Tarrana
Aṭ-Ṭarrānah
الطرانة | |
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Town | |
UTC+2 (EST ) |
Tarrana (
Names
Tarrana was known to the ancient Egyptians as Mefket, meaning "turquoise" in Egyptian, itself an epithet of the goddess Hathor who was object of local veneration as "Hathor, Mistress of Turquoises". It was during the Graeco-Roman period that the town became known as Terenuthis,[3] from the Egyptian *Ta-Renenût ("the domain of the goddess Renenutet")[4] which in turn became the Coptic Terenouti, as well as Tarrana or Tarana, the modern town.[3] The toponym Kom Abu Billo (or Kom Abu Bello) refers to a small modern village lying on Terenuthis’ necropolis, in the northwestern part of the whole site; it probably takes the name from the ancient temple of Apollo that once stood here.[3]
Geography
The modern town of El-Tarrana is on the Rosetta branch of the Nile, on the fringes of the Libyan Desert. The ancient necropolis of Kom Abu Billo is a short distance west of El-Tarrana, and is now bisected by the El-Nasseri Canal, a 40-meter-wide irrigation canal.[4]
Excavations
The site was first excavated in 1887–88 by
History
The earliest tombs discovered in the site date back to the
At one point, a temple of Hathor was erected, of which some blocks depicting pharaoh
The northeastern sector of the site hosted a very large necropolis dating to the
A smaller cemetery, dating to the 2nd century CE, was dedicated to Aphrodite. Two Roman thermae once stood south of the aforementioned temple of Apollo.[3]
Terenuthis became a bishopric that, being in the province of Aegyptus Prima was a
The monks sometimes sought refuge in Terenuthis during incursions of the Maziks.[8] John Moschus went there at the beginning of the 7th century.[9] There is frequent mention of Terenuthis in Christian Coptic literature.
Tarrana was the site of a minor battle during the
The name Tarrana dates from around the time of the Mamluk sultan
In December 1293, the emir Baydara, who had assassinated the Mamluk sultan al-Ashraf Khalil and now claimed the title of Sultan for himself, was captured and killed near Tarrana after most of his supporters fled.[11]
Shortly prior to the
On October 27, 1660,[13] a bloody massacre took place in Tarrana against members of the Faqariya political faction on the orders of the Ottoman governor, who was collaborating with the rival Qasimiya faction.[14] This event was the main source of tension in Egyptian politics for at least 30 years thereafter, with the Faqari leader Ibrahim Bak Dhu al-Faqar vowing to annihilate the Qasimiya in revenge.[14]
The
Gallery
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The necropolis at Kom Abu Billo
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Ptolemy I (right) offering to Hathor; block from the temple of Hathor
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Tomb-chapel, Graeco–Roman period
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Vault of a Graeco–Roman tomb
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Roman funerary stele, Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum
See also
- List of ancient Egyptian sites, including sites of temples
References
- ^ a b c "Geonames.org. Aṭ-Ṭarrānah". Retrieved 12 June 2020.
- ^ a b Maspero, Jean; Wiet, Gaston (1919). Matériaux pour servir à la géographie de l'Égypte. Cairo: Institut français d'archéologie orientale. pp. 58, 120–121.
- ^ ISBN 0-203-98283-5, pp. 498–500
- ^ a b McCleary, Roger V. (1992). Johnson, Johnson (ed.). "Ancestor Cults at Terenouthis in Lower Egypt: A Case for Greco-Egyptian Oecumenism". Studies in Ancient Oriental Civilization (51): 221–231. Retrieved 26 June 2020.
- ^ French archaeological Mission
- ISBN 978-88-209-9070-1), p. 987
- ^ Oriens christianus, II, 611.
- ^ Cotelier, "Ecclesiæ græcæ monumenta", I, 393.
- ^ Pratum spirituale, LIV, CXIV.
- ISBN 978-1473828650. Retrieved 26 June 2020.
- ISBN 978-3847100911. Retrieved 13 June 2020.
- S2CID 246638375.
- ISBN 0-203-16923-9. Retrieved 2 June 2020.
- ^ JSTOR 3596053.
- ^ Egypt min. of finance, census dept (1885). Recensement général de l'Égypte. p. 304. Retrieved 21 June 2020.
Site and blog of the French Archaeological Mission: https://kab.huma-num.fr/ and https://aboubillou.hypotheses.org/ .
- Attribution
- This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Terenuthis". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. The entry cites:
- Georgii Cyprii Descriptio orb. rom., ed. Heinrich Gelzer, 125;
- Émile Amélineau, La géog. de l'Egypte a l'époque Copte (Paris, 1893), 493.