DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4391#0007
THE RISE OF KOPTOS.
3
recent excavations and results. The valley from the
Nile to the Red Sea, known as the Hammamat
Valley, has always been the key to the East. In
prehistoric times the Punite race probably entered the
Nile valley by this line, and the Egyptians used to
send out eastern expeditions by the same route.
When commerce became established with Arabia and
India in Greek and Roman times, Koptos became
the port of the Oriental trade. In Arab times the
same course was followed, only diverted to the south,
to the neighbouring town of Ous, and still later to
the northern town of Oeneh ; and the route is still
followed, as by the Indian troops in this century.
There has been some question as to whether the
Copts of modern Egypt received their name in Arabic
from Koptos, or from Aegyptos, which is usually
derived from Ha-ka-ptah, the name of Memphis.
There are other names which may help to explain
this : the Phoenicians were known to the Egyptians
as Kefti; and in India the inlaid work of patterned
metal—which we first know of on Aah-hotep's dagger
and axe—is known as Kuft work. An hypothesis
which would connect all these names might be
framed thus : the Kefti or Phoenician—Punite—race
settled on the Nile in prehistoric times, and their
town was named Keft from them : the inlaid metal
work was known as Kuft work in the East, owing
either to its Egyptian or Phoenician origin, and Kuft
being the port of Egypt to the East, through which
all Arabian trade went, the Egyptian became known
as a Kufti to the Arab ; so that on the Arabian
invasion the name was retained for the whole of the
indigenous population of Egypt. In the classical
form of the name, Koptos, p must have been sounded
soft, more as a Spanish b ; in Egyptian the form is
Kebti, the b here being equal to our v, and sounding
therefore as Kevti, and the Arabic form is Kuft.
The k is the koph or q, which is sounded at present in
Upper Egypt as a hard g.
CHAPTER I.
THE RISE OF KOPTOS.
5. The natural features of the country have
rendered the site of Koptos of importance in history.
The Nile in Middle and Lower Egypt runs down the
line of the great fault from south to north ; but above
that it has a direction at right angles from east to
west, determined by a great cross valley which
stretches from the Red Sea into the Libyan Desert.
This valley must have held a wide sheet of water at
the time when the Nile was far fuller than it is now.
And in the bottom of this lake a bed of tenacious
yellow clay was laid clown, from the drainage of the
eastern mountains which ran into it. This bed
became cut away by the later drainage in many
parts, after the elevation of the land, and deeper
cutting of the Nile valley ; but a mass of it remained
high above the Nile deposits, and formed a knoll
which projected through the flat expanse of black
Nile mud around it. This knoll, of much the appear-
ance of London clay, lay just in the track of the only
practicable route from the Nile valley out to the Red
Sea ; and giving a raised site close to the river, amid
the swamps and inundations which covered its banks,
the early settlers readily adopted it for their dwelling.
6. When we come to uncover this yellow basal clay
beneath the later town of Koptos, we find it dug out
into many pits over its surface. These were pro-
bably holes from which clay had been taken for wattle
and daub huts. And in these pits, and strewing over
the surface of the clay, lie many flint implements.
One fine knife (PL. II, 6) lay in a pit, and many
rectangular flint flakes (PL. II, 17, 24, 25) trimmed
with square ends, such as we know to belong to
the Illrd—IVth dynasties at Medum, were found
strewing about wherever we reached the base level.
No traces of palaeolithic man appeared here, although
such are found commonly in the neighbouring desert;
and this accords with the country having been far
deeper under water during the earlier ages of man.
Along the west of the clay island it was found to
slope down very steeply, and over the slope was
thrown out a bed of at least five feet thick of fine
black ashes. From the steepness of the slope, which
indicated rapid water-wearing, and the throwing of
rubbish which suggested that there was no occupant
of the ground below, it seems likely that the river-
bed ran then close to the island of clay. There is
now a large canal about half a mile to the west, and
it is possible that this is the somewhat shifted
descendant of an old arm or course of the Nile. The
period of this ash-bed is roughly shewn by our
finding about 40 inches above the base of it a fine
flint knife of the back-curved type (II, 1) and a
bangle of gold wire (II, 2) (Univ. Coll.). It belonged
therefore to the early metal period, when flint was
yet in full use ; and such a civilization lasted pro-
bably for several centuries next before the historical
£ 2
3
recent excavations and results. The valley from the
Nile to the Red Sea, known as the Hammamat
Valley, has always been the key to the East. In
prehistoric times the Punite race probably entered the
Nile valley by this line, and the Egyptians used to
send out eastern expeditions by the same route.
When commerce became established with Arabia and
India in Greek and Roman times, Koptos became
the port of the Oriental trade. In Arab times the
same course was followed, only diverted to the south,
to the neighbouring town of Ous, and still later to
the northern town of Oeneh ; and the route is still
followed, as by the Indian troops in this century.
There has been some question as to whether the
Copts of modern Egypt received their name in Arabic
from Koptos, or from Aegyptos, which is usually
derived from Ha-ka-ptah, the name of Memphis.
There are other names which may help to explain
this : the Phoenicians were known to the Egyptians
as Kefti; and in India the inlaid work of patterned
metal—which we first know of on Aah-hotep's dagger
and axe—is known as Kuft work. An hypothesis
which would connect all these names might be
framed thus : the Kefti or Phoenician—Punite—race
settled on the Nile in prehistoric times, and their
town was named Keft from them : the inlaid metal
work was known as Kuft work in the East, owing
either to its Egyptian or Phoenician origin, and Kuft
being the port of Egypt to the East, through which
all Arabian trade went, the Egyptian became known
as a Kufti to the Arab ; so that on the Arabian
invasion the name was retained for the whole of the
indigenous population of Egypt. In the classical
form of the name, Koptos, p must have been sounded
soft, more as a Spanish b ; in Egyptian the form is
Kebti, the b here being equal to our v, and sounding
therefore as Kevti, and the Arabic form is Kuft.
The k is the koph or q, which is sounded at present in
Upper Egypt as a hard g.
CHAPTER I.
THE RISE OF KOPTOS.
5. The natural features of the country have
rendered the site of Koptos of importance in history.
The Nile in Middle and Lower Egypt runs down the
line of the great fault from south to north ; but above
that it has a direction at right angles from east to
west, determined by a great cross valley which
stretches from the Red Sea into the Libyan Desert.
This valley must have held a wide sheet of water at
the time when the Nile was far fuller than it is now.
And in the bottom of this lake a bed of tenacious
yellow clay was laid clown, from the drainage of the
eastern mountains which ran into it. This bed
became cut away by the later drainage in many
parts, after the elevation of the land, and deeper
cutting of the Nile valley ; but a mass of it remained
high above the Nile deposits, and formed a knoll
which projected through the flat expanse of black
Nile mud around it. This knoll, of much the appear-
ance of London clay, lay just in the track of the only
practicable route from the Nile valley out to the Red
Sea ; and giving a raised site close to the river, amid
the swamps and inundations which covered its banks,
the early settlers readily adopted it for their dwelling.
6. When we come to uncover this yellow basal clay
beneath the later town of Koptos, we find it dug out
into many pits over its surface. These were pro-
bably holes from which clay had been taken for wattle
and daub huts. And in these pits, and strewing over
the surface of the clay, lie many flint implements.
One fine knife (PL. II, 6) lay in a pit, and many
rectangular flint flakes (PL. II, 17, 24, 25) trimmed
with square ends, such as we know to belong to
the Illrd—IVth dynasties at Medum, were found
strewing about wherever we reached the base level.
No traces of palaeolithic man appeared here, although
such are found commonly in the neighbouring desert;
and this accords with the country having been far
deeper under water during the earlier ages of man.
Along the west of the clay island it was found to
slope down very steeply, and over the slope was
thrown out a bed of at least five feet thick of fine
black ashes. From the steepness of the slope, which
indicated rapid water-wearing, and the throwing of
rubbish which suggested that there was no occupant
of the ground below, it seems likely that the river-
bed ran then close to the island of clay. There is
now a large canal about half a mile to the west, and
it is possible that this is the somewhat shifted
descendant of an old arm or course of the Nile. The
period of this ash-bed is roughly shewn by our
finding about 40 inches above the base of it a fine
flint knife of the back-curved type (II, 1) and a
bangle of gold wire (II, 2) (Univ. Coll.). It belonged
therefore to the early metal period, when flint was
yet in full use ; and such a civilization lasted pro-
bably for several centuries next before the historical
£ 2