Tell el-Amarna
Tell el-Amarna, on the east bank of the Nile about 306 km (190 mi) south
of Cairo, was the capital of Egypt under the heretic King AKHENATEN (Amenhotep
IV, c.1379-1362 BC). This 18th-dynasty ruler founded the city as the center
of his monotheistic religion dedicated to the worship of the sun god Aten.
Tell el-Amarna is a misnomer, combining the name of the village Et-Tell
with that of a tribe, the Beni Amran, who settled nearby approximately
two centuries ago. Its ancient name was Akhetaten, meaning "horizon
of Aten."
Akhenaten chose the site for the city and planned its layout, a record of which was carved on 14 stelae marking its boundaries, three west of the Nile. The administrative offices, the chief palace, and the great temple of Aten stood in the center of the city, flanking the main road. In this region most of the so-called Amarna tablets--diplomatic correspondence in CUNEIFORM script with rulers and vassals in western Asia--were found by chance in 1887.
The site was extensively excavated (1891-92) by Sir Flinders PETRIE and by later British and German expeditions. In the crescent-shaped rocks east of the city, the Egyptians constructed tombs of the courtiers, mostly unfinished, and the tomb of the king. The tombs are famous for their lively wall reliefs, the scenes being executed in the so-called Amarna style, which radically departs from the expressive restraint of most Egyptian art (see EGYPT, ANCIENT). Early in his reign Tutankhamen (c.1361-1351 BC) abandoned Tell el-Amarna and restored the capital to Thebes.
Asoka
Asoka, d. c.232 B.C., Indian emperor (c.273–c.232 B.C.) of the MAURYA dynasty.
One of the greatest of the ancient rulers, he brought nearly all of INDIA
together. However, he sickened of war, turned (c.257 B.C.) to BUDDHISM,
and thereafter professed nonviolence. He sent Buddhist missionaries as
far afield as Greece and Egypt, and was largely responsible for transforming
Buddhism into a world religion.
AWESOME EGYPTIAN EVENTS
Time 3200-2300 BC Dynasty 1-6 Old Kingdom
Upper and Lower Egypt joined together and Nile floods controlled by dam building. Hieroglyphic writing in common use by scribes, and calendar invented. The first pyramids built, including the Great Pyramid of Cheops.
Time 2300-2050 BC Dynasty 7-11 First Intermediate Period
Events Weak Rule by Pepy leads to revolution and mob violence. Starvation for many peasants.
Time 2050-1775 BC Dynasty 11-12 Middle Kingdom
Events Clever Pharaohs. Art, craft and writing very rich with huge temples being built and decorated. First bakeries in the world started in Egypt.
Time 1775-1575 BC Dynasty 13-17 Second Intermediate Period
Events 'Shepherd Kings' - invaders from Asia-rule the North. Horses and chariots beginning to be used. First sweets in the world made in Egypt. Better spinning and weaving. New musical instruments such as the oboe and tambourine.
Time 1575-1085 BC Dynasty 18-20 New Kingdom
Events 'Shepherd Kings' thrown out . The greatest period in Egypt's history. Rock tombs in the Valley of the Kings started. Tutankhamun lived and died. Rameses II fights Hittites in great battle at Kadesh. Books of the Dead written on papyrus. Hebrew slaves in Egypt led to freedom by Moses.
Time 1085-709 BC Dynasty 21-24 Decadence Period
Events Gradual decline of the Egyptian kings. Egypt has to use soldiers from Lybia to fight its battles.
Time 709-332 BC Dynasty 25-30 Late Period
Events Egypt ruled by Persian kings. Egypt invaded by Assyrians. Nubian rulers are first people to encourage the study of History.
Time 332-30 BC Dynasty The Ptolemic Period
Events Egypt conquered by Alexander the great of Greece. Ruled by the Ptolemy family - Greeks. Last Queen of Egypt was Cleopatra.
Time 30 BC
Events Egypt part of the Roman Empire. Egypt is used to supply food to the Roman world.
Time 641 AD
Events Egypt conquered by the Arabs.
BENT PYRAMID OF SNEFERU
Dahshur Dynasty IV, 2680-2565 B.C.
The bent pyramid is transitional.
Biblical archaeology
Biblical archaeology, ARCHAEOLOGY of the biblical lands, especially the
ancient Middle East; its artifacts augment extant texts to recreate the
cultural setting of biblical times. Developed by the British biblical scholar
Edward Robinson in the early 19th cent., biblical archaeology first focused
on ancient PALESTINE (see MEGIDDO and SAMARIA). Because few written materials
or monuments survive in that area, the system of dating pottery developed
by Flinders PETRIE at Tel-el-Hesy was especially significant.
Israeli archaeologists excavated a number of
major tells. Outside Palestine, important excavations in ancient EGYPT,
SUMER, ASSYRIA, and JORDAN have also greatly increased understanding of
the Bible (see especially UR and EBLA). The findings of biblical archaeology
since the 1940s indicate that historically the Old Testament is unexpectedly
accurate and that the GOSPELS are of greater antiquity than had been thought
(see DEAD SEA SCROLLS; NAG HAMMADI).
The Book of the Dead
The Book of the Dead is a compilation of more than 100 texts translated
and collated from Egyptian papyri of the 18th and 19th dynasties. The handpainted
originals are considered works of art. The texts, religious and poetic
in spirit, are largely songs, hymns to the gods, and prayers to AMON-RE
and OSIRIS. Committed to memory, these texts were supposed to aid the dead,
giving the soul directions for the journey through the underworld and words
or magic spells to protect it from its enemies.
The book is thus a primary source for the major religious beliefs of ancient Egypt: immortality of the soul, resurrection of the body, descent into the underworld, spiritual rebirth for believers, and final judgment before Osiris. The Papyrus of Nebseni (British Museum) lists the commandments, or the negative confession, that each soul recited before the seat of judgment.
Bronze sculpture
Bronze is an ideal alloy for casting, engraving, and repoussé work.
When melted, it flows into the crevices of a mold, reproducing every detail;
once hardened, it is easily worked with a tool. The ancient Egyptians used
bronze for utensils, armor, and statuary, and outstanding bronzes have
been made in East Asia since ancient times. Unexcelled in bronze sculpture,
the Greeks created such masterpieces as The Zeus of Artemesium (National
Mus., Athens) and The Delphic Charioteer (Delphi Mus.).
Copying Greek models, the Romans made thousands of bronze sculptures, as well as utilitarian objects. Most medieval bronzes were utensils and ornaments. During the RENAISSANCE, Italian sculptors wrought magnificent bronzes, such as the GHIBERTI doors to the baptistery of Florence and sculpture by DONATELLO, VERROCCHIO, and CELLINI. In the 18th cent. France was well known for gilded bronze furniture mounts.
Major modern sculptors who have worked in bronze
include RODIN, EPSTEIN, BRANCUSI, Henry MOORE, and Lipschitz.
Cairo
Cairo, city (1986 pop. 6,052,836), capital of Egypt, N Egypt, a port on
the Nile R., near the head of its delta. Cairo is Egypt's administrative
center and, along with ALEXANDRIA, the heart of its economy. Manufactures
include textiles, food products, chemicals, and plastics. It was founded
in A.D. 969 by the FATIMID dynasty as capital of Egypt. In 1517 it became
part of the OTTOMAN EMPIRE. Cairo fell to NAPOLEON I in 1798 and to the
British in 1801.
During WORLD WAR II it was Allied headquarters
in the Middle East. In the late 1970s Cairo became an important Middle
Eastern financial and commercial center. Cairo has many mosques, palaces,
museums, and universities, and the headquarters of the ARAB LEAGUE are
there.
Howard Carter
Howard Carter, b. May 9, 1873, d. Mar. 2, 1939, was the English Egyptologist
responsible for the discovery of the tomb of King TUTANKHAMEN. In 1891
he joined the Egypt Exploration Fund as a draftsman and received training
in excavation and surveying from Sir Flinders Petrie and others. He became
inspector general of the antiquities department of the Egyptian government
in 1899 and supervised (1902-03) a number of tomb excavations in the Valley
of the Kings.
From 1907 he worked there with Lord Carnarvon and in November 1922 located the entrance to Tutankhamen's tomb. The recovery and description of the spectacular finds are related in The Tomb of Tut-ankh-Amen by Carter and A. C. Mace.
Cats
All cats, from large jungle cats to small house cats, belong to the CAT
FAMILY, Felidae, order Carnivora. This article discusses the domestic cat,
Felis catus catus, a species indigenous to the Old World that includes
such related forms as the European wildcat, F. catus sylvestris, the African
wildcat, F. catus lybica, and perhaps some other distinct groups. The domestic
cat is apparently not a separate species: there is evidence of hybridization
and interfertility between it and the wild races.
The domestic form is most clearly related to the African wild race, which also ranges into areas of the Middle East. Domestic cats acquired wild-type genes wherever domestic populations were established near wild regions. Domestic populations may therefore differ from one another because of such regional contacts. Today, however, such genetic exchanges are limited to those few refuge areas where wild cats have not been exterminated.
CATS IN HISTORY
The domestic cat has evolved as an urban scavenger and may have originated about 8000 BC, when nomadic humans settled into village life. From archaeological and anatomical evidence, however, it is impossible to distinguish wild from domestic types until New Kingdom times (1570-c.1085 BC) in Egypt.
The cat was then bred by a religious cult and worshiped as a sacred animal. This episode of cultism in Egypt has perhaps been exaggerated and, in any event, distorted in terms of its implications for the domestication process. The cultism was undoubtedly the culmination of a long-standing familiarity between humans and cats but was not critical in bringing about the domestication of the species.
Although the cat cult was spectacular, the Egyptians domesticated many species, from snakes to gazelles, and the cat may simply have been bred to protect granaries from rodents.
The spread of domestic cats appears to have followed the pattern of progressive urbanization. The appearance of local domestic cat populations therefore correlates with the spread of civilization from the Middle East, and domestic cats now inhabit every continent except Antarctica and most of the world's oceanic islands. Cats have reverted to a wild state in many habitats where they were not originally found, and in some places they persist even though humans have abandoned the area.
DISTRIBUTION OF CATS
Recent studies indicate that cat populations range from sparse to more than 2,000 per square mile, depending on several factors. The largest populations exist in urban areas, especially in so-called Mediterranean climates, where opportunities abound for year-round food and shelter. Only in certain regions such as Western Europe and North America are cats kept as pets in numbers sufficient to support such large, subsidiary industries as veterinary services, pet foods and novelty products, welfare societies, and publications. Elsewhere, cats are tolerated but not regarded as pets.
Their impact on urban ecology is difficult to judge, and basic studies to assess their role in vermin control and as disease vectors are needed.
THE CAT AS SCAVENGER
Apart from a decrease in body size, the most notable anatomical contrast between domesticated and wild cats is the increased intestinal length in the former. This may correlate with the cat's turning from chiefly predatory to chiefly scavenging habits, and the resulting reliance on a low-protein diet. Theoretically, increased small-intestinal length would maximize absorption of amino acids from a minimum protein diet.
Domestic cats, like their ancestors and contemporary relatives, are twilight hunter-scavengers. The urban domestic cat has largely shifted toward scavenging behavior. One study of the stomach contents of stray city cats revealed that only 3 percent of their diet comprised rodents; the balance was garbage.
Many studies have been devoted to the question of the depredations of cats on birds. Cats would seem to have only a modest effect, and generalizations are risky.
BREEDING HABITS
Domestic cats, like their wild relatives, are seasonally polyestrous; they breed more than once a year, depending on conditions. The breeding cycle is controlled by sensitivity to light. At equatorial latitudes, where there are longer periods of daylight, cats may breed throughout the year and have three or four litters. In temperate latitudes, they normally have two litters a year, one in the early spring and another in late summer.
Domestic cats living under artificial light may breed at any time. Reproductive life begins at 7.5 months and continues until an advanced age--15 years or more. The gestation period is usually 63 days, and the average litter is four kittens, except for the usually smaller first litter, and litters born to older females (8 years of age or over).
HEALTH
A cat's normal body temperature is 38.6 deg C (101.5 deg F), with variations of 0.5 deg C (1 deg F) above or below. The critical environmental temperature for the cat is about 36 deg C (97 deg F), at which point its body temperature rises and the cat begins to pant to cool itself. Cats have sweat glands both in the pads of their feet (eccrine glands) and scattered over their bodies (apocrine glands), but sweating is not a temperature-regulating mechanism in cats.
One of the most common and destructive cat diseases is feline viral rhinotracheitis, commonly called FVR or cat flu. It is not contagious to humans or other animals. An infected cat develops a fever in two to five days, begins sneezing and drooling, and becomes lethargic. This is followed by a heavy discharge from the eyes and nose, which tends to clog the nostrils and paste the eyelids shut. Treatment consists of antibiotics to counter secondary bacterial infections, cleansing the eyes and nose, and administering fluids to offset dehydration.
Feline distemper, also called panleukopenia, feline enteritis or gastroenteritis, or cat fever or plague, is a common, highly contagious viral disease characterized by its explosive course: death may occur as soon as eight hours after the first signs of illness appear. The virus is transmitted by even brief contact with contaminated material. Dogs are not affected.
Fleas are tiny, dark red, blood-sucking insects that may be seen moving quickly through the cat's hair. Their droppings resemble particles of black sand, and the presence of this gritty substance indicates an infestation of fleas, even if the fleas themselves are not seen.
Fleas can be removed by special shampoos, by powdering with rotenone insecticide, or by the wearing of flea collars (if the cat is not allergic).
Roundworms are slender, whitish worms, 2.5 to 10 cm long (1 to 4 in), with tapered ends. Heavy infestation, especially in kittens, causes coughing, vomiting, potbelly, bad breath, and stunted growth. Roundworms can be transmitted to humans. Treatment consists of administering piperazine tablets.
As with other pets, cats that roam outside the house can bring in parasites and transfer them and the diseases they may carry to humans. Although studies of cats as disease vectors are needed, few of the diseases appear serious; a few cases of BRUCELLOSIS and, extremely rarely, of plague have been reported. Pregnant women are cautioned about handling cats and their litter boxes because of the possibility of transmitting TOXOPLASMOSIS to their fetuses; the eventual effects of the disease when contracted before birth can be quite serious.
Cats may also transmit such infestations as ringworm and roundworm, and some people exhibit a severe allergic reaction to the animals--most likely, it has been suggested, to dried spittle on their fur. Cat-scratch disease, a benign but sometimes painful disease of short duration, has recently been found to be caused by a bacillus; despite its name, the disease may be transmitted by many kinds of scratches besides those of cats.
SENSES AND INTELLIGENCE
Like all felids, domestic cats have senses evolved to facilitate twilight predation. Thus, they are especially well equipped to detect slight movements in semidarkness. The field of visual overlap approximates that found in primates and gives cats full depth perception. Cats are also extremely sensitive to sounds, including frequencies beyond the range of human hearing. Sense of smell is not greatly elaborated in felids, although there is some evidence that olfactory cues are used in courtship behavior.
Domestic cats are apparently no more or less intelligent than wild cats. They may be more versatile than their wild relatives because of adaptations to urban life, but, originating from basically solitary ancestors, they are not as tractable or malleable as other domesticated species. Many of the apparent differences between cat and dog behavior, for example, stem from motivation rather than innate ability. Under controlled behavioral experiments, cats readily perform highly complex tasks.
BREEDS OF CATS
The cat differs strikingly from other domesticated animals, in that it has not, until recently, been bred selectively. Hence, most of the observed genetic changes and variations in cats probably result from inherent adaptations to domesticity or to the perpetuation of novel anomalies. Most of the better-understood genetic variations in cats relate to differences in color, pattern, and texture of the coat, and to such minor skeletal peculiarities as taillessness or supernumerary digits. Cats are remarkably similar in shape and size.
The so-called breeds of cats are normal variants in free-ranging populations that do not transmit their traits generation after generation like pure strains. The Manx cat did indeed originate from the Isle of Man as the result of a local 17th-century mutation, but it does not breed true. There is no evidence that ABYSSINIAN cats are of Ethiopian origin, and Persian cats are actually more common in the Soviet Union than in Iran.
The origin of most of the older so-called breeds appears to be late 19th-century and early 20th-century England, despite the fanciful histories that are frequently proffered.
Cleopatra
Cleopatra was the name of the seven queens of ancient Egypt's Ptolemaic
dynasty. By far the most famous was Cleopatra VII, b. 69 BC. Her extraordinary
efforts to revive Ptolemaic power through her forceful personality and
political skill, and the romantic liaisons with prominent Romans that this
policy involved, have been the subject of much literature, including William
Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra and George Bernard Shaw's Caesar and
Cleopatra.
The daughter of PTOLEMY XII, Cleopatra became joint ruler with her younger brother PTOLEMY XIII in 51 BC. Three years later they fought each other in a civil war, during which the Roman general POMPEY THE GREAT came to Egypt and was assassinated by Ptolemy. Julius CAESAR then invaded Egypt and defeated Ptolemy, who drowned in the Nile. Cleopatra married another brother, Ptolemy XIV, but she also became Caesar's mistress and followed him to Rome, where she stayed until his assassination (44 BC).
Returning to Egypt, Cleopatra ruled with her son by Caesar, Ptolemy XV, called Caesarion, as joint king, Ptolemy XIV having been murdered on her orders. In 41 BC she formed an alliance with Mark ANTONY, whom she married in 37 BC. They planned to set up a vast kingdom to be inherited by her sons by Caesar and Antony. However, Octavian (later AUGUSTUS) defeated Antony and Cleopatra in the Battle of Actium (31 BC) and pursued them to Egypt.
Antony committed suicide. Cleopatra surrendered and sought to establish a relationship with Octavian. Failing, she killed herself in August 30 BC, allowing herself to be bitten by an asp (cobra), the royal symbol of ancient Egypt. Her son, King Ptolemy XV, was murdered, and the Ptolemaic dynasty ended.