Field archaeology, settlements and architecture architectural research at Elephantine, Aswan in Egypt

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1 Field archaeology, settlements and architecture architectural research at Elephantine, Aswan in Egypt by Martin Ziermann Architectural research/bauforschung As an integrated branch, Bauforschung in Germany is a full architectural department some times named as Baugeschichte or Stadtbaugeschichte - at many universities (for example: Hamburg- Harburg, Hannover, Braunschweig, Berlin, Dortmund, Cottbus, Weimar, Dresden, Kassel, Aachen, Darmstadt, Karlsruhe, Stuttgart, Muenchen ( name of town.de). First, Bauforscher are persons who have studied architecture at a full university with a degree of Dipl.-Ing. and later on as Dr.-Ing. As archaeologists, historians Bauforscher have their own platform for discussions a society called the Koldewey-Gesellschaft. Most of the members have studied architecture at places as described above. But there are also art historians, archaeologists in the society. Of course, also persons who never studying architecture could name their work as Bauforschung. Bauforschung needs a deep understanding of architectural features, i.e. historical town planning, building of landscape, history of construction and materials. Every person, who deals with those subjects does Bauforschung sometimes more as art historians, sometimes more as archaeologists and so on. The subject of study, the settlement, the town and the buildings were done by practical working persons later on, they called themselves architects. One way to due Bauforschung architectural research - is, to understand their way of thinking, how they argue with their employers, with the working staff, to realize their architectural visions. This is the reason, why it needs the spirit of architects, to think like them, to due Bauforschung as an engineer. But it is not so necessary that they work as practical architects. (zie 1998) The idea Until the year 1960 we had quite a number of information known from archaeological resources from Ancient Egypt/Sudan concerning monumental buildings like pyramids, tombs and other large buildings. But most of them were connected to a funeral or religious context (cemeteries and temples). For a long time we had only very small knowledge based on archaeological working about the building structures within the settlements and the layout of the settlements in general. This situation changed during the years from 1970 onwards. Since the beginning of large scale excavations of settlement structures in Egypt and Sudan by the National Antiquity Services of both countries in cooperation with international institutions from all over the world, we have a lot of scientific information about this matter. This gives us the chance to understand the architectural thinking of the ancient civilisation in Egypt/Sudan. 1

2 To deal with archaeology properly, specially by an archaeological field survey, first of all you need a general idea of the main scientific question concerning the site. To answer the question about architecture and settlement layout of an ancient town, you need not only information of the buildings, walls and fortifications, but also some knowledge about the historical landscape during that time. For that reason, a detailed question could be the interaction between the settlement and the landscape as well as the relation of single buildings inside a town quarter. To answer this question, you have to manage the field survey to this direction also. The German Institute of Archaeology in Cairo under his former director Werner Kaiser, was one of the institutions in Egypt, that gave architectural research a chance to work on this problem the study of the architectural development of the town at Elephantine island, modern Aswan, in the 3 rd mill. BC. The archaeological survey and excavation Beginning to create a survey plan: To mark the total area probably covered by the town on a plan. To define at least 10% of the total area you marked on the plan for test excavations. To start with the excavation, layer for layer down to the very beginning of occupation of the chosen area. 2

3 To connect the isolated excavation spots with a general stratigraphy (mostly the building stage of the fortification and an analysis of the finds (ceramic)). To decide were to enlarge the chosen spots to get full information about the architecture. To decide what parts of the structures could stay untouched and visible for later reconstruction and visualization. The reconstruction of the ancient landscape (topography) of the 3 rd mill. BC Detailed measurements of ground levels (here the granite of the surface) at different parts of the archaeological area in combination with levels of building activities during different periods of time made it possible to show the following maps: Two large parts of the island as we can see it today were covered with a village. The southern village was close to the antiquity site. Building levels of modern architecture (levels of the foundation construction) gave us an idea of the high water line up to 1970, when the Aswan High Dam was finished. Now the Nile had a medium water level throughout the year. So we thought, that the ancient town must have had such a high water line during the 3 rd mill. BC also. We checked all reachable building levels from structures of this period and got a line between m and m. We could make some excavations in the hypothetically zone of the boarder between good 3

4 building levels (above 96/98.00 m) and bad building levels (underneath 96/98.00 m) to check this argument. After this work was done we knew: during the annual high water period (3 rd. mill. BC) of the Nile most parts of the island were flooded (fields). Only the two main spots could be used for the construction of a settlement. The ground soil for large parts of the island in that time still was the pure granite. The ancient Egyptians chose the eastern island to build up their little community. The western one at first was not settled, as we know, on a bigger scale up to the beginning of 2700 BC. The development from a settlement to a town French and German scholars had done some excavation around So we had some archaeological evidence at the beginning of our work. There were the ruins of two main temples for Satet and Chnum, both ruined to the foundation level. Some temples north of the archaeological spot were known only by drawings from the 19 th c. A large building area of dwelling houses in the centre of the ancient raise up to 10 m and more. Long parts of a massive brick structure were later identified as a part of the fortification wall of the 3 rd and 2 nd mill. BC (Horst Jaritz). From the beginning of the work conducted by Werner Kaiser our knowledge raise year by year (I will mention only the structures belonging to the 3 rd mill. BC). 4

5 The temple of Satet goes back to the end of 4 th /beginning of 3 rd mill. BC. Different building stages of a small construction made of bricks were verified (Günther Dreyer). The fortification wall at the eastern side of the island belongs to the 3rd. mill. BC (Horst Jaritz). The entrance (gate) to the town is located at the south-western part of the enclosure (Günther Dreyer). The massive granite structure on the western island is a little step pyramid from around 2700 BC (Günter Dreyer). During the high water period the island was separated in two parts (eastern and western island) (zie). The space between the eastern and western island was filled with rubbish and soil to get a connection between the two islands at high water during the last centuries of the 3 rd mill. BC (zie). The settlement became a fortress in the very early 3 rd mill. BC (zie). Through different building stages this fortress grew to a little town of approximately 100 m to 250 m extension (zie). Different building areas inside the town were occupied by dwelling houses, factories for stone vessel and ceramic production and storage supply (zie). 5

6 The western island at first was occupied by a royal institution for collecting goods and convey them to the capital Memphis, later by a cemetery (Stephan Seidlmayer). In the centre of the town a large palace dating to the end of the 3 rd mill. BC. (Dietrich Raue) was situated. The settlement is dating back to the 4 th mill. BC (Piet Knop). zie 04/2010 6

7 The reconstruction of the historical landscape Elephantine, Aswan Egypt. The island of Elephantine in the river Nile. On the island two villages and the archaeological site at the south. On the east bank the modern town of Aswan. The layout plan shows the actual situation

8 Elephantine, Aswan. The layout plan of the actual situation (1990). The red line gives a rough idea of the high water level up to At the top the modern village, in the centre the archaeological area. Black dots and squares mark the position of the different test spots, where archaeological excavations took place. 8

9 The reconstruction of the islands historical landscape during the 3rd mill. BC. The narrow shaded areas show the situation during the lower Nil levels, the wider shaded areas mark the situation during the annual Nil flood. 9

10 The first cataract in Upper Egypt with the island of Elephantine at its exit. Reconstruction of the historical landscape (3 rd mill. BC). Elephantine, high and low water levels during the 3 rd. mill BC 10

11 From settlement to town - the reconstruction of the development of the town of Elephantine The early settlement and the small sanctuary, the later temple of Satet, during the end of the 4 th mill. BC. The settlement around 3000 BC: left, in the neighbourhood of the sanctuary the orthogonal layout of a large building structure made of bricks, possibly an early commercial centre managed by people from the north. Right, a castle like district of a local ruler at the south west of the eastern island and a larger scale settlement including the sanctuary. 11

12 The settlement during the first centuries of the 3 rd mill. BC. Left, the fortress probably built by Egyptians from the north to secure the region of the first cataract. Right, the enlargement of the fortification surrounding the settlement including the sanctuary. From here the Egyptians started their expeditions to Nubia. The settlement around 2700 BC. Left, the enlargement of the fortress to the north. Right, demolition of the early fortress and the transformation of the settlement to a fortress town. On the western island a royal commercial area. 12

13 The settlement at the end of the 3 rd mill. BC. Left, the fortified town (fortress) and the palace of the governor of Elephantine. Right, the town at the beginning of the 2 nd mill. BC with the enlargement to the western island. For further information see (only for the 3 rd mill. BC): prints: W. Kaiser et.al. Stadt und Tempel von Elephantine Grabungsbericht, in : MDAIK, 1970ff Kaiser 1999 W. Kaiser, Elephantine, the ancient town, 1999 H. Jaritz Elephantine III, Bd. 32, 1980 G. Dreyer 1986 Elephantine VIII: Der Tempel der Satet: Die Funde der Frühzeit und des alten Reiches, 1986 Seidlmayer, S. Die staatliche Anlage der 3. Dyn. in der Nordweststadt von Elephantine. Archäologische und historische Probleme. in: Bietak, Manfred (Hg.): Haus und Palast im 13

14 Seidlmayer, S. Seidlmayer, S. Seidlmayer Nubier 2002 Alten Ägypten, DÖAW XIV. Wien, 1996, S Town and State in the Early Old Kingdom: A View from Elephantine. in: Spencer, Jeffrey (Ed.): Aspects of Early Egypt. London, pp NUBIER IM ÄGYPTISCHEN KONTEXT IM ALTEN UND MITTLEREN REICH, In: Mitteilungen des SFB 586 Differenz und Integration 2, S. 107 (als Netzversion in: Stephan Johannes Seidlmayer: Nubier im ägyptischen Kontext im Alten und Mittleren Reich, in: Akkulturation und Selbstbehauptung. Beiträge des Kolloquiums am Hg. von Stefan Leder und Bernhard Streck M. Ziermann Befestigungsanlagen und Stadtentwicklung in der Frühzeit und im Alten Reich, Elephantine 16, Archäologische Veröffentlichungen des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts Kairo, Bd. 87, Mainz 1993 Ziermann, M. Bemerkungen zu den Befestigungen des Alten Reiches in Ayn Asil und Elephantine, in: MDAIK 54, 1998, S , Abb. 1-8, Tafel 60a, b M. Ziermann Die ägyptische Stadt des 3. Jahrtausends v. Chr. als Festung (mit einem Beitrag von U. FAUERBACH), in: Stadt und Umland. Diskussionen zur archäologischen Bauforschung, Mainz 1999, S , Abb M. Ziermann Elephantine XXVIII.: Die Baustrukturen der älteren Stadt (Frühzeit und Altes Reich). Grabungen in der Nordoststadt ( Kampagne) , Archäologische Veröffentlichungen des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts Kairo 108, Mainz Ziermann, M. Bemerkungen zu den Befestigungen des Alten Reiches in Ayn Asil und Elephantine, in: MDAIK 54, 1998, S , Abb. 1-8, Tafel 60a, b Ziermann, M. Die ägyptische Stadt des 3. Jahrtausends v. Chr. als Festung (mit einem Beitrag von U. FAUERBACH), in: Stadt und Umland. Diskussionen zur archäologischen Bauforschung, Mainz 1999, S , Abb 14

15 Chronologie/chronology v. Chr. Ägypten Sudan 4. Jt. Naqadazeit I, II, III 5./4.Jt. Neolithik um ca Frühdyn. Zeit 1./2. Dyn. 4. Jt. ca Pre- Kerma ca Altes Reich Dyn Ägypter in Unternubien (Stützpunkte) ca Zwischenzeit Dyn. ca Königreich von Kusch Early Kerma ca Mittleres Reich Dyn. Ägypter in Unternubien ca Königreich von Kusch Middle Kerma ca Zwischenzeit Dyn. ca Königreich von Kusch Classical Kerma ca Neues Reich Dyn. Ägypter in Unternubien Ägypter in Obernubien Nach Kaiser 1998, S (Ägypten) und Welsby 2004, S. 315 (Sudan) Überarbeitet zie 15