GLOSSARY

Acheulean stone tool industry, characterized by roughly symmetrical bifacial handaxes and cleavers, which is linked with the appearance of Homo erectus and also early Homo sapiens akh one of the five principal elements that the Egyptians considered necessary to make up a complete personality (the other four being the ka, ba, name, and shadow); it was believed to be both the form in which the blessed dead inhabited the underworld, and also the result of the successful reunion of the ha with its ka Amama Letters set of cuneiform tablets from the city at Amama, most of which derive from the ‘ Place of the Letters of Pharaoh’, a building identified as the official ‘records office’ in the central city at Amama; all but thirty-two of the 382 documents are items of diplomatic correspondence between Egypt and many of the rulers of Western Asia ‘anatomically modem’ humans The first hominids (a) to resemble modem humans (in anatomical terms) and (b) to belong to the subspecies homo sapiens sapiens; the term is in fact rather misleading, since the early examples (who have brow ridges and larger teeth) are quite different from genuinely modern humans such as ourselves ankh hieroglyphic sign denoting ‘life’, which takes the form of a cross surmounted by a loop; the sign was eventually adopted by the Coptic church as its unique form of cross

Apis bull sacred bull who served as the ba (physical manifestation) of the god Ptah, the cult of which dates back to the beginning of Egyptian history; the bulls were buried in the Serapeum at Saqqara Aten deity represented in the form of the disc or orb of the sun, the cult of which was particularly promoted during the reign of Akhenaten Aterian Palaeolithic industry (named after the site of Bir el-Ater in eastern Algeria) that was characterized by a distinctive type of tanged stone point (implying the use of hafting)

Ba, ba-bird aspect of human beings that resembles our concept of‘personality’, comprising the non-physical attributes that made each person unique; it was often depicted as a bird with a human head and arms, and was also used to refer to the physical manifestations of certain gods

Bark, bark shrine type of boat used to transport the cult images of Egyptian gods from one shrine to another. As well as the principal shrines in the temples, there were also small ‘bark shrines’ (also described as ‘resting places’, or ‘way stations’) along the routes of ritual processions benben stone sacred stone (perhaps a lump of meteoric iron) at Heliopolis, which symbolized the primeval mound and perhaps also the petrified semen of the sun-god Atum-Ra; it served as the earliest prototype for the obelisk and possibly even the pyramid block statue type of sculpture representing an individual in a very compressed squatting position, with the knees drawn up to the chin, thus reducing the human body to a schematic blocklike shape Book of the Dead funerary text known to the Egyptians as the ‘spell for coming forth by day’, which was introduced at the end of the Second Intermediate Period and consisted of about 200 spells (or ‘chapters’), over half of which were derived directly from the earlier Pyramid Texts and Coffin Texts; the text was usually written on papyrus and placed in the coffin, alongside the body of the deceased BP abbreviation for ‘before present’, which is most commonly used for uncalibrated radiocarbon dates or thermoluminescence dates; ‘present’ is conventionally taken to be ad 1950

Canopic jars four stone or ceramic vessels used for the burial of the viscera (liver, limgs, stomach, and intestines) removed during mummification; specific elements of the viscera were placed under the protection of four anthropomorphic genii known as the Sons of Horus cartonnage material consisting of layers of linen or papyrus stiffened with plaster and often decorated with paint or gilding; it was most commonly used for making mummy masks, mummy cases, anthropoid coffins, and other funerary items

Cartouche (shenu) elliptical outline representing a length of knotted rope with which certain elements of the Egyptian royal titulary were surrounded from the 4th Dynasty onwards cataracts, Nile the six rocky areas of rapids in the middle Nile Valley between Aswan and Khartoum

Cippus type of protective stele or amulet on which the naked child-god Horus was portrayed standing on a crocodile and holding snakes, lions, or other animals. It was probably used to heal snake bites or scorpion stings, but probably also had a more general prophylactic purpose Coffin Texts group of over 1,000 spells, selections from which were inscribed on coffins during the Middle Kingdom demotic (Greek: ‘popular (script)’) cursive script known to the Egyptians as sekh shat, which replaced the hieratic script by the 26th Dynasty; initially used only in commercial and bureaucratic documents, by the

Ptolemaic Period it was also being used for religious, scientific, and literary texts

‘divine adoratrice’ (duat-netjei) religious title held by women, which was originally adopted by the daughter of the chief priest of the god Amun in the reign of Hatshepsut; from the reign of Rameses VI onwards it was held together with the title ‘god’s wife of Amun’ donation stele slab of inscribed stone recording the granting of areas of cultivable land to the gods of local temples dromos processional way interconnecting different temples encaustic painting technique, employing a heated mixture of wax and pigment, which was particularly used for the Faiyum mummy portraits of Roman Egypt

Epipalaeolithic chronological term usually applied to the last phase of the Palaeolithic period in North Africa and the Ancient Near East; the Egyptian and Lower Nubian Epipalaeolithic is characterized mainly by its innovative lithic technology (microlithic flake tools) and its chronological position between the Nilotic Upper Palaeolithic and Neolithic (i. e. c. io,000-5200 Bc)

Faience glazed non-clay ceramic material widely used in Egypt for the production of such items as jewellery, shabtis, and vessels false door stone or wooden architectural element comprising a rectangular imitation door placed inside Egyptian private tomb chapels, in front of which funerary offerings were usually placed foundation deposits buried caches of ritual objects placed at crucial points under important structures such as pyramid complexes and temples; the offering of model tools and materials was believed to maintain the building magically for eternity

‘god’s wife of Amun’ (hemet-netjer nt Imen) religious title first attested in the early New Kingdom that later became closely associated with the ‘divine adoratrice’. She played the part of the consort of Amun in religious ceremonies at Thebes. From the late 20th Dynasty onwards, she was barred from marriage and adopted the daughter of the next king as heiress to her office. In the 25th and 26th Dynasties, the ‘god’s wife’ and her adopted successor played an important role in the transference of royal power hieratic (Greek: hieratika, ‘sacred’) cursive script used from at least the end of the Early Dynastic Period onwards, enabling scribes to write more rapidly on papyri and ostraca, making it the preferred medium for scribal tuition. An even more cursive form of the script, known as ‘abnormal hieratic’, began to be used for business texts in Upper Egypt during the Third Intermediate Period hieroglyphics (Greek: ‘sacred carved (letters)’) script consisting of picto-grams, ideograms, and phonograms arranged in horizontal and vertical

Lines, which was in use from the late Gerzean Period (c.3200 bc) to the late fourth century ad

Horus name the first royal name in the sequence of five names making up the Egyptian royal titulary, usually written inside a serekh (see below) hypostyle hall (Greek: ‘bearing pillars’) large temple court filled with columns and lit by clerestory windows in the roof; the columns were often of varying diameter and height, but those along the axial route of the temple were usually tallest and thickest instruction (Egyptian: sebayt, wisdom texts, didactic literature) type of literary text (e. g. The Instruction of Amenemhat I) consisting of aphorisms and ethical advice, the earliest surviving example of which is said to have been composed by the 4th Dynasty sage, Hardjedef ka the creative life force of any individual, whether human or divine; represented by a hieroglyph consisting of a pair of arms, it was considered to be the essential ingredient that differentiated a living person from a dead one

Kiosk small chapel without a roof which was used to contain cult statues of deities during festivals

Maat Goddess symbolizing justice, truth, and universal harmony, usually depicted either as an ostrich feather or as a seated woman wearing such a feather on her head. Small figurines depicting Maat were frequently offered to deities by Egyptian rulers, thus indicating the king’s role as guarantor of justice and harmony on behalf of the gods mammisi {‘birth place’, ‘birth house’) Goptic term invented by Champol-lion to describe a building in major temple complexes of the Late Period and Graeco-Roman Period, in which the rituals of the marriage of the goddess (Isis or Hathor) and the birth of the child-god were celebrated; it was placed at right angles to the main temple axis mastaba-tomb (Arabic; ‘bench’) type of Egyptian tomb, the rectangular superstructure of which resembles the low mud-brick benches outside Egyptian houses; it was used for both royal and private burials in the Early Dynastic Period but only for private burials from the Old Kingdom onwards

Medjay Nubian nomadic group from the eastern deserts of Nubia, who were often employed as scouts and light infantry from the Second Intermediate Period onwards; they have been identified with the archaeological remains of the so-called pan-grave people (see below) microlith type of stone tool, comprising a small blade or fraction of blade, usually less than 5 mm. long and 4 mm. thick, which is regarded as the archetypal tool of the Mesolithic Period, although it is now also recognized in some Palaeolithic industries. Single microliths were sometimes used as the tip of an implement, weapon, or arrow, while multiple

Examples were evidently hafted together to form composite cutting edges on tools

Mnevis bull sacred animal regarded as the ba (physical manifestation) of the sun-god at Heliopolis. Each Mnevis hull was required to be totally black and was usually represented with a sun-disc and uraeus between its horns. Because of his close connections with the sun-god, the Mnevis was one of the few divine entities recognized by Akhenaten Mousterian one of the key stone tool industries of the Middle Palaeolithic, based on flakes produced from carefully prepared cores using the Leval-lois technique, which gradually replaced the heavier handaxes of the Acheulean industry (see above)

Nilometer device for measuring the height of the Nile, usually consisting of a series of steps against which the increasing height of the annual indundation, as well as the general level of the river, could be measured nome, nome symbols Greek term used to refer to the forty-two traditional provinces of Egypt, which the ancient Egyptians themselves called sepat; for most of the Dynastic Period, there were twenty-two Upper Egyptian and twenty Lower Egyptian nomes

Nomen (birth name) royal name introduced by the epithet sa-Ra (‘son of Ra’), which was usually the last one in the sequence of the royal titulary; it was the only one to be given to the pharaoh as soon as he was born offering formula (hetep-di-nesu, ‘a gift which the king gives’) prayer asking for offerings to be brought to the deceased, which formed the focus of food offerings in private tombs; the formula is often accompanied by a depiction of the deceased sitting in front of an offering table heaped with food

Opening of the Mouth ceremony funerary ritual by which the deceased and his funerary statuary were brought to life ostracon (Greek; ostrakon; pi. ostraka; ‘potsherd’) sherds of pottery or flakes of limestone bearing texts and drawings, commonly consisting of personal jottings, letters, sketches, or scribal exercises, but also often inscribed with literary texts, usually in the hjeratic script palace facade architectural style comprising a sequence of recessed niches, which was particularly characteristic of the external walls of Early Dynastic funerary buildings at Abydos and Saqqara pan-grave culture material culture of a group of semi-nomadic Nubian cattle-herders who entered Egypt in the late Middle Kingdom and Second Intermediate Period; well attested in the Eastern Desert, their characteristic feature being the shallow circular pit grave in which they buried their dead

Peret (‘coming forth’) Egyptian term for the spring season. The Egyptians divided the year into twelve months and three seasons: akhet (the

Inundation itself), peret (when the crops began to emerge), and shemu (harvest-time). Each season consisted of four 30-day months, and each month comprised three lo-day weeks playa plain characterized by a hard clayey surface and intermittently submerged beneath a shallow lake

Prenomen (throne name) one of the five names in the Egyptian royal titulary, which was introduced by the title nesu-bit: ‘he of the sedge and the bee’, which is a reference both to the individual mortal king and the eternal kingship (not ‘king of Upper and Lower Egypt’, as it is sometimes erroneously translated)

Pylon (Greek: ‘gate’) massive ceremonial gateway, called bekhenet by the Egyptians, which consisted of two tapering towers linked by a bridge of masonry and surmounted by a cornice; it was used in temples from at least the Middle Kingdom to the Roman Period Pyramid Texts the earliest Egyptian funerary texts, comprising some 800 spells or ‘utterances’ written in columns on the walls of the corridors and burial chambers of nine pyramids of the late Old Kingdom and Eirst Intermediate Period

Rekhyt-hiid Egyptian term for the lapwing (Vanellus vandlus), a type of plover with a characteristic crested head, often used as a symbol for foreigners or subject peoples

‘reserve head’ type of Memphite 4th Dynasty funerary sculpture, consisting of a limestone human head, usually with excised (or unsculpted) ears and enigmatic lines carved around the neck and down the back of the cranium

Royal titulary classic sequence of names and titles held by each of the pharaohs consisting of five names (the so-called fivefold titulary), which was not fully established until the Middle Kingdom; it consisted of the Homs name, the Golden Homs name, the Two Ladies name (nebty), the birth name (nomen; sa-Ra) and the throne name (prenomen; nesu-bit) sacred lake artificial pool in the precincts of many Egyptian temples from the Old Kingdom to the Roman Period sa/Ftomb type of rock-cut tomb used in the el-Tarif area of western Thebes by the local mlers of the Theban nth Dynasty satrapy province in the Achaemenid empire

Scarab type of seal found in Egypt, Nubia, and Syria-Palestine from the nth Dynasty until the Ptolemaic Period; its name derives from the fact that it was carved in the shape of the sacred scarab beetle (Scarabaeus sacer)

Sed-festival (heb-sed; royal jubilee) royal ritual of renewal and regeneration, which was intended to be celebrated by the king only after a reign of thirty years had elapsed

Serapeum term usually applied to buildings associated with the cults of the Apis bull or the syncretic god Serapis. The Memphite Serapeum at Saqqara, the burial place of the Apis bull, consists of a series of catacombs to the north-west of the Step Pyramid of Djoser serdab (Arabic: ‘cellar’; Egyptian: per-twt, ‘statue-house’) room in mosfaba-tombs of the Old Kingdom, where statues of the ka of the deceased were usually placed

Serekh rectangular panel (perhaps representing a palace gateway) surmounted by the Homs falcon, within which the king’s ‘Homs name’ was written

Shabti (ushabti, shawabti) funerary figurine, usually mummiform in appearance, which developed during the Middle Kingdom out of the funerary statuettes and models provided in the tombs of the Old Kingdom; the purpose of the statuettes was to perform menial labour for their owners in the afterlife

Shaduf irrigation tool comprising a long wooden pole with a vessel at one end and a weight at the other, by means of which water could be transferred between rivers and canals

Sistmm (Egyptian: seshesht, Greek: seistron) musical rattling instrument played mainly by women, except when the pharaoh was making offerings to the goddess Hathor

Solar boat (solar bark) boat in which the sun-god and the deceased pharaoh travelled through the netherworld; there were two different types of bark: that of the day (mandet), and that of the night {mesektet) speos (Greek: ‘cave’) type of small rock-cut temple sphinx mythical beast usually portrayed with the body of a lion and the head of a man, often wearing the royal nemes headcloth, as in the case of the Great Sphinx at Giza; statues of sphinxes were also sometimes given the heads of rams (criosphinxes) or hawks (hierakosphinxes) taJatat blocks small sandstone relief blocks dating to the Amama Period, the name for which probably derives from the Arabic word meaning ‘three hand-breadths’, describing their dimensions (although the word may also have stemmed from the Italian word tagliata: ‘cut masonry’ throne name see prenomen

Triad group of three gods, usually consisting of a divine family of father, mother, and child worshipped at particular cult centres Two Ladies name (nebt}j one of the royal names in the ‘fivefold titulary’; the term derives from the fact that this name was under the protection of two goddesses: Nekhbet and Wadjet

Uraeus serpent-image that protruded just above the forehead in most royal crowns and headdresses; the original meaning of the Greek word uraeus may have been ‘she who rears up’