Papers by Eva Lange-Athinodorou
Eiszeitalter und Gegenwart, Mar 19, 2024
Connaissance de l'Égypte Ancienne (CEA), 2024
Ancient Egypt has been a prominent example in the debate concerning the so-called ‘4.2 ka event’... more Ancient Egypt has been a prominent example in the debate concerning the so-called ‘4.2 ka event’, a period of intraregional climate change,
resulting in decreased flood levels of the river Nile and its possible defragmenting effects with regards to the centralized state of the Old Kingdom (around 2200 BCE). However, recent studies in the field of geoarchaeology and palaeoclimatology have generated new proxy data that indicate the existence of further drought events in later periods of Egyptian history. The end of the New Kingdom in Egypt coincided with a time of climatic change in the wider Mediterranean
around 1200 BCE, which is also referred to as the Late Bronze Age Collapse or ‘3.2 ka event’, comparable to the drier climatic conditions at the end of the Old Kingdom. Nevertheless, studies thoroughly integrating the rising amount of geoarchaeological proxy data into the Egyptological debate are still underrepresented and tend to be brushed off as “climate-determinism”. By cross-checking the new climatological data with information from archaeological and textual sources coming from the same period, we attempt to assess the impact of climate and environmental factors on societal change in Egypt.
Mitteilungen des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts 79, 2023
Excavations at Bubastis revealed evidence for the existence of a provincial residence of the 4th ... more Excavations at Bubastis revealed evidence for the existence of a provincial residence of the 4th and 5th Dynasties, a time that is usually rather poorly represented in the provincial archaeological record, especially in the region of the Nile Delta. For the first time now, this new discovery opens up the possibility to investigate the role of local residences as drivers of the evolution of central places and key elements of provincial administration from the Early Dynastic Period until the late Old Kingdom in the Nile Delta. Especially intriguing is the question of the relation between provincial
residences and provincial temples. The latter are acknowledged in scholarly research
and literature as important institutions of the provincial administration for a long time, but they do not appear as such before the 5th Dynasty. Provincial residences, on the other hand, are attested already since the Early Dynastic Period. An archaeological and historical contextualisation shows that those buildings were, in fact, the original manifestations of royal influence and control of the provinces, and the power shift to the local temples was part of a complex and long-lasting dynamic process.
E&G Quaternary Science Journal, 2024
E&G Quaternary Sci. J., 73, 95–99, 2024
Geoarchaeology, 2023
In ancient Egypt, lakes, canals, and other water bodies were an essential part of the sacred land... more In ancient Egypt, lakes, canals, and other water bodies were an essential part of the sacred landscape in which temples were embedded. In recent years, geoarchaeological research at the site of the Temple of Bastet at Bubastis in the southeastern Nile Delta has proven the existence of two water canals surrounding the temple. It has now been investigated whether these canals were connected to the Temple of Pepi I (2300-2250 B.C.E.), located approximately 100 m to the west of the Temple of
Eiszeitalter und Gegenwart, Nov 18, 2022
E&G Quaternary Sci., 2022
The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology, 2022
In the seasons 2018 and 2019, the Tell Basta-Project started archaeological fieldwork in the Ka-t... more In the seasons 2018 and 2019, the Tell Basta-Project started archaeological fieldwork in the Ka-temple of Pepi I at Bubastis, probably the centre of the city in the Sixth Dynasty. Although Habachi discovered the temple already in 1939, considerable parts of the building remained unexcavated. Furthermore, nothing was known about its underlying strata. During two seasons, remains of a large building appeared under the temple of Pepi I, displaying columned yards and rooms as well as facilities for food processing and storage. Based on its architectural remains, the building, that underwent several changes, could be interpreted as a provincial palace. According to the pottery associated with the stages of the structure, it was in use at least from the middle of the Fourth until the end of the Fifth Dynasty. At the beginning of the Sixth Dynasty, the Ka-temple of Pepi I was erected on the levelled remains of the provincial palace.
The Delta Survey Workshop: Proceedings from Conferences held in Alexandria (2017) and Mansoura (2019), 2022
While the famous temple of Bastet has been the focus of research for many years, little attention... more While the famous temple of Bastet has been the focus of research for many years, little attention was paid to the surrounding area in Bubastis. To gain further knowledge about the integration of the temple into the city, the area in front of the entrance of the temple (Area A), once the endpoint
of a dromos, leading from the city in the east to the temple of Bastet in the west, became the main focus of the Tell Basta-Project, a German-Egyptian mission (University Wuerzburg / Ministry of Antiquities). Our excavations revealed a built-up area dating from the Saite to the Ptolemaic Period
and a Roman open court.
Collection of conference abstracts presented at the vDEUQUA2021 (2021-09-30 to 2021-09-01), the v... more Collection of conference abstracts presented at the vDEUQUA2021 (2021-09-30 to 2021-09-01), the virtual meeting of the German Quaternary Association (DEUQUA).
Quaternary, 2021
Geoarchaeological information presented here pertains to a subsidiary Nile channel that once flow... more Geoarchaeological information presented here pertains to a subsidiary Nile channel that once flowed west of the main Sebennitic distributary and discharged its water and sediments at Egypt’s then north-central deltaic coast. Periodical paleoclimatic episodes during the later Middle and Upper Holocene included decreased rainfall and increased aridity that reduced the Nile’s flow levels and thus likely disrupted nautical transport and anthropogenic activity along this channel. Such changes in this deltaic sector, positioned adjacent to the Levantine Basin in the Eastern Mediterranean, can be attributed to climatic shifts triggered as far as the North Atlantic to the west, and African highland source areas of the Egyptian Nile to the south. Of special interest in a study core recovered along the channel are several sediment sequences without anthropogenic material that are interbedded between strata comprising numerous potsherds. The former are interpreted here as markers of increased ...
Geosciences, 2021
Sacred water canals or lakes, which provided water for all kinds of purification rites and other ... more Sacred water canals or lakes, which provided water for all kinds of purification rites and other activities, were very specific and important features of temples in ancient Egypt. In addition to the longer-known textual record, preliminary geoarchaeological surveys have recently provided evidence of a sacred canal at the Temple of Bastet at Bubastis. In order to further explore the location, shape, and course of this canal and to find evidence of the existence of a second waterway, also described by Herodotus, 34 drillings and five 2D geoelectrical measurements were carried out in 2019 and 2020 near the temple. The drillings and 2D ERT surveying revealed loamy to clayey deposits with a thickness of up to five meters, most likely deposited in a very low energy fluvial system (i.e., a canal), allowing the reconstruction of two separate sacred canals both north and south of the Temple of Bastet. In addition to the course of the canals, the width of about 30 m fits Herodotus' descrip...
E&G Quaternary Science Journal, 2021
Key elements of sacred landscapes of the Nile Delta were lakes, canals and artificial basins conn... more Key elements of sacred landscapes of the Nile Delta were lakes, canals and artificial basins connected to temples, which were built on elevated terrain. In the case of temples of goddesses of an ambivalent, even dangerous, nature, i.e. lioness goddesses and all female deities who could appear as such, the purpose of sacred lakes and canals exceeded their function as a water resource for basic practical and religious needs. Their pleasing coolness was believed to calm the goddess' fiery nature, and during important religious festivals, the barques of the goddesses were rowed on those waters. As archaeological evidence was very rare in the past, the study of those sacred waters was mainly confined to textual sources. Recently applied geoarchaeological methods, however, have changed this situation dramatically: they allow in-depth investigations and reconstructions of these deltaic sacred landscapes. Exploring these newly available data, the paper presented here focuses on the sites of Buto, Sais and Bubastis, by investigating the characteristics of their sacred lakes, canals and marshes with respect to their hydrogeographical and geomorphological context and to their role in ancient Egyptian religion and mythology as well. Kurzfassung: Heilige Gewässer verschiedener Art, d.h. Seen, Kanäle und künstliche Becken, verbunden mit auf erhöhtem Gelände befindlichen Tempelgebäuden, sind als Schlüsselelemente sakraler Landschaften des Nildeltas anzusehen. Im Falle von Tempeln von Göttinnen ambivalenter, ja gefährlicher Natur, wie Löwengöttinnen und allen anderen weiblichen Gottheiten, die als solche erscheinen konnten, ging die Funktion heiliger Seen und Kanäle über ihren Zweck als Wasserressource für grundlegende praktische und religiöse Bedürfnisse hinaus. Man glaubte, dass ihre angenehme Kühle die feurige Natur der Göttin beruhigte; auf den Gewässern fuhren auch die heiligen Barken, in denen die Göttinnen bei wichtigen religiösen Festen gerudert wurden. Da man bis vor relativ kurzer Zeit kaum über archäologische Belege verfügte, beschränkte sich das Studium dieser heiligen Gewässer hauptsächlich auf Textquellen. Die in neuerer Zeit verstärkt angewandten geoarchäologischen Methoden haben diese Situation jedoch dramatisch verändert und ermöglichen nun eingehende Untersuchungen und Rekonstruktionen dieser heiligen Landschaften des Nildeltas. Unter Einbeziehung dieser neu verfügbaren Daten konzentriert sich die hier vorgelegte Arbeit auf die heilige Landschaft von Buto, Sais und Bubastis, indem sie die Merkmale ihrer heiligen Seen, Kanäle und Sümpfe im Hinblick auf ihren Published by Copernicus Publications on behalf of the Deutsche Quartärvereinigung (DEUQUA) e.V. 74 E. Lange-Athinodorou: Sacred landscapes in the Nile Delta hydrogeographischen und geomorphologischen Kontext sowie auf ihre Rolle in der altägyptischen Religion und Mythologie untersucht. Financial support. This open-access publication was funded by Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg. Review statement. This paper was edited by Becky Briant and reviewed by two anonymous referees.
Quaternary International, 2019
The city of Bubastis (Tell Basta) is situated in the southeastern Nile delta and was of great imp... more The city of Bubastis (Tell Basta) is situated in the southeastern Nile delta and was of great importance in Ancient Egypt. While the remains of the city have been the subject of archaeological investigations for more than one hundred years, little research has been carried out on the characterization of the former landscape in general and on the localization of the Pelusiac and Tanitic branches in the area of Bubastis in particular. This contribution presents preliminary results from recent investigations that focused on the study of historic cartographic records in digital terrain analyses, archaeological records and written sources, and the gathering of onsite sedimentary archives. The GIS-analyses used digital hydrographic modelling and relied on digital terrain data generated from the topographic maps of the Survey of Egypt (1930s). Additionally, drilling was conducted in Bubastis in spring 2016; six boreholes were made and preliminary macroscopy sediment analyses suggest a Pre-Holocene genesis of the underlying sediments. It is anticipated that Bubastis is situated on a Gezira of Pleistocene age. Gezira sediments were found in depths between þ3.3 m and À0.68 (a.s.l.) and these were characterized by medium to coarse sand of yellowish and brownish colour. Results of the digital terrain analyses further suggest that the ridges and mounds in the west and southwest of the study area are remains of the Pleistocene deposits and that the tells in the foreland-like Bubastis-witness the erosion history. The results from digital hydrographic modelling indicated at least two major fluvial systems; one north and one south of Bubastis, which can be related with the Pelusiac and Tanitic systems. The model-driven approach suggests that the Pelusiac branch was running south of Bubastis, implying that Bietak's alternative "B/1 Bahr Abu El Akhdar" is the most likely route for the branch. However, a different interpretation of the results involves the formation of levees and this approach supports Bietak's model, e.g. the route of the Pelusiac branch fits the modelled major watershed boundary in the north of Bubastis.
E&G Quaternary Science Journal, 2021
Financial support. This open-access publication was funded by Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würz... more Financial support. This open-access publication was funded by Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg. Review statement. This paper was edited by Hans von Suchodoletz and reviewed by one anonymous referee.
Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, 2019
Orientalistische Literaturzeitung, 2017
Das zu besprechende Werk geht auf eine 2008/09 an der Universität Mainz eingereichte Dissertation... more Das zu besprechende Werk geht auf eine 2008/09 an der Universität Mainz eingereichte Dissertationsschrift zurück. Seine Grundlage bildet die Bearbeitung einer umfangreichen Klasse der materiellen Kultur des spätzeitlichen Ägyptens, der Bronzestatuetten von Götterund Tiergestalten aus Unterägypten. Damit fügt es sich in den Umkreis objektkonzentrierter Forschungsarbeiten, wie sie beispielsweise die zweibändige Publikation von Günther Roeder zu den Bronzefiguren des Berliner Ägyptischen Museums von 1956 und diematerialreiche Abhandlung zu ägyptischen Bronzeund Goldstatuetten von J. F. Aubert und L. Aubert, 2001, darstellen. Wie die Autorin selbst feststellen muss, hat jedoch bisher keine umfangreiche und methodisch angelegte Auseinandersetzung mit dieser Thematik stattgefunden, was eine Neubearbeitung des Themas lohnenswert erscheinen lässt. Tatsächlich ist dieser Mangel angesichts der großen Menge an Bronzestatuen in den ägyptischen Sammlungen und ihrer Präsenz in Ausstellungen versc...
quaternary, 2021
Geoarchaeological information presented here pertains to a subsidiary Nile channel that
once flow... more Geoarchaeological information presented here pertains to a subsidiary Nile channel that
once flowed west of the main Sebennitic distributary and discharged its water and sediments at
Egypt’s then north-central deltaic coast. Periodical paleoclimatic episodes during the later Middle
and Upper Holocene included decreased rainfall and increased aridity that reduced the Nile’s flow
levels and thus likely disrupted nautical transport and anthropogenic activity along this channel.
Such changes in this deltaic sector, positioned adjacent to the Levantine Basin in the Eastern Mediterranean,
can be attributed to climatic shifts triggered as far as the North Atlantic to the west, and
African highland source areas of the Egyptian Nile to the south. Of special interest in a study core
recovered along the channel are several sediment sequences without anthropogenic material that
are interbedded between strata comprising numerous potsherds. The former are interpreted here as
markers of increased regional aridity and reduced Nile flow which could have periodically disrupted
the regional distribution of goods and nautical activities. Such times occurred ~5000 years B.P.,
~4200–4000 years B.P., ~3200–2800 years B.P., ~2300–2200 years B.P., and more recently. Periods
comparable to these are also identified by altered proportions of pollen, isotopic and compositional
components in different radiocarbon-dated Holocene cores recovered elsewhere in the Nile delta, the
Levantine region to the east and north of Egypt, and in the Faiyum depression south of the delta.
geosciences, 2021
Sacred water canals or lakes, which provided water for all kinds of purification rites and other ... more Sacred water canals or lakes, which provided water for all kinds of purification rites and other activities, were very specific and important features of temples in ancient Egypt. In addition to the longer-known textual record, preliminary geoarchaeological surveys have recently provided evidence of a sacred canal at the Temple of Bastet at Bubastis. In order to further explore the location, shape, and course of this canal and to find evidence of the existence of a second waterway, also described by Herodotus, 34 drillings and five 2D geoelectrical measurements were carried out in 2019 and 2020 near the temple. The drillings and 2D ERT surveying revealed loamy to clayey deposits with a thickness of up to five meters, most likely deposited in a very low energy fluvial system (i.e., a canal), allowing the reconstruction of two separate sacred canals both north and south of the Temple of Bastet. In addition to the course of the canals, the width of about 30 m fits Herod-otusʹ description of the sacred waterways. The presence of numerous artefacts proved the anthropogenic use of the ancient canals, which were presumably connected to the Nile via a tributary or canal located west or northwest of Bubastis.
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Papers by Eva Lange-Athinodorou
resulting in decreased flood levels of the river Nile and its possible defragmenting effects with regards to the centralized state of the Old Kingdom (around 2200 BCE). However, recent studies in the field of geoarchaeology and palaeoclimatology have generated new proxy data that indicate the existence of further drought events in later periods of Egyptian history. The end of the New Kingdom in Egypt coincided with a time of climatic change in the wider Mediterranean
around 1200 BCE, which is also referred to as the Late Bronze Age Collapse or ‘3.2 ka event’, comparable to the drier climatic conditions at the end of the Old Kingdom. Nevertheless, studies thoroughly integrating the rising amount of geoarchaeological proxy data into the Egyptological debate are still underrepresented and tend to be brushed off as “climate-determinism”. By cross-checking the new climatological data with information from archaeological and textual sources coming from the same period, we attempt to assess the impact of climate and environmental factors on societal change in Egypt.
residences and provincial temples. The latter are acknowledged in scholarly research
and literature as important institutions of the provincial administration for a long time, but they do not appear as such before the 5th Dynasty. Provincial residences, on the other hand, are attested already since the Early Dynastic Period. An archaeological and historical contextualisation shows that those buildings were, in fact, the original manifestations of royal influence and control of the provinces, and the power shift to the local temples was part of a complex and long-lasting dynamic process.
of a dromos, leading from the city in the east to the temple of Bastet in the west, became the main focus of the Tell Basta-Project, a German-Egyptian mission (University Wuerzburg / Ministry of Antiquities). Our excavations revealed a built-up area dating from the Saite to the Ptolemaic Period
and a Roman open court.
once flowed west of the main Sebennitic distributary and discharged its water and sediments at
Egypt’s then north-central deltaic coast. Periodical paleoclimatic episodes during the later Middle
and Upper Holocene included decreased rainfall and increased aridity that reduced the Nile’s flow
levels and thus likely disrupted nautical transport and anthropogenic activity along this channel.
Such changes in this deltaic sector, positioned adjacent to the Levantine Basin in the Eastern Mediterranean,
can be attributed to climatic shifts triggered as far as the North Atlantic to the west, and
African highland source areas of the Egyptian Nile to the south. Of special interest in a study core
recovered along the channel are several sediment sequences without anthropogenic material that
are interbedded between strata comprising numerous potsherds. The former are interpreted here as
markers of increased regional aridity and reduced Nile flow which could have periodically disrupted
the regional distribution of goods and nautical activities. Such times occurred ~5000 years B.P.,
~4200–4000 years B.P., ~3200–2800 years B.P., ~2300–2200 years B.P., and more recently. Periods
comparable to these are also identified by altered proportions of pollen, isotopic and compositional
components in different radiocarbon-dated Holocene cores recovered elsewhere in the Nile delta, the
Levantine region to the east and north of Egypt, and in the Faiyum depression south of the delta.
resulting in decreased flood levels of the river Nile and its possible defragmenting effects with regards to the centralized state of the Old Kingdom (around 2200 BCE). However, recent studies in the field of geoarchaeology and palaeoclimatology have generated new proxy data that indicate the existence of further drought events in later periods of Egyptian history. The end of the New Kingdom in Egypt coincided with a time of climatic change in the wider Mediterranean
around 1200 BCE, which is also referred to as the Late Bronze Age Collapse or ‘3.2 ka event’, comparable to the drier climatic conditions at the end of the Old Kingdom. Nevertheless, studies thoroughly integrating the rising amount of geoarchaeological proxy data into the Egyptological debate are still underrepresented and tend to be brushed off as “climate-determinism”. By cross-checking the new climatological data with information from archaeological and textual sources coming from the same period, we attempt to assess the impact of climate and environmental factors on societal change in Egypt.
residences and provincial temples. The latter are acknowledged in scholarly research
and literature as important institutions of the provincial administration for a long time, but they do not appear as such before the 5th Dynasty. Provincial residences, on the other hand, are attested already since the Early Dynastic Period. An archaeological and historical contextualisation shows that those buildings were, in fact, the original manifestations of royal influence and control of the provinces, and the power shift to the local temples was part of a complex and long-lasting dynamic process.
of a dromos, leading from the city in the east to the temple of Bastet in the west, became the main focus of the Tell Basta-Project, a German-Egyptian mission (University Wuerzburg / Ministry of Antiquities). Our excavations revealed a built-up area dating from the Saite to the Ptolemaic Period
and a Roman open court.
once flowed west of the main Sebennitic distributary and discharged its water and sediments at
Egypt’s then north-central deltaic coast. Periodical paleoclimatic episodes during the later Middle
and Upper Holocene included decreased rainfall and increased aridity that reduced the Nile’s flow
levels and thus likely disrupted nautical transport and anthropogenic activity along this channel.
Such changes in this deltaic sector, positioned adjacent to the Levantine Basin in the Eastern Mediterranean,
can be attributed to climatic shifts triggered as far as the North Atlantic to the west, and
African highland source areas of the Egyptian Nile to the south. Of special interest in a study core
recovered along the channel are several sediment sequences without anthropogenic material that
are interbedded between strata comprising numerous potsherds. The former are interpreted here as
markers of increased regional aridity and reduced Nile flow which could have periodically disrupted
the regional distribution of goods and nautical activities. Such times occurred ~5000 years B.P.,
~4200–4000 years B.P., ~3200–2800 years B.P., ~2300–2200 years B.P., and more recently. Periods
comparable to these are also identified by altered proportions of pollen, isotopic and compositional
components in different radiocarbon-dated Holocene cores recovered elsewhere in the Nile delta, the
Levantine region to the east and north of Egypt, and in the Faiyum depression south of the delta.
Eva Lange-Athinodorou, the director of the Tell Basta Project, a German-Egyptian archaeological mission at Bubastis, provides a vivid summary of its archaeological remains, combining old results with the latest research conducted by the project.
Neben der gattungsgerechten Kontextualisierung der Reliefs liegt das Hauptaugenmerk der Untersuchung auf der erneuten Annäherung an die Frage nach der Bedeutung des königlichen Sedfestes in Ägypten. Anhand der ausführlichen Untersuchungen der großen Reliefcorpora kann gezeigt werden, dass in der Forschung seit langer Zeit akzeptierte Deutungen, wie die auf William Matthew Flinders Petrie zurückgehende Interpretation des Sedfestes als ritueller physischer Erneuerung des Königs, dem in vorgeschichtlichen Zeiten sogar ein Königsmord vorausging, sich nicht mit den Aussagen der Quellen vereinbaren lassen. Vielmehr ist das Sedfest als Wiederholung des Krönungsrituals zu deuten, das heißt als Bestätigung der Auswahl des Königs als Herrscher Ägyptens durch die ihm die Herrschaftsberechtigung verleihenden Götter des Landes.