Egypt

Dutch Archaeologists Uncover Earliest Egyptian Temple (2000)

Science Daily

Update: Thanks to the anonymous comment which pointed out that this piece is actually from eight years ago. I've left it in place in case it is of interest or a useful reminder for anyone.

During excavations at Tel Ibrahim Awad in the eastern Nile Delta, Dutch archaeologists discovered a large Middle Kingdom temple. Beneath this building, which dates from around 2000 BC, there were traces of five earlier temples, the earliest dating back to around 3100 BC. This is at least as old as the oldest temple previously discovered, namely at Hierakonpolis. Heavy-duty groundwater pumps had to be brought in to make it possible to reach the earliest remains. Financial support for the excavations was provided by the NWO¹s Council for the Humanities.

The ground plan of the earliest of these temples is unlike anything previously discovered in Egypt, and no other sites are known where a similar series of temples was built one on top of the other and which date back so far. The archaeologists do not yet know which gods were worshipped in the temples. In the third-earliest, they discovered about a thousand "disposable ritual objects", including statuettes of baboons and pottery. According to the laws of the ancient Egyptians, objects which had been used in religious worship must not be profaned and they therefore had to be preserved within the walls of the temple. The objects are currently being studied to see what they can tell us about temple rituals at this early date. No inscriptions were found to provide any clues.

See the above page for more details.

- More Discoveries From The Mortuary Temple Of Amenhotep Iii
Yahoo! NB - the photograph currently showing on the page is not from the site - it is not even from Egypt - but is part of a slideshow of general archaeology and anthropology photographs. A team of archaeologists unearthed two large red granite statues...

- Feature: Egyptian Temples
Art History Egyptian temples existed from the middle of the fourth millennium bce at the latest. According to tradition, the earliest were in the shape of reed huts. The last Egyptian temple built was a complex of buildings on Philae which ceased to be...

- Sinai's Turquoise Goddess
Al Ahram Weekly A comprehensive restoration and documentation scheme is underway at a major temple and mine complex in Sinai, as Nevine El-Aref reports From pre-dynastic times, early Egyptians made their way to the Sinai Peninsula over land or across...

- Portico Found In Nile At Aswan
National Geographic (Andrew Bossone) There have been various bits of news trickling out of Egypt about underwater discoveries in the Nile at Aswan. Here's the latest. Archaeologists have discovered a portico, or covered entryway, of an ancient Egyptian...

- Ancient Egyptian Flood Prevention At Karnak Temple
http://www.dailystaregypt.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=6798"Remains of an ancient Egyptian wall used to prevent the leakage of the Nile flood waters from spreading over the Karnak temple in Luxor were discovered on Thursday at the temple's eastern side,...

Egypt