Kom el-Hisn ( ar, كوم الحصن ') is a

Nile Delta The Nile Delta ( ar, دلتا النيل, or simply , is the delta formed in Lower Egypt where the Nile River spreads out and drains into the Mediterranean Sea. It is one of the world's largest river deltas—from Alexandria in the west to ...

settlement dating back to the

Old Kingdom of Egypt In ancient Egyptian history, the Old Kingdom is the period spanning c. 2700–2200 BC. It is also known as the "Age of the Pyramids" or the "Age of the Pyramid Builders", as it encompasses the reigns of the great pyramid-builders of the Fourt ...

with parts dating to the Middle Kingdom. Its location in the 3rd nome of

Lower Egypt Lower Egypt ( ar, مصر السفلى '; ) is the northernmost region of Egypt, which consists of the fertile Nile Delta between Upper Egypt and the Mediterranean Sea, from El Aiyat, south of modern-day Cairo, and Dahshur. Historically, ...

, or "House of the Lord of Ships (pr nb jmu)", focus on the goddess

Hathor Hathor ( egy, ḥwt-ḥr, lit=House of Horus, grc, Ἁθώρ , cop, ϩⲁⲑⲱⲣ, Meroitic: ) was a major goddess in ancient Egyptian religion who played a wide variety of roles. As a sky deity, she was the mother or consort of the sky ...

, as well as faunal and textual evidence suggests it played a role in transporting cattle between regions. Whether or not it was a self-sufficient town or built solely to support the temple is currently unknown. The site's main findings include the Tomb of Khesuwer, a large

necropolis A necropolis (plural necropolises, necropoles, necropoleis, necropoli) is a large, designed cemetery with elaborate tomb monuments. The name stems from the Ancient Greek ''nekropolis'', literally meaning "city of the dead". The term usually im ...

, and a temple dedicated to

Sekhmet In Egyptian mythology, Sekhmet ( or Sachmis (), also spelled Sakhmet, Sekhet, Sakhet among other spellings, cop, Ⲥⲁⲭⲙⲓ, Sakhmi), is a warrior goddess as well as goddess of healing. She is depicted as a lioness. Sekhmet is a solar de ...

-Hathor. Inscriptions designating Hathor as the "Mistress of Imu", among other similar inscriptions, and the location of Kom el-Hisn have given evidence to the site being the former nome capital Yamu, or Imu. Much of the information on this site from previous excavations is lost or remains unpublished.

Excavation history

Egyptian - Relief with Hathor and King Necho II - Walters 22135

The site was initially uncovered by

Flinders Petrie Sir William Matthew Flinders Petrie ( – ), commonly known as simply Flinders Petrie, was a British Egyptologist and a pioneer of systematic methodology in archaeology and the preservation of artefacts. He held the first chair of Egyp ...

during his excavation at Naukratis in 1881. It was then surveyed by

Francis Llewellyn Griffith Francis Llewellyn Griffith (27 May 1862 – 14 March 1934) was an eminent British Egyptologist of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Early life and education F. Ll. Griffith was born in Brighton on 27 May 1862 where his father, Rev. Dr. ...

from 1885 to 1887. This survey captured the remains of a mudbrick temple, enclosure wall, and four statues of

Ramesses II Ramesses II ( egy, rꜥ-ms-sw ''Rīʿa-məsī-sū'', , meaning "Ra is the one who bore him"; ), commonly known as Ramesses the Great, was the third pharaoh of the Nineteenth Dynasty of Egypt. Along with Thutmose III he is often regarded a ...

. Two of these statues had inscriptions dedicating them to Sekhmet-Hathor, "Mistress of Imu". The temple and enclosure wall have since been destroyed. Currently, two of the statues of Ramesses II are still at the site. One has been moved to the

Cairo Museum The Museum of Egyptian Antiquities, known commonly as the Egyptian Museum or the Cairo Museum, in Cairo, Egypt, is home to an extensive collection of ancient Egyptian antiquities. It has 120,000 items, with a representative amount on display a ...

. Another survey in 1902, this time by

Georges Daressy Georges Émile Jules Daressy (19 March 1864 – 28 February 1938) was a French Egyptologist. He worked from 1887 in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. Amongst his responsibilities was the museum's move from Bulaq to Giza in 1891, and then to the presen ...

, found more artifacts related to Ramesses II with "two broken colossi of Amenemhet III usurped by Ramsses II, an inscribed stone of Ramesside date, and four blocks from a chapel of Shoshenq II which had been usurped by Ramsses II". In 1910 the Tomb of Khesuwer, a priest of Hathor, was found and excavated by Campbell Cowan Edgar. Within, a stone head of a

12th Dynasty The Twelfth Dynasty of ancient Egypt (Dynasty XII) is considered to be the apex of the Middle Kingdom by Egyptologists. It often is combined with the Eleventh, Thirteenth, and Fourteenth dynasties under the group title, Middle Kingdom. Some ...

Pharaoh was found wearing the white crown of

Upper Egypt Upper Egypt ( ar, صعيد مصر ', shortened to , , locally: ; ) is the southern portion of Egypt and is composed of the lands on both sides of the Nile that extend upriver from Lower Egypt in the north to Nubia in the south. In ancient E ...

. A damaged statue group of Amenemhat III was also found, possibly related to the broken colossi found earlier. This tomb cements the presence of a cult of Hathor at the site as well its possible religious function. In the early 1940s, mudbrick tombs were uncovered after a heavy rainfall. El-Amir, Farad, and Hamada excavated what turned out to be a large necropolis from 1943 to 1949. There was a count of over one thousand graves ranging from lower to upper class burials. The most common were simple sand-pit burials. Among these, blades were found in a portion of the tombs labeled the “warrior group”, but most burials contained no or little grave goods. The 1946 and 1948 excavations yielded a large number of "pot-burials" containing the remains of children. Among these, family tombs or mass graves were also found containing mostly children. They were identified the length of necklaces found with the remains. The exact number of graves is unknown. The majority date to the

First Intermediate Period The First Intermediate Period, described as a 'dark period' in ancient Egyptian history, spanned approximately 125 years, c. 2181–2055 BC, after the end of the Old Kingdom. It comprises the Seventh (although this is mostly considered spuriou ...

and Middle Kingdom. This excavation was not fully published and excluded a number of possible

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: * Rome, the capital city of Italy * Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lett ...

graves. No maps or field notes from this excavation survive and much of what survives has remained unpublished. A study of fauna and flora remains from residential deposits was completed in 1988. Considering the Nile Delta's historical association with cattle production, the small amount of cattle bones found suggests the site still had some affiliation with cattle production and the overall Estate, but not including butchering or raising cattle. A majority of their food appears to come from pigs, with remains indicating consumption of pigs outnumbering that of sheep and goats. This number suggests the site was not heavily involved in grain production. Cow bones found on the north end of the site suggests an animal necropolis, giving further evidence to the relation between the presence of the Hathor cult and involvement in the cattle production of the Nile Delta. This has not been excavated. A series of excavations in 1984, 1986, and 1988 found remains of domestic architecture and materials, including an enclosure wall that had bordered much of the site. From these excavations came artifacts like bread molds and bowls that could be used for food storage, but the lack of basic items and the means to produce them suggests Kom el-Hisn was a religious settlement or ran under a governmental authority. During Robert J. Wenke's excavation in 1988, he uncovered broken sealings and ceramics dating to the

5th Fifth is the ordinal form of the number five. Fifth or The Fifth may refer to: * Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution, as in the expression "pleading the Fifth" * Fifth column, a political term * Fifth disease, a contagious rash tha ...

and

6th 6 (six) is the natural number following 5 and preceding 7. It is a composite number and the smallest perfect number. In mathematics Six is the smallest positive integer which is neither a square number nor a prime number; it is the second ...

dynasties. The site appears to have been a settlement occupied at least to the Middle Kingdom. Though the lack of basic domestic goods gives evidence to Kom el-Hisn being occupied by the Hathor cult and a small support staff for those priests. This is again supported by Wenke's excavation in 1988, where stone tools were found but leftovers from their manufacture were rare. So far, no manufacturing workshops or evidence of such has been found, but Wenke stresses that it is still possible they existed but were removed from the main site.

Tomb of Khesuwer

One of the first major findings at the site was the

limestone tomb of Khesuwer ("Khesu the Elder"). The remains were discovered on the south-west corner of Kom el-Hisn. It is the only tomb at the site containing inscriptions, which date to the Middle Kingdom. With these inscriptions and the basalt head found during the excavation, Edgar dates the tomb to the reign of Amenemhat III. Four

foundation deposit Foundation deposits are the archaeological remains of the ritual burial of materials under the foundations of buildings. File:Foundation nail IMG 0073-black.jpg, Foundation nail dedicated by Gudea to Ningirsu. File:Fenestrated axehead-AO 24447-P5 ...

s were found beneath the remains of two mudbrick walls found surrounding the tomb. Each contained a limestone plaque with an inscription containing his name that matched the one found inside the tomb. By the time of the tomb's discovery, the coffin and offering left behind had turned to dust. These deposits were placed as part of a ritual during the temple's construction so finding them beneath his tomb suggests of re-use of parts of the temple to build Khesuwer's tomb. One scene depicts Khesuwer and four rows of priestesses, who are clapping and playing instruments, giving evidence to his title as "Overseer" of the priestess' of Hathor. It is assumed his office was that of the temple found at Kom el-Hisn.

Yamu

Yamu or Imu was a capital of the 3rd Nome of Lower Egypt. It is found in texts as early as the 5th Dynasty but the current location of the town is unknown. Due to the discovery of the inscription on the statues found at Kom el-Hisn, this site is thought to have been the location of Yamu. Unpublished notes from Petrie's visit to the site in 1884 describe an offering table to the goddess

, with an inscription that reads "the king gives an offering othe mistress of Yamu, Sekhmet". He also reported other inscriptions detailing the "mistress of Yamu", but is not specific about where he found them or if they refer to Kom el-Hisn. Though it is a strong theory that Yamu and Kom el-Hisn are the same, there is no concrete evidence to prove this.

References

Bibliography

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External links