Naucratis

30.930.591666666667Koordinaten: 30 ° 54 'N, 30 ° 36' O

Naucratis was an ancient Greek trading town, and was in Egypt in the western Nile Delta ( in ancient times on the east bank of the Canopic Nilarms ) about 11 kilometers northeast of Ad Dilinjāt and about 18 kilometers north- west of Kawm Hamadah. It was founded around 630 BC, according to other sources 560 BC by the polis Miletus. Naucratis was famous through the vessels and garlands made ​​there. According to the archaeologist Francis Llewellyn Griffith, the name of the city said to have been preserved in the little east lying place on - Niqrash today.

  • 4.1 Christian bishops

Tradition

History and stories

Eusebius of Caesarea reported that Naucratis was ( 749 BC) established in the fourth year of the seventh Olympiad of Milesians. The accuracy of this early date is today questioned by scientists.

Athenaeus quotes from the works of Aphrodite About Polycharmos: During the 23 Olympiad ( 688 BC) to Hero Stratos, have acquired a dealer from Naucratis, an old Aphroditestatue in Paphos in Cyprus and taken home. On the Egyptian coast, he came with his ship in a storm. His team was very concerned because they did not know where they had landed. Therefore, they gathered in front of the statue and asked the goddess for help. Suddenly, they filled the air with the scent of myrtle, the sky cleared and the ship arrived safely Naukratis. Out of gratitude donated Herostratos the statue of the temple of Aphrodite and celebrated with his friends a party. Each guest he was a Naukratite, a garland, which was woven of myrtle.

30 Milesian ships to the time of Psammetichus I the commander Inaros I (c. 665 BC) defeated and then founded the city of Naucratis. Herodotus contradicts this statement, saying that the Ionians and Carians landed on the coast to plunder the country. Psammetichus I allied with them and they helped him defeat his opponents. In gratitude he gave them near the town of Bubastis ( about 100 km east of Naucratis ) land for settling. The place was called Stratopeda ( camp ). Also, according to Herodotus pointed Pharaoh Amasis the Greeks to the site for colonization and establishment of a trading base. Here, Herodotus, however, appeared to rely only on statements by the Greeks, who belonged to the temple Hellenion, which had been founded in fact, in the reign of Amasis and that of traders who came later than those from Aegina, Samos and Miletus and their temple were much older. At the beginning of the reign of Amasis was the Greek colonization, which had already begun around 620 BC, already well advanced. At this time, to have founded the Hellenion as a common sanctuary nine cities, four ionic Chios, Teos, Phocaea and Klazomenai, four Doric Rhodes, Cnidus, Halicarnassus, and Phaselis and the Aeolic Mytilene.

Xanthos, a dealer from Samos to have brought in the 6th century BC, the courtesan Rhodopis after Naukratis and offered for sale. Charaxos, the brother of Sappho is said to have fallen in love with them and bought out why. Later, even the Pharaoh Amasis said to have fallen in love with the courtesan.

Athenaeus reports that there was also a prytaneion and that there committed solemn banquets on feast days of Hestia Prytanitis, of Dionysus and Apollo Komaios.

Location

About the situation of Naukratis much confusing and contradictory was handed down, making it difficult to first fix the city. Strabo says that it should lie directly on kanobischen branch of the Nile. Herodotus adds that was at flood Naukratis to the island and to the direct route to Memphis therefore came to the pyramids over and if one of Kanobos after Naukratis wanted drove across the fields of Anthylla and Archandros.

Claudius Ptolemy in his Geographia gave the coordinates for the location of Naucratis, which suggest a location west of the kanobischen Nilarms. Konrad Peutinger Also located on his map Tabula Peutingeriana Naukratis west of kanobischen Nilarms.

Research

The ruins of Naucratis were found on channel Abu- Dibab, about 75 km south-east of Alexandria in the winter 1884/5 by Flinders Petrie at Nebireh and excavated. In the following winter sat Ernest Arthur Gardner, under the guidance of Flinders Petrie excavations continued. In the winter of 1898/9 and Spring 1903 David George Hogarth looked at the excavation site. 1977 founded the American archaeologist W. Coulson and A. Leonard "The Naucratis Project" and assessed the place 1977/8. They performed 1980 - 1982 further investigations and excavations in the southern part of the site by. Unfortunately, they found the northern part of the town due to a rise in the water table within a lake, making archaeological investigations impossible.

The archaeological site is now divided into two parts, one inhabited by Greeks north with the name Naukratis and inhabited by Egyptians south named Pi - emro. In the north, Petrie was able to identify a sanctuary of Apollo on the basis of inscriptions on offerings. The sanctuary had a size of approximately 40 x 80 meters. From the temple building it was built in two phases, an older and a younger archaic classical temple, to be discovered. They both had a size of about 8 times 15 m. After the first temple was demolished, the second at the same place around 440 BC, was built of marble. Fragments of architecture reminiscent of the decoration of the Erechtheion on the Acropolis. In addition, Petrie found north of it a temple of the Dioscuri and a south of Aphrodite and a district that was later identified by Gardner as Heraion. Gardner was at the temple of the Dioscuri also two and at the Aphrodite even prove three phases. Hogarth found north of a structure with shrines for Aphrodite, Artemis and Hercules, which he identified as Hellenion.

In the south of the archaeological site Petrie found a scarab factory and the so-called great Temenos, which were later identified as a Ptolemaic temple. The only entrance to this district formed a pylon in the west, destroyed during the Persian invasion Petrie 's view, and later by Ptolemy II Philadelphus was rebuilt. Within this district, he took a quadrangular building with Weihbeigaben under all corners from the time of Ptolemy II in 1899 was in place Kum Gaief a stele of Nectanebo I, which was later called Naukratisstele, was found. On the basis of the unprocessed and processed mussel shells that were found in Naucratis, it is believed that there was a clam factory here. It was also found numerous iron tools and Eisenglanzerz suggesting an iron industry.

Gardner found a cemetery dating from Roman times, and one that was used by the Hellenistic to the Roman period. He could still find mummification only inhumation and cremation neither. The grave stones were Greek scenes with Egyptian influence. To accommodate the corpse found both coffins of stone and terracotta, large amphorae and wooden coffins with terracotta jewelry use.

Importance

Under Pharaoh Amasis of Egypt Naukratis was the only place in Egypt, were allowed to be imported goods from Greece. Taking this into account Naukratis was more of a trade hub as a metropolis ( city-state ) in the strict sense, but the city was one of the few places in Egypt, in the Ptolemaic period had the status of a polis. Naucratis was inhabited even in Christian times and had at that time a bishop.

Sons of the city

  • Antiphilos (* in the 4th century BC), a painter
  • Cleomenes of Naucratis (* Naukratis; † 322 BC), chief functionary of Egypt under Alexander the Great
  • Charon of Naucratis ( 3rd century BC ), a historian
  • Philistus of Naucratis ( 3rd century BC ), a historian
  • Apollonius of Rhodes ( 295 BC *, † 215 BC), born a poet and scholar, was in Alexandria or Naucratis
  • Theomnestos of Naucratis ( 1st century BC ), a rhetorician
  • Chaeremon of Naucratis ( 1st century AD) Egyptian scribe
  • Julius Pollux (2nd century AD ), a scholar
  • Proclus of Naucratis ( 2nd century AD AD), a scholar
  • Athenaeus (end of 2./Anfang of the 3rd century AD), a rhetorician and grammarian
  • Lykeas of Naucratis, a historian
  • Polycharmos of Naucratis, a writer

Christian bishops

  • 325 AD Harpocration ( took part in the First Council of Nicaea. )
  • 458-459 AD Isaias
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