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Russians seek old Egyptian city
25/03/2002 13:28 - (SA)
Fyodor Klimlin
Moscow - Memphis, the capital of the so-called Ancient Kingdom that existed on the territory of Egypt in the IV-III centuries BC, remains an all-time mystery of ancient Egyptian history and a
cherished dream of almost every archaeologist.
A legend written down by ancient Egyptian historians says
that Memphis was built by king Menes, the legendary unifier of
Egypt and founder of the first dynasty of Egyptian kings.
The tremendous political and economic importance of the city rose from its enviable geographical position of a link between the Upper and Lower Nile. The times of the Ancient Kingdom are often called the Memphian Epoch - after Memphis, the residence of Egyptian kings - or the Epoch of Pyramid Construction, after the notable feature of that period.
Russian archaeologists are at present exploring the territory which specialists have pinpointed as the site of the ancient Egyptian capital. The current archaeological expedition, the biggest of all those that embarked to Egypt in the recent years, was launched in late 2001 and has since then produced some unique results that keep specialists hoping for a near discovery of their ultimate goal: Memphis.
Unique spot never flooded by Nile
These hopes are not groundless, believes the chief
of the expedition, Galina Belova, who heads the Centre of
Egyptological Research at the Institute of Oriental Studies of
the Russian Academy of Sciences.
The
excavation area, known as Kom Tuman, was the very heart of the
old Egyptian capital, she says. Egypt's only surviving area of this kind, it is a unique spot with a cultural layer of many metres, very well preserved because it was never flooded by the Nile.
Russian archaeologists were lucky to get a large section of
land with an area of almost 20ha, where the cultural layer
reaches up to 12m deep: "a real gift for Russian
scientists", as Belova puts it.
The "gift" was duly appreciated and immediately put to use. The first two months were spent on geophysical prospecting, magnetometry and topographical mapping of the major part of the site. The results of this research were used while making a detailed description of the relief, defining its geophysical structure and drawing geophysical maps.
Contours of large building
Specialists from the research and production association
Geotechnologies and the Geological Institute of the Russian
Academy of Sciences, who handled the research, reported the
discovery, at a depth of up to 1.5m, of something resembling the contours of large buildings, maybe palaces or private homes.
Excavations also produced 2m-long limestone slabs
that were used in the ancient times to pave streets, as well as a
number of column foundations, numerous objects used in religious
rites, pottery kilns, and a vast amount of ceramic articles. The
latter suggests that ancient inhabitants of the territory could
produce highly glazed pottery, which was rare in those times.
But the most valuable item found by Russian archaeologists so
far is a sculpted head crowned with the customary headpiece of
ancient Egyptian pharaohs. "Presumably the head belongs to a king
from the twenty-sixth dynasty that ruled the country in the
VII-VI centuries BC, but we are not 100% sure," says Belova, who spent hours leafing through subject-related collections at the Cairo Museum and examining Egyptian antiquities at Louvre. "We tried to draw an analogy between this sculpture and all related items available in museums, but so far we've been unable to identify it."
State custody
As soon as the sculptural portrait was discovered, Egypt's
Antiquities Service took it into state custody. Considering that
the valuable masterpiece equals to the most precious of Egyptian
relics surfacing at the world's largest antiquities sales, this haste is perfectly understandable. Besides, sculpted images of pharaohs of the twenty-sixth dynasty are rare, so every new
discovery causes sensation.
However, not just the head - the whole assortment of items
discovered by Russian archaeologists on the site of ancient
Memphis is unique and tremendously important from a historical
point of view.
The discovery of the ancient Egyptian capital has meanwhile been postponed until the next stage of Kom Tuman excavations in November and December of 2002. "We hope, or rather we are convinced, that the work of our young researchers will bring more discoveries," says Belova.
Highlights
According to her, the opening of a Department of
Egyptology at the Institute of Oriental Studies in the
mid-nineties prompted Russian specialists to resume, after an
almost century-long break, independent expeditions to the land of
pharaohs. By now, they have already stirred up the archaeological
world by unearthing a temple in Tell Ibrahim Awad - its age,
estimated at 5 000 years, makes it Egypt's oldest temple
discovered so far.
Today, they are engaged in excavations in the
so-called Royal Covert - a place in Luxor where mummies are kept
- and at Per-Ramesse, the capital of Ramses II the Great. They
are also unearthing tombs in the necropolis of Thebes, the most
prestigious place from the point of view of archaeological
research, and temples of Egypt's rival, the ancient kingdom of
Kush, in Sudan. "Many of our discoveries have become the
highlights of Egyptian museum collections," stresses Belova.
- News24
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