Egypt Articles

Once the largest library in the ancient world, and containing works by the greatest thinkers and writers of antiquity, including Homer, Plato, Socrates and many more, the Library of Alexandria,  northern Egypt, is popularly believed to have been destroyed in a huge fire around 2000 years ago and its volumous works lost. Since its destruction... [continue reading]

The names of John Lloyd Stephens and Frederick Catherwood are forever linked to the Maya and Mayan studies as the two great explorers who documented the ruins from Copan in the south to Chichen Itza in the north. The stories told by Stephens in his Incidents of Travel in Central America, Chiapas and Yucatan (1841) and Incidents of Travel in Yucatan (1843) complemented... [continue reading]

The foundation of the Assyrian dynasty can be traced to Zulilu, who is said to have lived after Bel-kap-kapu (ca. 1900 BC), the ancestor of Shalmaneser I. The city-state of Ashur rose to prominence in northern Mesopotamia, founding trade colonies in Cappadocia. King Shamshi-Adad I (1813-1791 BC) expanded the domains of Ashur by defeating the kingdom... [continue reading]

Hypatia, the much loved pagan philosopher of Alexandria, Egypt, has long been acknowledged as the symbol of the passing of the old ways and the triumph of the new. Hypatia (370-415 CE) was the daughter of Theon, the last professor of the Alexandrian University (associated closely with the famous Library of Alexandria). Theon was a brilliant mathematician... [continue reading]

Hatshepsut, whose name means "foremost of noble women" (also known as Ma’at-ka-re, translated as "spirit of harmony and truth") was the fifth ruler of the 18th Dynasty (1479-1458 BCE). She was the daughter of Tuthmosis I and Queen Ahmose and, as was common in Egyptian royal houses, married her half-brother Tuthmosis II. They... [continue reading]

The Poem of Pentaur is the official Egyptian record (along with The Bulletin) of the military victory of Ramesses II (also known as Ramesses The Great) over the Hittite King Muwatalli II at the Battle of Kadesh in 1274 BCE (in modern-day Syria). So proud was Ramesses of this campaign that he had the poem, which details his personal... [continue reading]

Ramesses II (known as Ramesses The Great) ruled Egypt for 67 years in the 12th century BCE and, today, the Egyptian landscape still bears testimony to the prosperity of his reign in the many temples and monuments he had built in honor of his conquests and accomplishments. Among his greatest moments as Pharaoh, however, is not an act of war but one of peace... [continue reading]

Material Objects & Cultures Material objects convey volumes about the people who possessed them. Cultures and societies in every generation are in part classified - either correctly or incorrectly - by the objects or symbols they select and how they are displayed. Typically, the formal study of society is the purview of anthropologists and social scientists... [continue reading]

The Forty-Two Judges were the divine beings of the Egyptian after-life who presided over the Hall of Truth where the great god Osiris judged the dead. The soul of the deceased was called upon to render up confession of deeds done while in life and to have the heart weighed in the balance of the scales of justice against the white feather of Ma’at... [continue reading]

A story on a papyrus dating from the 2nd century CE relates that the goddess Isis, bestowing gifts on humanity, gave as much power and honor to women as she did to men. This tale reflects the high status women enjoyed in ancient Egypt. Although they never had the same rights as males, an Egyptian woman could own property in her own name and hold professions... [continue reading]