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Buto ( grc, Βουτώ, ar, بوتو, ''Butu''), Bouto, Butus ( grc, links=no, Βοῦτος, ''Boutos'')
Herodotus Herodotus ( ; grc, , }; BC) was an ancient Greek historian and geographer A geographer is a physical scientist, social scientist or humanist whose area of study is geography, the study of Earth's natural environment and human society ...
ii. 59, 63, 155.
or Butosus was a city that the Ancient Egyptians called Per-Wadjet. It was located 95 km east of
Alexandria Alexandria ( or ; ar, ٱلْإِسْكَنْدَرِيَّةُ ; grc-gre, Αλεξάνδρεια, Alexándria) is the second largest city in Egypt, and the largest city on the Mediterranean coast. Founded in by Alexander the Great, Alexandri ...
in the Nile Delta 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 ...
. What in classical times the Greeks called Buto, stood about midway between the Taly ( Bolbitine) and Thermuthiac ( Sebennytic) branches of the Nile, a few kilometers north of the east-west Butic River and on the southern shore of the Butic Lake ( el, Βουτικὴ λίμνη, ''Boutikē limnē''). Today, it is called Tell El Fara'in ("Hill of the Pharaohs"), near the villages of Ibtu (or Abtu), Kom Butu, and the city of
Desouk Desouk ( ar, دسوق, ) is a city in northern Egypt. Located 80 km east of Alexandria, in the Kafr El Sheikh Governorate and had a population of 137,660 inhabitants as of 2011. It is bordered to the west by the Beheira Governorate. Desouk ...
( ar, دسوق).


History

Buto was a sacred site in dedication to the goddess
Wadjet Wadjet (; egy, wꜢḏyt "Green One"), known to the Greek world as Uto (; grc-koi, Οὐτώ) or Buto (; ) among other renderings including Wedjat, Uadjet, and Udjo, was originally the ancient local goddess of the city of Dep. It became part ...
and was an important cultural site during prehistoric Egypt, from the Paleolithic to 3100 BC. Buto-Maadi culture was the most important Lower Egyptian prehistoric culture, dating from 4000 - 3500, and contemporary with
Naqada Naqada (Egyptian Arabic: ; Coptic language: ; Ancient Greek: ) is a town on the west bank of the Nile in Qena Governorate, Egypt, situated ca. 20 km north of Luxor. It includes the villages of Tukh, Khatara, Danfiq, and Zawayda. Acco ...
I and II phases in
Upper Egypt Upper Egypt ( ar, صعيد مصر ', shortened to , , locally: ; ) is the southern portion of Egypt and is composed of the lands on both sides of the Nile that extend upriver from Lower Egypt in the north to Nubia in the south. In ancient E ...
. The culture was best known from the site
Maadi Maadi ( ar, المعادي / transliterated:   ) is a leafy suburban district south of Cairo, Egypt, on the east bank of the Nile about upriver from downtown Cairo. The Nile at Maadi is parallelled by the Corniche, a waterfront promenade a ...
near Cairo,Maadi.
University College London
but was also attested in many other places in the Delta to the Faiyum region. This culture was marked by development in architecture and technology. Archaeological evidence seems to show that Upper Egyptian Naqada culture replaced Buto-Maadi culture (also known as the ''Lower Egyptian Cultural Complex''), perhaps after a conquest. But, more recently, scholars have expressed reservations about this; they pointed out that, at the delta, there was a considerable transitional phase. The unification of Lower Egypt and
Upper Egypt Upper Egypt ( ar, صعيد مصر ', shortened to , , locally: ; ) is the southern portion of Egypt and is composed of the lands on both sides of the Nile that extend upriver from Lower Egypt in the north to Nubia in the south. In ancient E ...
into one entity is now considered to be a more complex process than previously thought.


Earliest texts

In the earliest records about the region, it contained two cities, Pe and Dep. Eventually, they merged into one city that the Ancient Egyptians named Per-Wadjet. The goddess
Wadjet Wadjet (; egy, wꜢḏyt "Green One"), known to the Greek world as Uto (; grc-koi, Οὐτώ) or Buto (; ) among other renderings including Wedjat, Uadjet, and Udjo, was originally the ancient local goddess of the city of Dep. It became part ...
was the patron deity of Lower Egypt and her oracle was located in her renowned temple in this area. An annual festival was held there that celebrated Wadjet. The area also contained sanctuaries of Horus and Bast, and much later, the city became associated with
Isis Isis (; ''Ēse''; ; Meroitic: ''Wos'' 'a''or ''Wusa''; Phoenician: 𐤀𐤎, romanized: ʾs) was a major goddess in ancient Egyptian religion whose worship spread throughout the Greco-Roman world. Isis was first mentioned in the Old Kin ...
. At that time, many deities had parallel identities and roles, yet merged into a unified pantheon of deities due to the great similarities. That was not the case with patron deities, however. The patron deity of Lower Egypt,
Wadjet Wadjet (; egy, wꜢḏyt "Green One"), known to the Greek world as Uto (; grc-koi, Οὐτώ) or Buto (; ) among other renderings including Wedjat, Uadjet, and Udjo, was originally the ancient local goddess of the city of Dep. It became part ...
, was represented as a cobra. The patron deity of Upper Egypt,
Nekhbet Nekhbet (; also spelt Nekhebit) is an early predynastic local goddess in Egyptian mythology, who was the patron of the city of Nekheb (her name meaning ''of Nekheb''). Ultimately, she became the patron of Upper Egypt and one of the two patron d ...
, was represented as a white vulture. Their separate cultural statures were such important features that they never were merged when the two cultures unified into one, as were so many deities with similar roles or natures from religious beliefs of the two unified regions. The two goddesses became known euphemistically as the ' Two Ladies', who together, remained the patrons of unified Egypt throughout the remainder of its ancient history. The image of Nekhbet joined Wadjet on the
Uraeus The Uraeus (), or Ouraeus (Ancient Greek: , ; Egyptian: ', "rearing cobra"), ''(plural: Uraei)'' is the stylized, upright form of an Egyptian cobra, used as a symbol of sovereignty, royalty, deity and divine authority in ancient Egypt. Sym ...
that would encircle the crown of the kings who ruled Ancient Egypt thereafter.


Ptolemaic period

During foreign occupation of Egypt under the Ptolemaic Kingdom, a dynasty that ruled from 305 to 30 BC, the classical Greeks coined the toponym ''Buto'' for the city. It served as the capital, or according to Herodian, merely the principal village of the Nile Delta. Herodotus styled it the Chemmite nome,
Ptolemy Claudius Ptolemy (; grc-gre, Πτολεμαῖος, ; la, Claudius Ptolemaeus; AD) was a mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, geographer, and music theorist, who wrote about a dozen scientific treatises, three of which were of importance ...
knew it as the Phthenothite nome (), and
Pliny the Elder Gaius Plinius Secundus (AD 23/2479), called Pliny the Elder (), was a Roman author, naturalist and natural philosopher, and naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and a friend of the emperor Vespasian. He wrote the encyclopedic ' ...
as Ptenetha. Greek historians recorded that Buto was celebrated for its monolithite temple and the oracle of the goddess Wadjet (Buto), and that a yearly festival was held there in honour of the goddess. While writing about Egyptian culture, the classical Greeks attempted to associate the more ancient Egyptian deities with their own. They wrote about them as essentially the same deities, but with different names in the Greek culture. For Wadjet the parallel identification was made with the Greek
Leto In ancient Greek mythology and religion, Leto (; grc-gre, Λητώ , ''Lētṓ'', or , ''Lātṓ'' in Doric Greek) is a goddess and the mother of Apollo, the god of music, and Artemis, the goddess of the hunt.Hesiod, ''Theogony'404–409/ref> ...
or Latona. They also noted that at Buto there was a sanctuary of Horus (whom the
ancient Greeks Ancient Greece ( el, Ἑλλάς, Hellás) was a northeastern Mediterranean civilization, existing from the Greek Dark Ages of the 12th–9th centuries BC to the end of classical antiquity ( AD 600), that comprised a loose collection of cult ...
associated with
Apollo Apollo, grc, Ἀπόλλωνος, Apóllōnos, label=genitive , ; , grc-dor, Ἀπέλλων, Apéllōn, ; grc, Ἀπείλων, Apeílōn, label= Arcadocypriot Greek, ; grc-aeo, Ἄπλουν, Áploun, la, Apollō, la, Apollinis, label ...
) and a sanctuary of Bast (whom the Greeks associated with
Artemis In ancient Greek mythology and religion, Artemis (; grc-gre, Ἄρτεμις) is the goddess of the hunt, the wilderness, wild animals, nature, vegetation, childbirth, care of children, and chastity. She was heavily identified wit ...
). Writing during that Graeco-Roman period,
Plutarch Plutarch (; grc-gre, Πλούταρχος, ''Ploútarchos''; ; – after AD 119) was a Greek Middle Platonist philosopher, historian, biographer, essayist, and priest at the Temple of Apollo in Delphi. He is known primarily for hi ...
reported that Isis had entrusted the baby Horus to "Leto" (Wadjet) to raise at Buto while Isis searched for the body of her murdered husband
Osiris Osiris (, from Egyptian ''wsjr'', cop, ⲟⲩⲥⲓⲣⲉ , ; Phoenician: 𐤀𐤎𐤓, romanized: ʾsr) is the god of fertility, agriculture, the afterlife, the dead, resurrection, life, and vegetation in ancient Egyptian religion. He wa ...
. According to these same late sources, the
shrew Shrews (family Soricidae) are small mole-like mammals classified in the order Eulipotyphla. True shrews are not to be confused with treeshrews, otter shrews, elephant shrews, West Indies shrews, or marsupial shrews, which belong to differ ...
(sometimes associated with Horus) was worshiped at Buto as well.


Archeological findings

A palace building dating to the Second Dynasty is considered one of the most important discoveries within Buto. Archaeological excavations were undertaken at Buto by the
Egypt Exploration Society The Egypt Exploration Society (EES) is a British non-profit organization. The society was founded in 1882 by Amelia Edwards and Reginald Stuart Poole in order to examine and excavate in the areas of Egypt and Sudan. The intent was to study and ana ...
from 1964–1969, under the direction of
Veronica Seton-Williams Veronica Seton-Williams (20 April 1910 – 29 May 1992) FSA, was a British-Australian archaeologist who excavated in Egypt and the Near East, as well as in Britain. She studied history and political science at the University of Melbourne and t ...
and later, by
Dorothy Charlesworth Dorothy Charlesworth (1927–1981) was a Roman archaeologist and glass specialist who served as Inspector of Ancient Monuments. She worked within Britain and Egypt. Early life and education Born and brought up in Northumberland, the daughter ...
. The German Archaeological Institute, Cairo has been excavating at Buto since the early 1980s. Six Greek bathhouses also were excavated by different missions in Buto. In 2022, excavations over an area of 6.5m x 4.5m uncovered the remains of an ancient hall lined with pillars within the larger temple structure. The hall contained the remains of three surviving columns, aligned on a north-south axis at the southwestern end of the temple. A number of stone fragments decorated with engravings where found, as well as numerous ceramics and pottery associated with ritual activity. In a press release issued by the
Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities The Ministry of Tourism & Antiquities is the Egyptian government organization which serves to protect and preserve the heritage and ancient history of Egypt. In December 2019 it was merged into the Ministry of Tourism with Khaled al-Anani retain ...
, archaeologists also found a limestone painting with the representation of a bird’s head wearing a white crown surrounded by feathers.


See also

*
List of ancient Egyptian towns and cities This is a list of known ancient Egyptian towns and cities.
http://www.ucl.ac.uk/. Retrieved on 2016-03-05. T ...
*
Diocese of Buto The Diocese of Buto (Latin Butus, Greek Butos) is a former Christianity, Christian diocese and titular see of both the Roman Catholic and Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria, Coptic Orthodox Churches, with see in the Ancient City of Buto in the Ni ...
for ecclesiastical history and current titular sees *
Kafr El Sheikh Governorate Kafr El Sheikh Governorate is one of the governorates of Egypt. It lies in the northern part of the country, along the western branch of the Nile in the Nile Delta. Its capital is the city of Kafr El Sheikh. Kafr El Sheikh is the first nationwid ...
*
Sais, Egypt Sais ( grc, Σάϊς, cop, Ⲥⲁⲓ) was an ancient Egyptian city in the Western Nile Delta on the Canopic branch of the Nile,Mish, Frederick C., Editor in Chief. "Saïs." '' Webster's Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary''. 9th ed. Springfield ...


References


External links

* *{{Commons category-inline Ptolemaic colonies Archaeological sites in Egypt Ruins in Egypt Former populated places in Egypt Nile Delta Tells (archaeology) Desouk Cities in ancient Egypt Former capitals of Egypt Egyptian mythology Egyptology Archaeological discoveries with year of discovery missing Wadjet