Karanis
Karanis (
South Temple
The south temple's origins can be traced back to as early as the first century BC and it was occupied until the late third or fourth century AD.[4] The temple was dedicated under Nero to the crocodile related gods Pnepheros and Petesouchos. It is built in an Egyptian style, made of limestone blocks, and may have been built on the site of an earlier temple. In addition to shrine rooms and storage rooms, the north and south sides of the south temple contain houses and storerooms for the temple's priests. Local weddings and banquets could be held in the dining room in the temple's south east corner.[5]
North Temple
The north temple was built in the early Roman period, and is made of limestone in Egyptian style. It is mostly undecorated, with the exception of Greco-Roman style engaged columns on the temple's outer corners and in each internal doorway.[6] Though the temple has no inscription clearly stating its purpose, it is likely decorated to a crocodile god, indicated by the presence of an altar that fits a crocodile mummy, and of a soft white limestone figure of a hawk headed crocodile that likely represents the god Soknopaios. The temple also features an altar with the head of Serapis, Zeus, or a syncretism of the two.[7]
Conditions in the town
The Fayum towns were settled by Roman veterans after Augustus conquered Egypt, though the small number of Latin papyri found in Karanis (only two) and the overwhelming number of Greek
In the late second century, and again in the second quarter of the third, there were notable recessions that mirrored difficulties experienced by the Empire at large,[9] houses had fallen down by the end of the 3rd century,[10] and the town was completely abandoned by the early 5th century.[11] The dry conditions that Karanis was left in are most suitable for the preservation of papyri,[12] and it is for this that Karanis is most well known by archaeologists.
Papyri
The papyri excavated are historically significant in that they come from the same place and time, all dating from the period between the reign of Diocletian and the 370s.[15] Also, with Karanis being a relatively poor town, the documents and artifacts excavated "[provide] a microcosm of life as it was lived by ordinary people in Egypt under Greek and Roman rule," and provide evidence of the whole of Egypt's relationship to the Empire of Rome.[16] The papyri contain mostly tax records, which is how archaeologists have determined that Karanis and its veterans were mostly poor, self-sufficient farmers who did not have much contact with other towns in the region.[17]
Excavations
These excavations were extremely troubled to say the least. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, farmers would “obtain permits to remove soil from the Karanis mound to use as fertilizer (sebbakh)”, the organic decay making the soil very rich.
The first real excavation was in 1895 by Englishmen
Notes
- ^ Richard Alston, Soldier and Society in Roman Egypt (London: Routledge, 1998) 118
- OCLC 1061100384.
- ^ Elaine K. Gazda, ed. Karanis: An Egyptian Town in Roman Times (Ann Arbor: Kelsey Museum of Archaeology, University of Michigan, 1983) 8-9
- OCLC 651241007.
- OCLC 1061100384.
- OCLC 1061100384.
- OCLC 651241007.
- ^ Alston 138
- ^ Gazda 9
- ^ Alston 119
- ^ Roger S. Bagnall and Naphtali Lewis, eds. Columbia Papyri VII (Ann Arbor: Scholars Press, 1979) 2
- ^ Gazda 1
- ^ Herbert Chayyim Youtie and John Garret Winter, eds. Michigan Papyri, Vol. VIII (Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press, 1951) 33
- ^ Youtie 142
- ^ Bagnall 1
- ^ Gazda 6
- ^ Alston 122
- ^ Bernard P. Grenfell, et al., Fayum Town and Their Papyri (London: Offices of the Egypt exploration fund [etc.], 1900) 28-29
- ^ Gazda 2-5
- ^ Jimmy Dunn. "Karanis in the Fayoum of Egypt. Tour Egypt. (InterCity Oz, Inc., 2007)
Bibliography
Alston, Richard. Soldier and Society in Roman Egypt: Social History. London: Routledge, 1998.
Bagnall, Roger S., Naphtali Lewis, eds. Columbia Papyri VII: Fourth Century Documents from Karanis. Ann Arbor: Scholars Press, 1979.
Gazda, Elaine K., ed. Karanis: An Egyptian Town in Roman Times: Discoveries of the University of Michigan Expedition to Egypt (1924–1925). Ann Arbor: Kelsey Museum of Archaeology, 1983, reprinted in 2004 with a new preface and updated bibliography. A free digital publication from the Kelsey Museum of Archaeology.
Grenfell, Bernard P., Arthur S. Hunt, David G. Hogarth. Fayum Towns and Their Papyri. London: Office's of the Egypt exploration fund [etc.], 1990.
Youtie, Herbert Chayyim, and John Garret Winter, eds. Michigan Papyri, Vol. VIII: Papyri and Ostraca from Karanis, Second Series. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press, 1951.