The temple of Athribis in the 9th Upper Egyptian nome: Philology and archaeology

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Christian Leitz
• Subject Area: Egyptology and Ancient Near Eastern Studies
• Term: from 2005 to 2021
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 5443336

The last unknown temple of the greco-roman period is the temple of Athribis, build by Ptolemy XII for the gods Min and Repit. It is the sole conserved limestone temple north of Luxor from this period and offers a remarkable architecture. Also the history of it's later reuse is extraordinarily. According pPanopolis I (298 AD) there was inside the temple a palace of Diokletian whose traces might be found in the temple. At the beginning of the fifth century the temple was transformed into a dyer's workshop where Coptic monks and nuns were working. In contrast to the other large buildings of that period (eg. Edfu and Dendara) Athribis offers the possibility to study in extenso the later reuse until the Middle Ages.Far more than 1000 mostly unknown inscriptions are still conserved from the pharaonic time and are waiting for publication. Several rooms with further texts are to be excavated, conserved and published. The project proposed has to aims: Archaeology and epigraphy.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants