Elephantine: The Ancient Town : Official Guidebook of the German Institute of Archaeology Cairo

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ELEPHANTINE The Ancient Town

Official Guidebook of the German Institute of Archaeology Cairo

Table of Contents

Foreword

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A Brief History of Ancient Elephantine

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SuggestedTour of the Ancient Town

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Mup illustrating the Vantage Points (VP) along the tour The Museum Publications about the excavation Plates L - 8 @German lrstitute of Archaeology Cairo 1998 English translation by Marianne Eaton-Krauss Printed in Egypt by Ibrahim El-Daly, Max Group

FOREWORD The grand stone temples and funerary monuments of Egypt with their rich decoration and wealth of inscriptions long stoöd at the center of archaeological fieldwork because they were believed to exemplify pharaonic civilization. The excavation of contemporaneous towns and settlements seemed almost superfluous. Flowever, during the last decades of the Twentieth Century, Egyptologists increasingly became aware that temples and tombs represent only one aspect of the reality of ancient Egypt - and, moreover, a highly selective and idealized aspect. Nevertheless, expeditions directed toward research on ancient Egyptian towns and settlements remain comparatively few down to the present. The current excavations on Elephantine were from the first oriented toward comprehension of the complex totality of an ancient Egyptian town - its temple precincts and administrative buildings, residential and industrial quarters - over the entire period of its historical development. Elephantine proved ideal for achieving this goal for several reasons. In the first place, occupation of the site extended from later prehistoric times down until the early Islamic Period to cover the entire span of ancient Egyptian history. Equally important was the fact that the area occupied by the most significant parts of the ancient town had not been built over in modern times. Thirdly, the site was not so large as to present logistical problems for its thorough archaeological exploration. But despite its modest size, Elephantine was quite important as the southern border town of Egypt during much of pharaonic history and as the predecessor of the modern town of Aswan. Finally, because the town was built on an island, it stood on high ground from its inception. Thus even the deepest and most ancient levels were not threatened by the general rise in the water-table that menaces other sites throughout Egypt. The excavations that began in 7969 and took place annually in campaigns lasting from three to six months, have been conducted by the German Institute of Archaeology, in close cooperation with the Swiss Institute for Architectural and Archaeological Research. The fieldwork is not finished, but sufficient progress has been made so that the greater part of the ancient town can be made accessibleto the general public.

Translator's note: Dates below are given in the form "Before the Common Era" (BCE) and "Common Era" (CE).

The opening of the site is an appropriate occasion to thank the Egyptian authorities responsible for antiquities who approved the project and its goals, and who provided invaluable support through all the years of its existence. Numerous collaborators - scholars. technicians. and students

alike, who often participated in the excavations over several campaigns also deserve recognition. The following persons in particular should be mentioned here by name: both long-standing directors of the Swiss Institute, Gerhard Haeny and Horst laritz; the field and project directors Günter Dreyer, Achim Krekeler, Wolfgang Mayer, Cornelius von Pilgrim, Stephan Seidlmayer, and Martin Zierrnann; the architects Uwe Minuth, Walter Niederberger, Karl Schöppner, and Wolf-Dieter Thonhofer; the stone conservators Markus Blödt, Egon Kaiser, and Günter Weinreuter; the draftsman Wolf-Günther Legde; Reis Kamil sadiq and Reis Amir Kamil who represent the Egyptian workforce they supervised. It was the intention from the very first not just to publish the results of tl-re excavations in scholarly monographs, but also to undertake restoration and partial rebuilding at the site in order to provide interested visitors with the most vivid impression of the ancient town possible. This goal could not have been realized without the sponsorship of various individual projects provided by the German government, by public foundations, and by private donors. The following merit a special word of thanks: - the Foreign Ministry of the Federal Republic of Germany which underwrote the conservation of Heqa-ib's sanctuary, the construction of a site museum, and the preparation of the excavated area for visits by the general public as a pilot project of German-Egyptian cooperation; - the Ministry for Research and Technology which financed a comprehensive, basic study of conservation technology for ancient Egyptian limestone that was indispensible for the re-erection of the Twelfth Dynasty Satet Temple; - the Commerzbank Foundation for a decisive contribution toward the rebuilding of the Satet Temple of Dynasty XVI[; - the Ernst von Siemens Foundation for reconstituting Dynasty XI;

the Satet Temple of

- the Franz and Eva Rutzen Foundation for the restoration of the colonnade commissioned by King Amasis (Dynasty XXVI) at the Satet Temple of Dynasty XVI[; - the Gerda Henkel Foundation for sponsoring the exploration of Temple J; - the Theodor Wiegand Society for the creation of a lapidarium and for providing the cases and the lighting for the site museum; - the companies Bosch, Daimler-Benz, IBM, and Lorenz for donating and maintaining heavy construction equipment.

The site museum was designed by Achim Krekeler. It was constructed and the interior outfitted by Al-Habashi General Contracting, Cairo. The primary responsibility for the selection and installation of the objects was borne by Ingrid Nebe and Gabi Essmann, while the descriptions below were prepared by Cornelius von Pilgrim. Finally, Anton and Regula Pestalozzi are to be thanked for underwriting the model depicting the ancient town during the Ptolemaic/Roman Period.

WernerKaiser Directorof excaaations

A BRIEFHISTORY OF ANCIENT ELEPHANTINE The ancient town of Elephantine is represented nowadays by a mound with a maximum height of 12 m. The ruins cover almost the entire southern tip of the island that lies opposite Aswan (Figs. 1- ). The present state of the mound is the result of a long process. In the earliest phase of pharaonic history that began about 3000 BCE, the southern part of the island consisted essentially of a series of granite ridges. Only two large ridges projected above the waters of the Nile each summer during the period of the annual inundation. The ancient town developed at first on the ridge to the east (Fig. 1). The oldest prehistoric settlement identified to date on this "east isle" belongs to the Naqada II Period or about 3500 BCE. Here the sanctuary of the antilope goddess Satet, who was known during the historic period as "Mistress of Elephantine," can be traced back at least to the subsequent Naqada III Period (ca. 3200 BCE). It is not clear whether the inhabitants of this early settlement were primarily Egyptianized Nubians, whose culture stretched at that time northwards above the First Cataract, or if the oldest Elephantine town was already an advance outpost of Egypt proper. Regardless, the importance of the settlement may well have lain in its function as a center for trade with the south, for Elephantine is situated at the northern end of the cataract region which was very difficult to navigate. In historic times, Elephantine was called Abu, a word that meant "ivoty" as well as "elephant." The town's name suggests the importance of ivory among the commodities that early Egypt was interested in obtaining by trade from the south. Even at this remote period, the prime landing spot was probably the bay, then protected by cliffs, at the north end of the east isle where nowadays the ferry from Aswan and the sailing boats of the villagers dock. With the formation of the unified Egyptian state at the latest (ca. 3000 BCE), the town acquired additional importance as the southernmost border town and as the source for rare hard stones quarried in the neighborhood. Aswan granite was especially prized; it was shipped downstream for use throughout Egypt. It is likely that the towered fortress on the highest ground of the east isle near the riverbank (Fig. L) was built in the course of the First Dynasty (ca.3000/2950-2800 BCE). As far as can be determined, the force that manned it was not made up from the local population, but composed of Egyptians instead. A little later the remaining settlement area was encircled by a brick wall that enclosed the entire southern part of the east isle (Fig. 1). Open ground inside the wall was apparently reserved from the first for an anticipated increase in population that resulted from the dissolution of

smaller settlements in the neighborhood and/or from an additional influx from the north. By the early Second Dynasty (ca.2800-2650 BCE), the rest of the east isle was included within fortifications, thereby establishing the maximum extent of the town for the entire Old Kingdom - i.e. for the next 600-700 years (Fig. 1). The walls of the First Dynasty fortress began to disappear beneath the town where settlement became increasingly dense. The town in its entirety assumed the character of a fortified installation. This role is confirrned by the inclusion of the hieroglyph for "fortification" in writings of the town's name down into the Middle Kingdom.

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The dissolution of the Egyptian state in the First Intermediate Period (ca. 2150-2040 BCE) apparently resulted in increased importance for Elephantine within Upper Egypt. The kinglets who resided in Thebes during the early Eleventh Dynasty repeatedly renewed Satet's temple. For the first time, worked stone was used in some quantity (Fig. 5). About 2025 BCE, Monthuhotep II, who reunited Egypt to become the first ruler of the Middle Kingdom, ordered the complete rebuilding of the sanctuary. He also added

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Administrative buildings, residential quarters, and various workshops have been identified in the Old Kingdom town on the basis of their distinctive plans and finds made in their ruins. Toward the end of Dynasty III, a large complex whose most distinctive feature was a small stepped pyramid (Fig. 1) was built on the "west isle." Similar structures are documented from the same period at other major centers in Upper and Middle Egypt. Like the fortification of Dynasty I, this complex was certainly a project of the central authority. Its function may well have been connected with the acquisition and distribution of goods. The pyramid would seem to represent the fictive presence of the king and may have been associated with the cult of the ruler's statue. The idea for such a complex was, however, of short duration, for by the later Fourth Dynasty (ca. 2600-2450 BCE) workshops had encroached on the area, and from Dynasty V (ca. 2450-2300 BCE), the expanding cemetery of the town covered it (Fig. 1). In the course of the Old Kingdom, the temple of the town's goddess Satet was repeatedly renovated on its original site, but the basic form was retained in its essentials: a modest mudbrick building fronted by a courtyard (Fig. 5). Numerous votive gifts, from royal and non-royal donors alike, are preserved from this period. Noteworthy among them is a granite naos commissioned by Pepy I for the statue of the goddess. It stood in the renovated precinct of the early Sixth Dynasty (ca. 2300-2150 BCE). Inscriptions on one of the boulders that flank the sanctuary document visits by other kings of Dynasty VI to Elephantine and to the temple where Khnum, the ram-headed god of the cataract region, also seems to have been revered alongside Satet beginning in this period.

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a complex for the celebration of the festival to mark the onset of the inundation (Fig. 5) which the Egyptians believed originated at Elephantine. Toward the end of the old Kingdom, the growth of the settlement area beyold the old fortifications was facilitated by filling in the depression beiween the east and west isles. With the strengthening of central authority under Monthuhotep II and during the early Twelfth Dynasty (ca.1990-1785 increased in intensity (Fig. 2). Sesostris I pushed BCE), this p.q."ti southwards from Elephantine to the Second Cataract and incorporated Lower Nubia into the Egyptian state'

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Because of this southward expansion, Elephantine ceased for to serve as a border town during the next centuries, but simultaneously it became even more important as an administrative and trading center for commerce from beyond ihe First Cataract. Sesostris I ordered the replacement of the Satet Temple that Monthuhotep II had commissioned scarcely a centuly earlier. Sesoitris I's plan called for a richly decorated structure made of stone, and, nearby, a festival courtyard to enable the town's population to celebrate the onset of the inundation (Figs. 5 and 11). Probably at this time, the cataract god Khnum acquired his own temple on higher ground in the town center. In the course of Dynasty XI, a sanctuary of a different kind came into being a bit northwest of ihe Satet Temple. It owed its origin to the worship of a governor of Elephantine named Heqa-ib. He had apparently- so proved his üorth in the difficult period at the end of the Old Kingdom that he came tp be worshipped as a local saint after his death. His cult chapel, modest at first, was renewed in Dynasty XI and then again at the beginning of Dynasty XIi (Fig. 2). For some time thereafter, the governors of the town erected their own -emorial chapels alongside Heqa-ib's, to complement their rockcut tombs on Qubbet el-Hawa. Numerous other officials dedicated stelae and statues in Heqa-ib's sanctuary, too. The Egyptian state disintegrated for a second time at the end of the Middle KingdäÄ. The second Intermediate Period (ca. 1650-1550 BCE) saw the retuin of Egypt's southern border to Elephantine for a time, until the kings of the early Eighteenth Dynasty (ca. 1550-1300 BCE) undertook the reconquest of Nubia, pushing south beyond the Fourth Cataract. For Elephäntine, a period of prosperity began. It was probably at this time that the town began to expand again to take in an indeterminate amount of territory to the north that now extends under the modern village u"q l\: island's museum (Fig. 3). Hatshepsut and Thutmosis III (ca. 7490-7440BCE) commissioned new änd larger temples for both Khnum and Satet. The cult of the ram god, who was worshipped throughout EgyPt,overtook that of and in Dynasties XIX and XX satet at Elephantine in Dynasty xvlll, (1300-1080 ecr), hit temple at the site was expanded even further.

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Fig. 2: Elephantine. Middle Kingdom and Second Intermediate Period (ca. 2050 - 1550 BCE)

1 Satet Temple

6 Ruined pyramid

2 Festival courtyard

7 Cemetery

3 Sanctuaryof Heqa-ib 4 Khnum Temple (presumed location)

M Museum area

5 Residential quarter

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V Modern village

Amenhotep III (ca. 1400-1365 BCE) erected a way station for the divine barques on the processional way between the harbor and the temples of the town, apparently in connnection with renovation of the installations for the festival of the inundation. The ttimples and the economic institutions associated with them occupied almost a third of the preserved area of the New Kingdom town (Fig. 3). It is probably no coi{rcidence that Syene, as the modern town of Aswan was then known, is first mentioned in Egyptian texts of this period, suggesting that the site on the mainland had begun to assume importance alongside Elephantine. On the island, there may have been a concurrent development that saw the construction of some country estates to the north of the town. A way station which Ramses II built outside the town to the northwest could be indicative of this trend. With the beginning of the Third Intermediate Period (ca. 1080-710 BCE) Nubia became independent. That development and frequent outbreaks of intemal conflict within Egypt led to Elephantine's resumption of heightened military importance. The rulers of this period and the kings that followed as Dynasty XXV (ca. 710-664 BCE) are documented at Elephantine only by stelae. By contrast, the rulers of Dynasty XXVI resumed work on the town's temples. Khnum's precinct acquired an elaborately laid-out Nilometer at the riverbank (Fig. 3). Shortly before the Persian conquest put an end to the dynasty, King Amasis added a colonnade in front of Satet's temple. Egypt in its entirety experienced foreign rule for the first time during the Persian occupation of 525-404 BCE. The invaders employed Aramaic-Jewish colonists, who had already lived on Elephantine before the Persian conquest, as mercenaries among the troops stationed on the island. This suggests that the force was intended to police the indigenous Egyptian population, as well as to protect Egypt against the threat from the south. The rebuilding of the Khnum Temple in Dynasty XXX left hardly any remains of the fahweh temple that served the colony, but a series of important papyri documenting the community was recovered from nearby houses. The last indigenous dynasty, the thirtieth, witnessed the beginning of another prosperous era for Elephantine that persisted under the Ptolemies and, from 30 BCE, under Roman rule. Nectanebo I (380-362 BCE) added to the Khnum Temple of the New Kingdom. Nectanebo II (360-340 BCE) planned a large, new precinct of which the temple proper and a small forecourt were completed during his reign. The Ptolemies (305-30 BCE) Ptolemy VI and VIII in particular - continued the project which was finally completed under Augustus with a large terrace on the riverbank (Fig. ). Work on a new Satet Temple was undertaken by Ptolemy VI. The plan, which foresaw a considerably smaller temple than Khnum's, nevertheless

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1:4000 Fig 3: Elephantine. New Kingdom and Late period (ca. 7550 - 332BCE) 1 Satet Temple 7 Residential quarrer (Dynasry )OV)O(I) 2 Festival courtyard: tree pits 8 Residential quarter (Dynasty )Oft'II) 3 lx/ay station for the god's barque 9 Deep well 4 Khnum Temple

M Museum area V Modern village

5 Nilometer 6 Residential quarter (Dynasry XVIII)

15

"'" f '' r.'r .r r.rr,rrt' .rt tlrt' Nile and a Nilometer (Figs.a-5). part of the rl,'rr.'^ lr,rtl_already r ..r.r. been surrenderedto tnä rn""Temple, to .. ' \ r .r.,,r I'rrr.r,rl Placcfor sacredrams.

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li,'111.111 rirrrt'ssaw considerableexpansion_ofthe sacredprecinct along the \rl. b1'tuTgen both tempreterracesändto the north adjoin'i"eilr" Nilometer ol thc satet Temple. A monumental staircase,ru, ui"o ur'ili with a Nile sarrctuaryat the town's harbor. Two more temples existedinside the sacred grounfls, but it has. not been possible to d-etermine where they stood originally. Dur-ing this period, the divine precinct with its administrative dependenciestook up almost half the area of the ancient ?:d town (Fig'"::"9,*ic a). Houses belonging to the contemporaneous residential quarter of Dynasty XXX have been preserved. Thäy comprise-a ä""ru block of two-storey structures,.Becauseof the generuf d".rndir,g of ttre only a few isolated cellars of elaborate constructi"onremain to "it",houses attest to the built during the subsequentptolemaic-Romanperiod. The evolution of Elephantine to.a temple town seems to have red during the Graeco-Roman periöd to the increaÄing concentration of commerce and administration on the mainland. with ihe trrumph of Christianity in the early Fourth Century,-Syene/Aswan eclipsed Elephantine-o""" for an. The island town simultaneously lost its rä1" u, a färtress. ""athe earry wn"., in Fifth Century a cohort of the Eastern Roman Empire -u, ,tutiorred on the island to strengthen the border against maraudingä"""rt.,o.^uäs, the troops occupied-the large courtyard of ihe Khnum temlle and transformed it into a fortified camp. The dismantling of Elephantine's several temples to obtain building material had already begun by-this time. scarcelymore than the foundationsof even rne. ra.rge..mamtemples survived in situ, while the smaller installations entirely disappeared. Arabic sources of the early tuidäie Äles report the existenceof a monastery and two churches on the island. The remains of a small church of the early Sixth Century survived in the courtyard of Khnum's temple. some buirding elementsiro* u lurgu ;;riii;u if somewhat later date were found in the miäst of the settleme"tirgg"rür,j *,ut it once stood there. with the.increasing Islamization of Egyptlini, lu""t, chrirtiu^ pha.se in Elephantine,s histor/ aia not long E;.tly when the settlement ceasedto exist cat..,bt be determinä ""j,1i". witl, pre.irt"iu""uuse the uppermost levels of mo11n{are not preserved, bui its demise probably {r3than the occurredscarcelylater Thirteenthor Fourteenthcenturv.

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SUGGESTEDTOUR OF THE ANCIENT TOWN 'Ihe

tour proposed here (seethe map, Fig. 12) covers a distance of about 1.3 km irnd includes 28 vantage points (VP). Three of them lie outside the boundaries of the ancient town: the older Kalabsha temple (VP 15) and the Ajuala gateway (VP 16), to the south, and the Roman staircase (VP 28), to the north.

The Satet Temple of the Ptolemaic and Roman Periods (VP 1) Visitors who enter the environs of the ancient town through the entrance on the southwest side of the Museum Garden find themselves in the forecourt of the last temple built on Elephantine for the goddess Satet. Erected during the Ptolemaic Period (ca. 150 BCE), it shared the fate of its predecessors whlch were broken up for their stone beginning in the early Middle Ages. ln 7906, when archaeologists first began to explore Elephantine, all that remained in situ were some of this last temple's foundations. They were as rnuch as 3.5 m deep and had crypts built into them. One consequence of the plundering of the site was the exposure of the deepest levels of the fclundations. These proved to be constructed almost entirely of blocks from carlier structures. Architectural elements deriving from a temple dating to the Eighteenth Dynasty and another of Dynasty XII were laid bare. The quantity of these blocks suggested that it might be possible to recover a substantial proportion of the older structures. With this in mind, the remains of the Ptolemaic foundations in the entire area were carefully dismantled between 1969 and1973.The blocks recovered were sorted and stored. Then excavations were begun below the level of the I'tolemaic foundations. They revealed the earlier history of the shrine with srrrprising clarity, back to its prehistoric beginnings about 3200-3100 BCE ( F i g .5 ) . 'l'he overview that the excavations provide of the development of an ancient ligyptian temple site through three millennia is unparalleled elsewhere in the Nile Valley down to the present. To reconstruct this unique sequence, the temple of the Sixth Dynasty (VP 3) was rebuilt in its original location, rrtilizing the structural elements recovered. The temple of the Eighteenth l)ynasty (VP 2) was reerected above the Sixth Dynasty temple on a platform nrade of concrete. The structures of the Middle Kingdom, which occupied thc site between the Sixth and Eighteenth Dynasties, originally stood at the same level as the latter. For this reason, they had to be be rebuilt elsewhere, rrr.rtsidethe actual temple precinct (VP 22-26 on our tour).

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Nowadays the feature that immediately attracts the attention of visitors at the site is the Eighteenth Dynasty temple. It was built at the order of Queen Hatshepsut about 1480 BCE. The colonnade that provides access to it was added iome 900 years later by King Amasis of Dynasty XXVL Temple and colonnade remained standing for another 400 years until about 150 BCE when Ptolemy VI and Ptolemy VIII ordered them dismantled to make way for a completely new and considerably larger temple at a higher level. An idea of the large dimensions of this later structure is provided by its foundations that were reintroduced after the excavations below them were completed. They are visible on the left side of Hatshepsut's temple and immediately in front of VP 1, as well as on the other side of Amasis's colonnade. On the south side, the blocks belonging to the Eighteenth Dynasty temple that were removed from the Ptolemaic foundations have been replaced by modern brickwork, plastered and articulated to resemble the ancient stone masonry.

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Figure 5 illustrates the floor plan of the Ptolemaic temple precinct. An indication of its impressive scale is provided by the granite lintel from the main gateway of the temple proper. It was found, together with other granite fragments from the fagade, in the debris of the temple. The reassembled lintel is exhibited on the southeast side of the foundations, alongside fragmentary columns from the temple. In front of it, there are column fragments and a waterspout carved as a lion's head. A columned structure once existed between the temple proPer and a terrace on the riverbank that belonged to the Ptolemaic complex. The lowest course of the south half of the building's west wall is still preserved alongside the Museum Garden (Fig. a). Parts of the eastern and western lintels, which were found broken, lie west of the path to VP 4. Note that both of them were made of four long granite "beams" fitted together. The walls of the structure to the south that completes the forecourt date to Roman times.

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I i -l Fig. 5: Evolution of thc Satct cnrple (clou,n to 2025 llclj, only thc n.tostintp