Shipwreck found which was described by Herodotos 2,500 years ago

Archaeologists have recently discovered an ancient shipwreck which proves the Greek Historian Herodotos was accurate in his description, almost 25 centuries ago, regarding the construction of a Nile river boat called a 'baris'.

An artistic rendition of the discovered shipwreck. The upper half of the model illustrates the wreck
as excavated. Below this, unexcavated areas are mirrored to pro­duce a complete vessel outline
[Credit: Christoph Gerigk/Franck Goddio/Hilti Foundation]

The shipwreck, discovered recently off the Mediterranean coast of Egypt near the ancient, and now sunken, city of Thonis-Heracleion was of a vessel called a ”baris. This exact type of ship was described in great detail by Herodotos in his book Historia following a visit he made to the port city of Thonis-Heracleion in Egypt. Herodotos was impressed by the way people were constructing the ship, which was used to sail across the Nile River.

For centuries, scholars and archaeologists believed that the type of ship Herodotos described never actually existed, because such ships had never once been found by anyone on the planet. This theory was recently blown up when a group of archaeologists discovered a well-preserved shipwreck off the coast of Egypt in the Canopic Mouth of the Nile, in the Mediterranean Sea. What the archaeologists saw witnessed when they dove into the waters was exactly the kind of vessel Herodotos had perfectly described in his book exactly 2,469 years ago.

The 28-metre long vessel was one of the first ships used by the Egyptians to trade during ancient times. The vessels Herodotos described in his book must have been the exact same type of ship, but were only slightly smaller. Dr. Damian Robinson, the director of Oxford University’s center for maritime archaeology, points out that 

”...where planks are joined together to form the hull, they are usually joined by mortise and tenon joints which fasten one plank to the next. Here we have a completely unique form of construction, which is not seen anywhere else.”

Most likely, this unique construction was the reason why Herodotos was so amazed when he saw this type of ship. The eminent historian was also astonished by the peculiar types of wood they were using to construct the ships, which to him was completely unknown.

Archaeologists believe that what Herodotos saw could have even been constructed in the very same shipyard as the vessel they discovered, as a word-by-word analysis of Herodotos’ text exactly matches the appearance of the ship.

Belov's exploration of the ship's construction has been published in a monograph by the Oxford Centre for Maritime Archaeology, Ship 17: a baris from Thonis-Heracleion.

• Thursday, March 21, 2019
  ancient Hellenic culture archeology current affairs Egypt Egyptian herodotos

The lucky discoveries of lost ancient Hellenic history

Pursuit recently published an article concerning the luckiest fiends of ancient history. I've filtered out the Hellenic ones for you.

Dr Brent Davis: The Rosetta Stone
The story of the Rosetta Stone starts with Napoleon Bonaparte, who invaded Egypt in 1798 on one of his many campaigns to become master of the world.

In 1799, a group of French soldiers working near the town of Rosetta in the Nile Delta tore down an ancient Egyptian wall so they could use the stones to repair a French fort. One of these stones was the Rosetta Stone, an inscribed slab of granite now in the British Museum.

The stone is inscribed in three different scripts: the top section is in full hieroglyphs, the middle section is in Demotic (a cursive form of hieroglyphs), and the bottom section is in Greek which, of course, could easily be read.

Scholars quickly realised that the stone contains the same text written three times, once in each script.
Everyone saw that this stone might unlock the secret of hieroglyphs—as indeed it did. In 1822, the brilliant French scholar Jean-François Champollion made a major breakthrough in deciphering the hieroglyphic portion, giving birth to the modern field of Egyptology.

Professor Louise Hitchcock: Linear A and B
One of the last frontiers in the discovery and decipherment of ancient texts are the Aegean scripts Linear A and Linear B. These are the scripts of the Minoan, Cypriot and Mycenaean civilisations of ancient Greece – Homer’s Age of heroes.

The decipherment of Linear B, an early form of Ancient Greek preserved mostly on clay tablets, was dramatically announced in a famous 1952 radio announcement on the BBC by architect and war time codebreaker, Michael Ventris.

As a fourteen-year-old, young Ventris had heard Sir Arthur Evans – the discoverer of the Knossos palace on Crete fabled as the home of the Minotaur – present a lecture on the Linear B texts, and made it his lifetime dream to decipher it.

Linear B dates to the era of Mycenaean palaces around 1500 to 1200 BCE, and pushes the study of classical languages back into the Bronze Age, the time before the Trojan war.

However, these are not texts recording events or deeds by famous people. Rather they are temporary administrative palace documents consisting of allocations of goods or labour to the likes of smiths, temples, ships, cloth workers, and chariot makers. They give us valuable insights into the structure of the Mycenaean political system, as well as trade, manufacturing, and the economy.

But the language written in the earlier Linear A script is yet to be deciphered.

It originated on Crete initially as a hieroglyphic or pictographic script around 1900 to 1700 BCE and is preserved on clay tablets, stone libation tables, gold jewellery and even on magic bowls inscribed with octopus ink.

So far, we simply haven’t discovered enough Linear A to decipher it, which means archaeologists and codebreakers continue to dream of cracking it.

Dr James H.K.O. Chong-Gossard: Sappho’s poems
“My knees, that were once swift for the dance like little fawns, do not carry me. I lament this often, but what can I do? To be ageless when one is mortal, is not possible.” So writes the incomparable ancient Greek poetess Sappho in the late 7th century BCE in the “Tithonus poem”, a gem of only twelve lines that speaks to us across centuries of the sadness of ageing.

But fragments of the poem had long been lost, including these beautiful lines, and it is only because of a material similar to papier-mâché that they have been preserved for publication in 2004.
Sappho’s poetry highlights the agelessness of human feeling. Picture: ‘Sappho and Alcaeus’ by Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema/Wikipedia

The original fragments of the poem had survived on papyri from 2nd to the 3rd century CE Roman Egypt, and had been unearthed at Oxyrhynchus in the early 20th century.

But, in 2002, the Cologne Papyrus Collection acquired from a private collector papyri that preserved the rest of Sappho’s poem.

These missing fragments had survived as “cartonnage” – a hard material comprising papyri, linen and plaster that was used in ancient times as book covers and mummy cases.

Another rediscovered Sappho poem first published in 2014, the “Brothers Poem,” was similarly preserved in cartonnage and was only uncovered when the papyrus fragments were separated by dissolving the cartonnage in warm water.

Some 2,600 years ago, Sappho lamented that people cannot be ageless, but the continual re-discovery of her words is proving the agelessness of her poetry.

• Friday, February 22, 2019
  ancient Hellenic culture archeology Egypt Egyptian modern Greece Sappho

Remains of rare Greco-Roman temple unearthed in Egypt

Archaeologists have made an exciting discovery, unearthing the remains of a Greco-Roman temple in Egypt. The remains were found at the Al-Salam site in the Western Desert, situated near the Siwa Oasis and border of Libya.

Led by head archaeologist Abdel-Aziz El-Demery, the team found the main entrance of the temple, parts of its foundation, and an outer wall leading to a front courtyard surrounded by entrances to other chambers.

According to El-Demery, while removing debris from the site, they also uncovered architectural elements such as upper lintels decorated with various scenes, and corner pillars decorated with an egg-and-dart device that was common during the Greco-Roman era.

Meanwhile aside from the temple, archaeologists also uncovered two limestone lion statues, one of which is currently without a head, a sculpture of a man’s head believed to have Grecian facial features, the remains of pots, and coins. Space archaeologist, Sarah Parcak told National Geographic:

“What’s amazing is you don’t tend to hear every day of new temples found in Egypt. It will go a long way in helping to shed light on the history of the Siwa Oasis, which is one of the most isolated Egyptian settlements."

According to the Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities, with further excavations set to take place throughout the year, they expect to find additional temple remains.

• Friday, April 13, 2018
  ancient Hellenic culture archeology current affairs Egypt Roman

Archaeologists discover 2,300-year-old gymnasium in Egypt

A joint team of German and Egyptian archaeologists working at the Watfa site in Egypt's Fayoum province discovered an ancient gym that dates back to the Hellenistic period. According to Ayman Ashmawi, the head of the Ancient Egyptian Antiquities Sector, the gymnasium has a large hall for meetings that was once decorated with statues, a dining hall and a courtyard. Next to the gym is a 200-meter track. Researchers also found out that gardens had surrounded the building to complete an ideal layout of a center of Hellenic learning.

The site dates to a time when Egypt was ruled by Greeks after being conquered by Alexander the Great in the 4th century BC. Per Cornelia Römer, the leader of the team from the German Archaeological Institute, ancient Hellenic gyms such as the newly discovered gymnasium were typically private foundations by rich people who wanted their villages to become even more Hellenic in aspect.

​"The young men of the Greek-speaking upper class were trained in sports, learned to read and to write, and to enjoy philosophical discussions. All big cities of the Hellenistic world like Athens in Greece, Pergamon and Miletus in Asia Minor, and Pompei in Italy had such gymnasia. The gymnasia in the Egyptian countryside were built after their pattern; although much smaller, the gymnasion of Watfa clearly shows the impact of Hellenic life in Egypt, not only in Alexandria, but also in the countryside."

The experts estimate that when the village was first built all those years ago it housed a total of 1,200 inhabitants. Two-thirds are thought to have been Egyptian while the other third were Greek-speaking settlers. The gymnasium, roughly 50 miles from Cairo, sits inside the ancient village of Philoteris, according to a Facebook post from Egypt's Ministry of Antiquities. The post also indicates that the village, founded by King Ptolemy II in the third century BC, was named after his second sister Philotera.

This find is just the latest in a series of discoveries made by archaeologists in Egypt. Just last week another international team of researchers announced they'd discovered a "big void" inside Egypt's Great Pyramid of Giza. The German team, surveying and excavating at the Watfa site since 2010, has been working alongside the Ain Shams University.

• Saturday, November 18, 2017
  ancient Hellenic culture archeology current affairs Egypt Graeco-Egyptian syncraticism

Ornamental motifs most used by the ancient Hellenes

Ornaments: decorative patterns and floral designs added to the foot, rim, handles and borders of vessels. Lotus, palmettes, ivy, meander, rays, tongues and rosettes were the most popular to the ancient Hellenes.  Why should you care? Well, you don't have to, but a lot of you enjoy making some form of art or decorations for shrines and as little gifts to the Gods, so I figured you might be interested. The most important ones are listed below:

I think most of those are rather self-explanatory, but let me note a bit about the two most important subgroups, the palmettes and the meander.

It is thought that the palmette originated in ancient Egypt 2,500 years BC and has influenced Hellenic art. Egyptian palmettes (or 'anthemion', in Greek, from 'ανθέμιον', a flower were originally based on features of various flowers, including the papyrus and the lotus or lily representing lower and upper Egypt and their fertile union, before it became associated with the palm tree. From earliest times there was a strong association with the sun and it is probably an early form of the halo.

The essence of the palmette is a symmetrical group of spreading 'fronds' that spread out from a single base, normally widening as they go out, before ending at a rounded or fairly blunt pointed tip. There may be a central frond that is larger than the rest. The number of fronds is variable, but typically between five and about fifteen. In the repeated border design commonly referred to as anthemion the palm fronds more closely resemble petals of the honeysuckle flower, as if designed to attract fertilizing insects.

A meander or meandros (Μαίανδρος) is a decorative border constructed from a continuous line, shaped into a repeated motif. Such a design is also called the Greek fret or Greek key design, although these are modern designations. The meander often represents a labyrinth in linear form and may have symbolized infinity and unity. The many versions with rounded shapes are called running scrolls.

Meanders are common decorative elements in Hellenic and Roman art. In ancient Hellas they appeared in many architectural friezes, and in bands on the pottery from the Geometric Period onwards. They were among the most important symbols in ancient Hellas and many ancient temples incorporated the sign of the meander. Hellenic vases, especially during their Geometric Period, were probably the main reason for the widespread use of meanders.

Image copyright Ori Keren, uploaded by Mark Cartwright.

• Sunday, April 23, 2017
  ancient Hellenic culture archeology art Egypt Egyptian Graeco-Egyptian syncraticism

On Graeco-Egyptian syncraticism

I was recently asked if it is posstible--and respectful--to worship botht he Hellenic and Egyptian pantheons. This can certainly be done. In fact, the ancient Hellenes did it. In 7th century BC, after the Hellenic 'dark ages' (1100-750 BC), the city of Naucratis was founded in Ancient Egypt. It was located on the Canopic branch of the Nile river, 45 mi (72 km) from the open sea. It was the first and, for much of its early history, the only permanent Hellenic colony in Egypt; acting as a symbiotic nexus for the interchange of Greek and Egyptian art and culture. Under Greco-Roman rule, Egypt hosted several Hellenic settlements, mostly concentrated in Alexandria, but also in a few other cities, where Hellenic settlers lived alongside some seven to ten million native Egyptians.

Alexander the Great conquered Egypt at an early stage of his conquests. He respected the pharaonic religions and customs and he was proclaimed Pharaoh of Egypt. He established the city of Alexandria. After his death, in 323 BC, his empire was divided among his generals. Egypt was given to Ptolemy I Soter, whose descendants would give Egypt her final royal dynasty. Ptolemy and his descendants showed respect to Egypt's most cherished traditions--those of religion--and turned them to their own advantage. Alexandria became the centre of the Hellenistic world and the centre of international commerce, art and science. The last Pharaoh was an Hellenic princess, Cleopatra VII, who took her own life in 30 BC.

Contacts between both cultures created a sycratic mix of Gods that were influenced by both cultures. Similarly, some Gods were imported one-on-one into either Egypt or Hellas from a very early time on. There might be a depiction of the Egyptian Goddess Taweret in the vault of Minoic Krete, for example, transformed into an aquatic Hellenic deity.

The most important syncratic Gods are the 'Alexandian Triad', worshipped--predicatbly--in Alexandria. The triad consisted forstly of the Egyptian God Amon, who was represented by Zeus' statue with two ram horns. Serapis is the Graeco-egyptian God par excellence: Osiris risen and become the bull Apis. He is identified with Hellenic Gods such as Hades, Zeus and Dionysos. For the Hellenes He was the God of fertility and medicine, represented the male productive forces of nature, and was regarded as sovereign of the kingdom of the dead. He was represented by the Greeks with long hair and beard, and a large cloak covering his entire body except the arms, seated on a throne with Kerberos at his feet. He was represented as a mummy, with the crescent moon and two flails in the Egyptian iconography.

Isis, the wife of Osiris and Goddess of motherhood and fertility, was identified firsly with Demeter, but later was associated with other Goddesses such as Aphrodite, Athena or Artemis. She was represented at the Egyptian manner, sometimes with a double crown holding the feather of Maat, or a pair of lyre-shaped horns, and in the half the solar disk. She was also frequently represented sitting with her son Horus in her arms, breastfeeding him.

The last god of the 'Alexandrian triad' was Horus, son of Isis and Osiris. Osiris, after being murdered by his brother Seth, resurrected and had, with Isis, Horus. To the Alexandrians and the Greeks, Horus was equated with Apollon.

Another Alexandrian God was Hermanubis, a combination of Hermes and Anubis. The jackal God was here identified with Hermes Psychopompos, but also was identified with Thoth, the ibis-headed scribe. There were many another assimilations between both pantheons: Hathor and Aphrodite, Min and Pan, Mut and Hera, Nefertum and Prometheus, Ra and also Sobek with Helios, Neith and Athena, Bastet and Artemis, Onuris and Ares, Nekhbet and Eileithyia, and Heryshef and Heracles, amongst others.

But Dionysos was undoubtedly the most accepted Hellenic God by the Alexandrians. Unlike most Hellenic gods, Dionysos was worshiped By His Hellenic name, without being equated with any Egyptian deity. He was the favorite God of Alexander the Great, who, like his mother Olympias, was involved in the Dionysian Mysteries. The kings of the Ptolemaic dynasty, considering themselves the successors of Alexander, encouraged the continuation of the cult throughout their entire reign.

Reconstructing a Graeco-Egyptian pantheon and practice is possible, and I have seen it done. It'll take a lot of research and a deep understanding of both religious practices to do it respectfully, but I believe a very rewarding practice await those who feel drawn to this pantheon.

• Wednesday, August 17, 2016
  ancient Hellenic culture Apollon Dionysos Egypt Graeco-Egyptian syncraticism Hades Hera requested post Zeus