Discovering The Humanities Chapter 1 – Flashcards
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Who discovered the astonishing cave art along the Ardeche River gorge in southern France?
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Jean-Marie Chauvet and two other explorers
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What made the Chauvet cave so special?
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Previously discovered cave art appeared childlike, but the drawing in this cave looked modernly realistic.
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Characteristics of Paleolithic Era (Old Stone Age)
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hunter-gathers small, scattered, and nomadic cultures
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Characteristics of Neolithic Era (New Stone Age)
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ice from Northern Hemisphere receded agriculture spread sedentary (staying in one place)
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Characteristics of a civilization
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social,economic, and political entity images/writing language production of food/ trade administrative elite
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Characteristics of the Bronze Age
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advent of metallurgy creating objects, tools, and weapons from metal replacing stone
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Characteristics of a culture
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manifested in laws, customs, ritual behavior, and artwork
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Whats were the scholar's explanation for the paintings?
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believed the drawings were an agency to conjure animals when hunting in times of scarcity or served as lunar calenders for tracking animal migration
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Who are most likely to be the origin of humans and where are they from?
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Sans people Zimbabwe in east central Africa
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Characteristics of paleolithic people
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cooked w/ fire wore animal skins used tools buried dead in ritual ceremonies
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Paleolithic Art
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small sculptural objects (majority female figures) ex.limestone woman (Venus of Willendrof) pg4
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Paleolithic Shelters
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caves and mammoth bone houses
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Neolithic Advances
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developed bow and arrow dugout boats from logs for fishing domesticated dogs cultivated more edible grasses irrigation techniques permanent villages
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Neolithic food grown
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wheat - east of Medit. millet / rice - Asia squash, beans, corn - Americas
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Neolithic Pottery
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carry and store water and food ex. Beaker with ibex dogs , and long necked birds from Susa
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First machine/ technological break through in history?
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potters wheel
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Nok people of Nigeria
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fired clay figures of animals and humans (approx. life size) style - abstract, geometrical shapes
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What is the most famous megalithic structure?
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the cromlech know as Stonehenge
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List 3 surviving oral cultures that still seem to live in prehistoric times
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San culture of Zimbabwe Oceanic people of Tahiti Pueblo people of Southwest (Hopi, Zuni tribes)
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What does a myth embody
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views and beliefs of a culture, reflect community ideals,history, and asperations
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What is num?
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concept of personal energy activated by prolonged dancing and lead by Shaman
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What did the San people believe the num was capable of?
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cure illnesses, managing game, controlling the weather
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Who were the ancestors of the Pueblo (Hopi,Zuni,ect.) people?
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the Anasazi (enemy ancestors) from Neolithic culture (SW America) no written lang or used metal
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What's special about the Anasazi cliff dwellings in Mesa Verde?
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their complex constructions resemble many Neolithic cities of the Middle East
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What happened to the Anasazi people?
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disappeared in the late 13th century
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Why is the village significant to the Pueblo peoples?
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center of their culture and their world (kiva) pg 10
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What did the sipapu at the bottom of the kiva symbolize?
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the Anasazi emergence tale from the depths of the earth
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Pueblo people emergence tale
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originated in womb of Mother Earth, called into daylight by Sun Father, sought sacred middle/balanced place, transformed from salamander like creatures into human form, water creature children and thrown back in the water (becoming kachinas or mediums)
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Neolithic people beliefs
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animism, anthropomorphism, belief that humans can comm. w/ spirits of nature
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What were the Chronicles of Japan (Kojiki)?
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a collection of mythology stories
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The islands of Japan were formed by which two kami and who was their offsprings?
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Izanagi (male), Izanami (female), Amaterasu Omikami (sun goddess),
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Characteristics of Shinto religion
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Amaterasu - principal goddess, everything contains a a kami or spirit (trees, water, ect.), kami are celebrated in matsuri of festivals, shrines rebuilt every 20 yrs, 3 sacred treasures - sword, mirror, & jewel necklace
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Name of the pyramidal temple structures that found in the city of Ur
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zuggurat - were dedicated to gods
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What did visitors of the ziggurat temples leave behind?
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statue that represented themselves praying
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With the exception of the Hebrews, most Mesopotamian were...
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polytheistic - believed many gods were connected with forces of nature
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Anu
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father of gods (authority)
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Enlil
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god of air (force/military)
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Belithili
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goddess of fertility, birth, agriculture
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Ea/Enki
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god of water, art, life force
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Ishtar
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goddess of love and war (sexuality)
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Characteristics of Mesopotamian ruler
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priest king believed to be semi-divine acts as intermediary b/w gods and humans
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Describe the Royal Standard of Ur
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side 1- illustrated a military victory (war), side 2 - banquet, celebrating the event (peace), both composed of 3 registers, king is the tallest historical narrative pg16
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Akkaddian king who conquered most of Mesopotamia
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Sargon ( King of the Four Quarters of the World)
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Legend of Sargon's birth gave rise to what type of story?
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rags to riches story
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Name one surviving Akkadian artifact
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Head of a Akkadian Man (from bronze), pg 17
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Hammurabi
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imposed order on Babylon
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Law Code of Hammurabi
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placed on giant stele, blessing of Shamash(sun god) at the top, record of decisions and decrees made by Hammurabi, 282 articles pg 18
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What was the code's strongest concern?
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maintenance and protection of the family
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What is the oldest story ever recorded?
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the Epic of Gilgamesh
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Summary of Gilgamesh
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-Sumerian King Gilgamesh refuses to marry Ishtar, goddess of love and war, which unleashes her wrath. -She sends the Bull of Heaven to destroy him, but Gilgamesh and his best friend Enkdu slay it. -The gods kill Enkdu and Gilgamesh embrks on a journey to find the secret of imortality -Utnapishtim, the only immortal, gives Gilgamesh a secret youth plant -A snake steals his fruit while he was taking a bath pg20-23
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Why did the Hebrews leave Ur and where did they go?
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forced out of home land by Akkadians and Babylonians and went to Canaan
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Where does the knowledge of the Hebrews come from?
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the Hebrew bible
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How did Hebrew differ from other Eastern cultures?
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they were monotheistic - worshiped a single god
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God's agreement with the Hebrews
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he will give the promise land to the Hebrews in return for their obedience
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What did God give to Moses in the Sinai dessert
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the Ten Commandments on stone tablets (law treats everyone equally)
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After 40yrs, which patriarch led the Jews back to Canaan?
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Joshua
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Solomon
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Hebrew King, rebuilt Jerusalem
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Israel separation into two states
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North - Israel (capital-Samaria) South - Judah (capital-Jerusalem)
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Lost Tribes of Israel
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Hebrews scattered after Assyrian attack
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Babylonian Captivity
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Hebrews lost homeland and became enslaved until rescued by Persians
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Jews of the Diaspora
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lost Jews who settled else where than Jerusalem
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Cyrus II (The Great)
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Persian king, took control of Greek cities
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Darius
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Persian King, ruled over a vast empire
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Mesopotamia and Egypt Similarities
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formed around river systems -Tigris&Euphrates in Meso - the Nile in Egypt, depended on irrigation, economies hostage to the flow of their river systems, built massive structures dedicated to their gods -ziggurats in Meso -pyramids in Egypt, forms of writing -cuneiform in Meso -hyroglphics in Egypt, traded and influenced one another
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Mesopotamia and Egypt Diferences
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Mesopotamia was rarely united as an entity - rule was formed by believed association with the divine, Egypt was stable through political transition -rule was inherited by members of the same family
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Characteristics of the Nile
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flows north in Africa, overflows yearly, fertile silt behind when it recedes,
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What made Egypt a productive culture?
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the cycle of the Nile river, if no flood, famine would result
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What did call itself and what does it mean?
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Kemet (Black Land) -refers to the black fertile deposits left by the flood
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What where the Red Lands?
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dessert environment that couldn't sustain life, but could be mined for minerals and stone
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Where were the Great Pyramids located?
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Lower Egypt (modern day Cairo) west of the Nile
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What were the three periods of Egyptian achievement?
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Old Kingdom - conventions of art established Middle Kingdom - literary language produced New Kingdom - renewed interest in art and architecture
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Re
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sun god, hawk headed man with sun disk on his head
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How did Egyptians represent their gods and goddesses?
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with human bodies and animal heads
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Egyptian emergence tale
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At the beginning, the Nile created a mound of silt out of which Re was born, all other gods descended from Re
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Characteristics of Egyptian kings
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junior gods, believed to have close relationship with Re and other gods
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Trinity of Thebes
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Osiris Iris Horus
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Seth
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enemy of Horus and Osiris, god of storms and violence, brother of Osiris, pictured as an unidentified creature
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Osiris
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god of death and ruler of the under world (identified with the Nile),
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Iris
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goddess of fertility (wife and sister of Osiris),
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Horus
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son of Osiris, sky god, first king of Egypt, defeated Seth, pictured as a hawked headed man
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Describe the cyclical kingship of the Egyptians
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1. Earthly king was considered a manifestation of Horus and the son of Re 2.When liking kind died, he became Osiris 3. The kings son then took the thrown as Horus
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Triad of Thebes
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Ptah Sekhmet Nefertum
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Ptah
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supreme artisan and creator of all things
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Sekhmet
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Ptah female companion, lioness, protector of the kin in peace and war, mother of Nefertum
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Nefertum
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name means perfection, small statues of him were carried for good luck
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What are palettes used for?
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grinding pigments and making body or eye paint ex. Palette of Narmer
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Thoth
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moon deity, god of writing, counting, and wisdom, pictured as an ibis with crescent moon on head
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Khnum
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original god of the Nile, pictured as a bull, god of pottery
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Hathor
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goddess of love, birth, and death, pictured as woman with cow horns and sun disk on her head
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Sobek
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crocodile god, fertility of the Nile, army's powers and strength
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What is ka and ba?
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ka- soul or life force ba- personality
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Why did Egyptian preserve their dead bodies?
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so the ba and ka would recognize it for eternity
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Funerary sculptures were made of what and why?
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the hardest and most durable stones that weren't prone to fracture
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How did the New Kingdom differ from the Old an Middle?
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King Amenhotep IV established a monotheistic religion where the sun disk Aten was worshiped over all other gods
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Amenhotep IV
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changed his name to Akhenaten (the Shinning Spirit Aten)
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How did the amarna style differ from Egypt's traditional art?
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showed realism, sense od immediacy, an intimacy ex. Akhenaten and His Family pg34
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Who restored the traditional Egypt culture after Amenhotep IV's death?
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Tutankhaten / Tutankhamun / King Tut
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Describe Egyptian Afterlife Belief
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1. Deities question deceased about their behavior in life 2. Their hearts(ka) where weighted against an ostrich feather 3. If heart didn't balance they were condemned to non existence and eaten by Ammit 4. Osiris , wrapped in his mummy robes, oversaw all judgment
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Maat
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goddess of truth, justice, and order (symbol is an ostrich feather)
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Ammit
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eater of the dead, part crocodile, lion, part hippopotamus
