The noted French archaeological diver Franck Goddio and his team have discovered ancient temples dedicated to the supreme Egyptian god Amun and Greek love goddess Aphrodite off Egypt’s Mediterranean coast.
The archaeologists have been exploring the site of the submerged port of Thonis-Heracleion since its discovery in 2000, but the two temples had remained lost in its southern reaches.
The city, which today lies more than four miles off the coast in the Bay of Aboukir, was considered northern Egypt’s biggest port before Alexander the Great established Alexandria in 331 BC.
in the mid-2nd century BC, rising sea levels and earthquakes resulted in tidal waves and the collapse of large areas of land in the Nile Delta. An 11,000-hectare area that included Thonis-Heracleion was submerged at that time.
The Temple of Amun would have been highly significant to a line of pharaohs, says the European Institute for Underwater Archaeology (IEASM), of which Goddio is president. They would have presented themselves there “to receive from the supreme god of the ancient Egyptian pantheon the titles of their power as universal kings”.
New geophysical prospecting technology capable of detecting cavities and objects “buried under layers of clay several metres thick” was employed to locate the temples, says the IEASM.
The archaeologists have recovered many artefacts from what would have been the Temple of Amun’s treasury. Included are silver ritual dishes, gold jewellery including lion’s-head earrings and an Eye of Horus pendant, a duck-shaped bronze pitcher and alabaster perfume and ointment flasks.
They also found a sculpted votive hand – an offering made in the hope that the gods could cure the part of the body it represented.
“It is extremely moving to discover such delicate objects, which survived intact despite the violence and magnitude of the cataclysm,” said Goddio.
Bronzes and ceramics found in the other sunken temple identified it as dedicated to Aphrodite. According to the IEASM, Greek traders had settled in Thonis-Heracleion during the Egyptian Saite dynasty and were allowed to worship their own gods.
The archaeologists discovered structures “supported by very well-preserved wooden posts and beams dating from the 5th century BC”.
Also found were weapons said to have belonged to Greek mercenaries. The soldiers were employed to defend the Egyptian kingdom at the mouth of the Canopic branch of the Nile – a vital link because it was the most navigable part of the river at the time.
“The temples bear witness to the wealth of this sanctuary and the piety of the former inhabitants of the port city,” says the IEASM, which works in collaboration with Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities.
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