title: Ancient Egyptian funerary practices

text: The first funerals in Egypt are known from the villages of Omari and Maadi in the north, near present-day Cairo. The people of these villages buried their dead in a simple, round grave with a pot. The body was neither treated nor arranged in a particular way as these aspects would change later in the historical period. Without any written evidence, except for the regular inclusion of a single pot in the grave,


title: Ancient Egyptian funerary practices

text: there is little to provide information about contemporary beliefs concerning the afterlife during that period. Given later customs, the pot was probably intended to hold food for the deceased.


title: Ancient Egyptian funerary practices

text: Funerary customs were developed during the Predynastic period from those of the Prehistoric period. At first, people excavated round graves with one pot in the Badarian period (4400–3800 ), continuing the tradition of Omari and Maadi cultures. By the end of the Predynastic period, there were increasing numbers of objects deposited with the body in rectangular graves, and there is growing evidence of rituals practiced by Egyptians of the Naqada II period (3650–3300 ). At this point, bodies were regularly arranged in a crouched, compact position, with the face pointing toward either the east and the rising sun or the west that in this historical period was the land of the dead. Artists painted jars with funeral processions and perhaps images of ritual dancing. Figures of bare-breasted women with birdlike faces and their legs concealed under skirts also appeared. Some graves were much richer in goods than others, demonstrating the beginnings of social stratification. Gender differences in burials emerged with the inclusion of weapons in men's graves and cosmetic palettes in women's graves.


title: Ancient Egyptian funerary practices

text: By 3600 , Egyptians had begun to mummify the dead, wrapping them in linen bandages with embalming oils (conifer resin and aromatic plant extracts).


title: Ancient Egyptian funerary practices

text: By the First Dynasty, some Egyptians were wealthy enough to build tombs over their burials rather than placing their bodies in simple pit graves dug into the sand. The rectangular, mudbrick tomb with an underground burial chamber called a mastaba developed in the early dynastic period. These tombs had niched walls, a style of building called the palace-façade motif because the walls imitated those surrounding the palace of the king. Since commoners as well as kings, however, had such tombs, the architecture suggests that in death, some wealthy people did achieve an elevated status. Later in the historical period, it is certain that the deceased was associated with the god of the dead, Osiris.


title: Ancient Egyptian funerary practices

text: Grave goods expanded to include furniture, jewelry, and games as well as the weapons, cosmetic palettes, and food supplies in decorated jars known earlier, in the Predynastic period. In the richest tombs, grave goods then numbered in the thousands. Only the newly invented coffins for the body were made specifically for the tomb. Some inconclusive evidence exists for mummification. Other objects in the tombs that had been used during daily life suggest that in the First Dynasty Egyptians already anticipated needing such objects in the next life. Further continuity from this life into the next can be found in the positioning of tombs: those persons who served the king during their lifetimes chose burials close to their king. The use of stela in front of the tomb began in the First Dynasty, indicating a desire to individualize the tomb with the deceased's name.


title: Ancient Egyptian funerary practices

text: In the Old Kingdom, kings first built pyramids for their tombs surrounded by stone mastaba tombs for their high officials. The fact that most high officials were also royal relatives suggests another motivation for such placement: these complexes were also family cemeteries.


title: Ancient Egyptian funerary practices

text: Among the elite, bodies were mummified, wrapped in linen bandages, sometimes covered with molded plaster, and placed in stone sarcophagi or plain wooden coffins. At the end of the Old Kingdom, mummy masks in cartonnage (linen soaked in plaster, modeled, and painted) also appeared. Canopic jars became used to hold their internal organs. Amulets of gold, faience, and carnelian first appeared in various shapes to protect different parts of the body. There is also the first evidence of inscriptions inside the coffins of the elite during the Old Kingdom. Often, reliefs of everyday items were etched onto the walls to supplement grave goods, which made them available through their representation.


title: Ancient Egyptian funerary practices

text: The new false door was a non-functioning stone sculpture of a door, found either inside the chapel or on the outside of the mastaba; it served as a place to make offerings and recite prayers for the deceased. Statues of the deceased were being included in tombs and used for ritual purposes. Burial chambers of some private people received their first decorations in addition to the decoration of the chapels. At the end of the Old Kingdom, the burial chamber decorations depicted offerings, but not people.


title: Ancient Egyptian funerary practices

text: The political situation in the First Intermediate period, with its many centers of power, is reflected in the many local styles of art and burial at that time. The many regional styles for decorating coffins make their origins easy to distinguish from each other. For example, some coffins have one-line inscriptions and many styles include the depiction of "Wadjet" eyes (the human eye with the markings of a falcon). There are also regional variations in the hieroglyphs used to decorate coffins.


title: Ancient Egyptian funerary practices

text: Occasionally men had tools and weapons placed in their graves, while some women had jewelry and cosmetic objects, such as mirrors. Grindstones were sometimes included in women's tombs, perhaps to be considered a tool for food preparation in the next world, just as the weapons in men's tombs imply men's assignment to a role in fighting.


title: Ancient Egyptian funerary practices

text: Burial customs in the Middle Kingdom reflect some of the political trends of that period. During the Eleventh Dynasty, tombs were cut into the mountains of Thebes surrounding the king's tomb or, in local cemeteries in Upper and Middle Egypt; Thebes was the native city of the Eleventh Dynasty kings, and they preferred to be buried there. But the Twelfth Dynasty high officials served the kings of a new family now ruling from the north in Lisht; these kings and their high officials preferred burial in a mastaba near the pyramids belonging to their masters. Moreover, the difference in topography between Thebes and Lisht led to a difference in tomb type: In the north, nobles built mastaba tombs on the flat desert plains, while in the south, local dignitaries continued to excavate tombs into the mountain.


title: Ancient Egyptian funerary practices

text: For those of ranks lower than royal courtiers during the Eleventh Dynasty, tombs were simpler. Coffins could be simple wooden boxes with the body either mummified and wrapped in linen or simply wrapped without mummification, and the addition of a cartonnage mummy mask, a custom that continued until the Graeco-Roman period. Some tombs included wooded shoes and a simple statue near the body. In one burial there were only twelve loaves of bread, a leg of beef, and a jar of beer for food offerings. Jewelry could be included but only rarely were objects of great value found in non-elite graves. Some burials continued to include the wooden models that were popular during the First Intermediate period. Wooden models of boats, scenes of food production, craftsmen and workshops, and professions such as scribes or soldiers have been found in the tombs of this period.


title: Ancient Egyptian funerary practices

text: Some rectangular coffins of the Twelfth Dynasty have short inscriptions and representations of the most important offerings the deceased required. For men, the objects depicted were weapons and symbols of office as well as food. Women's coffins depicted mirrors, sandals, and jars containing food and drink. Some coffins included texts that were later versions of the royal Pyramid Texts.


title: Ancient Egyptian funerary practices

text: Another kind of faience model of the deceased as a mummy seems to anticipate the use of "shabti" figurines (also called "shawabti" or an "ushabti") later in the Twelfth Dynasty. These early figurines do not have the text directing the figure to work in the place of the deceased that is found in later figurines. The richest people had stone figurines that seem to anticipate "shabtis", though some scholars have seen them as mummy substitutes rather than servant figures.


title: Ancient Egyptian funerary practices

text: In the later Twelfth Dynasty, significant changes occurred in burials, perhaps reflecting administrative changes enacted by King Senwosret III (1836–1818 ). The body was now regularly placed on its back, rather than its side as had been traditional for thousands of years. Coffin texts and wooden models disappeared from new tombs of the period while heart scarabs and figurines shaped as mummies were now often included in burials, as they would be for the remainder of Egyptian history. Coffin decoration was simplified. The Thirteenth Dynasty saw another change in decoration. Different motifs were found in the north and south, a reflection of decentralized government power at the time. There was also a marked increase in the number of burials in one tomb, a rare occurrence in earlier periods. The reuse of one tomb by a family over generations seems to have occurred when wealth was more equitably spread.


title: Ancient Egyptian funerary practices

text: Known graves from the Second Intermediate period reveal the presence of non-Egyptians buried in the country. In the north, graves associated with the Hyksos, a western Semitic people ruling the north from the northeast delta, include small mudbrick structures containing the body, pottery vessels, a dagger in a men's graves, and often a nearby donkey burial. Simple pan-shaped graves in various parts of the country are thought to belong to Nubian soldiers. Such graves reflect very ancient customs and feature shallow, round pits, bodies contracted, and minimal food offerings in pots. The occasional inclusion of identifiable Egyptian materials from the Second Intermediate period provides the only marks distinguishing these burials from those of Predynastic and even earlier periods.


title: Ancient Egyptian funerary practices

text: The majority of elite tombs in the New Kingdom were rock-cut chambers. Kings were buried in multi-roomed, rock-cut tombs in the Valley of the Kings and no longer in pyramids. Priests conducted funerary rituals for them in stone temples built on the west bank of the Nile opposite of Thebes.


title: Ancient Egyptian funerary practices

text: From the current evidence, the Eighteenth Dynasty appears to be the last period in which Egyptians regularly included multiple objects from their daily lives in their tombs; beginning in the Nineteenth Dynasty, tombs contained fewer items from daily life and included objects made especially for the next world. Thus, the change from the Eighteenth to the Nineteenth Dynasties formed a dividing line in burial traditions: the Eighteenth Dynasty more closely remembered the immediate past in its customs, whereas, the Nineteenth Dynasty anticipated the customs of the Late period.


title: Ancient Egyptian funerary practices

text: People of the elite ranks in the Eighteenth Dynasty placed furniture as well as clothing and other items in their tombs, objects they undoubtedly used during life on earth. Beds, headrests, chairs, stools, leather sandals, jewelry, musical instruments, and wooden storage chests were present in these tombs. While all of the objects listed were for the elite, many poor people did not put anything beyond weapons and cosmetics into their tombs.


title: Ancient Egyptian funerary practices

text: No elite tombs are known to have survived unplundered from the Ramesside period. In that period, artists decorated tombs belonging to the elite with more scenes of religious events, rather than the everyday scenes that had been popular since the Old Kingdom. The funeral ceremony, the funerary meal with multiple relatives, the worshipping of the deities, even figures in the underworld were subjects in elite tomb decorations. The majority of objects found in the Ramesside period tombs were made for the afterlife. Aside from the jewelry, which could have been used also during life, objects in Ramesside tombs were manufactured for the next world.


title: Ancient Egyptian funerary practices

text: Although the political structure of the New Kingdom collapsed at the end of the Twentieth Dynasty, the majority of burials in the Twenty-first Dynasty directly reflect developments from the earlier period. At the beginning of that time, reliefs resembled those from the Ramesside period. Only at the very end of the Third Intermediate period did new funerary practices of the Late period begin to be seen.


title: Ancient Egyptian funerary practices

text: Little is known of tombs from that period. The very lack of decorations in tombs seems to have led to much more elaborate decoration of coffins. The remaining grave goods of the period show fairly cheaply made "shabtis", even when the owner was a queen or a princess.


title: Ancient Egyptian funerary practices

text: Burials in the Late period could make use of large-scale, temple-like tombs built for the non-royal elite for the first time. But the majority of tombs in this period were in shafts sunk into the desert floor. In addition to fine statuary and reliefs reflecting the style of the Old Kingdom, the majority of grave goods were specially made for the tomb. Coffins continued to bear religious texts and scenes. Some shafts were personalized by the use of stela with personal prayers of and the name of the deceased on it. "Shabtis" in faience for all classes are known. Canopic jars, although often nonfunctional, continued to be included. Staves and scepters representing the deceased's office in life were often present as well. A wooden figure of either the god Osiris or of the composite deity Ptah-Sokar-Osiris could be found, along with heart scarabs, both gold and faience examples of djed-columns, Eye of Horus amulets, figures of deities, and images of the deceased's "ba". Tools for the tomb's ritual called the "opening of the mouth" as well as "magical bricks" at the four compass points, could be included.


title: Ancient Egyptian funerary practices

text: Following the conquest of Egypt by Alexander the Great, the country was ruled by the descendants of Ptolemy, one of his generals. His Macedonian Greek family fostered a culture that promoted both Hellenistic and ancient Egyptian ways of life: many of the Greek-speaking people living in Alexandria followed the customs of mainland Greece, others adopted Egyptian customs, and indigenous Egyptians continued to follow their own already ancient customs.


title: Ancient Egyptian funerary practices

text: Very few Ptolemaic tombs are known. Fine temple statuary of the period suggests the possibility of tomb sculpture and offering tables. Egyptian elite burials still made use of stone sarcophagi. The traditional Books of the Dead and amulets were also still popular.


title: Ancient Egyptian funerary practices

text: The Romans conquered Egypt in 30 , ending the rule of the last and most famous member of the Ptolemaic dynasty, Cleopatra VII. During Roman rule, an elite hybrid burial style developed that incorporated both Egyptian and Roman elements.


title: Ancient Egyptian funerary practices

text: Some people were mummified and wrapped in linen bandages. The front of the mummy was often painted with a selection of traditional Egyptian symbols. Mummy masks, in cartonnage, plaster, or stucco, in either traditional Egyptian style or Roman style, might be added to the mummies. Another possibility was a Roman-style mummy portrait, executed in encaustic (pigment suspended in wax) on a wooden panel. Sometimes the feet of the mummy were covered. An alternative to this was a complete shroud with Egyptian motifs, but a portrait in the Roman style. Tombs of the elite could also include fine jewelry.


title: Ancient Egyptian funerary practices

text: Greek historians Herodotus (5th century BC) and Diodorus Siculus (1st century BC) provide the most complete surviving evidence of how ancient Egyptians approached the preservation of a dead body. Before embalming, or preserving the dead body as to delay or prevent decay, mourners, especially if the deceased had high status, covered their faces with mud, and paraded around town while beating their chests. If the wife of a high-status male died, her body was not embalmed until three or four days have passed, because this prevented abuse of the corpse. In the case that someone drowned or was attacked, embalming was carried out immediately on their body, in a sacred and careful manner. This kind of death was viewed as venerated, and only priests were permitted to touch the body.


title: Ancient Egyptian funerary practices

text: After embalming, the mourners may have carried out a ritual involving an enactment of judgment during the Hour Vigil, with volunteers to play the role of Osiris and his enemy brother Set, as well as the deities Isis, Nephthys, Horus, Anubis, and Thoth. As the tale goes, Set was envious of his brother Osiris for being granted the throne before him, so he plotted to kill him. Osiris's wife, Isis, battled back and forth with Set to gain possession of Osiris's body, and through this struggle, Osiris's spirit was lost. Nonetheless, Osiris resurrected and was reinstated as a god. In addition to the reenactment of the judgment of Osiris, numerous funeral processions were conducted throughout the nearby necropolis, which symbolized different sacred journeys.


title: Ancient Egyptian funerary practices

text: The funeral procession to the tomb generally included cattle pulling the body in a sledge-type of carrier, with friends and family to follow. During the procession, the priest burned incense and poured milk before the dead body. Upon arrival to the tomb, and essentially the next life, the priest performed the Opening of the mouth ceremony on the deceased. The deceased's head was turned toward the south, and the body was imagined to be a statue replica of the deceased. Opening the mouth of the deceased symbolized allowing the person to speak and defend themselves during the judgment process. Goods were then offered to the deceased to conclude the ceremony.


title: Ancient Egyptian funerary practices

text: The preservation of a dead body was critical if the deceased wanted a chance at acceptance into the afterlife. Within the Ancient Egyptian concept of the soul, "ka", which represented vitality, leaves the body once the person dies. Only if the body is embalmed in a specific fashion will "ka" return to the deceased body, and rebirth will take place. The embalmers received the body after death, and in a systematized manner, prepared it for mummification. The family and friends of the deceased had a choice of options that ranged in price for the preparation of the body, similar to the process at modern funeral homes. Next, the embalmers escorted the body to "ibw", translated to “place of purification”, a tent in which the body was washed, and then "per nefer", “the House of Beauty”, where mummification took place.


title: Ancient Egyptian funerary practices

text: In order to live for all eternity and be presented in front of Osiris, the body of the deceased had to be preserved by mummification, so that the soul could reunite with it, and take pleasure in the afterlife. The main process of mummification was preserving the body by dehydrating it using natron, a natural salt found in Wadi Natrun. The body was drained of any liquids and left with the skin, hair, and muscles preserved. The mummification process is said to have taken up to seventy days. During this process, special priests worked as embalmers as they treated and wrapped the body of the deceased in preparation for burial.


title: Ancient Egyptian funerary practices

text: The process of mummification was available for anyone who could afford it. It was believed that even those who could not afford this process could still enjoy the afterlife with the recitation of the correct spells. Mummification existed in three different processes, ranging from most expensive, moderately expensive, and most simplistic, or least expensive. The most classic, common, and most expensive method of mummification dates back to the eighteenth dynasty. The first step was to remove the internal organs and liquid so that the body would not decay. After being laid out on a table, the embalmers took out the brain through a process named excerebration by inserting a metal hook through the nostril, breaking through it into the brain. They removed as much as they could with the hook, and the rest they liquefied with drugs and drained out. They threw out the brain because they thought that the heart did all the thinking. The next step was to remove the internal organs, the lungs, liver, stomach, and intestines, and to place them in canopic jars with lids shaped as the heads of the protective deities, the four sons of Horus: Imsety, Hapy, Duamutef, and Qebhseneuf. Imsety was human-headed and guarded the liver; Hapy was ape-headed and guarded the lungs; Duamutef was jackal-headed and guarded the stomach; Qebhseneuf was hawk-headed and guarded the small and large intestines. Sometimes the four canopic jars were placed into a canopic chest and buried with the mummified body. A canopic chest resembled a "miniature coffin" and was intricately painted. The Ancient Egyptians believed that by burying their organs with the deceased, they may rejoin in the afterlife. Other times, the organs were cleaned and cleansed, and then returned into the body. The body cavity was then rinsed and cleaned with wine and an array of spices. The body was sewn up with aromatic plants and spices left inside. The heart stayed in the body, because in the hall of judgment, it would be weighed against the feather of Maat. After the body was washed with wine, it was stuffed with bags of natron. The dehydration process took 40 days.


title: Ancient Egyptian funerary practices

text: The second part of the process took 30 days. This was the time when the deceased turned into a semi divine being, and all that was left in the body from the first part was removed, followed by applying first wine and then oils. The oils were for ritual purposes, as well as for preventing the limbs and bones from breaking while being wrapped. The body was sometimes colored with a golden resin, which protected the body from bacteria and insects. Additionally, this practice was based on the belief that divine beings had flesh of gold. Next, the body was wrapped in linen cut into strips with amulets while a priest recited prayers and burned incense. The linen was adhered to the body using gum, opposed to a glue. The dressing provided the body physical protection from the elements, and depending on how wealthy the deceased's family was, the deceased could be dressed with an ornamented funeral mask and shroud. Special care was given to the head, hands, feet, and genitals, as contemporary mummies reveal extra wrappings and paddings in these areas. Mummies were identified via small, wooden name-tags tied typically around the deceased's neck. The 70-day process is connected to Osiris and the length the star Sothis was absent from the sky.


title: Ancient Egyptian funerary practices

text: The second, moderately expensive option for mummification did not involve an incision into the abdominal cavity or the removal of the internal organs. Instead, the embalmers injected the oil of a cedar tree into the body, which prevented liquid from leaving the body. The body was then laid in natron for a specific number of days. The oil was then drained out of the body, and with it came the internal organs, the stomach and the intestines, which were liquefied by the cedar oil. The flesh dissolved in the natron, which left only skin and bones left of the deceased body. The remains are given back to the family. The cheapest, most basic method of mummification, which was often chosen by the poor, involved purging out the deceased's internal organs, and then laying the body in natron for 70 days. The body was then given back to the family.


title: Ancient Egyptian funerary practices

text: Animals were mummified in Ancient Egypt for many reasons. Household pets that held a special importance to their owners were buried alongside them. However, animals were not only viewed as pets, but as incarnations of the deities. Most Ancient Egyptian dieties were associated with particular animals, frequently being depicted as such animals or as humans with the heads of such animals. Therefore, animals associated with particular gods were buried to honor those deities. Some animal mummifications were performed to serve as sacred offerings to the deities who often took the form of animals such as cats, frogs, cows, baboons, and vultures. Other animals were mummified with the intention of being a food offering to humans in the afterlife.


title: Ancient Egyptian funerary practices

text: Several kinds of animal remains have been discovered in tombs in the area of Dayr al-Barsha, a Coptic village in Middle Egypt. The remains found in the shafts and burial chambers included dogs, foxes, eagle owls, bats, rodents, and snakes. These were determined to be individuals that had entered the deposits by accident, however.


title: Ancient Egyptian funerary practices

text: Other animal remains that were found were more common and recurred more than those individuals who wound up accidentally trapped in these tombs. These remains included numerous gazelle and cattle bones, as well as calves and goats that were believed to have been as a result of human behavior. This was due to finding that some remains had fragments altered, missing, or separated from their original skeletons. These remains also had traces of paint and cut marks on them, seen especially with cattle skulls and feet.


title: Ancient Egyptian funerary practices

text: Based on this, the natural environment of the Dayr al-Barsha tombs, and the fact that only some parts of these animals were found, the possibility of natural deposition can be ruled out, and the cause of these remains in fact are most likely caused by animal sacrifices, as only the head, foreleg, and feet were apparently selected for deposition within the tombs. According to a study by Christopher Eyre, cattle meat was not a part of the daily diet in Ancient Egypt, as the consumption of meat only took place during celebrations, including funerary and mortuary rituals, and the practice of providing the deceased with offerings of cattle as early as the Predynastic period.


title: Ancient Egyptian funerary practices

text: After the mummy was prepared, it would need to be re-animated, symbolically, by a priest. The opening of the mouth ceremony was conducted by a priest who would utter a spell and touch the mummy or sarcophagus with a ceremonial adze – a copper or stone blade. This ceremony ensured that the mummy could breathe and speak in the afterlife. In a similar fashion, the priest could utter spells to reanimate the mummy's arms, legs, and other body parts.


title: Ancient Egyptian funerary practices

text: The priests, maybe even the king's successor, proceeded to move the body of the embalmed dead king through the causeway to the mortuary temple. This is where prayers were recited, incense was burned, and more rituals were performed to help prepare the king for the final journey. The king's mummy was then placed inside the pyramid along with enormous amount of food, drink, furniture, clothes, and jewelry that were to be used in the afterlife. The pyramid was sealed so that no one would ever enter it again. However, the king's soul could move through the burial chamber at will. After the funeral kings become deities and could be worshipped in the temples beside their pyramid.


title: Ancient Egyptian funerary practices

text: In ancient times Egyptians were buried directly in the ground. Since the weather was so hot and dry, it was easy for the bodies to remain preserved. Usually the bodies would be buried in a compact position. Ancient Egyptians believed the burial process to be an important part in sending humans to a comfortable afterlife.


title: Ancient Egyptian funerary practices

text: The Egyptians believed that, after death, the deceased could still have such feelings of anger, or hold a grudge as during life, as well as feel affection for and concern over the welfare of their still-living family. Hence, the deceased were expected to support and help their living family.


title: Ancient Egyptian funerary practices

text: They specifically believed that the abilities of the "Ba" and "Ka" are what enabled the dead to support their family: The "Ba" made it possible for an invisible twin to be released from the body, to support the family, while the Ka would recognize the twin when it would come back to the body. With the ideas of the dead being so valuable, it is clear why the Egyptians treated the deceased with respect.


title: Ancient Egyptian funerary practices

text: The less fortunate Egyptians still wanted their family members to be given a proper burial. A typical burial would be held in the desert where the family would wrap the body in a cloth and bury it with everyday objects for the dead to be comfortable. Although some could afford mummification, most commoners were not mummified due to the expense. Often the poor are found in mass graves where their bodies are not mummified and only with minimal household objects. Sites were located throughout the desert, often in areas that are now populated.


title: Ancient Egyptian funerary practices

text: The tomb was the housing for the deceased and served two crucial functions: the tomb provided infinite protection for the deceased to rest, as well as a place for mourners to perform rituals in which aided the deceased into eternal life. Therefore, the ancient Egyptians were very serious about the way in which the tombs were built. Two hallmarks of the tomb included: a burial chamber, which housed the physical body of the deceased (inside a coffin) as well as funerary objects deemed most important, and a "cult place," which resembled a chapel where mourners, family, and friends could congregate. The tomb of a king included a full temple, rather than a chapel.


title: Ancient Egyptian funerary practices

text: Typically, the tomb of a deceased person was located somewhere close by their home community. The ancient Egyptians opted to bury the deceased in land that was not particularly fertile or useful for vegetation. Therefore, tombs were mostly built in desert areas. Tombs were usually built near each other and rarely stood alone. For a deceased king, however, the tomb was located in a place of utmost sacredness.


title: Ancient Egyptian funerary practices

text: In the Prehistoric Egypt, bodies were buried in deserts and they would naturally be preserved by dehydration. The "graves" were small oval or rectangular pits dug in the sand. They placed the body of the deceased in a tight position on its left side with a few jars of food and drink and slate palettes with magical religious spells alongside. The size of graves eventually increased according to status and wealth. The dry, desert conditions were a benefit in ancient Egypt for burials of the poor, who could not afford the complex burial preparations that the wealthy had.


title: Ancient Egyptian funerary practices

text: The simple graves evolved into mudbrick structures called "mastabas". Royal mastabas later developed into step pyramids and then "true pyramids." As soon as a king took the throne construction of the burial pyramid would begin. Rituals of the burial, including the "Opening of the mouth ceremony" took place at the Valley Temple. While a pyramid's large size was made to protect against robbery, it may also be connected to a religious belief about the sun god, Ra.


title: Ancient Egyptian funerary practices

text: A majority of cemeteries were located on the west bank of the Nile, which was viewed metaphorically as "the realm of the dead". The tomb was said to represent the deceased's place in the cosmos, which ultimately depended on the social class of the deceased. If the deceased was of a notably high status, they were buried near the king, whereas middle and lower status individuals were simply buried near the communities in which they had lived. In many cases, the tombs of those of high-status were situated relatively to the tombs of those of lower status so that they would be viewed as a "focal point". For example, one burial site was designed so that the tombs of the governors were placed alongside the slope of a hill, whereas the tombs of the governor's attendants were placed at the foot of the hill.


title: Ancient Egyptian funerary practices

text: After having been preserved, the mummy was placed into a coffin. Although the coffins that housed the deceased bodies were made simply of wood, they were intricately painted and designed to suit each individual. During the Old Kingdom, the following was included on each coffin: the title of the deceased, a list of offerings, a false compartment through which "ka" could pass through, and painted eyes so that the deceased could look through the coffin. The decorations on the coffin usually fit the deceased's status.


title: Ancient Egyptian funerary practices

text: During the Middle Kingdom, the coffin was treated as if it were a "miniature tomb" and was painted and inscribed as such. Images of the goddesses Isis and Nephthys were painted on the coffins, and were said to guard the deceased in the afterlife. Along the sides of the coffins amongst other deities, the four sons of Horus were painted. Prayers were often inscribed on the coffins as well.


title: Ancient Egyptian funerary practices

text: Anthropoid coffins soon emerged, which were tailored to the contour of the deceased's body. The deceased's face and hair was painted onto the coffin so to personalize it further. A sarcophagus, which is a large, stone container, was used to house the coffin, and provide supplementary protection to the dead body. The Ancient Egyptians translated the word "sarcophagus" to mean "possessor of life", and therefore, the sarcophagus would aid the deceased into the afterlife.


title: Ancient Egyptian funerary practices

text: One of the funerary practices followed by the Egyptians was preparing properly for the afterlife. "Ka", the vital force within the Ancient Egyptian concept of the soul, would not return to the deceased body if embalming was not carried out in the proper fashion. In that case, the body decayed, and possibly became unrecognizable, which rendered the afterlife unattainable for the deceased person. If the proper precautions were not taken, damnation would occur. Damnation meant that Egyptians would not experience the glories of the afterlife where they became a deified figure and would be welcomed by the deities. Instead, damnation was depicted in the books of the underworld. It was a place of opposites; chaos, fire, and struggle. Different pages of the books of the underworld depict different perspectives of what happens during damnation. It discusses cutting out humanity and individuality from the person and reversing the cosmic order.


title: Ancient Egyptian funerary practices

text: The idea of judgment went as follows: in order to be considered for the admittance into the afterlife, those who died were obligated to undergo a multi-step judgment by certain deities. The concept and belief in judgment is outlined in the Book of the Dead, a funerary text of the New Kingdom. The Book of the Dead is composed of spells relating to the deceased and the afterlife. Spell 125, in particular, is understood to be delivered by the deceased at the outset of the judgment process.


title: Ancient Egyptian funerary practices

text: The visual depiction of what judgment looks like has been discovered through ancient Egyptian ruins and artifacts. The procedure was depicted as follows: the deceased's heart was weighed in comparison to the feather of Maat, while Ammit awaited to eat the heart if the deceased was found to be a sinner. Among other deities, Osiris was a judge and represented an ideal output of the judgment process for the deceased who entered the judgment hall. This is because Orisis resurrected and regained his godly status after he was justified against his brother Set, who wrongly murdered him. The deceased pleaded to Osiris that they had not committed sin, which is known as a "negative confession". The forty-two Assessors of Maat judged how virtuous the life of the deceased was, and this represented the principal element of the deceased entering the afterlife. After passing judgment, the family and friends of the deceased celebrated them and boasted about their righteousness to attain entry into the afterlife.


title: Ancient Egyptian funerary practices

text: Many mummies were provided with some form of funerary literature to take with them to the afterlife. Most funerary literature consists of lists of spells and instructions for navigating the afterlife. During the Old Kingdom, only the king had access to this material, which scholars refer to as the Pyramid Texts. The Pyramid Texts are a collection of spells to assure the royal resurrection and protect the king from various malignant influences. Unas was the first to use this collection of spells, as he and a few subsequent kings had the texts carved on the walls of their pyramids. These texts were individually chosen from a larger bank of spells.


title: Ancient Egyptian funerary practices

text: In the First Intermediate Period and in the Middle Kingdom, some of the Pyramid Text spells also are found in burial chambers of high officials and on many coffins, where they begin to evolve into what scholars call the Coffin Texts. In this period, the nobles and many non-royal Egyptians began to have access to funerary literature. Although many spells from the earlier texts were carried over, the new coffin texts also had additional spells, along with slight changes made to make this new funerary text more fit for the nobility.


title: Ancient Egyptian funerary practices

text: In the New Kingdom, the Coffin Texts became the Book of the Dead, or the Funeral Papyri, and they were used through the Late Kingdom. The text in these books was divided according to chapters and spells, which were almost two-hundred in number. Each one of these texts was individualized for the deceased, although to varying degrees. If the person was wealthy enough, then they could commission their own personal version of the text that would include only the spells that they wanted. However, if one was not so wealthy, then one had to make do with mass produced standardized versions generated with spaces left for insertion of the name of the deceased.


title: Ancient Egyptian funerary practices

text: If the scribe ran out of room while doing the transcription, it would just stop without completion. It is not until the Twenty-sixth Dynasty that there began to be any regulation of the order or even the number of spells that were to be included in the Book of the Dead. At that time, the regulation was set at 192 spells to be placed in the book, with certain ones holding the same place at all times. This makes it seem as if for many of them, the order of the texts was not so important as that it be included among the spells.


title: Ancient Egyptian funerary practices

text: Although the types of burial goods changed throughout ancient Egyptian history, their purpose to protect the deceased and provide sustenance in the afterlife remained.


title: Ancient Egyptian funerary practices

text: From the earliest periods of Egyptian history, all Egyptians were buried with at least some goods that they thought were necessary after death. At a minimum, these consisted of everyday objects such as bowls, combs, and other trinkets, along with food. Wealthier Egyptians could afford to be buried with jewelry, furniture, and other valuables, which made them targets of tomb robbers. In the early Dynastic Period, tombs were filled with daily life objects, such as furniture, jewelry, and other valuables. They also contained many stone and pottery vessels. One important factor in the development of Ancient Egyptian tombs was the need for storage space for the funerary goods.


title: Ancient Egyptian funerary practices

text: As burial customs developed in the Old Kingdom, wealthy citizens were buried in wooden or stone coffins. However, the number of burial goods declined. They were often just a set of copper models of tools and vessels. Starting in the First Intermediate period, wooden models became very popular burial goods. These wooden models often depict everyday activities that the deceased expected to continue doing in the afterlife. Also, a type of rectangular coffin became the standard, being brightly painted and often including an offering formula. Objects of daily use were not often included in the tombs during that period.


title: Ancient Egyptian funerary practices

text: At the end of the Middle Kingdom, new object types were introduced into burials, such as the first shabtis and the first heart scarabs. Shabtis were little clay statues made to perform tasks on command for the king. During that period objects of daily use appear in tombs again having become magical items also employed for protecting the living. Scarabs (beetles) collect animal dung and roll it into little balls. To the Egyptians, these balls resembled the life-giving Sun, so they hoped that scarabs would bring them long life. Scarabs have been found in tombs and graves.


title: Ancient Egyptian funerary practices

text: In the New Kingdom, some of the old burial customs changed. For example, an anthropoid coffin shape became standardized and the deceased were provided with a small shabti statue, which the Egyptians believed would perform work for them in the afterlife. Elite burials were often filled with objects of daily use. Under Ramesses II and later, all daily life objects disappear from tombs. Most often burials at that time only contained a selection of items especially made for the burial. Also, in later burials, the numbers of shabti statues increased; in some burials, numbering more than four hundred statues. In addition to these shabti statues, the deceased could be buried with many different types of magical figurines to protect them from harm.


title: Ancient Egyptian funerary practices

text: Funerary boats were a part of some ancient Egyptian burials. Boats played a major role in Egyptian religion because they were conceived as the main means by which the deities traveled across the sky and through to the netherworld. One type of boat used at funerals was for making pilgrimages to holy sites such as Abydos. A large funerary boat, for example, was found near a royal pyramid from the Old Kingdom for Khufu. The funerary boats were usually made of wood; the Egyptians used a collection of papyrus reeds and tied them together with the wood very tightly. The most common route for funerary boats to the afterlife was the River Nile. The boat carried the coffin and often had a dog in the boat since they believed a dog would lead the deceased to the afterlife. The boats usually measured about 20 feet or longer. These however did not match those of the great kings such as Khufu (who built the Great Pyramid). His funerary boat was approximately 144 feet long with 12 oars. Common funerary boats were smaller sized with fewer oars.


title: Ancient Egyptian funerary practices

text: At the Ure Museum, there is an Egyptian funerary boat on display that represents a typical tomb offering. This boat symbolizes the transport of the dead from life to the afterlife. In Ancient Egypt death was seen as a journey by boat. More specifically, it was seen as a trip across their River Nile that joined the North and South. This funerary boat offering from the "Tomb of the Officials" at Beni Hassan, was added to the museum collection in 1923 from the Liverpool Institute of Archaeology.


title: Ancient Egyptian funerary practices

text: In addition to sources by ancient writers and modern scientists, a better understanding of the Ancient Egyptian mummification process is promoted through the study of mummies. The majority of what is known to be true about the mummification process is based on the writing of early historians who carefully recorded the processes—one of whom was Herodotus. Now, modern day archaeologists are using the writings of early historians as a basis for their study. The advancement of new technology including x-rays has allowed for the analysis of mummies without destroying the elaborate outer wrappings of the body. In addition to the use of x-rays, autopsies are also being performed in order to gain a better understanding of the diseases suffered by Ancient Egyptians as well as the treatments used for these diseases. A pregnant mummy sheds light on pregnancy complications and prenatal care and treatments. In learning their age of death, experts are able to create a timeline of the dates regarding the ruling of Egyptian kings. In looking at the bones of the mummified bodies, experts get a better idea of the average height and life span. Studying Ancient Egyptian Mummies, archaeologists are able to learn about the past.


title: Crazy World (Scorpions album)

text: Crazy World is the eleventh studio album by the German hard rock band Scorpions, released on 6 November 1990. The album peaked at No. 21 on the "Billboard" 200 chart for albums in 1991. That same year, the song "Wind of Change" reached No. 4 on the "Billboard" Hot 100 and "Send Me an Angel" reached No. 44 on the same chart. It also has the only Scorpions track to credit bassist Francis Buchholz as a writer, "Kicks After Six". This album was the band's first album in a decade and a half to not be produced by Dieter Dierks.


title: Crazy World (Scorpions album)

text: "Crazy World" became the band's only album to reach number one in their home country of Germany. In the UK, it remains the only Scorpions album to attain Silver certification (60,000 units sold) by the British Phonographic Industry, achieving this in November 1991. In the United States, it is the band's second best-selling album to 1984's "Love at First Sting", and their last one to be certified at least gold by the RIAA. It was the band's last studio album to feature the "Lovedrive"-era lineup, with Buchholz leaving the band in January 1992.


title: Crazy World (Scorpions album)

text: "Send Me an Angel" was played at the closing scene in the 2004 "Cold Case" episode "Who's Your Daddy."


title: Crazy World (Scorpions album)

text: "Wind of Change" was also used during the 2009 film "Gentlemen Broncos" and towards the end of the 2014 film "The Interview" and international version soundtrack featured "Nutri Ventures" in pilot episode.


title: Ed Asner filmography

text: The following is the complete filmography of the American actor, voice artist, and former president of the Screen Actors Guild Ed Asner.


title: Sacred language

text: A sacred language, holy language or liturgical language is any language that is cultivated and used primarily in church service or for other religious reasons by people who speak another, primary language in their daily lives.


title: Sacred language

text: A sacred language is often the language which was spoken and written in the society in which a religion's sacred texts were first set down; these texts thereafter become fixed and holy, remaining frozen and immune to later linguistic developments. (An exception to this is Lucumí, a ritual lexicon of the Cuban strain of the Santería religion, with no standardized form.)


title: Sacred language

text: Once a language becomes associated with religious worship, its believers may ascribe virtues to the language of worship that they would not give to their native tongues. In the case of sacred texts, there is a fear of losing authenticity and accuracy by a translation or re-translation, and difficulties in achieving acceptance for a new version of a text. A sacred language is typically vested with a solemnity and dignity that the vernacular lacks. Consequently, the training of clergy in the use of a sacred language becomes an important cultural investment, and their use of the tongue is perceived to give them access to a body of knowledge that untrained laypeople cannot (or should not) access.


title: Sacred language

text: Because sacred languages are ascribed with virtues that the vernacular is not seen to have, these typically preserve characteristics lost in the course of language development. In some cases, the sacred language is a dead language, while in others, it may simply reflect archaic forms of a living language. For instance, 17th-century elements of the English language remain current in Protestant Christian worship through the use of the "King James Bible" from 1611, or older versions of the Anglican "Book of Common Prayer". In more extreme cases, the language has changed so much from the language of the sacred texts that the liturgy is barely comprehensible without special training. For example, the liturgy of the Roman Catholic Church remained in Latin after the Council of Tours in 813 ordered preaching in local Romance or German, because Latin was no longer understood. Similarly, Old Church Slavonic is incomprehensible to speakers of modern Slavic languages, unless they study it.


title: Sacred language

text: Sacred languages are distinct from divine languages, which are languages ascribed to the divine (i.e. God or gods) and may not necessarily be natural languages. The concept, as expressed by the name of a script, for example in "Devanāgarī", the name of a script that roughly means "[script] of the city of gods”, and is used to write many Indian languages.


title: Sacred language

text: When the Buddha's sutras were first written down in Pali, there were around 20 schools, each with their own version derived from the original. The present Pāli Canon originates from the Tamrashatiya school. The Chinese and Tibetan canons mainly derive from the Sarvastivada, originally written in Sanskrit, of which fragments remain. The texts were translated into Chinese and Tibetan.


title: Sacred language

text: Theravada Buddhism uses Pali as its main liturgical language and prefers that scripture be studied in the original Pali. Pali is derived from Sanskrit In Thailand, Pali is transliterated into the Thai alphabet, resulting in a Thai pronunciation of the Pali language. Something similar also happens in Myanmar, where Pali is also transliterated into the Burmese alphabet, also resulting in a Burmese pronunciation of Pali.


title: Sacred language

text: Mahayana Buddhism makes little use of its original language, Sanskrit. In East Asia, Classical Chinese is mainly used. In Japan, texts are written in Chinese characters and read out or recited with the Japanese pronunciations of their constituent characters, resulting in something unintelligible in both languages.


title: Sacred language

text: In Vajrayana Buddhism, Tibetan Buddhism is the main school, and Classical Tibetan is the main language used for study, although the Tibetan Buddhist canon was also translated into other languages, such as Mongolian and Manchu. Many items of Sanskrit Buddhist literature have been preserved because they were exported to Tibet, with copies of unknown ancient Sanskrit texts surfacing in Tibet as recently as 2003. Sanskrit was valued in Tibet as “the elegant language of the gods”. Although in Tibetan Buddhist deity yoga the rest of the sadhana is generally recited in Tibetan, the mantra portion of the practice is usually retained in its original Sanskrit.


title: Sacred language

text: In Nepal, the Newar Buddhist form of Vajrayana is a storehouse of ancient Sanskrit Buddhist texts, many of which are now only extant in Nepal. Whatever language is used, Judith Simmer-Brown explains that a tantric Vajrayana text is often written in an obscure twilight language so that it cannot be understood by anyone without the verbal explanation of a qualified teacher.


title: Sacred language

text: Christian rites, rituals, and ceremonies are not celebrated in one single sacred language. Most churches which trace their origin to the Apostles continue to use the standard languages of the first few centuries AD. Many Christian churches make a distinction between a sacred language, a liturgical language, and a vernacular language. The three most important languages in the early Christian era were Latin, Greek, and Syriac (a dialect of Aramaic).


title: Sacred language

text: Sacred language is often defined as those languages which were present at the crucifixion. The phrase "Jesus, King of the Jews" is reported in the Gospel of John as having been inscribed upon the cross in three different languages, thereby sanctifying them as the first languages to proclaim Christ's divinity. These are:


title: Sacred language

text: Liturgical languages are those which hold precedence within liturgy due to tradition and dispensation. Many of these languages have evolved from languages which were at one point vernacular, while some are intentional constructions by ecclesial authorities.


title: Sacred language

text: The extensive use of Greek in the Roman Liturgy has continued, in theory; it was used extensively on a regular basis during the Papal Mass, which has not been celebrated for some time. By the reign of Pope Damasus I, the continuous use of Greek in the Roman Liturgy had come to be replaced in part by Latin. Gradually, the Roman Liturgy took on more and more Latin until, generally, only a few words of Hebrew (e.g. "Dominus Deus sabaoth) and Greek (e.g. Kyrie eleison") remained. The adoption of Latin was further fostered when the Vetus Latina (old Latin) version of the Bible was edited and parts retranslated from the original Hebrew and Greek by Saint Jerome in his Vulgate. Latin continued as the western Church's language of liturgy and communication.


title: Sacred language

text: In the mid-16th century the Council of Trent rejected a proposal to introduce national languages as this was seen, among other reasons, as potentially divisive to Catholic unity.


title: Sacred language

text: During the Reformation in England, when the Protestant authorities banned the use of Latin liturgy, various schools obtained a dispensation to continue to use Latin, for educational purposes.


title: Sacred language

text: From the end of 16th century, in coastal Croatia, the vernacular was gradually replacing Church Slavonic as the liturgical language. It was introduced in the rite of the Roman Liturgy, after the Church Slavonic language of glagolitic liturgical books, published in Rome, was becoming increasingly unintelligible due to linguistic reforms, namely, adapting Church Slavonic of Croatian recension by the norms of Church Slavonic of Russian recension. For example, the vernacular was used to enquire of the bride and bridegroom whether they accepted their marriage vows.


title: Sacred language

text: Jesuit missionaries to China had sought, and for a short time received permission, to translate the Roman Missal into scholarly Classical Chinese (see Chinese Rites controversy). Ultimately, this was revoked. Among the Algonquin and Iroquois, they received permission to translate the propers of the Mass into the vernacular.


title: Sacred language

text: In the 20th century, Pope Pius XII granted permission for a few vernaculars to be used in a few rites, rituals, and ceremonies. This did not include the Roman Liturgy of the Mass.


title: Sacred language

text: The Catholic Church, long before the Second Vatican Council (Vatican II), had accepted and promoted the use of the non-vernacular liturgical languages listed above; while vernacular (i.e. modern or native) languages were also used liturgically throughout history; usually as a special concession given to religious orders conducting missionary activity.


title: Sacred language

text: In the 20th century, Vatican II set out to protect the use of Latin as a liturgical language. To a large degree, its prescription was disregarded and the vernacular not only became standard, but was generally used exclusively in the liturgy. Latin, which remains the chief language of the Roman Rite, is the main language of the Roman Missal (the official book of liturgy for the Latin Rite) and of the Code of Canon Law, but the use of liturgical Latin is now discouraged. The use of vernacular language in liturgical practice after 1964 created controversy, and opposition to liturgical vernacular is a major tenet of the Catholic Traditionalist movement. Meanwhile, the numerous Eastern Catholic Churches in union with Rome each have their own respective "parent-language". As a subsidiary issue, unrelated to liturgy, the Eastern Code of Canon Law, for the sake of convenience, has been promulgated in Latin.


title: Sacred language

text: Eastern Orthodox churches vary in their use of liturgical languages. Koine Greek and Church Slavonic are the main sacred languages used in communion. Other languages are also permitted for liturgical worship, and each country often has the liturgical services in their own language. This has led to a wide variety of languages used for liturgical worship, but there is still uniformity in the liturgical worship itself.


title: Sacred language

text: Liturgical languages used in the Eastern Orthodox Church include (but are not limited to): Koine Greek, Church Slavonic, Romanian, Georgian, Arabic, Ukrainian, Bulgarian, Serbian, English, German, Spanish, French, Polish, Portuguese, Italian, Albanian, Finnish, Swedish, Chinese, Estonian, Korean, Japanese, and multiple African languages.


title: Sacred language

text: Oriental Orthodox churches outside their ancestral lands regularly pray in the local vernacular, but some clergymen and communities prefer to retain their traditional language or use a combination of languages.


title: Sacred language

text: Many Anabaptist groups, such as the Amish, use High German in their worship despite not speaking it amongst themselves.


title: Sacred language

text: Hinduism is traditionally considered to have Sanskrit as its primary liturgical language, though Old Tamil is also recognised as such.


title: Sacred language

text: Sanskrit is the language of the Vedas, Bhagavad Gita, Puranas like the Bhagavatam, the Upanishads, the epics like Ramayana and Mahabharata, and various other liturgical texts such as the Sahasranama, Chamakam, and Rudram.


title: Sacred language

text: Sanskrit is also the tongue of Hindu rituals. It also has secular literature along with its religious canon. Most Hindu theologians of later centuries continued to prefer to write in Sanskrit even when it was no longer spoken as a day-to-day language. Sanskrit remains as the only liturgical link language which connects the different strains of Hinduism that are present across India. The "de facto" position that Sanskrit enjoyed, as the principal language of Hinduism, enabled its survival not only in India but also in other areas where Hinduism thrived like Southeast Asia.


title: Sacred language

text: The concept of Hinduism finds its earliest literary mention in the book of Tolkāppiyam, a work of ancient Tamil Sangam literature, dated to the 5th - 10th century BCE. The Agamas and Puranas were originally composed in both Tamil and Sanskrit.


title: Sacred language

text: Tamil is also a liturgical language of Hinduism. Hinduism finds its literary mention in the ancient Sangam literature. Tamil has a huge volume of literature in Hinduism, especially in the traditions of Shaivism and Vaishnavism. Modern Hinduism is influenced by some of the traditions of the Dravidian folk religion, an ancient, non-Vedic form of Hinduism. Shaivism developed based on the Shaiva Siddhanta traditions, and its philosophies.


title: Sacred language

text: Tamil archanas and prayers are widely used in temples in Tamil Nadu, Sri Lanka, and Southeast Asia. The twelve Alvars (saint poets of the Vaishnava tradition) and sixty-three Nayanmars (saint poets of the Shaiva tradition) are regarded as exponents of the bhakti tradition of Hinduism in South India. Some of the most famous Shaivite liturgical works in Tamil include the 12 Tirumurais, consisting of devotional hymns like Tevaram, Tiruvacakam. The prominent Vaishnava liturgical work in Tamil is the Naalayira Divya Prabandham, which are considered to be the Tamil Veda. The Divya Prabandham is chanted in several South Indian Sri Vaishnavism temples, including the Tirumala Venkateswara Temple, Tirupati, and the Alvars are considered to be the catalysts of the Bhakti movement. The Divya Prabhandams and Tevarams are often referred to as Dravida Vedas. These devotional hymns are sung in numerous Shiva and Vishnu temples of South India and Sri Lanka. The other famous ancient Tamil devotional texts are Thiruppugal, Kambaramayanam, Tirumurukāṟṟuppaṭai, Tirukkuṟaḷ, Aathichoodi, Iraiyanar Akapporul, Abhirami Anthadhi, Thiruvilaiyadal Puranam, and Vinayagar Agaval. Other philosophical texts include Five Great Epics, Eighteen Greater Texts, and Eighteen Lesser Texts.


title: Sacred language

text: The Hindu sects Kaumaram, the Tenkali denomination of Sri Vaishnavism, and the Shaiva Siddhanta school of Shaivasim in South India exclusively use Tamil as liturgical language. Most of the devotional texts on Murugan are in Tamil, and references in Sangam literature traces the origin of the deity to Tamilakam.


title: Sacred language

text: A long-standing Shaiva myth states that Sanskrit and Tamil emerged from either side of Shiva's divine drum of creation as he danced the dance of creation as Nataraja, or sound of cosmic force.


title: Sacred language

text: Apart from Sanskrit and Tamil, several Hindu spiritual works were composed in the various regional languages of India such as Hindi, Assamese, Bengali, Odia, Maithili, Punjabi, Telugu, Gujarati, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Tulu, as well as Old Javanese, and Balinese of Southeast Asia.


title: Sacred language

text: Classical Arabic, or Qur'anic Arabic, is the language of the Quran. Muslims believe the Qur'an as divine revelation—it is a sacred and eternal document, and as such it is believed to be the direct word of God. Thus Muslims hold that the Qur'an is only truly the Qur'an if it is precisely as it was revealed—i.e., in Classical Arabic. Translations of the Qur'an into other languages are therefore not treated as the Qur'an itself; rather, they are seen as interpretive texts, which attempt to communicate a translation of the Qur'an's message. Salah and other rituals are also conducted in Classical Arabic for this reason. Scholars of Islam must learn and interpret the Qur'an in classical Arabic. Islamic Friday sermons are delivered mainly in Modern Standard Arabic in all Arabic-speaking countries and are sometimes mixed with local Arabic vernaculars or other non-Arabic languages like Berber or Kurdish. In non-Arabic speaking countries the Friday sermons are delivered in a mix of local languages and Classical Arabic Qur'anic verses.


title: Sacred language

text: The core of the Hebrew Bible is written in Biblical Hebrew, referred to by some Jews as "Lashon Hakodesh" (, "Language of Holiness"). Hebrew (and in the case of a few texts such as the Kaddish, Aramaic) remains the traditional language of Jewish religious services. Rabbinic Hebrew and Aramaic are used extensively by the Orthodox for writing religious texts.


title: Sacred language

text: Among many segments of the Haredi, Yiddish, although not used in liturgy, is used for religious purposes, such as for Torah study. In contemporary Israel, where Yiddish has virtually disappeared as a spoken language among the general public, it is cultivated and extensively used by some Haredi groups - partly in protest against Hebrew, the traditional sacred language they see having been profaned by Zionism, making it the main language of modern secular Israeli society. Moreover, in these circles Yiddish is associated with the memory of the great Torah sages of Eastern Europe, who spoke it and whose communities were destroyed in the Holocaust. Among American Jews, the Torah may also be translated into King James English which may be used in liturgy alongside Hebrew.


title: Sacred language

text: Among the Sephardim, Ladino was used for sacred translations such as the Ferrara Bible. It was also used during the Sephardi liturgy. Note that the name "Ladino" is also used for Judeo-Spanish, a dialect of Castilian used by Sephardim as an everyday language until the 20th century.


title: Boyle Heights, Los Angeles

text: Boyle Heights, historically known as Paredón Blanco, is a neighborhood in Los Angeles, California, located east of the Los Angeles River. It is one of the city's most notable and historic Chicano/Mexican-American communities and is known as a bastion of Chicano culture, hosting cultural landmarks like Mariachi Plaza and events like the annual Día de los Muertos celebrations.


title: Boyle Heights, Los Angeles

text: Boyle Heights was called ("White Bluff") during the Spanish, Mexican, and early American periods. During Mexican rule, what would become Boyle Heights became home to a small settlement of relocated Tongva refugees from the village of Yaanga in 1845. The villagers were relocated to this new site known as Pueblito after being forcibly evicted from their previous location on the corner Alameda and Commercial Street by German immigrant Juan Domingo (John Groningen), who paid Governor Pío Pico $200 for the land.


title: Boyle Heights, Los Angeles

text: On August 13, 1846, Los Angeles was seized by invading American forces during the Mexican–American War. Under American occupation, Indigenous elimination became a core principal of governance and the Pueblito site was razed to the ground in 1847: "the Indians were required to live in dispersed settlements or with their employers in the city." The destruction of Pueblito was reportedly approved by the Los Angeles City Council and largely displaced the final generation of the villagers, known as Yaangavit, into the "Calle de los Negros" ("place of the dark ones") district.


title: Boyle Heights, Los Angeles

text: The area became named after Andrew Boyle, an Irishman born in Ballinrobe, who purchased on the bluffs overlooking the Los Angeles River after fighting in the Mexican–American War for $4,000. Boyle established his home on the land in 1858. In the 1860s, he began growing grapes and sold the wine under the “Paredon Blanc” name. His son-in-law William Workman served as early mayor and city councilman and also built early infrastructure for the area.


title: Boyle Heights, Los Angeles

text: From 1889 through 1909 the city was divided into nine wards. In 1899 a motion was introduced at the Ninth Ward Development Association to use the name Boyle Heights to apply to all the highlands of the Ninth Ward, including Brooklyn Heights and Euclid Heights. XLNT Foods had a factory making tamales here early in their history. The company started in 1894, when tamales were the most popular ethnic food in Los Angeles. The company is the oldest continuously operating Mexican food brand in the United States, and one of the oldest companies in Southern California.


title: Boyle Heights, Los Angeles

text: In the early 1910s, Boyle Heights was one of the only communities that did not have restricted housing covenants that discriminated against Japanese and other people of color. The Japanese community of Little Tokyo continued to grow and extended to the First Street Corridor into Boyle Heights in the early 1910s. Boyle Heights became Los Angeles’s largest residential communities of Japanese immigrants and Americans, apart from Little Tokyo. In the 1920s and 1930s, Boyle Heights became the center of significant churches, temples, and schools for the Japanese community. These include the Tenrikyo Junior Church of America, the Konko Church, and the Higashi Honganji Buddhist Temple; all designed by Yos Hirose. The Japanese Baptist Church was built by the Los Angeles City Baptist Missionary Society. A hospital, also designed by Hirose, opened in 1929 to serve the Japanese American community.


title: Boyle Heights, Los Angeles

text: By the 1920s through the 1960s, Boyle Heights was racially and ethnically diverse as a center of Jewish, Mexican and Japanese immigrant life in the early 20th century, and also hosted significant Yugoslav, Armenian, African-American and Russian populations. Bruce Phillips, a sociologist who tracked Jewish communities across the United States, said that Jewish families left Boyle Heights not because of racism, but instead because of banks redlining the neighborhood (denying home loans) and the construction of several freeways through the community.


title: Boyle Heights, Los Angeles

text: In 1961, the construction of the East LA Interchange began. At 135 acres in size, the interchange is three times larger than the average highway system, even expanding at some points to 27 lanes in width. The interchange handles around 1.7 million vehicles daily and has produced one of the most traffic congested regions in the world as well as one of the most concentrated pockets of air pollution in America. Since the 1920s, both elite and working-class communities throughout Southern California have witnessed the enforcement of highly effective racial covenants and other exclusionary measures that aim to distinguish separate white and non-white neighborhoods. This resulted in the development of Boyle Heights, a multicultural, interethnic neighborhood in East Los Angeles whose celebration of cultural difference has made it a role model for democracy.


title: Boyle Heights, Los Angeles

text: In 2017, some residents were protesting gentrification of their neighborhood by the influx of new businesses, a theme found in the TV series "Vida" and "Gentefied", both set in the neighborhood.


title: Boyle Heights, Los Angeles

text: As of the 2000 census, there were 92,785 people in the neighborhood, which was considered "not especially diverse" ethnically, with the racial composition of the neighborhood at 94.0% Latino, 2.3% Asian, 2.0% White (non-Hispanic), 0.9% African American, and 0.8% other races. The median household income was $33,235, low in comparison to the rest of the city. The neighborhood's population was also one of the youngest in the city, with a median age of just 25.


title: Boyle Heights, Los Angeles

text: As of 2011, 95% of the community was Hispanic and Latino. The community had Mexican Americans, Mexican immigrants, and Central American ethnic residents. Hector Tobar of the "Los Angeles Times" said, "The diversity that exists in Boyle Heights today is exclusively Latino".


title: Boyle Heights, Los Angeles

text: The emergence of Latino politics in Boyle Heights influenced the diversity in the community. Boyle Heights was a predominantly Jewish community with "a vibrant, pre-World War II, Yiddish-speaking community, replete with small shops along Brooklyn Avenue, union halls, synagogues and hyperactive politics ... shaped by the enduring influence of the Socialist and Communist parties" before Boyle Heights became predominantly associated with Mexicans/Mexican Americans. The rise of the socialist and communist parties increased the people's involvement in politics in the community because the "liberal-left exercised great influence in the immigrant community". Even with an ever-growing diversity in Boyle Heights, "Jews remained culturally and politically dominant after World War II".


title: Boyle Heights, Los Angeles

text: Nevertheless, as the Jewish community was moving westward into new homes, the largest growing group, Latinos, was moving into Boyle Heights because to them this neighborhood was represented as upward mobility. With Jews and Latinos both in Boyle Heights, these men, part of the Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC) — Louis Levy, Ben Solnit, Pinkhas Karl, Harry Sheer, and Julius Levitt — helped to empower the Latinos who either lived among the Jewish people or who worked together in the factories.


title: Boyle Heights, Los Angeles

text: The combination of Jewish people and Latinos in Boyle Heights symbolized a tight unity between the two communities. The two groups helped to elect Edward R. Roybal to the City Council over Councilman Christensen; with the help from the Community Service Organization (CSO). In order for Roybal to win a landslide victory over Christensen, "the JCRC, with representation from business and labor leaders, associated with both Jewish left traditions, had become the prime financial benefactor to CSO .. labor historically backed incumbents ... [and] the Cold War struggle for the hearts and minds of minority workers also influenced the larger political dynamic".


title: Boyle Heights, Los Angeles

text: In the 1947 election, Edward Roybal lost, but Jewish community activist Saul Alinsky and the Industrial Areas Foundation (IAF) garnered support from Mexican Americans to bring Roybal to victory two years later 1949.(Bernstein, 243) When Roybal took office as city councilman in 1949, he experienced racism when trying to buy a home for his family. The real-estate agent told him that he could not sell to Mexicans, and Roybal's first act as councilman was to protest racial discrimination and to create a community that represented inter-racial politics in Boyle Heights.(Bernstein, 224).


title: Boyle Heights, Los Angeles

text: This Latino-Jewish relationship shaped politics in that when Antonio Villaraigosa became mayor of Los Angeles in 2005, "not only did he have ties to Boyle Heights, but he was elected by replicating the labor-based, multicultural coalition that Congressman Edward Roybal assembled in 1949 to become Los Angeles's first city council member of Latino heritage". Further, the Vladeck Center (named after Borukh Charney Vladeck) contributed to the community of Boyle Heights in a big way because it was not just a building, it was "a venue for a wide range of activities that promoted Jewish culture and politics".


title: Boyle Heights, Los Angeles

text: The Los Angeles County Department of Health Services operates the Central Health Center in Downtown Los Angeles, serving Boyle Heights.


title: Boyle Heights, Los Angeles

text: The Social Security Administration is located at 215 North Soto Street Los Angeles, CA 90033 1-800-772-1213


title: Boyle Heights, Los Angeles

text: Just 5% of Boyle Heights residents aged 25 and older had earned a four-year degree by 2000, a low percentage for the city and the county. The percentage of residents in that age range who had not earned a high school diploma was high for the county.


title: Chinese ceramics

text: Chinese ceramics show a continuous development since pre-dynastic times and are one of the most significant forms of Chinese art and ceramics globally. The first pottery was made during the Palaeolithic era. Chinese ceramics range from construction materials such as bricks and tiles, to hand-built pottery vessels fired in bonfires or kilns, to the sophisticated Chinese porcelain wares made for the imperial court and for export. Porcelain was a Chinese invention and is so identified with China that it is still called "china" in everyday English usage.


title: Chinese ceramics

text: Most later Chinese ceramics, even of the finest quality, were made on an industrial scale, thus few names of individual potters were recorded. Many of the most important kiln workshops were owned by or reserved for the emperor, and large quantities of Chinese export porcelain were exported as diplomatic gifts or for trade from an early date, initially to East Asia and the Islamic world, and then from around the 16th century to Europe. Chinese ceramics have had an enormous influence on other ceramic traditions in these areas.


title: Chinese ceramics

text: Increasingly over their long history, Chinese ceramics can be classified between those made for the imperial court to use or distribute, those made for a discriminating Chinese market, and those for popular Chinese markets or for export. Some types of wares were also made only or mainly for special uses such as burial in tombs, or for use on altars.


title: Chinese ceramics

text: The earliest Chinese pottery was earthenware, which continued in production for utilitarian uses throughout Chinese history, but was increasingly less used for fine wares. Stoneware, fired at higher temperatures, and naturally impervious to water, was developed very early and continued to be used for fine pottery in many areas at most periods; the tea bowls in Jian ware and Jizhou ware made during the Song dynasty are examples.


title: Chinese ceramics

text: Porcelain, on a Western definition, is "a collective term comprising all ceramic ware that is white and translucent, no matter what ingredients are used to make it or to what use it is put". The Chinese tradition recognizes two primary categories of ceramics: high-fired ( ) and low-fired ( ), so doing without stoneware, which in Chinese tradition is mostly grouped with (and translated as) porcelain. Terms such as "" or "near-porcelain" may be used for stonewares with porcelain-like characteristics. The "Erya" defined porcelain () as "fine, compact pottery ()".


title: Chinese ceramics

text: Chinese pottery can also be classified as being either "northern" or "southern". China comprises two separate and geologically different land masses, brought together by continental drift and forming a junction that lies between the Yellow and Yangtze rivers, sometimes known as the Nanshan-Qinling divide. The contrasting geology of the north and south led to differences in the raw materials available for making ceramics; in particular the north lacks petunse or "porcelain stone", needed for porcelain on the strict definition. Ware-types can be from very widespread kiln-sites in either north or south China, but the two can nearly always be distinguished, and influences across this divide may affect shape and decoration, but will be based on very different clay bodies, with fundamental effects. The kiln types were also different, and in the north the fuel was usually coal, as opposed to wood in the south, which often affects the wares. Southern materials have high silica, low alumina and high potassium oxide, the reverse of northern materials in each case. The northern materials are often very suitable for stoneware, while in the south there are also areas highly suitable for porcelain.


title: Chinese ceramics

text: In the context of Chinese ceramics, the term "porcelain" lacks a universally accepted definition (see above). This in turn has led to confusion about when the first Chinese porcelain was made. Claims have been made for the late Eastern Han dynasty (100–200 AD), the Three Kingdoms period (220–280 AD), the Six Dynasties period (220–589 AD), and the Tang dynasty (618–906 AD).


title: Chinese ceramics

text: Kiln technology has always been a key factor in the development of Chinese pottery. The Chinese developed effective kilns capable of firing at around before 2000 BC. These were updraft kilns, often built below ground. Two main types of kiln were developed by about 200 AD and remained in use until modern times. These are the dragon kiln of hilly southern China, usually fuelled by wood, long and thin and running up a slope, and the horseshoe-shaped mantou kiln of the north Chinese plains, smaller and more compact. Both could reliably produce the temperatures of up to or more needed for porcelain. In the late Ming, the egg-shaped kiln ("zhenyao") was developed at Jingdezhen, but mainly used there. This was something of a compromise between the other types, and offered locations in the firing chamber with a range of firing conditions.


title: Chinese ceramics

text: Important specific types of pottery, many coming from more than one period, are dealt with individually in sections lower down.


title: Chinese ceramics

text: Pottery dating from 20,000 years ago was found at the Xianrendong Cave site in Jiangxi province, making it among the earliest pottery yet found. Another reported find is from 17,000–18,000 years ago in the Yuchanyan Cave in southern China.


title: Chinese ceramics

text: By the Middle and Late Neolithic (about 5000 to 1500 BCE) most of the larger archaeological cultures in China were farmers producing a variety of attractive and often large vessels, often boldly painted, or decorated by cutting or impressing. Decoration is abstract or of stylized animals – fish are a speciality at the river settlement of Banpo. The distinctive Majiayao pottery, with orange bodies and black paint, is characterised by fine paste textures, thin walls, and polished surfaces; the almost complete lack of defects in excavated pots suggests a high level of quality control during production. The Majiayao and other phases of the Yangshao culture are well-represented in Western museums; by the Banshan phase purple was used in slip-painting alongside black. During the 4th millennium the potter's wheel seems to scholars of Chinese ceramics to have been a Chinese invention, though several regions to the West also claim the honour. Previously coil-forming was used for large vessels.


title: Chinese ceramics

text: Finds of vessels are mostly in burials; sometimes they hold the remains. By 4100–2600 BCE in the Dawenkou culture shapes later familiar from Chinese ritual bronzes begin to appear. One exceptional ritual site, Niuheliang in the far north, produced numerous human figurines, some about half life-size.


title: Chinese ceramics

text: On some Chinese definitions, the first porcelain was made in Zhejiang province during the Eastern Han dynasty. Shards recovered from archaeological Eastern Han kiln sites estimated firing temperature ranged from . As far back as 1000 BC, the so-called "porcelaneous wares" or "proto-porcelain wares" were made using at least some kaolin fired at high temperatures. The dividing line between the two and "true porcelain wares" is not a clear one. Archaeological finds have pushed the dates to as early as the Han dynasty (206 BC – 220 AD).


title: Chinese ceramics

text: The late Han years saw the early development of the peculiar art form of "hunping", or "soul jar": a funerary jar whose top was decorated by a sculptural composition. This type of vessel became widespread during the following Jin dynasty (266–420) and the Six Dynasties.


title: Chinese ceramics

text: The tomb figures that were to recur in the Tang were popular across society, but with more emphasis than later on model houses and farm animals. Green-glazed pottery, using lead-glazed earthenware in part of the later "sancai" formula, was used for some of these, though not for wares for use, as the raw lead made the glaze poisonous.


title: Chinese ceramics

text: During the Sui and Tang dynasties (608 to 907 AD), a wide range of ceramics, low-fired and high-fired, were produced. These included the last significant fine earthenwares to be produced in China, mostly lead-glazed "sancai" (three-colour) wares. Many of the well-known lively Tang dynasty tomb figures, which were only made to be placed in elite tombs close to the capital in the north, are in "sancai", while others are unpainted or were painted over a slip; the paint has now often fallen off. The "sancai" vessels too may have been mainly for tombs, which is where they are all found; the glaze was less toxic than in the Han, but perhaps still to be avoided for use at the dining table.


title: Chinese ceramics

text: In the south, the wares from the Changsha Tongguan Kiln Site in Tongguan are significant for their first regular use of underglaze painting; examples have been found in many places in the Islamic world. However their production tailed off as underglaze painting remained a minor technique for several centuries.


title: Chinese ceramics

text: Yue ware was the leading high-fired, lime-glazed celadon of the period, and was of very sophisticated design, patronized by the court. This was also the case with the northern porcelains of kilns in the provinces of Henan and Hebei, which for the first time met the Western and Eastern definition of porcelain, being both pure white and translucent. The white Xing ware and green Yue ware were considered the finest ceramics of north and south China respectively. One of the first mentions of porcelain by a foreigner was in the "Chain of Chronicles", written by the Arab traveler and merchant Suleiman in 851 AD during the Tang dynasty who recorded that:


title: Chinese ceramics

text: The pottery of the Song dynasty has retained enormous prestige in Chinese tradition, especially that of what later became known as the "Five Great Kilns". The artistic emphasis of Song pottery was on subtle glaze effects and graceful shapes; other decoration, where there was any, was mostly in shallow relief. Initially this was carved with a knife, but later moulds were used, with a loss of artistic quality. Painting was mostly used in the popular Cizhou ware. "What is clear is that in the Song Dynasty which tended to uphold the esthetics of conventional Confucianism, underglaze blue was not at all popular; Confucian esthetics emphasized simplicity, and the underglaze blue designs were judged to be too ornamental."


title: Chinese ceramics

text: Green ware or celadons were popular, both in China and in export markets, which became increasingly important during the period. Yue ware was succeeded by Northern Celadon and then in the south Longquan celadon. White and black wares were also important, especially in Cizhou ware, and there were polychrome types, but the finer types of ceramics, for the court and the literati, remained monochrome, relying on glaze effects and shape. A wide variety of styles evolved in various areas, and those that were successful were imitated in other areas. Important kiln sites and stoneware styles included Ru, Jun, Southern Song Guan or official ware, Jian and Jizhou. Whitish porcelain continued to be improved, and included the continuation of Ding ware and the arrival of the "qingbai" which would replace it.


title: Chinese ceramics

text: The Liao, Xia and Jin were founded by non-literate, often nomadic people who conquered parts of China. Pottery production continued under their rule, but their own artistic traditions merged to some extent with the Chinese, producing characteristic new styles.


title: Chinese ceramics

text: The fine pottery of all these regions was mainly high-fired, with some earthenware produced because of its lower cost and more colourful glazes. Some of the clay used was what is called kaolinite in the West. In some cases stoneware was preferred for its darker colour or better working qualities. Potteries used the local clay, and when that was dark or coarse and they wanted a fine white body, they covered the clay with white slip before applying glaze.


title: Chinese ceramics

text: The Mongol Yuan dynasty enforced the movement of artists of all sorts around the Mongol Empire, which in ceramics brought a major stylistic and technical influence from the Islamic world in the form of blue and white porcelain, with underglaze painting in cobalt. This has been described as the "last great innovation in ceramic technology". Decoration by underglaze painted patterns had long been a feature of Chinese pottery, especially in the popular Cizhou ware (mostly using black over slip), but was perhaps regarded as rather vulgar by the court and the literati class, and the finest ceramics were monochrome, using an understated aesthetic with perfect shapes and subtle glaze effects, often over shallow decoration carved or moulded into the surface.


title: Chinese ceramics

text: This was a great contrast to the bright colours and complicated designs developed under the Yuan, whose organization was mostly based on Islamic art, especially metalwork, although the animal and vegetable motifs remained based on Chinese tradition. These were initially mainly made for export, but became acceptable at court, and to buyers of fine ceramics internally. Export markets readily accepted the style, which has continued to be produced ever since, both in China and around the world.


title: Chinese ceramics

text: Because of this, improvements in water transportation and the re-unification under Mongol rule, pottery production started to concentrate near deposits of kaolin, such as Jingdezhen, which gradually became the pre-eminent centre for producing porcelain in a variety of styles, a position it has held ever since. The scale of production greatly increased, and the scale and organization of the kilns became industrialized, with ownership by commercial syndicates, much division of labour, and other typical features of mass production. Some other types of pottery, especially Longquan celadon and Cizhou ware, continued to flourish.


title: Chinese ceramics

text: The Ming dynasty saw an extraordinary period of innovation in ceramic manufacture. Kilns investigated new techniques in design and shapes, showing a predilection for colour and painted design, and an openness to foreign forms. The Yongle Emperor (1402–24) was especially curious about other countries (as evidenced by his support of the eunuch Zheng He's extended exploration of the Indian Ocean), and enjoyed unusual shapes, many inspired by Islamic metalwork. During the Xuande period (1426–35), a technical refinement was introduced in the preparation of the cobalt used for underglaze blue decoration.


title: Chinese ceramics

text: Prior to this the cobalt had been brilliant in colour, but with a tendency to bleed in firing; by adding manganese the colour was duller, but the line crisper. Xuande porcelain is now considered among the finest of all Ming output. Enamelled decoration ("such as the one at left") was perfected under the Chenghua Emperor (1464–87), and greatly prized by later collectors. Indeed, by the late 16th century, Chenghua and Xuande era works – especially wine cups – had grown so much in popularity, that their prices nearly matched genuine antique wares of the Song dynasty or even older. This esteem for relatively recent ceramics excited much scorn on the part of literati scholars (such as Wen Zhenheng, Tu Long, and Gao Lian, who is cited below); these men fancied themselves arbiters of taste and found the painted aesthetic 'vulgar.'


title: Chinese ceramics

text: In addition to these decorative innovations, the late Ming dynasty underwent a dramatic shift towards a market economy, exporting porcelain around the world on an unprecedented scale. Thus aside from supplying porcelain for domestic use, the kilns at Jingdezhen became the main production centre for large-scale porcelain exports to Europe starting with the reign of the Wanli Emperor (1572–1620). By this time, kaolin and pottery stone were mixed in about equal proportions. Kaolin produced wares of great strength when added to the paste; it also enhanced the whiteness of the body—a trait that became a much sought after property, especially when form blue-and-white wares grew in popularity. Pottery stone could be fired at a lower temperature () than paste mixed with kaolin, which required . These sorts of variations were important to keep in mind because the large southern egg-shaped kiln varied greatly in temperature. Near the firebox it was hottest; near the chimney, at the opposite end of the kiln, it was cooler.


title: Chinese ceramics

text: The lengthy civil wars marking the transition from Ming to Qing caused a breakdown in the Imperial kilns system, forcing the managers to find new markets. The Transitional porcelain of about 1620 to the 1680s saw a new style in painting, mostly in blue and white, with new subject-matter of landscapes and figures painted very freely, borrowing from other media. The later part of the period saw Europe joining the existing export markets.


title: Chinese ceramics

text: The Qing dynasty produced very varied porcelain styles, developing many of the innovations of the Ming. The most notable area of continuing innovation was in the increasing range of colours available, mostly in overglaze enamels. A very significant trade in Chinese export porcelain with the West developed. Court taste was highly eclectic, still favouring monochrome wares, which now used a wide range of bright glaze colours. Special glazing effects were highly regarded; new ones were developed and classic Song wares imitated with great skill. But the court now accepted wares with painted scenes in both blue and white and the new bright polychrome palettes. Technical standards at Jingdezhen were remarkably high, though falling somewhat by the middle of the 19th century.


title: Chinese ceramics

text: Decoration, and sometimes shapes, became increasingly over-elaborate and fussy, and generally the Ming period is regarded as the greater; indeed in China this was the case at the time. By the 18th century the tradition had ceased to innovate in any radical way, and the vitality of painting declines.


title: Chinese ceramics

text: Primary source material on Qing dynasty porcelain is available from both foreign residents and domestic authors. Two letters written by Père François Xavier d'Entrecolles, a Jesuit missionary and industrial spy who lived and worked in Jingdezhen in the early 18th century, described in detail manufacturing of porcelain in the city. In his first letter dated 1712, d'Entrecolles described the way in which pottery stones were crushed, refined and formed into little white bricks, known in Chinese as "petuntse". He then went on to describe the refining of china clay "kaolin" along with the developmental stages of glazing and firing. He explained his motives:


title: Chinese ceramics

text: In 1743, during the reign of the Qianlong Emperor, Tang Ying, the imperial supervisor in the city produced a memoir entitled "Twenty Illustrations of the Manufacture of Porcelain". The original illustrations have been lost, but the text is still accessible.


title: Chinese ceramics

text: "Sancai" means "three-colours": green, yellow and a creamy white, all in lead-based glazes. In fact some other colours could be used, including cobalt blue. In the West, Tang sancai wares were sometimes referred to as "egg-and-spinach".


title: Chinese ceramics

text: Sancai wares were northern wares made using white and buff-firing secondary kaolins and fire clays. At kiln sites located at Tongchuan, Neiqiu County in Hebei and Gongyi in Henan, the clays used for burial wares were similar to those used by Tang potters. The burial wares were fired at a lower temperature than contemporaneous whitewares. Tang dynasty tomb figures, such as the well-known representations of camels and horses, were cast in sections, in moulds with the parts luted together using clay slip. They were either painted in "sancai" or merely coated in white slip, often with paint added over the glaze, which has now mostly been lost. In some cases, a degree of individuality was imparted to the assembled figurines by hand-carving.


title: Chinese ceramics

text: The major group of celadon wares is named for its glaze, which uses iron oxide to give a broad spectrum of colours centred on a jade or olive green, but covering browns, cream and light blues. This is a similar range to that of jade, always the most prestigious material in Chinese art, and the broad resemblance accounts for much of the attractiveness of celadon to the Chinese. Celadons are plain or decorated in relief, which may be carved, inscribed or moulded. Sometimes taken by the imperial court, celadons had a more regular market with the scholarly and middle classes, and were also exported in enormous quantities. Important types are: Yue ware, Yaozhou ware and the wider Northern Celadons, Ru ware, Guan ware, and finally Longquan celadon.


title: Chinese ceramics

text: Jian Zhan blackwares, mainly comprising tea wares, were made at kilns located in Jianyang, Fujian province. They reached the peak of their popularity during the Song dynasty. The wares were made using locally won, iron-rich clays and fired in an oxidising atmosphere at temperatures in the region of . The glaze was made using clay similar to that used for forming the body, except fluxed with wood-ash. At high temperatures the molten glaze separate to produce a pattern called "hare's fur". When Jian wares were set tilted for firing, drips run down the side, creating evidence of liquid glaze pooling.


title: Chinese ceramics

text: Jian tea wares of the Song dynasty were also greatly appreciated and copied in Japan, where they were known as "tenmoku" wares.


title: Chinese ceramics

text: Jizhou ware was stoneware, mostly used for tea drinking. It was famous for glaze effects, including a "tortoiseshell" glaze, and the use of real leaves as glaze resists; the leaf burnt away during firing, leaving its outlines in the glaze.


title: Chinese ceramics

text: Ding (Wade–Giles: "Ting") ware was produced in Ding County, Hebei Province. Already in production when the Song emperors came to power in 940, "Ding" ware was the finest porcelain produced in northern China at the time, and was the first to enter the palace for official imperial use. Its paste is white, generally covered with an almost transparent glaze that dripped and collected in "tears", (though some "Ding" ware was glazed a monochrome black or brown, white was the much more common type). Overall, the "Ding" aesthetic relied more on its elegant shape than ostentatious decoration; designs were understated, either incised or stamped into the clay prior to glazing. Due to the way the dishes were stacked in the kiln, the edged remained unglazed, and had to be rimmed in metal such as gold or silver when used as tableware. Some hundred years later, a Southern Song dynasty writer commented that it was this defect that led to its demise as favoured imperial ware. Since the Song government lost access to these northern kilns when they fled south, it has been argued that Qingbai ware ("see below") was viewed as a replacement for "Ding".