Glossary of ancient Egypt artifacts

This is a glossary of ancient Egypt artifacts.

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Glossary of ancient Egyptian artifacts and materials

• Amulet – an amulet is an object that is typically worn on one's person, that some people believe has the magical or miraculous power to protect its holder.
• Ankh – symbol of life held by Ra
• Benben stone (also known as a pyramidion) – the top stone of the Egyptian pyramid
• Canopic jar – vessel containing internal body organs removed during mummification
• Canopic chest – the common chest contained the four Canopic jars
• Cartonnage – papyrus or linen soaked in plaster, shaped around a body and used for mummy masks and coffins
• Cenotaph – an empty tomb or a monument erected in honour of a person or group of people whose remains are elsewhere
• Crook – symbol of pharaonic power. Symbol of the god Osiris
• Faience – glasswork articles, amulets, etc.
• False door – an artistic representation of a door, a common architectural element in the tombs
• Flail – symbol of pharaonic power. Symbol of the god Osiris
• Flint knife – prestige funerary good, from the Naqada period until the end of the Early Dynastic Period
• Funerary cone – small cones made from clay that were placed over the entrance of the chapel of a tomb, used almost exclusively in the Theban necropolis (Mesopotamia had clay nails)
• Headrest – found in tombs, etc. Typically personal, or a memorial headrest
• Imiut fetish – a religious object used in funerary rites; a stuffed, headless animal skin, often of a feline or bull, tied by the tail to a pole, terminating in a lotus bud and inserted into a stand
• Microlith – ancient Egyptian stone flakes
• Menat – an amulet worn round the neck. Also a musical instrument, a metal rattle (see also: sistrum)
• Menhed – a scribe's pallet
• Mummy – body after mummification
• Naos – religious shrine; portable shrine for carrying a god
• Ostracon – pottery sherd, limestone Sherd, used as writing material
• Cosmetic palette – slab of stone, sometimes decorated, used for preparing cosmetics. See: Narmer Palette; and: Category:Archaeological palettes.
• Papyrus – material made from papyrus reeds, used as writing and painting material
• Pectoral (Ancient Egypt) – many forms. (Up to 13 additional Gardiner-unlisted determinative hieroglyphs for the "pectoral"; See Gardiner's sign list.)
• Rosetta Stone - A stone with three languages on it, which unlocked the Egyptian language
• Saqqara Bird – wooden bird model
• Sarcophagus – a funeral receptacle for a corpse, most commonly carved in stone
• Scarab – amulet or seal in the form of an abstract dung beetle
• Senet – a board game
• Shabti – figurines placed in the tomb as substitutes for the tomb owner in the next world
• Sphinx
• Pyramid – a monumental structure with a square or triangular base and sloping sides that meet in a point at the top, especially one built of stone as a royal tomb in ancient Egypt
  • Statuary – pharaonic and non-pharaonic. (Range of sizes.)
  • Amulets – numerous, (and predynastic).
• Stele
  • Boundary Stele – placed at boundaries.
  • Memorial Stele – pharaonic or non-pharaonic.
  • Monumental Stele – offered to gods, special individuals.
  • Votive Stele – private, dedication.
  • Victory Stele – pharaonic.
• Talatat – limestone wall blocks, at times painted.
• Ushabti – shabtis from the 21st Dynasty and later.

See also

• Grave goods
• Votive deposit

References

• Reeves, Nicholas. Ancient Egypt, The Great Discoveries, a Year-by-Year Chronicle,
• Nicholas Reeves, (Thames and Hudson Ltd. London), c.2000. Glossary: p. 242