Your effort and contribution in providing this feedback is much
appreciated.
Close
Ad Feedback
Ad Feedback
Ancient cities rise from the sea
The ancient Egyptian cities of Canopus and Thonis-Heracleion sat on the seabed of the Abukir Bay for over a thousand years before pioneering archeologist Franck Goddio began excavating in 199. Now his finds are part of an upcoming exhibition at the British Museum in London: Sunken Cities: Egypt's Lost Worlds.
Canopus and Thonis-Heracleion are interesting to historians due to their location during a time of cultural cross-pollination. Key trading ports, they would receive boats from Greece and gradually developed an immigrant community, who built their own temples and worshiped their own gods.
Hapy, god of the flooding of the Nile, was a symbol of abundance and fertility. The example on display dates from the Early Ptolemaic period. During that time, the Greek rulers of Canopus and Thonis- Heracleion commissioned statues of their likeness, though they also made sure to feature Egyptian affectations. The example on display dates from the 4th century BC. A century later, the Greek rulers of Egypt, the Ptolemies, added statues of their likeness next to Hapy colossus and made sure to feature Egyptian affectations
The stele of Thonis-Heracleion, found by Goddio's team, is an artifact that helped consolidate Ptolemaic rule. Inscribed with the decree of Saϊs and commissioned by Nectanebos I (378-362 BC), the text describes trade and taxation agreements and details royal beneficiaries. The significance of the stele cannot be overstated: it was crucial to establishing that Thonis (in Egyptian) and Heracleion (in Greek) were the same city.
Goddio's team and a six-and-a-half-foot long pink granite garden vat dating from the fourth-to-second century BC. The ports became submerged through a variety of factors, including rising sea levels, subsidence, tidal waves and land liquefaction.
Ptolemaic rulers were not fans of animal worship, and so reconstituted gods such as the all-powerful bull Apis into Serapis, a god with a Grecian appearance which was disseminated throughout temples in Egypt.
Bulls were sacrificed as part of the cult of Apis, and archeologists discovered bovid remains on the seabed in Canopus. Meanwhile animal bones and remains of food offerings were uncovered among votive objects at Thonis-Heracleion.
Canopus and Thonis-Heracleion also yielded intricate jewelry, says Masson-Berghoff, which will be on display in London. Seen here is a pectoral in gold, lapis lazuli and glass paste, found in Tanis in the royal tomb of the Pharaoh Sheshonk II. In the center of the piece is a vessel not unlike the processional barge discovered by Goddio's team in Abukir Bay.
