DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4031#0035
THE NOME OF THOTH.
*'
On tlie same side as the mounds of Tmei el
Amdid, but nearer to Mansoorah, the traveller
passes another mound close to the present
station of Baklieh. A few years ago he might
there have seen a number of fellaheen actively
engaged in excavations, under cover of getting
"sebakh" manure for their fields, but really
looking for antiquities, "Now the mine is
exhausted, the mound has been partly levelled
to the ground, and, even for a fellah, there is
no further use in working there.
In traversing the short distance which sepa-
rates the station from the mounds, we first
reach a space covered with enormous blocks of
black granite (pi. xii. A.) and red limestone.
Among them are two capitals in form of a
lotus flower, only roughly hewn and not yet
polished. One of them has been split in two,
for, as usual, this heap of big stones has served
as a quarry. Evidently a king of Egypt—
whose name we do not know, but who, judging
from this building material, which is very like
that of Behbeit, might be a king of the XXXth
Dynasty, or even a Ptolemy—intended building
a temple here. To that end, he brought hither
stones from Upper Egypt, but was afterwards
obliged to give up his project, owing to
circumstances also unknown to us.
This heap of stones stands near the opening
of an enclosure-wall built round an area of
a few acres, containing the remains of the old
city, which could not have been very large. It
probably possessed but a small sanctuary,
which was to be renewed or enlarged. At a
short distance from the large mound is a
smaller one, where the fellaheen have been
digging for years, until parts of the mound
have completely disappeared. It was a necro-
polis of sacred ibises, and the spot has long
supplied the shops of antiquity dealers in Cairo
with bronze heads and figures of the sacred
bird. All over the tell lay heaps of bones of
the bird of Thoth, and the figures were thrown
among them exactly as in the case of the cats
of Bubastis. Some mummified ibises were
found in cases made out of a kind of cement.
Along with the remains of these birds were
found one or two sarcophagi of white limestone,
which were immediately broken up, and also a
few statuettes, one of which is dedicated to
Thoth, and is now in the British Museum.
The presence of so many ibis relics naturally
led to the idea that this was the site, if not of
the capital, at least of one of the cities of a
nome dedicated to Thoth, Hermes, and which
might have been called Hermopolitan by the
Greeks. In the hope of discovering the name of
the place, I cut extensive trenches all through
the mound, but notwithstanding their number
and their depth, I did not come upon the trace
of any important buildings whatever. Evi-
dently, if there had been a temple, it was a
small building which soon disappeared, and
which was to be replaced by a larger one for
which the necessary material had been brought
from Upper Egypt. Besides, in the heart of
*'
On tlie same side as the mounds of Tmei el
Amdid, but nearer to Mansoorah, the traveller
passes another mound close to the present
station of Baklieh. A few years ago he might
there have seen a number of fellaheen actively
engaged in excavations, under cover of getting
"sebakh" manure for their fields, but really
looking for antiquities, "Now the mine is
exhausted, the mound has been partly levelled
to the ground, and, even for a fellah, there is
no further use in working there.
In traversing the short distance which sepa-
rates the station from the mounds, we first
reach a space covered with enormous blocks of
black granite (pi. xii. A.) and red limestone.
Among them are two capitals in form of a
lotus flower, only roughly hewn and not yet
polished. One of them has been split in two,
for, as usual, this heap of big stones has served
as a quarry. Evidently a king of Egypt—
whose name we do not know, but who, judging
from this building material, which is very like
that of Behbeit, might be a king of the XXXth
Dynasty, or even a Ptolemy—intended building
a temple here. To that end, he brought hither
stones from Upper Egypt, but was afterwards
obliged to give up his project, owing to
circumstances also unknown to us.
This heap of stones stands near the opening
of an enclosure-wall built round an area of
a few acres, containing the remains of the old
city, which could not have been very large. It
probably possessed but a small sanctuary,
which was to be renewed or enlarged. At a
short distance from the large mound is a
smaller one, where the fellaheen have been
digging for years, until parts of the mound
have completely disappeared. It was a necro-
polis of sacred ibises, and the spot has long
supplied the shops of antiquity dealers in Cairo
with bronze heads and figures of the sacred
bird. All over the tell lay heaps of bones of
the bird of Thoth, and the figures were thrown
among them exactly as in the case of the cats
of Bubastis. Some mummified ibises were
found in cases made out of a kind of cement.
Along with the remains of these birds were
found one or two sarcophagi of white limestone,
which were immediately broken up, and also a
few statuettes, one of which is dedicated to
Thoth, and is now in the British Museum.
The presence of so many ibis relics naturally
led to the idea that this was the site, if not of
the capital, at least of one of the cities of a
nome dedicated to Thoth, Hermes, and which
might have been called Hermopolitan by the
Greeks. In the hope of discovering the name of
the place, I cut extensive trenches all through
the mound, but notwithstanding their number
and their depth, I did not come upon the trace
of any important buildings whatever. Evi-
dently, if there had been a temple, it was a
small building which soon disappeared, and
which was to be replaced by a larger one for
which the necessary material had been brought
from Upper Egypt. Besides, in the heart of