Holocene landscape reconstruction in the surroundings of the Temple of Pepi I at ancient Bubastis, southeastern Nile Delta (Egypt)

Abstract

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 Bastet. To explore the Holocene landscape genesis of the Temple of Pepi I, 15 drillings and six geoelectrical profile lines were performed in the surroundings of the temple in spring 2022. The results show loamy to clayey sediments in deeper sections of all drillings with a maximum thickness of 1.70 m, indicating a marshy or swampy depositional environment. Based on the recovered sediment sequences and archaeological remains in the vicinity of the Temple of Pepi I, the marshy or swampy area existed before the Fourth Dynasty. During the Old Kingdom (ca. 2850–2180 B.C.E.), the former marshland either dried up through natural processes or was intentionally drained and filled with sediments for subsequent use for occupation. Regarding the original research question, there is as yet no evidence for a direct connection to the canals of the Temple of Bastet.

Lost and potentially found: the location of the “Temple of Hermes” at ancient Bubastis in the Nile Delta

“…As in previous studies (Garbe et al, 2024;Meister et al, 2021a), wellpreserved pottery sherds from the cores were analysed and compared with reference collections from the Nile Delta based on production techniques, shape, fabric, and surface treatment. For the chronostratigraphy, 47 ceramic fragments were classified into different time periods.…”

“…The 2D ERT data were acquired with an IRIS Syscal R2 instrument using the Wenner-beta configuration. Based on the experience of the previous investigations (Garbe et al, 2024;Meister et al, 2021a), geoelectric surveys were performed with 4 m electrode spacing up to a distance of 100 m. Inversion of the 2D ERT profiles was performed with Res2DInv ×64 ver. 4.08 using the smoothing-constrained least-squares inversion method.…”

“…This section is also characterised by sediment colours ranging from light to dark brownish or dark greyish and different grain size distributions. The enormous quantity of ancient and modern anthropogenic artefacts, including brick, limestone or ceramic fragments, and charcoal, proves the anthropogenic origin of this unit (Garbe et al, 2024;Meister et al, 2021a). In most boreholes, a layer of entirely loamy and clayey material, characterised by a dark-brownish to greyish colour and higher soil moisture, follows below unit I.…”

“…Deposits of unit III are greyish-blue to yellowish in colour, depending on the influence of groundwater, and are usually free of anthropogenic artefacts. The basal sediments of unit III can be assigned to the Mit Ghamr Formation or the Geziracover Formation (Garbe et al, 2024;Meister et al, 2021a;Ullmann et al, 2019), which are characterised by fluvial sediments with varying grain sizes, based on depositional conditions within the fluvial delta system during the Pleistocene (Said, 2012). The gezira deposits occur at various depths (Fig.…”

“…Several parts of Bubastis have been relatively well investigated, i.e. the Western Kom with the Temple of Pepi I (Garbe et al, 2024), the cemeteries and palace on the Northern Kom (Lange et al, 2016), and the Temple of Bastet on the Central Kom (Meister et al, 2021a), but other parts of the city are almost completely unexplored (Fig. 1b).…”