A Ptolemaic-Roman Temple Foundation at Tell Timai

Tell Timai in context

The site of Tell Timai (ancient Thmuis) is situated in the north-eastern Nile Delta in the modern province of Daqaliyah, approximately 20 km south-west of Mansura. Excavations and survey since 2007 by the University of Hawai’i have established occupation at the site to at least the late Dynastic Period. ¹ Literary evidence indicates that the city was flourishing in the fifth century bce. ² Thmuis grew to prominence during the Ptolemaic Period and continued to be an important city throughout the Roman Period, and an important centre for Coptic Christianity. Thmuis was eventually abandoned after a battle in the city to suppress a tax revolt in December 831 ce. Tell Timai is c.500 m to the south of the ancient city of Mendes (Tell el-Rub’a). Field walking between Mendes and Tell Timai was conducted in the 1980s to assess whether the two sites were once connected in antiquity. Several pottery and rock fragments were observed in the fields between the two sites, as well as exposed portions of dykes, ³ but the results are still inconclusive as to whether the two cities were once unified geographically. ⁴ Tell Timai is bordered on its eastern side by the modern village of Timai el-Amdid, and on the west by Kafr el-Amir Abdallah Sheikh Ibn es-Salaam (Kafr Amir). Both villages have begun to encroach upon the northern part of the site, with several apartment buildings, schools, an abattoir, a propane distribution facility, a large sports centre, football pitches, and a modern Islamic cemetery. The excavations in the north of the site are in response to the rapid urbanisation and encroachment that is occurring by both villages.

Tell Timai has received only sporadic excavation and survey since the late nineteenth century. ⁵ Georges Daressy first visited the site in 1887 and 1890 and produced a sketch map of the north-eastern sector and described the extensive destruction of the tell through mud brick extraction. ⁶ The first excavations were carried out in 1892 on behalf of the Egypt Exploration Fund by Naville, who identified a library with carbonised papyri. ⁷ Later in 1908, several marble heads were found in a now unidentified brick building. ⁸ Several mosaics in the Greco-Roman Museum in Alexandria are also said to be from Tell Timai, but their find spot is unrecorded. ⁹ A surface survey of Tell Timai was conducted by Alexander Langsdorff and Siegfried Schott and published in 1930. ¹⁰ Several rescue excavations were conducted by the Egyptian Antiquities Department between 1963 and in 1966. ¹¹ From 1963 to 1980 the American Research Center in Egypt (ARCE) was granted the concession to both Mendes and Tell Timai. ¹² The Mendes Expedition of the New York Institute of Fine Arts also carried out ceramic surveys and coring at Tell Timai. Later in 1990, a consortium directed by Donald Redford, including the University of Washington, the University of Illinois and the University of Pennsylvania was given the concession to Mendes and Timai, but did not conduct work at Tell Timai. The decision was taken in 2007 to award the Tell Timai concession to the University of Hawai’i in collaboration with the Ministry of State for Antiquities. ¹³

Location of the temple foundations

During the 2009 season the University of Hawai’i began excavating the remains of a limestone casemate temple foundation in the north-west of the tell in excavation grid square M6 (fig. 1). In 2017, as part of the Egypt Exploration Society Fieldwork and Research Grant, excavations were completed in the casemate foundations. The foundations are located on the eastern side of a north–south dirt track connecting the main asphalt Manshiet Sabry Abu Alam Timai el-Amdid road to the north, with the village of Kafr el-Amir Abdallah Sheikh Ibn es-Salaam (Kafr Amir), and the village sports centre to the south-west. The foundations are in a large sebakhin depression which characterises the northern part of the tell. The foundations are currently under the threat of modern urbanisation and the planned creation of a water plant and sports stadium in the area, while the modern water table in some areas is less than 10 cm below the modern ground level. Prior to the commencement of excavations, the foundations were covered in a dense layer of debris and halfa grass that had accumulated over the structure since the mud-brick mining operations in the early twentieth century.

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Fig. 1.

Satellite image of Tell Timai showing the location of the limestone casemate foundations (background photo: © GoogleEarth).

Previous excavations of the foundations

The limestone foundations are first recorded in a photograph in 1930 by Alexander Langsdorff and Siegfried Schott who visited Tell Timai to conduct a small survey of the mound. They do not state that any excavation took place. In their description of the site they record that to the north, towards Mendes, there stretches out an old suburb from which part of a limestone base of a large building is exposed. ¹⁴ Based on old photographs from the survey, it appears that only the southern section of limestone masonry was exposed by 1930. They note the dimensions of the limestone building, extrapolating from the exposed southern section, a width of 13 m by 13 m with a basin (southern casemate void) of 2.8 m by 5 m. Later, in the 1960s, New York University estimated the dimensions of this temple platform as approximately 10 m by 10 m. ¹⁵ Again there is no indication that any excavation of the foundations was carried out by New York University. ¹⁶ Based on these records, the work conducted from 2009 to 2017 by the University of Hawai’i was the first to completely expose the full extent of the ruins (fig. 2).

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Fig. 2.

The temple platform after excavation in 2009 (photo: © author).

The construction techniques

The construction techniques identified during the excavations, alongside a comparative analysis with Ptolemaic and Roman construction techniques in Egypt confirms that these foundations belong to a temple, ¹⁷ and are discussed in the following paragraphs.

The foundations are made from reused limestone blocks and measure 12.72 m (north–south) by 14.07 m (east–west). ¹⁸ The foundations were made in a casemate formation with three internal rectangular spaces or ‘voids’. ¹⁹ The northern void measures 5.11 m by 2.38 m, the central void measures 6.12 m by 2.7 m, and the southern void measures 5.05 m by 2.11 m (fig. 3). The foundations are seven courses deep. The outer faces of the blocks were not completely dressed or smoothed further indicating that they were part of the sub-surface foundation coursing. The first course of the stone superstructure is preserved in the south-west corner. The depth of the foundations clearly reflects the desire of the builders and architects to reach a suitable ground surface from which to lay the foundations, and demonstrates the ancient builders’ awareness of the ecological conditions of the Delta soils and the high water table in the north of Thmuis, and the Delta in general. In 2017 efforts were made to reach the base of the foundations, to assess whether the blocks rested on a sand bed foundation commonly deployed in the construction of Late Period and Ptolemaic-Roman temples. Previous attempts to achieve this had been unsuccessful due to the high level of the sub-surface water in the area. ²⁰ A submergible water pump was deployed to remove the ground water. A deep sondage within (M6-17) was made directly abutting the western side of the foundations. Excavations descended by the side of the stone foundations with the final course of stone resting on a very thin sterile black sand layer (fig. 4). As the sand layer identified at Tell Timai was very thin, it may in fact have been part of the soil matrix of the sedimentary accretions that are known to have been formed by the meandering Mendesian Branch of the Nile on which Tell Timai sits. ²¹ A natural clayey silt layer was identified directly beneath the black sand. There was no visible evidence of an associated mud-brick ‘box’ to contain the sand which was a construction technique for temples developed from the Saite Period onwards and a widespread practice from the Thirtieth Dynasty onwards. The thin layer of sand would, however, have allowed the builders to create a horizontal level on which to place the first course of the foundations.

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Fig. 3.

Plan of the foundations and surrounding mud-brick architecture (drawing: © author).

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Fig. 4.

End of excavation in M6-17 showing the lowest foundation course on the western side of the foundations with black sand underneath (photo: © author).

Within each of the internal construction voids was a series of alternating layers of dark clayey silt and crushed limestone chip aggregate (fig. 5). Both the layers of silt and limestone chips were approximately 20 cm thick. This arrangement of dark clayey silt and limestone chips as a construction aggregate is most likely the result of the masons roughly dressing or reshaping the reused blocks when they placed them into the foundations and working their way up the sides of the internal walls. Several larger blocks were also thrown into the foundations as a levelling agent. The use of small limestone chippings and dark silty soil is also seen in the levelling off of the ground on the exterior of the structure, and as a foundation for the associated mud-brick structures to the south and west of the temple platform. The use of limestone aggregate is commonly used in early Roman building foundations such as temples, and particularly for the levelling of Roman roads before stone slabs are laid in order to bear heavy weights. ²² A small section of masonry covering the eastern section of the southern casemate void represents the damaged floor surface of the building. The casemate voids based on this evidence were covered with a stone layer creating a solid stone platform area from which to build up the superstructure. The blocks were fixed together using mortise joints on the exterior two block layers, and were restricted to the eastern and western masonry sections, and did not occur on the central dividing walls of the casemate. The exposed mortises in the preserved masonry were all empty apart from one preserved cramp in situ made out of a bronze/copper alloy. ²³ The use of metal cramps is not only more expensive than wood or limestone, but highlights the builders’ need to fix the outer blocks together to form a strong outer core of masonry in order to prevent distortion that would be caused by heavy lateral load force. Several of the mortise joints were damaged and showed evidence of ancient stone robbers targeting the structure to remove the metal joints. ²⁴ The construction techniques used in the building of the limestone foundations at Tell Timai, such as the casemate formation, the depth of the foundations, and the mortise and metal cramp fixings all have parallels with the contemporary temple construction techniques of the Ptolemaic and Roman Periods in Egypt.

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Fig. 5.

Profile drawing showing the alternating layers of silt and crushed limestone aggregate in the southern foundation void with the stone capping (drawing: © author).

Associated monuments and architecture

Several surface monuments were documented in the vicinity of the temple foundations during the 2009 survey by the University of Hawai’i.

A few metres to the north of the temple platform was a freestanding limestone statue base dated to the Roman Period, but this was not in situ (fig. 6). At the base was a metal plaque placed in a recess with the Roman numeral VII. The base measures 0.7 m by 0.6 m, while the circumference of the column is 1.90 m. The statue base was transported in 2009 to the inspectorate at Mendes where it now sits outside the main storehouse.

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Fig. 6.

Roman column statue base with temple foundations in the background (photo: © author).

Approximately 5 m to the south-east of the temple was a large weathered block of pink granite, while approximately 10 m to the west of the foundations, resting on the sebakhin ridge, is a large, fragmentary granodiorite elite sarcophagus of late Dynastic or early Ptolemaic Period date. ²⁵ Like with the foundations, it was Langsdorff and Schott who first recorded it in 1930 as part of the site survey and it has remained in the same location since 1930. ²⁶ The sarcophagus was most likely found during the sebakh extraction, at some point between 1892 and 1930. Finally, photographic records from the 1960s New York University excavations at Tell Timai show a limestone headless sphinx also found in the area of the foundations. ²⁷

Dating the construction of the temple

So far, excavations in and around the temple foundations have not recovered any inscribed blocks, and no foundation deposits have been found that could identify a specific ruler or individual as their builder. Despite this, the ceramics discovered within the construction voids of the foundations do allow an estimated construction date range between the very end of the Ptolemaic Period and the start of the Roman Period. The dating criteria are outlined next.

The southern foundation trench

Three diagnostic ceramic forms were identified within the fills on the south side of the limestone foundations (M6-6) in feature (M6-6-282). The first was a plainware bowl (TM10.0145) (fig. 7 no. 1). The bowl does not follow the typical Hellenistic forms but is reminiscent of Late Hellenistic and early Roman productions, especially in the Eastern Sigillata tradition. The round thickened rim is similar to Eastern Sigillata A (ESA) Atalante form 12 dated to around 40 bce to 10 ce, and to Cypriot Sigillata Atalante form 10, generally dated to the first century ce. ²⁸ Second, a two-handled white slipped jar (TM10.0146) (fig. 7 no. 3) is similar to jars and large stew pots that came out of the Ptolemaic deposits in areas N and O in the north at Tell Timai, and also out of a well in (N7-1) which was filled during the first century bce. Finally, a flat dish with concentric circles (TM10.0142) (fig. 7 no. 2) fits well into the Ptolemaic-Roman Period ceramic repertoire.

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Fig. 7.

Diagnostic pottery from the foundations (drawings: N. Hudson).

Date range of the foundation platform

The diagnostic ceramic evidence from within the casemate fills (M6-105 and M6-116), and the southern sondage (M6-2-282) would place the construction of the foundations in M6 to the very end of the Ptolemaic Period or beginning of the Roman Period (c.40 bce to c.first century ce).

The ceramic dating evidence would possibly place the construction of the temple foundations at the very end of the reign of Cleopatra VII Philopator (51–30 bce) or during the early first century ce. A few temples from the reign of Cleopatra VII have survived, including some construction and decoration at the temple of Dendera, with the important scene at the rear wall of the temple that depicts her and her son Caesarion offering to Hathor. ³¹ A small bark shrine at Koptos was constructed in the corner of the temple of Geb and a mammisi was built at Armant. ³² However, it was in the Augustan Period that a vigorous temple building programme was adopted in Egypt, particularly in Upper Egypt and Sudan. ³³ Apart from their works in Alexandria, no temples built by Cleopatra VII or Augustus are known so far in the Delta, especially in the north-eastern Delta. This can also be said to some extent for the whole Ptolemaic Dynasty, which appears to have concentrated temple building in Upper Egypt apart from a few Delta constructions and additions built early in the dynasty, principally at Tanis. ³⁴ A comparison, however, of the size of the stone casemate foundations at Tell Timai (12.72 m by 14.07 m) with stone temple foundations of the Augustan Period in Upper Egypt and Sudan, particularly the Mammisi of Dendera (12 m by 12.5 m) and the temple of Harendotes at Philae (14.5 m by 14.7 m), ³⁵ indicates the construction style fits well within the dimensions for small stone temple foundations of the late first century bce to the early first century ce.

The foundations after the late Ptolemaic–early Roman Period

Overlying the ruins of the temple platform were several dumps of ceramics that consisted of mainly undiagnostic ceramic sherds. ³⁶ In one of the dumps (M6-1-149), several bases of AE 4-1, Type C amphorae (end of first to second centuries ce), ³⁷ were found along with late Roman water jug spouts dated to the fourth to fifth centuries ce. This would suggest that the limestone was already being quarried away by the fourth or fifth century ce. Excavations in 2017 to the west of the limestone foundations documented late Roman ceramics and coinage directly above late Ptolemaic and early Roman mud brick structures associated with the foundations. These mud brick structures may belong to architectural elements or ancillary buildings of other structures associated with the temple. Further excavation should clarify their relationship to the temple. The presence of late Roman material directly in the destruction debris of these structures suggests that a late Ptolemaic to early Roman building complex was levelled and left abandoned, with new occupation and reuse of the area only occurring in the late Roman Period.

Preliminary conclusions

The investigations of the temple foundations in grid square M6 have broadened our knowledge of the built religious landscape at Tell Timai and temple foundation construction techniques in the north-eastern Nile Delta. The construction techniques used in the building of the foundations are consistent with temple building during the Late Period and Ptolemaic to Roman Periods. Given the limited amount of diagnostic material sealed within the foundation fills, ceramic evidence can only indicate a date in the late Ptolemaic or early Roman Period for the temple construction. However, the comparison of the dimensions of the stone foundations with known temple structures of the Augustan Period may indicate it was built as part of his temple building policy. The temple appears to have been dismantled by the fourth to fifth centuries ce at the latest, as there is considerable ceramic evidence of the late Roman Period within the destruction deposits directly above the limestone foundations. Future excavations to the west of the foundations will aim to add additional evidence to the wider architectural layout of the temple and the surrounding mud-brick architecture and ancillary buildings.