1.
Temple of Khonsu
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The Temple of Khonsu is an ancient Egyptian temple. It is located with the large Precinct of Amun-Re at Karnak, in Luxor, the edifice is an example of an almost complete New Kingdom temple, and was originally constructed by Ramesses III, on the site of an earlier temple. The gateway of temple is at the end of the avenue of sphinxes that ran to the Luxor Temple. In Ptolemaic times, Ptolemy III Euergetes constructed a gateway and enclosure wall for the temple. Inscriptions inside the forecourt of the temple were made in the time of Herihor
2.
Karnak
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The Karnak Temple Complex, commonly known as Karnak, comprises a vast mix of decayed temples, chapels, pylons, and other buildings. Building at the complex began during the reign of Senusret I in the Middle Kingdom and continued into the Ptolemaic period, the area around Karnak was the ancient Egyptian Ipet-isut and the main place of worship of the eighteenth dynasty Theban Triad with the god Amun as its head. It is part of the city of Thebes. The Karnak complex gives its name to the nearby, and partly surrounded, the complex is a vast open-air museum, and the second largest ancient religious site in the world, after the Angkor Wat Temple of Cambodia. It is believed to be the second most visited site in Egypt. It consists of four parts, of which only the largest is currently open to the general public. The term Karnak often is understood as being the Precinct of Amun-Ra only, the three other parts, the Precinct of Mut, the Precinct of Montu, and the dismantled Temple of Amenhotep IV, are closed to the public. There also are a few temples and sanctuaries connecting the Precinct of Mut, the Precinct of Amun-Re. The Precinct of Mut is very ancient, being dedicated to an Earth and creation deity, the original temple was destroyed and partially restored by Hatshepsut, although another pharaoh built around it in order to change the focus or orientation of the sacred area. Many portions of it may have carried away for use in other buildings. The key difference between Karnak and most of the temples and sites in Egypt is the length of time over which it was developed and used. Construction of temples started in the Middle Kingdom and continued through to Ptolemaic times, approximately thirty pharaohs contributed to the buildings, enabling it to reach a size, complexity, and diversity not seen elsewhere. Few of the features of Karnak are unique, but the size. The deities represented range from some of the earliest worshiped to those worshiped much later in the history of the Ancient Egyptian culture and it also contains evidence of adaptations, using buildings of the Ancient Egyptians by later cultures for their own religious purposes. One famous aspect of Karnak is the Hypostyle Hall in the Precinct of Amun-Re,122 of these columns are 10 meters tall, and the other 12 are 21 meters tall with a diameter of over three meters. The architraves on top of columns are estimated to weigh 70 tons. These architraves may have been lifted to these heights using levers and this would be an extremely time-consuming process and also would require great balance to get to such great heights. A common alternative theory regarding how they were moved is that large ramps were constructed of sand, mud, brick or stone, if stone had been used for the ramps, they would have been able to use much less material
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.
Twentieth Dynasty of Egypt
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The Eighteenth, Nineteenth and Twentieth Dynasties of Ancient Egypt collectively mark the New Kingdom. The latter two dynasties constitute an era known as the Ramesside period, the Twentieth Dynasty is considered to be the last one of the New Kingdom of Egypt, and was followed by the Third Intermediate Period. The Pharaohs of the 20th dynasty ruled for approximately 120 years, the dates and names in the table are mostly taken from Chronological Table for the Dynastic Period in Erik Hornung, Rolf Krauss & David Warburton, Ancient Egyptian Chronology, Brill,2006. Many of the pharaohs were buried in the Valley of the Kings in Thebes, more information can be found on the Theban Mapping Project website. Pharaoh Setnakhte was likely already middle aged when he took the throne after Queen Twosret and he ruled for only around 4 years when he was succeeded by his son Ramesses III. Egypt was threatened by the Sea Peoples during this time period, the king is also known for a harem conspiracy in which Queen Tiye attempted to assassinate the king and put her son Pentawere on the throne. The coup was not successful in the end, the king may have died from the attempt on his life, but it was his legitimate heir Ramesses IV who succeeded him to the throne. After this a succession of kings named Ramesses take the throne, the period of these rulers is notable for the beginning of the systematic robbing of the royal tombs. Many surviving administrative documents from this period are records of investigations and punishment for crimes, especially in the reigns of Ramses IX. As happened under the earlier Nineteenth Dynasty, this group struggled under the effects of the bickering between the heirs of Ramesses III, for instance, three different sons of Ramesses III are known to have assumed power as Ramesses IV, Ramesses VI and Ramesses VIII respectively. Smendes would eventually found the Twenty-First dynasty at Tanis, the Twentieth dynasty of Egypt was the last of the New Kingdom of Egypt. The familial relationships are unclear, especially towards the end of the dynasty, pharaoh is a historical novel by Bolesław Prus, set in Egypt at the end of the Twentieth Dynasty, which adds two fictional rulers, Ramesses XII and Ramesses XIII. It has been adapted into a film of the same title
5.
Setnakhte
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Userkhaure-setepenre Setnakhte was the first pharaoh of the Twentieth Dynasty of the New Kingdom of Egypt and the father of Ramesses III. Senakhte married Tiy-Merenese, perhaps a daughter of Merneptah, Setnakhte was originally believed to have enjoyed a reign of only two years based upon his Year 2 Elephantine stela but his third regnal year is now attested in Inscription No.271 on Mount Sinai. This date is only three months removed from Twosrets highest known date of Year 8, III Peret 5, and is based upon a calculation of Ramesses IIIs known accession date of I Shemu 26. Peter Clayton also assigned Setnakhte a reign of three years in his 1994 book on the Egyptian Pharaohs, the Al-Ahram article notes that this data, contradicts. the official record, which says Setnakhte ruled Egypt for only three years. According to the new information provided by the stela, Setnakhtes reign certainly lasted for four years, as Setnakhtes reign was short, he may have come to the throne fairly late in life. p. h. in all the lands. Therefore, he likely did not even rule Egypt in his theoretical first year and could only properly administer the country from sometime during his second year. In any event, there was an interregnum lasting at least a year in which no ruler controlled all of Egypt and it is uncertain the degree to which this inscription referred to contemporary events or rather repeated anti-Asiatic sentiment from the reign of Pharaoh Ahmose I. Setnakhte identified with the God Atum or Temu, and built a temple to this God at Per-Atum, after his death, Setnakhte was buried in KV14 which was originally designed to be Twosrets royal tomb. In any case the mummy was destroyed in a looting in 1901, the Bakenkhunsu stela reveals that it was Setnakhte who began the construction of a Temple of Amun-Re in Karnak which was eventually completed by his son, Ramesses III. Setnakhte also started work on a tomb, KV11, in the Valley of the Kings, Setnakhte then appropriated the tomb of Queen Twosret, his predecessor, for his own use. Setnakhtes son and successor, Ramesses III, is regarded as the last great king of the New Kingdom, the beginning of the Great Harris Papyrus or Papyrus Harris I, which documents the reign of Ramesses III, provides some details about Setnakhtes rise to power. The land of Egypt was in the hands of chiefs and of rulers of towns, one slew his neighbour, great, other times having come after it, with empty years, Irsu, a certain Syrian was with them as chief. They made gods like men, and no offerings were presented in the temples and he gave ready faces to those who had been turned away. Every man knew his brother who had been walled in and he established the temples in possession of divine offerings, to offer to the gods according to their customary stipulations. Until 2000, Chancellor Bay was considered the only candidate for this Irsu. However, an IFAO Ostracon no.1864 found at Deir el-Medina dated to Year 5 records that Pharaoh LPH has killed the great enemy, because Chancellor Bay died at least 3 years before this Irsu, he can no longer be considered a plausible candidate for this historical figure
6.
Ramesses IV
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Heqamaatre Ramesses IV was the third pharaoh of the Twentieth Dynasty of the New Kingdom of Ancient Egypt. His name prior to assuming the crown was Amonhirkhopshef and he was the fifth son of Ramesses III and was appointed to the position of crown prince by the twenty-second year of his fathers reign when all four of his elder brothers predeceased him. His promotion to crown prince, is suggested by his appearance in a scene of the festival of Min at the Ramesses III temple at Karnak, amenemopes Theban tomb also accords prince Ramesses all three of his aforementioned sets of royal titles. Due to the three decade long rule of Ramesses III, Ramesses IV is believed to have been a man in his forties when he took the throne and his rule has been dated to either 1151 to 1145 BC or 1155 to 1149 BC. It is now believed that Ramesses IVs mother was most likely Queen Tyti from recently discovered notes published in the 2010 issue of the Journal of Egyptian Archaeology. They reveal that Tyti—who was both a daughter, a kings wife and a kings mother in her own right—was identified in Papyrus BM EA10052 to be a queen of Ramesses III. This leaves Ramesses IV as the only credible primary subject of the title in the tomb. Thus, the identity of Ramesses IVs mother has been resolved in favour of Queen Tyti who was erroneously thought to be the mother of another king in the mid-1980s. Ramesses IV was succeeded to the throne by his son Ramesses V. Ramesses came to the throne in difficult circumstances. A plot by one of his fathers wives, Tiye, to establish her own son, Pentawer. The king was wounded, and died soon after. Ramesses IV, however, was able to secure himself on the throne, the scribes who composed the text also noted that this figure included 900 men who are dead and omitted from this list. 7%. Some of the stones which were dragged 60 miles to the Nile from Wadi Hammamat weighed 40 tons or more, other Egyptian quarries including Aswan were located much closer to the Nile which enabled them to use barges to transport stones long distances. Part of the program included the extensive enlargement of his fathers Temple of Khonsu at Karnak. Ramesses IV also sent several expeditions to the mines the Sinai. The Serabit el-Khadim stela of the Royal Butler Sobekhotep states, Year 3, panufer states that this expeditions mission was both to procure turquoise and to establish a cult chapel of king Ramesses IV at the Hathor temple of Serabit el-Khadim. The stela reads, Year 5, second month of Shomu, surviving a march in this inhospitable land would have presented formidable logistical obstacles, perhaps forcing an alternative route to be adopted. This would involve a departure from the Delta to a site near the port of Suez
7.
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
8.
Maat
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Maat or Maat was the ancient Egyptian concept of truth, balance, order, harmony, law, morality, and justice. Maat was also personified as a goddess regulating the stars, seasons, cuneiform texts indicate that the word mˤ3t was pronounced /múʕʔa/ during the New Kingdom period, having lost the feminine ending t. Sound shifts from u to e later produced the cognate Coptic word ⲙⲉⲉ/ⲙⲉ truth, later, as a goddess in other traditions of the Egyptian pantheon, where most goddesses were paired with a male aspect, her masculine counterpart was Thoth, as their attributes are similar. In other accounts, Thoth was paired off with Seshat, goddess of writing and measure and her feather was the measure that determined whether the souls of the departed would reach the paradise of afterlife successfully. Pharaohs are often depicted with the emblems of Maat to emphasise their role in upholding the laws of the Creator, Maat represents the ethical and moral principle that every Egyptian citizen was expected to follow throughout their daily lives. They were expected to act with honor and truth in manners that involve family, the community, the nation, the environment, Maat as a principle was formed to meet the complex needs of the emergent Egyptian state that embraced diverse peoples with conflicting interests. The development of such rules sought to avert chaos and it became the basis of Egyptian law, from an early period the King would describe himself as the Lord of Maat who decreed with his mouth the Maat he conceived in his heart. The ancient Egyptians had a conviction of an underlying holiness. Cosmic harmony was achieved by public and ritual life. Any disturbance in cosmic harmony could have consequences for the individual as well as the state, an impious King could bring about famine or blasphemy blindness to an individual. In opposition to the order expressed in the concept of Maat is the concept of Isfet, chaos, lies. In one Middle Kingdom text the Creator declares I made every man like his fellow, a passage in the Instruction of Ptahhotep presents Maat as follows, Maat is good and its worth is lasting. It has not been disturbed since the day of its creator and it lies as a path in front even of him who knows nothing. Wrongdoing has never yet brought its venture to port and it is true that evil may gain wealth but the strength of truth is that it lasts, a man can say, It was the property of my father. There is little surviving literature that describes the practice of ancient Egyptian law, Maat was the spirit in which justice was applied rather than the detailed legalistic exposition of rules. Maat represented the normal and basic values that formed the backdrop for the application of justice that had to be carried out in the spirit of truth and fairness. From the 5th dynasty onwards the Vizier responsible for justice was called the Priest of Maat, later scholars and philosophers also would embody concepts from the wisdom literature, or Sebayt. These spiritual texts dealt with social or professional situations and how each was best to be resolved or addressed in the spirit of Maat
9.
Ra
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Ra or Re is the ancient Egyptian sun god. By the Fifth Dynasty in the 25th and 24th centuries BC, he had become a god in ancient Egyptian religion. In later Egyptian dynastic times, Ra was merged with the god Horus and he was believed to rule in all parts of the created world, the sky, the earth, and the underworld. He was associated with the falcon or hawk, when in the New Kingdom the god Amun rose to prominence he was fused with Ra as Amun-Ra. During the Amarna Period, Akhenaten suppressed the cult of Ra in favor of another deity, the Aten, the deified solar disc. The cult of the Mnevis bull, an embodiment of Ra, had its center in Heliopolis, all forms of life were believed to have been created by Ra, who called each of them into existence by speaking their secret names. Alternatively man was created from Ras tears and sweat, hence the Egyptians call themselves the Cattle of Ra, in the myth of the Celestial Cow it is recounted how mankind plotted against Ra and how he sent his eye as the goddess Sekhmet to punish them. When she became bloodthirsty she was pacified by drinking beer mixed with red dye, to the Egyptians, the sun represented light, warmth, and growth. This made the sun deity very important, as the sun was seen as the ruler of all that he created, the sun disk was either seen as the body or eye of Ra. Ra was the father of Shu and Tefnut, whom he created, Shu was the god of the wind, and Tefnut was the goddess of the rain. Sekhmet was the Eye of Ra and was created by the fire in Ras eye, Ra was thought to travel on the Atet, two solar barks called the Mandjet or morning boat and the Mesektet or evening boat. These boats took him on his journey through the sky and the Duat, while Ra was on the Mesektet, he was in his ram-headed form. When Ra traveled in his sun boat, he was accompanied by other deities including Sia and Hu. Sometimes, members of the Ennead helped him on his journey, including Set, who overcame the serpent Apophis, and Mehen, when Ra was in the underworld, he would visit all of his various forms. Apophis, the god of chaos, was a serpent who attempted to stop the sun boats journey every night by consuming it or by stopping it in its tracks with a hypnotic stare. During the evening, the Egyptians believed that Ra set as Atum or in the form of a ram, the night boat would carry him through the underworld and back towards the east in preparation for his rebirth. When Ra was in the underworld, he merged with Osiris, the god of the dead, Ra was worshipped as the Creator god among some ancient Egyptians, specifically followers of his cult at Heliopolis. It was believed that Ra wept, and from his tears came man and these cult-followers believed that Ra was self-created, while followers of Ptah believed that Ra was created by Ptah
10.
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
11.
Heliopolis (ancient Egypt)
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Heliopolis was a major city of ancient Egypt. It was the capital of the 13th or Heliopolite Nome of Lower Egypt and it is now located in Ayn Shams, a northeastern suburb of Cairo. Heliopolis was one of the oldest cities of ancient Egypt, occupied since the Predynastic Period and it greatly expanded under the Old and Middle Kingdoms but is today mostly destroyed, its temples and other buildings having been scavenged for the construction of medieval Cairo. Most information about the ancient city comes from surviving records, the major surviving remnant of Heliopolis is the obelisk of the Temple of Ra-Atum erected by Senusret I of Dynasty XII. It still stands in its position, now within Al-Masalla in Al-Matariyyah. The 21 m high red granite obelisk weighs 120 tons, Heliopolis is the latinized form of the Ptolemaic Greek name Hēlioúpolis, meaning City of the Sun. Helios, the personified and deified form of the sun, was identified by the Greeks with the native Egyptian gods Ra and Atum and its native name was I͗wnw, whose exact pronunciation is uncertain because ancient Egyptian recorded only consonantal values. Its traditional Egyptological transcription is Iunu but it appears in biblical Hebrew as Ôn and Āwen, variant transcriptions include Awnu and Annu. The city also appears in the Old Kingdom Pyramid Texts as the House of Ra, in ancient Egypt, Heliopolis was a regional center from predynastic times. It was principally notable as the center of the sun god Atum. The primary temple of the city was known as the Great House or House of Atum and its priests maintained that Atum or Ra was the first being, rising self-created from the primeval waters. A decline in the importance of Ras cult during Dynasty V led to the development of the Ennead, the high priests of Ra are not as well documented as those of other deities, although the high priests of Dynasty VI have been discovered and excavated. During the Amarna Period of Dynasty XVIII, Pharaoh Akhenaten introduced a kind of worship of Aten. As part of his projects, he built a Heliopolitan temple named Elevating Aten. The cult of the Mnevis bull, another embodiment of the Sun, had its altar here as well and their personal formal burial ground was situated north of the city. The store-city Pithom is mentioned once in the Hebrew Bible, and according to one theory, ptolemy II had Manetho, the chief priest of Heliopolis, collect his history of the ancient kings of Egypt from its archives. By the 1st century BC, in fact, Strabo found the deserted. In Roman Egypt, Heliopolis belonged to the province Augustamnica, causing it to appear as Heliopolis in Augustamnica when it needed to be distinguished from Baalbek and its population probably contained a considerable Arabian element
12.
Sed festival
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The Sed festival was an ancient Egyptian ceremony that celebrated the continued rule of a pharaoh. The name is taken from the name of an Egyptian wolf god and this tail might have been the vestige of a previous ceremonial robe made out of a complete animal skin. In his sun temple at Abu Ghurab, of Akhenaten at East Karnak, the ancient festival might, perhaps, have been instituted to replace a ritual of murdering a pharaoh who was unable to continue to rule effectively because of age or condition. Eventually, Sed festivals were celebrated after a ruler had held the throne for thirty years. They primarily were held to rejuvenate the pharaohs strength and stamina while still sitting on the throne, there is clear evidence for early pharaohs celebrating the Heb Sed, such as the First Dynasty pharaoh Den and the Third Dynasty pharaoh Djoser. In the Pyramid of Djoser, there are two stones in his Heb Sed court, which is within his pyramid complex. He also is shown performing the Heb Sed in a false doorway inside his pyramid, one of the earliest Sed festivals for which there is substantial evidence is that of the Sixth Dynasty pharaoh Pepi I Meryre in the South Saqqara Stone Annal document. The most lavish, judging by surviving inscriptions, were those of Ramesses II, pharaohs who followed the typical tradition, but did not reign so long as 30 years had to be content with promises of millions of jubilees in the afterlife. Upon her husbands death, the eligible male in the royal family was a stepson. He was made a consort and, shortly thereafter, she was crowned pharaoh and he had appointed his daughter to the highest administrative office in his government, giving her a co-regents experience at ruling many aspects of his bureaucracy. This reflects an oracular assertion supported by the priests of Amun-Re that her father named her as heir to the throne, Akhenaten made many changes to religious practices in order to remove the stranglehold on the country by the priests of Amun-Re, whom he saw as corrupt. His religious reformation may have begun with his decision to celebrate his first Sed festival in his regnal year. His purpose may have been to gain an advantage against the temple, since a Sed-festival was a royal jubilee intended to reinforce the pharaohs divine powers. At the same time he moved his capital away from the city that these priests controlled. Media related to Sed festival at Wikimedia Commons
13.
Ptah
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In Egyptian mythology, Ptah is the demiurge of Memphis, god of craftsmen and architects. In the triad of Memphis, he is the spouse of Sekhmet and he was also regarded as the father of the sage Imhotep. Ptah is the Creator god par excellence, He is considered the demiurge who existed before all other things, and by his willfulness, thought the world. It was first conceived by Thought, and realized by the Word, Ptah conceives the world by the thought of his heart and that which Ptah commanded was created, with which the constituents of nature, fauna, and flora, are contained. He also plays a role in the preservation of the world and this document has been known as the Memphite Theology, and shows the god Ptah, the god responsible for the creation of the universe by thought and by the word. Ptah is the patron of craftsmanship, metalworking, carpenters, shipbuilders, from the Middle Kingdom onwards, he was one of five major Egyptian gods with Ra, Isis, Osiris and Amun. He is sometimes represented as a dwarf, naked and deformed, frequently associated with the god Bes, his worship then exceeded the borders of the country and was exported throughout the eastern Mediterranean. Thanks to the Phoenicians, we find figures of Ptah in Carthage, from the Old Kingdom, he quickly absorbs the appearance of Sokar and Tatenen, ancient deities of the Memphite region. His form of Sokar is found contained in its white shroud wearing the Atef crown, in this capacity, he represents the god of the necropolis of Saqqara and other famous sites where the royal pyramids were built. Gradually he formed with Osiris a new deity called Ptah-Sokar-Osiris, statuettes representing the human form, half-human, half-hawk, or simply in its falcon form will be systematically placed in tombs to accompany and protect the dead on their journey to the West. His Tatenen form is represented by a young and vigorous man wearing a crown with two tall plumes that surround the solar disk and he thus embodies the underground fire that rumbles and raises the earth. As such, he was revered by metalworkers and blacksmiths. In this form also, Ptah is the master of ceremonies for Heb Sed, in the holy of holies of his temple in Memphis, as well as in his great sacred boat, he drove in procession to regularly visit the region during major holidays. Ptah was also symbolized by two birds with human heads adorned with solar disks, symbols of the souls of the god Re, the two Ba are also identified as the twin gods Shu and Tefnut and are associated with the djed pillar of Memphis. Finally, Ptah is embodied in the bull, Apis. Frequently referred to as a herald of Re, the animal is the link with the god Re from the New Kingdom. He even received worship in Memphis, probably at the heart of the temple of Ptah. As god of craftsmen, the cult of the god Ptah quickly spread throughout Egypt, for this reason, the oratory of Ptah who listens to prayers was built near the site of Deir el-Medina, the village where the workers and craftsmen were confined
14.
Tatenen
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Tatenen was the god of the primordial mound in ancient Egyptian religion. His name means land or exalted earth, as well as referring to the silt of the Nile. As a primeval chthonic deity, Tatenen was identified with creation and he was an androgynous protector of nature from the Memphis area, the ancient capital of the Aneb-Hetch nome in Lower Egypt. Tatenen represented the Earth and was born in the moment it rose from the chaos, analogous to the primeval mound of the benben and mastaba. His father was the creator god Khnum, who made him on his potters wheel of Nile mud at the moment of creation of Earth and this fortuity granted him the titles of both creator and mother who gave birth to all gods and father of all the gods. He also personified Egypt and was an aspect of the earth-god Geb, as a source of artistic inspiration, as well as assisting the dead in their journey to the afterlife. He is first attested in the Coffin Texts, where his name appears as Tanenu or Tanuu, the inert land, middle Kingdom texts provide the first examples of the form Tatenen. With a staff Tatenen repelled the evil serpent Apep from the Primeval Mound and he also had a magical mace dedicated to the falcon, venerated as The Great White of the Earth Creator. In one interpretation, Tatenen brought the Djed-pillars of stability to the country, both Tatenen and Ptah were Memphite gods. Tatenen was the ancient god, combined in the Old Kingdom with Ptah as Ptah-Tatenen. By the Nineteenth dynasty Ptah-Tatenen is his form, and he is worshiped as royal creator god. Ptah-Tatenen can be seen as father of the Ogdoad of Hermopolis, tatenens ambiguous portrayal may be a result of his being merged with Ptah. He was always in human form, usually seated with a beard, wearing either an Atef-crown or, more commonly. As Tanenu or Tanuu, obviously a chthonic deity, he carried two snakes on his head and he was both feminine and masculine, a consequence of his status as a primeval, creator deity. Some depictions show Tatenen with a green complexion, as he had connections to fertility and a chthonic association with plants
15.
Atum
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Atum, sometimes rendered as Atem or Tem, is an important deity in Egyptian mythology. Atums name is thought to be derived from the word tem which means to complete or finish, thus he has been interpreted as being the complete one and also the finisher of the world, which he returns to watery chaos at the end of the creative cycle. As creator he was seen as the substance of the world. In the Heliopolitan creation myth, Atum was considered to be the first god, having created himself, sitting on a mound, early myths state that Atum created the god Shu and goddess Tefnut by spitting them out of his mouth. To explain how Atum did this, the uses the metaphor of masturbation. Other interpretations state that he has made union with his shadow, in the Old Kingdom the Egyptians believed that Atum lifted the dead kings soul from his pyramid to the starry heavens. He was also a deity, associated with the primary sun god Ra. Atum was linked specifically with the sun, while Ra or the closely linked god Khepri were connected with the sun at morning. Atum is the god of pre-existence and post-existence, in the binary solar cycle, the serpentine Atum is contrasted with the ram-headed scarab Khepri—the young sun god, whose name is derived from the Egyptian hpr to come into existence. Khepri-Atum encompassed sunrise and sunset, thus reflecting the solar cycle. Atum was a deity, the first being to emerge from the darkness and endless watery abyss that existed before creation. A product of the energy and matter contained in this chaos, he created his children—the first deities and he produced from his own sneeze, or in some accounts, semen, Shu, the god of air, and Tefnut, the goddess of moisture. The brother and sister, curious about the waters that surrounded them, went to explore the waters. Unable to bear his loss, Atum sent a fiery messenger, the tears of joy he shed on their return were the first human beings. He is usually depicted as a man wearing either the royal head-cloth or the white and red crown of Upper Egypt and Lower Egypt. Sometimes he also is shown as a serpent, the form he returns to at the end of the creative cycle, atums cult centered on the city of Heliopolis. The only surviving remnant of Heliopolis is the Temple of Re-Atum obelisk located in Al-Masalla of Al-Matariyyah and it was erected by Senusret I of the Twelfth dynasty, and still stands in its original position. The 68 ft high red granite obelisk weighs 120 tons, band I, Die heiligen Tiere des Atum
16.
Iset Ta-Hemdjert
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Iset Ta-Hemdjert or Isis Ta-Hemdjert, simply called Isis in her tomb, was an Ancient Egyptian queen of the twentieth dynasty, the Great Royal Wife of Ramesses III and the Royal Mother of Ramesses VI. She was probably of Asian origin, her mothers name Hemdjert is not an Egyptian name, one of her children are known to us, Ramesses VI, who succeeded his nephew Ramesses V, the short-lived son of Ramesses IV. Other than Ramesses V, the grandchildren of Iset Ta-Hemdjert include Ramesses VII, the Gods Wife of Amun Iset, and princes Amunherkhopsef and Panebenkemyt, these are all the children of Ramesses VI. Apart from the Great Royal Wife designation, she held the titles of Gods Wife. She is shown on a statue of Ramesses III in the Mut temple at Karnak and she was still alive during the reign of Ramesses VI, when her granddaughter Iset became Gods Wife of Amun. Isis Ta-Hemdjert was buried in the Valley of the Queens, in tomb QV51, the tomb was described by Champollion, and is documented in Lepsius Denkmahler. The construction of the tomb may have started during the reign of her husband King Ramesses III, the tomb had been looted in ancient times and is mentioned in the papyri regarding the tomb robberies during the 20th dynasty. The tomb consists of an ending in a main hall with two side chambers. The corridor is decorated with scenes showing the queen before a variety of divinities including Ptah-Sokar, Atum, the outer jambs for the main hall contain a text by Ramesses VI. The queen appears before several gods, including Ptah. and hawk-god, the side rooms are decorated with scenes showing a variety of goddesses including Neith, Serket, Isis, and Nephthys. Fragments of a red granite sarcophagus were recovered during the excavations by Schiaparelli and are now in the Museo Egizio in Turin, tomb of Queen Ese Plan and description of the tomb
17.
Ramesses VI
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Ramesses VI Nebmaatre-Meryamun was the fifth ruler of the Twentieth dynasty of Egypt who reigned from 1145 to 1137 BC and a son of Ramesses III by Iset Ta-Hemdjert. His royal tomb, KV9, is located near Tutankhamuns tomb in the Valley of the Kings, the first to establish beyond doubt that Ramesses VI lived into his 8th Regnal Year was the Dutch Egyptologist Jac. He based this on Ostracon IFAO1425, which mentions the loan of an ox in year 8 of a king which can only have been Ramesses VI. His 8th Regnal Year also seems to be attested in Theban graffito 1860a, in the past, this graffito has been ascribed to Ramesses X, but this interpretation has been abandoned and its ascription to Ramesses VI seems by far the best solution. Raphael Venturas interesting reconstruction of a sum in Turin Papyrus 1907+1908. The latest scholarly publication on Egyptian chronology in 2006 also assigned Ramesses VI8 years of rule, Ramesses VI probably lived for two months into his brief 9th regnal year before he died and was succeeded by his son, Ramesses VII. Ramesses VIs chief queen was Nubkhesbed who is mentioned on a stela of Iset E from Koptos and this pharaoh would be succeeded on the throne by his son Ramesses VII. Egypts political and economic decline continued unabated during Ramesses VIs reign, shortly after his burial, his tomb was penetrated and ransacked by grave robbers who hacked away at his hands and feet in order to gain access to his jewelry. A medical examination of his mummy which was found in KV35 in 1898 revealed severe damage to his body, with the head and torso being broken into several pieces by an axe used by the tomb robbers. The creation of Ramesses VIs tomb, however, protected Tutankhamuns own intact tomb from grave robbers since debris from its formation was dumped over the entrance to the boy kings tomb. J. Janssen, Year 8 of Ramesses VI Attested, Göttinger Miszellen 29, peden, Where did Ramesses VI bury his nephew. GM181, 83-88 Ramesses VI at Find a Grave
18.
Ramesses VIII
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Ramesses VIII is the most obscure ruler of this Dynasty and the current information from his brief kingship suggests that he lasted on the throne for one year at the most. Some scholars assign him a reign of two years. The fact that he succeeded to power after the death of Ramesses VII—a son of Ramesses VI—may indicate a problem in the royal succession. Ramesses VIIIs prenomen or royal name, Usermaatre Akhenamun, means Powerful is the Justice of Re, monuments from his reign are scarce and consist primarily of an inscription at Medinet Habu, a mention of this ruler in one document—Berlin stela 2081 of Hori at Abydos—and one scarab. His only known date is a Year 1, I Peret day 2 graffito in the tomb of Kyenebu at Thebes. According to Erik Hornung in a 2006 book, the date of Ramesses VIII has been established by Amin Amer to date to an 8-month interval between I Peret day 2 and I Akhet day 13. Since no year change occurs in this interval, the accession date for Ramesses VIII must fall outside this period of this text. An all-Egyptian team of researchers headed by Afifi Rohiem under the supervision of Dr. Zahi Hawass were looking for the pharaohs tomb, Ramesses VIII at Find a Grave
19.
Amun-her-khepeshef (20th dynasty)
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Amun-her-khepeshef was the eldest son and appointed heir of Pharaoh Ramesses III. Like many of his brothers, he was named after a son of Ramesses II and he died when he was about fifteen years old. He is also mentioned as Ramesses Amun-her-khepeshef and he is not identical with his brother Ramesses VI, who was also called Amun-her-khepeshef before he became pharaoh. He is depicted in his fathers temple at Medinet Habu and his well preserved tomb, QV55 was excavated by Italian archaeologists in 1903-1904
20.
Khaemwaset (20th dynasty)
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Khaemwaset or Khaemwase was an Ancient Egyptian prince, a son of Pharaoh Ramesses III. His name can also be found as Ramesses Khaemwaset, like many of his brothers, he was named after a son of Ramesses II, Khaemwaset, and like the 19th dynasty Khaemwaset, he was a priest of Ptah in Memphis. He is depicted in his fathers temple at Medinet Habu, both Khaemwaset and his brother Pareherwenemef are mentioned as Eldest Kings Son, which probably means that they were firstborn sons of different mothers. His well preserved tomb, QV44 was excavated by Italian archaeologists in 1903-1904, a canopic jar of his is now in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, his sarcophagus and probable mummy is in the Museo Egizio Turin. He outlived his father and was buried under the reign of his brother Ramesses IV, since the text on the sarcophagus mentions Ramesses IV
21.
Meryatum II
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For the son of Ramesses II, see Meryatum Meryatum was an Ancient Egyptian prince and High Priest of Re, the son of Pharaoh Ramesses III. Meryatum was the brother of pharaohs Ramesses IV, Ramesses VI and he was the uncle of pharaohs Ramesses V and Ramesses VII. His name can also be found as Ramesses Meryatum, Meryatum is shown in the procession of royal sons depicted in Medinet Habu. He lived at least into the reigns of Ramesses IV and Ramesses V. Meryatum is mentioned in Papyrus Wilbour
22.
Pentawer
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Pentawer was an ancient Egyptian prince of the 20th dynasty, a son of Pharaoh Ramesses III and a secondary wife, Tiye. He was involved in the harem conspiracy, a plot to kill his father. He either killed himself or was executed following the assassination attempt, Pentawer was to be the beneficiary of the harem conspiracy, probably initiated by his mother Tiye to assassinate the pharaoh. Tiye wanted her son to succeed the pharaoh, even though the chosen heir was a son of the chief queen Iset Ta-Hemdjert, according to the Judicial Papyrus of Turin Pentawer was among those who were made to stand trial for their participation in the conspiracy. It is likely that he was forced to kill himself, the papyrus refers to this laconically, They left him in his place, he took his own life. In other words, not only were the criminals killed in the physical world and they would have no chance of living on into the next world, and thus suffered a complete personal annihilation. By killing himself, Pentawer could avoid the punishment of a second death. This could have permitted him to be mummified and move on to the afterlife, a recent study of remains believed to be his, suggest however that he was strangled or hanged. If the remains indeed are his, then he was about 18 years old at the time of his death. In recent times, the Egyptologist Bob Brier has revived the old hypothesis that the mummy of the Unknown Man E found in the Deir el-Bahari cache might be Pentawer indeed. Brier hypothesizes that Pentawer was mummified very rapidly and placed in a coffin by a relative in order to give him a proper burial. Subsequent DNA analysis supported the theory that the mummy was a son of Ramesses, according to Dr. Zink, one of the scientists who undertook the test, From our genetic analysis we could really prove the two were closely related. They share the same Y chromosome and 50% of their genetic material, pascal Vernus, Affairs and Scandals in Ancient Egypt, Cornell University Press 2003 James Henry Breasted, Ancient Records of Egypt, Part Four, Chicago 1906
23.
Duatentopet
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Duatentopet or Tentopet was an Ancient Egyptian queen of the 20th dynasty, the wife of Pharaoh Ramesses IV, and mother of Ramesses V. In the Karnak temple complex, an Adoratrix named Tentopet is shown with Ramesses III in the Temple of Khonsu and it is thought likely that Tentopet and Queen Duatentopet were the same person, and that she was a daughter of Ramesses III. This would make her a sister, or a half-sister, of her husband and her steward Amenhotep was buried in Theban tomb TT346
24.
Tiy-Merenese
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Tiy-merenese, Teye-Merenaset, Tiye-Mereniset was the Great Royal Wife of pharaoh Setnakhte and mother of Ramesses III of the Twentieth Dynasty of Egypt. She is the only wife of Setnakhte. She was depicted together with her husband on a stela in Abydos, a priest named Meresyotef is shown adoring Setnakhte and Tiy-Merenese and their son Ramesses III is shown making offerings. Tiye-Merenese also appears on blocks found in Abydos which were reused in other buildings
25.
KV11
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Tomb KV11 is the tomb of Ancient Egyptian Pharaoh Ramesses III. Located in the valley of the Valley of the Kings, the tomb was originally started by Setnakhte. The tomb KV11 was restarted and extended and on a different axis for Ramesses III, the tomb has been open since antiquity, and has been known variously as Bruces Tomb and The Harpers Tomb. The 188-metre-long tomb is beautifully decorated, the Second Corridor is decorated with the Litany of Re. At the end of this corridor the axis of the tomb shifts and this Third Corridor is decorated with the Book of Gates and the Book of Amduat, and leads over a ritual shaft, and then into a four-pillared hall. This hall is decorated with the Book of Gates. A Fourth Corridor (decorated with scenes of the opening of the ceremony and leads into a vestibule, with scenes of the Book of the Dead. The burial chamber is a hall in which stood the red quartzite sarcophagus. This chamber is decorated with Book of Gates, divine scenes, beyond this is a further set of annexes, decorated with the Book of Gates. The Complete Valley of the Kings,1996, Thames and Hudson, London, guide to the Valley of the Kings and to the Theban Necropolises and Temples,1996, A. A. Theban Mapping Project, KV11 - Includes description, images and plans of the tomb, images taken from 3d models showing the breakthrough into KV10 from KV11
26.
Medinet Habu (temple)
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The Mortuary Temple of Ramesses III at Medinet Habu is an important New Kingdom period structure in the West Bank of Luxor in Egypt. As for much of ancient Egypt, the first European to describe the temple in modern literature was Vivant Denon, champollion described the temple in detail in 1829. Initial excavation of the temple took place sporadically between 1859 and 1899, under the auspices of the Department of Antiquities, the temple, some 150 m long, is of orthodox design, and resembles closely the nearby mortuary temple of Ramesses II. The temple precinct measures approximately 210 m. by 300 m and its walls are relatively well preserved and it is surrounded by a massive mudbrick enclosure, which may have been fortified. The original entrance is through a fortified gate-house, known as a migdol, just inside the enclosure, to the south, are chapels of Amenirdis I, Shepenupet II and Nitiqret, all of whom had the title of Divine Adoratrice of Amun. The first pylon leads into a courtyard, lined with colossal statues of Ramesses III as Osiris on one side. The second pylon leads into a hall, again featuring columns in the shape of Ramesses. This leads up a ramp leads to the third pylon. Reliefs and actual heads of foreign captives were also placed within the temple perhaps in an attempt to symbolise the kings control over Syria and Nubia. In Coptic times, there was a church inside the temple structure, some of the carvings in the main wall of the temple have been altered by coptic carvings. The Royal Palace was directly connected with the first courtyard of the Temple via the Window of Appearances, the Medinet Habu king list is a procession celebrating the festival of Min, with the names of nine pharaohs. It can be found on the register of the eastern wall in the second courtyard. William J. Murnane, United with Eternity – A Concise Guide to the Monuments of Medinet Habu, Oriental Institute, University of Chicago, F. Edgerton, Medinet Habu Graffiti Facsimiles Uvo Hölscher, Medinet Habu 1924-1928. II The Architectural Survey of the Great Temple and Palace of Medinet Habu, Chicago, University of Chicago Press,1929
27.
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
28.
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
29.
New Kingdom of Egypt
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Radiocarbon dating places the exact beginning of the New Kingdom between 1570–1544 BC. The New Kingdom followed the Second Intermediate Period and was succeeded by the Third Intermediate Period and it was Egypt’s most prosperous time and marked the peak of its power. The later part of period, under the Nineteenth and Twentieth Dynasties is also known as the Ramesside period. It is named after the pharaohs that took the name of Ramesses I. Egyptian armies fought Hittite armies for control of modern-day Syria, the Eighteenth Dynasty contained some of Egypts most famous Pharaohs, including Ahmose I, Hatshepsut, Thutmose III, Amenhotep III, Akhenaten and Tutankhamun. Queen Hatshepsut concentrated on expanding Egypts external trade by sending an expedition to the land of Punt. Thutmose III expanded Egypts army and wielded it with success to consolidate the empire created by his predecessors. This resulted in a peak in Egypts power and wealth during the reign of Amenhotep III, during the reign of Thutmose III, Pharaoh, originally referring to the kings palace, became a form of address for the person who was king. Akhenatens religious fervor is cited as the reason why he was written out of Egyptian history. Under his reign, in the 14th century BC, Egyptian art flourished and attained a level of realism. Towards the end of the 18th Dynasty, the situation had changed radically, Ramesses II sought to recover territories in the Levant that had been held by the 18th Dynasty. His campaigns of reconquest culminated in the Battle of Kadesh, where he led Egyptian armies against those of the Hittite king Muwatalli II. Ramesses was caught in historys first recorded military ambush, although he was able to rally his troops, the outcome of the battle was undecided with both sides claiming victory at their home front, ultimately resulting in a peace treaty between the two nations. The last great pharaoh from the New Kingdom is widely considered to be Ramesses III, in the eighth year of his reign the Sea Peoples invaded Egypt by land and sea. Ramesses III defeated them in two great land and sea battles and he incorporated them as subject peoples and settled them in Southern Canaan although there is evidence that they forced their way into Canaan. Their presence in Canaan may have contributed to the formation of new states, such as Philistia and he was also compelled to fight invading Libyan tribesmen in two major campaigns in Egypts Western Delta in his sixth year and eleventh year respectively. The heavy cost of this warfare slowly drained Egypts treasury and contributed to the decline of the Egyptian Empire in Asia. Something in the air prevented much sunlight from reaching the ground, one proposed cause is the Hekla 3 eruption of the Hekla volcano in Iceland but the dating of this remains disputed
30.
Harem conspiracy
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The harem conspiracy was a plot to murder the Egyptian pharaoh Ramesses III. The principal figure behind the plot was one of the pharaohs secondary wives, Tiye, the plan was organized by the court official Pebekkamen. The plot was successful in causing the death of the pharaoh. In the aftermath, the conspirators were convicted and executed. Ramesses III was born during the Twentieth Dynasty to his father Pharaoh Setnakhte and his father Setnakhte came to the throne by rescuing Egypt from the hands of foreign powers. After Ramesses II or Ramesses The Great outlived twelve of his sons, Setnakhte led Egypt into the Twentieth Dynasty. It is said that Ramesses III entered life destined for the kingship and remained at the pinnacle of society, Ramesses III ruled Egypt for 32 years before his life was cut short. He had recently relocated to Thebes to celebrate the Heb-Sed, the festival that occurs after a king rules for thirty years. It was in Thebes where this great conspiracy was performed, in early April 1155 BC, Ramesses III was enjoying an evening in the royal harem when an attempt on his life was made. One of the wives, Queen Tiye, wished for her son, Pentawere, to take the throne over Ramesses IV. Tiye enlisted a group of officials throughout the administration as well as servants to deliver messages beyond the harem. Tiye was also able to convince many of these officials to act out the two-fold conspiracy. One of the chiefs, Pebekkamen, was given the responsibility of becoming Tiyes ally as well as moving much of the information around. Pebekkamen received help from a butler named Mastesuria, the cattle overseer Panhayboni, since the harem had very restricted access Panhayboni sought out the overseer of the Kings treasury, Pairy, to gain access to the harem. The conspirators believed that their plot would be aided by the use of magic to deceive the guards at the harem. Magical spells were used to make Ramesses III more vulnerable. The plotters enlisted the court magician Prekamenef and Ramesses IIIs personal physician Iyroy to conjure the magic, spells and incantations were performed while the attempt to take the life of Ramesses III was happening. There has been dispute about how Ramesses was killed
31.
Coronation of the pharaoh
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A coronation was an extremely important ritual in early and ancient Egyptian history, concerning the change of power and rulership between two succeeding pharaohs. The accession to the throne was celebrated in ceremonies, rites. The coronation feast was not one event but rather as a long lasting process including several festivals, for this reason, Egyptologists today describe the year that a new pharaoh accessed to power as the year of the coronation. The earliest depictions of rites and ceremonies concerning an accession to the throne may be found on objects from the reign of the predynastic king Scorpion II, at this time, the change between rulers may have been marked by wars and invasions from neighboring Egyptian proto-kingdoms. From king Narmer onwards, wars between Egyptian proto-kingdoms may have been replaced by symbolic ceremonies and festivals. The stone also records various events during a reign, such as the creation of statues, city and domain foundations, cattle counts. The stone also gives the date of a rulers accession to the throne. The first year of a ruler on the throne, the year of coronation, was not counted in a kings regnal year count, and the stone mentions only the most important ceremonies that took place in this year. As already mentioned, the coronation included several, long lasting festivals, rites and ceremonies the king had to celebrate first, the most famous depiction of this ritual may be seen on the ceremonial palette of king Narmer. Another symbolic depiction of the unification feast appears on a relief dating to the reign of king Senusret I. Circumambulation of the White Walls The ceremony of the circumambulation of the White Walls is known from the inscriptions on the Palermo stone. According to legends, the White Walls, in Egyptian Inebu Hedj, appearance of the king The feast appearance of the king is likewise known from inscriptions on the Palermo stone. This feast was held immediately after the coronation, as a confirmation of the right to rule. After the end of the year of the coronation, the feast was celebrated every second year, the earliest known mention of this feast dates back to king Djoser, first pharaoh of 3rd dynasty. Sed feast One of the most important feasts of Ancient Egypt linked with a time on the throne was the Sed festival. It included many complex rituals, which are not fully understood up to this day, the first celebration of the feast was held during the year of the coronation. After that, the celebration was held in the 30th year of the pharaoh on the throne. Early dynastic rulers, for which at least one Sed feast is archaeologically attested, include Narmer, Den, Qaa, Nynetjer, some kings simply claimed to have celebrated a Sed festival, despite archaeological evidences proof that they did not rule for 30 years
32.
Columbidae
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Pigeons and doves constitute the bird family Columbidae, which includes about 310 species. Pigeons and doves are stout-bodied birds with short necks, and short slender bills and they primarily feed on seeds, fruits, and plants. This family occurs worldwide, but the greatest variety is in the Indomalaya, in general, the terms dove and pigeon are used somewhat interchangeably. Pigeon is a French word that derives from the Latin pipio, for a peeping chick, the species most commonly referred to as pigeon is the rock dove, one subspecies of which, the domestic pigeon, is common in many cities as the feral pigeon. Pigeons and doves are likely the most common birds in the world, doves and pigeons build relatively flimsy nests – often using sticks and other debris – which may be placed in trees, on ledges, or on the ground, depending on species. They lay one or two eggs at a time, and both parents care for the young, which leave the nest after seven to 28 days. Unlike most birds, both sexes of doves and pigeons produce crop milk to feed to their young, secreted by a sloughing of fluid-filled cells from the lining of the crop, young doves and pigeons are called squabs. The adjective columbine refers to pigeons and doves, recent phylogenomic studies support the grouping of these pigeons and sandgrouse together, along with mesites, forming the sister taxon to Mirandornithes. The Columbidae are usually divided into five subfamilies, probably inaccurately, for example, the American ground and quail doves, which are usually placed in the Columbinae, seem to be two distinct subfamilies. The order presented here follows Baptista et al. with some updates, osteology and DNA sequence analyses indicate the dodo and Rodrigues solitaire are better considered as a subfamily Raphinae in the Columbidae pending availability of further information. The dodo and Rodrigues solitaire are in all part of the Indo-Australian radiation that produced the three small subfamilies mentioned above, with the fruit-doves and pigeons. Therefore, they are included as a subfamily Raphinae, pending better material evidence of their exact relationships. Exacerbating these issues, columbids are not well represented in the fossil record, no truly primitive forms have been found to date. The genus Gerandia has been described from Early Miocene deposits of France, apart from that, all other fossils belong to extant genera. For these, and for the number of more recently extinct prehistoric species. Phylogeny based on the work by John H. Boyd III, Pigeons and doves exhibit considerable variations in size. Overall, the Columbidae tend to have short bills and legs, the wings are large and have low wing loadings, pigeons have strong wing muscles and are among the strongest fliers of all birds. They are also highly manoeuvrable in flight, the plumage of the family is variable
33.
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
34.
Battle of Djahy
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The Battle of Djahy was a major land battle between the forces of pharaoh Ramesses III and the Sea Peoples who intended to invade and conquer Egypt. The conflict occurred somewhere on the Ancient Egyptian Empires easternmost frontier in Djahy or modern day southern Lebanon, in this battle the Egyptians, led personally by Ramesses III, defeated the Sea Peoples who were attempting to invade Ancient Egypt by land and sea. Almost all that we know about the battle comes from the temple of Ramesses III in Medinet Habu. The description of the battle and prisoners is documented on temple walls where we also find the longest hieroglyphic inscription known to us. Temple reliefs feature many bound prisoners defeated in battle and it is likely that the Nile irrigated lands remained fruitful and would have been highly desirable to Egypt’s neighbors. During this chaotic time, a new group of people from the north. Ramesses III had previously defeated an attack by the Libyans on the Egyptian Empires western frontier, a greater threat was posed by a group of migrating peoples called the Sea Peoples. These were times of crisis in the Mediterranean, as many 12th century BC civilizations were destroyed by the Sea Peoples, the great Hittite Empire fell, as did the Mycenaean civilization, the kingdom of Cyprus and Ugarit, and other great cultures. Whatever their origins, the Sea Peoples moved around the eastern Mediterranean, attacking the coasts of Anatolia, Cyprus, Syria and Canaan and we know that the Sea Peoples were great warriors, and some evidence suggests they had a high level of organization and military strategy. All at once the lands were removed and scattered in the fray, no land could stand before their arms, from Hatti, Qode, Carchemish, Arzawa and Alashiya on, being cut off at one time. A camp was set up in Amurru and they desolated its people, and its land was like that which has never come into being. They were coming forward toward Egypt, while the flame was prepared before them and their confederation was the Peleset, Tjeker, Shekelesh, Denyen and Weshesh, lands united. They laid their hands upon the land as far as the circuit of the earth, their hearts confident and trusting, prior to the battle, the Sea Peoples had sacked the Hittite vassal state of Amurru which was located close to the border of the Egyptian Empire. This gave the time to make preparations for the expected onslaught by the invaders. As Ramesses III notes in an inscription from his temple at Medinet Habu. Ramesses III refers to his battle with the Sea Peoples in stark, uncompromising terms, The charioteers were warriors, and all good officers, ready of hand. Their horses were quivering in their every limb, ready to crush the countries under their feet. Those who reached my boundary, their seed is not, their heart and soul are finished forever and ever. While the battle ended with a great Egyptian victory, Egypts war with the Sea Peoples was not yet over, the Sea Peoples would attack Egypt proper with their naval fleet, around the mouth of the Nile river
35.
Battle of the Delta
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The Battle of the Delta was a sea battle between Egypt and the Sea Peoples, circa 1175 BCE when the Egyptian pharaoh Ramesses III repulsed a major sea invasion. The conflict occurred somewhere at the shores of the eastern Nile Delta and partly on the borders of the Egyptian Empire in Syria and this major conflict is recorded on the temple walls of the mortuary temple of pharaoh Ramesses III at Medinet Habu. In the 12th century BCE, the Sea Peoples invaded the Middle East from the eastern Mediterranean and they destroyed and plundered Hattusha, capital of the Hittite Empire, and also attacked Syria and the Southern Levant where many cities were burned and ruined. Cyprus had also been overwhelmed and its capital ransacked, since the Medinet Habu inscriptions depict women and children loaded in ox-carts, the attackers are believed to have been migrants looking for a place to settle. Does not my father know that all my troops and chariots are in the Land of Hatti, and all my ships are in the Land of Lukka. Thus, may my father know it, the seven ships of the enemy that came here inflicted much damage upon us. The Sea People invasions are often listed among the causes or symptoms of the Bronze Age collapse, Ramesses had fought the Sea Peoples in southern Lebanon, at the Battle of Djahy. No land could stand before their arms, from Hatti, Kode, Carchemish, Arzawa, after defeating the Sea Peoples on land in Syria, Ramesses rushed back to Egypt where preparations for the invaders assault had already been completed. According to the Medinet Habu inscriptions, Ramesses looked towards the sea and stared at a force of thousands of enemies and, with them, the threat of the end of the Egyptian empire. Ramesses lined the shores of the Nile Delta with ranks of archers who were ready to release volleys of arrows into the ships if they attempted to land. Knowing that he would be defeated in the battle at sea, Ramesses enticed the Sea Peoples and their ships into the mouth of the Nile and this Egyptian fleet worked the Sea Peoples boats towards shore. Then archers both on land and on the ships devastated the enemy, the Sea Peoples ships were overturned, many were killed and captured and some even dragged to the shore where they were killed. In the inscriptions, Ramesses proclaims, Those who reached my boundary, their seed is not, their hearts and their souls are finished forever and ever. As for those who had assembled them on the sea, the full flame was their front before the harbour mouths. They were dragged, overturned, and laid low upon the beach, slain and made heaps from stern to bow of their galleys, the victory at the Delta saved Egypt from the destruction that befell Hatti, Alasiya, and other great Near Eastern powers. There is no documentation for any pursuit of the defeated Sea Peoples, although defeated in the Delta, some of the Sea Peoples are believed to have settled in the Southern Levant some time after Ramesses death. Battle of the Nile Delta,1178 BC at Rivers from Eden, Medinet Habu and the Sea Peoples at BYU-Idaho
36.
Late Bronze Age collapse
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The palace economy of the Aegean Region and Anatolia that characterised the Late Bronze Age broke down to the isolated village cultures of the Greek Dark Ages. In the first phase of period, almost every city between Pylos and Gaza was violently destroyed, and many abandoned, examples include Hattusa, Mycenae. A very few states, particularly Assyria and Elam, were largely unaffected by the Bronze Age collapse. Before the Bronze Age collapse, Anatolia was dominated by a number of Indo-European peoples, Luwians, Hittites, Mitanni, and Mycenaean Greeks, together with the Semitic Assyrians, and Hurrians. From the 17th century BC, the Mitanni formed a ruling class over the Hurrians, similarly, the Hittites absorbed the Hattians, a people speaking a language that may have been of the North Caucasian group or a Language Isolate. Hattusas, the Hittite capital, was burned, abandoned, karaoğlan, near the present day city of Ankara, was burned and the corpses left unburied. Many other sites that were not destroyed were abandoned, the Hittite Empire was destroyed by the Indo-European-speaking Phrygians and by the Semitic-speaking Aramaeans. Troy was destroyed at least twice, before being abandoned until Roman times, other groups of Indo-European warriors followed into the region, most prominently the Lydians, the Cimmerians, and Scythians. The Semitic Arameans, Kartvelian-speaking Colchians, and Hurro-Urartuans also made an appearance in parts of the region, during the reign of the Hittite king Tudhaliya IV, the island was briefly invaded by the Hittites, either to secure the copper resource or as a way of preventing piracy. Shortly afterwards, the island was reconquered by his son around 1200 BC, some towns show traces of destruction at the end of LCII. Whether or not this is really an indication of a Mycenean invasion is contested, originally, two waves of destruction in c.1230 BC by the Sea Peoples and c.1190 BC by Aegean refugees have been proposed. The smaller settlements of Ayios Dhimitrios and Kokkinokremnos, as well as a number of sites, were abandoned. Kokkinokremos was a settlement, where various caches concealed by smiths have been found. That no one returned to reclaim the treasures suggests that they were killed or enslaved. Recovery occurred only in the Early Iron Age with Phoenician and Greek settlement and these sites in Cyprus show evidence of the collapse, Palaeokastro Kition Sinda Enkomi Ancient Syria had been initially dominated by a number of indigenous Semitic-speaking peoples. The East Semitic speaking Eblaites, the Canaanites language speaking Amorites, Syria during this time was known as The land of the Amurru. Levantine sites previously showed evidence of links with Mesopotamia, Egypt. Evidence, at Ugarit, shows that the destruction there occurred after the reign of Merneptah, the last Bronze Age king of the Semitic state of Ugarit, Ammurapi, was a contemporary of the Hittite king Suppiluliuma II
37.
Greek Dark Ages
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Around then, the Hittite civilization suffered serious disruption and cities from Troy to Gaza were destroyed. Following the collapse, fewer and smaller settlements suggest famine and depopulation, in Greece, the Linear B writing of the Greek language used by Mycenaean bureaucrats ceased. The decoration on Greek pottery after about 1100 BC lacks the figurative decoration of Mycenaean ware and is restricted to simpler,900 BC onwards, and evidence has emerged of the new presence of Hellenes in sub-Mycenaean Cyprus and on the Syrian coast at Al Mina. The Mycenaean civilization started to collapse from 1200 BC, made a conspiracy in their islands. All at once the lands were on the move, scattered in war, no country could stand before their arms…. Their league was Peleset, Tjeker, Shekelesh, Denyen and Weshesh, a similar assemblage of peoples may have attempted to invade Egypt twice, once during the reign of Merneptah, about 1208 BC, and again during the reign of Ramesses III, about 1178 BC. Writing in the Linear B script ceased particularly because the economy had crashed. The population of Greece was reduced, and the world of organized state armies, kings, officials, most of the information about the period comes from burial sites and the grave goods contained within them. The fragmented, localized and autonomous cultures of reduced complexity are noted for such diversity of their cultures in pottery styles, burial practices. The pottery style, Proto- Geometric signaled the loss of previous designs that were more complex and these newer designs were simpler, including only lines and curves, signaling a simplified society. Generalizations about the Dark Age Society are generally considered false, because the various cultures throughout Greece cannot be grouped into a large Dark Age Society category. Tholos tombs are found in early Iron Age Thessaly and in Crete but not in general elsewhere, there was still farming, weaving, metalworking and pottery but at a lower level of output and for local use in local styles. Better glazes were achieved by higher temperature firing of clay, however, the overall trend was toward simpler, less intricate pieces and fewer resources being devoted to the creation of beautiful art. From 1050, many local iron industries appeared, and by 900. Cyprus was inhabited by a mix of Pelasgians and Phoenicians, joined during this period by the first Greek settlements. Together with distinctively Greek Euboean ceramic wares, it was exported and is found in Levantine sites, including Tyre. Cypriot metalwork was exchanged in Crete and it is likely that Greece during this period was divided into independent regions organized by kinship groups and the oikoi or households, the origins of the later poleis. Excavations of Dark Age communities such as Nichoria in the Peloponnese have shown how a Bronze Age town was abandoned in 1150 BC, at this time there were only around forty families living there with plenty of good farming land and grazing for cattle
38.
Sea Peoples
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The Sea Peoples were a purported seafaring confederation of groups known to have attacked ancient Egypt prior to the Late Bronze Age collapse. The various Sea Peoples have been proposed to have originated either from western Anatolia or from Southern Europe. French Egyptologist Emmanuel de Rougé first used the term peuples de la mer in 1855 in a description of reliefs on the Second Pylon at Medinet Habu documenting Year 8 of Ramesses III. Gaston Maspero, de Rougés successor at the Collège de France, since the early 1990s, the theory has been brought into question by a number of scholars. Hypotheses regarding the origin of the groups identified as Sea Peoples remains the source of much speculation. De Rougé later became chair of Egyptology at the Collège de France, the theory was taken up by other scholars such as Eduard Meyer, and became the generally accepted theory amongst Egyptologists and orientalists. Since the early 1990s, the theory has been brought into question by a number of scholars, the years of this long-lived pharaohs reign are not known exactly, but they must have comprised nearly all of the first half of the 13th century BCE. In his Second Year, an attack of the Sherden, or Shardana, on the Nile Delta was repulsed and defeated by Ramesses, the event is recorded on Tanis Stele II. The Sherden prisoners were incorporated into the Egyptian army for service on the Hittite frontier by Ramesses. Another stele usually cited in conjunction with one is the Aswan Stele. It is plausible to assume that the Tanis and Aswan Stelae refer to the same event, the Battle of Kadesh was the outcome of a campaign against the Hittites and allies in the Levant in the pharaohs Year 5. The imminent collision of the Egyptian and Hittite empires became obvious to both, and they both prepared campaigns against the strategic midpoint of Kadesh for the next year, Ramesses divided his Egyptian forces, which were then ambushed piecemeal by the Hittite army and nearly defeated. At home, Ramesses had his scribes formulate an official description, ten copies survive today on the temples at Abydos, Karnak, Luxor and Abu Simbel, with reliefs depicting the battle. The Poem of Pentaur, describing the battle survived also, there is no evidence of any collaboration with the Hittites or malicious intent on their part, and if Ramesses considered it, he never left any record of that consideration. The poem lists the peoples which went to Kadesh as allies of the Hittites, depredations of this confederacy had been so severe that the region was forsaken as pasturage for cattle, it was left waste from the time of the ancestors. The pharaohs action against them is attested in a narrative found in three sources. The Athribis stela is a stela found in Athribis and inscribed on both sides, which, like the Cairo column was first published by Maspero, two years later in 1883. The Merneptah Stele from Thebes describes the reign of peace resulting from the victory, the Nine Bows were acting under the leadership of the king of Libya and an associated near-concurrent revolt in Canaan involving Gaza, Ashkelon, Yenoam and the people of Israel
39.
Philistines
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The Philistines were an ancient people primarily known for their conflict with the Israelites described in the Bible. Assyrian sources also refer to Pilišti and Palaštu, also believed to be cognate with Pléšet, the first reference to Philistines in the Hebrew Bible canon is in the Table of Nations, where they are said to descend from Casluhim son of Mizraim. However, the Philistines of Genesis who are friendly to Abraham are identified by Rabbinic sources as distinct from the people described in Deuteronomistic history. This description portrays them at one period of time as among the Kingdom of Israels most dangerous enemies, in contrast, the canon of Eastern Christianity, the LXX, uses the term allophuloi instead of philistines, which means simply other nations. There are several theories about the origins of the Philistines, in 2016, the discovery of a huge Philistine cemetery, containing more than 150 burials, seems to point toward an Aegean origin of the Philistines. Genetic testing of the remains will provide further information. The English word Philistine and the modern term Palestine come from Old French Philistin, from Classical Latin Philistinus, from Late Greek Philistinoi, from Hebrew Plištim, the Hebrew term pelishtim occurs 286 times in the Masoretic Text of the Hebrew Bible. It also appears in the Samaritan Pentateuch, in secondary literature the Aramaic Visions of Amram further mentions Philistia. This is datable prior to Antiochus IV and the Hasmonean revolt, possibly to the term of High Priest of Israel Onias II, Jubilees 46, in the Greek version of the Bible called Septuagint, the equivalent term phylistiim occurs 12 times, again in the Pentateuch. Outside of pre-Maccabean Israelite religious literature, evidence for the name, in the remainder of the Hebrew Bible, ha-pelishtim is attested at Qumran for 2 Samuel 5,17. In the Septuagint however 269 references instead use the term allophylos, the Philistines are the subject of research and speculation in biblical archaeology. While the evidence for connections is etymological and has been disputed. Archaeological research to date has been unable to corroborate a mass settlement of Philistines during the Ramesses III era, a Walistina is mentioned in Luwian texts already variantly spelled Palistina. This implies dialectical variation, a phoneme inadequately described in the script, *Falistina was a kingdom somewhere on the Amuq plain, where the Amurru kingdom had held sway before it. Allen Jones suggests that the name Philistine represents a corruption of the Greek phyle histia and he goes on to suggest that the Philistines introduced the fixed hearth to the Levant. This suggestion was raised before archaeological evidence for the use of the hearths was documented at Philistine sites, literally, it says that those whom Mizraim begat included the Pathrusim, Casluhim, and the Caphtorim. There is some debate among interpreters as to whether this verse was intended to signify that the Philistines themselves were the offspring of the Casluhim or the Caphtorim. While the Casluhim or the Caphtorim origin is widely followed by scholars, other scholars such as Friedrich Schwally, Bernhard Stade
40.
Sherden
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The Sherden are one of several groups of Sea Peoples who appear in fragmentary historical and iconographic records from the Eastern Mediterranean in the late second millennium BCE. On reliefs they are shown carrying round shields and spears, dirks, or swords, in some cases they are shown wearing corselets and kilts, but their key distinguishing feature is a horned helmet which, in all cases but three, features a circular accouterment at the crest. At Medinet Habu the corselet appears similar to that worn by the Philistines, the first certain mention of the Sherden is found in the records of Ramesses II, who defeated them in his second year when they attempted to raid Egypts coast. The pharaoh subsequently incorporated many of warriors into his personal guard. Ramesses tells us, in his Kadesh inscriptions, that he incorporated some of the Sherden into his own personal guard at the Battle of Kadesh, years later other waves of Sea People, Sherden included, were defeated by Merneptah, son of Ramesses II, and Ramesses III. An Egyptian work written around 1100 BC named Onomasticon of Amenope, after being defeated by Pharaoh Ramsses III, in fact, they, along with other Sea Peoples, would be allowed to settle in this territory, subject to Egyptian rule. Archaeologist Adam Zertal suggests that some Sherden settled in what is now northern Israel, the Sherden seem to have been one of the more prominent groups of pirates that engaged in coastal raiding and the disruption of trade in the years surrounding the 13th century BC. Michael Wood has suggested that their raids contributed greatly to the collapse of the Mycenaean civilization, no mention of the Sherden has ever been found in Hittite or Greek legends or documents, suggesting that they did not originate from either sphere of influence. Archaeologist Margaret Guido concludes the evidence for the Sherden, Shekelesh or Teresh coming from the western Mediterranean is flimsy. Guido in 1963 suggests that the Sherden may ultimately derive from Ionia, in the central west coast of Anatolia, in the region of Hermos and it is suggested that Sardis, and the Sardinian plain nearby, may preserve a cultural memory of their name. It is suggested that here they may have later migrated to Sardinia. Weapons and armour similar to those of the Sherden were found in Sardinia dating only to several centuries after the period of the Sea Peoples, similar swords are depicted on the statue menhir of Filitosa, in southern Corsica. Giovanni Lilliu noted that the period in which the Sherden are mentioned in the Egyptian sources coincides with the apogee of the Nuragic civilization, in 2010 Nuragic pottery had been found at Kokkinokremnos, Cyprus, a site attributed to the Sea Peoples. The Amarna letters, letters written in Akkadian and found at el-Amarna in Egypt, interview with Giovanni Ugas The Papyrus Harris Review of relevant literature with links to some original sources The Sea People
41.
Meshwesh
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The Meshwesh were an ancient Libyan tribe of Berber origin from beyond Cyrenaica. According to Egyptian hieroglyphics, this area is where the Libu, early records of the Meshwesh date back to the 18th Dynasty of Ancient Egypt, from the reign of Amenhotep III. During the 19th and 20th Dynasties of Egypt, the Meshwesh were in almost constant conflict with the Egyptian state, during the late 21st Dynasty, increasing numbers of Meswesh Libyans began to settle in the Western Delta region of Egypt. They would ultimately take control of the country during the late 21st Dynasty first under King Osorkon the Elder and their reign only came to an end with the invasion of the Kushite 25th Dynasty in Year 20 of Piye. The Libyo-Berber origin of the Meshwesh is also indicated in their personal names, after the Egyptians, the Greeks, Romans, and Byzantines mentioned various other tribes in Libya. Later tribal names differ from the Egyptian ones but, probably, some tribes were named in the Egyptian sources, the Meshwesh tribe represents this assumption. Some scholars argue it would be the tribe called Mazyes by Hecataeus of Miletus and Maxyes by Herodotus, while it was called Mazaces. The Meshwesh are known from ancient Egyptian texts as early as the 18th Dynasty and this indicates there may have been some trade relations between the Meshwesh and the Egyptians at the time. At the very least, it can be said that the Egyptians were familiar with the Meshwesh, for the remainder of the 18th Dynasty, information about Meshwesh or Libyans in general is sketchy. There are, however, representations of Libyans from the reign of Akhenaten, however, the papyrus is fragmentary, so it is not known what the historical context was. The Meshwesh or Ma were nomad hunter pastoralists, living off their goats, camels, milk, meat, hides and wool were gathered from their livestock for food, tents and clothing. Men wore facial hair trimmed except at their chin and the men kept their longer chin tufts braided. Women wore the robes as men, plaited, decorated hair. Later images showed them to have accepted and adapted some Greek or Macedonian tunics, weapons included bows and arrows, hatchets, spears and daggers. The relations between the Libyans and the Egyptians during the Ramesside Period were typically one of constant conflict, the presence of these fortresses indicate a serious threat from the west, and Ramesses does claim to have overthrown Libyans in various rhetorical texts. However, as with Seti I, he does not specify if Meshwesh were involved or not. Unlike his predecessors, Merenptah states in his reliefs at Karnak that it was primarily the Libu tribe who led the conflict. Indeed, Merenptah claims that 9,100 swords of the Meshwesh were captured, about twenty-five years later, during the reign of Ramesses III, the growing conflict between the Egyptians and Libyans came to a head
42.
Tjekker
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The Tjeker or Tjekker were one of the Sea Peoples. Known mainly from the Story of Wenamun, the Tjeker are also documented earlier, at Medinet Habu, as raiders defeated by Pharaoh Ramesses III of Egypt in years 5,8, and 12 of his reign. They are thought to be the people who developed the port of Dor in Canaan during the 12th century BCE from a small Bronze Age town to a large city, as with other Sea Peoples, the origins of the Tjeker are uncertain. Their name comes from Egyptian tkr or skl, which has been transcribed in other ways, such as Tjekru, Sikil, Djekker, Sical, etc. and has proved difficult to etymologize. As a last resort the early scholars in the field turned to names, specifically, Flinders Petrie related the ethnonym to Zakro. Some modern scholars accept the association, a possible identity has been suggested with the Teucri, a tribe described by ancient sources as inhabiting northwest Anatolia to the south of Troy. However, this has been dismissed as speculation by Trevor Bryce. The city was destroyed in the mid-11th century BCE, with the conflagration turning the mud bricks red and depositing a huge layer of ash. Ephraim Stern connects the destruction with the expansion of the Phoenicians, which was checked by the Philistines further south. The Tjeker are perhaps one of the few Sea Peoples for whom a name is recorded — in the 11th-century papyrus account of Wenamun, an Egyptian priest. According to Edward Lipinski, the Sicals of Dor were seamen or mercenaries, and b3-dỉ-r was the title of the local governor, No mention of the Tjeker is made after the story of Wenamun. On the Skirts of Canaan in the Iron Age, Historical and Topographical Researches, Egypt, Canaan, and Israel in Ancient Times. Princeton, New Jersey, Princeton University Press, the Sea Peoples, Warriors of the ancient Mediterranean, Revised Edition. New Evidence from Dor for the First Appearance of the Phoenicians along the Northern Coast of Israel Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research No, the Language of the Sea Peoples. The Ethnicity of the Sea Peoples, doctoral dissertation, Rotterdam, Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam, Faculteit der Wijsbegeerte
43.
Canaan
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Canaan was a Semitic-speaking region in the Ancient Near East during the late 2nd millennium BC. The name Canaan occurs commonly in the Hebrew Bible, in particular, the references in Genesis 10 and Numbers 34 define the Land of Canaan as extending from Lebanon southward to the Brook of Egypt and eastward to the Jordan River Valley. References to Canaan in the Bible are usually backward-looking, referring to a region that had something else. The term Canaanites serves as an ethnic catch-all term covering various indigenous populations—both settled, the Amarna Letters and other cuneiform documents use Kinaḫḫu, while other sources of the Egyptian New Kingdom mention numerous military campaigns conducted in Ka-na-na. Canaan had significant geopolitical importance in the Late Bronze Age Amarna period as the area where the spheres of interest of the Egyptian, Hittite, Mitanni and Assyrian Empires converged. Much of the knowledge about Canaan stems from archaeological excavation in this area at sites such as Tel Hazor, Tel Megiddo. The English term Canaan comes from the Hebrew כנען, via Greek Χαναάν Khanaan and it appears as KUR ki-na-ah-na in the Amarna letters, and knʿn is found on coins from Phoenicia in the last half of the 1st millennium. It first occurs in Greek in the writings of Hecataeus as Khna, scholars connect the name Canaan with knʿn, Kanaan, the general Northwest Semitic name for this region. An early explanation derives the term from the Semitic root knʿ to be low, humble, purple cloth became a renowned Canaanite export commodity which is mentioned in Exodus. The dyes may have named after their place of origin. The purple cloth of Tyre in Phoenicia was well known far, however, according to Robert Drews, Speisers proposal has generally been abandoned. The Late Bronze Age state of Ugarit is considered quintessentially Canaanite archaeologically, Jonathan Tubb states that the term ga-na-na may provide a third millennium reference to Canaanite while at the same time stating that the first certain reference is in the 18th century BC. See Ebla-Biblical controversy for further details, Mari letters A letter from Mutu-bisir to Shamshi-Adad I of the Old Assyrian Empire has been translated, It is in Rahisum that the brigands and the Canaanites are situated. It was found in 1973 in the ruins of Mari, an Assyrian outpost at that time in Syria, additional unpublished references to Kinahnum in the Mari letters refer to the same episode. Alalakh texts A reference to Ammiya being in the land of Canaan is found on the Statue of Idrimi from Alalakh in modern Syria. After a popular uprising against his rule, Idrimi was forced into exile with his mothers relatives to seek refuge in the land of Canaan, the other references in the Alalakh texts are, AT154 AT181, A list of Apiru people with their origins. All are towns, except for Canaan AT188, A list of Muskenu people with their origins, the letters are written in the official and diplomatic East Semitic Akkadian language of Assyria and Babylonia, though Canaanitish words and idioms are also in evidence. May the king ask Yanhamu about these matters, may the king ask his commissioner, who is familiar with Canaan EA151, Letter from Abimilku to the Pharaoh, The king, my lord wrote to me, write to me what you have heard from Canaan
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