Egyptian scribes: Did you mean...?

The gods of ancient Egypt freely gave their bounty to the people who worked the land, but this did not exempt those farmers from paying taxes on that bounty to the government. Egypt was a cashless society until the Persian Period (c. 525...

Cleopatra VII (69-30 BCE, reign 51-30 BCE) was the last ruler of Egypt before it was annexed as a province of Rome. Arguably the most famous Egyptian queen, Cleopatra was ethnically Greek as a member of the Macedonian Ptolemaic Dynasty (323-30...

Architecture in ancient Egypt reflected the Egyptian culture's values, primarily that of ma'at (harmony/balance) symbolized by the symmetry of the completed works. Exteriors and interiors were carefully planned and executed in accordance...

A famous story from Greece relates how a young woman named Agnodice wished to become a doctor in Athens but found this forbidden. In fact, a woman practicing medicine in Athens in the 4th century BCE faced the death penalty. Refusing to give...

Ancient Egyptian burial practices were observed as early as the Predynastic Period in Egypt (c. 6000 to c. 3150 BCE) and continued through the Ptolemaic Dynasty (323-30 BCE), serving to not only provide the living with closure in saying goodbye...

Ancient Egyptian art was created to serve a practical purpose, not for its own sake, and so every piece had a specific function. At the same time, these works were crafted in accordance with the cultural value of ma'at (harmony) and so attention...

The Negative Confession (also known as The Declaration of Innocence) is a list of 42 sins which the soul of the deceased can honestly say it has never committed when it stands in judgment in the afterlife. The soul would recite these in the...

This image gallery is a visual guide to the gods and goddesses of ancient Egypt. It includes depictions of many of Egypt's more iconic and widely worshipped deities, along with brief descriptions of their roles in Egyptian religion. Each...

The Candaces of Meroe were the queens of the Kingdom of Kush who ruled from the city of Meroe c. 284 BCE-c. 314 CE - a number of whom ruled independently c. 170 BCE-c. 314 CE - in what is now Sudan. The title Candace is the Latinized version...

Nisaba (also Naga, Se-Naga, Nissaba, Nidaba, and associated with Nanibgal) is the Sumerian goddess of writing, accounts, and scribe of the gods. Although her name is commonly given as Nidaba, noted scholar Jeremy Black points out that "the...