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@surimana16

28 Oct

Ancient Egyptian’s two most common pigments seen on papyri are black and red. The black ink was mostly used for writing hieroglyphs or hieratic text, this ink was made by burning wood or oil, and then pulverizing the material before mixing it with water.

To avoid the particles from clumping together, the powder was mixed with a binder, probably a plant gum from the Acacia tree family. Besides keeping the carbon particles suspended in the water solution, the gum binder helped to keep the ink adhered to the papyrus surface.

This ink was stable, didn’t fade or deteriorate the papyrus. The red color on the papyrus, derived from the earth pigment iron oxide. Like most pigments used in ancient Egypt it was made from minerals, rather than from organic or living materials.

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@surimana16

14 Oct

For the Ancient Egyptians, color was an important part of their life, it symbolized the nature of the beings they depicted. The Egyptian word for color, IWN (iwen) also translates as character, disposition and nature. Thus, color was intimately linked to the essence of being.

The Egyptian artist had 6 main colors in the palette: green, red, blue, yellow, white and black. They were usually obtained from mineral compounds, and prepared with a mixture of pigments acquired by grinding colored earth with the addition of water, rubber latex and egg’s white.

The mineral compounds used have allowed some of the colors to remain vibrant and beautiful for thousands of years. Colors weren’t used randomly, they conveyed meaning. Truly, wasn’t just the value or scarcity of the materials that mattered, but their symbolic meaning.

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Ma’at

@surimana16

12 Sep

There isn’t enough information about human sacrifice in ancient Egypt, though there is some evidence that it could have been practiced in the Nile Valley during the 1st Dynasty and possibly the Predynastic period.

J. Kinnaer posits there were two types of human sacrifice possibly practiced in early ancient Egypt: the killing of human beings as offerings to the gods regularly, or on special occasions and the retainer sacrifice, the killing of servants who were buried with their master.

One form of human sacrifices to the gods may have been the slaying of criminals and prisoners of war. It was a custom, in Predynastic times, to slay slaves at the graves of kings and nobles in order that the souls of the slaughtered might protect them and keep away evil spirits.

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Ma’at

@surimana16

5 Aug

Ancient Egypt’s crowns, the Deshret crown, red crown worn by the ruler of Lower Egypt. Probably was made of fabric or leather with a copper wire ending in a spiral. In Egyptian mythology, the Deshret was first given to Horus by Geb to symbolize his rule over Lower Egypt.

The Hedjet crown, White crown was associated with Upper Egypt and confirmed the rule of the king over southern Egypt.
This Crown is depicted on one side of the Narmer Palette, it was worn by gods with a connection to upper Egypt, such as Nekhbet the vulture goddess and Horus.

The Pschent, Double Crown, known as Sekhemti,Two Powerful Ones,symbolized the king’s rule of Upper and Lower Egypt.The Pschent is often embelished with the cobra and the vulture (Wadjet and Nekhbet). The crowns were worn seperately in earlier periods until the 19th Dynasty.

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Ma’at

@surimana16

8 Jun

The Benben stone is an architectural name given to the tip of an obelisk or the capstone placed on top of a pyramid. This architectural feature is known also as a pyramidion. Also the Benben stone is a symbol of the Phoenix and the cycle of the seasons.

Egyptian mythology has many stories of the creation, one says the god Atum, brought the universe into being. In the beginning, there was nothing but darkness and chaos. It was out of the dark waters that the primordial hill, known as the Benben stone arose with Atum on top of it.

In some versions of the myth, Atum masturbated, creating Shu and Tefnut. In other versions of the story, they were created by Atum’s copulation with his own shadow. Shu and Tefnut left Atum on the Benben stone, and went away to create the rest of the world.

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Ma’at

@surimana16

19 May

Ancient Egyptian Writing. In the last part of the Predynastic Period, 6000-3150 BCE Anc. Egyptians began to use symbols to represent simple concepts limited to notations to identify a person, place, event or possession. Most likely the earliest purpose of writing was for trading.

The first extant evidence of Egyptian writing is found in Offering Lists, which are a list of the gifts due to a person when they died. Who had done great deeds, held a high position of authority, or led troops to victory was due greater offerings than who had done less in life.

Along with the list, there was an epitaph, stating who the person was, what they had done, and why they were due offerings. The lists and epitaphs sometimes were brief, but most of the time were long till the day someone saw that a short prayer would substitute the list.

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