Leontopolis (

Egyptian Egyptian describes something of, from, or related to Egypt. Egyptian or Egyptians may refer to: Nations and ethnic groups * Egyptians, a national group in North Africa ** Egyptian culture, a complex and stable culture with thousands of years of ...

: ''Ney-ta-hut'') is the

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 ...

name for the modern area of Tell el Yehudiye or Tell el-Yahudiya (Egyptian Arabic: ''

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

Mound''). It was an ancient city of

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 Medit ...

in the 13th nome of Lower Egypt (the

Heliopolite Nome The Heliopolite, or Thirteenth Nome (Egyptian: ''Heq-At'', "Prospering Scepter"), was a nome (province or district) of ancient Egypt. Its capital was Iunu, which was the Heliopolis of the Ptolemaic era and the modern Ayn Shams (a subu ...

), on the Pelusiac branch of the

Nile The Nile, , Bohairic , lg, Kiira , 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 the longest ...

. This site is known for its distinctive pottery known as Tell el-Yahudiyeh Ware.

Discovery

Linant identified the site in 1825, but Niebuhr had identified it earlier, in the late 18th century.

Earthwork enclosures

The site includes some massive rectangular earthwork enclosures of the late Middle Kingdom or

Second Intermediate Period The Second Intermediate Period marks a period when ancient Egypt fell into disarray for a second time, between the end of the Middle Kingdom and the start of the New Kingdom. The concept of a "Second Intermediate Period" was coined in 1942 b ...

. They measure around 515m by 490m, and their purpose is probably defensive. These earthen walls were sloping and plastered on the outer face, and almost vertical on the inner face. Egyptian parallels for such a structure are lacking. This enclosure is often interpreted as a fortification built by the Hyksos; it is generally known as the "Hyksos Camp". There are also cemeteries from the Middle Kingdom and later. A temple and palace 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 as ...

has also been excavated. Also, there was a palace of

Ramesses III Usermaatre Meryamun Ramesses III (also written Ramses and Rameses) was the second Pharaoh of the Twentieth Dynasty in Ancient Egypt. He is thought to have reigned from 26 March 1186 to 15 April 1155 BC and is considered to be the last great monar ...

with some fine decorations.

Jewish temple

In the reign of

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 ...

(180–145 BC) a temple, modelled after that of

Jerusalem Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...

, was founded by the exiled

Jew Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""T ...

ish priest

Onias IV Onias IV ( he, חוֹנִיּוֹ ''Ḥōniyyō'') was the son of Onias III and the heir of the Zadokite line of High Priests of Israel. He built a new Jewish temple at Leontopolis in Ptolemaic Egypt where he reigned as a rival High Priest to t ...

. The Hebrew colony, which was attracted by the establishment of their national worship at Leontopolis, and which was increased by the refugees from the oppressions of the

Seleucid The Seleucid Empire (; grc, Βασιλεία τῶν Σελευκιδῶν, ''Basileía tōn Seleukidōn'') was a Greek state in West Asia that existed during the Hellenistic period from 312 BC to 63 BC. The Seleucid Empire was founded by the ...

kings in

Judea Judea or Judaea ( or ; from he, יהודה, Standard ''Yəhūda'', Tiberian ''Yehūḏā''; el, Ἰουδαία, ; la, Iūdaea) is an ancient, historic, Biblical Hebrew, contemporaneous Latin, and the modern-day name of the mountainous sou ...

, flourished there for more than three centuries afterwards. After the outbreak of the Jewish War, the Leontopolite temple was closed in the first century CE, amid the general backlash against

Judaism Judaism ( he, ''Yahăḏūṯ'') is an Abrahamic, monotheistic, and ethnic religion comprising the collective religious, cultural, and legal tradition and civilization of the Jewish people. It has its roots as an organized religion in t ...

.Joseph. ''B. Jud.'' vii. 10. § 4

Gallery

File:Tell el-Yehudiyeh Ware.JPG, Tell el-Yehudiyeh ware juglets.

Rockefeller Museum The Rockefeller Archeological Museum, formerly the Palestine Archaeological Museum ("PAM"; 1938–1967), and which before then housed The Imperial Museum of Antiquities (''Müze-i Hümayun''; 1901–1917), is an archaeology museum located in East ...

File:Egypte louvre 120 asiatique.jpg, Head of an Asiatic prisoner, earthenware, fragment, Tell el-Yahoudiyeh (1184–1153 BCE) File:Egypte louvre 121 ennemi.jpg, Faience decoration of an enemy. From the palace of Ramses III at Tell el-Yahudiya.

Louvre The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is the world's most-visited museum, and an historic landmark in Paris, France. It is the home of some of the best-known works of art, including the ''Mona Lisa'' and the ''Venus de Milo''. A central l ...

Citations

References

* Manfred Bietak: Tell el-Yahudiya, in: Kathryn A. Bard (Hg.): ''Encyclopedia of the Archaeology of Ancient Egypt'', London/New York 1999, 791–792. * John S. Holladay Jr.: Yahudiyya, Tell el-, in: D. B. Redford (Hg.): ''The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Egypt III'', Oxford 2001, 527–529. * Edouard Naville:
The mound of the Jew and the city of Onias
', London 1890. *

Richard Talbert Richard John Alexander Talbert (born 26 April 1947) is a British-American contemporary ancient historian and classicist on the faculty of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he is William Rand Kenan, Jr., Professor of Ancien ...

Barrington Atlas of the Greek and Roman World The ''Barrington Atlas of the Greek and Roman World'' is a large-format English language atlas of ancient Europe, Asia, and North Africa, edited by Richard J. A. Talbert. The time period depicted is roughly from archaic Greek civilization (pre- ...

, (), p. 74. * A.-P. Zivie: Tell el-Jahudija, in: ''Lexikon der Ägyptologie'' VI, 331–335.

External links

Archaeologic survey

Tell el-Yahudiya
at egyptsites.wordpress.com {{Authority control Archaeological sites in Egypt Hyksos cities in ancient Egypt Former populated places in Egypt Tells (archaeology)