Questions tagged [ancient-egypt]
Questions pertaining to Ancient Egypt are concerned with the civilization that existed in Northeastern Africa from around 3100 BCE to roughly 400 BCE centered along the Nile River. This civilization was responsible for the Pyramids, the Sphinx, and was the precursor to modern day Egypt.
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When was The Tale of Sinuhe first REdiscovered?
I have found a website that gives the details of all of the sources of The Tale of Sinuhe, but I can't figure out what the actual date of discovery was for each of those sources (in order to find the ...
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Is there truth to the Dynastic Race Theory regarding Ancient Egyptians?
According to Dynastic Race Theory,
[T]he earliest roots of the ancient Egyptian dynastic civilisation were imported by invaders from Mesopotamia who then founded the First Dynasty and brought culture ...
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How do we reconcile hierarchical and violent aspects of Ancient Egypt with its nonviolent principle of Maat, as exemplified in negative confessions?
Maat represents and refers to the ancient Egyptian concepts of truth, balance, order, harmony, law, morality, and justice. Ma'at was also the goddess who personified these concepts, and regulated the ...
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What is the source for exact years of the Hittite/Egyptian state of war?
The following is an excerpt of a critique on "Reason to Believe":
Critic: Under these conditions, were the Ten Plagues and a total crush of the Egyptian army in the Red Sea waters to happen,...
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Did the ancient Egyptians really know that meteorite iron came from meteorites? [closed]
A dagger from Tutankhamun's tomb was probably made of meteorite iron.
Quote translated from German from a newspaper article:
"Researchers assume, based on hieroglyphics that apparently described ...
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Where can I find a specific hieroglyphs website?
Almost a year ago I came across to a website that shows hieroglyphs and ancient details of a specific tomb. The website contains pictures of the tomb walls inside, with hieroglyphs, and they had ...
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Who is represented by the small pharaonic bust in the corner of Room 1 of the British Museum- the Enlightenment Gallery?
I've magnified the information plaque in the virtual tour, but can only make out a name that appears to begin with a "P" and end in a numeral "I". Scrolling through the Wikipedia ...
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Where did this claim about the Egpytian Theban army come from?
In this old Locomotive Engineers Journal, there is a short discussion of ancient vs modern army sizes. The writer gives a list of very large ancient armies. Most of the items on the list have easy ...
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What is the nature of the Hyksos territory in Transjordan and northern Arabia depicted on these maps?
I've seen maps like these online showing what appears to be a vast Hyksos-controlled region in Transjordan and northern Arabia during Egypt's Second Intermediate Period. While these two maps in ...
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What would have been on the menu in an Ancient Egyptian tavern?
Public dining places
It appears that there were public dining places in Ancient Egypt. A menu from one of them has been found, dating back to 6th Century BC. On this menu was cereal, wild fowl, and ...
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Is it possible that the title "pharaoh " was applied to any Egyptian king before Thutmose III (c. 1479–1425 BCE)?
According to Wikipedia:
The word pharaoh ultimately derives from the Egyptian compound pr ꜥꜣ, /ˌpaɾuwˈʕaʀ/ "great house", written with the two biliteral hieroglyphs pr "house" and ...
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Was there any Egyptian Pharaoh that was considered the one and only god that ancient Egyptians worshiped during his life?
I found the following verses in the Quran (the holy book of Islam):
Quran 79:24 And said (the king pharaoh), "I am your most exalted lord."
Quran 28:38 And king Pharaoh said, "O eminent ...
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Why were 70 foreign women brought to Userkaf?
Userkaf
According to Wikipedia, Egyptian pharoah Userkaf received tribute in the form of 70 foreign women.
Trade and military activities, Wikipedia
Userkaf launched a military expedition into Nubia,[...
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Was garlic an Egyptian deity, based on Pliny the Elder's "Natural History" (Book XIX, Ch 32)?
What historical evidence can validate Pliny the Elder's "Natural History" (Book XIX, Chapter 32) claim that - Egyptians worshiped garlic as a deity ?
"Garlic and onions are invoked by ...
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How to explain the apparent discrepancy in the use of papyrus vs. clay tablets between Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia?
Nowadays, the papyrus plant apparently thrives relatively well in certain sections of the Tigris-Euphrates system. With that in mind, one naturally wonders why in ancient times the Sumerians and ...
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What does 'des' mean in ancient Egyptian?
Looking at the pefsu problems of ancient Egyptian mathematical papyri, I am wondering what does the word des mean? It is usually used together with the word jug to form des-jug, but sometimes the ...
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Did travelers need a pass to travel in Greco-Roman Egypt, particularly in and out of Alexandria?
I am writing a story in which people travel by boat in Greco-Roman Egypt (27 bce), and am wondering if there were internal controls on travel, or if people were pretty much free to come and go as they ...
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What were the ancient Egyptian terms for the sports of wrestling and boxing?
Wrestling has had a long history, with images depicted of it going back at least 7000 years Wikipedia, and in Egypt at least from 2400 BCE it was depicted on tomb walls. I have been unable to find an ...
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Were Egyptian monarchs referred to by the title "pharaoh" alone, without using their proper names, from around 1500 BCE until the 10th century BCE?
In his book Ani Maamin, Rabbi Joshua Berman makes a comment about the usage of the term "Pharaoh" in the Book of Exodus, indicating that it was in line with the standard conventions in Egypt ...
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Why did the governments of the distant past last longer than those of the present/recent past? [closed]
For example, Rome and Egypt existed for massive amounts of time that pretty much any modern nation could not. Is this a selection bias on my end (comparing the most successful empires of the past to ...
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Did most major ancient cultures (e.g. the Mesopotamians) consider the heart as the main cognitive organ?
The Egyptians, Greeks (e.g. Aristotle), and Chinese certain did so. They believed that thinking was done by the heart.
Was this true about all major ancient civilizations? Were there exceptions?
...
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What is the significance of "Pharaoh" versus "King" in ancient Egypt?
On Wikipedia, I started from the page of Ramses II, who is described as a pharaoh, and kept clicking on the 'predecessor' link. Every predecessor was a pharaoh until I got to Ahmose I.
https://en....
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What made the discovery of Tutankhamun's tomb such a significant archeological find? [closed]
The discovery of King Tutankhamun's tomb in Egypt is often regarded as one of the most notable archeological finds of recent history, and is certainly one of the most famous ones. Before its discovery ...
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Is the diagram of the Egyptian trinity a copy of a pictogram on an obelisk?
Is this diagram of the Egyptian trinity a copy of a pictogram on an obelisk?
It would be nice to know this and get some pictures of it and know more about the history of this particular obelisk.
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Can history shed any light on the "secret arts" of the Egyptian magicians who turned their staffs into serpents as claimed by Exodus 7:11-12?
The biblical story of Exodus 7:11-12 talks about the alleged existence of some "secret arts" that the magicians of Egypt made use of to accomplish the feat of turning staffs into serpents:
...
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Where did the idea of a Pharaoh originate? [closed]
Before the unified Egypt there was a couple of places like Cheni, Nubut and Néjen and it is likely that Cheni's people gained the control of territory and from that moment on they occupied the area of ...
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What is the name of the Egyptian temple which had a secret / fake voice projection chamber?
I've been touring Egypt a few years ago, and visited many temples. In one of them, I was shown a chamber, and a little passage which apparently went behind the chamber and allowed the priest to ...
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What is the Thalassic Age?
What is the Thalassic Age? What exactly happened during that time? This came from reading that Greeks during Hellenistic period conquered some areas in Phoenicia, Mesopotamia and Egypt and developed a ...
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Is šns the correct term for "loaf of bread" in Kemetic Ancient Egyptian?
I am looking for the term "loaf of bread" that was used in ancient Egypt. This is a long timeframe, so I am looking for the term used in the middle period of ancient Egypt. I have found šns ...
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Is there evidence that Egyptian culture was originally matriachical? [duplicate]
I am currently reading The Origins and History of Consciousness by Erich Neumann. The book is essentially an application of recapitulation theory to the development of human consciousness, asserting ...
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Can a tablet dated to the reign of king Aha be deciphered?
The following is an outline of the tablet showing the string by which it was attached to goods for shipment or storage.
Then comes the main source of information:
The first two glyphs are easy to ...
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Is there a historical basis for the "day of the false King" described in The Egyptian?
In Book 6 of Mika Waltari's historical novel The Egyptian, Kaptah, Sinuhe's slave and companion, ascends to the throne of Babylon for a day:
I was by now familiar with many customs in Babylon, yet I ...
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What is the origin of this quote from the Book of the Dead, "May he journey in the Boat of a Million Years"?
At the beginning of the book The Boat of a Million Years by Poul Anderson is a quote from the Book of the Dead:
Labelled as 18th dynasty, and translated as:
May he go forth in the sunrise boat
May he ...
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Did ordinary people during Hatshepsut's reign know she was a woman?
Queen Hatshepsut is probably the most famous female ruler of Ancient Egypt after Cleopatra.
Officially, she ruled jointly with Thutmose III, who had ascended to the throne the previous year as a ...
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What is the meaning of this phrase in chapter 64 of the Book of the Dead?
In the aforementioned chapter, one can find the next sentence:
"Come! Look! The leg is adhered to the neck, the buttock is over the head of the Western."
(I'm sorry if this is not a ...
user46468
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Did the deity "Horus" pre-date "Horus-Aha"?
Hor-Aha (or Aha or Horus Aha) is considered the second pharaoh of the First Dynasty of Egypt by some Egyptologists, others consider him the first one and corresponding to Menes. He lived around the ...
user45344
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Are modern day Egyptians the genetic descendants of Ancient Egyptians? [closed]
On the one hand Egypt clearly views itself as a member of the Arab world. Nasser advocated pan-Arab unity, Egypt is a prominent member of the Arab league, Arabic is the national language, etc. On the ...
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What is the Ancient Egyptian word for "Fisher"
Or, failing that, "Fish". Need it for a project but really struggling to find anything definitive online. Thank you!
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Were women allowed to study at the Library of Alexandria?
The closest thing I've been able to find on the topic was in relation to Hypatia, the mathematician, who was born centuries after the library was burned. Is there a list of known people who studied at ...
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Why were the Hecatomnid rulers of Caria permitted to marry their siblings?
Hecatomnus of Caria had three sons and two daughters. The elder two sons married a daughter each, and all five children would rule, successively, the state which their father founded.
Why was this ...
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Was there a biblical prophet whos position was validated by the fall of Egypt? [closed]
I thought that there was a prophet who was particularly opposed to allying with Egypt. Egypt subsequently fell and his position became validated. The Judeans lasted a little longer and then came under ...
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Are there realistic Ancient Egyptian artistic renderings of *flames*?
Do the Ancient Egyptians have any renderings of flames comparable to the flames in the Destruction of Susa (seen atop the buildings and walls)? I need something Ancient Egyptian, not Sumerian.
Update:...
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What are the most recommended non-biased books on Egyptian History
I am new to Egyptology, what are the most recommended non-biased books on Egyptian History, Hieroglyphs, mythology, etc... that are not biased and written by experts in the field?
By non biased, I ...
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Are there any Egyptian hieroglyphs representing four sounds?
Based on current literature describing the Egyptian language such as Hoch (1994), Allen (2013) and Selden (2015), it adds to my understanding that egyptians developed written phonograms which could ...
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Just how fanciful is Egyptology?
I've just started learning about Ancient Egypt, and it's fascinating, but it's making me wonder about the reliability of my information. For instance, it is claimed that the Ogdoad governed the four ...
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What are the Ancient Egyptian words for these concepts?
I just want to know what words ancient Egyptians might have used for "country", "nation", "state", "kingdom", and "empire" (especially empire), preferably in their oldest forms. Can anybody help me ...
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What did Lord Carnarvon study at Trinity College Cambridge?
This question is about the famous Egyptologist. I read that he was educated at Eton and Trinity College, but cannot find information about his time at Cambridge - in particular what degree he obtained....
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How exactly were beer/bread made in Ancient Egypt?
I'm writing a novel set in large part in Ancient Egypt and am incorporating many tasks of everyday living into the narrative. The one I'm stuck on is the making of bread and beer (which were ...
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Were there any pharaohs who believed in any of the Abrahamic religions?
There are many stories in religious books about Abraham meeting the pharaoh of Egypt.
Also Jacob, Josef, Moses, etc.
Did any of these pharaohs believe in Abrahamic religions?
Was there any proof from ...
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Why did the Middle Kingdom stop building pyramid tombs?
In the Old Kingdom, the Egyptians built pyramids to serve as tombs for their pharaohs. In the Middle Kingdom, they dug in the cliffs in the Valley of the Kings. What is the reason for them changing ...
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