scholarly journals Negating Seth: Destruction as Vitality

Numen ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 68 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 157-179
Author(s):  
Janne Arp-Neumann
Keyword(s):  
The Past ◽  
Ancient Egyptian ◽  
Egyptian Religion ◽  
First Millennium ◽  
Malicious Intent

Abstract In the past, different points in time have been set as demarcating the beginning of the end of Ancient Egyptian religion. One of these is the start of the so-called “proscription” of the god Seth, whose names and images are found damaged in many of their occurrences. In previous studies, this observation was explained as the result of intentional destruction performed during the first millennium BCE, and as such as indicative of the decay of Ancient Egyptian religion at this time. However, Seth was from his earliest attestations conceived as a deity ready to perform acts of violence and disruption; under specific circumstances he needed to be banished, but his character was also valued in circumstances requiring violence. This article discusses the problems, fallacies, and arguments of interpreting the intentions behind the destruction of monuments in general and the treatment of Seth in particular. It will be argued that “negating” the image of the “negative” god was not done with malicious intent, but to highlight this god’s role, which was important for the context of the image. It will be proposed that this phenomenon proves that Egyptian religion was still vibrantly alive at that time, not fading away and dying.

scholarly journals Implications of geoarchaeological investigations for the contextualization of sacred landscapes in the Nile Delta

2021 ◽  
Vol 70 (1) ◽  
pp. 73-82
Author(s):  
Eva Lange-Athinodorou
Keyword(s):  
Water Resource ◽  
Nile Delta ◽  
Archaeological Evidence ◽  
Sacred Landscapes ◽  
The Past ◽  
Ancient Egyptian ◽  
Religious Festivals ◽  
Egyptian Religion ◽  
Female Deities

Abstract. Key elements of sacred landscapes of the Nile Delta were lakes, canals and artificial basins connected to temples, which were built on elevated terrain. In the case of temples of goddesses of an ambivalent, even dangerous, nature, i.e. lioness goddesses and all female deities who could appear as such, the purpose of sacred lakes and canals exceeded their function as a water resource for basic practical and religious needs. Their pleasing coolness was believed to calm the goddess' fiery nature, and during important religious festivals, the barques of the goddesses were rowed on those waters. As archaeological evidence was very rare in the past, the study of those sacred waters was mainly confined to textual sources. Recently applied geoarchaeological methods, however, have changed this situation dramatically: they allow in-depth investigations and reconstructions of these deltaic sacred landscapes. Exploring these newly available data, the paper presented here focuses on the sites of Buto, Sais and Bubastis, by investigating the characteristics of their sacred lakes, canals and marshes with respect to their hydrogeographical and geomorphological context and to their role in ancient Egyptian religion and mythology as well.

Ancient Egyptian Religion: An Interpretation

1949 ◽  
Vol 54 (2) ◽  
pp. 339
Author(s):  
Thomas A. Brady ◽  
H. Frankfort
Keyword(s):  
Ancient Egyptian ◽  
Egyptian Religion

scholarly journals I begyndelsen var snavset: Snavs, råddenskab og anomisk adfærd som forløsende i traditionelle (’præ-axiale’) religioner

2019 ◽  
pp. 30-44
Author(s):  
Jørgen Podemann Sørensen
Keyword(s):  
English Abstract ◽  
Good Sense ◽  
Greek Religion ◽  
Traditional Religions ◽  
Ancient Egyptian ◽  
Egyptian Religion ◽  
Indian Religion

English Abstract: This paper deals with dirt, anomic behaviour, death and decay as productive and redemptive means within four very different traditional religions: Shinto, ancient Egyptian religion, classical Indian religion and Greek religion. In all four contexts, the motif is somehow anchored in mythology and makes sense first and foremost in ritualization, i.e. as part of the symbolic accompaniment of ritual metamorphosis. As others have demonstrated, the motif makes equally good sense in so-called post-axial religions, in which redemption is much more a matter of an inner, subjective breakthrough – but it is by no means a prerogative of such religions. Dansk resumé: Artiklen behandler eksempler på snavs, anomisk adfærd, død og råddenskab som religiøst produktive og forløsende i fire vidt forskellige traditionelle religioner: Shinto, oldtidens ægyptiske religion, klassisk indisk religion og græsk religion. I alle fire sammenhænge er motivet mytologisk forankret, og det giver først og fremmest mening som et rituelt virkemiddel, en del af det symbolske akkompagnement til rituelle forvandlinger. Som andre har vist, giver motivet også god mening i såkaldt post-aksiale religioner, hvor forløsning i højere grad forstås som et indre, subjektivt gennembrud – men det er altså ikke forbeholdt disse.

scholarly journals Near Eastern Landscapes and Declassified U2 Aerial Imagery

2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 107-126 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emily Hammer ◽  
Jason Ur
Keyword(s):  
Case Studies ◽  
Aerial Imagery ◽  
Archaeological Sites ◽  
Near Eastern ◽  
Northern Iraq ◽  
Modern Agriculture ◽  
The Past ◽  
First Millennium ◽  
Southern Iraq ◽  
Aerial Perspective

AbstractRecently declassified photographs taken by U2 spy planes in the 1950s and 1960s provide an important new source of historical aerial imagery useful for Eurasian archaeology. Like other sources of historical imagery, U2 photos provide a window into the past, before modern agriculture and development destroyed many archaeological sites. U2 imagery is older and in many cases higher resolution than CORONA spy satellite imagery, the other major source of historical imagery for Eurasia, and thus can expand the range of archaeological sites and features that can be studied from an aerial perspective. However, there are significant barriers to finding and retrieving U2 imagery of particular locales, and archaeologists have thus not yet widely used it. In this article, we aim to reduce these barriers by describing the U2 photo dataset and how to access it. We also provide the first spatial index of U2 photos for the Middle East. A brief discussion of archaeological case studies drawn from U2 imagery illustrates its merits and limitations. These case studies include investigations of prehistoric mass-kill hunting traps in eastern Jordan, irrigation systems of the first millennium BC Neo-Assyrian Empire in northern Iraq, and twentieth-century marsh communities in southern Iraq.

Ancient Egyptian Religion

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Korshi Dosoo
Keyword(s):  
Religious Practice ◽  
Beliefs And Practices ◽  
Ancient Egyptian ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Egyptian Religion ◽  
The World ◽  
Major Break ◽  
Funerary Rites ◽  
The Temple ◽  
Over Time

While ancient Egyptians had no conception of religion as a distinct sphere of life, modern scholars have identified a wide range of Egyptian beliefs and practices relating to the divine. Egyptian religion can be traced back to predynastic times, and it developed continuously until the decline of temple religion in the Roman Period. Three mythic cycles are key to its understanding: the creation of the world, and the related solar cycle, which describe the origin and maintenance of the world, and the Osiris cycle, which provides a justification for the human institutions of kingship and funerary rites. Egyptian religion may be seen as being centered on its temples, which functioned both as sites for the worship of the resident gods and the elaboration of their theologies and as important economic and political centers. In addition to gods, three other categories of divine beings played important roles in Egyptian religious practice: kings, sacred and divine animals, and the dead. The king was intimately involved in the temple religion, as the mediator between the divine and human spheres, the patron of the temples, and the beneficiary of his own rituals, while divine and sacred animals seem to have been likewise understood as living embodiments of divine power. Death was understood through a range of metaphors, to which the ritual response was to link the deceased to one or more of the cosmic cycles through practices aimed at translating them into the divine sphere and thus ensuring their continued existence. As with all aspects of the religion, these rituals changed over time but show remarkable consistency throughout recorded history. Alongside these rituals centered on temple, royal, and funerary cults, a number of personal religious practices have been reconstructed as well as one major break in continuity, the “Amarna Revolution,” in which the ruling king seems to have briefly instituted a form of monotheism.

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