That time of week again, already. Where we explore any new Wondrous Words we’ve encountered in our reading for the past week. This project is hosted by Kathy at Bermudaonion’s Weblog, so if you have your own great new words, go leave a comment there as well as here, linking us to your post about them.
I only have one word today, from the book I’m reading and about which I did the Teaser yesterday — The Exodus Quest, by Will Adams.
1) talatat – (from Reference.com) stone blocks of standardized size (ca. 27 by 27 by 54 cm, corresponding to ½ by ½ by 1 ancient Egyptian cubits); used during the reign of Akhenaton in the building of the Aton temples at Karnak and Akhetaten. The standardized size and their small weight made construction more efficient. … reused by Horemheb and Ramesses II as filler material for pylons and as foundations for large buildings. The Great Hypostyle Hall at Karnak is built on thousands of these blocks, as is the Second Pylon. … Tens of thousands of the talatat have been recovered. The decorated stones are being photographed and the scenes they depict are reconstructed.
Fascinating stuff! I knew about the blocks from the Amarna buildings being re-used in many other buildings, so that the only way you would ever recover them would be to destroy other valuable edifices. But I never knew what they were called.
I love the sound of talatat, but don’t think I’ll ever be able to work it into a conversation. Thanks for participating today!
It made me think of Ararat- the mountain range Noah supposedly landed his ark on.
Talatat is a great word! It sounds like a musical word.
Oooh! That’s a new one!
Very interesting. I love visiting on Wondrous Word Wednesday! I always learn something new.
Thanks, that was very interesting. I’m glad you played along this week even with one word. It was a great word.
That one is interesting! Thanks for stopping by my blog yesterday.