Pyramid of Athribis

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Pyramid of Athribis
The pyramid of Athribis. Engraving from the Description de l'Egypte (1823)
The pyramid of Athribis.
Engraving from the Description de l'Egypte (1823)
Data
place Athribis
builder ?
construction time ?
Type Mud brick pyramid
Building material Adobe bricks
Base dimension ~ 20 m
Tilt ~ 50 °
Cult pyramid No

The Pyramid of Athribis was a small adobe bricks - the pyramid , which in the ancient city Athribis (Tell Atrib) in the southern Nile Delta , north-east of the modern city Banha was. It was the furthest north of the ancient Egyptian pyramid and at the same time the only known one that was built in the delta .

background

exploration

The building was first scientifically recorded during Napoleon's Egyptian expedition (1798–1801). A more detailed investigation did not take place, however, only a copper engraving of the pyramid and a map of the ruined hill of Athribis, where the building is called the brick pyramid, were made and published for the first time in 1822 in the Description de l'Égypte . After that, the pyramid was forgotten for a long time.

It was not until 1938 that the pyramid was rediscovered by a team from Liverpool University, led by Alan Rowe . The superstructure was now practically completely removed. A lack of time prevented Rowe from undertaking more detailed investigations, which is why his report is extremely short and does not contain any information that goes beyond the information provided by the French expedition.

The last attempt at localization was made in 1993 by the Polish Egyptologist Andrzej Ćwiek . At this point in time, Athribis was almost completely overbuilt by the modern town of Banha , the pyramid was now completely demolished and its former location can no longer be precisely determined.

Construction details

The exact dimensions of the pyramid have never been determined, so they can only be estimated using the information in the Description de l'Egypte . Ćwiek assumes a side length of about 20 meters due to the map scale. He estimates the angle of repose to be less than 50 °.

Age and function

Map of Athribis from the Description de l'Egypte (1823). The pyramid is drawn in the middle of the hill of ruins, at the top left corner of the crossroads.

Due to the extremely sparse data, one can only speculate about the age and function of the pyramid . The Egyptologist Nabil Swelim and the former director of the DAI in Cairo Rainer Stadelmann put them in a group of seven small step pyramids ( Edfu-Süd , Elephantine , El-Kula , Ombos , Saujet el-Meitin , Seila and Sinki ) that existed in the Old Kingdom , at the end of the 3rd or the beginning of the 4th dynasty .

Stadelmann sees these buildings as representative places of the king, comparable to a medieval Palatinate system , while Swelim suspects a religious use. However, the classification of the pyramid of Athribis in this group is not justified by either of the two researchers. In fact, only the assumed side length corresponds to that of the other seven pyramids, while there are otherwise considerable differences: On the one hand, the copperplate from the description shows a real pyramid rather than a stepped pyramid . On the other hand, the other structures are made of stone, but this one is made of bricks.

Especially because of the last point, Ćwiek expressed concerns about the classification of Swelim and Stadelmann. He thinks it is unlikely that brick structures from the Old Kingdom have been so clearly preserved at the beginning of the 19th century. In his opinion, it is therefore more likely that it was a pyramid from the 13th Dynasty , if not from the Late Period .

literature

  • Jan Bock: The small step pyramids of the early Old Kingdom. In: Sokar. No. 12 (1. 2006), p. 21.
  • Andrzej Ćwiek: Date and Function of the so-called Minor Step Pyramids . In: Göttinger Miszellen Vol. 162, Göttingen 1998, pp. 41-42 ( online ).
  • Description de l'Egypte ou Recueil des observations et des recherches qui ont ete faites en Egypte pendant l'expedition de l'armee française. Antiquités. Tome cinquème. 2nd edition, Paris 1823, plate 27 ( online version )
  • Alan Rowe: Short Report on Excavations of the Institute of Archeology, Liverpool, at Athribis (Tell Atrib). In: Annales du Service des Antiquités Vol. 38, Cairo 1938, p. 524.

Web links

Commons : Pyramid of Athribis  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Nabil Swelim: Some Problems on the History of the Third Dynasty . In: Archaeological and Historical Studies. Vol. 7, Publications of The Archaeological Society of Alexandria, Alexandria 1983, p. 100.
  2. ↑ Nabil Swelim: Rollsiegel, Pierre de taille and an Update on a King and Monument List of the Third Dynasty . In: Studia Aegyptiaca. Vol. 14, Budapest 1992, p. 553.
  3. ^ Rainer Stadelmann : The Egyptian pyramids. From brick construction to the wonder of the world (= cultural history of the ancient world . Volume 30). 3rd, updated and expanded edition. Philipp von Zabern, Mainz 1997, ISBN 3-8053-1142-7 , p. 79.
  4. ^ Rainer Stadelmann: Pyramiden, AR. In: Lexicon of Egyptology. Vol. 4, Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 1982, Sp. 1205.

Coordinates: 30 ° 28 ′ 14 ″  N , 31 ° 11 ′ 17 ″  E

This version was added to the list of articles worth reading on September 17, 2007 .