Tjebu or Djew-Qa, was an ancient Egyptian city located on the eastern bank of the

Nile The Nile, , Bohairic , lg, Kiira , Nobiin language, Nobiin: Áman Dawū is a major north-flowing river in northeastern Africa. It flows into the Mediterranean Sea. The Nile is the longest river in Africa and has historically been considered ...

in what is now

Asyut Governorate AsyutAlso spelled ''Assiout'' or ''Assiut'' ( ar, أسيوط ' , from ' ) is the capital of the modern Asyut Governorate in Egypt. It was built close to the ancient city of the same name, which is situated nearby. The modern city is located at , ...

, Egypt. In

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

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 ...

, its name was Antaeopolis after its

tutelary deity A tutelary () (also tutelar) is a deity or a spirit who is a guardian, patron, or protector of a particular place, geographic feature, person, lineage, nation, culture, or occupation. The etymology of "tutelary" expresses the concept of safety and ...

, the war god known by the Hellenized name

Antaeus Antaeus (; Ancient Greek: Ἀνταῖος ''Antaîos'', "opponent", derived from , ''antao'' – 'I face, I oppose'), known to the Berbers as Anti, was a figure in Berber and Greek mythology. He was famed for his defeat by Heracles as part o ...

. Its modern name is Qau el-Kebir or more commonly El Etmannyieh. Several large terraced funerary complexes in Tjebu by officials of the 10th nome during the Twelfth and

Thirteenth In music or music theory, a thirteenth is the note thirteen scale degrees from the root of a chord and also the interval between the root and the thirteenth. The interval can be also described as a compound sixth, spanning an octa ...

dynasties represent the peak of non-royal funerary architecture of the Middle Kingdom. Cemeteries of different dates were also found in the area. The tomb of the local governor

May May is the fifth month of the year in the Julian and Gregorian calendars and is the third of seven months to have a length of 31 days. May is a month of spring in the Northern Hemisphere, and autumn in the Southern Hemisphere. Therefore, May ...

dates to the

New Kingdom New is an adjective referring to something recently made, discovered, or created. New or NEW may refer to: Music * New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz Albums and EPs * ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013 * ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator, ...

. A Ptolemaic temple of

Ptolemy IV Philopator egy, Iwaennetjerwymenkhwy Setepptah Userkare Sekhemankhamun Clayton (2006) p. 208. , predecessor = Ptolemy III , successor = Ptolemy V , horus = ''ḥnw-ḳni sḫꜤi.n-sw-it.f'Khunuqeni sekhaensuitef'' The strong youth whose f ...

, enlarged and restored under

Ptolemy VI Philometor Ptolemy VI Philometor ( gr, Πτολεμαῖος Φιλομήτωρ, ''Ptolemaĩos Philomḗtōr'';"Ptolemy, lover of his Mother". 186–145 BC) was a Greek king of Ptolemaic Egypt who reigned from 180 to 164 BC and from 163 to 145 BC. Ptolemy ...

and

Marcus Aurelius Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (Latin: áːɾkus̠ auɾέːli.us̠ antɔ́ːni.us̠ English: ; 26 April 121 – 17 March 180) was Roman emperor from 161 to 180 AD and a Stoic philosopher. He was the last of the rulers known as the Five Good ...

, was destroyed in the first half of the nineteenth century. Petrie Museum (20544736130)

The temple in this town was large, comparatively speaking—an 18-column pronaos, with a twelve-column

hypostyle hall In architecture, a hypostyle () hall has a roof which is supported by columns. Etymology The term ''hypostyle'' comes from the ancient Greek ὑπόστυλος ''hypóstȳlos'' meaning "under columns" (where ὑπό ''hypó'' means below or un ...

preceding the vestibule hall, the inner sanctum, and two flanking chambers of equal size. The edifice was dedicated primarily to "Antaeus", who represented a warrior fusion of Seth and Horus. This deity's name is written with an obscure hieroglyph (G7a or G7b in the standard Gardiner list), which gives no clue as to the pronunciation. Modern Egyptologists read the name as Nemtiwey. Nephthys was the primary goddess who received worship in this temple, or perhaps in an adjunct shrine of her own, as the corresponding female power of Nemtiwey. A Prophet of Nephthys is attested for Tjebu. In cliffside quarries not far from the ancient site, visitors can see notable reliefs of both Antaeus and Nephthys. At the same time, the site has again drawn most of its interest since 19th- and early 20th-century archaeologists have studied the maze of relatively well-preserved tombs in the district.

References

Sources

Alexander Ilin-Tomich (2018) The Governor's Court in Late Middle Kingdom Antaeopolis, Revue d'égyptologie 68:61-78, DOI:10.2143/RE.68.0.3285267 {{Coord, 26, 54, N, 31, 31, E, display=title Cities in ancient Egypt Populated places in Asyut Governorate Former populated places in Egypt

See also

References

Sources