Catkins With this name you/he/she was designated by the ancient Egyptians both the kingdom of the corpses placed to west and that the sun illuminated after the sunset, is a divinity of the afterlife, graphically represented by a man with a feather on the head.
AMSCHIR Una kind of container used during the funeral ceremonies.
ANUBIS Dio of the corpses of the ancient Egyptians, was revered in the whole Egypt, and its pictorial representation was that of a man from the head of jackal almost always sat. With to spread some cult of Osiride, lost of importance, and in mythological circle the brother of the same Osiride was held, of which preserved the corpse from the corruption. The Egyptians had the conviction that got the food to the dead ones, of which it protected the mummies and the graves.
Bees The ancient Egyptians, what terrestrial expression of the God Ptah, revered a black bull with a white sign on the forehead, and with the legs, the abdomen and the bow of the tail white's paintings. His/her priests interpreted the oracles that affirmed to originate from him, according to the fact that the animal accepted or you/he/she refused the food that was offered him, or in base to the possible hits of the legs on the ground. The center of its cult was the city of Menfi.
Boat funeral sort of bark of palm cheats, on which the corpse of the dead one was transported up to the grave. You/he/she was richly decorated with cloths and flowers and, in the case of corpses of elevated social position, it also had some musicis that played for the whole journey.
BIBAN Et_MOLUK situated Necropolis to west of Tebe, in which a notable quantity of mastabe and graves is found, both of king, and of principles and dignitaries of Court. Unfortunately a lot of of these graves are been plundered during the centuries, for which the archaeological material of this valley has totally gone to practice lost.
BUBASTE Era the Egyptian Goddess of the joy, of the music and of the love. Represented in the paintings and in the sculptures in form of cat, this animal was to her sacred. Its protection was invoked against the wicked spirits, for which its function in the Aldilà was extremely important.
CANOPO Nome with which a particular funeral urn is pointed out in ancient Egypt. In the graves of the Faraonis four were the canopis destined to the maintenance of the bowel of the mummies. Of wood, of stone, of alabaster or of enameled earth, they introduced the whole characteristic to have the inferior part covered of hieroglyphs,
and the covers shaped to head of man or animal.As a rule, the canopis of the mummies had the covers that represented a head of jackal, one of man, one of hawk and one of dog, to represent the four children of Horus.
CARTIGLIO Oval ring within which the name of the Faraone is written, of the prince, or of whom is buried in the grave.
CHEFREN Faraone of the tv Dynasty. Child of Cheope and father of Micerino he built one of the three great Pyramids of Gizah. You believes that the Sphinx of Gizah has been built under its kingdom, even if authoritative theories exist according to which the construction of the body of the sphinx is datable around the 12.000 a.C. Only the head would have been built to the epoch of Chefren, and systematized on the preexisting body.
CHEOPE Faraone Egyptian of the IV Dinastia, was child of Snefru and father of Chefren. Of him a lot of news is not had, and its name has passed to the history to have built the greatest of the pyramids of GIZAH, known note as the Great Pyramid.
CINOCEFALO Greek word that wants to say ` from the head of dog'. Ancient Egyptian divinity represented by a head of dog on a human body, is generally identified with the God Thoth.
CRIOSFINGI Sfingi whose head, instead of being of lion or human, it was that of a ram.
Dynasty Keeping in mind of the particular characteristics owed to the different historical moments, the researchers of egittologia - starting from the beginnings that they place around the 3000 a.C. - you/they have divided the events that developed him in ancient Egypt, in epoches in every of which the various sovereigns have been gathered in Dynasties, that have preserved to all the denomination and the number that it attributed them the historical Manetone today, lived under the kingdom of the Tolomeis. The ancient Kingdom, that has gone since 3000 to the 2200 a.C., he/she understands the Dynasties from her The to her You, and you/he/she is followed by the Intermediary Primo Periodo that, under the sovereigns that go from the VII to the X Dinastia, it reaches the 2052 a.C. Therefore here is the Middle Kingdom, that the years have covered since 2052 to the 1778 a.C. with two only Dynasties, the XI and the XII; from 1778 to the 1570 A.C. we have an Intermediary Secondo Periodo instead with the Dynasties from the XIII to the XVII, he/she understood, while from 1570 to the 935 a.C. they are four the Dynasties, the XVIII, the XIX, the XX and the XXI (this period has passed to the history as the age of the Ramessidis, from the name of a series of famous Faraoni. The dynastic so-called period ends in the 333 a.C., and the years had understood since 935 to the 333 a.C. they see to the power the Faraonis of the Dynasties XXII/XXXI. two further epoches Exist, that Tolemaica (332/32 a.Cs.), and that Roman (32 a.Cs. /394 AD) - that however they are not accredited of Dynasties.
FARAONE Termine Egyptian with which the sovereigns of ancient Egypt were pointed out. By itself the term meant ` elevated house', and only beginning from the XVIII Dinastia, it served to designate the person of the sovereign. But only with the XXII Dinastia it became a real title premised to the name of the king. Many the famous Faraonis, from Ramses to Akhenaton, from Imhotep to Tutmosis, to end to Tutankhamen that surely it is the most known to world level.
Hieroglyphic One of the around 3000 signs that constitute the painted writing of the ancient Egyptians. They are schematic images of natural objects, and they had a value is phonetic that ideografic. Used AD in Egypt up to 400, they constituted a true enigma for the researchers, and only in 1799, after the discovery of the Stele of Rosetta, Champollion succeeded in deciphering them. The walls of the graves in the Egyptian necropolises, the external and inside part of the sarcofagis and the corridors inside the pyramids have totally covered of it.
GEROGRAFI Men's that they practiced the divination in ancient Egypt, and they assisted the Priests in the rites related to the embalming and to the burial of the mummies.
GIZAH È the most important of the situated necropolises around the ancient city of Menfi. Center of the graves of the Faraonis of the IV Dinastia that they chose her/it for first, also introduces graves of other members of the royal families, besides those of other dignitaries of Court. However, the most important graves and that you/they have created the fame of Gizah, I am the three pyramids of Cheope, Chefren and Micerino, over naturally to the colossal statue of the Sphinx. Around the pyramids there is a notable number of mastabe, you partially explore only.
The Great Pyramid Built to Gizah by the Faraone Cheope, the possibilities of this new type of grave - you already mention in the sepulchre of the Faraone Snofru - you/they are developed at the most. The technical perfection, recognizable also in the most minute particular of the building, it makes to affirm without shade of doubt that nothing has been left to the improvisation. For the first time you/they are used some blocks of stone of colossal proportions - middly of the weight of 250 kilos and with someone who reaches even 15 tons - that they contribute in conclusive way to the most important value of this monument or rather the massive structure. Tall in origin 146 meters, remain of ten meters that of Chefren, and of well 86 that of Micerino, that is the only two in degree to be in rivalry as for with her dimensions.
HAPI Dio Egyptian of the Nile, was represented entirely in human form, but quietly dressed with the custom typical of the fishermen. Let's find him/it often represented in the graves and in the sepulchres, load of foods and fruit that it distributes to the dead ones.
Egyptian HATHOR Divinità revered especially in the city of Dendera, was represented as a youth by the horns and the ears of a heifer. His/her name - house of Hor - show clearly as it was the personification of the celestial time. It is also important in funeral circle, since it was the Goddess that gave to drink and it purified the corpses in the Aldilà. The sistro was the sacred musical tool to her.
HORUS Dio of the sky and the light, in the Egyptian mythology it is the brother of Seth God of the obscurity and the earth. To avenge Osiride that has been killed by Seth engages with this last a sour struggle that concludes him with the death of Seth. Represented choreas a man from the head of hawk, the divine ancestor of the Faraonis it was considered in which reincarnated him.
KA Questa Egyptian word of which it is not yet (her the whole exact meaning, is to point out a double incorporeal of the individual. Some is that - in the Egyptian mythology it allowed the people to exist in the Aldilà. for which is alone in the afterlife that Only exception accomplishedly manifested him it was that established from the Faraonis which, being of divine nature, they already possessed him/it in the terrestrial life.
KHONSU In origin a lunar divinity, was represented usually as a mummy that brought on the head the lunar disk in increasing phase, and with in hand three different scepters
IERACOCEFALO Human rappresentationfrom the head of sparrow hawk. According to the egittologis, this was the pictorial representation of the God RA. Its cult had deep roots especially in the city of Ieracompoli the today's Kom-el-Abmar - that it is one of the most ancient of Egypt. Notable the quantity and the variety of archaeological material found ivi, but of particular importance is a tomb painting that goes up again to the antecedent period her The Dynasty.
Embalming Operation through which is tried to prevent the decomposition of the dead bodies preserving the external aspect that had the dead one during the death. The tallest level in the field of the embalming was achieved in ancient Egypt, and precisely in the dynastic period. The mummies actually reached us show what degree of excellence you/they had reached the Egyptian embalmers, where you are thought that these finds have the 2/3000 year-old respectable age, and they are perfectly preserved. Today the procedure of embalming of the Egyptian mummies has gone lost, but he be that the bowel you/they were extracted by a practiced cut in a side of the dead body, while the brain was made to go out or from the nostrils, or from a cut at the base of the nape. Subsequently, the hollow drawn by the removals of the entrailses were filled with honey, balmy oils, myrrh, salnitro and other mixtures whose secret was jealously guarded by the priests by the taricheutis and by the paraschistis.
ISIDE without doubt the Goddess most important of the ancient Egyptian mythology Revered especially in the delta of the Nile, it was the bride of Osiride and, after the killing of this last, it sought the body of it, therefore, after having him ridonata the life it produced with him Horus which avenged the death of it. You/he/she was represented as a female figure recante on the head a headgear constituted by the disk of the sun supported by two horns of ox, and with in hand the sistro and the situla.
MASTABA Parola Arab with which a particular type of Egyptian sepulchral monument of the ancient Kingdom is designated. Of rectangular plant, the sides vary from a minimum of two meters up to fifty. In the most ancient samples, the body of the construction is out everything compact of a well that, opening himself on the summit of the mastaba, it ends in low inside the funeral room. Once that the corpse was deposed in the funeral carnera, the well came completely filled with sand and other amount carried over material. To the time of the V and You Dynasty, the mastaba suffers a radical transformation, in the sense in that the block is divided quite a lot vain, on the walls of which I/you/they are painted of the false doors, for depistare who wanted to reach the room where the dead body was found. While to the beginning there were no decorations to the inside, with the creation of the vain ones the walls multiply him, and it are so that we generally have always a greater number of connected mural paintings to the life of the dead one. The mastaba is without any doubt a form of less monumental sepulchre of the pyramids, of which it constitutes the forerunner. The expression most important some mastaba is reached with the pyramid to steps of Zoser to Saqqara, that is constituted by six overlapped mastabes in practice.
MICERINO Faraone of the IV Dinastia, reigned on Egypt toward the end of the 2600 a.C. Child of Chefren, erected the third one, in order of greatness, of the pyramids of Gizah.
Mummy embalmed Dead body: with this procedure the ancient Egyptians tried to preserve for a longer time the possible the bodies of the dead ones, in forecast of their use for a future life. The corpse, private of the bowel, you/he/she was filled with a mixture composed of honey, myrrh, salnitro and other grinded grasses, after that you/he/she was sprinkled of flax oil and completely wound in bandages, yes not to leave any part of the skin open. Subsequently, a mixture to base of pitch served to waterproof the dead body, that was deposited in one or more sarcofagis.
NEFTI Dea Egyptian sister of Iside, accompanied this last in the search of the mutilated dead body of Osiride that had been killed by Seth Considerata a funeral Goddess, you/he/she was often represented together with Iside in the paintings and in the sepulchral sculptures to protection of the dead ones.
NEPENTE Prodigiosa plants Egyptian that made to forget every pain. You/he/she was made from there ample use during the funeral banquets.
NOMO Regione or district of ancient Egypt. Each made head to a city and it was completely autonomous: this characteristic, that also foresaw own divinities and traditions, was also preserved in historical age.
OSIRIDE Dio Egyptian brother of Iside, Nefti and Seth. Treacherously killed and served asunder as Seth, after the various parts of its body were patiently sought after and found again by Iside and by Nefti, it repurchased the life and, together with Iside, it produced Horus that avenged him/it killing in turn Seth. Funeral divinity for antonomasia, was the Lord of the Kingdom of the Corpses. It was particularly dear to the Egyptians, so much that its cult also survived in Roman epoch.
PARACHISTI Fra the employees to the embalming were those people who proceeded to effect the cuts as which were served to go out the bowel of the dead bodies destined to become mummies.
Pyramid In Egypt the beginning construction of the pyramids him he is able colIocare in dynastic Epoch, and middly during her The Dynasty when the sovereigns entered the order of ideas that their graves had to differentiate him from those of the common people. Such differentiation will remain for the whole arc of the ancient Egyptian civilization, that he/she will see the Faraonis stretched out to build more and more some imposing funeral mausoleums. It is common opinion that to identify with the pyramid to steps of Zoser the first example of such type of construction, even if, in this case, we see us a complex of six overlapped mastabes. How transitory example from the type of pyramid to steps to that classical, places citharas the pyramid of Snofru that, initiated as pyramid to steps, continued then as classical pyramid, even if you/he/she was not completed. Of the period of Snofru there is always however another pyramid - to Dashur - that, tall 100 meters and with the sides of 213 meters, it is surely pyramidal in the most complete sense of the term. And however with the three great pyramids of Gizah, and for the precision that of Cheope, that of Chefren and that of Micerino, that the Egyptian pyramid reaches its more complete expression. Tall respectively 146, 136 and 66 meters, and with a base of over 200 meters side, introduces ago some real artificial mountains a volumetria that of it. After the IV Dinastia, which these pyramids belong, such typology of funeral monuments moves him to Saqqara and to Abu-Sir, but the new constructions don't absolutely hold up the comparison with the preceding ones, neither for the massive structure, neither for the accuracy of the particular ones: the technique in fact it is how much never approximate, the covering in limestone doesn't exist anymore and, above all, the blocks of stone are not used, anymore but only full bricks. Only with the XII Dinastia the pyramid again purchases a certain importance as funeral monument: in fact, even if they keep him on using the bricks, the pyramids of Sesostri I and those of Amenemhet I and III they revive the Fastis of the pyramids of Gizah. The last group of pyramids to be built is what is owed to the Ethiopian kings, that build to Napata and Meroe quite a lot of it. You/he/she must be specified that, while these last pyramids have a great deal to their inside an ample room, all the other they are deprived of practicable environments. Only the Great Pyramid has an enough complex system of corridors and funeral rooms, besides different vain that serve to unload the weight of the enormous construction. Generally, to the funeral cult they are destined some other buildings, or situated immediately behind the pyramid, or to this connected ones through corridors to open sky or buried passages. The construction of the pyramids, and way of those of Gizah, sets particularly a whole series of questions to which only partly an answer you/he/she has been given. Many researchers wonder in fact as has been possible to achieve such a precision in the execution of jobs that today they would also result problematic having the today's techniques; as is been able to also transport rocks some weight of fifteen tons to more than one hundred meters high; as is been able to make to contemporarily work the necessary masses of workers to effect the jobs; as is been able to fresco whole walls to the dark without leaving also her least trace of smoke coming from the necessary torches to the illumination, and so street saying. These are alone some of the a lot of questions that a valid explanation don't have but, for how much you/he/she is given to know some science of the ancient Egyptians there, we certainly have to discard all those hypotheses that recall mathematical knowledges of superior order: the only thing that we can affirm with safety is that the pyramids are the expression of a civilization that you/he/she has known how to resolve a notable series of extremely complex problems.
PSCHENT And ' the double crown symbol of the tall one and Lower part Egypt.
PSICOSTASIA Procedimento in base to which, after the death, the dead person is accompanied in front of Osiride, and there Thoth puts on the dishes of a balance the heart and the truth of he who you/he/she is submitted in opinion. To this examines point him performance a litany in base to which it denies or he/she confesses the sins that you/he/she has committed during his/her permanence on the Earth. If the dishes of the balance remain in equilibrium, the dead person has the right to the Aldilà, while, in negative case, you/he/she is annulled for the eternity.
Ancient PTAH Divinità, as importance came after Amon and Ra in the Egyptian mythology. Represented as a mummy, the creator of the men and the was considered gods, and the God of the rectitude was held also.
Egyptian RA Dio of the sun revered above all to Eliopoli, was represented or as ieracocefalo or anthropomorphous. To the epoch of the V Dinastia it becomes the most important God in Egypt, and the Faraonis are considered his/her children. Apart the other values, it also has a notable importance to funeral level, since the corpses were judged in front of him. Frequent it is his/her pictorial representation on a boat while it is crossing the arc of the sky. The disk of the sun that always brings on the forehead, is wound by the ureo.
SAQQARA Attuale town of tall Egypt, to the epoch of the ancient Menfi it was the necropolis of it. Situated a lot of the graves of the Faraonis of the are you the Dynasty but, without any doubt, the most famous and known is the pyramid to steps of Zoser. Tall around 60 meters and constituted by six overlapped mastabes, it surely represents the first case of monumental pyramid. To the of under of the pyramid there is an endless series of corridors and burrows whose exploration is still in action, and that from the real funeral apartment they reach quite a lot environments that served to the celebration of the jubilee regal draughts po' neglected during the IV Dinastia for other sepulchral installations what Gizah and Abu Rosh, at the end of the V Dinastia it again knew a period of shine. The Faraone Onnos built you his/her own pyramid, as also the most greater part of the Faraonis of the You Dynasty. However Saqqara is famous for the notable quantity of the maastabes recovered ivi - over two hundred - of which well 70 are of the V
Dynasty and 60 of the You. A particular mention deserves the mastaba of Mereruka that has well 32 rooms. Even if the better period of Saqqara is that of the ancient Kingdom, during the Middle one and the New Kingdom pyramids of a certain importance were built, as for example that of the Faraone Haremhab of the XVIII Dinastia, that has gone unfortunately completely destroyed.
Sarcophagus This term is to point out that manufactured articles servants to welcome and to guard the corpses of the dead ones. You introduce in all the civilizations since the most ancient times, you/they could be of granite, of wood, of metal, and of marble. In Egypt we see that, to the beginning of the historical epoch, the first sarcofagis appear in wood to form of simple boxes. You/he/she must be suffered specified that the sarcofagis were of two fundamental types: to large case, or type anthropoid. The type to large case is surely the most ancient, and they is found of very beautiful among those belonging to characters of the III of the IV and the V Dinastia. Of square stone, they continue to appear during the Middle one and the New Kingdom up to slow epoch, but then the wood becomes the material more used, and the decoration to the outside is made of paintings. The possibility that the sarcofagis were set one inside the other existed and, in this case, it was indifferent entirely that were found to the outside those in stone and to the inside those in wood, or vice versa. In the grave of Tutankhamen the sarcophagus of stone of the Faraone was confined in others four of wood. The walls of these last ones were richly decorated of hieroglyphs and images of foods and objects you to the dead one. II type of anthropoid sarcophagus, or to form of mummy, it proposed in practice the features of the dead body that it was found to the inside. These wraps - of cartapesta pressed beginning from her/it you Dynasty - they become of wood in the Middle Kingdom, epoch this that represents as for the peak of such type of sarcophagus wealth of decorations, inlays and ageminazioni in gold. Instead, during the New Kingdom, the sarcofagis are also of stone, and they repeat the whole figure of the dead one to the outside, from head to toe. To return to Tutankhamen, in the sarcophagus of granite of which is said first (that content within the four wood boxes) there were three anthropomorphous containers, two of which you/they were wooden while that more inside - that it contained the mummy of the Faraone - it was made out of gold. the sarcofagis of the last period Finally, maintain only the form of the head giving up delineating the rest of the body.
Egyptian SERAPIDE Divinità whose cult has origin in the city of Menfi to the epoch of the The Dynasty of the ancient Kingdom. It is tightly connected to the bull Bees.
Honorable Egyptian SETH Dio in origin in tall Egypt. Brother of Horus and thick Osiride was in conflict with two someone. It was a lot of main point to the epoch of the the Dynasty, when some Faraonis were considered his/her incarnations instead that of the God Horus as it was of habit. Diminished his/her importance, it returned in top to the time of the Hyksoses, that they considered him their national divinity what protecting of the weapons and of the war. In the Egyptian mythology it kills Osiride, but he is killed in turn by the of him child. he is represented as a man by the head of animal, whose characteristics are the long face and the rectangular ears.
Sphinx is represented enough of frequent in the ancient art. In Egypt he was represented as a being by the body of lion and the human head, generally that of a Faraone. The human part grafts him in the torso leonino and, to the place of the mane, there is the typical real headgear to manner of hood with two fins that go down to cover the ears up to the chest, and with 1'ureo on the forehead. Generally the body is squatting, and occasionally it is female only: in this case it represents figures of Goddesses or Queens. The Sphinxes were generally prepared you always couple, and you/they were systematized to the entry of the temples or to the beginning and along the avenues that conducted to the temples themselves. The most famous Sphinx is without any doubt that of Gizah, drawn by an enormous monolite of rock, and that it represents the Faraone Chefren, next to whose pyramid note is found. Long 57 meters and tall 20, in the past centuries it was more times covered by the sand of the desert, tant'è that the Tolomeis raised around her everything of the surrounded building to protect it from the sand. It is opinion of the researchers that the head of the Sphinx of Gizah is back to the construction of the body, for which the original statue had to be more ancient in comparison to the epoch of Chefren, when exactly the head was systematized on the rest of the structure. They exist a whole series of theories, totally you show besides not, according to which the Sphinx of Gizah was built around the year 12.000 a.Cs., which would be to mean that it would not be work of the ancient Egyptians, but of a civilization to them antecedent, or however different.
SICOMORO Tipo of wood used of preference in the construction of the wooden sarcofagis.
TARICHEUTI once that the paraschistis had provveduto to the deviscerazione of the corpses, the taricheutis they proceeded to the real embalming, introducing in the body of the dead balmy oils, honey, salnitro and 'other.
THEI Egyptian Dea of the justice, revered particularly way to Menfi. You/he/she was represented with the blinkers because its judgment was not dissuaded by non connected events the case in examination.
Egyptian THOTH Dio whose cult was mainly revered to Ermopoli, where he held him the greatest of the gods. You/he/she was represented as a man by the head of ibis, and at times with that of a baboon. Allied of Osiride, as God of the writing and the magic formulas was revered, but its more important assignment was that to administer the justice in the Aldilà, where it weighed the souls of the dead ones.
TUTANKHAMEN Faraone of the XVIII Dinastia, had reigned since 1358 to the 1349 a.C., and it died to alone eighteen years of tuberculosis. Climbed to the power after Ekhnaton, it restored the cult of Amon putting an end to the religious reform of Amenofi IV, that you/he/she had abolished the old pantheon of the gods Egyptians for the only God Aton. Psychologically overhung date his/her young age and the not good conditions of health, from his/her/their mother and from the priests it found uri valid help in the action of government de it departs of the general Haremhab. A mission English, driven by lord Carnarvon and from Howard Carter, in 1922 it discovered its intact grave and this recovery, that from many researchers the is considered more main point relatively to the civilization of ancient Egypt, it did yes that its name purchased a world fame.
I howl The Ira the sacred snake that was often represented on the graves or on the headgears of the Faraonis as symbol of the supreme power. It was almost always also present on the pictorial representations of the Faraonis reproduced on the sarcofagis.
Valley Of the Kings finds you in the west mountains of the city of Tebe, in Egypt. Of rocky nature, introduces on the sides the graves of the Faraonis of the XVIII, XIX and XX Dinastia that, you dig in depth, they also reach one hundred meters in low. To reach the real graves there is staircases, corridors and quite a lot rooms and small side rooms: finally, one or more salt they constitute the antechamber of the room where the sarcophagus is found with the mummy. Even if the most greater part of these graves contained the mummies of the Faraonis, they are some of it of Queens and others of tall dignitaries. To everything today they have been open about seventy graves, but of these solo a two weeks they are visitable from the public.
ZOSER Faraone founder of the III Dinastia, moved the capital of the ancient Kingdom to Menfi, and there nearby, to Saqqara, you/he/she made to erect in that that an enormous necropolis would have become, the first monumental pyramid to steps. Worthy of note is the fact that the architect that built the pyramid of Zoser was the famous Imhotep, that was deified subsequently.
