Akh – The transfigured, an ancestor’s spirit, the part of the human soul created after death. Ba and ka are part of the soul while a human being is alive. At death, they leave the body. When they return to it, they merge and create the third component of the human soul, the akh. Nevertheless, they still exist individually. The akh, the spirit soul, ascends to the sky and turns into a star. Together with the sun god, it travels through the underworld. The akh is as good or evil as the deceased had been while still alive. It can influence the world of the living and harm these. Therefore criminals were denied a proper funeral to prevent their components of the soul creating an akh.
Ba – The ba is also called the excursion soul or free soul of the Egyptians. It’s the part of the soul depicted as a bird with a human head. During life, it’s confined to the body, but when death occurs, it can separate from the body and fly around. However, it stays connected to the body and unites with it from time to time. The Egyptians believed the ba could be caught, injured and even killed.
Balance of the Two Lands – The place where the Nile branches out into the delta, the border between Upper and Lower Egypt.
Ben oil – Oil produced from the fruit of the horseradish tree, also known as Moringa oil. Grown and harvested in the Middle East, the oil was imported from there even in the times of the Old Kingdom. It tastes sweet and was used for cooking and as osmophore to carry the scent in perfume oil and ointment cones. In embalming, it found a special use.
Deben – Ancient Egyptian weight unit, its value varying in the Middle Kingdom. A copper deben was twice as heavy as one of gold. Besides barter trade, these pieces of precious metal served as a means of payment and for determining the value of goods. Deben were shaped in bars or rings, which allowed one to break off smaller bits.
Duat – Name of the netherworld. It consisted of the subterranean region and the celestial realm named Aaru. The two touched each other at the horizon. While the dead had to face various horrors in the underworld and needed to pass their judgment, they could reach the heavenly realm of Aaru afterward and enjoy a kind of paradise. Unlike in the garden of Eden, they had to work, though, farming the fields among other things. To avoid manual labor, Egyptians had little figurines called Ushabti entombed with them. These ‘answerers ’ were to jump to work in their master’s stead at the gods’ summons.
Eye of Horus – Symbol of the god Horus. In their fight over the throne of Osiris, Seth ripped out his nephew Horus’s left eye. The god Thot healed it, and since then it symbolizes medicine. In addition, mathematical fractions were based on the proportions of the eye, and these ratios were used for dosing the ingredients of remedies. Painted onto the hull of a boat, the eye was supposed to protect against dangers lurking in the water.
False door – An element of Egyptian graves that looked like a door. They were either a relief or painted on and allowed the ka soul of the deceased to leave the tomb.
Heri-Heb/Heriu-Heb – Lector priest/lector priests. High-ranking priests who played an important role during mummification and funerals since they recited ritual texts, litanies and songs.
House of Life – One might call it a kind of university, where the higher professions like scribes, physicians, artists and priests were educated.
Ibu – Place of purification. First stop for the deceased in the embalming process. There’s no archeological evidence for these constructions. Judging by the few surviving paintings, they were made of light wood and mats.
Ka – A part of the soul. The ka leaves the body of the dying and continues to exist independently. As a double of the deceased, it serves as its guardian spirit. It inhabits a statue erected specifically for it in the tomb of the dead. It feeds on the sacrifices placed before the statue.
Kenbet – Board of judges, which consists of dignitaries with jurisdiction over property claims and crimes. Besides these local courts, there was the Great Kenbet with the vizier and the pharaoh as chairmen.
Lock of youth – In the Old Kingdom an iconographic mark of the king’s children. In later times, the lock of youth was also worn by the children of noble families. While the rest of the head was shaved, one braided curl hung from one side to the shoulder. Since the Horus child is also depicted in this way, it can be assumed these children were equated with the divine child. When they reached adulthood (at the age of 13 in ancient Egypt), the hair was shaved off.
From the earliest dynasties on, noble Egyptians covered their heads with wigs. In the course of time, fashion changed and so did the headdress made of real hair or plant fibers. Certain professions wore a specific type of hairstyle, which made them recognizable. Wearing a wig was a status symbol, but originally the custom likely had hygienic reasons.
Mastaba – Arabic word for bench. The kings of the first dynasties established the tradition to erect these large structures as their tombs in Sakkara. Starting with Djoser, pharaohs chose pyramids as their burial chambers. Until the Middle Kingdom, officials and noble people were entombed in these so-called bench graves, which were rectangular structures built with adobe or stone. Inside lay the dead. During the New Kingdom, graves were dug into rock, likely because then they couldn’t be robbed so easily.
Medjay – Law enforcement, mercenary-soldiers from Kush or the desert tribes.
Mer-ut – Head of the embalmers.
Necropolis – City of the dead.
Pharaoh – In old Egyptian, ‘Per-Aa ’ was the term for the seat of the king’s government. In Greek times, the word became a synonym for the king, who from then on was called pharaoh.
Pylon – Large gateway made of stone, built in front of temples.
Sedge and the Bee – (Nesw Bity) Part of a pharaoh’s title. The bee symbolized Lower Egypt, the sedge Upper Egypt. A pharaoh had five different names in total. The nesw bity name was the throne name a pharaoh chose in addition to his birth name. Another name, the nebty name (the two mistresses) also showed the dualistic attitude of the Egyptians: the vulture goddess Nekhbet represents Upper Egypt and the snake goddess Wadjet Lower Egypt. Both animals adorned the pharaoh’s crown to protect the king. Additionally, the king chose a Horus name and Golden name.
Senet – A board game depicted in numerous murals since the first dynasties. Two players tried to place their pawns on a certain field on a board of thirty squares. The Romans adopted the game. It might be a precursor of backgammon.
Shendyt – A knee-length wraparound skirt or kilt.
Sibling marriage – For the pharaoh it was common to marry his biological sister as it was believed the king’s divine blood was only transferred to daughters, who could then pass it on to their offspring. Likely the reasoning behind this was that only the mother of a child could be determined with certainty, while fatherhood might be doubtful. In the Egyptian language, the word for ‘sister’ developed into a synonym for ‘beloved’. Marriage of siblings mostly happened in the royal family until Greek-Roman times when they are also documented for common people. Otherwise incest was frowned upon early on like in most cultures.
Strong bull – The king was often equated with a bull since the animal represented virility, power and strength.
Sycamore – also called sycamore fig or mulberry fig. With its protruding canopy, the tree made for an ideal shade dispenser in Egypt, where few deciduous trees prospered. Many parts of the sycamore were used as food or cures, and in Men-nefer (Memphis) a holy sycamore was worshiped as embodiment of the goddess Hathor.
The Two Lands – Upper and Lower Egypt. Even in prehistoric times, the fertile Nile valley had been a popular place for different cultures to settle. The population of the marshy delta in Lower Egypt had been a different one than that of Upper Egypt. The mythical king Menes, however, managed to unite the two kingdoms. For Egyptians, this event retained immense significance throughout history. Their language reflects the duality in many ways as a consequence of previous individuality. Particularly in imagery, the unification was symbolically reenacted over and over again.
Ut/Utu – Embalmer. Little is known about this professional group, neither where nor how they lived. Presumably, the art of embalming was so secret that hardly any information was passed on. The sparse knowledge mostly stems from Greek authors of the Late Period, who had their own particular view of a culture so strange to them.
Wab priest – The wab priests were the largest group within the priesthood of a temple. They ranked below the prophets in the temple hierarchy and took care of a major part of the daily offering services.
Weryt – Embalming hall. What the weryt looked like or how its interior was made up is fairly unknown. In Memphis, an embalming hall for Apis bulls was discovered, and it can be assumed the weryt for humans was designed in a similar fashion.