Nubian architecture is diverse and ancient. Permanent villages have been found in Nubia , which date from 6000 BC. These villages were roughly contemporary with the walled town of Jericho in Palestine .
97-659: The earliest Nubian architecture used perishable materials, wattle and daub , mudbricks , animal hide, and other light and supple materials. Early Nubian architecture consisted of speos, structures derived from the carving of rock, an innovation of the A-Group culture (c. 3800-3100 BCE), as seen in the Sofala Cave rock-cut temple or the rock cut barial chambers of the Kushite monarchs in El Kurru. Other examples of rock cut architecture built by
194-459: A "deity". One widely accepted definition, suggested by Jan Assmann , says that a deity has a cult , is involved in some aspect of the universe, and is described in mythology or other forms of written tradition. According to a different definition, by Dimitri Meeks, nṯr applied to any being that was the focus of ritual. From this perspective, "gods" included the king, who was called a god after his coronation rites , and deceased souls, who entered
291-424: A chapel facing East, stairway facing East, and a chamber access via the stairway. El-Kurru was the first major site. It is located 13 kilometres (8.1 mi) south from Jebel Barkal. It was made of sandstone. It range from 10 to 30 metres (33 to 98 ft) in height. About ten pharaohs and fourteen queens were buried at El-Kurru. Nuri was another important pyramid site, 6 miles northeast of Jebel Barkal. It housed
388-515: A common building material for wall and ceiling surfaces, in which a series of nailed wooden strips are covered with plaster smoothed into a flat surface. In many regions this building method has itself been overtaken by drywall construction using plasterboard sheets. The wattle is made by weaving thin branches (either whole, or more usually split) or slats between upright stakes. The wattle may be made as loose panels, slotted between timber framing to make infill panels, or made in place to form
485-437: A complex structure. A pathway running along the diameter is laid with mud walls, supporting the above mound. The mud walls seemed to have been once decorated. The pathway goes to a chamber with a Nubian vault and a wooden door where the king is buried. The king's bed is elaborate with stone-carved legs. The vaulted chamber lies in the center of the structure. It is estimated 300 humans and 1000 cattle were probably sacrificed with
582-573: A deity to represent them, and deities were sometimes created to serve as opposite-sex counterparts to established gods or goddesses. Kings were said to be divine, although only a few continued to be worshipped long after their deaths. Some non-royal humans were said to have the favor of the gods and were venerated accordingly. This veneration was usually short-lived, but the court architects Imhotep and Amenhotep son of Hapu were regarded as gods centuries after their lifetimes, as were some other officials. Through contact with neighboring civilizations,
679-524: A force the Egyptians called heka , a term usually translated as "magic". Heka was a fundamental power that the creator god used to form the world and the gods themselves. The gods' actions in the present are described and praised in hymns and funerary texts . In contrast, mythology mainly concerns the gods' actions during a vaguely imagined past in which the gods were present on earth and interacted directly with humans. The events of this past time set
776-677: A fundamental part of Egyptian society. The beings in ancient Egyptian tradition who might be labeled as deities are difficult to count. Egyptian texts list the names of many deities whose nature is unknown, and make vague, indirect references to other gods who are not even named. The Egyptologist James P. Allen estimates that more than 1,400 deities are named in Egyptian texts, whereas his colleague Christian Leitz says there are "thousands upon thousands" of gods. The Egyptian language 's terms for these beings were nṯr , "god", and its feminine form nṯrt , "goddess". Scholars have tried to discern
873-400: A hypostyle courtyard, and a chapel. The materials used during this period included a mixture of limestone, sandstone, and green tiles. The largest expansion occurred under Kushite ruler Piye (753-723 BCE), who gave the temple its final length of roughly 150 meters. Piye added a large farm containing more columns, and two additional pylons. Each pylon stood around 3.5 to 4 meters tall, while
970-434: A system of augered holes on one side and short chiseled grooves along the other. The holes (along with holes of square paneling) are drilled at a slight angle towards the outer face of each stud. This allows room for upright hazels to be tied to ledgers from the inside of the building. The horizontal ledgers are placed every two to three feet (0.6 to 0.9 metres) with whole hazel rods positioned upright top to bottom and lashed to
1067-399: A time before the gods' withdrawal from the human realm, take place in an earthly setting. The deities there sometimes interact with those in the sky. The underworld, in contrast, is treated as a remote and inaccessible place, and the gods who dwell there have difficulties in communicating with those in the world of the living. The space outside the cosmos is also said to be very distant. It too
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#17328490153051164-534: A type of crude house whose wall is built with wattle and daub in southwestern US. Closely spaced upright sticks or poles driven into the ground with small branches (wattle) interwoven between them make the structural frame of the wall. Mud or an adobe clay (daub) is covered outside. To provide additional weather protection, the wall is usually plastered. Ancient Egyptian deities B C D F G H I K M N P Q R S T U W Ancient Egyptian deities are
1261-417: A variety of animal and human figures. Some of these images, such as stars and cattle, are reminiscent of important features of Egyptian religion in later times, but in most cases, there is not enough evidence to say whether the images are connected with deities. As Egyptian society grew more sophisticated, clearer signs of religious activity appeared. The earliest known temples appeared in the last centuries of
1358-699: Is 50 by 25 metres (164 by 82 ft). It is 18 metres (59 ft) tall and comprises three stories. It was surrounded by a boundary wall. Inside were chambers connected by passageways. The Eastern Deffufa lies 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) east of the Western Deffufa. The Eastern Deffufa is shorter than the Western Deffufa, just two stories high. It is considered a funerary chapel, being surrounded by 30,000 tumuli or graves. It has two columned halls. The walls are decorated with portraiture of animal in color schemes of red, blue, yellow, and black and stone-laid floors. Exterior walls were layered with stone. The third deffufa
1455-444: Is advocated by environmentalist as environmentally friendly and sustainable, since it makes use of pure earth without the need of timber. The conversion to Islam was a slow, gradual process, with almost 600 years of resistance. Most of the architecture of the period are mosques built of mudbricks. One of the first attempt at conquest was by Egyptian-Nubian, Ibn Abi Sarh. Ibn Abi Sarh was a Muslim leader who tried to conquer all Nubia in
1552-665: Is common in the architecture of traditional houses such as those of the Ashanti people . Its usage dates back at least 6,000 years. There are suggestions that construction techniques such as lath and plaster and even cob may have evolved from wattle and daub. Fragments from prehistoric wattle and daub buildings have been found in Africa, Europe, Mesoamerica and North America. Evidence for wattle and daub (or "wattle and reed") fire pits, storage bins, and buildings shows up in Egyptian archaeological sites such as Merimda and El Omari, dating back to
1649-401: Is inhabited by deities, some hostile and some beneficial to the other gods and their orderly world. In the time after myth, most gods were said to be either in the sky or invisibly present within the world. Temples were their main means of contact with humanity. Each day, it was believed, the gods moved from the divine realm to their temples, their homes in the human world. There they inhabited
1746-455: Is known about popular religious belief is consistent with the elite tradition. The two traditions form a largely cohesive vision of the gods and their nature. Most Egyptian deities represent natural or social phenomena . The gods were generally said to be immanent in these phenomena—to be present within nature. The types of phenomena they represented include physical places and objects as well as abstract concepts and forces. The god Shu
1843-471: Is of similar structure as the Eastern Deffufa. The Kerma graves are distinct. They are circular pits covered with white or black pebbles in a circular mound. Four huge graves in the southern part of the site exist. They lie in rows surrounded by smaller graves. The diameter is 9 metres (30 ft), covered with circular mounds of white and black desert pebbles 3 metres (9.8 ft) high. Underneath exists
1940-413: Is provided by straw, hair, hay or other fibrous materials, and helps to hold the mix together as well as to control shrinkage and provide flexibility. The daub may be mixed by hand, or by treading – either by humans or livestock . It is then applied to the wattle and allowed to dry, and often then whitewashed to increase its resistance to rain. Sometimes there can be more than one layer of daub. At
2037-619: Is still an important construction method in many parts of the world. Many historic buildings include wattle and daub construction. The wattle and daub technique has been used since the Neolithic period. It was common for houses of Linear pottery and Rössen cultures of middle Europe, but is also found in Western Asia ( Çatalhöyük , Shillourokambos ) as well as in North America ( Mississippian culture ) and South America ( Brazil ). In Africa it
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#17328490153052134-415: Is the effort of the gods to maintain maat against the forces of disorder. They fight vicious battles with the forces of chaos at the start of creation. Ra and Apep, battling each other each night, continue this struggle into the present. Another prominent theme is the gods' death and revival. The clearest instance where a god dies is the myth of Osiris's murder , in which that god is resurrected as ruler of
2231-473: The C-Group culture (2400–1550 BCE). Settlements consisted of round structures with stone floors. Structural frame was achieved with wooden or pliant materials. Mudbricks became the preferred building 1094B.C.E materials as settlements became larger. Graves were circular cylindrical superstructures made of stoned wall. The pit was filled with gravel and stones, and covered with dried mud roof or hay roof. Later, during
2328-693: The Coffin Texts renders the name of the funerary god Seker as sk r , meaning "cleaning of the mouth", to link his name with his role in the Opening of the Mouth ritual, while one in the Pyramid Texts says the name is based on words shouted by Osiris in a moment of distress, connecting Sokar with the most important funerary deity. The gods were believed to have many names. Among them were secret names that conveyed their true natures more profoundly than others. To know
2425-548: The Second Intermediate Period of Egypt (circa 1650 to 1550 BCE), an adobe chapel was placed to the north of the grave. Graves were from El Ghaba, Kadero , Sayala, and various other sites in northern Sudan. The C-Group culture was related to the Kerma Culture . Kerma was settled around 2400 BCE. It was a walled city containing a religious building, large circular dwelling, a palace, and well laid out roads. On
2522-665: The Twenty-sixth Dynasty of Egypt sacked the region in 593 BCE, destroying all Nubian statues in B500. Nubian pyramids were constructed on three major sites: El-Kurru , Nuri , and Meroë . More pyramids were constructed and for the longest time in Nubia than in Egypt. Nubia contains 223 pyramids. They were smaller than Egyptian pyramids. Nubian pyramids were for kings and queens. The general construction of Nubian pyramids consisted of steep walls,
2619-410: The cult images , the statues that depicted deities and allowed humans to interact with them in temple rituals. This movement between realms was sometimes described as a journey between the sky and the earth. As temples were the focal points of Egyptian cities, the god in a city's main temple was the patron deity for the city and the surrounding region. Deities' spheres of influence on earth centered on
2716-416: The gods and goddesses worshipped in ancient Egypt . The beliefs and rituals surrounding these gods formed the core of ancient Egyptian religion , which emerged sometime in prehistory . Deities represented natural forces and phenomena , and the Egyptians supported and appeased them through offerings and rituals so that these forces would continue to function according to maat , or divine order. After
2813-447: The true name of a deity was to have power over it. The importance of names is demonstrated by a myth in which Isis poisons the superior god Ra and refuses to cure him unless he reveals his secret name to her. Upon learning the name, she tells it to her son, Horus, and by learning it they gain greater knowledge and power. In addition to their names, gods were given epithets , like "possessor of splendor", "ruler of Abydos ", or "lord of
2910-456: The 15th century under Pharaoh Thutmose III , it was later reconstructed and modified by Kushite rulers during the 25th dynasty. In general, the architecture of most major Nubian temples was similar to the temple at Jebel Barkal. The Temple of Amun at Jebel Barkal consisted of a pylon with entrance gates, courtyards, hypostyle halls , and a sanctuary, as well as storage rooms and, most likely, living quarters and kitchens. The temple, as well as
3007-635: The 4th century C.E., with burial practices differing in each site. The Western Cemetery was typically used for the burial of non-ruling family members and elite individuals, while the Southern Cemetery was first selected for royal burials. After there was no available space left in the Southern Cemetery, rulers' burials continued in the Northern Cemetery. Nubian pyramidal construction varies in many ways from Egyptian construction. Besides typically recognized differences such as size and age, both of which
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3104-701: The 5th millennium BCE, predating the use of mud brick and continuing to be the preferred building material until about the start of the First Dynasty. It continued to flourish well into the New Kingdom and beyond. Vitruvius refers to it as being employed in Rome . A review of English architecture especially reveals that the sophistication of this craft is dependent on the various styles of timber frame housing. The wattle and plaster process has been replaced in modern architecture by brick and mortar or by lath and plaster ,
3201-575: The 8th century AD. It was almost a complete failure. A treaty called the Baqt shaped Egyptian-Nubian relations for six centuries and permitted the construction of a mosque in the Nubian capital of Old Dongola for Muslim travelers. By the middle of the 14th century, Nubia had been converted to Islam. The royal Church of Dongola was converted into a mosque. Numerous other churches were converted to mosque. Graves were simple pits, with bodies pointing to Mecca. Some of
3298-472: The Christian period is scarce. Architecture of Soba is the only one that has been excavated . The structures are of sun dried bricks, same as present day Sudan, except for an arch. One prominent feature of Nubian churches are vaults made out of mudbricks. The mudbrick structure was revived by Egyptian architect Hassan Fathy after rediscovering the technique in the Nubian village of Abu al-Riche. The technology
3395-461: The Duat. The sun god is also said to grow old during his daily journey across the sky, sink into the Duat at night, and emerge as a young child at dawn. In the process, he comes into contact with the rejuvenating water of Nun , the primordial chaos. Funerary texts that depict Ra's journey through the Duat also show the corpses of gods who are enlivened along with him. Instead of being changelessly immortal,
3492-485: The East side of the city, a funerary temple and chapel were laid out. It supported a population of 10,000 at its height in 1700 BCE. One of its most enduring structures was the deffufa, a mud-brick temple where ceremonies were performed on top. The deffufa is a unique structure in Nubian architecture. Three known deffufas exist: the Western Deffufa at Kerma, an Eastern Deffufa, and a third, little-known deffufa. The Western Deffufa
3589-644: The Egyptians also adopted foreign deities . The goddess Miket , who occasionally appeared in Egyptian texts beginning in the Middle Kingdom ( c. 2055 –1650 BC), may have been adopted from the religion of Nubia to the south, and a Nubian ram deity may have influenced the iconography of Amun. During the New Kingdom ( c. 1550 –1070 BC), several deities from Canaanite religion were incorporated into that of Egypt, including Baal , Resheph , and Anat . In Greek and Roman times, from 332 BC to
3686-709: The Egyptians first revered primitive fetishes , then deities in animal form, and finally deities in human form, whereas Henri Frankfort argued that the gods must have been envisioned in human form from the beginning. Some of these theories are now regarded as too simplistic, and more current ones, such as Siegfried Morenz' hypothesis that deities emerged as humans began to distinguish themselves from their environment, and to 'personify' ideas relating to deities. Such theories are difficult to prove. Predynastic Egypt originally consisted of small, independent villages. Because many deities in later times were strongly tied to particular towns and regions, many scholars have suggested that
3783-419: The Egyptians' many-faceted approach to religious belief—what Henri Frankfort called a "multiplicity of approaches" to understanding the gods. In myth, the gods behave much like humans. They feel emotion; they can eat, drink, fight, weep, sicken, and die. Some have unique character traits. Set is aggressive and impulsive, and Thoth , patron of writing and knowledge, is prone to long-winded speeches. Yet overall,
3880-419: The Egyptians. The Christianization of Nubia began in the 6th century AD. Its most representative architecture are churches. They are based on Byzantium basilicas . The structures are relatively small and made of mudbricks. The church is rectangular in shape with North and South isles. Columns are used to divide the nave . On the East side is the apse . The altar stood in front of the apse. The area between
3977-623: The Gizeh pyramids exceed those in Meroe, the Sudanese structures have a much steeper incline, oriented to face between the North East and South, and were constructed with different organization. For example, deposits were found under the corners of many pyramids at Meroë . These deposits contained ceramics, fragments of stones, and other precious items. The Meroitic pyramids contain burial chambers which were dug into
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4074-546: The Mitchell Site, the anterior of the house had double layers of burned daub. There were two popular choices for wattle and daub infill paneling: close-studded paneling and square paneling. Close-studding panels create a much narrower space between the timbers: anywhere from 7 to 16 inches (18 to 40 cm). For this style of panel, weaving is too difficult, so the wattles run horizontally and are known as ledgers. The ledgers are sprung into each upright timber (stud) through
4171-466: The Nile, no god personified it in the way that Ra personified the sun. Short-lived phenomena, such as rainbows or eclipses, were not represented by gods; neither were fire, water, or many other components of the world. The roles of each deity were fluid, and each god could expand its nature to take on new characteristics. As a result, gods' roles are difficult to categorize or define. Despite this flexibility,
4268-497: The Nubians include the temples of Beit Wali , Gerf Hussein , Temple of Derr , Temple of Mut and temple of Amada . Ancient Egyptians made widespread use of speos during the New Kingdom of Egypt . Two types of A-Group graves exist. One was oval in shape 0.8 metres (2 ft 7 in) deep. The second was oval in shape 1.3 metres (4 ft 3 in) deep with a deeper second chamber. The A-Group culture vanished, followed later by
4365-671: The altar and apse was called the haikal . At the West was a tower or upper room also in the South corner and North corner. Doors were in the North and South walls. A few churches such as Faras Cathedral survived. Church painting with biblical themes were extensive but few survived. The best surviving church painting were on the Rivergate Church of Faras and the Church of Ab El Qadir. Vernacular architecture of
4462-684: The architecture of the Temple of Amun at Jebel Barkal had a significant Kushite influence during the 25th dynasty. The city of Napata has not been fully excavated. Some of the temples were started by various pharaohs and were added on by succeeding pharaohs, beginning with Egyptian pharaohs. Reisner excavated Jebel Barkal , labeling its monuments B for Barkal. Some are as follows: B200 (temple of Taharqa ), B300 ( Taharqa 's other temple of Mut , Hathor and Bes), B500 ( temple of Amun ), B501 (outer court), B502 ( hypostyle hall), B700 (temple), B800sub (temple of Alara of Nubia ), B1200 (palace). Psamtik II of
4559-478: The basic framework for the dating of each pyramid based on his excavation in 1923. In his analysis he considered the architecture, prominence, and decoration of each structure. The ancient Nubians established a system of geometry including early versions of sun clocks. Many are located at the sites of Meroë . During the Meroitic period in Nubian history the ancient Nubians used a trigonometric methodology similar to
4656-925: The cobra to depict many female deities. The Egyptians distinguished nṯrw , "gods", from rmṯ , "people", but the meanings of the Egyptian and the English terms do not match perfectly. The term nṯr may have applied to any being that was in some way outside the sphere of everyday life. Deceased humans were called nṯr because they were considered to be like the gods, whereas the term was rarely applied to many of Egypt's lesser supernatural beings, which modern scholars often call "demons". Egyptian religious art also depicts places, objects, and concepts in human form. These personified ideas range from deities that were important in myth and ritual to obscure beings, only mentioned once or twice, that may be little more than metaphors. Confronting these blurred distinctions between gods and other beings, scholars have proposed various definitions of
4753-448: The column height ranged anywhere from 5 to 15 meters depending on its position in the temple. Finally, Piye added a long hypostyle hall with 50 columns made of bricks and sandstone. As time went on, Piye and other Kushite rulers made small additions to the temple such as storage areas and possibly living quarters or residential areas for the priests. Other additions to the temple by Kushite rulers included renovations of chapels, altars and
4850-439: The common use of acacias as wattle in early Australian European settlements. Daub is usually created from a mixture of ingredients from three categories: binders , aggregates and reinforcement. Binders hold the mix together and can include clay, lime , chalk dust and limestone dust. Aggregates give the mix its bulk and dimensional stability through materials such as mud, sand, crushed chalk and crushed stone. Reinforcement
4947-449: The complex process by which the organized universe and its many deities emerged from undifferentiated chaos. The period following creation, in which a series of gods rule as kings over the divine society, is the setting for most myths. The gods struggle against the forces of chaos and among each other before withdrawing from the human world and installing the historical kings of Egypt to rule in their place. A recurring theme in these myths
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#17328490153055044-403: The context of creation myths, in which the androgynous deity represents the undifferentiated state that existed before the world was created. The Ogdoad , a group of eight primordial gods all had a female form and consort. Atum was primarily male but had a feminine aspect within himself, who was sometimes seen as a goddess, known as Iusaaset or Nebethetepet . Creation began when Atum produced
5141-424: The country at start of the Middle Kingdom ( c. 2055 –1650 BC), they elevated Thebes' patron gods—first the war god Montu and then Amun—to national prominence. In Egyptian belief, names express the fundamental nature of the things to which they refer. In keeping with this belief, the names of deities often relate to their roles or origins. The name of the predatory goddess Sekhmet means "powerful one",
5238-435: The daub. To insert wattles in a square panel several steps are required. First, a series of evenly spaced holes are drilled along the middle of the inner face of each upper timber. Next, a continuous groove is cut along the middle of each inner face of the lower timber in each panel. Vertical slender timbers, known as staves, are then inserted and these hold the whole panel within the timber frame. The staves are positioned into
5335-522: The divine realm through funeral ceremonies . Likewise, the preeminence of the great gods was maintained by the ritual devotion that was performed for them across Egypt. The first written evidence of deities in Egypt comes from the Early Dynastic Period ( c. 3100 –2686 BC). Deities must have emerged sometime in the preceding Predynastic Period (before 3100 BC) and grown out of prehistoric religious beliefs . Predynastic artwork depicts
5432-474: The early centuries AD, deities from across the Mediterranean world were revered in Egypt, but the native gods remained, and they often absorbed the cults of these newcomers into their own worship. Modern knowledge of Egyptian beliefs about the gods is mostly drawn from religious writings produced by the nation's scribes and priests . These people were the elite of Egyptian society and were very distinct from
5529-525: The entire complex, was oriented facing East in order to signify the importance of the rising sun. The layout of the temple generally mirrored Egyptian temple design with the exception of later Nubian modifications. The original temple was constructed using talatat blocks that were made of limestone. The main entrance, pylon, and first courtyard, which contained ten columns, was constructed by Egyptian Pharaoh Amenhotep IV . Tutankhamun added an additional courtyard, while Ramses II contributed two more pylons,
5626-467: The entire country. These sacred kings and their subordinates assumed the right to interact with the gods, and kingship became the unifying focus of the religion. New deities continued to emerge after this transformation. Some important deities such as Isis and Amun are not known to have appeared until the Old Kingdom ( c. 2686 –2181 BC). Places and concepts could inspire the creation of
5723-400: The entrances of temples , representing the presence of a deity, throughout ancient Egyptian history . Other such hieroglyphs include a falcon, reminiscent of several early gods who were depicted as falcons, and a seated male or female deity. The feminine form could also be written with an egg as determinative, connecting goddesses with creation and birth, or with a cobra, reflecting the use of
5820-644: The founding of the Egyptian state around 3100 BC, the authority to perform these tasks was controlled by the pharaoh , who claimed to be the gods' representative and managed the temples where the rituals were carried out. The gods' complex characteristics were expressed in myths and in intricate relationships between deities: family ties, loose groups and hierarchies, and combinations of separate gods into one. Deities' diverse appearances in art —as animals, humans, objects, and combinations of different forms—also alluded, through symbolism, to their essential features. In different eras, various gods were said to hold
5917-414: The general populace, most of whom were illiterate. Little is known about how well this broader population knew or understood the sophisticated ideas that the elite developed. Commoners' perceptions of the divine may have differed from those of the priests. The populace may, for example, have treated the religion's symbolic statements about the gods and their actions as literal truth. But overall, what little
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#17328490153056014-402: The gods are more like archetypes than well drawn characters. Deities' mythic behavior is inconsistent, and their thoughts and motivations are rarely stated. Most myths lack highly developed characters and plots, because their symbolic meaning was more important than elaborate storytelling. Characters were even interchangeable. Different versions of a myth could portray different deities playing
6111-449: The gods had limited abilities and spheres of influence. Not even the creator god could reach beyond the boundaries of the cosmos that he created, and even Isis, though she was said to be the cleverest of the gods, was not omniscient . Richard H. Wilkinson , however, argues that some texts from the late New Kingdom suggest that as beliefs about the god Amun evolved he was thought to approach omniscience and omnipresence , and to transcend
6208-399: The gods periodically died and were reborn by repeating the events of creation, thus renewing the whole world. Nonetheless, it was always possible for this cycle to be disrupted and for chaos to return. Some poorly understood Egyptian texts even suggest that this calamity is destined to happen—that the creator god will one day dissolve the order of the world, leaving only himself and Osiris amid
6305-410: The gods' multifarious nature. The Egyptians regarded the division between male and female as fundamental to all beings, including deities. Male gods tended to have a higher status than goddesses and were more closely connected with creation and with kingship, while goddesses were more often thought of as helping and providing for humans. Some deities were androgynous , but most examples are found in
6402-520: The greater gods or as roving spirits that caused illness or other misfortunes among humans. Demons' position in the divine hierarchy was not fixed. The protective deities Bes and Taweret originally had minor, demon-like roles, but over time they came to be credited with great influence. The most feared beings in the Duat were regarded as both disgusting and dangerous to humans. Over the course of Egyptian history, they came to be regarded as fundamentally inferior members of divine society and to represent
6499-431: The ground, and after the owner’s death, the superstructure was constructed. This order of operations is unlike that in Egypt, where nobility often participated in the design and construction of their own pyramid and were placed in a burial chamber after death. Similarly, the deposits were not typical of Egyptian burials. In terms of construction, the remnants of cedar wood poles found in the center of stone shafts indicate
6596-409: The ground, the gaps being stopped with pug (kneaded clay and grass mixture). Another term for this construction is palisade and pug . "Mud and stud" is a similar process to wattle and daub, with a simple frame consisting only of upright studs joined by cross rails at the tops and bottoms. Thin staves of ash were attached, then daubed with a mixture of mud, straw, hair and dung. The style of building
6693-413: The highest position in divine society, including the solar deity Ra , the mysterious god Amun , and the mother goddess Isis . The highest deity was usually credited with the creation of the world and often connected with the life-giving power of the sun. Some scholars have argued, based in part on Egyptian writings, that the Egyptians came to recognize a single divine power that lay behind all things and
6790-555: The holes and then sprung into the grooves. They must be placed with sufficient gaps to weave the flexible horizontal wattles. In some places or cultures, the technique of wattle and daub was used with different materials and thus has different names. In the early days of the colonisation of South Australia , in areas where substantial timber was unavailable, pioneers' cottages and other small buildings were frequently constructed with light vertical timbers, which may have been "native pine" ( Callitris or Casuarina spp. ), driven into
6887-525: The king to accompany him in the after-life. Between 1500–1085 BCE, Egyptian conquest and domination of Nubia was achieved. This conquest brought about the Napatan Phase of Nubian history, the birth of the Kingdom of Kush . Kush was immensely influenced by Egypt and eventually conquered it. During this phase we see the building of numerous pyramids and temples. Of much spiritual significance to Nubian pharaohs
6984-415: The ledgers. These hazel rods are generally tied a finger-width apart with 6–8 rods each with a 16-inch (40 cm) width. Gaps allow key formation for drying. Square panels are large, wide panels typical of some later timber-frame houses. These panels may be square in shape, or sometimes triangular to accommodate arched or decorative bracing. This style requires the wattles to be woven for better support of
7081-478: The limits of the world in a way that other deities did not. The deities with the most limited and specialized domains are often called "minor divinities" or "demons" in modern writing, although there is no firm definition for these terms. Some demons were guardians of particular places, especially in the Duat , the realm of the dead. Others wandered through the human world and the Duat, either as servants and messengers of
7178-455: The location of approximately 200 pyramids. These three cemeteries are known as the Northern, Southern, and Western Cemetaries, based on respective location. The Western Cemetery contains over 800 graves and 80 pyramidal structures, compared to the 38 superstructures in the Northern Cemetery and 24 located in the Southern Cemetery. The construction of these pyramids spans from the 2nd century B.C.E to
7275-472: The main sanctuary. They also wanted to emphasize the connection between Jebel Barkal and Amun , so they added various different statues, symbols, hieroglyphs, and paintings depicting a range of scenes linking the Kushite Kingdom to Amun. Notable examples include the statues of Kush ruler Taharqa being found near the temple and Kushite rulers' names being incorporated in the sanctuary’s hieroglyphs. Overall,
7372-478: The name of the mysterious god Amun means "hidden one", and the name of Nekhbet , who was worshipped in the city of Nekheb , means "she of Nekheb". Many other names have no certain meaning, even when the gods who bear them are closely tied to a single role. The names of the sky goddess Nut and the earth god Geb do not resemble the Egyptian terms for sky and earth . The Egyptians also devised false etymologies giving more meanings to divine names. A passage in
7469-411: The newly formed world; Ptah , who embodies thought and creativity, gives form to all things by envisioning and naming them; Atum produces all things as emanations of himself; and Amun, according to the theology promoted by his priesthood, preceded and created the other creator gods. These and other versions of the events of creation were not seen as contradictory. Each gives a different perspective on
7566-473: The opposite of the beneficial, life-giving major gods. Yet even the most revered deities could sometimes exact vengeance on humans or each other, displaying a demon-like side to their character and blurring the boundaries between demons and gods. Divine behavior was believed to govern all of nature. Except for the few deities who disrupted the divine order, the gods' actions maintained maat and created and sustained all living things. They did this work using
7663-420: The original nature of the gods by proposing etymologies for these words, but none of these suggestions has gained acceptance, and the terms' origin remains obscure. The hieroglyphs that were used as ideograms and determinatives in writing these words show some of the traits that the Egyptians connected with divinity. The most common of these signs is a flag flying from a pole. Similar objects were placed at
7760-464: The pantheon formed as disparate communities coalesced into larger states, spreading and intermingling the worship of the old local deities. Others have argued that the most important predynastic gods were, like other elements of Egyptian culture, present all across the country despite its political divisions. The final step in the formation of Egyptian religion was the unification of Egypt, in which rulers from Upper Egypt made themselves pharaohs of
7857-445: The pattern for the events of the present. Periodic occurrences were tied to events in the mythic past; the succession of each new pharaoh, for instance, reenacted Horus's accession to the throne of his father Osiris . Myths are metaphors for the gods' actions, which humans cannot fully understand. They contain seemingly contradictory ideas, each expressing a particular perspective on divine events. The contradictions in myth are part of
7954-411: The predynastic era, along with images that resemble the iconographies of known deities: the falcon that represents Horus and several other gods, the crossed arrows that stand for Neith , and the enigmatic " Set animal " that represents Set . Many Egyptologists and anthropologists have suggested theories about how the gods developed in these early times. Gustave Jéquier , for instance, thought
8051-431: The primordial chaos. Gods were linked to specific regions of the universe. In Egyptian tradition, the world includes the earth, the sky, and the underworld. Surrounding them is the dark formlessness that existed before creation. The gods in general were said to dwell in the sky, although gods whose roles were linked with other parts of the universe were said to live in those places instead. Most events of mythology, set in
8148-514: The same role, as in the myths of the Eye of Ra , a feminine aspect of the sun god who was represented by many goddesses. The first divine act is the creation of the cosmos, described in several creation myths . They focus on different gods, each of which may act as creator deities. The eight gods of the Ogdoad , who represent the chaos that precedes creation, give birth to the sun god, who establishes order in
8245-492: The sky", that describe some aspect of their roles or their worship. Because of the gods' multiple and overlapping roles, deities can have many epithets—with more important gods accumulating more titles—and the same epithet can apply to many deities. Some epithets eventually became separate deities, as with Werethekau , an epithet applied to several goddesses meaning "great enchantress", which came to be treated as an independent goddess. The host of divine names and titles expresses
8342-425: The tombs of twenty pharaohs and fifty four queens. The pharaoh's pyramids range from 39.5 to 65 metres (130 to 213 ft) in height. The queen's pyramids are 9 to 17 metres (30 to 56 ft). The tombs were cut out of bedrock. The pharaoh's chamber contained three interconnecting chambers. The queen's contain two interconnecting chambers. The third Nubian Pyramid site, Meroë , consists of three cemeteries which are
8439-449: The towns and regions they presided over. Many gods had more than one cult center and their local ties changed over time. They could establish themselves in new cities, or their range of influence could contract. Therefore, a given deity's main cult center in historical times is not necessarily his or her place of origin. The political influence of a city could affect the importance of its patron deity. When kings from Thebes took control of
8536-433: The type of brick molded with the same materials and used as infilling between posts. Columbage refers to the timber-framed construction with diagonal bracing of the framework. Pierratage or bousillage is the material filled into the structural timbers. Bajarreque is a wall constructed with the technique of wattle and daub. The wattle here is made of bagasse , and the daub is the mix of clay and straw. Jacal can refer to
8633-480: The unique structures were the gubbas, graves reserved for Muslim saints. They were whitewashed domes made of adobe bricks. Wattle and daub Wattle and daub is a composite building method used for making walls and buildings, in which a woven lattice of wooden strips called " wattle " is "daubed" with a sticky material usually made of some combination of wet soil, clay, sand, animal dung and straw. Wattle and daub has been used for at least 6,000 years and
8730-467: The universal order that was a central principle of Egyptian religion and was itself personified as a goddess. Yet some deities represented disruption to maat . Most prominently, Apep was the force of chaos, constantly threatening to annihilate the order of the universe, and Set was an ambivalent member of divine society who could both fight disorder and foment it. Not all aspects of existence were seen as deities. Although many deities were connected with
8827-550: The use of shaduf to lift each block. It is therefore believed that the construction timeline often did not take more than a year to complete, even for the largest pyramids. There has been some difficulty in determining the member of nobility who was buried at each pyramidal location. This is due to many factors, such as the lack of written records associated with the cites, poor preservation of inscriptions, difficulty with stratigraphic dating, and chronological gaps in nobility. George Andrew Reisner , an American archeologist, created
8924-513: The whole of a wall. In different regions, the material of wattle can be different. For example, at the Mitchell Site on the northern outskirts of the city of Mitchell, South Dakota, willow has been found as the wattle material of the walls of the house. Reeds and vines can also be used as wattle material. The origin of the term wattle describing a group of acacias in Australia, is derived from
9021-443: Was Jebel Barkal . Nubian pharaohs received legitimacy from the site. They held pharaonic coronation and consulted its oracle. It was thought to be the dwelling place of the deity Amun . Temples for Mut , Hathor , and Bes are also present. Thirteen temples and three palaces have been excavated. The Temple of Amun at Jebel Barkal was arguably the most significant of the temples built in ancient Nubia. Originally constructed in
9118-447: Was credited with producing the annual Nile flood that fertilized the country's farmland. Perhaps as an outgrowth of this life-giving function, he was said to create all living things, fashioning their bodies on a potter's wheel . Gods could share the same role in nature; Ra , Atum , Khepri , Horus, and other deities acted as sun gods . Despite their diverse functions, most gods had an overarching role in common: maintaining maat ,
9215-681: Was once common in Lincolnshire . Pierrotage is the infilling material used in French Vernacular architecture of the Southern United States to infill between half-timbering with diagonal braces, which is similar to daub. It is usually made of lime mortar clay mixed with small stones. It is also called bousillage or bouzillage, especially in French Vernacular architecture of Louisiana of the early 1700s. The materials of bousillage are Spanish moss or clay and grass. Bousillage also refers to
9312-706: Was present in all the other deities. Yet they never abandoned their original polytheistic view of the world, except possibly during the era of Atenism in the 14th century BC, when official religion focused exclusively on an abstract solar deity, the Aten . Gods were assumed to be present throughout the world, capable of influencing natural events and the course of human lives. People interacted with them in temples and unofficial shrines, for personal reasons as well as for larger goals of state rites. Egyptians prayed for divine help, used rituals to compel deities to act, and called upon them for advice. Humans' relations with their gods were
9409-511: Was the deification of all the world's air; the goddess Meretseger oversaw a limited region of the earth, the Theban Necropolis ; and the god Sia personified the abstract notion of perception . Major gods were often involved in several types of phenomena. For instance, Khnum was the god of Elephantine Island in the midst of the Nile , the river that was essential to Egyptian civilization. He
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