The Reception of Ancient Egypt and Its Script in Renaissance Europe

2020 ◽  
pp. 192-204
Author(s):  
Lucie Jirásková
Keyword(s):  
Personal Experience ◽  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Ancient Egypt ◽  
Roman Period ◽  
Successful Attempt ◽  
Symbolic Approach

The chapter focuses on the perception of ancient Egypt and its culture through the eyes of Renaissance scholars and humanists. They could have known ancient Egypt from personal experience, including travels to Egypt or visits to Egyptian monuments that had been brought to Italy in the Roman period. The hieroglyphic script engraved into obelisks became a source of inspiration for the emblematics, but in fact never led to any successful attempt to decipher the ancient script. The symbolic approach to hieroglyphs was also supported by the philosophical trend of the time, Hermetism. It was a “construct” of Late Antiquity, resurrected and elaborated by Renaissance humanists, who were able to apply it to various branches of Renaissance science.

The Planets in Ancient Egypt

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joachim Friedrich Quack
Keyword(s):  
Mathematical Models ◽  
Ancient Egypt ◽  
Roman Period ◽  
Maximum Power ◽  
The Sun ◽  
Late Period ◽  
Religious Texts ◽  
Greco Roman ◽  
Religious Associations ◽  
Night Sky

The five visible planets are certainly attested to in Egyptian sources from about 2000 bce. The three outer ones are religiously connected with the falcon-headed god Horus, Venus with his father Osiris, and Mercury with Seth, the brother and murderer of Osiris. Clear attestations of the planets are largely limited to decoration programs covering the whole night sky. There are a number of passages in religious texts where planets may be mentioned, but many of them are uncertain because the names given to the planets are for most of them not specific enough to exclude other interpretations. There may have been a few treatises giving a more detailed religious interpretation of the planets and their behavior, but they are badly preserved and hardly understandable in the details. In the Late Period, probably under Mesopotamian influence, the sequence of the planets as well as their religious associations could change; at least one source links Saturn with the Sun god, Mars with Miysis, Mercury with Thot, Venus with Horus, son of Isis, and Jupiter with Amun, arranging the planets with those considered negative in astrology first, separated from the positive ones by the vacillating Mercury. Late monuments depicting the zodiac place the planets in positions which are considered important in astrology, especially the houses or the place of maximum power (hypsoma; i.e., “exaltation”). Probably under Babylonian influence, in the Greco-Roman Period mathematical models for calculating the positions and phases of the planets arose. These were used for calculating horoscopes, of which a number in demotic Egyptian are attested. There are also astrological treatises (most still unpublished) in the Egyptian language which indicate the relevance of planets for forecasts, especially for the fate of individuals born under a certain constellation, but also for events important for the king and the country in general; they could be relevant also for enterprises begun at a certain date. There is some reception of supposedly or actually specific Egyptian planet sequences, names and religious associations in Greek sources.

scholarly journals Late Antiquity by Gordon Childe: Sources and Inspirations

2009 ◽  
Vol 12 (1-3) ◽  
pp. 157-165
Author(s):  
Elżbieta Jastrzębowska
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Roman Republic ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Roman Period ◽  
October Revolution ◽  
National Socialist ◽  
The Middle Ages ◽  
Late Roman

In the last chapter of What Happened in History, Childe touched on the problematic of Late Antiquity. His pessimistic view of that period was a variation on the theme of decadence. This theme had existed in the Roman Republic and under the Empire, long before there was any Late Antiquity to be decadent. It then persisted throughout the Middle Ages and found monumental expression in Gibbon's Decline and Fall. Childe, however, took it to excessive lengths in his denunciation of the politics, economy, and culture of the Late Roman Empire. Childe based his arguments largely on the work of Rostovtzeff and Heichelheim. Both these eminent historians were exiles: Rostovtzeff from the Russia of the October Revolution and Heichelheim from National Socialist Germany. It is no belittlement to say that their work was influenced by the insights of their political experiences. Childe, however, did not appreciate this and adopted their thinking somewhat uncritically. He further added parallels between the Roman Period and his own time, which resulted in an unduly dark vision of the last phase of the Roman Empire.

Livestock plagues in late antiquity, with a disassembling of the bovine panzootic of A.D. 376-386

2017 ◽  
Vol 30 ◽  
pp. 490-508
Author(s):  
Timothy P. Newfield
Keyword(s):  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Animal Health ◽  
Natural World ◽  
Poor Quality ◽  
Roman Period ◽  
Late Antique ◽  
Livestock Disease ◽  
History Of ◽  
Late Roman Period ◽  
Material Evidence

The history of late-antique animal plagues requires a fresh start. Over the last 30 years, scholars have amassed copious quantities of written and material evidence for major shifts in the natural world experienced, or reported, as disasters in late antiquity. They have read textual passages more critically and interwoven written with physical data more meticulously than researchers before them. As a result, much more is known now about human plagues, climatic downturns and tectonic perturbations in the Late Roman period. Yet knowledge of late-antique livestock disease remains pretty much where animal health specialists left it in the 18th and 19th c. There are, to be sure, histories of late-antique animal plagues, but they are long out of date, unreliable and altogether of poor quality.

The secretarybird dilemma: identifying a bird species fromthe Temple of Hatshepsut at Deir el-Bahari

2018 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 83-116
Author(s):  
Kamila Braulińska
Keyword(s):  
Personal Experience ◽  
Species Recognition ◽  
Bird Species ◽  
Doctoral Dissertation ◽  
Scientific Discourse ◽  
Theoretical Background ◽  
Ancient Egypt ◽  
Depth Analysis ◽  
Background Material ◽  
The Temple

Known from a few representations in Predynastic Egyptian art, the secretarybird has otherwise been elusive, in the art of Pharaonic Egypt as well as the scientific discourse on iconographic imagery of birds in ancient Egypt. The author's studies of the animal decoration at the Temple for her doctoral dissertation identified three images of birds belonging most likely to the same species, depicted in the context of the expedition of Hatshepsut shown in the Portico of Punt. The zoological identification of the species as the secretarybird (another possibility is the African harrier-hawk) derives from an in-depth analysis of the bird’s systematics, appearance, distribution and habitat, as well as behavior, which are essential for proper species recognition and instrumental for understanding the rationale behind bringing it from the “God’s Land”. Iconographic features contesting this identification and suggesting a different species, that is, the African harrier-hawk, are discussed based on a combination of theoretical background, material analysis, on-site interviews with experts and the author’s personal experience with the species.

Cross-Cultural Communication in Egypt

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. G. Manning
Keyword(s):  
Transaction Costs ◽  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Ancient Egypt ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Cultural Communication ◽  
Ancient Economy ◽  
Cross Cultural Communication ◽  
Royal Courts ◽  
Diverse Society

This chapter offers a paradigmatic case of cross-cultural communication from ancient Egypt. Because it was pictographic, Egyptian hieroglyphic script combined the literary and the visual in a way that rendered communication both a priestly privilege and a royal one. It was an important public phenomenon, too, analyzed here in terms of transaction costs. Commonly applied to the study of the ancient economy, the nature and extent of transaction costs explain why and how the pharaohs made use of monuments and decrees to unify a diverse society. The use of hieroglyphics did not prevent the use of other scripts as well, and in Late Antiquity, Egypt became partly bilingual. Bilingualism, which had always existed in major ancient marketplaces and at royal courts, now became widespread.

Preliminary report on the 2012 and 2013 excavation seasons at Jiyeh (Porphyreon): work in sector D (residential Quarter)

2016 ◽  
Vol XXIV (1) ◽  
pp. 453-474
Author(s):  
Tomasz Waliszewski ◽  
Magdalena Antos ◽  
Piotr Jaworski ◽  
Piotr Makowski ◽  
Marcin Romaniuk ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Iron Age ◽  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Preliminary Report ◽  
Roman Period ◽  
Domestic Architecture ◽  
Late Antique ◽  
Important Data ◽  
Iron Age Ii ◽  
History Of ◽  
Residential Quarter

Archeological work in the 2012 and 2013 seasons in Jiyeh (Porphyreon), which lies on the Phoenician coast north of ancient Sidon, was focused on reconstructing the history of settlement on the site. At least three phases were identified and dated to the Iron Age II, the Persian– Hellenistic–Roman period and late antiquity. The early dating of the functioning of the Christian basilica to the 4th–5th century AD was also confirmed in trial pits. The complex and unusual sewage installation discharging rainwater from the roofs and streets of the 5th-century settlement contributed important data for studies of late antique domestic architecture in the region.

Ancient Egyptians’ Atypical Relationship with Invertebrates

2019 ◽  
Vol 27 (7) ◽  
pp. 716-732
Author(s):  
Linda Evans ◽  
Philip Weinstein
Keyword(s):  
Vital Role ◽  
Ecological Systems ◽  
Ancient Egypt ◽  
Roman Period ◽  
Food Sources ◽  
Greco Roman ◽  
The People ◽  
Cultural Roles ◽  
Ubiquitous Presence

AbstractDespite the ubiquitous presence and vital role of invertebrates in all known ecological systems, insects and arachnids are largely viewed as repugnant by people. Consequently, until nature intervenes in the form of infestations, swarms or plagues, we largely prefer to ignore them, lest our attention invite unwelcome interaction. In contrast, the people of ancient Egypt did not distance themselves from invertebrates but instead celebrated their myriad forms. Egyptian appreciation of insects and arachnids is reflected in a range of art, artefacts, and texts dating from the predynastic era until the Greco-Roman period, revealing many positive cultural roles, from practical to conceptual. By assigning them a useful function, they were rendered visible and relevant to Egyptian society. The Egyptians’ example suggests that as necessity forces us to acknowledge the value of invertebrates—from their function as pollinators to becoming future food sources—our respect for them may also grow.

Ceramics from Late Roman Contexts in Durrës

2006 ◽  
Vol 101 ◽  
pp. 427-457 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brikena Shkodra
Keyword(s):  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Eastern Mediterranean ◽  
Roman Period ◽  
Local Production ◽  
The West ◽  
Byzantine Period ◽  
East And West ◽  
Late Roman Period ◽  
The City ◽  
Late Roman

What seems to be the case is that Durrës during the late Roman period was incorporated in the network of Byzantine state-controlled supply which operated throughout the east and west Mediterranean, suggesting that the city was more open to the east than to the west in late Antiquity. By contrast, the supply of Tunisian fine ware and amphorae is smaller then the imports from the eastern Mediterranean. However, the persistence presence of Tunisian wares throughout late Vandal and Byzantine period argues for sustained interaction between east and west within the Byzantine world. The presence of local production in the 6th century contexts merits further analysis.

THE PIRAEUS FROM 86 BC TO LATE ANTIQUITY: CONTINUITY AND CHANGE IN THE LANDSCAPE, FUNCTION AND ECONOMY OF THE PORT OF ROMAN ATHENS

2016 ◽  
Vol 111 ◽  
pp. 239-268
Author(s):  
Dimitris Grigoropoulos
Keyword(s):  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Roman Period ◽  
Literary Texts ◽  
Continuity And Change ◽  
Urban Image ◽  
Complex Picture ◽  
And Function ◽  
Material Evidence ◽  
Roman Ports

Modern perceptions of the ancient Piraeus have been monopolised by the urban image and function of the port as the naval stronghold of Classical Athens. Existing scholarship so far has tended to consider the post-Classical centuries, especially the era following the sack of the port in 86bcby the Romans, as a period of decline. Such preconceptions, based on largely superficial readings of a few ancient literary texts and a near-total disregard of the material evidence, have created a distorted image of the Piraeus and its significance in the Roman period. Drawing upon textual sources as well as archaeological evidence, this paper explores the changing nature of urban settlement, maritime functions and the economy of the port from the time of its destruction in 86bcto around the sixth centuryad. Particular emphasis is placed on a re-examination of the existing evidence from rescue excavations conducted by the Greek Archaeological Service as they relate to the topography of the Roman port and its long-term evolution. This combined study offers a more complex picture of the infrastructure, urban image and operational capability of the port during the Roman period than was hitherto possible. It also permits a more balanced understanding of the port's function at local, regional and provincial levels, and thus enables comparisons with other Roman ports in the Aegean and the rest of the Mediterranean.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document