Glossary Ancient Egypt

	Canon	It indicates the rule or norm that, in the ancient art represented the basic measure, the form on which the building or the sculpture was based, that is the system of rules concerning the proportions among the various parts.
	Capital	Put on the top of the columns in the temples or in other buildings, it has different shapes. The papyrus in open flower, is made of papyrus leaves that get wider. The papyrus in closed flower, is instead longer upward and gets more narrow. The palm capital is even more longer upwards, while the lotus one is more narrow at the top. Finally the capital of the hatoric pilaster is particular as it has the shape of the goddess Hat's head.
	Cartonnage	It's a material used for the covering of many Egyptian mummies. It consists of many layers of linen or papyrus cloth or bandages that were glued together, filled with plaster, wrapped around the body and painted.
	Cataract	Rapids that interrupt the flow of the Nile between Assuan and Khartum. There are six main cataract and many other smaller ones; they are all dangerous for the navigation. The second one was practicable only during the yearly flood.
	Cenotaph	It was a symbolic tomb built in addition to the sepulchral for built in addition to the sepulchral for cerimonial purposes, but it wans't used for the burial.
	Coptic	World used to indicate the Christian people in Egypt. "it refers also to the aspects of art, architecture and literature of the christian community in Egypt. It's also used as the final form of Egyptian ancient language, that used the Greek alphabet with the addition of seven new signs.
	Crypt	It was a hidden room or passage in a building. For the Egyptians it usually indicated the part of the tomb with the sepulchral chamber, usually underground.
	Cubito	Lenght measure that corresponded to the lenght of the forcarm, from the elbow to the tip of the thumb. The royal or great cubito, was 0,525 meters and the small cubito was 0,450 meters.
	Cuneiform	Writing of Mesopotamia formed by characteristic dashes cuneo shaped. In Egypt, cuneiforms texts have been found in Tell el-Amarna and on various objects from the Persian period.

	Demotic	Cursive writing that appeared around the end of the VII century BC, as on evolution of the hieroglyphic writing, and used in the tolemaic and roman epoch in daily life. The signs although they derive from the icratic, cancel the remaining figurative and gave the demotic writing characters. It was generally used for legal and administrative ambits, while the ieratic and hieroglyphic writing were kept for the religious texts.
	Dolerite	Black and hard stone, used in architecture and mostly to pave the streets it probably came from the Faiyum.
	Dynasties	They represent the sovereigns' order, of Egypt according to Manetone's chronolody. Thirty dynasties to which it's possible to add other three counting the second persian period, the Tolemaic period and the Roman emperors. The pharaoh's succession has reached us thanks to Greek authors (Eratostene) and to some Egyptian history. Other sources are the tablets in Abido and Saqqara, the stone in Palermo, the royal papyrus in Torino and an incomplete list engraved in the "Ancestors' chamber" of Thutmosi III in Karnak, and then moved to the museum in Louvre. In this list there are two names of savereigns of the Ancient Reign and the best part of those of the middle reign, but without a chronological succession.

	Electron	A natural alloy of gold and silver, of a light yellow color. It came from Kush (Nubia), from the punt (on the banks of the Red Sea) and from various other places south of Egypt. It was used for jewels and to cover the obelisk.
	Enneade	A group of nine divinities according to a precise hierarchy which is sometimes found in the Pantheon of ancient Egypt. The most famous enneade is the one in Eliopoli, which includes nine divinities grouped together for nine divinities grouped together for succesive generations: god Atum, who emerged from the primordial chaos, generated Shu, the air-god, and Tefnet, the humidity. From these were born Gheb, god of the earth and his bride Nut, goddess of the sky. Finally Osiride, Iside, Sath and Nefti were born.
	Epagomeno	For the Egyptians, who had developed a very precise calendar, "the epagomeni days" were 5, which were added to the 12 months of 30 days to form a year of 365 days.

	Ideogram	Graphic symbol that represents an image or an idea. The phase of ideograms in the Egyptians' writing, who originally used the hieroglyphics, was later changed into a phonetic system.
	Ieratic	Cursive writing, a schematization of the hieroglyphic one, of which it simplified the symbols and cancelled the figurative aspect. It was used for the whole Egyptian history for business or legal documents and it was written with a cane brush on a papupus or a stone. It was substituted with the demotic. In the tolemaic epoch the ieratic. In fact it was usually used by the priests for the sacred texts. The characters of the ieratic, as they lost the pictorial aspect of the hieroglyphics were often written one attached to the other.
	Ipocefal	The ipocefal had the shape of a disk, it could be of papyrus, cartonnage, bronze or terracotta. Its magical-funeral value was bond to the concept of re-birth, it was used to warm the head of the mummy and preserve it until the resurrection. On the ipocefal there were formulas taken from the chapter 162 of the book of the dead.
	Ipogeo	Underground room that with the mastabe and the pyramid forms one of the burial palces of Ancient Egupt.
	Ipostasi	It indicates the substance and the nature of Something, that is the personification of an abstract idea or of reality. .
	Hypostyle	From the Greek "many columns". In Egypt every temple for the cult or funeral had one or more hypostyle (that is "many colomns") chamber, of which the columns support the slabs of the ceiling. The hypostyle entrances were the more external and great parts of the main structure of the temples; they were often added components and expressed a complicated symbolism.

	Ka	Vital energy or man's soul. The Egyptian believed it continued after death. Initially the Ka was a "double" of the living person, but became independent after death when, receiving the funeral offers, it guaranteed the dead person's survival. The Ka was represented as a human figure with the arms lifted above the head and the hand palmson the forehead. The priests that cared for the supplying and the maintenance of the dead person's tomb were called "priests of the Ka", and the tomb itself, which was considered the dead person's home, was called "house of the Ka".
	Khol	Black powder used as eye cosmetic.

	Mammisi	"Birthplace". Small temple annexed to the big temples of the late epoch and of the Greek-Roman period, it was the birthplace of the god of the main temple; if the main temple was dedicated to a goddess, it was a room annexed to the temple, where the goddess went once a year to deliver the son with whom she and her husband were worshipped.
	Mastaba	A kind of tomb with a rectangular and slightly inclined sides. The tomb was made of two parts, the burial chamber and the chapel; the walls of the latter were often decorated with vivacious scenes of everyday life. The superstructure of the mastaba were simply rectangular with a flat room and vertical walles (of raw briks) or slightly inclined (of stone).
	Monolithic	Built from a single block of stone.

	Naoforo	The figure that holds in his hands a small Naos temple.
	Naos	"House of a god", from the Greek. It's a small stone room, in the heart of the temple, where a statue of the god was placed. Usually inside a monolithic stone Naos there was a smaller wood One; the stone Naos were typical of the late epoch and sometimes are finely decorated. The word was also used to indicate the sanctuary in the temple.
	Natron	A natural compound of sodium carbonate and of sodium bicarbonate mostly used for the mummification, to purify the mouth, to prepare the incence, but also to cook food, to make glass and in medecine.
	Necropoli	The city of the dead. It was an area destined to the burial, which was always near the city or the village. Usually the necropoli was on the western bank of the Nile, at the edges of the desert, far from the irrigated area.
	Nemes	Headgear in stripes with two strips on the sides of the face and a tail behind.
	Nilometro	Stairs that went down in the Nile, on which there were marks above the level of the low water to measure and record the levels of the flood. These stairs usually led from the Nile to a passage inside the temple. During the flood the levels reached by the waters were marked, to calculate the future agricultural hairvest.
	Nomarca	Governor of a "nomo" or a province. From the end of the Ancient Reign to the beginning of the middle Reign the nomarchs were changed into local sovereigns, who handed down their charge to their heirs and governed their nomos more or less uncaring about the central authority. During the XII dynasty the position stopped having a political importance.
	Nomo	They were the administrative and fiscal circumscriptions of the pharaonic, tolemaic and roman Egypt until the IV century AC, each one of which had its own name and its own divinities, and it was controlled by a governor or nomarca
	New Year	Celebration that marked the beginning of the new year and when small bottles of good wishes with Nile water were given. Contemporary in fact the flood of the water of the river began, the waters destined to fecundate the land with its mud, which was a guarantee for abundant harvests.

	Ostrakon	Crock or sliver of limestone or terracotta used by the scribed to learn to write and an economical and easily found way for letters, daily documents and quick sketches. Accounts, contracts, notes, medical prescriptions, magica and literature texts were written on the ostraka some of which were found among the waste of ancient places. Some, covered with drawings made with a pen with red or black ink, were works of craftsman who worked in the kings' tomb. The best part of the text are in ieratic or demotic, but there are also some written in cursive hieroglyphics and many of them are painted, among which the rough copies of hierogliphic inscriptions.
	Offering Table	Stone table, often of alabaster, generally flat, big and round. It was placed on a small base, on which the offers of food for the god by the sovereign or by the high priest of the temple were placed.

Psicostasia

The weighing of the soul, that is the divine judgement after death. In the middle of the scene that represents it, we find Thot, Anubi, Osiride and 42 judges. There is the balance to control the truthfullness of the dead person's confession. On a plae there is his heart (the conscience), on the other a feather of the goddess of justice Maat. If the heart is heavier, the dead person is sentenced to be eaten by a monster. If instead it's lighter than the feather, he is safeserdab

	Tabernacle	Niche or stand destined to contain the sacred images.
	Tiara	Headgear used by the pharaohs of upper Egypt as on emblem of authority and royal dignity, it was attributed to many divinities. It was white, and had the shape of a long bulb of stiffy linen.
	Threefold	Group of three people or things, that in religion and anthropology has often a sacred-magical value. For the Egyptians many divinities were organized in threefolds supported by a superior god. The most famous threefold was composed by Osiride, Iside and their son Horo, specially diffused in Abido. In Menfi Ptah's threefold was worshipped with his bride Sekhmet and his son Nefertum; in Tebe, the god Amon, with the goddess Mut and their son Khonsu.
	Trireme	Boat with three lines of oars that began to be built around 600 BC by the Egyptians. We have information about the triremi: some literary sources, some marble relief, among which one of the acropoli in Atene, a clay model and some uncertain drawings. It seems that rowers, who were from 120 to 200 people, were organized in three lines and that the triremi were used both for the war and for commercial reasons.

	Uadi	Valley ploughed by the rocky bed of an always dry river except in the season of the rains.
	Urea	A word that can be translated as "cobra", which indicates in ancient Egypt the sacred snake that often appears as it raises up, worn on the forehead, on the crown or on the headgears of divinities and pharaohs as a symbol of royal power.
	Ushabti	It literally means "he who answers". Statues of different sizes and different materials (stone, wood, polished terracotta, metal, majolica, ecc) placed in the tomb to substitute the dead person if he was called by the gods to work in afterlife. Many of them were placed in the tombs of well - off people from the middle reign on. It was believed that they could substitute the slaves, working for the dead person in "Osiride's fields". The inscriptions on the little statues emphasize the ushabti's good will to answer to the master's call.

Visir

Title of the supreme chief of the executive power who, in the administration in his power with many other functionaries. This position already existed in the protodynastic period. He cared for the administration of justice, for the control of bureaucracy, the police, the treasury, the public works, the fluvial transports, the correspondance ecc.
During the new reign there were two visir, one in Menfi and one in Tebe; later the most important functionaries were no longer the visir. In the late epoch this position lost its importance.

	Serdab	It was inside the mastaba or the funeral buildings of the ancient reign and it was a small room with no doors inside a funeral chapel or a sepulchral tunnel and it held one or two statues of the dead person. Originally the room where the statue was placed was not accessible and had no openings. Later it had cracks or holes at the height of the eyes, so the statue could comunicate with the outside, allowing it to assist to the funeral rites performed in the next rooms.
	Shaduf	Introduced in Egypt during the new reign, it is an object used also today to irrigate the fields. It's made by a pail, held by a room attached to a pole. The pail immersed in the water and can be easily lifted
	Sistro	Musical instrument, a kind of rattle, sacred to Hathor. The most common types are two: the first one was a box with the shope of a naos on Hathor's head, with decorative spirals on the sides (the rattle was inside the box); the second one was a metal stick with movable disk above Hathor's head, that was smaller, thread on a transver sal bas; both types had long handler.
	Stall	Small open temple, generally a reproduction of a bigger building. Usually it was used for the royal jubilee or as a stopping station for the statues of the gods when, during the celebrations they left their main temple.
	Sed Jubilee	Jubilee celebration, celebrated after thirty years of reign of the kings of Egypt.