EDFU.






EDFU. Modern name for a site on the west bank of the Nile in the second
nome of Upper Egypt, halfway between Thebes and Elephantine
(Aswan), ancient Egyptian Djeba, Greek Apollonopolis Magna,
where a major temple dedicated to the god Horus, which was rebuilt

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DENDERA.


DENDERA. Modern name for the Egyptian city of Iunet, later known
as Tentyris in Greek, capital of the sixth nome of Upper Egypt. The
site is known from the Early Dynastic Period, and there are tombs
from the First Intermediate Period, when the regional rulers were
semi-independent. Its main feature is the magnificent Graeco-Roman
temple dedicated to the goddess Hathor, from which came the famous
Dendera zodiac now in the Louvre Museum. The site was excavated
by Flinders Petrie from 1897–1898 and the University of
Pennsylvania from 1915–1918. The temple inscriptions are being
published by a French expedition. See

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DEIR EL-BAHRI.


DEIR EL-BAHRI. Modern name for a site on the cliffs of the western
bank of the Nile opposite Thebes. It was apparently first used to construct
the tomb and mortuary temple of Mentuhotep II of Dynasty
11 and the tombs of his successors, as well as the chief officials of the
court. During Dynasty 18 it was chosen as the site of the mortuary
temple of Queen Hatshepsut, the building of which was supervised
by her official, Senenmut. The temple is well preserved and is famous
for its reliefs of the expedition to Punt and the transportation
of an obelisk. Next to Deir el-Bahri a mortuary temple was constructed
by Thutmose III, but this shrine has been largely destroyed
by an earthquake, leaving only a pillared hall with Hathor capitals
and a chapel. The site became a Coptic monastery during the Christian
period but was later abandoned.
Deir el-Bahri was first excavated by Auguste Mariette in 1850,
1862, and 1866. Major excavations were undertaken in the Hatshepsut
temple from 1893–1896 and the Mentuhotep II temple from
1903–1907 by a British expedition of the Egypt Exploration Fund.
Further work in the area was carried out by Herbert Winlock of the
Metropolitan Museum of Art from 1911–1931. The Mentuhotep II
temple was reexamined by a German expedition from 1965–1972,
and the Hatshepsut temple has been the subject of excavation and

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DAHSHUR.


DAHSHUR. Modern name for the area south of Saqqara where several
royal tombs from Dynasty 4, Dynasty 12, and Dynasty 13 are
located. Two pyramids, the Bent and the Red, are assigned to Snefru
and were the first built as true pyramids from the start. The pyramids
of Amenemhat II, Senusret III, and Amenemhat III are also
located here, as well as the tombs of queens and princesses from
which much fine jewelry has been excavated. The tomb of King Hor
of Dynasty 13 has also been discovered. The area was excavated by
the French from 1894–1895; the Egyptians under Ahmad Fakhry
from 1951–1955; and the German Archaeological Institute, later
taken over by the Metropolitan Museum of Art beginning in 1980,

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CHRONOLOGY

CHRONOLOGY. The ancient Egyptian calendar consisted of a year of
360 days divided into the three seasons akhet (flood), peret (sowing)
and shemu (harvest), plus five extra days at the end of the year. Each
season was comprised of four months of 30 days and was in turn divided
into three weeks of 10 days of 24 hours split between night and
day. Because the calendar did not include the extra one-quarter day
of the earth’s rotation, the civil calendar gradually diverged from the
solar year so that the months moved, and the two only harmonized
briefly every 1,460 years. The solar year was measured from the annual
rising of the star Sirius, which becomes visible around July of
each year in the modern calendar.
A third calendar used for administrative purposes was the regnal
year initially based on the biennial cattle count during the Old Kingdom
and from the Middle Kingdom onward the king’s actual years,
although his first year was foreshortened, so the beginning of his second
might coincide with the beginning of the civil year. This practice
was abandoned during the New Kingdom when the full regnal year was
dated from the king’s accession, but calculation of the regnal year reverted
to the old system during the Late Period. Thus three different
dating systems—solar, civil, and regnal—were used during the New
Kingdom.
The conversion of Egyptian dates to the modern Julian calendar is
not exact. Dating from the Late Period is fixed by synchronisms
with Assyrian, Persian, Greek, and Roman dating systems. It is
known that the solar and civil calendars coincided in 139 AD, thus
the previous coincidence would have occurred 1,460 years earlier—
the period being known as a Sothic cycle—but the use of astronomical
references to the rising of the star Sirius are too unclear to be of
use. The most effective method for determining chronology is
through use of the detailed king lists known from such documents as

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CANOPIC JARS.


CANOPIC JARS. Modern term for the four jars in which the soft internal
tissues of the deceased were stored after the mummification of
the body. Canopic chests in which packages of these organs—the
liver, lungs, stomach, and intestines—were placed are known from
the early Old Kingdom, but actual jars with ovoid lids appeared
slightly later. By the Middle Kingdom, the set of jars dedicated to
the four sons of Horus had evolved. The jars were all originally human-
headed, but by the New Kingdom they bore separate heads—
human, baboon, jackal, and hawk. From Dynasty 21 onward, the internal
organs were wrapped in packages and placed in the body, but
the funerary equipment continued to include dummy canopic jars.
The use of actual jars was revived in Dynasty 26. The term canopic
derives from confusion with Canopus, a deity depicted as a humanheaded
jar during the Graeco-Roman Period

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BUTO


BUTO. Greek name for the Egyptian twin cities of Pe and Dep, also
known as Per-Wadjet, modern Tell el-Farain. Ancient capital city of
Lower Egypt whose principal deity was the cobra goddess Wadjet.
Some remains can be traced from the Predynastic Period until Roman
occupation. The site was briefly examined by Flinders Petrie in
1886 and excavated by Charles Currelly in 1904 and Veronica Seton-
Williams for the Egypt Exploration Society from 1964–1968 but
has since been examined more extensively by an Egyptian expedition
and a German expedition since 1985.

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BUBASTIS


BUBASTIS. Greek name for the Egyptian city of Per-Bastet, capital of
the 18th nome of Lower Egypt, now Tell Basta. The principal deity
worshipped in Bubastis was the cat-headed or lioness-headed goddess
Bastet. Remains have been found from the Old Kingdom, but
the town was most prominent in Dynasty 22, which is said to have
originated there. It was excavated by a British expedition from the
Egypt Exploration Fund from 1887–1889 and by Egyptian Egyptologists,
notably Labib Habachi in 1939 and from 1943–1944,
Shafik Farid from 1961–1967, Ahmad el-Sawi from 1967–1971, and
more recently Muhammad Bakr since 1978 and a joint expedition of
Zagazig University and Potsdam University since 1996

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BOOK OF THE DEAD


BOOK OF THE DEAD. The name given to a type of papyrus often
buried with the dead from the New Kingdom onward. The papyrus
contained a number of magical spells that would enable the deceased
to successfully reach the next world. The most important spell concerned
the ritual of the weighing of the heart against the feather of
maat to determine the deceased’s worthiness to enter the afterlife,
and the spell was supposed to fix the balance in the deceased’s favor.
Some books of the dead were decorated with elaborate vignettes and
scenes depicting funerals and rituals. Some were obviously produced
as special commissions, but there were stock examples available for
purchase in which the name of the deceased could be filled in blank
spaces or in some cases not filled in at all. See also RELIGION

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GEBEL EL-ZEIT


GEBEL EL-ZEIT. Modern name for a area in the Eastern Desert on the Red Sea coast north of modern Hurghada where the lead mines exploited by the ancient Egyptians from the Middle Kingdom to the New Kingdom were located. The site was discovered in 1982 and excavated from 1982–1986 by a French expedition. Apart from the mines, the site included small sanctuaries erected by the miners, notably to the deities Hathor, Horus, and Min, as well as graffiti. The lead was used for the production of eye makeup known by the Arabic word kohl.

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GEBEL EL-SILSILA




GEBEL EL-SILSILA. Ancient Khenu. A sandstone quarry on the
banks of the Nile between Thebes and Elephantine (Aswan) that
was used from the New Kingdom onward. There are remains of
rock-cut shrines, notably one of Horemheb.

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