Concise Oxford Dictionary of Archaeology (428 page)
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Authors: Timothy Darvill
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Melkarth
(Melkart)
[Di].
(Melkart)
[Di].
Phoenician god, chief deity of Tyre and its colonies Carthage and Gadir. Represented in Solomon's temple in Jerusalem and sometimes equated with Heracles.
melon bead
[Ar].
[Ar].
Type of Roman glass bead made in the shape of a melon.
melting pot
[De].
[De].
Refers to the idea that ethnic differences can be combined to create new patterns of behaviour drawing on diverse cultural sources.
Memphis, Egypt
[Si].
[Si].
Ancient capital of Egypt during the
OLD KINGDOM
, and thereafter one of the most important cities of the Near East, situated at the point where the Nile begins to divide its waters at the head of the Delta, 24km south of Cairo. Traditionally, the city was believed to have been founded by
MENES
, first ruler of the 1st Dynasty in the early 3rd millennium
bc
. The site itself was seen as the seat of the creator god
PTAH
.
During the
NEW KINGDOM
, Memphis became the second, or northern, capital of Egypt, parallel to
THEBES
in the south. Despite the increased importance of the god
AMON
in Thebes, Ptah remained one of the principal gods of the pantheon. The Great Temple at Memphis was added to or rebuilt by virtually every king of the 18th Dynasty; chapels were constructed by Thutmose I and Thutmose IV, and by Amenhotep III. Amenhotep III's son Akhenaton built a temple to Aton in Memphis.
Memphis continued to be important in later times, not least because of its geographical position, and in 322 bc Alexander the Great used Memphis as his headquarters while making plans for his new city of Alexandria.
West of the city there are very extensive cemeteries, including the pyramid fields of Abu Ruwaysh,
GIZA
, Zawayet e-Aryan, Abu Si, Saqqara, and Dahshur.
[Sum.: H. S. Smith and D. G. Jeffreys , 1986, A survey of Memphis, Egypt.
Antiquity
, 60, 88–95]
OLD KINGDOM
, and thereafter one of the most important cities of the Near East, situated at the point where the Nile begins to divide its waters at the head of the Delta, 24km south of Cairo. Traditionally, the city was believed to have been founded by
MENES
, first ruler of the 1st Dynasty in the early 3rd millennium
bc
. The site itself was seen as the seat of the creator god
PTAH
.
During the
NEW KINGDOM
, Memphis became the second, or northern, capital of Egypt, parallel to
THEBES
in the south. Despite the increased importance of the god
AMON
in Thebes, Ptah remained one of the principal gods of the pantheon. The Great Temple at Memphis was added to or rebuilt by virtually every king of the 18th Dynasty; chapels were constructed by Thutmose I and Thutmose IV, and by Amenhotep III. Amenhotep III's son Akhenaton built a temple to Aton in Memphis.
Memphis continued to be important in later times, not least because of its geographical position, and in 322 bc Alexander the Great used Memphis as his headquarters while making plans for his new city of Alexandria.
West of the city there are very extensive cemeteries, including the pyramid fields of Abu Ruwaysh,
GIZA
, Zawayet e-Aryan, Abu Si, Saqqara, and Dahshur.
[Sum.: H. S. Smith and D. G. Jeffreys , 1986, A survey of Memphis, Egypt.
Antiquity
, 60, 88–95]
Menes
[Na].
[Na].
The first ruler to unify Upper and Lower Egypt in the early 3rd millennium
bc
, traditionally regarded as the first king of the 1st Dynasty and the founder of
MEMPHIS
. The name Menes was recorded in the 3rd century
bc
by the Egyptian historian Manetho; the 5th-century
bc
Greek historian Herodotus referred to him as Min. According to Manetho, Menes reigned for 62 years and was killed by a hippopotamus.
bc
, traditionally regarded as the first king of the 1st Dynasty and the founder of
MEMPHIS
. The name Menes was recorded in the 3rd century
bc
by the Egyptian historian Manetho; the 5th-century
bc
Greek historian Herodotus referred to him as Min. According to Manetho, Menes reigned for 62 years and was killed by a hippopotamus.
menhir
[MC].
[MC].
A term derived from the two Breton words meaning ‘long stone’ and colloquially used in northern France and the southwest of Britain for large freestanding slabs or blocks of stone. Some menhirs carry rock art, and in Brittany some were broken up and re-used as the orthostats or roof-slabs of passage graves. See
STANDING STONE
.
STANDING STONE
.
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