Heracleion
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Canopus, Heracleion, and Menouthis | |
Location | near Alexandria, Egypt |
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Coordinates | 31°18′46″N 30°07′44″E / 31.31278°N 30.12889°E |
Heracleion (
The legendary beginnings of Thonis go back to as early as the 12th century BC, and it is mentioned by ancient Greek historians. Its importance grew particularly during the waning days of the pharaohs.[9]
History
Thonis was originally built on some adjoining islands in the Nile Delta. The city was built around a central temple,[3] and was intersected by canals[9] with a number of harbors and anchorages. Its wharves, temples, and tower-houses were linked by ferries, bridges, and pontoons. The city was an emporion (trading port)[8][10] and by the Late Period it was the country's main port for international trade[9] and collection of taxes. It had a sister city, Naucratis, which was another trading port lying 72 km (45 mi) farther up the Nile. Goods were transferred inland via Naucratis, or they were transported via the Western Lake and through a water channel to the nearby town of Canopus for onward distribution.[8]
Thonis had a large temple of
2023 archaeological findings, suggested that Greeks, who were already allowed to trade in the city, "had started to take root" there as early as during the Twenty-sixth Dynasty of Egypt and that likely Greek mercenaries were employed to defend it.[15]
During the second century BC Alexandria superseded Thonis-Heracleion as Egypt's primary port. The importance of Thonis-Heracleion began diminishing with the rise of Alexandria, which was about fifteen miles southwest, in the 2nd century BCE. Also in the 2nd century BCE, a major weather event, either a tsunami, earthquake, or a combination, pushed the city towards destruction. However, the city was not entirely abandoned until its complete submersion into the sea by the eighth century AD.[16]
Submersion and disappearance
Over time, the city was weakened by a combination of earthquakes, tsunamis, and rising sea levels. Around 101 BC, probably after a severe flood, the ground on which the central island of Heracleion was built succumbed to soil liquefaction.[17] Earthquakes can also cause liquifaction, and earth tremors and tidal waves were reported by ancient historians during the time of Thonis-Heracleion's submersion.[16] The soil around the south-eastern basin of the Mediterranean is prone to liquifaction.[18] The hard clay turned rapidly into a liquid and the buildings collapsed into the water. A few residents stayed on during the Roman era and the beginning of Arab rule, but by the end of the eighth century AD, what was left of Thonis had sunk beneath the sea.[8] Thonis-Heracleion was left relatively undisturbed beneath the sea floor for 1200 years. The sand and other debris covered the remains of the city and made accidental discovery unlikely.[19] This kept Thonis-Heracleion preserved. Looters and unsuspecting humans and animals did not have the chance to tarnish the city's remains.
Greek references and legends
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ḥnt[20] in hieroglyphs | ||||||
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Thonis-Heracleion is mentioned by many Greek historians of antiquity, including Strabo, Diodorus, and Herodotus.[8] These references to Thonis-Heracleion are often within the context of a story about legendary Greek figures, such as Heracles and Paris, and put the location of the city to be on the coast and adjacent to the Nile.
Strabo wrote that in the distant past the city of Thonis, whose name derived from its king, had been located on a strip of land between the Mediterranean Sea and a canal leading towards the city of Schedia.[21]
Diodorus made mention of Thonis in relation to a story of Heracles, claiming that at one point the Nile river had become greatly inundated and flooded the area in which Prometheus was the governor.[22] Due to the speed that its water flowed, the Nile at that time was called the Aëtus, or eagle, until Heracles stopped the flooding and corrected the river's course back to its original position.[23] Diodorus claimed that the myth of Heracles slaying the eagle which ate the liver of Prometheus had its origins in this event, and that the city of Thonis stood where the Nile now emptied into the Mediterranean.[10]
Herodotus said that Paris and Helen of Troy, fleeing from Menelaus, landed in a region of the Nile delta known as the Canopic mouth. Some of Paris' servants then fled to a nearby temple of Heracles that was built along the coast, and told the temple priests and Thonis, the watchman at the entrance to the Nile, of Paris' taking of Helen from Menelaus. Thonis then captured Paris' and his ships, and brought Paris and Helen to Memphis to be judged by Proteus of Egypt.[24] Alternatively it was believed[25] that Menelaus and Helen had stayed there, accommodated by the noble Egyptian Thon[26] and his wife Polydamna. The second century BC Greek poet Nicander wrote that Menelaus's helmsman, Canopus, was bitten by a viper on the sands of Thonis.[9]
Egyptian references
Until very recently the site had been known only from a few literary and epigraphic sources, one of which interestingly mentions the site as an
emporion, just like Naukratis.— British Museum, 2013[6]
Heracleion is also mentioned in the twin
Discovery and excavation process
Before its discovery in 2000, most historians believed that Thonis and Heracleion were two separate cities, both located on what is now the Egyptian mainland.
Numerous finds from the site have indicated that the city's period of major activity ran from the sixth to the fourth century BC,[12] with finds of pottery and coins appearing to stop at the end of the second century BC. Goddio's finds have also included incomplete statues of the god Serapis and the queen Arsinoe II who became king.[30]
Maritime archaeologists have begun using 3D technologies more consistently due to the “improvement of a suite of sonar, laser, optical and other sensor-based technologies capable of capturing terrestrial, intertidal, seabed and sub-seabed sediments in 3D and in high resolution”.[31] These technologies allow the archaeologists to scan the sites and create accurate, precise maps and images of the site. This is especially useful because the site is submerged underwater.
Archaeological finds
From 2009 to 2011 a baris,[32] a type of ancient Nile river boat, was excavated from the waters of Thonis-Heracleion.[33] Its design was found to be consistent with a description written by Herodotus in 450 BC.[34]
The quick destruction of the buildings and slow submersion of Thonis-Heracleion allows archaeologists to now study the underwater city with its surplus of archaeological evidence. One of the most important remains is the stele that was found[
In July 2019, a tholos, small
In August 2021,
On 19 September 2023, the Institut Européen d'Archéologie Sous-Marine announced the discovery of the site of a temple to god Amun and a Greek sanctuary devoted to Aphrodite in the ancient port city of Thonis-Heracleion,[47] together with many ancient Egyptian and Greek artifacts, including ancient Greek weapons.[15]
See also
References
- ^ "TM Places". www.trismegistos.org. Retrieved 2019-05-26.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-691-03169-9.
- ^ a b "Discovering Thonis-Heracleion". Franck Goddio - Underwater Archaeologist. Retrieved 2022-11-16.
- ISBN 978-0-954962739)
- ^ Lund University. Digital Atlas of the Roman Empire.
- ^ a b c Naukratis: a city and trading port in Egypt, British Museum
- ^ a b "The stele from Thonis-Heracleion" (PDF). Franck Goddio Underwater Archaeologist. Retrieved 2022-11-16.
- ^ a b c d e f g Shenker, Jack (15 Aug 2016). "Lost cities #6: how Thonis-Heracleion resurfaced after 1,000 years under water". The Guardian. Retrieved 11 Feb 2018.
- ^ a b c d e f Dalya Alberge (2 August 2015). "Ancient Egyptian underwater treasures to be exhibited for the first time". The Guardian.
- ^ a b Diodorus, Siculus. Bibliotheca historica. 1.19.3 - 1.19.4
- ISBN 9004035141p105
- ^ a b "Lost city of Heracleion gives up its secrets". The Telegraph. 28 April 2013. Retrieved 2013-06-06.
- ^ Sunken Cities, Egypts Lost World, The BP exhibition at the British Museum, 2016
- ^ Sunken Cities: Egypt's Lost Worlds. London: British Museum. pp. 143–144.
- ^ a b "Sunken ancient temples were found in a mysterious underwater city, with Egyptian and Greek treasures". businessinsider. 20 September 2023. Archived from the original on 20 September 2023.
- ^ a b c KW. "Discovering Thonis-Heracleion". Franck Goddio - Underwater Archaeologist. Retrieved 2022-12-02.
- ^ "Why Thonis-Heracleion disappeared". Franck Goddio Underwater Archaeologist. Retrieved 2022-11-16.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Discovering Thonis-Heracleion. (2022). Franck Goddio - Underwater Archaeologist. https://www.franckgoddio.org/projects/sunken-civilizations/heracleion/.
- ^ "Lost cities #6: how Thonis-Heracleion resurfaced after 1,000 years under water". the Guardian. 2016-08-15. Retrieved 2022-12-02.
- ^ Gauthier, Henri (1927). Dictionnaire des Noms Géographiques Contenus dans les Textes Hiéroglyphiques. Vol. 4. p. 32.
- ^ Strabo. Geographica. 17.1.16
- ^ Diodorus, Siculus. Bibliotheca historica. 1.19.1
- ^ Diodorus, Siculus. Biblotheca historica. 1.19.2
- ^ Herodotus. Histories. 2.113.1-115.1
- ^ Claudius Aelianus, De Natura Animalium, IX, 21
- ^ Stephanus of Byzantium (1849). "Θῶνις". Ethnika kat' epitomen (in Greek).
- ^ Egypt's Suken Treasures, Goddio, F, Fabre, D. München, 2008
- ^ Discovering Thonis-Heracleion. (2022). Franck Goddio - Underwater Archaeologist. https://www.franckgoddio.org/projects/sunken-civilizations/heracleion/./
- ^ a b c Discovering Thonis-Heracleion. (2022). Franck Goddio - Underwater Archaeologist. https://www.franckgoddio.org/projects/sunken-civilizations/heracleion/
- ^ Sooke, Alastair (29 April 2016). "Sunken Cities: the man who found Atlantis". The Telegraph. Retrieved 22 September 2016.
- ^ McCarthy, J., Benjamin, J., Winton, T., van Duivenvoorde, W. (2019). The Rise of 3D in Maritime Archaeology. In: McCarthy, J., Benjamin, J., Winton, T., van Duivenvoorde, W. (eds) 3D Recording and Interpretation for Maritime Archaeology. Coastal Research Library, vol 31. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-03635-5_1
- ^ Franck Goddio. "Baris: An Egyptian river boat" (PDF).
- ^ Alexander Belov (January 2019). "Belov, 2019, Ship 17 a baris from Thonis Heracleion_Cover and TOC". Belov, A., 2019, Ship 17: A Baris from Thonis-Heracleion. Oxford Centre for Maritime Archaeology Monograph 10. Ships and Boats of the Canopic Region in Egypt. Oxford. Retrieved 2022-11-17.
- ^ Dalya Alberge (17 March 2019). "Nile shipwreck discovery proves Herodotus right – after 2,469 years". The Guardian.
- ^ a b Heracles and the hone: about a foundation deposit from the temple of Thonis-Heracleion, A-S. von Bomhard, 2014
- ^ Robinson, D. (2018). The Depositional Contexts of the Ships from Thonis-Heracleion, Egypt. The International Journal of Nautical Archaeology, 47(2), 325-336. https://doi.org/10.1111/1095-9270.12321
- ^ "Mysterious temple discovered in the ruins of sunken ancient city". 9news.com. 26 July 2019.
- ^ History, Laura Geggel 2019-07-29T10:37:58Z (29 July 2019). "Divers Find Remains of Ancient Temple in Sunken Egyptian City". livescience.com. Retrieved 2019-08-17.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) - ^ Santos, Edwin (2019-07-28). "Archaeologists discover a sunken ancient settlement underwater". Nosy Media. Archived from the original on 2019-08-17. Retrieved 2019-08-17.
- ^ EDT, Katherine Hignett On 7/23/19 at 11:06 AM (2019-07-23). "Ancient Egypt: Underwater archaeologists uncover destroyed temple in the sunken city of Heracleion". Newsweek. Retrieved 2019-08-17.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) - ^ Topics, Head (24 July 2019). "Archaeologists discover a sunken ancient settlement underwater". Head Topics. Retrieved 2019-08-17.
- ^ "Ship-shape finds from a sunken city | the Past". 15 August 2021.
- ^ "Ancient ship and burial ground discovered in underwater city in Egypt". Live Science. 26 July 2021.
- ^ Franck Goddio. "Ptolemaic Galley" (PDF).
- ^ a b c Koop, F. (2022, July 19). Secrets of the sea: Warship and cemetery discovered in lost ancient city in Egypt. ZME Science. https://www.zmescience.com/science/secrets-of-the-sea-warship-and-cemetery-discovered-in-lost-ancient-city-in-greece-18072022/
- ^ a b Alberge, Dalya (2 August 2021). "Fruit baskets from fourth century BC found in ruins of Thonis-Heracleion". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 2 August 2021. Retrieved 2 August 2021.
- ^ "New discoveries off Egyptian coast reveal 'treasures and secrets'". CNN. 19 September 2023.
External links
- Franck Goddio official website
- European Institute for Underwater Archaeology (IEASM)
- Oxford Centre for Maritime Archaeology
- "Spectacular finds of lost city revealed". News. BBC. 7 June 2001. Retrieved 2013-06-06.
- "Searching for Sunken Cities". Ancient Egypt Magazine. Jul–Aug 2000.
- "Sunken Egyptian city reveals 1,200-year-old secrets". Yahoo!. 30 April 2013. Retrieved 2013-06-06.
- Osiris,Sunken Mysteries, Exhibition website
- Smithsonian article of July 21, 2021