![]() "The subject of these scrolls contained the totality of knowledge of the ancient world, ranging from literary works, to philosophical tractates, to scientific explanations," Wendrich said. According to Dartmouth College, the reeds were pounded flat to form paper and dried in the sun the different papers were attached to one another with glue to form a long, continuous paper that could be rolled up. These written works, called scrolls, were made out of papyrus, a reed that grew along the Nile River. It is possible that, at its height, the library housed upward of half a million separate written works, according to World History Encyclopedia. The library's archive, where the manuscripts were held, may have been a separate building from the Museion, though it is not entirely clear. "Here, literary works were recited and theories discussed." "The Museion was not a museum in the modern sense of the term, but much more like a university," Wendrich told Live Science. There was also a medical school whose students practiced the dissection of human cadavers - a unique skill that was rarely practiced in Europe before the 15th-century Renaissance. Although the precise layout of the library is not known, at its height the library was reputed to have included lecture halls, laboratories, meeting halls, gardens, dining commons and even a zoo, according to the ancient historian Diodorus Siculus. ![]() Generous royal subsidies led to the creation of a complex of buildings surrounding the Museion. The library expanded in size and scope over the years as the Ptolemaic rulers saw the advantages of promoting a center of learning and culture within their city. Zenodotus also edited the work of Hesiod, Pindar and other ancient poets, as well as producing his own poetry. He was responsible for creating the first critical edition of Homer, a work that attempted to determine which parts of the Iliad and the Odyssey were original and which were added by later writers. He was a Greek scholar and poet who served as chief librarian under both Ptolemy I and Ptolemy II. Zenodotus of Ephesus was reputed to be the first chief librarian, according to Britannica. (The word "museum" is derived from "museion.") "It was called the Museion, or 'Place of the Muses,'" Wendrich said it was named after the muses, the nine Greek goddesses of the arts. Ptolemy I apparently approved the plan, and soon, a building was erected within the palace precincts. Demetrius' grand design was to erect a place of learning that would rival Aristotle's famous Lyceum, a school and library near Athens. (Image credit: Image courtesy Wikimedia, from an ancient mosaic in Pompeii, Italy)Ī persistent legend, however, holds that the library began when one of Ptolemy I's subjects, an Athenian named Demetrius of Phalerum, proposed constructing a building to house all the world's known manuscripts, according to according to Britannica. Persian rule in Egypt came to an end with the arrival of Alexander the Great (pictured here), and he established the city of Alexandria. It had the name of its owner, a man named "Pwkhaef," written on it.In 332 B.C. In 2022, a 13-foot-long (4 m) fragmentary papyrus containing texts from the Book of the Dead was found at Saqqara in a burial shaft near the pyramid of the pharaoh Teti (reigned circa 2323 B.C. This appears to be the second papyrus containing texts from the Book of the Dead that has been found at Saqqara in the past year. Scalf, who was not involved in the latest discovery but holds a doctorate in Egyptology, noted that there are Book of the Dead scrolls that measure over 98 feet (30 m) long. "There are many manuscripts that would have been similar in length, but papyrus manuscripts of ancient Egyptian religious texts can vary quite dramatically in length," Foy Scalf, the head of research archives at the University of Chicago, told Live Science in an email. While 52 feet is lengthy, there are other examples of Book of the Dead papyri of that length or longer. They were widely used during the New Kingdom (circa 1550 B.C. The Book of the Dead is a modern-day name given to a series of texts the Egyptians believed would help the dead navigate the underworld, among other purposes.
1 Comment
|
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |