Tuna el-Gebel

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Tuna el-Gebel (Egypt)
Tuna el-Gebel
Tuna el-Gebel
Memphis
Memphis
Elephantine
Elephantine
Map of Egypt

Coordinates: 27 ° 47 '  N , 30 ° 48'  E

Tuna el-Gebel ( Arabic تونا الجبل Tūnā al-Ǧabal , ancient Egyptian Ta-henet, Greek Θῦνις) is a village in Middle Egypt ( Egypt ) in the governorate of al-Minya on the west bank of the Nile , 15 km northwest of Mallawi and 10 km west of el-Ashmunein . To the southwest of the village extends over 7 km from north to south on the edge of the desert, the cemetery of the same name, which was used from the New Kingdom to late antiquity .

background

Tuna el-Gebel is the cemetery of the ancient metropolis Hermopolis Magna (Hermupolis) (ancient Egyptian Chemenu , today el-Aschmunein). Hermopolis Magna was the capital of the 15th Upper Egyptian Gau (Hasengau) and the cult center of the god Thoth .

3.5 km north of the Greco-Roman necropolis and the animal galleries are the graves of the New Kingdom, from which numerous monuments, spread across many museums, originate. The upper structures of the cemetery have disappeared today. In the 3rd interim period, the cemetery gradually shifted south.

A stele of Akhenaten (Amenhotep IV) carved into the rock of the western mountains once marked the north-western limit of his newly founded capital Achetaton (Tell el-Amarna).

From the 26th dynasty , underground galleries were created in the rock face of the western mountains and ibis and baboon mummies were buried in them. The beginning of the Ptolemaic period initiated a heyday of the animal necropolis, because around 310 and 250 BC. The galleries were expanded again. The storage of mummies of sacred animals in the galleries ceased in the 1st century AD.

In addition to the animal galleries, the cemetery is also known for its grave structures from the Greco-Roman era . In the early Ptolemaic times, stone tombs were built that imitate the shape of a temple with pronaos . The best known and best preserved tomb is that of Petosiris , who belonged to a family of cult leaders in Tuna el-Gebel. To the south of the Petosiris tomb, an extensive necropolis of stone graves and multi-storey adobe buildings was built, which was used until late antiquity.

In the north of the necropolis the Coptic monastery Deir Nazlet Tuna was built later .

Research history

Günter Grimm and Dieter Kessler present the state of research into Tuna el-Gebel since 1913.

André Gombert carried out the first excavations in Tuna el-Gebel in 1902/03 on behalf of the Institut français d'archéologie orientale . In January 1913, as part of the Amarna mission of the German Orient Society , the government architect Walter Honroth undertook a brief investigation of the Roman-era grave structures near the border steles of Akhenaten. The end of 1919, the Egyptian took Service des Antiquités note of the famous grave of Petosiris that a year later by Gustave Lefebvre exposed and a little later published was. Between 1931 and 1952, the Cairo University, under the direction of Sami Gabra , uncovered the tombs around the tomb of Petosiris. Individual finds from the excavation ended up in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo , in the Museum of the Faculty of Archeology at the University of Cairo, in the Museum of Antiquities in Mallawi or were sold.

Between 1972 and 1974, Günter Grimm and Dieter Johannes undertook a documentation of the grave structures of the Greco-Roman necropolis and the objects in the Museum of Antiquities in Mallawi on behalf of the German Archaeological Institute . Since 1989, a joint mission between the Institute for Egyptology at the Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich and the Faculty of Archeology at the University of Cairo has been researching the animal galleries and the associated cult and administrative buildings. In addition, an excavation mission of the Roemer and Pelizaeus Museum Hildesheim has been investigating the Greco-Roman necropolis since 2004 .

Animal galleries

Since the 26th dynasty (around 600 BC), underground galleries were laid out, in which baboons and ibises were buried in clay vessels, later in sarcophagi and coffins (gallery D). The galleries are therefore also called Ibiotapheion . The sacred animals were kept on a rearing area ( ibiotropheion ) by a lake that existed at the time. From the Ptolemaic period there were probably several ibiotropheia near the galleries. Tuna el-Gebel was from the 6th to the 4th century BC. The only burial place for holy ibises in Egypt. Demotic papyri prove that ibises from all over Egypt were therefore brought to Tuna el-Gebel for burial. Even if ibises were mostly buried, the remains of many other animals were found in the galleries.

Around 380 BC Chr. ( Nectanebos I. ) niches were created in the galleries in which sarcophagi with ibismummies were placed (gallery CD). Baboon mummies were locked in niches behind so-called locking plates. Since the Ptolemaic times, coffins and sarcophagi for the animal mummies were additionally provided with demotic inscriptions . Under Ptolemy I (around 310 BC) the galleries were considerably expanded (Galleries CC, CA) and places of worship were set up in decorated chambers. Under Ptolemy II (approx. 250 BC), Gallery B was laid out and a stone entrance building with a horned altar in the north. In the first century BC Another entrance was created in the north (gallery A). In the galleries were until the first century BC. Animal mummies are buried.

A painted wooden box for a baboon mummy with the cartouche Darius I and some Aramaic private letters from the late 6th and early 5th century BC were found in Gallery CD . Discovered in a clay pot, originally addressed to Luxor or Syene and deposited in the galleries for an unknown reason.

Temple of Tuna el-Gebel

Overall system

To the west of the Greco-Roman necropolis are the remains of the temple of the primordial god Thoth. At the entrance to Gallery C is the Temple of Osiris Baboon with its priest's house. On a rock plateau above the animal galleries are the remains of another stone, late-time temple, which was excavated by Sami Gabra, as well as Roman-era adobe buildings. A Naos Nektanebos II , which must also come from Tuna el-Gebel, is now in the front garden of the Museum of Antiquities in Mallawi .

Temple of the original god Thoth

South of the galleries and west of the southern necropolis are the Roman remains of the Thoth temple, which was built on an elevated ground and is certainly of older origin. The courtyard of the temple consisted of a colonnade, the rear part of a garden in which sacred animals were kept. A 35 m deep well shaft ( es-Saqqiya ) is located in the middle of the system. The temple of the original god Thoth was certainly the destination of processions that led from the Thoth temple in Hermopolis Magna to the necropolis of Tuna el-Gebel in order to carry out the regeneration of Thoth. Since nothing remains of the decoration of the older Thoth temple, the ritual processes at the temple can only be inferred indirectly. At the latest under Nectanebo II, the new temple was built at the point where there was probably a temple closer to the settlement before that. Under Ptolemy I, a serapeion was attached to the original temple . The temple was later converted into such a serapeion, as can be seen from the remains that are visible today.

The Great Temple was excavated by Sami Gabra, about which there is a preliminary report by the excavation architect Alexander Badawy.

Temple of Osiris Baboon

The Temple of Osiris Baboon was built around 310 BC. Built from limestone in front of a new entrance to the animal galleries (Gallery C) under the satrap Ptolemy I in the name of Alexander IV . Osiris rites were held in the temple on festive days, with which the necropolis gods Osiris baboon and Osiris ibis were connected. Oracle inquiries were probably made there, which are attested by demotic papyri . Today only remains of the temple are visible, which was first uncovered by Sami Gabra. The temple was exposed again between 1989 and 1992.

To the south of the temple there is a now badly crumbled, elongated house made of adobe bricks . It was made around 170 BC. BC and served the priest on duty as a place of residence and work ( pastophorion ). The house consists of a room for storing the cult image of the Osiris baboon, a meeting and writing room, a kitchen wing and an archive . The famous Codex Hermopolis was found outside the priest's house in 1938/39 , a demotic papyrus which, in addition to mathematical calculations, contains the oldest known collection of legal cases from Egypt. The priest's house was exposed again in 1993/94.

A processional road leads from the Temple of Osiris Baboon to the ancient settlement, where numerous graves made of limestone and adobe bricks were lined up. East of the temple, between the Great Temple and the entrance of Gallery A, runs from north to south, a wide, approx. 261 m long wall, which must have been uncovered once as early as 1913.

Greco-Roman necropolis

A necropolis made of limestone and adobe buildings extends south of the tomb of Petosiris .

literature

  • Günter Grimm: Tuna el-Gebel 1913–1973. An excavation by the German architect W. Honroth and recent investigations in Hermopolis-West (Tanis Superior). In: Communications from the German Archaeological Institute, Cairo Department. (MDAIK) 31, von Zabern, Mainz 1975, pp. 221-236.
  • Dieter Kessler: Historical topography of the region between Mallawi and Samalut (= Tübingen Atlas of the Middle East. Series B, humanities. Volume 30). Reichert, Wiesbaden 1981, pp. 83-109.
  • Dieter Kessler: Tuna el-Gebel. In: Wolfgang Helck , Wolfhart Westendorf (Hrsg.): Lexikon der Ägyptologie. (LÄ) Vol. 6: Stele - cypress. Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 1986, Sp. 798-804.

Web links

Commons : Tuna el-Gebel  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
Wikivoyage: Tūna el-Gebel  - travel guide
  • Tuna el-Gebel excavation of the Institute for Egyptology of the Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich and the Faculty of Archeology of the University of Cairo (with extensive bibliography)
  • Tuna el Gebel by Su Bayfield (English)

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Günter Grimm: Tuna el-Gebel 1913-1973. An excavation by the German architect Walter Honroth and recent investigations in Hermopolis-West (Tanis Superior). In: Communications from the German Archaeological Institute, Cairo Department. 31, von Zabern, Mainz 1975, pp. 221-236; Dieter Kessler: Gallery C by Tuna. Research status until 1983. In: Joachim Boessneck: Tuna el-Gebel I. The animal galleries. In: HÄB 24 , Hildesheim: Gerstenberg, 1987, 1-36.
  2. ↑ Ludwig Borchardt : Excavations in Tell el Amarna 1912/13. In: Communications of the German Orient Society. 52, 1913, pp. 51-54.
  3. ^ Gustave Lefebvre: Le tombeau de Petosiris. In: Annales du Service des .ntiquités de l'Égypte. 20, 1920, pp. 41-121.
  4. ↑ Katja Lembke, Jana Helmbold-Doyé, Christine Wilkening, Alexandra Druzynski von Boetticher, Claudia Schindler: Preliminary report on the survey in the Petosiris necropolis of Hermupolis / Tuna el-Gebel (Middle Egypt) 2004-2006. In: Archäologischer Anzeiger. No. 2, 2007, pp. 71-127.
  5. ↑ El-Hussein Omar M. Zaghloul: Early Demotic Documents from Hermupolis. In: Bulletin of the Center of Papyrological Studies. No. 2, Ain Shams University, 1985.
  6. ↑ Heinz Josef Thissen: Demotic inscriptions from the ibis galleries in Tuna el-Gebel. A preliminary report. In: Enchoria. No. 18, 1991, pp. 107-112, plates 14-21; Mahmoud Ebeid: Demotic Inscriptions from the Galleries of Tuna el-Gebel. In: Bulletin de l'Institut français d'archéologie orientale. No. 106, 2006, pp. 57-73.
  7. ^ Dieter Kessler: The gallery C by Tuna el-Gebel. In: Communications from the German Archaeological Institute, Cairo Department. 39, von Zabern, Mainz 1983, pp. 107-124; Dieter Kessler: Tuna el-Gebel II. The baboon cult chamber GCC-2. In: Hildesheimer Egyptological contributions. 43, Hildesheim: Gerstenberg, 1998; Katrin Maurer: The Tuna el-Gebel pet cemetery in early Ptolemaic times. Interim results of the investigations into the design of the ibiotapheion. In: Joannis Mylonopoulos , Hubert Roeder (Ed.): Archeology and Ritual. In search of the ritual act in the ancient cultures of Egypt and Greece. Phoibos, Vienna 2006, pp. 105–122.
  8. ↑ Karol Mysliwiec: Un naos de Darius - roi d'Egypte. In: Near Eastern Studies (Fs Takahito Mikasa), Bulletin of the Eastern Culture Center in Japan. 1971, pp. 221-246.
  9. ^ Edda Bresciani, Murad Kamil: Le lettere aramaiche di Hermopoli. In: Academia Nazionale dei Lincei (ed.): Memorie della classe di science morali, storiche e filologiche. series VIII, vol. XII, 1966, pp. 356-428.
  10. ↑ Dieter Kessler: Hermopolitan forms of gods in the Hibis temple. In: Nicole Kloth, Karl Martin, Eva Pardey (eds.): It will be put down as a document. Festschrift for Hartwig Altenmüller on his 65th birthday (= Studies on Ancient Egyptian Culture Supplements. 9). Buske, Hamburg 2003, pp. 211-223.
  11. ↑ Dieter Kessler: The Serapeum District and the Serapeum of Tuna el-Gebel. In: Lingua Restituta Orientalis. Ceremony for Julius Assfalg (= Egypt and Old Testament. 20). Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 1990, pp. 183-189.
  12. ↑ Alexander Badawy: Le grand temple gréco-romain à Hermoupolis Ouest (= . Chronique d'Egypte 31). 1956, pp. 257-266.
  13. ↑ Ursula Kaplony-Heckel: New demotic oracle questions. In: Researches and Reports. State museums in Berlin. 14, 1972, pp. 79-90.
  14. ↑ Dieter Kessler: The temples of Tuna el-Gebel. In: Ben Haring, Andrea Klug (Ed.): 6th Egyptological Temple Conference. Function and use of ancient Egyptian temple rooms (= royalty, state and society of early high cultures. (KSG) 3.1). Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 2007, pp. 131–152.
  15. ^ Girgis Mattha: The Demotic Legal Code of Hermopolis West (= Bibliothèque d'étude. Vol. 45). Institut français d'archéologie orientale, Cairo 1975.
  16. ↑ Ed-Din, Abd el-Halim, Dieter Kessler: The priest's house at the Ibiotapheion of Tuna el-Gebel. In: Communications from the German Archaeological Institute, Cairo Department. 52, von Zabern, Mainz 1996, pp. 263-293.