Ancient Egyptian History and Art: From the New Kingdom to the Ptolemaic Dynasty

A comprehensive vocabulary study set covering Ancient Egyptian writing systems, funerary rituals, the New Kingdom, the Amarna Period, and the Ptolemaic Dynasty based on lecture materials.

Hieroglyph

A term derived from the Greek for "sacred carving" referring to the Egyptian writing system in use from $3{,}100\text{ BC}$ to $394\text{ AD}$, consisting of pictograms depicting objects or beings carved in raised or incised relief or painted.

Cartouche

An oval frame placed around the hieroglyphs spelling the name of an important royal figure, which provided the crucial initial clue for deciphering Egyptian script.

Rosetta Stone

A inscribed granodiorite slab discovered in $1799\text{ AD}$ and deciphered in $1822\text{ AD}$ that features the same administrative text regarding tax exemptions for a royal cult in three scripts: hieroglyphic, demotic, and ancient Greek.

Papyrus

A paper-like writing material created from a reed plant growing in shallow marshes along the Nile by peeling the outer rind, slicing the inner pith into strips, layering them, and beating, pressing, and polishing the surface.

Book of the Dead

An illustrated manuscript scroll composed as a customized first-person guide with spells and prayers, placed in the tomb of the deceased to ensure protection through the underworld ($\text{Duat}$) toward the afterlife.

Hall of Truth (Hall of Ma'at)

The judgment hall in the underworld where the soul of the deceased made declarations of innocence to $42$ assessor gods before having their heart weighed on a scale before Osiris.

Weighing of the Heart

The critical funerary test where the jackal-headed god Anubis weighed the deceased person's heart on a golden scale against the white ostrich feather of Ma'at (truth and justice).

Heart Scarab Amulet

A stone amulet placed over the chest of the mummy inscribed with the command "do not stand as a witness against me," intended to prevent the deceased person's heart from testifying about their sins during judgment.

Ammut

A composite underworld monster with the head of a crocodile, the front torso of a leopard, and the hindquarters of a hippopotamus that devoured any heart found heavier than the feather of Ma'at.

Field of Reeds

The ideal Egyptian afterlife of eternal bliss, abundance, and purification where righteous souls whose hearts were lighter than the feather of Ma'at resided after judgment.

Natron

A natural mineral salt compound utilized by ancient Egyptian embalmers to pack and dehydrate the body over a $2\text{-month}$ mummification procedure.

Shabti

A funerary figurine placed in Egyptian tombs to magically perform agricultural labor and cultivate fields on behalf of the deceased in the afterlife.

Hatshepsut

An 18th-Dynasty ruler who reigned as female pharaoh from $1473\text{ BC}$ to $1458\text{ BC}$; originally the royal wife and half-sister of Thutmose II, she governed on behalf of her stepson Thutmose III and was depicted in conventional male pharaonic regalia.

Senenmut

The chief architect of Pharaoh Hatshepsut who oversaw the design and construction of her mortuary temple at Deir el-Bahri and had his tomb situated directly beside it.

Hatshepsut's Mortuary Temple

A rock-cut sandstone complex situated at Deir el-Bahri designed for worshipping the pharaoh's patron deity during her lifetime and venerating the pharaoh as a divine being following death.

Nemes Headdress

A striped cloth headpiece worn exclusively by Egyptian pharaohs, featuring the protective uraeus cobra and vulture symbols representing Lower and Upper Egypt.

Akhenaten

An 18th-Dynasty pharaoh originally named Amenhotep IV who reigned from c. $1349\text{ BCE}$ to $1336\text{ BCE}$, instituted monotheistic worship focused exclusively on the Aten, and relocated Egypt's capital to Akhetaten.

Aten

The solar disk deity elevated by Pharaoh Akhenaten as the sole god of Egypt, visually rendered with rays ending in human hands that bestow the ankh symbol of life.

Akhetaten (Amarna)

The virgin desert capital city established by Akhenaten, which was totally abandoned after year seventeen of his reign when the court returned to Thebes and restored traditional polytheism.

Hedjet and Deshret

The traditional white crown of Upper Egypt and red crown of Lower Egypt, respectively, depicted combined on royal portraits such as the colossal sandstone statue of Akhenaten at Karnak.

Bust of Nefertiti

A $19\text{-inch}$ painted portrait bust dated to $1350\text{ BC}$ discovered in the workshop of sculptor Thutmose at Amarna, engineered with a limestone core, a gypsum plaster exterior, and Nefertiti's signature blue crown.

Tutankhamun

An 18th-Dynasty king who reigned from c. $1336\text{ BC}$ to $1327\text{ BC}$, restored the traditional worship of Amun after the Amarna heresy, died around age nineteen, and whose intact tomb was discovered by Howard Carter in $1922\text{ AD}$.

Gold Mask of Tutankhamun

A funerary mask of solid beaten gold weighing $25\text{ pounds}$ with quartz, obsidian, and lapis lazuli inlays, featuring pierced ears plugged with gold foil and mismatched solder lines indicating it was originally constructed for a female royal.

Ptolemaic Dynasty

The Greek-Macedonian royal dynasty that ruled Egypt from $332\text{ BC}$ to $30\text{ BC}$, concluding with the death of Cleopatra VII and Roman annexation.

Cleopatra VII

The final active ruler of the Ptolemaic Dynasty ($69\text{ BC} - 30\text{ BC}$) who spoke between $9$ and $12$ languages, co-ruled with her younger brothers and son Caesarion, aligned politically and romantically with Julius Caesar and Marc Antony, and committed suicide in $30\text{ BC}$.

Caesarion

Ptolemy XV, the son fathered by Julius Caesar with Cleopatra VII, who served as her co-regent until the Roman takeover of Egypt.

Battle of Actium

The decisive naval confrontation in $31\text{ BC}$ where Octavian defeated the combined naval forces of Marc Antony and Cleopatra VII, prompting their retreat to Egypt and subsequent suicides.

Taposiris Magna

An archaeological site located $45\text{ km}$ west of Alexandria, hypothesized by researchers as an alternative potential location for the lost tomb of Cleopatra VII and Marc Antony.