Akoris, Egypt
Encyclopedia
AkorisAkoris (Egyptian
: Mer-nefer(et) (Old
and Middle Kingdom
s), Per-Imen-m3t-khent(j) (New Kingdom), or Dehenet (since 26th dynasty
) is the Greek
name for the modern Egypt
ian village of (Arabic ), located about 12 km north of Al Minya. The ancient site is situated in the southeast of the modern village.
cliffs about 12 km north of Al Minya. The limestone cliffs at the east side of the place are divided here by a valley, the (Arabic الوادي الطهناوي). The southern rock looks like a lying lion.
(from 26th dynasty) it was named T3-dehenet (the cliff top).
In Greek times the names of Ἄκωρις (Akoris or in Latin Acoris) or Τῆνις (Tēnis) were given. The name of Akoris can be found in the third line of the rock stele of Ptolemy V Epiphanes
at this site.
. It was an important administrative town in the 17th upper-Egyptian nome
in all ancient Egyptian times. Maybe a Nile
port
belonged to the town. A lot of tombs were created in the rocks. They belonged to the officials of the Old Kingdom and the priests of the Late Period.
Archaeological remains came only from the New Kingdom
and earlier times. In the New Kingdom the Temple of Amun
was established in a former Old Kingdom tomb by Ramesses II and enlarged by Ramesses III. It is assumed that a fortress was established at this site in Persian times because of the strategic location of the town but no part of the fortress remains.
Akoris became an important town during the Greek
and Roman
periods, and its name was changed to Akoris. The today’s settlement traces came from the Roman and Coptic times.
period, known as Fraser Tombs (about 2 km south of Akoris). Akoris comprises also two temples from early Egyptian history (New Kingdom
until the Roman period), a rock chapel (called rock chapel C), a Greek funeral chapel (formerly called “Roman temple”), two rock stelae of Ramesses III
, a rock stele of Ptolemy V Epiphanes
, a stele of Diana
and the Gemini twins Castor and Pollux
and a necropolis from the Greek and Roman periods. These monuments are scattered for about 3 km along the desert and the limestone rocks.
, mistress of the valley entrance, is known (time of Menkaura
, 4th dynasty). Starting from the 18th dynasty
the god Amun
the foremost lion is adored. The god Sobek
, Lord of Behet (Lord of the mouth of the desert path), was added at the 26. dynasty and became later the main god of the site. Other gods like Thoth
, Isis
and/or Mut
, Osiris
, Horus
and Khonsu were adored from Greek-Roman times.
′s expedition. A more comprehensive investigation was made by the German expedition conducted by Karl Richard Lepsius
in the 1850s. At the beginning of the 20th century further investigations were made by Ahmed Kamal
and Gustave Lefebvre
. Since 1981 new comprehensive excavations have been carried out by a Japanese team under H. Kawanishi. They uncovered a fine but fragmentary wooden boat model with many rowers of Middle Kingdom. Since 2002, they have investigated the southern part of the site and uncovered the TIP town.
The so-called Fraser Tombs were firstly discovered by the German Egyptologist Heinrich Brugsch in 1853 and firstly described by the British civil engineer George Willoughby Fraser half a century later.
Egyptian language
Egyptian is the oldest known indigenous language of Egypt and a branch of the Afroasiatic language family. Written records of the Egyptian language have been dated from about 3400 BC, making it one of the oldest recorded languages known. Egyptian was spoken until the late 17th century AD in the...
: Mer-nefer(et) (Old
Old Kingdom
Old Kingdom is the name given to the period in the 3rd millennium BC when Egypt attained its first continuous peak of civilization in complexity and achievement – the first of three so-called "Kingdom" periods, which mark the high points of civilization in the lower Nile Valley .The term itself was...
and Middle Kingdom
Middle Kingdom of Egypt
The Middle Kingdom of Egypt is the period in the history of ancient Egypt stretching from the establishment of the Eleventh Dynasty to the end of the Fourteenth Dynasty, between 2055 BC and 1650 BC, although some writers include the Thirteenth and Fourteenth dynasties in the Second Intermediate...
s), Per-Imen-m3t-khent(j) (New Kingdom), or Dehenet (since 26th dynasty
Twenty-sixth dynasty of Egypt
The Twenty-sixth Dynasty of Egypt was the last native dynasty to rule Egypt before the Persian conquest in 525 BC . The Dynasty's reign The Twenty-sixth Dynasty of Egypt (also written Dynasty XXVI or Dynasty 26) was the last native dynasty to rule Egypt before the Persian conquest in 525 BC...
) is the Greek
Greek language
Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...
name for the modern Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
ian village of (Arabic ), located about 12 km north of Al Minya. The ancient site is situated in the southeast of the modern village.
Location
Akoris is located on the east bank of the Nile, at and below the limestoneLimestone
Limestone is a sedimentary rock composed largely of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of calcium carbonate . Many limestones are composed from skeletal fragments of marine organisms such as coral or foraminifera....
cliffs about 12 km north of Al Minya. The limestone cliffs at the east side of the place are divided here by a valley, the (Arabic الوادي الطهناوي). The southern rock looks like a lying lion.
Names of the site
The site was named with several names. In the Old and Middle Kingdoms Mer-nefer(et) (nice channel) was used. In the New Kingdom the site was named Per-Imen-m3t-khent(j) (The house of Amun the foremost lion). In the Late periodLate Period of Ancient Egypt
The Late Period of Ancient Egypt refers to the last flowering of native Egyptian rulers after the Third Intermediate Period from the 26th Saite Dynasty into Persian conquests and ended with the death of Alexander the Great...
(from 26th dynasty) it was named T3-dehenet (the cliff top).
In Greek times the names of Ἄκωρις (Akoris or in Latin Acoris) or Τῆνις (Tēnis) were given. The name of Akoris can be found in the third line of the rock stele of Ptolemy V Epiphanes
Ptolemy V Epiphanes
Ptolemy V Epiphanes , son of Ptolemy IV Philopator and Arsinoe III of Egypt, was the fifth ruler of the Ptolemaic dynasty. He became ruler at the age of five, and under a series of regents the kingdom was paralyzed.-Regency infighting:Ptolemy Epiphanes was only a small boy when his father, Ptolemy...
at this site.
History of Akoris
The site was settled since the Old KingdomOld Kingdom
Old Kingdom is the name given to the period in the 3rd millennium BC when Egypt attained its first continuous peak of civilization in complexity and achievement – the first of three so-called "Kingdom" periods, which mark the high points of civilization in the lower Nile Valley .The term itself was...
. It was an important administrative town in the 17th upper-Egyptian nome
Nome (Egypt)
A nome was a subnational administrative division of ancient Egypt. Today's use of the Greek nome rather than the Egyptian term sepat came about during the Ptolemaic period. Fascinated with Egypt, Greeks created many historical records about the country...
in all ancient Egyptian times. Maybe a Nile
Nile
The Nile is a major north-flowing river in North Africa, generally regarded as the longest river in the world. It is long. It runs through the ten countries of Sudan, South Sudan, Burundi, Rwanda, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Tanzania, Kenya, Ethiopia, Uganda and Egypt.The Nile has two major...
port
Port
A port is a location on a coast or shore containing one or more harbors where ships can dock and transfer people or cargo to or from land....
belonged to the town. A lot of tombs were created in the rocks. They belonged to the officials of the Old Kingdom and the priests of the Late Period.
Archaeological remains came only from the New Kingdom
New Kingdom
The New Kingdom of Egypt, also referred to as the Egyptian Empire is the period in ancient Egyptian history between the 16th century BC and the 11th century BC, covering the Eighteenth, Nineteenth, and Twentieth Dynasties of Egypt....
and earlier times. In the New Kingdom the Temple of Amun
Amun
Amun, reconstructed Egyptian Yamānu , was a god in Egyptian mythology who in the form of Amun-Ra became the focus of the most complex system of theology in Ancient Egypt...
was established in a former Old Kingdom tomb by Ramesses II and enlarged by Ramesses III. It is assumed that a fortress was established at this site in Persian times because of the strategic location of the town but no part of the fortress remains.
Akoris became an important town during the Greek
Ancient Greece
Ancient Greece is a civilization belonging to a period of Greek history that lasted from the Archaic period of the 8th to 6th centuries BC to the end of antiquity. Immediately following this period was the beginning of the Early Middle Ages and the Byzantine era. Included in Ancient Greece is the...
and Roman
Ancient Rome
Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....
periods, and its name was changed to Akoris. The today’s settlement traces came from the Roman and Coptic times.
Monuments at Akoris
Akoris is home to several archaeological sites, including a number of rock-cut tombs from the Old KingdomOld Kingdom
Old Kingdom is the name given to the period in the 3rd millennium BC when Egypt attained its first continuous peak of civilization in complexity and achievement – the first of three so-called "Kingdom" periods, which mark the high points of civilization in the lower Nile Valley .The term itself was...
period, known as Fraser Tombs (about 2 km south of Akoris). Akoris comprises also two temples from early Egyptian history (New Kingdom
New Kingdom
The New Kingdom of Egypt, also referred to as the Egyptian Empire is the period in ancient Egyptian history between the 16th century BC and the 11th century BC, covering the Eighteenth, Nineteenth, and Twentieth Dynasties of Egypt....
until the Roman period), a rock chapel (called rock chapel C), a Greek funeral chapel (formerly called “Roman temple”), two rock stelae of Ramesses III
Ramesses III
Usimare Ramesses III was the second Pharaoh of the Twentieth Dynasty and is considered to be the last great New Kingdom king to wield any substantial authority over Egypt. He was the son of Setnakhte and Queen Tiy-Merenese. Ramesses III is believed to have reigned from March 1186 to April 1155 BCE...
, a rock stele of Ptolemy V Epiphanes
Ptolemy V Epiphanes
Ptolemy V Epiphanes , son of Ptolemy IV Philopator and Arsinoe III of Egypt, was the fifth ruler of the Ptolemaic dynasty. He became ruler at the age of five, and under a series of regents the kingdom was paralyzed.-Regency infighting:Ptolemy Epiphanes was only a small boy when his father, Ptolemy...
, a stele of Diana
Diana (mythology)
In Roman mythology, Diana was the goddess of the hunt and moon and birthing, being associated with wild animals and woodland, and having the power to talk to and control animals. She was equated with the Greek goddess Artemis, though she had an independent origin in Italy...
and the Gemini twins Castor and Pollux
Castor and Pollux
In Greek and Roman mythology, Castor and Pollux or Polydeuces were twin brothers, together known as the Dioscuri . Their mother was Leda, but Castor was the mortal son of Tyndareus, king of Sparta, and Pollux the divine son of Zeus, who visited Leda in the guise of a swan...
and a necropolis from the Greek and Roman periods. These monuments are scattered for about 3 km along the desert and the limestone rocks.
Gods at Akoris
The gods are related to the site location and shape of the rocks. The earliest goddess of this site is maybe a lion goddess. From the Fraser Tombs the goddess HathorHathor
Hathor , is an Ancient Egyptian goddess who personified the principles of love, beauty, music, motherhood and joy. She was one of the most important and popular deities throughout the history of Ancient Egypt...
, mistress of the valley entrance, is known (time of Menkaura
Menkaura
Menkaure was a pharaoh of the Fourth dynasty of Egypt who ordered the construction of the third and smallest of the Pyramids of Giza. His name means "Eternal like the Souls of Re"...
, 4th dynasty). Starting from the 18th dynasty
Eighteenth dynasty of Egypt
The eighteenth dynasty of ancient Egypt is perhaps the best known of all the dynasties of ancient Egypt...
the god Amun
Amun
Amun, reconstructed Egyptian Yamānu , was a god in Egyptian mythology who in the form of Amun-Ra became the focus of the most complex system of theology in Ancient Egypt...
the foremost lion is adored. The god Sobek
Sobek
Sobek , and in Greek, Suchos was the deification of crocodiles, as crocodiles were deeply feared in the nation so dependent on the Nile River...
, Lord of Behet (Lord of the mouth of the desert path), was added at the 26. dynasty and became later the main god of the site. Other gods like Thoth
Thoth
Thoth was considered one of the more important deities of the Egyptian pantheon. In art, he was often depicted as a man with the head of an ibis or a baboon, animals sacred to him. His feminine counterpart was Seshat...
, Isis
Isis
Isis or in original more likely Aset is a goddess in Ancient Egyptian religious beliefs, whose worship spread throughout the Greco-Roman world. She was worshipped as the ideal mother and wife as well as the matron of nature and magic...
and/or Mut
Mut
Mut, which meant mother in the ancient Egyptian language, was an ancient Egyptian mother goddess with multiple aspects that changed over the thousands of years of the culture. Alternative spellings are Maut and Mout. She was considered a primal deity, associated with the waters from which...
, Osiris
Osiris
Osiris is an Egyptian god, usually identified as the god of the afterlife, the underworld and the dead. He is classically depicted as a green-skinned man with a pharaoh's beard, partially mummy-wrapped at the legs, wearing a distinctive crown with two large ostrich feathers at either side, and...
, Horus
Horus
Horus is one of the oldest and most significant deities in the Ancient Egyptian religion, who was worshipped from at least the late Predynastic period through to Greco-Roman times. Different forms of Horus are recorded in history and these are treated as distinct gods by Egyptologists...
and Khonsu were adored from Greek-Roman times.
Mining
Like similar sites in the north and south of Akoris, this site was used as a limestone quarry in ancient times.Excavations at Akoris
This site was firstly known from the NapoleonNapoleon I of France
Napoleon Bonaparte was a French military and political leader during the latter stages of the French Revolution.As Napoleon I, he was Emperor of the French from 1804 to 1815...
′s expedition. A more comprehensive investigation was made by the German expedition conducted by Karl Richard Lepsius
Karl Richard Lepsius
Karl Richard Lepsius was a pioneering Prussian Egyptologist and linguist and pioneer of modern archaeology.-Background:...
in the 1850s. At the beginning of the 20th century further investigations were made by Ahmed Kamal
Ahmed Kamal (Egyptologist)
- Research :He trained under the German Egyptologist Heinrich Brugsch.He was a curator at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo and a staff member of the Supreme Council of Antiquities...
and Gustave Lefebvre
Gustave Lefebvre
Gustave Lefebvre was a French Egyptologist....
. Since 1981 new comprehensive excavations have been carried out by a Japanese team under H. Kawanishi. They uncovered a fine but fragmentary wooden boat model with many rowers of Middle Kingdom. Since 2002, they have investigated the southern part of the site and uncovered the TIP town.
The so-called Fraser Tombs were firstly discovered by the German Egyptologist Heinrich Brugsch in 1853 and firstly described by the British civil engineer George Willoughby Fraser half a century later.
Further reading
- Description de l’Égypte, Texte, vol. IV,pp. 372 – 377; Antiquités, vol. IV, plates 67.14–67.20.
- Karl Richard LepsiusKarl Richard LepsiusKarl Richard Lepsius was a pioneering Prussian Egyptologist and linguist and pioneer of modern archaeology.-Background:...
, Denkmäler aus Aegypten und Aethiopien, Text vol. II, pp. 50–54; Tafeln Abth. 6, vol. XII, plates 75.15-75.23. - Ahmed KamalAhmed Kamal (Egyptologist)- Research :He trained under the German Egyptologist Heinrich Brugsch.He was a curator at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo and a staff member of the Supreme Council of Antiquities...
, Fouilles à Tehneh, in: Annales du Service des Antiquités de l’Égypte, vol. 4 (1903), pp. 232–241. - Gustave LefebvreGustave LefebvreGustave Lefebvre was a French Egyptologist....
, L. Barry, Rapport sur les fouilles exécutées à Tehnéh en 1903–1904, in: Annales du Service des Antiquités de l’Égypte, vol. 6 (1905), pp. 141–158, 2 plates. - Labib HabachiLabib HabachiLabib Habachi was an influential Egyptian Egyptologist.Dr Habachi spent 30 years in the Antiquities Department of the Egyptian Government, ending his career as Chief inspector. During this period he spent an enormous amount of time in numerous dig sites in Egypt and the Sudan...
, Three Large Rock-Stelae Carved by Ramesses III near Quarries. In: The Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt, ISSN 0065-9991, vol. 11 (1974), pp. 69 – 75, in particular pp. 71 – 73, plates 7 and 10. - Rostislav Holthoer, Richard Ahlquist, The “Roman Temple” at Tehna el-Gebel, Helsinki, 1974, (Studia Orientalia Edidit Societas Orientalis Fennica ; 43,7), ISBN 951-95073-7-X.
- Dieter Kessler, Historische Topographie der Region zwischen Mallawi und Samaluṭ, Wiesbaden : Reichert, 1981, ISBN 978-3882260786, pp. 253 – 290.
- Paleological Association of Japan / Egyptian Committee, Akoris : report of the excavations at Akoris in Middle Egypt; 1981 – 1992, Kyoto, Koyo Shobo, 1995.
- Rosemarie Klemm, Dietrich D. Klemm, Stone and Stone Quarries in Ancient Egypt, London, British Museum Press, 2008, ISBN 978-0714123264 (Translation from the German Steine und Steinbrüche im alten Ägypten, Berlin, 1993)
- Kawanishi,H. et al., Preliminary Report AKORIS 1998-, Tsukuba, University of Tsukuba, 1999-, ISSN 1344-9893