Terenuthis

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Terenuthis was an ancient city ​​in the western edge of the Nile Delta , about 70 km northwest of Cairo in Egypt , in the area of ​​the present-day village of Tarraneh . The former place is named after the goddess Renenutet , in Greek Termuthis , but already existed in Pharaonic times.

history

There are remains from the Middle Kingdom . The ruins of the city are by the small village of Kom Abou Billo . Here was an extensive necropolis and the remains of a Ptolemaic temple, which was built by Ptolemy I and Ptolemy II was completed. It was dedicated to the Hathor -Termuthis and is largely destroyed today. The Egyptian name of the city was perhaps "Per-Hathor-nebet-mefkat" ( house of Hathor, mistress of turquoise ). The place gained some importance in the Roman Empire. It was a transshipment point for soda and salts from Wadi Natrun in the west .

In archeology , the place is known for its numerous grave steles in an Egyptian-Hellenistic mixed style. The majority of these steles come from the art trade, so there are doubts as to their place of origin. The steles show the dead lying on a bed in flat, raised or recessed relief , with the upper body raised. He often holds a bowl in his right hand. The face is shown frontally. Clothes and hairstyle are Greek. Individual elements, such as the representation of the jackal-shaped god Anubis next to the dead, are borrowed from the Egyptian world of imagination. The technique of the sunken relief is also of Egyptian origin.

Excavations have shown that the stelae came from grave structures, which were flat, rectangular structures. The roof was mostly arched. They were made of adobe bricks and decorated with steles, but also with paintings. The tombs were massive.

In Christian times the place became a bishopric. Today Terenuthis is the seat of a titular bishop . Johannes Moschos is said to have stayed there.

literature

  • Zahi Hawass : Kom Abu Bello. In: Kathryn A. Bard (Ed.): Encyclopedia of the Archeology of Ancient Egypt. Routledge, London 1999, ISBN 0-415-18589-0 , pp. 414-15.
  • Stefan Schmidt : Grave reliefs in the Greco-Roman Museum of Alexandria (= treatises of the German Archaeological Institute Cairo, Egyptological series 17). Achet-Verlag, Berlin 2003, ISBN 3-933684-13-7 , pp. 44-61.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ D. Arnold: Temples of the Last Pharaohs, Oxford 1999, ISBN 0-19-512633-5 , p. 155.
  2. ↑ Terenuthis

Coordinates: 30 ° 26 ′ 0 ″  N , 30 ° 49 ′ 0 ″  E