Читать книгу Ten years' digging in Egypt, 1881-1891 - W. M. Flinders Petrie - Страница 7

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Before beginning work in the end of 1883 I visited Gizeh; and, as usual, many small antiquities were offered to me by the Arabs. Among such was the upper part of an alabaster figure of a soldier, wearing a helmet and armlets, which was plainly of archaic Greek or Cypriote work. I at once gave the man what he asked for it (never run risks in important cases), and then enquired where he got it. ‘From Nebireh,’ was his answer, and that was somewhere near Damanhur. So, a month or two later, I took an opportunity of going down to that region, and, after some mistakes and enquiries, I at last reached the place, in course of a twenty mile walk, and having only half-an-hour to spare before going on to the train. There I met a sight which I had never hoped for—almost too strange to believe. Before me lay a long low mound of town ruins, of which all the core had been dug out by the natives for earth, thus baring the very lowest level of the town all over the middle of it. Wherever I walked in this crater I trod on pieces of archaic Greek pottery; soon I laded my pockets with scraps of vases and of statuettes, and at last tore myself away, longing to resolve the mystery of these Greeks in Egypt. Up to that time no Greek remains earlier than the Ptolemaic age, and Alexander, had been found in the country, and to step back two or three centuries, into the days of black-figured and rosette-ornamented vases, and archaic statuettes, was quite a new departure.

23. Cypriote Soldier.

24. Dedication of Statue to Heliodoros, by the Naukratites. 1: 6.

That season’s work was already laid out, and I was bound to go to Tanis; but the next season I returned to this curious site, determined to understand its history. The only place that I could find to live in about there was an old country house of a pasha; and, while looking at it, I noticed two blocks of dark grey stone by the side of the entrance. Turning one of them over, I there saw the glorious heading ΗΠΟΛΙΣΗΝΑΥΚΡΑΤΙ … ; a decree of the city of Naukratis was before me, and the unknown town now had a name; and that a name which had been sought for often, and far from this place, and which was one of the objects of Egyptian research to discover and truly assign. All that day ‘Naukratis’ rang in my mind, and I sprang over the mounds with that splendid exultation of a new discovery, long wished for and well found. In England, some hesitated, and some doubted, but none denied it; and after the season’s work there was no longer any question. The next year I continued the excavations along with Mr. Ernest Gardner, and was soon able to leave the remainder of the clearing in his hands, while I moved on to fresh discoveries, on the east of the country.

The origin of Naukratis was evidently entirely Greek; down on the flat surface of Nile mud, which shows the level of the country when the city was founded, the earliest remains are Greek potsherds. The date of its foundation was certainly before Amasis; and the discovery of the fort of Defenneh (Tahpanhes) the next year explained the origin of this city. When Psamtik I, in 665 B.C., had wrested the throne of Egypt from the dodecarchy, or local princes (who had assumed authority on the fall of the Ethiopian rule of Tirhaka), he based his power on ‘the brazen men from the sea,’ the Karian and Ionian mercenaries. But he knew too well the temper of his countrymen to obtrude this strength needlessly; and at the same time he needed special defence from Libya and from Asia. He therefore planted his Greek troops in two great garrisons, one on his Libyan frontier at Naukratis, the other on his Asiatic frontier at Tahpanhes; at each place founding a large square fort and a walled camp around it.

These Greeks brought with them their national worship; and of the temples mentioned by Herodotos, those of Apollo, Aphrodite, and Hera, have been found, and also one to the Dioskouroi, not recorded in history. The temple of the Milesian Apollo appears to have been the oldest: it stood in the centre of the town, outside of the fort, and was first built of mud-brick, plastered over, and later on—about the fifth century—of

25. Necking of Column, Apollo Temple.

white stone, some pieces of which I found. The site had been nearly cleared out by the native diggers; and I only came in time to get fragments of the temple, and to open up the great rubbish trench, where all the temple refuse was thrown. Very precious this rubbish was to me, layer under layer of broken vases, from the innumerable small bowls to the great craters of noble size and design; and most precious of all were the hundreds of dedications inscribed on the pottery, some of them probably the oldest examples of Greek writing known, and altogether far outnumbering all our past material for the

26. Oldest Ionic Dedication, 660? B.C. 2: 5.

27. Naukratite Cup. 1: 3.

archaic alphabets. The temple of Aphrodite I found the next year, and Mr. Gardner cleared it out, and unearthed three successive buildings, one over the other. Though, perhaps, as old as that of Apollo, its inscriptions are not so primitive; but it has a charm from the tale of Athenaios about the mariners from Cyprus, who had a statuette of the goddess a span high in their boat; and how they besought it in the storm, and were soon at peace, and their boat bespread with myrtle boughs; wherefore they dedicated the statuette in the temple of Aphrodite at Naukratis, and the people of the city made myrtle wreaths for many an age after. Fine vases were found here; and great quantities of a particular kind of cup, which was apparently made on purpose for offering here. It is a bowl with a very tall upright brim, deeper than the bowl itself, and covered over with a white coat, on which delicate painting in brown is sometimes added; that these were specially made here we know from the name of Aphrodite being painted on one before the baking. The temple of Hera has been entirely swept away, and we only know of its place from some pieces of dedication on bowls found by Mr. Gardner; these lay not far from the Apollo temple, in a great enclosure, which I planned the first season. The Dioskouroi had a small temple near that of Apollo; of which only some brick pillars, and flakes of brilliant red and blue stucco, were found. But several pieces of dedicated bowls showed the nature and early age of this shrine.

28. Examples of Dedications (transliterated) to Apollo, Aphrodite, Hera, and the Dioskouroi. 2: 3.

The greatest and most celebrated building of Naukratis was the Panhellenion, with the central altar of the Greek community in Egypt. This was in the large enclosure around the fort, as all are agreed; but the depth of earth there prevented my reaching any remains of the altar. Herodotos expressly mentions that certain Greek towns were excluded from the

29. Foundation Deposit Models. Iron: 1, Hoe; 7, Mortar Rake. 2, Alabaster Peg. Bronze: 3, Knife; 5, Axe; 8, Adze; 9, Trowel; 11, Chisel; 12, Hatchet. Glazed: 4, Cup; 10, Libation Vase; 14, Block. 6, Name of Ptolemy II on Lazuli. Materials: 13, Mud-brick; 15–23, Turquoise, Jasper, Lazuli, Agate-Gold, Silver, Lead, Copper, Iron. 1: 4

common participation in the Panhellenion, and that hence arose the separate temples in the town. Now as the sanctuary and the fort were in one, it seems readily explained how the mercenaries welcomed their kinsmen and townsfolk in the camp to join at the common altar; while those traders who came from other cities would be left outside, and would found their own temples. If it were so, we may conclude that neither Miletos, Samos, nor Aegina, furnished any of the mercenaries of Psamtik. In the time of Ptolemy Philadelphos, as the old camp and Panhellenion no longer needed defence, the entrance was widened and occupied with a large building; of which the foundation deposits, consisting of models of the iron and bronze tools, of the materials, and of the libation vases, were discovered in each corner of the bed of sand which was laid beneath the foundations. An avenue led up to this from the west, and marble rams, a large granite sphinx, and a base of a figure dedicated to Zeus of Thebes (i.e. Amen, identified with Zeus), were found here.