The sacred canals of the Temple of Bastet at Bubastis (Egypt): New findings from geomorphological investigations and Electrical Resistivity Tomography (ERT)

Lange-Athinodorou, Eva; El-Raouf, Amr Abd; Ullmann, Tobias; Trappe, Julian; Meister, Julia; Baumhauer, Roland

doi:10.1016/j.jasrep.2019.101910

Cited by 8 publications

(30 citation statements)

References 18 publications

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“…To investigate the sacred landscape of the Temple of Bastet, a remote sensing-based study was recently conducted [53], which was supplemented by initial sedimentological and geophysical investigations [2,13]. Drilling and sediment analyses revealed clayey/silty deposits of several meters in thickness in the north of the Temple of Bastet, which itself is grounded on Pleistocene gezira sands [13].…”

Section: The Ancient City Of Bubastis (Tell Basta)mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The development of a city in ancient Egypt was therefore always linked to the presence of the temples of one or more local deities [1]. The temple areas (i.e., the temenos), thought to be the residences of deities, were most sacred and were characterized by the use of specific architecture and a multitude of other elements that emphasized their importance and enabled daily cultic and other activities [2,3].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In Egyptology, knowledge of the existence of sacred lakes or canals connected to temple buildings in the Nile Delta mainly depends on religious texts. Textual sources indicate the existence of such sacred watery landscapes at Buto [4] and Sais [4,9,10] in the western delta, Busiris in the central delta [4], and Tanis [11,12] and Bubastis [2] in the eastern delta (Figure 1a). Recently, new evidence has become available.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Preliminary sedimentological analyses of core drillings and geophysical surveys provide valuable geoarchaeological evidence, allowing deeper investigations of the location, shape, and course of sacred water bodies at the temple sites of Buto, Sais, and Bubastis [3]. However, a truly comprehensive, multimethodological approach to reconstructing the sacred landscape of a deltaic temple could only be applied to the archaeological site of Bubastis [2,13], where the existence of a canal in the northeast of the Temple of Bastet has been documented for the first time outside ancient writings [2].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The Sacred Waterscape of the Temple of Bastet at Ancient Bubastis, Nile Delta (Egypt)

et al. 2021

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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' 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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Section: The Ancient City Of Bubastis (Tell Basta)mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The Sacred Waterscape of the Temple of Bastet at Ancient Bubastis, Nile Delta (Egypt)

et al. 2021

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“…Nevertheless, taking the information of the SoE maps into account, the potential channels have been abandoned for at least 100 years. The anomalies might indicate promising locations for future ground-based investigations, e.g., for drillings and electric resistivity surveying, which have been successfully applied to detect near-surface fluvial deposits across the delta on varying spatial scales (e.g., Andres and Wunderlich, 1991;El Gamili et al, 2001;El-Qady et al, 2011;Lange-Athinodorou et al, 2019).…”

Section: Anomalies Of Potential Former River Coursesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mapping buried paleogeographical features of the Nile Delta (Egypt) using the Landsat archive

Ullmann¹,

Nill

Schiestl³

et al. 2020

E&G Quaternary Sci. J.

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Abstract. The contribution highlights the use of Landsat spectral-temporal metrics (STMs) for the detection of surface anomalies that are potentially related to buried near-surface paleogeomorphological deposits in the Nile Delta (Egypt), in particular for a buried river branch close to Buto. The processing was completed in the Google Earth Engine (GEE) for the entire Nile Delta and for selected seasons of the year (summer/winter) using Landsat data from 1985 to 2019. We derived the STMs of the tasseled cap transformation (TC), the Normalized Difference Wetness Index (NDWI), and the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI). These features were compared to historical topographic maps of the Survey of Egypt, CORONA imagery, the digital elevation model of the TanDEM-X mission, and modern high-resolution satellite imagery. The results suggest that the extent of channels is best revealed when differencing the median NDWI between summer (July/August) and winter (January/February) seasons (ΔNDWI). The observed difference is likely due to lower soil/plant moisture during summer, which is potentially caused by coarser-grained deposits and the morphology of the former levee. Similar anomalies were found in the immediate surroundings of several Pleistocene sand hills (“geziras”) and settlement mounds (“tells”) of the eastern delta, which allowed some mapping of the potential near-surface continuation. Such anomalies were not observed for the surroundings of tells of the western Nile Delta. Additional linear and meandering ΔNDWI anomalies were found in the eastern Nile Delta in the immediate surroundings of the ancient site of Bubastis (Tell Basta), as well as several kilometers north of Zagazig. These anomalies might indicate former courses of Nile river branches. However, the ΔNDWI does not provide an unambiguous delineation.

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Combining geophysical and geomorphological data to reconstruct the development of relief of a medieval castle site in the Spessart low mountain range, Germany

Trappe

Büdel

Meister

et al. 2021

Earth Surf Processes Landf

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Within the Spessart low mountain range in central Germany, numerous castle ruins of the 13th century ce exist. Their construction and destruction were often determined by the struggle for political and economic supremacy in the region and for control over the Spessart's natural resources. Wahlmich Castle is located in a relatively uncommon strategic and geomorphological position, characterized by a fairly remote position and atypical rough relief. In order to reconstruct the local relief development and possible human impact, a multi‐method approach was applied combining two‐dimensional geoelectrical measurements, geomorphological mapping and stratigraphic‐sedimentological investigations. This provides new insights into the influence of landscape characteristics on choices of castle locations.The combined geoelectrical, geomorphological and stratigraphic‐sedimentological data show that the rough relief is of natural origin and influenced by regional faulting, which triggered sliding and slumping as well as weathering and dissection of the surface deposits. The rough relief and the lithology permitted intensive land use and building activities. However, the location of the castle offered access to and possibly control over important medieval traffic routes and also represented certain ownership claims in the Aschaff River valley.The economic situation combined with rivalry between different elites led to the castle being built in a geomorphological challenging and strategically less valuable location. Focusing on castles located in rare and challenging geomorphological positions may therefore lead to a better understanding of castle siting in the future.

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The sacred canals of the Temple of Bastet at Bubastis (Egypt): New findings from geomorphological investigations and Electrical Resistivity Tomography (ERT)

Cited by 8 publications

References 18 publications

The Sacred Waterscape of the Temple of Bastet at Ancient Bubastis, Nile Delta (Egypt)

The Sacred Waterscape of the Temple of Bastet at Ancient Bubastis, Nile Delta (Egypt)

Mapping buried paleogeographical features of the Nile Delta (Egypt) using the Landsat archive

Combining geophysical and geomorphological data to reconstruct the development of relief of a medieval castle site in the Spessart low mountain range, Germany

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