ancient egypt flashcard
Narmer Palette
A cosmetic palette containing some of the earliest hieroglyphic inscriptions ever found. It is thought by some to depict the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt under the king Narmer.
Libyan Palette
A cosmetic palette dating back to the Naqada III or Predynastic Period. Like the famous Narmer Palette, the Libyan Palette displays one of the earliest examples of hieroglyphs and also shows the early use of registers (lined separators) for displaying and separating distinct subject matter.
Nile Delta
A flat, almost featureless plain in northern Lower Egypt shaped like a triangular leaf through which the Nile flows. Its apex is near Cairo and it extends to the Mediterranean Sea. It comprises 63% of Egypt's inhabited area.
Palermo Stone
A large fragment of a stele that gives a list of the kings of Egypt during the Old Kingdom. It lists the kings after the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt.
Scorpion King Mace Head
A predynastic decorative macehead showing one of the earliest depictions of an Egytian king. By virtue of the king's size relative to other men in the scene, we see his almost divine power and status.
Quern, emmer wheat
A stone tool used for grinding emmer wheat, out of which is the variety of wheat Egyptians almost exclusively made bread. Emmer wheat is more difficult to turn into flour than most other varieties, making a good quern all the more important.
Lamentation of Ipuwer
A text supposed to have been first written during either the Middle Kingdom or the Second Intermediate Period that describes Egypt as afflicted by natural disasters and in a state of chaos where the natural social order has been inverted. The author describes what he imagines an ideal king for Egypt would look like during those radical times. The only surviving copy is from the New Kingdom.
Deir el-Medina
A village home to the artisans that worked on the tombs in the Valley of Kings from the 18th to the 20th dynasties of the New Kingdom. The site is located across the river from Thebes/Luxor in Upper Egypt.
Absolute vs relative chronology
Absolute: establishment of fixed dates based on textual references to celestial events by astronomers. Relative: placing events in the order they happened relative to one another.
Akhetaten
Ancient Egyptian name for the city of Tell el-Amarna founded by Akhenaten. City's Ancient Egyptian name means "the horizon of the Aten". It was built rather hastily and was abandoned shortly after Akhenaten's death.
Akhenaten
Born Amenhotep IV, was a pharaoh of the 18th dynasty. Remembered for having moved Egypt toward a henotheistic religion centered around the worship of the solar god Aten and for having founded the city Amarna.
Gezira
Despoits of sand in Egypt that appear as islands raised above the fields during periods of inundation. Geziras are important archaeologically because they were ideal sites for Pre- and Early Dynastic settlements due to them being safe from normal floods yet surrounded by fertile land.
Osiris
Egyptian god, merciful lord of the underworld, husband of Isis, and brother of Seth, who cut his body into pieces and forced him into the underworld. He's often shown with green skin and the crook and flail.
Egyptomania
Egyptomania was the renewed interest of Europeans in ancient Egypt during the nineteenth century as a result of Napoleon's Egyptian Campaign and, in particular, as a result of the extensive scientific study of ancient Egyptian remains and culture inspired by this campaign.
Seth
God of the desert, storms, and foreigners in ancient Egyptian religion. In later myths he is also the god of darkness and chaos. Was a usurper who cut up his brother Osiris's body. Had a human body but the head of a fantastical creature, possibly a chimera.
Iconography for the unification of Egypt
In this relief we find two gods binding the Sema (wind pipe) together using lotus (Upper Egypt) and papyrus (Lower Egypt) which represents the binding together of upper and lower Egypt.
William Flinders Petrie
Insisted that even pieces of broken pottery, bones, and other unimpressive object were significant to archaeology and shouldn't be ignored. Proponent of the excavation of less glamorous sites like towns and houses. Believed that cultural change was reflected in stylistic changes in things like pottery. Founded sequence dating.
Ma'at
Ma'at was the personification of order and goodness, embodied in the person of the pharaoh ruling unified Egypt. She (Ma'at was a goddess) was opposed by Isfet, the personification of chaos and all things foreign. The pharaoh's job was to uphold Ma'at against Isfet.
Tell el-Amarna
Modern Egyptian Arabic name for Akhetaten, the city founded by Akhenaten. It was built rather hastily and was abandoned shortly after Akhenaten's death.
Hatshepsut
Queen of Egypt during the 18th dynasty of the New Kingdom who, after her husband Thutmose II died, became regent for her son Thutmose III. She assumed all pharaonic customs, including wearing a false beard.
Sais
Sais was a city out of which a rival dynasty emerged beginning in Dynasty 24. During Dynasty 26 of the Late Period, this Sais would become home of the kings.
Djoser
Second king of the third dynasty who undertook the construction of the earliest Egyptian stone monuments. Had a funerary complex built at Saqqara (outside Memphis) noted for its step pyramid and for it being built entirely of stone rather than stone and mud bricks.
Cambyses
Shah of Persia and son of Cyrus the Great. He expanded the Persian Empire into Egypt during the Late Period.
The Blue Nile
The Blue Nile is one of the Nile's two principal tributaries, along with the White Nile (which flows from Rwanda). It originates at Lake Tana in Ethiopia.
Double Crown of Egypt
The Double Crown was a combination of the Red Crown of Lower Egypt and the White Crown of Upper Egypt. It symbolized the joining of the two lands, and the pharaoh's control over the two lands.
Naqada
The Predynastic Period divided into three phases. During this stage in Egyptian history, Egypt began to unify culturally and politically and social and political hierarchies were established.
Memphis
The capital for most during most of Ancient Egypt from which the king ruled over his centralized state. Memphis was the major population center dominating Lower Egypt.
The crook and flail
The crook and flail are sometimes thought to represent two of the functions of the king: the crook stands for the shepherd, carer of the people, while the flail as scourge symbolizes the punishments deemed necessary to sustain society. Such regalia served the legitimization of the pharaoh's authority.
Scribes
The educated and professional class of Ancient Egypt whose members knew how to read and write. An integral part of the Egyptian bureaucratic apparatus performing both managerial and auditing duties, scribes were that without which the tax, agricultural, redistributive systems could not function.
Fayum
The most important oasis of the western desert whose waters were connected to the Nile via the Bahr Yusef canal. It was very densely populated and very agriculturally productive.
Second Intermediate Period
The period between the end of the Middle Kingdom and the start of the New Kingdom. It is best known as the period when the Hyksos made their appearance in Egypt. They reigned over Lower Egypt from the fifteenth to the seventeenth dynasties.
Horus
Usually depicted as a man with a falcon's head, Horus was a sky god and the son of Osiris and Isis. When Osiris was forced into the underworld, the earthly realm was divided between Horus and Seth. The pharaoh was the earthly avatar of Horus.
Viziers
Viziers were the king's chief advisors and administrators during the Old, Middle, and New Kingdoms. Viziers were often appointed by the pharaoh, most from loyalty or talent.
Tomb of Nakht
iA New Kingdom tomb made for an important scribe named Nakht. In it, Nakht is shown spearing fish and fowl, together with his family. The tomb gives us an idea of how those other than the divine kings viewed death. It shows us the significance of family life in ancient Egypt and the want to keep them with you even after death.
