Tell Nebesha or Nebesheh (also known as 'Faraon' or 'Farun') is an archaeological site in Egypt, and the location of the ancient city of Imet. It is found around 10km south of

Tanis Tanis ( ; ; ) or San al-Hagar (; ; ; or or ; ) is the Greek name for ancient Egyptian ''ḏꜥn.t'', an important archaeological site in the northeastern Nile Delta of ancient Egypt, Egypt, and the location of a city of the same name. Tanis ...

in the Eastern Nile Delta. This was the ancient capital of the 19th Nome of

Lower Egypt Lower Egypt ( ') is the northernmost region of Egypt, which consists of the fertile Nile Delta between Upper Egypt and the Mediterranean Sea, from El Aiyat, south of modern-day Cairo, and Dahshur. Historically, the Nile River split into sev ...

. By the Assyrian period, it was succeeded by Tanis.

Archaeology

The site consists of three areas: the temple site, the town, and the cemetery. A temple at the site, dedicated to the goddess

Wadjet Wadjet (; "Green One"), known to the Greek world as Uto (; ) or Buto (; ) among other renderings including Wedjat, Uadjet, and Udjo, was originally the ancient Egyptian Tutelary deity, local goddess of the city of Dep or Buto in Lower Egypt, ...

, the cobra goddess of Lower Egypt, may have been constructed during the Ramesside Period. Yet the evidence of inscriptions discovered at the site "clearly indicates that occupation begun in the

18th Dynasty The Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt (notated Dynasty XVIII, alternatively 18th Dynasty or Dynasty 18) is classified as the first dynasty of the New Kingdom of Egypt, the era in which ancient Egypt achieved the peak of its power. The Eighteenth Dynasty ...

".Vincent Razanajao
D'Imet à Tell Farâoun : recherches sur la géographie, les cultes et l'histoire d'une localité de Basse-Égypte orientale.
(English synopsis) Wadjet was worshipped in the area as the 'Lady of Imet'. Later she was joined by Min and

Horus Horus (), also known as Heru, Har, Her, or Hor () in Egyptian language, Ancient Egyptian, is one of the most significant ancient Egyptian deities who served many functions, most notably as the god of kingship, healing, protection, the sun, and t ...

to form a triad of deities. This was based on an Osiriac model identified elsewhere in Egypt. The enclosure contained two temples. A smaller one has been dated by foundation deposits naming King Ahmose II (Amasis) of 26th Dynasty. It seems to have been dedicated to the

deity A deity or god is a supernatural being considered to be sacred and worthy of worship due to having authority over some aspect of the universe and/or life. The ''Oxford Dictionary of English'' defines ''deity'' as a God (male deity), god or god ...

Min. The bigger temple was dedicated to Wadjet. Re-used monuments from the Middle Kingdom were also found. They may have been moved here from another location.

Excavations by Petrie

In 1886, while working for the Egypt Exploration Fund,

Flinders Petrie Sir William Matthew Flinders Petrie ( – ), commonly known as simply Sir Flinders Petrie, was an English people, English Egyptology, Egyptologist and a pioneer of systematic methodology in archaeology and the preservation of artefacts. ...

first excavated there. Among the remains of an ancient temple, Petrie found a royal

sphinx A sphinx ( ; , ; or sphinges ) is a mythical creature with the head of a human, the body of a lion, and the wings of an eagle. In Culture of Greece, Greek tradition, the sphinx is a treacherous and merciless being with the head of a woman, th ...

, now located at the

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston The Museum of Fine Arts (often abbreviated as MFA Boston or MFA) is an art museum in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the list of largest art museums, 20th-largest art museum in the world, measured by public gallery area. It contains 8,161 painting ...

. The sculpture is now believed to date to the time of

Amenemhat III :''See Amenemhat, for other individuals with this name.'' Amenemhat III (Ancient Egyptian: ''Ỉmn-m-hꜣt'' meaning 'Amun is at the forefront'), also known as Amenemhet III, was a pharaoh of ancient Egypt and the sixth king of the Twelfth Dyn ...

(

12th Dynasty The Twelfth Dynasty of ancient Egypt (Dynasty XII) is a series of rulers reigning from 1991–1802 BC (190 years), at what is often considered to be the apex of the Middle Kingdom (Dynasties XI–XIV). The dynasty periodically expanded its terr ...

) or later.Rita E. Freed, ''Defending Connoisseurship: A Thrice Re-inscribed Sphinx of Dynasty XII'', in Donald P. Hansen, Erica Ehrenberg, eds
''Leaving No Stones Unturned: Essays on the Ancient Near East and Egypt in Honor of Donald P. Hansen.''
Eisenbrauns, 2002. p. 77 Petrie concluded that the temple was built during the 12th Dynasty, and then reused in the 19th Dynasty under

Ramesses II Ramesses II (sometimes written Ramses or Rameses) (; , , ; ), commonly known as Ramesses the Great, was an Pharaoh, Egyptian pharaoh. He was the third ruler of the Nineteenth Dynasty of Egypt, Nineteenth Dynasty. Along with Thutmose III of th ...

. In the course of Petrie's excavations, Petrie also found the remains of a colossal seated statue of Rameses II, a Middle Kingdom granite altar, and remains of two Middle Kingdom statue-thrones carved from red sandstone. More recently, the Egyptian

Supreme Council of Antiquities The Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA; ) was established in 1994, responsible for the conservation, protection, and regulation of all antiquities and archaeological excavations in Egypt. From 1994 to 2011, the SCA was a department of the Egyptia ...

excavated there. Middle Kingdom and later burials were identified. Some Saite tombs were found in the 1985/6 seasons.

Notes

Bibliography

*Bakry, H.S.K., “Recent Discoveries in the Delta. A Statue of Ramesses IV (1151- 1145 BC) found at Tell el-Farûn”, RSO 46, 1971, 8-11. *Bonnet, C., RÄRG, 130. *Bresciani, E., “Tre documenti dall' Egitto. III. Stele funeraria demotica da Husseneiah”, SCO 17, 1968, 234-236. *Brink, E. van den, MDAIK 43 (1986), 7ff; *De Cenival, J.L., “Les textes de la statue E 25.550 du Musée du Louvre”, RdE 17, 1965, 15-20. *Daressy, G., “Le roi Auput et son domaine”, RT 30, 1908, 202-208. *----, “Léontopolis, métropole du XlXe nome de la Basse-égypte”, BIFAO 30, 1931, 624-649. *Drioton, E., “Les fêtes de Bouto”, BIE 25, 1943, 1-19. *Foucart, G., “Extraits des rapports adressés pendant une inspection de la Basse-égypte en 1893-1894”, ASAE 2, 1901, 44-83, especially 67-69. *Gardiner, Ancient Egyptian Onomastica, II, 170*-171*, no. 409. *Gauthier, Dictionnaire Géographique, I, 73-74. *Jacquet-Gordon, H., “A Donation Stela of Apries”, RdE 24, 1972, 84-90. *Kamal, A., “Tell Faraon (Bouto)”, ASAE 3, 1902, 7-14. *I M Kamal: ASAE 65, 83-9; *Leclant, Or. 34, 1965, 180, §7; Or. 35, 1966, 134, §13; Or. 40, 1971, 228-229, §8; Or. 41, 1972, 251, §6; Or 42 (1973), 396; Or. 43, 1974, 175, §13; Or. 52, 1983, 411-472, §16; Or. 54, 1985, 347-348, §22; *Leclant and Clerc, Or. 55, 1986, 246, §21. *Martin, K., “Imet”, LÄ III, 140-141. *Montet, P., Géographie, I, 180-182. *Mustafa, I.A., “A Preliminary Report on the Excavation of the EAO at Tell Faraon - 'Imet', Season 1985- 1986”, in van den Brink (ed.), The Archaeology of the Niie Delta, 141-149. *----, “Some Objects Dating from the Archaic Period Period at Tell Faraon-Imet”, GM 102, 1988, 73-84. *----. “Tell Faraon-Imet”, Bull. GIECE 11, 1986, 8-12. *----, “Tell Faraon-Imet”, Bull. GIECE 13, 1988, 14-18, 19-22. *Petrie, W.M.F., Tanis II, Nebesheh (Am) and Defenneh (Tahpanhes), London, 1888, 1-37. *----, Ten Years' Digging in Egypt. London, 1893, 64-70. *Vincent Razanajao
« La demeure de Min maître d’Imet. Un monument de Tell Farâoun réinterprété »
ENIM 2, 2009, p. 103-108. *Vincent Razanajao, "Tell el-Fara'un and the Ancient Imet", in: M.I. Bakr and H. Brandl with F. Kalloniatis (eds.), Egyptian Antiquities from the Eastern Nile Delta (Museums in the Nile Delta, vol. 2), Cairo/Berlin 2014, pp. 48-58, 200-239; {{ISBN, 9783000453182. Cities in ancient Egypt Archaeological sites in Egypt Nile Delta

Archaeology

Excavations by Petrie

See also

Notes

See also

Bibliography