El-Balabic

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El-Balabic ( Arabic البلابيش) is an Egyptian city ​​in Sohag Governorate , which is located on the eastern bank of the Nile about 22 km northwest of Nag Hammadi . East of the city on the edge of the desert, an archaeological site of the same name is known, which includes cemeteries from several epochs of ancient Egypt .

Finds

Balabisch was researched by Gerald A. Wainwright and Thomas Whittemore in 1915 , but had already been examined by the Egyptian Antiquities Authority. The cemeteries date from the Middle and New Kingdoms as well as from the Coptic period and were robbed in ancient times . Some smaller graves could also have been dug in the late period . Archaeologists found Coptic pottery shards mixed with late-period artifacts on slopes outside the graves, suggesting that the graves were cleared and reused by Coptic hermits . The cemetery from the New Kingdom contained, among other Egyptian and from the Near East imported pottery , small einhenklige Bilbil pitchers and two-handled Salbfläschchen, next to a Uschebti of limestone and a labeled heart scarab made of slate.

Pan grave cemetery

One of the most important finds in Balabisch is a pan- grave cemetery . The graves were about 1.5 m deep and thus significantly deeper than the pan graves that Flinders Petrie dug in Hu . A total of 21 round and 13 oval graves were uncovered, which contained contracted burials and typical pan grave additions. Scattered between these in the direction of the New Kingdom cemetery were also 15 rectangular graves with bodies in a stretched position. All graves were oriented north to northwest and thus followed the course of the Nile in Balabisch.

The grave goods of the pan grave culture in Balabisch differed from Egyptian grave goods by a large number of leather objects, in particular leather clothing with seamed pearls and forearm warmers for archers, some of which were decorated and some were not decorated. Leather sandals were found in six graves that differed from the previously known Egyptian sandals from the time of the New Kingdom. The pearls were made from clams and ostrich eggs imported from the Red Sea ; pearls made from carnelian and blue glass were just as common. One grave contained a typical pan-digger bracelet made of flat, rectangular shell beads tied together. The most common types of ceramics include the black-rimmed, red ceramics typical of pan graves and the fluted ceramics made of Nile clay .

literature

  • Gerald A. Wainwright : Balabish (= Egyptian research account. Volume 50). Allen & Unwin, London 1920.
  • Kathryn A. Bard: Balabish. In: Kathryn A. Bard (Ed.): Encyclopedia of the Archeology of Ancient Egypt. Routledge, London 1999, ISBN 0-415-18589-0 , p. 165.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Kathryn A. Bard: Balabish. In: Kathryn A. Bard (Ed.): Encyclopedia of the Archeology of Ancient Egypt. Routledge, London 1999, ISBN 0-415-18589-0 , p. 165.

Coordinates: 26 ° 13 '  N , 32 ° 8'  E