Papyrus
Papyrus is a material similar to thick paper, used in ancient times as a writing surface. It was made from the pith of the papyrus plant, Cyperus papyrus, a wetland sedge. Papyrus can refer to a document written on sheets of such material, joined together side by side and rolled up into a scroll, an early form of a book. Papyrus is first known to have been used in Egypt, as the papyrus plant was once abundant across the Nile Delta, it was used throughout the Mediterranean region and in the Kingdom of Kush. Apart from a writing material, ancient Egyptians employed papyrus in the construction of other artifacts, such as reed boats, rope and baskets. Papyrus was first manufactured in Egypt as far back as the fourth millennium BCE; the earliest archaeological evidence of papyrus was excavated in 2012 and 2013 at Wadi al-Jarf, an ancient Egyptian harbor located on the Red Sea coast. These documents date from c. 2560–2550 BCE. The papyrus rolls describe the last years of building the Great Pyramid of Giza.
In the first centuries BCE and CE, papyrus scrolls gained a rival as a writing surface in the form of parchment, prepared from animal skins. Sheets of parchment were folded to form quires from. Early Christian writers soon adopted the codex form, in the Græco-Roman world, it became common to cut sheets from papyrus rolls to form codices. Codices were an improvement on the papyrus scroll, as the papyrus was not pliable enough to fold without cracking and a long roll, or scroll, was required to create large-volume texts. Papyrus had the advantage of being cheap and easy to produce, but it was fragile and susceptible to both moisture and excessive dryness. Unless the papyrus was of perfect quality, the writing surface was irregular, the range of media that could be used was limited. Papyrus was replaced in Europe by the cheaper, locally produced products parchment and vellum, of higher durability in moist climates, though Henri Pirenne's connection of its disappearance with the Muslim conquest of Egypt is contested.
Its last appearance in the Merovingian chancery is with a document of 692, though it was known in Gaul until the middle of the following century. The latest certain dates for the use of papyrus are 1057 for a papal decree, under Pope Victor II, 1087 for an Arabic document, its use in Egypt continued until it was replaced by more inexpensive paper introduced by the Islamic world who learned of it from the Chinese. By the 12th century and paper were in use in the Byzantine Empire, but papyrus was still an option. Papyrus was made in several prices. Pliny the Elder and Isidore of Seville described six variations of papyrus which were sold in the Roman market of the day; these were graded by quality based on how fine, firm and smooth the writing surface was. Grades ranged from the superfine Augustan, produced in sheets of 13 digits wide, to the least expensive and most coarse, measuring six digits wide. Materials deemed unusable for writing or less than six digits were considered commercial quality and were pasted edge to edge to be used only for wrapping.
Until the middle of the 19th century, only some isolated documents written on papyrus were known, that museums displayed them as curiosities. They did not contain literary works; the first modern discovery of papyri rolls was made at Herculaneum in 1752. Until the only papyri known had been a few surviving from medieval times. Scholarly investigations began with the Dutch historian Caspar Jacob Christiaan Reuvens, he wrote about the content of the Leyden papyrus, published in 1830. The first publication has been credited to the British scholar Charles Wycliffe Goodwin, who published for the Cambridge Antiquarian Society, one of the Papyri Graecae Magicae V, translated into English with commentary in 1853; the English word "papyrus" derives, from Greek πάπυρος, a loanword of unknown origin. Greek has a second word for it, βύβλος; the Greek writer Theophrastus, who flourished during the 4th century BCE, uses papyros when referring to the plant used as a foodstuff and byblos for the same plant when used for nonfood products, such as cordage, basketry, or writing surfaces.
The more specific term βίβλος biblos, which finds its way into English in such words as'bibliography','bibliophile', and'bible', refers to the inner bark of the papyrus plant. Papyrus is the etymon of'paper', a similar substance. In the Egyptian language, papyrus was called wadj, djet; the word for the material papyrus is used to designate documents written on sheets of it rolled up into scrolls. The plural for such documents is papyri. Historical papyri are given identifying names — the name of the discoverer, first owner or institution where they are kept—and numbered, such as "Papyrus Harris I". An abbreviated form is used, such as "pHarris I"; these documents provide important information on ancient writings. When, in the 18th century, a library of ancient papyri was found in Herculaneum, ripples of expectation spread among the learned men of the time. However, since these papyri were badly charred, their unscrolling and deciphe
Ptolemy VI Philometor
Ptolemy VI Philometor. 186–145 BC) was a king of Egypt from the Ptolemaic period. He reigned from 180 to 164 BC and from 163 to 145 BC. Ptolemy succeeded in 180 BC at the age of about 6, upon the death of his father Ptolemy V, he ruled jointly with his mother Cleopatra I until her death in 176 BC, what his epithet'Philometor' implies: "he who loves his mother". In 173 BC Ptolemy VI married his sister Cleopatra II as was customary for pharaohs, for the Ptolemaic Greek kings had adopted many pharaonic customs, he had at least four children with her: Ptolemy Eupator, Ptolemy Neos, Cleopatra Thea and Cleopatra III, Berenice. The outbreak of the Sixth Syrian War in 170 BC saw Ptolemy Cleopatra II becoming co-rulers; the Seleucid king Antiochus IV Epiphanes, who vied with Ptolemy VI over the control of Syria, invaded Egypt in 169, leading to unrest and subsequent calls for Ptolemy VIII and Cleopatra II to ascend to the throne. A period of reconciliation followed. Ptolemy VI was driven out by his brother Ptolemy VIII in 164 BC.
Ptolemy VI went to Rome to seek support. The Romans partitioned the Ptolemaic land, granting Ptolemy VI Cyprus and Egypt, Ptolemy VIII Cyrenaica. Around 150 BC he recognized Alexander Balas as the Seleucid king by marrying his daughter Cleopatra Thea to him in a ceremony at Ptolemais Akko. In 145 BC, while Alexander was putting down a rebellion in Cilicia, Ptolemy VI invaded Syria, securing safe passage through Judaea from Alexander's vassal Jonathan Maccabee, capturing the city of Seleucia, he remarried his daughter to Alexander's rival Demetrius II and went to Antioch, where he crowned himself King of Asia. Alexander was defeated by Ptolemy. Alexander fled to Arabia, where he was killed. For the first time since the death of Alexander the Great and Syria were united. However, Ptolemy died three days in unknown circumstances. Ptolemy Philometor at LacusCurtius — Ptolemy VI — Ptolemy VI Philometor entry in historical sourcebook by Mahlon H. Smith
Hypostyle
In architecture, a hypostyle hall has a roof, supported by columns. The word hypostyle comes from the Ancient Greek ὑπόστυλος hypóstȳlos meaning "under columns"; the roof may be constructed of with bridging lintels of stone, wood or other rigid material such as cast iron, steel or reinforced concrete. There may be a ceiling; the columns may be all the same height or, as in the case of the Great Hypostyle Hall at Karnak, the columns flanking the central space may be of greater height rather than those of the side aisles, allowing openings in the wall above the smaller columns, through which light is admitted over the aisle roof, through clerestory windows. The architectural form has many applications, occurring in the cella of Ancient Greek temples and in many Asian buildings of wood construction. With a combination of columns and arches, the hypostyle hall became one of the two main types of mosque construction. In many mosques the early congregational mosques, the prayer hall has the hypostyle form.
One of the finest examples of the hypostyle-plan mosques is the Great Mosque of Kairouan in the city of Kairouan, Tunisia. The hypostyle is used in modern architecture. Ancient Egyptian architecture Apadana Peristyle Portico This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed.. "Hypostyle". Encyclopædia Britannica. Cambridge University Press
Egyptian temple
Egyptian temples were built for the official worship of the gods and in commemoration of the pharaohs in ancient Egypt and regions under Egyptian control. Temples were seen as houses for the kings to whom they were dedicated. Within them, the Egyptians performed a variety of rituals, the central functions of Egyptian religion: giving offerings to the gods, reenacting their mythological interactions through festivals, warding off the forces of chaos; these rituals were seen as necessary for the gods to continue to uphold maat, the divine order of the universe. Housing and caring for the gods were the obligations of pharaohs, who therefore dedicated prodigious resources to temple construction and maintenance. Out of necessity, pharaohs delegated most of their ritual duties to a host of priests, but most of the populace was excluded from direct participation in ceremonies and forbidden to enter a temple's most sacred areas. A temple was an important religious site for all classes of Egyptians, who went there to pray, give offerings, seek oracular guidance from the god dwelling within.
The most important part of the temple was the sanctuary, which contained a cult image, a statue of its god. The rooms outside the sanctuary grew larger and more elaborate over time, so that temples evolved from small shrines in late Prehistoric Egypt to large stone edifices in the New Kingdom and later; these edifices are among the largest and most enduring examples of Egyptian architecture, with their elements arranged and decorated according to complex patterns of religious symbolism. Their typical design consisted of a series of enclosed halls, open courts, entrance pylons aligned along the path used for festival processions. Beyond the temple proper was an outer wall enclosing a wide variety of secondary buildings. A large temple owned sizable tracts of land and employed thousands of laymen to supply its needs. Temples were therefore key economic as well as religious centers; the priests who managed these powerful institutions wielded considerable influence, despite their ostensible subordination to the king they may have posed significant challenges to his authority.
Temple-building in Egypt continued despite the nation's decline and ultimate loss of independence to the Roman Empire in 30 BC. With the coming of Christianity, traditional Egyptian religion faced increasing persecution, temple cults died out during the fourth through sixth centuries AD; the buildings they left behind suffered centuries of neglect. At the start of the nineteenth century, a wave of interest in ancient Egypt swept Europe, giving rise to the discipline of Egyptology and drawing increasing numbers of visitors to the civilization's remains. Dozens of temples survive today, some have become world-famous tourist attractions that contribute to the modern Egyptian economy. Egyptologists continue to study the surviving temples and the remains of destroyed ones as invaluable sources of information about ancient Egyptian society. Ancient Egyptian temples were meant as places for the gods to reside on earth. Indeed, the term the Egyptians most used to describe the temple building, ḥwt-nṯr, means "mansion of a god".
A divine presence in the temple linked the human and divine realms and allowed humans to interact with the god through ritual. These rituals, it was believed, sustained the god and allowed it to continue to play its proper role in nature, they were therefore a key part of the maintenance of maat, the ideal order of nature and of human society in Egyptian belief. Maintaining maat was the entire purpose of Egyptian religion, it was the purpose of a temple as well; because he was credited with divine power himself, the pharaoh, as a sacred king, was regarded as Egypt's representative to the gods and its most important upholder of maat. Thus, it was theoretically his duty to perform the temple rites. While it is uncertain how he participated in ceremonies, the existence of temples across Egypt made it impossible for him to do so in all cases, most of the time these duties were delegated to priests; the pharaoh was obligated to maintain, provide for, expand the temples throughout his realm. Although the pharaoh delegated his authority, the performance of temple rituals was still an official duty, restricted to high-ranking priests.
The participation of the general populace in most ceremonies was prohibited. Much of the lay religious activity in Egypt instead took place in private and community shrines, separate from the official temples; as the primary link between the human and divine realms, temples attracted considerable veneration from ordinary Egyptians. Each temple had a principal deity, most were dedicated to other gods as well. Not all deities had temples dedicated to them. Many demons and household gods were involved in magical or private religious practice, with little or no presence in temple ceremonies. There were other gods who had significant roles in the cosmos but, for uncertain reasons, were not honored with temples of their own. Of those gods who did have temples of their own, many were venerated in certain areas of Egypt, though many gods with a strong local tie were important across the nation. Deities whose worship spanned the country were associated with the cities where their chief temples were located.
In Egyptian creation myths, the first temple originated as a shelter for a god—which god it was varied according to the city—that stood on the mound of land where the process of creation began. Each temple in Egypt, was equated with this original temple and with the site of creation itself; as the primordial home of the god and the mythological location of the city's fou
Ptolemaic dynasty
The Ptolemaic dynasty, sometimes known as the Lagids or Lagidae, was a Macedonian Greek royal family, which ruled the Ptolemaic Kingdom in Egypt during the Hellenistic period. Their rule lasted for 275 years, from 305 to 30 BC, they were the last dynasty of ancient Egypt. Ptolemy, one of the seven somatophylakes who served as Alexander the Great's generals and deputies, was appointed satrap of Egypt after Alexander's death in 323 BC. In 305 BC, he declared himself Ptolemy I known as Sōter "Saviour"; the Egyptians soon accepted the Ptolemies as the successors to the pharaohs of independent Egypt. Ptolemy's family ruled Egypt until the Roman conquest of 30 BC. All the male rulers of the dynasty took the name Ptolemy. Ptolemaic queens regnant, some of whom were married to their brothers, were called Cleopatra, Arsinoe or Berenice; the most famous member of the line was the last queen, Cleopatra VII, known for her role in the Roman political battles between Julius Caesar and Pompey, between Octavian and Mark Antony.
Her apparent suicide at the conquest by Rome marked the end of Ptolemaic rule in Egypt. Dates in brackets represent the regnal dates of the Ptolemaic pharaohs, they ruled jointly with their wives, who were also their sisters. Several queens exercised regal authority. Of these, one of the last and most famous was Cleopatra, with her two brothers and her son serving as successive nominal co-rulers. Several systems exist for numbering the rulers. Ptolemy I Soter married first Thaïs Artakama Eurydice, Berenice I Ptolemy II Philadelphus married Arsinoe I Arsinoe II. Cleopatra II Philometora Soteira, in opposition to Ptolemy VIII Physcon Cleopatra III Philometor Soteira Dikaiosyne Nikephoros ruled jointly with Ptolemy IX Lathyros and Ptolemy X Alexander I Ptolemy IX Lathyros married Cleopatra IV Cleopatra Selene. Ptolemy XII Neos Dionysos married Cleopatra V Tryphaena Cleopatra V Tryphaena ruled jointly with Berenice IV Epiphaneia and Cleopatra VI Tryphaena Cleopatra ruled jointly with Ptolemy XIII Theos Philopator, Ptolemy XIV and Ptolemy XV Caesarion.
Arsinoe IV, in opposition to Cleopatra Ptolemy Keraunos - eldest son of Ptolemy I Soter. Became king of Macedonia. Ptolemy Apion - son of Ptolemy VIII Physcon. Made king of Cyrenaica. Bequeathed Cyrenaica to Rome. Ptolemy Philadelphus - son of Mark Antony and Cleopatra VII. Ptolemy of Mauretania - son of King Juba II of Numidia and Mauretania and Cleopatra Selene II, daughter of Cleopatra VII and Mark Antony. King of Mauretania. Contemporaries describe a number of the Ptolemaic dynasty members as obese, whilst sculptures and coins reveal prominent eyes and swollen necks. Familial Graves' disease could explain the swollen necks and eye prominence, although this is unlikely to occur in the presence of morbid obesity; this is all due to inbreeding within the Ptolemaic dynasty. In view of the familial nature of these findings, members of this dynasty suffered from a multi-organ fibrotic condition such as Erdheim–Chester disease or a familial multifocal fibrosclerosis where thyroiditis and ocular proptosis may have all occurred concurrently.
List of Seleucid rulers Hellenistic period History of ancient Egypt Donations of Alexandria Ptolemaic Decrees List of Ptolemaic pharaohs On Weights and Measures - contains a chronology of the Ptolemies Susan Stephens, Seeing Double. Intercultural Poetics in Ptolemaic Alexandria. A. Lampela and the Ptolemies of Egypt; the development of their political relations 273-80 B. C.. J. G. Manning, The Last Pharaohs: Egypt Under the Ptolemies, 305-30 BC. Livius.org: Ptolemies — by Jona Lendering
Ptolemaic Kingdom
The Ptolemaic Kingdom was a Hellenistic kingdom based in ancient Egypt. It was ruled by the Ptolemaic dynasty, which started with Ptolemy I Soter's accession after the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC and which ended with the death of Cleopatra and the Roman conquest in 30 BC; the Ptolemaic Kingdom was founded in 305 BC by Ptolemy I Soter, a diadochus from Macedon in northern Greece who declared himself pharaoh of Egypt and created a powerful Macedonian Greek dynasty that ruled an area stretching from southern Syria to Cyrene and south to Nubia. Scholars argue that the kingdom was founded in 304 BC because of different use of calendars: Ptolemy crowned himself in 304 BC on the ancient Egyptian calendar, but in 305 BC on the ancient Macedonian calendar. Alexandria, a Greek polis founded by Alexander the Great, became the capital city and a major center of Greek culture and trade. To gain recognition by the native Egyptian populace, the Ptolemies named themselves as pharaohs; the Ptolemies took on Egyptian traditions by marrying their siblings per the Osiris myth, had themselves portrayed on public monuments in Egyptian style and dress, participated in Egyptian religious life.
The Ptolemies were involved in foreign and civil wars that led to the decline of the kingdom and its final conquest by Rome. Their rivalry with the neighboring Seleucid Empire of West Asia led to a series of Syrian Wars in which both powers jockeyed for control of the Levant. Hellenistic culture continued to thrive in Egypt throughout the Roman and Byzantine periods until the Muslim conquest; the era of Ptolemaic reign in Egypt is one of the best-documented time periods of the Hellenistic period. In 332 BC, Alexander the Great, King of Macedon, invaded Egypt, which at the time was a satrapy of the Achaemenid Empire known as the Thirty-first Dynasty under Emperor Artaxerxes III, he visited Memphis, traveled to the oracle of Amun at the Siwa Oasis. The oracle declared him to be the son of Amun. Alexander conciliated the Egyptians by the respect he showed for their religion, but he appointed Macedonians to all the senior posts in the country, founded a new Greek city, Alexandria, to be the new capital.
The wealth of Egypt could now be harnessed for Alexander's conquest of the rest of the Achaemenid Empire. Early in 331 BC he was ready to depart, led his forces away to Phoenicia, he left Cleomenes of Naucratis. Alexander never returned to Egypt. Following Alexander's death in Babylon in 323 BC, a succession crisis erupted among his generals. Perdiccas ruled the empire as regent for Alexander's half-brother Arrhidaeus, who became Philip III of Macedon, as regent for both Philip III and Alexander's infant son Alexander IV of Macedon, who had not been born at the time of his father's death. Perdiccas appointed one of Alexander's closest companions, to be satrap of Egypt. Ptolemy ruled Egypt from 323 BC, nominally in the name of the joint kings Philip III and Alexander IV. However, as Alexander the Great's empire disintegrated, Ptolemy soon established himself as ruler in his own right. Ptolemy defended Egypt against an invasion by Perdiccas in 321 BC, consolidated his position in Egypt and the surrounding areas during the Wars of the Diadochi.
In 305 BC, Ptolemy took the title of King. As Ptolemy I Soter, he founded the Ptolemaic dynasty, to rule Egypt for nearly 300 years. All the male rulers of the dynasty took the name Ptolemy, while princesses and queens preferred the names Cleopatra, Arsinoë and Berenice; because the Ptolemaic kings adopted the Egyptian custom of marrying their sisters, many of the kings ruled jointly with their spouses, who were of the royal house. This custom made Ptolemaic politics confusingly incestuous, the Ptolemies were feeble; the only Ptolemaic Queens to rule on their own were Berenice III and Berenice IV. Cleopatra V did co-rule, but it was with another female, Berenice IV. Cleopatra VII co-ruled with Ptolemy XIII Theos Philopator, Ptolemy XIV, Ptolemy XV, but she ruled Egypt alone; the early Ptolemies did not disturb the customs of the Egyptians. They built magnificent new temples for the Egyptian gods and soon adopted the outward display of the Pharaohs of old. During the reign of Ptolemies II and III, thousands of Macedonian veterans were rewarded with grants of farm lands, Macedonians were planted in colonies and garrisons or settled themselves in the villages throughout the country.
Upper Egypt, farthest from the centre of government, was less affected though Ptolemy I established the Greek colony of Ptolemais Hermiou to be its capital. But within a century, Greek influence had spread through the country and intermarriage had produced a large Greco-Egyptian educated class; the Greeks always remained a privileged minority in Ptolemaic Egypt. They lived under Greek law, received a Greek education, were tried in Greek courts, were citizens of Greek cities; the first part of Ptolemy I's reign was dominated by the Wars of the Diadochi between the various successor states to the empire of Alexander. His first objective was to hold his position in Egypt securely, secondly to increase his domain. Within a few years he had gained control of Libya, Coele-Syria, Cyprus; when Antigonus, ruler of Syria, tried to reunite Alexander's empire, Ptolemy joined the coalition against him. In 312 BC, allied with Seleucus, th
Upper Egypt
Upper Egypt is the strip of land on both sides of the Nile that extends between Nubia and downriver to Lower Egypt. Upper Egypt is between the Cataracts of the Nile above modern-day Aswan, downriver to the area of El-Ayait, which places modern-day Cairo in Lower Egypt; the northern part of Upper Egypt, between Sohag and El-Ayait, is known as Middle Egypt. In Arabic, inhabitants of Upper Egypt are known as Sa'idis and they speak Sai'idi Egyptian Arabic. In ancient Egypt, Upper Egypt was known as tꜣ šmꜣw "the Land of Reeds" or "the Sedgeland" It was divided into twenty-two districts called nomes; the first nome was where modern-day Aswan is and the twenty-second was at modern Atfih just to the south of Cairo. The main city of prehistoric Upper Egypt was Nekhen, whose patron deity was the vulture goddess Nekhbet. By about 3600 BC, Neolithic Egyptian societies along the Nile had based their culture on the raising of crops and the domestication of animals. Shortly after 3600 BC, Egyptian society began to increase in complexity.
A new and distinctive pottery, related to the Levantine ceramics, appeared during this time. Extensive use of copper became common during this time; the Mesopotamian process of sun-drying adobe and architectural principles—including the use of the arch and recessed walls for decorative effect—became popular during this time. Concurrent with these cultural advances, a process of unification of the societies and towns of the upper Nile River, or Upper Egypt, occurred. At the same time the societies of the Nile Delta, or Lower Egypt underwent a unification process. Warfare between Upper and Lower Egypt occurred often. During his reign in Upper Egypt, King Narmer defeated his enemies on the Delta and merged both the Kingdom of Upper and Lower Egypt under his single rule. For most of pharaonic Egypt's history, Thebes was the administrative center of Upper Egypt. After its devastation by the Assyrians, its importance declined. Under the Ptolemies, Ptolemais Hermiou took over the role of Upper Egypt's capital city.
Upper Egypt was represented by the tall White Crown Hedjet, its symbols were the flowering lotus and the sedge. In the 11th century, large numbers of pastoralists, known as Hilalians, fled Upper Egypt and moved westward into Libya and as far as Tunis, it is believed that degraded grazing conditions in Upper Egypt, associated with the beginning of the Medieval Warm Period, were the root cause of the migration. In the 20th-century Egypt, the title Prince of the Sa'id was used by the heir apparent to the Egyptian throne. Although the Kingdom of Egypt was abolished after the Egyptian revolution of 1952, the title continues to be used by Muhammad Ali, Prince of the Sa'id; the following list may not be complete: Sa'idi people Upper and Lower Egypt Geography of Egypt Edel, Elmar Zu den Inschriften auf den Jahreszeitenreliefs der "Weltkammer" aus dem Sonnenheiligtum des Niuserre Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen, OCLC 309958651, in German. Media related to Upper Egypt at Wikimedia Commons
.jpg)
_-_Egypt-5B-040_-_Komombo_Temple.jpg)
