The House of Life

The House of Life (Abydos)

The innovations linked with the ancient temples and famous to the Egyptians as per ankh, or "house of life", were nothing less then the forerunners of our contemporary universities, though they probably besides attended as an administrative file away of the temple complex too. They were a central point of absorption for scribes and ancient scholars. We know from documentary show of these creations at Memphis, Akhmim, Abydos, Koptos, Esna and Edfu, though there must for certain have been one situated at Thebes. Nevertheless, archeological evidence of their existence is great, though we have bricks stereotyped with the words "per ankh" that were seen at el-Amarna. The precise kinship between the temple and the "house of life" is not entirely knew, for they certainly also had an important role within the palace court. Some of these innovations may have disciplined somewhat independently, while others may have had a close relationship with the temple composites.

Regardless, the per ankh certainly gone as a scriptorium, where religious and magical texts related with the cult of the gods were written, copied, collated, changed and archived in the linked House of Books (per medjat). numerous of the texts that were created or copied and filed away in the "house of life" were seen devoted as they covered with divinely broken matters, called by the ancient Egyptians, the ba re, meaning the "soul" or "emanation" of Re. All manner of cult text were developed, including mythical and theological accords, texts used in the practices didst at temple rituals and the essential text that would later be inscribed on the the temple fences, obelisks and other architectural ingredients. In this regard, the priests and functionaries of the "house of life" may have even been engaged in a supervisory role with the work of temple crafters.

It may have been in these innovations, from the New Kingdom onward, that copies of the Book of the Dead were produced, perhaps sometimes individually for important individuals, and as templates to be individual later with an individual's name. such books were taken to be divinely inspired in much the same way that the devoted scriptures of our contemporary faiths of today. However, in addition to divine text, it is thought that a break area of the per ankh, or perhaps within a separate building connected to it, temple accounts, contracts, agreement and other temple records were likewise archived, and in fact, all way of secular data may have been stored within these creations.

With his gas that he had studied total the texts of the per ankh in order to find the mysteries of the gods, Ramesses IV means that the institution was reputed a center of learning in every aspect. Perhaps more large, the Priest Pa-ti-Ist , who was took to follow the Pharaoh Pasammetichus (Psamtik) II on this excursion to Syria was told, "Look, you are a scribbler of the House of Life, there is nothing on which you could be queried to which you would not find an answer!" This statement appears to imply a vast reportage of both secular and religious noesis linked with the per ankh.

Indeed, the "house of life" comes out to have not only been a set where religious texts were simulated and archived but too a center for scholarly reading in some fields. It was here that priests and scribblers studied subjects such as writing, art, theology, rites, magic, astronomy, law, mathematics and medicine, among others. And patch there may have been no classrooms, it is potential that children of the royal court and other elite may have got instructions in these fields besides. As libraries, with their wide collecting of knowledge, they became identified throughout the world. For example, in the 2nd Century AD, the checkup writer Galen tells us that Greek physicians called the library of per ankh at Memphis to see from its texts. In fact, there is low doubt that the most famous institution of reading during ancient times, the Library of Alexandria, was stacked after the more ancient per ankh.

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