Archaeology Wordsmith

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deity
CATEGORY: term
DEFINITION: An ancient god that was worshipped. The god chosen was often an appropriate god for the purpose behind the prayer of the worshipper.
dolmen deity
CATEGORY: artifact
DEFINITION: A symbol of mysterious personage or divinity who peers from megalithic and rock-cut tombs of western Europe. She is sometimes represented by nothing but a pair of eyes or eyebrows, the oculus motif. Breasts and necklaces are female attributes often given. The most detailed representation is on the French statue Menhir.

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CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: One of the world's earliest towns, a huge Neolithic site in south central Turkey's Konya plain. At least 14 levels have been excavated so far with radiocarbon dates from 6500 BC to 5400 BC, without undisturbed deposits being reached. Cereals were cultivated, cattle and sheep were bred, and hunting took place. Pottery had apparently only just been introduced. Trade in such materials as obsidian and seashells was extensive. There were flaked stone tools and polished obsidian mirrors. The mud-brick buildings were rectangular with access only possible through the roofs. Built-in furniture included benches and platforms. The earliest evidence of religious beliefs have been found at the mound of Çatal Hüyük. Shrines were very frequent, with huge figures of goddesses in the posture of giving birth, leopards, and the heads of bulls and rams modeled in high relief on the walls. Other shrines contain elaborate frescoes of the hunting of deer and aurochs, or vultures devouring headless human corpses. Stone and terra-cotta statuettes found in these shrines represent a female figure, sometimes accompanied by leopards and, from the earlier levels of excavation, a male either bearded and seated on a bull or youthful and riding a leopard. The main deity of these people was evidently a goddess. The dead were buried beneath plastered platforms within the shrines or under the floors of the buildings. Evidence suggests both craft specialization and social stratification.
aegis
CATEGORY: artifact
DEFINITION: A shield or defensive armor in ancient mythology. This Greek word for shield" has been used to describe the representation of a necklace on the head of a deity."
Anat
CATEGORY: deity
DEFINITION: A deity of Egypt introduced from Syria-Palestine. The cult of Anat is first attested in Egypt in the late Middle Kingdom (c 1800 BC).
Antioch
SYNONYM: Antiochia, Antioch Pisidian, Antiocheia Pisidias, Caesarea Antiochia
CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: An ancient city of Phrygia near the Orontes River and modern Yalvaç in Turkey. It was founded in 300 BC by Seleucus I (c 358-281 BC) after the death of Alexander the Great and was one of the two capitals of the Parthian Empire. It became a Roman city in 64 BC at the hands of Pompey and served as a capital of the province of Syria and was one of the three most important cities of the Roman world. Antioch peaked under Hadrian as a civil and military administrative center, then suffered Persian invasions during the 3rd century AD. It was rebuilt by Diocletian and successive emperors form the 4th century AD. The plain of Anitoch was occupied from the Neolithic onwards. Its ruins include a large rock cutting which may have held the temple of Men Ascaënus, the local Phrygian deity.
Apedemak
CATEGORY: deity
DEFINITION: A lionheaded deity with cult centers at Musawwarat el-Sufra and Naqa in Sudan.
Apepi
SYNONYM: Apopis, Apophis
CATEGORY: deity
DEFINITION: An evil serpent- or snake-god, whose name was adopted by at least one Hyksos pharaoh (Apopis I, c 1585-1542 BC) who ruled a large area of Egypt in the Second Intermediate Period. The deity symbolized the forces of chaos and evil. Apophis is represented on funerary papyri and on the walls of royal tombs in the Valley of the Kings as the eternal enemy of the sun god Ra.
Assur
SYNONYM: Ashur
CATEGORY: deity; site
DEFINITION: A solar deity which was the chief god of the city of Assur and the kingdom of Assyria. With the latter's conquests, Assur assumed leadership of the Assyrian pantheon and supremacy over the other gods of Mesopotamia. The deity was conceived in anthropomorphic terms. The image of the deity was fed and clothed and was responsible for fertility and security, and represented as a winged sun-disc. It is also the name of the ancient religious capital of the Assyrian empire in northern Mesopotamia, on the bank of the River Tigris at modern Qalaat-Shergat, which was a great trading center and the burial place of the kings even after the government moved to Nineveh. First recorded in the 3rd millennium BC as a frontier post of the empire of Akkad, it then became an independent city-state and finally the capital of Assyria. After Assyria's collapse in 614 BC it failed to survive but was briefly revived under the Parthians. Areas of the palaces, temples, walls, and town have been cleared, and a sondage pit was cut beneath the Temple of Ishtar (pre-Sargonid) to reveal the 3rd and early 2nd millennium levels (the first use of this technique in Mesopotamian excavation). Sumerian statues were found -- among the earliest evidence of Sumerian contact outside the southern plain. For over 2000 years successive kings built and rebuilt the fortifications, temple, and palace complexes: inscriptions associated with these monuments have helped in the construction of the chronology of the site. Three large ziggurats dominated the city with the largest being 60 m square (completed by Shamsi Adad I c 1800 bc). It was originally dedicated to Enlil, but later to Assur; the dedication of the other temples also changed through time. Representations on cylinder seals suggest that many buildings might have had parapets and towers. Assurnasirpal II (883-859 BC) moved the capital to Calah and by 614 BC the city of Assur had fallen to the Median (Medes) army.
Astarte
SYNONYM: Asherah, Ashtoreth, Ashtart
CATEGORY: deity
DEFINITION: The goddess of the ancient Near East that was the chief deity of many important sites and the fertility goddess of the Phoenicians and the Canaanites. She is sometimes equated with Egyptian Isis, Babylonian Ishtar, Carthaginian Tanit, and Greek Aphrodite, Cybele, and Hera. She originated in Syria as a war goddess, probably introduced into Egypt in the 18th Dynasty (1550-1295 BC). Astarte was usually portrayed as a naked woman on horseback wearing a headdress or bull horns.
Aten
SYNONYM: Aton, Yati
CATEGORY: deity
DEFINITION: The deity represented in the form of a sun disk and introduced as the sole gold by the heretic pharaoh, Akhenaten (Amenophis IV, 1353-1336 BC) during the 18th Dynasty of Egypt, c 1350 BC. Akhenaten built the city of Akhetaton (now Tell el-Amarna) and established a temple at Karnak dedicated to Aten's worship. The sun god was depicted as the solar disk with rays terminating in human hands.
Atum
SYNONYM: Tem, Tum (means the all")"
CATEGORY: deity
DEFINITION: A creator god and solar deity of Heliopolis. Atum's myth merged with that of the sun god Ra (Re), to form the god Ra-Atum (or Re-Atum). Atum came into being before heaven and earth were separated, rising up from Nun (the waters of chaos) to form the Primeval Mound. He was identified with the setting sun and was shown as an aged figure who had to be regenerated during the night, to appear as Khepri at dawn and as Re at the sun's zenith. Atum was often identified with snakes and eels, typical primeval beings.
Aztec
SYNONYM: Mexica, Tenochcas
CATEGORY: culture
DEFINITION: The last pre-Columbian civilization to enter the Valley of Mexico after the collapse of the Toltec civilization in c 12 AD, who built a magnificent capital at Tenochtitlán and were later conquered by the Spaniards (1521). They called themselves the Mexica or Tenochca and were the dominant political group of the Late Post-Classic Period. The people spoke Nahuatl. Their origin is obscure, partly because of the deliberate destruction of their own records, but tradition says that in 1193 AD the last of seven Chichimec tribes left Aztlan , a mythical birthplace somewhere north or west of Mexico, and filtered south. For a while they lived around Lake Texococo, but in 1345 they were allowed to found Tenochtitlán (under present-day Mexico City) on some unoccupied islands. By 1428 Tenochtitlán, Texococo, and Tlacopan formed an independent state which controlled most of present-day Mexico from the desert zone in the north to Oaxaca in the south, with extensions as far as the Guatemalan border -- all through military expansion. By inclination and training the Aztecs were militaristic, and a person's status depended on his success as a warrior. The chief god of the Aztecs, Huitzilopochtli, was a war god who required the blood of sacrificial victims, and only constant warfare supplied the altar of the god. Human sacrifice was necessary also to ensure the daily rising of the sun. Other major deities were Huitzilpotchtli (the warrior god and chief deity of Tenochtitlan), Texcatlipoca (god of night, death and destruction), Xipe Totec (god of spring and renewal), and Quetzacoatl, the plumed serpent (god of self-sacrifice and inventor of agriculture and the calendar). Tenochtitlán became a great imperial city, so large that it could not be self-sufficient but had to rely on tributes from its provinces. Luxury goods and necessities were brought to the city, and craftsmen produced jewelry, turquoise mosaics, featherwork, and carved stone. Mold-made clay figurines were common, and the black-on-orange pottery was decorated with geometrical designs and stylized creatures. Little architecture or painting survived the Spanish conquest of 1521. Copies of several books have been preserved (as the Dresden Codex). Aztec society was set in a clearly defined hierarchical class system. At the top was the ruling class (pipil) from whom and by whom the emperors were chosen. The mass of the population were freeman (machuale) and under them were the serfs (mayeques) and then at the bottom the slaves. Most people were of the landholding group called the calpulli, which had its own internal hierarchy. Change of social class was possible through state service in the military and sometimes through merchant activity. The merchants (pochteca) served as early-reconnaissance and espionage groups. The arrival of the Spaniards and the fall of Tenochtitlán after a 90-day siege marked the end of Aztec dominance.
Baal
SYNONYM: (lord" or "owner")"
CATEGORY: deity
DEFINITION: A god worshipped in many ancient Middle Eastern places and the most important deity of the Canaanites. He was first mentioned in inscriptions of the Middle Bronze Age, middle of the 2nd millennium BC, and was depicted as a young armed warrior with bull's horns coming from his helmet. He was the fertility deity and also the lord of life and of rain and dew. Baal was also worshipped by the Phoenicians and at Carthage. An important temple dedicated to Baal has been excavated at Ugarit, which is where the first tablets bearing his name were discovered.
Babylon
SYNONYM: Bab-ilu (Babylonian), Bab-ilim (Old Babylonian), Bavel or Babel (Hebrew), Atlal Babil (Arabic)
CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: One of the most famous cities of antiquity, the capital of southern Mesopotamia (Babylonia) from the early 2nd millennium to the early 1st millennium BC and capital of the Neo-Babylonian (Chaldean) Empire in the 7th and 6th centuries BC. It was located about 80 km south of Baghdad, Iraq on the Euphrates River. Babylon was occupied from the 3rd millennium BC, but it first reached prominence under King Hammurabi (reigned 1792-1750 BC), who made it the capital of his empire. (Hammurabi is best known for his code of laws.) Babylon was destroyed by the Hittites c 1595 BC and ruled by the Kassites until c 1157 BC. The city had frequent wars with Elam and Assyria during several short-lived dynasties until the 11th and last dynasty (626-539 BC), when the city was at its highest development and largest size. This last dynasty -- that of Nebuchadnezzar -- was instrumental in destroying Assyria and it conquered lands from the Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean before being overthrown by Cyrus in 539 BC. It continued in existence through the Achaemenid period, though with much reduced importance, until its abandonment in 641 AD after the Muslim conquest. The city itself covered around 200 hectares and had a population of about 100,000. Excavations beginning at the turn of the 20th century revealed the city's plan and scanty remains of the ziggurat, the original Tower of Babel. The high water table, which has risen in the last few millennia, allowed those excavators (R. Koldewey from 1899-1917) access to only buildings of the Neo-Babylonian period. The ruins, including temples (some for Marduk, the city's patron deity), fortifications, palaces, and the substructure of the Hanging Gardens, have not held up well over time, especially due to brick-robbing. The finest surviving monument is the Ishtar Gate and Procession Street. Important buildings excavated include Nebuchadnessar's palace, close to the Ishtar Gate, a huge building with many rooms arranged around five different courtyards. Another huge palace of Nebuchadnezzar's reign (605-562 BC) -- the 'Summer Palace' -- was constructed to the northwest of the Inner City and was enclosed by a triangular outer wall.
bark shrine
SYNONYM: mammisi, bark
CATEGORY: structure
DEFINITION: A type of small temple in the shape of a Nile boat, which their prows and sterns decorated with the aegis of a god. The cabin contained the cult image of the deity. The term also refers to a small temple, attached to the main temples of the Late and Greco-Roman periods. These were where the god of the main temple was born" or if the main temple was dedicated to a goddess the bark shrine was where she bore her child."
Bath
SYNONYM: [Aquae Sulis]
CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: A site of hot mineral springs (120 F [49 C]) which attracted the Romans after their invasion of Britain, who founded Bath as Aquae Sulis, dedicated to the deity Sul (Minerva). From the late 1st century AD onwards the springs became the center for a complex of lavish monumental buildings. These include the Temple of Sulis Minerva and an extensive collection of baths, the most notable being the vaulted Great Bath.
Belverde
CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: A Bronze Age site of the Apennine near Cetona in Tuscany, Italy. There are indications that it may have been a ritual site, with rocks carved to form tiers of seats and other shapes. Complete pottery vessels filled with acorns, beans, and carbonized grain were placed into fissures in the rocks, perhaps as offerings to a deity.
benben stone
CATEGORY: lithics
DEFINITION: A cult object made of stone, found at sites such as for the sun god Re at Heliopolis. The sacred stone symbolized the Primeval Mound and perhaps also the petrified semen of the deity. It served as the earliest prototype for the obelisk and possibly even the pyramid. It was probably constructed in the early Old Kingdom, c 2600 BC.
Ea
CATEGORY: deity
DEFINITION: Mesopotamian / Sumerian (Enki) god of water and a member of the triad of deities completed by Anu (Sumerian An) and Bel (Enlil). From a local deity worshipped in the city of Eridu, Ea evolved into a major god, Lord of Apsu, the fresh waters beneath the earth. Ea, the Akkadian counterpart of Enki, was the god of ritual purification.
fetish
CATEGORY: artifact
DEFINITION: An inanimate object associated with a spiritual being or magical powers and worshipped by primitive peoples. A fetish differs from an idol in that it is worshipped in its own character, not as the image or symbol of a deity.
Inanna
CATEGORY: deity
DEFINITION: A Sumerian deity, the goddess of love and war, storehouse and rain. She was the daughter of Nanna/Sin, sister of Enmerkar, and associated with Warka. She is equivalent to the Akkadian Ishtar. She is sometimes the daughter of the sky god An, sometimes his wife; in other myths she is the daughter of Nanna, god of the moon, or of the wind, Enlil. She is sometimes referred to as the Lady of the Date Clusters.
Inca
CATEGORY: culture
DEFINITION: South American Indians who, at the time of the Spanish conquest in 1532, ruled an empire that extended along the Pacific coast and Andean highlands from the northern border of modern Ecuador to the Maule River in central Chile. The Inca established their capital at Cuzco (Peru) in the 12th century. They began their conquests in the early 15th century and within 100 years had gained control of an Andean population of about 12,000,000 people. These Quechua-speaking tribes' origins are uncertain. Their vast empire had a centralized organization and at its head was the ruler, 'Son of the Sun', worshipped as a god in his own lifetime. As a divine king he was above the law, and as a despotic ruler he was very much the political head of the state. Administration was in the hands of officials drawn from the Inca nobility and from the chiefs of conquered tribes. An efficient road system, along which relays of messengers could travel 250 km in a day, ensured that Cuzco was kept informed of developments all over the empire. These same roads allowed Inca forces to be quickly moved into any province which showed signs of rebellion. This centralization was both the strength and the weakness of the Inca state. The unifying force was the ruler in person, and the death of Huayna Capac precipitated a crisis. Civil war broke out when two of his sons, Huascar and Atahuallpa, disputed the succession. Atahuallpa won the war, but before he could consolidate his position he was seized and murdered by Francisco Pizarro's Spaniards in 1532. Without a leader the Inca system could not function. Most of the empire was quickly brought under Spanish control, but an independent Inca group held out in the Urubamba valley until 1572. Viracocha Inca was the creator, culture hero, and supreme deity of the Inca, but the religion embraced a pantheon of gods of nature. The most actively worshipped were the sun and, by extension, the emperor, who was considered the son of the sun. The Temple of the Sun, built at the pre-Incan ceremonial center of Pachacamac suggests some incorporation of earlier religions. Archaeologically, the Inca culture is characterized by fine quality stone masonry, agricultural terraces, mass-produced and standardized pottery forms (aryballus), and metal objects. The considerable architectural skill of the Inca is reflected in Cyclopean masonry, although many buildings were constructed using rectangular dressed stone blocks as well as adobe. The basic dwelling-unit was a cluster of single rooms arranged around a rectangular courtyard and was most often enclosed by a wall. Writing was unknown, but the quipu was used for keeping records. Agriculture was based on plant foods, especially potato, manioc, quinoa, and maize. Domesticated animals included dog, llama, cava (guinea pig), and alpaca. Fine textiles were woven using a simple backstrap loom. The civilization was the largest and most powerful political unit in all the prehistoric America. It has been argued that the whole of Inca achievement relied heavily on a variety of political, societal and religious infrastructures already in place before their ascendancy.
Khepri
CATEGORY: deity
DEFINITION: The ancient sun god, conceived as a great scarab beetle rolling the sun across the heavens, whose cult was centered at Heliopolis. This deity is sometimes depicted in tomb painting and funerary papyri as a man with a scarab as a head or as a scarab in a boat held aloft by Nun. This was just one of the sun god's manifestations: Khepri was the morning form, then Re-Harakhty, and Atum, the evening form.
libation
CATEGORY: term
DEFINITION: A Greek or Roman offering of wine to the gods; an act of pouring liquid as a sacrifice to a deity. It was poured from a phiale or patera, which was filled by an oinochoe.
Medinet Maadi
SYNONYM: ancient Dja; Narmouthis
CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: A site in the southwestern Fayyum region where a temple of the cobra-goddess Renenutet (harvest deity) was founded during the reigns of Amenemhat III and IV, c1855-1799 BC.
Melkarth
SYNONYM: Melqart, Melkart, Tyrian Baal
CATEGORY: deity
DEFINITION: One of the gods of the Phoenicians, whose name means 'ruler of the city'. He was the chief deity of Tyre and two of its colonies, Carthage and Gadir (Cádiz, Spain). Greek historian Herodotus equated Melkarth's temple to Heracles, which was the scene of annual winter and spring festivals and is believed to have been the model for Solomon's temple in Jerusalem.
Mithras
CATEGORY: deity
DEFINITION: A Persian demigod who achieved independence and importance during the Roman empire, and best known as the savior deity of the Roman mystery cult of Mithraism. Especially in military circles, his worship challenged early Christianity. He is portrayed as a young man in a Phrygian cap, usually in the act of kneeling on the back of a bull to dispatch it by a sword thrust in the neck. A Mithraeum is a building, often semi-subterranean, containing a passage between broad shelves on which the worshippers reclined during the ceremonies. The end wall may hold a fresco or relief of Mithras himself. From the 1st century BC onwards, he begins to appear in the Roman world as the god of a mystery cult. His disciples, who were exclusively men and often limited to the ranks of soldiers and businessmen, were promised life and happiness after death. As in other mystery cults, the rites were kept secret, and truth and benefits came only to initiated believers, who had to pass through a sequence of seven grades of initiation. These were the stages of the Raven (Corax), Bride (Nymphus), Soldier (Miles), Lion (Leo), Persian (Perses), Runner of the Sun (Heliodromos), and Fater (Pater). The disciple also underwent baptism, took part in the reenacting of the sacred meal, and bore the seal of his discipleship on his body. Mithraism expanded rapidly from the second half of the 1st century AD.
mortuary cult
CATEGORY: term
DEFINITION: A group providing regular funerary offerings for the eternal well-being of the deceased and in hopes of partaking in the salvation offered by the deity. The mortuary cults of many peoples indicate that the dead were imagined as actually residing in their tombs and able to receive the offerings of food and drink made to them; e.g., some graves in ancient Crete and Ugarit (Ras Shamra) were equipped with pottery conduits, from the surface, for libations.
Nanna
SYNONYM: Akkadian Sin
CATEGORY: deity
DEFINITION: The Sumerian moon god; also known as the Akkadian/ Semitic Sin. With his consort Ningal, he was the patron deity of Ur, where his temple and ziggurat were built. Nanna was intimately connected with the cattle herds that were the livelihood of the people in the marshes of the lower Euphrates River, where the cult developed.
naos
SYNONYM: temple sanctuary; naoi = plural
CATEGORY: structure
DEFINITION: A shrine, usually monolithic, in which the image of an Egyptian deity was kept, especially in temple sanctuaries. A small wooden naos was normally placed inside a monolithic one in hard stone; the latter are typical of the Late Period, and sometimes elaborately decorated. The largest naoi are those where a temple's main cult statue was kept, in the sanctuary. A naos generally took the form of a rectangular chest or box hewn from a single block of wood or stone, and could also be used as a container for a funerary statue or mummified animal. Egyptian 'naophorous statues/ portrayed the subject holding a shrine, sometimes containing a divine image. The term is also used for the interior apartment of a Greek temple (a Greek temple placed within a temenos) or the cella of the Roman temple. In Classical architecture, it is the body of a temple (as distinct from the portico) in which the image of the deity is housed. In early Greek and Roman architecture it was a simple room, usually rectangular, with the entrance at one end and with the side walls often being extended to form a porch. In larger temples, where the cella is open to the sky, a small temple was sometimes placed within. In the Byzantine architectural tradition the naos was preserved as the area of a centrally planned church, including the core and the sanctuary, where the liturgy is performed.
nome
CATEGORY: term
DEFINITION: An administrative unit or province of ancient Egypt, each consisting of a town or group of villages with its own guardian deity, district governor (nomarch), and symbol or standard. There were 42-44 such provinces in Egypt, varying over the course of the centuries, which ancient Egyptians called sepat. The system of division into provinces existed at least from the Old Kingdom (c 2575-2130 BC) and continued until the Muslim conquest (640 AD). In the Graeco-Roman period, whose temples are the source of the surviving lists of nomes, there were 22 nomes in Upper Egypt and 20 in Lower Egypt. In Ptolemaic times, a 'heptanomis' of seven nomes was formed in Middle Egypt. The Nile valley south of Ombos was sometimes regarded as one with the province of Nubia. The Nomarchs were appointed as delegates by the Pharaoh and tended to be autonomous chieftains in troubled periods.
Onuris
SYNONYM: Anhur, Inhert
CATEGORY: deity
DEFINITION: An Egyptian deity associated with war and hunting, whose name means 'he who brings back the distant one', referring to his principal mythical role in which he returned from Nubia with his consort, the lioness-goddess Mehit.
Ra
SYNONYM: Re
CATEGORY: deity
DEFINITION: The supreme god of ancient Egypt before his displacement by Amen (Amun). He was sun god and deity of the city of Heliopolis, whose cult is first attested in the name of the 2nd Dynasty ruler Raneb (c 2865 BC). Ra is depicted as a hawk-headed man with a sun disc on his head. He was especially important during the Old Kingdom's 4th and 5th Dynasties. In the New Kingdom, Ra was attested in the composite deity Amen-Re, state god of the empire.
Re
SYNONYM: Ra
CATEGORY: deity
DEFINITION: The supreme god of ancient Egypt before his displacement by Amen (Amun). He was sun god and deity of the city of Heliopolis, whose cult is first attested in the name of the 2nd Dynasty ruler Raneb (c 2865 BC). Ra is depicted as a hawk-headed man with a sun disc on his head. He was especially important during the Old Kingdom's 4th and 5th Dynasties. In the New Kingdom, Ra was attested in the composite deity Amen-Re, state god of the empire.
Shinto
CATEGORY: term
DEFINITION: The native religion of Japan which is not recorded in literature until the 6th century. The core of belief seems to be that spirits reside in numerous natural phenomena, such as sun, water, fire and mountains, and that it is important to attain ritual purity from pollution. Shinto shrines often have a mirror as the embodiment of the deity.
shrine
SYNONYM: naos, per, sanctuary
CATEGORY: structure; artifact
DEFINITION: The innermost element of a temple where the cult image or bark of the deity was placed or the elaborate boxes containing funerary statuary. It was a repository for relics; either fixed, as a tomb, or movable, as a feretory. A shrine can be a case, box, or receptacle, especially one in which sacred relics (as the bones of a saint) are deposited -- or a place in which devotion is paid to a saint or deity (sanctuary). A shrine can also be a niche containing a religious image, a receptacle (as a tomb) for the dead, or a place or object worshipped in association.
Sobek
SYNONYM: Sebek, Suchos
CATEGORY: deity
DEFINITION: In ancient Egyptian religion, crocodile god whose chief sanctuary in Fayyum province included a live sacred crocodile, Petsuchos. He was portrayed as crocodile or as a man with crocodile's head and may have been an early fertility god or associated with death and burial before becoming a major deity and patron of kings in the Middle Kingdom (c 1850-1630 BC). Cemeteries of mummified crocodiles have been found in the Fayyum and at Kawm Umbu.
stela
SYNONYM: stele, stelae (pl.)
CATEGORY: artifact
DEFINITION: An upright, freestanding stone monument, often inscribed or carved in relief, and sometimes painted. These pillars or tablets of stone were often used to mark a grave or erected as a monument. Inscriptions may commemorate a victory or a major event, or proclaim a formal decree. Stelae are frequently encountered in Maya and Olmec sites of Mesoamerica (often carved with calendrical and hieroglyphic inscriptions), in the Buddhist civilizations of Asia, and in early Greece. The earliest funerary stelae are from a cemetery of 1st- and 2nd-Dynasty kings at Abydos, and are located in publicly accessible superstructures of the tombs. Commemorative stelae were erected in temples. Votive stelae recorded an individual's veneration of a particular deity(ies).
stela or stele
SYNONYM: pl. stelae
CATEGORY: artifact
DEFINITION: An upright, freestanding stone monument, often inscribed or carved in relief, and sometimes painted. These pillars or tablets of stone were often used to mark a grave or erected as a monument. Inscriptions may commemorate a victory or a major event, or proclaim a formal decree. Stelae are frequently encountered in Maya and Olmec sites of Mesoamerica (often carved with calendrical and hieroglyphic inscriptions), in the Buddhist civilizations of Asia, and in early Greece. The earliest funerary stelae are from a cemetery of 1st- and 2nd-Dynasty kings at Abydos, and are located in publicly accessible superstructures of the tombs. Commemorative stelae were erected in temples. Votive stelae recorded an individual's veneration of a particular deity(ies).
Sumer / Sumerian
CATEGORY: site; culture; language
DEFINITION: The earliest documented inhabitants of southern Mesopotamia (southern Iraq), c 3500 BC, considered the world's first civilization. Located between Babylon and the head of the Persian Gulf, these people spoke a language unrelated to any other known language. Formed originally by the need for irrigation agriculture, they created a social and political organization, their own art, literature, and religious observances and greatly influenced neighboring cultures. Cities appeared, such as Eridu, Lagash, Uruk, and Ur, with craft specialization and accumulation of wealth. Most important was the invention of writing. The cuneiform script developed for writing Sumerian can be read. The political unit was the city-state, in which the patron deity, through the priesthood and temple organization, was the major power in all matters. Secular rulers were required only in time of war. The various city-states were united by a common culture and religion, the patron deities such as Enki, Enlil, Nannar, and the rest being members of a single Sumerian pantheon. Sumer was conquered by the Semites of Akkad under Sargon c 2370 BC. The Sumerian culture survived this and later foreign conquests with very little change. Some scholars believe that the Sumerians go back much further and may even have been the first sedentary inhabitants of southern Mesopotamia, from about 5500 BC. The Sumerian language had invariable bisyllabic or monosyllabic roots, around which prefixes or suffixes, also invariable, were arranged to express grammatical inflections. The structure of the language must have made it easier to invent writing and, in a second period, the use of syllabic characters. Sumerian overtaken by Babylonian and ceased to be spoken at beginning of 2nd millennium BC, but then became a language used for cultural purposes and retained that function until cuneiform writing itself disappeared in 1st century AD.
Tammuz
SYNONYM: Dumuzi
CATEGORY: deity
DEFINITION: Consort of the Sumerian goddess Ishtar who was prominent in the fertility rituals of the Sacred Marriage. Upon death, he became a god of the underworld. The earliest known mention of Tammuz is in texts dating to the early part of the Early Dynastic III period (c 2600-2334 BC), but his cult was probably older. The cult is attested for most of the major cities of Sumer in the 3rd and 2nd millennia BC. He eventually changed to an agricultural deity, viewed as the power of the grain in texts of the Assyrians and Sabaeans.
Taweret
SYNONYM: Taurt, Thoueris
CATEGORY: deity
DEFINITION: Goddess of ancient Egypt, household deity and protectress of fertility and childbirth, associated also with the nursing of infants. She was depicted as having the head of a hippopotamus standing upright, the tail of a crocodile, and the claws of a lion. Taurt was connected in particular with the goddess Hathor. She was also strongly associated with the inundation of the Nile and received particular worship at Jabal al-Silsila, where rituals were performed for the inundation.
temple
SYNONYM: templum
CATEGORY: structure
DEFINITION: A building with a religious function, of various shapes and sizes. For the ancient Egyptians, it was the 'house' of a deity or deities and the most important component was the innermost cult-chamber or shrine, where the image of the deity was kept. Temples were not originally intended for worshippers, but as shrines for the gods. They consisted of the following elements: the pylon, an open courtyard with colonnades, the hypostyle hall, and the sanctuary. The sacred precinct of a town, including the temple and associated buildings, was often surrounded by a massive mud-brick wall. In the Classical world, many great temples were built. Because of the importance of temples in a society, temple architecture often represents the best of a culture's design and craftsmanship.
were-jaguar
CATEGORY: artifact
DEFINITION: A creature with human infant and jaguar features which was important in Olmec art. It has a babylike expression, fangs, snarling mouth, and other feline facial features. The number and unity of the objects in this style first suggested to scholars that they were dealing with a new and previously unknown civilization. There is a whole spectrum of such were-jaguar forms in Olmec art, ranging from the almost purely feline to the human in which only a trace of jaguar can be seen. These Olmec monuments were generally carved in the round, technically very advanced even though the only methods available were pounding and pecking with stone tools. Considerable artistry can also be seen in the pottery figurines of San Lorenzo, which depict nude and sexless individuals with were-jaguar traits. The Olmec also worshipped a rain deity depicted as a were-jaguar.
zoomorphic
CATEGORY: artifact
DEFINITION: Having an animal form or appearance, and attributing the form or nature of an animal to something, such as a deity.

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