The etymology is uncertain, but a strong candidate has long been some word related to the Biblical פוך ( pūk ), " paint " ( if not that word itself ), a cosmetic eye-shadow used by the ancient Egyptians and other inhabitants of the eastern Mediterranean.

Egyptians also believed that being mummified and put in a sarcophagus ( an ancient Egyptian " coffin " carved with complex symbols and designs, as well as pictures and hieroglyphs ) was the only way to have an afterlife.

Amethyst was used as a gemstone by the ancient Egyptians and was largely employed in antiquity for intaglio engraved gems.

Even though the stone had been around centuries and was known to both the Sumerians and the Egyptians, both who used the gem for decoration and for playing important parts in their religious ceremonies, any agate of this color from Sicily, once an ancient Greek colony, is called Greek agate.

Many ancient cultures, including the ancient Egyptians and ancient Greeks, used specially selected mold and plant materials and extracts to treat infections.

The first mention of aeronautics in history was in the writings of ancient Egyptians who described the flight of birds.

Historical evidence also points to the use of non-returning boomerangs by the ancient Egyptians, Native Americans of California and Arizona, and inhabitants of southern India for killing birds and rabbits.

Manek states that Sungazing is the key to his health, citing the Jainist Tirthankara Mahavira, ancient Egyptians, Greeks, and Native Americans as his inspiration.

According to some ancient Greek collections, canons 29 and 30 are attributed to the council: canon 29, which states that an unworthy bishop cannot be demoted but can be removed, is an extract from the minutes of the 19th session ; canon 30, which grants the Egyptians time to consider their rejection of Leo's Tome, is an extract from the minutes of the fourth session.

Together with northern Somalia, Djibouti, and the Red Sea coast of Sudan, Eritrea is considered the most likely location of the land known to the ancient Egyptians as Punt ( or " Ta Netjeru ," meaning god's land ), whose first mention dates to the 25th century BC.

In the third century AD, Flavius Philostratus wrote this: " For there is an ancient law in regard to the Red Sea, which the king Erythras laid down, when he held sway over that sea, to the effect that the Egyptians should not enter it with a vessel of war, and indeed should employ only a single merchant ship.

The ancient Egyptians had a thoroughly developed system for the acquisition of intelligence, and the Hebrews used spies as well, as in the story of Rahab.

The most famous practitioners were ancient Egyptians — many nobles and highly ranked bureaucrats had their corpses embalmed and stored in luxurious sarcophagi inside their funeral mausoleums.

In the Pyramid Texts and Coffin Texts it is revealed the ancient Egyptians believed Nun ( the Ocean ) was a circular body surrounding nbwt ( a term meaning " dry lands " or " Islands ") and therefore believed in a similar Ancient Near Eastern circular earth cosmography surrounded by water.

The ancient Egyptians knew that they could approximate the area of a circle as follows:

In addition, wealthy ancient Egyptians grew vineyards, as wine was a sign of the higher social classes.

Verner wrote, " We can conclude that although the ancient Egyptians could not precisely define the value of π, in practice they used it ".

Traditionally, ancient Egyptians cut stone blocks by hammering wooden wedges into the stone which were then soaked with water.

The ancient Egyptians also employed magical incantations, which have been found inscribed on various amulets and other items.

Revolving around an Englishman living in 1930s London named Robert Denvers who has recollections of a previous life as a Bronze Age Cypriot – an allusion to Gardner himself – the primary plot of A Goddess Arrives is set in ancient Cyprus and featured a queen, Dayonis, who practices sorcery in an attempt to help her people defend themselves from invading Egyptians.

The ancient Egyptians had a system of medicine that was very advanced for its time and influenced later medical traditions.

Principally the Ethiopians which dwell in the Orient, and the Egyptians which are excellent in all kind of ancient doctrine, and by their proper ceremonies accustomed to worship me, do call me Queen Isis .[...

The ancient Egyptians credited one of their gods, Thoth, with the invention of music, which Osiris in turn used as part of his effort to civilize the world.

Once he has been identified, however, a new melody is used to accompany his narrative, a bleak motif with barren octaves creating a rather ancient effect:

Dr. Hilprecht was uncertain as to the language used by the ancient priest in his dream.

The site of the oblong piazza is Domitian's ancient stadium, which was probably used for horse and chariot races.

Archaeologists have found ancient disks of various sizes that are thought to have been used as counters.

Some ancient cultures used lime-based cement for the plaster to protect against rain damage.

The term allocutio was used by the ancient Romans for the speech made by a commander to his troops, either before a battle or during it, to animate and encourage them.

By ancient common law it might be required of all persons above the age of 12, and it was repeatedly used as a test for the disaffected.

Antimony compounds have been known since ancient times and were used for cosmetics ; metallic antimony was also known, but it was erroneously identified as lead.

The Navajo people, who now reside in parts of former Pueblo territory, referred to the ancient people as, an exonym meaning " ancient enemies " although it is now used in the term " ancient people, or " ancient ones.

Athena has been used numerous times as a symbol of a republic by different countries and appears on currency as she did on the ancient drachma of Athens.

The ancient Romans often used mercury-tin amalgams for gilding their armor.

The term apocrypha is used with various meanings, including " hidden ", " esoteric ", " spurious ", " of questionable authenticity ", ancient Chinese " revealed texts and objects " and " Christian texts that are not canonical ".

The ancient Greeks used baskets of stones, large sacks filled with sand, and wooden logs filled with lead, which, according to Apollonius Rhodius and Stephen of Byzantium, were formed of stone ; and Athenaeus states that they were sometimes made of wood.

Amber and extracts were used from the time of Hippocrates in ancient Greece for a wide variety of treatments through the Middle Ages and up until the early twentieth century.

Ambergris is the waxy aromatic substance created in the intestines of sperm whales and was used in making perfumes both in ancient times as well as modern.

Afterwards, the earth rises again from the sea, is fairer than before, and where Asgard used to be a remnant of the Æsir gather, some coming up from Hel, and talk and play chess all day with the golden chessmen of the ancient Æsir, which they find in the grass ( Section 58 ).

Agate is one of the most common materials used in the art of hardstone carving, and has been recovered at a number of ancient sites, indicating its widespread use in the ancient world ; for example, archaeological recovery at the Knossos site on Crete illustrates its role in Bronze Age Minoan culture.

He had not yet undertaken the great exploit of his later years, the rediscovery of the ancient Inca highway, the route of Pizarro in Peru, but he had climbed to the original El Dorado, the Andean lake of Guatemala, and he had scaled the southern Sierra Nevada with its Tibetan-like people and looked into the emerald mines of Muzo.

Every few days, in the early morning, as the work progressed, twenty men would appear to push it ahead and to shift the plank foundation that distributed its weight widely on the Rotunda pavement, supported as it is by ancient brick vaulting.

Kyoto is the ancient capital of Japan and still its cultural center.

The Senate launched the 87th Congress with its own version of an ancient liberal-conservative battle, but in contrast with the House's guerrilla war it seemed as pro forma as a Capitol guide's speech.

Byzantine control was challenged by Arab raids starting in the 7th century ( see Byzantine – Arab Wars ), but in the 9th and 10th century a resurgent Byzantine Empire regained its lost territories and even expanded beyond its traditional borders, into Armenia and Syria ( ancient Aram ).

During World War I, the Armenian Genocide, the Greek genocide ( especially in Pontus ), and the Assyrian Genocide almost entirely removed the ancient communities of Armenian and Assyrian populations in Anatolia, as well as a large part of its ethnic Greek population.

While accompanying Mallowan on countless archaeological trips ( spending up to 3 – 4 months at a time in Syria and Iraq at excavation sites at Ur, Ninevah, Tell Arpachiyah, Chagar Bazar, Tell Brak, and Nimrud ), Christie not only wrote novels and short stories, but also contributed work to the archaeological sites, more specifically to the archaeological restoration and labeling of ancient exhibits which includes tasks such as cleaning and conserving delicate ivory pieces, reconstructing pottery, developing photos from early excavations which later led to taking photographs of the site and its findings, and taking field notes.

Anavarza ) was an ancient Cilician city, situated in Anatolia in modern Turkey, in the present Çukurova ( or classical Aleian plain ) about 15 km west of the main stream of the present Ceyhan River ( or classical Pyramus river ) and near its tributary the Sempas Su.

Pope Leo I requests Genseric not destroy the ancient city or murder its citizens.

A good example of the contempt the first democrats felt for those who did not participate in politics can be found in the modern word ' idiot ', which finds its origins in the ancient Greek word, idiōtēs, meaning a private person, a person who is not actively interested in politics ; such characters were talked about with contempt, and the word eventually acquired its modern meaning.

To its ancient detractors the democracy was reckless and arbitrary.

Sophocles and Euripides ( and in more modern times, Corneille ) made the story the subject of tragedies, and its incidents were represented in numerous ancient works of art.

Though Antlia was technically visible to ancient Greek astronomers, its stars were too faint to have been included in any constellations.

It was named for its original capital, the ancient city of Assur ( Akkadian: ; Aramaic: ; Hebrew: ; Arabic: ).

Thus far the only people who have been attested with a high level of genetic, historical, linguistic and cultural research to be the descendants of the ancient Mesopotamians are the Assyrian Christians of Iraq and its surrounding areas in north west Iran, north east Syria and south eastern Turkey.

In his account, ancient Athens seems to represent the " perfect society " and Atlantis its opponent, representing the very antithesis of the " perfect " traits described in the Republic.

Angus was historically a county ( known officially as Forfarshire from the 18th century until 1928, when it reverted to its ancient name ) until 1975 when it became a district of the Tayside Region.

Ancient Nubia shared many aspects of its mythology with ancient Egypt and there is debate about the original source of some religious concepts that the two cultures share and, whether the assimilation was from Nubia to Egypt, the reverse, or through continuing exchanges.

The Seljuq Turks then arrived in 1071 and changed its name to Kara Hissar (" black castle ") after the ancient fortress situated upon a volcanic rock 201 meters above the town.