Basic Terms and Concepts
The continent in which Egypt is located.
What is Africa?
This god became of increasing importance in the 4th and 5th dynasties as represented through the names of kings, the construction of the smooth-sided pyramid, and the eventual creation of the sun temple.
Who is Re/Ra?
The king is considered to be this specific god on earth.
Who is Horus?
This is the first evidence for writing in ancient Egypt.
What are the ivory tags of tomb U-j at Abydos?
This tomb type was first inspired by the primordial mound, but was later constructed to include a chapel and serdab space for mortuary cult activity.
What is a mastaba?
These were the two major cult/burial sites of the Predynastic Period in Upper Egypt.
What are Hierakonpolis and Naqada?
This site was the location of the burials of the kings of the 1st and some of the 2nd Dynasty.
If you get this wrong you get -100 points.
What is Abydos?
This king was the first to ever make use of a pyramid in his mortuary complex.
This geographical feature in Egypt was and is fundamental to the operation of the state, and has had a direct role in how the ancient population understood their cosmos due to its flow and flooding.
What is the Nile?
This god of nonexistence and chaos, defeated by Re every night, will eventually consume all of existence, returning the world to primordial waters.
Who is Apep/Apophis?
These two women potentially served as kings, as evidenced by their mortuary complexes at Abydos and Giza, respectively.
Each name is worth 100 points; another team can steal.
Who are Meretneith and Khentkaus?
This type of art makes use of multiple perspectives to represent the most salient portions of a depicted thing.
What is aspective art?
This item was placed at the tomb and included both an offering formula and a depiction of the deceased with their name and titles.
What is a stela?
These two cultures were present in Lower Egypt during the Badarian and Naqada periods in Upper Egypt, respectively.
You must name both for points; teams cannot steal.
What are Omari and Buto-Maadi?
This location is where the majority of 2nd Dynasty kings were buried.
These are the first funerary texts from Egypt and detail how the king can achieve a successful rebirth and afterlife.
What are the Pyramid Texts?
What is the study of human pasts and cultures through the examination of material remains?
This myth provided a pathway to rebirth for individuals after death through Magical Mapping.
What is the myth of Isis and Osiris?
This event happened every 30 years and ritually rejuvenated the king, who is depicted enrobed and running during this event.
What is a jubilee or Hebsed?
What are the three indicators of children in Egyptian art?
You must name all 3, this cannot be stolen.
What is nakedness, hairdo, and finger position?
This written prompt requested that individuals enter a tomb to make an offering to the deceased.
What is the appeal to the living?
Although arguably belonging to Dynasty 0, this item, found in the Main Deposit of the Temple at Hierakonpolis, depicts the possible unification of Egypt.
What is the Narmer Palette?
This 2nd Dynasty king was the first to make use of only Seth in his royal titulary, placing him on the serekh above his name.
Who is Peribsen?
With the "democratization of the afterlife" in the 5th dynasty, this afterlife appears to have become open to the everyday person, as evidenced by such things as the movement of goods to the substructure and the view of the tomb as a subterranean home.
What is the Osirian Afterlife?
Name one Absolute Dating Methodology.
What is radiocarbon dating, dendrochronology, thermoluminescence, etc.
These are the four forms that the Egyptian gods could take.
You must get all four; other teams can steal.
What are animal, anthropomorphic, fetish, and combined/composite?
Kings appear to have been able to access 3 types of afterlives based on the period, as well as their belief system. Name these three afterlives.
What are Solar, Stellar, and Osirian?
These are the three phases of Egyptian script.
You must get all three; this question cannot be stolen.
What are Hieroglyphic, Hieratic, and Demotic?
These two parts of the tomb are the public and the private portions, respectively.
The superstructure and the substructure.
This period saw the introduction of intricate palettes, fine pottery, and foreign goods in the tombs of individuals.
What is Nagada III?
This king was the last buried at Abydos and, as a result, his funerary enclosure still stands.
Who is Khasakhemewy?
This scene, found in non-royal tombs, depicts the deceased and family in a space doing an activity. It has been argued to be a "daily life scene" but served an ideological purpose associated with rebirth.
Name two iconographic representations of Upper and Lower Egypt/Unification.
What are Wadjet and Nekhbet, the two Crowns, Lungs and Windpipe, and Sedge and Bee?
What are limitations?
Also acceptable: lack of knowledge, lack of presence, a mortal body.
The htp dj nswt offering formula is used to emphasize this role that the king holds.
What is head priest/only one allowed to commune with the gods?
These are the three types of 2D art used in ancient Egypt.
You must name all three for points; teams can steal.
What are painting, raised relief, and sunk relief?
What is the serdab?
This tomb was the first to possess painted decoration, including scenes using Mesopotamian style figures, and may have been the tomb of an early proto-king or high elite individual.
What is HK100?
These items were found buried next to the Funerary Enclosures at Abydos and suggest a nilotic component to the journey to the afterlife.
What are boat burials?
These texts served as public "obituaries" detailing important points in elite individuals' lives.
What are tomb autobiographies?
What are Herodotus' Book, Manetho's Book, Turin King List, Abydos King List, Palermo Stone, etc.?
The goddess Hathor of Byblos is an example of this type of god.
What is a god of Specialization?
These are the two type of enclosures that the name of a king are found in.
Each is worth 300 points, teams can steal.
What are the cartouche and serekh?
These are the three qualities of Egyptian 3D art/statuary.
You must name all 3, other teams can steal.
What are frontality, verticality, and rectangularity?
This is the ancient Egyptian word for the afterlife. You can give either version; however, the English translation does not count.
What is the duat/aaru?
These two temples, to Horus and Ithyphallic Min respectively, were located at what two sites?
You must get both, teams cannot steal.
What are Hierakonpolis and Coptos?
These are three indicators of power found at the Saqqara Mastabas that lead some individuals to believe that they are the burials of kings.
Other teams can steal.
What are bucrania, size, visibility, boat burials, subsidiary burials, niched facade, and amount of goods?
These are the three pyramids of Sneferu.
You must name all 3 for points, no stealing.
What are the Bent, Meidum, and Red Pyramids?
These three dualities of the Egyptian landscape had a fundamental impact on the development of Egyptian thought.
You must name all 3. Teams can steal.
What are East and West, Upper and Lower, and Red Land and Black Land?
These are the eight gods of the Ogdoad and their qualities.
Each pair will give a team 175 points; teams can steal the remaining points.
Nun and Naunet: lack of motion
Amun and Amunet: lack of form
Kek and Kauket: lack of light
Heh and Hauhet: lack of boundaries
These are five iconographic markers of kingship. Please note, each marker can only be mentioned once, variations of the marker do not count.
You must get all of them; teams cannot steal.
What are:
Crown
Bull's Tail
Activity - Hebsed/Smiting Foreigners
Facial Hair
Crook and Flail
Shendyat Kilt
Ureaus
Animal Association (Bull and Lion)?
Name at least 7 of the 8 rules of decorum/artistic conventions used in Egyptian art. Each is worth 100 points, including the eighth rule.
Teams can steal.
What are
•“Direction” of Main Figure and Glyphs
•Size/Hierarchical Proportion
•Horizontal and Vertical Hierarchy
•Seated
•Passivity
•Pose
•Clothing (vs. nudity)
•Iconographic Markers (Scepters)
?
Define the Ka, Ba, and Akh, as well as what they subsist on.
You must answer all 3, this question can be stolen.
What are the
Ka - essence/soul born with, food
Ba - acquired soul/personality, interaction
Akh - affective spirit, ritual
?
Provide three indicators of social hierarchy or control present in tomb U-j at Abydos.
You must get 3, other teams cannot steal.
What are:
size, location, number and quality of goods, imported wares, ivory tags.
Name the 5 components of a 1st Dynasty royal burial at Abydos. You must name all to recieve points, other teams can steal.
What are a subterranean tomb near the Wadi, a monumental stela, a mound superstructure, subsidiary burials, and a funerary enclosure?
These are the four causes of the collapse of the Old Kingdom.
You must get all four to get points; this question can be stolen.
What are Pepi II's reign/age, state income/financial issues, a low Nile inundation, and political decentralization/corruption?