Karanis

Karanis is the ancient name of an Egyptian place in Fayum . The modern name of the ruins is Kom Auschim .

The place

Karanis was probably in the 3rd century BC. Founded by Greek settlers under Ptolemy II and abandoned at the end of the 5th century AD. While the ancient place almost had an urban character in terms of size, it was administratively a village, which was probably a small regional center. The place has a special meaning for archeology as it is very well preserved. Some houses were still a few floors high when they were found. The dry climate of Egypt also preserved numerous organic materials. Most of the finds date to the fourth and fifth centuries AD.

buildings

Plan of the Pnepheros and Petesuchos temples

Karanis owned two temples built of stone in the Egyptian style, the larger of the two dating from the 1st century BC. Dated. The twins Pnepheros and Petesuchos, local aspects of the crocodile god Sobek, were worshiped here. There were two main streets that criss-crossed the town and numerous smaller alleys next to them. The adobe houses were originally several stories high. Ceilings consisted of wooden beams. There were mostly large windows facing the street. The interior walls were usually simply plastered and not further decorated. There were some painted niches in which deities are depicted, apparently they were house shrines. The wooden doors and the keys to lock them have been partially preserved. Papyri show that usually several families lived in each house.

Several large granaries were also found in the place. A special feature are the once numerous dovecotes , five of which were largely preserved when they were exposed. Since many of the dovecotes were erected on the roofs of the houses, they inevitably collapsed first. Three of these towering dovecotes have a square base with a side length of 4.5 meters, the only door opening at a height of 3 meters can only be reached via a ladder. Clay tubes were set into the adobe walls as nesting places. In terms of form and function, they correspond to the dovecotes that can still be found 2000 years later from the Nile Delta to Nubia .

Finds

In some of the houses, furniture such as tables or seats was still in good condition. Niches in the walls served as shelves. In general, the yield of all kinds of everyday objects, such as raffia baskets , glasses, tools made of wood, scraps of fabric, but also toys, was very large during the excavations. Numerous papyri provide an insight into the life of the residents. Tax lists from the years 171–175 AD have been preserved. But there were also private letters, contracts and lists of residents.

Karanis was excavated from the University of Michigan between 1924 and 1935 . 45,000 objects found have been brought to Michigan alone. The rest stayed in Egypt.

literature

• Terry G. Wilfong: Fayum, Graeco-Roman sites. In: Kathryn A. Bard (Ed.): Encyclopedia of the Archeology of Ancient Egypt. Routledge, London 1999, ISBN 0-415-18589-0 , pp. 310-311.
• Hans Bonnet: Karanis , in: Lexikon der ägyptischen Religionsgeschichte , Hamburg 2000, ISBN 3-937872-08-6 , p. 370.
• Elaine K. Gazda (Ed.): Karanis. To Egyptian Town in the Roman Times. Discoveries of the University of Michigan Expedition to Egypt (1924-1925). Ann Arbor, Michigan 2004, ISBN 0-9741873-0-5 .

Web links

Commons : Karanis  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Wikivoyage: Karanis  - Travel Guide

• Elaine K. Gazda (Ed.): Karanis. To Egyptian Town in the Roman Times . Ann Arbor, Michigan, 1983 exhibition catalog
• Roman houses in Egypt: Karanis (Kom Aushim). University College London, 2003
• Hans Barnard: Karanis (Kom Aushim).

Individual evidence

1. ^ Elinor M. Husselman: The Dovecotes of Karanis. American Philological Association 84, 1953, pp. 81–91 ( June 4, 2009 memento in the Internet Archive )

Coordinates: 29 ° 31 ′ 4 "  N , 30 ° 54 ′ 12"  E