Sadina

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Sadina was a priestess and musician in the temple of Sekhmet under the reign of Amenhotep III. (18th dynasty).

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Sagadu

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Sagadu was an old Babylonian jeweller and seal maker, a friend of Nebushazzar and Nanshaya. He carved the seal of Nebushazzar and of Nanshaya. (See Nebushazzar, See Nanshaya)

Cylinder seals are carved to leave an impression in soft materials (e.g., clay) and of two types: stamp form and finger ring seal. Archaeologists have found a large number of them, especially from the Babylonian and Assyrian periods. These seals are art pieces, and their imprint doesn’t damage the seal. In the museums, one can find these exhibited seals next to a small strip of clay with their full impression.

The images on the cylinder seals were mainly about a specific theme, often sociological or religious. Besides the owner’s personality and authority, they show the society’s ideas in pictographic and text form.

 

Sagamaz

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Sagamaz was a wealthy Babylonian merchant in ancient Egypt. He was the lieutenant of Ashtan, an elite member of the Dark Brotherhood.

 

Sanasu

 

Sanasu was the ‘Advisor in Foreign Affairs’ in the court of the Hittite Emperor Tudhaliya.

 

Port of Sawu

 

Mersa Gawasis (Ancient Egyptian: Saww) is a small Egyptian harbour on the Red Sea and a former Egyptian port city. The harbour lies at the mouth of Wadi Gawasis, 2 km south of the entrance of Wadi Gasus. 25 km north is the town of Safaga, and 50 km south al-Qusair. 

The place was used as a port in the reigns of Senusret I to Amenemhat IV of the 12th Dynasty and served as a loading point for expeditions to Punt. The harbour was also a starting point for journeys to the mines of Sinai.

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Seal of Nebushazzar

 

Dimensions of seal:
Diameter - 4 cm - 1-1/2 inches
Height - 2.5 cm - 1 inch approximately
It is made of a limestone and quartzite composition stone with ochre and slate grey/black patinas.
It is a charming Babylonian duck seal and an impression of the details it contains. It features the streamlined form of a stylized duck that creates a handle with its head. Large enough for using thumb and forefinger, it would have been used to stamp ownership to a clay document or wine jar seal.
It could also have been designed as a weight measurement method for small quantities of a precious material such as gold or exotic herbs.
Duck weights were made in various materials and standard sizes. They were used in trade to work out the grain and other food crop portions by placing them on a set of scales. Wages were also calculated using this system. (See Sagadu)
The inscription underneath depicts a priest worshipping the symbols of the supreme god of Babylon, Marduk. Also, the emblem for Marduk’s son Nabu is present here. Nabu was the god of wisdom and writing during this period, taking over this role from the more ancient Nisaba / Nina.

 

Sekhmet

 

Sekhmet was the goddess of the hot desert sun, plague, chaos, war, and healing in ancient Egypt. The meaning of her name is ‘She who is powerful’ or ‘the One who loves Ma’at’. The sun god Ra created her from his eye when he looked upon Earth and saw that the humans didn’t obey him. The people didn’t live by the law of Ma’at (the universal principle for order), so he created Sekhmet as a weapon to destroy them. Sometimes Sekhmet is mentioned as the daughter of Geb and Nut (the deities for the earth and the sky).

Sekhmet was depicted as a lion-headed woman with a sun disk. Sekhmet is closely associated with the pharaoh and his kingship. She is believed to protect the pharaoh during the war as the warrior goddess of Upper Egypt.

She acquired the title ‘The Scarlet Lady’ because she lusted for blood. Celebrations and sacrifices are often offered to the goddess to appease her after the war, at plagues and end the destruction.  

Although Sekhmet was a terrifying goddess, in her peaceful and benevolent state, she could avert plague and cure disease as the healer of impossible diseases for the ones she considered her favorite. The ordinary physicians were educated in the temple of the god Ptah, but the surgeons and specialists learned in Sekhmet’s temple. She was a powerful ally to the physicians and healers.

The people needing to solve their problems or hoping to cure their sicknesses brought offerings of food and drink to her temple, where they played music for her and burned incense. There was a common practice of whispering prayers into the ears of cat mummies and offering them to Sekhmet. They believed this was a direct connection to the deities and that their prayers would be answered.

 

Semiye

 

Semiye was a lesser member of the Dark Brotherhood, an apprentice priest in Sekhmet’s temple.

 

Seneh

 

Seneh was an ancient name for the Sinai Peninsula. (See Sinai, See Mafkat)

 

Senet

 

Senet was an ancient Egyptian board game. Board games have been beloved in Egypt since early times, and Senet was the most popular. The rich people used a game box to play it, while the less wealthy played it on a grid scratched into the floor.

Senet means ‘passing’, and playing it had a religious significance. Some Egyptian texts describe the game as reflecting the soul’s movement through the Egyptian realm of the dead - called ‘Duat’- toward the afterlife. The winner who got all the pieces off the board was the first to pass into the afterlife. Good luck was considered to have a blessing from the gods.

The game board had thirty squares in three rows of ten. Some of the squares had symbols on them. The archaeologists never found the exact rules of the game, but the historians believe that the path of the counters probably followed an S across the board. The players threw four two-sided sticks (sometimes knucklebones), and the outcome decided the movement of the figurines. The goal was to move the pieces around the board and avoid hazards. Symbols were painted on the squares, representing either good or bad fortune. The figurines stepping on the different signs affected the play.

 

Sennuwy

 

Sennuwy was an elder priestess from the temple of the goddess Mut, tutor of the royal children of Amenhotep III. (See, Mut)

 

Seth

 

In ancient Egyptian mythology, Seth was a sky god, but he had other attributes, too, such as the ‘Lord of the desert’, ‘Master of storms’, and ‘God of disorder and warfare’ - in other words, a trickster. Seth embodied the creative element of disorder within the order. The deviations of his cult reflect the people’s uncertain approach to him.

Seth was the brother of Osiris, and his troublesome character shows already at his birth when he simply burst out of the womb of his mother, Nut. He was regularly unfaithful to his wife and sister, Nephthys. Seth murdered his brother, Osiris, convincing him to climb into a casket. Then he closed the lid and threw it to the river so the water would carry it out to the open sea.

Seth was depicted as a complex figure with a canine body, slanting eyes, square-tipped ears, a forked tail and a long, curved snout. The basis of his form was merged from different animals, such as the antelope, ass, camel, fennec, jackal, long-snouted mouse, okapi, and pig (among others). Seth’s appearance was varied in so many ways that historians believe that the people had a confused idea of his origins and depicted him the way their given situations at the time required.

 

Shamy – Shemhaby

 

Shemhaby (Shamy) was a priest of the Thoth temple in Men-Nefer (Memphis) during the reign of Amenhotep III. He was the next in line to follow Merutef as the high priest of the god after Merutef’s death. Shamy was an intelligent young man who (later) founded the White Brotherhood to keep the records of secret knowledge throughout ancient Egyptian history.

 

Shu

 

Shu was the god of dry air and the force of preservation in ancient Egyptian mythology. He was the consort of his sister, Tefnut (goddess of moist), and together they represent two fundamental principles of human existence

 

Shushat

 

Shushat was a priestess of the goddess Wadjet sometime during the Old Kingdom (c. 2613-2181 BCE) in Egypt. She was born in the bloodline of Nanshaya, and she was the Second mentioned in an ancient prophecy.

 

Shuttarna II

 

Shuttarna II (or Šuttarna) was a king of the Hurrian kingdom of Mitanni in the early 14th century BC. (Apparently, for a short time.). (See Hurrian). He was an ally of the Egyptian king Amenhotep III and their diplomatic correspondences are recorded in the Amarna letters. In the 10th year of Amenhotep III.’s reign, he married Shuttarna’s daughter, Gilukhepa, to seal the alliance between the two royal houses. Evidence shows that the Mittani princess arrived at the pharaoh’s court for the wedding with an exceptionally great dowry. After Shuttarna’s death, his granddaughter, Tadukhipa (daughter of his son Tudhaliya, his successor), had the same fate and became Amenhotep III.’s wife for diplomatic reasons. (See Tudhaliya)

 

Sillia

 

Sillia was a handmaiden in the temple of the goddess Sekhmet. She was appointed to serve only Nanshaya, and in time she became a loyal confidant of the young Seer.

 

Sin

 

Sin (in Sumerian’ Nanna’) was the god of the moon in the Mesopotamian religion. Nanna (his Sumerian name) symbolized the full moon, whereas ‘Su-en’ (later changed to Sin) was labelled as the crescent moon. His cult developed in the swamp region of the lower Euphrates River, where he was intimately connected with the cattle herds, the essential livestock of the people. (See Euphrates River)

 

Sinai

 

The Sinai Peninsula is a triangular peninsula of 61,000 square km linking Africa with Asia. The arid area of Sinai is called the Sinai Desert, and the Gulf of Suez separates it from Egypt’s Eastern Desert to the west and continues into the Negev Desert to the east. The Sinai Peninsula is the northeastern extremity of Egypt and adjoins Israel and the Gaza Strip on the east. (See Mafkat)

 

Sistrum

 

Sistrum (in Greek, ’seistron’) is a percussion instrument. Basically, it is a rattle. It has crossbars (with loosely applied jingles on it) set on a wood, metal, or clay frame, and a handle is attached. When it is shaken, it gives a clear tingling sound. The ancient Egyptians considered the sistrum as a sacred instrument.

In ancient Egypt, sistrums had a closed-horseshoe shape resembling a cow’s face and horns (the goddess’s sacred animal). It was used in dances and religious ceremonies to worship the goddess Hathor. In the Late Period, when Hathor’s cult merged with the goddess Isis, the use of the sistrum spread throughout the Roman Empire.

Isis was often depicted holding a bucket in one hand (symbolizing the flooding of the Nile) and a sistrum in the other. The goddess Bast is often depicted holding a sistrum, representing her role as a goddess of dance, joy, and festivity.

 

Sitamun

 

Sitamun was the eldest daughter of Pharaoh Amenhotep III and his Great Royal Wife Tiye. Around Year 30 of Amenhotep III’s reign, she married her father (for the title of the ‘King’s Great Royal Wife’ (as mentioned on the statue of Amenhotep, son of Hapu - today it’s in the Cairo Museum).

The confirmation that Sitamun was a daughter of Amenhotep III. and Tiye are objects the archaeologists found in the tomb of the queen Tiye’s parents, Yuya and Thuya. Among them is a chair bearing her title as the ‘King’s daughter’. She also appears on the stele of her nurse Nebetkabeny and on a relief from Amenhotep III.’s mortuary temple.

Evidence shows that she had rooms designated to her in the complex of the Malqata palace and that the ‘Steward of Sitamun’s Properties’ in the court was Amenhotep, son of Hapu.

A separate chamber was carved for her in Amenhotep III.’s tomb in the Valley of the Kings, but we found no evidence that she was ever buried there.

 

Sopdet

 

Sopdet (Spdt, meaning the ‘Triangle’ or ‘Sharp One’) is the ancient Egyptian name of the star Sirius and its personification as an Egyptian goddess. She was depicted as a woman with a five-pointed star on her head.

She is the consort of Sah (the personified constellation of Orion), and their child, Venus (the planet), was the hawk god Sopdu (the ‘Lord of the East’). As the ‘Bringer of the New Year and the Nile flood’, the goddess was associated with Osiris from an early date. By the Ptolemaic Period, Sah and Sopdet almost solely appeared in forms conflated with Osiris and Isis. (See Sopdu)

 

Sopdu

 

Sopdu was a war god associated with the eastern borders and the Eastern Desert, known as the ‘Lord of the East’. Sopdu was the patron and protector of the turquoise mines in the Sinai, as we found a place of his worship in Serabit-el-Khadem.

Sopdu was generally depicted as a crouching falcon or an Asiatic warrior wearing a girdle, a crown with two tall plumes, and carrying an axe. 

As a war god, he was closely associated with the pharaoh (and Horus, the patron god of the kings) during the Middle Kingdom.

As a sky god, Sopdu was connected with the god Sah (the constellation Orion) and the goddess Sopdet (or Sothis) (representing the star Sirius). 

 

Sumerian

 

Sumer was an ancient civilization in the ‘Fertile Crescent’ (Mesopotamia), between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers (today, southern Iraq). The Sumerians were known for the inventions of language, governance, architecture and more. At the early age of their settlements, they drained the swamps of the rivers for agriculture, excelled in weaving, metalwork and pottery and developed trade and an advanced governing system.

By the 3rd millennium BC., the country had at least 12 separate walled city-states with villages and agricultural lands surrounding them. Today they are considered the creators of civilization. Their civilization flourished between c. 4100-1750 BCE.

 

Surer

 

Amenemhat, called Surer, was the personal superintendent of Amenhotep III. He held the titles of the ‘Chief Steward’, ‘At the head of the King’, and ‘Overseer of the Cattle of Amun’. 

Surer belonged to a noble family because he was the son of Ith-taui (‘Overseer of the cattle of Amun’) and the lady Mut-tuy. His beautifully painted and colorful tomb (TT48) is located in El-Khokha, part of the Theban Necropolis, on the west bank of the Nile, opposite Luxor. From the detailed images in his tomb, we can learn much about the life and religion in ancient Egypt and the royal family of Amenhotep III.

A fragment of his black granite figure is in the British Museum today (Nr. EA123). As the phrase ‘True Voice’ (typically as a description for a deceased person) does not appear on the statue, it was probably made while Surer was still alive.

 

Susa

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Susa was the older sister of Harima, the oracle of Sinai. The three sisters lived all their lives in an extensive cave system in the high mountains of Sinai. Their origins are unclear, but the oracle was well known in the ancient Middle East. The people frequently visited her for visions, predictions, and blessings in exchange for livelihood goods.