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68-463: A variety of archaeological sites and artifacts found are thought to indicate ancient made star charts. The oldest known star chart may be a carved ivory Mammoth tusk, drawn by early people from Asia who moved into Europe, that was discovered in Germany in 1979. This artifact is 32,500 years old and has a carving that resembles the constellation Orion , although it could not be confirmed and could also be

136-658: A bird on top of a piece of wood, together may depict the Summer Triangle , which at the time was a circumpolar formation . Rappenglueck also discovered a drawing of the Northern Crown constellation in the cave of El Castillo (North of Spain), made in the same period as the Lascaux chart. Another star chart panel, created more than 21,000 years ago, was found in the La Tête du Lion cave ( fr ). The bovine in this panel may represent

204-758: A ceiling at the Dendera Temple complex . It is a planisphere depicting the zodiac in graphical representations. However, individual stars are not plotted. The oldest surviving manuscript star chart was the Dunhuang Star Chart , dated to the Tang dynasty (618–907) and discovered in the Mogao Caves of Dunhuang in Gansu , Western China along the Silk Road . This is a scroll 210 cm in length and 24.4 cm wide showing

272-407: A keen interest in paleontology , is partially responsible for transforming the word mammoth from a noun describing the prehistoric elephant to an adjective describing anything of surprisingly large size. The first recorded use of the word as an adjective was in a description of a large wheel of cheese (the " Cheshire Mammoth Cheese ") given to Jefferson in 1802. The earliest known proboscideans ,

340-600: A number of bones of Mammuthus meridionalis from the Dmanisi site in Georgia having marks suggested to the result of butchery by archaic humans , likely as a result of scavenging. During the Last Glacial Period , modern humans hunted woolly mammoths, used their remains to create art and tools, and depicted them in works of art. Remains of Columbian mammoths at a number of sites suggest that they were hunted by Paleoindians ,

408-604: A pregnancy chart. German researcher Dr Michael Rappenglueck, of the University of Munich, has suggested that drawing on the wall of the Lascaux caves in France could be a graphical representation of the Pleiades open cluster of stars. This is dated from 33,000 to 10,000 years ago. He also suggested a panel in the same caves depicting a charging bison, a man with a bird's head and the head of

476-638: A result of insular dwarfism . These include Mammuthus lamarmorai on Sardinia (late Middle-Late Pleistocene), Mammuthus exilis on the Channel Islands of California (Late Pleistocene), and Mammuthus creticus on Crete (Early Pleistocene). Like living elephants, mammoths typically had large body sizes. The largest known species like Mammuthus meridionalis and Mammuthus trogontherii (the steppe mammoth) were considerably larger than modern elephants, with mature adult males having an average height of approximately 3.8–4.2 m (12.5–13.8 ft) at

544-636: A series of tombs. The Dendera Necropolis dates back to the Early Dynastic Period and up to the First Intermediate Period , which pre-dates the Middle Kingdom construction of the Temple of Hathor. The necropolis runs across the eastern edge of the western hill and over the northern plain. The temple that dominates this complex, the structure that commands the attention of those who visit, is

612-538: A two-part map depicting the constellations of the northern celestial hemisphere and the ecliptic . This may have served as a prototype for the oldest European printed star chart, a 1515 set of woodcut portraits produced by Albrecht Dürer in Nuremberg , Germany . During the European Age of Discovery , expeditions to the southern hemisphere began to result in the addition of new constellations. These most likely came from

680-543: A word in the Mansi languages of western Siberia meaning "earth horn", in reference to mammoth tusks. Mammoths appear in the folkore of the indigenous people of Siberia, who were impressed by the great size of their remains. In the mythology of the Evenk people, mammoths were responsible for the creation of the world, digging up the land from the ocean floor with their tusks. The Selkup believed that mammoths lived underground and guarded

748-423: Is a processional stairway leading to the roof of the temple. Reliefs decorating the walls depict scenes from rituals that would have been performed at the temple. The staircase shows wear from millenia of use, but it also shows an apparent accretion of material, which has lent the staircase the informal name of "the melted stairs." The Supreme Council of Antiquities began the project of restoration and maintenance of

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816-568: Is a widely known relief found in a late Greco-Roman temple, containing images of the zodiac system still recognized today (i.e. Taurus [bull] and Libra [scales]). A sketch was made during the Napoleonic campaign in Egypt . In 1820 it was removed from the temple ceiling by French colonizers and later replaced with a copy. There is controversy as to whether they were granted permission by Egypt's ruler, Muhammad Ali Pasha , to do so, or whether they stole it. (It

884-661: Is also said that in 1822, an antiquities thief using the name "Claude Le Lorraine" [not to be confused with the French Baroque painter] removed the zodiac from Dendera, brought it back to France, and sold it to the King.) The real one is now in the Louvre. Jean-François Champollion , the man who deciphered the Rosetta Stone , dated it back to the Ptolemaic period, and it has been proved that he

952-474: Is depicted as one of the ancient gods, a "primeval creator." Harsomtus is likely depicted at the Dendera Temple Complex due to the main temple being dedicated to Hathor . In Egyptian mythology, Harsomtus is referenced as either Hathor's son or lover. In six reliefs he is positioned within an oval container called a hn , which might represent the womb of Nut . These resemble a lamp or light. There

1020-436: Is possible to reconstruct the evolutionary history of the genus through morphological studies. Mammoth species can be identified from the number of enamel ridges/lamellae on their molars; the primitive species had few ridges, and the amount increased gradually as new species evolved and replaced the former ones. At the same time, the crowns of the teeth became longer, and the skulls became higher from top to bottom and shorter from

1088-693: Is thought to be the ancestor of Mammuthus meridionalis , which first appeared at the beginning of the Pleistocene, around 2.6 million years ago. Mammuthus meridionalis subsequently gave rise to Mammuthus trogontherii (the steppe mammoth) in Eastern Asia around 1.7 million years ago. Around 1.5–1.3 million years ago, M. trogontherii crossed the Bering Land Bridge into North America, becoming ancestral to Mammuthus columbi (the Columbian mammoth). At

1156-659: The American colonies around 1725, enslaved Africans digging in the vicinity of the Stono River in South Carolina unearthed molar teeth recognised in modern times to belong to Columbian mammoths , with the remains subsequently examined by the British naturalist Mark Catesby , who visited the site, and later published an account of his visit in 1843. While the slave owners were puzzled by the objects and suggested that they originated from

1224-558: The Bayer designations for identifying the brightest stars using the Greek alphabet. The Uranometria contained 48 maps of Ptolemaic constellations, a plate of the southern constellations and two plates showing the entire northern and southern hemispheres in stereographic polar projection. Polish astronomer Johannes Hevelius published his Firmamentum Sobiescianum star atlas posthumously in 1690. It contained 56 large, double page star maps and improved

1292-598: The Columbian mammoth ( M. columbi ). The woolly mammoth ( M. primigenius ) evolved about 700–400,000 years ago in Siberia, with some surviving on Russia's Wrangel Island in the Arctic Ocean until as recently as 4,000 years ago, still extant during the existence of the earliest civilisations in ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia . According to The American Heritage Dictionary , the word "mammoth" likely originates from *mān-oŋt,

1360-462: The Titan Atlas holding the celestial sphere on his shoulder. It is the oldest surviving depiction of the ancient Greek constellations, and includes grid circles that provide coordinate positions. Because of precession , the positions of the constellations slowly change over time. By comparing the positions of the 41 constellations against the grid circles, an accurate determination can be made of

1428-506: The clade that contains the elephants, arose about 55 million years ago on the landmass of Afro-Arabia. The closest relatives of the Proboscidea are the sirenians and the hyraxes . The family Elephantidae arose by million years ago in Africa, and includes the living elephants and the mammoths. Among many now extinct clades, the mastodon is only a distant relative of the mammoths, and part of

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1496-490: The epoch when the original observations were performed. Based upon this information, the constellations were catalogued at 125 ± 55 BC . This evidence indicates that the star catalogue of the 2nd-century BC Greek astronomer Hipparchus was used. A Roman era example of a graphical representation of the night sky is the Ptolemaic Egyptian Dendera zodiac , dating from 50 BC. This is a bas relief sculpting on

1564-534: The great flood described in the Bible, Catesby noted that the slaves unanimously agreed that the objects were the teeth of elephants similar to those from their African homeland, to which Catesby concurred, marking the first technical identification of any fossil animal in North America. In 1796, French biologist Georges Cuvier was the first to identify woolly mammoth remains not as modern elephants transported to

1632-565: The pygmy mammoth ( Mammuthus exillis ) date to around 13,000 years ago, coinciding with the reducing of the area of the Californian Channel Islands as a result of rising sea level, the earliest known humans in the Channel Islands, and climatic change resulting in the decline of the previously dominant conifer forest ecosystems and expansion of scrub and grassland. [REDACTED] Dendera Temple complex The Dendera Temple complex ( Ancient Egyptian : Iunet or Tantere ;

1700-614: The underworld , while the Nenets and the Mansi (the latter of whom, along with the Khanty , conceived mammoths as giant birds) believed that mammoths were responsible for the creation of mountains and lakes, while the Yakuts regarded mammoths as water spirits. The word mammoth was first used in Europe during the early 17th century, when referring to maimanto tusks discovered in Siberia, as recorded in

1768-546: The 1618 edition of the Dictionariolum Russico-Anglicum. The earliest scientific research paper on mammoths was by Vasily Tatishchev in 1725. John Bell , who was on the Ob River in 1722, said that mammoth tusks were well known in the area. They were called "mammon's horn" and were often found in washed-out river banks. Bell bought one and presented it to Hans Sloan who pronounced it an elephant's tooth. In

1836-429: The 19th-century English spelling in most sources, including Belzoni , was Tentyra ; also spelled Denderah ) is located about 2.5 kilometres (1.6 miles) south-east of Dendera , Egypt . It is one of the best-preserved temple complexes of ancient Egypt . The area was used as the sixth nome of Upper Egypt , south of Abydos . The entirety of the complex is surrounded by a sizable mudbrick wall. Dendera, an oasis on

1904-554: The 2nd century Almagest star catalogue by Ptolemy . The work of al-Sufi contained illustrations of the constellations and portrayed the brighter stars as dots. The original book did not survive, but a copy from about 1009 is preserved at the Oxford University . Perhaps the oldest European star map was a parchment manuscript titled De Composicione Spere Solide . It was most likely produced in Vienna , Austria in 1440 and consisted of

1972-537: The 2nd-century BC Shiji by the Western Han historian Sima Qian . The oldest Chinese graphical representation of the night sky is a lacquerware box from the 5th-century BC Tomb of Marquis Yi of Zeng , although this depiction shows the positions of the Chinese constellations by name and does not show individual stars. The Farnese Atlas is a 2nd-century AD Roman copy of a Hellenistic era Greek statue depicting

2040-558: The African elephants, as well as the American mastodon (described in 1792) were also placed in Elephas . Cuvier coined the synonym Elephas mammonteus for the woolly mammoth a few months later, but E. primigenius became the widely used name for the species, including by Cuvier. The genus name Mammuthus was coined by British anatomist Joshua Brookes in 1828, as part of a survey of his museum collection. Thomas Jefferson , who famously had

2108-536: The Americas became extinct approximately simultaneously at the end of the Late Pleistocene. Hunting of Columbian mammoths by Paleoindians may have been a contributory factor in their extinction. The timing of the extinction of the dwarf Sardinian mammoth Mammuthus lamarmorai is difficult to constrain precisely, though the youngest specimen likely dates to sometime around 57–29,000 years ago. The youngest records of

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2176-583: The Arctic, but as an entirely new species. He argued this species had gone extinct and no longer existed, a concept that was not widely accepted at the time. Following Cuvier's identification, German naturalist Johann Friedrich Blumenbach gave the woolly mammoth its scientific name, Elephas primigenius , in 1799, placing it in the Elephas , the genus which today contains the Asian elephant ( Elephas maximus ). Originally

2244-471: The Bering Strait until around 5,600 years ago, with their extinction likely due to the degradation of freshwater sources, and on Wrangel Island off the coast of Northeast Siberia until around 4,000 years ago. The last reliable dates of the Columbian mammoth date to around 12,500 years ago. Columbian mammoths became extinct as part of the end-Pleistocene extinction event where most large mammals across

2312-669: The Late Pliocene, by 3.2 million years ago, mammoths dispersed into Eurasia via the Sinai Peninsula. The earliest mammoths in Eurasia are assigned to the species Mammuthus rumanus . The youngest remains of mammoths in Africa are from Aïn Boucherit, Algeria dating to the Early Pleistocene, around 2.3–2 million years ago (with a possible later record from Aïn Hanech, Algeria, dating to 1.95–1.78 million years ago). Mammuthus rumanus

2380-656: The Milky Way. The oldest accurately dated star chart appeared in ancient Egyptian astronomy in 1534 BC. The earliest known star catalogues were compiled by the ancient Babylonian astronomers of Mesopotamia in the late 2nd millennium BC, during the Kassite Period ( ca. 1531–1155 BC). The oldest records of Chinese astronomy date to the Warring States period (476–221 BC), but the earliest preserved Chinese star catalogues of astronomers Shi Shen and Gan De are found in

2448-510: The Temple of Hathor . The original temple structure underwent continuous modifications throughout the Middle Kingdom and up until the beginning of the reign of the Roman emperor Trajan . The existing temple's structure began construction in 54 B.C.E, the late Ptolemaic period , under the reign of Ptolemy Auletes . The hypostyle hall was built in the Roman period under Tiberius . In Egypt, Trajan

2516-400: The accuracy in the position of the southern stars. He introduced 11 more constellations, including Scutum , Lacerta , and Canes Venatici . In 1824 Sidney Hall produced a set of star charts called Urania's Mirror . They are illustrations based on Alexander Jamieson 's A Celestial Atlas , but the addition of holes punched in them allowed them to be held up to a light to see a depiction of

2584-590: The astronomer Huang Shang prepared a planisphere along with explanatory text. It was engraved in stone in 1247, and this chart still exists in the Wen Miao temple in Suzhou . In Muslim astronomy , the first star chart to be drawn accurately was most likely the illustrations produced by the Persian astronomer Abd al-Rahman al-Sufi in his 964 work titled Book of Fixed Stars . This book was an update of parts VII.5 and VIII.1 of

2652-555: The back to the front over time to accommodate this. The earliest mammoths, assigned to the species Mammuthus subplanifrons , are known from southern and eastern Africa, with the earliest records dating to the Late Miocene , around 6.2–5.3 million years ago. By the Late Pliocene , mammoths had become confined to the northern portions of the African continent with remains from this time assigned to Mammuthus africanavus . During

2720-532: The banks of the Nile , was inhabited by thousands at its peak. Due to its massive size, the structures throughout the complex were constructed over many eras, such as the Middle Kingdom , the Ptolemaic Era , and the period characterized by Roman provincial rule. There is evidence that there was an even earlier building on this site, circa 2250 B.C.E., which could have begun during the reign of Pepi I and completed during

2788-575: The constellation Taurus , with a pattern representing the Pleiades just above it. A star chart drawn 5000 years ago by the Indians in Kashmir, which also depict a supernova for the first time in human history. The Nebra sky disk , a 30 cm wide bronze disk dated to 1600 BC, bears gold symbols generally interpreted as a sun or full moon, a lunar crescent, several stars including the Pleiades cluster and possibly

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2856-535: The constellation's stars. Mammoth A mammoth is any species of the extinct elephantid genus Mammuthus . They lived from the late Miocene epoch (from around 6.2 million years ago) into the Holocene until about 4,000 years ago, with mammoth species at various times inhabiting Africa, Asia, Europe, and North America. Mammoths are distinguished from living elephants by their (typically large) spirally twisted tusks and in at least some later species,

2924-426: The course of mammoth evolution in Eurasia, their diet shifted towards mixed feeding-grazing in M. trogontherii, culminating in the woolly mammoth, which was largely a grazer, with stomach contents of woolly mammoths suggesting that they largely fed on grass and forbs . M. columbi is thought to have been a mixed feeder. Evidence that humans interacted with mammoths extends back to around 1.8 million years ago, with

2992-657: The development of numerous adaptions to living in cold environments, including a thick layer of fur. Mammoths and Asian elephants are more closely related to each other than they are to African elephants . The oldest mammoth representative, Mammuthus subplanifrons , appeared around 6 million years ago during the late Miocene in what is now southern and Eastern Africa. Later in the Pliocene , by about three million years ago, mammoths dispersed into Eurasia, eventually covering most of Eurasia before migrating into North America around 1.5–1.3 million years ago, becoming ancestral to

3060-553: The end of the Early Pleistocene Mammuthus trogontherii migrated into Europe, replacing M. meridionalis around 1–0.8 million years ago. Mammuthus primigenius (the woolly mammoth) had evolved from M. trogontherii in Siberia by around 600,000–500,000 years ago, replacing M. trogontherii in Europe by around 200,000 years ago, and migrated into North America during the Late Pleistocene. A number of dwarf mammoth species, with small body sizes, evolved on islands as

3128-525: The first humans to inhabit the Americas. A possible bone engraving of a Columbian mammoth made by Paleoindians is known from Vero Beach, Florida. Following the end of the Last Glacial Maximum , the range of the woolly mammoth began to contract, disappearing from most of Europe by 14,000 years ago. By the Younger Dryas (around 12,900-11,700 years Before Present ), woolly mammoths were confined to

3196-406: The genetic changes found in woolly mammoths responsible for tolerance of cold conditions. Scientists discovered and studied the remains of a mammoth calf, and found that fat greatly influenced its form, and enabled it to store large amounts of nutrients necessary for survival in temperatures as low as −50 °C (−58 °F). The fat also allowed the mammoths to increase their muscle mass, allowing

3264-438: The image of the Roman emperor Claudius. On the sphinx's head sits a nemes that has a cobra-shaped tip called a uraeus. The Dendera complex has long been one of the most tourist-accessible ancient Egyptian places of worship. It used to be possible to visit virtually every part of the complex, from the crypts to the roof. However, the highest part of the roof of Hathor temple has been closed since 2003. The second stage of

3332-481: The largest known among proboscideans with some specimens over 4 m (13.1 ft) in length and likely 200 kg (440.9 lb) in weight with some historical reports suggesting tusks of Columbian mammoths could reach lengths of around 5 m (16.4 ft) substantially surpassing the largest known modern elephant tusks. The heads of mammoths were prominently domed. The first several thoracic vertebrae of mammoths typically had long neural spines. The back

3400-505: The long and complicated history of the Romans in Egypt. As seen in the images below, Roman Emperor Trajan is depicted in the reliefs as an Egyptian Pharaoh and he is making offerings to the Egyptian gods. In March 2023, during the recent excavations at the site archaeologists uncovered a limestone sphinx. This sphinx is depicted with a slight grin and dimples and is thought to have been created in

3468-468: The mammoths to fight against enemies and live longer. Woolly mammoths evolved a suite of adaptations for arctic life, including morphological traits such as small ears and tails to minimize heat loss, a thick layer of subcutaneous fat, and numerous sebaceous glands for insulation, as well as a large brown-fat hump like deposit behind the neck that may have functioned as a heat source and fat reservoir during winter. Based on studies of their close relatives,

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3536-525: The modern elephants, mammoths probably had a gestation period of 22 months, resulting in a single calf being born. Their social structure was probably the same as that of African and Asian elephants, with females living in herds headed by a matriarch, whilst bulls lived solitary lives or formed loose groups after sexual maturity, with adult males experiencing periods of musth . The earliest mammoth species like M. subplanifrons and M. rumanus were mixed feeders (both browsing and grazing) to browsers. Over

3604-547: The northernmost regions of Siberia. This contraction is suggested to have been caused by the warming induced expansion of unfavourable wet tundra and forest environments at the expense of the preferred dry open mammoth steppe , with the possible additional pressure of human hunting. The last woolly mammoths in mainland Siberia became extinct around 10,000 years ago, during the early Holocene . The final extinction of mainland woolly mammoths may have been driven by human hunting. Relict populations survived on Saint Paul island in

3672-545: The objects which were kept in them. In the second chamber, a relief depicts Pepi I offering a statuette of the God Ihy to four images of Hathor. (Hathor is understood to be Ihy's mother.) In the crypt accessible from the Throne Room, Ptolemy XII has jewelry and offerings for the gods. The Hathor Temple has stone reliefs that depict Harsomtus , in the form of a snake, emerging from a lotus flower . Harsomtus, also known as Horus ,

3740-431: The records of two Dutch sailors, Pieter Dirkszoon Keyser and Frederick de Houtman , who in 1595 traveled together to the Dutch East Indies . Their compilations resulted in the 1601 globe of Jodocus Hondius , who added 12 new southern constellations. Several other such maps were produced, including Johann Bayer 's Uranometria in 1603. The latter was the first atlas to chart both celestial hemispheres and it introduced

3808-401: The reign of his son, Merenre Nemtyemsaf I . Evidence also exists of a temple in the Eighteenth Dynasty (ca. 1500 BC). The earliest extant (surviving) building in the compound today is the mammisi raised by Nectanebo II – last of the native pharaohs (360–343 BC). The features in the complex include: The Dendera Temple is not to be confused with the Dendera Necropolis, which consists of

3876-881: The separate Mammutidae family, which diverged 25 million years before the mammoths evolved. Following the publication of the woolly mammoths mitochondrial genome sequence in 1997, it has since become widely accepted that mammoths and Asian elephants share a closer relationship to each other than either do to African elephants . The following cladogram shows the placement of the genus Mammuthus among other proboscideans, based on hyoid characteristics and genetics: † Mammutidae (mastodons) [REDACTED] † Gomphotheriidae (gomphotheres) [REDACTED] † Stegodontidae (stegodontids) [REDACTED] Loxodonta (African elephants) [REDACTED] † Palaeoloxodon (straight-tusked elephants) [REDACTED] Elephas (Asian elephants) [REDACTED] † Mammuthus (mammoths) [REDACTED] It

3944-442: The shift in the diet of mammoths from a browsing based diet in M. rumanus , towards a grazing diet in later species. Both sexes bore tusks. A first, small set appeared at about the age of six months, and these were replaced at about 18 months by the permanent set. Growth of the permanent set was at a rate of about 2.5 to 15.2 cm (1 to 6 in) per year. The tusks display a strong spiral twisting. Mammoth tusks are among

4012-414: The shoulder and weights of 9.6–12.7 tonnes (21,000–28,000  lb ), while exceptionally large males may have reached 4.5 m (14.8 ft) at the shoulder and 14.3 tonnes (31,526.1 lb) in weight. However, woolly mammoths were considerably smaller, only about as large as modern African bush elephants with males around 2.80–3.15 m (9 ft 2.2 in – 10 ft 4.0 in) high at

4080-452: The shoulder, and 4.5–6 tonnes (9,900–13,200  lb ) in weight on average, with the largest recorded individuals being around 3.5 m (11.5 ft) tall and 8.2 tonnes (18,077.9 lb) in weight. The insular dwarf mammoth species were considerably smaller, with the smallest species M. creticus estimated to have a shoulder height of only around 1 metre (3.3 ft) and a weight of about 180 kilograms (400 lb), making it one of

4148-491: The sky between declinations 40° south to 40° north in twelve panels, plus a thirteenth panel showing the northern circumpolar sky. A total of 1,345 stars are drawn, grouped into 257 asterisms . The date of this chart is uncertain, but is estimated as 705–10 AD. During the Song dynasty (960–1279), the Chinese astronomer Su Song wrote a book titled Xin Yixiang Fa Yao (New Design for the Armillary Clock) containing five maps of 1,464 stars. This has been dated to 1092. In 1193,

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4216-554: The smallest elephantids known. The number of lamellae (ridge-like structures) on the molars, particularly on the third molars, substantially increased over the course of mammoth evolution. The earliest Eurasian species M. rumanus have around 8-10 lamellae on the third molars, while Late Pleistocene woolly mammoths have 20-28 lamellae on the third molars. These changes also corresponded with reduced enamel thickness and increasing tooth height ( hypsodonty ). These changes are thought to be adaptations to increasing abrasion resulting from

4284-516: The temple exterior is a carving of Cleopatra VII Philopator (the popular, well-known Cleopatra ) and her son, Ptolemy XV Philopator Philometor Caesar ( Caesarion ), who was fathered by Julius Caesar . There are ten dead deities represented at Dendera, specifically on/in Hathor's temple, that can be connected to the nine dead deities at Horus's temple in Edfu . This would be due to the either parental or marital relationship between Hathor and Horus. The sculptured Dendera zodiac (or Denderah zodiac)

4352-443: The temple in 2005. Efforts stopped in 2011 and then resumed in 2017, after the completion of necessary scientific and archaeological studies, along with careful experimental studies using modern techniques. As of March 2021, the second phase of the restoration has been completed, which includes cleaning the Great Pillars Hall and restoring the original colors and clarity of painted scenes on walls and ceilings. More activity continues at

4420-413: The temple, including a cooperative effort started in 2019 with the French Archaeological delegation to turn the temple courtyard into an open museum. The Roman mammisi is a subsidiary building dating to the reigns of Trajan and Marcus Aurelius . Numerous reliefs of Trajan making offerings to Egyptian deities can be seen. The presence of the Roman mammisi at the Dendera Temple Complex is indicative of

4488-405: Was correct, as Egyptologists now date it back to the first century BC. The Hathor temple's subterranean tombs contain twelve chambers. Some reliefs seen in the tombs are dated to as late as the reign of Ptolemy XII Auletes . The crypts reportedly were used for storing vessels and divine iconography. An opening in the Flame Room floor leads to a narrow chamber with representations on the walls of

4556-410: Was quite active in constructing buildings and decorating them. He appears, together with Domitian , in offering scenes on the propylaeum of the Temple of Hathor. His cartouche also appears in the column shafts of the Temple of Khnum at Esna . Layout elements of the temple are: Depictions of Cleopatra VI , which appear on temple walls, are good examples of Ptolemaic Egyptian art. On the rear of

4624-562: Was typically sloping, with the body being wider than that of African elephants. The tails of mammoths were relatively short compared to living elephants. While early mammoth species like M. meridionalis were probably relatively hairless, similar to modern elephants, M. primigenius and likely M. trogontherii had a substantial coat of fur, among other physiological adaptations for living in cold environments. Genetic sequencing of M. trogontherii -like mammoths, over 1 million years old from Siberia suggests that they had already developed many of

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