bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Gregory of Tours
Authors: Rio Alice
Published: December 2012

Georgius Florentius Gregorius (November 30, 538–November 17, 594CE), bishop of Tours, was a prolific writer.
Hunting, Late Antiquity
Authors: Traina Giusto
Published: December 2012

Hunting was an important activity in the economy of the later Roman Empire, although its juridical status was not clearly defined. The third‐century jurist Paulus seems to hint at the existence of estates where hunting was the major revenue (Dig. 33.7.22).
John Cassian
Authors: Gwynn David M.
Published: December 2012

John Cassian (ca. 360‐after 430CE), ascetic and author, is one of the central figures in the history of early Christian monasticism.
John of Damascus
Authors: Kontouma‐Conticello Vassa
Published: December 2012

It is very difficult, in the life of John of Damascus, to determine what can be accepted as history and what can count as legend. It must be said here that theVita Ioannis(ca. 1000CE), the principal source used by his biographers, is not very reliable. Information given by John himself, as well as some sources that predate theVita, allow us to date him approximately to 655–745. John's life‐span thus corresponds to the presence of the Umayyad caliphate in Damascus (661–750). Within this time frame, four periods can be distinguished:
Jordanes
Authors: Lawrence Thomas Christopher
Published: December 2012

Jordanes is the sixth‐century author of two histories, commonly referred to as the
Romana
and the
Getica
.
Katholikoi of Persia
Authors: Wood Philip
Published: December 2012

In Late Antiquity, the Church of the East was located in Sasanian Mesopotamia and claimed authority in Fars and India. It was governed by the bishops of Seleukeia‐Ktesiphon, who were later styled katholikoi and Patriarchs. The term “katholikos” was also employed for the ecclesiastical primates of Armenia and Georgia, and implied the existence of auto‐cephalous churches within the wider patriarchate of Antioch. This authority developed periodically between the fourth and seventh centuries, but this process of development also created new histories for the early period of the church and back‐projected later titles and structures.
Maps, Late Antiquity
Authors: Talbert Richard J. A.
Published: December 2012

After ca. 300CE, active engagement with classical cartography continued.
Mu‘allaqāt
Authors: Sizgorich Thomas
Published: December 2012

Mu‘allaqāt
is the name of a largely mythical collection of seven to ten pre‐Islamic Arabic
qaṣīda
s or poems.
Navies, Late Antique
Authors: Cosentino Salvatore
Published: December 2012

The Roman navy underwent a process of deep transformation between the fourth and the fifth centuryCE, due to a change in its strategic functions compared to former times.
Nessana
Authors: M. Sijpesteijn Petra
Published: December 2012

Nessana was a town (Arab ‘Awjā al‐Ḥafīr) in the Negev desert near the current Israeli‐Egyptian border. Lying on the ancient trade route connecting Sinaï with Beer Sheba and on to Gaza and Jerusalem, the town functioned as a military checkpoint and way station for pilgrims and other travelers.
Papyrus, Greco‐Roman period
Authors: Fournet Jean‐Luc
Published: December 2012

Papyrus, invented by the ancient Egyptians, quickly became the main writing material used in the Mediterranean world and was employed until ca. 1100CE, when it ceased to be used in Constantinople. The Greeks adopted it at least from the sixth centuryBCEonwards. Owing to its dry climate, Egypt is the only country to preserve in any quantity the texts written on papyrus during the Greek, Roman, and Byzantine periods. The bureaucracy developed by the Ptolemaic administration may have intensified, there more than elsewhere, the use of papyrus – and later the Roman administration took advantage of this situation.
Pelagianism
Authors: Perrin Michel‐Yves
Published: December 2012

At the end of May or the beginning of June 416, while preaching in Hippo, Augustine, with the support of Romans 5: 8–9, defended the idea that “no man can be saved through his own merit and strengths” (Sermon Dolbeau30.2).
Peter the Iberian
Authors: Menze Volker
Published: December 2012

Peter the Iberian (ca. 417–491CE) was the most prominent non‐Chalcedonian bishop and holy man in fifth‐century Palestine. He influenced the following generation of non‐Chalcedonians, such as Severus of Antioch, Zachariah Rhetor, and John Rufus, who is probably the author of theLife of Peter the Iberian.
Sulpicius Severus
Authors: Milić Lavinia Galli
Published: December 2012

Sulpicius Severus (ca. 363–420
CE
) was a Latin historian and hagiographer from Aquitaine and an invaluable witness of the cultural and spiritual life of the Gallo‐Roman nobility.
Symmachus, Quintus Aurelius (signoEusebius)
Authors: Sogno Cristiana
Published: December 2012

Although over nine hundred of his letters survive, the reputation of Quintus Aurelius Symmachus (ca. 340–402CE) is indissolubly linked to and conditioned by therelatio de ara Victoriae, an official report in which Symmachus, as prefect of Rome, asked for the restoration of the Altar of Victory and argued for the repeal of Gratian's legislation that had deprived the traditional cults of state support.
Turks
Authors: De La Vaissière Étienne
Published: December 2012

The first mention of the Turks in any historical source goes back to 542, when they went pillaging in winter on the northern frontier of China. When working as ironworkers in the Altay, for their Rouran overlords, they overthrew them in 552.
Tetrarchy
Authors: Rees Roger
Published: December 2012

Tetrarchy is the modern term for the college of four emperors that ruled the Roman Empire for ca.
Proclus
Authors: Townsend Philippa
Published: December 2012

Proclus (ca. 411–485
CE
) was the most influential of the later Neoplatonist philosophers , and head of the Academy in Athens from 437 until his death.
Marrou, Henri‐Irénée (1904–1977)
Authors: Traina Giusto
Published: December 2012

Henri‐Irénée Marrou (Marseilles, 1904–Bourg‐la‐Reine, 1977) was a French historian, specialist of early Christianity and Late Antiquity.
Stein, Ernst (1891–1945)
Authors: Traina Giusto
Published: December 2012

Ernst Stein (Jaworzno, present‐day Poland, 1891–Freiburg, Switzerland, 1945), was a Byzantinist and a historian of Late Antiquity.
Porphyry
Authors: Engels David
Published: December 2012

Porphyry, or Porphyrius, one of the foremost Neoplatonic philosophers, was probably born in Tyre around 234CEand was initially called Malchus.
Apollonius of Tyana
Authors: Engels David
Published: December 2012

Apollonius was a neo‐Pythagorean philosopher, mainly known through his idealized biography by Philostratus, commissioned byjulia domna, written between 217 and 238CEand largely based on the (probably fictional) journal of Damis, Apollonius' companion.
Damascius
Authors: Engels David
Published: December 2012

Born in 458 or 462
CE
in Damascus, the Neoplatonic philosopher Damascius traveled to Alexandria and studied with the Neoplatonists Isidorus, Asclepiodotus, Ammonius, and Heliodorus.
Adfinitas
Authors: Harders Ann‐Cathrin
Published: December 2012

The Latin termadfinitas/affinitasdescribes both the specific relationship and the broader kinship group that a person acquires by entering a marriage. The modern derivative “affinity” is still used in this sense in law, as well as in cultural and social anthropology.
Agraphoi nomoi
Authors: Wolpert Andrew
Published: December 2012

References to
agraphoi nomoi
(unwritten laws) in Greek literature are varied and sporadic. They suggest that the ancient Greeks may have developed notions about unwritten law that have some, but only some, similarities to modern concepts.
Alexandria (Egypt), city laws of
Authors: Rovira‐Guardiola Charo
Published: December 2012

Founded by Alexander in 331
BCE
as a trade city, Alexandria soon became the capital of Egypt and developed the institutions of an independent city. The code of city laws was probably created some time after the foundation of the city, perhaps under Ptolemy I Soter, although there is no direct evidence for this.
Anchisteia
Authors: Patterson Cynthia
Published: December 2012

Anchisteia is shorthand foranchisteia tou geneos, the Athenian expression for close kinship as defined in Athenian law.
Antestatio
Authors: Rüfner Thomas
Published: December 2012

Antestatio
, the calling of witnesses, was a formal act in Roman civil procedure. If the plaintiff summoned the defendant and the defendant refused to appear in court immediately, the plaintiff was allowed to use physical force to compel him to come. Such use of force was only legal, however, after the plaintiff had called on passers‐by to bear witness to the lawfulness of the procedure.
Apographe
Authors: Banfi Antonio
Published: December 2012

The word
apographe
literally means “list” or “catalogue.” As a result, it was used with reference to several different activities undertaken in Athenian law that involved the formal compilation of a list.
Arbitration, legal
Authors: Scafuro Adele C.
Published: December 2012

Ancient Athenians settled disputes outside the courts in a variety of ways, determined by the subject of dispute and the relative strengths of the disputants. By far the most significant sources for Athenian arbitration are the fifty‐two private orations that represent arguments in forty‐nine trials of the late fifth and fourth centuriesBCE.
Astynomoi, law of the (Pergamon)
Authors: Pitt Robert K.
Published: December 2012

In 1901 excavations by the German Archaeological Institute in the Lower Agora of
pergamon
uncovered an inscribed Hellenistic law laying out the duties and powers of the city
astynomoi
, a board of magistrates whose responsibilities included care for both city and suburban streets, city blocks and their party walls, water channels, fountains, and cisterns. The inscription provides a wealth of information about Hellenistic city planning and maintenance, as well as offering insights into the legal and procedural framework in which a variety of polis officials, citizens, and slaves operated.
Calumnia
Authors: Banfi Antonio
Published: December 2012

In Roman law, the word
calumnia
indicates the offense committed by a person bringing a false accusation in a criminal trial.
Caput
Authors: Fuhrmann Christopher
Published: December 2012

The wordcaputsimply means “head,” but as a Roman legal expression it signifies an individual's personhood, and sometimes an individual's life or status. It is a key word in several important legal terms and governmental processes.
Controversiae
Authors: Sussman Lewis A.
Published: December 2012

The most advanced type of speech exercise in the Roman rhetorical schools werecontroversiae, practice judicial cases.
Delator
Authors: Rutledge Steven H.
Published: December 2012

Delatores(singularr =delator) were the notorious prosecutors and informants who helped implement the imperial tyranny under the principate.
Edict on prices, Diocletian's
Authors: Corcoran Simon , Hirt Alfred
Published: December 2012

The Prices Edict was issued by Diocletian and his colleagues in 301
CE
in the most comprehensive ancient attempt to introduce a “prices and incomes policy” intended to stem inflation.
Enktesis
Authors: Scafuro Adele C.
Published: December 2012

Foreigners who stayed in Athens for more than a short period (perhaps a month) and slaves who had been manumitted were registered as metics; as such, they had duties to perform (e.g., they must pay a tax called the
metoikion
); they also suffered restrictions, among which was the incapacity to own land or a house in Attica, except by grant of
enktesis
(“the right to own property”).
Law, Jewish
Authors: Hezser Catherine
Published: December 2012

Ancient Jewish law mainly consists of rabbinic law, that is, the legal regulations promulgated by the Rabbis of Roman Palestine and Babylonia between the time of the destruction of the Second Temple in 70
CE
and the mid‐fifth century.
Law, natural
Authors: Jedan Christoph
Published: December 2012

“Natural law” denotes a family of theories stemming from Greek and Roman philosophy. Allusions to natural law were included in Roman law as well as in Christian theology. Natural law theories have found considerable resonance in early modern and modern times (historical survey).
Litis contestatio
Authors: Rüfner Thomas
Published: December 2012

The termlitis contestatiorefers to the end of the proceedings before the Roman magistrate (iniure) in a civil action when the procedure bylegis actionesor the formulary procedure was being followed. Under the formulary procedure, the appointment of the judge by the magistrate and theFormulabecame definitive withlitis contestatio.
Locatio conductio
Authors: du Plessis Paul J.
Published: December 2012

Locatio conductio
is the term used in Roman legal sources to refer to the contract of letting and hiring.
Novellae
Authors: Kaiser Wolfgang
Published: December 2012

The laws the emperor Justinian (527–565
CE
) enacted after the
Codex repetitae praelectionis
had come into force on December 29, 534 were referred to by contemporaries as ”new laws” (
novella constitutio/neara diataxis
or simply
novella/neara
).
Reus
Authors: Rüfner Thomas
Published: December 2012

Reus is a term of Roman law designating one party to a legal relationship. It was used in a variety of contexts. In contract law,
reus
refers to either the creditor or the debtor of a claim arising from a Stipulatio.
Reus stipulandi
is the person who receives the promise and becomes the creditor.
Reus promittendi
is the person making the promise (
Dig
. 45.2.1). In civil proceedings, the word is used to denote the defendant. The plural
rei
refers to the plaintiff and the defendant collectively. In older usage,
reus
could mean either party (Cic.
De or
. 2.183 and Festus 336). Most frequently, the word denotes the accused in a criminal court.
Sponsio
(judicial wager)
Authors: Churchill J. Bradford
Published: December 2012

Among its other meanings, the Latin word
sponsio
referred to a wager.
Status
Authors: Perry Matthew J.
Published: December 2012

Status, in the broadest sense, is an individual's recognized position in a community, especially in relation to other persons.
Testamentum porcelli
Authors: Aubert Jean‐Jacques
Published: December 2012

The
testamentum porcelli
is a three‐hundred‐word mock testament written before 402
CE
by an anonymous author. Consisting of two parts, it features a piglet about to be butchered asking for a short reprieve to write his will, in which he bequeaths his body parts to distinct groups of people. Exhibiting the usual traits of Late Antique Latin, with no fewer than seven neologisms, its humor depends on pregnant proper names and suggestive puns, mixing sexual, obscene, and culinary words.
Tutela
Authors: McGinn Thomas A. J.
Published: December 2012

Roman law, like other legal systems, recognized that some individuals, although they are of independent legal status (Sui iuris), continue to require supervision, especially (in the Roman view) with regard to their property.
Twelve Tables
Authors: Platts Hannah
Published: December 2012

Roman tradition holds that the legal statutes entitled the Twelve Tables were drawn up between 451 and 450
BCE
because of popular pressure from the Plebeians of Rome, and played an important role in the period of the struggle of the orders between the fifth and the third centuries
BCE
.
Vadimonium
Authors: Metzger Ernest
Published: December 2012

Avadimoniumwas a unilateral obligation, created by stipulation, binding a party in Roman civil litigation to return on a future occasion to a place where justice would be administered.
Vindex
Authors: Metzger Ernest
Published: December 2012

The termvindexdenotes two distinct roles in Roman civil procedure.
Violentia
Authors: Fuhrmann Christopher
Published: December 2012

The usages of the Latin word
violentia
include destructive physical force, ferocity, and simple violence.
Achaia Phthiotis
Authors: Boehm Ryan
Published: December 2012

Achaia Phthiotis is the name of one of the perioikic regions of Thessaly, distinct from the Thessalian
tetras
(district) of Phthiotis.
Ambrakia
Authors: West William C.
Published: December 2012

Ambrakia is the settlement identified as Arta, lying north of the Gulf of Preveza, the location of the battle of Actium in 31
BCE
.
Amida
Authors: Zahariade Mihail
Published: December 2012

The ancient town of Amida was situated on the right bank of the Tigris River, close to the Batman Su River (the modern town is Diyarbakîr, the present‐day administrative capital of Diyarbakîr Province, Turkey).
Andros, topography and archaeology
Authors: Palaiokrassa‐Kopitsa Lydia
Published: December 2012

Andros, the island at the northernmost edge of the Cyclades cluster of islands, lies on the sea lane from mainland Greece‐Attica and Euboea to the rest of the Cyclades and the Eastern Aegean. Its location thus ensured its strategic and commercial importance. Its prosperity was based on shipping, commerce, fishing, agriculture, animal husbandry, and apiculture. Metal works were also prominent due to rich ore deposits.
Apollonia Salbake
Authors: Harl Kenneth W.
Published: December 2012

Apollonia Salbake, Caria, modern Medet, Turkey, 10 km northeast of Tabai (Tavas), was a Carian city on the Harpasos River, a tributary of the Maeander. The city took its epithet from Mount Salbakos to the south. The city is known from coins and inscriptions of the Hellenistic and Roman imperial age.
Arsamosata
Authors: Zahariade Mihail
Published: December 2012

Arsamosata (Aršamšat, also Artamosata), town of Sophene, was situated somewhere between the modern Kharput (Xarberd) and Palu (Balu), not far from the left bank of the Arsanias River.
Askra
Authors: Edwards Anthony T.
Published: December 2012

Hesiod, describing Askra, a village in central Boiotia, recalls how his father settled close by Helikon in a miserable village, Askra, bad in winter, oppressive in summer, never good. Hesiod's passing mention of his home village makes it prominent both in the landscape of Greek history and of Greek poetry. Strabo locates Askra forty stades from the city of Thespiai on a rough and elevated site. Both Plutarch and Aristotle attest that Askra was overrun by Thespiai and that the refugees, along with Hesiod's bones, were received by the city of Orchomenos. Plutarch claims in the same passage that Askra is no longer inhabited. Such are the ancient sources.
Bargylia
Authors: Bresson Alain
Published: December 2012

The site of Bargylia is located on the southern side of the Gulf of Iasos, in western.
Bassai sanctuary
Authors: Cooper Frederick
Published: December 2012

The renown of the temple of Apollo at Bassai arises from two separate reputations: an idealization of the Iktinian design that induces scholarly quarreling and the awe‐inspiring and memorable experience of the site's panoramic views.
Carrhae
Authors: Hauser Stefan R.
Published: December 2012

The city of Carrhae (also known as Harran; Akkadian: Kharranu, i.e. “route” Aramaic: Hrn; Greek: Κάρραι) was a meeting point of important north–south and east–west routes.
Chersonese, Crimea
Authors: Muratov Maya B.
Published: December 2012

Chersonese, often referred to as “Tauric Chersonese” or “Chersonese in Taurica,” was a Greek colony founded by Herakleia Pontica in the last quarter of the fifth century
BCE
. It is located about 5 km west of the modern city of Sevastopol in the southwestern Crimea. Throughout its history, Chersonese was predominantly an independent Polis. It also served as an important Roman center in the Crimea, and later became the major base for Byzantine expansion in the northern Black Sea.
Crimea
Authors: West William C.
Published: December 2012

Crimea is a modern name for a large region south of the eastward extensionofthe
CAUCASUS MOUNTAIN
range, culminating in a peninsula of southern Ukraine in the form of a triangle which extends into the Black Sea.
Delos
Authors: Chankowski Véronique
Published: December 2012

Delos is a small island situated in the center of the Cyclades Islands, between Rheneia and Mykonos. Established as an archaeological park of 3.5 km
2
and a UNESCO World Heritage site since 1990, it has been excavated since 1873, mainly by the French School of Archaeology at Athens.
Diktynnaion sanctuary
Authors: Sporn Katja
Published: December 2012

Overlooking the bay of Menies on the peninsula Rodopou in northwestern Crete lie the remains of the Diktynnaion, the main sanctuary of the Cretan goddess Diktynna. Known since the sixteenth century, the site is identified with the Diktynnaion mentioned in ancient sources. The only archaeological excavations were undertaken by U. Jantzen and G. Welter in 1942, but the documentation was lost in the war.
Eretria
Authors: Fachard Sylvian
Published: December 2012

The ancient city of Eretria is situated on the west coast of the island of Euboea, 20 km southwest of Chalcis.
Hierapytna
Authors: Guizzi Francesco
Published: December 2012

Hierapytna is the most southern town in Europe (modern Ierapetra), on the Libyan Sea, on the narrowest strip of land in Crete (Strabo 10.4.3 C475).
Jordan River
Authors: Klein Konstantin M.
Published: December 2012

The Jordan (Hebr.
ha‐Yarden
, Arab.
al‐Urdun
) is a stream in the Near East.
Kalymna
Authors: West III William C.
Published: December 2012

Kalymna is the ancient name of an island now called Kalymnos. It was part of the Sporades islands in ancient times, but today is considered part of the Dodecanese. The island lies between Leros and Kos and west of Bodrum (Halikarnassos).
Karpathos
Authors: Anderson Carl A. , Dix T. Keith
Published: December 2012

Karpathos lies midway between Rhodes and Crete, at the southern limit of the Dodecanese. The island is 48 km long, with a steep mountain range (1,200 m at its highest point) running north to south, and one major harbor on the southeastern coast at Pigahdia. The name Karpathos is pre‐Greek, and Diodorus Siculus (5.54.4) reports that soldiers of Minos first settled the island; tombs containing Minoan and Mycenaean pottery have been found at Pigahdia. Karpathos appears in the Catalogue of Ships (Hom.
Il
. 2.676–80) and in the
Homeric Hymn
to Apollo (42–3), and gave its name to the southeastern part of the Aegean Sea (Strabo 2.5.21).
Kasos
Authors: Melas Manolis
Published: December 2012

Kasos is the southernmost island in the Dodecanese, situated between Crete and Karpathos. It is very mountainous, with a few cultivable lands lying in the northwest. This area together with the fertile plateau of Argos in the south constitutes almost all the arable soil on the island.
Labraunda sanctuary
Authors: Hellström Pontus
Published: December 2012

Labraunda (also spelled Labranda), the solitary shrine of Zeus Labraundos, situated at a height of about 700 m on a south slope of the Latmos Mountain in southwestern Turkey, was a main sanctuary of Caria. A ca.
Lechaion
Authors: Pettegrew David K.
Published: December 2012

Lechaion was the principal harbor of Corinth, located 3 km north of the urban center on the sandy coast of the Corinthian Gulf.
Melos
Authors: West William C.
Published: December 2012

Melos is one of the Cyclades Islands, southwest of Delos and westernmost of the arc formed by Naxos, Paros, and Siphnos. In Early, Middle, and Late Minoan times, it was visited by Phoenicians, who sought its obsidian, a flint that was used to make knife blades, arrow‐heads, and instruments for cutting.
Methone, Macedonia
Authors: West William C.
Published: December 2012

Methone is located on the western shore of the Thermaic Gulf, north of Pydna.
Mykale mountain
Authors: Hülden Oliver
Published: December 2012

Face to face with Samos and now called Dilek Dağlari (height 1,237 m), Mykale belongs to the western foothills of the Messiogis Mountains in western Asia Minor.
Nisyros
Authors: West William C.
Published: December 2012

Nisyros is an island of the southeastern Aegean which was part of the Sporades Islands in ancient times, and is now part of the Dodecanese.
Paktyes mountain
Authors: West William C.
Published: December 2012

The Paktyes mountain, 305–1,524 m in elevation, is a spur of the Messogis range east of Ephesos. At its extreme western part, routes from Ephesos divert, at the north, giving access to the Kaystros River valley and permitting an eastward bend around Mount Galesion to Smyrna. On the south, the route proceeds through upland country, providing access to the Maeander River valley toward Magnesia on The Maeander and Tralles. Magnesia on the Maeander is cited by Strabo (14.1.39) as being the first city one encounters after Ephesos, but he gives it a more specific location on the Lethaios River, which rises in Mount Paktyes and empties into the Maeander.
Pale
Authors: Bonelou Elena
Published: December 2012

Pale, one of the four
poleis
of Kephallenia (Thuc. 2.30.2), was named after Peleus, son of the mythical founder of the island, Kephalos.
Patmos
Authors: West III William C.
Published: December 2012

The island of Patmos is one of the northernmost of the Sporades group, along with Akrite and Lepsia
Peneios
Authors: West III William C.
Published: December 2012

The Peneios River rises in the mountainous region of western Arcadia (Akroreia mountain) and flows west into the Mediterranean at a location opposite Zakynthos.
Samosata
Authors: Blömer Michael
Published: December 2012

Samosata was a city on the west bank of the Euphrates in southeastern Turkey.
Skione
Authors: West William C.
Published: December 2012

Skione is located on the southern coast of the Pallene Peninsula of the Chalcidice (
see
Chalcidice, Chalcidian League).
Spasinou Charax
Authors: Tubach Jürgen
Published: December 2012

Spasinou Charax was one of the Greek names for a city founded by Alexander III, the Great as an Alexandria in southern Mesopotamia “between the confluence of the Eulaios on the left side and the Tigris (now the Šaṭṭ al‐‘Arab) on the right side” (Plin.
HN
6.138).
Theangela/Syangela
Authors: Harl Kenneth W.
Published: December 2012

Theangela and Syangela, both in Caria, are two related sites on the peninsula of Halikarnassos (modern Bodrum, Turkey).
T
igranocerta
Authors: Coloru Omar
Published: December 2012

Tigranocerta was a town in southwestern Armenia founded by king Tigranes II to celebrate his successful campaigns and to provide his kingdom with a new capital placed in a more central position than the old one, Artaxata.
Via Egnatia
Authors: Lolos Yannis
Published: December 2012

The Via Egnatia, initiated by the proconsul of the Roman province of Macedonia Cn. Egnatius probably in the mid‐140s
BCE
, was the first Roman highway built east of the Adriatic.
Gorgan, Great Wall of
Authors: Sauer Eberhard , Rekavandi Hamid Omrani
Published: December 2012

The “Great Wall of Gorgan,” also, erroneously, known as “Alexander's Wall,” runs from the southeast corner of the Caspian Sea for at least 195 km eastward, into the Elburz mountains.
Oxus
Authors: Rapin Claude
Published: December 2012

The Oxus (or Jaihun for the Arabs) is the ancient name of the Amu‐darya, which flows into the Aral Sea after having traversed the Bactro‐Sogdian basin (encompassing the north of Afghanistan and southern parts of Tajikistan and Uzbekistan).
Messapians
Authors: Herring Edward
Published: December 2012

The Messapians were a tribal group, documented mostly in Greek sources, that occupied the Salento Peninsula in southeast Italy.
Odessos
Authors: Bilde Pia Guldager
Published: December 2012

The ancient city of Odessos is located on the Black Sea coast under modern Varna (Bulgaria).
Sculpture, Pharaonic Egypt
Authors: Sourouzian Hourig
Published: December 2012

Sculpture in Ancient Egypt is one of the most eloquent representatives of Egyptian art and simultaneously reflects customs and beliefs of ancient Egyptian society.
A‐Group
Authors: Liszka Kate
Published: December 2012

The term A‐Group, introduced by George Andrew Reisner in 1910, designates an archaeological tradition located primarily between the first and second cataracts in Egypt and Sudan, dating to ca. 3750–2800BCE. Scholars have written a cultural history of the A‐Group based on the presence, absence, and movement of this tradition.
Animals, domesticated
Authors: Brewer Douglas J.
Published: December 2012

Domestication is the process of altering the genetic make‐up of an animal or plant to satisfy the needs of humans. It is an evolutionary process, but the main selective pressure is “artificial” (i.e., interference by humans in the normal life cycle of the animal), rather than natural. This interference can be both unintentional and intentional. It is important to note that selective pressure, be it natural or “artificial,” always acts on genotypic variations inherent in the animal population. In selective breeding, animals with specific traits are consciously chosen for their usefulness to humans rather than for their fitness in the wild.
Animals, non‐domesticated (Egypt)
Authors: Ikram Salima
Published: December 2012

Prior to 3000
BCE
Egypt's environment was much wetter, with much of its land away from the river being made up of grasslands punctuated by groups of trees, capable of supporting a diverse range of fauna. As the climate changed, much of the fauna moved south, with some creatures that had adapted to the increasing desert conditions remaining in Egypt.
Armant (Hermonthis)
Authors: Thiers Christophe
Published: December 2012

The ancient city of Armant (ancient Egyptian names: Iuny, Iunu, Iunu‐shema, Iunu‐Montu), the Greek Hermonthis and Coptic Ermont, was located 15 km south of Thebes on the west bank of the Nile (Mond and Myers 1940).
Army, Pharaonic Egypt
Authors: Manassa Colleen
Published: December 2012

The political and economic stability of Egypt during most of Pharaonic history fostered a centralized bureaucracy, which included among its many branches the army and navy.
Art, Egypt
Authors: Sourouzian Hourig
Published: December 2012

Inhabitants of the Nile Valley produced artifacts of high artistic quality from very early times.
Artisans, Pharaonic Egypt
Authors: MařÍková Vlčková Petra
Published: December 2012

The status of artisans in ancient Egyptian civilization differs greatly for most of its history from that obtained by their counterparts in ancient Greece and Rome as there are very few traces of their individual identity.
Aswan and hinterlands
Authors: von Pilgrim Cornelius
Published: December 2012

Aswan is the modern name of a town on the Nile's east bank at the northern end of the First Cataract in southern Upper Egypt. Named Syene by the Greeks, it was the southernmost town of the Roman Empire and became the most important town in Upper Egypt during the early Islamic Period.
Basketry, matting, cordage
Authors: Wendrich Willeke
Published: December 2012

Reeds, grasses, sedges, rushes, papyrus, palm leaf, and willow rods were used extensively in the creation of basketry, matting, and cordage. Most of the archaeological information we have available is from Egypt, where the dry desert climate provides perfect conditions for the preservation of organic materials. For the classical world our knowledge of basketry, matting, and cordage is mostly drawn from depictions of these activities in reliefs and paintings. The techniques and materials employed probably predated textile production, and can be attested as early as the Neolithic period, by which time they are well developed and display a very high standard of production, fineness, and decoration (Wendrich 2000;2004).
Champollion, Jean‐François (1790–1832)
Authors: Steven Bianchi Robert
Published: December 2012

By 450
CE
the last individuals schooled in ancient Egyptian had died, taking to their graves the secret of the hieroglyphs, the nature of which was oftengrossly misunderstood by classical authors and the early church fathers.
Crowns, Egyptian
Authors: Goebs Katja
Published: December 2012

Egyptian crowns and headdresses were an essential part of royal and divine dress and regalia.
Cults, private (Pharaonic Egypt)
Authors: El Shazly Yasmin
Published: December 2012

It is very difficult for the modern person to understand the religion of the ancient Egyptians, with its multitude of deities and often contradictory mythologies. One of the most serious problems faced by scholars wishing to comprehend ancient Egyptian religion is the fact that most of the material that has survived comes from two main contexts: funerary and royal. These are invaluable sources of information for students of state religion and the ancient Egyptian attitude to death and the after‐life, but unfortunately they are not as informative for those hoping to understand how the average person perceived and communicated with the divine in his or her daily life.
Dahshur
Authors: Bárta Miroslav
Published: December 2012

Dahshur is situated about 45 km south of Cairo and is known for its Old and Middle Kingdom monuments (Alexanian and Seidlmayer 2000). Most recently, some New Kingdom history of the site is also beginning to reemerge. The site was probably occupied as early as the beginning of the Old Kingdom, if not earlier.
Demotic
Authors: Ross Micah
Published: December 2012

The term
Demotic
derives from Herodotus, who described two types of Egyptian writing present in the fifth century
BCE
: sacred (
hiera
) and popular (
dēmotika
) (Hdt. 2.36). The first term describes hieratic; the second refers to Demotic.
Desert
Authors: Riemer Heiko
Published: December 2012

The North African Sahara is the largest and most arid temperate desert on earth. Historically, “desert” had a wide range of connotations, most of which refer to the Latin
desertum
– an abandoned place – meaning an unpopulated area.
Djer
Authors: Dodson Aidan
Published: December 2012

The Horus Djer was a king of the 1st Egyptian Dynasty, around the thirtieth/twenty‐ninth centuryBCE. He was presumably a son of his predecessor Hor‐Aha, but only the name of his mother is confirmed as Khenthap by the Cairo Annals Stone, which also gives his personal name as Iti.
Dwarfs
Authors: Dasen Véronique
Published: December 2012

In the ancient Mediterranean world, the physical liminality of dwarfism was credited with positive competences focusing on apotropaic and propitiatory qualities varying in time and places.
Dynasty, Pharaonic Egypt
Authors: Dodson Aidan
Published: December 2012

Use of a dynastic structure has long been a feature of the historiography of monarchial states, manifested in, for example, Europe by such royal “houses” as Bourbon, Hohenzollern, Stuart, and Orange.
Kushite Period, Egypt
Authors: Ayad Mariam
Published: December 2012

On the eve of the Nubian march northward, Egypt was divided among multiple rival dynasts, who ruled at Tanis, Leontopolis, Bubastis, and Sais in the Delta, and Hermopolis and Herakleopolis in Middle Egypt. Whereas this loose confederacy may be a result of the 22nd/23rd Libyan Dynasty's feudalistic culture, the resulting decentralization of Egyptian government represented a break from Egyptian tradition. The Nubian invaders portrayed themselves as restorers of order, who ruled a unified country.
Ethnicity, Egypt
Authors: Smith Stuart Tyson
Published: December 2012

You set every man in his place…
Faïence
Authors: Nicholson Paul T.
Published: December 2012

Faïence, more correctly termed “Egyptian faïence,” is a non‐clay ceramic material made up of silica and covered with an alkaline glaze, most commonly in a blue or blue‐green color. It is known from the Egyptian Predynastic period through Roman times and has continued into modern times in parts of the Near East (for summaries, see Vandiver 1983; Nicholson and Peltenburg 2000).
Furniture, Pharaonic Egypt
Authors: Killen Geoffrey
Published: December 2012

The quality and type of furniture that was manufactured in Egypt during the Pharaonic Period gives us an insight into the cultural impact that furniture had on the lives of people in Egypt.
Gender, Pharaonic Egypt
Authors: Sabbahy Lisa
Published: December 2012

Ancient Egyptian society was highly gendered. Participation in most aspects of ancient Egyptian life depended on whether one was male or female. Positions, jobs, and almost all types of labor were divided by sex.
Great Queen
Authors: Sabbahy Lisa
Published: December 2012

The titlehemet nesw weret, “king' great wife,” or “king' principal wife,” began to be used in ancient Egypt during the time of the very late Middle Kingdom, roughly around 1700BCE, as an indication of rank within the king' harem.
Hathor
Authors: Bandy Kathryn E.
Published: December 2012

The goddess Hathor is one of the most frequently encountered divinities in ancient Egypt.
Hawara
Authors: Uytterhoeven Inge
Published: December 2012

Hawara (
Hw.t‐wr.t
; Аὐῆριs) at the entrance of the Egyptian Fayyum was the burial place of the 12th Dynasty pharaoh Amenemhat III (ca. 1842–1797
BCE
), who was deified after his death as “Pharaoh Marres”.
Heryshef
Authors: Gundlach Meg L.
Published: December 2012

The god Heryshef (rendered Arsaphes by the Greeks, and equated to Herakles (Hercules)) was a ram deity prominent in Middle Egypt.
Hetepheres I
Authors: Dodson Aidan
Published: December 2012

A shaft tomb (G7000X) was found in 1925 at Giza close to the Great Pyramid of Khufu, containing the funerary equipment of a King's Mother and God's Daughter, Hetepheres (I), some items of which bore the name of Sneferu, while seal‐impressions bore the Horus‐name of Khufu.
Lions, Pharaonic Egypt
Authors: Meyrat Pierre
Published: December 2012

During the late prehistory of Egypt, the lion (
Panthera leo
) probably dwelt as far north as the border of the Eastern Desert and its wadis (Needler 1984: 351).
Mammisi
Authors: Fauerbach Ulrike
Published: December 2012

Isolated chapels in Egyptian temple complexes, designated as the mythical birthplace of the local god.
Medicine, Pharaonic Egypt
Authors: Nunn John
Published: December 2012

The recorded origins of Egyptian medicine date as far back as ca. 2900BCE, when the pharaoh Djer is reputed to have written a treatise on human anatomy.
Megiddo
Authors: Heagren Brett H.
Published: December 2012

The city of Megiddo was one of the more important centers in Canaan. Located at the modern site of Tell el‐Mutesellim and within the strategically significant and fertile Jezreel Valley, it dominated the opening of a key geographical feature, the Wadi 'Ara (modern Nahal 'Iron) pass, which was the shortest route through the Carmel Ridge via Aruna to the (equally fertile and militarily vital) Sharon Plain. This made Megiddo a strategic location on the international coastal highway (theVia Maris), and also served to ensure it was frequently a site for major battles.
Meir
Authors: Nelson‐Hurst M. G.
Published: December 2012

Meir is the Arabic name of a site in Middle Egypt, near which tombs of the local administrators of the Old and Middle Kingdoms are located. The site is about 7 km west of the ancient town of Cusae, which was the capital of the fourteenth Upper Egyptian Nome.
Merenptah
Authors: Dodson Aidan
Published: December 2012

Baenre Merenptah was the thirteenth son of Rameses II, by his wife Isetneferet A, and seems to have been crown prince since the death of Khaemwaset C around his father's Year 55. The King's Great Wife was a certain Isetneferet (C), once assumed – probably wrongly – to be Merenptah's like‐named full‐blood sister; at least two sons are known, crown prince Sethy‐Merenptah A and Khaemwaset D, plus a possible third, Merenptah B. There was also at least one daughter, Isetneferet D.
Merimda Beni Salama
Authors: Wilson Penelope
Published: December 2012

The site of Merimde Beni Salame lies on the desert edge at the western side of the Egyptian Delta. The site originally extended for a distance of around 5 km along the Delta edge, with a concentration of settlements and cemeteries at the entrance to a
wadi
leading to the Western Desert.
Meroe
Authors: Welsby Derek
Published: December 2012

The Kingdom of Kush developed in the Jebel Barkal region, a little downstream of the Fourth Cataract, and rapidly expanded, conquering Egypt in the later eighth centuryBCE, and extending its control southward, toward the confluence of the White and Blue Niles in central Sudan.
Meroitic
Authors: Yellin Janice W.
Published: December 2012

Meroitic names written in Egyptian Hieroglyphs indicate the language was spoken in the central and northern Sudan as early as 800
BCE
, approximately six hundred years before it appeared in written form.
Mersa Matruh, Paraetonium
Authors: Snape Steven
Published: December 2012

The modern city of Mersa Matruh lies on Egypt's Mediterranean coast, 290 km west of Alexandria. At different periods it served the functions of being the westernmost “boundary” of Egyptian political control, and/or of being the only significant seaport between the Nile Delta and Cyrenaica.
Minshat Abu Omar
Authors: Rowland Joanne M.
Published: December 2012

Minshat Abu Omar has yielded burials dating to the Predynastic to Early Dynastic and the Ptolemaic and Roman periods. Results of drilling to the southeast of the cemetery suggest a settlement contemporary with the Late Predynastic to Early Dynastic cemetery, and probably a Neolithic settlement.
Montu
Authors: Sheikholeslami Cynthia May
Published: December 2012

The Egyptian god Montu, an anthropomorphic falcon‐headed solar deity, has a headdress of a solar disk with two uraei in front and double feathers behind, and frequently wears a leather corselet imitating feathers as armor. Montu is the “Horus of Thebes,” agriculturally the wealthiest district in southern Egypt.
Mut
Authors: Ikram Salima
Published: December 2012

Mut was the goddess known as the consort of the god Amun and mother of the god Khons in the Theban triad, revered particularly at Karnak.
Narmer
Authors: Dreyer Günter
Published: December 2012

Last king of Dynasty 0, predecessor and perhaps father of Aha/Menes – though by some scholars identified with Menes – Narmer flourished around 3000
BCE
.
Nefertari
Authors: Fisher Marjorie
Published: December 2012

Nefertari, “Beloved of Mut,” “the Great Royal Wife,” “Mistress of the Two Lands,” the favored queen of Rameses II (1279–1212
BCE
)(
see
Rameses I–XI), lived during the 19th Dynasty of the New Kingdom in Egypt.
Nut
Authors: Lesko Barbara
Published: December 2012

Nut was Egypt's goddess of the sky from the beginning of the historic period (ca. 3000
BCE
).
Police, Pharaonic Egypt
Authors: Shaw Ian
Published: December 2012

During the Pharaonic period in Egypt, there is evidence for a variety of officials whose roles might be considered to roughly equate to certain aspects of a modern police force.
Portraiture, Pharaonic Egypt
Authors: Sourouzian Hourig
Published: December 2012

A portrait is by definition the representation of a person, with a sufficient amount of characteristics for the model to be recognized. The precision of the portrait, that is, the degree of resemblance to the model, varies throughout the history of the portrait. The portrayal of a model may depend on various criteria: the period, the conception of time, the competence of the artist, the artistic tendencies and styles prevalent at a certain time, the current ideal of beauty, the choice of material, the method used, and the impact of light and color. Moreover the expectation of an exact likeness of the model can vary according to numerous criteria, including aesthetic comprehension, artistic criticism, religious conventions, and so on.
Ruler cult, Pharaonic Egypt
Authors: Manley Bill
Published: December 2012

The cult of the god‐king (or pharaoh) has bequeathed the cultural geography of ancient Egypt as it exists in our modern imagination.
Sais, Sa el‐Hagar
Authors: Wilson Penelope
Published: December 2012

Modern Sa el‐Hagar, in the west‐central Delta, was the location of the ancient city of Sais, known as Sau in ancient Egyptian.
Senwosret (Sesostris) I–IV
Authors: Dodson Aidan
Published: December 2012

Senwosret (Greek: Sesostris) was the name of three kings of the 12th Egyptian Dynasty and one of the Second Intermediate Period.
Serabit el‐Khadim
Authors: Mumford Gregory D.
Published: December 2012

Serabit el‐Khadim is located in south Sinai,on a plateau top 29 km inland from the Gulf of Suez (Red Sea).
Sety (Seti) I–II
Authors: Dodson Aidan
Published: December 2012

The second king of the 19th Dynasty (Egypt), Menmaatre Sety I was the son of Rameses I and may have served alongside him as a vizier during the reign of Horemheb.
Shabaka
Authors: Dodson Aidan
Published: December 2012

Neferkare Shabaka was a king of the 25th Egyptian Dynasty and a son of Kashta, who had ruled independent Nubia prior to the intervening reign of Piy (Piankhy). When he came to the throne around 722BCE, Nubian control of Egypt seems to have shrunk back to merely the southern part of the country, with much of the north in the hands of Bakenrenef (Bokkhoris) of Sais. This was rapidly reversed, with Bakenrenef overthrown in Shabaka's Year 2, and the Nubian king installed in Memphis.
Sopdet/Sothis
Authors: Symons Sarah
Published: December 2012

Sopdet (or Sothis, via Greek
Σωθις
) is the Egyptian name for the brightest star, Sirius (α Canis Majoris). Sopdet appears as a female star‐deity associated with Isis in the
Pyramid Texts
,
Coffin Texts
, and
Book of the Dead
, and later as a compound deity Isis‐Sopdet. From the First Intermediate Period to the Greco‐Roman period, Sopdet is a member of the Decans, and its annual behavior is described in the Book of Nut as a model for decans. Sopdet is an hour star in Ramesside star clocks and is depicted in astronomical ceilings as a human female or cow.
Taharqo, Taharqa, Taharka
Authors: Dodson Aidan
Published: December 2012

Khunefertumre Taharqo was a king of the 25th Egyptian Dynasty and was a son of Piy (Piankhy) and Abar, daughter of a sister of the earlier Nubian king Alara.
Taweret
Authors: Nelson‐Hurst M. G.
Published: December 2012

Taweret (
t3‐wrt
, “the great one”) was a goddess who protected women and children during Childbirth. She was depicted as a composite of a hippopotamus, crocodile, and lioness, and was often shown with the hieroglyphic sign
sa
, meaning “protection.”
Temples, Pharaonic Egypt
Authors: Wilkinson Richard H.
Published: December 2012

Egyptian temples existed over a vast span of history – from ca. 3500 Bce to 550 Ce, when the last temple was closed by order of the Byzantine emperor Justinian. During the course of these four thousand years, many developments took place in the role and functioning of Egyptian temples, so we must be careful to treat generalizations about these structures as such. The physical form of the Egyptian temple also developed during this time from simple prehistoric shrines to massive structures that are among the most impressive of ancient Egypt's architectural wonders. But few temples have survived from pre‐New Kingdom times (before ca. 1560 Bce), and relatively few temples survived in Lower (northern) Egypt, so our knowledge of these structures is greater for New Kingdom and later times, and especially for temples in Upper Egypt.
Teti
Authors: Dodson Aidan
Published: December 2012

Teti was the first king of the 6th Egyptian Dynasty, ruling for around a dozen years. While his mother appears to have been a certain Sesheshat, his father is unknown, and he may have owed the throne to one of his wives, Iput I, being a king's Daughter – most probably of Teti's predecessor, UNAS, by whom he had his second successor, Pepi I (see) PEPI I AND II; another wife was Khuit A. Teti had at least three daughters, with two of his sons‐in‐law, Mereruka and Kagemeni, serving as vizier.
Thinis
Authors: Adams Matthew Douglas
Published: December 2012

Thinis, ancient

T
nj

, was an important provincial town in southern, or Upper Egypt, during the Pharaonic period.
Unas
Authors: Dodson Aidan
Published: December 2012

Unas was the last king of the 5th Egyptian Dynasty. Nothing is known of his antecedents, although one would assume him to have been a son of his predecessor, Isesi.
Deserts, Egypt
Authors: Darnell John Coleman
Published: December 2012

The deserts, the Red Land (Desheret) as the Egyptian termed them, greatly exceeded in expanse the small areas of alluvial Black Land (Kemet). Rather than being ignored or feared wastelands, the deserts were the homes of oases, much of the stone and mineral wealth of Egypt, and networks of roads linking the Nile Valley with those resources and giving access to lands beyond the Nile Valley.