2008-12-31 13:05

Poles discover ancient temples in Egypt

The research project in a temple district in the northern Delta was begun by British archaeologists lead by Jeffrey Spencer from the British Museum in 1991. They received information about the temple of Amun and a few other religious and official constructions, but the information concerning this district despite 12 archaeological seasons was insufficient. Polish Geophysicist Tomasz Herbich, from PAN (Polish Academy of Science) Archaeology and Ethnology Institute in Warsaw, who prepared a precise geophysical map of the excavation site, was invited to join the project. Thanks to using this method, it was possible to discover an unknown temple and dozens of other buildings.

Due to earlier sensational results that were achieved by using the magnetometer in other parts of the Nile Delta - Buto, Tell El-Daba or Sais, it was decided that it is best to use it to recreate the plans of a building built from dried mud - the primary building material in Ancient Egypt. This is how Tomasz Herbich, who with the help of Dawid Święcha and Artur Buszek prepared the geophysical prospect of the site.

After four seasons of intensive work, that began in 2005, the full geophysical map of the site, on which hundreds of chambers and dozens of buildings were visible, was ready. The methods of building periphery walls, that were 420 by 450 m and built during the XXVI (664-525b.c.) and XXX (380-343b.c.) Dynasties, was recreated. An unknown city gate and temple were also discovered.

An interesting fact is that in 1913, Howard Carter worked on this site. He is most known for discovering Tutankhamun's tomb. Unfortunately his excavation works at Tell el-Balamun didn't achieve any spectacular results, and the methods he used ruined the brick architecture that he wasn't capable of excavating in the proper way.

PAP - Science and Scholarship in Poland tr. ajb, Szymon Zdziebłowski

bsz

Print     Tell a friend