Giza
{gee'-zuh}
Giza is an industrial center and the administrative capital of Giza governorate, Egypt. It is located on the west bank of the Nile River opposite CAIRO, to which it is linked by bridges over the islands of Roda and Gezira. The population is 2,096,000 (1991 est.). A prosperous suburb of Cairo, Giza is noted for its shopping districts, zoological and botanical gardens, and museum of agriculture. The University of Cairo (1924) is there.
Some 8 km (5 mi) southwest of Giza are the Great SPHINX and the three large PYRAMIDS of Khufu (Cheops), Khafre, and Menkaure, built between 2613 and 2494 BC. One of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, these great monuments are a major tourist attraction. Industrial pollution, urban sprawl, and the construction of a controversial new superhighway threaten these and other historic sites in the vicinity.
Glass
Glass, hard substance, usually brittle and transparent, composed chiefly
of silicates and an alkali fused at high temperatures. Metallic oxides
impart color. In prehistoric times objects were fashioned from natural
glass such as obsidian (a volcanic substance) and rock crystal (a transparent
quartz). The oldest extant manufactured glass is from Egypt, c.2000 B.C.
Many types were made in Roman times, but little is known of European glassmaking
from the fall of Rome until the 10th cent., when STAINED GLASS appeared.
Methods have changed little since ancient times. The materials are fused at high temperatures in seasoned fireclay containers, boiled down, skimmed, and cooled several degrees; then the molten glass is ladled or poured into molds and pressed, or it is blown or drawn. The shaped glass is annealed to relieve stresses caused by manipulation, then slowly cooled. Until the 17th cent. the finest glass was made in Venice; later France and England became centers of glassmaking.
In the 20th cent. many new types have been developed, including fiberglass
and safety glass, but in some uses glass has been superseded by PLASTIC.
Despite mass production, glassmaking by hand remains a valued art.
Great Mother of the Gods
Great Mother of the Gods, in ancient Middle Eastern religion (and later
in Greece, Rome, and W Asia), mother goddess, the great symbol of the earth's
fertility. As the creative force in nature, she was worshiped under many
names, including ASTARTE (Syria), CERES (Rome), CYBELE (Phrygia), DEMETER
(Greece), ISHTAR (Babylon), and ISIS (Egypt). The later forms of her cult
involved the worship of a male deity (her son or lover, e.g., ADONIS, OSIRIS),
whose death and resurrection symbolized the regenerative power of the earth.
Hatshepsut
{haht-shep'-sut}
Hatshepsut, d. c.1482 BC, an Egyptian queen of the 18th dynasty, was the only woman to rule Egypt as a pharaoh. After the death (c.1504 BC) of her husband, THUTMOSE II, she assumed power, first as regent for his son THUTMOSE III, and then (c.1503 BC) as pharaoh. She encouraged commercial expansion and sponsored a major building program; the monuments of her reign include the temple at Deir el-Bahri. Toward the end of her reign she lost influence to Thutmose III.
Headline History: B.C.
Headline History: B.C. Before Christ or Before Common Era (B.C.E.) 5 billion
B.C. Planet Earth formed. 3 billion B.C. First signs of primeval life (bacteria
and blue-green algae) appear in oceans. 600 million B.C. Earliest date
to which fossils can be traced. 1.7 million B.C. First discernible hominids
( Australopithecus and Homo habilis). Early hunters and food-gatherers.
500,000 B.C. Homo erectus (crude chopping tools). 70,000 B.C.
Neanderthal man (use of fire and advanced tools). 35,000 B.C. Neanderthal man being replaced by later groups of Homo sapiens (i.e. Cro-Magnon man, etc.). 18,000 B.C. Cro-Magnons being replaced by later cultures. 15,000 B.C. Migrations across Bering Straits into the Americas. 10,000 B.C. Semi-permanent agricultural settlements in Old World. 10,000-4,000 B.C. Development of settlements into cities and development of skills such as the wheel, pottery and improved methods of cultivation in Mesopotamia and elsewhere. 4500-3000 B.C.
Sumerians in the Tigris and Euphrates valleys develop a city-state civilization; first phonetic writing (c.3500 B.C.). Egyptian agriculture develops. Western Europe is neolithic, without metals or written records. Earliest recorded date in Egyptian calendar (4241 B.C.). First year of Jewish calendar (3760 B.C.). Copper used by Egyptians and Sumerians. 3000-2000 B.C. Pharaonic rule begins in Egypt.
Cheops, 4th dynasty (2700-2675 B.C.). The Great Sphinx of Giza. Earliest Egyptian mummies. Papyrus. Phoenician settlements on coast of what is now Syria and Lebanon. Semitic tribes settle in Assyria. Sargon, first Akkadian king, builds Mesopotamian empire. The Gilgamesh epic (c.3000 B.C.). Abraham leaves Ur (c.2000 B.C.). Systematic astronomy in Egypt, Babylon, India, China. 3000-1500 B.C.
The most ancient civilization on the Indian subcontinent, the sophisticated and extensive Indus Valley civilization, flourishes in what is today Pakistan. 2000-1500 B.C. Hyksos invaders drive Egyptians from Lower Egypt (17th century B.C.). Amosis I frees Egypt from Hyksos (c.1600 B.C.). Assyrians rise to power—cities of Ashur and Nineveh. Twenty-four-character alphabet in Egypt. Israelites enslaved in Egypt.
Cuneiform inscriptions used by Hittites. Peak of Minoan culture on Isle of Crete—earliest form of written Greek. Hammurabi, king of Babylon, develops oldest existing code of laws (18th century B.C.). In Britain, Stonehenge erected on some unknown astronomical rationale. 1500-1000 B.C. Ikhnaton develops monotheistic religion in Egypt (c.1375 B.C.). His successor, Tutankhamen, returns to earlier gods.
Moses leads Israelites out of Egypt into Canaan—Ten Commandments. Greeks destroy Troy (c.1193 B.C.). End of Greek civilization in Mycenae with invasion of Dorians. Chinese civilization develops under Shang dynasty. Olmec civilization in Mexico—stone monuments; picture writing. 1000-900 B.C. Solomon succeeds King David, builds Jerusalem temple. After Solomon's death, kingdom divided into Israel and Judah.
Hebrew elders begin to write Old Testament books of Bible. Phoenicians colonize Spain with settlement at Cadiz. 900-800 B.C. Phoenicians establish Carthage (c.810 B.C.). The Iliad and the Odyssey, perhaps composed by Greek poet Homer. 800-700 B.C. Prophets Amos, Hosea, Isaiah. First recorded Olympic games (776 B.C.). Legendary founding of Rome by Romulus (753 B.C.). Assyrian king Sargon II conquers Hittites, Chaldeans, Samaria (end of Kingdom of Israel). Earliest written music.
Chariots introduced into Italy by Etruscans. 700-600 B.C. End of Assyrian Empire (616 B.C.). —Nineveh destroyed by Chaldeans (Neo-Babylonians) and Medes (612 B.C.). Founding of Byzantium by Greeks (c.660 B.C.). Building of the Acropolis in Athens. Solon, Greek lawgiver (640-560 B.C.). Sappho of Lesbos, Greek poetess, Lao-Tse, Chinese philosopher and founder of Taoism (born c.604 B.C.). 600-500 B.C.
Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar builds empire, destroys Jerusalem (586 B.C. ). Babylonian Captivity of the Jews (starting 587 B.C. ). Hanging Gardens of Babylon. Cyrus the Great of Persia creates great empire, conquers Babylon (539 B.C. ), frees the Jews. Athenian democracy develops. Aeschylus, Greek dramatist (525-465 B.C. ). Confucius (551-479 B.C. ) develops philosophy-religion in China. Buddha (563-483 B.C. ) founds Buddhism in India.
500-400 B.C. Greeks defeat Persians: battles of Marathon (490 B.C. ), Thermopylae (480 B.C. ), Salamis (480 B.C. ). Peloponnesian Wars between Athens and Sparta (431-404 B.C. ) —Sparta victorious. Pericles comes to power in Athens (462 B.C. ). Flowering of Greek culture during the Age of Pericles (450-400 B.C. ). Sophocles, Greek dramatist (496-c.406 B.C. ). Hippocrates, Greek “Father of Medicine” (born 460 B.C. ). Xerxes I, king of Persia (rules 485-465 B.C. ). 400-300 B.C.
Pentateuch—first five books of the Old Testament evolve in final form. Philip of Macedon assassinated (336 B.C. ) after conquering Greece; succeeded by son, Alexander the Great (356-323 B.C. ) who destroys Thebes (335 B.C. ), conquers Tyre and Jerusalem (332 B.C. ), occupies Babylon (330 B.C. ), invades India, and dies in Babylon. His empire is divided among his generals; one of them, Seleucis I, establishes Middle East empire with capitals at Antioch (Syria) and Seleucia (in Iraq). Trial and execution of Greek philosopher Socrates (399 B.C. ). Dialogues recorded by his student, Plato. Euclid's work on geometry (323 B.C. ) . Aristotle, Greek philosopher (384-322 B.C. ). Demosthenes, Greek orator (384-322 B.C. ). Praxiteles, Greek sculptor (400-330 B.C. ).
300-251 B.C. First Punic War (264-241 B.C. ): Rome defeats the Carthaginians and begins its domination of the Mediterranean. Temple of the Sun at Teotihuacan, Mexico (c.300 B.C. ). Invention of Mayan calendar in Yucatán—more exact than older calendars. First Roman gladiatorial games (264 B.C. ). Archimedes, Greek mathematician (287-212 B.C. ).
250-201 B.C. Second Punic War (219-201 B.C. ): Hannibal, Carthaginian general (246-142 B.C. ), crosses the Alps (218 B.C. ), reaches gates of Rome (211 B.C. ), retreats, and is defeated by Scipio Africanus at Zama (202 B.C. ). Great Wall of China built (c.215 B.C. ).
200-151 B.C. Romans defeat Seleucid King Antiochus III at Thermopylae (191 B.C. ) — beginning of Roman world domination. Maccabean revolt against Seleucids (167 B.C. ).
150-101 B.C. Third Punic War (149-146 B.C. ): Rome destroys Carthage, killing 450,000 and enslaving the remaining 50,000 inhabitants. Roman armies conquer Macedonia, Greece, Anatolia, Balearic Islands, and southern France. Venus de Milo (c.140 B.C. ). Cicero, Roman orator (106-43 B.C. ).
100-51 B.C. Julius Caesar (100-44 B.C. ) invades Britain (55 B.C.
) and conquers.
Heliopolis
Heliopolis, [Gr., = city of the sun], ancient city, N EGYPT, in the Nile
delta, 6 mi (10 km) below Cairo. It was the center of sun worship, and
its god RA or Re was the state deity until THEBES became the capital (c.2100
B.C.), when the gods AMON and Ra were combined as Amon-Ra. Its famous schools
declined after the founding of Alexandria (332 B.C.).
Hieroglyphic
Hieroglyphic, [Gr., = priestly carving], type of WRITING used in ancient
EGYPT. Similar pictographic styles of Crete, Asia Minor, and Central America
and Mexico are also called hieroglyphics. Interpretation of Egyptian hieroglyphics,
begun by J.F. CHAMPOLLION, is virtually complete; the other hieroglyphics
are still imperfectly understood. Hieroglyphics are conventionalized pictures
used chiefly to represent meanings that seem arbitrary and are seldom obvious.
Egyptian hieroglyphics were already perfected in the first dynasty
(3110–2884 B.C.), but they began to go out of use in the Middle Kingdom
and after 500 B.C. were virtually unused. There were basically 604 symbols
that might be put to three uses (although few were used for all three purposes):
as an ideogram, as when a sign resembling a tree meant “tree”; as a phonogram,
as when an owl represented the sign m, because the word for owl had m as
its principal consonant; or as a determinative, an unpronounced symbol
placed after an ambiguous sign to indicate its classification (e.g., an
eye to indicate that the preceding word has to do with looking or seeing).
The phonograms provided a basis for the development of the ALPHABET.
Horus
{hohr'-uhs}
In Egyptian mythology Horus was the god of light who personified the life-giving power of the Sun. He was usually represented as a falcon-headed man wearing a sun disk as a crown. Horus was the child of OSIRIS and ISIS and the brother of SET. He avenged his father's murder by killing Set and thus became the ruler of Egypt. The reigning kings of Egypt were believed to be incarnations of Horus.
In a variant legend Horus was the son of Re (or AMON-RE). He was known as Harpocrates by the Greeks and Romans, who worshiped him as the god of silence; he was represented in this context as a child with his finger held to his lips.
HUMAN REMAINS
This is not the place to describe the techniques of Egyptian mummification. The human remains from TT99 have yet to be studied, but so far there are the remains of around 10 persons.
Below is the mummy of Wedjahor, one of the people to be buried in the tomb at the end of the Third Intermediate Period. In his case, we think we can date the burial precisely to 705 BC, due to fragments of inscribed linen found on and close to the mummy shown below.
The mummy of Wedjahor
Hyksos
Hyksos, [Egyptian, = rulers of foreign lands], invaders of ancient EGYPT,
now substantiated as the XV–XVII dynasties. A northwestern Semitic people,
they entered Egypt c.1720–1710 B.C. and subdued the Middle Kingdom pharaohs.
The Hyksos established a peaceful, prosperous reign. Their introduction
of Canaanite deities and Asian artifacts broke down the isolationism of
Egypt.
Ibis
Ibis, wading BIRD with long, slender, downcurved bill, found in warmer
regions of the world. Its body is usually about 2 ft (61 cm) long; most
feed on fish and other aquatic animals. The sacred ibis of ancient Egypt
( Threskiornis aethiopica ), a white and black bird, no longer frequents
the NILE basin, although it inhabits other parts of Africa.
The Ibizan hound
The Ibizan hound, or Podenco ibicenco, is believed to have originated on
the island of Ibiza, one of the Balearic Islands off the eastern coast
of Spain , although dogs of a similar type are depicted on artifacts from
ancient Egyptian tombs. Although similar to a greyhound in appearance,
the breed hunts largely by scent rather than by sight. The dog is tall
and lean, with a long head and tail, small eyes, and large, erect ears
turned to the front.
There are two coat varieties: short and wire. Coat colors may be solid red, tawny (called lion), or white, or either of the darker colors mixed with white. Males are 60-74 cm (23.5-29 in) high at the shoulders and weigh 22.5 kg (50 lb). They were first brought to the United States in 1954 and won full American Kennel Club recognition in 1979.
Iconography
Iconography, in art history, the study and interpretation of figural representations
and their symbolic meanings. Each epoch develops its own iconography, and
the term is qualified to indicate specific study areas, e.g., the iconography
of Egyptian deities, Buddhist or Hindu iconography, Byzantine iconography.
The aim of iconography is to recover and express the thought from which
a convention or representation has arisen, particularly in interpreting
symbols.
For example, the medieval reminder of the transitory quality of earthly pleasure was symbolized by a skull, candle, and hourglass. In Christian iconography, one of the richest and most varied in art, the symbolic code includes the use of the dove to signify the Holy Spirit and the fish to symbolize Jesus Christ (from the Greek ichthus , an acrostic). In every art the conventions and symbols change with time and can often be recovered only by intensive study.
Among the foremost iconographic scholars are Émile Mâle,
Aby Warburg, and Erwin PANOFSKY.
Inscription
Inscription is writing in the form of letters, words, or other conventional
symbols cut into a permanent material for the purpose of conveying and
preserving information. The earliest writings probably appeared in the
form of inscription, which later gave rise to the related art of CALLIGRAPHY,
or fine writing on perishable materials such as papyrus, parchment, and
paper. The origins of writing and the evolution of alphabetic systems can
be traced through epigraphy, the study of ancient inscriptions (see WRITING
SYSTEMS, EVOLUTION OF).
Ancient inscriptions appear on diverse types of hard material, including marble, crystalline limestone, and other varieties of stone; metals such as bronze, gold, and silver; and bone, ivory, clay, and wood--although few examples of the last have survived. The inscribers' tools have varied, depending on the surface used; common implements include the chisel, often formed with a square blade; a stylus, with one end blunt and the other pointed, for impressing inscriptions into clay before firing; and a punch or pointed hammer, when hard stone is being worked.
Throughout history inscriptions have been executed on temples or churches, civic buildings, monuments, tombs, statues, vases, and coins; sometimes the text is accompanied by pictorial reliefs. Inscriptions have frequently been used for public announcements or administrative documents recording political and religious decrees, law codes, public and private contracts, treaties and other matters of state, dedications, benefactions, and honors. As such, they serve as an invaluable source of historical information, both social and political. Modern inscriptions are most often found on building facades, cornerstones, and tombstones, on which occurs the oldest continuous use of inscription.
Inscriptions are generally composed primarily of alphabetic or phonetic symbols. Often they also contain numerals. Initials or abbreviations were used but not commonly until the advent of Roman inscriptions; certain Latin styles were composed entirely of such formulas. Late Greek and Latin inscriptions also sometimes include monograms. These appear frequently, often in forms that are difficult to interpret, in the inscriptions of the Early Christian and Byzantine periods.
Some form of punctuation is generally found within inscriptions because words are seldom separated by spaces. In Greek inscriptions a vertical line, a dot, or a series of dots marks the end of a sentence, phrase, or word. Roman inscriptions use a single dot for such distinctions. In Christian inscriptions the beginning of the text is indicated by a cross whereas a leaf or other symbol signifies the end. The direction of inscriptions also varies, from vertical arrangements to horizontal sequences to placements in patterns. Semitic inscriptions, including those of the Phoenicians, read from right to left, as do the earliest Greek inscriptions. The left-to-right direction was not standardized by the Greeks until the 5th century BC; it was later adopted by the Romans and consequently by all the European languages.
Early Inscription
The history of Western inscription began in Mesopotamia, where in about 4000 BC the Sumerians developed CUNEIFORM. This writing system consists of characters made with wedge-shaped strokes impressed into clay, brick, or stone. By the 2d millennium BC an alphabet of 29 cuneiform signs was in use at ancient UGARIT; these signs closely resemble Hebrew and Phoenician letters. Many thousand tablets and fragments inscribed in Sumerian from the first half of the 2d millennium BC exist, a number of them excavated at NIPPUR. Cuneiform inscriptions have also been discovered at AMARNA, BOGAZKOY, EBLA, LAGASH, NINEVEH, SUSA, and URUK. Cuneiform was also the system used by the HITTITES at Elam; Old Persian, the writing of the ACHAEMENIDS, was a revised form of cuneiform writing. The famous BEHISTUN inscriptions of Darius I, dated c.500 BC, exemplify Achaemenid script; with the conquest of these regions by Alexander the Great, Greek became the dominant inscribed language.
Egyptian inscriptions in the form of HIEROGLYPHIC writing date from the 1st dynasty (4th millennium BC). The system of inscription established then continued in use with only minor modifications until the time of the Romans. A fine example of the Egyptian style is preserved in the form of rock inscriptions at THEBES. Another renowned epigraphical monument is the ROSETTA STONE, discovered in 1799. This basalt tablet, dated 196 BC, was inscribed in three languages: ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs, demotic (an Egyptian cursive script), and Greek. By studying the royal names enclosed in cartouches (oval frames) and comparing the inscriptions, J. F. CHAMPOLLION was able to assign phonetic values to some of the hieroglyphs and eventually to the entire system.
On the Aegean island of Crete an independent hieroglyphic system existed, replaced in the beginning of the Middle Minoan period (1750-1450 BC) by a linear script, read from left to right, which developed into the script known as Linear A; this in turn was followed by another script, designated LINEAR B. Thousands of examples of these scripts inscribed on tablets, ranging in date from c.3000 BC to the fall of Knossos (c.1400 BC), have been excavated at sites on Crete and on the Greek mainland.
Phoenician inscriptions date from c.1000 BC; the Phoenician alphabet, adapted and modified by the Greeks at an uncertain date, remained in use until the 3d century BC. The earliest Greek inscriptions date from the 7th century BC. At first each Greek state had its own alphabet, but in 403 BC, under the archon Euclides, the Ionian alphabet--still used for Greek capital letters--was officially adopted by Athens and soon spread throughout Greece. The art of inscription flourished, evidenced by the innumerable writings found on vases, coins, statues, votive offerings, and relief panels. Records of temple expenditures, decrees, bookkeeping accounts, ostraca (sherds of pottery used for voting), lists of citizens, and annals were also inscribed, notable examples being the exquisitely carved Parian Chronicle from Paros and the Gortyna code of property laws, executed during the 5th century BC. An unusual example of early Greek inscription appears in the form of graffiti scratched (c.590 BC) by Greek mercenaries on the legs of the colossal statues of Abu Simbel in Egypt.
Latin Inscription
From the Greek alphabet were derived various local Italic alphabets, including that of the Etruscans and that of the Chalcidean colony of Cumae, on which the Roman alphabet was based. The Roman inscriptional style, in wide use from the 3d century BC, persists in essentially the same form to the present day. The influence of Latin inscription extended throughout the Roman Empire. In Gaul, concurrent with Latin inscriptions of the late republic, a form of Celtic inscription appeared, based on Greek letters. Later, during the Christian period, Celtic inscriptions were written in ogham, one of the Irish runic languages. This writing was alphabetical and apparently an independent invention, based on arbitrary symbols much like a Morse code. The Germanic runes, much used in the same region, were derived from the Greek or Latin alphabets.
Early Christian stoneworkers adapted the old forms of Latin inscription, first in the CATACOMBS and later in the churches. Modern monumental inscriptions continue the tradition, modified by a series of classical revivals, especially by the Renaissance. The custom of placing Latin and Greek inscriptions on buildings and monuments endures, with these two classical languages still considered the appropriate languages for religious, public, and private epigraphical documents.
Non-Western Traditions
Important epigraphic traditions of the New World include the hieroglyphic inscriptions on stone monuments (stelae) of the AZTEC, MAYA, and TOLTEC cultures (see PRE-COLUMBIAN ART AND ARCHITECTURE) as well as the enigmatic rock inscriptions of EASTER ISLAND. In China the earliest known inscriptions were executed on bronze vessels and ORACLE BONES of the Shang dynasty (c.1600-1027 BC; see CHINESE ART AND ARCHITECTURE). After the Chinese invention of paper in about AD 100, inscription was relegated to a lesser role. At Harappa and Mohenjo-daro, two major sites of the INDUS CIVILIZATION, low-relief inscriptions made on steatite seals dated from c.2500 BC. An important inscription from the early Buddhist period in India is the Prakrit of ASOKA, dated 3d century BC.
Ikhnaton
Ikhnaton ¹knä´t…n, or Akhenaton ä#k…nä´t…n
d. c.1354 B.C., Egyptian king (c.1372–54) of the XVIII dynasty; son of
Amenhotep III. A religious innovator, he abandoned polytheism to embrace
an absolute solar monotheism, holding that the sun alone was God and he
the sun's physical son. Under him a new school of artists abandoned convention
and returned to nature (to glorify the sun). His fanaticism was his undoing;
he defaced earlier monuments, arousing the anger of the priests and the
people. Neglecting the provinces, he left to his successors only EGYPT
and the upper NILE valley, not the empire he had inherited. Of the art
works of his reign, the bust of his wife, NEFERTITI, is the most famous.
Illumination
Illumination, in art, decoration of manuscripts and books with colored,
gilded pictures; decorated initials; and ornamental borders. Both ink outline
and color drawings were common, the color medium usually being TEMPERA.
Executed largely in monasteries, illuminations were commonly applied to
religious books, including gospels, psalters, and BOOKS OF HOURS. The earliest
known illustrated rolls are from ancient Egypt, e.g., BOOK OF THE DEAD.
It is thought that by the 2d cent. A.D. the papyrus roll was replaced by the parchment codex (leaved book), which produced a compact framework for illuminations. Outstanding examples of the art of illumination include the 7th- and 8th-cent. works of the Irish school, with their rich geometric designs and human and animal interlacing, e.g., Book of Kells; Romanesque illumination of the 12th cent., with its beautifully decorated initials and stylized figures, e.g., Winchester Bible; Gothic miniatures of the 13th cent., strikingly parallel to STAINED GLASS in color and outline; works of the early 15th cent., marked by realism, elegance, and a wealth of marginal ornament, e.g., Très Riches Heures.
Illumination continued as a vigorous form until the end of the 15th
cent., when it began to be replaced by woodblock printing. Illumination
was also highly developed in the Middle East and E Asia.