Crocodile necropolis of El-Maabdeh

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The Krokodilnekropole El-Maabdeh (also el-Maabde or Maabda (h) ) is a cave and one of the oldest crocodile necropolis of ancient Egypt an important archaeological locality. The cave is located in Middle Egypt at the foot of the Gebel Abu-Foda mountain opposite Manfalut, not far from the river bank east of the Nile . It was discovered during an expedition to Egypt in 1873/74 under the direction of Paolo Panceri , Professor of Comparative Anatomy at the University of Naples , in cooperation with the Museo Civico di Storia Naturale di Milano .

The cave is of natural origin. The entrance is spacious and gradually branches out into many small chambers, which can only be reached by crawling. Crocodile mummies were buried in these chambers. There are also many human mummies occupied by men, women and children, some lying on their backs and some standing on the side walls of the cave. Many of the mummies have been destroyed and their limbs scattered on the ground, probably by grave raiders in centuries past. The variety of crocodile mummies is impressive. The larger mummies are everywhere and placed close together and on top of each other, while surrounded by an even greater multitude of mummified smaller crocodiles.

The grotto was mainly used in Roman times.

literature

  • The Crocodile Pits of Maabdeh. In: Evening Post. Volume 49, No. 10 from January 12, 1895, p. 2 ( digitized version )
  • Georges Legrain : Maabdeh. In: Annales du Service des Antiquités de l'Égypte. Volume 1, 1900, p. 4 ( PDF; 11.4 MB ).
  • Karl Richard Lepsius : Monuments from Egypt and Ethiopia. Text Volume 2, Hinrichs, Leipzig 1904, p. 152 ( online version ).
  • Bertha Porter, Rosalind LB Moss: Topographical Bibliography of Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphic Texts, Reliefs and Paintings. IV. Lower and Middle Egypt. Clarendon Press, Oxford 1934, p. 241 ( PDF 14.3 MB ).
  • Rolf Gundlach : El Maabde. In: Wolfgang Helck , Eberhard Otto (Hrsg.): Lexikon der Ägyptologie. Volume 3. Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 1980, ISBN 3-447-02100-4 , column 1107.
  • Thierry Zimmer: Les grottes des crocodiles de Maabdah (Samoun). Un cas extreme d'analysis archéologique. Van Siclen Books, San Antonio 1987, ISBN 0-933175-13-2 .
  • Ursula Rößler-Köhler: 1. Preliminary report on the excavation activities of the Bonn Egyptological seminar in the ancient city near al-Maʿabda in Middle Egypt. In: Communications from the German Archaeological Institute, Cairo Department. (MDAIK) Vol. 50, 1994, pp. 253-268.
  • Joris Peters, Angela von den Driesch : Archaeozoological-cultural-historical evaluation of prehistoric crocodile bones from Al-Ma'abda (Middle Egypt). In: Bonn zoological contributions. Volume 50, No. 3, 2002, pp. 211-219 ( PDF 1.8 MB ).
  • Andreas Effland: "There were men here whose reports one has to believe ...": Karl May and the crocodile grotto of Maabda. In: Nicole Kloth u. a. (Ed.): It will be put down as a document. Festschrift for Hartwig Altenmüller on his 65th birthday . Buske, Hamburg 2003, ISBN 3-87548-341-3 , pp. 57-69 ( limited online version ).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ John Gardner Wilkinson : A Handbook for Travelers in Egypt: Including Descriptions of the Course of the Nile Through ... 5th revised edition, Murray, London 1875, p. 367.
  2. ↑ John Gardner Wilkinson: Manners and customs of the ancient Egyptians: including their ... Volume 3, Murray, London 1837, p.

Coordinates: 27 ° 20 ′ 0 ″  N , 31 ° 1 ′ 30 ″  E