User:W1kiw0000t/Tarrana

History

Tarrana was an ancient city which housed the necropolitan site for its society members. It is believed by Finley A. Hooper that the entire space was perhaps solely served as a burial ground. However, due to natural environmental factors and looting over centuries, only a small portion of the Tarrana burial space has been found and excavated today .

Geography

The modern town of El-Tarrana is on the Rosetta branch of the Nile, on the fringes of the Libyan Desert. The ancient necropolis of Kom Abu Billo is a short distance west of El-Tarrana, and is now bisected by the El-Nasseri Canal, a 40-meter-wide irrigation canal. This site is located at the edge of the western desert, in between the railroads of El-Khatatba and Kafr Dawud, also located northwest of Cairo. According to Hooper, the excavation of this site spanned about 25 meters east to west and 20 meters north to south, totaling to about 500 meters in all .

Excavations

The site was first excavated in 1887–88 by Francis Llewellyn Griffith, who lead a team on the rediscovery of the temple of Hathor, then again in 1935 by an expedition organized by the University of Michigan.The second excavation of the site was lead by University of Michigan's Enoch E. Peterson, who contracted local professional Qufti foremen that were part of the team that originally trained under Sir William Flinders to properly conduct archaeological excavations. These men supervised hundreds of local workers to conduct the excavation for thirty five days to clear three key areas of the cemetery .

Findings

The third test trench dug by the team was located on the eastern edge of the tomb field, here a total of about 40 tombs only five meters deep from the surface were discovered. This is where the archaeological findings of the University of Michigan totaled to over 250 funerary stelae, Teracotta figurines, amulets, jewelry, faience pottery and 480 Ptolemaic, Roman and Islamic coins all of which is believed to date to the late third and early fourth century dating to the late ptolemaic period. The University of Michigan later held a total of 194 of the stelae in the collections of the Kelsey Museum, and the few others remain the the Cairo Museum . A funerary chapel was also discovered, which housed eight individual tombs. The most consistent excavation campaign was led by the Egyptian Antiquities Organization, and took place between 1969 and 1974 due to the imminent construction of a canal which would have crossed the site. Nowadays, Terenuthis is poorly preserved partly because of these extensive excavations, partly due to the enlargement of the modern city of Tarrana and its crops. Since 2012, the site is explored by a mission of the Institut Français d'Archéologie Orientale.

Obstacles

Tarrana is among the many Ancient Egyptian sites that was targeted over its years by pillaging and robbing. In his writing, Peterson talks about finding multiple sections of the cite stripped of artifacts. He also states that those searching for antiquities did so with the intention of ensuring the cite appeared undisturbed by backfilling the areas looted . Environmental factors also leave a gap in the information provided by Peterson. Due to the high winds and the "rolling terrain" which granted the sites name of Kom Abou Billou, there is no exact location provided for the 40 tombs .

Tombs

Peterson recorded 24 different tomb styles at the site, and found the two of its most popular were barrel/pyramid roofed tombs and what he referred to as "slipper tombs" . Tombs were primarily constructed out of mud brick

Slipper Tombs

The slipper tombs were constructed out of field stone, mudbrick and clay. These tombs served as enclosures for a single individual to be buried in-ground. One of the best preserved examples of a slipper tomb is numbered tomb 8 by Finley A Hooper. This tomb faces east and has a perceived sacrificial altar platform, that could have served it's neighboring tombs as well .

Barrel and Pyramid Roofed Tombs

This style of tomb is found in Hooper's collection described as being 1.70 meters high with an underlying platform. This platform is has a superstructure on top of it measuring to 1.73 meters by 1.95 metes.This tomb is facing north and is also one of the best preserved tomb structures of the site . Generally the tombs were held up by mud-brick podiums, with eastern facing facades and projecting altar tables. The surface of these tombs and its attachments served the a second function, as a canvas for fresco paintings of festivals. Peterson speculates that the paintings of the festivals serve to allow the deceased access to festivals in the afterlife .

Funerary Stelae

Stelae of man from Kom Abou Billou

Stelae of Bes from Kom Abu Billou

The Stelae of Bes from Kom Abu Billou measures to 18.8 x 22.2 cm. Some key features of this stelae include the male figures large ears. This is not a physical feature presented in other stelae, indicating that this illustration represents the individuals physical features . Another physical feature represented in the stelae is the chiton and himation, which along with the facial features of the individual, is representative of the Greco-Roman influence in Ancient Egyptian art in the Ptolemaic dynasty. The figure in the stelae is also depicted with two jackals at each of his sides. The jackal represents the God Anubis, who was highly revered during this period . According to Raffela Cribiore the inscription of this stelae reads: "Ήρακλείδηο Ήρακλείδου άλυπε, χρηοτέ, άωρε, χαίρε έτών πέντε μενών τεςάρ[ων] "Herakleides, son of Herakleides free from pain, good, died untimely, farewell at five years and four months of age" . The indication of the boys age is not a common occurrences in Ptolemaic or Roman art, as found in this stelae commemorating his life. The majority of the stelae, like the two represented here, have inscriptions just below. Many of them found with the exception of few, also exhibit behaviors in the illustration representative of devotion and offering in the Ancient Egyptian culture . This is seen in figures who hole their arms up with exposed palms, which symbolizes an offering to the Gods.

References

2. ^ Jump up to:^{a b}
3. ^ Jump up to:^{a b c d e f g h i j} Hawass, Zahi, Kom Abu Bello, in Bard, Kathryn A. (ed.), "Encyclopedia of the Archaeology of Ancient Egypt". Routledge, London & New York, 1999, ISBN 0-203-98283-5, pp. 498–500
4. ^ Jump up to:^{a b}
5. ^ French archaeological Mission
6. ^ Annuario Pontificio 2013 (Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 2013, ISBN 978-88-209-9070-1), p. 987
7. ^ Oriens christianus, II, 611.
8. ^ Cotelier, "Ecclesiæ græcæ monumenta", I, 393.
9. ^ Pratum spirituale, LIV, CXIV.
10. ^
11. ^
12. ^
13. ^
14. ^ Jump up to:^{a b}
15. ^

Site and blog of the French Archaeological Mission: https://kab.huma-num.fr/ and https://aboubillou.hypotheses.org/ .

Attribution

• This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain:  The entry cites:
  • Georgii Cyprii Descriptio orb. rom., ed. Heinrich Gelzer, 125;
  • Émile Amélineau, La géog. de l'Egypte a l'époque Copte (Paris, 1893), 493.

Bibliography

[edit]

• Hooper, Finley (1922–1961). Funerary stelae from Kom Abou Billou. Ann Arbor Mich. : Kelsey Museum of Archaeology.
• McCleary, Roger Vincent (1987). Portals to eternity: the necropolis at Terenouthis in Lower Egypt : the University of Michigan's Reconnaissance Expedition to Kom Abou Billou, the necropolis of ancient Terenouthis (March to April 1935). Ann Arbor, Mich. : Kelsey Museum of Archaeology, University of Michigan. pp.1–15.
• “The Global Egyptian Museum | Graeco-Roman Period.” Globalegyptianmuseum.org, 2024, www.globalegyptianmuseum.org/glossary.aspx?id=163.
• CRIBIORE, RAFFAELLA. “A Stele from Terenouthis.” The Bulletin of the American Society of Papyrologists, vol. 34, no. 1/4, 1997, pp. 5–10. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/24519014, https://doi.org/10.2307/24519014.

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