Qasr shower

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Qasr shower
Alternative name Kysis , Kš.t
limes Libyan desert
section Kharga oasis
Dating (occupancy) before 81 AD (?)
to the end of the 4th century
Type Small fort
Construction Adobe bricks
State of preservation very well-preserved temple fortress with still high defenses
place El-Munira
Geographical location 24 ° 34 ′ 47.9 "  N , 30 ° 43 ′ 2"  E
height 98  m
Subsequently Deir el-Munira (north)

Qasr shower ( Arabic قصر دوش, DMG Qaṣr Dūš ) was a place founded by the Ptolemies on the eastern edge of the Libyan desert and had a military camp in Roman times that was responsible for security and monitoring tasks of important trade routes on the edge of the imperial border. The ruins are located at the southern end of the Kharga oasis in Egypt , about 95 kilometers south of the village of Kharga. The Greek name of the place, Kysis , is derived from its ancient Egyptian name Kš [t] .

location

The small fort seen from the north. Left in the picture the first courtyard and the second gate: the entrance to the temple.
The first courtyard, delimited by columns, and the second gate.

The region was already settled in the Neolithic period . Corresponding finds, around ten kilometers southwest of Dusch, were able to date back to an age of 4000 years BC in 2007 with the help of the radiocarbon method . To be dated. The ruins of the border garrison lie on a 55 meter high sand hill and guaranteed the Roman guards a very good all-round view of the immediately adjacent sanctuaries, the city and the surrounding area. There were around five desert passages to be monitored here, in particular the Darb al-Arba'in , a caravan route for North-South Africa that was important up until the 20th century. From their starting point in Sudan , valuable goods, including gold, ivory, hides and slaves, may have been negotiated into Egypt since the Old Kingdom . In order to secure the route threatened by raids and to collect taxes from the merchants entering the Roman province of Aegyptus , forts like that of Dusch were built after the Roman occupation of the country. Perhaps the local garrison also controlled an important east-west road to the temples of Esna and Edfu in the eastern Nile Valley .

Research history

The ancient Egyptian name of the place, Kš [t] (Keschet), is derived from Kush, the name for Nubia at the time. Science succeeded in identifying Kysis in 1970 with the help of Greek inscriptions.

Qasr Dusch was discovered and described by European travelers and researchers as early as the 19th century. Early visitors included Frédéric Cailliaud (1787–1869), Archibald Edmonstone (1795–1871), John Gardner Wilkinson (1797–1875) and George Alexander Hoskins (1802–1863). At the beginning of 1874, the Africa explorer Georg Schweinfurth (1836–1925) examined the place.

In 1898, the British geologist John Ball (1872-1941) mapped the area for the Geological Survey of Egypt and prepared plans and descriptions of the place. In 1936, the building researcher Rudolf Naumann (1910–1996) carried out another survey of the ruins. In 1962, the Egyptologists Wolfgang Helck (1914–1993) and Eberhard Otto examined the remains and copied inscriptions. The Institut français d'archéologie orientale has been carrying out systematic excavations and restoration work in Qasr Dusch and the surrounding area since 1976 . In 2013, Michel Wuttmann, the long-time excavation director, died.

Building history

It is possible that the small fort made of mud bricks was built before the construction of the directly adjacent sandstone temple, which was built during the reign of Emperor Domitian (81–96). The almost square, 52 × 53 meter fortification is still up to twelve meters high. Your access is on the northern front, near the northeast corner. The small fort was occupied until at least the end of the 4th century.

temple

Hadrian pronaos at the Temple of Isis and Sarapis.

A temple, which was dedicated to the main Egyptian deities Isis of Kysis and Osiris , has existed since the reign of Xerxes I (486-465). This is proven by a demotic ostracon from 483 BC. The inscription also mentions the place name Kysis for the first time. The excavations after 1976 showed that there were older adobe buildings in the same place before today's sanctuary was built. After analyzing the accompanying finds , these constructions were in use until the early Imperial Era.

The 7.55 × 15.32 meter long, rectangular Domitian sandstone building erected in the middle of the fortifications was consecrated to Isis by Kysis and Serapis , the Memphite form of Osiris, like the older building with inscriptions . The sanctuary, surrounded by a high wall made of adobe bricks, was entered from the north through a sandstone gate (gate 2), which led into an open courtyard in which the actual temple was located. Its main entrance was also in the north, the actual cult axis approximately in the south. Under Hadrian (98–117) a pronaos (forecourt) was placed in front of the building. This is followed by a columned hall, the roof slabs of which are supported by four columns with unadorned lotus capitals. There is a staircase on the west side. The hall is followed by two barrel-vaulted stone rooms, which are laid one behind the other and form the actual sanctuary. Both rooms are flanked by two elongated rooms, which do not have any decoration and have a flat roof. The emperors Trajan (117-138) and Antoninus Pius also had the building provided with additional built-in and extensions. At the temple the archaeologists found a vessel filled with gold jewelry. In the 4th century the sanctuary was abandoned.

The adobe temple

Another mud-brick temple , which also had an enclosure wall, is located west of the temple fortress. It too probably comes from Roman times.

settlement

In addition to the excavations in the settlement area, the archaeologists also examined parts of the burial grounds. In all, several hundred ostraka were recovered from all excavations.

The mud brick settlement was at its greatest extent between and north of the two temples. There are several ancient cemeteries at the foot of the hill. The earliest settlement of the later fort hill dates back to the reign of Alexander IV. The economic basis of the place formed the agriculture, which was guaranteed by artificial irrigation systems.

In the course of late antiquity, the Domitian temple at the small fort was abandoned. The place fell into disrepair and began to depopulate. In the security of the high surrounding walls, poor-looking huts of the rest of the population occupied the structures of the sanctuary that had stood upright in the 4th century. As the excavations from 1976 to 1979 showed, this poverty was not a sign of the actual living conditions in Kysis, because the huts contained high-quality finds, including a thread glass of unique quality.

In the 5th century the place was finally abandoned.

Burial grounds

The upper class of Kysis had the skin of their mummies covered with gold leaf during the Roman period. This costly practice is known from many Egyptian burial grounds of this era. Until the publication of the Oxford Handbook of Roman Egypt (2012), only 12 of the 345 known mummies from Kysis had been treated accordingly.

literature

  • Douch.
    • Vol. 1: Francois Dunand et al .: La nécropole. Exploration archéologique. Monograph des tombes 1 à 72. Structures sociales, économiques, religieuses de l'Egypte romaine (= Documents de fouilles de l'Institut français d'archéologie orientale du Caire 26). Cairo 1992, ISBN 2-7247-0111-9 .
    • Vol. 2: Hala Nayel Barakat, Nathalie Baum: Douch II. La végétation antique. Une approche macrobotanique (= Documents de fouilles de l'Institut français d'archéologie orientale du Caire 27). Cairo 1992, ISBN 2-7247-0113-5 .
    • Vol. 3: Pascale Ballet, Alix Barbet, Charles Bonnet: Douch III. Kysis. Fouilles de l'Ifao à Douch Oasis de Kharga (1985–1990) (= Documents de fouilles de l'Institut français d'archéologie orientale du Caire 42). Cairo 2004, ISBN 2-7247-0345-6 .
    • Vol. 4: Michel Reddé : Le trésor. Inventaire des objets et essai d'interprétation (= Documents de fouilles de l'Institut français d'archéologie orientale du Caire 28). Cairo 1992, ISBN 2-7247-0119-4 .
    • Vol. 5: Francois Dunand et al .: La nécropole de Douch. Exploration archéologique. Monograph des tombes 73 à 92. Structures sociales, économiques, religieuses de l'Egypte romaine (= Documents de fouilles de l'Institut français d'archéologie orientale du Caire 45). Cairo 2005.


  • Bernard Bousquet: Tell-Douch et sa region. Géographie d'une limite de milieu à une frontière d'Empire (= Documents de fouilles de l'Institut français d'archéologie orientale du Caire 31). Cairo 1996.
  • Hélène Cuvigny, Guy Wagner: Les ostraca grecs de Douch (O. Douch) (= Documents de fouilles de l'Institut français d'archéologie orientale du Caire (DFIFAO). 24.1–5). 5 volumes. Cairo 1986; 1988; 1992; 1999; 2001.
  • Hélène Cuvigny, Adel Hussein, Guy Wagner: Oasis de Kharga. Les ostraca grecs d'Aïn Waqfa (= Documents de fouilles de l'Institut français d'archéologie orientale du Caire 30). Cairo 1993, ISBN 2-7247-0143-7 .
  • Peter Dils: The temple of Dusch. Publication and research of an Egyptian provincial temple from the Roman period. Dissertation Cologne 2000 ( online ).
  • Rudolf Naumann : Buildings of the Khargeh oasis. In: Communications from the German Institute for Egyptian Antiquity in Cairo. Vol. 8, 1939, pp. 1-16, panels 1-11; in particular pp. 6-8, 12-15, Fig. 3, 6, plates 5 f., 10, 11.a.

Web links

Wikivoyage: Qaṣr Dūsch  - travel guide

Remarks

  1. ↑ a b c Olaf E. Kaper: The Western Oases. In: Christina Riggs (Ed.): The Oxford Handbook of Roman Egypt. Oxford University Press, Oxford 2012, ISBN 978-0-19-957145-1 , p. 719.
  2. ^ A b c Günther Hölbl: Ancient Egypt in the Roman Empire. The Roman Pharaoh and his temples. Volume 3, von Zabern, Mainz 2000, ISBN 978-3-8053-2392-5 , p. 54.
  3. ↑ Guy Wagner: Map 79 Oasis Magna. In: Richard J. A. Talbert (Ed.): Barrington Atlas of the Greek and Roman World . Princeton University Press, Princeton 2000, ISBN 0-691-04945-9 , p. 1164.
  4. ↑ Frédéric Cailliaud: Voyage à l'oasis de Thèbes et dans les déserts situés à l'occident de la Thébaïde fait pendant les années 1815, 1816, 1817 et 1818. Delagarde, Paris 1821–1862 (two volumes) p. 88 f. , Panels XII.1,2, XIII.1,2,3.
  5. ^ Archibald Edmonstone: A journey to two of the oases of upper Egypt. Murray, London 1822, volume of text, first and second plates after p. 66 ( online ).
  6. ^ John Gardner Wilkinson: Modern Egypt and Thebes, being a description of Egypt. Vol. 2, Murray, London 1843. p. 370 ( online ).
  7. ↑ George Alexander Hoskins: Visit to the great oasis of the Libyan dessert. Longman, London 1837, pp. 151-157, panel XIII ( online ).
  8. ↑ Georg Schweinfurth: Notes on the knowledge of the El-Chargeh oasis. I. Antiquities. In: Communications from Justus Perthes' geographical institute about important new researches in the entire field of geography by Dr. A. Petermann . Vol. 21, 1875. pp. 384-393; here: p. 392 f. and panel 19.
  9. ↑ Guy Wagner: Map 79 Oasis Magna. In: Richard J. A. Talbert: Barrington Atlas of the Greek and Roman World. Princeton University Press, Princeton 2000, ISBN 0-691-04945-9 , p. 1165.
  10. ↑ a b Christopher Hudson (Ed.): Egypt. From Alexander to the Early Christians. The British Museum Press, London 2004, ISBN 0-89236-796-2 , p. 259.
  11. ^ Joachim Willeitner: The Egyptian oases. Cities, temples and tombs in the Libyan desert. von Zabern, Mainz 2002, ISBN 3805329156 , p. 44.
  12. ^ A b Jean Gascou: Fiscalité et société en Égypte byzantine. Association des Amis du Center d'Histoire et Civilization de Byzance, Paris 2008, ISBN 978-2-916716-15-2 , p. 408.
  13. ↑ Beatrix Gessler-Löhr: Mummies and Mummification. In: Christina Riggs (Ed.): The Oxford Handbook of Roman Egypt. Oxford University Press, Oxford 2012, ISBN 978-0-19-957145-1 , pp. 664-683; here: p. 719.