Archaeologists Dug Under an Ancient Greek City—and Found a 3,500-Year-Old Egyptian Settlement

• An full past Egyptian colony from the New Kingdom, besides known arsenic the Golden Age of Egypt, surfaced from beneath Greek ruins astatine the tract of Kom el-Nugus adjacent Alexandria

• Among the artifacts recovered were the remains of a temple and pottery including an amphora and a grape crusher that bespeak the colony had thing to bash with the accumulation of wine.

• Continuing excavations successful the upcoming months whitethorn uncover much astir the settlement, whose sanction is inactive unknown.

On an Egyptian godforsaken stone ridge westbound of Alexandria and betwixt the Mediterranean oversea and Lake Mariout is Kom el-Nugus, an archaeological tract named for a mound astir successful the signifier of a horseshoe, oregon kom, successful the midst of past ruins surrounded by fig orchards.

The kom appeared unassuming. Most relics recovered determination until present were from a long-abandoned Greek necropolis and lakeside municipality from the clip of Alexander the Great. What emerged erstwhile archaeologists dug deeper was a full different city, 1 that was already past erstwhile Alexander arrived successful Egypt.

It turned retired that a 3,500-year-old colony from Egypt’s New Kingdom had been lying beneath the Hellenistic ruins for thousands of years. The New Kingdom was the tallness of Egypt’s splendor successful antiquity. It gave commencement to legendary 18th and 19th Dynasty pharaohs specified arsenic Tutankhamun (nobody wanted to talk of his heretic begetter Akhenaten), Seti I and Rameses II. It is thought to person been built implicit astir 332 B.C., erstwhile the Egyptians willingly allowed Alexander’s forces successful to liberate them from oppressive Persian rule, and was occupied by Greeks for respective 100 years.

“Towards the interior, the funny signifier of the kom has agelong puzzled visitors, and the steep inward slope from the apical of the elevation to the centre has defied casual explanation,” Sylvain Dhennin of the University of Lyon successful France, who led the squad of archeologists successful unearthing the mislaid settlement, said successful a survey precocious published successful Antiquity.

In the mediate of the Kom are the remains of a Hellenistic monument that is astir apt a temple, carved retired of calcarenite, a benignant of limestone. Hardly thing is near but its crumbling foundations. Dhennin thinks the proportions of the building, on with immoderate telltale inscriptions, acceptable it isolated arsenic a temple. Parts of it were yet plundered.

Some New Kingdom artifacts that person surfaced astatine the kom hint astatine the splendor of what was besides known arsenic Egypt’s Golden Age. An amphora stamped with the sanction Meritaten dated backmost to the 18th Dynasty, from 1550 to 1292 B.C., since Meritaten Tasherit oregon Meritaten the Younger is known to beryllium the eldest girl of Akhenaten and Nefertiti. Wine was often stored successful amphoras, and a grape crusher discovered astatine the tract suggests that the past colony had thing to bash with the accumulation of wine. Dhennin thinks the stamp with Meritaten’s sanction means that the vino belonged to a royal estate.

The sanction Meritaten translates to “she who is beloved of the Aten.” The Aten was the prima disk that Akhenaten demanded each of Egypt worship erstwhile helium ascended the throne. Ushering successful an epoch of monotheism, helium did distant with the Egyptian pantheon, fueling governmental and spiritual upheaval. After Akhenaten’s death, his subjects tried to erase each imaginable statue, carving, and different vestige of him that remained, and his mummified assemblage has ne'er been found. Tutankhamun (named Tutankhaten astatine birth) past took the throne and restored the pantheon.

There were besides immoderate fragments of what were erstwhile chromatic monuments scattered connected the Hellenistic levels, including blocks from 1 of the galore temples dedicated by Rameses II, with 1 of them depicting Ra-Horakhty, “Horus of the 2 horizons.” Ra-Horakhty is 1 of the galore forms of the prima deity Ra. In this iteration, helium has the falcon caput of Horus, different deity of the prima who crossed the immense expanse of entity each day. This carving indispensable person been intended to amusement him during the daytime since his close oculus was believed to beryllium the sun, portion near oculus was the moon.

More artifacts recovered astatine Kom el-Nugus see pieces of chapels from the 19th and 20th dynasties, different known arsenic the Ramesside period. There was besides portion of a stele carved with the cartouches of Seti II and a pit containing 5 miniature ceramic bowls. The buildings of the colony were made of mud bricks, with 2 groups of them lined up connected either broadside of a thoroughfare that headed somewhat southward and featured a water-collecting strategy to support the buildings adust truthful they wouldn’t collapse. This roadworthy was recovered to person been rebuilt astatine immoderate point.

“The restructuring of the buildings—in stages that look to person taken spot successful speedy succession—raises the anticipation that this was a seasonal oregon intermittent settlement, arsenic successful the lawsuit of impermanent subject garrisons,” Dhennin said successful the aforesaid study.

More excavations volition beryllium carried retired during the coming months. The artifacts and remnants of buildings that look whitethorn not beryllium a glittering aureate hoard similar the country that greeted Howard Carter erstwhile helium broke the seal to Tutankhamun’s tomb, but they volition inactive beryllium treasures.

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