed to the spelling of Iry-Hors name, the Horus falcon holds the mouth hieroglyph in its claws. On several clay seals, this group of characters is accompanied by a second. This notation is reminiscent of numerous anonymous serekhs held by a Horus falcon with individual hieroglyphs placed close to it rather than within the serekh, finally, the serekh could have been a convention that started with Ka, whose name has been found both with and without a serekh. Therefore, they concluded that the argument that Iry-Hor was not a king because his name was never found in a serekh was insufficient, supporters of the identification of Iry-Hor as a king, such as egyptologist Darell Baker, also pointed to the size and location of his tomb. It is a tomb, as big as those of Ka and Narmer. Furthermore, Iry-Hors name is inscribed on a large jar exhibiting the royal Horus falcon and is similar to found in the tombs of other kings of this period. In contrast, some Egyptologists doubted Iry-Hor even existed, precisely because his name never appeared in a serekh, Ludwig D. Morenz and Kurt Heinrich Sethe doubted the reading of Iry-Hors name and thus that he was a king. Morenz, for example, suspected that the sign may simply have been a phonetic complement to the Horus falcon. Sethe understood the group of characters forming Iry-Hors name as an indication of origin, Toby Wilkinson dismissed the tomb attributed to Iry-Hor as a storage pit and the name as a treasury mark. Indeed, r-Ḥr may simply mean property of the king, dreyers excavations of the necropolis of Abydos revealed that Iry-Hor was in fact well attested there with over 27 objects bearing his name and that his tomb was of royal proportions. Furthermore, in 2012 an inscription mentioning Iry-Hor was discovered in the Sinai, the inscription mentions the city of Memphis, pushing back its foundation to before Narmer and establishing that Iry-Hor was already reigning over it
29.
Ka (pharaoh)
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Ka, also Sekhen, was a Predynastic pharaoh of Upper Egypt belonging to Dynasty 0. He probably reigned during the first half of the 32nd century BC, the length of his reign is unknown. The correct reading of Kas name remains uncertain, the second form of that writing indicates a reading as Sekhen rather than Ka. It was also thought to be the name of Narmer. Because the reading of the name is so uncertain, Egyptologists, Ka ruled over Thinis in the first half of 32nd century BC and was buried at Umm el-Qaab. He most likely was the successor to Iry-Hor and was succeeded either by Narmer or by Scorpion II. He is the earliest known Egyptian king with a serekh inscribed on a number of artifacts and this may thus be an innovation of his reign. Ka is one of the best attested predynastic kings with Narmer, the number of artifacts bearing Kas serekh found outside Abydos is much greater than that of his predecessor. This may be the sign of an influence and perhaps conquest of larger portions of Egypt by the Thinite kings. Two underground chambers, B7 and B9, in the Umm el-Qaab necropolis of Abydos are believed to be part of the tomb of King Ka. Each chamber is 1.90 m deep, B.7 is 6.0 ×3.2 m while B.9 is slightly smaller at 5.9 x 3.1 m, Kas tomb was first excavated by Petrie in 1902. The excavations yielded fragments of flint knife and pottery, in the southernmost chamber B7, more than forty inscriptions have been found on tall jars and cylinder vessels as well as a seal impression. The tomb of Ka is close to that of Iry-Hor and Narmer, furthermore, it is located within a sequential order linking the older U cemetery with the First Dynasty tombs, thus suggesting that Ka succeeded Iry-Hor and preceded Narmer on the throne. Wilkinson, Toby AH, Early Dynastic Egypt, London/New York, Routledge, ISBN 0-415-18633-1
30.
Scorpion II
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Scorpion II, also known as King Scorpion, refers to the second of two kings or chieftains of that name during the Protodynastic Period of Upper Egypt. King Scorpions name and title are of great dispute in modern Egyptology and his name is often introduced by a six- or seven-leafed, golden rosette or flower-sign. Its precise meaning has been discussed, the most common interpretation is that of an emblem meaning nomarch or high lord. Thus, the golden rosette became an emblem of Seshat. The reading of the sign is also disputed. Most linguists and Egyptologists read it Neb or Nesw, and they are convinced that the rosette was some kind of forerunner to the later serekh. The scorpion fetish, which underlies the name of Scorpion II, is linked to the later-introduced goddess Selket. But Egyptologists and linguists such as L. D, morenz, H. Beinlich, Toby Wilkinson and Jan Assmann have pointed out that the goddess was introduced no earlier than the late Old Kingdom period. In this view, the fetish of the protodynastic period should not be associated with Selket. Morenz points out that, in cases where an animal is included in a rulers name. The scorpion animal commonly stood for dangerous things, such as poison and illness, since it is unclear what actual meaning was reserved for the serekh animal of Scorpion II, scholars usually refer to him as King Scorpion II. There are several theories regarding his identity and chronological position and they also argue that the artistic style seen on the macehead of Scorpion II shows conspicuous similarities to that on the famous Narmer macehead. Wilkinson, Renée Friedman and Bruce Trigger, have identified king Scorpion II as the Gegenkönig of Narmer, at the time of Scorpion II, Egypt was divided into several minor kingdoms that were fighting each other. It is likewise conjectured that Narmer simply conquered the realms of Ka and Scorpion II and it is currently on display at the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. The stratigraphy of this macehead was lost due to the methods of its excavators, the Scorpion Macehead depicts a single, large figure wearing the White Crown of Upper Egypt. He holds a hoe, which has interpreted as a ritual either involving the pharaoh ceremonially cutting the first furrow in the fields. The use and placement of the iconography is similar to the depiction of the pharaoh Narmer on the side of the Narmer Palette. The king is preceded by servants, the first in row seems to throw seeds from a basket into the freshly hacked ground
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Narmer
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Narmer was an ancient Egyptian king of the Early Dynastic Period. Probably the successor to the Protodynastic kings Scorpion and/or Ka, some consider him the unifier of Egypt and founder of the First Dynasty, and in turn the first king of a unified Egypt. This conclusion is based on the Narmer Palette and the two seals from the necropolis of Abydos that show him as the first king of the First Dynasty. The date commonly given for the beginning of his reign is c.3100 BC, other mainstream estimates using both the historical method and Radiocarbon dating are in the range 3273–2987 BC. Although highly inter-related, the question of “who was Menes. ”, while Menes is traditionally considered the first king of Ancient Egypt, Narmer has been identified by the majority of Egyptologists as the same person as Menes. Although vigorously debated, the predominant opinion is that Narmer was Menes, the issue is confusing because “Narmer” is a Horus Name, while “Menes” is a personal name. The difficulty is aligning the contemporary archaeological evidence which lists Horus Names with the King Lists that list personal names, two documents have been put forward as proof either that Narmer was Menes or alternatively Hor-Aha was Menes. The first is the “Naqada Label” which shows a serekh of Hor-Aha next to an enclosure inside of which are symbols that have been interpreted by scholars as the name “Menes”. The second is the impression from Abydos that alternates between a serekh of Narmer and the chessboard symbol, “mn”, which is interpreted as an abbreviation of Menes. Arguments have been made with regard to each of these documents in favour of Narmer or Hor-Aha being Menes, but in neither case, are the arguments conclusive. Two necropolis sealings, found in 1985 and 1991 in Abydos, in or near the tombs of Den and Qa’a, show Narmer as the founder of the First Dynasty, followed by Hor-Aha. The Qa’a sealing lists all eight of the kings of the First Dynasty in the correct order starting with Narmer and these necropolis sealings are strong evidence that Narmer was the first king of the First Dynasty – hence is the same person as Menes. The famous Narmer Palette, discovered by James E, since its discovery, however, it has been debated whether the Narmer Palette represents an actual historic event or is purely symbolic. Of course, the Narmer Palette could represent an historical event while at the same time having a symbolic significance. In 1993, Günter Dreyer discovered in Abydos, a “year label” of Narmer depicting the event that is depicted on the Narmer Palette. This year label shows that the Narmer Palette depicts an historical event. Archaeological evidence suggests that Egypt was at least partially unified during the reigns of Ka and Iry-Hor, but there is a substantial difference in the quantity and distribution of inscriptions with the names of those earlier kings in Lower Egypt and Canaan, compared to the inscriptions of Narmer. The archaeological evidence suggest that the unification began before Narmer, but was completed by him through the conquest of a polity in the North-West Delta as depicted on the Narmer Palette
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