Concise Oxford Dictionary of Archaeology (470 page)

An Egyptian queen, the chief wife of Akhenaten , who appears to have played a prominent role in public life and has tentatively been identified with the pharaoh Smenkhare who briefly succeeded Akhenaten .

 
Back
  -  
 
New Search

Egyptian god, third member of the triad of Memphis. Represented either as a man with a lotus on his head or as a child wearing the side-lock of youth and sitting on a lotus.

 
Back
  -  
 
New Search

A style of painting where the central image or motif is left blank and paint is applied all around it to colour or emphasize the surroundings. In pottery-making negative decoration was often achieved by covering the design area with a paint-resistant substance (e.g., wax, gum, clay) and then dipping the whole pot into paint or dye before it was fired. Alternatively, the pot might be either smoked or dipped into a black wash. The dark coating is unable to reach those areas of the surface protected by the resistant substance, and when the latter is removed, the pattern stands out in the original colour against the black background.

 
Back
  -  
 
New Search

The way in which people match their understanding of the world, their aspirations, and their interpretation of their place in it with social reality and what their senses tell them.

 
Back
  -  
 
New Search

Egyptian goddess, the city deity of Sais in the Delta, but worshipped throughout Egypt. A very ancient creator goddess, depicted as a woman wearing the Red Crown of Lower Egypt and clasping a bow and arrows in her hand. She, like Isis, Nephthys, and Selket, became one of the four guardian goddesses of the dead, and watched over the sarcophagus and the canopic jar containing the stomach. She was also credited with the invention of weaving. The Greeks identified her with Athena.

 
Back
  -  
 
New Search

Egyptian goddess, the vulture goddess of el-Kab (Nekheb) and the titulary goddess of Upper Egypt. Shown either as a vulture hovering over the king or as a woman wearing the White Crown of Upper Egypt. The Greeks identified her with Eileithya.

 
Back
  -  
 
New Search