Karanis ( grc-koi, Καρανίς), located in what is now Kom Oshim, was an agricultural town in the
Ptolemaic Kingdom, and
Roman Egypt
, conventional_long_name = Roman Egypt
, common_name = Egypt
, subdivision = Province
, nation = the Roman Empire
, era = Late antiquity
, capital = Alexandria
, title_leader = Praefectus Augustalis
, image_map = Roman E ...
located in the northeast corner of the
Faiyum
Faiyum ( ar, الفيوم ' , borrowed from cop, ̀Ⲫⲓⲟⲙ or Ⲫⲓⲱⲙ ' from egy, pꜣ ym "the Sea, Lake") is a city in Middle Egypt. Located southwest of Cairo, in the Faiyum Oasis, it is the capital of the modern Faiyum ...
. It was roughly 60 hectares in size and its peak population is estimated to be 4000 people, although it could have been as much as three times greater. Karanis was one of a number to towns in the Arsinoite nome established in the third century BC by
Ptolemy II Philadephus, and lasted until the 6th century AD. Though Karanis declined in the late Ptolmaic period, in the first century BC, the town expanded north when
Augustus
Caesar Augustus (born Gaius Octavius; 23 September 63 BC – 19 August AD 14), also known as Octavian, was the first Roman emperor; he reigned from 27 BC until his death in AD 14. He is known for being the founder of the Roman Pri ...
, having conquered
Egypt
Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediter ...
and also recognizing the Faiyum's agricultural potential, sent workers to clean up the canals and restore the dikes that had fallen into decline, restoring productivity to the area.
South Temple
The south temple's origins can be traced back to as early as the first century BC and it was occupied until the late third or fourth century AD. The temple was dedicated under
Nero
Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus ( ; born Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus; 15 December AD 37 – 9 June AD 68), was the fifth Roman emperor and final emperor of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, reigning from AD 54 un ...
to the crocodile related gods Pnepheros and Petesouchos. It is built in an Egyptian style, made of limestone blocks, and may have been built on the site of an earlier temple. In addition to shrine rooms and storage rooms, the north and south sides of the south temple contain houses and storerooms for the temple's priests. Local weddings and banquets could be held in the dining room in the temple's south east corner.
North Temple
The north temple was built in the early Roman period, and is made of limestone in Egyptian style. It is mostly undecorated, with the exception of Greco-Roman style engaged columns on the temple's outer corners and in each internal doorway. Though the temple has no inscription clearly stating its purpose, it is likely decorated to a crocodile god, indicated by the presence of an alter that fits a crocodile mummy, and of a soft white limestone figure of a hawk headed crocodile that likely represents the god Soknopaios. The temple also features an alter with the head of
Serapis
Serapis or Sarapis is a Graeco-Egyptian deity. The cult of Serapis was promoted during the third century BC on the orders of Greek Pharaoh Ptolemy I Soter of the Ptolemaic Kingdom in Egypt as a means to unify the Greeks and Egyptians in his r ...
,
Zeus
Zeus or , , ; grc, Δῐός, ''Diós'', label=Genitive case, genitive Aeolic Greek, Boeotian Aeolic and Doric Greek#Laconian, Laconian grc-dor, Δεύς, Deús ; grc, Δέος, ''Déos'', label=Genitive case, genitive el, Δίας, ''D ...
, or a
syncretism
Syncretism () is the practice of combining different beliefs and various school of thought, schools of thought. Syncretism involves the merging or religious assimilation, assimilation of several originally discrete traditions, especially in t ...
of the two.
Conditions in the town
The Fayum towns were settled by Roman veterans after Augustus conquered Egypt, though the small number of Latin papyri found in Karanis (only two) and the overwhelming number of Greek
papyri
Papyrus ( ) is a material similar to thick paper that was used in ancient times as a writing surface. It was made from the pith of the papyrus plant, ''Cyperus papyrus'', a wetland sedge. ''Papyrus'' (plural: ''papyri'') can also refer to a d ...
from or concerning these veterans from this period suggest that these new soldiers may not have been culturally Roman but instead Greek, or at the very least from the Eastern empire. "The peace and political stability brought by Augustus and kept alive by his successors, meant prosperity for generations of landholders at Karanis well into the second century.
In the late second century, and again in the second quarter of the third, there were notable recessions that mirrored difficulties experienced by the Empire at large,
[Gazda 9] houses had fallen down by the end of the 3rd century,
[Alston 119]
and the town was completely abandoned by the early 5th century. The dry conditions that Karanis was left in are most suitable for the preservation of papyri, and it is for this that Karanis is most well known by archaeologists.
Papyri
The papyri excavated are historically significant in that they come from the same place and time, all dating from the period between the reign of
Diocletian
Diocletian (; la, Gaius Aurelius Valerius Diocletianus, grc, Διοκλητιανός, Diokletianós; c. 242/245 – 311/312), nicknamed ''Iovius'', was Roman emperor from 284 until his abdication in 305. He was born Gaius Valerius Diocles ...
and the 370s.
Also, with Karanis being a relatively poor town, the documents and artifacts excavated "
rovidea microcosm of life as it was lived by ordinary people in Egypt under Greek and Roman rule," and provide evidence of the whole of Egypt's relationship to the Empire of
Rome
, established_title = Founded
, established_date = 753 BC
, founder = King Romulus (legendary)
, image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg
, map_caption ...
. The papyri contain mostly tax records, which is how archaeologists have determined that Karanis and its veterans were mostly poor, self-sufficient farmers who did not have much contact with other towns in the region.
Excavations
These excavations were extremely troubled to say the least. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, farmers would “obtain permits to remove soil from the Karanis mound to use as fertilizer (''
sebbakh'')”, the organic decay making the soil very rich.
The first real excavation was in 1895 by Englishmen
Bernard Pyne Grenfell
Bernard Pyne Grenfell FBA (16 December 1869 – 18 May 1926) was an English scientist and Egyptologist.
Life
Grenfell was the son of John Granville Grenfell FGS and Alice Grenfell. He was born in Birmingham and brought up and educated at Clif ...
and
Arthur Surridge Hunt
Arthur Surridge Hunt, FBA (1 March 1871 – 18 June 1934) was an English papyrologist.
Hunt was born in Romford, Essex, England. Over the course of many years, Hunt, along with Bernard Grenfell, recovered many papyri from excavation sites in E ...
, though they felt the area had been too plundered to produce anything of much value. At this time, archaeology as a pursuit of knowledge was wholly unheard of, and papyri and other artifacts were treated more as items to collect. Also during this time (i.e., the late 19th and early 20th centuries), excavators were almost solely interested in artifacts dating to the older dynasties, and Graeco-Roman sites such as Karanis continued to be plundered for sebbakh until Francis W. Kelsey, a professor of Latin language and literature at the University of Michigan, observed this devastation and received grants to search for an excavation site in 1924. Starting excavations of Karanis in 1925, his goal was to "increase exact knowledge rather than the amassing of collections", with a focus on common people. The papyri collected are now part of the
University of Michigan Papyrus Collection
The Papyrology Collection of the University of Michigan Library is an internationally respected collection of ancient papyrus and a center for research on ancient culture, language, and history. With over 7,000 items and more than 10,000 individu ...
. More recent excavations have been done by the Cairo University, the French Institute, and for the last few years by a combined collaboration of UCLA and the University of Groningen (RUG) in the Netherlands.
[Jimmy Dunn]
in the Fayoum of Egypt
''Tour Egypt''. (InterCity Oz, Inc., 2007)
Notes
Bibliography
Alston, Richard. ''Soldier and Society in Roman Egypt: Social History.'' London: Routledge, 1998.
Bagnall, Roger S., Naphtali Lewis, eds. ''Columbia Papyri VII: Fourth Century Documents from Karanis.'' Ann Arbor: Scholars Press, 1979.
Gazda, Elaine K., ed.
Karanis: An Egyptian Town in Roman Times: Discoveries of the University of Michigan Expedition to Egypt (1924–1925)'' Ann Arbor: Kelsey Museum of Archaeology, 1983, reprinted in 2004 with a new preface and updated bibliography. A free digital publication from the Kelsey Museum of Archaeology.
Grenfell, Bernard P., Arthur S. Hunt, David G. Hogarth. ''Fayum Towns and Their Papyri.'' London: Office's of the Egypt exploration fund
tc. 1990.
Youtie, Herbert Chayyim, and John Garret Winter, eds. ''Michigan Papyri, Vol. VIII: Papyri and Ostraca from Karanis, Second Series''. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press, 1951.
{{Coord, 29, 31, 04, N, 30, 54, 12, E, display=title, region:EG-FYM_type:landmark_source:dewiki
Archaeological sites in Egypt
Former populated places in Egypt